Above The Clouds In The Atmosphere

Dear Followers,


Man, I haven't posted for a while. Not that any of my 10 followers really cares though. Right now I am burned out. Sometimes I really despise the fact that we most often develop an understanding of the world from our eyes.After acting like somebody else for 7 hours, I guess anybody would be exhausted. Even so, I usually usually crash every Saturday when I just dedicate a few hours to ignoring everything. Who would have thought that I could become even more unresponsive than I already am? Yet, here I am on the couch with Pandora bumping, my hand in a bock of Pocky, my cell phone ringing on the ground, and all of my homework stacked in a corner of the room.

As usual, I was spending my slump catching up on some anime that I had missed during my academic fury. When you are watching 5 on-going shows concurrently yet you have caught up with Japan on all of them, living becomes really hard. Even with movies like "Summer Wars" and "Beyond The Clouds" to fill the gaps, there is nothing more aggravating for me than having my cycle broken. For some reason, I can't seem to bring myself to watch Melissa's donations, "Hellsing Unlimited" and "Claymore." I just guess I was never a pseudo-Nazi versus vampire kind of person. Everybody knows Slice is where the party's at.
NOTE: This paragraph probably makes no sense to non-viewers.

Anyway, today I was watching "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" when I came across the video clip above. For some reason, this small monologue of Haruhi's really spoke to me. After seeing this, I began to wonder more about my own drive for uniqueness. Perahps I am so damn weird because, well, I don't want to be like anybody else on this planet. Perhaps I just want to avoid as much association with Persepolis as possible. Perhaps I just want to be recognized, to leave my mark, to escape from the crowd. Whatever the case, I was reminded to never stop breaking the system.

I guess now is as good a time as any to explain my love of anime. No, I am not Japanese, but I do love anime. The reason? I appreciate anime as an expressive art and storytelling form. I find that in America the word "anime" carries several negative connotations which have developed out of misunderstanding. In America, animated pieces, or cartoons, are associated with children. Cheaply-animated Saturday morning cartoons come to mind when many Americans hear the word "anime," the product of unfortunate cultural associations.

For me, however, animation is just one more way to tell a story. Animation is art, plain and simple. Some of the emotions which are created through an interplay of color, line quality, sound, and movement which are achieved in anime could never be replicated in any other form. Even if animation is art then, why am I so drawn to anime? I love Asian culture. I love the common themes found in anime. I love the artistic style which characterizes anime and which as become so diverse over the years. If I could rationalize these things I would.

Well, slump's over. If anybody reading this knows where I can get custom t-shirts made, feel free to leave me a link in the comments. I need to get to designing the t-shirts for GCB, APCOMP, and Anime Club in a hurry.

P.S. Far East Movement is a disgrace to Asia, but "Rocketeer" does work.

Let's Fly,
Noel

Sayonara Memories

Dear Followers,


Today marked my second speech tournament of the year. Somewhere between my first and second speeches I came to the realization that I really despise speech. I despise the subjectivity and emphasis on delivery in speech. I despise the lack of community in speech. I despise the feigning of intellect and generic information in speech. I despise waking up at 6 in the morning and having to do nothing (except marathon Community) until 6 in the night. I despise speech. Period.


Coming home I was looking forward to spending the night playing SC with Evan, Oliver, Ivan, and Jeff before I realized that I had two projects due on Tuesday and Jeff was forced to stay home with his mom. You don't know how agonizing working on a project is when you hear your friends playing SC in your basement. As soon as I finish this post I will probably work my way onto BNET to salvage what I have missed tonight. FML.

In anime news, I began watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya yesterday. This is one of the most popular shows around, I know, but I never really got around to watching the series. When I see a show plastered on every webpage, magazine, and poster I can find, the appeal kind of wears off for me. Anyhow, I began watching with the mindset that I knew what was going to happen. I was wrong. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has left me more confused than ever and the amount of fanservice is unimaginable.

Oh yeah, and here's your birthday present Partha: a quick sketch of some winter 2011 shows. Good luck in 2011 Partha, we are going to need you to lead us to a Robotics victory (with Alec Spencer of course).

Winter 2011

P.S. "Sayonara Memories" by SUPERCELL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc31vA3CP4I

さよならメモリーズ,

Noel