Death of Dubs, who cares, not I sir, not I...

So this morning I woke up early, and since there was little else to do I decided to read some anime articles, and I ran across this piece titled "Editorial: Death of Anime Dubs". Which was an interesting examination of the declining anime dub industry, but one that to me means very little (well I feel bad that the voice actors will have to find other work, but I'm speaking of the dubs themselves). I consider myself a fairly "hardcore" anime fan, I've watched (literally) thousands of episodes of TV anime, movies, and OVA's (basically straight-to-video shows), but the amount of those that I've watched in English I could probably count on my fingers.

I guess (if you want to be an asshole) you could call me an "elitist", since I think that if a show is made in a particular language, it should be watched in that language. It's not just with anime, if I watch a Russian horror film, or a Chinese "kung fu" movie, I'll watch them in Russian and Chinese respectively. I don't feel it necessary to be "catered" to, by having someone put all the spoken dialogue in my language. Frankly I find the people who require this kind of crutch in order to enjoy a film far bigger assholes.

Another point is price, it's pretty expensive to have a crew of professional voice actors show up and record for all the different role in a TV series or a movie, and as a consumer you get to "foot the bill" when it reaches the shelf. Which sucks for me, since as I mentioned above I very rarely watch a show dubbed (unless there's either a) no other option, or b) someone else watching with me that won't read subtitles). So basically whenever I buy a show that has a dub track, and I don't watch it, I've wasted money or spent money that could have been saved if the DVD was cheaper without the dub. Then again, I suppose you could say, having spent around $10k on anime DVDs alone (I have over 700 in my collection), I've already wasted a bunch of money.

What your car really says about you.

A lot of people buy cars as status symbols, something that reflects their personality to the hundreds of random strangers they drive past on their way to work, or to the store. What most people don't realize is, what you think your car says about you and what it really says about you are often very different.



You drive a: Chrysler 300C
What you think it says about you: It makes me look "gangsta/pimp"
What it really says about you: I can't afford a Mercedes Benz or a BMW with my crappy job in middle management.




You drive a: Hummer H3
What you think it says about you: I drive a safe powerful truck, I can use it to go off-roading and do other "adventurous" stuff.
What it really says about you: I'm a giant douche, I'll never go off roading (if I did I'd have bought a Land Rover or an original Hummer). I bought this when the SUV craze was going on, since I'll buy into any trend 'cause I'm boring and unoriginal, soon I'll be trading it in for a Toyota Prius or a Honda Insight so I can "go green".

You drive a:  Scion Xb

What you think it says about you: I'm trendy, and I drive something that's "different" 'cause I don't wanna "fit in"

What it really says about you: I got tricked into buying a $16,000 car that looks like a fucking toaster by a bunch of Toyota business men.

You drive a: "Modified" Honda Civic
What you think it says about you: Hay guise! look @ me, I'm soooo fast!
What it really says about you: I spent $5000 on paint, wheels and plastic shit, and still get beat in stoplight drag races by mini-van driving soccer moms who are late for their hair appointments.

Initial D, FUCK YEA

This is sorta old news (from 2-3 weeks ago), but who cares, no one visits my blog for up-to-date anything (reality: no one visits my blog, period). Some of the greatest news I've heard in a long time got dropped by Funimation (an anime licensing company), they'll be releasing all 3 seasons (plus a movie, and a side story) of Intial D. For anyone reading this that doesn't know (sadly probably almost all of you), Intial D is an anime series that spans from the late 90's-mid 2000's, it's about Japanese "touge" (mountain pass) racing, and it's one of the most addictive shows I've ever watched. The shows concept is simple enough, an unknown racing prodigy get involved in an impromptu street race during his morning delivery run (he delivers tofu for his fathers shop). This seemingly minor encounter quickly escalates into an explosion of interest in the underground racing scene, as racers from all over Japan seek races with the new mystery racer.

As someone who likes anime, and car racing, this show is everything I enjoy in one awesome package. The best part of this news is that Funimation will be releasing almost the entire show (there's a 2nd side story, but I'm not even sure if it's on DVD in Japan). The series was previously left incomplete by Tokyopop (the company who owned the license before), with only the first 2 seasons and the side story getting a US release. The show will also be getting re-dubbed (in English) which is supposed to be more faithful to the original (not that it would be all that difficult, considering the hack job Tokyopop did originally). The dub will also use the original "eurobeat" music instead of the pop, rap, rock, etc. soundtrack TP put together, I consiter that good news, since the eurobeat goes better with the races than some pop song from a b-list musician. Then again, music is subjective, and I'm sure lots of people would like to hear pop songs instead of 90's music sang by Japanese singers in English to high speed dance tracks, but fuck them they don't deserve eurobeat.

I'm not terribly interested in the dub, since I watch 99% of my anime in Japanese, with subtitles (I'm an "elitist"), but I'm really interested in the release of the movie and the 3rd TV series, since I've only been able to watch them on video google, and you tube. Even though the show is getting bashed on some anime forums, with fans saying "no one cares about Intial D anymore", I think they're full of shit (obviously Funimation does too). Intial D has a bigger audience than just anime fans, people love cars, and lots of people love racing, and I'd be willing to bet a lot of them would over look the fact that it's a cartoon, if they knew it would be insanely entertaining (which it is).

I personally can't wait, then again I suppose that's obvious by now, since I spend the last 3 paragraphs blowing my nerd load all over the place.

The Project Continues

Well my original plan for posting updates on the car 1-2 times a month was apparently wishful thinking. I've been working on it on and off, but there hasn't been any major changes so there really wasn't any good reason to post anything. But I figured it was about time to post some updates (even if they're small), and get some other info up about what the project has in store.

This is basically what the front half looks like at the moment. The head lights are from a company called Circuit Sport, they're "angel eye" lights (which means they have a halo effect like you see on BMW's when only the parking lights are on).

The engine still hasn't been put back together since I'm still waiting for a ring compressor, which is on back order >_>. I'll be rebuilding it with Eagle H-beam rods, pictured above, and a set of Fel-pro stock cast pistons (no picture, they're just boring stock pistons). Originally I planed to use a set of Arias 10.8:1 domed pistons, but I decided not to spend $600 for pistons and another few hundred for machine work. Maybe after a year or 2 of track use I'll upgrade from the stockers.

