Saturday, September 28, 2013

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/28/13!

mother figure [muh-ther-fig-yur]
noun
1. A woman embodying or seeming to embody the qualities of an idealized conception of the female parent, eliciting from others the emotional responses that a child typically has toward its mother.

EX. In anime, mother figures take weird forms.

In Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (pictured above), Moro is the only real mother figure in the film. She is a wolf goddess with two natural born children and her adopted daughter, San "the wolf-girl". Except in some small moments of gentleness between her and her children, she shows cold intelligence that can snap from being social to vicious in a moment. To her enemies, she is a bloodthirsty monster. For her daughter, she would kill and die.

Who's your favorite anime mother?

Also, don't think I don't plan to talk about the convenient "negligent mother" syndrome in anime at some point. Maybe I should do a top ten moms in anime, at some point, as well. Hm...

Also, random question: do you guys remember when Rabbit took care of the baby bird on the New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh? HRK!

This post brought to you by some random thoughts and images...

Friday, September 27, 2013

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/27/13!

eject [ih-jekt]
verb
1. To drive away or force out; to expel from a place or position; oust, remove, cast out, throw out.
2. To dismiss from a position or ocupation.
3. To evict from a property; dismiss, kick out, dispose, turn out, et.c
4. To throw out or throw off or throw away something.
5. To propel oneself from a damaged vehicle, especially with a special seat or other means of escape.

EX. Sometimes, you just gotta eject something from your life, whether it be a big flat-screen depicting an alternate reality you don't want to witness or a bear that was hogging all the salmon, and that's why I'm ejecting myself from my chair, after posting this, to go take care of some business.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

TABLETOP TALES: MY THEROS PRE-RELEASE "WHITE/BLUE BAG OF WINDS!"

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS
MY THEROS PRE-RELEASE DECK

To check out my other decks, hit the link below:


This article serves two purposes: To share the nerd entertainment around with anyone who might find it interesting and, in this case, to share my experiences with the Theros pre-release.

You can find Magic Cards in super stores (Ex. Walmart, Target) but the best place you can buy your cards, meet other players, and play in events is at your local comic book store or hobby shop. I buy most of my cards at The Comic Cellar. Here is a link to its Google Maps location at 3620 Austin Peay Highway #2 Memphis, TN 38128.

And here is a link to Comic Cellar's Website

I was worried I might not make it to the Theros Pre-Release but, scrounging what I could muster, I made it to the midnight pre-release on Sep 21st, at midnight, in the Comic Cellar. It cost me $30bucks to signs up and, for that fee, each player recieved 6 boosters packs, including a special booster pack for their chosen hero's path-- Honor (White), Wisdom (Blue),  Ambition (Black), Battle (Red), & Might (Green)-- and a promo card for your path (which you could use in the event) and with the materials each player was expected to build, with all the lands they needed, a 40 card deck. There were five one-on-one matches, each a best of three rounds, and the ranking in these matches would land you more packs (with the top player getting a box) and everyone getting, at the very least, a "pity pack". All together, the event was a lot of fun and well worth the admission fee ($25 if I had pre-registered earlier), and the event went from 12 AM to 6 AM.


I should also mention we got life dice, Hero Cards (to be used in a connected event), and these weird, but kinda interesting quiz cards.

Theros is the first set in the Theros block. This is a top-down design set with a previously unexplored plane based on the themes of Greek mythology; they've laid down the foundation with heroism, monsters, powers bestowed by the gods, devotion to the gods, and beautiful imagery coming together, set against a starry sky that tells the fate of men, so that we ended up with Theros, a set with some of the most potent flavor I've seen since I began playing the game.

The white planeswalker, Elspeth (pictured above), has been running from being a hero for a long, long time. What happens when she comes to a plane she likes and the God of the Sun, Heliod, calls upon her to undertake a great trial that, if she fails, could doom the plane she has made her home? What happens when a planeswalking satyr from this realm, Xanagos, trys to usurp the gods through dark machinations? Is there more going on? Could there be another more powerful force (perhaps a certain horned dragon) working to manipulate the plane? Only you can find out by becoming the hero that Theros needs. Now, let's take a look at the mechanics of the set, both old and new:

SCRY X- (Look at the top X cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom of your library and the rest on top in any order.)

BESTOW- This mechanic allows you to cast enchantment creatures either as creatures or as enchantments for their bestow cost. (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it's an Aura spell with enchant creature. It becomes a creature again if it's not attached to a creature.)



