Something Cheerful For A Change!

Greetings Citezens of Blogworld!!

Haha I've always wanted to say that, don't know why I never have.

Well, today is Saturday December the 18th. And on Monday will be my first official day of Holiday Break. Wew to the T XD

Upsettingly the week right before the break was SO SHITTY D<
It was horrible, everybody was being a total cow to me, like what the hell?

But tomorrow should be a much better day. Tomorrow I get to see some people I only see only in the summer so I'm SUPER excited!!

In case I can't get only again for a while until after Christmas,

Have a happy Holidays to all,
Love, Hugs and well wishes,
Tomo <3

It's Like The World is Looping!!

The reason for this post is because I like to talk a lot, and I like to talk about hopefully interesting things.

What I mean by the world is 'looping', well, life right now, for me, is the exact same. Day-in and day-out all I do is wake up, get ready for school, spend day at school, argue with friend over bus ride home, take bus home, get home, yelled at by sister, get on the computer to do homework.

That is my day.

Every single day.

How much more BORING can this get?!!! I mean come on, if I was in an office job by now I would have snapped. At least at school you get the added bonus of somebody possiblye getting high before hand and disturbing the class so much nobody learns. Which doesn't happen often.

I so badly want to get involved with some kind of after-school or weekend sports thing but let's face it. I'm not the most athletic and I can't afford it right now.

*sighs*

Well, tonight I was supposed to go out to a movie with my family. Some movie called "The King's Speech" that my sister's teacher recommended. Well, as boring as it sounds it would get me out of the damn house.

SO I joked with my sister, said I had a ton of homework and that it would take me an hour. Joked with her!!! So the movie-going in canceled, and instead I have to sit and bear through some free Networks Trial. Apparently you use it through your XBox? Uh... No... If my XBox dies, I will cry my eyes out because I just got it. T.T

Off to continue this boring loop,
Tomo.

An Annoying Rant On Rude People

~Post Has Been Removed By Owner~

Popcorn and Assassins

I don't know what to post about- but hey at least I'm blogging!!!

Agh, lol, what a day.

Today I summoned up the courage to eat some Popcorn!! And guess what; I'm allergic to popcorn. I feel disgusting, the popcorn is finally settling and... >.<

I'm going to hire somebody to dog me around and make sure I don't eat popcorn or anything else I am allergic too.

I mean some on, self, you need to straighten up!!

My stomach just growled angrily at me. It actually sounded like a dog... O.o

And it cramped too *winces*

You know when you eat a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner and you have to lay down somewere to let it all settle??

Times that feeling by ten.

And then add cramps.

If I have huge amounts of popcorn... *AHEM*

Oh another note I am horrendously addicted to Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

The plot line, the graphics, the characters, controls, mini-games, soundtrack, humour, addiotional- it's all bloody AMAZING!!!

I love it- I just absolutely absolutely LOVE Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

My favourite thing about AC2 is that you get to grow into the art of the Creed with the character. In AC1 you begin as a character that has been bred and trained to kill since birth. Altair and Ezio are both very different.

Well... Alti acts like he's got a stick up his wazoo while Ezio just cruses around the Villa scoping the crows for a woman to court...

*wishes to one day have her own Ezio Auditore*

That man is like God to me....

I don't care if he's a graphic D<

Following the Creed,
Tomo <3

Stalking the First-Years

Haha, I'll admit it!

I've been hunting around on the first and second-year CyberARTist's blogs and these kids are all so cute!! XD

I've found one kid though who has really quite impressed me with their work, so I might end up hunting them down and making friends... :)

BUT these guys have to remember to put a filter on the computer for spam. If you aren't able to choose to Accept or Deny any comments, you're more than likely to get cruddy spam.

Ah.... I'm such a Blogger nerd... -_-;

Update/ Recent Events

Well lately I've been really ill and I'm just not enjoying it.

I've been sick with a flu or cold (they alternate which is just SOoooo funny T.T) since September, first of all, and I'm just tired of it. All day long I'm sniffling or so tired my eyelids are too heavy to hold up and I actually fall out of my chair at school; asleep.

Recently I've been drasticly in-bed-and-not-going-to-move sick. EVERYTHING aches >.<

My head and lower abdomen especially, and I think it's because of the upcoming Winter storms. Usually my body starts to ache when a huge rain or snow storm is coming. Or a wind storm, haha, but any kind of storm puts me in massive amounts of pain...

On a happier note, Assassin's Creed; Brotherhood came out today. I was so joyfully excited but the special treat was that I got my pre-ordered package yesterday. It's just..... Oh my geezus, it's EPIC!!!

