It’s not that I don’t have money: I do, but I don’t want to overspend, even if it is for an occasion. A few days ago had been my birthday, and I bought a few items online: I bought a vintage Pilot ballpen, an Ico pen that looks a lot like a Parker Jotter and wearing my favorite color, and Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky’s ’7 Stories.’ The three probably cost me about 2,000 pesos, although I didn’t have any regrets since they would probably be among the last items I would purchase here in Iloilo. After all, God willing, I’d be going to General Santos City later this April to start my post-graduate internship.

There was another novel that had seeped into my mind, however, and it was Flannery O’Connor’s [The] Violent Bear It Away. I’ve read a good amount of O’Connor’s short stories and am impressed with her work. I think, however, that it was just the purplish cover of a previous edition that invited me to purchase it. (Of course the novel has literary merit: Flannery O’Connor is considered to be one of the best Gothic writers of our time, and a good number of critics consider The Violent Bear It Away to be her best work.)

To make a long, tedious story short, I bought the novel at nearly 1,000 pesos, and that was my gift to myself. While I may get these books by the last week of March at the earliest, I want to read the books that I’ve bought and a birthday, I believe, is a cause good enough for the purchases I’ve made. I’m up to 3,000 pesos spent, now, but I still have 800 more in surplus, if ever anything else comes to mind. I’m pretty sure that I’m good with those four items, however. I hope none of them get lost in the mail.

I’m sorry, I haven’t watched any anime for the past three months. That will change quite soon, but I spend the only free time I have on one Korean drama, primarily because I’m so attracted to the leading lady. It’s pathetic, I know. Recently I’ve taken a bit of time writing up short stories during lulls of our duties, and I recently finished one. I know I’m a travesty right now because I call my site anime|otaku and don’t even update on anime, but give me time. It’s not that I don’t want to watch anime, it’s that I just don’t have the time to be able to marathon or pour myself into a series, as much as I want to.

Are there any recent series that I may like? I’m curious because I have plans finishing Hyouka, and then I have ABSOLUTELY no idea about what series to watch. I finally finished downloading all of Sakamichi no Apollon, but the great anime this year is a blank slate to me. If there are good, potent romances, please let me know. The only recent anime I’ve downloaded is Robotics;Notes, because I read on the Steins;Gate page that it was an offshoot. That was that.

If you guys could help me with your recommendations, please do so. Within three weeks I’ll probably update more frequently.

This is my latest short story, by the way. If you guys have some time to waste, I hope you can read and review this short story here. I’m sure there are problems with it, but hey, it’s just for fun.

I have never stopped writing; it’s just that I’m not really following many anime this season and the two that I follow don’t really need any writing about at that. I mean, other than some comments on a unique character such as Charlotte, there isn’t much to talk about. I mainly watch anime for entertainment during this time, although I’ll look into Madoka, since people I have a high opinion of seem to recommend it to me. I already have the first episode.

I still have some issues with esoteric beauty products and eBay, but I’m slowly weaning myself (hopefully never to be sucked back into stupidity). Here’s a recent write-up regarding my idiosyncratic nature. I hope I will become more creative in the future rather than just feature a permutation of myself, but here goes.

On Alcohol
「As her arrived from San Miguel he crossed the street to the nearby pharmacy and looked into the items sold. As it was a pharmacy that catered to the lower socioeconomic classes it was filled with generic drugs and local medicinal products. He saw a brand of alcohol he had never seen before: its brand name was Gentle Care alcohol. He bought one bottle and a local version of the well-known Vicks’ Vaporub.

He walked to the jeepney stop beside the Jaro cathedral and waited for a jeepney to his apartment. He chose a jeep that was nearly full as although he had to deal with being packed like a sardine it was certain to go faster since it did not have any more passengers to pick up. Like any businessman jeepney drivers seek to maximize their income: going fast with a full jeep is the optimal way to do it. After he paid for the fare he opened the alcohol and used some of it on his hands. He smiled when he discovered it was fragrant. He also opened the medicinal rub and thought it smelled like petroleum jelly more than menthol. It wasn’t malodorous, but it wasn’t fragrant. He would have thrown it but the economist in him prevented him from doing so: after all, he did spend some money on it. Like with many juvenile purchases, he simply sought to use it up as quickly as he could.

Upon entering his bedroom he was met with 80s video games underneath and on top of his double-decker bed as there was no one using the upper tier. He used up part of the alcohol he bought once again.

His alcohol dwindled as the days passed, and this was sped up with his friends asking for some. He sought to replenish his supply with the same brand despite knowing that it was probably going to be the last bottle of that brand he was going to see in his life, and so he decided to use up the last drops of his second bottle with a bang: he decided to have an alcohol bath, and he did. He then turned the alcohol bottle into a piggy-bank as remembrance for having used that brand.」

And in case you guys were wondering whether this is a true story or a cool story,

I was so bored with studying I kept on thinking about how I used up my rubbing alcohol and wrote that last week. I should watch more anime. Don’t worry, my next post would be less of a reflective catharsis than a proper write-up.

