Oh My Goodness, They Going Ham

Well, it's official. After spending all summer delaying the inevitable, I've finally moved into my home for the next year. I am now a resident of Room 190 in Park House on the Washington University in St. Louis campus. Right now, my feels are all over the place. I am at once incredibly sad about leaving behind my friends in Minnesnowta, especially coming fresh off of the nostalgia-packed last days which follow any significant experience. Who would've thought that I would have the chance to go stargazing with my friends, something I've wanted to do for years especially after witnessing its application in anime, just a few days before I left. Honestly, that was an unforgettable night and Lo really missed out. #hammerwithajetpack I know in the back of my mind that this isn't the end; I will...

Welcome To America (Day 2)

And so, we woke up. I am surprised we managed to wake up so early. After quickly checking out with my boy Marcus, we headed across the street to catch the Emery Go-Round to the nearest BART station to head into San Francisco and meet up with Evan. Suppressing the urge to go and eat from the nearest restaurant, we headed to the extraction point. On the way, we got a taste of San Francisco, taking in all of the beautiful buildings. There was only one problem. One our way to the extraction point, we were followed by the loudest construction machine on the planet whose driver chose to go 5 mph while pounding into the road. It was somewhat devastating. However, seeing Evan smile and run across the street was well worth it. With everyone...

P-Heights Crew

Man I suck at blogging. Leave it to me to wait until the very last day of SSBBR before writing a single post. Well, for house keeping purposes, here's a list of what I missed out on blogging about: 1) college decision circle jerk 2) SSBBR @ WashU 3) prom shenanigans 4) anime & sexuality 5) becoming a college student 6) camping @ BWCA 7) graduation party hopping 8) Eureka seveN AO fail 9) Minnesnowta pride 10) Legend of Korra Well, I guess I'll try to do my best to recall all of the fantastic memories from the past six weeks. At first I was a bit anxious, leaving my high school friends for six weeks to spend my time with a bunch of students who willingly gave up a summer of circle jerking in order to pursue research. Thankfully, my fears were unfounded, and I had the honor of hanging...

Welcome To America (Day 1)

This post is way overdue. Nearly a month ago, I had the pleasure of visiting San Francisco with my buddy Oliver. He mentioned visiting UC-Berkeley a couple of times in passing, and one night I just kind of decided to accompany him. Thankfully, my parents are awesome and entertained my request to snag a ticket to San Francisco with my mom's overflowing surplus of miles. Everything was functionally set. All we needed to do was book a room after I came back from New York. With the help of Hotwire, we could only cross our fingers and gamble on the chances that the 4-star hotel mentioned was the DoubleTree, located right on a marina at the edge of Berkeley. Unfortunately, we only turned up a Sheraton Four Points. However, looking...

A-Music Week 10

This week I wanted to focus on one of my favorite Japanese bands, Asian Kung-Fu Generation. The first time I heard AKFG was back in middle school when I first began watching subbed anime online, specifically to watch  Naruto episodes which had yet to be dubbed and released in America. The song in question, "Haruka Kanata" was simply lumped together with a bunch of catchy OP and ED songs which I really enjoyed but never downloaded because I was inept at using LimeWire. Man, Naruto, even for its faults, had some great OPs and EDs. Anyway, AKFG doesn't have to rely on gimmicks like a lot of Japanese bands and for me represents a lot of what is right with Japanese music. AKFG not only produces fantastic music, but...

Second Opinion: Higashi no Eden (A, 97.50%)

Original: Johnny Hunt (November 28, 2010) Since originally posting my review, I have finished the series by watching the two following movies, Paradise Lost and King of Eden which are both fantastic and feature fantastic music by School Food Punishment music as well. I have anime depression. The journey of the American otaku is an emotional rollercoaster. When you find that a good show you can feel on top of the world, but when the last credit jumps across the top of your computer screen one of several things may happen. You can close your video player window and head over to Facebook to comment on how much you loved or hated the ending, scan the internet on search engines for any thread of information pertaining to...

