I first watched 0083 years ago, probably around the time of its release, which makes it my first Gundam series now that I think about it. As a standalone series I think it's pretty decent, but as I rewatched it I can easily tell it was meant to fill out the gaps between 0079 and Zeta. For that reason the plot could've easily suffered since it is the bridge between one long series to another, much like how the middle installment of a trilogy feels awkward without a solid beginning or end, however they still were able to pull off a good show. It's interesting to follow Operation Stardust as it unfolds, as well as the characters' attempts to stop it.

My only real complaint about the series is the love triangle between Kou, Nina, and Gato. It's introduced so late in that it seems they decided to throw it in there at the last minute, particularly since Nina didn't recognize Gato when he stole Unit 02, so it gave the impression he means nothing to her. Even after Kou and Gato fought several times, she still didn't seem to give a shit until about episode 10 or so, more than halfway through the show. Unlike Lalah, Char, and Amuro, it doesn't really add much to the plot. Yeah, she helps Gato in the end, but that could've easily been written out and still have him do his kamikaze final attack. The whole situation felt somewhat forced. I also am trying to imagine Gato in a romantic situation with his never-ending furrowed eyebrows as if he's in the midst of an intense dump. Actually, that would be the funniest thing in the world. If they had showed flashbacks of Gato and Nina's dates with him looking completely pissed as he usually does whilst he's sprouting sweet nothings, I would completely forgive the writers for everything.

Sorry, I realized I only did eleven chapters last time. I'll do nine today, then another twenty on Friday, then forty next week. So close to finishing...!

Here's Itachi, trying to get this series back on track. Unfortunately the task was too much for him.

I like how Kishimoto is acting as if we hadn't figured it out from the moment we first met Tobi.

I have to say, human ingenuity amazes me in the littlest of ways. As I crochet, I find it incredible that we thought of using a hook to knot yarn in a certain way to make a stuffed animal. Who the hell thought this up?

Yeah, I haven't done it in the past few weeks. The series is so... weak now that it's hard to gather enthusiasm to continue. We're starting at chapter 540 here, meaning there's 160 left. And Naruto's just left the island to join the battle. Meaning it takes him 160 chapters to finish this fight. Considering part 1 was only 238 chapters long, how the fuck was Kishimoto able to drag this shit on?

I'm surprised Sai isn't here to look at all the cocks.

The jinchuuriki were another thing I would've been interested to see back in the day, but like the Mist Swordsmen by this point I've stopped caring.

I'd been saying for years that it's weird how Gaara still has the panda eyes since he can sleep now without Shukaku. However his dad shows up here with the same eyes as if that's a genetic thing. Incredulous I went back to the chapter we first see him and, yep, it's not there. I'm guessing Kishimoto was reluctant to let go of them because he believes they're a huge part of Gaara's physical appearance and retconned it here, but I feel that takes away from Gaara's struggle. He had those eyes because he literally could not sleep and it added to his psychosis. It just added to the pity we felt for him in that fight.

Oh what the fuck, he has normal eyes in this flashback!

What the shit, he has the eyes at the end of it! Make up your mind, man!

This is called "so premature it's impossible you would've survived."

There's a Filipino show called Oh My G!, and now Ate Neneng is under the impression this is a thing we say in English despite my repeated assurances that we don't. I'm not entirely certain why this annoys me so much; perhaps because it's not really an abbreviation orally considering they're both one syllable. Either way, I've now taken to throwing a pillow at her whenever it comes out of her mouth.

Seriously, what is the point of guns and crossbows in Assassin's Creed when you can just kill them with a throwing knife even faster? I guess the range is farther with the other two, but I don't know why we have them: Just choose the gun or the crossbow.

We were cleaning out the garage when we discovered there were several items we could not put in the trash, i.e. hazardous materials like motor oil, paint stripper, etc. I've heard there were several locations around the city that are willing to take this for homeowners, and a search on the website found possible candidates, but they were all far away in both location and date. So I decided to call up 311 to see if they have any more information, and they clearly did not. So I was forwarded to the DEP, who if anything seemed more confused about my inquiry than 311. I found it odd no one really knew what the hell was going on; surely we're not the only household in the city who has paint stripper? Perhaps we're the only ones who're trying to dispose of it legally?