I didn’t really go much into detail with regard to the later entries of the top 10 not because they were bad anime, but because they were merely decent to above-average entries that every year would probably have. On the other hand, however, I feel that these five anime were really in a league of their own for this year, especially the top three. One made something already exquisite even more beautiful; another resurrected a franchise in the dregs of its own stupidity; and one was the landmark event: it was just far and away the best anime of 2010. I must forewarn you that the individual entries of these great anime are relatively lengthy, but I felt I had to give more respect to these gems of 2010. (more…)

I just finished marathoning the final four episodes of House, and the trigger for that was this short advertisement crossing House and Blackjack’s paths as medical doctors. The advertisement was amusing, but I wanted to see a real anime with these two seminal characters. The advertisement is below:

I really like House not because I’m also (with providence and luck) going to be a doctor someday, (there are a lot of glaring medical errors in house, although I don’t even recognize most of them), but because Hugh Laurie is a great actor to watch. While the first and second seasons have been the most consistent and believable medically speaking, the recently ended sixth season I feel is my favorite. I like it not because of the medicine, but because of House’s gradual development as a person. I like it because of the soap opera, but I like House a lot more than series like Grey’s Anatomy because it at least places focus on the medical aspect on things, and not just entirely on the emotional aspect, like the latter.

House still isn’t your lovable guy, but in this season one can see that he really tries to be a better person. His snarkiness remains, as well as his blunt and offensive demeanor, but in his equivocation and his fakes one can see that he is actually trying to do right by the people he cares about, no matter how serpentine his actions look. Although the season didn’t deal with Chase and Cameron’s break-up well, the final episodes of the season more than made up for the middling episodes. The change was most clear in the penultimate and ultimate episodes of the season, where House helped his friends in the plodding and only way he knew how. He convinced Wilson to put his foot down at times; he forced Taub to choose just one option, and he faced his demons with the final episode.

I was glad about that lone twinkle in the sky of darkness that pervaded him especially during the final episodes. Wilson was sincerely trying to live his own life, leaving House dangling; Alvie, his roommate during institutionalization, was now able to cross the states as there was now proof he was a US citizen. Cuddy was going to be married – and he was still alone. That vicissitudinous reversal at the end of the season, and his unwillingness to give up on himself even when it seemed too late, I think, was an apt way to end the season. It offers hope for House and for his growth as a person, which is the primary reason I still watch House nowadays. The medicine may be wanting, but the engaging escape certainly isn’t.

Like the IGN reviewer, I recommend the sixth season of House for those who have watched the other seasons primarily because of the final episode. It just lays the foundation of the show’s conclusion. I also recommend watching Blackjack, as it’s a good and entertaining show.

Tomorrow, I am once again going to resume schooling. Having said that, my consistency with post production will dwindle, but I assure my readers that I will still write on the next episodes of The Tatami Galaxy with its analyses on my mind. I have been looking for series to watch, and this series has been such a welcome arrival. I have a strong feeling that the final three episodes of the series will be the redemption that we have been hoping for our tragic Watashi; I also have quite a feeling that it’s going to be great: Masaaki Yuasa has never disappointed me before.

In a month’s time I will be celebrating my four-year anniversary writing here on anime|otaku. I am nearing 6,500 comments, so I am going to allow the 6,500th commentator to give me any topic related to anime to write about. Of course, I will have a right to decline, especially if I feel that the write-up is going to be too time-consuming (forgive me, I am a student of medicine, after all) or simply stupid in the first place. I will also write on certain special topics provided by my two benefactors, Crusader and Angelus; these will come at a later date.

So keep the comments coming! I truly treasure your insights on a series such as The Tatami Galaxy, and there is such a plethora of interpretations and imagery that the anime offers that I can see no dearth of analyses for it. I will return to editorial writing in due time (or as temporary intermissions), but for now I find it fit to spend a significant amount of my writing time purely on the interpretations that The Tatami Galaxy offers.

Thank you for the insightful comments, as well.

Ever since I obtained the Casio Loopy console I became privy to the reality of the possibility of getting the different video game consoles of yesteryear as long as I had the money. It was an epiphany that triggered a shopping spree that was neither merely petty obsession or impulse, but a maelstrom of both.

I absolutely refuse to call it an obsession, because obsessions are not sequestered in reality or rationality. They transcend both; in fact, they are irrational peregrinations into certain pleasures that can neither be controlled or placated. On the contrary, while I do purchase certain dubitable items off eBay (vintage video games, and vintage video game consoles), I do not purchase those items that are out of my reach, or unforgivably expensive for my status as a post-graduate student. I purchase items I know I can pay for and save for in addition to my desiring for them.

In the same vein, I refuse to call it an addiction anymore. Research into the psychology of addiction has made me realize that the fact I recognize and control my whims removes it from that definition. Despite my profligate nature with regard to the items that I have purchased, I have reined in a lot of my more stupid desires. Looking into myself, I can probably describe my current state (regarding eBay) as some sort of a chimera: the ability to be able to obtain the things that I wanted as a child dovetailed with my desires of youth does not bode really well. Understood from another lens, I know and recognize that what I spend is not money well-spent, but it is money that I spent and those things are things I own. It is a powerful feeling, one that has been welcome for nearly a year but is welcome no longer. I need to proceed to things that are more relevant and useful to me, or, if I can’t, at least on to things that are a lot cheaper.

