What age are we again? I can't even fucking remember anymore.

I'm trying to put up some pictures on my bathroom wall, but mom wanted some anchors since they're somewhat heavy. I bought some and measured out where they should go, but then when I double-checked online what to do, I found in the review section it worked wonderfully for half the people and the other half said it was shit that fell out of the wall.

Now I'm worried because I have only one shot. There's some really expensive, nice wallpaper, and I can't make a mistake on it. I wanna try it out on some spare drywall first for practice, but I got nothing. So this is it. Either I do excellently or have my mother hate me forever.

There's currently a rape trial in New Hampshire about a then-high school senior who was in a competition about who could have the sex with most girls. Honestly this would not be news whatsoever if the school weren't so prestigious, but there were some interesting points in the trial. The girl was aware the mechanical room they were in was known for making out and having sex, and she contends she believed they were only doing the former and said no to sex thrice. The accused denies this and said she was willing throughout the whole encounter.

New Hampshire apparently has a more flexible law code involving rape because in most states this would not even come to trial because no real show of force was involved. Many people are commenting this does not reflect modern reality, i.e. many women do not struggle because they're fearful to being attacked or that they still go along with it even though they've voiced their opinion.

Although I'm sympathetic to women who are in that situation, I can understand why many prosecutors are hesitant to bring such cases to trial. In this society, the onus of proving guilt is on the accuser beyond a reasonable doubt, and unfortunately rape can be very difficult to prove. Outside of being kidnapped or drugged, a conversation in the bedroom is hard to validate, particularly when consent is often ascertained through body language or visual cues. For example, the girl in this rape case agrees that she lifted her arms and hips to allow herself to be stripped easier. If she did say no several times throughout the incident, that's a pretty mixed message right there.

I agree that there is a lot of victim-blaming when it comes to rape, but there's also the reality of the situation: It's really hard to prove a case about an oral agreement, whether it's rape or even a financial deal. It's not like we're going to start handing out forms for men and women to produce and sign right before sex to assure everyone is consenting. So until then my only advice is for women to do everything they can to show they were not willing: be firm during the process about what boundaries you want to set and if you're worried about being hurt during it, go to the police immediately afterward to demonstrate this was not something you wanted.

I'm not a doctor or anything, but I'm certain shoving your hand in someone's chest and grabbing their heart is not a thing. How many ribs did she have to break to do that?

Of course Kabuto had to top that with shoving a snake into someone's chest.

It's cool to see Gai's dad and all, but I still really wanna see the parents who spawned Lee.

Seriously though, how much of this was with Kishimoto from the beginning and how much did he make up later, and in the latter case when? There are hints he's thinking of it with the Uchiha monument and the Valley of the End, but I can't believe when you look back at chapter sixteen when we're fighting Haku that Kaguya is floating somewhere in the background.

No, no, he didn't. I don't know why Naruto's pretending he knows he's Ashura's reincarnation because we all just learned about this now. This wasn't something floating around. We were just given it. Naruto's just making stuff up.

Whoa, Sasuke, when the hell did you get here? Last I checked, there was only Naruto.

I really like this scene because it kinda proves Gai and Lee's point: Their method got really, really close to killing Madara. They proved they're not people to sneer at.

To be honest Sakura is a fucking amazing ninja, but I was still disappointed in her because she never was on the same level as Sasuke or Naruto. I can't blame her for that though considering she's not the reincarnation of a god or anything.

Also, this is really late, but how did she get that diamond on her head. Tsunade said she's been pouring chakra into hers for years and years, but Sakura just magically got hers in the middle of battle.

Oh man, this is Kiba's dream? Why the hell aren't we making him Hokage? He probably wouldn't have Kabuto diddling little kids too.

And this is why we don't let Shino's dreams come true.

This was the biggest plot twist in the past hundred chapters I think, that Kaguya was Black Zetsu the whole time. However she came in so late that she almost feels like a Final Fantasy boss who was thrown in at the final moments.