Some of the other areas I'm working on at the moment are the trunk, since I'm moving the battery to the trunk, and replacing the gas tank with an 8 gallon fuel cell. I'm going to be replacing the entire trunk floor with aluminum to make mounting the battery box and the fuel cell easier (and it will look a hell of a lot better as a flat piece, instead of having the big ugly spare tire "well" in the middle of the floor).

I'm also replacing all the factory wiring and fuse blocks with Painless Wiring units. Originally I was just tracing down the wires and cutting off the ones that were no longer in use, but it became way more of a pain in the ass than it was worth. The factory wiring was a god damn nightmare, and I wasted about 3 weeks with it till I finally gave up and decided to just strip it entirely and rewire it from scratch. It might be a little more difficult (though I'd be hard pressed to see how), but I think the pay off in the end will be far greater then using a 20 year-old half assed cut up factory wiring harness.

In between the bigger projects I've also been changing out the bushings with Energy Suspension polyurethane ones. I've replaced those on the front and rear sway bar, and the steering rack as of right now.

I'm also "shaving" the front and rear side marker lights and the fuel door (since the fuel cell will be in the trunk) for a cleaner look. I have been thinking of just moving the front markers from where they are (right behind the front bumper) to up near the top rear corner of the fender. I'll be using a different housing, since the factory amber ones look like cheap ass bicycle reflectors. That will (hopefully) help keeping me from getting pulled over, considering everything else that's likely to get me pulled over, every little bit that doesn't will help.

Some plans for the future include:

-Aluminum dashboard with Autometer C2 gauges

-Corbeau: FX1 Pro seats

-MSD 6AL-2 ignition and Blaster coil

-Converting to manual brakes using a Wilwood master cylinder

-Baer drilled&slotted rotors and Hawk HP Plus pads (front and rear)

And something just for fun,

After getting inspired by an old letter in Super Street magazine, I decided to make a "JDM-style" key, but since I'm not rich I used a cheap screw driver from the hardware store and not a fancy Snap-on one :).

A little clean up

I decided my Blog was getting messy as shit with different labels on posts (I had 55 different labels for only 20 posts >_>), so I cut down the bullshit and made a single label for each post. I also added a label list (upper right corner), so if your only interested in Rants posts, or Automotive posts, you can sort by them and not have to wade through all of my other bullshit that you don't care about to find what your interested in (see how nice I am). I'll give you a quick breakdown of how I'll be labeling shit.

Anime: These will be posts about anime/anime news/etc.

Automotive: These are posts about cars/driving/etc.

Project Car (240sx): These will be posts only about my 240sx project car

Rant: These will be rants on random subjects that piss me off enough to point them out.

Video Games: These will be rants/reviews of various games/game types

obviously there will be other labels as time goes on, and I make posts on different subjects, but for now this will be a shitload better then the 55 labels I had before.

Who Wants to be a Douchebagonaire?

It's been quite a while since I posted last, so I decided to do something kinda fun, and kinda serious. I write a lot about things I hate to encounter when I'm out driving. So for the hell of it I put together this quick little quiz, it's nothing special (trust me), but I hope it's at least interesting, otherwise I just blew 2 hours typing this dumb shit up. The scoring may be a little fucked up, but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

The Automotive Douche bag Quiz:

1. The automobile I use most often in my daily commute is a/an...
A)Small/mid-size car (0)
B)Mini-van (3)
C)Full-size SUV (5)
D)Pick-up/mini-SUV (3)
E)Luxury/sports/exotic car (2)

2. In a given speed zone (30,45,55,etc.), I drive...
A)10+mph under posted limit (20)
B)5-10mph under posted limit (5)
C)0-5mph over posted limit (0)
D)5-15mph over posted limit (5)
E)15+mph over posted limit (20)

3. On a highway I stay ____feet behind the car in front of me...
A)200+ (5)
B)100-200 (0)
C)50-100 (5)
D)20-50 (10)
E)20 or less (20)

4. I _____ talk on my cell phone when I’m driving...
A)Never (0)
B)Rarely (1)
C)Sometimes (5)
D)Often (10)
E)Almost Always (20)

5. My seating position when driving is...
A)Upright (0)
B)slightly reclined (1)
C)Leaned back (5)
D)leaning sideways over the center console (15)
E)my seats don’t recline (0)

6. The interior of my car...
A)Is spotless (0)
B)Is a little dirty (1)
C)Has some candy wrappers/ empty bottles (5)
D)Has a fair amount of garbage in it (10)
E)Looks like a landfill (20)

7. If another driver makes a small mistake (no turn signal, etc.), I...
A)Ignore it (0)
B)Call them an idiot to myself (1)
C)Honk or Yell at them (5)
D)Honk and Yell at them (10)
E)Follow them to their destination then lecture them about it (20)

8. When in traffic I play my radio...
A)I don’t play my radio in traffic (0)
B)Loud enough to hear with the windows up (0)
C)Loud enough to hear with the windows Down (1)
D)Loud enough so that people 4 cars away can hear (5)
E)So everyone in a 5 mile radius hears it (20)

9. The kind of music I listen to while driving is...
A)Nothing (0)
B)Rock/Alt./Classical (1)
C)Dance/Techno/Metal/Screamo/Emo (5)
D)Country/Talk Radio/Christian (10)
E)Pop music, and I sing along loudly off key ^___^ (20)
*multiply the score for this answer with your score on #8*

10. When I have my brights on and another car is approaching I...
A)Dim them right away (0)
B)Dim them at ~1/2 mile (1)
C)Dim them only if they flash their brights at me (5)
D)Keep them on no matter what (20)
E)I never use my brights when driving (2)

Total Score: (add up the numbers in parentheses behind your answers)

0-5: Not a douche- For the most part, at least when it comes to driving and road manners your a good person, and you add as little stress as possible to other people on the road, Thanks.

6-19: Kinda-A-Douche- Usually people will tolerate you since your only a minor annoyance, your probably safe, unless you meet up with someone with a short fuse, who just got laid off.

20-50: Certified Douche- Congrats, your a true blood douche bag. The way you act and present yourself on the road is usually enough to make most people avoid being around your car, even your friends think twice sometimes before going with when your driving.

