Xmas and New Year Wishes

Probably won't be posting anything while I'm on my xmas break, so I hope everyone has a great christmas and a happy new year. See u in 2010!

TV Review: Dexter

Dexter is a crime/mystery series, based on the Dexter novels. The show is not exactly the same as the novels, but it has the same general storyline. It is about a serial killer called Dexter Morgan. He works for the Miami police as a forensics expert specialising in blood spatter. Basically he can tell how a situation played out based on things like the direction of the blood spatter.

Dexter was psychologically scarred as a child, because he witnessed the killing of his mother. Due to this, he is emotionally detached and has urges to kill from a voice in his head that he calls 'the dark passenger'. When he kills someone, the dark passenger is satisfied and goes away for a while... but will eventually come back. After his mother was killed, he was adopted by Harry Morgan. Harry realises Dexter's problem, and tried to change him so that he was no longer a potential killer. However, he understood that it wasn't a problem that would just go away, so he taught Dexter to use his urges in a more positive and accepting way, which is to only kill people that are actually guilty of a crime. Dexter refers to these teachings by Harry as 'the code' which he mentions fairly often. So in Dexter's spare time, he will research criminals who have escaped the justice system, and prove that they were guilty... then he will capture them, wrap them up in plastic, cut their cheek to draw blood which he then keeps as a sort of trophy/memento, then he will kill them and cut up the body. The body parts are then wrapped up in plastic bags, which he then dumps in the ocean.

So the series is based off Dexter and his way of life filled with killing and keeping his true identity hidden. The first series is a bit introductory, but the main plot is based on another serial killer that was given the name of 'the ice truck killer', who's killing methods have fascinated Dexter... and he tries to find the identity of him. In the meantime, he is also killing various criminals.

The main characters include;

Dexter Morgan - The main character, who also serves as the narrator. Pretty much described him already... but he also has a girlfriend named Rita, and through her... he begins to establish what feelings are meant to be.

Debra Morgan - Biological daughter of Harry Morgan, and Dexter's sister via adoption. She works for the Miami Police and is aspiring to become a detective. She is quite foul-mouthed, and has a tendency to speak her mind no matter what it is. But she is a smart girl, and she's very close with her brother Dexter.

Rita Bennett - Dexter's girlfriend. She has 2 kids; Cody and Astor, from a failed marriage. Her ex-husband was abusive and ended up in jail. She was untrusting of men due to that abuse, but she discovers that she truely loves Dexter and her relationship with him helps her to overcome the trauma of the abuse.

Harry Morgan - Dexter's foster father, who is deceased at the present time of the show. But he is commonly seen in flashbacks. He was a legendary detective working for Miami police before his death, and Debra aspires to become a detective because of Harry.

Maria LaGuerta - The lieutenant in charge of Miami police. She is a strong woman who seems to enjoy having the authority. She clearly dislikes Debra, and tends to take the stab at her a lot.

Angel Batista - A detective working for Miami police, who works quite closely with Dexter. He is a good-natured person, and very honest.

James Doakes - His character is quite amusing, in a hard-ass kind of way. He is a sergeant, and also works fairly closely with Dexter. He is suspicious of Dexter, but he also makes some funny wise-cracks at Dexter, for example he'll describe some horrific crime scene as being Dexter's wet dream.

Vince Masuka - Usually people just call him Masuka. He is the comedy relief of the show, although he's a bit of a minor character. He is a forensics investigator who works alongside Dexter. He is very intelligent, but also likes to make a lot of perverted comments, and a lot of these are directed at Debra (who finds him repulsive).


Rating - 9/10. One of my favourite shows at the moment. It has a lot of great suspense, such that I only watch each season in 1 go... instead of having to wait each week for a new episode. Theres quite a bit of nudity in season 2, if you're into that. The killing scenes aren't actually gorey or anything, so the show is suitable even if you normally don't like gorey stuff. You will know that he's slicing the body up and stuff... but you won't actually see him doing it. So far I'd rate the first season as being the best... it's strange that for most shows its the first season thats always the best. But the following seasons are still quite good and worth watching.

News Watch: Opening up old wounds

One thing that I get tired of, is when something bad occurs...theres lots of talk on the media and at the water cooler... then people get over it and its laid to rest... but then it has to be brought up yet again. The thing that I'm talking about, is the suspension of Kyle and Jackie'O a few months back... which is brought up again here : http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/kyle-jackie/2009/12/16/1260639217393.html

I am a fan of their show, and have been for a long time, so I could be a bit biased here... but I do find it annoying that I have to keep seeing the same thing brought up over and over, especially when the media is twisting it to make them sound like bad people.

The incident I'm referring to, is when the Kyle and Jackie'O show had a segment, which involved putting someone on a lie detector. A worried mother put her daughter on the lie detector because she wanted to know what was bothering her daughter and causing her to lead a destructive life. The plug was pulled when the daughter got angry and yelled out that she had gotten raped when she was 12 years old (she is 14 when she was on the lie detector).

I believe the Kyle and Jackie'O show did the right thing in stopping the segment straight away, and making sure the daughter was directed to the right people to get her help on the matter. But the media is making it out to be like it was the show's fault, and that they never should have put it on air... when it's not like the Kyle and Jackie'O show knew that the daughter had gotten raped in the first place... if they had known, they wouldn't have needed to end the segment in a panic.

It's not just this article too... but there have been many other articles in the past that are just lashing out at the show for doing something that they had no idea was going to turn out the way that it did. In fact, the real person to blame is the person who raped the girl... if it wasn't for whoever that was, then this segment wouldn't have turned out the way it did. Besides... in my opinion, it's better that it's out in the open. Obviously it could have been done privately, but according to the mother, she had already tried everything to try to get her daughter to talk to her about what was wrong. So at least they were able to get her to counselling and try to help her exit the destructive life that she was having. Obviously being raped at such a young age is a terrible thing to happen, and it has an extremely damaging effect on the girl, so it's better than people were made aware of it so something could be done, rather than her turning wilder and more out of control... which would probably have led to drug usage, dropping out of school, turning to prostitution, etc.

Well that's how I feel about the situation... and I hope the girl is ok now... but I think it's a good example of how easily the media can twist things, hence why they hold so much power in this world.

Movie/Book Review: New Moon (Twilight)

On the weekend I saw New Moon with a couple of girl friends. We were in gold class, and it was just us and 2 other random guys. We found it really strange because its either; they're there together to watch New Moon... or they've come by themselves to watch New Moon. Either way... it seems pretty weird to me lol.

Anyway, the Twilight books has been the latest big seller since Harry Potter. It is a love story between a vampire (Edward Cullen) and a high school girl (Bella Swan). I have actually read the books, which some guys might find surprising... but I usually look into stories that are supposed to be good, as I love a good storyline. The first book (Twilight) really enticed me into the series... but the second book (New Moon) was really disappointing. So I wasn't actually expecting much from the movie... but I wanted to see it anyway, because I wanted to see how it would turn out in a movie format.

Surprisingly, this is probably the first time I've actually thought the movie was better than the book... but this is mainly because I found the second book to be the worst out of the series. The main thing about the book that I hated was that it is told from Bella's point of view... and her thoughts are both really emo and also overly lovey dovey. So the good thing about the movie, is that you don't really have to hear all that kind of stuff. I also enjoyed the fight scenes between the vampires as I think it's pretty cool when they fight with their insanely high speed and strength.

The main problem I have with the movie though, is some of the acting. Some of the acting was pretty appauling, and I'm generally quite lenient. But some of the acting just gave me the shits... for example when Bella is supposed to be in a state of shock or utter disbelief, she has this weird expression and stutters a lot while seeming to have some sort of attitude. That's probably the best way I can describe it... you'll have to see for yourself to know what I mean.

The basic plot of this movie is that firstly, Bella becomes afraid of aging... as we mortals do. So she fears that one day she'll become an old grandma, and that Edward will no longer want her. Thus she wants to become a vampire a live among the Cullens. After a particular incident, it becomes apparent to the Cullens that they are a danger to Bella, so they leave town and erase traces that they had been there so that hopefully Bella would move on. When this happens, Bella becomes really depressed and emo... and the rest takes off from there.

Rating - 5/10. The Twilight series in general is more suited for girls than guys, but there are some good fighting scenes in there as well... just maybe not enough to offset having to go through all the lovey dovey stuff. The next movie should actually have a lot more fighting... as it's probably the book that has the potential to provide the most action scenes for the movie version. So if you do watch the movie for the fight scenes, then you should watch New Moon so you know what's going on... as whats revealed is pretty important to the storyline. If you have absolutely no interest in the books or if you didn't like the first movie... then you probably won't enjoy this movie.


Below is a picture of Christian Serratos, who plays Angela Weber. Angela Weber is a high school girl, and a friend of Bella. She has a very minor role in the movies, but she's a bit more prominent in the book (but not by that much more). I posted her pic because I think she's pretty good looking... this pic doesn't do her justice imo, but it's the only one I could find of her in New Moon.