Seriously though, you'll have need to have played Assassin's Creed 2, AT LEAST before you play brotherhood. Otherwise you're going to be a confused little Nutcracker XD

Anyway, I'm off to bed because I need sleep and it's 11:40 pm.

Merry part and merry meet again,
Tomo <3

Latest Photography

Hello all!
Wow.... It's been a seriously long time since I've blogged to you!
I'm so sorry, my devoted readers!!

This year brings Grade 11! And with Grade 11 brings school work, stress, new and old friends, and when those friends start stuff with each other, I got pulled into the middle were I didn't need to be.

So now I've better, less stressed and pretty darn happy.

Anyway, this week is Halloween and I have a few special images to show you; from my photography class!!
I hope you enjoy these images, and if you've been with me since the beginning, hopefully you will notice a big change.
(Images taken with a Cannon DSLR)

Moments

Current Reading:
Black Prism by Brent Weeks
Assassin's Creed; Rennisance By Oliver Brown
Kuroshitsuji (Graphic Novel) by Yana Toboso
Another Faust by Unknown Authour


Current Music: Tsuki no Ame

Mood: Feeling prety ill. Is there a flu going around?

Smell: Roast? I dont know, I smell dinner.

Sound: My Music andclick-clacking keys of the keyboard

Temperature: Cold cold cold but Im burning up

Thought: I feel sick :(

More of The Black Prism

Well, as it turns out, as I proceed through the novel, "The Black Prism" by the most talented Brent Weeks, my knowledge of the world becomes more and more.
Just for fun I took the test and it looks like I went from Red to Orange to Blue!!
I'm seriously wondering if there is an option you can get that you're the prism, but honestly if there is one, it's probably rare as hell to get.

I'm a blue magic drafter!

Take the quiz at Brent Weeks.com

Black Prism- Quarterway Through!!

OH MY GOODY GOSH IS THIS BOOK EVER AMAZING!!!!

Gavin I think is so far my favourite. He's just.... amazing!
I've had to go bad and re-read the parts where Gavin drafts his Luxin.

In one part, Gavin makes a boat by combining a whole bunch of Luxin together. Then he transforms the boat into a huge condor.

The way Brent Weeks describes his characters and the settings and how the characters feel is just amazing. I swear on.... Well I don't beleive in God so I'll swear on my Assassin's Creed Poster (those who know me know this is a big deal for me to swear on.)

But anyway, if Brent Weeks ever comes to my Canadian area, I'll be there =3
With the entire Night Angel Trilogy and Lightbringer Series XDD

I can't wait for the end of the book but I can but I cant but I could just re-read it....

MR Weeks?!
When is Volume Two Coming out????? :D

Turns out As I read the book I went from Red to Orange. Cool =3

I'm a orange magic drafter!

Take the quiz at Brent Weeks.com

Black Prism

My Favourite Author, Brent Weeks, recently released his newest book, titled the Black Prism.
Now, I don't know anything about this book, but all I do know is that Amazon is slow as hell getting my copy to me. T.T
Anyway, when I get the book I'll do more of a Blog Post on it, including a picture of me with my new book <3

Then, during the book I'll do another post letting you all know how it is.

At the end I'll do a rant-typed thing I'm guessing, but Ill let you know how it was and If Im looking foreward or not to book two.

Anyway, I just took the Drafter Quiz on Brent Weeks (dot) com; pre-book. My Result was a Red Drafter. Now, I'll also do a Quiz during my mid-book post and my after-book post to see if my results change any.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm a red magic drafter! I'm so awesome.

Take the quiz at Brent Weeks.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Drafting my way to bed,
Tomo <3

Moments

Current Reading: Assassin's Creed; Rennisance By Oliver Brown
Me Speak Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Negima! (Graphic Novel) Unknown Authour
Renegade by Unknown Authour
Kuroshitsuji (Graphic Novel) by Yana Toboso
Another Faust by Unknown Authour
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
Middle Sex by Jeffery Eugenides

Current Music: Song of Four Seasons

Mood: Pleasent.

Smell: Approaching Winter (yes, and it's September) and Strawberyy Yogurt

Sound: Traffic outside, mum walking around the house, and my musics. Ah, and 'Hannah Montana' is being watched in the other room.

Temperature: October-like coolness

Thought: How the heck I apply for a job at Chapters???

