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The insanity of the early anime years

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The introduction to anime for many of us came on the deck of the Absolution, the flagship of Toonami and it’s robot pilot Tom. That was what came next. Certain channels had already bought the licensing rights to things like Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors. You could watch them at five a.m. right before they switched over to the news or something else.

Of course, we know where it ended with anime infiltrating everything and Demon Slayer’s movie rocketing to the top of the charts. It’s just about everywhere now but I still remember those early days. Join me in my reminiscence.

First off, there were no streaming services. If you wanted anime that wasn’t one of the few that were licensed by the various television stations you had to buy it on DVD. That’s where the trick came in. Because they were foreign exports, dealers would charge an arm and a leg. Each disc of six episodes was about 20 bucks each. However, if you wanted the two episode finale you had to buy it for about 60 bucks. Extortion of the highest level.

Secondly, was the pointless censorship. For some reason, 4Kids, thought that we needed to not know what a rice ball was. Thus, we have this famous line:

Because it was the early 00’s, they had to protect us from the horrors of… lesbians! The stupidity of that is well documented. However, they did this by turning them into… cousins. You know how cousins act?

Not like that. So, yeah, they made it far worse because now it’s not just harmless lesbians it’s horrifying incest.

Then came the fact that we were being brought into a world that we hadn’t seen before. They started showing Dragonball Z without ever making mention that there was an entire other series, Dragonball before that. That there were nearly two hundred episodes introducing these characters to the world. That this was a continuation. No, we just thought it was just Dragonball Z and nothing else.

For those who haven’t seen this series, let me paint you a picture. You meet this guy named Goku and his crew having a reunion on an island with a turtle and an old man. Who are these people? Don’t know. They’re just here. We also saw this asshole meet and he nearly fights a green man.

Are there more green people? Is he a special case? Doesn’t matter. Keep it pushing. We find out that big hair is the main character’s brother. They’re saiyans! What’re those? Keep it pushing don’t stop. We know Goku is the main character. Him and the green man start fighting the big haired guy. They’re losing bad. But they’re the heroes! They have to win! That’s how these things work. Well, guess what, episode 5 they do win! And the main character is killed. What the fuck?

It was startling to watch. But for all of us, it was so interesting to watch. We hadn’t seen anything like that before. I think it’s what drove us into it. That strangeness, that weirdness. That just kept growing with every series they threw at us. Gundam Wing, Big O, Naruto and Bleach. We just kept going. I wonder what’s going to happen next. I wonder what the next revolution is going to be.

Ranking the White Stripes’ Albums

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The White Stripes broke up in February of 2011, happy birthday to me, I guess. They left behind a legacy of amazing music. I’ve seen them live about five or six times throughout my life. One time with Loretta Lynn opening for them. So, because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want. I’m going to rank their albums.

6. Get Behind Me Satan

I really wanted to love this album. It’s more piano centric than some of the others. It has some great tracks on it like “My Doorbell”, “Blue Orchid”, “Take, Take, Take” but it has the most tracks that I just don’t like “White Moon”, “Instinct Blues”, “Ugly As I Seem”, “The Nurse”. They’re not bad songs but they just don’t excite me. I come to a White Stripes album to get pumped and these just don’t get me there. This is kind of like a bad Beck album situation, where it’s not that great for the artist but for anyone else it would be an amazing album.

5. De Stijl

Once again, not a bad album. It’s a really great album but I just don’t revisit that often. I think what holds it back from being higher on the list is that certain songs are better live than they are on the album. “Let’s Build a Home” when it’s live is part of an amazing compilation where Jack White is driving it with solos and slides. “Death Letter” is another fun song live and what’s interesting is that my dad owned the same guitar that Jack uses on it. But like Get Behind Me Satan, there are just some songs on here that just aren’t my favorite. “Why Can’t You Be Nicer to Me” and “Jumble, Jumble” are just kind of there.

4. The White Stripes

The self titled album was a great preview for what was to come. There are some classics on this like “The Big Three Killed My Baby”, “Sugar Never Tasted So Good” and “Screwdriver”. They also throw down some great covers like “Stop Breaking Down” by Robert Johnson, where unlike the Rolling Stones, they actually give the original artist credit! Also a definitive version of “One More Cup of Coffee” by Bob Dylan. It’s them at their earliest and wildest. It also has a strange claustrophobic feeling to it because it was just Jack and Meg and an 8 track recording device. Also, I would say it’s their bluesiest album. There’s so much slide on the solos and tracks. Once again, not a bad album. It just dwarfs in comparison to…

3. White Blood Cells

The breakout hit and for a reason. It has their first hit “Fell in Love With a Girl” along with “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”, which is a tremendous song. I loved Citizen Kane as a kid so the “Union Forever” a song made up only of Citizen Kane lyrics is astounding. Also, the cute “We’re Gonna Be Friends”, which speaks to the fact that Jack White wanted the band to have an almost childlike nature to it. Then there’s the quick meditation on creativity, which I’m sure is the way the White Stripes feel “Little Room”.

