Happy New Years!

Meri Kurisumasu and a Happy New Year!

Well I know it might not be New Years yet for some of you (at least not for me) but I'm making this post a few hours in advance since I'll be bogged down by school, which is right around the corner.

Now this post won't be anime related (as I promised last time) nor will it be a rant; just a good, plain old blog entry.

Ever since university started, I never really got the chance to really converse with my group of friends from elementary school (the same bunch mentioned in older posts) and a few days ago was really the first time we've actually met up again.

We'd usually make our usual rounds in the Markham area (sushi, gaming, movies...etc) but the VIVA (the transit system in the York/Markham area) has been still on strikes (been on strikes for a few months now). So we made our way downtown. By coincidence, we ended up doing what we once did a few months ago when we were also in downtown; movies, visit a few places, Eatons then dinner at Milestones.

Prime Rib Roast at Milestones...mmm

Hogtown Poutine at Smoke's Poutinerie on Dundas

All in all, a great way to end off the year; an outing with my best friends and with my family.

Anyways, it has been a great year and I wish all my readers and fellow blog colleagues the best next year.

How are you guys spending New Years Eve? Any New Years Resolution?

Hello World!

So I finally finished my final exams and then someone reminds me...midterms in 2 months.

Me, during every exam

     Well to be exact, I finished my exams last week and I've been procrastinating to make a new post (heh, procrastinating). I also started getting some of my marks back, and for the time being, I'm pleased with them so far, but I think to most important thing for me during the break right now is to pace and change my lifestyle that would be suitable for a university student.
     I find myself time and time again gaming. It's a really bad lifestyle that I've kept since high school, thinking I can still get away with it in university. I think I game so much that I barely have time to watch anime. D: So I think the most effective way for me to really focus is to simply not start my steam (I mostly play games on steam) because those pop-ups towards the bottom right corner that shows who is playing what really distracts me. But for the duration of the break...I'll be gaming =).
     Now off to the anime issue, oh how I've missed you. At least I've finally found a susatinable way to keep this hobby. My morning commute to school is about 25 mins (by car, it's an hour by public transit) and you know what that time is perfect for? Perfect for just an episode of any anime. So that means going to school and coming back, I'm still able to watch 2 episodes, yay!

Anyways, I'll be back next week to make an anime related post and hopefully, I'll be able to make weekly posts when school resumes! Thanks for reading!
    
I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

So what are you guys doing during your winter breaks? How did your exams go? Let me know in the comment section below!

I'm Back!

After a temporary hiatus (and midterm exams), I'm glad to announce that I'll be back on board.

 After getting all 5 of my mid-terms out of the way, I've finally think I've found to groove to settle down and merge into the life of a university student. But just because I've finished writing the mid-terms doesn't mean my worries are gone, it's when I actually get them back and know my marks =/. Hopefully is DWei faring better than I am. Hang in there bud! Sadly, finals are coming up, in less than a month.

And in reply to Shaw's comment a while back
  Shaw said...

I've been meaning to ask you, how can this blog be a NEET corner when you are at Uni?

I guess you're right, it's more of a "Foreclosed corner" because of such high tuition payments.

But getting back to what's current, Payday: The Heist. A FPS released by Overkill, and indie devloper has taken some of the FPS community by storm. It's mainly a 4 person, co-op oriented game where you are in the shoes of thieves (hence, "heist"). It's a really unique concept that requires major teamwork and communication skills. Although I've never had that chance to play it yet, I've seen many game play videos and all I can say is that it's intense. It really is a shame that this game isn't well known. To be honest, I would have never checked this game out if I didn't catch a glimpse of it on the front page of the steam store. Hopefully this game catches on. Props to Overkill, especially for releasing a FPS in the same month as Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. (More than enough to throw any university student off course, am I right?).

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

 Have you guys checked out any of the new games released this month such as the new Batman game?

 

Tragedy at Kentland

A deadly garage fire takes 2 lives

A change of pace from my usual posts but this story really stuck home. I still remember the night my dad was driving me home from an evening class from university when there were firetrucks, police cruisers and yellow police tape forming a perimeter outside the entrance to the street from where I lived.
"Probably another gas leak", my dad exclaimed.
To this remark, I thought the same. A year or two ago, there was some sort of gas leak (it could be smelled through the air) and it was taken care of quickly and had the usual police cruisers at the scene.