SHINee's New Album

For those of you who know SHINee or don't, they are a South Korean boy band. Formed by SM Entertainment in 2008, they made their debut on May 25, 2008. The group consists of Onew, Jonghyun, Key, Minho, and my favourite sexy boy; Taemin. They have also starred in their own reality show based on their song, "Noona Neomu Yeppeo (Replay)".

Now, SHINee has released their second Album; Lucifer.

Since the album and the music video for 'Lucifer', the Internet has EXPLODED with response.
Though the officialy released video by SM Entertainment ('sment' on Youtube) only has about 4, 257, 742 hits that doesn't mean that others who have uploaded have any less. In fact if you add each video's hits you'd get an alarmingly large amount.

Not only have people made Ring tones, Remixes, and Covers, but SHINee was kind enough to film a dance version of their music video for their fans, which was released by sment on Youtube! Now, I'm obsessed with SHINee, so I was of course dying to learn the dance to 'Lucifer' when the video came out. Now that there's a dance version, all you have to do is mirror the footage, then copy the dance exactly by mimicking the mirrored dance.
(I'm getting close to perfection, and when I am confident in it I'll upload the footage of myself, yes?'



Above is the actual cover of the album, which includes soon-to-be hits 'A-yo','Ready Or Not' , and 'Up and Down'.

Here is the CD Track List:

1.Up & Down
2.Lucifer
3.Electric Heart
4.A-Yo
5.욕(慾) (Obsession)
6.화살 (Quasimodo)
7.악 (Shout Out)
8.Wowowow
9.Your Name
10.Life
11.Ready Or Not
12.Love Pain
13.사.계.후 (Love Still Goes On)

Okay, now I MUST say that I love basically all of the album. But, they do sing in Korean so if you're not used to it, or even if you are and dislike it; still be sure to give it a chance to wow you.

As I parting message for today's post, I really recommend that you check out some of SHINee's other previous work as well. Such as Ring Ding Dong. (I Love 'Ring Ding Dong' SO much.)

And remember everybody; Taemin is mine <3




Stealing your Cookies,
Tomo bids you Goodnight. <3

---

This Article Has been moved to Another of my Blogs.

Sands of Destruction RPG

So, I don't know what this game is about, or anything. But it is an RPG (my favourite kind of Video Game), and the cover looks awesome.

Anybody know it and can tell me about it??

Moments

So, life...
Ugh, heh, I'm just having a bad week.

Current Reading: The Forbidden Game trilogy; L.J. Smith
Current Music: Let it out; Miho Fukuhara
Mood: Unknowingly Upset
Smell: Fresh paint
Sound: the music
Temperature: Hot >.>
Thought: Worrying if people respond to email during the summer??
I've sent out emails to people and no body has responded :(

FanEXPO 2010

Greetings to fellow bloggers, passers-by and followers.
It's been a while since I'm posted anything, which is sad but I've not really had anything to say. (Aww, sorry that sounds mean.)

Anyway, this August I will be going to another anime convention. Of sorts.
So, FanEXPO is basically a GIANT convention downtown for "nerds", "geeks", and even a zillion "jocks" or so.

From "Star Wars" to the new "Assassin's Creed" video game to the "Bleach" anime, this convention has a little for everybody. And thankfully; I get the chance to go this year. Some of the guests are Vic Mignogna, Johnny Yong Bosch, and Peter Facinelli; who plays Doctor Carlisle Cullen in the "Twilight Saga" (And sorry gals, I'm not getting you autographs; spend your own 35 bucks to stand in a five hour line...).

Anyway, another neet star will be there; Chewie!!
Or for those non Star Wars nerds; Chewbacca. Peter Mayhew will be here as well; how cool !!!



As for my cosplay and shopping list (go, Dealer's Room!!).
I will be going as Horo from an amazing (and I highly recommend you watch it) anime called "Spice and Wolf".
At Anime North (some of my readers and friends may remember my excited rants on it) I bought wolf ears and a wolf tail (NOT REAL ONES) for this upcoming FanEXPO.
I knew I was going to cosplay Horo, and I'm sooo excited to do it finally =3

Shopping list wise, I know this is a very uncommon item for everyday life; but a Yaoi Paddle. Now please don't panic although the purpose is for me to hit your bottom with it, I won't.

....Yet.

Anyway, I hope to see you at FanEXPO if you go :D

For next time;
Tomo <3

Dreamwidth

Hello Everybody, it's been a while hasn't it?? :(

Anyway, today is just a quick update to let you all know about a cool site called "Dreamwidth". It's sort of like a lower-key version of Facebook, BUT you have to be invited by a friend by one of their special codes.

