An interesting set of priorities: Part 2
So, this weekend I went to the anime club at my school. It was kind of weird; it reminded me a lot of some of my friends from high school, which isn't bad, it just wasn't something I've felt in a long time.
When I went in they were watching Lovely Complex. I caught the tail-end of an episode at it was pretty funny. Then after that were two episodesof some anime I had never heard of. Coil something? I don't remember... It was about these kids who have these special glasses that do weird crazy digital world-type things. It was pretty cool. After that Code Geass came on. I had heard about it a few places before, but I had no idea what it was. It opened with a little British prince getting ousted by his father. "Woww... this looks pretty cool... a Medieval political anime!" Then after that was the opening video (music, song, whatever they call it) and I saw the giant robots and I laughed and left the room to get something to eat. Besides, neither of the guys I went there to meet were in the room, anyways.
A note to ye who like giant robots: I don't mean to offend, but those are the type of anime that I REALLY can't get into. I was really hungry, anyways ^^;
So I walked out, wondering what I wanted to eat, and I spotted that across the hall, someone was playing Ikaruga on the projector. "Sweet! I haven't played Ikaruga in months!". This guy was pretty good, and it turned out he was one of the people I was to be meeting! There was a little chit-chat. I ended up playing a game of Ikaruga with some other guy, 2 Player (that game is a lot easier with two people and unlimited credits XD). They ordered pizza, so I bought a couple slices, met with the second guy I had been internet-acquainted with, played an intense ice-breaker game with everyone, and finally settled in to watch Grave of the Fireflies.
I have been hearing about this movie for years. The glorified "Grave of the Fireflies:The Saddest Anime Movie There Ever Was" (does the word glorified been "given more glory than is rightfully deserved", because I don't necessarily mean it in that way). People were talking about how this movie made them cry, or how they were expected to cry. I am not too proud to admit that I have cried during my fair share of stories (on various media), so I was prepared for the worst.
I must say, the movie was definitely depressing. It gives you that sinking feeling like in Reanimator or Brain Dead, where things just keep getting worse, except in this case, it was hardly comedic. And well, no, I didn't cry. I hardly welled up. Eh, it didn't bother me or anything. I was probably relieved to hve not embarrassed myself in front of people I just met (Wait... didn't I just say I wasn't proud? Well... I suppose it's a lot easier to talk about it than to have people actually see it).
The evening wrapped up with another anime called Nerima Daikon Brothers. It's a very bizarre anime in that it's a musical. People break out into song over the most trite of things. It was definitely my favourite anime of the night. Things wrapped up with a little more Ikaruga and we parted ways at 1AM-ish. I know I haven't focused on talking about my two new friends (Steven and Garett are their names, btw) but we didn't actually spend a lot talking, so I still hardly know them ^^;. At any rate, I look forward to the next time our paths cross.
---
I swear, this isn't just a recollection of my weekend. There is actually some discussion to come. The next relevant portion of the story came yesterday night. We had spent pretty much the entire day playing Fallout 3, so we decided to take a break and watch a movie. I had planned ahead, and downloaded WALL-E, as per Floyd Norman's suggestion (well... he probably would've preferred I paid to see it XD, but I think I'll legally obtain the DVD at some point). The point of the story is, that WALL-E was a much more emotional movie for me then Grave of the Fireflies. The "worst" part was not even the adorable and tragic robot love story, but it was the part where the captain is basically going on the Wikiped and learning about Earth, and getting so excited about being able to go to this awesome, green planet
...which is no longer awesome, or green.
So, allow me to pour out my soul for a little bit. The natural world is what means a lot to me. Not just the pandas, or the dolphins, or the chimps, or whatever other charismatic species you see on the WWF commercials. I love the way everything works together. The diversity and intricacies which billions of years of natural forces have conjured up. Over a million described species, and that might only be 10% of what's out there. Somehow, they all work just a littlebit differently such that they can coexist on one planet.
And the fact that these species, billions of years in the making, are being wiped from existence everyday due to anthropogenic impacts, well... that's very upsetting and frustrating for me.
I'm a Biology student, specializing in Biodiversity. I don't think that there would be a more befitting program for me at any University. I don't get as much of an emotional response when I hear about how poorly people are being treated in other countries as I do when I hear about the next bird species to become extinct or critically endangered. I feel like I probably should be more concerned about the welfare of other humans, but that's the way things are in my head
---
Okay so, I didn't quite plan for my entry to turn out like that, 'cuz I still wanted to talk about the rest of my weekend! So yeah, between Jed, Jay and I we had been playing Fallout 3 non-stop (we each have our own file). Jed and I had decided to take very different roads in the game. My character, "OneX", has very positive Karma and never asks for rewards, and always helps people out. Jed's character, "Smart Bitch", has extremely low karma. She'll sell you all her stuff, then kill you and take it back; she's absolutely ruthless. I was a little upset to find out that in Jed's game, he blew up my hometown with a nuclear bomb >.>
Now, I was supposed to be playing this saint of a character, but I was a little frustrated that Jed blew up my town while he lived in a luxurious hotel. So, to return the favour, I hacked into the underground access of his tower and disengaged the locks to his place got overrun by zombies =)
It's not like we've actually affected one another, as we're each playing in a separate file, but it was a funny sort of mutual action =)
But yes, I will wrap this up, for it has become quite substantial. I'm looking forward to a very busy school week, but of course, I will be kicking around the internets. If you've read all this, I sincerly thank you for your participation
Ciao~
When I went in they were watching Lovely Complex. I caught the tail-end of an episode at it was pretty funny. Then after that were two episodesof some anime I had never heard of. Coil something? I don't remember... It was about these kids who have these special glasses that do weird crazy digital world-type things. It was pretty cool. After that Code Geass came on. I had heard about it a few places before, but I had no idea what it was. It opened with a little British prince getting ousted by his father. "Woww... this looks pretty cool... a Medieval political anime!" Then after that was the opening video (music, song, whatever they call it) and I saw the giant robots and I laughed and left the room to get something to eat. Besides, neither of the guys I went there to meet were in the room, anyways.
