Category: Uncategorized

Though it’s grown more mainstream over the years, video games still have a bad reputation, mostly among boomers, as a children’s toy with little more to it than senseless violence. Overall it seems like most people seem to think that video games are just a waste of time. I’m not going to argue that video games are good for hand-eye coordination or something like that because that would be stupid. But I am going to state why I believe video games should be viewed on the same level as a book or a movie.

If this were a pretentious video essay on youtube I’d probably start off with a black title screen that says Chapter 1: What is Art? I’m not going to waste any time trying to define art because art is an abstract noun and trying to put it in words would be like trying to define love or adventure or luck. Instead I’ll just list a few things that are considered art to most people: paintings, movies, books, dances, architecture, plays, and music. While all of these things can be found in video games, I think video games are most similar to movies and books. Most video games have an accompanying soundtrack—songs that are custom made to fit the nature of the game. Movies exist to tell a story, and almost all video games do just that.

Some people try to label video games as shooting people in the head over and over, that it’s silly and mindless. While there are games that are precisely that, the majority of them are not, and if the people saying this actually bothered to play video games, they would know this. Besides, that would be similar to saying that all movies are mindless because of the cheesy action flicks out there, or that all books are stupid because of erotic young adult novels written by fourteen year old girls. Another dumb thing people say is that video games cause violence, which is just silly and was probably conjured up by some guys trying to unravel government conspiracies while wearing tinfoil hats. There hasn’t been any scientific data to back this claim up and again, I don’t understand why movies or books get accused of being a bad influence when there are a lot of violent ones out there.

As a medium, I do think that video games can exceed both books and movies, and this is largely due to the fact that it’s an experience. You are going through a story. You’re not just watching. You’re participating. In a horror movie it’s pretty scary watching someone trip ten times while running away from Chuck E Cheese. But imagine if you were running away from Chuck E Cheese. Think of a fantasy novel like The Hobbit and how wondrous the world is as you’re filled with little pieces of lore as Bilbo’s adventure goes on. Now imagine if you could explore a fantasy world and piece together clues about the world’s history.

There is more to say but I think I’ll leave it at this for now.

Salut. Je m’appelle Nam. J’ai quatorze ans. J’habite dans la maison avec mon pere et ma grandmere. J’ai deux freres. Mon petit frere est stupide et mon grand frere est stupide. Je ne suis pas stupide. J’aime regarder un film et faire du velo avec mon l’oncle. Nous achetons la glace au DQ. En hiver je vais faire du snowboard avec ma famille. Au revoir.

The Catcher in the Rye is a book about a 17 year old edgelord from what I’ve heard and I’m interested in reading it but some bum at the library won’t return it so I have to wait a month until he finally does. In the meantime I have to read To Kill A Mockingbird which I’m sure everybody has to read in high school. From what I’ve read so far, it’s alright, though I’m not sure why it needs to be in every ninth grade ELA room across the nation. I also have to read The Glass Menagerie which is a play and I hate reading plays because it’s all dialogue with no detail. Also the first the thing my ELA teacher did when we entered on the first day of school was present us a slideshow of all the old and obscure 1930s books and songs he likes. I think he wanted us to be impressed but he has a poster of the Joker in the back of the class so he gains no respect from me. My business foundations teacher is starting to crack down on phones in class now since the principal is getting mad about it. Usually he just doesn’t even care since the class is just filled with seniors who already have the credits to graduate and are just passing time. Now he’s taking away phones and there’s a guy who sits next to me who always wears jeans and he was super depressed without his phone. I thought he died. In business foundations all we did was watch episodes of Shark Tank. My business foundations teacher is pretty weird. He’s always talking about his girlfriend like he wants to flex on us that he has one and he talks about all this different businesses he’s been a part of. I’m not sure if he’s lying or not.

I was playing Roblock and I saw that my cousins had these cringe weeb names and I figured that was just a product of being a loser and that they were the only ones doing that. Then I was playing Squid Game Roblocks and this weeb was speaking in japanese probably using google translate or something. And everytime I go on the front page of Roblocks there are a bunch of dumb anime games with cursed images of Roblocks Naruto. This could just be a Roblock thing but anime and anything to do with Japan has started cropping up everywhere. There was once a time where you were bullied for being a weeb (and rightfully so). Now everybody is watching anime and talking about their favorite episode of their favorite anime, One Piece, and I see a bunch of people wearing anime merch of like Naruto or that one funny green guy from Dragon Ball.

I feel like everybody’s only impression of Japan comes from anime and five youtube videos about the country, and all of a sudden it’s the greatest place of all time. It’s like how watching high school movies as a child gives you a warped perception of what it’s going to be like. Japan is a pretty cool place. However, Roblocks usernames are sacred and should not be taken lightly (you have to pay so much robuck to change it), and so naming your Roblock avatar rin is just not okay. So let me explain why you should not worship Japan.

1. It makes you a loser.

that’s about it, and really that’s all the reason you need.

Also, I’ve already beaten this dead horse hard enough, but I have to say one thing: anime is so bad it’s so trash how can people watch anime and think that yeah I like this I’ll tell everyone else about it .

Sometimes I see people online going like “This show has truly changed my life. I was just a depressed kid in middle school when I first watched, but now my whole viewpoint on life is changed. The deep and philosophical questions proposed by this show are ahead of its time and I think not enough people appreciate this. The cinematography and lighting are akin to a Kubrick or Scorsese film. Sound design, character design, and character development are all on point, and I truly think that it is not only one of the best animes of all time, but one of the best pieces of media, ever.”

 

And then the show they’re talking about it is Rent-A-Girlfriend.

I’m not going to finish this blog because my main idea got muddled after I started complaining about anime and I’m trying to schedule my free time so I have enough time to write my book. So I’m stopping.

While I was in Florida I briefly talked to Alex at the beach and he asked me if I was going to be a freshmen starting this year. I told him that I was. Then he started going on a whole lecture about how I should enjoy high school while it lasts and how he wishes he could go back. He talked like he was thirty years old or something but he was basically just starting his college experience. Even so, I thought about this for a while as I sat in the water and let the ocean waves roll past.

All my teachers at the beginning of the year went on about opportunities and not letting our high school years go to waste, that the four years go by fast. Then they showed us all the things we could join. I didn’t find interest in any of them.

