Joy for Photo Booth. <3 Mac.
Not a big fan of this series. Just not my type of anime, I suppose. 'Moe' and gore just don't go together, in my opinion.
Yes, Naruto made a stupid choice of going on a filler season for about a year, giving time for the manga to pull away. This was because the manga has a two-year gap in its timeline, which has just started in the anime in the middle of February. As of now, there are a crapload of episodes to watch if you ever decide you want to pick up Naruto now, and I highly suggest you don't unless you reason out that: a) No, it's actually the most far-fetched interpretation of the Ninja culture, but it's hell of a lot of fun to watch. b) The hero can be quite annoying and obnoxious, but the dynamics of a multitude of other characters in the show/manga and how Naruto interacts with them makes it more enjoyable to watch. c) Yes, some battles go on for a few episodes, and not all of them are good. Being a 200+ episode series so far, not everything is going to be great. I'd suggest not watching the fillers, (which start sometime around the 150s or 160s I believe) and just go straight to the new season. That saves you about 60-70 episodes. Haha.
Don't mind if I do. =) Lyrically, you can tell right away it's not Japanese if you see a consistency in consecutive consonants and 'illegal Japanese', and ends in consonants (ex. Estuans: there's no 'tu' in Japanese, consecutive consonants (st), and it ends in 's'). Phonemically, you can tell the difference by the way they pronounce their vowels. Japanese is sung (excluding a very specific sect of Japanese Opera) using what's called 'spread vowel singing'. Most western music follow an established standard norm that's called 'open vowel singing', which emphasizes more hollow, rich, resonant pronunciations of vowels. They also emphasize a 'north-south' formation of the lips, whereas spread-vowel singing is more 'east-west'. Open-vowel singing is modeled after the Latin pronunciation of the vowels.
Yep. It's derived from 'chaos theory' which holds that small variations of any particular instance (terminology being 'system')--given the right leverage and circumstance--may produce large, and sometimes unexpected, variation in the long-term behaviour of the same system. Apply that to the movie, basically every little thing Ashton tried to do to 'correct' a certain mishap caused even greater damage in the long run. It's quite a dark movie, but I enjoyed it.
'tu' でいえないよ. =P へんのやつおまえは。^o^ ほんとに日本語を分かりますか。
Hey, Cin! Sandwich dissection, here we go. Most and above all, I must commend the degree of emotion that was evident throughout the piece. The lexicon--for the most part--was very well chosen, and depicted the feelings and thoughts of the narrator very well. I've played Final Fantasy Tactics, and while Ramza wasn't exactly the most pronounced protagonist in terms of his viewpoints and feelings, I felt this work really gave accurate insight on a perspective that many may have thought, felt and discerned if they were placed in a situation like Ramza was. Shikamarus Shadow might have probably mentioned the same thing if he had read this and commented, but there are a few spots where I felt the choice of word(s) and the syntax of the sentences were somewhat odd. I, myself, have this sort of problem as well, so I don't hold myself above this error either. While the train of thought and the point trying to be conveyed are not at fault--your ideas are for the most part, vivid and justified--the way these thoughts were translated into words sometimes lacked finesse and as a result, took away some of the emotion behind it. As well, there are some minor grammatical errors that could bring more cohesiveness to the narration, but many of these are elusive and probably aren't a problem when rehearsed in speech. You evidently have the ideas of a very promising writer, and convey these ideas in ways that really take advantage of the prowess of the English language. Creativity is not your weakness, but instead it is particular attention that could be made toward choosing certain words and phrases that could better enhance the narrative. Sometimes, simpler words are more effective--although this does not exhaust or specify the type of correction(s) that could be made. Overall, I enjoyed reading it. It's not quite as dark as I expected it to, and is actually more in the domain of the type of angst I enjoy. Good job, Cin.
You're probably referring to Dan Brown's Angels and Demons.
Yes! For the love of God, yes! FFXII made me want to throw my controller at the screen for the sheer redundancy of the beastiary. Sounds really good; the idea of random soldiers having a 'background story' of sorts is very cool. I'm definitely looking forward to the Fabula Nova Crystallis even more.