If you look at early philosophy, you may be surprised it covers a lot of topics that we wouldn't even remotely associate with it, like biology. The ever-famous Aristotle for example wrote about stuff from ethics to politics to dreams to animals. It's because in the original context, philosophy was really just learning about shit. ("Philosophy" means "love of wisdom" in Greek.) Before science broke off and became its own thing, philosophers would talk about the nature of friendship along with how whales reproduce. And why the hell not? It's not like there were clinical trials back then. It was a bunch of dudes sitting together and debating.

That was way back in the day, and I think philosophy has suffered a crisis over the past century because so much of it can be answered with, "Well, we'll just test that in a lab." For example, no one is going to talk about the soul anymore because there's no way we could prove anything either way. Plato for example divided it into three parts and actually identified those parts to specific parts of the body. Today if you try to submit something like that to an academic journal, people would just laugh at you.

That's not to say that there aren't topics left, but it's become even more narrow as even the humanities section of philosophy have formed their own departments, like political science. It's still moving forward, but I have difficulty reading modern works (well, okay, I'll admit I was never really a fan to start with) because now the topics are stuff like the linguistic definition of "the" in a mathematical proof. Exciting that is not for me. Although I guess it's probably better than people trying to calculate how large of a sphere the heavens are above us and being terribly, horribly wrong.

Since Assassin's Creed II the series showcased famous locations (e.g. Florence Cathedral) where the player just does basic platform jumping to get to a specific goal. I think that is probably my favorite part of the series and really why I enjoy playing Assassin's Creed: I like to just run around and look at shit in this virtual world. When you throw me into Hagia Sophia and say, "Here you go. Try to climb this bitch," I am the happiest motherfucker in the world. Who the fuck hasn't had a wish fantasy when they encounter something amazing and think, "Wow, I would really love to explore this"? Since it's impossible for me to run all over the Pantheon in real life, I'll take this instead.

You know what I've noticed recently when I'm at the checkout? The cashiers are calling the customers guests: "Next guest, please." I find that really weird because I'm not a guest; I'm a customer. This isn't a hotel. Is this some sort of PR thing that tries to make the store-customer relationship less cynical?

I was listening to Google's ultimate plans for automated cars, and it was for communal usage. So for example, what would you do during an engine problem along the road? Well, the car would be programmed to move to the shoulder, and then you'd get out and jump onto one of the other cars that's zipping along the highway and looking for possible passengers. The engineer who was being interviewed discussed how this system would be more efficient overall. Now commuters don't have to waste an hour driving: They can spend that time reading, doing taxes, or sleep some more. We wouldn't need to devote space to parking lots since all the necessary cars are already on the road. And the cars themselves would be more effective because instead of sitting in your driveway for the twenty hours of the day you're not using them, they'd be picking up all sorts of people.

Let me put out this disclaimer: I actually dislike driving. If I had to pick public transit over driving I'd do it any day. Because driving myself means time spent traveling is me focusing on the road instead of playing video games or reading as I usually do. And I actually sometimes still get a little carsick, which never ever happens to me on the train or bus, even when that double decker Amtrak was swaying back and forth precariously across the Nevada desert. But Google's plan just sounded absolutely terrible to me. If there's one thing I've learned as a public transit user, the moment it becomes public everything goes to shit. Those cars are probably going to be the filthiest things in the world. On the train people are still cowed by social pressure since we're all standing together, and yet that stuff still comes out terrible. Can you imagine taking that context to the quite solitude of a car that you don't own? People would just be awful: leaving dirty diapers on the seat, vomit everywhere...

