Ah... 4 hour YouTube romp.

So I just spent close to 4 hours on YouTube. After some simple stuff I stumbled on this, as usual, several months old phenomenom of 2 Girls 1 Cup Reactions. Fortunately I saw enough reactions to save myself from the horror of the actual video, for instance this one which clearly instructs you to never under any circumstances watch the video. At the same time it gives you enough of an idea so that your curiosity shouldn't get the better of you.

After that I was in YouTube mode, and what YouTube mode is is the state in which you start to look up clips to things you never would have thought of looking up under normal circumstances. For instance, after I was done with ^that^ I moved on to Star Wars where I watched old auditions by Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. There was also one with Kurt Russel who would not have made a bad Han Solo. However THE most interesting part was that they were using old scripts that were a lot different from the final scripts, so you had the ravaging of Organa Prime where "What little is left is totally contaminated with radiation." and the fact that "The royal family has mind control" You also got a much better feeling, I thought, of the whole rebellion against the Empire side of it. As a kid I was definitely too entranced by the Sci-Fi to stop and think about what was actually going on and ended up thinking "Okay, there's a side called 'Rebels' and a side called 'Empire'." without really connecting "Oh, they're actually rebels against a galactic Empire, its not like a group name or something." and the old script seemed much more emphasizing that "Hey, there's an oppressive empire and we need these plans to succeed." (By the way, thats what Episode IV is actually about in case you may have missed that.) Also, Leia didn't seem as tomboyish and aggressive. After fiddling around with that for a while....

I moved on to anime, specifically looking to see if there were any AMVs (Anime Music Videos), or MAD Movies as they were originally called in Japan (See, you learn stuff on my blog... Useless, useless stuff), for a particular anime called Kanon, specifically the 2006 release since the 2002 version was, well, not as good. Anyway, of course they eixisted, as though I should doubt for a minute. This led, of course, to looking up AMVs to a similar series called Clannad with similar concept and the same director, Tatsuya Ishihara (Also directed Air, which is also excellent.). And OF COURSE this led to me looking up video clips of the original PC and PS2 games which both series are based on. I really wish those games were localized, because as good as the series is, the game is better. Anyway, after I looked up the deeply emotional heart rending end scenes from the multiple ending game I thought "Hey, wasn't I looking up AMVs and MADs?" so I continued with that, discovering that MADs are generally superior to AMVs, probably because they've been around longer. THEN came the fruition of my journies, I came upon that which can only exist in the online anime culture.... Fear it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK2QUjt7jXI and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjHIn-hU8ro and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_e1lB6j6lM (Which is basically the difference between an AMV, in the case of the second, and an MAD in the case of the third). In case you want to read an explaination before watching, basically the first one is the second opening to the Death Note anime which is pretty notoriously over the top, psycho, crazy... Yeah. But instead of the soul shattering hard core death rock it normally has they play the upbeat intro to Lucky Star, which, aside from Evangelion, Elfen Lied and Nadesico, probably has the best intro ever, and I might be willing to move Nadesico down a slot to give it a top 3 spot. The next two are adaptations of the Lucky Star Intro animation to the music from the Death Note Intro music.... Yes, and if you've now watched them, good for you. While I was writing this I actually watched several other parodies of the Lucky Star theme including one in which someone actually made original animation of Kingdom Hearts 2 characters and put them in a custom variation of the opening, it was rather impressive.

Anyway, I've geeked your brains to new levels I'm sure, or at least new directions. To help you recover I provide this final, semi-classic video which I hope makes you Feel Great.

Katsucon + Harajuku

First and foremost the promised answer: Both! Its an Assassin's GUILD remember? There's more than one.

Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out the Con and Harajuku pics at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41309&l=8c1a5&id=505085742

Now that thats out of the way, this years Katsucon was spectacularly different from any other in the past for several reasons. The first and best reason is that Tiffany Grant was there signing autographs in addition to doing other things like panel discussions. Who is she and why is it awesome that she was there? Only the infamous voice actress behind Asuka Langley Sohryu of Evangelion, the first voice acting employee of now famous ADV and generally nice person (Based on the whole 5 minutes of signing related conversation we had, which is absolute evidence). The second thing was the wonderful aisle blocking dance group "IchiP". I got video of them doing the Kodocha dance, and more importantly, the Lucky Star opening dance (The song of which I actually like better than Hare Hare Yukai, though I still like HHY's dance better. Real life Kodocha might beat them both though.... So fun to watch, tune so catchy....). The third thing was all the artwork I picked up in addition to the more normal merchandise. Usually I just get a few smaller things, but I got a lot this year. I actually need to purchase a binder thing to hold the art now because I'm starting to get so much... Which means I need to find somewhere that sells them... Anyway, it was generally awesome and I finally bought all of the Death Note manga so I'll be finishing that over the coming month of work I'm sure, if I don't just sit down and read it.

On Sunday I skipped church (I know, I'm going to put myself in HellSpace for my heathenistic ways :P) and went to a screening of "5 Centimeters Per Second" which is just really great in many way. The art work is fantastic, really top notch. The story is happy at times, but mostly very sad. Not depressing, but sad. As one man said while exiting the theater "Well, that was $15 worth of sadness." If you have Netflix, rent it when its available, its only an hour long so I think you can spare that. After that I tried to figure out what to do for 6 hours while waiting for the Millennium Stage performance. I thought about catching another of the anime premieres, but they were sold out. So I went over to Cup'a Cup'a across the street and got a Reuben and a Mocha Frappe (Both rather good if a little pricey). After lunch I played my DS on the steps outside the Opera house, battlng the Yahri in the land of Ivalice as classical music carried through the doors to my ears. I did that until Intermission and I got shooed off. I then pulled out my trusty NFT (Not For Tourists) guide book and located the nearest Starbucks. Now, being on the GWU campus I expected student, but the thing I found odd about this Starbucks was that 96% of the students studying were female. Why? Also they all looked somehow similar, it was kinda weird. So I stayed a while longer, again unsheathing my stylus to reign destruction and terror on the forces that my character presently perceives to be evil. At about 4:45 I decided to head back. Upon arriving I discovered that a line had started forming for the Harajuku showcase already (FF>>) by 6:00 PM the line stretched to the opposite end of the hall. I was lucky I got a scrap of carpet to sit on, but for reasons that I think I could explain, but will choose not to, the entire hall was full of people waiting to see the show. Why? Lets just say I think 80% of the people there had no idea what Harajuku was before they saw it was going on in the program, and still didn't after reading the blurb. Anyway, despite a man being strategically placed to block most of my view, I managed a decent view and got some good pictures. I really enjoyed it and was glad I stayed around. Oh, another thing I did while waiting was read Vol. 1 of a manga called "Beauty Pop" which I think is a play on "Beauty Shop", but I could be wrong on their intentions. Anywho, it was entertaining, but I wouldn't buy it personally. Thats all, go back to the top and check out the picture link if you haven't yet.

Enjoy refreshing time.