Each morning on the announcements they bring a senior on to talk and as if they were reading from a script–they most certainly were–they all discussed how we should do as much as we could while we were here.

Whenever I ask the seniors after they graduate about their regrets, they always say they wish they could have done more. That’s why you shouldn’t let these years go by without doing anything.

I’m in ninth grade now so that makes me a high schooler. I was already attending a high school last year but I suppose that doesn’t count since some people just want to be picky. Nothing much has changed from middle school. It’s a lot more lonely though. The school was smaller in middle school so there was a better feeling of interconnectedness. My high school has around 1200 kids (I think) and I only know a small handful of them.

I don’t really watch any high school movies, probably because I’m not a seven year old girl who thinks high school consists of cliques and spoiled rich girls and bully jocks and nerdy losers and that high school life revolves around prom and constant drama. Actually, I don’t think I’ve watched any high school movie. But everyone knows how they typically go. I became intrigued with the idea of living the ideal, rose-colored high school life. Maybe I’d hang out with friends after school and maybe there’d be some drama and maybe I’d attend the football game where we defeat our dreaded rivals and then I’d go to prom with my date, except none of that will ever happen. I don’t have any real friends and the few people I sort of talk to probably wouldn’t want to hang out with me, or anyone for that matter. There’s nowhere to hang out too. In the movies the main cast of characters have this secret base or a designated hangout spot like a particular cafe or store that they like, but in the town I live in I can’t think of any place like that, unless your favorite cafe is Starbucks. I don’t like football and I don’t care about football and I don’t see myself ever bothering to get myself a ticket, unless one day somebody asks me to go see the game with them, which as I’ve already stated, won’t ever happen. And I’m never getting a date because I don’t like anyone since all the girls at school unfortunately have the dreadful personality of a high school girl, and if I had to spend any time with one alone then I think I’d reach down their throats and rip out their vocal chords, and then dump their bodies into the nearby river. And it’s not as if anyone would want to go to prom with me, nor do I want to go to prom.

Anyway, I thought it wouldn’t matter if none of the high school movie stuff ever happened since it’s just Hollywood and it doesn’t happen in real life. But then I occasionally hear the people walking past me talk about their experiences and drama, and I’d hear about how the kids hang out after school and do some wild stuff, stuff that I wasn’t even aware of because of course nobody invited me, and how everyone seems to be friends with each other on social media, or how everyone is in group chat with one another, or how seniors just walk in during class and my other classmates seem to know them and they start laughing together, and so it makes me wonder if I should be included in these conversations as well. And then the remarks about wasting your high school experience comes to mind and I get a little more concerned.

I knew about homecoming for a while but didn’t pay it much mind because I thought it was going to be like those middle school dances that nobody went to save for a few losers. Then I heard some people talking about going to prom and I started wondering if I should be going too. And the thought about not wasting high school flashes into my mind. I didn’t want to go to homecoming. I knew I wouldn’t have fun at homecoming. I can’t dance and I prefer listening to music alone, or if I have to, with someone who can appreciate music. I didn’t have a date. I wasn’t even sure if you were supposed to have a date for homecoming. At the very least, I didn’t have any friends to go with. Going to an event without a date is fine. Going completely by yourself is pathetic. I had no interest at all in homecoming. But it was the fear of missing out, of wasting my high school years, of being ostracized from my peers, that’s what had me worried.

I ended up not going.

August 27th:

Each morning I go into the gymnasium where I sit with all the other freshmen. I don’t have anybody to talk to. On my right sits the group of rowdy teenage boys. On my left sits a bunch of weeaboo losers that give me second hand embarrassment. Even if they are losers I’m envious of their friend group.

First period, I have math. I don’t talk to anyone since it’s a generally quiet class as the teacher isn’t the type to joke around with the students. It’s pretty boring and I just find myself constantly checking the time until I leave.

Second period is business foundations. When I first entered the class I thought I had walked into some sort of prison room because it all just a bunch of old dudes. There were about three other freshmen but I didn’t notice them until about my second week of class. The teacher is the football coach and a few football players are in the class so they’re always talking about football. We get sidetracked pretty easily, which I don’t mind, since business isn’t exactly thrilling material. There’s textbooks but we don’t use them since the teacher says they’re outdated and the business landscape has changed considerably, mainly due to advances in technology. The teacher, for whatever reason, is really into tech and AI, so we had to do a whole essay on AI and the advancement of technology, as well as their effects on the business landscape. Then we had to do a whole debate which I didn’t participate in because like I said, business isn’t exactly thrilling material. It’s a pretty laid back class though with not too much work so I’m fine with it.

Third period is history. History makes me want to kill myself. History is boring as hell.

Fourth period is English. I hate English. I have to read passages nobody cares about and write about their meaning and the author’s intent. The writing portion is fun, at least when it was a personal narrative essay. The majority of the time I have to write about something I don’t care about like what lead a character to do something in a story, and if I don’t care the writing is super boring and it makes me want to shoot myself.

Fifth period is team sports. I shouldn’t have joined team sports. I should have joined PE survey. That’s the class I need to pass high school and that’s the class all the freshmen are in now and so when I take PE survey next year I’ll be with a bunch of snot nosed freshmen. Although there is this one gut I’ve seen in PE survey that looks like a grown man. I genuinely don’t know if he’s a college aged dude or just a really old looking senior. He has a full beard and everything. For a while I thought his face looked familiar and that’s when I realized he looked exactly (and I do mean exactly) like a young Lebron James, except with a yellow afro. And he absolutely murders in kickball, to the point where I think it should be considered cheating. He kicked it harder than the teacher. Anyway, PE survey shares the gym with team sports, which is filled with seniors and juniors and sophomore. There are only five other freshmen, and I don’t talk to them. We have to do stuff like football and ultimate frisbee and dogeball and a little basketball, none of which I’m that good at, but it’s worse when I’m competing against guys who are ten feet taller than me. I’d like to say though, today the gym teacher was super mad. We have two football players in our class and he was just going off on them, screaming “55 to 6? 55 to 6?” Over and over and over again and the football player would be making excuses like “We had three sophomores on the line!” And they’d bicker back and forth constantly like parrots. Apparently the varsity team got clapped really bad at the homecoming game which I didn’t attend and the gym teacher had been fuming over it all weekend. The teacher just kept going at it saying that everybody in the stands could have suited up and even they wouldn’t have lost 55 to 6. Coincidentally, we were in the middle of the football unit. I’ve never played football so I was no good at it.

