Ever Present Curiosity

I like to stone.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Disclaimer: The pictures used are not copy from any site but are frame captures from my zoomplayer.

Black Cat - "I've come to deliver bad luck"

As promised, I'll talk about some of the anime that I've watched. Of course to be perfectly honest, I'm only going to recommend those that I think are great. You might not feel the same, but then that's expected.

A little info from anime news network on Black Cat, an assassin for a not so secret organization driving over 1/3 of the world's economy. The organization uses assassins known as "erasers" to erase the existence of those they deem harmful to the peace of the world. To put it simply, instead of putting suicide bombers or war mongers behind bars they simply eliminate them. Among the erasers, there are 13 of them specially selected into a special denomination known as the "Numbers". Why numbers? Because interestingly they all have roman numbers tattooed on their body.

The Chrono Numbers as they are called (the manga has a
nother term that calls them time guardians, in obvious reference to the word chrono), are the elite assassins of Chronos, each powerful in their own right and are given orihalcon made weapons of their expertise. The weapons range from swords and spears to weird strings, bazookas, cards (only in the anime, and propulsion power steel balls attached to a chain. Their number doesn't really denote their power or position with the exception of Number I and II who are the commander and Vice commander for the chrono numbers. Thats the background on Chronos.Enter Train Heartnet, a Chrono Number given the Number XIII. A cold assassin with almost unmatched agility and gunman ship. Swift and effective, he is the most notorious of the Chrono Number assassins.
Train spacing out.

His agility, coupled with unique irises that can shrink and slit like a cats, earn him the number XIII and the nickname, Black Cat.
The unlucky number, XIII.

A black cat and the number XIII, both associated with bad luck. When on a mission, the black cat is said to deliver bad luck to the target to be eliminated. Train on a mission, to deliver some bad luck.
Train's orihalcon gun, "Hades".

Now personally I think that's pretty sick, to kill someone for their crimes rather than give the chance for repentance. When I think of that, I think of Death Note, though I must say I've yet to read the manga or watch the anime. I don't know about the Death Note guy, but Train was lucky enough to meet a female "sweeper", or a bounty hunter, that changed his life forever. That being said, a sweeper is a bounty hunter that helps the police or authorities to capture criminals for bounty rewards.

Up on the roof tops where all cats love to be, Train stares at the moon relaxing after completing his latest mission, the assassination of a gangster attention turned mayor. As he sat there drinking milk (cats love milk! I happen to like milk too) with a stray cat, he meets Saya who was
there too. Saya steals trains milk.
Saya: No me burung gagak diong 9 you!
Train:
NUuuuuuuuuuuuuuu my milk!!!!

Now of course sadly the story doesn't turn typical boy meets girl and fall in love but I'm getting ahead of myself so anyway they met they talk bla bla. Train noticed she had a gun and ask her if she uses it but she claims that she doesn't use it to kill, something Train remarks as ridiculous. Saya tells Train that that killing is not the way to punish a criminal.

A cat loves to be free and the Black Cat is no exception, as the story goes on, he leaves Chronos, gets chased by the other Numbers for leaving the group, joins Sven Vollfied and becomes a sweeper. The anime's animation is of great quality, the story is good but fans who read the manga first might be disappointed at the extreme deviation from the manga. I personally like both, but I think I kinda prefer the manga after reading it. Well I really can't talk about toooooo much as its a 23 episode series. Those that don't watch anime, you are losing out on a lot. But then again, tv show freaks are going to say the same thing to me. I still say tv shows are boring, bluerk!

Might add more later, or might not. Till then, enjoy!

P.S: Go watch black cat if you havn't! Its currently on animax if you don't want to buy the DVD.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Time for an update I suppose

Well, I guess its time to update. I always say nothing much is happening but I suppose actually there are a lot of things that are going on but I just don't really pay any attention to it. Things have been hectic lately, with FYP living up to its billing of being a torture as well as the other assignments I have do deal with. Oh and not to forget the little problem I have in you-know-what (well actually its more like certain-people-know-what but meh :P)


Anyway, post PPF, my Project title has been approved and I will be doing an SMS based system for student information retrieval and automatic notifications. Today I just finished my PSF, which suprisingly went up to 8 pages. Ok when you think about it, 8 pages is probably not gonna be much when you compare to the final documentation that will be out. I personally don't look forward to doing it.

About this blog, I've been wondering since I started what I should be doing with it. I can continue to use it like a normal diary of sorts, but then my entries aren't really that frequent so it really doesn't seem to be a diary in that sense. I also don't feel like I should always talk about the not so fun or depressing stuff here, it'll just make my readers feel that I'm pathetic (maybe sometimes I am *sigh*). So I'll be taking up someone's suggestion to do my own personal reviews of anime that I watch, since I watch so many. (I tell you I have friends who are true blue anime otaku, I'm but a small fry compared to them)

So I'll be starting with anime that I have finished watching and talk about it a little, I might even draw comparisons with its manga counterpart. Its Black Cat on the next update, just to let you know the anime version and manga version of Black Cat is vastly different. I'd personally recommend reading the manga only after you watch the anime so as to not get disappointed by the deviation of the original story in the anime.

Till next update, bye for now.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Of FYP titles

Back for an update, I must confess I havn't been updating this blog as often as I want. But when I think about it, its not like I'm about to stop blogging or anything. Fact is I need an outlet to voice my thoughts, not everyone can find someone to listen to us after all.

Anyway, as I was saying I havn't been updating as often as I liked and this is mainly because I find myself constantly preoccupied with other things lately. Well yeah, its not like I'm really that busy but really because there are too many things that distract me from the important task at hand at the moment and that is finding a suitable FYP title!

For the sake of those who have no idea what that is, FYP stands for Final Year Project. Barry calls it Fail Your Project and Mister Mohan calls it Final Year Product not very encouraging eh? -_-'

So right, here's my dilemma. I can't for the life of me think of a suitable FYP title, and with the time ticking away I'm getting really worried. So if anyone out there has a suggestion, do suggest. Criteria is: must be something that is Internet based, web-based, no networking, minimal programming, and no mobile applications! (I'm sick of them as it is zzzz)

FYP is here and I have other modules to content with, its increasingly looking like I'm gonna walk through hell on earth for the next few months. If I somehow survive this and get a degree, I demand a pat on the back from everyone who knows me and is reading this. If I get at least a 2nd upper class, I demand a party thrown in my honor muahaha.... Ok forget that last part I was merely trying to ease the stress. -_-'

So anyway, coupled with the changes that I will inevitably face in many aspects of my life. I seriously believe I at least deserve a pat on the back when this is all over. But damn, life is never gonna be easy huh? I guess thats what I hate about life, the older you get the more you realize how powerless you are to deal with with the inevitability of it all. But everyone gets on with it, so who am I to whine eh?

The challenge for the next few months is to survive my final year, get decent if not good grades, complete my FYP, get my degree, and oh ya in the midst of it all I still hope I find the time to continue my hobbies (speaking of which I might add RP-ing into my small hobby list of reading, gaming, watching anime, listening to songs). Well that being said, being able to balance everything and manage my time properly will obviously be the greatest challenge of all. It may just prove to be a little too late to learn but I wanna believe in the phrase "its never too late to learn". So yeah, wish me all the best and lets see if I come out of this, alive...(metaphorically speaking)

You know what, the only reason I'm posting this is because I'm scratching my head thinking of a title in front of my desk and I really can't seem to get one and have nothing to do. So yeah, this is a rather impromptu entry. Anyway, bye for now. Back to scratching scalps, pounding tables, and sweating buckets.

Signing off.