Ramblings of a Crowe

Namikaze Minato

AKA the 4th Hokage.

We finally know his name.

We also know that he is Naruto's father. So all the people who couldn't see the obvious resemblance--LOLZ. Also, as a bonus, we learn about Naruto's mother, a kunoichi from the Whirlpool Country. Apparently, he takes more after her than he does his dad.

Oh, and the Uchiha brothers have finally met up. Sasuke is still full of himself. He's more powerful, I'll give him that, but one of my biggest beefs with Sasuke is he's a dickhead who doesn't learn from his mistakes. He's gone and stuffed himself full of Orochimaru's power, now he seems to think Itachi will be a breeze to kill.

I'm hoping the little brat gets clobbered, not that it will do him any good. It's too much to hope for that Itachi will just outright kill him so we can all move on with the story. * sigh * In my wildest dreams, Itachi would pound his little brother into the ground, then reveal that it was actually Orochimaru who did the killing of the Uchiha clan in Konoha, not Itachi himself. That would make my day--perhaps my entire week.

Of course, those are just dreams. It never hurts to wish, though.

And if the entire conversation between Jiraiya and Tsunade wasn't a set up for character death, I don't know what is. I actually got a little teary eyed reading the end of this chapter. Kishimoto isn't afraid to kill off his characters, the Third Hokage, Asuma, the sound nin elite crew, Kimimaru, to name a few. Naruto has yet to lose someone close to him to death. The death of the Third was traumatic, but they didn't share the same relationship Naruto and Jiraiya share. I think the death of that perverted sage will be poor Naruto's undoing.

I really hope it doesn't happen, because I really like Jiraiya and I don't want to cry over a stupid comic book. That, and who will finish the Make-Out Paradise series?

(Tsunade recalls the 4th Hokage, Namikaze Minato 波風ミナト)

(アレは母親似だからな Naruto seems to be more like his mother)

(うずまきクシナ Uzumaki Kushina. Naruto's mom. Apparently, she was a lound mouthed tomboy. まるで男の子のようだったのー lol)

(Pein is onto Jiraiya...)

Turn down your speakers...no, really, turn them down.

More Crack Icons

As always, you can find the rest of the crappy collection here.

Smiles

It's really strange, going to work and feeling good about it. I realized on the way home that I was smiling to myself at the end of the day. How long has it been since I felt this relaxed? Too long, no doubt. I still have stress about my job, mostly worries I'll screw something up in this new position. I occasionally find myself looking over my shoulder, waiting for the hammer to fall, but I don't wake up in the morning and feel like I have to prepare for a nuclear fall out.

I have a lot of responsibility at this new place, but that doesn't bother me. My days are full usually, and when they aren't, there is always something to do. It is very weird for me to go to work and just do my job--not a bunch of last minute, unexpected crap or disasters. There are other people who take care of that stuff.

Occasionally I miss my old job, but that's only because I was confident in my knowledge there. I miss the people too--most of them. But I don't miss the stupidity of our corporate office, or even that of our branch office. During many of my recollections, I often wonder how that place even manages to function.

Then I'm glad I'm not there anymore.

That place is broken.

I don't want to be a part of something broken. I don't want to be a part of a business that couldn't care two shakes of a rat’s ass about me. I don't want to be a part of a business that buys its upper management unnecessary company vehicles, then lays off good employees or cuts corners on necessary equipment to run the business. That's not management; that's just greed.

Where I'm at now, the company president comes to visit me with a cup of coffee in her hand. She always has a sincere smile and words of encouragement. In fact, if it weren’t for her championing me, I wouldn't have ever made the move into my new role. It was her idea. Her office isn't any nicer than the rest of ours (but I think she deserves the best)! I can say the same thing about the vice president too. Neither of them are too good to mingle with their employees.

Case in point, a regional manager came to visit my old place of work a few months ago. He came into the office and didn't even look at me. He didn't stop to introduce himself, he didn't shake my hand. He just blustered in, without so much as a glance, then complained because there was no place to hook up his laptop to the network. He ushered my boss out of the office, bought a $50.00 wireless router we only used that one time, and never said more than maybe five words to me the entire day he was there. I got the message loud and clear. "I was unimportant."

That's how my old job works. I knew my boss and my other co-workers valued me, but that doesn't amount to much when you have an entire office of people like Mr. Regional manager calling the shots.

