Anime Iowa: Day One

So the Anime Iowa convention yesterday was amazing. I had a great time, and I am excited to know that I have two more days of nerdyness. Upon the sight of seeing so many people dressed with purple wigs and large fake swords, I couldn't help but feel proud of my people. Of course, wherever there is cosplay, there is crossplay. When walking past a person and you have thoughts about whether they are male or female, seriously, don't think about it. Seriously.

After walking around the hallways for awhile having people take pictures of me and my sister, watching a panel about translating anime and manga from Japanese, and hanging out with some friends of my sister from college, I went to a program called "Basic Cosplay fighting". It was a three hour workshop consisting mostly of fake grappling. So me and a partner for three hours had to run around fake wrestling. Now my poor, pathetic body wasn't prepared for such an athletic event. I hadn't even remembered that it was three hours, I thought it was one or something. So it was fun, but I am most definitely sore now.

In addition to some food you could pay for, there was a good amount of free junk food. Now we were cautioned that the junk food was not a replacement for a real meal. But do you know what? They lie.

Then there was the 24/7 video game room. After walking in my mind was blown: everywhere there was televisions hooked up to all sorts of video game systems, and everywhere there was gamers mashing buttons like crazy. It was heaven. Even though when I got there there was no no extra spots for me, due to the atmosphere of the room where people constantly sit down, play a bit, and then leave, I was able to play after waiting a few minutes. I'll tell you, nothing else feels quite like sitting down and playing Super Smash Bros Brawl next to Mario. Ah...

Anime Iowa!

Today I'm off to Anime Iowa, an Anime convention in Corralville. It will be from July 19th to July 31st, so Friday-Sunday. Anime, if you haven't heard of it before (which is unlikely), is Japanese animation. It really is hard to get nerdier than this? Did I mention that I am going to cosplay, which means that I am going in costume? Good stuff. In addition to cosplaying at the convention there is; a 24/7 video game room (YES), tons of different programs and panels (things such as "Anime toys: Now and Then", "Cats in Japan", and "Basic Samurai Swordsmanship"), and... Actually that's it. Kind of lame, if you ask me. Actually, there is tons of stuff there. I am really excited to be in a building with hundreds of people who are just as, and possibly even more nerdy than I am.

Procrastination

Procrastination. Terrible thing. It is the reason that I have 15 minutes left to write up a post for today. Awesome. Not to mention that I SHOULD be getting my sleep, I'm going to an Anime convention tomorrow. But that will be the topic of tomorrows blog. Anyway, procrastination. Waiting to do a task, just because you lack the will power to gain the motivation to simply do it right away. We are all guilty of this, and much of our work suffers as a result. And often, procrastination means that great things never happen at all. Because we either stop part way through, or we never begin in the first place.

I'm looking around my room right now, looking at all the things that I never finished. A tiny nine centimeter volcano is on a shelf. It is white, some sort of plaster. I got it many, many years ago, but I never got around to painting it. I think it was a baking soda and vanilla volcanoes.  It stands as a stark reminder of what I have procrastinated with.

And in my closet, a board game called Elemento that I got for Christmas one year. I got it a few years back when I was really into chemistry. I still enjoy it, as a matter of a fact. Might end up being my profession one day. Anyway, I never got around to playing this game. Oh sure, I would open up the box and read the instructions. But actually open the plastic bags and play it? No.

Perhaps when I am older and hopefully more mature (haha), I will learn to gain the incentive to do things without loads of motivation. Perhaps I won't see things like that volcano or Elemento again. Is it possible that I will outgrow this? Maybe. Maybe I'm outgrowing it right now. After all, I've been blogging, right? But what about when that stops? I should probably wrap this up now, I only have one (!)  minute left...

The Humble Indie Bundle #3

The third Humble Indie Bundle is out, which means that I'm pretty happy. For those of you unfamiliar with it, The Humble Bundle is a pay-what-you-want package of digital copies of five different games made by independent developers. These games are DRM (Digital Rights Management) free, which means that there are no restrictions on backing them or playing them on different computers. You can choose how to split what you pay amongst the developers, a tip to the Humble Bundle website (to pay for bandwidth and advertising), and two charities (The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play). Although technically you could end up paying as little as one penny for all five games, most people end up paying a decent amount. Some (like MineCraft creator, Notch) choose to pay thousands of dollars.

Actually, just like last year, I have never heard about the games being offered. I just trust that they are going to be amazing and I'm going to have a lot of fun. The Bundle is a good way to expand my library on Steam without exhausting all of my already ridiculously low funds. Now that I think about it, of those that read my blog most would either not care about video games, or have already heard about the Bundle. So this is probably not going to help anyone. Well, that's okay. Who cares about my readers, anyway?

Camp NaNoWriMo Plot Ideas

As I already mentioned before, the camp version of NaNoWriMo is coming up in a few days. Sadly, I am without a plot. I've tried to reserve time to think about it, hoping inspiration would strike,  but alas nothing of the sort has happened. At this point I wish to organize my thoughts, and try to decide the best one.

First of all, I know that I'm not going to going to do a fantasy novel. I'm currently co-authoring one with Ryan (as I have repeatedly mentioned in the past), and I wish for a change of pace, so to speak. To go into unfamiliar territory. You see, even though Camp NaNoWriMo requires the same amount of verbage as normal NaNoWriMo, I will always think of it as "practice". Thus, I am free to explore new ideas and fresh ways to write without being worried about quality too much.

