If there was ever anything I gleaned from the book I purchased due to a switch, it was that for electronic communication via e-mail, having a transparent e-mail address is the way to go. Since my previous e-mail address was cluttered with spam as well as unread school bulletins, I decided to make a new one solely for my blogging purposes. It was stupid of me not to put an e-mail address as to where I can be reached (and it is definitely very much delayed), yet I am most definitely not a misanthropist. For any queries, personal comments, suggestions, flames, requests, and the like, kindly drop me a line at Michael.David.Sy AT gmail.com. Do not worry, this address will also be added to the about page. Not much has changed, but I deem placing my e-mail address for people to contact me in my about page to be important.

I have had been a fan of novels since my father influenced me a long time ago. I am still reading novels right now, but it is more often the cover art of the book or how the cover was designed than the synopsis found on its back or the acclaim of the novel itself. I have read four books this semestral break, and the common denominator among them was that I bought them because their covers or the design of their covers appealed to me. I have already written about the two Nancy Drew novels; the most recent book I read (because it was not a novel) was a writing guide on how to write effective e-mails. I did not read that book because I felt my knowledge on writing proper e-mails was lacking; I also did not purchase that book as some sort of whetting-stone to sharpen my skills. (more…)

I just finished it. I just finished what a lot of people tout to be the best anime of the year. I just finished the juggernaut of an anime: I just finished Gurren-Lagann. It’s been a while since a series became so exciting sleep became out of the question, but Gurren-Lagann really drilled my otaku senses awake. *takes a deep breath*

Boy, it’s a hard series to describe. Aside from my brain turning to mush, words simply fail me. Someone told me that the only time my praise was as fiery and passionate for this series was when I waxed lyrical over the Ichigo 100% manga. This series just deserves it. I think it would even be safe to say that it has been the best mecha series to have come out this year (at least I think so).

I won’t pander to meticulously describing the series like I write my other posts, but to mince words, it is a collective bildungsroman. Bildungsroman is a literary term meaning one man’s journey to self discovery from youth to adulthood, and I have found that this series features all of Gurren-Lagann’s representative men and women’s journeys to find themselves and to obtain the freedom that everyone wished for.

It was redemptive, thought-provoking, and most definitely bittersweet. I haven’t used those words to describe an anime since Honey and Clover. Perhaps a lot of aspects of the series go beyond the realm of believability, but with regard (as I’ve mentioned before) to life and death it is quite realistic. People who die do not come back; they are not resurrected, yet they remain as memories to those people who give importance to them.

Particularly moving were some of the deaths of Gurren-Lagann’s crew. Sacrifices must be made so that success will happen, and I believe that the collective bildungsroman of the cast of Gurren-Lagann have done it and done it excellently. It’s not really the length of the life one lives that’s important; it’s how one lives that life.

The soundtrack, the seiyuu, and almost everything is amazing, scintillating and simply just f*cking awesome, so I suggest to those who haven’t viewed it to view it RIGHT NOW FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

I have not been able to view anime despite it being our semester break because I have returned to books as well as aid in computer-related errands in the house. Gurren-Lagann still remains to be among my priorities in anime, though, despite my belief that I have been spoiled to oblivion by the people over at #ab. Still, I realized that I have been following an outstanding series when, despite those beliefs and despite the quality of the series, I was astonished at Kamina’s death. I applaud the series for its persistence with character development and its relatively realistic approach with regard to life and death. His death was totally unexpected, and it was amazing how the producers of the anime manage to paint a wonderful picture of melancholy at the end of the eighth episode. I am expecting better things from this beautiful show.

Nancy Drew novels are the quintessential novels for girls who have broken out of childhood, but have not quite reached adolescence. They lie between Dr. Seuss and novels that can be truly called novels. (more…)

My first semester of third year has finally ended. Despite having some almost insurmountable tasks, I have succeeded in surpassing them (to some degree). Much thanks goes to the people who correspond with me in this blog; you have been part of my success. That success isn’t much, but I’m thankful that I still can freely express myself and have people to correspond with me. My thanks goes out most especially to Ryan and Wilson (meganeshounen). Thank you for being there with me. (more…)

I have not been playing DotA much these days, at least compared to the obscene amount that I played about a year ago. A few days ago, however, I went to a LAN cafe to hone my declining skills. It was a pleasant surprise when I discovered that there was a new map released. In addition to this, not only was the map new; there were a lot of major changes with the heroes and items themselves. N’aix was made a more rounded hero and items which complemented more than a few heroes were developed. It was to my dismay, thus, when I discovered that the map itself was unofficial: the official site listed the latest map to be 6.48b, and there was no mention whatsoever of a 6.49 map release. With this discovery less and less players who knew of the truth used the 6.49 release and quickly reverted to the 6.48b map. (more…)

Ever since I have heard of Gurren Lagann’s OP, I became a fan of it. When I read of its glaring positive reviews in different forums and websites, I just knew that I had to watch it. With that in mind, I downloaded the only batch torrent of Gurren Lagann there was despite its obvious lack of organization and differing qualities because the uploader used different sub-groups. In time, I was able to download it, but despite the fact that I really wanted to watch it, I really could not accept having such a heterogeneous collection. As much as people want to deny that they have no obsessions, something always pops up to disprove that. Well, I thought I was free from being obsessive of things, but here came an ugly packaging of a well-praised series, and I just could not bear to think of watching some of the episodes lacking in quality. In addition, there was too much video quality in some of the releases that I could not play them even with CoreAVC and a decent computer. This heterogeneity irritated me, and so I searched for other alternatives. (more…)

School Days was among the many reasons why I have rekindled the flame of anime addiction inside me. It was, however, not the only one. Among the pivotal reasons why I have appreciated anime once more was simply because of a happenstance: I was surfing through CrunchyRoll, a popular online video streaming site that caters to fans of Asian media, when I found an anime series entitled The Red Blooded Eleven. Curious, I searched the Internet for more information with regard to the series, and I found some from fansub.tv. What information I found was both funny and absurd at the same time: I saw some of the pictures that were highly suggestive, and I laughed with the absurdity of the accompanying subtitles. I am pretty sure pictures speak more than a thousand words with this series. (more…)