Review: X-men Evolution

One of the most prominent comics of all time is the X-Men. Alongside other superhero comics like Batman, Spiderman, etc, X-men is based on a large number of superheroes instead of just one. I think many people will remember the original X-Men animated series from back in the 90's. X-Men evolution is based on mostly the same characters, except the setting is when they were younger, i.e. still at school. I guess this was to make the show target the high school audience, who could relate more to the characters... but also to show what happened pretty much at the beginning of when the Xavier Institute was starting up.

I think the background of the X-Men is quite widely known since theres so many things based on them, i.e. movies, tv shows, figurines, games etc... but basically the plot is that there are people who have the 'x gene' which gives people supernatural powers. These people are termed 'mutants', and the powers vary greatly, although there are some powers which multiple people possess the same of... the most common being psychic related powers, and superhuman strength.

Now to the main story... a man named Charles Xavier has started an institute for mutants, where they can be themselves and avoid public knowledge. This is because people do not know of the existence of mutants yet... so it's the pretty typical "don't reveal your identity" kind of thing that is quite common in superhero stories, except in this case it's to not reveal your powers. Within the institute, there are teachers who train the younger generation of mutants to develop their powers and to teach them to use it for the good of mankind. In the background, a mutant named Magneto is scheming plans for his own purposes. He believes that as a mutant, he is a superior being and separate to humans.... and that mutants should be ruling the world.

There are 4 seasons in total. The first season is pretty much an introductory season, where the beginning X-Men are recruiting the first members such as Shadowcat, Spyke (a new character that's not in the comics), Rogue and Nightcrawler. You'll basically get a fair bit of background on each of the main characters throughout season 1. Season 2 comes with the addition of even more mutants, especially from a younger generation. It also further develops some of the 'villains' like Magneto. To be honest, I don't think characters like Magneto and Mystique are really villains as such, since they're not really evil... but I'd say it's probably the best way to describe them. Season 3 is when the serious note takes off, and season 4 finishes off the primary storyline.

There is a huge cast in this series, so I'll just emphasise the main characters and keep the less important ones brief;

Charles Xavier - As mentioned, he started the institute for the X-Men. He is extremely intelligent, as he use to be a doctor... and he is arguably one of the most powerful psychics in the X-Men universe. He is a seemingly influential person even without his powers, as he is able to bail out the younger X-Men in many situations.

Storm - One of the teachers at the institute. I like her a lot more in this version as her cape makes her look pretty cool... and she's just generally better looking in this series than in the original animated series. As her name implies, her power is weather manipulation, as well as the ability to fly.

Wolverine - I'm sure people know about him now, since theres a movie based on him. In this series, he's kind of like Xavier's right hand man. He is also a teacher at the institute, and normally does a lot of rigorous training sessions for the students. As you'll probably know... his ability is his healing factor combined with an adamantium skeleton and claws.

Scott Summers (Cyclops) - He is the unofficial leader of the X-Men. He does most of the leading when theres a combat situation. He has a crush on Jean, but he's reluctant to confess his feelings to her. His ability is to produce energy blasts with his eyes. Due to brain damage, he is unable to control it, so he has to wear a viser or special sunglasses. This is not actually explained in the series... but it's the reason why you see that Rogue can absorb Scott's powers yet can control when she fires it.

Jean Grey - The good looking and popular high school girl. She is extremely intelligent, athletic and well-liked. She's very jealous when she sees Cyclops with other girls, even though she already has a boyfriend. She has psychic and telekinetic abilities, and she frequently uses it to give herself the ability to fly.

Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) - He is a blue furred person with abnormal hands, feet and a tail. He receives an image inducer which allows him to appear to be a normal boy. He likes to goof around a lot, and has a very close friendship with Cyclops. His power is of teleportation, although he can't teleport long distances, and he has to know where he's teleporting too.

Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) - She is a pretty smart girl, but really loves to party as well. She's also quite good looking. She has a phasing ability, which means she can pass through solid objects, and she can also make things that she's touching phase through too.

Rogue - Very different to the original. In the original, she's a pretty open fun-loving girl. In this series, shes an emo goth who keeps to herself a lot... which is why it took her so long to join the X-Men. Her ability is to drain a person's power and absorb their memories. For this reason, she makes sure that her body is covered as much as possible, and she always wears gloves.

Evan Daniels (Spyke) - a new character to the X-Men scene. He is the nephew of Storm, and he cares a lot about his Aunt. He's the type who prefers to slack off and do other things like skate-boarding instead of studying. His ability is to produce wooden stakes from his body, which he figures or throws at people.

Magneto - my favourite character of all time. His intelligence is of a genius level, especially in genetics. He is an old friend of Charles Xavier, who he worked alongside in their younger days. Due to their differences in opinion of mutants, they parted ways. Unlike most of the other mutants, he is an advanced mutant who has complete mastery of his powers. His power is of magnetism, which also allows him to fly as well. His level of control of his powers far exceeds any other mutant except maybe Xavier, as he can manipulate many metal objects over vast distances. He is also highly resilient to psychic attacks, although it's not explained why he has such strong mental defences.

There tonnes more mutants, but I won't go into detail about their backgrounds... but I'll give a brief list of their mutant names so that the X-Men fans know who to expect to see in the series; Iceman, Cannonball, Magma, Jubilee, Wolfsbane, Multiple, Berzerker, Sunspot, Mystique, Avalanche, Toad, The Blob, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Gambit, Sabretooth, Colossus, Pyro, Mastermind, Boom-Boom, the Morloks, X-23, Angel, Forge, Havok, Destiny, Leach, Juggernaut and Apocolypse.

Rating - 9/10. I'm a big fan of the X-Men, as it was one of the animations I grew up with. I also like the storyline and I think the idea of mutant powers is very interesting... so I really enjoyed watching this, as it's much better made than the original series. If you like the comics, or any of the movies/tv series based on it... then I'm pretty sure you'll like this one.

Anime/Manga Review: Hunter X Hunter

Hunter X Hunter is centered around a young boy named Gon Freaks (last name has various spellings... but I'll go with Freaks since its used in the subs that I saw). He was raised by his aunt Mito, who told him that his parents had died in an accident. It is revealed early on that his father is in fact still alive, and that he is a famous hunter. Gon is a very special kid, and the first sign of this was when he was able to catch a gigantic fish that no one else was able to catch. He leaves home in order to take the hunter exam and follow in the footsteps of his father Jin Freaks. He also wants to find his father, so finding clues about his father is another of his primary objectives. Along the way and through the hunter exam, Gon becomes best friends with Killua, Kurapika and Leorio.

A hunter in this story is a special title only given to very special people. In order to become a hunter, you have to pass the hunter's exam, which involves many various skills expected of someone with such a prestigous title. If you have a hunter's license, you are basically set for life... as even the license itself is extremely valuable. One of the main things that you need to know as a hunter is an ability called nen. It actually isn't shown until a bit later in the anime and manga, but its actually a pretty important to the storyline plot.

Nen is kind of like your inner aura, which has various applications based on your personal traits. Each person will generally have a different kind of usage for their nen than others. The types include:

Reinforcement - which enhances your physical attack and defensive strength. Also enhances your healing rate.

Emission - the ability to project your aura in some kind of form. Example, theres a character who has the ability to shoot nen bullets from his fingers.

Manipulation - pretty self explanatory... you can control an object with your aura

Transmutation - ability to transform your aura to mimic the properties of something else. For example, there is a character who transforms his aura into 'bungee gum' which has the properties of rubber and gum

Materialisation - can conjure and dispel an object at will

Specialisation - this is a pretty vague ability... and is quite hard to describe. It is anything that doesn't fall in the other 5 categories pretty much, but its also pretty unique. An example is there is a character who can write poems that predict the future.


The anime doesn't actually cover everything in the manga. So in terms of storyline, its probably better to read the manga, as there is a story arc thats not yet covered in the anime or any of the OVAs. However, the majority of it so far is in anime form, which is what I personally prefer. Anyway the main characters include;

Gon Freaks - main character. He is a very stubborn person, but also very loyal to his friends and would do anything for them. He is not very bright academically, but when it comes to fighting he's extremely intuitive and is very good at thinking up strategies on the fly. Not much else to say that hasn't already been said without spoiling anything.

Killua Zoldyck - he is from a family of the most powerful assassins in the world. Despite being so young (12, same age as Gon), he has already mastered many arts in killing and is 1 of the most dangerous people in the hunter exam. He becomes friends with Gon very quickly. Unlike Gon, Killua is quite intelligent as would be expected from an assassin, both academically and in combat. He joined the hunter's exam because he wanted a bit of a challenge.

Kurapika - the last member of the Kurta clan (I forgot what spelling was used in the subs, so I used the wikipedia spelling for it). His eyes turn scarlet red when he becomes angry, which is the reason his clan was killed, as their eyes were extremely valuable. His goal is to find the Ryodan, who are the ones responsible for massacring his clan. For this reason, he joins the hunter exam, because having access to the hunter database is the best chance of finding information on the Ryodan.

