June 2013 Update: E-cow-nomics

I know it's off the internet...
But even a pic I took would make it
tiny to read...

Because I'm bored and having writer's block on my blog. Call it me selling out or lazy, that's fine. I'll get off my ass and finish my Mass Effect 2 review... or maybe beat Persona 4 Golden.

My brain is in a state similar to fried chicken because I'm spending too much time writing my Persona 3 fanfic. An activity that originally started out of boredom back during the spring semester has exploded into a 400+ page, six Word documented project that is still incomplete. ...I still don't know why I'm still writing it. At this rate, it'll be longer than Les Miserables.

Otherwise Fangirl's life is... is... is... um...

...I got a new poster to take to college. It'll proudly sit right next to the one on the menstrual cycle I got from the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia.

Yeah. This thing. XD

I just love dry, quirky humor like this.

... This might be me selling out, but oh well. My fanfic destroyed my brain. That's a good excuse... right?

Introducing the explanation of 21 economic models... using cows! Too bad the font is too tiny to read of the picture...

Socialism: You have two cows. You give one to your neighbor.

Communism: You have two cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

Fascism: You have two cows. The State takes both then sells you some milk.

Nazism: You have two cows. The State takes both and shoots you.

Bureaucratism: You have two cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away.

Traditional Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

Surrealism: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

American Corporation: You have two cows. You sell one and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow had dropped dead.

Venture Capitalism - Icelandic Corporation: You have two cows. You sell all three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

French Corporation: You have two cows. You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

Japanese Corporation: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called "Cowkimon" and market it worldwide.

German Corporation: You have two cows. You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

Italian Corporation: You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

Russian Corporation: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have forty-two cows. You count again and learn you have two cows.

Swiss Corporation: You have five thousand cows. None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

Chinese Corporation: You have two cows. You have three hundred people milking them. You claim you have full employment, and high bovine productivity. You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

Indian Corporation: You have two cows. You worship them.

British Corporation: You have two cows. Both are mad.

Iraqi Corporation: Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them you have none. No one believes you, so they bomb you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least you are a part of Democracy.

Australian Corporation: You have two cows. Business seems pretty good. You close offices and go for a few beers to celebrate.

New Zealand Corporation: You have two cows. The one on the left looks very attractive.


And everyone gets made fun of. :)


Back to writing I guess... *sigh* I need something to make me smile...

^///_///^

... Someone make this happen. NOW.

Where the Heck Were You, Fangirl?

Long time, no update! :)

I'm currently studying for my midterm exams, but I have some time for this. :)
So... what have I been up to?

Another Piece of Art Finished

Right before I went off to college, I had my last weekend art lesson, which I had attended for nearly seven years. Typically I work on a big project and it takes many months to finish. My last piece was extremely detailed, and a bit annoying.

When I visited home, my mom had it framed and it looks amazing. I forgot my camera, and all I had were photos of it I took right after my last lesson.

Acrylic paint. I tried watercolor at first, but it ended in failure. Ever since I was a young kid, I always hated watercolor painting. Thankfully after the change, I was able to complete this. :)

Living on my Own...

I have settled in reletively fine. Even though I never had siblings, my roommate and I get along pretty well. We snark, bicker, joke around, all that fun stuff.

The puppy hates waking up, shit happens, and the bed is unmade.
A perfect morning sight! 

Our room is evenly separated so we each have our own side. Sadly, though, things can get... messy. My side is presentable enough, but sometimes its hard to enter the room sometimes, you know? She has a lot more things than I do and has a hard time finding a place to put everything. She tries to not let it get too out of control, so I don't let it bug me.

Food on the other hand... my roommate and I keep getting so much food because some people think we are starving and have no access to nutrition. And apparently some think I'm losing weight... so they give me Oreos. =_='

The only place where I can be sloppy.

Socially, I'm doing a lot better than I expected. No wonder people hate high school so much, college is so much better! I get along with a good number of the girls on my floor pretty well. I have several people to hang out with in case person A or B is in a meeting or is studying. While I've been pretty low-key with certain activities, I'm trying to stabilize everything that is manditory to my staying in the institution. Socialization always came second or third, and I keep it that way.

Nearly everyone I know loves this poster. It's got so much charm to it! 

"If you've got human chorionic gonadotropin in your system, produced by the newly forming placenta - well, by golly, you're knocked up!"

Still Obsessed with That Overrated Sci-Fi Drama?

ABSOLUTELY.

When I went home a few weeks ago, I quickly bought the Leviathan downloadable content and immediately played it. I was tired of waiting for it and I was completely satisfied. Since then, I have been rereading the Mass Effect wiki site's articles and discussion pages. Even TvTropes is an addicting wonderland, and it has a TON of ME notes and topics to read for HOURS.

These daily activities have made my PS3 withdrawal more unbearable.