Definitely not interested. Why would I want to see Vaan and Penelo again... those useless... *profanity fades into the distance*
Really, didn't gather that from what I read thus far. And the answer is it doesn't. The reverse is more likely.
There are only about 1,000+ active members out of the 4,000+, but I can say that I understand where you're coming from. I assume that there are more people reading the fic, but very few actually take the time to post a response on the thread. This of course may not mean they're not enjoying the fic, but some may just like to read and not give feedback. It happens all the time on fanfiction.net. However, it's also a possibility that some may start reading the fic, and find out that they're not all that interested in reading more. Of course, I seriously doubt that would be the case here since there are far too many members for there to be *no one* appreciating your writing, Cin. That being said, it's also important to understand that what you may find good may not be the cup of tea for someone else. My very own fanfiction that I've been posting up in Creativity Corner, despite having 240 hits, I believe--only Shikamarus Shadow, draik88, Storrini, Darky, Gharanth and Axel have bothered to post anything at all about it. Moreso, draik88, Storrini and Darky are the only three people who have posted more than once on my story. That makes three readers who have given continual feedback and comments on my story out of the 240 hits the story has gotten. Or you could say only 3 out of the 1,000+ active members seem to have been loyal to my story and reading it. In the end, I suppose I don't mind, although it would be nice to see who's enjoying it and who's.. not, haha. I wouldn't go so far as to say the forum is full of culturless idiots, just maybe fanfiction isn't the primary basis of why they come to the forum. I'll gladly read your work, Cin, if you want to add one more person to that list of five that you say tend to read yours. And if you need me to comment on it as well, I will.
Evolution happens. That's a fact. Charles Darwin was trying to explain how it happens, not whether or not it exists. You should be debating his theory of 'Natural Selection', not evolution. Even then, natural selection has been an acceptable theory in mainstream science and most evolutionary theory to explain the how species 'evolve' throughout time. The only reason why it can't be physically proven is because no being can live long enough to see the differences first-hand. Evolution is a slow process, thus can't be showcased in laboratory experiments. It's a suggestive type of science that is shown using fossilized diagrams and geographic analysis (for example, Darwin noticed he found two species of turtles on the east coasts of South America and the West Coasts of Africa shared similar genetic foundations, suggesting at one point--those particular species of turtle lived together when Africa and South America were still together). The fact that these species of turtle eventually deviated away from each other genetically in their respective habitats is due to environmental factors--caused by adaptation via natural selection. Before it happens, I must also stress that mutation and evolution are two different things.
I like proofs, which is probably why I'm a rather non-religious person and consequently don't have much of a belief in reincarnation. It's a very interesting theory and for the most part, it can seem to be a possibility. But because no one can ever really know if they've been incarnated, just how someone couldn't tell us if heaven existed after they died (if it does, in fact, exist), it's hard to find evidence.
I like it, Misty. Like I say to other as well, a 1px border of a darker brown would make it a lot better (in my opinion of course). Typography could also be a little more unique (like a rough calligraphic with a dark brown stroke effect on it). Of course I can see how keeping it simple works as well--as it adds to the semantics of the word 'alone' and would also explain why you placed it on the corner of the sig away from the image. But somehow the artistic integrity of the focus image kind of makes you *want* more from the text. Hence, some calligraphic font I think would add some 'emotional' aspect for many reasons: it would give it a loose, unpredictable, 'unforeseeable' feeling in a sense, showcasing some uncertainty that really matches the feeling I get from the render. The background is fine as it is, though. Everything else is absolutely gorgeous.
You mean Xehanort's Heartless. Xemnas is a Nobody--therefore can't have a Heartless. And his name wasn't really Ansem. libregkd points out the more important thing, however.