Dreamwidth is an online journal service based on LiveJournal. It is a code fork of the original service, set up by ex-LiveJournal staff Denise Paolucci and Mark Smith.
For the most part, features are similar to those of LiveJournal: users have journals, where they may post entries, each of which has a webpage of its own, and on which other users may comment. Dreamwidth also provides shared or group journals called "communities".




If you have Dreamwidth, you can find me here; zololuveru23


For next time, Tomo <3

Moments

Current Reading: whatever I get my hands on
Current Music: Dreaming Little Bird; Kaito & Gackpoid
Mood: Annoyed
Smell: Mint attempting to mask stale air
Sound: Clicking keyboard keys
Temperature: Too warm =.=
Thought: Inside I'm freaking out, too busy for thought

Comments [If you visit often, please read]

Hello all.
Because I am currently having a stupidly tough time with life right now, I've turned comments off on all of my blogs except for this one.

This is no means to say that I have the hardest life in the world, however I have to deal with a very recent and painful parental separation, friends treating me like a two-year-old or insulting me daily with cruel words, teachers up my ass about EVERYTHING they can book me for, and a very severe depression that is seemingly getting worse.

So yeah, I hope you can understand.

And if you don't, another reason is the hurtful hate comments I get on my other blogs.

So please get off my back on my other blogs and make my life just a smedge easier, please??

If you have any problem with this comment privilege removal or inconvenience, please contact me at

finalfantasyfan@live.ca

Thank you.

Roliana (Let's call it a Tutorial) (BlogPost#20)

Holy geez, four blog posts in twelve hours, and that includes eight hours of sleep and another three of no computer time O.o

Anyway, today's blog post is about an amazing website callllllllllllllllled;


Roliana :D

This website is amazing, and has helped me make so many new friends, as well as share my art, share information, and just over all have a good time.

What you do on Roliana is first, make an account. (If you're interested, Then Click HERE :))

You need first a username. So let's choose one, and enter it into that section. When I created my account, I used zololuveru23. So if you do make an account, add me as a friend =3

Next is the email adress that you will receive conformation emails at. This is important because if you give a false email, your conformation will go out into cyber spcae and you've done all the registration work for nothing.



Next you will see "Profile information". If you do not want to fill anything in, you don't have to. This is just an optional section that you can fill out if you really want to.

Now your preferences are very important. Make sure to click what you want and make sure you understand what it is asking you.



And now you are done and have an account on Roliana!
Go and make some friends, I'm sure you're going to make lots of fun, yes?

Facebook Virus!!! (BlogPost#19)

A computer security company on Tuesday warned Facebook users against clicking on a link claiming to be the "sexiest video ever" which is actually a trap designed to infect computers.

The firm, Sophos, said that thousands of users have been hit by the malicious post, which appears to come from a friend's Facebook account.

The posting reads: "This is without doubt the sexiest video ever!" and is accompanied by what seems to be a movie thumbnail of a woman wearing a short skirt on an exercise bike.

Sophos warned Facebook clients against clicking on the thumbnail, which does not play the video but takes users to a page telling them they do not have the correct software installed.

It then tricks users into installing adware, a software package that automatically plays, displays or downloads advertisements to their computer.

"You may want to watch a sexy video, but you're more likely to end up being plagued by pop-up advertising," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"Not only is adware being installed in your computer, but the rogue Facebook application is posting the same message to all of your friends' accounts," he said.

"It's no surprise that your friends might click to watch the movie when it looks to all intents and purposes that you are the person who has sent it to them."

Cluley advised those who had been affected by this attack to scan their computers with anti-virus software, change their passwords, review their Facebook application settings and remove whatever was installed.

"Go Google It!" (BlogPost#18)

This blog post was inspired by my love of technology, romance and music. This post will talk about a song and then go on to talk about other songs sung by the artists and their "brothers" and "sisters".

The song that I will be showing you and talking about today is called "Go Google it, you moron" by people called "VOCALOIDS"

Definition of a VOCALOID:

Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation that enables users to synthesize singing by typing in lyrics and melody.

So there you have it!! :)

This song, 'Go Google it', is sung by two of my favourite VOCALOIDs, called Luka Megurine and Gackpoid. Gackpoid's program was voiced by Japanese singer and actor Gackt, and Luka's voice was sampled from Yū Asakawa, a Japanese voice actor.

Before I talk about the song, I'd first like to show it to you .



Isn't Luka so darn stubborn? :P
Hee hee, I love this video not only because of as mentioned, the two are my favourite Vocaloids but because of how cute the two are together.