Sixth period is lunch. I sit with two other guys and we either play video games or play chess, depending on the day. There’s not too much to say about that.

Seventh period is French. I don’t mind the class, even if I am awful at French. (I hate French.) But my classmates are so annoying. They just go on and on making unfunny jokes. There’s a guy who sits next to me who is not very funny, which isn’t really that bad, but he acts just like I did in fifth grade so I can tell exactly what his thought process is when he makes these unfunny jokes and it just gives me second hand embarrassment. Then there’s this girl in the back who will not ever shut the hell up and quite frankly I want to leap out of my seat and shout that I’ve had enough but I know if I do that people will start avoiding me and my already low social standing will become decimated and I’ll be labeled as an unstable jerk, which I am not. Actually, she acts a lot like TL, uncannily so, as if they were clones. But tl is my cousin and I’ve known her for a long time. This girl just makes me want to get a fork and poke her eyeballs out. I guess that’s a little mean though, since I know she just wants to make people laugh and be lighthearted. But I don’t find her funny. The days where she was absent were pure bliss. The guy who sat next to me wasn’t all that bad. The occasional remark by one of the students wasn’t very funny but wasn’t too loud or constant or obnoxious. Then she returned and I went back to viciously scratching myself to take my mind off things. Although it’s not as if I hate any of my French classmates. I just find them a little bothersome.

Eight period is my most boring class. I’ve always hated science and thought it was super tedious; this year is no different. Science has the opposite problem of French. Everybody is an introvert. There’s only about four other guys in my class and they’re all kind of beta unlike yours truly, the sigma male. I guess that’s just the kind of crowd that honors biology attracts. The boring material combined with the complete silence for fifty minutes makes me want to leap out the window.

A Clockwork Orange is a novel written by Anthony Burgess and was published in 1962. The UK got Burgess’s full vision for the book, while the US version omitted the final, controversial chapter. Some will argue that the final chapter contradicted the main point of the book, and others (including the author of the book) will argue that the final chapter provided development for the main character and that there was no point in the story if the final chapter was not there. In my personal opinion, I liked the final chapter, and I can see both sides of the argument. I’m also a firm believer that the creator’s intention is the best way to experience any kind of media, so if I had to choose I’d say the book is better if it includes the final chapter. And if you don’t like it, you can just pretend the last chapter doesn’t exist. Just know that the last chapter is canon.

The story takes place in a slightly futuristic England and follows Alex, a young, fifteen year old teen who is a violent thug that spends his evenings with his droogies getting into gang fights, robbing stores, and committing a bit of the old ultra-violence. After being arrested for murder, Alex is used as a test subject for a new experimental rehabilitation program called the Ludovico Technique. The question proposed by the book is this: Is it moral to force someone to do good? Is it moral to give someone the choice between good and evil, even if they choose evil?

Reading A Clockwork Orange is a bit of a task, as Alex speaks in Nadsat, a language made up by the author. If you happen to get a version of the book without the Nadsat glossary, it’d save you a lot of time to look one up, instead of trying to figure out the meaning of the words yourself. The book is still English, but Nadsat is littered about on every page. Think of it like a Dr. Seuss book when he uses all those made up words. But unlike a Dr. Seuss book a lot of the words are hard to figure out and if you don’t understand them you won’t understand about ninety percent of the book. I found it a little annoying that I had to memorize a bunch of words just to read a book. There’s I think about 200 Nadsat words which might seem a little bit daunting but as far as I can remember only about twenty or so are commonly used. The most common ones are:

droogie/drooge – friend

rooker – arm

viddy – see

gulliver – head

slooshy – hear

smeck – laugh

devotchka – girl

chelloveck – man

govoreet – talk

goloss – voice

horrorshow – good

lewdies – people

litso – face

malenky – little

millicent – police

noga – leg

platties – clothes

slovo – word

starry – old

tolchock – hit

Some of them are easy to decipher using context clues but some had me constantly looking back at the glossary. I couldn’t go a page without having to find out what a word meant, though that problem began to cease after the third chapter or so when I got more used to the language and could figure out what everything meant by myself.

As the narrator Alex is pretty interesting and it’s fun to hear how he describes the events of the story. He also is pretty deplorable. I didn’t hate him nor did I like him. I just found him interesting. Despite his horrible actions at his very core I didn’t really think he was all too terrible. I noticed that the author made the law enforcement and the government experimenting on Alex, even though they were supposed to be on the “good” side, very cruel and sadistic, making the line between “good” and “evil” very blurry.

Although it’s an entertaining read, nothing really leaped out to me as exceptionally good. It’s well written and I was never bored but I can’t say it’s anything groundbreaking or revolutionary. It’s a good story, but that’s all I can really say about it.

The only complaint I have with A Clockwork Orange is the ending. I already said that I liked it and all but there is one flaw I find with it. You can skip this part if you don’t want any spoilers, but you’re probably not going to read this book anyway so here goes. In the final chapter Alex is hanging out with a new gang, but finds that he’s become bored with all the violence. He runs into Pete, one of his old droogies, and learns that he’s been married and has a job. This makes Alex thinks about things and he decides to start living like a functioning member of society.

The issue I have with this is that the ending feels a little tacked on. Even if the events of the book hadn’t occurred then wouldn’t this have happened anyway? With Alex getting bored of gang violence and reforming. None of the events in the book contribute to this ending so it sort of feels unnecessary. Although you can argue that the ending without the final chapter makes the book just as unnecessary, as it ends with Alex being cured of the Ludovico Technique and returning to his old, evil ways.

The last thing I have to say is sort of a nitpick. Alex has a love of classical music which is a pretty big plot point, but I find it difficult to imagine that a thug has any sort of appreciation of classical music. It just feels out of character.

1Q84 is another book by Haruki Murakami and is supposed to take inspiration from George Orwell’s novel, 1984, although I’ve never read that one so I can’t say for sure. It’s one of the longest books I’ve ever read, sitting around 1000, and really, I don’t think the length is justified. Like Kafka on the Shore, it’s a strange book; a lot of things happen. And at the same time, absolutely nothing occurs.