DEVOTION- A mechanic that rewards you for having a specific symbol, ex. Green, with either an entrance or activated effect. (Each X in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to Y.)

HEROIC- Activates an effect every time the card's controller casts a spell that targets the card.


MONSTROSITY- In exchange for an additional cost, this mechanic allows you to put +1/+1 counters on the creature and activate some effects that range from adding abilities to destroying other creatures. EX. Monstrosity X. (If this creature isn't monstrous, put X+1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.)

The gods were not on my side this time. Rather than dig myself out of the rut I found myself in during my TWO Dragon's Maze events, I did worse than ever. I went 0-4-1. My deck was so slow and lethargic that I wound up forcing my first match to a tie. The sick part? I could blame my pool of cards, but I can't blame my deckbuilding or playing. In fact, after looking at my deck, several other players could find little to no "quick fixes". This was probably the best deck I could build and it really came down to fate not being in my favor. And yet, I'm okay with the results of this pre-release-- all of my opponents were friendly and fair, I got some cool cards, and my friend Katherine, whom I dragged out to her first pre-release, did far better than me and got some amazing cards both in her sealed and in her "pity pack"-- because in the end it was still fun. I plan to keep going and hope I can learn from this experience. Let's see if we can find out what went wrong this time (if anything was wrong) and what I can do in the future to improve my luck.

I might do another article about my other options for what to play, but I'm gonna have to think on whether it is a worthwhile endeavor.

MY THEROS PRE-RELEASE DECK
"WHITE/BLUE BAG OF WINDS"

I had a really strong white pool of creatures/monsters to give me a good base of cheap creatures (Cavalry Pegasus, Setessan Battlepriest, Hundred-Handed One, etc) to build into my bombs. Then, I chose blue over red or green (had nothing good in black) because I had three blue flyers, a cheap blue creature that clone big creatures, and one big kraken to make it worthwhile. To get my creatures out and overwhelm my enemies, I relied on a suite of blue removal and other spells to boost my evasive creatures to go for damage over time leading into an alpha strike.

The problems? The deck is slow, the removal isn't always enough, and, worst of all, other people were able to put down fat enough creatures that, since my deck wound up being slow, a bad hand would wind up getting stomped into the dirt by red/green or white/red that had better monstrosity or a combo of cheap enchantments & combat tricks than I had. In the future, I'll consider make a second deck from my pool.

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/25/13!

self-conscious [self-kon-shus]
adjective
1. Excessively aware of being observed by others.
2. Conscious of oneself or one's own being.

EX. I'm so tired of all the judging and all the shaming and all attempts to make the new starters or their evolution's self-conscious about their coolness, prettiness, cuteness, etc. So what if Braixen looks like she has a stick in its butt and Quilladin looks like it's put on some pounds, they still haven't evolved and they're still going to become someone's, if not a lot of someones', favorite Pokémon of all time.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

WTF WED! AN ELEPHANT WATCHES A PSA ABOUT RACISM & FRENCH-KISSING!


This week we've got a few things I've had cooking on the backburner; first up is the rather disturbing though often amusing madness of filmcow's animation. We've discussed it before, but it's always nice to take in a little slice of insanity. This week we're taking the big pill before we get to the little ones for your viewing dis/pleasure.



Then, we've got a more stable formula with a step down nostalgia avenue in the form of a parade of bad PSAs from 80's and 90's sitcoms. These were really popular in the after school special era of political correctness and morality that I grew up in-- sometimes the morals were well-handed and clever but, more often than not, they beat you over the head with a box of corniness.


Apparently, the Japanese view the average American as looking like my best friend Zach and speaking the language from that weird music video about what English sounds like to the rest of the world. American English does, actually, have a reputation for sounding pretty badass to many foreign ears(blame Hollywood) and dorky to others (dunno who to blame on that one?).

And, finally...

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/25/13!

OTP [oh-tee-pee]
noun
1. Acronym. "Only true pairing". A person's or persons' favorite combination of characters in a relationship.

EX. I had probably seen the term OTP used before, but I didn't know what it meant until I saw this fanart in response to one of the statements from a Rioter about the upcoming release of a character and other characters.  Apparently, my team's favorite ignored dragon, cuz we need a dragon camp but apparently the champ who can turn into a dragon doesn't count, was denied confirmation of a fan's belief that she and Jarvan IV were meant to be. As for me, I don't really have any OTPs involved in LoL. Do you have any OTP?