Byakugan? When was the last time that was relevant to anything? Also, I didn't remember it looking like some sort of poison gas.

Now that we're at the end of the series and all, did we ever find out what was up with Kurenai's eyes? It was like sharingan but not.

Why the hell are the buttons on the PS4 "options" and "share?" What happened to start and select? They haven't fucking made sense in the 80s, so why are we even trying to revamp them?

Jesus Christ, did not realize your wrist could start hurting this much from crocheting. Well, at least it's done.

Thanks a lot to everyone who came yesterday~~!

I bought Tales of Hearts R before I got a Vita. Because there was a limited time to some DLC for free, I went to the PSN store and downloaded it onto my PS3, which placed it in my "already downloaded" section, and I easily was able to acquire it there once I purchased my Vita.

Nintendo, you need to step up your game.

So as I was using my Wii U, I got DLC for Smash for both the Wii U and 3DS versions. As I was installing it there, I turned on my 3DS and tried to do the same, until I realized it was requiring me to buy it again. If I were in PSN, it'd tell me right away I already bought this and just let me download it for free. But no, here it was telling me to buy this shit. Confused, I looked online to see how I get the shit I already purchased. According to Nintendo's site, this is what I have to do:

1. Get on my Wii U and go to the store.
2. Go to "account activity" and check my receipt for the DLC.
3. Find some code on it.
4. Go to the store on my 3DS and go to "enter code."
5. Input that 15-character code.

What the shit, Nintendo? This isn't your first online shop. You're telling me you can't do better than this?

Also, because I registered both the 3DS and Wii U versions around their release date, I got MewTwo for free. However now there's a bundle with MewTwo, Ryu, Roy, and Lucas, and it refuses to let me buy that because I already have MewTwo. So I have to get the other three individually, which is more expensive than the bundle. Thanks for making a prize turn out to be a detriment.

Today I forgot my cell phone at home, and I was supposed to contact Greene at some point to say whether I could meet up with him or not. As I walked around, I came across several phone booths and each time I had the same thought: "If only I remembered his number...!" Back in the day I had many memorized: my house, my grandmother's, Darnell's, Paul's, Moham's, Julian's... Now all I've got is my house and cell. The rest I'm drawing a huge blank. Back in the day before I had a cell I used to carry a small address book with everyone's number, but in the age of digital contact lists it seemed rather pointless. I know we all talk about reliance on our phones, but it didn't really hit home how much I've regressed until I stood by that phone booth and sighed wistfully.

I could never fucking get over this, how Kyuubi could talk to the Kyuubi that was inside of the Fourth before his death. It created such a metaphysical crisis for me and it went on and on for so many chapters.

That's okay, Shikamaru. You're pretty much useless along with everyone else at the end of the series. People would try to show their solidarity once every ten chapters or so, and then fade into the background.

This is too much shit to add at the end of the series. I also love how apparently no one knows about this except the Uchiha clan. I'm surprised people are taking that at face value. It's like Joseph Smith; apparently he had the tablets that spoke the truth of this world, however I'll still be suspicious.

Orochimaru's talking as if this makes sense. How the fuck do enzymes that were injected into your neck enter a jutsu... why the fuck am I trying to make sense of this manga at this point?

I read an op-ed that I unfortunately cannot find now that discussed Obama's plan to make community college free for students with a certain grade-point average. Most students who enter community college do not graduate for a plethora of reasons, many of which are not financial: a death in the family, parents themselves aren't college grads, not being able to balance a job and schoolwork. But one reason got to me: Many of these students were not accustomed to being away from home, and would basically party until they fell behind on their grades.