Leorio - he is an aspiring doctor, and he joins the hunter exam in order to get the money to enter medical school. In the past, one of his friends died of an uncurable illness... so his goal is to become a doctor who can cure anything. He is a bit of a comedy relief for this series, but at the same time he is a very loyal friend.

Hisoka - in a way, he can be seen as the main 'enemy' in the series, although he's not actually evil as such... however I would describe him as kind of insane, as the only thing he cares about is fighting and killing. He takes a liking to Gon and Killua (especially Gon) and often describes them as 'fruit' waiting to ripen. Basically meaning he wants to fight them when they become powerful. He uses playing cards to fight a lot of the time, however he is just generally ridiculously strong... and he would be the most dangerous person in the hunter exam. The thing I find funniest about Hisoka is that it is implied that he gets sexual gratification from fighting. This can be seen especially in a particular scene in the manga, where there is text and a large whitened out area covering his crotch area, which seems to emphasise that (you will see what I mean if you read the manga).

There are of course lots of other characters who come and go, but these are the main ones you'll see throughout the anime.

Rating - 9/10. A very good anime and manga with a good concept for fighting, and a pretty decent storyline. It also has some good childish humour to it. Its suitable for all audiences, and if you haven't seen it already then its a good time to watch or read it... as apparently the writer is going to continue on with the manga in 2010. Although I'm not certain if they'll continue making more OVAs for the anime for the missing story arc, or for the new ones.

Don't be fooled by Twilight

A few days ago I was listening to the radio as I usually do on the drive home... and they had the usual segment with the latest celebrity gossip and news. One thing in particular caught my ear was that apparently Miley Cyrus said something along the lines of "Twilight gives girls a false impression of guys, and it is unrealistic for someone as perfect as Edward Cullen to exist." It was not those exact words... but it was similar to that... and I must say, when I heard that I was extremely surprised as it was the wisest thing I've ever heard her say and I certainly applaud her for that opinion.

For those who have no idea about Edward Cullen... he is a fictional character from the Twilight series, which is all the rage at the moment. He is a vampire who has lived for 100 years, and is described in the books as being unrealistically good looking. I guess the most common reason why girls are so in love with his character is because he has the maturity of an old person... and is also from a very traditional background. He is not driven by hormones that you would expect from a typical guy... and if you put all of that into the body of a good looking 18 year old body... you basically have what girls would consider the perfect guy.

Now going back to Miley Cyrus' opinion... it is not realistic to be able to find a guy like that. However, some girls will probably match up their ideal guy to Edward Cullen... imagine if your girlfriend was like "why can't you be more like Edward Cullen?" how are you supposed to match up to that. Of course, he is a fictional character... but seeing as so many girls are crazy about the Twilight movie, i.e Robert Pattinson... I would not be surprised if girls have already been envisioning their dream guy to be some Edward Cullen clone.

Anyway I'm pleased that Miley came out with her opinion on this... as I think it will help lower the Twilight fanatics, and so that a fictional character doesn't raise the expectations of girls.

TV Review: Dollhouse

Dollhouse is based on a secret organisation called.... you guess it, 'Dollhouse'. Basically the organisation has numerous 'dolls' who are of course actual people, but their personalities have been downloaded and stored elsewhere, thus leaving an empty shell. The organisation's computer wizz; Topher, is the person responsible for 'imprinting' a new personality into the doll, depending on what the doll needs to do. Very wealthy clients will purchase the services for various reasons, for example assassinations, thievery, sexual services, espionage, and a wide range of other things. So the personality imprinted will excel in the area that the job requires. To the FBI... the Dollhouse is a myth, except for Agent Paul Ballard... who is obsessed with trying to find the Dollhouse and shut it down because he believes its practices to be immoral. Also in the background is a rogue doll codenamed Alpha, who is a genius and a superior being... and is trying to bring down the dollhouse too.

The main characters;

Echo - played by Eliza Dushku, who some may remember played Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She is the main doll that is seen throughout the show. Before becoming a doll, she was a college student and a political activist.

Boyd Langton - he is Echo's handler, which means he watches over her and ensure she carries out her mission, and she gets back to the dollhouse safely. He use to be a cop, before he joined the dollhouse.

Topher Brink - a scientist who is in charge of the memory wipes and imprints. He is a genius, but is also extremely arrogant and egotistic.

Paul Ballard - an FBI agent who is obsessed with finding the dollhouse. One of his main reasons is because of Caroline (Echo's real name), but its a bit vague as to exactly why shes so important to him.

Sierra - another doll and she is the newest one.

Adelle Dewitt - she is the manager of the dollhouse, and is the person who converses with the clients. She makes most of the decisions for the organisation, but she does answer to higher officials.

Dr Claire Saunders - one of the doctors inside the dollhouse who look after the dolls to make sure they are physically fine.


Rating -7/10. Dollhouse has a pretty interesting plot, but it does not have the level of suspense that other shows have. I'd say its still worth having a look at... its good, but not outstanding.

Below is a picture of Amy Acker who plays Doctor Claire Saunders. She is very hot, and she looks a lot younger than she actually is.

News Watch: What would you have done?

A very tragic story made the headlines this morning, and you can read it here http://tinyurl.com/yepeb7k

One of the questions that you sometimes hear is... given a choice between saving 1 out of 2 loved ones, who would you save? We never want to answer this kind of question, as no matter what the answer is... its going to be bad.

In this case, the father had to choose between his wife or his son. Well, ideally he would've tried to save both, but time was of the essence as the car was sinking deeper. He chose to free his wife first and got her back up to shore, but unfortunately the car had sunk too deep for him to free his son, and even more unfortunately... the rescue team weren't able to get to him in time.

I know things can change in the heat of the moment, especially at a time like that where you really dont have time to think about things, but if I was in that position I think I would have saved my kid first... as I don't think anyone should have to die so young, and I think my wife would understand in that situation. If I was in the wife's position, I would find it hard to live knowing that my child died while I got rescued.

I wish the best for this family in such a tragic time, and I hope that anyone reading this never has to go through this kind of decision.

RIP Silva Natana Horton

News Watch: Japanese man marries anime girl

A rather interesting story about a man who fell in love with a character made from a Nintendo DS game called "Love Plus", which you can read about here http://tinyurl.com/yj99yqr

This is the first time I've heard of this game. Apparently you pick a girlfriend in the game, and try to woo her like you would for an actual girl. Probably the most interesting thing is that to kiss the girl, you quite literally kiss the DS (wonder what would happen if they made a function to have sex with her =P). So anyway, I think a lot of people would be WTFing at this. I can definitely understand that people will be quite quick to judge this guy's actions... and it's probably due to upbringing and how that has developed our sense of what should be normal.

I wonder what his family must be thinking during the wedding ceremony (although note that it wasn't actually legally binding)... I don't really know how accepting Japanese families would be of this, but I'm quite certain that if that were to be a case in Australia... it would not end so happily.

Personally I'm a pretty open sort of guy, so I can understand why that he could genuinely fall in love with a video game character and want to marry her (not that I would do this myself). At the end of the day... as long as it makes him happy, then I think it's a good thing. Maybe his family wasn't very accepting of it, and definitely a lot of people from western cultures would laugh about it and think he's a weirdo... but I think that for all cases like this where people judge you for doing things which are considered to be out of the norm... well, you should just ignore people and just do what you feel is right and what you feel will make you happy. It's kind of like people who can not accept gay/lesbian marriages, or interracial marriages in my opinion. Why should other people stop you from doing what makes you happy, and how you live your life?

Anyway that is my rant for the day. I hope this helps encourage people in similar situations.

TV Show Review: House M.D

Season 6 of House began recently in the U.S, and its one of the shows that I follow regularly. It is based on a diagnostics division of a hospital, with Dr Greggory House being the head of the division. House is an extremely gifted diagnostician, who can solve cases that most doctors could not. It is a comedy-drama based on the medical field. There is not actually a whole lot of a storyline to the series, as usually each episode is based around a stand-alone case. However there are plotlines which develop, except its quite subtle and it only develops bit by bit. I'd compare it to shows like CSI in that sense... so if you've watched CSI before, you'll probably know what I mean.

The main characters are;

Doctor Greggory House - As mentioned, he is extremely intelligent. However, he is also sarcastic, arrogant, antisocial... and most of the other characters just think hes a jerk. Although sometimes he does show a sense of caring and compassion, so hes both a very interesting yet weird character at the same time. He has to walk around with a cane due to a heavy loss of muscle in his right thigh, which causes him a lot of pain... and is a reason why hes an ass to a lot of people. He gets through the pain using a prescription pain killer called Vicodin, however it is a very addictive drug, and is another major subject to the storyline later on. He likes to make a lot of snide comments, especially towards Doctor Cuddy... and the comments in my opinion are both flirtatious and usually insulting at the same time. He is also a very logical kind of person, which causes him to get into arguments with anyone who is religious.

