August 30, 2009

My pixel stomping grounds.

I thought I would do something a little different and give some free loving to a few of my favorite websites and comics. You'll find all of them listed and linked on the right hand sidebar, and there's a number of them I won't go into detail here because, well, they're typically very well known and there is a very good chance you already know about them.

Also, feel free to recommend any webcomics and websites you think I may like.

SITES/BLOGS

-Hello Kitty Hell is dedicated to showcasing the absolute horrors of Japan's rabid commercialization through the form of Hello Kitty. From the Hello Kitty Bondage Love Hotel to lawnmowers, the blogger has taken it upon himself to reveal to the world the very depths of Hello Kitty's hold.

-Fandom Wank is dedicated to mocking and boggling at fans who take themselves too seriously. Chances are, if you're in a fandom, you already know of this website. For those of you new to fandoms, perhaps you should take a gander at His wife? A Horse and a fannish perspective of Harry Potter just so you know what you're getting yourself in to.

-Bento is a new trend in the West, and a rather healthy trend, too. Just Bento is one of my favorite bento resources. Not only is the blog full of pretty bento pictures, but the blogger shares recipes and tips that are worth looking in to.

-Bakerella is probably my favorite food blog. No only does she share gorgeous dessert pictures and delicious recipes, but she's also generous enough to run some fabulous giveaways. She's the queen of cakepops, if you know what those are. My personal favorite of hers is the cakeballs. I actually had friends and coworkers fight over them (albeit I slightly modified her recipe to include fresh strawberries and strawberry frosting). And I made at least 75 pieces.

-Urban Dead is a browser adventure type of game where you get to play as a zombie or a human. Think of Kingdom of Loathing, but completely multiplayer. I've been playing as a zombie for about six months. It's a great time waster and great for those who enjoy the zombie genre.

COMICS

-Darths & Droids rose to the feverish callings of a DM of the Rings version of the Star Wars movies. Basically, it's Star Wars told through DND. If you have a basic understanding of DND, plenty of nerd humor, and enjoy both movie franchises, I suggest you check both of them out. DM of the Rings is rather short in comparison to Darth & Droids, in case you're rationing your mindless internet time.

-Stricken Pot Pie is currently on hiatus, but I hope it comes back soon. It's a story of a bear and a bird where each panel is completely hand sewn. I kid you not.

-Awkward Zombie is another nerd comic with a heavy emphasis on the Smash Brothers franchise. The comics are actually fairly funny with quick and obvious humor.

-I'm a long time Sailor Moon fan, so it's no surprise that I read Four King Hell!, a comedic look at the Sailor Moon metaseries through the eyes of the Shitennou, Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask's personal guard (you know, the bad guys in gray uniforms from the first season), and how they're going to bed one of the girls.

-KinkoFry is a very quirky and artistic comic with an offbeat sense of humor. I'm a fan of random and awkward and recommend it to anyone with similar tastes.

August 24, 2009

I Are Reviews: Kigurumikku - Episode 1



I don't know very much about Kigurumikku at all, I tried to look up information about it, but didn't have any luck. Not that it matters much because the series is hilarious enough as it is. However, the intro might make more sense if I did know-- anyway!

I started watching Kigurumikku because I thought it was a Magical Girl show (three little girls with stuffed birds that they put on and fight evil with-- HOW IS THAT NOT MAGICAL GIRL?), but it turns out that's not quite what it is. In actuality, it's a big spoof on Sentai and the superhero genre. *faceinhands*

CURSE YOU, JAPAN. It's like the show was made specially for me. HOW DARE YOU FIND OUT MY WEAKNESSES. ;-;

SENTAI CHECK LIST:
1. Booming narrator voice announcing the heroics that occurred during the non-existent previous episode.
2. Very heroic 70's style music.
3. Fighting poses. Over ice cream. And anything else, really.
4. Hyperactive, oblivious heroine hellbent on whatever heroic justice thing they're usually obliviously hellbent on.
5. Ride bikes furiously to their mission! WHILE SINGING THEIR THEME SONG.
6. OMINOUS VILLAIN IN A CAVE.
7. Ridiculous transformation sequence.
8. Fight a ridiculous monster of the day (in this case, the monster is based off of a chocolate cream horn).
9. Long speeches about heroics and justice and empathy that outs one of the characters as being a complete loser.
10. A heroic kick full of justice as the final blow!
11. A teaser for the next episode.