A note to ye who like giant robots: I don't mean to offend, but those are the type of anime that I REALLY can't get into. I was really hungry, anyways ^^;
So I walked out, wondering what I wanted to eat, and I spotted that across the hall, someone was playing Ikaruga on the projector. "Sweet! I haven't played Ikaruga in months!". This guy was pretty good, and it turned out he was one of the people I was to be meeting! There was a little chit-chat. I ended up playing a game of Ikaruga with some other guy, 2 Player (that game is a lot easier with two people and unlimited credits XD). They ordered pizza, so I bought a couple slices, met with the second guy I had been internet-acquainted with, played an intense ice-breaker game with everyone, and finally settled in to watch Grave of the Fireflies.
I have been hearing about this movie for years. The glorified "Grave of the Fireflies:The Saddest Anime Movie There Ever Was" (does the word glorified been "given more glory than is rightfully deserved", because I don't necessarily mean it in that way). People were talking about how this movie made them cry, or how they were expected to cry. I am not too proud to admit that I have cried during my fair share of stories (on various media), so I was prepared for the worst.
I must say, the movie was definitely depressing. It gives you that sinking feeling like in Reanimator or Brain Dead, where things just keep getting worse, except in this case, it was hardly comedic. And well, no, I didn't cry. I hardly welled up. Eh, it didn't bother me or anything. I was probably relieved to hve not embarrassed myself in front of people I just met (Wait... didn't I just say I wasn't proud? Well... I suppose it's a lot easier to talk about it than to have people actually see it).
The evening wrapped up with another anime called Nerima Daikon Brothers. It's a very bizarre anime in that it's a musical. People break out into song over the most trite of things. It was definitely my favourite anime of the night. Things wrapped up with a little more Ikaruga and we parted ways at 1AM-ish. I know I haven't focused on talking about my two new friends (Steven and Garett are their names, btw) but we didn't actually spend a lot talking, so I still hardly know them ^^;. At any rate, I look forward to the next time our paths cross.
---
I swear, this isn't just a recollection of my weekend. There is actually some discussion to come. The next relevant portion of the story came yesterday night. We had spent pretty much the entire day playing Fallout 3, so we decided to take a break and watch a movie. I had planned ahead, and downloaded WALL-E, as per Floyd Norman's suggestion (well... he probably would've preferred I paid to see it XD, but I think I'll legally obtain the DVD at some point). The point of the story is, that WALL-E was a much more emotional movie for me then Grave of the Fireflies. The "worst" part was not even the adorable and tragic robot love story, but it was the part where the captain is basically going on the Wikiped and learning about Earth, and getting so excited about being able to go to this awesome, green planet
...which is no longer awesome, or green.
So, allow me to pour out my soul for a little bit. The natural world is what means a lot to me. Not just the pandas, or the dolphins, or the chimps, or whatever other charismatic species you see on the WWF commercials. I love the way everything works together. The diversity and intricacies which billions of years of natural forces have conjured up. Over a million described species, and that might only be 10% of what's out there. Somehow, they all work just a littlebit differently such that they can coexist on one planet.
And the fact that these species, billions of years in the making, are being wiped from existence everyday due to anthropogenic impacts, well... that's very upsetting and frustrating for me.
I'm a Biology student, specializing in Biodiversity. I don't think that there would be a more befitting program for me at any University. I don't get as much of an emotional response when I hear about how poorly people are being treated in other countries as I do when I hear about the next bird species to become extinct or critically endangered. I feel like I probably should be more concerned about the welfare of other humans, but that's the way things are in my head
---
Okay so, I didn't quite plan for my entry to turn out like that, 'cuz I still wanted to talk about the rest of my weekend! So yeah, between Jed, Jay and I we had been playing Fallout 3 non-stop (we each have our own file). Jed and I had decided to take very different roads in the game. My character, "OneX", has very positive Karma and never asks for rewards, and always helps people out. Jed's character, "Smart Bitch", has extremely low karma. She'll sell you all her stuff, then kill you and take it back; she's absolutely ruthless. I was a little upset to find out that in Jed's game, he blew up my hometown with a nuclear bomb >.>
Now, I was supposed to be playing this saint of a character, but I was a little frustrated that Jed blew up my town while he lived in a luxurious hotel. So, to return the favour, I hacked into the underground access of his tower and disengaged the locks to his place got overrun by zombies =)
It's not like we've actually affected one another, as we're each playing in a separate file, but it was a funny sort of mutual action =)
But yes, I will wrap this up, for it has become quite substantial. I'm looking forward to a very busy school week, but of course, I will be kicking around the internets. If you've read all this, I sincerly thank you for your participation
Ciao~