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

WEEKLY ROUND-UP! SEP. 16- SEP. 22 2013!

WEEKLY ROUND-UP PRESENTS

7. WORD OF THE DAY! 9/20/13! Terrible lizard.

Last week we got a look at these dinosaurs and, tomorrow, we should expect more Pokénews!

6. WORD OF THE DAY! 9/18/13! Roulette.

On the subject of amorphous pink blob Pokémon, what abominably boring "adorable" creatures do you expect to see in X & Y?

5. WORD OF THE DAY! 9/16/13! Textbook.

Made-up on the spot fan theory #387: J. K. Rowling will reveal she is a witch-- just like Anne Rice is probably a vampire and George R R Martin is the true king of Westeros.

4. WORD OF THE DAY! 9/19/13! Vizier.

Who is your favorite Disney villain? The one from my childhood is probably Jafar, Frollo is probably the most interesting, and the one I find most amusing/unique is Gaston.

3. WTF WEDNESDAY PRESENTS FEDORAS, FILM NOIR, & STARFOX 64!

I dunno why, exactly, but I've been getting these awful gut pains, nausea, etc. for weeks. I think it's a mixture of stress and bad dietary habits. It's been a stressful year...

2. MUSIC MON! MIAMI CONNECT YOUR EAR TO KOREAN LEAGUE OF LEGENDS SCIENCE REMIXES!

Seriously, if you haven't watched Miami Connection yet, do yourself a favor; get some friends together, watch it, riff on it, etc.

1. WORD OF THE DAY! 9/22/13! Count to 10 in Japanese.

Ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyuu, juu! DATTEBAYO!

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/24/13!

electromagnetism [el-ek-troh-mag-net-iz-uhm]
noun
1. The phenomena associated with electric and magnetic fields and their interactions with each other and with electric charges and currents.

EX. I never really thought about it that way before, but it would make since that Magnemite, Magneton and Magnezone would ruin electronics around them with electromagnetic fields. I probably won't think about it again for a while, but this was a neat little comic with a neat pay-off, so there's that.

Monday, September 23, 2013

MUSIC MONDAY! DAN BULL & GTA 5, TEENAGE GIRLS & IMAGINARY BOYS, and SERIOUSLY, F*** TEEMO!


I really wanna be playing GTA V right now. I love GTA; the satire of American excess ironically diffused through a game that follows the philosophy of entertainment through an excess of enjoyable content; it's unique and awesome. There are many imitators and some, like the Saint's Row series, are pretty interesting piece of media, in their own right, but none quite measure up to Rockstar's signature franchise.

Well, since I can't quite afford to enjoy the game, I'll enjoy Dan Bull's latest rap inspired by the game.


Something a lot of young people are going to be nostalgic for in our adult years is the anime/manga boom that hit the US back in the 2000's. We started on Saturday Morning Anime shows, then Toonami and moved up to watching Adultswim's anime. Then anime DVDs showed in every entertainment store and bookstores had manga/graphic novel sections. In that decade, anime and manga became bigger than it had ever been in the US.

Yet, if we're being honest, while anime and manga are still pretty big, it isn't the same and we're getting older. It's not really that acceptable for us to have screen posters and figurines. Some of us, including myself, will still have special connections to franchises we will attach to our teenage years for life.

The anime series that I connect most with my teenage years? FLCL.

What about you?


You've all been there, right? You're walking through the jungle, maybe chasing someone or running away or just trying to put down wards and then....BOOM! "GODDAMN TEEMO! STUPID SHROOMS! SONUVABITCH! I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL!"

Teemo is one of the most iconic and polarizing characters in League of Legends. His kit is pretty unique; by focusing on a mix of stealth, map control, and on-hit effects, Teemo is the sort of champion the demands counterplay. If you don't have someone keeping him in check, putting down pink wards, using oracle's, etc. Teemo will control the map with his deadly shrooms, sneak up to snipe kills, and then flee practically unscathed.

And that's why Teemo is one of the most beloved and most maligned champs ever.

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/23/13!

procedure [pruh-see-dyoor]
noun
1. An act or a manner of proceeding in any action or process; conduct.
2. A particular course or mode of action.
3. Any given mode of conducting legal, parliamentary, or other business, especially litigation and judicial proceedings.