The story has two central protagonists, each chapter switching over to the other’s perspective. The first is Aomame, who is an assassin. This sounds pretty cool, but it’s not. The second is Tengo, an aspiring author. After being sent out of the world of 1984 and into the parallel world of 1Q84, the two get tangled up in murders, cults, and magical deities. My first impression of the book was positive. Chapter one was intriguing as it set up a mystery and potential for a cool story. But as time went on, I became increasingly disinterested in the plot. Because as I’ve already stated: absolutely nothing occurs.

Let me start with my biggest complaint about the book. There’s a lot of filler. Honestly this book only needs to be half as long as it is. So many chapters are describing things that don’t matter or will never be brought up again. Here’s what happens to Aomame: she kills a guy, kills the leader of a cult, and then goes into hiding for the rest of the book. In a nutshell, this is all that she does in the story. And yet, the story feels the need to describe everything that she does. About five whole pages are spent detailing how she’s mastered the art of kicking people in the balls and yet, we never get to see her do that. There’s a whole part where she becomes friends with a police officer which could provide some real drama and tension since she’s an assassin, but no. All they do together is pick up guys at the bar and that is boring. The police officer gets murdered, and to add insult to injury, her death is just sort of mentioned when Aomame is reading the newspaper. And even worse is the fact that her killer just sort of gets away with it. You never learn who killed her. It’s like the author just wanted her to die because he realized she had no relevance in the story in the first place.

Tengo is even worse. Writing a book is the only thing he does in the entire story; the rest of the book is just him going about his daily life. Again I’m cutting things out, but the things I’m cutting out don’t really matter in the first place. His dad has Alzheimer’s or something and lives in a nursing home. A huge chunk of the book is dedicated to fleshing out Tengo’s past and his rocky relationship with his father, and another huge chunk of it is spent wondering what happened to his mother and whether or not he really is the son of his father. And are either of these questions answered? NO. So why were they even brought up in the first place? And like the policewoman, Tengo’s dad just straight up dies. He isn’t even murdered, he just intentionally goes into a coma and says “peace out.”

Also, the characters suck. They’re not unlikable, but they’re so bland and forgettable. Aomame and Tengo have the personality of a paper bag. The only two characters that I liked are Komatsu and Tamaru, except both of them ever hardly show up. There’s also no character development at all. Aside from maybe Komatsu and maybe Ushikawa, every character feels the exact same as how they started. Character development is one hundred percent necessary for a good story (Back to the Future) but it does help, and the lack of character development just makes the many emotionally charged moments in the story feel unneeded since the characters don’t grow from them. Aomame spends only a page grieving over her police friend’s death and then the police officer is only mentioned three times after that point.

Like Kafka on the Shore, the book goes in some bizarre places but unlike Kafka on the Shore the bizarre parts are not the central focus, and because of this, it makes them feel out of place. For example, when Aomame is first transported to 1Q84 she starts noticing some inconsistencies how the world is supposed to be and after doing extensive research she realizes she’s been sent a parallel world. So what does she do after this? She goes to a bar and hits on some guys, and then she goes to a mansion and talks for a while with an old lady. The parallel world of 1Q84 is hardly ever talked about again. Other weird things include the Little People and air chrysalises. I think they’re supposed to be some sort of abstract supernatural phenomenon, sort of like The Shining. But I don’t know because the book doesn’t bother to explain them. And you could argue that it’s up to the reader’s imagination. And I could argue that it’s stupid. There’s a few things that I think make ambiguous things in stories work.

One: does not answering a mystery add to the story? In this case, I don’t think it does. Rather than it feeling natural for there to be no answer, it feels like the chapters answering the mysteries were ripped out of the book.

Two: can the reader figure out the author’s intent without it the answer needing to be spelled out? Again, the answer to this is no. The weird things seem to happen just for the sake of being weird; I never got the impression that the strange occurrences were correlated, or that they were clues to a bigger picture. Quite frankly, I don’t even think the author knows what the big picture behind 1Q84 is, and if the author doesn’t have a story planned, why should I bother trying to figure it out?

And finally, three: is being weird the point of the story? Is it the kind of story not meant to be analyzed? Is it the kind of story where you’re just supposed to turn your brain off and accept the mind boggling settings? No. Like I already said, the bizarre parts are not the central focus. At several points in the story the characters have deep discussions about anything and everything and it’s obvious the author wants this story to make you think deeply and question everything you know. But since there’s no plot, there’s nothing to think about. So when the characters start talking about whether or not time is a line, or  Janáček’s Sinfonietta, or a bunch of old books I’ll never read, it just comes off as pretentious, as if the author is showing off how much he’s thought about time, or how he listens to obscure classical music (he liked to do this in Kafka on the Shore too), or how he reads a bunch of old obscure novels.

The plot is dumb and stupid and dumb. Here’s Aomame’s side of the story: she’s in a taxi. The traffic is bed so she gets out on the highway. Then she goes down some stairs. This is when she gets to 1Q84. Then she assassinates a guy. Then she goes to a bar. Then she becomes friends with a police officer and then she hangs out at a rich woman’s mansion. The rich woman’s daughter commit suicide I think because her husband was abusive. Angered by this she sets up her mansion as a refuge for abused women. She has a gay bodyguard named Tamaru. His dog blows up. Aomame does nothing for about a a hundred chapters. Then the rich woman wants to assassinate some guy. So Aomame assassinates him. Before the guy dies he exposition dumps a bunch of things about the Little People and Tengo. Then Aomame goes into hiding. Again, she does nothing for a million chapters. Then she’s pregnant. The pregnancy, like everything in this book, has no bearing on the story and it would be the exact same if it didn’t happen. Also, she gets pregnant due to magic. This is real. (Maybe the author had a pregnancy fetish.) Then Aomame finally meets Tengo. They go back to 1984. The end.

Again, I’ve left a lot of things out, such as Aomame’s backstory, but that’s because they don’t matter. Stripping away all the unnecessary fluff you start to see how boring this story is since nothing happens.