Meanwhile, Mass Effect 2's soundtrack has been purchased from iTunes to my library recently, and I had ME3's free with the collector's edition of the game. Now, I'm thinking of buying an N7 sweatshirt from BioWare's website. Better get to it.

me wantz badly... $_@

You know how girls are obsessive with things like shoes or make-up and want a massive collection? That's me with scarves and sweatshirts (I have a HIM sweatshirt that's near the end of its life and a scarf.) You can never run out and they keep you warm. ^_^

Also... I am so psyched for the Mass Effect Trilogy. I can play ME1 on my PS3!! No need to tweak my computer!! XD

Pandora Has Yet Another Box

I made a separate Pandora account not too long ago, so I can experiment with different stations. You can only have about 100 stations, and my old account has somewhere between 50 and 60. As away for me to start from scratch, I've been trying out fun., a-ha, and a 90's pop station. Though "Some Nights" is an awesome song, fun. is just a "meh" band. Maybe it's because they have some association with Paramore, a band I happen to despise.

After being stuck with a bunch of different people for nearly two months, I'm starting to go back to things I enjoyed as a kid. Heck, we all pretty much feel like kids. My roommate was sick the other day and watched shows on the Disney Channel and The Lizzy McGuire Movie. Some of us bought stuffed animals, hoola-hoops, even *NYNSC CDs. Heck, I found a few people who actually liked Hillary Duff when they were younger! (This one admits to still liking her music... >.<)

There's one thing I have learned while here, this world is a lot smaller than I thought. o_O


Now, though, I have to go back to studying for my midterm exams. It's not fun. :/
But I am still alive, guys. I'm still alive... :)

"WHAT?! You're not supposed to do that!!!"

Reason #99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999991 why Sonic 06 is one of the most hilariously awful games to grace the planet.

(BrainScratchComms)

If only I had a PS3 or an Xbox, I'd buy it just to have this happen. XD

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music Mood:

("Forces" by Susumu Hirasawa... from Berserk anime)

Happier Holidays

I'm a legal adult! *blink, blink* And I got accepted into my first-choice college! *screams*

By this time it might as well already be Christmas, especially when my birthday present is always a "sneak peak" into what Santa gave me. This might be the only positive outlook I ever adopted. XD As a bonus I have no worries about applying to other schools and the nightmare of waiting. I was mentally getting off track for a while.

Depressed no longer is the Fangirl of earlier this month. The doom and gloom and cynicism that bleed profusely has been stopped... for now. I dunno what I'm talking about now. Haha!

My vacation started off today with me waking up at noon - which happens rarely. Then after spending alone time for myself, me, my mom, and some friends saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I always wanted to read the book, but thanks to summer reading I did not have the chance to pick it up. After watching it though, my mom said the movie stayed loyal to the book. I figure I'll pick it up someday, as well as watch the Swedish version.

Kind of like with Sucker Punch, I was so impressed with the music that I bought the soundtrack. The opening sequence - though very different from the rest of the film - is pure platinum. The video below only shows about 20% of what's going on. When it played in the theaters though... damn. 0.O

I might squeeze in one last entry before the new year... a top 10-ish list. Big emphasis on "-ish" though.

And to be a good sport, here's another Christmas song. On the bright side, it's not as oppressive as most! :D

Happy Holidays!!! :D

Laughing Until The Lungs Bleed

For the past few months I am at my all-time low as a HIM fangirl. The albums have been collecting dust, the official website is still down, and I am detoxing...

Since school started though, my blues have been eased by my friend and fellow HIM fan. Today we went on a full 35 minute spree of quoting all sorts of crazy crap from all sorts of videos of them being random. Way back in the days when I looked up videos and interviews, I only got to laugh with myself. Being able to talk about the same jokes and to share the same amount of humor in it with a friend was the best part of my day. My lungs still hurt so much... X'D

Here's only a fraction of the hilarity...

Oh, and happy belated birthday, Ville! I'm so sorry! T-T

*_*

Halloween Fails

Way back when I used to have a monthly theme just so I can better organize my thoughts. And just like any other new thing I try, it fell apart as the remains crawled in every which way. October MIGHT be different this time, I swear! Just give me another twenty three days and then I'll have something planned out!

Just so I can have a new post in nearly a week, here are some Halloween items that made me chuckle a bit too loudly. With the laughs and the snide remarks, I'm shocked no one kicked me out of the store.

This is so hilariously bad, it might as well be the staple for the obvious Hot Topic I-wannabe-badass-emo shoppers. With green mohawks.  Or something like that.

Stupid.

A "Steampunk Victorian Vampiress Costume"... On paper, sounds ok-ish. In reality, this is fake. The top is cheap as hell and the shoes are unfitting, especially when nothing else is as white.

But this isn't a real steampunk or Victorian outfit anyway...

It looks magnificent does it not? Hot, steamy pizza served just for you at any time and any place. Literally.

It's a pillow.

It is the pinnacle of creepy when you wake up from a nightmare and your bedroom accessories look like food.

Pfft.

I can hear the cries of thousands of men and women killed for hundreds of years because they were "witches".

Charming.

.........

Forget the pig. This is as f***ing low as the "content" in Elfen Lied.

Halloween's gonna suck...

'Thor'

(CREDIT: to the creators of the comics and this movie.)