I am happy to say I'm not upset I was layed off from that place. My talents and my worth as an employee are better suited by those who appreciate my hard work and effort.

So, TGCL, you can kiss my ass.

Uh oh...

So the Reapers have decided to follow Sixshot to Earth.

This could end badly for everyone.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

* sob *

The exclusive for the Transformer DVD release, featuring an animated version of the movie prequel released by IDW comics, will be a Walmart only release.

Why, of all places, does it have to be Walmart? Why!

I don't know if I'm strong enough to stay my boycott with this as the prize...

* grumbles *

Product Placement

Will someone tell me why this is such a big deal and why it pisses off so many people?

Second Life revisited

Since I've started working, I haven't had too much time to tinker around in SL. Now that I've begun my new position in the company, I'm going to be busier than ever (christ, I'm friggen beat already) as I learn the ropes of being a recruiter and scheduler. I sat in on four interviews today, hired one person, and tomorrow I am going to do my first orientation. I'm very excited, but extremely nervous since this business is completely new to me and I'm technically a newbie myself (I've only been working there for not even three weeks). I hope I do a good job. It's a huge responsibility and I'm terrified I'll mess something up and let my supervisors down. :(

Anyway, I'll try to hop onto SL and see what the gang is up to these days on the weekends. I checked in last week but got pissed because Voice wasn't working for me again and the last time I couldn't use Voice, I got rushed and hounded and kicked off a very tall building. * sigh *

I managed to grab a few pictures of my meanderings...Sorry to the flower fans, Evil Flower was taking a rest that day.

Ok, so this isn't the weirdest crap I've seen on SL, not in the least. But nose bondage? WTF!

I found a throne...

...and it wouldn't let me go...er...leave.

Wheeeeeeeee!

See the bunnyhat? Yeah...I made that.

I won't even go into what this was about. LOL But it was a proposed mascot for the group's RFL. Gotta catch'em all!

We Have A Winner!

Stupidest quote of the month goes to Nightprey, some doofus over on IMDb.

"Scorpions are not an animals, they are arthropods."

You failed biology class, didn't you?

_______________

And Most Stupid Question is:

"Why didn't the Decepticons just buy the glasses from Sam on eBay?"

Really, I don't think this needs any explaination.

Online Banking Pisses Me Off--again

I used to love online banking. But then my bank changed up their website and security, making account access harder to crack than then Pentagon.

Yes. I've locked myself out of my account--again. I can't count how many times this is, but I do know it is really starting to piss me the hell off. If you're going to have this sort of system in place, at least have online or phone support over the weekend. Now I have to wait until Monday to fix this crap--again.

And you know, if it was just me being an idiot, I'd own up to it. In fact, the first few times I locked my account, I assumed I was just a dumbass. But after a half dozen, I started thinking I can't be that stupid. So as an experiment, I changed my passwords and wrote them down exactly as I entered them. I still managed to lock myself out of my account. It would seem, even making a typo and getting access denied on the website just once dooms me to a lock out--even AFTER I go back and re-enter my information correctly. For awhile I thought it might be my browser just not playing nice, but using Firefox ends the same results. I just can't win.

So today, after locking up again, I sent two emails. One, for the bank people to unlock my damn account and call me about it, and two, to the feedback monkeys about how much I friggen HATE this new security system. I'm sure you all have ran into those tamper proof bottle caps. You know the ones where no one short of a hammer and semi can get open? That's how I feel about my online banking experience right about now.

So now I'm going to go back to wondering how much money I have in the bank.

Fun.

Here We Go

It's to be expected. When a movie takes that leap into the unexpected and unknown, daring to do and go where other films haven't gone and succeeding beyond the hopes and realizations of its producers and director, there are bound to be franchises that follow. Transformers is no different. People said that a cartoon for kids couldn't possibly be made into a successful live action film aimed at all ages. Yet it hit the boxes offices, wowing the skeptics, long time fans, children, and adults alike.

So now we have to brace ourselves for the movies to follow. It happened when the first comic book was made into a movie. It's going to happen again with our cartoons. For Voltron lovers, this is good news. Apparently, a movie has been given the green light. While it might seem hypocritical of me, all I can envision is another bad Power Rangers movie. Then again, I never was a Voltron fan, so maybe I'm being harsh. However, if they can pull off what Transformers managed to do, I wouldn't hesitate to watch it.