This is a problem not only belonging to community colleges. My professor told me after the fall of the Soviet Union, the university received an influx of students from the Eastern Bloc, and the majority of them did not do well because they were not used to our system. According to them, there was too much self-reliance and self-discipline involved instead of having the state dictate your path and punish you if you don't follow it. It's like that for many students across the spectrum who leave the structured lifestyle created by their parents, but unlike community colleges most of them have the financial backing to retake a semester or even a year if something goes wrong. The op-ed I read said many comunity colleges have support groups for students who fall into this trap, but there still needs to be the initiative from the student to attend it. The author said this wasn't enough and perhaps there needed to be further measures implemented.

Really what we're asking whether it's fair to treat teenagers as children their whole lives and then suddenly expect them to be responsible adults the moment they hit eighteen. Maybe, maybe not. Children attending school far away from home and partying isn't a new thing; we have letters from the Middle Ages from sons asking their fathers for more money, probably due to spending it on alcohol, women, etc. I think at some point you have to to just deal with shit yourself, and if not in the college years then when? And at what point do you force the kid to learn how to deal with this? If you continue to baby them, will they be ready for the workforce later that would not put up with this bullshit?

Part of the problem is many students should not be in college. They just do not have the mindset for it, but they really don't have much choice. Yeah, there are plenty of high-paying jobs that don't require a degree, but they're starting to fade. And I suspect it's going to continue like that as automation will take over the more menial jobs until all there's left are ones that require a human brain, like engineering, art, chemistry, engineering, politics, etc. So people who hated school will find themselves in it for a longer period of time instead of entering the workforce at a younger age like in our grandparents' day, and not be able to commit themselves such as someone like me, who actually enjoys studying.

I think having support groups and introductory seminars are the best compromise at the moment. After all, even when you grow up it's still on you to attend such things, whether it's for weight loss or alcoholism. If you don't have that sort of internal impetus at that point, you may never have it.

Sorry, I know it's just a couple dozen chapters left, but it's really painful. I'm gonna try to bust out three posts this week.

This arc was all about building the village to unite the clans, try to stop the endless war, and to allow the children to grow up, but ironically the standard for becoming a ninja is twelve, which last I checked is still a child. I loved how the arc ended with saying the kids can now live long enough to drink alcohol. Nope, still twelve. And clearly people didn't give a shit about their safety; remember how gleeful Anko was at the thought of teenagers dying in a forest?

Man, this kid is trying hard to seem bad ass, but he looks so cute I can't take him seriously.

I said earlier I liked this arc, but to be honest the premise was ridiculous. The equivalent is a teenager from Brooklyn summoning Peter Stuyvesant from the dead and asking him what a "city" is. Like, finding out the government had it in for your brother and family shouldn't make you forget everything you've been taught up to that point. What the hell was the Ninja Academy doing up? Iruka, your students are pathetic. One graduated without knowing what chakra is and the other doesn't understand what a village is. Maybe you should change career paths because clearly you keep on passing idiots.

How the fuck is Naruto totally OK with this? He doesn't even question his dad coming back from the dead to talk with him. There should be questions. Questions like, "I stopped edo tensei. How are you still here?" You can say he can sense his father's chakra, but he sure as hell didn't notice a meeting consisting of him, the Third, Orochimaru, and Sasuke. So undead father shows up to the fight, totally cool with that.

I like how Naruto's supposedly already falling for Hinata at this point, but he still pulls this. Admittedly I'm finding he Naruto/Hinata thing kinda rushed; she just confesses briefly during the fight with Nagato and Naruto never thinks about it ever again, only to hold her hand briefly when Neji died. Well, I guess it's a post-series kind of thing.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa. How the fuck was Minato able to do this? You became a jinchuuriki for like 0.2 seconds before dying. And suddenly you're able to have this chakra shawl out of fucking nowhere? You need fucking time to learn how to do crap, buddy.

Yo, seriously dude. What the fuck.

No one is Kiba. You stopped being important after the "Retrieve Sasuke" arc.

God, remember back in the old days we debated whether Sasuke and Sakura would summon the slug and snake, and some of us were incredulous that they would follow Tsunade and Orochimaru's paths? Well, it only took about 630 chapters to get to this point. The last time we saw this summon trio was back in 157.

