JOURNAL: Anime Jedi

previous page next page
  • Working the days away... 2007-07-31 22:07:20 It's pretty bad when I'm wishing the summer away in eager anticipation for the fall semester to resume at school. I guess that's what happens when you dislike your job. Oh and by the way, I'm at 13378. Nothing important, just using this as a reference point. lol

    So I'm working at a call centre right now. Of all the glamourous jobs out there, I have one where people yell at me all day about their cellphone bills. I guess I should be lucky to have it though. Come May, I was having trouble finding a job so I had to take whatever came my way. The hours are decent, noon to 9pm, but instead of working 5 days in a row, it's split up with having Wednesdays off but having to work Saturdays. It's a decent schedule, but it's annoying not having two days off together where I could go camping or something.

    I've gotten into Naruto again lately. First I watched it on tv, then I watched the Cartoon Network dubbed episodes online since they're further ahead than in Canada, then I started watching the subbed episodes, and now I'm reading the manga. By the end of tonight I'll be completely caught up with Shippuden and will have nothing left to do. lol My friend did let me borrow Fruits Basket, so I should really get onto that.

    So Harry Potter is finally done? I just read the 5th book in time to watch the movie. I have the 6th with me now and will take a swing at it soon. Between that and playing Golden Sun on my GBA, I have plenty to keep me company before I fall asleep every night.

    I've really gotten into buying video game and anime magazines. It's somewhat annoying actually because it's quite a bit of money, but at the same time it keeps me sane while working the phones. And to pass the time, I don't just skip to what I'm interested in anymore, I read the whole thing. No sense wasting it.

    Anyways, just thought a little update was appropriate, time to eat because I'm starved.

    Kevin (Anime Jedi) 
  • Another school year down the drain... 2007-04-24 13:52:34 It's kinda depressing when you check the "Journal Buddies" section and all the members you used to follow up with haven't posted anything in years. It makes me feel very old. lol

    Speaking of old, I've almost completed my third year at University. In no time, I'll have graduated, gotten a degree and will have no choice but to finally join the workforce. Then begins a very long portion of my life. -_-

    Coming back to the present, I'm in the middle of my final exams. I have one tonight actually at 6:00pm. A night exam will be a nice change of pace from all my 8:00am exams so far.

    My website has really been coming together lately. It's about time too. I'm really proud of myself for taking the time to work on it. It's been a labour of love. Eventually I'll buy my own domain name and try to increase traffic. But for now, I'm happy with keeping it slow.

    I haven't written any reviews lately. I wrote maybe one a few months ago, but that's it. One of the main reasons is because I haven't beene downloading them lately. I guess I've just some interest in watching them all the time. I have a feeling it's just while school is taking priority, and hopefully this summer I'll get back on track.

    Kevin (Anime Jedi) 
  • The New Year is well on it's way... 2007-02-21 11:30:09 I can't believe that I'm still talking about how it's the new year, but I suppose I never got around to doing that after my extensive Journal Entry last time with a recap of 2006.

    As for 2007, what would I like to do?

    Well, one thing that I've done already is improve my website. It's starting to work out a bit. I made a new border using JPEGs, added lots of new pictures and even descriptions for most of them. As for as I'm concerned, it's going very well. Maybe I should change the black background to something a little less threatening, but for the most part, I'm proud of myself. I'm actually debating about buying my own domain name and really get things rolling.

    Not too long ago I wrote on another website about how one of the things I want to change in 2007 was my Time Management. Ironic since my focus is on Project Management in Architecture right now. lol Regardless, I'm still putting things off to the last minute. I know this doesn't sound all that different from the procrastination that most people do, and maybe it isn't, but I just feel that I'm always pushing the envelope. The other day I waited until 1:00am to start a book review for an assignment that was due at 8:00am that same day. And I hadn't even read the book yet. The thing is that I didn't feel guilty about it since I knew I could pull it off. But where does it end? I have people calling me for help with their projects the night before, and I tell them I can't help them because I haven't even started it myself. I suppose my problem is that I've never really been bitten in the butt about this, so I've never had much of a reason to stop. I know I should quit before something catastropic happens, but I just don't seem to have the willpower. Anyways, so that's a BIG problem I need to work on throughout the year.