Anyway, what really matters is how a computer program can sing THIS WELL.
And though I'll admit I've heard the Luka program sing Lady Ga Ga's 'Poker Face', at was SCARY bad. The Luka program is much more suited to sing Japanese than she is to sing English I find.




Gackpoid is a very annoying character I find in most sings but as a Samurai he never, ever gives up on anything. His singing program is better than Luka's in this song, however I have a feeling it is because there was so much work done with Gackt and Gackpoid that the Gackpoid program can sing so well.

However, at the rate our world's technology is increasing, I'm not entirely suprised, but in some songs I have to remind myself that the Vocaloids are still computers.



As I write this, I am listening to some other Vocaloid songs. I would like to share some of the amazing ones, but first I'll give their names quickly.

Meiko: Japanese female (November 5, 2004)
Kaito: Japanese male (February 17, 2006)
Hatsune Miku: Japanese female (August 31, 2007)
Kagamine Rin/Len: Japanese female and male respectively (December 27, 2007)
Megurine Luka: Japanese and English female (January 30, 2009)
Gackpoid: Japanese male (July 31, 2008)

My favourite song of the Vocaloids is called Dreaming Little Bird, and is a duet between Kaito and Gackpoid. Constantly, I must remind myself that these guys are a computer, and not real people (with the exception of Gackt) and shouldn't wish to one day meet them.

Another song I love; Cantarella. There are many different versions to this song such as Kaito and Miku and Gackpoid and Rin.

Kaito and Gackpoid have a lot of duets together, but a remix version of Gackpoid's Dancing Samurai is pretty good too.

My favourite song by Luka is Just Be Friends. Even though the song is sung by Luka, it is from a guy's point of view. I'm in particular favour of this song because of how freaking amazing it is.

Well I'll stop freaking out over Vocaloids and let you get on with your life.
For next time,
The Night Angel
<3

Tine Hollow (Well, I finished the game) (BlogPost#17)

Those who have played Konami’s adventure game Time Hollow had to have noticed how rich the characters and story were and how well executed the whole game was. The only problem was how brief the entire adventure was. Many may be hoping for a second go around, but is a Time Hollow 2 even possible? If you haven’t finished the game, you may want to turn back now.

But what I want most is a sequel or prequel.

There are two possible options for a Time Hollow follow-up. There could be a direct sequel, or there could be a prequel. A direct sequel following the Kairos family is impossible, however, seeing as how the game ended. The Kairos’ Hollow Pen is now trapped in a time loop. It is constantly making its way forward through a specific time period, then being sent back into the past again.



So any direct sequel would instead have to follow the Onegin family’s pen. Since Irving Onegin was the main antagonist in Time Hollow, it would prove difficult for him to suddenly be cast in a ‘hero’ role in a possible Time Hollow 2. A possible option is to move forward a generation or two and focus on Irving Onegin’s son/daughter or grandson/granddaughter and his/her experience with the Hollow Pen.


But, after seeing the behavior of Irving throughout Time Hollow, fans of the game may have trouble accepting any sort of storyline where he managed to straighten out. After seeing the opinion Irving’s own mother had of him and the lengths she was willing to go to in order to try and prevent his behavior, it may even be possible that she would try to find a way to destroy the Onegin’s Hollow Pen, to prevent Irving from using it.



The other option is for the Time Hollow series to begin moving backwards, rather than forwards. If another entry was planned, it could follow the adventures of Ethan’s father, Timothy Kairos. Time Hollow already established that he made frequent use of the pen.

Plus, this could also help boost sales of the original Time Hollow. Kori Twelves, the girl trapped in time in the original Time Hollow, could act as Timothy’s assistant, as she did for Ethan. Plus, the “unsolved issue” concerning Kori could inspire people to pick up the original game to find out what happened to her. And since Timothy stated that Sox always seemed to be around and look the same in the original Time Hollow, he could appear in a Timothy-centered Time Hollow sequel.


This could set an interesting "start" for the series, if Konami decided to continue the franchise. A third Time Hollow could follow Timothy’s father, and maybe even start to delve into the origins of the Hollow Pen and how the Kairos family happened to acquire it. Let’s hope that Konami decides to continue this series.
What do you say? :)

Moments

Current Reading: Shadow's Edge, by Brent Weeks
Current Music: Promise of a Lifetime, by Kutless
Mood: Tolerant
Smell: Fresh air and and Guinea Pig
Sound: birds chirping
Temperature: coolish
Thought: I want more damn Pocky

Worst Baby Names

The news last week that two names featured in the 'Twilight' series, Isabella and Jacob, topped the list of most popular U.S. baby names shows that celebrities can seriously influence our naming choices. Malia, the name of one of Barack Obama's daughters, was the fastest rising name among girls, while Cullen, a reference to 'Twilight's' Edward Cullen, was the fastest rising boys name. That said, celebrity baby names don't always take off. In many cases, the names the famous give their children are simply too weird to become popular. Here's a list of the 10 worst celebrity baby names.


