9/26/09

Announcement

...zzz...
GAH!
Wow, it's been a little while since posting, so, UPDATE!
So, having seen the complete lack of followers for this blog, I'm gonna announce it on Facebook! Yay!
I still won't announce my name on here and I expect anyone who knows me to allow me my internet anonymity, thanks.
So...I'll go do that!

9/21/09

I Have A Bad Feeling About This

So, on Saturday morning I had rehearsal for a very exclusive choir. Turns out I have to memorize FIVE SONGS in a week. Guess what's playing on iTunes right now?
Oh, it's gonna be a long week.
You know what's fun? Sitting in the room when your family members are watching a TV show they like and laughing at serious things cuz they look funny if you don't know what's going on. I do this when my folks are watching Stargate: Atlantis. Yeah, it seems a little backwards, but Stargate has never really been my cup of tea. Go figure.
You know what I hate? People who tell me what to do without knowing what the heck they're talking about. Especially, when I have to listen to them. I'm not gonna name names, but let me tell you, the list is longer than I'd like.
Now, I try to inform people when they do this, and most of the time they realize their mistake and apologize. But some will say they get it, but they don't. In one ear and out the other, as they say. So frustrating.
This topic is making me edgy, let's move on, shall we?
Sometimes I'll be watching a show and something totally unexpected will throw me for a loop. I'm not talking about plot twists, I'm talking about guys so pretty, they're often mistaken for gals. Really freaks me out.
I started watching Naruto recently, and they bring in that one guy, Haku? They guy with the ice mirrors? And the mask? Ah, heck, I don't know. And any of you who know the show can feel free to correct me, I'm just tired.
Speaking of Naruto, another thing that bugs me with shows sometimes in when they stretch out the most insignificant things to fill for time or for emphasis. EMPHASIS! To the point where the entire contents of an episode can be summed up with, "this guy used a move, they talked about how cool it was, this other guy used a move, they talk about that one for the rest of the episode".
No, really.
Would write more, but my brain is going into shutdown mode.

9/18/09

Blabba Blab

You know what's fun? Laughing. And I had an awesome time this afternoon.
The Drama Club at my school had a "social" (fancy term for party) today, and we did this one thing where you lay on the floor with your head on someone else's stomach and another person has their head on your stomach and it's a whole chain of people. As weird as this may sound, it gets weirder. Then, starting at one end of the chain, you start going "ha". But the object is really to get people to laugh as much as possible, cuz that bounces the people around you and eventually everyone is cackling a swarm of stereotypical witches. I at least thought it was awesome. Of course, I'm easily provoked to laugh and the rather awkward positioning combined with the crazy antics that go on around you (it also provoked things further that the person on my stomach kept poking me in the side, where I happen to be rather ticklish) make things rather uproariously funny. It may sound strange as folk, but I find it extremely fun.
Knight to Strange Topic!
Is it just me, or are a lot of older cartoons being remade lately? In the last few months, Cartoon Network has made a few TV movies of Tom and Jerry. A little while ago, it seems like they said, "Screw it, we're making a series." And so they did.
In the original cartoons, the woman that Tom and Jerry sometimes lived with was a bodacious, southern, black woman. Now she's a bodacious, southern white woman. I don't know whether the change has made it more or less racist than before.
This thought process is boring, NEXT!
I wrote a paper yesterday for my creative writing class at school. We were supposed to write about a school issue. So, with a little inspiration from my friends' topics and a little of my snarky nature, I decided to write about "The Harm Of Stereotypes In School". After writing about it, I now realize that my thoughts, while pretty true, are very scathing towards the school administration and a good chunk of the students. While most of these points need to be made, I may have been a little harsh. And my school is actually very good about a lot of these, though it obviously has its problems as well. I know a lot of you don't care about my paper and would rather I not talk about what you have no knowledge of, I'm merely unburdening myself, so don't pay too much attention.
...GAH! Sorry, distracted by this really frickin' trippy game. It's called Time Fcuk and it's on Newgrounds. My brain feels like it's gonna explode. Go check it out.