    Should a person force themself to be more social? You see, I've been finding myself to be a whole lot less social lately. I'm in university, but I don't go out with people, party or even just hang out at the bar. It's not that I'm not social. When I'm in class, hanging around school or meeting someone at random, I'm very friendly. Everyone knows me, I have no problem going up to anyone in my year and just saying hi for the heck of it. But I don't seem to ever want to call up a bunch of friends and play video games, or go to the movies or something. This is where my father and I are totally different. All I ever seem to want to do is work on my own little projects (backing up my computer, scanning my old photos to the computer or recording my old VHS to m computer), while he's always wanting to go out and do something (especially physical stuff like sports). Poor guy. He's probably had a pretty tough life living in my family. Between myself, my mother (who's the same as me) and my brother (who doesn't seem to want to do anything associated with him), he's probably had some pretty frustrating years. Anyways, I'm getting off track. My question is, is it ok for people to want to be alone rather than go out with people? I don't mean become a hermit, nor shun the outdoors, just a preference. I suppose the world needs both. People who want to go out, to persuade the others to go out and have fun; while people who'd rather stay in, so those little projects can actually get completed. Why have I been thinking about this? Well, I suppose it's because of the conotation that been attached to "staying in". When people ask what you've been dong lately, and you reply you just finished scanning your baby photos to your computer, you get the idea.

    Ok, enough of that. What's next? This is going to be a big year for me. It could ultimately be an extremely disappointing year, or a big next step in my life. First, find a new job. I had worked at an aluminum siding manufacturer for the past two summers. This past year I really put work before anything else. I worked a lot of Saturdays, and put in as much overtime as I was allowed. I had several 11 hour days, but unfortunately there was always a limit since I couldn't lock up, so I was reliant on having to leave whenever the last person was ready to go. Anyways, it's been two years of that, and it's time to move on. Now, I would like to find something downtown. Not only that, but something that pays a little bit more. I suppose everyone says that, but I just want to make up the extra cash I would have been getting from subletting my apartment for the summer. It's no good if I make the same wage, since now I have to dish out the extra cash of living expenses that I could have saved at home. Right? And that brings me to the second point, should I live downtown? I've been touting ever since the summer that this was the year I was moving out. I'm 20. Is that old enough? Or should I have moved out awhile ago? Personally, I want to go as soon as possible, but I still rely on my parents for so much. For school, paying for my apartment (since I can't afford to work during the school year to pay for it)... Am I ready to start cutting some of the strings? It's a tough question. For now, I'm going to keep looking for a good job downtown. It's going to be my goal for the next couple of months. That, and keep doing well at school. lol

    Any big events this year? Let's see, school for the next couple of months, then the summer, then my last year at university begins... I guess nothing too special except for the usual. One big thing actually is my birthday this year. I'll be turning twenty one. How about that? 21. Now I definitely feel like I'm getting old. lol Other than that, there's not much else I can think about.

    As for recent news, I lost my sketchbook a week ago. This has been devastating for me. My sketchbook represents all my ideas and things that are memorable to me from the past two years. I have a bad memory, so whenever I see or hear something I'd like to remember, I write it down. And even worse, because I know I wrote it down, I forget about it instantly since I know I have a record of it somewhere. [snap] So now it's like I lost two years in the blink of an eye. I really have been distraught about this. Sure I wrote my name in it, but since I lost it in another faculty's building at school, I feel like my chance of having it returned shrink everyday. I've been going to multiple lost and founds everyday. I think the people who run them are getting annoyed with me. lol [sigh] Anyways, I've started a new one, but I'm trying not to completely lose hope.

    Kevin (Anime Jedi) 
  • Looking back at another year... 2007-01-07 05:16:39 Here we are, 2007.

    Well, before looking forward to the next year, let's look back to how 2006 has treated us. Personally, 2006 was a decent year. It didn't have a truckload of big events in order to make it a great year, but in the same sense, there wasn't a whole lot of bad things that happened either.

    Let's go through my daily calendar and see how things shaped up (yes, I actually keep a schedule of my daily life day in and day out).