Now here’s Tengo’s side of the story. It’s not much better than Aomame’s. Tengo is meets up with his editor Komatsu and he tells him about a short story submitted by a 17 year old girl. He says the writing is crap but the premise is really good and he hatches a plan for Tengo to ghostwrite the story and polish it up a bit so they can make the best book of all time and also a lot of money. They meet with the girl. She agrees to the plan. Tengo meets with her guardian. He learns about her backstory which I won’t write down because it doesn’t matter. (Essentially, she was once part of a cult and ran away to live with her dad’s friend.) Tengo does nothing for a billion chapters. He finshes the book. It’s a massive success. Then he visits his dad. Then Komatsu goes missing. Then Komatsu comes back. Then Tengo’s dad dies. Then Komatsu explains that he got kidnapped by a cult. The cult wanted him to stop publishing the book since it turns out the 17 year old girl wrote the book to reveal the secret of the Little People and air chrysalises, exposing the cult. (Not that it mattered since nobody thinks the book is real, and in the end the cult is never exposed.) So he stops publishing the book. Then nothing happens. Then the 17 year old girl just disappears from the story, probably because the author didn’t need her anymore. Then nothing happens for a lot longer. Then Tengo gets a message to meet Aomame. They go back to 1Q84. The end.

This is the plot. This is what I had to endure 1000 pages of. Nothing. Happened.

The most egregious case of nothing happening is with Ushikawa. In the third act of the book  he’s the third character introduced and now the book cycles through Aomame’s, Tengo’s, and Ushikawa’s perspective, so you would think he would be an important central character. Anyway, his plot is that he’s part of the cult and wants to track down Aomame for killing the leader, and so he stalks Aomame and Tengo for a while. And I do mean a while; his chapters are probably the longest and we have to see his backstory and his super long and tedious investigation. And what’s the payoff to all of this reading? Nothing. Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing. At the end he just gets assassinated by Tamaru before he can report to the cult. So why did we have to spend so long reading about him if nothing came out of it? Because the author wanted you to read about a sweaty old man staking out in an apartment, that’s why. I feel as if this entire book just exists to waste time.

This book took me about two months to read. I only read about two or three chapters a day. Any more than that and I would have just collapsed from boredom. The only reason I finished reading it was because I was already about halfway through and at that point I should just make it to the end. Had this book only been about four hundred pages, then I could have found it alright. Not good, just alright. But the book is bloated and has words with no intent behind them. There are many shorter books that say a lot more than 1Q84 does.

The next book I’ll be reviewing is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. So far it’s been pretty interesting, although that was also my first impression of 1Q84, so I’ll just wait and see if it really is good.

Fact: ninety percent of anime is trash. I spend a lot more time looking for something to watch than actually watching something. So hopefully this list will save somebody time. If you watch the entire first episode and don’t like it then you should probably just drop it because forcing yourself to watch something you don’t want to just makes you hate it more. Which is why I’ll probably never review an anime I don’t like. If I don’t like it I won’t finish it and it’s not really fair to critique a show you haven’t even fully watched. Fairy Tail was an exception because I was making fun of somebody’s trash taste. (Also I suffered through about twenty or thirty episodes of that garbage so I’m allowed to say it’s trash. I can’t believe somebody actually watched the entire thing and enjoyed it.)

 

Death Note – Pretty cool show about this guy who gets a book and if he writes someone’s name down in the book they die. He uses it to kill all the criminals in the world and soon he has to avoid being found by a super genius detective. The two go on a cat and mouse chase constantly outwitting each other. Very clever show but the second half isn’t as good as the first for reasons that are too long to get in to. 8/10

Erased – Excellent show. It’s about a guy who can turn back time when something bad happens. After his mom is murdered he goes all the way back in time to elementary school to save his classmates who had been murdered in the original timeline. Each episode is exciting and got me wanting to see the next. It’s not exactly a mystery because he doesn’t actively try to find out who the murderer is, but still very cool. Ending is pretty disappointing though. 9/10

ID : Invaded – It’s a mystery show, which I like. The premise is very interesting too; it’s about a brilliant detective who can dive into the minds of serial killers in order to find out who they are. Confusing at points but still enjoyable. I’ve never watched Inception but I imagine it’s similar to this. Wish they leaned in more on the mystery aspect though. You don’t get to see the detective solve much. 7/10

The Tatami Galaxy – Remember what I said about just watching the first episode to see if you like it? That does not apply to this show. As a human being it is your moral obligation to watch this show in its entirety. It’s objectively the best anime and if you disagree you are wrong. I already about it so I’ll skip reviewing it. 10/10

Bakemonogatari – Kind of a degenerate show. On the surface it’s a typical trash anime, but it’s somehow not. There’s a bunch of degenerate incel moments that kind of make me want to shoot myself. But if you look past that it’s a witty dialogue heavy tale about trauma, ghosts, and toothbrushes (if you know, you know). Probably won’t fit your taste but if you’re an intellectual like me then you’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I don’t think the other seasons (nise, neko, kabuki) are as good though. The charm of a high school half-vampire exorcising ghosts is kind of lost when you add too many characters/plotlines and make it feel like an adventure rather than a strange, coincidental occurrence. Kizumonogatari is the only one that I think holds up to Bake’s greatness, although it’s split into three entire movies like The Hobbit for some reason (probably money), so you should just read the book for that one. 9/10

Mushoku Tensei – OG isekai that everyone is trying to copy nowadays. You probably already know the isekai formula so I won’t bother explaining the plot. Just know that this started it all. It looks really good for some reason. They really went all out here. It really feels like an adventure instead of a soulless harem comedy that isn’t even funny. First few episodes are kinda slow but it picks up. Main character is kind of a walking L that should be put in jail but he get more bearable later (not by much). And let me say again: this show looks really high quality. It really adds to the epic fantasy adventure feel. Still waiting for season two. 8/10

Classroom of the Elite – It’s not anything really deep at all but if I’m bored one day and don’t feel like thinking too much then this would be a pretty fun show to watch. It’s about a guy (who is literally Light from Death Note) entering an elite high school. The students are split into four classes and from then on must ruthlessly compete against the other classes in tests and whatnot to finish first and graduate or whatever. There’s a fun points system and the school life aspect is pretty chill. Literally Light spends a lot of the time outsmarting/manipulating other people to finish top of his class and I’m pretty sure he’s a sociopath. The other characters aren’t as cool as him but that’s to be expected. Fun show to turn off your brain to. 7/10