“When you’re sitting in your little room/Working on something good/But if it’s really good/You’re gonna need a bigger room/And when you’re in the bigger room/You might not know what to do/So you’re going to have to think of how you got started/Sitting in your little room”

However what holds this back is clunkers like “Offend in Every Way”, “Finding it Harder to Be a Gentleman” and the confusing noise storm that is “Aluminum”.

God, writing this list just makes me want to listen to all of these albums straigh through again.

2. Icky Thump

This is another giant of an album. The only thing that holds this back is that I think the duo of “Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn” and “St. Andrew(The Battle is in the Air)” are just not that great. But this is their final album and they are at the height of their power and abilities. Every song is like putting your tongue in the electric outlet. Jack White is letting loose on this album in a way that he hasn’t before like against the crackdowns on illegal immigration

“White Americans, what nothing better to do?/Why don’t you kick yourself out, you’re an immigrant too/Who’s using who? What should we do?/Well you can’t be a pimp and prostitute too”

If you listen to no other albums on this list, this one and the number one spot are the ones to check out. It’s just such a fun album.

1. Elephant

All killer, no filler. I could end it right there. This album is amazing. The first time Meg gets to take center stage on a song with “In the Cold, Cold Night” singing so softly that it’s a wonder that the mic picked her up. The obvious giant hit “Seven Nation Army”, which was meant to be a James Bond song but… well, I don’t really know why it wasn’t used. Then there’s “I Wanna Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother’s Heart”, with its buttery guitar solos. The mighty “Ball and Biscuit” where Jack says a few lines here and there before ripping into some amazing solos. I’ve seen this song performed live and it’s amazing. The fact that this album was made without computer equipment is also amazing. Especially when you consider the all Jack chorus of “There’s No Home For You Here” where his voice is layered several times over to sound both angelic and demonic.

There’s a reason this album cemented them as rock and rollers for the ages. Listen to this album and have yourself a good day.

A lil update about my life

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I’ve been nesting lately. I’m looking forward to achieving one of the reasons that I chose to live alone, getting cats. There are two living in the parking lot of my apartment complex and I’m going to work with my landlord to bring them into my home. I have bought litter boxes, food, and dishes. They’re all ready for them. I hope that they aren’t too feral and I can bring them inside.

One of them looks like my childhood cat. I might have become too emotionally involved. I don’t care. There’s no point in living if you’re not willing to throw your heart out there. You can be safe and alone or you can step into the danger of caring and find yourself love.

Random Word Generator Storytime: Reduction

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(I learned this from Paul Robalino on the behind the scenes of Game Changer on Dropout.TV. He talks about using a random word generator and then writing from that word. This time we’re shrinking things with the word: Reduction).

Patricia looked at herself in the mirror. She was a pretty woman with a round face and full cheeks but most of the people that she dated didn’t focus on her face. They focused on what was going on below her neck.

Her breasts had started growing when she was fifteen and hadn’t stopped until they were so far down the alphabet that it made her uncomfortable. Her back ached daily and nearly nothing fit. She sighed as she stuffed herself into her bra. The ugly thing that she had bought because it was too expensive to get nice things in her size.

She thought again about getting a breast reduction. She had thought about this and brought it up with other boyfriends she had and they had all thrown tantrums about it. One of them had told her it was like slicing up the Mona Lisa. That if he she did it he would break up with her. She saved him the trouble and broke up with him.

She had the money for it that wasn’t the problem. She was dating a guy now and she saw a future with him. She wondered if he would stick around if she were to do this thing. Then she kicked herself for taking his opinion into account. Who cares what he thought. On a whim, she thought about calling him and asking him. Might as well get it over with and find out what he would say. If he was against it, she would be able to not waste her time anymore.

He picked up on the third ring.

“Hey, sweetums, what’s up?” he answered.

“Nothing, Joshy, I just had a question about something.”

“Hit me with it.”

“I’m thinking about getting a breast reduction.”

“Okay, cool. Just let me know when you’re thinking about it and I’ll take the time off, okay? I want to make sure I’m around to take care of you while you recover.”

Patricia was taken aback. Not in a bad way but more surprised.

“That’s it?”

“Uh, I guess is there something else you want me to do? Do you want me to come with you to the consultation?”

“No, I… you don’t have any objections to it?”

There was a long pause on the other end. She wondered if he was thinking about it for the first time.

“Why would I get a say in what you do to your body?” he asked.

“I mean, I was worried that this might make you less attracted to me,” she said.

“Honey, I love you, I don’t love a pair of tits. If I did I’d buy a pair at the Pleasure Shack and play with those. Probably save me a lot of money and having to smell your taco farts when we get Taco Bell and pass out on the couch.”