The past few weeks, I have attempted to shift, once more, my passion for the video games of the past into the soap of the past. Soap is cheaper, after all, and it has served well as a new year’s resolution. However, when my mother called me, and I saw my Paypal account I realized I spent 30 dollars on soap. Just on soap. While it’s not an addiction, I realized that it was still a pretty stupid resolution and it does not really address the problem of me spending on useless stuff.

I’m looking for alternatives. I think I’ve watched a lot more anime the past month than the whole year combined, and it has helped a little, but not much. I want something unique that I can be passionate about without it harming my wallet in the long run. I know it ultimately boils down to self-discipline and a cathartic self-realization, but things are much easier said than done. I’m glad that I already made the progress of shifting the compulsion to something less harmful; now, however, I want to shift it to something productive.

Any suggestions? (Thanks for reading. )

I knew that the transition to medical school was going to be anything but smooth, and I was correct. I had a lot of misgivings before the start of classes and a lot of imagined problems with my soon-to-be classmates. Somehow, however, I was able to persist and flourish: perhaps this is the reason that they call man to be the superior being, as his capacity to adapt is nearly limitless. (more…)

While other post-graduates were busily preparing for what to bring the next day, I was on the computer looking at a red-and-black screen, dodging a missile at one point and ducking an alien at another. While they were excited to open a new chapter in their life, I was totally focused on vanquishing the ecclesiastico-military palette.

Enjoy watching.

I was playing the Super Cobra (using the Adventure Vision BIOS) on the MESS and I sought to finish the game (by myself) without infinite Cobras to see whether the game would present an alternative ending or not. I was so besotted with the completion of the game because it would give me closure, a closure that I desperately needed to prove to myself that my lust for that failure of a handheld system was juvenile. I vowed to myself to finish it before classes would start primarily to prevent any distraction from my studies. While I had quite a few misgivings regarding medicine, I am a man who sticks by what he has chosen, and as I had chosen medicine I am going to stand by it (despite the fact that I barely slept yesterday and probably wouldn’t later). After about five days of persistence, I was finally able to finish the game with a limited number of Cobras and I also finally discovered that there was no difference in the ending whether one had infinite Cobras or not: the game kept on without end.

Having played as if demon-possessed for a few days, I could not help but notice the different flaws that the Adventure Vision system had. For one, it was very fragile: a short fall and the rotating mirror mechanism that allowed the game to proceed would break. There would be no more game, and no more system. Another flaw to its design was that it was primarily built with red LCDs. The VirtualBoy was merely an upgrade from this console: both have the same red LCDs that cause eye tiredness, headaches, nausea, and dizziness. Finally, the games other than Super Cobra have barely any replay value: the system possessed mediocre graphics at the time, and once one finished with Super Cobra there wasn’t really anything else left to do but to start all over again (or stop playing, which was what I did).

My finishing of the game came at the most opportune time, because after I completed it I could finally disassociate myself with the game and with the obsession that plagued me for a good few weeks. I could also finally focus studying for the medical profession that I have chosen; and while I am still not quite sure of the decision that I have made I am extremely certain on my commitment to my choice. I can only hope that I can surpass the obstacles that I am encountering currently and the even bigger ones that I will face in the future.

Thank you for everyone who has supported me throughout my stint of blogging. While I probably will not stop watching anime, and while I will probably still blog, it will most certainly be not in the same volume or length as before. Right now I have dealt with three-hour night sleeps: I will probably have to deal with worse.

As Samuel Beckett most aptly put it, ‘I can’t go on, I’ll go on.’

I have searched high and low in different Philippine cities for the Entex Adventure Vision. It’s an American-built quasi-handheld console that is purported to be the Holy Grail of all video game collectors. Now, I don’t really believe in or have faith in people who keep their rarest consoles boxed and sealed, unused. Whether rare or not, a console should be played, not stored.

I was taken in by the Super Cobra cartridge for the Adventure Vision; I thus wanted to get an Adventure Vision for myself, even before I knew of the exorbitant prices people paid for one. Granted, I knew I was most probably never going to find anything, but I simply wanted to reassure myself that I did everything that was possible for me in the attempt of procuring that console (except that I was without cash to burn).

As an alternative, I downloaded an imperfect ROM of Super Cobra for the Adventure Vision. It had flaws with both the sounds and the graphics, but I thought it would at least give me some peace of mind if I finished the game so that the pangs of desire would no longer penetrate so deeply. I set to finish the game with that in mind; however, the ROM being flawed, I played through an infinite regression of the final level of the game. There were no congratulatory messages; there was no return to the first level despite my time and effort put into the game.

So, yes, I still want the console and the cartridge. But writing my grievances out often makes me feel better regarding my bad lot, so here I am. I technically finished the game, so all I have to do now is to curb my obsessive nature and just wait and hope that the day I’ll finally have money to pay for a console will also be among the days where a working Adventure Vision still exists.

Until then –