Kaiba –  Another weird show like Bakemonogatari and The Tatami Galaxy. No, actually, it’s the weirdest one out of the bunch (and Bakemonogatari is wild). It has a cutesy, childlike art style but don’t be fooled. It’s super depressing. Very few anime I can call sad. This is one of them. About a guy who wakes up with no memories in a strange world. It’s a world where you can transport your memories to a new body, effectively making you immortal. You can buy bodies, memories, stuff like that. People are kidnapped, their memories are sold off, their bodies are sold off. The setting is super cool. It’s like in space sort of but there’s a lot of cool set pieces. Like there’s a sky of lost memories. When you die your memories, these little orange bubbles, fly up into the sky and when the main character gets on a space ship they sail through this beautiful memory field. It’s kind of gross and pretty at the same time. I could probably spend a whole blog talking about this because there’s so much to discuss and I’ve left out a lot of stuff but I want to keep it brief. The second half isn’t as good, but the first half is just heart-wrenching. Give it at least three episodes. 9/10

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – Part 1 is doo doo, part 2 is meh, part 3 is good, part 4 is the best, part 5 is alright. Skip parts one and two if you want but just know there’s some fans who will lop off your head for doing things like that. If you want a plot synopsis: adopted child turns into gay vampire and then kills his brother and attaches his head to his dead brother’s body and then in part 2 an American guy gets a gun and shoots a vampire and then fights off three strippers to save his mom and then in part 3 teenager must save his mom by killing the gay vampire who has just come back to life so to do that he teams up with his JoBros and heads to egypt where he plays video games and then in part 4 American guy’s illegitimate son has to stop David Bowie from cutting off women’s hands and licking them except for the first half of the show he just eats spaghetti and then in part 5 gay vampire’s son at the age of 15 joins the mafia and then the JoBro from part 3 turns into a cyborg and then he turns into a turtle called Mr. President and they go inside the turtle like it’s a car and use it to get around yes that is real. Just turn your brain off and watch buff teenager punch ghosts, okay? 8/10

Fairy Tail – jk lol

Love is War – Pretty fun rom com. Not really a deep thinking show, but it’s fun and very simple. The two protagonists play mind games with each other and try to get each other to confess, sort of like Death Note. Not much to talk about. 8/10

Mob Psycho 100 – Have a lot of nostalgia for this one because it’s the one that got me to actually give subbed anime a shot. Ended up loving it. About a kid called Mob with psychic powers who exorcises ghost. His trainer is not a psychic and is actually a con man who uses Mob to exorcise his client’s ghosts. It’s one of the very few shows that is actually funny. Art style is a little strange but if it had the normal generic style it wouldn’t be as entertaining. Despite its comedic nature there’s some really heartfelt moments and at its core its about a boy learning to socialize with others. The fight scenes are gorgeously animated as well and look cool as hell. This show is so good, even the filler episodes are good. Also, it’s by the guy who wrote One Punch Man and if you know how good that show is, then I don’t even need to say anything. In fact, this show is better than One Punch (although you should check out that show too if you haven’t already). 10/10

Occultic;Nine – I remember watching this and thinking it was amazing. Then I went online and it seemed like a lot of people didn’t like it, so maybe I’m wrong. Still think it’s a good show though and I don’t agree with the reasons as to why people don’t like it. Wacky show about nine people drawn into a strange supernatural mystery in town: a mass suicide of people drowning themselves in a lake, the disappearance of one of the protagonist’s friends, the murder of a professor, and a massive organization looking into life after death (ghosts). It’s super crazy and interesting. The ending is a little confusing. First episode is mostly introducing the nine main characters but it picks up after that. Some of the main characters get no screen time compared to the others and one of them is super annoying. There’s a huge crazy plot twist about halfway that I thought was epic. Very good show. 9/10

Re:ZERO – Rare good isekai. The gimmick of this one is that he can turn back time when he dies, so it’s an endless loop of trying to find a way to survive. Not much else to say though. Most characters are likable, setting is pretty cool, looks pretty cool, MC is a total loser at points. Haven’t watched season two but I will eventually. 8/10

Tanaka-kun is Always Listless – Great show to watch on a rainy day and you want to watch something chill. Slice of life about a dude who probably has narcolepsy and his chill school life. There’s no drama or action, but the art style is cute, the episodes are pretty fun, and the characters are pretty likable. Again, not much to discuss here, since it’s a simple show. 8/10

Tower of God – This is the show that got me into Webtoon. I already talked about it though so I won’t go over it again. Also, don’t watch season two if a season two comes out. I’ve read a lot of the web comic and it’s pretty bad after the first season. 8/10

Tsuredure Children – Again, another simple show. There’s twelve episodes but each of them are shorts that are only twelve minutes long. A romance show that follows several different relationships. Watch as they fall in love, break up, or watch as the show forgets about their existence and never shows them again. Ending sucked, a lot of characters didn’t get closure and I don’t see a second season coming anytime soon. 8/10

WWW.WAGNARIA!! – Weird title, still don’t know what it means. It’s another simple slice of life show. I’m recommending a lot of these because after I thought about it these kind of “turn off your brain” shows are probably what you’re into. I think the title translates into “working” or something like that but I don’t remember. It’s about… working. At a cafe. Pretty chill though. 7/10

That’s about it. There’s a lot of other shows I left out because I thought they were just alright, but maybe you’ll like them better than I did. Also, watch Chainsaw Man when it comes out. I’m pretty excited for that one.