51-100: Complete fucking tool- Your a driver that almost everyone (except for other tools) can’t stand dealing with, you spend most of your time cutting people off, yelling at other drivers, and blasting through red lights. Just so you can shave a few seconds off your commute.

100+: King Douche- Amazingly nobody’s followed you home yet, and killed you in your sleep. You manage to infuriate even the most forgiving of drivers with your asinine habits. No one wants to be a passenger in your car and given the choice most would walk, since they’re afraid of getting shot at by one of the many people you’ve pissed off.

"The Pill" and other sex drugs (and rock 'n roll)

I've discovered another commercial/product, that I find both retarded and pitiful. It's for a birth control device called Nuvaring, if you don't know what I'm talking about here's the commercial. Now I'm not against birth control, the less jackass people we have making babies the better. What I find stupid about the commercial is that it takes the stance that "standard" birth control (a.k.a. "The Pill"), is too much of a hassle. Seriously, come on ladies, is it really that fucking hard to remember to take something every morning. When I was a kid I used to take a Flintstones vitamin every morning, and my only motivation was "Yay! I get to pick which character I'm going to eat". Your motivation is not having a fucking kid that's going to eat up your income and free time for the next 15 years or so.

Then there's always this "yeah well the responsibility always falls on the women about birth control, if it was the guys responsibility we'd be knocked up all the time". Obviously, your the one who gets pregnant, not me, where's my motivation, I play hide the sausage for 15mins make a stain on your mattress, and my work is done. You get to walk around, turn into a human beach ball, and wake up every morning to throw up, ain't nature a bitch.

Look alright, I'm sorry you got born a woman, but don't blame me, blame nature, or your parents or your "god" (if you still believe in fairy tales). You got the side of the species equation that makes more of us, sorry, that's how shit is sometimes. Besides, if you don't wanna get knocked up, here's an easy way, DON'T FUCK, it's pretty simple, I'm sure most of you aren't bio majors, but I'm sure you understand how this shit works. If you don't want kids, then keep your guy friends out of your fun cave.

The next product making me lose faith in humanity is Enzyte for Women. This is fairly new apparently, since even a yahoo search, and a trip to Enzyte's webpage didn't yield results, so you'll just have to believe me that this is real. Basically, unlike the Enzyte for men, which is supposed to be some sort of ED (a.k.a. limp dick) pill, this Enzyte for women is supposed to be a libido booster or something. The commercial goes something like this "ladies, do you ever feel not in the mood? Ever been too tired, cranky, sick, to wanna fuck? Well then you better start popping these pills, 'cause your husbands gonna start fucking that tramp down the street if you don't start putting out more than once a month". Is this supposed to go with the old stereotypical relationship shit, the guys who want it all the time, and the women who never put out, or what? Even as a guy, there's times your really not that interested in fucking, seriously, why make the women feel like if they're not sex crazed porn stars that somehow they need some pill to get them "ready for action, RIGHT FUCKING NOW".

I'm not saying there aren't people with low sex drive, but come the fuck on, how is the opposite any better. Besides, maybe as a woman, they're not excited by the idea of sex, 'cause their partner is a lazy slob who's spends the afternoon watching "the game" and playing human garbage disposal. Jeez, what's the problem ladies? that obese sweaty blob doesn't light your candle anymore? I can't understand I'm getting hot just thinking about it. Then again, as I've said in past posts, it's the typical American mindset, of instant fixes. Everything you want can be had right now, for the low low price of $19.95, start taking these pills and next thing you know, you'll be having such awesome sex porn stars will be asking for your autograph. Pfff, give me a fucking break.

"What do you do?", and other shit

I got to thinking tonight about something that happens every once in a while that really annoys the shit out of me.

I'm not exactly a party person, I like hanging out with people for the most part, but I've never been big on the "party" side of things. Mostly because most peoples concept of "party" is, let go somewhere with a bunch of people, get so shitfaced drunk that we make assholes of ourselves, do a bunch of drugs, and fuck random people we've known for about 2 hours, that'll be fucking awesome. None of which really appeals to me at all. But what I really hate, is when I'm hanging out with people I don't know very well, and they start asking me questions like "so do you drink?", "smoke?", "take *insert drug here*?". After I answer no to about 4-5 questions of that variety I get the inevitable question of "jeez, what DO you do?". So what, since my whole life doesn't revolve around drug induced orgies and getting drunk 'till I can't stand, I apparently do nothing worth talking about. Thanks, random fuck face person I don't know, why don't you go fucking kill yourself.

It's not that I've never smoked or drank before. I'd even say I enjoy a good cigar, or a glass of decent booze, but I wouldn't say I drink or smoke if someone asked since it's nothing I do very often, and could easily live without.

Besides, no one I know considers relaxing with a glass of good booze "party drinking" anyway. It's always beer and shots of cheap nasty shit that's got tons of alcohol, costs $15, and tastes something like mixing battery acid and hobo piss. No one's even enjoying what they're drinking, it's just, "let me hammer down this fucking piss water, so I can be shitfaced like every other dumb fuck here". Also, if the party is so fucking awesome, why are you drinking so much that you'll forget 3/4's of the shit that happened.

Another thing that really bugs the shit out of me, that's somewhat related to the topic above, is girls that are too fucking loud. There's always one or two of them at every party, or bar/club, some stupid cunt who every time she opens her dick hole has to yell some random shit in her banshee going through puberty voice AS LOUD AS FUCKING POSSIBLE. And it's always about the dumbest shit, she gets a call on her cell phone and yells "OH MY FUCKING GOD WHAT DO YOU WANT!!!???" before she answers. They probably just figured out how nice it was that they can't hear your fucking loud ass voice where they're at, and are calling to see if they can get you to stay gone for good. I have a suggestion for you, Douchey Cuntington, how 'bout you shut your fucking phone off, or you could just shove that fucker right in your mouth, than you'd kill 2 birds (and hopefully yourself) with one stone.

Things about video games that piss me off: RPG edition.

After making the MJ post I realised I had used up basically the only thing that's been pissing me off lately, so I've come back yet again to video games. This time I'm going to explore a genre that I play probably more that anything (with racing games a very close 2nd) RPG's (role playing games).

