On Terry Pratchett and the Discovery of Discworld
A few days ago, Kayla and I were sitting around watching The Color of Magic on Netflix when it came up that I had never read any Discworld novels. Apparently this was some sort of tragic error that could not go uncorrected because by the time I had gotten home there was an e-book copy of The Color of Magic sitting in my inbox courtesy of Kayla. Now, lately I haven’t had much time for leisurely reading (thanks to school, work and family obligations) but I MAKE time for this book. From page one I was completely enthralled with the world and it’s characters. Terry Pratchett has a very matter-of-fact approach to world-building that is not only descriptive but entertaining as well. This is a huge deal for me because world-building is one of those things that I’ve found authors either do or don’t know how to do. Take the Wheel of Time series by the late Robert Jordan. A Brilliant, sweeping, epic high fantasy adventure but it’s a bit of a chore to get through because of the sheer amount of explanation and world-building that has to be done just to understand what is going on at any particular point in the story.
Now, not only are his novels are as excellent as they are popular, but apparently Terry Pratchett himself is just the fanciest, most awesome person ever. Seriously, look at him!
Not only is he a very dapper gent, but a knight as well. In fact, his personal coat of arms happens to be the coat of arms for the city of Ankh-Morpork, a central city in the Discworld series. Now this is enough to make any body awesome, but no. This isn’t enough for Terry Pratchett. He then goes and forges his own sword with a CHUNK OF METEOR IRON AT ITS CORE. This feat of awesome shoots him to the top of the “I do what I want!” ladder and nestles him high atop the list of my personal heroes. Suffice to say that I will not only be reading many more Disworld novels, but Terry Pratchett’s other works as well. Thanks Kayla…now my already ridiculously long list of books to read has gotten even LONGER!
On Junk and Stuff
Ok, so here’s the schtick, the truth, the whole kit and caboodle. Here it goes. Brace yourselves everyone. I’m a pretty boring person. At least on the internet. I’m sure you all have pretty much noticed that I don’t have much of a presence. Well, that’s all kind of a lie. I have ideas and stuff that I want to do but I’m either too lazy to actually follow through or I procrastinate the heck out of it. For instance, during the crazy free-for-all that is the Steam Summer Sale, I bought a bunch of horror games I’ve always wanted to play. I then got the brilliant idea (and by that I mean given the idea by Eric at The Techno Jesus) to record myself playing them and subsequently myself screaming for days on end. I love this idea and I love doing things like this. The thing is my audio equipment is rather lacking and I’ve been putting off actually doing it until I get better equipment. But you know what? It really doesn’t matter. Up until now I’ve been thinking of this whole internet blogging thingy as more of a chore or job than what it is actually meant to be. A fun little outlet that people can read or take part in if they feel like it. Take this post for example. I’m just vomiting words onto a page. Well,er, keyboard really but you get the idea. Is it necessarily quality writing worthy of the most prestigous of awards? No. At least I don’t think so. It’s probably full of spelling and grammar mistakes, about of which I will never stop hearing (See? I went all proper grammar on that one because I KNOW people will notice. Heck, this is probably wrong too, but I don’t care really. Anyway…what was I doing again? Oh yeah, self-loathing, right.)So here’s the new plan. I’m going to do some stuff and put it on the internet. If people like it, then fantastic. If they don’t, well it’s still fun. Now excuse me while I try to remember where I put my video camera.
Some Footage From The Upcoming Live-Action Kenshin Movie
Below is 31 seconds of footage of Himura Kenshin released by Japanese movie site Cinema Today.
And now for some footage of Kanryu
Guys, guys!, GUYS! THIS IS AWESOME! Kenshin was one of my favorite shows growing up and it remains pretty high up on my list of all time favorite series. I was already excited about the live action movie, but after seeing the clip of Kanryu trying to mow down Kenshin with the gatling gun I JUST CAN’T CONTAIN MYSELF! The movie is set to release in Japan on August 25th and I honestly, if I had the money I would totally fly over just to catch the premier. Would I be able to understand it? Oh heck no. Would it matter? Not. One. Bit.
via: ANN
Bounty: 8500 Woolongs
Square Enix has started pre-orders for two Cowboy Bebop Play Arts Kai figures, one of Spike and one of Vicious. They run for about $85 a piece, but as there are hardly any Cowboy Bebop figures out there, it’s something.
The two 10-inch figures are fully-articulated and and come various alternate hand/weapon sets.
If all goes well, hopefully we’ll see figures of the rest of the Bebop crew (if Ed is released, she better come with a little Ein, just sayin’). You can pre-order at Hobby Link if you have $85 burning a whole in your pants.
Commercial Featuring Miku Wins Awards, I’m Not Surprised
The above video (as you could probably tell) is a Japanese Google Chrome commercial featuring virtual idol Hatsune Miku. While it’s a pretty neat commercial on it’s own, what is most notable about it is the fact that it won the Bronze Lion Award in the Direct Lions category of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In case the name sounds familiar, it’s an affiliate competition to the Cannes International Film festival, which is a pretty big deal. The award is given for “excellence in creative communications” in advertising and I would have to say that the commercial qualifies, even if it follows the same formula as other Chrome commercials. Actually, I think there was a commercial featuring Lady Gaga that was pretty much the same thing. Although, in my opinion, Lady Gaga doesn’t inspire the same kind of creativity that Vocaloid and Hatsune Miku has.
(Source: ANN)
More Like Adorable Space Pirates
Those vicious fiends at Good Smile Company have done it again! This time they offer space-high-school-girl-turned-space-pirate captain Marika Kato of Bodacious Space Pirates in a sickeningly adorable Nendoroid figure. She stands at about 4 inches and will ship with three interchangeable facial expressions as well as a sword and the anti-armor beam gun.
Surrender your hearts and no one will get hurt!
If there’s one thing Good Smile knows how to do it’s how to empty my wallet at breakneck speeds. This figure is not only adorable, but cleverly crafted and just plain made of awesome. Bodacious space pirates is a very interesting and unique series with a surprising lack of overexposed fleshy bits (as much as the title would suggest otherwise). If this figure has peaked your interest in the series (which it should have, I mean look at it!) then you can check it out on crunchyroll.com (episodes are streamed as they air). The Marika Nendoroid will be released in November and will sell for 3800 yen (~$48). Want more pics? Hit more.
Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka? English Cast Announced
I can has good dub?
Funimation announced the main cast lineup yesterday as follows:
- Ayumu – Austin Tindle
- Eu – Cherami Leigh
- Haruna – Jād Saxton
- Head Teacher – Monica Rial
- Kanami – Emerick Jade
- Kerberos – Mark Stoddard
- King of the Night – Eric Vale
- Kyoko – Lindsay Seidel
- Orito – Anthony Bowling
- Saras – Caitlin Glass
- Sera – Morgan Garrett
- Taeko – Erica Harte
- Tomonori – Brittney Karbowsk
So far, no one all that notable (although Cherami Leigh will have very few lines). I just hope the dub doesn’t suck because Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka? (or Korean Zombie Death Car as it is affectionately called) is one of my favorite series that has aired recently and I would hate for it to be a series I have to watch in subtitled. Those kind of series are few and far between, just as the few shows I actually prefer to watch in English ( and the one I prefer to watch in Spanish, but that’s another story)
The DVD will be released on September 18th of this year under the name Is This A Zombie? If you haven’t seen the series I highly suggest watching it on Crunchyroll. Trust me, it’s hilarious
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