Lol Little Kuriboh

Oh LK, your ability to successfully parody knows no bounds XD

In order to understand what's going on, watch this abysmal video about why the PS3 is better than the Wii and Xbox 360:




Now watch Little Kuriboh own his ass by completely mocking him:



And yes, "ninja" is a perfectly PC substitute for ni-*4 KIDS CENSORSHIP WRATH*










...sheeeeeeit

I Will Not Quit!

To provide a little update on my videos' progress...none has been made.... However, that's because I'm still in an apartment at school with a crappy laptop and crappier laptop's internal microphone. Actually, I don't even have that laptop anymore because I FINALLY gave it to the tech guys to get repaired. They said it'd be about 2-3 days to get it fixed (that was yesterday), so that means it might not be till the end of August until I get it back.

FEAR NOT! I am going home on Friday for the weekend. That means that Friday night, most of Saturday, and maybe the first part of Sunday will be mostly dedicated to recording. And once that's done, I can do the video editing from any computer.

You think I've given up? You think my days of making ridiculous videos have come to an end? HA! I laugh at your ignorance!

Holy Crap, I Like Batman Now!

Yes, I finally saw the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight." And after watching this movie, I thought to myself, "how the hell have I gone my whole life without ever getting into Batman at all?"
Without giving away any of the movie, the film was AWESOME! Of course, it was 2 1/2 hours long, but the movie is packed with so much action or suspense the entire time that you completely lose track of time. Christian Bale played a very good Batman, and I was more than pleasantly surprised to see Morgan Freeman playing a substantial role, but the one who stole the show was the late Heath Ledger's performance of the Joker. He turned the famous children's comic book bad guy into a morally twisted nut job that could very well scare the shit out of many adults. The maniacal stares, jittery swaggers, and the way he periodically swirls his tongue around his lips all helped to create one of the most truly frightening movie villains of all time.

Ledger's might have been the best acting performance, but Bale's Batman, Maggie Gyllenhaal's Rachel Dawes, Freeman's Lucius Fox, Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent, and Michael Caine's Alfred Pennyworth, plus a deeper storyline that blurs the line between good and bad, all combine to create an incredibly thrilling blockbuster. Throughout the film, Batman goes through more conflicts than most typical Hollywood superheroes, including constantly challenging his own ethics and sense of morality, and debating between keeping his identity hidden or revealing himself to the world amidst a storm of public pressure to avoid letting more people die at the hands of the Joker. Batman truly earns the title of "The Dark Knight."



As someone who had never read Batman comics book and who has never seen another Batman movie in his life, this movie was amazing! It definitely lived up to the hype, and I strongly encourage those of you who haven't seen it to go see it! And if you have seen it, see it again! The story's great, the acting's superb, and Batman's gadgets and maneuvers are just sick. Go see it now!

R.I.P. Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Melon professor who became famous for his speech entitled "The Last Lecture," died from pancreatic cancer today.

Pausch's speech, as I mentioned in a previous post, was one that inspired many. His lecture was centered around achieving childhood dreams, in which he threw in various pieces of his own advise and wisdom such as overcoming metaphoric brick walls, recognizing that your critics do care, and building upon the experience you gain when you fail to get exactly what you wanted.

I discovered this man's lecture on YouTube about 8 or 9 months ago. And yet, something about his speech really stuck with me. I thought to myself, "Here's a computer science guy who, by the very definition of his profession, should either be sitting in a cubicle writing software all day or standing in front of a class saying stuff like 'P=NP.' Yet, he's so poised, he has a great outlook on life, he's humble, he's intelligent but not cocky, and he's taking his news of terminal cancer like a solider." The reason that this stuck with me is because, in the grand scheme of things, he was merely an average guy. This man wasn't a Hollywood celebrity, a professional singer, or a Broadway actor. He was just a teacher who found out he had cancer and gave a speech.

That is what's so amazing. The fact that an average nobody can find out he only has about a year to live, yet hold his head up high and spend some of his last months pouring out such profound messages from the story of his life just gives me so much hope. Randy Pausch was everything I hope to be in career, poise, personality, and wisdom. I recognized that the first time I saw his videos, including his "Last Lecture" speech and his appeal to Congress to increase funding for pancreatic cancer research. It was such a breath of fresh air to know that a normal guy could affect so many people in an extraordinary way.