1. Kal-El

Nicolas Cage may be Hollywood royalty, but that doesn't give him permission to name his son after Superman. Besides being enormously pretentious, the name isn't even human. Then again, the more I look at Nicolas Cage the more I think he might not be human either. Did I mention he's decided to be buried in a giant pyramid?

2. Zuma Nesta Rock

While the name of Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale's son may have a lot of meaning for the couple (Zuma is the name of one of their favourite beaches), it's bound to ruin the child's life. Just one weird name can make grade school a nightmare, so having three in a row is bound to be even worse.

3. Apple

Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow's name for their daughter isn't particularly ugly or even weird, it's just that in today's ultra-branded world naming your girl Apple is roughly equivalent to calling her Microsoft. Then again, naming their child after the world's hippest company may be the perfect way to keep the Paltrow/Martin brand cool. I hope they name their next kid Tweet.

4. Jermajesty

We expect weird things from the Jackson family, but Jermaine Jackson's name for his son goes too far. Besides ruining the famous Beatles track 'Her Majesty' for everyone else, the name is bound to inspire Jermajesty to follow in his wacky family's footsteps and start a music career of his own. We need another star in the Jackson family like we need another 'Twilight' movie.

5. Sage Moonblood

While Sage Moonblood sounds like it should be the name of a vampire in 'Twilight' it's actually the name of Sylvester Stallone's woefully unlucky son. Despite his irresistible moniker and a role in 'Rocky V', Sage's career as an actor never really took off. It could be worse though, Sly named Sage's brother Sergeoh. No, that's not a spelling mistake.

6. Moxie CrimeFighter

We wish Penn Jillette had taken a page out of his partner Teller's book and kept silent when it came time to name his daughter. Besides putting serious career pressure on her, nobody is ever going to spell it correctly. Jillette wasn't much kinder to his son. His name? Zolten.

7. Audio Science

Shannyn Sossamon has always had a college alt-rock vibe to her, so it's really not much of a surprise that she went with the name Audio Science when her son was born. We really hope Audio Science makes it to college so he'll get the chance to take some Audio Science courses. I can see the look on the professor's face now.

8. Kyd

Despite starring in intelligent and thought-provoking films, actors Tea Leoni and David Duchovny drew a blank when it came time to name their son. The result: they named the kid Kyd. Let's hope David's recent stint in rehab for sex addiction went well so that no other children will suffer a similar fate.

9. Prince Michael II / 'Blanket'

Michael Jackson's name for his son is wrong for all the same reasons as Jermajesty. But the recently-deceased King of Pop didn't think Prince was distinctive enough and so decided to nickname the boy 'Blanket.' Let's hope it doesn't stick.

10. Tu Morrow

Despite being insanely weird, the name of Rob Morrow's daughter makes the bottom of the list because her father just isn't that famous. The 'Numb3rs' (speaking of stupid names) actor was likely hoping to rectify that situation by making it to the top of odd baby name lists worldwide. We refuse to co-operate in the scheme.

Good Site, Bad Site (BlogPost#16)

The ten principles of web design are not to make your audience think, not to waste their time, to get their attention, to strive for exposure, makes use of effective writing, simplicity, not being afraid of white space, communication, conventions and Test often!

If you are still here and reading after that, I admire you greatly. What I have just done is both educate and bore you. I know in my last post I said I would be talking about Darker Than Black, but my school assignment made me lie.


Anyway! Today I will be doing a critique on a good website and a bad website. I will tell you why the website sucks and why you should never ever ever go on it, and why the other one is pretty darn awesome.



Let's talk eBay.
I find this site way too busy. Principle number three of web design; focus the user's attention. So why, I ask, is this site so busy?

You see the Daily Deal box, look over there. You see the Top Tech box, look over there.
Free shipping, over there.
Basketball sale, up there.
REGISTER!

Um... no.

I know that it's good to catch a user's attention but eBay is just really too busy. And everything is a different style so I get very confused looking at it. One box is green, the other plain white, and the registry box is all sparkly.

As I am writing this blog post I have to flip back to the eBay page to look at it and it is starting to make me dizzy!! I'm leaving, off to the next site we go!