You also have to take into account that not only are the VAs usually high-class, the range from which they come from is a lot bigger than JP's seiyuu list. I can't recall any names now, but the NA voice cast for both KH and KH2 comprised of both US and Canadian voice actors. Accomodation for transportation costs, as well as the inevitable fact that most North American voice actors have a much higher 'hiring price' than Japanese one has be to accounted for. Japan, on the other hand, isn't a continent. People often forget that when we consider the three main branches of region releases: Japan, NA, Euro--Japan is by far the smallest and most manageable in terms of both its marketing campaign and budget. So of course this begs the question about the future of Re:CoM: will they just translate the subtitles and leave the Japanese audio in? Or will they actually go the extra mile? The latter makes it harder to produce a NA release. Random note: Marluxia's japanese seiyuu is the same one who did Dullindal in Gundam Seed Destiny. Haha, that just made me laugh. He's such a good 'diplomatic ' villain. You'd be surprised how much more expensive it can be to do 'few' scenes than many. It's more of an 'investment' to voice actors when they sign a contract for a game that will require several hours of recordings. In this sense, the time spent to fly over to the recording studios, spending days in hotels, etc, are all 'worth' it in the sense that they are involved quite a bit in the game. Now consider the same amount of work required to schedule and fly back over to the same recording studio to recite a few lines. Suddenly it's not all that worth flying over for now is it? At least, not to the same degree. The hassle overshadows the limelight. This is even more difficult for any Canadian voice actors that hypothetically would be chosen to voice a few lines. Japan is a different story since it's a much smaller country, and makes bringing in 'locals' a lot easier to do for a far cheaper price. While many like myself enjoy and prefer Japanese voice acting over English, it is a fact that hiring North American voice actors is a lot more expensive, since many of these voice actors have appeared in Hollywood films, successful TV shows, and some are accomplished music artists. This same success is not the same for the Japanese community (ex. How many Japanese films have made it to the Hollywood level? Music artists that have been successful outside Japan? TV shows?) Most Japanese media is strictly national and doesn't make it to international networks (satellite doesn't count).
Haha, you know, I never looked at it that way--but that's a valid argument. I sort of looked at it like Riku being michievious, wanting to annoying the crap out of Sora whenever he could, hence the reference with the bucket of ice water. But now that I think about it, Riku does seem to be rather hyper in that scene. XD, funny. I like it.
I think you have the wrong character. ;p Just kidding. The render is pretty good and the background is simple and effective. I'm always a big fan of borders---it adds a cohesiveness to the sig, so I'll always recommend one. Overall, it's a nice sig. I like it.
The world will most likely end not beause of a super nova sun, but for other reasons. Global Warming, for example. We're killing our atmosphere a lot quicker than the sun can burn out, so if anything--under this presumption, it is the sun that will kill us once we've completely destroyed our ozone layer. Then we'll all fry, of course. Although it's safer to say we sooner risk running out of natural resources first, and may die from life-support deprivation instead. There's also a theory if you've read up on your thermodynamics, the laws that state that an increase of entropy increases 'chaos'. Thermodynamics underlies that all 'useful work' energy (Gibb's energy) is not lost after use and that it is instead transformed into other forms of energy--energy we *cannot* use. Here's a nice analogy. It's from a Grade 12 Biology textbook that I'm going to try to summarize. Imagine a fish tank that is divided in half by a wooden plank, and that there are small fans at the bottom standing upright. Fill one side of the tank with water. Gibb's energy (useful work) is the potential energy stored in the plank that is preventing the water from entering the empty side of the tank. When you remove the plank, water rushes to the empty side and spins the fans (due to the pressure of the water, etc). This is a model of how useful work energy powers and governs all the things we do: the energy we consume to move our arms, to contract our muscles, to breathe our oxygen, to drive our cars; everything useful in our daily lives consumes this Gibb's energy. Now consider the tank as it is now. The water is now evenly distributed among the tank, and nothing happens. The fans stop spinning, the water level is equal; now that the energy (represented by the water) is now evenly distributed throughout the tank, we *cannot* be use this energy to do anything else. And no, you can't empty the tank and try it again because that requires useful energy, and we're considering the tank our 'world'. That is in essence, the model of how the end of the world will be according to thermodynamic theory. Everyday as we consume this useful energy, we are slowly distributing this energy evenly among the vast universe around us. Eventually, the universe will be the same as the tank: a universe filled with stagnant, unuseable energy. The stars will stop shining, life will cease to exist. They coin is as a final 'heat death' of the universe. Now of course, this won't happen until who knows how long, so don't bother getting all worked up on this theory thinking "Omg, when I exercise I'm consuming the universe's useful work energy!". Use it all you like, it's gonna be around for a while.
