Congratulations on making entry to Behind the Mixer, the main world of Ryu, the aspiring recording engineer.
Age: 19
Location: Illinois, near Kat and Carney, south of Schultzie.
Aliases: Tycho, g4me_h1ro, bloodyshnozz, DERP, ryu6fw
Vertical Status: Pretty up there
Most Associated Color: Brown
Occupation: Driving Pizzas/College Student
Time Consumers: Video Games, anime, racing canoes, music, being an anime club president, traveling
Money Consumers: Video Games, manga, traveling, collecting vinyl records, expanding selection of musical instruments, Pop-tarts and Mountain Dew, conventions
"You were probably the last person I'd expect to be a dumbass." -Katana
"That's OK, I'm not too attached to my beard, despite it being on my face." -Ryu
"Because he is the Tycho, that's why." -Hider
"MUUUUNNNGERRRRRRRR!!" -Old Proverb
So, when I returned to theO last March, Katana helped me out quite a bit by introducing me to many of her online compatriots, as well as announcing my return to those who had already made my acquaintance.
So, one of the anime club members, and a dude I just hang around a lot, decided to finally join. His user name is Carney, so it'd be awesome if we made him feel welcome. To boost your disposition of him, not only is he a rabid anime fan, but he is a MSTie, a Whozian, has a shitload of Gundam models, is a hockey nut, and he'll be coming with us to Acen, dressed as Rolo (not entirely by choice).
So, (third time I used 'so' to start a paragraph, wtf) I ask you do for him what you did for me, and it'll all be gravy.
So, the Brawl Doubles tournament went...ok. Not a whole lot of participation, and didn't make us even half of our last tournament. But we'll be good to go; I imagine more people will show up for the singles tournament on the eighth.
Oddly enough, the current treasurer is being counter-productive in the strangest way. He keeps taking my papers, lol. He'll rummage through my folder, and I can only imagine what's going through his little head. "I'm treasurer, and that looks slightly financial. Mine!" So I was about to hand in the form for reimbursement for Acen hotel rooms, only to find that I didn't have it. I couldn't decide if I was slightly annoyed or greatly amused that he kept taking my junk. Weirdo.
Been playing a bit of Star Ocean: Last Hope. I just got through the only part I've been stuck at today. I had been leveling my characters rather half-assedly and paying only little attention to their gear, so I guess I had it coming. So far, I enjoy it. Unfortunately, there are some characters and bits of dialogue I feel are a bit over the top. If you ever played Star Ocean 3, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say that "Welch is back." Except, she's not some ditzy girl you can more or less ignore: it's a pink haired, red-eyed, hit-with-a-bitch stick Welch. And it sucks. There's also a neko girl, who would make any rabid con-going fangirl to the extreme feel good about themselves. Oh well. Faize is badass, so I can just focus on his story. But he just left my party. :(
I watched the "The End of Evangelion" movie.
W. T. F.
I had to hit up Wikipedia after that in search of an iota of reason. They don't even hit it off with a proper start, the first shot of Shinji is when he jacks one off while looking at a hospitalized Asuka. I enjoyed it and all, (the series, not that scene...I saw that strange segway just now and had to fix it, lol) and I see why it's such a great classic, but man, sometimes I wish some animes don't go down the psychological path at all. Especially for a mech series; it's so much easier to watch when you have a physical and definite antagonist. The 'omg my life sux what's it all 4 i dont meen a thing i luv kaworu' portion was a bit out of their element. I understand that some sort of emotion analysis is necessary, as everything in that anime is rather traumatic, but having many minutes of strobing flashback (or sometimes, just strobe with no identifiable picture) really takes away from the storytelling.
Whatever. I dub thee 'Good Anime with Large and Long Bouts of WTF Silliness'.