The next morning while I was off to school, the scene changed and by that I meant I saw additional vehicles: CTV, CBC, CP24, FCTV (local news stations) and I quickly realized it was something more. My dad had the usual radio channel on and that's when we were given a hint to what happened down the street.
There was a fire in the garage of that house of which a female corpse was found on the scene, and a man was rushed to a local hospital where he passed away; no other information was given at the time. This fire was being investigated by homicide detectives due to the suspicious small size of the fire.

When I got back from school, I asked around some neighbours and was told that the two that died were actually husband and wife. They had two children, 19 male, and 17 female if I remember correctly, but thankfully they weren't at the house at that time. I was also told that there foul play was involved between the couple, but I guess I'll know more about it as the story develops.

My sincere condolence goes out to the family and friends of the deceased, and especially to the two teenagers as I hope they are being cared for appropriately.

Link to one of the many news stories covering this: http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/156615--candlelight-vigil-held-for-markham-couple-killed-in-garage-fire


Has anything tragic happened in your community? How have people dealt with these types of situations?

First Week of University

I've been waiting a long time to get here, but now, am I second guessing myself?

Cramming, gotta get that good stuff in

     For those that read some of my recent posts about frosh, you should know that students had a choice to either stay for the frosh events or attend classes. I asked around (espeically asking senior students) whether or not to stay at frosh or just skip the first day of lectures. All the answers I got were on either side, but I guess since I'm paying over seven grand for school versus fifty bucks for frosh, I'll attend my lectures instead.

     And I'm glad I made that decision because the first day of classes in university is nothing like high school. But let's start off with the similarities, the professor will take half the class to introduce himself or herself and their respective accomplishments and go through the course outline. Okay, I guess it's nothing different so far, but after introductions we jumped right into the lecture and textbook material and I guess this is where the two diverge. In high school, we would've probably been holding hands and singing kumbaya for an entire week before we start any course material. I guess my blog will soon look like one of my fellow blogger colleagues, DWei's.

"Hold hands and singing kumbaya", a favorite quote from one of my high school teachers

     Now another difference is that in class, you should never run out of things to do (and that one thing is to listen). And that's another difference, there is no "in-class homework", you literally sit in class for 2-3 hours and there is no time allotted in class to do any readings or homework. Another note is that you have to be prepared going to class, that means note taking devices, textbook readings, printouts etc...because no one is going to remind you or bug you about this stuff. Well it's not that I had any trouble in high school with any of this but it's pretty overwhelming when you have to keep track of tutorial dates, readings that need to be done, quizzes, online assessments... And I'm sure the lists goes on, but phew, I'm just in first year.
 
I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

How was your first week of university or post secondary education? How is it different from high school?

UTSC Frosh Day 3 & 4

 The last two days of frosh week ends in style.

All of frosh week seemed to lead up to the final events for day 4, but let's get back to day 3 for now.

Day 3's main event was "The Ultimate Froshie". Froshie in this case refers to all frosh members (freshmen), and it's essentially finding the most enthusiastic, exciting and fun froshie. This is determined trhough a series of challenges which involve cheers (such as the "I feel so good!" cheer) and more. Sadly, I had class during this event and pretty much missed most of it. Video below for whoever wants to check it out.

Which brings me to my next point, who decided to make frosh week coincide with the first week of classes (most people had classes Thursday and/or Friday). So not only did I miss Thursday's main event, I missed all of Friday, but for the people that participated, I heard that it was a blast.

Friday's first main event was the parade where all 3 campuses (Scarborough, Mississauga and St. George)  convene. As fun as this sounds, there is always compeititoin between all 3 campuses to see who does the best and loudest cheers. See for yourself below.

Friday ended with an event at some event cetnre, and at a club at the Guv.
Hopefully everyone had fun, as I probably had more of it in class. =/

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images & videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

How did you frosh conclude? Did class ever coincide with frosh?

UTSC Frosh Day 2

We feel so good! Oh, we feel so good! Oh!