The Kitsune Page is one of my favourite sites to visit because of it's simplicity and ease to navigate.
When you first get onto the home page you have a menu dropping right down the middle
of the page, and two hand-drawn images of a Kitsune.



Let's take a look at the Myths and Ancient Stories button. When you click it, the next page shows a simple menu. Which place of origin do you want the stories from?

This way you can easily find something you are searching for about Kitsune (which is a Japanese Fox Demon)

Let's cliiiiiiick..... French. We want to read a story from France about these foxes.



At the top of this page you see the articles in small font, green. If you click on one it automatically sends you down the page to the article. Or if you wish to read all of them just continue scrolling down as you read.

Well, over all I pretty much love this site. However unless you manage to levitate towards the Images section there isn't much 'scenery'.

I don't give ratings on websites but this one is relatively high.

Self Portrait!! (Blog Post#15 )

Drum roll please, it is the moment that maybe the only three people who watch this blog have been waiting for!!
Hee, it's my self portrait!!

With this piece I was trying to portray the art style of Neo-Impressionism. With Impressionism you can see brush strokes in the work, and usually the tones are softer and look smoothed out. This however was extremely difficult for me to pull off in Adobe Illustrator.

As for meaning, I put a LOT of it into this piece. I spent literally three weeks planning out in my sketch book what I wanted to do.


With the portrait I wanted to show my two sides. If you have read my other blog (Click dah link) you may have realised that I have depression.

And so the story of how this piece came into play. Everyday when I go out I have to smile and pretend like I'm okay, like the world is okay. However because of my parent's divorce and a multitude of other stuff I'm not exactly in the best of moods.
SO I created a picture in my sketch book of what I wanted to do for this assignment. It was a mask with what I enjoy written and drawn on it, and on my own face I would show sorrow.



On the mask you can see two eyes of different colour and some words, "Standing, stalling, always falling. Story of my life."
These words are song lyrics, and music is really what has kept me from vegitating in my house. The band that U took the lyrics from, Elliot Minor, is my favourite band and has inspired me in so many different ways. But that story is for another day.

The purple and red eyes on the mask are from an anime called "Kuroshitsuji". The purple eye is from the boy Ciel, and the red from my favourite character, a butler called Sebastian. Kuroshitsuji is my favourite anime and brings me quite a bit of joy. I share this passion of Kuroshitsuji with a few very close friends who also make me happy.

The mask itself is inspired by "Darker Than Black", and anime that I hope to be doing a blog post on next time. Darker than Black, let's call it DTB, is also one of my favourite anime and currently the object of a weird obsession of mine. The main character, Hei, wears a mask like the one in my self portrait.

And the dog-like ears!! Foxes and wolves have always held a place in my heart, and more recently Kitsune (Kitsune are japanese fox demons). A Kitsune usually takes the form of a female to bewitch men, and although I don't exactly do a lot of bewitching a Kistune has many other loveable and non-loveable aspects. They are also quite knowledgeable, which is why I chose a Kitsune's ears as opposed to a Kitsune tail. I am knowledgable in quite a bit of things, except math.



On my face, human face, there you can see a kanji symbol. This symbol means 'sorrow' or 'grief'. This face is what hides behind the mask of what makes me happy. Seeing as I only seem to show people what is on the mask, not many people can see that I am suffering from a pretty deep depression.

If you really want to know why my hair is three different colour is because I'm weird and love to play with my hair. A lot. So that's why it's dyed in a weird way and if you have noticed- you people reading who actually know me- my hair turns into one giant poof ball half way through the day.

I don't have much to say about the background except that it is from another anime. The name tottally escapes me right now but when I remember it I shall let you know.

Thank you for reading this blog post, I hope you enjoy the labours of a crazily-worked eight days (As my peers worked on theirs for a good two weeks). Annnnnyway, I hope you come back tomorrow for my blog post on Darker Than Black!!

If you like it it's a flower. (BlogPost 14)

"If you like it it's a flower, if you don't it's a weed."

My Mother was told this by an elderly lady twenty years ago when she and my father had first moved into this house. My mother was gardening and asked the lady, the neighbour at the time, what a flower and a weed was.

Now, call this a blog post or not is up to you but what I am about to share holds a certain type of inspiration for me. Inspiration because death is what I have included into my Royal Ontario Museum project.




Just yesterday I was thinking about what death was going to be like when it eventually came around. At first it was in History class when I was thinking about when I would one day be married, have children and live in a home by myself.

I was trying to think of how it would be like when I die, but all I could think of was the crap books and media tells us these days.