MAGICAL GIRL CHECK LIST:
1. Tween girls with color coordinating outfits.
2. A talking plush swan that looks more like a duck.
4. Swan-duck familiar is hinted to be from another planet.
5. Henshin sequence activated by saying "Kigurumi Equip!" putting on all the different outfit pieces, and finishing with "Service Done!"

I'm sure you can guess all the spoof like elements and jokes of the series already. One I did leave out, though, is that during the fight scene, Kigurumikku-Swan addresses the all important question of what do super heroes do when they have to pee during battle?



The first episode is only about 12 minutes long (I believe it's an OAV series?) and consists of Azuki, Kigurumikku-Swan, and Mut, Kigurumikku-Falcon, going to an Okinawan grocer for special ice cream because Azuki ate all of Mut's mother's ice cream. Meanwhile Mut's sister, Nanami, repairs Miruku (the swan-duck thing) and eventually starts coming up with crazy theories about Miruku origins and beats him into telling the truth.



After picking up the ice cream, Chococrone attacks a nearby park. Azuki faces him, summoning a badly hurt Miruku (and Nanami who was holding Miruku at the time) in order to transform. Kigurumikku-Swan attempts to shame Chococrone into submission by asking why he didn't feel sorry for Nanami having 30 boyfriends and being rejected by all of them, effectively embarrassing her in front of the large crown that has gathered. Swan harness the feelings of pity from the crowd in order to deliver her finishing move and destroys Chococrone.



Meanwhile Nanami is beside herself in rage.

And somewhere in a dark place, the OMINOUS VILLAIN Generalissimo X blows up the Okinawan grocer Azuki and Mut had visited.

So how do I feel about this series? I ADORE IT. It's just too ridiculous for me to NOT love! I'm excited to see if Falcon ups Swan in the next episode, her introductory episode, since Mut seems more capable than Azuki.

August 20, 2009

The Rabbit at PAX: Down the Rabbit Hole

If you haven't heard of PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) before, let me enlighten you. It's a three day gaming convention at the Seattle Convention Center held annually by the guys who bring you Penny Arcade. Apparently PAX will also be happening in Boston next year.

This year is my first time going and I recently received my three day pass (red, for those of you wondering) in the mail on Monday. I'm beyond excited and will definitely be spamming my blog with PAX related goodness come Labor Day Weekend.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of the things I'm most looking forward to and would like to do at the convention.

1. How to Make it in the Back Door: A Rainbow Colored Perspective of the Game Industry
It's a panel run by gay people. You can already tell that it's going to be awesome just by the title that they came up with. How cheekily fabulous.

2. The Old Republic demo
There's two screenings with advertisements of goodies, I'm definitely going to get into one of them! KOTOR is one of the best RPGs around, so don't fail me!

3. Enter the Pokemon tournament with 5 Magikarps and a Ditto
Magikarp, use splash attack! Great, now counter with a splash!

4. Wil Wheaton presents: THE AWESOME HOUR!!1
It's suppose to be awesome!!1

5. Photos of the Worst Cosplay Evar
So I can torture my friends with the pictures later.

6. FREE STUFF
I couldn't go last year, and my friends gifted me a bunch of things, including a Fallout 3 handpuppet. I'm eager to see what I will be gifted this year, even if that means I have to gift a particular display to myself for free.

7. Pictochat being useful.
Finally, I won't have to chat by myself anymore. :(

8. PAX in general.
Since this is my first time going, I have no idea what to expect. I know I'll need my camera, DS, a suitable messenger bag, monies, maybe some extra foodstuffs as I've heard food is routinely expensive at conventions, cellphone, and maybe some air freshener?

I love you, nerds, but I've spent enough time stuck in a basement rolling D20s with your kind to recognize your stench. Don't worry, Febreze solves everything.

August 14, 2009

Woodland Park Hobo

I went to the Woodland Park Zoo the other day. Sure, I'm 23, and sure, I've been there a few times before. It's true that zoos don't change very much, it's still animals being confined into tiny areas, albeit the areas now are definitely much better than what they used to.

In short, you really don't expect change at a zoo, it's hard to justify to your mid twenties self why paying $16.50 to see something you already have is worth it. You go to see animals, and you see animals. Sometimes you see overpriced ice cream cones and the occasional child screaming in horror, the later sometimes being a plus.