    Hmmm... I started things off with my New Year's Eve party downtown. This was my second New Year party in a row now, and it went well. Then I made my very own multimedia shelf (for a pic, check my website). That definitely gave me a sense of accomplishment. Then I went home to see the grade 12 art show that my old high school annually held since my brother was going to be in it. It was nice to see my old teachers again, not to mention finally being able to see some of my brother's art. Then things turned sour. One of my professors had lost my exam! After talking to him about it, it seemed my best choice was to re-write it. Now doesn't that just bite.

    2006 was the second half of my 2nd year in University. That means my studies still revolved around general Architecture. Structures, Materials, Seperators... these classes were tough. And my elective was Classical Music. Not the cake walk I was hoping for. lol

    Jan, Feb and Mar revolved around projects of course. Studio was still about drawing, creating plans, details and all nighters. I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, as the year went on my Studio project grades steadily worsened. Fortunately not to the point of failing though. lol I also got to meet some really great people. Sometimes, being forced to do group work really isn't all that bad a thing afterall. but I'm going to have to stop myself right there. This was also the year of problems with groups (well, a continuation from the year before). You see, in one project, a certain group member did not think that I equally contributed. So he took it upon himself to go complain to the professor, and it became my responsibility to arrange meetings between myself, my group members and my professor to figure out what kind of mark would be appropriate for me. I thought this was ridiculous, yet the rest of my group were trying not to get involved, leaving me high and dry. In the end, I had to settle with a 60% instead of my original 80%. This pissed me off. A 20% drop simply because one person out of a group of four thought I got too high a mark. I would have continued to argue it, but this had taken up far too many hours over months and months already. I just wanted to put it all behind me.

    Also, some other crazy things definitely happened that year. I remember my friend called me up at 4:00am to see if I was awake and willing to go to McDonald's with him. By strange coincidence, I actually was up, and we had a blast. A couple weeks later, I finally tried out my Rahxephon DVD set that I had bought quite some time ago. Once I started it, I basically blew through it in a couple of days. Awesome series! The first half is eerily like Evangelion, but then it starts to do it's own thing, and quite well I might add. We even had a field trip for school! We went to Roy Thompson Hall for a concert, and let me just say that that building is amazing! Just visiting it would have been good enough for me.

    Here's an exciting thing, I got to write an exam this year in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It was crazy. A giant hall was filled with tons of different classes writing exams. It reminded me of entrance exams or something in anime.

    On a couple of sad notes. This marked the last year I would share most of my classes with a really good friend of mine. He ended up failing a few too many classes and was held back a year. This year he found it too tough and ended up dropping out of Architecture completely. Also, another good friend of mine moved to British Columbia last spring. We made to sure to have a big party for her, but we're all definitely going to miss her.

    Throughout the summer, I worked at the same place I worked last year, an aluminum siding manufacturer. It's fun, but I really didn't want to do it for another year in a row. At least this year I got a raise and worked for a full four months. I really did enjoy working there. People appreciated the work I did. I got exercise not only by doing physical labour, but by biking to and from work, rain or shine. I was even able to get my forklift license! Also, I didn't mind working long hours in order to get overtime. Often working 7:00am to 6:00pm. Halfway through the summer, I got sent to the retail part of the factory, but after a lot of complaining from my old peers, I was able to go back to shipping. That's when you know people appreciate your work. lol

    Anime North this year was a little less exciting than usual. I went alone and met up with some people when I got there. I bought a few things, got some autographs and saw some really nice art, but I was just bored. I even did cosplay this time. Guess who I went as? Shinji of course! Understandably no one recognized me though, since I just wore his school uniform. But the highlight of my day came when a trio of young girls screamed out "Shinji" when they saw me, most likely because of my Shinji style headphones. I got one picture taken of me... and it easily made my weekend for me. lol Once home, I discovered the joy of burning information to DVD-Rs. Wow. Where would I be if I was still using plan old CD-Rs? Well, let's just say that instead of the 150+ DVD-Rs I have now, I might as well have 1000+ CD-Rs just lying around!

    This was the first summer I had been back since my parents had split up. This meant I was living at home with my lonely dad (since my brother wasn't exactly doing his best to keep him company), and doing weekly dinners at my mom's house. A little awkward, but you get used to it pretty quickly.