-Cliche character types: This is something that's been happening since probably the late 90's and Final Fantasy is the biggest culprit I can think of. Thinking of the post-1998 FF's that I've played [7,8,10(aka X)and 12(aka XII)] all have basically the same types of main characters. The rebellious but slightly stupid lead (Cloud in 7, Squall in 8, Tidus in 10 (X), and Vaan in 12). The battle hardened stoic (Barret in 7, Auron in 10). The quiet shy girl, the main guys love interest (Aries (technically Tifa too, but she's a little to outgoing) in 7, Rinoa in 8, Yuna in 10, Ashe in 12). The "spunky" loli type girl (Yuffie in 7, Selphie in 8, Rikku in 10, Penelo in 12). Look, I like fapping to Aries-Tifa-Yuna "rule 34" pics as much as the next nerd, but damn does it always have to be the same character set for every fucking game. I mean why not just call it Final Fantasy: Generic Hero Story (with fetish female charater types)...maybe it's too big for the cover. I mean, it doesn't really matter to me, the main appeal of RPG's is basically spending 50 hours "leveling up" your party so you can kick ass on the final boss, then another 30-40 hours leveling up more to beat all the insanely super hard "secret" bosses (think Ruby or Emerald weapon from FF 7, or Catastrophe from 10) the designers put in to rob us nerds of any shred of a social life we may have had. It's just sad to think that with all the awesome graphics and battle systems and unique monsters, the main characters of the game all fit nicely in maybe 8 different groups. Also, what's the deal with all the "girly-guy" leads of basically every Final Fantasy after 7, Squall, Tidus, seriously! These guys don't look like heroes they look like metrosexuals on a journey to buy some D&G sunglasses.

-Don't treat me like I'm retarded: I've been playing a game called Enchanted Arms for the Xbox 360 for the last week or so, and overall it's decent, but one glaring flaw is, it treats you like your fucking 5. Not that 5 year olds don't play RPG's (I know I sure did), but there's no god damn reason that I need a 2 minute long conversation about how to swim, or some other basic task, when I've been playing for 10 hours already. I have the fucking instructions (not that I needed to read them) and in there it says "A button = Action", that's all I fucking need, besides the fact that when I walk next to the shore a little subtitle shows up that says "A:swim", so why do I need the fucking dialogue. Yet the game insists on telling you (in a somewhat condescending way) that you need to hit the "A" button to do *whatever* when you come to a situation you haven't been in yet. The icing on the cake being that you get the options of "I understand" or "could you tell me again", I think that if someone picks option 2 the game should stop and the 360 should format it's hard drive, then display a message of "your obviously a complete fucking retard, kill yourself and do us all a favor.", then burst into flames (really it's just 1 step up from the "red ring of death" anyway). Just because you designed the main character to be an "idiot who just happens to be good at fighting", you don't have to design the dialogue so it look like I'M the idiot, fuck you.

Things I like about RPG's:

For something a little different I'll put up some things I like about RPG's that deserve a mention.

-"open world": This is fucking excellent, the first game that comes to mind is Elders Scrolls 3: Morrowind for Xbox/PC (also ES4: Oblivion for 360/PS3/PC). Since it was one of (if not the first) RPG I played that used this type of gameplay format. You basically get dropped in the world and what you do is up to you, wanna be a Knight, join a guild, wanna be a murderer, kill off a whole town of people and steal all their shit, go for it. There are main quests and side quests, but you can do them, or not, it's up to you, it breaks away from the "Go to Pecker Mountain and get the Sword of Giant Testicles, then head to the Hall of Assholes and defeat Lord Dipshitium" format of most RPG's.

-Middle English Dialogue: This is mostly just for nostalgia sake, but I love RPG's that use middle English, like Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) for NES. I never get enough "thou", "hast", "shall", etc. It just adds that correct amount of fantasy feeling to RPG's that makes them that extra bit nerdy, and it's delicious. Not many games still have that, and it's kinda sad. Since, to me, there are few things better than getting wiped out by a really bad assed boss and getting the status message of "thy party hast been defeated".

No. More. Fucking. Michael. Jackson. News.

Seriously, no more, I don't fucking care anymore. Besides, how the fuck did the whole country go from "MJ's a sick, little boy fucking, pedo" one minute to "OMG he was the greatest entertainer ever!!11one, I can't believe he's gone.", overnight. Just 'cause he's dead now? Your all a bunch of two faced assholes.

I'm not gonna lie, some Jackson 5 songs are the catchiest shit ever put to music, and I'll dance around like a little girl whenever I hear "I want you back" 'cause the song is the epitome of 70's pop.

But that doesn't mean I wanna hear every detail of the guy's life/death. Do I care if he had a heart attack, not really, do I care that he diddled little boys, nope (not that I don't think it's fucked up and sad). But it's no different from giving a shit about R. Kelly getting arrested for making kid porn of him pissing on some girl. I don't care, I liked "Bump 'n Grind" as much as the next person (probably more so), but as far as I'm concered someones public life (music) is what I care about. Their private life (diddling kids, pissing on teens, etc.) is none of my business. And this shit is getting ridiculous, walk-throughs of his empty house, broadcasting his funeral...*sigh* it's just fucked up.

Things about video games that piss me off: Rhythm games edition.

So I decided to bring back a topic from one of my first Blog posts (I'm sure all 2 of you that read my blog are thrilled). This isn't exactly a genre of games I play all that much, not that it's gonna stop me from bitching about them. I guess I should clarify what I mean by "rhythm" games I mean any game where your doing something involving music be it playing, dancing to, singing to etc. (DDR, Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, etc.). For the sake of discussion I'll have to stick to DDR, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band since they're the only games like this that I've played (I'm sure everyone's sad I've never played Karaoke Revolution). So, let's begin:

-Retarded hard songs/difficulty settings:
Songs like MAX 300 from DDR, or Through the Fire and the Flames on Guitar Hero. Basically anything that requires some part of you to be a human jack hammer for 5-10mins. straight. There's nothing fun about "dancing" to a song that makes you look like a combination of a guy from "River Dance" and someone having a seizure. Or breaking the strumming toggle switch thing on the guitar contoller trying to get 100% on what's basically an 8 minute long solo of 128th notes (though I have to admit the plastic machine gun noise is cool). I mean it's not that I don't appreciate that someone pissed away a month worth of afternoons for a combination of masterbation (the only real exercise gamers get), and 3 hour long "practice" mode sessions, just so they could make the first Youtube vid showing them actually passing an 8 minute song from hell. It's just I don't really see the point, it's not even fun at that point, it's a tedious fucking chore. And on top of that, the best thing you can hope for is to be the first person to beat it and make said Youtube video, since no one's gonna give a shit about the second guy onward, they already saw that shit last week when the crazy Japanese guy beat it, your just another dude on the list.