Second Opinion: Eureka seveN (A, 94.00%)

Original: Gekkostate vs. The United Federation of Predgio Towers (October 7, 2010) With the first episode of Eureka Seven AO just recently released, a second opinion on the original season is in order. Looking back, I was kind of harsh when I first reviewed Eureka seveN for AP Comp. Thankfully, even now, Eureka seveN remains as one of my favorite series ever. I remember one late night in 5th grade switching through the channels until I eventually landed on Adult Swim's run of what I understood to be "Yu-ri-ka Seven." The blood and robots that appeared before my eyes had me instantly hooked, but after that day I could never find the show on television again. Freshman year was my chance to see what I had missed. I...

Second Opinion: Final Fantasy XIII (A, 90.00%)

Original: Miracles Are Things We Make For Ourselves (April 10, 2011) There are a couple of unofficial reviews floating around my blog which I figured could be updated to conform to my recently adopted review format quite easily. In addition, I feel like having the opportunity to provide some second opinions about some of what I have either played or watched after a hype period will be helpful in creating a genuinely accurate review of my experience. During Spring Break last year, I completed Final Fantasy XIII. I had been following this game since eighth grade as I turned back to Final Fantasy to curb my Kingdom Heats crave. After seeing the first trailer for the game, I was hooked and I would constantly check up on IGN for new updates....

Birdy The Mighty (A, 95.00%)

I have decided to revert back to my more concise review format in order to make my review posts more digestible for readers and to make it easier for me to find motivation to write them. Today, after spending the past four days marathoning, I have decided to review Birdy The Mighty: Decode, seasons one and two, consisting of twenty-five episodes and one OVA. Man do my eyes hurt. With a strange name like Birdy The Mighty: Decode, many viewers will have no idea what to expect. As far as Wikipedia has told me, Birdy The Mighty: Decode is a remake of an older manga and anime. The narrative revolves around a Federation Inspector known as Birdy Alpha Cephron who is an Ixioran Altan. Basically, she is a space cop who has been...

Guilty Crown (C, 79.75%)

Dear Followers, Let’s get something out of the way first. Guilty Crown was not an excellent show. What pulled me back every week was less a desire to watch Guilty Crown and more a preference not to watch anything else. Besides Nisemonogatari, Winter 2012 was somewhat uneventful. When I first began watching Guilty Crown I was blown away by the production value. However, as the show dragged on, I became more and more aware of its insufficiency as a finished product. Before I offend anybody who really enjoyed Guilty Crown, I want to emphasize that what follows is merely my opinion. The emotion which best sums up my feelings toward Guilty Crown is disappointment. I began watching Guilty Crown at the beginning of Winter 2011/2012. With SUPERCELL...

A-Music Week 9

Dear Followers, This may as well be bimonthly A-Music. I deeply apologize Raphael Santo Domingo. Because of the lack of consistent A-Music posts during the past two months, what follows is an eclectic collection of newly released songs and OP and ED from Winter 2011/2012. As always Gintama comes in powerful with a fantastic new set of OP and ED songs. 1. Tell Your World - kz/Livetune (ft. Hatsuna Miku) 2. Nakama - Good Coming (Gintama ED) No ED Video :( (Poor Quality) 3. Message - The Sketchbook (SKET Dance OP) No OP Video :( 4. HOLOGRAM - NICO Touches The Wall (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood OP) No Full Video :( 5. Hearts Beat - Himawari 6. CRAWL - Veltpunch (Nabari no Ou OP) No OP Video :( 7. Kokuhau - SUPERCELL (Guilty Crown ED) 8. Naisho no...

Just A Cog In The System

Dear Followers, Holy crap I really was lazy for the past two months. Well, in regards to blogging. As expected, college decisions were a frenzy and now I find myself choosing between two schools I would never have expected to be choosing between just a few months ago. Regardless, I am pumped for the college experience on the horizon and recognize that I will be happy wherever I end up going. This year featured an especially devastating collection of college decisions, so don't get down on yourself if you didn't end up at your dream school. It's more of a reflection on the arbitrary nature of college decisions than a reflection of your own capabilities. As far as Spring Break is concerned, everyday has been a party. Without tennis, Spring...

