Of Nazi raccons, Otaku II, 300 and why I'm quitting facebook
Obviously the first bit in the title is an attention grabber, though it was apparently based in facts (somewhat). No, there weren't any raccoons running around with armbands and demanding 'Lebensraum'. Though that would be kinda cute in a weird and horrid sort of way... err, actually it was a little known Nazi officer in the ministry of forestry named Herman Goring who authorized the introduction of several exotic bushy tailed animals into German forests - 'to give bored hunters something to shoot at'. Well unfortunately this well planned idea took a turn for the worse when hunters were unexpectedly called away for 'other' duties and the newly introduced raccoons found a liking to the forest and bred like... sigh... rabbits. Apparently they are considered quite a pest in Germany these days... doubt there was any point to this little story but felt obligated to explain the Nazi raccoon thing.
Well I suppose I should continue with my recount of attending Otafest... meh not much else to say really, chatted with a few people, watched some anime, people in costumes... oh, nearly forgot the highlight of the whole convention - the 404's. Basically they are a comedy improv group along the same lines as the 'Whose line is it anyway?' group, except with a bit of a skew towards geek culture... and the infamous mousetrap game - I shall leave that to the imagination. Overall for 12 bucks for 2 days, quite a bit o fun, still felt awkward but as I stated previously, learning not to care.
After the convention managed to finally see 300, awesome in many ways... questionable in a few as well, but easily forgiven since it was entertaining. I think movies like this strike a deep cord with most men, the appeal to our primitive side yearning for battle and carnage, as well as the nobler ideals of honor, valor and brotherhood.... meh, or we just like seeing blood, guts and things going boom. There were a few things I that didn't flow well - mostly plot wise, such as the seemingly tacked on speeches of democracy and freedom, bringing in a shining new age of something or other - I almost laughed at that. Considering how the movie tries to show the rigidity and harshness of Spartan society the 'Americanized' dialogue is almost hilarious. As well anyone of middle eastern decent would find the portrayal of the invaders... all too familiar. But still for all, this is a movie - and it did what it was supposed to, a rousing and bloody well entertaining 2 hours.
On to a different type of entertainment - Facebook. I've been considering it for quite a while but finally decided I'm going to quit the social network phenom that is Facebook. There are many reasons, wasting time, the Facebook platform, ect, they are all pretty familiar. Though mainly it's a personal one, I just find that using Facebook is an easy way to distance yourself from people while still technically communicating, of course that isn't true for a lot of people but at this time I'd rather have a few more real world friends.
Though I must say it was nice reconnecting with people from the past... yet, I don't think I want to use Facebook as my only recourse to see how they're doing. Email, phone and most importantly face to face conversations are more... substantial, as well it kind of annoys me how there is this 'collection' type attitude of the social networks which at first seemed pretty reasonable on Facebook, though it's getting worse. Meh, anyway I'm leaving the world of Facebook behind, I already have email and msn so if people really want to reconnect... sigh, that comes off a bit too whiny. So I'll just end by saying, 'Safe journey and my sincere good will to all I've met in life, the friends, the enemies and the ignored, wherever you are going may the trip be exciting, joyful and most of all connect you to a few more people'.
Well I suppose I should continue with my recount of attending Otafest... meh not much else to say really, chatted with a few people, watched some anime, people in costumes... oh, nearly forgot the highlight of the whole convention - the 404's. Basically they are a comedy improv group along the same lines as the 'Whose line is it anyway?' group, except with a bit of a skew towards geek culture... and the infamous mousetrap game - I shall leave that to the imagination. Overall for 12 bucks for 2 days, quite a bit o fun, still felt awkward but as I stated previously, learning not to care.
After the convention managed to finally see 300, awesome in many ways... questionable in a few as well, but easily forgiven since it was entertaining. I think movies like this strike a deep cord with most men, the appeal to our primitive side yearning for battle and carnage, as well as the nobler ideals of honor, valor and brotherhood.... meh, or we just like seeing blood, guts and things going boom. There were a few things I that didn't flow well - mostly plot wise, such as the seemingly tacked on speeches of democracy and freedom, bringing in a shining new age of something or other - I almost laughed at that. Considering how the movie tries to show the rigidity and harshness of Spartan society the 'Americanized' dialogue is almost hilarious. As well anyone of middle eastern decent would find the portrayal of the invaders... all too familiar. But still for all, this is a movie - and it did what it was supposed to, a rousing and bloody well entertaining 2 hours.
On to a different type of entertainment - Facebook. I've been considering it for quite a while but finally decided I'm going to quit the social network phenom that is Facebook. There are many reasons, wasting time, the Facebook platform, ect, they are all pretty familiar. Though mainly it's a personal one, I just find that using Facebook is an easy way to distance yourself from people while still technically communicating, of course that isn't true for a lot of people but at this time I'd rather have a few more real world friends.
Though I must say it was nice reconnecting with people from the past... yet, I don't think I want to use Facebook as my only recourse to see how they're doing. Email, phone and most importantly face to face conversations are more... substantial, as well it kind of annoys me how there is this 'collection' type attitude of the social networks which at first seemed pretty reasonable on Facebook, though it's getting worse. Meh, anyway I'm leaving the world of Facebook behind, I already have email and msn so if people really want to reconnect... sigh, that comes off a bit too whiny. So I'll just end by saying, 'Safe journey and my sincere good will to all I've met in life, the friends, the enemies and the ignored, wherever you are going may the trip be exciting, joyful and most of all connect you to a few more people'.