Youtube Karaoke @ AC112

Nothing beats karaoke, especially in a lecture hall singing things by Aqua and Bieber.

Well I'll have to say I had fun during the second day. Just like Ferdinand commented on my previous post, I also consider myself as an introvert. Those that do know me in real life know me as someone who is very quiet, as the type that is cool, calm and always collected. Today was no different? I think not. With help from my GLs (group leaders) I started to come out of that shell and had some fun.

The "Carnival"

For day 2, once of the featured events was the Carnival. Essentially it was 5-6 inflatable play areas (like rock climbing pictured above). Now don't get me wrong, these activities were fun, but when this activity lasted for 4 hours, your patience for new things to do is easily spent.

The long day was concluded with a fun event (for some at least and embarrassing for others), the long awaited hypnotist show. You can see the first part of it embedded above (I do not own the video, it was uploaded by my colleagues).


What quirky events did you have at your frosh? What was the best event?

UTSC Frosh Day 1

First impressions are everything, and today, frosh has definitely made its mark.

Woo! Frosh Week

Frosh, Day 1: All froshies were assigned to groups and separated by departments, marked by different colour t-shirts. Blue for management students, green for science and red for arts. Each group was assigned 2 group leaders which are seniors in the corresponding deparments.

Now I'm not sure how all my peers felt, but I can say I was definitely nervous and my natural personality of being shy definitely didn't help. On the other hand, all the group leaders (GLs for short) were very warm and enthusiastic (whether they were being forced to can be questioned) but the GLs assigned to my group were great.

Ice Breakers!

 For the first day, we generally did a lot of ice breaker related activities to get to know our group members better. We were also taught a number of cheers of which some are unique to each department as departments may engage in spontaneous cheer-offs against each other. Being a management student, some of our cheers would include: "Your test tubes are short" which is directed at the science department and "You talk big, you walk tall, making up for something small!" which can be directed to any department (Yes, a lot of the things were somewhat...suggestive). One my favourite comebacks against the management cheers would be: "Schu-lich Re-jects!" (People in Ontario should get this one).

Party Hard!

 There were also lots of other activities throughout the day, which eventually made me come out of my shell a bit. And to conclude the day, was a foam dance party. (Unfortunately, I didn't stay long enough to witness the "foam" part of it).

Foam Dance Party (without the foam)

I'll be back in a few days reporting on day 2 of frosh.

Do you still remember your first day of frosh? Any cheers that are memorable or unique to your school?

Nodame Cantabile

Gyabo! Classical music and anime? All in one?

Chiaki and Nodame

After putting off this series for so long, and with many recommendations from a bunch of friends, I finally watched Nodame Cantabile (I'm getting to the sequels =/).

Nodame Cantabile mostly takes place at Momogaoka College of Music where our main characters, Megumi Noda and Shinichi Chiaki study. Nodame is a talented piano player, who can play music by ear (and prefers it) instead of reading the score. She also brings in her own style when playing the music, such as adding or subtracting notes, ignoring the score altogether. Chiaki is also a talented piano player (who also plays the violin) and was born in to a musical family. He has a secret ambition of pursuing a career in conducting, but is obstructed to study oversees (he resides in Japan) because of his child phobia of flying and the ocean.

The two of them accidentally meet and Nodame install falls in love with Chiaki. Chiaki discovers Nodame's talent and the series displays the lessons of music and life they give each other while encountering many other students and teachers of the college.

This series is definately a must for any anime and classical music fans (as you may be sitting through half an episode of classical music). Nodame Cantabile is a 23 episode series and was aired in 2007, produced by J.C. Staff. There is a sequel to Nodame Cantabile, which is Nodame Catabile: Paris, which continues right where the prequel left off. The whole franchise then concludes with Nodame Cantabile: Finale.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Have you watched this series? Have you seen any music oriented series? Did you watch the dramas or live action movies of Nodame Cantabile?

Usagi Drop

Looks like grandpa has got it going on, but not for long...