So I've been out of the Harry Potter fandom for over a decade now — although my love the books never waned, I started moving onto Naruto c.2003 and by college I had completely left — but I get the feeling now, due to lack of new materials, people have made wild speculations about Harry and the others' kids. It's not like we didn't do the same back in the day; in the three-year interim between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix people exploded with ideas about what would happen now that Voldemort returned. (Few rightly predicted that he would lay low to gather strength and Fudge would start persecuting anyone who said otherwise.)

I really love fandom. I love looking at fanart, gushing over merch, and reading people discussing something I enjoy. But as a fan I like to keep my foot in reality, and I highly suspect many do not, which makes me wonder why they're fans to begin with. Let's take the person in that confession above: Do you know why people are interested in the Marauders? Because the books focused heavily on them. Hell, Prisoner of Azkaban was almost entirely about his parents' generation. If you compare that to that one chapter at the end of Deathly Hallows, of course people are going to pay more attention to the the Marauders. Victoire is literally only mentioned once in passing. Why the hell would I care about her when there's so much shit about Remus, Sirius, James, and Peter? Did you even like the books? Because if you wanted to skip all the stuff about them and say literally at the very end here's where the good shit is, I don't know why you're even in this fandom.

I'm guessing you just like non-cis, homosexual materials, but then again I'm wondering why you're here. That didn't really happen in Harry Potter. Yeah, fandom is half wish fulfillment ("wouldn't it be great if Shinji and Kaworu banged?"), but at the end of the day that wasn't what Harry Potter is about. If you want to discuss that type of stuff, then I'm not certain this is the platform for you, which is why you'll be eternally frustrated. Because let's be honest: Practically everyone in that series is straight and cis, which mirrors the general population. You're gonna have to look elsewhere if you want something that isn't that.

Back in the day I wanted to see the rest of the Seven Swordsmen, but at this late date I don't really care that much. They did have pretty awesome moves though.

I think this was my problem with the Third Ninja War arc: There were so many fucking people introduced at once that we didn't have enough time to get emotionally attached and instead half the fights involved dudes I barely know or care about. When I reading this now, I looked at this page and thought, "Wow, I can't even give the names for half of these people." The Chuunin Exam arc threw a lot of new characters at the beginning, but it was less people and Kishimoto slowly gave us the abilities and backgrounds of everyone involved over the course of the arc so we'd get to know them and come to like them. Here it's a shit ton of players dumped at once for one fight.

In reality though, this move was silly because the most common word you'd say would probably be something like です or　だ instead of "dull" or "sorry."

I wondered about this. Like... should Kakuzu have those other hearts when he's reincarnated? It's not like they were technically part of his body. He stole them. And they were destroyed before his death. He should just be one creepy tentacle guy by himself.

Wow, there were that few shinobi in the world?

Sorry about all those times I masturbated then.

With Amazon Prime, you can have your orders delivered to you within two days. When I first read that a long time ago, I thought to myself, "There's no fucking way they can make a profit with that considering how expensive two-day shipping is." I'm guessing I was right because a few years later Amazon implemented some policies: Add-on items, i.e. items that are so cheap they require the order be at least $25. Or giving customers the option to choose a slower shipping speed, but you get a $1-$3 coupon for digital music, books, or videos. It's the latter that confuses me; I usually choose it when I'm not in a particular hurry. However I couldn't help but notice a reoccurring pattern: Amazon would hold onto the package until two days before, then ship it. So it's still a two-day shipment, you just waited a week. Sometimes I even receive it exactly two days after I placed the order! How is this saving you money? My only guess is behind the scenes their internal trucks moved things between warehouses at a slower pace.

Me: http://tumblr.tastefullyoffensive.com/post/123373669368/bob-the-golden-retriever-is-best-friends-with#.VZ2_AkaME0o
Paul: This was so cute I shit myself.
Me: What I love about myself is you never know what'll happen when you click on a link I sent you.  It could be cute animals.  It could be a dick pic.
Paul: Truer words were never written...you psycho.