Don't get me wrong: I do NOT think that Randy Pausch was an average human being. He had an average job with an average income and an average lifestyle. But he had a superhuman will and strength about him that allowed to accept his condition and use that to better himself, his family, other cancer victims, and whomever would listen to him talk. As the man himself put it, "You can't change the cards you are dealt, just how you play the hand." Pausch played it marvelously, and the world will remember him for doing so.




Rest In Peace, Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) . You were a tremendous man, a wonderful spirit, and an inspiration for us all.

I'm An Idiot >_<

So I completely didn't realize that there was an option to allow anyone to comment on this blog. That has now been fixed! Now, anyone can comment without needing an account on Blogger, LiveJournal, AIM or whatnot!

Polkamons News

I figured I should dedicate at least one post solely to news on my Polkamons videos, seeing as that's why the majority of you actually read this blog.

Episode 13: Mystery at the Lighthouse

- The script for this has been written out for a little while, but I've been making adjustments here and there. Since I'm currently not at my good computer (i.e., my good microphone that won't work on my crappy Vista laptop), I'll have to wait until mid August when I'm back home to record the lines. Don't you worry, though, I'm dead-set on finishing this one. This was actually the first episode of Pokémon I ever saw as a kid (imagine a 9-year old me walking around Blockbuster and seeing this video. I thought to myself, "Well, I play the game. I might as well watch the show.") You can imagine how things turned out after that.

Episode 14: Electric Shock Showdown

- The script's not written, but I've been jotting down random ideas for this one. I actually have 45 seconds of video finished for this episode, strangely enough. But that will be explained once the episode is released; I don't want to spoil anything for you after all!







Polkamon Spotlight 3:


Yes, it's being done. Yes, I have the script written out. Yes, I plan on recording the lines once I get home. And no, I'm not disclosing what Pokémon it is. I AM, however, fully expecting that a lot of you will enjoy it. After watching this spotlight, I assure you that most of you will experience a large number of "omg, that's so true," "oh geez, I hate that!" and/or "I've always wondered about that!" And that's my full intention!
By the way, feel free to comment on this thing! You don't need a Blogspot account. However, if you don't have that, then you'd need to enter your LiveJournal user name or AIM screen name. Don't worry, I won't stalk you ;) But I know for a fact that there are a substantial number of people visiting this blog every day. So comment, and make me feel loved!

Still Experimenting

If you ever see some odd changes to my blog's background, template, font, color, or whatever at any time, then that would be me constantly experimenting with Blogspot, html, and Photoshop trying to make my blog look better. I think the solid black background's kind of bland, don't you?

God I'm Such A Nerd XD

So I actually decided to make an audition video for that Yu-gi-oh Fandub. As much as I prefer Yu-gi-oh Abridged over the real thing, getting part in this would be a good opportunity to become a better voice actor.



Obviously, my vocal range and tones aren't nearly as varied as Little Kuriboh's, but that's why I want to get better. =D Aside from becoming a graphic designer or animator, I've always held some small hope that I'd be able to do some voice acting in my lifetime. That's part of the reason why Pixar seems so perfect. From what I've read in the book of the company's history, several voices for their movies have come from the animators whose voices on their character demo reels impressed the directors. See? You DON'T have to be a celebrity to make it in this biz!

In Polkamons related news, I won't start recording until I'm back home at my XP computer with the much better microphone (which will be at least another 2 weeks I'm afraid =/). This Yu-gi-oh thing was done on the fly, and I'd rather have a much better audio quality for the videos I actually put some effort into! But fear not, I have the script written out, so once I'm back, I can just go at it!

Photoshop'd Banners

I just recently downloaded Photoshop, so like many first-time users, I was completely lost at my first go. Unfortunately, most college students my age have at least fooled around with Photoshop and have enough experience in the program to at least get by. Needless to say, being one who's career goals include becoming a graphic designer or animator, I was pretty dead-set on learning how to use this dang-blasted piece of software ASAP.





