Hurricane Katrina Debit Card

Sometime pictures say more than just a thousand words. Two thousan bucks in this case...


[From http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/debitcard.asp]

After some bonehead AFP photographer and editors failed to blur out some of the credit card details before this picture got posted all over the web, literally hundreds of identify thieves charged eBay purchases to the card. Someone even tried to buy a Ferrari!

Welp, it's only mid-September and I've already finished my "anime of the month", along with 43 episodes of GTO wackiness. Overdose???

Weekend is over, yet again. The only productive thing I did was to mow my lawn with my newest acquisition -- an electric lawnmower. Blargh...

Another dose of Japanese pop culture

Some time back, I was urged to check out the trailer for "Shinobi", a highly-anticipated movie that's coming out in Japan this Saturday (trailers can be found at Shinobi Movie).

Since I'm not typically a trailer person, it was my first time watching an HD-format trailer. Man, it was SO beautiful. More pixels IS better!

Since there were no crazy fans subtitling the trailer, I was only able to pick out limited keywords I learned from years of anime and dorama -- destiny, heart, dream, sadness. Anyway, while it looked like it had the potential to be "epic", something I tend to look for in period pieces that require costumes in the Halloween sense, I was immediately drawn to the song they played during the trailer. (It's kind of like how Robert Miles' "Fable" totally made the "Ever After" trailer 100 times better) It was Ayumi Hamasaki's latest single, "HEAVEN", that wasn't out at the time. Couldn't download it if it wasn't even out. Bummer.

Lo and behold, it came out this week! And I've been in love with it over the past couple of days. It's probably her best ballad, IMHO, though I'd only recommend it if you're familiar with Ayumi's music. The reason is that she has a very "distinct" voice; some people describe it as grating and nasally. Even I can't tolerate her songs all the time. Regardless of what people say, you gotta have some respect for her. She write her own lyrics (they're supposed to be poetic, but I don't understand Japanese), and everything she puts out SELLS (#1 on charts for each of her 5 or 6 albums). That's why she's the queen of jpop.

Need to set a good example

Alright, just the quote "I need this for my man. A man needs cigarettes." from a 4 year-old girl alone is pretty disturbing already....

Link to article

Anime of the Month

Well, while [patiently] waiting for all 96 episodes of Kenshin-ness to download, and (getting side-tracked with the download of 43 episodes of GTO), I just HAD to watch something to keep me entertained for the time being. After suffering through the confusion and mediocrity that is CLAMP's X TV series, I needed a good laugh.

So what else was I supposed to do, but to turn to Tenshi na Konamaiki (TnK), which is one of the funniest series that I know of. TnK has the weirdest character design, and for the un-acclimated people, the anime looks plain fugly. Anyway, what makes this anime great is its comic timing. If you don't mind the kick-in-the-groin type of humor, you'll find that TnK is funny as hell.

The basic premise of the story is that Megumi, a 9 year-old boy, gets turned into a girl, against his(her) wishes by a magic book. Megumi help an old man, who gave her a magic book. He wished the be the manliest of men, and was turned into an "angelic" girl. (If you ask me, I don't see how anything could look "angelic" with TnK's animation) The anime takes place 6 years later, when Megumi enters high school.

The story revolves around a bunch of Megumi-crazy guys going ga ga over her. It's just so funny because their actions are so over-the-top, and she's still bent on turning back into a guy, so she feverishly tries to ward off all advances.

Anyway, I suck at writing, so I'm not doing TnK any justice by writing any more about it. Here are so screen caps:


The main protagonists of the series: Megumi and Genzo. Genzo is supposed to be a super tough guy who eats gangsters for breakfast.


The 9 year-old Megumi, when he(she) first realized that he(she) had been turned into a girl.


Genzo turns SD when he thinks about his Megumi-chan.


Some of the supporting cast. They're basically perverted retards who contribute to a lot of the comedy.

TnK -- I highly recommend it, based on the 20ish episodes I've watched before. It's my anime of the month, as I'll be watching it during my dinner time for the next two or three weeks.