If you were a kid growing up in America, you'd know instantly this was a reference to a 1936 Looney Tunes episode:

But that song was actually from a dude named Cab Calloway, which was featured in a 1936 movie called The Singing Kid (Calloway is the guy dancing on the ledge in front of the orchestra and comes in second):

Most of us can remember the first verse (the little owl sings it repeatedly before being cut off throughout the cartoon), but few can produce the full thing:

I love to sing-a
About the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a,
I love to sing-a,
About a sky of blue-a, or a tea for two-a,
Anything-a with a swing-a to an "I love you-a,"
I love to, I love to sing!
Give me a song-a
About a son-a gun that went and done her wrong-a.
But keep it clean-a,
With a cottage small-a by a waterfall-a,
Any sob-a that will throb-a to a bluebird's call-a,
I love, I love to sing!
I was born a singin' fool-a,
Lah-de-dah!
Ol' Major Bowes is gonna spot me,
Got through Yale with boula-boula,
Lah-de-dah!
Old microphone's got me!
I love to sing-a,
I love to wake up with the south-a in my mouth-a,
And wave a flag-a,
With a cheer for Uncle Sammy and another for my mammy,
I love to sing!
The swingin'est,
Hot singin'est,
Bell-ringin'est,
Song singin'est
High tootin'est,
Sky tootin'est,
I love to sing!

Many of us would probably scratch our heads and couldn't make heads or tails of this, especially toward the middle. "Major Bowes" was the host of the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, a very popular radio show that lasted from 1934 to 1952, in which people would come on to display their talents, and often would be booted off with a bell. Similar to American Idol and is actually what the owl is doing in the Looney Tunes show. (Jack Bunny, who replaces Major Bowes in the cartoon, was a pun on Jack Benny, a well-known comedian at the time.) "Boula Boula" (misspelled here) was a fighting song at Yale. (The University of Oklahoma took their fighting song, "Boomer Sooner," from this.)

Oftentimes with history or literature is as a modern individual you only get the final South Park result. A person who's only seen that is so far removed from the original 1936 context that there's no way you'd understand it, and that moment just seems like a silly thing the creators made up. Half of the job for history or English professors is the attempt to dig through the words to find that original context, and sometimes it's impossible. There's no way you'd be able to go from South Park to Cab Calloway on your own. Or if you do, without outside resources you'd never figure out what Major Bowes or boula-boula are. Or if you're really ignorant, what swing, Yale, or Uncle Sammy are. Can you imagine trying to figure out the inside jokes from The Iliad and The Odyssey? Some people devote their entire professional careers to that, reading every snippet they can find and trying to connect the dots to create a larger picture. And unlike science, where eventually your experiment works, you know it'll never come to fruition without another discovery of more materials with new information, which almost never happens. But if you ever do line up all the dots, it's one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Playing Assassin's Creed: Revelations has brought a thought that's been lurking in the back of my mind to the front. Years ago with the first game, I came under the impression that the Templars were a worldwide conspiracy lasting a thousand years, and the Assassins were the only ones who could stop them because the masses are ignorant. As such the history that Assassin's Creed gives us is parallel to the one we're taught in real life. For example, in Assassin's Creed II, it's implied the globus cruciger is actually an Apple, which is why kings were able to control the populace. Being let in on this information, only us the player alongside the Assassins are able to see the truth.

Starting with Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and continuing with Revelations, this idea doesn't really apply well anymore. It seems the general populace is fully fucking aware of who the Assassins are and even appear to be playing them off against the Templars, as if they're two political groups or rival gangs. Last night during a mission we discovered a merchant was funding the Templars, and when we confronted him about it, he said with shock, "You're... you're Assassins?" How the fuck do you even know that? To the world, the Assassins should've died out in the 1200s, but now you're saying everyone and their mother realize they're hanging around in Constantinople? What happened to our stealth element?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised because there's a giant fucking flag with our symbol hanging right outside our headquarters, broadcasting our existence to the world. It makes you wonder why the Templars don't just fucking storm the place. Maybe they know it wouldn't work since the crusaders invaded the Maysaf fortress twice and that didn't seem to stop the Assassins from just walking back into town like nothing happened.