Look at that! After using Paint and Powerpoint for all these years, can you imagine how confused I was when I first saw this confusing interface?


Fortunately, I talked to a couple of friends and studied the program enough to pick up a few things. Notice the banners on this blog that periodically change? That's me doing a little experimentation with text effects =)

If I can master Adobe's confusing monstrosities, then one day I can design movies that look like this! Pixar, here I come, baby!

Yu-gi-oh! Fandub Project

So it looks like there's a project under development to create a complete fandub on the Yu-gi-oh! series. Contrary to many's original thoughts, including my own, auditions for this are supposed to be serious and NOT parodying the show in any way. However, Little Kuriboh is taking part in the dub as Grandpa Mutou, so that's pretty sick.

Yu-gi-oh Casting Call:



Little Kuriboh's monologue in Abridged voices (which he used to audition):




My question here is...do I audition? I earlier submitted my Little Kuriboh tribute video in which I mimic a few Yu-gi-Oh abridged characters, but given the seriousness of this project, I may rethink my strategy.

Little Kuriboh Tribute:



However, I don't want this to take up too much time, so I'd figured I'd try auditioning for a more minor character. Maybe Dark Bakura or the Paradox Brothers? Rex or Weevil? Who knows? But if I can work out the kinks in my computer's mic, I might as give it a shot! Working with Little Kuriboh would be pretty cool anyway!

Incredibly Inspirational

By the way, I think those of you who have not seen this video should watch this as soon as you get the time:



This man, Randy Pausch, is a professor of computer science at Carnegie Melon University, a very prestigious school. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer shortly before he gave this lecture, and he uses this lecture to advise people on how to achieve their childhood dreams. Such an inspirational video, this man combines various anecdotes from his life in a funny, interesting and profound manner, and it's incredibly useful for everybody.

I can't really put into words how great this is. I've probably watched it about 5-6 times since I first found it several months ago. Maybe I'm partially biased because this man, in career, personality, and goals, either reminds me of myself or is what I aspire to be. But still, if you're not even remotely touched or affected by this video, you have no soul.

After you watch this, check out his website and consider donating money for pancreatic cancer research.

Randy Pausch's Website

Summer Just Got Great!

Much to my delight, this summer away from home for a month is just what I needed! My Spanish class is going extremely well (mostly because a lot of it is review and I'm apparently better at the language than I remember), the campus is so much nicer to drive on since it's less crowded, I have the liberty to eat anywhere for lunch (though I split it between cooking chicken sandwiches in my apartment and going to Chipotle), and I get in a solid 2 or so hours of basketball almost every night with a few friends. In short, life is good, because I'm having fun, and I'm not sitting around back home like a worthless sack of dung waiting for something to do.



A little of this almost every other day is bound to either kill you or make your bathroom stink like crazy. But it's soooooooooooo good!

One of the best parts as of late is that I finally got internet in this apartment, so I have more time to waste on YouTube and downloading ROMS of old games forgotten. Can you say reliving the good ol' days with GOLDEN SUN?! Good god, that game and its sequel "The Lost Age" have got to be two of THE best games created EVER! Not like I couldn't do that back home, but somehow, the fact that my life has gotten so much better within only the past few days has made playing video games so much more enjoyable. Although I have to concede that a lot of what inspired me to get back into playing these games is seeing my friend Boltage McGammar do his "Let's Play" videos on Golden Sun (been completed for a while) and Golden Sun: The Lost Age (currently going on).



Pure entertainment genius











If you don't know Bolt, he does a lot of "Let's Play" videos for various games on his YouTube Account. I feel obliged to throw in this little plug for Bolt partially cuz I kind of know him personally (online, but for at least a few years), and because he did the voice of Koffing in Episodes 2 and 3 and the Samurai in Episode 4 of Polkamons. So yeah, little favor in return.