 

 

 

Recently I became intrigued by the idea of boiling an egg and putting it in ramen. I’d made ramen with eggs dozens of times before but it just didn’t feel right. The first way was just cracking an egg in while the water was boiling but I wanted the egg to cook more. It was pretty satisfying to burst the egg and watch the yolk spill out but I was sort of tired of the method already. Then I tried beating the egg and then pouring it in but the egg just cooked on the bottom of the pot and got stuck there so I had to scrape it all of and it wasn’t pretty. So I thought boiling the egg would the next thing I tried. It seemed pretty tasty and it looks pretty cool when you cut the egg in half and put it in the bowl. I spent a lot of time contemplating if it was worth the effort because it’d take a lot longer than just pouring the egg in and eventually I decided to do it. I was at first only going to boil one egg but I felt a little stupid for filling an entire pot of water just to boil a single egg so I put in another one.  Then I turned up the heat and waited for it to boil. I waited for a long time. The water was bubbling and I was waiting for it to start popping like crazy until it finally occurred to me that this was considered boiling. This was when this strange odor began to fill the room. It smelt like smoke. I thought something might be amiss so I searched it up online and they said that burnt eggs come with a bad smell so I was pretty annoyed that I had just potentially wasted two eggs. Even so I continued to take the pot off the stove and then covered it with a lid. Then I waited a little more and took the eggs out of the pot and into cold water. I took them out a little earlier then I should have since I was afraid of burning them. When I removed an egg from the water it smelled pretty awful and I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to. I got out a spoon and tried peeling it. I thought it’d be easy like peeling a banana but it was more like peeling a grape. It’s a very delicate process, and though I tried my best to be careful, a good chunk of egg still came off when I peeled off part of it. So I gave up on getting a perfect egg and just wildly tore off all of the shell. In the end my egg looked like somebody sat on it. Afterwards I washed it under running water to get off all the remaining shell pieces that might’ve stuck on and it opened a small hole to see if it looked normal inside. It did, so I hesitantly took a bite. It tasted normal. Then I repeated the process with the other egg. That one turned out much better. Not perfect, but still mostly retaining its oval shape. Then I cut it in half like I’d seen other people do and set it aside. I also cut the deformed egg in half as well, but that just ended up making it look more pathetic than it already was. I quickly cooked the ramen, set it on the table and put the boiled egg in. It didn’t float like in the pictures which was pretty disappointing. Then I ate it. And that’s when the fact I had been trying to avoid became unavoidable: I don’t even like boiled eggs. I decided this wasn’t worth the effort and I would never be doing it again.

Today I instead decided to return to the beating eggs method. I had thought about the eggs sticking to the pot for a while and wondered how I could have failed so terribly. Then I remembered this one video. It was a video of Studio Ghibli behind the scenes. And in it was Hayao Miyazaki cooking ramen for his hungry and overworked team. He got an enormous pot and put like ten packets of ramen in and poured in a gallon or so of water and about a million seasoning packets. But the part that made me realize what I had done wrong was when Miyazaki got his coworker to slowly pour in a bowl of beaten eggs while he stirred the noodles around. It’s an odd thing to remember. I was in class when the video somehow entered my thoughts. I must have been hungry. Anyway, this made me wonder if that was why my egg had stuck to the bottom of the pot. Later when I got home I made ramen like usual and beat some eggs. This time I slowly poured it in while stirring the broth around. The result: it was alright. The egg was all white and looked kind of sad. It was also pretty tasteless. So I guess next time I’ll spill a ton of salt on the egg and see if it turns out better that way.

There is an ant.

I watch as it travels across the grassy field under the unbearable rays of the sun. The ant makes it halfway across the field, stops, shrivels up, and dies.

It’s June 27th.

I’m hot, sweaty, and no matter how many times I pull on it, my clothes keeps sticking to my skin. The sun is at its peak and the temperature is scorching.

I don’t know how long I’ve been here. I try to think about it. But the buzzing of the cicadas get louder. I can’t hear my thoughts.

I want them to stop.

The noise continues. Endlessly. As if there were nothing making the noise, as if the noise were there naturally. It is jarring and sharp and unpleasant. The buzzing reverberates through my skull.

It continues on and on and on.

I try to cover my ears. I press my hands against the side of my head until it hurts and my brain feels numb. And yet I can still hear it. The constant screeching of the cicadas.

It drives me insane.

With the little energy I have left I tilt my head to look at my surroundings. I want to find the cicadas. I want to kill them. I want to squeeze them until they burst, until they make not a single sound, so I can relish the silence.

But when I look, all I see is the dense, empty forest. Not a soul to be seen.

Defeated, I lie back down on the wooden porch, baking in the humid weather, a pool of sweat surrounding me.

I wonder if the cicadas are even there. I wonder if anyone else can hear them. I wonder if there even is anyone else.

I don’t think for very long. The noise only gets louder and louder until it feels as though the shrill was being channeled from inside my head.

At last I’ve had enough.

I stand up and I scream at them to stop. I scream at them over and over until my throat becomes hoarse and my mouth is dry. My mind has gone empty. It’s filled only with the desire of quiet tranquility. I’m at dying in the heat. I’m at my breaking point.

The screeching of the cicadas only gets louder.

I want to scream back harder. To silence the cicadas. But all I can do is lie back down on the wooden porch of this broken down house, listening to the cicadas.

Soon, daylight fades and the moon begins to rise. Nighttime is cooler. My clothes no longer sticks to my skin, my skin no longer sticks to the wooden porch. It’s dead silent. There are no more cicadas. Only the sound of my own breathing fills the air.

Then the moon slowly falls and sun begins to reach its peak again.

The temperature starts to soar.

The screeching of the cicadas returns.

It’s June 27th.

In the grand scheme of things, nothing really matters. The universe is so infinitely wide when you think about it. There is an infinite black void. In the void are over a quadrillion masses of rocks and gas. On one of those rocks is us. In the grand scheme of things, wars and tragedies aren’t relevant at all. To us they are, and that is because this is our entire world, the Earth is the only place we can be. But to the rest of the universe, it would stay the same even if the wars and tragedies hadn’t happened. There’s other lifeforms out there. I find it hard to imagine that there aren’t with so many planets out there. And those lifeforms probably have or will form a civilization like ours and they’ll have their own history and wars and tragedies. Or maybe they won’t have those. Maybe they won’t have the concept of dying. Maybe there is no “life”, but something else. There is what we call life on Earth and so we wonder if there is life elsewhere. But maybe life is something exclusive to Earth and is a foreign concept everywhere else. All our rules, everything we’ve discovered, might not be universal. Laws of gravity, thermodynamics, don’t apply to other planets. Maybe it’s because the materials on those planets are things we can’t understand. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing on those planets those things can apply to. Basically what I’m trying to say is: anything is possible. Magic could exist on some foreign place. We don’t even know all the science behind Earth, so how can we know what lies beyond that? There could be things that are too abstract for our minds to comprehend because it would break what we call reality.