The Day Makers

Today, in the middle of AP American Government with Mr. Tillotson, I received the following note from the office. "Naveen. These years of high school absolutely wouldn't have been the same with you and we really value everything you do. You completely deserve to have the best day ever and we hope that this reminds you of how awesome you are You are too smart and really funny! Your clothing style is truly unique and we wanted to let you know that you are what make Wayzata the best! <3 The Day Makers" My first reaction: WTF. Got An Issue? Grab A Tissue, N...

Februany At Subway Has Now Ended

Dear Followers, Wow. This may be my first experience with a snow day as a member of Wayzata High School. Nature played its part beautifully, layering on the ice during the night and deviously directing early morning traffic into mounds of snow. Instead of waking up to the annoying buzz of my alarm on cue at 7:00 AM, I instead was disturbed by the sound of my father searching for a way to disarm my clock. As he informed me that Wayzata High School was closed for the day, I went back to sleep without giving it a second thought. Only when I woke up again at 11:00 AM did it really hit me. Finally, after years of crossing our fingers, our hopes had been answered. People everywhere are making snow sculptures. Kind of like the Neil  Armstrong...

All Of The Trees Are The Right Height

Dear Followers, Yeah... I haven't blogged in a while. I am actually really mad at myself for forgetting to blog over the past couple of months, especially because a collection of memorable events went down and now I've lost my opportunity to immortalize my associated perspectives. Hopefully, with school work becoming more and more unbearable, I will be blogging more as a result of my pursuit of productive procrastination. Who knows. College decisions will be coming out in the coming months which should be a doozy. Going into high school, I remember working with a singular goal in mind: finding my way into an Ivy League school. After experiencing an extended college application process however, I no longer can say with confidence where I...

What Is “The Mitochondria”?

Dear Followers, Boy do I wish I had signed up for Science Bowl earlier in high school. Yesterday was my first and last Science Bowl competition ever. Held within the Macalester University campus, yesterday’s competition featured many grueling round of head-to-head science trivia action. The topics consisted of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth & Space, and Energy, no doubt an inserted form of implicit propaganda from the Department of Energy to convince the future generation of the importance of alternative energy sources. Sigh. Regardless, each round featured a diverse spread of questions. I only found one or two similar questions across the approximately 10 rounds we participated in. The reason why I joined Science Bowl is simple: it was fun. The competition was no different. With...

Kate Will Never Be A K Debater

Dear Followers, It’s a weird feeling, walking away from what presumably is my last debate tournament. I had always imagined my last debate would be full of ridiculous shenanigans, with me having the freedom to run arguments as I pleased in one final round. But alas, the 2NR was the Security K. In a way, I guess that qualifies as ridiculous shenanigans. At least I gave a half decent 1AR for once. And hey, we picked up a ballot against a K. I can remember when I first joined what had been described to me as Mrs. Sarff’s academic cult. I was a sophomore and I didn’t want anything to do with debate. All I wanted to do was put in some work, collect some awards, and apply to some Ivy League school. Thankfully, as a member of the debate team, I never really won any awards. No, instead I gained...

Vertigo: Falling As A Symbolic And Thematic Function

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 psychological rollercoaster, Vertigo, is one of many defining works of his career. Featuring James Steward as John “Scottie” Ferguson, a retired detective plagued by acrophobia, Vertigo is masterfully crafted, replete with subtle motifs in every frame. After Galvin Elster asks Scottie to shadow his wife, Madeleine Elster, whom he believes to be possessed, Scottie finds himself smack dab in the middle of an elaborate murder plot. With a bit of cinematographic magic, Hitchcock projects Scottie’s feelings of confusion onto the audience. Through the use of intentional symbolism, Hitchcock drives home messages concerning the instability of identity, reality, and infatuation with a connecting feeling of literal vertigo. Many...