Either Tuesday or Thursday, I plan to make a Presidential Presentation and introduce theOtaku to the Anime Club. I feel that it would be a good thing to make connections and explore media together as a group on the internet. Especially since a few of them, if not all of them, will be meeting Otaku folk at Acen (my friend Carney asked me specifically, "Will I be able to meet that Canadian Kamina cosplayer?" However, he's also a big hockey fan, so admiration soon turned to jealousy when I told him Kastom held the Stanley Cup. XD) The reason for this is that we don't have a real social site. Not all of us are Facebook friends, and nobody goes to the website forums. However, I was inspired by Dave (our new and first Web and Media Director, formerly the Presdident) when he made another revamp to our site after a very long and dull hiatus. You can visit it at this lil' link here, and I really encourage you to do so so you can see where I'm comin' from. He wrote a new introduction just last Thursday to accomadate our club's new status, and it details how we are "no longer a quiet club, but a truly engaged and thoughtful group of people, that is deeply and even broadly engaged in activities that span far and wide across the fields of anime, manga, and video games!"
I know I talk a lot about the club, but it is by far the most exciting thing that is going on for me right now. In some contexts, that may seem a bit sad, but it truly is an awesome thing, since the rest of my life is kinda stuck in first gear (I'm taking music classes, but I'm playing no music. D:)
Oh, and I verified that a GED certificate is on it's way. They had lost my transcript, which showed that I passed the constitution test, so I had to go to my high school, print one out, and drive down and hand it in.
I also went to my high school's jazz band concert, the first I've seen so far, and was saddened to learn that Mr. Olsen, our principal, will be retiring this year. I've never had a conversation with the guy, although there were some points in time he really wanted to talk to me and it just never happened, but I knew he was a really nice person. He always came to fine arts productions, and always told me how much he liked my sax playing, which really made me feel bad when I was in grabbing my transcript. He saw me in the office, and asked, "Still playing the sax?"
"Not nearly as much as I'd like to, no..."
I haven't picked up the thing since December. Sadly, I'm one of those people who can't help themselves very often. I need a reason to play, or somebody to rely on me being there. It's hard for me to practice simply "to make myself better". Oh well. My wind will come one of these days...
I also installed a program that whenever I press the capslock button, Billy Mays gives a pitch.
Realized he's been prattling on for quite some time...
-Ryu
Funny is Family Guy in German, as we proved today in anime club.
So, things I've been up to since I've been addressed as Mr. Presdient.
We had a club in the hub deal last Wednesday, which meant that we set up a table in the hall and promoted recruiment for the Anime Club. So another person and I brought a bunch of manga to display to catch people's interest, and I also brought the Dai Gurren flag to be hung from our table, as well as the Bitch be trippin' Balls badge I got from Acen. We actually got a lot of people interested in anime, and just as many to actually come to meetings. We have a skyrocket of attendance now, and it's fantastic. One really cool dude who's not a member, but is a staff member who stood at our table for about twenty minutes just talking about anime and manga. He popped in the meeting today, and the room was full of people who weren't there for the event so they didn't know who this random middle-aged black dude was doing in the room until I walked in from a quick errand.
"Melvin! What's happening?"
"Oh hey man, you got some weird anime playing..."
Unfortunately, last Wednesday was also the day a massive shit hit the fan. Of shit. Luckily, I was able to resolve it with everybody pretty quickly, but still, a wrinkle on my forehead. Two things happened: Our advisor was informed that her hotel room cost for Acen will not be coming out of school funds allocated for advisors (free money), but out of our club's budget (not good), and secondly, the amount of self-generated funds (money we fundraised) was about one hundred dollars less than what I calculated it to be, due to false information at the beginning of the year. Within one day, we're in a bit of a hole.
Fortunately, the advisor's hotel room coming out of our budget was false information, so that's no longer a problem. And I also spotted where I went wrong as treasurer that caused a one hundred dollar miscalculation, and smoothed that over. There was also a bit of an email war that was started when the VP told the advisor that I was gonna talk to her about a cheaper hotel (the advisor room totaled 380 dollars for the weekend. Fuck that! That's more than our two rooms at the Hyatt combined!) and the advisor got rather upset. It was pretty funny though; when I walked into her office to talk to her after everything had been resolved, she said "I'm pretty upset with you right now, and really offended." This turned out to be a misunderstanding, and when I left after about ten or fifteen minutes, she was yelling out the door "Thanks for coming, and again, I'm sorry!!!"