And then you go to the orangutan exhibit.

Now, what is a natural habitat for an orangutan? Trees, surely. Some vine like constructions that they can climb with. Rock ledges for perching purposes.

And, oh yeah, burlap sacks that they can use to pull over their heads while smashing their face up against the viewing windows.


I CAN HAS SACK? (click for larger view)


It's debatable on whether or not $16.50 is worth paying to see an orangutan imitate a hobo, but it was surely the highlight of my day.

August 11, 2009

Taking the hobbits to San Francisco.

I went to San Francisco last weekend for a friend's wedding. A weekend surely isn't enough time, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and wanted to share a few things I learned during my stay.

I hate toll booths.



Words cannot describe my utter rage for them. I've never been partial to toll booths, ever, I don't like the idea of have to stop and pay while I'm driving, or having to pay at all. The worst thing about these toll booths, though, is the sheer amounts of traffic they create. Stop and go traffic for over a half hour is a half an hour too much for me. It probably doesn't help that I'm prone to car sickness (though I thought I had gotten better considering I've become rather bus savvy since moving to Seattle) and was threatening to kill my driver in my sicken stupor while my head was dangling out the window.

At least I had it better than my other friend, the person driving that car rolled up her window the minute she rolled it down.

I would never leave SanFran if I lived there.

You cannot enter San Francisco without paying some kind of fare. Period. I'm sure the tolls are necessary, really, but after living in a state where tolls are virtually non-existent (never living in Gig Harbor ever), I can't stomach the idea of having to pay to come home.

However, I doubt I would care too much having SF as a prison. This has to be the best prison food ever.



Of course, this kind of food also exist in my SanFran prison, and it haunts me in my nightmares.



Seattle is a small city.



I've known that Seattle is smaller compared to other big cities, but inner SanFran confirmed that for me. I wasn't even in downtown and I was surrounded by four sides of concrete. And you know SanFran is a bajillion times bigger than Seattle when it can justify having a gym the size of the Pantheon (and look like it, even).




The French are more interesting outside of France.



I won't lie, my friends and I have several jokes about the French despite us being rather indifferent to them (I'm sure the French have some lovely jokes about us as well). Jokes like...them being the enemy and hitting each other with baguettes, or how I now hate America because I may have kissed one of them. Ahem.

Anyway, the truth is, despite living in the U District and having attended a large university, I have not had the chance to mingle with many foreigners. While these guys were drunk, they were truly nice and not the snooty and jackass perception many of us have about the French. Perhaps they were just looking for some pretty American girls, however, I think they were more curious about America in general. And maybe also why I say I'm from America when I, as said by them, don't look English.

From that last sentence, I'd like to point out the irony of any European that says Europe isn't racial conscious like America. I've never once had someone here question the validity of my nationality due to my ethnicity.

Also that those guys freely admitted that there are several places in Europe suffering from gross amounts of racism.

I need to stop saying this is the sketchiest bar ever.

Last year I went to Blue Moon and proclaimed it to be the sketchiest bar ever, what with the floor littered with peanut shells and hobos. And then I found this bar right outside of China Town. It looked innocent enough, very small and not too busy. However, the bathroom, holy shit the bathroom.



The flash omitted the scariest part about going to and actually being in this bar's bathroom: the dim and flickering lights. Also that the walls weren't completely connected leaving huge gaps of darkness, holes in the wall, lack of locks on the doors, etc. I honest to God though there were cameras hidden in the wall gaps and holes and a group of men somewhere were watching me and bidding on who was going to shoot me while I was peeing.

I want to say that's the sketchiest bar ever, but once I say that I'm going to end up in an even sketchier bar, and probably dead.

Being up at 4am does things to your vision.

My friend dropped me off at the airport at 6am for my 10am flight. By 6:30am I was through airport security and on my way in search of noms. The first thing I saw after walking out of security is this:



A ten foot plush orca (I named him McLovin). I almost think SeaTac put him there on purpose, to freak travelers out in the wee hours of the morning after having to shuffle through security. Perhaps they think the giant, smiling orca will placate any rage security may have caused.

It may have worked.

Alley cafes are the best and worst thing ever.



SanFran knows how to manage space. Stick six restaurants inside of an alley? SUCCESS. I saw many alleys full of cafes while wandering around the six block vicinity of my hotel. However, you know what alleys are also full of?

Pigeons.



Isn't that scrumptious?