that’s what she said

It is just so long and hard
it’s painful when you have it for the first time
but when you get broken in and used to it you can start to enjoy it
you always remember your first time the most

what the fuck

Okay, so I had a bonus assignment to do for English, and it would be for an extra percent on my midterms.
Since it was just “lol finish it” instead of “lol it’s for marks”, I just decided to write garbage.

Here are my experiences with BL

laziness

Kevin Choi says (5:52 PM):
*d00d
*u r nib
*y u no upd8
[Hats] says (5:52 PM):
*the hell you want
[Hats] says (5:53 PM):
*oh
*right
Kevin Choi says (5:53 PM):
*really
*it’s been a month
[Hats] says (5:53 PM):
*I will get to it forthwith
Kevin Choi says (5:53 PM):
*and a week

There’s your damn update. I’m going to watch anime now.

hats

Just want to say, apparently I am the baddest motherf&&&er around:

reflections on 2010

As we approach the end of the year, one inevitably turns to the oh-so-horribly cliché event that is reflecting on the previous year. Of course, I am no exception.

In my case, I was suddenly asked what day it was today, and having realized that we are three days away from 2011, my mind drifted towards what I was doing at this time last year. I believe my conclusion was either “watching Clannad” or “watching Queen’s Blade”. However, I digress.

Looking back at this year, I believe that I’ve made significant progress towards becoming a respectable member of society (whether I’ve become a better person, however, is unlikely). More importantly, I realized a couple of days ago that I actually achieved my New Year’s resolution (although only on a technicality). I would elaborate on this whole process, but that’s boring and nobody would read it anyways.

So, dear reader, I’ll leave you with this to think about – how have you improved yourself this year, and have you achieved last year’s resolution?

I hate aoki yuriko

Just it case it wasn’t obvious enough last post, I want to say this again – I absolutely despise Aoki Yuriko. I couldn’t dedicate enough space for this rant, so I have to make this post a standalone. Now, the great thing about dedicating a single post to one topic is that you can subdivide without completely losing focus. I’ll be listing random reasons for her being awful, and then explaining them:

1. Ridiculously stubborn – Now, when pulled off well, this can be a positive, or at least neutral, trait (again, I’ll refer to Aisaka Taiga for this; a male equivalent would be Niizuma Eiji)), but in combination with the other elements that I’ll list, this is just one more reason for me to hate her. I should explain what I mean by this: I have never seen this character either negotiate or concede a point. This can work in real life, but not in the circumstance she’s in; this character is trying to make it as a mangaka, drawing what is basically shoujo manga in Weekly Shounen Jump, and refuses to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, the male readers that the testosterone-filled magazine caters to won’t enjoy the story. The stubbornness that is part of Yuriko is counterproductive to both her character and to her in-universe role; someone who writes just to please themselves will rarely become popular (this blog is proof of that), and writing something opposite of the interests of one’s target audience is not going to help. At all.

2. Arrogance – Tied heavily to the previous point, Yuriko has barely any humility to speak of; she seems to feel superior to the rest of the world. This is most apparent during the meeting of Niizuma’s assistants in [whatever chapter]; rather than accepting any criticism of her own work, she pre-empts everyone by declaring that her manga is the best (and inherently implying that it is perfect). I would expand on this point, but then it would overlap heavily with my previous one.

3. Self-serving (no sense of morality) – This was pretty obvious when she tried to dump Nakai as a partner for Koogy in chapter [god knows what number], but really became obvious after stealing ideas from Takagi. What absolutely boggles my mind is that anyone would be okay with literally copying and pasting parts of other people’s personal lives (which were only said in confidence), and publishing it as original work.

Man, it feels good to rant like this. I still hate Yuriko, though.

bakuman is awful

Surprisingly, I’m not talking about the anime (which I hear is even worse), but the manga.
Now, although Bakuman operates on an interesting premises (a manga about writing manga, what can go wrong?), it’s the characters that I’ve absolutely grown to despise. After chapter 63 (partly into volume 8), I couldn’t stand them, and ragequit.

But let me explain; it’s not that I hate all the characters, it’s that I hate all the female characters. I’ll just list all the females that come to mind, along with why they are so damned awful:

Aoki Yuriko – Ohgodwtf, this woman is simply so terrible. I haven’t seen a single scene where she’s depicted as an actual human being with human emotions (pity for a man who’s literally dying in a snowstorm doesn’t count; she left him to suffer for days in freezing weather, after all). On top of that, she apparently has no morals or humility; she never negotiates with anyone, leads people on only to screw them over, and copypastes ideas (taken from private conversations about personal lives) to manga. To put this in perspective, Makoto from School Days didn’t make me as angry as this woman.