...Where did Sasuke's snake come from? He killed Manda.

I like how even at the end of the series, we still never see Tsunade's face when she turns old.

God, this guy went from the scariest dude in the series to the boogey man you scare your kids with.

I mentioned before I'm not certain Kishimoto knew what he wanted to do with Orochimaru, and this is one of the lamest excuses ever. "Yeah, I've been doing all this crazy shit to stay immortal, and since being stuck in a seal on a woman's neck for a few months I've realized all I want to do with my life is watch Sasuke do some crazy shit."

Another problem I have with late in the series is I have no fucking idea what is happening. There's all this crazy shit going on with little explanation. The Third is there thinking, "This is similar to Oonoki's Jinton." Great, what the fuck does that mean? You mean that move where he encased Sasuke in a box? I think that's another reason why Naruto went downhill; if your manga revolves around fights and they're not enjoyable, what is the point?

I believe it was because we grew up in the 90s shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, but I was raised that capitalism is the shit. In recent years it's understandably taken a hit due to the financial crisis, but I've seen more and more comments of late that "capitalism is evil." Eh... not really? It's an economic system; it's not inherently good or evil. It just... is. Technically capitalism means production and industry are owned by private individuals, not the state. I stated before on xanga I think a good government has both a mixture of capitalism and socialism, and the rest is just arguing where the line is. For example, Amtrak is a piece of shit because no one in the government is funding that. If perhaps you got investors to put up some money for a high-speed rail, perhaps it'd do much butter. Or on the other side, the military doesn't really need to be owned by the state; we could just hire Blackwater (now called Xe) for all our needs; probably would save a lot of money we spend on a standing army.

I think very few people who throw out the line "capitalism is evil" really think about that statement deeply. Do we have problems today with job security, wages, and unemployment? Sure thing. But I don't necessarily that capitalism is the source of all the ills. Just because the state owns it doesn't mean they also can't hire people for barely anything and fire them at the drop of a hat. Places like charter schools go out of their way to staff non-union teachers so they can be more easily disposed of.

I guess there's also banking and the stock market which... okay, I'll admit it's pretty fucked up there. There's plenty of interest-rate rigging and whatnot, but we all have to admit our society would not function without a modern banking system. How would you get loans to open up that bodega at the corner? Borrow from families? Oh wait, private ownership is evil, so therefore you should just be an employee at a state-owned grocery depot. Okay, fine, how would you be able to transfer money for your online purchases without banks? Goddammit, those websites are private companies too, so we can't do that.

Our current system has problems, don't get me wrong, but throwing a blanket term that "capitalism is evil" or "I need this job because of capitalism" doesn't really make any sense. Socialism doesn't solve all your problems. You'd still need a job in a socialist economy. And you wouldn't necessarily get your dream job in a socialist economy. Or if you did, that it would be able to sustain yourself and a family. Regulation is probably the way to go for some of the excesses, but then you have to wonder how much is too regulation to the point that it's choking the economy (I'm looking at you, France). Considering the current distrust in the government I'm surprised that people are throwing around socialism as a solution; do you honestly trust congress to be handling major portions of our economy right now?

I mentioned earlier the "cinematic scenes" Murata was creating for OnePunch Man, and now that I've bought some of the manga I realize they're actually removing them entire. I kinda get it because flipping about ten or so pages for a single moment seems pretty ridiculous, but it was a pretty nice effect that I think people who aren't looking at the original are missing. I wonder how Murata and his team feel considering all that hard work is completely erased. Well, not entirely, but not in the finished product.

The problem with crochet is the yarn is so fucking huge. Sewing I have literally hundreds of packs of thread, but they only take up about half a square foot of space. I literally only own about six or seven skeins of yarn, but they're already getting in the way. How the hell do people deal with this shit?