I then asked myself if I should write a mystery novel. I do enjoy reading them, and the descriptions of people, places, and things could be fun. Not to mention having an intense plot. But, I'm leaning away from that now. First of all, I'm not going to plan for the novel. As I always do, I just write and hope that something somewhat literate comes out. Not to mention, I would have diffdifficulty accurately describing how a crime scene would be handled, because if I did a mystery I would want it to be of that sort of nature.

Next, how about a survival novel? Two of my favorite books are "Gary's Winter" and "My Side of the Mountain". Both of them describe living out in the wild. One being a tale of survival, and one of solitude and appreciating nature. But, what do I know of subjects like that? I could research, sure, but it wouldn't feel real to the reader. And I have a feeling that it would end up being pretty boring.

Now what about a silly story, with no plot? Mostly consisting of fancy words strung together in long and quite humorous sentences. Well, that too most likely wouldn't turn out great. That sort of thing makes a short story fantastic, but I think that longer novels are much better suited for more serious plots.

Ah, this is quite the arduous process. I still have no idea whatsoever what I am going to end up doing. Oh well....

With Great Internets Comes Great Responsibility

Sometimes I wonder why some people are allowed on the internet. For example, take a person you know who is intelligent and witty in real life, and have a conversation with them over the internet. What happens? They transform into a monster. Suddenly, all their sentences are run-on, fragmented, or (gasp!) not properly capitalized. "You" becomes "u", "are" becomes "r", and every sentence has a "LOL" attached at the end. Or maybe they become troll bait, giving trolls a hearty meal with their opinionated ideals that they cannot back up with any evidence. Or perhaps they will believe everything they hear.  No, that person with the username "hannamontanaforever1413" is not really Miley Cyrus. And no, you actually do not get a free pair of shoes if you like that Facebook page. Oh, and that program you just downloaded? That was spyware.

Who gave these people the internet? Didn't they know that they couldn't handle the responsibility? There should have been some sort of test, to ensure that they knew how to properly conduct themselves over the vast interwebs. Or perhaps a trap would work: if they try to use Internet Explorer, their computer automatically blocks the internet.

So to those who this post is directed to, I have some advice: put down the mouse, and step away from the computer, slowly. Go back to real life, you are better suited for it. Be a good person who contributes to society. That's better than what we who live on the internet can say, anyway.

The Comic Book Green Lanterns

In my previous post I gave a review for the movie Green Lantern. Overall, I was disappointed that the comic book Green Lantern was not given justice. Thus, I thought I would give myself the pleasure of writing about the real Green Lanterns, from the comic books. Now there has actually been multiple human comic book heroes that wield an emerald power ring and go by the name "Green Lantern". Thus, it can be quite confusing for some. So here, I wish to separate them out. Please excuse me for any errors I might make here.  Also, sorry that the information is presented a bit messily :(

Alan Scott

In 1940, in the Golden Age of comics, Alan Scott was the Green Lantern. His ring had the same powers as other power rings in addition to several magical abilities powered by the Starheart. One of these abilities slowed his aging drastically. But the ring has one weakness: it cannot effect wood. It was later revealed that Alan existed on Earth - 2, an alternate dimension to the Earth - 1 we know and love. In Crisis on Infinity Earth the remaining multiverse is merged together, thus Alan Scott now exists in the same reality as the other Lanterns. His ring is powered by a mystical, sentient being known as Starheart. Alan was never actually part of the Green Lantern Corps, as made apparent by his costume. However, the Guardian of the Universe did make him an honorary member.

Hal Jordan

The Silver Age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, was given a power ring by a dieing alien named Abin Sur, and went on to become one of the most famous, respected, and powerful Green Lanterns in the Corps (He's the guy who starred in the movie). Due to "necessary impurities" in his ring, it cannot effect anything that is the colour yellow. After the entire destruction of his home, Coastal City, Jordan went insane. He was effected by the alien parasite Parralax (you know, the one from the movie) and committed cosmic genocide: Destroying the Central Power Battery on Oa and killing most of the Green Lanterns and all but one Guardian. He was partially redeemed when he gave his life saving Earth from the Sun-Eater. He later became the next incarnation of the Spectre, and finally he became a (thankfully good) Green Lantern again.

Guy Gardner

Of all the human Lanterns, Guy Gardner is by far the biggest jerk. The sort of guy that you wouldn't give a power ring. Actually, when he first became Hal's backup he was a fairly decent guy. But then some brain damage caused him to be unstable guy (hehe) he is today. After quitting the corps and renouncing his green power ring, he found a new power source: Sinestro's yellow power ring. It was later destroyed in a battle with Parallax. Again in need of a new powers, with the help of alien DNA Gardner became Warrior.

John Stewart

While Guy Gardner was seriously injured, John Stewart took over as Hal Jordan's backup. He will probably be familiar to many, as he was the Green Lantern in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons. Just like Hal, his ring cannot effect anything that is the colour yellow. Although apparently he was supposed to make a cameo appearance in the new Green Lantern movie, I was disappointed to notice nothing of the sort.

Kyle Rayner

Ah, the infamous crab-mask Lantern. After Hal Jordan as Parralax destroyed the Green Lantern Corps, the last Guardian of the universe, Ganthet, gave a human named Kyle Rayner a power ring. This ring had no weaknesses, either to the colour yellow or wood. Kyle ended up stopping Hal, and has since been known to clean up after his messes. There was quite a bit of debate by the fans on whether or not it was a good decision to replace Hal with Kyle, especially considering that Hal's sendoff was not that of a hero's, but a crazed maniac.