Even on Earth, everyone is in their own world. Some people dedicate their lives to athletics in sports. This is their world; it’s what their purpose revolves around, and they can only be somewhat aware of what it’s like in another world. They live their lives training, working, and playing. Their day to day routine is vastly different to say, a lumberjack living alone in the mountains. People are worrying about work, school, some are thinking about murder, some are thinking about an embarrassing moment in their life, some are thinking about their upcoming hiking trip, some are thinking about what they’re having for dinner. Some people dedicate their lives to science, writing, crime, whatever. You and I can’t imagine what it’s like to be those people’s worlds because we aren’t living them, and so we can’t really understand that world; we can only get a vague description of what it’s like.

I remember I was walking down the street in this one city which I forgot the name of. And I stopped by this bed of flowers. Observing them closely, I soon noticed in the dirt, tiny bugs crawling about their daily lives. Anybody just walking by wouldn’t have seen them. In fact, even someone stopping to admire the flowers might not have seen them, because they were so small you needed to put your face pretty close to the dirt in order to get a glimpse. I thought about this small bed of flowers the bugs were in. This small patch of flowers, you could probably fit a hundred, possibly even more, into just the sidewalk. And even more into the street, into the nearby buildings, into the entire city. The city itself is already pretty big but it doesn’t stop there. Imagine how many of those flower beds there could fit into the entire country, the entire continent, the entire planet. Think about how many people will never know about these bugs’ existence, because in order to see them you’d have to be in the US, you’d have to be in that particular city, you’d have to be on the particular street, you’d have to be by those flowers, and you’d have to peer closely at the dirt. These bugs were so insignificant. And yet, this small flower bed, it was the bug’s entire world. It was all it knew. Science, history, art, even things happening just a few feet away, they could not possibly know. They were born there, and they would die there. Not knowing about anything outside of that small bed of flowers. I found the prospect of that kind of life both tragic and appealing. This brings me to my main point.

For some people, their entire world is playing and socializing on Roblocks. Why you would want to pursue this type of world, I do not know. But that’s just how some people are. That’s their lifestyle, their day to day routine, their goals, their aspirations. I don’t really think that’s their fault. Because we live in a capitalist society, Roblocks is designed to make money. And what better way to make money than to exploit little kids? In this blog, I will be discussing why roblocks is god awful.

First: Robucks. If you’re an adult and cannot comprehend the world of Roblocks, let me explain what robucks is. Pretty much, it’s money. You pay money for Robucks, digital in-game currency, which you can use to buy things. Robucks is how Roblocks gets little kids to clean out their parent’s wallet. Using Robux you can either buy cosmetics like clothes or you can buy gamepasses, which are pretty much cheats that give you an enormous advantage when you’re playing. If you go into the clothes store you’ll see that the prices are actually absurd. Ten dollars translates into about eight hundred robucks. On the front page are a bunch of items that are priced ridiculously, like I’m talking about in the fifty thousand Robucks range. What entices little kids to buy Robucks is, if you don’t buy anything, your character looks like a lego. The amount of clothes you can get for free is pretty sad. And since kids care about bright colors and looking cool, they’re going to be asking mommy and daddy if they can empty out their college savings to buy the new Roblocks hat they saw. That’s just how it is: if you don’t want to look like a plastic lego piece, you have to buy robucks.

Again, for those unaware, Roblocks is pretty much a capitalist society. How it works is, the players make the games. They monetize the games so you can spend Robucks in them. Other players play the game and spend the Robucks. The developers get the Robux, which they can exchange for real money. And you might be thinking that this sound pretty cool. You can make money off of Roblocks. Except you can’t. First off, the developers are making hardly anything. I don’t know the exact percentage but Roblocks takes away a huge chunk of your earnings, around fifty percent maybe. (Actually I don’t think the developers know either. Roblocks is probably trying to keep it quiet how much they’re really taking away.) This already makes it difficult to make money. Then, the minimum exchange amount is 100,000 robucks, and you’re probably not going to make that much considering Roblocks is taking away all of your profits. Then, in order to actually exchange, you need to have premium, which is a monthly paid subscription. All of this, because Roblocks is greedy as hell.

Also, the games suck major doo doo. From a purely technical standpoint I can’t say much since I don’t know anything about coding. From a gameplay standpoint, yeah they suck. And if you want to argue there’s some deeper thoughtful gameplay within Roblocks that I’m too old to see, then go ahead. Just know that you are wrong. The games, like casino slot machines, are designed to be addictive, at least to younger kids. I wouldn’t call it gambling, but I do feel there’s something morally wrong and gross about the games. They’re all rehashes of the same five games. Simulators, Adopt Me, tycoon, anime fighting (grody), etc. These games are pretty low effort and easily get little kids’ attention. They’ll want to spend money in order to get whatever in the game, whether it be a new weapon or something completely useless and dumb like a radio. (You know you can open another tab and listen to music, right?) It’s very disappointing  that nobody has the passion or drive to create something special. There are a few decent games but I wouldn’t call them great or anything. Just alright. At least they had some inspiration behind them. I can’t say the same for the rest of the website.

Lastly, I hate little kids playing roblocks. I seriously do not know any child who doesn’t spend a good chunk of their day playing roblocks. There’s a problem when you can just sit down, say “this is my spot”, and then just not move for several hours (other than to eat of course, you pigs). I don’t want to act like I’m Mr. Righteous because really I spend a lot of time sitting down and messing around on my phone too. But believe or not, that is not how I dedicate all of my time. I’d say most of it is spent in school, and in second place is walking around in circles and listening to music, and after that is random internet videos from highly acclaimed youtube channels such as Dhar Mann. I know some of you (you know who you are) like to pretend I’m just the nerd in the family who sits on the couch all day and I wonder how you can imagine that when there are ipad children around. It’s also pretty irksome when you do that because you’re wrong and you’re being smug about it which really makes me want to

This blog got pretty off topic. I took a break and got bored of writing this so I’m stopping.

(P.S. Roblocks is a bunch of sellouts they’re always sponsoring something stupid and I do mean always.)