Speaking of which, in case you're wondering (which I'm SURE you are), I can't spend any time recording lines for my videos, because this laptop's internal mic, as well as any other mic I've tried using on this, have all been terrible. This is why I need the money for that Mac. Hopefully those disorganized nut jobs at the school bookstore will call me back soon about the job. I could technically clean out whatever I have right now on the new computer, but leaving myself with absolutely no money at a college campus is probably the dumbest thing I could do at this point.


On a completely different note, Little Kuriboh put out a little 2nd year anniversary video of Yu-gi-oh Abridged on YouTube. He claims this was a rush job, but it's still rather amusing:




To end my string of random tangents, I randomly came across something else on YouTube (in case you haven't realized, I tend to spend a LOT of time on YouTube) that brought back so many fond memories. Remember 90's Nickelodeon? You know, Doug, Hey Arnold, Rocko's Modern Life, and all that good stuff? Someone who apparently also had too much free time put together a compilation of a bunch of old school Nick intros, and I spent those 10 minutes oh so fondly reminiscing. Although I could do without Ren and Stimpy. That show was just stupid and kind of freaked me out.



So yeah, life's pretty good now =)

Double Abridged Releases (or like... 1 1/2)

Since I'm a selfish bastard, I'll start with my news first: I finally finished and uploaded Polkamons 12! Check it out!



And in other news that people probably care a LOT more about, Yu-gi-oh Abridged episode 30 is up! Though for some reason, this stupid html box isn't embedding the video properly, so here's the link:

Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged: Episode 30

I've jumped another Squirtle Hurdle

All of my lines have been recorded and edited, so all that's left is to put the audio to the video. Unfortunately, the video editing is the longest part of the whole process, but I'll do what I can to get this damn video out soon!












The Squirtle Squad and the original green Power Ranger were probably the bad-ass T.V. icons of my childhood. Oh, what fond memories =)

I'm Lazy

Because it's 3:40 AM right now, and I'm therefore feeling a bit lazy, but still obligated to make a blog post (having not make one in about a week-ish), I'll make my own input short while including material from other people, giving them credit of course.

For those of you who have a YouTube account but do now know who Phillip DeFranco (username sxephil), I recommend you subscribe to his channel NOW! He's one of few people that use the internet regularly but actually have a lick of common sense. DeFranco's videos are pretty much video blogs, or something similar, in which he relays his life stories and infuses his opinions into news stories. One of the more recent stories involes Viacom forcing YouTube to relinquish records of all YouTube users, information that was always kept private. See for yourself below:



To me, privacy always seemed like one of those rights that everyone's just inherently entitled to. However, I admittedly had a hard time actually explaining why to anyone, including myself. So what does a person with such a deep, philosophical question do to find the answer? Google it. Through Googling "Why is privacy so important," I came across this article, or whatever you want to call it, that effectively answers these questions through sheer logic and common sense:

Link: http://www.thelighthouseonline.com/messages/archives/2002/10/why_is_privacy.html

Why is Privacy So Important?

The right to privacy is one of the basic human rights that the founders of the United States said that we are all granted, not by our government, but by the very fact of being human.

Yet there has been increasing focus in the press and on the Internet lately on blatant privacy violations, such as with spyware programs that make a record of every file you download (Netscape is one of these companies; see http://grc.com/downloaders.htm), or every Internet page you view.

Many of you may say to yourself, "So what? Who cares what files I download, or what pages I view? I have nothing to hide." And yes, in an ideal world, we wouldn't need to worry.

I admit that I used to think that way too. My thinking went something along these lines: Yes, companies are "harvesting" data about people, the better to market products to them. But so what? Marketing is worthless if the people being marketed to are thinking and aware human beings who do not allow themselves to be manipulated.

However, there was something nagging me: Why did our founders feel that privacy was so important?

I was thinking about it again today, and realized that the true evil of privacy invasions is this: What happens if someone decides that they don't like your particular lifestyle, beliefs, or preferences, and chooses to, at best, personally campaign against it, and at worst, outlaw it entirely?

The Minority Doesn't Rule

Many heinous laws that infringe on people's rights have been justified in the past because the claim was made that "only a few people" or "only a minority" would be affected by that law. In some cases, that "minority" has risen up and proven that they were a majority. Or, enough people who did not belong to that "small group" have seen the writing on the wall and have spoken out against that kind of repression.