On that vein, a live action He-man would be pretty awesome...

Black Crowes

On tour again! They'll be in Portland, Eugene, AND Seattle! I can only hope I can get some time off work, find some tickets, and some poor sap willing to go with me. LOL

日本語、ありがとう！

So the past couple of days has been interesting to say the least. I'm not sure how the ball got rolling, but today I found myself in a meeting with a different department at my place of work, interviewing for a position with them. I got the job, which starts on Monday at 7am. Not only that, I'm also going to start learning how to do the hiring and recruiting for the same department. So, I'll be super busy learning billing, scheduling, collections, interviewing, and recruiting in the next few weeks.

I'm really excited, not to mention nervous. After my flop at that other place, my self confidence as an employee went into the toilet. I hope I can do a good job for this new department. I always feel like I'm never doing a good enough job when I work. Today I mentioned that to someone and they looked at me like I was nuts. I guess I just can't see myself as a strong employee...but maybe that's what makes me a good one, because I'm always struggling to do better and minimize my mistakes. I dunno...

As for my title for this blog, a funny story goes a long with that. For those that can't read Japanese, it says, "Nihongo, arigatou." Or, "Thank you, Japanese language." Yesterday, during an Accounting staff meeting, the owner of the company (and the most awesome woman alive), championed me for applying for this department. We were joking around with some of the other department heads when Owner stated, "You want to know why I hired her? Because anyone who can teach themselves Japanese has more motivation and patience that I can imagine." Of course, this led to people wanting to hear me say something in Japanese, which was embarrassing, so I told them in my bad Japanese, "My Japanese sucks." LOL She sat in during my interview today and told the department heads the same thing.

So, thank you to my 先生 and thank you 日本語、because if it wasn't for you, I'd probably still be unemployed.

TF Comics

Yeah, still on my Transformers kick. It's fun watching the old cartoons again (as I managed to download the entire series from the net). Man, they are cheesy with some horrible animation errors, but I'm shocked at how many of the episodes I actually remember. LOL

I've gotten into reading the comics again too. I'm loving the "Megatron: Origins" series by IDW. There's not a lot of backstory on ole Megs, and I have to say, the history they've created for him is quite interesting. He starts off as a heavy tool swinger deep in an obscure mining base. Mines are rapidly being automated to speed up production of energon, so workers are being forced into "unemployment" while members of the Senate and their lackeys line their pockets.

Meg's mine is next on the list for automation. I think it's important to note that as of right now, the Megatron we all know and love isn't himself quite yet. He's just a common laborer and lingering in the lowest regions of the Cybertronian caste system. He's quite reserved, or maybe that's resigned, I really can't quite tell.

Anyway, the Senate calls a meeting with the miners. Naturally, the news that they are losing their jobs, their homes, their place in the world doesn't go over too well with the miners. One mech speaks his mind, only to be brutally destroyed by a Senate guard. This sparks some tempers, naturally. Megs is standing off to the side and he throws his pick axe, damaging the Senator and sparking a riot. When a Senate guard attempts to take Megs out, he fights back. They wrestle with each other and it appears something in Megs snaps. "No," he hisses as the bigger mech grabs his face. "NO!" Then Megs pile drives the bodyguard bot's head into dust.

The other miner mechs start scrapping with the rest of the Senate guard. Off to the side, Megs is staring at the decapitated mech. "What did I do?" he wonders, looking at his 'blood' soaked hands. "No. Nononono." As he looks up from his first victim, he sees the Senate guard as they ready a barrage of weapons on himself and the other miners. "Oh no," he says as he's blasted away.

Megs wakes up on a ship destined for a detention center. Several of the other mechs who survived the massacre blame him for inciting the riot. However, given the fact the are probably going to die, they ask Megs to help them commandeer the ship. At first Megs declines. He tells them, seeming almost confused as well as remorseful, that the killing of the Senate Guard had been unintentional. He has no interest in that sort of thing.

That feeling rapidly changes, however. The prisoners break free and attack the guard. Megs is seen looming in the background behind one of the Senate's minions. With the ship successfully stolen, the group returns to Cyberton. They land in the most wasted, horrific sector and disappear.