9/16/09

Awful By Association

It's Wednesday. While this might mean nothing to you it does mean something to me to me!
No rehearsals today! And it's my sister's birthday! Happy b-day, sis! She's 7 today.
SWERVE says the train of thought!
If you've noticed, all NONE of you, hmph, I like to link to TV Tropes, a rather cool site, filled to the brim with funny information on conventions of fiction of all sorts. And it's a wiki, so you can add all sorts of things! Check it out! But it also has a tendency to suck your life away as exemplified here. Yeah, it's kind of like that.
Walking down the street, you don't see a lot off hats that really grab attention. Maybe the odd baseball cap, but not much more. Me? I try to defy this convention and have a couple of really cool hats, the most prominent of which is a trilby. Now you may be thinking, "NF, you silly! Yahtzee did it first, making it the most evil hat ever!" You know what I say to that? SO WHAT.
Look, just because the man who is perhaps the most reviled game reviewer on the internet wears this hat doesn't mean it's bad by association. This is the kind of thing that gets so often applied to Hitler. And besides, I wore this hat long before I'd even heard of him so HA!

9/14/09

AARGH!!!

Hello, hello! Me again!
Who's heard of this Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins nonsense? Just me? Oh, well, you're going to listen to me rant about it for a few sentences so haha.
Apparently, Cartoon Network feels it's time to violate the Scooby-Doo franchise, AGAIN, in the most painful way possible: by making another live action movie of it. But not a big budget, theater released movie with the added bonus of Sarah Michelle Gellar's sexy, sexy body to rope in all of the male fans of Buffy The Vampire Slayer under the age of 20. No, no, but with a crappy, TV released movie set in the present day. A-can I get a "canon violation"? NOT from you, Strong Sad.

1. Freddie is freakin' BLONDE, dangit!
2. When the heck did Velma get ASIAN?
3. This is a '60s cartoon people!

What's worse, that they completely thrashed this franchise's poor, bloodied body, or that I was totally expecting it?
Oh, and while all of the criminal's motives are rather odd, the fact that their first baddie is their principal trying to get a misprint stamp? LAME.
My verdict? EPIC FAIL.
Wow, I spent, what? Five paragraphs on this? Time for a RANDOM TOPIC CHANGE!
You know who the sickest, most evil man on the planet is?
...
Don't you even go there.
No, I'll TELL you who it is:



















Joss Whedon.
You're probably laughing at me right now, but this is simply further evidence of his awful dominion.
No, he has not murdered or tortured any real people, per se, but his terrorizing reign over the worlds of fiction is monstrous and unending. Ever since his television debut with Buffy he has tormented the lives of dozens of lovable characters, all while forcing them to remain under a guise of good humor. Is this wholesome behavior? NO
He also has a nasty habit of derailing characters for the sake of his own unintelligible metaphors. He should be put to death for what he did to Willow!
Even on the internet, his psychosis knows no bounds. If you have not seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long-Blog, click this RIGHT NOW and go see the terrifying depths that this man will sink to.
These acts have horrified, shocked and enraged fans for more than a decade. And the worst part? THEY LIKE IT. The masochistic pigs like it!
And you know what scares me? They can be ANYONE. The poor saps! Dragged through the infernal circles of Whedon's depraved soul.
And, yes, I will admit it: I am one of them!
As much as I revile and hate that man, I am drawn like a bee to sweet, sweet flowers to the products of his mind. And in a few weeks, Dollhouse Season 2 will premiere and will be unable to look away! It's the same curse that forced me to read all four Twilight books! Except that I actually LIKE IT!!!
I can no longer do this, I must go lament the loss of my free will.