Doctor Lisa Cuddy - She is the administrator of the hospital. Despite being a qualified doctor, she doesn't actually do any medical examinations. She is able to put up with House's behaviour, but at the same time she respects his abilities as a doctor.

Doctor James Wilson - He is House's best friend... and arguably House's only friend. He is an oncologist, and is well-respected in the hospital.

Doctor Eric Foreman - He is a qualified neurologist working under House. Out of the diagnostics team, he is the one who challenges House the most on House's seemingly strange methods, as he is the type of person who does things by the book. He is a very ambitious person, and strives to reach the top.

Doctor Allison Cameron - She is the female member of the diagnostics team. She is a very sincere and emotional person, which has an effect on the kinds of decisions that she makes medically. She is very intelligent, and like the others in the team... shes overqualified to be working as an underling.

Doctor Robert Chase - He is a member of the diagnostics team, who specialises in surgery (which he often performs or assists in performing). He is Australian... which is pretty clear when he speaks. He is seen to be the kind of person who will do anything to protect his job. He is actually quite loyal to House, because he respects House's brilliant medical abilities, but like the others... doesn't think too much of his personality.


Rating - 8/10. Generally I'm the type who likes to watch things with a good storyline, which develops a bit slowly in House... which is why it loses rating for me personally. However, I really enjoy watching it for the medical aspect of the show... as its actually pretty informative, and I've learnt a lot of various diseases and illnesses that I'd never heard of before. It also has great comedy, and I like House's sarcastic and obnoxious behaviour. Plus... Allison Cameron is pretty hot. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone, if you haven't already been following the show already.

Below are pictures of Doctor Remy Hadley (nicknamed Thirteen) and Doctor Allison Cameron. You won't actually see Thirteen until later on... but she's played by Olivia Wilde, who is ridiculously hot. Another reason why I'm mentioning her, is because Megan Fox expressed an interest in Olivia Wilde in an interview... and they're both bisexual, so if they ever got together... I could die a happy man just on the thought of them.

The picture of Dr Cameron doesn't do her justice in my opinion... but I couldn't be bothered spending more time looking for a better one of her as her actual character... but you'll see how nice she looks when you watch the show.

Anime Review: One Piece

One piece is an ongoing manga and anime and is currently one of the longest ones that is still going. Some people are deterred from such long animes/mangas, but personally I think its well worth watching. Worse comes to worse... you'll at least know you always have something readily available to watch.


One piece is a comedy and fighting anime, based around pirates. It has a historical background, which is based on the "Pirate King: Gol D. Roger". Most people just refer to him as Roger... and he was the pirate who found "One Piece", which is a legendary treasure and gave him the status of the Pirate King. He was eventually captured and executed, but upon his death he announced to the world that he had hid it "there" and if anyone wants it they can go get it. After this, he was killed... and the age of pirates began, with many pirates trying to find One Piece. One such pirate is the main character, Monkey D. Luffy, who aspires to become the Pirate King. Thus the anime is based on Luffy's adventures with his pirate crew, which changes over time, and his journey into the Grand Lane, which is deemed to be where One Piece is hidden.


One important aspect of the story are the 'devil fruits', which is obviously something that someone will consume. Each devil fruit will give its user a particular power, depending on which fruit was eaten. Most of the fruits give very powerful abilities, or abilities that will eventually develop into something powerful. The downside of them, is that if the person falls into the ocean, they will lose all of their strength and simply drown... no matter how powerful they normally are.


Another important aspect is the use of bounties, which is a clever way to indicate how powerful people are... and I think its better than stuff like 'battle power' that you would see in Dragonball.


Luffy's pirate crew changes over time with new additions, but the main ones that you see during the early part of the anime are;


Monkey D. Luffy - Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. He has an iconic straw hat, given to him by a pirate named Shanks, when he was just a kid. Shanks had also saved Luffy's life when he was young, and Luffy looks up to him as a role model. When Luffy grew up, he decided he was going to become a pirate and look for One Piece to become the Pirate King. He has eaten the Gomu Gomu devil fruit, which has made him a rubber man. So he is able to stretch his body out, and he can not be harmed by bullets, which just bounce off him. Like many people in the anime, he has a name that most people refer to him as... which is 'Mugiwara', which simply means 'Straw Hat'. He has a very laid back personality, and is very childish at times. He's not a very bright person, although when it comes to fights... hes quite innovative... and when it comes to sentimental times, hes also very thoughtful and compassionate. He is also quite stubborn, and if any of his crew are in danger, he will do anything to save them. He is the most powerful pirate of the Straw Hat Crew.


Roronora Zoro - The second member of the Straw Hat Pirates, and has the nickname of 'Pirate Hunter'. He is a swordsman, who developed his own style called 'Santoryu', which is a style that uses 3 swords (1 in each hand, and 1 in his mouth). Despite not having a devil fruit power, he is extremely strong and skilled with the sword. He aspires to become the strongest swordsman in the world, thus he wants to defeat the current number 1 swordsman called 'Hawkeyes' Mihawk. He has the worst sense of direction imaginable... and always gets lost whenever he has to navigate on his own. He is the second strongest of the Straw Hat Pirate crew.


Nami - The female member of the Straw Hat Pirates and its navigator. She is quite intelligent, and she normally uses her intellect to fight battles, since she is physically quite weak. She later obtains a weapon thanks to Usopp, which allows her to have minor control over weather, thus allowing her to use that to fight on more even grounds. She has a strong lust for money, and she considers it the most important thing in the world. Her dream is to draw a map of the world.


Usopp - He is mostly the comedy relief of the crew. Physically he is as weak as Nami, but he has an arsenal of random stuff that he makes to use in his fights. He likes to boast and claim that hes the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, but when someone powerful comes along.... he will cower in fear. He is however quite gifted at tinkering things, and tends to invent a lot of random little gadgets, for example the weapon that Nami uses. He is also a gifted marksman, which can be seen when he fires a cannon with great precision.


Sanji - He is a passionate and highly skilled cook, but he also is a very strong fighter whose style is based around kicking. He is usually a pretty serious and hard faced character, but whenever a hot young female is nearby... he becomes really giddy and tries hard to flirt and court them. He is also very chivalrous, and will never harm a pretty lady or let them get hurt. His dream is to fine 'All Blue' which is an ocean with every ingredient imaginable, and he wants to cook using those ingredients. He is the 3rd strongest member of the Straw Hats Pirate crew, until maybe later when other people join, as I think its a pretty close call with some of the other people who join.


Chopper - He is the last to join for a pretty long time, but the crew attaining storylines end once they get chopper... and then a lot of the main story arcs begin. He is a reindeer who has eaten a zoan-type devil fruit, which gives him humanoid properties. He is a gifted doctor, and his dream is to be able to cure any illness. He is a bit cowardly like Usopp, however he can fight reasonably when he transforms, although I'd say he's a fair bit weaker than Sanji. Like Luffy, he is quite childish and is easily impressed by everything. He is also very gullible and will believe anything that hes told. Another thing is that he is flattered very easily, which he tries to hide often although he fails at doing so. Also, he has a funny habit where he tries to hide when hes scared... except hes hiding the wrong way, with his body out in the open whilst hes holding onto the wall.




There are also numerous powerful characters that are talked about throughout the anime. Probably the most prominent is a character named Whitebeard, who is known to be the strongest man in the world... with the power to destroy it. Luffy's role model; Shanks, is also a well known pirate, with some kind of special status in the pirate world. In addition, there are the 7 'Shichibukai', which translates to the Seven Warlords of the Sea. You will see more of them later on in the anime.


Rating - 9.5/10. Its one of my favourite animes, and I always look forward to it every week when it comes out. Even the fillers are actually pretty decent, especially compared to fillers of other animes. One thing that might deter people, is that the initial obtaining of the full pirate crew up to Chopper, takes up a lot of episodes... but this is because whenever a character is added... a large number of episodes are dedicated to the character development. I personally think this is fine, as I enjoy learning about a character's background... but I know theres a lot of impatient people out there who don't appreciate this kind of stuff. So I guess it depends... I definitely think people should at least give it a go. If nothing else... its a very humourous anime.

Below is a picture of Nami's future wanted poster. Although you might argue that its a bit of a spoiler... I personally don't think it is. I chose this pic, because its my favourite of Nami's poses, as I think its quite sexy.

Movie and Book Review: Angels and Demons

Back again... was sick last week, so didn't have the energy to write anything here. But during that time I was able to find some time to watch the Angels and Demons movie. I liked the Da Vinci Code book (same main character, and written by Dan Brown), and the movie was ok. So it was interesting to see how Angels and Demons would be converted to a movie.

The Angels and Demons book was a great read. I don't know how accurate the historical stuff that the book mentions is... but it made for a good storyline, and its good to get some background information about various pieces of art. Normally I'm not a fan of these type of things... but various pieces of art sparked some interest in me, so I looked them up to get a better idea of them.