So what's an unemployed miner on the run from the law supposed to do with himself? Fight in droid death matches, naturally. Megs finds himself in the battle arena, fighting for his life. Once again, he manages to take down another mech, but this time he hesitates before killing his opponent. He recalls the Senate guard he brutally murdered. But he makes a choice as he hears the words echoed in the battle pit, "...until all are one." And he keeps killing, match after match after match...

Meanwhile, Sentinel Prime and Prowl have heard of these death matches and have been ordered by the Senate to put a stop to them. Megs has made quite the name for himself, staring in dozens of robot snuff films, for lack of a better term. Sentinel Prime calls for Meg's head, and Prowl dispatches recon teams to investigate. There seems to be some discord between Prime and the Senate as well.

Elsewhere, Senator Ratbat learns of these death matches and finds them interesting. Especially the young warrior bot, Megatron.

Later, two of Prime's bots stumble onto the site of the next death match. Quietly the watch as the Construtabots (constructacons) create the arena. Unexpectedly, Megatron shows up way to early for the fight due to some faulty information. Soundwave makes his first appearance, enticing Megs with some new technology in the guise of deadly weapons (his gun, flail, etc., we all know and love). On behalf of Senator Ratbat, Soundwave is there to bribe Megs...but it hasn't been revealed why yet.

Megs notices the two spies watching them. Soundwave uses Lazerbeak and Ravage to flush them out. Megatron promptly smashes the head of one of the "Autobots", forcing his friend to watch. When Soundwave inquires as to why Megs is killing the prisoner, Meg's reply is, "So he knows what I'll do to him if he doesn't give me the information I want." Soundwave is wise not to argue, but the other Autobot calls Megs a psychopath. Just as he's about to get stomped too, Soundwave stops Megs and uses Lazerbeak to mind rape the Autobot, learning of Sentinel's plan for the death matches and for Megs.

Soundwave decides that the "Autobot" is really useless now. Everyone watches in horror (and they do look horrified in the pictures) as Megs rips open the Autobot's chest with his bare hands.

___________

There are two more parts to this story, so I haven't got an entire understanding of what's going on. I do know that the Senate is evil and corrupt, brutally destroying those who defy it and running Cybertron's less fortunate into the ground. Also, while I hesitate to call Megs a reluctant killer, he shows remorse more than once for his acts of violence. I believe Megatron is a product of the Senate's wickedness. Driven underground and backed into a corner, whatever shred of decency he had left is obliterated.

I can sort of understand the battle between him and Optimus a little better now. Both want unity of their people, but what it comes down to is semantics. After millions of years of brutality, Megs only understands that Might Makes Right. Tyranny worked for the Senate, why not him? Prime, on the other hand, believes in freedom and fairness, that all sentient creatures have the right to choose and live without fear. While I agree with Prime's sentiments, I can understand where Megs is coming from. Choice didn't work before, why would it work again?

It'll be interesting to see where IDW takes this story. I've always wondered why Megs was the way he was. In the cartoon, he was just a power hungry cliche on a quest to be the most evil villain. But I imagined there was more to him than just that.

Perhaps I'll scan some pictures from the comic later, but until then, here are some from IDW's other Transformer works (which I might review later):

A time honored theme--Megatron giving Starscream what he deserves.

Verity gets quite the scare when she's exploring a 'deserted' Decepticon bunker:

Starscream amped up on super energon. He's going to take on he world right after finishing Megs off once and for all...yeah right:

One of my favorite characters in the TF world, Sixshot. I'd love to see him in the next movie, but I think his six transformations and the fact he's a one robot army that destroys entire planets would cut the film quite short. Still, he's pretty awesome:

First it was Mexicans, now it's black people

Capcom, you racist bastards you!

I mean honestly, a white guy goes to Africa, ends up in some village populated by *gasp* black people who are turned into killer zombies, then has to defend himself by brutally shooting and mangling them. What was Capcom thinking! I mean, everyone knows black people can't turn into zombies, sort of like how it's rare to find white people with sickle cell.

This must be the end of the world. A game, set in Africa, where lots of zombies of color are shot up by a pasty white guy on steroids. Oh, the horror!

BTW, this game looks incredible. Too bad I won't play it because RE's continuous history of crappy controls.

Icons!

It's been awhile since I've made some of these. So I bring you:

Transformer Icons!