9/11/09

Day 2

Tired, again. Darn early mornings.
But tomorrow is Saturday! And that means I can sleep in! FINALLY!!!
My folks are out of town tonight. You might be thinking, "Rock on, man! Throw a party or something!" But that's not gonna happen. Why? I have three sibs to babysit. Ugh. I have a feeling that the disney channel is gonna be on til the early hours of the morning. Unless I send them all to bad before then cuz I just can't stand them anymore. That's not a half bad idea, akshully.
We did blocking in rehearsal this afternoon. That's where you plot out the movements onstage for everyone but without the actual sets or props. I get to throw a shirt in my friend's face. This guy can be kind of a jerk but is really funny so I'm looking forward to it.
Train of thought swerving, and...random topic change!
Monty Oum is a frickin' genius, I'm not even kidding. This guy makes some of the most awesome videos you will ever find on the internet ever. Haloid is his first, and answers what would happen if Master Chief and Samus Aran ever fought. SPOILER: We win.
Dead Fantasy is his current series. And I think it's better than Haloid, honestly. It's a crossover between Final Fantasy and Dead Or Alive. I've never played DOA, but this series has increased my level of interest. It started out with only female characters (what is it with that guy?) but expanded it's repertoire in it's later installments. Really CHECK IT OUT.
Now from videos based on games to an actual game!
Spore! The latest brainchild sprung from the mind of legendary game designer Will Wright, creator of The Sims and SimCity!
The game in a nutshell, you take a species you create through five evolutionary stages: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, and Space. All the while you guide it's choices and expand your power over the world around.
Some have criticized the game for having the first four levels being shallow. I do admit that this a fairly deserved comment. The game really reaches it's stride when it hits Space, though. But the real genius of the game is the creators. It lets you build pretty much anything, animals, buildings, vehicles and spaceships. It's truly brilliant and intuitive, and where the game really shines. If you've ever wanted to make an alien, whatever it be, this is the game for you.
Yes, I know, I like to pour out praise for things I like, but I'll try to be snarkier.
Starting now!
Twilight. The very word fills my soul with fear. These books SUCK. In fact, it sucks so hard that I find myself unable to formulate in words the true depths of my loathing, but the following does a good job of summarizing some of my hate for the series. Now you might pass me off as a hater, and you'd technically be right. But first read this. Now be enlightened.

"There is a lot wrong with Stephanie Meyer's writing. Annoying, one-dimensional characters, overused and redundant adjectives, a disturbingly sick and obsessive relationship, and the most disgustingly blatant Mary Sue since Stephen Dedalus. Not to mention the fact that a love story that is supposedly about seeing inner beauty is impossible to take seriously when the writer can't stop gushing over how gorgeous and pretty and beautiful and hot and sexy and graceful and attractive Edward is. It's also worth noting the fact that it ignores pretty much all accepted ideas of vampirism, removing every single weakness and curse vampirism entails, from holy water to sunlight to the need to drink human blood, and replaces them with...random superpowers. Then there's the utterly twisted plot points, like Bella marrying and getting pregnant right out of high school, Bella refusing to get away from a guy who admits to her face he feels urges to kill her solely because he's hot (or would "dazzling" be more appropriate?), and a werewolf falls in love with a newborn baby and promises to care for her until she is "of age" so he can woo her. If that wasn't horrifying enough, the baby conveniently happens to physically mature at an accelerated rate, and will look 17 when she is 7, so that's okay. No it's not.

"I could accept this as a badly written book, but there are some things here that go beyond fantasy and reveal either a very naive or very twisted author. The series, which is written for girls nearing dating age, idolizes a textbook abusive relationship. Edward is controlling, prone to bursts of anger, moody, and jealous. He cuts her off socially, and she follows him like a blind puppy, expressing horror at the very concept of him leaving her. Or, you know, killing her. He justifies any wrongdoing against her with “It’s just because I love you” or “It’s what’s best for you.” As if that wasn't enough, he watches her while she sleeps. That's not sweet, that is stalkerish, and if a girl gets the idea that this is acceptable from Edward, she will be ignorant of a classic warning sign of a very dangerous person. It presents a risk of violence and abuse as an exciting obstacle that can be overcome with true love, and treats obsessiveness as romantic and flattering, which is a great mindset to have while being abused. I have enough confidence in human intelligence to know that fans of these books aren't all going to be eager to get into abusive relationships, but if the best thing I can say about the love story is "readers will probably be smart enough not to emulate the main character," that is not a good thing.