-It doesn't teach you shit:
This is my favorite, anyone who thinks Guitar Hero teaches you to play guitar, or DDR teaches you to dance....LOL WUT, SRSLY (yeah, I know, I'm dissapointed that I just typed that too). I mean the closest teaching thing I can think of in any rhythm game is the drums from Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour, and even that's a stretch, since at best it teaches you how to keep a beat (and use your foot independently of your hands). Except that drum sets usually have more than 4 drums and a bass (5 if your talking GH:WT) and drummers use both feet. Guitar Hero's guitar teaches you about as much about playing a real guitar as upgrading a car in Gran Turismo teaches you about auto mechanics (hint: fucking nothing). And if you tryed to "dance" using anything you learn playing DDR, people would probably just get that sad/dissapointed look on thier face, like when they see a retarded child flailing around.

It reminds me of watching Youtube videos where someone sets a really high "drift" score on Need for Speed: Carbon, then reading the comments where people go on and on about what car is the best real life drift car, and how NFS made them want to go to the local "touge" and do some "drifting". Yeah right, sorry to ruin your day buddy, but drifting on NFS and drifting in real life have about as much in common as a Rolex and a watch you buy out of a gumball machine. Besides the fact that your more than likely a dipshit 15 year old who's driving with mommy and daddy on a permit, and the only drifting your gonna be doing is when you slide into a curb trying to duplicate some shit you saw in Tokyo Drift.

Hacker, Crackers and Pirates, oh my

Last week Funimation (basically the Microsoft of US anime distribution), announced that the newest episodes of One Piece and Phantom got "leaked" from their site when a "hacker" broke into the server and downloaded them before they were even broadcast on TV in Japan (lol).

Now I'm not going to say I support what this (these?) "hacker(s)" did, but when I read an article and it says "A group discovered a copy of the Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ anime's episode 10 on a publicly accessible server of the anime distributor Funimation," I just have to *facepalm*. A publicly accessible server, wow great job, why not just put a big ass flash banner with a direct link right to the file on your homepage while your at it. Seriously, it's computer security 101, DON'T PUT SHIT ONLINE YOU DON'T WANT STOLEN. It's like hosting a website and having a "private" folder on the server that you use to store your credit card number on, then when someone steals it and buy a bunch of shit you get all pissed that they "hacked" you. Just because something isn't directly linked on your site DOES NOT mean it's not accessible at all, it just means someone has to work a little bit to find it.

It's honestly not that hard to find "private" folders, you can use Google to find tons of "hidden" files, folders, webpages, etc. and it doesn't require any talent at all. Really, I'm about as non-hacker as they come, but even I've found private pages on peoples personal and buisness websites, it's REALLY simple (use keywords like "intitle:" and "site:" in your searches, and you can find all sort of things).

Now I suppose I could be misreading this, it's possible that this person(s) actually did some "hacking", and actually manipulate things to gain access to the file, but from the sounds of it it was nothing more than a little bit of URL guessing. No, they shouldn't have taken what they found and spread it all over the place. But this is how the internet works, and it's how most people on the internet act. Let's say I'm messing around on Myspace for instance (not that I would cause it sucks, but anyway), and I run across some girls "private" picture folder with a bunch of naked pics in it. You'd be god damn right I'm gonna link that shit to my friends, and they'll probably link it to their's and so on. Is it "right" no, I should just ignore it, or if I'm feeling extra nice, send her an e-mail saying her "private" photos aren't very private.

To me this all sounds like a case of "no one gonna find this here." on the part of Funimation, and they're blaming their lack of security on a "hacker" and his "leet skillz", instead of following the first rule of internet security, by not putting things you don't want stolen online in the first place.

GM will never learn...

So GM (General Motors), finally filed for bankruptcy a few days ago. I'm sure it honestly came as a suprise to no one, being that last year they claimed like a $30B+ loss (back when they were asking for some "bail out" money), and didn't really seem to change much about how the company worked or designed cars. Something American car companies haven't figured out yet (Chrysler going bankrupt a few weeks back and now GM as proof), that they don't know how to design cars people want. Here, lets break some things down so we can all get a good understanding of whats going on.

Say I'm a college student looking for a cheap car that gets good mileage so I can drive to work and school and home (assuming they don't live at home). I'll look at GM's line up, picking the cheapest thing I can (chevy's aveo5 LS) MSRP of ~12k that's decent (assuming you can find a base model that hasn't been "optioned up" at a dealership). Fuel milage 27 city/ 34 highway well that's ok, but really it's kinda low for a 4cyl car with 106HP. Weight: 2568(MT) 2557(AT), that's pretty heavy for a small econo car, and it also explains where all the gas milage went. You can't win, your power to weight ratio is 24:1, even with the manual it's probably a dog. Is acceleration a big deal? No, BUT, if someone gets in a car that takes a long time to get up to highway speed they're going to press on the gas harder, and thus get worse milage than a car that doesn't take as long.

Ok so lets say I think 27/34 isn't good enough milage, so lets look for what gets better milage in GM's line up...Impala 19/29(LS/LT), 17/27(2LT/LTZ), 16/24(SS) nope...Malibu 22/30 (LS/LT1) 22/33 (LT2/LTZ) nope...*sigh*...Malibu Hybrid 26/34 WOW REALLY a 4door sedan HYBRID that gets worse milage than your other 4 door sedan, awesome sign me up. On top of that, it's MSRP is $25,555, so even if you play the bargaining game and get a really good deal (like $21,500 and a blowjob from the salesman's wife) your still paying almost double the price for a hybrid car that gets worse milage than the standard gas version of another sedan in the line up.