EX. And this is why police procedure is important.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/22/13!

Today is gonna be a special Word of the Day. Today, childrens, we're gonna learn how to count to ten in Japanese. Let's start by counting to ten in kanji, then in English and then phonetically!

ー、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十!

Ichi, Ni, San, Yon, Go, Roku, Nana, Hachi, Kyuu, Juu!

1. "eechee",  2. "nee", 3. "sahn", 4. "yahn", 5. "goh", 6. "rohkoo", 7. "nahnah", 8. "hachee", 9. "kyoo", 10. "jyoo"!

Let's review:

Pictured at the top of the screen are the bijuu. They are the nine-tailed beasts from the Naruto series created by the Sage of the Six Paths when he defeated a beast called the "十尾” or "juubi". All of the tailed beasts have tails or, in Japanese, "尾" or "bi" (pronounced "bee") means tail.

Shukaku looks like a tanuki. Like Tom Nook from Animal Crossing. Pay your debts, children!

Shukaku is the ichibi/一尾. Shukaku has one tail. Ichibi means "one tail". "Ichi"/"一" means "one"!

Matatabi looks like a cat, especially a Japanese mythical cat with two-tails called the bakeneko. Good cat. Pretty cat.

Matatabi is the nibi/二尾. Matatabi has two tails. Nibi means "two tails". "Ni"/"二" means "two"!

Isobu looks like turtle-mullusc abomination. Poor Isobu. Nobody invites him to parties. But that's okay. Because he is a sea-monster and sea-monsters do not make good party guests. Poor Kraken.

Isobu is the sanbi/三尾. Isobu has three tails. Sanbi means "three tails". "San"/"三" means "three"!

Son Goku looks like a gorilla with horns and four tails. He breaths fire- FIRE BURNS! AUGH! FRANKENSTEIN! NO LIKE FIRE! FIRE BAD!

Son Goku is the yonbi/四尾. Son Goku has four tails. Yonbi means "four tails". "Yon"/"四" means "four"!

Kokuo looks like a horse. Pet me horse! Pet me horse! Pet me horse! Not that horse!

Kokuo is the gobi/五尾. Kokuo has five tails. Gobi means "five tails". "Go"/"五" means "five"!

Saiken is a giant slug. Don't put salt on slugs or they will drivel up and die. Nature is both gross and cruel.

Saiken is the rokubi/六尾. Saiken has six tails. Rokubi means "six tails". "Roku"/"六" means "six"!

Chomei resembles a "kabutomushi" or rhinoceros beetle. Rhinoceros beetles are not very funny. Did you know rhinoceros's cannot go backwards? They're also said to hate fire so much that they stamp them out if theu see one. Watch out Son Goku!

Chomei is the nanabi/七尾. Chomei has seven tails. Nanabi means "seven tails". "Nana"/"七" means "seven"!

Gyuuki is based on the "ushi-oni", a type of Japanese demon that resembled a sea creature but has a cow's head. He resembles an octopus with a cow's head. He is not a squid. Octopus have eight tentacles, but squids onlyu have six. Japanese people are weird

Gyuuki is the hachibi/八尾. Gyuuki has eight tails. Hachibi means "eight tails". "Hachi"/"八" means "eight"!

Kurama is a nine-tailed fox. Like the tanuki, the nine-tailed fox or "kitsune", they are shape-shifting tricksters in Japanese folklore. Ninetails is also the name of a Pokémon. But you probably don't like Pokémon. It's for babies! I used to like Pokémon but, after overhearing some older kids, I've discovered that Pokémon is in fact "gay". I've never heard the term "gay" but I'm gonna use it for everything now.

Kurama is the kyuubi/九尾. Kurama has nine tails. Kyuubi means "nine tails". "Kyuu"/"九" means "nine!"

Shinjuu is mindless other worldly eldritch being of chaos and destruction. Cthulhu would be proud if he wasn't also a mindless eldritch being of chaos and destruction. CTHULHU CTHULHU!

Shinjuu is the juubi/十尾. Juubi has ten tails. Juubi means "ten tails". "Juu"/"十" means "ten".
And that's how you count to ten Japanese, children! Next week's lesson is on how to say "hotdog". "HOTTODOGGU!"

GO WATCH/READ NARUTO TODAY! OR PLAY THE AWESOME GAMES! THEY'RE AWESOME!

SOURCES: http://goriverde.deviantart.com/