All from the G1 series, naturally.

Fan-assholes

So Meev did a concert in Germany a while ago. Apparently things got out of hand, some people got hurt, etc. I've been to quite a few concerts, and this doesn't surprise me much. Anyone recall the infamous Guns & Roses concert back east? I wasn't there (too little), but a good buddy of mine was and he said it was utter bloodshed. LOL Then again, that was back in the day when rock music still had balls.

What bothers me is the You Tube videos of a group of fan-morons stalking Miyavi from his hotel to the train station. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but that whole paparazzish behavor just sticks in my craw. I expect crap like that from the press, but fans should be more respectful than that. Watching those movies creeped me out; I can only imagine how Miyavi felt, having a gaggle of squeeing strangers follow him across town on foot.

You can watch the vids here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ashuraalexis

A lot of other people have expressed their mortification over these videos. Of course, culprits and their supporters only retort with, "You're just jealous because you weren't there."

No, I'm not jealous. I'm acutally embarrassed for you people because you're intrusive, insenstive idiots and are too stupid to realize it. And I feel bad for Meev, having to put up with assholes like you.

RAWR!

Find out which Transformer you are at LiquidGeneration!

I'm not sure if I should be full of glee, or insulted.

Oh, Grimm...

And so the battle is finally over...

(;_;)

Worst Shot in the Galaxy

Another great piece of Transformer comedy by DRSMOOV.

"Asshole."

"I heard that."

"Whoops."

Friggen stitches! Ha ha~

Back in Business

So I got my new TV today. Hooked it up, got the PS2 running, and now I am a happy camper.

Tomorrow is Friday. I have the entire house to myself for the whole weekend. This makes me happy.

Quoted!

GO 2 VOTE

こっちでもニュースやってるよ
俺はいつも投票日に東京に居ないから
期日前しか行けないんだけど

今回に限らずいつも思う。

政治家を変える前に
俺らが変わらないといけないんじゃないか
って事。

国は
政治家がつくってんじゃない、
俺らが作ってんだ。

日本は安全だ
日本は豊かだ

故に
政治なんて気にしなくったって
生きていける。
投票なんてしなくたって
恋愛もできればセックスもできるし
お金儲けもできる。

「お菓子で作られた家」じゃないけど
「娯楽でできた様な国」

ホントはその娯楽にドップリ携わってる
俺が言えた義理じゃないんだけどね。苦笑

ただ以前、姜尚中さんと対談させてもらった時にも言ったんだけど
総体的に今の日本に限らず時代は「生」に飽和してると思うんだよね。
もちろん一概には言えないけどシンボリックに表現するとしたら

『生きる事に飽きている』

だから簡単に死のうとする奴もいれば
平気で前を向く権利を放棄する奴もいる

生きるか死ぬかの瀬戸際の奴が
「今日ダリーなぁ」
とか
「あー死にたい」
とか
そんな悠長な事言ってられるだろうか？

必死で生にしがみつくだろう
本気で生きようとするだろう

これが戦後、平和の名のもとに
高度経済成長がもたらした見えない副作用

『本気さが足りない』

という事だと思う。

サッカーみてて韓国すげーなぁとか
相撲でモンゴルから来た力士強ーなぁとかさ、

決して日本人が弱いわけじゃないと思うんだよね。
ただ「本気度」で負けてるだけなんじゃないか
って気がする（エンターテイメントの世界でもね）

まぁ、おもっきり話それちゃったけど

とどのつまり
ぶっちゃけ投票なんて投票したい候補者や政党がいなければ
しなくていいと思う。
何より大切なのは『何故、投票するのか』という事であって、
その結果『国を良くする』という事に他ならないと俺は思う。

今、日本は弱い。

これは政治家がどうとかじゃない
それはただの責任転嫁だ

俺らが弱いんだ。

勿論たった一票じゃ何も変える事はできない
ただ、その一票がないと、なんにも変わらない
だからGO 2 VOTE

今の日本は俺らが作ってる。

．．なんだかコマーシャルみたいになっちったけど

とりあえずドイツ公演、
日本人として本気で頑張ってくるよ。

／雅
--Miyavi (taken from his journal)

What an amazing speech. Even though it pertains to the Japanese elections, there are words of wisdom that strike the heart of every free person. Rock on, Meev, rock on.