Okay, for real now. Rune Factory 4 completed. The point of the game was saving this dragon who lived in the town. The first arc was putting these mana-producing stones around the world, which restored its health. In the second arc the emperor from the neighboring kingdom stole them all and used them on himself to become an ultimate being, and in the final battle with him the dragon sacrificed itself. The third arc was figuring out a way to bring it back to life. My problem with this is I knew the dragon for such a short period of time that I never actually gave a damn. I finished part one before autumn hit, the dragon was unconscious for most of part two, and wasn't there at all until the end of part three. My character would reminisce about the fun times she had, but I don't remember any. I barely knew this thing.

I'm putting the game down now, but I'm somewhat regretful that I never got my affection points high enough to see the proposal scenes for all of my boyfriends. Yeah, THAT was amazing. Until now in the Rune Factory series you raised your affection to a potential spouse to 10, did a quick sidequest with them, and then they're ready for marriage. In this one you can raise the affection all you want, but that won't help you. You have to first confess and date, then after a bit you can propose. Only one spouse allowed, but you can date all the men you want. I actually feel somewhat guilty because some of them say they have trust issues, but they know I'll be faithful. Whoops.

Reading this shit is getting physically painful by this point.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Obito, you didn't have to take it there.

As creepy as Zetsu is, it's hard to believe he was so poo-centered originally.

Kakashi got his mangekyou from Rin's death? Why the hell wasn't he using it all along then against Zabuza, Itachi, and shit? The way it suddenly appeared after the time skip, I thought he'd acquired it during then.

Kakashi has a dog wall? Kick ass.

Didn't know "shinobi alliance jutsu" is a thing, but okay.

You know, if I had to pick one person who out of that chuunin exam wasn't going to make it to the end of the series, I wouldn't think it'd be Neji. It's kinda depressing that the last time he shone was during that fight with Kidoumaru. That was so many years ago (Jesus Christ, back in high school...) that our nostalgia for him almost faded by this point. He was a really big thing back in the day, kinda like byakugan itself, but it all fell to the background along with everything else we liked about the series.

This quasi-arc talking about the village's foundation is the last time I felt excitement reading Naruto, and when it's over I know it's gonna be hell to the end.

The Tales series had a habit of removing the pop song in the opening and replacing it with a classical piece. I was okay with that to be honest because I enjoyed most of them (Symphonia's was particularly memorable), but recently they've started keeping them. Abyss had an instrumental of the original, Vesperia an English version of the Japanese, Graces did the same, and finally Xillia, Xillia 2, and Symphonia just kept the Japanese. The latest port to arrive on American shores is Hearts R, and it returned to the classical opening. Okay, odd, but I'm willing to roll with it. If not for the fact they kept the game in Japanese. Yeah, there isn't even an option for English. The entire fucking game is in Japanese. So if you thought your audience would be scared off with this strange language, why would you think they'd be cool with the whole game?

I really like K, and I can't figure out why. It's clearly a series the makers put a lot of thought into, but they weren't able to explain it well in the anime proper. Instead you have to read all the novels, drama CDs, and interviews to understand the game mechanics. With the anime itself, what you think would be the showcase for the series, K comes off as pretty shallow with character clichés thrown together into a nonsensical plot. Even with all this background crap that wasn't mentioned in the show itself, I would say it's okay at best, but for some reason I really, really enjoy it, and I would never ever recommend it to anyone.

Sometimes I feel people aren't able to separate what is "favorite" versus what is "best." My favorite game of all time is Okami, but I can list its flaws easily: It's not paced well, it's really easy, and the final boss is disappointing. Would I call it the best game of all time? No. "Best" admittedly is subjective, but I could definitely think of something without such flaws.