Rin and Daikichi

And not for long because he's dead. Usagi Drop is an 11-episode, slice of life series done by the studio, Production I.G., which is known for high-quality animation, and has produced work such as GIST (Ghost in the Shell). It starts off with the funeral of Daikichi's grandpa, where we find out that his grandpa had an illegitimate love child (who is 6 at the time of his death). The child, who's name is Rin, was kept a secret to everyone up until now. Daikichi's family and relatives try to figure out what to do with her when someone suggests to send her to an orphanage. This is when Daikichi steps up, and chooses to raise Rin himself.

Daikichi is just a plain 30 years old bachelor, who works as a typical Japanese salaryman. When he actualy experiences what it takes to raise a child, he quickly understands the sacrifices and efforts needed. The series pretty much follows Daikichi and the development of Rin while Daikichi finds out more about parenting, especially from others, such as single moms.

I actually first started watching this series after hearing a podcast review of this. The reviewer is an American, who currently lives in Japan with his wife and they both admire this series for accurately portraying how life is for salarymen and housewives when they have children (as Japan has more defined gender roles).

The series thus far (I'm on episode 8) is very lighthearted and heartwarming. All the animation and choice of colour gives off a "warm" feeling. Production I.G also includes about a 1 minute intro at the beginning of each episode where the animation is in a totally different style, almost like a "roughly coloured-manga" feel (Yes, I just made that up). Bleh, I can't describe it, so just see the image below.

I've heard from others that the series will leap to Rin when she is older, so I'm pretty exicited to see how it goes as there are only a few episodes remaining.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.
  What are your favourite slice of life shows? For those that have seen this, how do you think this portrays life with children?

Daft Punk the Movie?

Yep, there is a Daft Punk "movie", but at the same time, not quite.

Interstella 555

Interstella 555 is a film produced by Daft Punk in collabortion of Toei Animation.

The plot of the film is simple, 4 band members (pictured above) are abducted from an alien planet to Earth. They are then brainwashed of their alien memories and made to look like humans. Back home, an alien strives to bring back the band members back to their home country.

I know that wasn't a too detailed of a plot, but I do not want to focus on it as there is a deeper meaning of the story. I'd rather have you experience the whole film yourselves. The full movie can be found on Youtube. I've embedded the video here in case you really wanted to watch it right now.



But what makes this whole film unique is that the whole film, is a "musical", where Daft Punk's album, "Discovery" is played throughout the whole film. In addition, there is no dialog whatsoever within the film, and besides the album being played, occasional sound effects can be heard.

The animation itself is done by Toei Animation. It features an 80's style of animation, but a very refined version. (Note, this film was released in 2003)

Nevertheless, this film should be a real treat, especially to Daft Punk fans.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images and videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Have you seen this film? Do you like Daft Punk? Any similar films out there?

Summer Feast

In lieu of marking the end of summer, we marked it as a pre-celebration for a friend's birthday.

Hot Pot!

 My friends and I went out again, this time to celebrate an upcoming birthday. This outing, we visited two restaurants, the first being "I Cook Buffet".

Contrary to the namesake, there is no buffet during lunch time. Instead, they offer you a set combo in which you can customize things such as the soup base and meat.

The food was nothing special, thinly sliced pieces of meat plus random greens and a few more random fish balls. And of course, our favourite condiment, some weird salty peanut sauce. /sarcasm.

Peanut Sauce?

So you may ask yourself, why is the peanut sauce gone? Did we use it all? Yes we did, but we didn't consume it. Instead, we decided to pour all the sauce into one pot and boil it. Boy was that a bad idea, the fumes that emitted from the pot was deadly and could be sniffed from miles.

Service was mediocre at best. No,  for where I live, most restaurants are Chinese owned/operated so their English may not be perfect. This one is no different. Not only was their English poor, the employees seemed clueless about the menu as if they were new to the job (maybe they were).

Anyways, we decided to head back into familiar territory for dinner, Sushi on 7.

We ordered the usual: salmon & hokkigai & butterfish sashimi and a few maki rolls. Most of the sashimi seemed fresh, but some of it wasn't thawed out enough.

But we also got something different this time, the spider roll. The spider roll consists of avocado, roe, imitation crab stick and deep fried soft shell crab.

The spider roll

Dragon roll and sashimi

In general, Japanese AYCE in our area are decent, but not spectacular in any way. We've gone to a few AYCE, but this one seems the be one with consistent quality.