    A major highlight of the summer was going camping with my girlfriend. I absolutely loved it. Sharing a tent, living by the fire... It was great. A little too cold for her liking, but on the bright side, it meant that there were no real bug problems to deal with. And I'm definitely all for that. lol Keeping on my girlfriend, she was able to even visit me at work a few times during the year. Now that, I definitely appreciated. Nothing better than having all the other guys jealous because you were able to spend your half an hour sitting beside a cute girl while having lunch. lol

    This was also my brother's last year in high school. I'm very proud of him. He's now off to College, and I just hope he continues to do well. ^_^

    Let's see, what else happened this year... I went to Summer Rush with one of my best friends at Canada's Wonderland. It was great. Not something i would have even done on my own, so I'm happy he invited me. Music from Cascada, DHT and Rihanna? Not too bad. Also, I had another Anime Night in the latter parts of the summer, but it was fairly unsuccessful. I don't have enough real anime crazy friends to have a party devoted to it, which in my mind is a real shame. Halfway through August my girlfriend and I camped out with her cousins downtown at their apartment for their annual "Cousin's Camping Trip". She has like a dozen cousins, so it's always fun, but this year one of her cousin's was pregnant, so to compensate, we had it the comfort of downtown Toronto for her. It was a lot of fun.

    Just like the year before (2005), I decided to make my last day of work on my birthday, the 31st of August. Most people tell me I should have taken it off, but I find there's nothing more enjoyable for your birthday than knowing you've just completed you last day of work. Started work on the 1st of May, and ended on the 31st of August. Talk about a clean cut four months.

    Don't worry, eight months down, four to go.

    So the day after my birthday I went to Video Game Live. You know, that symphony that plays video game music. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it enough that I even went to a similar showing called Play a couple of months later. lol

    September started with moving back downtown, and getting ready for my third year of Architecture at Ryerson University. This year was focussed on Project Management, unlike my first two which were more generalized. Turns out this was the best thing that could have happened for me. My marks basically jumped 10-20% instantly. Management has just been easier to understand than anything else in Architecture for me. But there are still some tough stuff. We've had a lot of presentations, and I'm actually thankful for that. In elementary school and high school I was deadly afraid of presentations. I became a nervous wreck. But in the later years of high school, I've been able to cope with it, and now in university I'm hitting my stride. I still stumble every now and then, but thanks to this constant bombardment of presentations, I'm getting better.

    As for fun, I definitely made more time for pleasure. While following the Wii for what felt like forever, I was always checking on anykind of updates online. And thanks to a new computer and flat panel monitor, I was doing it in style. Also, I discovered my love for Avatar: The Last Airbender. The second I heard that there was a DVD set for the first season out, I went out hunting, tracked it down and made sure to watch the whole thing that very night with my girlfriend. lol I also did a lot of rollerblading this year. Good exercise, but great way to get around the city. You can get anywhere in no time. And to think, I'm still wearing the same set I got when I was thirteen! Good thing I bought them a couple of sizes too big.

    I've worked on some really long projects these past couple of months. Partly due to the fact that they were group projects. I know I was saying how I'm thankful for group projects much earlier, but at the same time, the work just multiplies when you have coordinate with three other group members. And since every one of my glasses involved group work, there was never a moments rest. Endless nights working in the computer lab with group members who looked like zombies due to lack of sleep. Not a pretty picture. Exams weren't that bad though. I barely studied for any of them, and ended up with good marks. In fact, in all my courses, I got higher marks than I've ever gotten in university. To think, this was happening in my THIRD year of school! Project Management was definitely the right choice to make.

    Now here's something I had already mentionned before, but is definitely worth mentionning again... I finally got the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess! I basically played that game 8 hours a day until the 6th day where I beat it! I mean seriously. Like most fans, I had been waiting over 2½ years for this game. Who's going to even try and stop me from enjoying it? Unfortunately I think I had too high of expectations from it. Between that and being constanly bombarded by perfect scores, I was kinda disappointed by the game. It is an amazing game, but there are just a few too many faults that it ends up taking away from the experience for me. -_- Maybe over time I'll come around.