"The Twilight series is a poorly written story of an obsessive relationship told by an unreliable narrator, but even with all this I could still ignore it. But there is one story aspect that I simply cannot overlook, one that fills me with such rage and disgust at the very thought of it that I feel true, genuine hatred for this series and its author. I am talking, of course, about sparkly vampires. That is not a joke. The vampires sparkle. They're not weak to sunlight, it makes them glitter. I could understand if it was a cringeworthy metaphor, but no. As if Edward wasn't already slathered in adjective and adverb vomit, he has to literally emit glowing rays of light to really drive the point home that he's pretty. For Pete's sake, even My Little Pony has the taste and common decency to forgo bioluminescence, and she's a horse who exists for no reason other than to look pretty. Edward, a humanoid, has no such excuse. For all the poor writing and warped notions of how romance works, it's the fact that Edward is basically a big piece of jewelry with a rocklike personality to match that drives the point home that these are bad books."

Do you see what's wrong with it NOW, fangirls!? See the slim facade of pretty prose from Bella's shallow brain that disguises all the problem's that are contained in her and Edward's relationship!? Yeah, I hope so.

9/9/09

First Post!

Hello, and welcome to Rampant and Rhetoric! This is my very first post here and can't wait to get started!
My posts on here are bound to be a bit sporadic, but I'll try to keep this up for a while especially if people like it.
Now, you can call me NF, the acronym of my username, makes things simple.
I'm a big fan of the performing arts (choir, theatre, band, orchestra, etc.) with choir and theatre taking up a big part of my school schedule. Recently our school started the production of this year's fall musical. This time around it's South Pacific, and what do they do first after obliterating my hopes of getting a lead? Give us three 6am rehearsals in a ROW. That's right, I've had to get up at 5 in the morning, yesterday, today, and (drumroll, please) tomorrow!
While the grammar there might not have gone so well, the point still stands. Getting up that early SUCKS, and is unhealthy for the cast. This was part of the reason I wanted a lead, they don't have to do most of the early morning rehearsals!
While I was expecting this, having gone through the same process last year, does it make it any easier? No, no, and no.
Unrelated tangent time!
My mom goes grocery shopping on friday, and what's today? Thursday. What does this mean? That's there's absolutely NOTHING to be scavenged from the kitchen that takes less than thirty seconds to make. And while hunger is a good motivator for hard work, it doesn't give you amazing cooking knowledge no matter how much you might think so.
Now you might be thinking, "Aw, poor little kid can't eat when he wants." What I say to that is shove off. I'm 6 foot and 145 pounds, I need FOOD.
Alternatively, you could be thinking, "Why is this here? Weren't you just talking about early morning rehearsals?"
While it may seem random, it actually figures into my current status, I'm hungry and tired, which is now on Facebook. If you can find out who I am from this, congratulations! You're a creepy stalker who terribly needs to get a life!
Now a really random tangent!
I like music, a lot. But sometimes it just becomes...odd. Like the title of Fall Out Boy's newest album, Folie a Deux. If the books on the shelves in the library of the creepy mental hospital level of Second Sight (which is actually a good game, the gameplay's a little off, but the story is brilliant and definitely worth a look if you give a crap about story) are to be believed, it's a type of mental disorder where one person has a delusion and another person believes them, effectively transferring the delusion. And...Wikipedia confirms it! Well, well, looks like the developers DID do the research!
But this leads to the interesting question of "what leads them to name their album after a psychological disorder?" Now, I may be looking at this too hard, but it might be a reference to one (or MORE!?) of the band member's mental health. Just a little mini-theory. Or maybe they're the ones who didn't do the research.
Thanks for reading my first post, and remember to try and critique!
~NF~