She snorted laughter at that.

“Besides,” he continued. “I know how they irk you. I care more about your comfort than some boobs.”

“Hm, I love you, honey,” she said.

“I love you too, give them a call and we can sort it out.”

“Am I going to see you later?”

“Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She hung up and googled the name of a plastic surgeon. She held the phone to her ear while it rang.

“I’m going to marry that man,” she said.

“Hello, Dr. Patel’s office,” a voice said on the other end. “How can I help you?”

“Hi, my name is Patricia Allman, I’d like to make an appointment for a consultation.”

I might have become a parrothead

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For those that don’t know, no, I’m not becoming a horrific creature with the body of a man and the head of a colorful bird. A parrothead is what fans of Jimmy Buffett call themselves. Due to the perceived relaxed and tropical vibes of his songs.

What I’m getting at is recently in my pursuit of listening to a hundred albums, I listened to Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes by Jimmy Buffett. I thought I was in for a chill time grooving with a bro but it turns out that there’s a quiet sadness behind each song?

Even in the eponymous song off the album, there’s constant regret and wistfulness for a time and place long gone. One of the lines is “if I couldn’t laugh, I’d go insane”. A man sounding like he’s barely holding it together even as he orders another Mai Tai.

The next song, “Wonder Why We Ever Go Home” is just vacation Springsteen. It starts with a lonely harmonica note then transitions to Buffett ruminating on getting old and the quick and painful time that it takes for years to pass by. “Banana Replublic” talks about the pointlessness of Americans going abroad that nothing is going to change. “Miss You So Badly” is him recognizing that the relationship he was in that he wanted to keep pursuing was right to end. That he’s better off and that terrifies him.

Even his magnum opus has a small shred of his feelings of wastefulness. People want to blame a woman but he shakes it off saying that this is just the life he’s living whether good or ill.

There are other songs that are just chill hangs like “Lovely Cruise” and “Tampico Trauma” but I prefer the ones where he’s plumbing the depths of his emotions while thinking about fried shrimp.

The album itself is amazing, Buffett has the reputation and career for a reason. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a chill time.

And in the end, I guess this whole experiment is more of a test of the pointlessness of assumption whether that be for media or people. I can sit around and think that I know someone or something but until I actually explore it, I’m just a fool thinking I know what’s right. I don’t plan to make those kinds of mistakes again.

You might think that this whole post is just an exercise in false sincerity for a bit but if it was I would have revealed my magician’s trick at this point. I’m being 100% sincere and I’m going to keep checking out Buffett and seeing where else we’re going to sail to.

Where I’ve Been… and Study Tips?

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So, if you’ve been reading this blog, you might notice that I’ve been gone for a minute. That’s because I was taking a certification exam for my job. No one asked me to do this, I had bought the vouchers for this exam and another one last year and they were about to expire. The two certifications were Cloud+ and Server+. For those in the IT world, I have the trifecta and I wanted to make myself more competitive in the job market by having a few more.

Well, after looking on a lot of forums, turns out that Cloud+ isn’t that useful so I didn’t bother studying for that exam. It looks like people are looking that you have specific knowledge of the big three Cloud companies, Amazon, Google and Azure. Still got a 680 on it. 70 more points and I would have passed. I focused on Server+ because I thought that that was the safest bet.

The fact of the matter, is that I did pass. I’ve seen a lot of people talking online on strategies on how to pass these exams and considering I’ve passed five on the first try I thought that my method might help others. This will help specifically with the trifecta exams.

Study Materials

This is in no way an ad and I think there could probably be better resources out there. These are the ones that worked for me. I bought the Jason Dion Full Courses and Practice exams on Udemy(don’t buy full price, they have sales constantly). I think that Jason is personable, comprehensive and straight forward with his information. I had to use a different video series for Server+ and honestly it didn’t help that much so I had to buy the guidebook online. That was really useful and I think the best way to study for that exam.

But the thing that helped me the most was that for his practice exams each question is listed with the different objective that he was trying to teach you. Why is that important? Well, let’s go to my methodology.

Methodology

To get started, I watch all of the videos. This is about a ten or so commitment because I can only watch about two hours of study before my brain starts rejecting the information. You might be able to go further than me and if so, go for it. You’re going to need to make a spread sheet with the objective number in column 1, wrong answers for column 2 and objective name for column 3.

Now, it’s time to take all five of the exams. These are not open book, you need to know what you know and what you don’t. So, take all of your exams and then start going through the incorrect questions. This is where having those objectives for each question is going to come in handy. Let me show you what my first round looked like.