How is your experience with AYCE places? Have you tried hot pots (or shabu shabu) before?

UFC 134: Silva vs Okami

What better way to end summer with a bang, Silva vs Okami.

UFC 134 at HSBC arena

Finally back in Rio de Janerio, Brazilian fans are in for a treat. Probably the best pound for pound fighter, Anderson Silva will have a rematch against Yushin Okami. Anderson Silva has not lost a single fight since 2006, to no other than Okami which was by disqualification due to an illegal up-kick.

Other main card fights include Brendan Schaub vs Antonia Rodrigo Nogueria. Although Schaub did not win The Ultimate Fighter 10 (lost to Roy Nelson), Schaub has seem to found his place in the UFC as a young and skillful fighter, earning him a fight with the veteran Nogueria.

Also on the card, Mauricio Rua vs Forest Griffin. After Rua lost his light heavweight title to Jones, he has a chance to prove himself against Griffin.


This should be one heck of an event, especailly for the ones at the HSBC arena.
For those that want to watch the preliminary fights free, you can catch them on Facebook, Spike TV and Rogers Sportsnet.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Do you think Silva will keep his title? What do you think of Silva's illegal upkick? Any predictions for any of the fights?

Shaft Inc.

But wait there's more!

The logo of Shaft Inc.

To those that may have been expecting a non-anime post, please accept my sincere apologies as today is no different.

I'd like to introduce today, Shaft. An animation studio that has either done the animation for many series or at least had their hands deep in others.

The main ones I want to bring up are: Sayonara Zetusubou Sensei (Finished the first series) and Bakemonotargai (I'm currently on episode 10).

If you've read some of my anime related posts, you know that animation quality is a huge factor for me when watching anime and material done by Shaft never disappoints, but aside from quality is their style.

The most prominent feature is that Shaft may use "real life" images for effect such as someone's face or body part. You can see this below, which is a screencap from Bakemonogatari.

The use of "RL"

Another technique they use is written words/kanji. Sometimes it is used in conjuncture with images or it is simply written out as is. Screenshot is from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

Kanji used in conjuncture with other images

Another method, although common within many anime series is references to animes or known products.
Another screenshot from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

Haruhi referenced in the top right.

The last thing, although I don't have pics for it is the opening sequences of Bakemonogatari. For many shows (not just anime) you'll hear a theme song and a sequence of pictures or video clips that go along with it and for most series, the song and clips only change once or twice. But for Bakemonogatari, these things change for every story arc. The opening sequence will be directly related to the main character of the arc the anime is currently focusing on.

So for that, I applaud Shaft for their quality and effort of animation.


I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

 Any animes done by Shaft you enjoy? What cool techniques have you seen done in animes or tv series?

Steins;Gate

But summer hasn't ended yet and I still have another series to share.

The main cast of Steins;Gate

This one was a close one. When I say that, I meant that I was close to dropping this one due to the animation quality (see previous post). During the first few episodes of this anime, the quality of how the characters (mostly the face and eyes) were drawn were done very poorly but what kept me going was the concept of the plot.

Steins;Gate the anime came out in April and is still ongoing (set for 23 episodes which mark the finale on Sept. 7).  It features: Okabe, a self-proclaimed mad scientist, Mayuri, a girl who is portrayed as innocent and pure, and Itaru, an otaku and a "Super Hacker". The three of them (but mainly Okabe and Itaru) work on quirky inventions. They eventually create a microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past (dubbed D-Mail). As they explore the their device, they discover SERN, an organization that researches time travel, but SERN doesn't want anyone else to have time travel capabilities so Okabe and friends must avoid capture.

While trying not to spoil anything while explaining the plot, I've pretty much summed up the first 10 episodes or so. During those 10 episodes, we see Okabe recruit new members and trying out more experiments. But more importantly, those 10 episodes help develop each character into deep and possible likable characters.

I really can't guess how this will end as the series up until now has been full of twists and turns so I await the finale (and thankfully, it ends before school starts).

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Have you watched this series yet? How do you think this is going to end? Any animes you liked and want to share?

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

It was inevitable, keeping with my namesake I had to go through a few anime series before summer ended.