Anyway as for the storyline... the main character is Robert Langdon. He is professor of religious iconography and symbiology, and he teaches at a university. He is contacted by CERN, which is a real organisation based in Switzerland that researches particle physics. A researcher at CERN was murdered and branded with the Illuminati symbol. The Illuminati are an ancient cult, comprising of 'enlightened' beings. They are an anti-Christian secret society... and judging by the branding of the researcher (who was a devout Catholic), are plotting something to bring down the Vatican. They had stolen 'anti-matter', which threatens to cause a massive explosion on the scale of an atomic bomb, which could wipe out Vatican city, and possibly all of Rome. I researched anti-matter after reading the book, and apparently anti-matter can not explode on that scale, especially with such a small specimen. However... it does make for a good storyline, but having said that... I wasn't so sure on the validity of the historical references that the book makes.

The movie for me... was actually quite disappointing. It leaves out important characters, and even the actual storyline deviates greatly to the book. An example is the character known as the 'Hassassin'. As you might guess... hes an assassin (gasp), and he is meant to be of middle eastern origin. He is also very sadistic, and his thirst for killing is only equalled by his lust for women... and he tends to like combining his interests. Anyway, he's one of the most important characters in the book... yet he is completely different in the movie, and has absolutely no character development whatsoever. Another thing which is more for me personally... is that the female lead playing Vittoria Vetra wasn't as good looking as I had imagined... she's too old. The actress is 40 years old... and Vittoria is meant to be in her 20's.

I'd give the book a 8/10 rating, and the movie I'd give 4/10. The movie's rating is mainly bad because I read the book first. If I had watched the movie by itself, then it would be closer to a 7. Personally I'd recommend reading the book first. If you don't watch the movie... you're not really missing out that much, but the book is definitely well worth the read.

TV Show Review: Heroes

New season of heroes started in America about a month or so ago. Its currently up to season 5... so a lot has changed and developed since then... so I'll keep the explanation to mainly season 1.

Heroes has a similar concept to x-men... where certain people have developed a supernatural power. Season 1 is pretty introductory... giving a brief storyline about each of the characters and slowing unfolding different things which end up entwining together to reveal a well written story which all makes sense later on. If anyone watches Lost... the way they develop the story is fairly similar to how they do it in Lost (I plan on talking about Lost on another day as well).

The main plot of the season, is based around a character called Sylar. Sylar is a serial killer with powers, and he is hunting other people who have powers. It is an obvious kill by Sylar, because his victims have their heads cut open, and their brains are missing. At the same time, Peter Petrelli is visited by a time traveller, who warns him that there is going to be a disaster occuring in the future... and that he must 'save the cheerleader.' So another of the main things going on, is the prevention of this future disaster. Another thing occuring is the presence of 'The Company' who are 'bagging and tagging' people with special powers.

The main characters and their special powers are;

Peter Petrelli - Arguably will be the most powerful person next to Sylar. The show doesn't really give him a special name for his ability, but I would call it 'power mimicry'. Basically when he is in close proximity of another person who has a power, his body will automatically copy that power and allow him to use it. So Peter will acquire powers off basically everyone in the series. The powers that are most prominently used include; flight, time manipulation/teleportation, regeneration, telepathy/mind manipulation, invisibility, precognition through art, telekinesis, and a few others that he gains throughout the series. Imagine if you had all of these powers... practically invincible. Peter is a very empathic person. He has a very pure soul, and can be seen by his desire to help and save people.

Sylar - As previously stated, he is the main villain, and a serial killer. There are a couple of episodes dedicated to Sylar's past, so I won't go into too much detail about him. The actual nature of his powers is discussed in season 2, so I'll keep it brief and describe what you'll see in season 1. Similar to Peter, his power allows him to acquire other powers. The main powers that he uses are; telekinesis, photographic memory, precognition through art, enhanced hearing, and a power that allows him to cut... not sure what its called, but he uses it to cut open heads.

Claire Bennet - A young schoolgirl. She has the power of regeneration, so she is virtually unkillable. She is part of the cheerleader squad at her school.

Nathan Petrelli - Older brother to Peter. He is an ambitious politician following in the footsteps of his late father. He has the power of flight, but he denies his ability because of what it did to him in the past.

Matt Parkman - He is an aspiring detective. He has the power of telepathy. He has problems with his marriage, because he found out that his wife was having affair... and only because of his telepathic ability.

Hiro Nakamura - Everyone's favourite character... he is the comic relief for the show. He has the power of time manipulation and teleportation... which he uses to go back and forward in time, and to generally get around. He is very childish and quite geeky. He believes himself to be a superhero, and his child-like attitude causes him to be very immature about it and he aspires to save the world.


There are actually a huge amount of characters, but these are the main ones that you'll be following... and I didn't wanna have to list too many of them.

Rating - I'll give the first season 10/10, as it was the best season out of all the ones that are out right now, and it was just fantastic. The rest of the seasons i'd give 9/10, because they weren't as good as the first season... but still great to watch. The show is suitable for all audiences, and I'd recommend checking it out if you haven't already been a fan of it all along.

Anime Review: Blood+

Blood+ is a dark kind of anime. Pretty serious atmosphere based of creatures called 'Chiropterans'. Chiropterans are monsters who feed off human blood. They are exceptionally strong, fast and have high speed regeneration. They can transform various body parts to do things like fly or extending limbs for attack. High level chiropterans can disguise themselves as humans.

Chiropterans are created from the blood of Queens. However if one Queen's chiropterans have another Queen's blood injected into their blood stream, it will cause them to crystalize and die. There are always 2 Queens at any given point of time, and they are female twins born from 1 of the previous Queens. Queens are only awake for 3 years at a time, and then they hibernate for 10 years.

Then there are the 'Chevaliers' who are the second strongest chiropterans after the 2 Queens. They are created when a human drinks the blood of a Queen. Chevaliers have a strong bond towards their Queen. They also retain a human appearance, unless they transform a body part into a chiropteran limb to fight with. Like normal chiropterans, they will die by the blood of the opposing Queen. But they can also die by being beheaded, or through burning the whole body. They don't age, and from what I can remember... are essentially immortal unless killed by one of the ways previously stated. A Queen can only be impregnated by a chevalier of the other Queen... and during pregnancy, her blood will no longer be dangerous.

So the story is based off these creatures living amongst humans. The main characters are;

Saya Otonashi - She is the primary character, and one of the Queens. She was adopted into a family, although she suffers from amnesia. She fights with a katana, and one of the main aspects of the plot is the recovery of her memory, which explains her past and what chiropterans are. (I've explained enough to give you an idea... theres more involved with them... so its not spoiled)

Hagi - Saya's Chevalier. He plays a cello, which he carries around and he uses it as a shield in combat.

Kai Miyagusuku - He is the son of Saya's adoptive father, hence he is Saya's brother by adoption. When his father was killed, he swore to protect Saya, since he is her older brother.

Riku Miyagusuku - He is the younger brother of Kai and Saya. He is very kind and gentle.

David - He is a very serious and cold character. He was Saya's father's friend, and he takes care of Kai and Riku. He is trying to get rid of chiropterans.


I kept a lot of the details of the characters brief, as a lot of it is important to the actual storyline... so I've only really spoiled stuff that you will see in the first episode.

Rating - 8/10. It has a good storyline, good fighting scenes and is well drawn. The humour in it is limited, but its meant to be more of a dark kind of story anyway, so its to be expected. I recommend it for people who like dark fantasy type of storylines.

Below is a picture of Saki when she awakens from hibernation... She actually has short hair in the present time of the anime, but she had long hair back then... and I think she looks much cuter with long hair. If you're wondering what shes doing in that picture... she's kind of kneeling on the ground, whilst grabbing the jacket/shirt (I forgot) of someone (I'll leave the details of that for you to see in the actual anime).

News Watch: Another bizarre story

I was gonna continue with reviews today... but this caught my eye and I wanted to share it:

http://tinyurl.com/yhm9z6r

Not being a girl myself... I could be wrong about this... but to my understanding, I think a lot of girls are inspired by fairy tales and imagine themselves being saved by their prince charming, who they fall in love with and live happily ever after.

This girl may have had that fantasy... and it actually happened for her... almost. At the age of 11, she was saved from bullies in a playground by a 19 year old guy. She must've fallen for him, because she asked him out for their first date... then she became pregnant a week later and married him 9 months later. She then gave birth to her baby on the day of her wedding.

The guy thought that she was 15... I dunno how you can mistake a 11 year old for a 15 year old... so for his sake, I'd hope that she's pretty developed for her age to make that believable. The girl had not received any sex education yet, and I think its actually a good idea to start sex education at year 6, which would be roughly around her age... whether its at school, or through parents. Obviously you don't want your kids to be fooling around with sex at that age, so its good that they're aware of what it is... and you can teach them to wait until they're a certain age before they go for it... or at the very least, teach them about contraception in case they do decide they want to do the deed. Personally I had my first sex education classes in year 6, and my class was fine with it... wasn't a big deal.