To be fair there is 1 car in the line up that gets better (highway) milage, the cobalt with 25/35 (combined: 29mpg) (Base,LS,LT1, coupe or sedan) MSRP of $14,500-16,700 depending on the model you get. Yet again we run into the GM weight problem with the coupe (base) at almost 3000lb, and the sedan a fat assed 3200lb. Luckily it has that 155HP 2.2L engine to haul it's monsterous ass around or it'd be an even bigger dog than the Aveo. So here's the basic problem (yea, I realized it took me about 3 paragraphs too long to get to it :P), GM can't make a lightweight car, and because of that their gas milage will ALWAYS suck. It's simple physics and something Japanese, and European companies figured out long ago. If your car doesn't weigh very much, you don't need a big HP engine to push it down the road, and it still performs well and gets excellent MPG.

There's a reason why something like my Toyota Yaris consistantly gets 40+MPG (rated at 29/36 combined:32), and that's because it weighs 2295lb in stock form, it has almost a 300lb advantage on the Aveo (but has the same 106HP), and a 700-900lb advantage on the Cobalt.

If GM would just realize that a lot of people out there are just looking for basic transport and make a low weight/low power/high MPG car to meet that demand, they'd at least be making one step in the right direction. Yet the best they came up with so far is the Volt, another hybrid that should actually get good milage (somewhere around 50MPG if I remember right), but it's projected cost is ~$45,000. Who the fuck is going to buy that? Business people, or rich neo-hippies who want to "go green", not the people who could actually use a car that saved them some gas money.

Sources:
Yahoo autos (Chevy)
Yahoo Autos (Yaris specs)

And now for something completely different...

I decided to take a short break from making my typical "pissed off guy with a keyboard" rants in order to spend some time posting about my car project.

As is probably obvious from a handful of my other posts, I like to drive (well I enjoy the driving part, sometimes the other people ruin it for me :P). At the beginning of the year I finally purchased a new car ('09 Yaris, which I spoke of in a prior post). One excellent benefit of this being that it allowed me to start work on my old car (the one which the Yaris replaced for "work car" duty). It's a 1989 Nissan 240SX, I purchased the car back in 2005 *top picture* for $1000, which at the time I thought was an amazing deal since drifting was really starting to get popular and even totally trashed 240's were "e-baying" for $2500+.



Over the years I used it as a work car I did a few modifications to it (suspension, wheels, exhaust, etc.) *pictured above in Aug. 2007*, but nothing really substantial, since it needed to be drivable for the next time I needed to get to work. However with the purchase of the Yaris, I now finally have the time to give it a proper build. Current plans for the car are to set it up for Autocross (SCCA), and possibly some drift events, while making it still reliable enough to drive to the race and back home in one piece.

I plan to rebuild the stock engine (a SOHC KA24E) to make somewhere in the neighborhood of 180-200HP, which combined with the cars current weight of ~2500lbs. should make for a pretty quick track car, without being so powerful that it's a pain in the ass to keep control over. The KA24 series motor gets a lot of shit for being a "truck motor", but I really think it holds a lot of potental, so I'm uninterested in swaping to any of the common replacements (SR20, RB20, CA18, etc.). Current plans are to change the motor from fuel injected to a dual Weber side draft carb setup (either 40 or 45 DCOE). Giving me basically all of the control as a ITB (individual throttle body) setup, without the hassle of having to modify the factory ECU, or buy a programable ECU to control the fuel injection, but I will have to make a custom intake to mount them. Plus it's not a setup I've seen very much at all, since basically everyone stays fuel injected, so that adds a little "cool factor" to it, when someone looks under the hood, besides the fact that velocity stacks look awesome :).

Hopefully this will become a segment of the blog I keep updated fairly often (1-2 a month) whenever I make any major steps in the projects completion. Plus it should make a nice change of pace from my usual angry rants to something a little more relaxing.

For those interested, here are a few shots of the projects current status...

bumper stickers and other shit.

It's actually kinda late in the year for this little rant, but I feel like it, if you don't, get bent ;).

Last year around Christmas this sticker above was seemingly all the rage around here, I must have seen 100 of them on various vehicles. I can only assume all these people shop at the same place, I guessing the fundamentalist douchebag section of Wal-mart. I'm not really sure what it was about the sticker that pissed me off, I guess it's just the whole "bawwww christmas is under attack" bullshit. No one fucking cares about your holiday, keep that shit to yourself. On that note, I made my own version.

I put these right up there with "jesus fish" (you know the dorky little fish shaped cutouts that say "jesus" inside that people stick on their cars). I can only imagine the kinda people that seriously put this shit on their cars, it's probably the same douche bags that think dancing is a "sin" and rock music is the devil. Give me a fucking break, are you still scared of the boogeyman too?

I wanna make it clear here that I don't hold any real grudge toward "religious" people. I just don't like the whole "I'm better than you are cause I believe in an invisible sky man, and his zombie son". Cram that right in your ass. If I'm happy believing in nothing, or in something different than you, do me a favor, accept that people are different.

Now I know people are saying, "But Grandmaster it's freedom of speech, it's the first amendment". Yep your absolutely right, it's also my right to say your a fucking douche, you know we also have the right to privacy, and the right to shut the fuck up... I just wish people would excersize those a little more often.

Don't think I'm just picking on the Christians (well ok I was, but they make it so easy). I hate "darwin fish" and "buddha fish" and whatever other "fish" there are. Well actually scratch that, there's one fish that would be awesome. A fish with his big 'ol fish dick hanging out. It'd be the official fish of oralism, the religion of giving good oral sex. With that on your car people would have something they could agree on "wow that chick likes sucking cock, awesome" or "that dude likes to munch carpet, I wonder if he's single". Plus your a lot less likely to get your car keyed with a symbol for oral sex on your car than a symbol of some selfish, violent religion.

Don't be offended, just drive...

This sort of goes along with the "not driving the speed limit" post I made a while ago, but it's a little different. It doesn't happend too often, but I've noticed that some people seem to get really offended or something when you pass them. I normally only pass when someone is doing 10 or more mph under the speed limit. Since I'm usually not in a big hurry I just ignore the typical 5 under slow pokes. But something that seems to happen when I've passed people that drive slow is they speed up to the speed limit (or over) when you pull out and get next to them. Or after you've passed them they speed up and get right up on your ass. What the fuck is that about? You weren't in a big hurry obviously since your going 10+mph under the speed limit, then all of a sudden you think I'm some prick 'cause I go around you, get fucking bent. I could understand getting annoyed if someone passes you when your already going at or above the speed limit, but to me, if your not going the speed limit you lose any right to be upset when I pull out and pass you. I got places to go, I don't have time to play your stupid fucking games like you own the road and make it's speed limits, get over yourself and step on the fucking gas or shut up.