I'm a person who gets heavily obsessed with a series and often my entire life for a while will revolve around it, but I'm still able to step back and say, "Yeah, I can understand why someone wouldn't like it." But I think others are not, which is why you have fandom fights like Star Wars versus Star Trek. Or people taking it personally if you don't care about a sports team or a band. To the point that votes for politicians are dependent on it? I remember reading how shocked people were that Obama used a Zune back in 2008, and some said they wouldn't choose him when they went to the polling station. It's a fucking mp3 player? How does that explain his views on constitutional rights, taxation, military spending, or whatever?

Well, I suppose I should be happy enough that people do like K enough that they're willing to translate all that peripheral crap for me because otherwise I'd be completely lost.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is done. If you can recall my review of the last installment I said Brotherhood should not have been its own game due to lack of substance, but this one had more going for it. It explores not only Ezio's but Desmond's past, as well as concludes what happened to Altaïr after the events of the first game. Overall I found it a nice wrap up of the first two arcs, even though the last boss fight was just a ten-second punch out midair. Well, I guess it's better than Assassin's Creed II's boxing match with a fat man. Historically it's a shitfest, but we've come to expect that from Assassin's Creed from the get go.

What I hated most of all was "fixing" Desmond's brain. They did this via an abstract, first-person, platforming section. As you float through the air, dodging lasers, Desmond's monologue would appear and he would explain his past. This part was not fun or particularly revealing: He was raised an Assassin and ran away from home. Yay. I'm hoping this doesn't become a thing, kinda like sneaking did to the Zelda series, because that would be the death of me.

They introduced customizable bombs to this game, and clearly Ubisoft wanted you to use them. There were bomb sidequests, bomb refill stations placed strategically around the city, and often helpful hints would appear on the screen suggesting to use a bomb. I never did and just killed people instead outright. The crew from Brotherhood still exists, although there are long periods you can't use them. And I've noticed they're much more buggy, i.e. sometimes they would appear but just stand there uselessly as the enemy continues to swing at me. From my understanding the Assassins are a purist type of group who raise people from childhood or only recruit the best who are willing to fight and die for the cause. My experience so far however is just you find a woman who's good and pickpocketing, say your skills could be placed to greater use, and then she's in.

But the most asinine part was the DLC. At the end of Brotherhood, you're possessed and then stab and kill your girlfriend. No explanation, the game ends there. Revelations doesn't either... unless you play the DLC. You understand? An integral part of the plot isn't revealed to you unless you pay money for it. THAT is inexcusable.

At the end you find out what the Assassin's Creed games are about... which is pretty stupid, at least from what they're telling me now. An advanced civilization from thousands of years ago was completely destroyed by a solar flare and it may happen again. Yep. That's what we've been playing for up to this point. If you asked me from the first game years ago what I thought the secret behind everything would be, that was very far down the list right below Giant Onion Attack.

So yeah, I wouldn't say it was as compelling as Assassin's Creed II, but not as bad as Brotherhood. If you're into the Assassin's Creed games you pretty much have to play it, but you could do worse.

Don't do it, Sasuke! You just left the cycle of buttfucking!

Yeah, I was really upset when Kishimoto wrote this because as I said earlier, this was an obvious retcon. He would talk with Orochimaru at times about his father and being saved on the battlefield in a non-sarcastic way, which shows that was Kishimoto's original intention. I think I would be able to forgive this if the end result weren't so dumb.

Itachi spends about seven or eight pages explaining Izanami, but by this point I'm so tired with the series that I didn't even bother trying to understand it.

My dear translator, it's chapter 588. I'm fairly certain we know what a "jutsu" is by this point.

No homo.

I was seriously pissed off by this. Are you saying somehow Orochimaru is able to completely revive himself from some sort of enzymes that's lodged into a person's neck? Along with his memories and consciousness? That is really fucking stupid. Especially after all that effort to kill him, he just easily pops out again.

No homo. Well, maybe a little.

The scanlation group I'm reading felt it apropos to add this to the chapter.

How are all these people in the same class considering many of them aren't the same age?

Yaaaaay! Now we don't have to pretend we don't know who's behind that mask anymore!

You know what's even better? Only 100 chapters left...!!