Even still... its surprising that the guy didn't use a condom... being 19 years old, he should know better. This is the problem many young people face these days... if nothing else, I do hope that all these news about young pregnancies and health risks finally start to open some eyes. In the end we're all responsible for our own actions... as much as teachers and parents try to prevent these things.

The guy has to go to jail for 6 years... which is not really that bad considering its a pretty hefty crime. I guess they took into account that it was a consensual act, and its important that the baby grows up with her mother and father. I think it would've been better if he was able to get out earlier... at least before the kid starts school.

The girls grandmother also had her first child when she was 13... and apparently its not uncommon in their country... in fact its kind of a tradition to get pregnant young (weird tradition). To be honest, I'm not all that surprised at these young pregnancies... I'm more surprised that the older person involved in some of these pregnancies aren't more careful. Its not hard to use a rubber... and its a hell of a lot cheaper than having an unplanned baby, especially at that age.

Anyway enough of this rant... should be back to reviewing tomorrow if I'm not too busy

News Watch: Teenagers getting worse and worse...

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ylfp72t

I was quite disgusted to hear of the behaviour that took place. Not only was this poor 15 year old girl raped... but in an earlier article regarding this incident... it said that onlookers were laughing and joining in. The world is a seriously screwed up place when shit like this is happening.

In the article the 'bystander' said he did not participate in attack, but when asked why didn't he try to stop it... he says he feared he would get his ass kicked. Well perhaps he should have used his brains and left the scene and then called the police.

Now this is why you shouldn't binge drink, let alone binge drink when you're underage. If nothing else... let this be a lesson to any young girls who have read the story. Don't participate in underage drinking, especially with random guys that you have never met. If you are going to a party where there is alcohol involved, make sure you go with a large group of friends that will watch out for each other (cause we'd be fools to assume that all teenagers will behave themselves and not be tempted to drink alcohol before they're 18).

While we're on this subject, I'd like to also talk about this article: http://tinyurl.com/yhkamhd

This is relating to yet another case of gang-rape (seems like a lot of rape related crimes are flooding the news this week). One of the teens involved suffered from some retribution from the general public. In particular, I wanted to talk about this paragraph in the article:

"What goes around comes around," screamed one woman. "You filthy maggot," screamed another man who pursued Cantwell down the pavement, verbally abusing him all the way. Another screamed: "You f---ing parasite."

So essentially the mob beat up this teenager charged with gang-rape, whilst yelling this sort of stuff. Now I can understand that some people feel that they should take matters into their own hands, because the law is so slow at persecuting criminals. To an extent, I can understand and agree with this view. If you take a look at the news of various cases like kidnap, rape, murder, arson, etc... it usually takes at least a couple of years before the offender is charged and sentenced. Thats a pretty damn long time for the victims and their family + friends to wait till the offender has to do their time... and in a lot of cases, spending time in jail can not really compare to what some people have had to suffer when the offender committed the crime.

Take for instance the girl in the previous article who got raped at her homecoming dance. If you were a young girl, and you got raped by X number of guys, at 1 of the most important nights of your high school life... would you find it fair that the guys simply go to jail for that? Not only would the rape be traumatic, but the aftermath would be terrible for her as well. She would have trust issues with males, she'd be humiliated and have a hard time at school, and she could just become mentally damaged... the after-effects usually vary depending on the severity of the situation and on the individual... but pretty safe to assume that the consequences of this would be devastating.

So on that note, I can understand that some people feel the need to take the law into their own hands... however vengeance never solves anything... it tends to just extend to more people wanting to take revenge on some matter, which just becomes a continuous and vicious cycle. So finally, yes the law sucks in dealing with matters in a timely fashion, but let the law enforcers do their job. Its unfortunate that jail is really the only severe punishment available... anything further than that would be considered inhumane... but thats another topic for another time.

Final words of wisdom from South Park's Mr Mackey, "Drugs are bad...mmmkay"

Movie Review: Star Trek The Motion Picture

This is the latest Star Trek movie, released in 2009. Traditionally, Star Trek fans are referred to as 'trekkies', and are commonly seen as nerds... much like the characters from the Big Bang Theory (which I recently covered). However, this movie is anything but nerdy... in fact its probably the best movie I've seen since the first Transformers movie. I had watched it in the cinemas when it first came out, but I watched it again last night, so I thought I'd take the chance to talk about it while its still fresh in my mind.

This movie shows briefly the past of the two main characters; James Kirk and Spock. It begins back when James was going to be conceived aboard the USS Kelvin, where his father served and his mother was in the medical bay. A gigantic warship appears out of nowhere and begins attacking the ship. The ship hails the USS Kelvin and requests the presence of the captain for negotiations. The captain takes a shuttle to the ship and leaves James' father; George Kirk, in command of the ship. The captain is killed aboard the ship, and the enemy then orders an all out attack on the USS Kelvin. The newly promoted Captain George Kirk then has the ship evacuated, including Kirk's mother, who proceeds to give birth to James whilst on the shuttle. George sacrifices himself to buy time for the shuttles to escape. From there the movie shows James' rebellious nature as a kid, which then progresses to adulthood. At the same time, the movie shows Spock's childhood difficulties being half-human, half-vulcan, being raised in a Vulcan society.

The movie is then based on James' first journey aboard the USS Enterprise, with the characters from previous Star Trek movies. I recognised some of the names from having watched The Big Bang Theory, so it was nice to put a face to the names that they mention.

The main characters are;

James T. Kirk - the son of a hero who saved many lives. He grows up to be rebellious and a womaniser... yet also a genius. He joins Starfleet with the intention of becoming a captain within 3 years.

Commander Spock - half-human, half-vulcan. He grew up suffering from discrimination for his half-human heritage, yet he excelled at his education and was considered a genius. He joins Starfleet and rises to the rank of commander aboard the USS Enterprise, alongside Captain Pike.

Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy - he meets James Kirk when they first joined Starfleet and they become good friends at the academy. He is a senior medical practitioner on the USS Enterprise.

Nyota Uhura - she is the communications officer of the USS Enterprise. She was previously a student of Spock whilst at the academy. It is clear there is a connection between them when she fights so hard to get him to change her assignment to the USS Enterprise, and he was uneasy because he felt it might have been seen as favouritism.

Hikaru Sulu - the helmsman of the USS Enterprise.

Pavel Chekov - he is the comic relief character (or at least for me, although Sulu has a lot of funny moments too), with his Russian accent causing him to make some words sound funnier... especially since he makes the intercom announcements throughout the ship. He is however very gifted at mathematics, which makes him very useful in various scenarios of the movie.

Captain Nero - the leader of the mysterious gigantic ship that you see at the beginning

Captain Pike- captain of the USS Enterprise. He was the one who convinced James Kirk to follow in the footsteps of his father. He had also previously served on the USS Kelvin, and feels that he owes his life to James' father.


Rating - 10/10. It would generally be pretty rare for me to give out a rating of 10, however I feel Star Trek is very deserving of it. It was a great adaptation of Star Trek, and I think it will help increase Star Trek's popularity. It has a nice combination of special effects, space fights, fight scenes in general, some romance, and good humour. I'd recommend it to everyone.

TV Show Review: True Blood

Fairly new series for you die-hard vampire fans (good job Twilight...). Currently season 1 is complete, and season 2 is starting. In this storyline, people are aware of the existence of vampires, and are trying to co-exist with each other. A product called 'Trublood' was made as an artificial replacement for blood, so that vampires did not need to feed off humans... thus the first step in co-existence. The problem is that many vampires dislike the taste of Trublood, describing it as too metallic. Thus there is tension within the vampire community between those who wish to co-exist, and those who do not.

The main story is set in a fictional town called Bon Temps. It is a small country town, thus the characters have very heavy accents... which can be annoying if you dislike that kind of accent. There are some graphic nudity and sex scenes, so keep it away from the kids.

The main characters are;

Sookie Stackhouse: the primary character. She is a waitress at the local restaurant. She has telepathic abilities... which is not an unknown factor amongst her friends and family. However, due to this ability... it makes it hard for her to be in a long lasting relationship... until she meets Bill, whose thoughts she can not read (to the Twilight readers: sound familiar?). For those who are interested, she is played by Anna Paquin, who plays Rogue in the X-Men movies.

Jason Stackhouse: older brother of Sookie. He is a suspect to multiple murders at the beginning of the series, because he was involved with the women who were killed. He works as a road crew supervisor, and is also known as a bit of a womaniser. He becomes addicted to 'V', which is pure vampire blood. Vampire blood is kind of like a drug, in that it is very addictive and causes people to become high, and also increases their sexual libido.

Bill Compton: a vampire who falls in love with Sookie. Not much more to say to him, as his past is kind of important to the storyline, so watch and see!