Car "packages" suck

After hearing about the end of Pontiac today (no big loss, since Pontiac was mainly just rebadged overpriced Chevys and Saturns) I decided to make an automotive themed post. This is one thing that has bothered me for a while, and since I just bought a new car (a 2009 Toyota Yaris, if you give a shit), it's something I just got to experience first hand.

I guess the thing that really pisses me off about "packages" is they usually have one, or a couple, of options that you really want, then a bunch of other crap you don't care about (or don't really want at all). Like say you want, cruise control, normally you could spend say $150 and get it, but for some cars cruise is part of a "package" (with some bullshit name like "sport", "touring", etc.). Of course this package is $1500, since it comes with alloy wheels and a 6-disc CD changer and heated power mirrors, or some shit. But it's the only way your gonna get cruise from the factory, so you either bite the bullet and spend 10 times more for cruise (and get a bunch of extras you may or may not care about), or you do without cruise. For me personally the Yaris hatchback with a manual transmission doesn't come with a tachometer unless you buy the "S" package (basically a yaris with every option, and a different body kit). Which starts at around $14K (base price is 12K) so in essence you have to pay $2,000 to get a factory installed tach (on a manual transmission car!).

I know the only reason car companies have stepped away from a "checklist" style of ordering (as in you start with the base model and pick the individual options you want, and nothing you don't), is because they know that some options would almost never get sold unless they basically force you into getting them.

More Bullshit

A few new topics of discussion have been running around in my brain lately, which I feel are worthy of discussion. Well discussion in the sense that I write them down in a cynical asshole-ish fashion and you read them, and then promptly forget whatever I said once American Idol comes on.

Gay "marriage": I realize this has been a hot topic on and off for years now, but with Vermont becoming one of the newest states to legalize gay marriage, it's made a small resurgence. I don't care one way or the other, for one I'm not gay so it doesn't effect me personally and for two I'm not married (nor have any short term plans to be). But I find the anti-gay marriage aguments to be beyond ridiculous for the most part. I was watching CNN (I believe) the other day and there was a discussion about gay marriage (1 pro 1 anti and 1 guy playing moderator). I listened for a little while, and I must say the anti gay marriage argument (presented by some woman who was obviously part of the national anti-assfucking brigade) was laughable at best. Basically her entire focus was not moral, religious, natural, but word definition. Yep, that's right the definition of marriage, SERIOUSLY you got a problem with dudes nailing either other in the cornhole becoming a legal couple and your biggest concern is "ZOMG marriage won't mean the same thing to future generations". Wow where do I start... how 'bout go die in a traffic accident you stupid cunt. IF your main concern is what to CALL gay marriage then here's a fucking idea, make a new word. Call up webster and the leader of a couple gay rights groups have them meet you over dinner and you can say "ok look guys, I don't care if you get legally joined as a couple so that you can get insurance benefits, and things, but you can't call it marriage so think of a new word". I'm sure after they laugh to themselves (if they're nice) they'll be glad to calm your worried little head and think of something they can call themselves so that you can sleep better at night knowing you saved the future generations from the confusion of why we use the same word for a man and a woman getting together as we do for a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, or a shemale and a block of swiss cheese.

Illegal aliens: There's lots of ways to go with this, but I wanna focus on just one, the old "their stealing our jobs" speach you hear from every lower middle class redneck out there who's pissed that his "awesome" $10/hour job was given to some mexican dude. Look alright, are there jobs that are given to illegal aliens, yes, but honestly are they really good jobs? I don't see juan or jose running major corporations, I don't see them driving around in ferrari's and smoking pre-embargo cuban cigars they lit up with a $100 bill. I see them working in cornfields picking the weeds, or cleaning the bathrooms at McDonald's and driving around in a rusted out '87 Accord. If you wanna talk about who's really taking the good jobs, ask the assholes exec. that works at some IT buisness and shit-canned his whole staff of programers that work for $30/hour, and sent their jobs to China where someone will work 2 times faster (in 10 times shittier conditions) for the low low price of $2/day. Or the owner of a manufacturing plant who decides that having to pay you $15/hour and having to keep all those safety devices on the machines working correctly is just too much trouble. So he cuts 80% of the jobs in the US plant and outsources to a Taiwan based sweat shop, that doesn't pay shit, and doesn't care if some 16 year old kid working to help his family gets his arm cut off in a machine. These are the real people you should be pissed off at, not the guy picking cabbage. The jack-offs making 6 (7? 8?) figure salaries who one day decide your $30/hour position and your fancy degree from MIT (the one that put you $45K in student loan debt) are costing his company to much money. And instead of taking a cut out of his income, or settling for less than 400% profit, he's going to "take the company in a new direction". Then your gonna be out on your ass competing with the "job stealing mexican's" for that position scrubbing the shitters at Mickey D's.

Some things just piss me off.

So it's been a while since I "blogged" last, and I figured it'd be fun to post up some new (hopefully funny/interesting) shit. I like to rant about random things (this is obvious if you've read about 90% of my other posts). So this time I'm just going to rant about a few random things that have been pissing me off lately, I figure if I can't change them I can at least yell about it :P. And so we begin:

*People that say "God forbid": This is something that never ceases to annoy the shit out of me. Whenever someones talking to someone, or a small group of people and says something but has to start with "God forbid". For example, if someones talking about life insurance and they say "God forbid you get killed in a car accident, but you really should have a good insurance policy". Why do you have to qualify it with "God forbid"? For one thing I don't believe in your "god" so jam it in your ass, and for two, I'm mature enough to realize the fact that sometimes bad shit just happends that I can't control. I don't need the little bit of comfort (or whatever the reasoning is behind people saying it) it's supposed to bring so keep your bullshit to yourself.