The next issue I face is a poorly scheduled Brawl doubles tournament next Tuesday. Hopefully that'll turn out well.
I went to a friend's rock gig in Dekalb over the weekend, but that was mainly an excuse to go to a friend's house to party. I'll disclose this much: I woke up eventually. That is all.
But yeah, that was an awesome time. My dad probably thought so too; I was sitting in front of my pc the next day and he walks in,
"Did a friend ride in the car last night?"
"No."
"Oh. Well...did you piss anybody off?"
"...no, why?"
"Somebody drew a penis on the windshield."
"Ahhhh...."
I'm just suprised I didn't notice it on the way home.
I finished watching the regular season of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I liked it a lot, and I still have to watch the latter two movies (I skimmed through the first, since it's just a recap.) I kinda want to buy the manga, since they expand more on Kaworu's character a bit more, who is totally badass. I didn't like the last two episodes though, since it was nothing but massive, poorly strung together philosophy mixed in with lame animation. Which is easy to understand, since they had budget cuts due to tax evasion, but still, it was lame. But I suppose that's why they made the movies.
I caught a glimpse of Durarara!! in anime club today (I was in and out of the room, running around a lot) and just thought, "I really like that anime's artstyle." I asked a new member next to me what it was, "I think it's like Rudaradara or something..." Then I remembered some people on theO talking about Durarara!!,
"You mean Durarara?"
"Yeah!"
So I watched the first three episodes before typing this monster, and plan to watch the next two. It looks pretty cool, and the two main characters seem to represent the bipolarness in everybody. I know I have it. The side that is reserved and edge of the crowd, and the guy who is rather excited and animate. I'm so bouncy when I'm around friends or in anime club or such, that if you saw me standing around at a canoe race where I'm so much more silent and nonchalant you'd probably think I took half a bottle of sleeping pills. Anyway, can't wait to watch the rest and follow it's release.
For those who didn't see this in The Watercooler, here's a little something I made really quick.
I had to stop playing it after about the tenth time in Anime Club today because they were laughing so hard cookies were falling out of their mouths.
And if you want to see a really messed up first episode of an anime, watch Ladies VS Butlers. If I see anybody cosplaying that at Acen, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to punch them really hard.
And Star Ocean 4 International is on my counter in it's Gamefly package, but I can't play it 'cause the TV is being used... :(
Oh, and if Fasterisk is reading this, I got Bitches Brew on vinyl. It sounds pretty freakin' good.
Oh yeah, and I made a card after watching some Evangelion, but it got rejected for some reason or another...
So today was the election for the executive board of the Anime Club (coincidentaly, also for Illinois Governor) where we voted for President. The two candidates, the Vice President and myself (treasurer) left the room while they voted. We talked about a few upcoming things, and after about two minutes, we went back in. Everybody had vanished, and the only thing that could be seen was this on the dry erase board:
That was something special.
I walked around the table and looked under where most of them were hiding. Another one was behind a pillar, and another member stuffed himself away in a cupboard. Why? Because we're the anime club, and we fucking rock.
So I'm the president of anime club now. There was an actual vote taken, before they did the draw-and-hide, and only one person voted for the VP. And the participation from the anime club regulars is stunning; we all hang together, never find a lull in conversation, and we even made the Anime Club twice a week, which is awesome (Tuesdays and Thursdays). What we'll probably do on Thursday is start making posters and flyers for the two Brawl tournaments that we'll be hosting, one a singles tournament, the other a doubles. The Final Fantasy XIII launch party is a go, and I'll bring in some sort of system sometime soon (tongue twister there) to see if it would be graphically good to go in the auditorium, cause that would be badass.
So much more went on, but that was the main point.
"Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it."
Hey all.