The main characters of Ano Hi.

This series came out in April and finished airing in June by A-1 Studios. During the last few months of high school, a lot of my friends were talking about this one and given my free time over the summer, I gave it a try.

So why didn't I jump onto this series earlier? Well, I essentially stopped watching anime for 1 or 2 years just due to the quality of material that was coming out. Most animes were either just full of fan service (w/o a good plot) or had poor animation.

Luckily, a few episodes into Ano Hi, I was amazed by the animation quality and the tight story line. The plot is fairly simple. A group of 6 childhood friends drift apart over the years after Menma, who used to be in the group dies from an accident. Jintan (in the red t-shirt in the above picture) is a shut in (essentially a NEET as he hasn't been in school for a semester) when one day, Menma (the girl in the one piece white dress in the picture) appears to Jintan. Menma supposedly appears because she has a wish that needs to be fulfilled before she can rest in peace.

As Jintan tries to find out what her wish is, the 5 childhood friends get back together. As we witness the 5 friends interact with each other and deal with the re-appearance of Menma (although only Jintan can see and hear Menma) the true emotions and characteristics of the 5 other friends are revealed.

This is an 11 episode series and has a satisfying conclusion. This anime is filled with drama and deals with multiple love triangles. All I can say is get some tissues ready because it gets emotional at times.

One of my favourite tracks from the anime

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images or videos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Have you watched this series yet? If you have, what's your opinion of Yukiatsu? (I personally hate his guts")
Any of the upcoming anime series of Fall 2011 look interesting?

Back to School Laptops

It's that time of year again, on for this year, my supplies list includes a laptop.

For the past few weeks, I've been browsing various laptops, and so far, I've come up with 3 laptops that may fit my needs.

The Asus A53SV-XN1

1.) Newegg.ca - ASUS A53 Series A53SV-XN1 Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 750GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
ASUS A53 Series A53SV-XN1
Price: $750.00
CPU: Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz)
RAM: 6GB Memory DDR3 1333
GPU: Nvidia GT 540M
HDD: 750 GB (7200 RPM)
Screen: 15.6"
Res: 1366x768 

The MSI FX620DX-256US

2.) Newegg.ca - MSI FX620DX-256US Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory 640GB HDD DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
Price: $730.00
CPU: Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz)
RAM: 6GB Memory DDR3
GPU: Nvidia GT 540M
HDD: 640 GB (??? RPM)
Screen: 15.6"
Res: 1366x768

The Asus A53SV-XTI

3.) Buy the ASUS A53SV-XT1 15.6 Laptop Computer at TigerDirect.ca
Price: $770.00
CPU: Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz
RAM: 4GB Memory DDR3
GPU: Nvidia GT 540M
HDD: 500GB (5400 RPM)
Screen: 15.6"
Res: 1366x768 

I guess the differences are the CPU (i5 2410 vs i72630, and the ram, 6 GB for i5 vs 4 GB for i7, and the HDD 5400 vs 7200). Anyone care to comment on these things?

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images and wideos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Which laptop out of the 3 would you choose? What laptop do you use? Any recommendations for any specific laptop or brand or specs?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Just two days ago, Valve officially announced that a new Counter-Strike will come out.

It is said that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be out in early 2012. Not much is known about it yet (besides for the few that play tested it) but there will be new characters, maps, weapons and map updates to some of the more popular maps such as "de_dust".

If Valve were to make a sequel to CS:S, it would be now. Even though CS:S is 7 years old, it is still going strong and it seems like a great idea to capitalize using a sequel instead of letting the light burn out.


Are you excited by the news of a new "Counter-Strike"? What FPSs are you playing in the mean time?

Life Sized De_Dust?

Keeping with my seemingly unintentional "video game" themed post for the past week, there is hope that a life sized de_dust will be created!

De_dust, a popular map in the FPS, "Counter-Strike"

I know for some, this is old news (early June to be exact) but for me (as I just found this out) is pretty exciting news. Aram Bartholl is or will be the man responsible for this ambitious project measuring 115 x 110 x 15 metres. But for now though, he has a 1:250 scale model made out of plastic (see below). The final 1:1 piece will be created in full concrete with no colour or textures.