*People that refuse to drive the speed limit: It could just be me but this seems to be on the rise. When I first started driving (about 10 years ago), if you were on the highway you drove at least 55mph (or more likely 60-65) in the 55mph zones. If you were driving 50 you were getting passed or tailgated, but over probably the last 3-4 years (and certainly the last year or so) it seems like nobody drives the speed limit anymore. It's actually pretty rare that on my drives to and from work that I actually make it to the speed limit in all the speed zones (if I'm lucky it's probably 1/2 if them, usually the 30-45mph ones). It's not that I'm in a hurry, and I'm a pretty relaxed driver, but there's just no good reason I should be forced to drive 40mph in a 55mph zone cause some granny with glaucoma can't see the road, or some dip shit soccer mom is talking on the phone (more on this later), changing the radio, yelling at her brats, drinking an iced mocca latte, and is just to busy to drive down the fucking road. Worst of all on a 4-lane road (one where I should be able to just change lanes and avoid the slow drivers, there's always some asshole keeping pace with the person in the other lane, so in essence there's a rolling fucking roadblock in front of me. I really wish Illinois would make a law similar to other states where if your holding up more than X number of cars you have to pull over and let them pass.

*Cellphones: I was gonna say using cellphones while driving, then I realized, I just hate them period. Look, ok, I know their useful, I get that, but seriously I don't want to hear you talk to your fucking girlfriend when I'm walking in the grocery store. I don't wanna be at Best Buy looking at movies and have to listen to you drill your kids/husband/wife/whothefuckever on the title of that new movie you totally wanna see. I don't wanna get pulled out in front of, cut off, forced to drive 15mph under the speed limit, because your so involved in your discussion about what's for dinner that you forget your driving down the god damn road. What the fuck is going to happen between when you leave your house to go to the store and get back home that you need to be able to have contact with everyone you fucking know? (hint: nothing! now hang the fuck up).

Are you fucking kidding me!?

I don't really watch a lot of TV (Basically Colbert Report, Daily Show, and a little bit of MSNBC, and Discovery channel), but I've run across this (pictured above) thing being advertised, and I got to tell you I'm more than a little annoyed by it for a few reasons. By the way for those of you that can't tell by the picture, it's basically a penis pump aimed at old people, called the "Pos-t-vac". One of the first things that irks me about it (other than the immediate mental picture of either a) old people fucking, or b) some old dude trying to "pump up" his noodle-limp dick) is that it says "this product is covered by medicare". ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? by the time I'm old enough to retire there's not going to be any social security left and probably no medicare either, but right now some old dude can order a dick pump and get it paid for by the fucking government, eat my shit.

Besides the fact that every sex ed class I've ever had has told me penis pumps are dangerous, and you shouldn't use them because they can serious mess up your junk. It could just be my thinking but, if your having trouble getting your jimmy stiff it might be a sign of trouble (stress, physical problems, or nature saying your 80 fucking years old and just need to keep your gun in the holster) and maybe you should get that checked out instead of relying on a toy. Then I remember this is America and we have pills and devices for everything; "can't sleep?, here's a pill.", "can't wake up, here's an energy drink", "can't get your dick hard? here's a $145 modified turkey baster give it a try.".

Another thing is it advertises that it provides "gentle suction", you know what else provides gentle suction? Your wife's mouth, seriously if your so old that you can't get it up anymore your obviously not having sex to reproduce (if you are, just kill yourself now), so you must be doing it for fun, and what's more fun than a blow job....not much.

Legal fansubs, why bother?

So here's the deal, I'm a pretty big anime fan, so I keep up on a lot of anime news and happenings. And the "next big thing" in the anime world seems to be "legal fansubs" (for lack of a better term). Basically an anime company produces a work in Japan then "simulcasts" (or at least very shortly after it's broadcast) it on a video streaming site (Youtube, Veoh, Crunchyroll, etc.) with english subtitles. The idea behind this (or at least the only logical conclusion) is this is to try to combat fansub groups (fans who record anime TV broadcasts add their own subtitles and put them up for anyone to download).

To me fansubs have always been something I've had very little interest in. I buy dvd's, because a)I like owning a physical copy b)it's generally good video quality, and professional subtitles, and c)I like to support the people who made the show. That's not to say I've never watched fansubs (I've seen Initial D stage 3 off of video google, and stage 4 off of Youtube), my only reasoning being it's never gotten released in North America and I had no other way to see it. Of course I could have bought the Japanese release (~$60 each for 13-14 dvd's that make up the series), but a) I'm not rich and b) I don't understand Japanese so it would have been a total waste.

My complaints about these new "legal fansubs" is that for one streaming video quality sucks. This is something brought up quite often by "pro-fansub" people, since most of the new fansubs are recorded in HD and are released as h.264 files there is obviously a huge difference in the quality your getting. One could argue that if your getting it for free you shouldn't complain about the quality, and honestly I support that, but you'll be hard pressed to find that additude among new anime watchers (or at least those that download fansubs). Obviously the companies are trying to get at least some revenue from average fansub watchers that probably isn't going to buy the official DVD release anyway. Thought really I'd rather just see them save the time and money they're using for broadcasting legal fansubs and use it to bust the large groups (the ones getting to most DL's) of the titles they own.

I guess my biggest concern is I don't want to see the avalibility of dvd and bluray releases decrease, just so a company can try to get some income from people who are very unlikely to buy the official product anyway. Or worse yet, companies releasing "web only" anime titles, and skipping the DVD release all together (I can see this happening mainly with niche titles).

Besides if they really want to do it effectively it will have to be better than a fansub in all aspects. It will have to be; a) as good or better video b) as good or better subtitle/translation quality and c) come out at the same time (but most likely before) the earliest of the fansubs. So in essence they have to release free HD quality, professionally subbed anime simutaniously with the Japanese broadcast. Without doing it exactly that way there's no way fansub watchers are going to convert to "paying" customers (through ad revenue, or something similar).

You've "gone green", but your still full of shit.

One thing I'm really getting tired of hearing is all this "Go green" nonsense. It's totally bullshit, in America, a country where the average family spends more on trash bags in a year than 3rd world families spend on everything. All of a sudden you think your little changes are going to mean something? Look, recycling is a good idea, and owning a car that gets good gas mileage is a good idea, but don't act like your Captain fucking Planet just cause you bought a Prius and save your glass bottles.

Besides can't you just do something good for the planet and yourself without having to brag about it and use snappy buzz words like "going green", "eco-friendly", and "carbon footprint". I recycle, and drive a car that gets decent mileage, but I don't feel the need to flaunt it, is it really so much to ask for people to act like adults and not like fucking school children? I guess so.