Central databanks that contain all kinds of personal information about each of us only make this kind of repression easier. How easy it would be to find out how many people actually do pursue some activity or belong to some group. Then one would know how large (or small) the opposition would be. In an ideal world, we could rely on everyone to speak up against repression, suppression, prejudice, and other such fascist or socialist "Big Brother" activities, and someone trying to enforce their own personal standards on everyone would be politely listened to, but their beliefs would not be acted upon.

The Real versus the Ideal

Sadly, however, we do not live in an ideal world. We live in a world populated by imperfect human beings, many of whom are struggling to do the best they can despite the damage done to them in their childhood, damage that sometimes manifests as a desire to make everyone "do the right thing," where "the right thing" means "do as I say." Such people pursue their goals without realizing that "the right thing" is in many cases a personal decision and not a global one. It doesn't help that this kind of person often "just knows" that they are right.

For many of these people, if you do not think like them, you are wrong. "Okay," you may think, "so what? Let them think what they like." And I agree, to a point. Let anyone think what they like. The "so what" is that they feel they have the right to impose upon you their standards of what is right or wrong, and they will pursue you or harass you or try to stop you (and everyone like you). This is where the statement, "Your right to swing your fist ends where my face beings" comes in. They have the right to their opinions, but they do not have the right to try to make others live as they do. As long as a person is doing no harm to others, let them think and do as they like.

For example, even though I am not gay, I would not presume to tell someone who is that they are not doing the right thing. (And one of my cousins, whom I like very much, might have a problem with me if I had that attitude.) Yet there are those who would want to judge that orientation and even make it a crime.

I am also not black, but I would not presume to tell a black person that there was anything less than acceptable about being black. (And another cousin's husband, whom I also like very much, might object if I had that attitude, too!) Yet there are some, even today, who think that being black is an offense that is punishable by death.

And although I am not Jewish, I certainly wouldn't try to keep others from practicing that very ancient religion. (My Jewish grandfather, Nathan Michaels, would rise up from his grave and haunt me if I did!)

It may seem to you that in today's "enlightened" society, we would never have a problem with blacks or gays or Jews and any other group of people being rounded up and put in internment camps. And it may even seem that to even suggest such a thought happening in today's society is impossible. Think again. Take a look at the problems caused by unethical people in high places in corporations, or at remarks made by a Million Mom marcher who is said to have been quoted in the Washington Post as saying effect that Hitler and Stalin didn't disarm citizens, only Jews, Gypsies, gays, unionists and other "undesirables."

Coercive Collectivists

Or take a look at some of your neighbors, especially if you live in California. Most people who call themselves liberals are actually what one Web site calls "coercive collectivists." Coercive collectivists "advocate state power over individuals and believe in ...the sanctity of the Crowd and the villainy of the single person."

Without making this essay too lengthy, my point is that some people (the coercive collectivists) do not respect the individual or the right of the individual to live his or her life freely and without control or harassment. This is why our privacy is so important--not because we have anything to hide, but because we need to protect ourselves against those who would wish to coerce us. Many of these people work in marketing; others work for radio or television, and some, Good God, like television executive Jamie Kellner, even think they own us.

One gem from Jamie's own mouth about people skipping ads on television:

"It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming."

(Yes, he said in response to the interviewer, even if you take a bathroom break--he grudgingly allows them, but you are not allowed to go overboard). Excuse me? What contract? And how is it that the television networks think that accepting money for advertisements, which essentially means that they are selling their audience--that's you and me, folks--also means that the thus-sold audience is required to watch those advertisements? And does this extend into other media? Am I committing a crime when I skip the advertisements in a newspaper or magazine? How about when I throw a catalog--one giant advertising circular--into the recycling bin? Is my pop-up ad blocker in my firewall committing a crime? I think not. Jamie Kellner has obviously lived in the rarified air of power without moral or ethical accountability for so long that he is suffering from oxygen starvation. (For a few more choice excerpts from his interview, check out http://scriban.com/movabletype_archives/000289.shtml .)