Rank: 3 out of 5 <-- a superhero(-ish) movie that I like? *gasp*

Superhero films annoy me. Superhero films based off of comics that never end piss me off. Superhero films based off of never-ending comics that suck... well, run away or else a mushroom cloud will consume you.

Admittedly I was only interested in Thor because of it being based on Norse mythology. The general topic always caught my attention as a kid, but in the past few years I have been curious about mythologies that often are glossed over (Chinese, Japanese, Norse, Finnish, etc...) I figured that this movie would at least give me a few hints about the Norse myths that I know so little about. When I came out, I still didn't know too much, but at least a few names will stick.

As for the film... I liked it! It did many things right that I like it films: the secondary characters were easy to remember (if only by appearance), comedy reigned at some great times, and Asgard looked absolutely otherworldly and gorgeous. On the surface the plot flowed pretty well for two hours and nothing really dragged. The characters were not very complex, but as simple and predictable as they were, they still were generally likable. Thor was even willing enough to be humorous at times, which tells us that the movie is an action flick where fun stuff happens. The special effects were decent as were the fighting scenes (too many close-ups) and the music was really epic.

While these work well, the overall story is just plain average with a fun and visual kick to it. Because these superhero-ish movies are not my cup of tea, I cannot say I love this film completely. Sure, the characters were not whiny and bitchy, the plot stayed somewhat on course, and I was amused. That's it. As much as I can say these good things, the film made a mistake that a good story should never - ever make. PLOT HOLES.

There are Ice Giants, but they have only twenty minutes of relevance in Thor. What was the point in having them? How did they get into Asgard without the notice of the guard at the Bifrӧst? What are the other ways of traveling between realms? Is this gaping hole open for a sequel to bury it or not? What if you never get a sequel to continue this? Explain, movie, EXPLAIN!!!!!!!

Plot holes, especially obvious ones, are one of the biggest killers for the ever nitpicky critic in me. Sadly that is why I cannot give Thor a higher score. But if there will be a sequel, maybe I can overlook the poor, abandoned, empty hole where I fell in head-first. A superhero(ish) movie that I like and saw how great it might have been if they took better care? *gasp!*

'Midori no Hibi'

(CREDIT: to the mangaka. I can't draw and write a story simultaniously!)

Rank: 2.8 out of 5 <-- unexpectedly sweet

Reading manga has been something I have enjoyed for nearly four years, but I am anything but loyal to this hobby of mine. I go through a number of phases thanks to numerous series I find and look up frequently (ex: Naruto, Fruits Basket, etc.) For a while, I hit an unmotivating period when nothing pushed me to consider looking up new or updates of ongoing manga. Thankfully Mars kicked my lazy butt and I've been on a mini manga spree again. While roaming around the wonderfully worldly web, I ran into an anime review of Midori Days.

It wasn't the first time I heard of it. Back when I used to buy manga frequently, I finished a volume of Zatch Bell and at the last pages of the book were ads for other manga to try out. Midori Days was one of them and my WTF radar nearly fried. I mean, honestly: a romantic comedy about a boy with a girl on his right hand. Who could NOT see that and call it a joke? At least now that I have read all 85 chapters, it's a good thing it wasn't a joke.

Despite the silliness of the premise, Midori Days is a very fun and satisfying ride from start to finish. Seiji can almost fit in the "bad boy with a good heart" box, but how he is like a real teenage boy makes him very memorable. And if not that, he can be very cartoonish, which is hilarious at the right times. But a great bit of humor comes from Midori and how she interacts with Seiji. Depending on whether you read the manga or watch the anime, there are some moments that are greater than others (ex: the nightmare episode in the anime, the dragging unconscious Seiji to school chapter, etc.) Because of the days they spend together and his obliviousness to the girls who like him, Seiji and Midori's growing bond is very enjoyable. To be honest, I cried at one point at the end of the manga.

Great character development, however, is only present with the two leads, and that's it. For the rest of the cast, you either like them for their main traits, or you don't. It's not that they are bad, but they are two-dimensional

at best: nearly all of them has a small backstory and know about Midori. That's about it. Again, it's not horrible, but it can be dissatisfying at times. At the end of the day, the only secondary characters I found memorable were Ayase, Rin, Kuota, Miyahara, and Lucy.

I would prefer one to read the manga, because the story is better told in this medium. Seiji's emotional development is handled slowly this way, but the results are all the more satisfying. On the other hand - no pun intended - the anime deals with Seiji and Midori catching up with each other in real life in a more interesting fashion. The comedy is far better here too (the first episode. PERIOD.), but the plot suffers much more in the anime and in the manga. It might not matter too much, but I would go for the manga if I were you.

Two last things. There is some perverted humor albeit far more clean and refined than one might expect. Also, there is some fan service here too, but - like the perverted jokes - it is more of the fact that "it is there" than vulgar. Fangirl tends to hate crudeness (even mild stuff), but these two things did not take away the fact that Midori no Hibi is a very sweet and touching story.

Overall, Midori Days - the anime and the manga combined - deserves a solid 2.8 out of 5.

It'll take a while until I find another unique concept like this. Hopefully my manga/anime spree won't end soon...