Sam Merlotte: a suspicious character for most of season 1, which you will find out more about later. He owns the restaurant that Sookie works at. It is clear that he is in love with Sookie, and he disapprove of Sookie's relationship with Bill.

Tara Thornton: Sookie's best friend, and is also a bartender at the same restaurant. She has difficulty trusting people, due to an abusive upraising (her mother is an alcoholic). She is however a strong and independent person, whos not afraid to speak her mind.

Lafayette Reynolds: cousin of Tara. He's probably my favourite character, because he has an interesting personality and is generally the comedy relief of the show in a lot of cases. He is openly gay, and quite flamboyant. He works as a chef at Sam's restaurant, a drug dealer, a member of Jason's road crew, and as a gay prostitute.

Rating: 7/10. Above average show. The mystery plot (the murders of various people) was quite good. Wasn't too impressed that Sookie and Bill so closely resemble Edward and Bella from Twilight. But still a pretty reasonable series, and I'm looking forward to watching season 2. The nudity and sex were a nice bonus as well =P

Below is a picture of Sookie Stackhouse.

Anime Review: Yakitate!! Japan

This anime was broadcast a few years ago now, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. The title translates to "Freshly Baked Bread!! Ja-pan" where the 'pan' means bread in Japanese. "Ja-pan" is significant, because the main character; Azuma, is trying to make a national bread for Japan. Since pan means bread, he calls the breads he makes "Ja-pan", so its a bit of a pun.

The plot is quite unique, and is a good way of seeing how animes can turn random things into something very interesting. As I said before, the storyline is based off Azuma's quest to make the perfect bread for Japan. In doing so, he leaves his hometown to join the bread company 'Pantasia'. The anime goes through various competitions that Azuma and his friends enter, against opponents who get better and better. The highlight for me, is when it comes to the bread tasting. When the various judges taste the bread, they tend to exaggerate how the bread makes them feel. For example, if the bread makes the judge feel like hes in heaven, there will be a short cutscene where hes imagining himself in heaven and stuff like that.

The main characters of the anime are:

Kazuma Azuma - as stated, he dreams of making the perfect bread. He is extremely gifted at bread baking, which is reinforced by his 'solar hands' which helps ferments the yeast in the bread faster and better than by normal hands.

Kyousuke Kawachi - he becomes kind of like a sidekick to Azuma, and the anime's major comedy relief. He is often made fun of for various reasons, but hes also reasonably gifted at bread baking as well.

Kai Suwabara - hes the 'serious' character. He is a master swordsman, but he gave up the way of the sword to bake bread (sounds a bit random doesnt it?). His swordsman past carries over to bread baking, which causes him to become a very serious and fanatical kind of character.

Shigeru Kanmuri - he is a very intelligent person, and also possesses solar hands like Azuma. In terms of bread baking, hes probably second to Azuma... although quite close in talent. He is the character that usually explains all of the strange things Azuma comes up with.

Tsukino Azusagawa - she is the female lead of the anima, and is the granddaughter of the owner of Pantasia. She also manages the store that employs Azuma and his friends. It is implied throughout the anime that she has a crush on Azuma, but its never confirmed.

Ken Matsushiro - a large burly man with an affro. He becomes a kind of mentor to Azuma and Kawachi, and helps manage the store with Tsukino. He is talented in food critic, and like Kanmuri... he tends to be another character who explains all of the strange and complex things that occur, particularly with Azuma's innovative ideas.

Ryou Kuroyanagi - he is the head of the main Pantasia branch, and the examiner for Azuma's entrance exam. He later becomes a food critic and judges many of the events. He goes to extremes to give his judgments on bread that he tastes, and tends to use puns to describe many of the breads.

Rating: 8.5/10, good comedy and suitable for all audiences. If you're looking for blood and gore, you'll need to look elsewhere... but if you enjoy something different with a good style of comedy, then check this one out.

I'll leave you with some fan-service of Tsukino. The picture is coloured by a fan, but it was done pretty well.

Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I didn't get to see Wolverine when it first came out in the movies, which is a shame... because I would have liked to watch it on the big screen. However I did recently get to watch it. It is a good movie based off the history of Wolverine. It's not exactly accurate to the comic storyline, but it covered all the important points.

In this movie, Wolverine is the half-brother of Sabretooth... which to my understanding is not accurate in the actual comic storyline, but its fine either way. It begins at their childhood, where Wolverine just discovered that he had mutant powers. At this stage, his claws were still bone. It then fast forwards to when Wolverine and Sabretooth are recruited into Team X. There are other members of the team who are actually mutants from the marvel storyline, although their hero names are never actually mentioned... only their real names are mentioned (apart from Agent Zero). For those die-hards of the comic, the mutants are; Maverick (Agent Zero), Deadpool (Wade Wilson), Kestrel (John Wraith), The Blob (Fred Dukes) and Bolt (Chris Bradley). Other mutants that make appearances in the movie include; Gambit, Cyclops and Professor X.

The movie also covers Wolverine's love story with Silverfox (Kayla), except for a couple of things... but I better not say so that nothing is spoiled. Then of course, it shows the most important moment in Wolverine's history; when he got the adamantium skeleton.

I hope that X-Men Origins becomes a starting point for future movies based off other characters. It would be good if they made movies on a lot of the more popular characters. I'd particularly look forward to seeing a movie based off Magneto, who is my favourite mutant in the X-Men storyline.

Rating: 9/10. Good action, and a nice adaptation of the history of one of the more interesting characters in the marvel universe. If you are a marvel fan, you should definitely check it out if you haven't already... if you are not a marvel fan, you will still enjoy the movie.

I'm not dead

I haven't posted for quite a while... I was in Melbourne for a few days, and then I got sick when I came back, hence the lack of posts.

I have plenty of movies, anime and tv shows that I'd like to share my opinion about... both new and old ones, so keep watching this space for those, which will start again next week.

News Watch: Change your Hotmail Passwords

So apparently many email details were published on a site, and you can read the article here: http://tinyurl.com/y8sd2n5

This makes me very sad... as I've never had any problems with hotmail since I first started an account back in like 1999 or something. I've had the same 4 letter password for all of these years, and I've finally had to ditch it for a longer password, since you can't have 4 letter passwords anymore.

Even though apparently only accounts starting with a and b were leaked, it is advised that everyone who has a hotmail account change their password just in case. I've been logging into my account just fine and I have not seen any signs of hacking, but its better to be safe than sorry... so I'd recommend that everyone change their passwords.

Anime Review: Saki

Saki is an anime based on mahjong. The setting is of Japan, except that mahjong has become a national sport that is closely followed in the media. The plot is based on the girls mahjong competition for high school, and each school battles it out to represent their region in the national tournament for both the team tournament and the individual tournament. If you have no clue on the rules of mahjong, you might be lost while watching this anime... so I'll explain briefly what the basis of the rules are.

In the anime they have automatic shuffling tables, which you can get in real life... but they're not too common since they obviously cost more than ordinary tables. You shuffle the tiles and then make 4 lines of tiles and stack another line on top of that (since theres 4 players, each person stacks their own). In the anime, the automatic shuffling tables will obviously do this for the players. Players sit based on a particular direction, so you will see that each player will pick from 4 random tiles, which are the wind directions... and you sit according to that. The east player will then roll, and this determines where you start grabbing your tiles. I won't go into further detail about how you actually do it, cos its not very important unless you actually intend to play... and if you do play with someone, they will know the rules on how to determine that (hopefully).

So once everyone has drawn their tiles, the person who threw the dice should start with 14 tiles, and every other person has 13. Once you are at that point, the person who threw the dice will throw out a tile to begin the game. Now the aim of the game is to collect sets of 3 tiles, which can be either triples of a tile, or a consecutive straight with 3 tiles of the same suit. There are 3 suits; bamboo, money and circles. There are 3 'honour' tiles (some translations can be different); red honor, green honor, and blank... and theres the 4 'wind' tiles; east, south, west, north. You get extra points for getting a triple of the honor tiles, your own wind (based on where u're sitting) and the prevailing wind. The prevailing wind is what the round is at. The anime explains it quite early on, but basically there are 4 rounds... starting with east, then south, then west, then finally north.

So to win the game, you must have 14 tiles in total which includes 4 sets of at least 3, and a pair. The harder your hand is to obtain, essentially the more points you will get, and because of this... there are some special hands which give you max points since they are so rare. I won't go into detail on these, as there are quite a few... you can check wikipedia for them.

Each of the combinations have special names. They have different names for different rules of the game (theres rules for China, Malaysia, HK, Japan, Taiwan, etc), but I'll just use the Japanese names since thats more relevant for the anime. A triple of a tile is called "pon", a straight is a "chi" and a quad of a tile is called "kan". If you reveal a kan, you draw a a tile from the rear of the stack (I'll explain it more a bit later).