Yes, I know I’ve got a bit of red on my spreadsheet, thank you, Simon Pegg

Now, this was for Security+. I took all the exams and went through the wrong answers adding them to that second column. The coloring system is different on this one so I’ve included the new one I use and it is thus:

Green: 0-5

Yellow: 6-10

Orange(That pinkish-orange color): 11-15

Red: 16 or above

So, we know what we need to focus on. We’re going to take two weeks to forget what the questions were so that we’re not just remembering them and going through the material again. After that two weeks, we’ll take it again and see if we’ve improved. Keep that up until you have a majority of green and are getting around a 75% on Jason’s exams and you should be able to pass. The point for each round of studying is to shrink the amount you don’t know.

NOTE: JASON’S EXAMS ARE NOT WHAT THE EXAM IS MADE UP OF. I SAW SOMEONE MEMORIZE THAT ONLY AND HE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHY HE FAILED. IT’S AN EXPENSIVE MISTAKE.

Speaking of expense, if you’re in school you get a severe discount on these vouchers. Use it while you can.

I found flash cards helpful as well. If I had to wait for something, it was always nice to pull them out and test myself. Especially on the port numbers. I have a few really dumb pneumatic devices to remember them. I don’t know if it’ll help but maybe.

Port 3389- I chant in my head “Three, three, RDP. Three, three, RDP.”

Port 69- Nice. But not nice the fact that you could lose bits using TFTP(Trivial File Transfer Protocol) because it’s UDP.

Port 123- One, two, three hours on the clock. Clock. Network Time Protocol.

Port 161, 162- SNMP- Six Nix Me Pirates.

That last one might be the dumbest one.

Those are my tips. I can’t tell you what’s on the exam. Last year I took three of these in close proximity. My mind is fried. Good luck and good hunting.

What the hell did I just watch? Showa American Story

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I want you to know that this isn’t a paid advertisement. I’m not getting any money for this. I just stumbled across this randomly. It’s the trailer for Showa American Story and I’m so intrigued that I felt I had to make a post about this.

So, there’s a lot going on and yet, I have no idea what is happening. Definitely, America has been bought by America. Got it. There are zombies. Sure. A man commits seppuku in front of Mount Rushmore. Getting weirder. There are a bunch of fat men that Voltron into a fat men megazord. Uh… There’s a man who says that he’s a cowboy and samurai. Kind of par for the course. There are zombies using their organs as weapons. That makes sense, they’ve been doing that since the Left 4 Dead franchise.

The visuals look beautiful, which shouldn’t be anything new. We have the graphical ability to make great looking games easily now. What really looks good is that everything is imaginative. They show these large landscape shots where it looks like everything has been lived in and civilized in a certain manner. That they put thought into this. I can really appreciate that.

Whatever the nitty gritty of the story is, it’s going to be insane. This feels like a Hideo Kajima game or a SUDA51. They have their own logic and they’re applying it to this nonsense and it’s going to break your hear and make you question your sanity.

The thing is that this reminds me of every time I’ve seen a trailer for some weird movie that I know is going to shake me to my core. Something like Blue Velvet or the Lighthouse. It just looks like this game is ready to grab me Peter Pan style and take me on a life changing journey. So, yeah, I guess for the trailer hook, line and sinker.

When it comes out, I’m going to play it and I’ll report back. I just wanted you all to know about this if it flew below your radar.

Review: Honey Don’t!

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Last Friday I saw the movie, Honey Don’t! and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is my second time hanging out with Margaret Qualley under Ethan Coen’s direction. She’s just as charming as she was in Drive Away Dolls though this Margaret Qualley is working with much more focus than her counterpart.

Before we go further, I’m going to talk spoilers. I think you should see this movie, it’s interesting, beautifully shot and whip smart.

Now for those that are still here, this isn’t a detective story, it’s a story about a detective. The titular Honey doesn’t solve a single mystery. Half the time she can’t even get any traction before the person she’s looking for gets killed. What we have are several stories that are intersecting with Honey at their middle.

It gives such a real life feel to the film. The way that we pass in and out of each other’s lives but the story goes on only vaguely affected by our presence.

Honey is investigating the death of a young woman that was supposed to be her client. She finds out that she went to this church run by Reverend Drew, who is played by Chris Evans returning to his early roles of funny douchebag. Reverend Drew is part of a secret drug dealing operation run by Cher, the representative of “the French”. Given what happens to him and how he affects the story, he’s a villain for sure but not really an antagonist to Honey. His sins eventually catch up to him without any intervention on Honey’s part.

There are also two cops that are played by Charlie Day and Aubrey Plaza. Charlie isn’t given much to do besides sexually harass the lesbian Honey, which I think is probably this film’s one misstep. However, Aubrey presents a stranger, more sinister vibe from the introduction of her character.

The dialogue is whip smart and funny. Ethan makes do with the location of the American southwest in the same way him and his brother did for No Country For Old Men. And that kind of fits into all of this, if you like that movie, I think you’ll enjoy this. If you haven’t seen any other Coen brothers movies, I can recommend all of them including this one.