The 1:250 scale model

Bartholl's intention is to create both an art piece and a "walking museum".

Bartholl has worked on various projects such as the "Google Map Project:"

Making landmarks look like "Google Maps"

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

What do you think of this de_dust project? Would you have chosen something else to better represent the gaming culture?

Atom Zombie Smasher

A unique zombie game that forces players to strategically manage resources instead of just pointing and clicking.

Gameplay screenshot of Atom Zombie Smasher

For those that did purchase Humble Bundle #3, I recommend giving this one a definite try. For those that are interested but didn't get the Bundle, you can download the demo (On Windows, Mac and Linux) on Blendo's website at http://blendogames.com/atomzombiesmasher/.

For starters, the above screenshot doesn't do this game justice because the game cannot be summed up in just one picture. The gameplay is an ongoing management frenzy of an ever changing circumstances. The object of the game is simple, either kill all the zombies (or Zed as they are called in this game). To aid you in your mission, you are given a helicopter to evacuate civilians and certain mercenaries. These range from infantry soldiers, mines, dynamite roadblocks and more. The strategy comes in when you realize that some of these mercs aren't always available (if you play without mods) and you have to make due with what you're given. This is definitely a game where you need to pick your battles and know when to surrender.

Replay value in this game is definitely high as the "terrain" is always different and you can always experiment with different combination of mercs.

You can get this game now from Blendo or on steam.


I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.


Have you played Atom Zombie Smasher yet? How is it?

Humble Bundle #3

It's not too late yet, you have one last day to get Humble Indie Bundle #3!

The original 5 games of Humble Bundle 3 (2 more have been added)

This will mark the 3rd pack of indie games where you pay what you want. This is a great chance for people to support indie developers and charity!

As added bonuses, 2 additional games have been added to the bundle (Steel Storm & Atom Zombie Smasher). But they aren't done yet, if you pay more than the average purchase price of Humble Bundle #3, you can get the 5 games included in Humble Bundle #3. That's over 13 games for a great bargain.

You can also link these games to your steam account, especially if you want to do those achievements.

Don't miss out, you can get it at http://www.humblebundle.com/

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Have you played any of the games? What indie games have you enjoyed?

Most Memorable Television Commercials

Today, I present you the top 5 television commercials that seem to be stuck in my head (probably due to repetitive or unique marketing).

5. McDonalds

I don't care what channel I'm watching or what product they're now advertising such as their new happy meal the the "McRib" it just sticks to my head. They just seem to be everywhere.

4. Old Spice

Probably one of the first commercials that I've seen that successfully utilized social media and the viral element of marketing. But it seems like Isaiah Mustafa (the actor in the commercial) got more popular than the product itself.

3. US Army & Marines

There's strong, and there's army strong.

2. Corona

Most of them are very interesting, but in combination with the frequent broadcast of them, they become stuck in my head.

1. Dos Equis

The Most Interesting Man in the World, need I say more?

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images and videos , if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Which commercial have you seen is your most favorite or most memorable commercials?

Welcome to the NHK

As some of you may or may not know the meaning of NEET as my blog title, I can certainly tell you where I came up with it.

Well let's go back to the blog title. It's not just a play on words, but NEET actually stands for "Not Employed, Educated or in Training" and that is exactly what this anime revolves around.

Released back in 2006 for a running of 24 episodes, follows Tatsuhiro Sato. He is a hikikomori (someone that has withdrawn from social life and lives in a degree of confinement) and has been unemployed for several years. In addition, he is a university drop out.

Luckily for Sato, he meets a myserious girl, Misaki Nakahara who says she can cure Sato of his ways. She makes Sato sign a contract which obligates Sato to meet Nakahara every evening in a park for a discussion/lecture on his lifestyle.

I probably made this anime sound boring but you have to watch this. I think I actually finished the series all in one day because I found this so touching.

And as with other animes I recommend, this one also has a fantastic OST.
You can check out the OP of this anime in the video below.

Round Table does some fantastic music

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images and wideos, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Anyways, if you've watched it, what's your opinion on it? How long can you watch something in one sitting?