Now for the actual playing of the game... once the person who threw the dice chucks his/her tile out to begin the game, any player may declare "pon" if that tile that was just chucked allows that player to make a pon. Similarly this can also be done for a kan. Only the person directly after that player who chucked the tile may declare a "chi" to make up their straight. If no one wants the tile, the next player will draw from the stack in the middle, and then throw out a tile. If someone declares a combination and takes a tile, they must then throw out a tile to ensure they have a total of 13 tiles including the revealed combinations ( you should only have 14 when you win, unless u had kans). So this continues until either someone wins, or the stack empties... which would cause a draw. When someone throws out your winning tile, you declare "ron", and that player will lose points based on your hand, and you gain those points. If you draw the tile yourself, you declare "tsumo" and all players have to pay the points, and you gain them all.

Believe it or not... thats is a really basic outline of the game... you'd probably need to actually play the game to learn more about it (and I don't feel like writing a massive essay about how to play the game).

So on to the storyline...

The main characters of the story are the girls from Kiyosumi high school's mahjong club. It is the first time they that had 5 people in the club, so they enter the prefectural qualifiers in the hopes of winning the invite to the national tournament. There are 3 other main schools, so theres actually a lot of characters... but I'll mainly just talk about the main ones. Before I go any further, it should be noted that the way the games are played out in the anime are not that realistic.... but then it would be boring if they were too realistic. To add to this, there are many characters who have special abilities which give them certain edges in different situations. With that in mind, these are the main characters:

Saki Miyanaga - As can be seen by the name of the anime... the anime is primarily based off her. She is a first year student. She use to play mahjong a lot with her family, although she never enjoyed it because her family would get angry when she won. She subconsciously developed a method of playing such that she would always get a score of "plus minus zero" which means she neither won nor lost. Eventually the mahjong club gets her to snap out of that mentality, and she reveals herself to be ridiculously good at the game. She has a special ability of... pretty much just luck. She commonly wins by a hand called "rinshan kaihou" which means you win by drawing a tile from a kan. She is the captain of the team and plays the 5th match.

Nodoka Haramura - A first year student, who was the national champion of the middle school tournament last year. She is known to be the best online player under the alias "nodocchi". Her special ability is to be able to view a mahjong game as if she were online, thus being immune to people who have special abilities in manipulating their presence. There is what I would call 'borderline yuri (girl love)' between her and Saki... and I must note that she has unrealistically large boobs for a 1st year high school student (equivalent of year 10 in Sydney high schools). She is the vice-captain of the team and plays in the 4th match

Hisa Takei - She is a 3rd year student and the president of the mahjong club. She is very intuitive and always calm. Her play style is that she will 'wait for bad odds' which means that instead of making her hand such that she could win off multiple tiles (e.g. if your final combination to be made is a straight and you have 4 and 5... you require either 3 or 6 to finish the combination, as opposed to waiting for a 5 when you have a pair of 5's), instead she will wait for a tile that has the least chance of showing up. She plays the 3rd match for the team.

Mako Someya - She is a 2nd year student. Her family owns a mahjong parlour, so she has grown up watching and playing there. She has a special ability to recall the hundreds of games she has played in the past and find the games where the game state is either the same or relatively close to what she has seen in the past, and play based on that. She plays the 2nd match for the team.

Yuuki Kataoka - She is a 1st year student, and knows Nodoka from middle school... having played in the team tournament together (although unsuccessful). She is obsessed with tacos, and they're basically her fuel when she plays mahjong. She specialises in dominating the east round, but as the game goes on longer, she will lose her concentration and make more mistakes. For this reason, she plays the 1st match for the team.

Kyotaro Suga - A male 1st year. He is a friend of Saki, and was the one responsible for getting Saki to first play with the mahjong club. He is the comic relief of the anime, and normally seen buying and carrying mountain loads of food for the team (especially for Yuuki). He has a crush on Nodoka and another girl from another school... who he tends to daydream about.

I rate this anime as 9.5/10, but thats because I love mahjong so much. I think the more you're into mahjong, the more you'll enjoy this anime... its also a good starting point if you've always wanted to get into the game.

My favourite character is Touka Ryumonbuchi, who is the stereotypical rich girl of animes. She has the 'evil rich girl' laugh that is quite common across other animes. Unfortunately I can't find a good picture of her, so I'll settle with a picture of Nodoka (left) and Saki (right) for you all.

Phew that was a long review... I guess that makes up for the days that I missed posting something on my blog =P

Aion gives you wings

You get wings once you ascend to your 2nd class at lvl 10. Unfortunately you can only fly for a limited amount of time, but at least you can use an emote that lets you spread the wings while on the ground... although this is mainly for looks =P I only have the base wings so far... probably need to be higher lvl to find other ones, although I still like the asmodian wings better. You get more flight time as you lvl up, and from item bonuses... I've only got about 1 min of flight time, which isn't much... but if you know how to glide properly, it can save you a fair bit of travel time. I prefer the WoW travel system with mounts, and I wish the wings was more similar to how flying mounts in WoW was. I find that the travel time is far too much atm... especially cos u can't use the wings in all areas. Particularly for the first main city, which would be the equivalent of Ironforge or Orgrimmar... the city itself is quite massive and you have to walk around instead of having a mount or something, which is an absolute pain. The only good thing is theres a teleport stone to get from 1 end to the other... but u have to pay a bit of money for it, which seems a bit random. So atm I'm trying to get used to it still, cos its all about time efficiency while lvling.

The quest system is a bit different too. There are the normal optional quests that you can pick up from various NPCs, and then theres the campaign quests which you have to do. The problem I have with it is that once you get to the stage where I'm at (which is lvl 18), the campaign quests are group quests... and its impossible to solo them. In WoW I always found group quests to be a major pain and I usually skipped them unless I knew friends were up to it as well. I don't like group quests because then I have to waste time finding a group to do the quest... and a lot of the time I find terrible pugs (gamer term for randoms... stands for 'pick up group' with the s being plural), which is bad because I will use up time to do the quest and sometimes not even complete it. For instance... for 1 of the quest chains that I did with a random group, we got to pretty much the end of it, and then 1 of them had to 'afk for 20 mins' so there was only 3 of us left, and then our tank randomly aggroed 2 elite mobs... which caused him to take far too much damage and I couldn't outheal it. If our afk guy was still there, he could've used his sleep skill to disable 1 of the mobs, so that our tank would take less damage. Alas... it wasn't to be, and I wasted all that time without finishing the quest to get the massive exp reward. So now I'm waiting for a couple of friends to get up to the quest and we'll do it together...

Anyway in the meantime, I've been lvling an alt that will be a Gladiator soon (equivalent of a fury/arms warrior in WoW) and apparently they're meant to be mad for lvling, so I'll see how that goes. Below is a picture of what the my wings look like atm.

TV Review: The Big Bang Theory

Been doing a lot of anime reviews, so gonna mix it up a bit with some TV shows that I follow or have followed in the past.

The Big Bang Theory began in 2007 and there are currently 2 complete seasons, and the 3rd season just began. It is a sitcom based on a group of 4 nerd friends who befriend a pretty blonde girl who just moved in next door to 2 of them. Each person has a pretty unique stereotype to their character. Just a brief outline of each character;

Leonard Hofstadter: He would be described as more of an 'ordinary nerd' for lack of a better term. He has a PH.D and an IQ of 173 and is working as an experimental physicist. He lives in an apartment with his colleague and friend, Sheldon Cooper. Although Leonard is very intelligent, Sheldon often undermines Leonard, especially when it comes to work and solving equations. Leonard is infatuated with his neighbour Penny, when she moves in, and forms the basis of an ongoing storyline between the 2.

Sheldon Cooper: A child prodigy who attended college when he was 11 after completing the 5th grade. He has a master's degree and 2 PH.D's, and has an IQ of 187. He works as a theoretical physicist. He is very uptight about everything (and I mean everything). He is also very arrogant, has a very strict routine, and lacks the understanding of irony, sarcasm and humour.

Howard Wolowitz: He would be described as a 'try hard', and it is very common for him to make suggestive comments to any girl he sees. He is quite full of himself, in that he thinks he is a stud, which is what a lot of the jokes are aimed at when Wolowitz is involved. He has a master's in engineering and usually works on space related projects.

Rajesh Koothrappali: Probably my most favourite character next to Sheldon. He is of Indian descent and works as a particle astrophysicist. He is unable to communicate properly with women and tends to go mute when around them, unless he is drunk. He is even unable to talk when Penny is around, despite her hanging out with them very often. In some episodes he brings a laptop which he communicates to his parents who are in India.

Penny: She works as a waitress at the cheesecake factory, but aspires to become an actress although unsuccessful. She is what you would call the "normal" character, in that shes the only character who isnt a "nerd".

This is a good comedy for all audiences. There are some references which may be hard for people to understand if they have no clue about the subject matter. For instance, they often make references to Star Trek, and I didn't know what they were talking about until I watched the new Star Trek movie (which was incidently really good). I would give the show a 9/10 rating.