Azuki Miho – While I had pegged her as simply weird for the whole “let’s not even see each other until we’re married” (there is nobody that would realistically go for that) thing, I realized that I hated her too after reading chapter 61 (or 62, I can’t be bothered to check). I absolutely cannot understand why hiding something you did wrong is totally fine, while your [partner? fiancé?] doing the same is abhorrent.
While I’m at it, I’m just going to point out that if you can’t sing for your life, aren’t willing to become an idol or do anything remotely gravure, and only have looks to your name, you might as well stop trying to be a seiyuu and go to university.

Azuki Miyuki – I don’t quite think I hate her, but only because she doesn’t have many appearances. I’ll skip over this.

Iwase Aiko – Again, don’t really hate her, mostly because I’ve forgotten her as a character. However, from her meeting with Aoki in chapter [60? 61?], she seems horribly arrogant (“yes, I’ve completely reformed; I can now see manga as something with at least entertainment value“), which I suppose I can’t stand.

Kato Natsumi – No real comment; she doesn’t have many appearances. That said, she’s practically oblivious to Nakai’s advances, and that’s just awful.

Miyoshi Kaya – There’s a bit of hate for her; not because of her as a character, but for the mangaka’s inability to understand anything about females. It seemed obvious by the time I dropped this that Ohba Tsugumi (whoever that actually is) has completely given up on any realistic representation of girls, and resorted to using them as tools to make the manga slightly less male-dominated. Back to my original point; it’s not that Kaya is awful, it’s that she’s one-dimensional. Although “stupid tomboy” is an acceptable character (Aisaka Taiga from Toradora! pulled it off reasonably well), if the character has no personality to speak of, any appearances they’re given might as well be worthless.

Actually, while I’m complaining about how the story writer is a misogynist, I might as well go over other characters that strike me as terrible:

Hiramaru Kazuya – Lazy bastard who I fear more than I hate. As in “I’m afraid to become this guy in ten or twenty years”.

Koogy – Deluded narcissist. I understand that he’s supposed to be what passes for a “villain character” in this kind of manga, but that doesn’t keep me from hating him.

Ishizawa Hidemitsu – Same as Koogy, but a bigger asshole.

In short, this manga is awful because of the characters. If the characters were replaced with ones that weren’t so [makes me want to rage]-able, this would be a decent story. As it is, I can’t stand to read any more of it.

In the event that I don’t post something by the 31st, Happy New Year’s.

black magic

A friend of mine asked for a music player recommendation today (because I’m a “self-proclaimed audio smartypants”), and so I told her to use foobar2000 (use it, it’s the best). A couple of hours later, she comes back with this:

(name censored for obvious reasons)
[name] said (9:35 PM):
Whoaaa
How does it know lyrics?
It’s like magicc
[Hats] said (9:36 PM):
inorite
maaaaagic
[name] said (9:37 PM):
No really
I want to know
[Hats] said (9:38 PM):
it connects to the interwebs
[name] says (9:39 PM):
But how does it know which PART you’re on?
[Hats] says (9:39 PM):
it is just that good.
black magic, [name]
black magic

There you have it, folks. Use foobar2000, it runs on technology and black magicks.

selflessness

Once again, the initial premises of this post is a snippet from IRC:
[22:25:58] <+Nored> you guys make scanlating seem like so much work
[22:26:09] <+Hats> scanlation is srsbzns
[22:26:33] <&Shini-tan> but it does require a lot of work
[22:26:36] <&Shini-tan> kinda
[22:26:43] <+blah1234> lol
[22:26:48] <+Nored> thus, i find it odd that you guys are doing it

Why do fansubbers and scanlators spend their own time and efforts doing something that does not materially benefit them? Why do people who are mostly likely extremely busy volunteer themselves to, every [day/few days/week, depending on the group and material], go slave over a screen to unthinkingly give to the faceless masses of the Internet?

As to be expected, this reason differs between people; some want something to do in their lives besides work, others do so for dubious and fickle online glory, and a select few actively do so to kill time.

However, there is one universal constant among these people who so selflessly release fansubs and scanlation, and that is when that one person (or preferably more) goes and leaves a comment on the site, or drops by on the IRC channel, and gives their thanks. Simply giving thanks for a deed, even if it takes just a few seconds to so, can absolutely make a fansubber’s or scanlator’s day.

And so, before you click that download link and close that group’s tab, please, just spend a few seconds to say thanks. It means far more than you can imagine.

That, and happy holidays.

customer service

Man, it’s been a pretty harsh week. This is an excuse for not posting in ages.

So around a year ago, I ordered canalphones from this fabulous Chinese company named Head-Direct, who make wonderful-sounding audio equipment (this is poorly veiled advertisement for the company). This aside, I abused these canalphones, and this highly aggressive form of wear&tear led to them becoming damaged to the point of requiring replacement.

Regardless, the process itself is not the point. Yesterday, I received an email from them, notifying me that my canalphones have been received and shipped out; furthermore, they would send me the package’s tracking number forthwith. I didn’t really know how to respond, so I replied with what was more-or-less a protracted thank-you.

The reply I received was this:

Head-Direct has the best customer service ever.