    And last but not least, there were the holidays that just passed. They were pretty good, but not great. Lots of shopping, and lots of wasting of money. I spent as much time as I could with my girlfriend and my family, but in the end everything was a little too rushed. Dinner at my mom's, dinner at a friend's, dinner at my girlfriend's... Just trying to squish everything into such a small time frame. Being home for the holidays was nice, but after a week, it was nice to come back downtown. A little cleanup, and I was ready for my 3rd annual New Year's Eve party, and just like last time, things went pretty well.

    Well, that's basically an entire review of the the year 2006. Like I said earlier, it was a decent year. Nothing was unbearably painful, but nothing made me the happiest person in the world either. One thing I can say though, 2006 was a year about growth. I've grown a lot this past year. I've been taking more responsibility for my actions, and my life. I'm getting things done, and am no longer letting myself be babied anymore. I'm twenty now. Twenty! I should be out on my own, making my own money and supporting myself. In 2006, I made many positive steps to taking my life into my own hands. And here's to hoping that 2007 will continue the trend. ~_^

    Kevin (Anime Jedi) 
  • Two and a half years of waiting come to an end... 2006-12-14 00:23:12 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Gamecube Version) is finally in my grasp!

    Ever since this game debuted at E3 2004, the world has been waiting. You see, then a new trailer showed up around Fall, and everyone started asking questions about this strange wolf in the video. But no answers. Then came E3 2005... and we were given a new trailer along with the games true title and the promise of a winter release. No dice, it was moved to Spring. Then moved again to Summer. And then finally moved to Winter again. Why? For more improvements and the chance to make a specific version for the Nintendo Wii, along with making the Wii version right hand friendly. But we were told that it would go on sale the exact same day at the Wii version. Nope, it was moved nearly a month later, from Nov 19 to Dec 13.

    And now, here we are, December 13th 2006. The LoZ: TP has finally gone on sale, and I made sure I got a copy for myself.

    Impressions? Love the game, but since everyone's probably sick of hearing about how amazing it is, here's a list of five things that have been bugging/or bugged me in my first 8 hours of gameplay.

    One, brightness. This game is incredibly dark. I mean, I've been using my television set for everything from games to DVDs, and the second I popped in this game, I could barely see a thing that was in anykind of darkness. Sure, all I had to do was change the brightness on my tv, but considering I've never had to do this before with this specific tv, it took me nearly half an hour to figure out where the brightness was in my tv's menu setting!
    Two, auto-shielding. There does not seem to be a seperate button for using your shield, other than the lock on button. This could be seen as convinient, since it means that unless you're about to swipe with your sword, your shield is up. But it takes away some freedom, especially when I want to target, but NOT use my wooden shield again those fire arrow whielding enemies.
    Three, the menu system. Ok, Nintendo's gotten us used to a traditional menu system by now thanks to it's past games, but changing it up can make things pretty confusing. Keeping all the items under the UP arrow button on the pad may work for the Wii version, but on the GC controller, it feels unnatural. I ALWAYS, press start first, and then realize it's not there. That, and not being able to exit using start also goes against an age old habit.
    Four, weird difficulty levels. I beat the Forest Temple's boss so quickly I didn't even realize what had just happened. But the first time I played the horse battle sequence and meeting shadow badguys as the wolf had me dying and using Game Overs in no time. I'm used to playing Zelda without ever using a Game Over, not to say it's not close, but I'm always able to recover. Here, I've already died 4 times in my first 8 hours. It's kinda depressing, especially since it's against easy stuff like getting run over by Gorons.
    Five, mirror right-handed Link. For the past half a year, all I've been doing it watching video after video of the Wii version of this game. I've memorized sequences, and key events in the game thanks to the trailers and clips. But now that I have the GC version... everythings backwards. Now whenever I see so many of these key moments, I can't help but feel like something's a miss. It's a horrible feeling because it takes away from the greatness that is this game. I was scared of this happening right from the get go when I popped in my new disc and saw Epona running from right to left, instead of left to right. It sounds like nothing, but you can't help but feel like something's backwards, and at some points it's truly unsettling. -_- Luckily this only happens during some specific scenes, and the rest of them are good. lol

    All in all, the game is great. I'm sure that with time, everything I've already complained about with slowly start fading away into the back of my mind. This game really is amazing. It's not as perfect as Ocarina of Time was, but pretty darn good.

    Kevin (Anime Jedi) 
previous page next page
Current server time: Dec 28, 2024 00:24:22