[01:25:31] gattsu456: YO
[01:25:34] gattsu456: DID YOU READ THE NEW CHAPTER?
[01:25:43] gattsu456: 10
[01:25:49] Dun 4 Hire: YO
[01:25:53] Dun 4 Hire: WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA
[01:25:56] gattsu456: KABUTO
[01:25:59] Dun 4 Hire: TO LEAVE THE ORPHANS WITH KABUTO
[01:26:03] gattsu456: FUCKING KABUTO
[01:26:04] Dun 4 Hire: WHOSE FUCKING IDEA WAS THAT
[01:26:06] gattsu456: IN CHARGE OF ALL THE KIDS
[01:26:10] Dun 4 Hire: LIKE WHAT I LOVE
[01:26:20] Dun 4 Hire: IS THIS IS ALREADY A SYSTEM THAT'S IN PLACE
[01:26:26] Dun 4 Hire: HE WAS ALREADY IN CHARGE OF THE KIDS
[01:26:29] Dun 4 Hire: AND THEY JUST GAVE HIM MORE
[01:26:34] gattsu456: HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN BUTT-FUCKING ALL THESE POOR KIDS
[01:26:46] Dun 4 Hire: MEANING THEY'VE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA FOR A LONG TIME
[01:26:54] Dun 4 Hire: HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE
[01:26:58] Dun 4 Hire: WHAT HAPPENED THAT LED TO THIS POINT
[01:27:06] gattsu456: WHY WOULD NARUTO EVEN LET THIS SHIT HAPPEN
[01:27:06] gattsu456: WHY
[01:27:18] gattsu456: AND OROCHIMARU GETS TO DO WHATEVER TOO
[01:27:28] gattsu456: CLEARLY, AS EVERYONE THOUGHT, MAKING NARUTO THE HOKAGE WAS A TERRIBLE FUCKING IDEA
[01:29:04] Dun 4 Hire: WHY DID NO ONE STOP HIM
[01:29:08] Dun 4 Hire: WHY ARE THEY LETTING THIS CONTINUE
[01:29:29] Dun 4 Hire: SURELY IT SHOULD'VE BEEN OVER BEFORE IT EVEN STARTED
[01:29:29] Dun 4 Hire: BUT NO
[01:29:31] Dun 4 Hire: IT STARTED
[01:29:36] Dun 4 Hire: AND IT'S STILL GOING
[01:33:22] gattsu456: HOW THE FUCK COULD THEY LET IT HAPPEN
[01:33:29] gattsu456: AND THEY MADE IT HIS JOB
[01:33:33] gattsu456: THEY'RE ENCOURAGING THIS SHIT
[01:40:05] Dun 4 Hire: WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF SHIKAMARU
[01:40:11] Dun 4 Hire: CLEARLY HE'S NOT DOING HIS JOB
[02:28:33] gattsu456: THE YOUTH IS DOOMED
[02:28:34] gattsu456: JUST DOOMED
[02:28:37] gattsu456: THERE IS NO HOPE.

The real question is who were the five people who did not find that review helpful.

Sorry, I wanna go back for a bit because something occurred to me today: When Konan and Nagato invaded Konoha, they noticed there's a barrier around it. If that was in place, then it sure as hell didn't detect the Sound Four picking Sasuke up.

This panel was unimportant for the flashback; Kishimoto just added it to give us a good punch to the gut.

Oh yeah, this fucker! I wonder if the Third is still fighting Orochimaru's arms in his stomach.

I put this alongside the Dynamic Entry as one of the funniest moments of the series. The set up was brilliant and Guy's face was hilarious. When I first read it years ago, I had to lie down for a bit because I was laughing so hard.

And then you sober up when you realize Guy is younger than we are in this moment, and his inner self knows he's no longer youthful...

Yeah, seriously! He's my favorite fucking summon and he never shows up!

I know this moment is supposed to show Kisame's resolve in his final moments, but I just wonder if he actually did die against A and B. If you know what type of person you truly are at that moment, then I guess it would signify deep down he is very appreciative of a double lariat.