TF2 Tips

So a few TF2 related posts back, someone wanted me to post some tips for TF2. Now by all means, these are tips are not "professional" by any means. They are just little tricks I use (and probably a lot of other experienced players use) but should be helpful to new/F2P people.

Some of the stuff I will talk about applies to various classes or they are just class specific. I won't go over everything, just some things to start people off.

First thing first, rollouts. You probably won't need to know these for pub servers, but once you play lobbies or more competitive games, you need to understand what the most effective rollout is. For those that do not know what it is, a rollout is essentially the process of getting to the middle point/spot of the map from your spawn point; the faster (and more health you end up with at the middle) the better. Rollouts are unique for each class and for each map and there are many tutorials on video hosting sites you can check out to learn them.


Next comes sniper. Sniper is not my main class, but I play sniper in pub servers just to work on my aiming. But sniper gets really addicting once you start popping those heads.

Once you pop, you just can't stop

 Although I'm saying this is a tip for snipers, this can be applied for all classes. Get to know the map.
This can be especially useful for snipers as you can use landmarks to know where to aim. Take for example ctf_turbine (see below). I'm aiming at my enemy's garage door, but more specifically, my crosshair (or dot) is aiming exactly at the level of where an enemy head would be. So when an enemy pops out, I just need to pan left or right and it will be a guaranteed headshot. I know I'm at that "head" level is by using the "Gate 1" sign to the right. Looking at that sign, where the red meets the white wall (I added that yellow line in paint just to emphasize where it is) I know I'm already locked and loaded.

 Another tip for sniper is to aim your crosshair/dot where it can't be seen by the enemy, and at last minute, move your crosshair at their head. In the picture below, I'm aiming at this structure where enemies can hide behind. If they're behind it, they can't see my dot but right when they move to the right, I can just move my crosshair for a well place shot. Not having your dot seen can put your enemy at ease so they move freely out of cover whereas if they see a sniper aiming for them, they may be more reluctant to move out of cover.

 Next are the "TF2 Advanced Options". Under combat options, make sure you tick off "play a hit sound everytime you injure an enemy" and "display damage done as text over your target". I'll explain the "play a sound one" later but for "displaying damage done" is simple. You know approximately how much health they have left and you can replay this info to your teammates so they can also target weaker enemies.

Now for the last bit, the soldier. This is really a rudimentary skill, but immensely useful, shooting around corners. Your rocket deals splash damage within a fixed radius so you can injure enemies you cannot see.  Used in combination with the "play a sound when you injure an enemy" tip, you can now know if there is actually an enemy around the corner. This will help you decide whether or not you want to proceed or fall back and wait for backup.

Hopefully these tips will help some of you out. Do you have any tips for videos of TF2 you'd like to share?

Hey Arnold! Arnold? Arnold!

From left to right: Helga, Arnold and Gerald

Well, another post about 90's after school cartoons (see my previous post about "Monster Rancher").

Wow, another show I vaguely remember, just faint traces of me sitting in front of the television coming home from school (probably followed by episodes of Monster Rancher, Ha!).

I'll tell you what I do remeber though. I remember Helga as a bully while having unrequited love for Arnold. Gerald as the guy with the hairdo similar to Marge Simpsons from "The Simpsons" and Arnold as "Football Head".

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Any old school shows you'd like to share? What did you watch/grow up with as a child.

Tuition Fees

After a day of panic and distress due to course selection, I now have an invoice on my tuition fees.

For my first year at UTSC (University of Toronto Scarborough for those that haven't seen my previous blog posts) tuition is based per course (and all those extra fees) + co-op fees since I'm in the co-op program. I heard though, for next year, tuition will just be based per semester, not per course, but anyways, for this year, it is $545.00 for a half year course. I'm taking 5 courses each semester. Adding this up with all the fees and then multiplying it by two comes out to be over $7000.

I'm not sure how this compares to the tuition of other post secondary schools in Canada and beyond (I heard that Americans pay much much more than this) but the fun part about my program is that in second year and beyond, the tuition is "non-regulated'. My second year tuition is estimated to be over $13,000; almost double of the amount from first year. Thankfully, I can live at home so I don't have to pay for residence.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

 

How does tuition fees measure up where you live? How do you manage to pay it?