So, quite a while since last legititmite post. A few things have happened:
-School has started, and I have a promising start. Very few classes, and I doubt I'll do poorly in any of them, so that's all good to go. And I'm very eager to learn conversation stuff in Japanese 1, as well as get to know the other students. Quite a few of them, when asked 'Why did you decide to join this class?' answered that they'll be doing a transfer program, where they teach English in Japan. I had a relatively meager answer: "Took it just because it brings me up to the minimum credit requirement, and I've also been meaning to learn Japanese since my first Japanese Pokemon card." They got a laugh outta that, but I was relieved to find the two dudes next to me were taking it for similar reasons. I had no idea who they were, but we were talking about video games and anime all the way to our cars after class.
We had an unofficial anime club last Tuesday, unoffical because it was not scheduled and the VP actually told us not to show up. I was on my way over there just to see if anybody turned up anyway, and was met by three members, who said they were gonna have a meeting anyway but nobody was there. So we walked back to the room, I set up the projector and started playing some anime, and had a good time. The president showed for a little bit, and so did the advisor. We also recruited three people who were just interested in the blaring anime as they walked by the room. Such productivity when the VP isn't there! Elections next week for president, and I'm totally running. My slogan so far is "Vote Treasurer for President!"
Had the first offical club today, and we scheduled two Brawl tournaments and a FFXIII launch party (my idea >:D) and didn't even watch anime, just hung around and talked a lot. I really do think we have the the most badass club in the school.
Picked up Deep Purple Made in Japan and Rush 2112 albums at Kiss the Sky a while back, both really good. Just today I checked out a record store that's a bit closer, and accidently splurged. They had such good selection, and all the records were in fantastic condition. I got The Who Who's Next, SRV Couldn't Stand the Weather (RAPES!!) and Rush Exit Stage Left, which has great songs on it (listening to it right now). There were quite a few that I had to put down and sorrowfully walk away from, there were so many good ones. The store owner was pretty cool too, he gave me flyers for a vinyl show in March (largest in the Midwest, apparently) and a smaller show that he's hosting in February, which will have guitar stuff as well. So that's cool.
I subscribed to Gamefly, since it would be cheaper than renting games all the time, and had Demon Souls shipped to me. I think the EB games guy I talked to yesterday described it rather well: "You know those people that throw their controllers around? I never really understood that, mainly because it's never that frustrating, and because I buy all my own stuff. Once I played Demon Souls....I finally started to get the same emotions." It's super hard. There are parts of it where you die and you're like "Well, that's understandable, at least I know what to do now." and then the times where you get rushed and die pathetically and lose all of your soul points. "......FUUUCKK!!" So I'm pacing myself through that game. It's something that you have to allow yourself breaks with. Ironically, the only times I haven't died are the bosses.
No pizza place job yet, but they said to call back each month, just in case. When I went back to check on my application, I saw one of the workers (who was an upperclassmen from my high school) playing either Doom 3 or Quake 4 on the computer. I really wanna work there now.
Past while, I've been watching all of Clannad, and I really liked it. The whole first season has this weird Haruhi Suzimiya feel to it, but it's really funny and good. Then the next season (or series, Clannad ~After Story~) it's mostly romance and drama. All the while through both sections there's this weird symbolic otherwordly overtone that I never really looked into. It's obviously very substantial to the meanings of the story, but I never really cared. It gets really heavy towards the end, and then at the end, the whole things loses credibility. As it turns out, by the last episode, it reveals that the main character was having a dream for the past five years. That was lame. But nevertheless, I still recommend it.
Immediately afterwards, I went through Ookiku Furikibutte again in three days. O.O
And now I've gone retro and started watching Neon Genesis Evangelion (I'm sure some will debate the validility of the usage of 'retro', but whatever.) I was torn between watching that or Cowboy Bebop, since I've been meaning to watch that as well. So I went into chat and did the opposite of the majority. 'Cause that's how I roll.
I linked this to RedJ, he favorited on youtube, so now it's on my frontpage whenever I log in. So I can't help but watch it over and over again.