Instead of being upset about this tender moment of Konan's death, all I'm thinking is, "How fucking coincidental the only one that didn't get turned around is hers because of the attack, and then her red paper just happens to fall on top of it." It's like when Zack fell into the church in Crisis Core. Instead of evoking deep emotions, I'm just incredulous.

If there's something I've learned from history, when you throw together the armies of separate nations on such a short notice, especially ones that were at odds shortly before, it is a fucking mess. Even if you weren't contending with mutual distrust between the soldiers and the competitive egos of the generals (which you always do), there's still not enough time to sync everyone smoothly. Putting it into the Naruto universe's perspective, Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru spent years learning each others' moves and forming solid teamwork. Now you have a bunch of strangers who know jack shit about each other in the same squad. It won't have the same fighting capabilities. Like, no one is aware of Sai's repertoire with his ink animals. Or the extent of Kiba's team attacks with Akamaru.

During the fight itself, it's implied the Third is the one who stopped the Fourth from showing up. He thinks to himself, "Coffins...? I need to stop the next one!" and does this seal. Then Orochimaru thinks to himself, "It didn't show up...? Oh well, it's not necessary. This is enough." R-r-r-r-retcon!

Blue Dragon completed. I started this c.2010 when Frank randomly showed up at my house to hang out, and then didn't play it again until a few months ago. I think I can sum it up with "all right." There's nothing really bad about it, but simultaneously there's nothing amazing about it. It's really the epitome of what I think of a JRPG: turn-based, world map, etc.

The plot was okay up to a point: Bad guy with super powers is destroying the world in his quest for world domination, and your little gang is trying to take him out. Some parts of the story are somewhat fuzzy; you know there was an ancient civilization that could use magic, although no one can anymore. The antagonist is from that ancient time and is using his abilities to keep the people subjected. It's never really explained why he's still alive (albeit old and decrepit) or why the old civilization collapsed (I'm guessing though through warfare). At the end of the game the antagonist splits the planet and has islands of cubes floating between the two halves where towns are placed. Supposedly this is what the ancients did with the world, although it's unknown what advantage this gives or why anyone would want this.

None of the characters really evoke any strong emotion from the player in either direction. Well, Maromaro had a really annoying voice, but that was about it. I found them overall to be enjoyable, but they won't stay in my heart like from other games.

The graphics are 3D and simple. Toriyama did the character design, and I wish people would stop asking him to do that. Just take Bulma, Goku, or Piccolo, swap the hair and clothes, and you've got every single character he's ever made. I already complained about the focusing issue, and I'm still somewhat confused by that. I know this is DVD technology, but the 360 can handle more than this.

Uematsu did the music, and it's not his best of works. Lost Odyssey was released the following year and was definitely a lot better.

Even with all these complaints, it's still a solid game. Not the best, but definitely good. I'd recommend it.

Man, Akimichi Torifu looks badass. Why can't we get more of that? Instead we get lameass Homura and Koharu.

The Second looks really cool here, willing to sacrifice himself for the younger generation. Then later we discover he's an asshole.

Seriously, how the hell do people have these deep conversations mid-move? I have an idea. Go out on the streets and stab someone. See if in your subconscious you can have a heart-to-heart with your victim just as your knife penetrates his body.

I wonder how it is for the frog who's stuck inside Naruto. Maybe he has tea and conversation with the crow that's inside of him too.

It's odd because we were all complaining about how much Naruto slowed down, but I felt the Motoi/Killer B thing was too rushed. We didn't have the time to develop emotional attachment to Motoi for this to be anything more than sob story no. 381.

I know why Naruto's wearing that fishnet under his shirt; all ninjas traditionally do. It's kinda ridiculous in this series because everyone's wearing normal clothes except for Anko and Shikamaru. But yeah, fishnet and ninjas. Why is that a thing?

Also, that unlocking method was kinda cool.

I wonder if Kishimoto made Kushina's hair like that so Naruto could say that line.