Although many of these people seem far away, some of them also live near you, and work toward limiting your freedoms in the name of some "feel good" cause or other. Because such people exist, it is important for us to protect our freedoms by doing four things:

1. Educate yourself and think through any cause before supporting or opposing it.
2. Educate those who would restrict our freedoms. There are many who are just following the crowd and who haven't really thought things through. Help them to learn to think and not just react.
3. Speak up when someone tries to limit anyone's freedoms: Write to your legislators, speak with your neighbors and friends, send email, post Web pages. Boycott products and companies that invade your privacy.
4. Allow people in your life the freedoms they are entitled to.

Related Links

http://www.stentorian.com/2ndamend/leaflets/timeout.html Strongly worded, but short and to the point.

http://www.guncontrolnetwork.org/untruths.htm. (While researching this article to verify the accuracy of my quotations, I came across this gem of a page; mind you, the page is at a parody Web site, so the title, "Untruths from the Opposition," should be taken to mean that, in fact, the Web site authors fully approve of and agree with the statements made on this page:)

I've Been Mac Attacked

Lately, I've been becoming more enthralled by Macs. In short, I WANT ONE!! Unfortunately, I NEED MONEY!! My Dell laptop with Vista has not been living up to even my most mediocre expectations. It runs slowly, the security alerts are as annoying as hell, any anti-virus programs slow it down even more, many features on programs I use very efficiently on XP are now downgraded or gone completely with Vista, audio recording quality is completely terrible....I could go on, but I won't. In fact, I think the inclusion of Chess Titans is the only thing I like about Vista over XP. That being said, as soon as I get enough money, this nice little beauty will be mine! No, this is not truly an impulse buy. I've researched it thoroughly enough, and I figure that this will actually be of solid use for me:

1. Garageband's a nice included program, but Apple's Logic music software is really nice for music recording, editing, and mixing. I'm quite an amateur at this stuff, but even I've been realizing the limitations of Audacity. Though it's nice for a free download, I'll be needing a better music program to let me do pitch corrections, especially in real-time, and other more polished reverb and echo effects. I figure that since I'm the music director of an a cappella group at my school, and I like recording random things in my spare time, Logic Express would be a great place to start. What's better than "WAH WAH WAH WAH" in stereo?! Actually, don't answer that...




2. Do I or do I not make those silly Pokémon parody videos? Do I or do I not plan to continue making these videos until it seriously impairs my ability to land myself either a girlfriend or a decent career? The answer to both of these questions is 'I do.' And while iMovie is a rather basic program, I can get a student discount on Final Cut Express. This nice piece of software has almost all the features of many top notch Windows programs at probably half or even a third of the price. Nicer video effects, multi-tracking video clips, LOTS of different audio tracks, easy interface, smooth playback of different video file types on a single time line. Maybe I'm a complete n00b at video editing (actually I definitely am), but I know enough to realize that this will be one of the better deals I come across.


Now, the hard part. Getting the money. Fortunately, my going back to school for a month of summer class means that I have ample opportunity to find an on-campus job. Decent pay, flexible hours, and since I'm only taking one class, I definitely have the time. I could technically buy the iMac right now, but I'd rather not clean out everything I have saved up. There's not much worse than being a completely broke college student. Hopefully this will be mine by the time the fall semester rolls around. A semester of fun classes AND the opportunity to make videos and music in my room? I can't wait!






Aw...give PC a hug, Mac. Daddy Gates obviously doesn't love him, or else he wouldn't suck.








__________________________________________________________________

EDIT:

That being said, Episode 12 is still undergoing delays. I've been recovering from another slight allergy/cold spell from the past few days, and a sore throat coupled with a cold really affects my ability to kick my voice into falsetto-Ash mode, or rather any voice for that matter. I'd rather wait until I'm healthy and make my voice-acting at least somewhat believable and not congested =P I'm also going to Florida from Thursday until Sunday, so that's completely out. I have no idea what my schedule will be like once I go back to school mid-July. Undoubtedly I'll have some free time, but I won't know when and how much until I get used to my class, find a job, and gauge how long español homework will take me every night. We'll see how it goes, and I'll keep you updated!