Vampires, zombies, another life in the form of a magical rodent or something.

But even as I think that, I try to imagine if death is like floating around in a dark empty space, your mind alone.

Even trying to think of it makes me want to cry now, as I'm trying to think of when a family member passes on- I seem to be crying now. Ohhhh boy...- will they be able to watch upon me? Protect me and my family?




Lately I've heard of something that Scientists have found out. They can halt your body's growth and prolong your life. Almost like a modern-day vampire!

And although I think this is super, super cool... Humans should NOT try and interfere with Mother Nature. Some who I have told this to say that I am stupid and should not think like that, as Humans are the "dominant race". And even though I do not believe in God, something is probably going to smite those who say they are the "almighty".




In conclusion to this, I would like to say that I do not plan on dieing any time soon, and nor do I wish for any of those I love to die.
This includes friends, family, a crush, even a teacher I may be close to.

I do not want anything to die.

But, when the day comes when I'm a hundred and seventy five and I pass on, I'll accept it.

And once again, a touchy subject like this has made "Cold-Hearted-Kaze", cry.

Assassin's Creed 2- An Interview (BlogPost #13)

Assassin's Creed was an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game was released for Xbox 360 and PS3 in November 2007 and for PC in April 2008.

The game centered around use of a machine called the "Animus", which allows its user to view the genetic memories of his or her ancestors, specifically a bartender named Desmond Miles. As Desmond relives the memories of one of his ancestors, the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, details of a battle between two ancient sects, the Knights Templar and the Assassins, emerge as both scour for an artifact known only as a "Piece of Eden".





On January 22 2008, it was confirmed by Ubisoft that Assassin's Creed II was in production, but no details were revealed. A promotional video was released by Ubisoft on April 6 showing a map of Italy, some hidden blade designs, and DaVinci's flying machine on a scroll.

On the official site after the teaser is viewed a symbol is given to print and show in front of a webcam. Doing this will unlock a picture displayed on the site. 4 of the 5 symbols have been given by Ubisoft, and the other was found by a fan.

Later, on April 10, Game Informer magazine released details on the game, as well as pictures of Ezio. There are about 240 team members, some of these members were sent to Italy, traveling through Venice, Florence, Tuscany, and Rome.

In early May, Ubisoft has stated that they were putting full emphasis on the game and that 450 team members were now working on the title. 75% of the original developers for the original Assassin's Creed were now working on the second.




Exactly one month before Assassin's Creed 2 was released (November 17, 2010), I received my Careers course culminating (or, final project). We were told to research whatever careers we thought were most suited to ourselves and finally choose the one best suited for you.

After looking through many different careers and getting evaluated on Career Cruising dot com I decided that I would research becoming a Video Game Developer.

However, I had a different idea for my project than a boring essay. So I asked my teacher about my idea and she allowed it.



My Idea? An interview with the developers of Assassin's Creed 2. Now, with the Internet and connections these days you would think it would be easy to get in contact with somebody, right?

Very, very wrong.

I first contacted a website who told me that they only managed the budget for AC2, and was directed to the official website of Ubisoft UK. I wrote a message asking if it would be all right to speak with a developer of Assassin's Creed, however, I have never gotten a reply back.

I decided to email Ubisoft Montreal and pray that worked.

Hello,

My name is -Kaze-, and I am a student attending School in -undisclosed-. Right now in Careers class we have just received an assignment for the career we have chosen to follow. For me, I chose Video Game Developer. I was wondering, if at all possible, if I could speak with/ Interview a developer of Assassin's Creed II. I really love to play Assassin's Creed, and I love the idea of speaking with somebody who enjoys doing what I love, and who develops the games I love to play.

Thank you,

-Kaze-.

I got a reply back from Mathieu Perreault who is a networking specialist working for Ubisoft. He told me that It was not possible at the moment for me to speak with any of the developing team, as they were too busy polishing up the game (Assassin's Creed 1 was known to have MANY glitches, and they wanted to smooth out any problems).

However, Mr Perreault was kind enough to pass on the questions to a Senior Developer by the name of Philippe Therien.



Here is the interview I conducted with Mr Therien.


1. What is your current occupation? Where do you work?


[Philippe Therien]I am a Senior Game Designer at Ubisoft Montreal, I have been working here for 8 years


2. What do you enjoy most about your field of work? Why?

[Philippe Therien] The thing I enjoy the most is the fact that my job is never the same thing from one day to the other. Due to the nature of what I do, I will do a lot of research and immerse myself in a different world a few years at a time. For instance while working on a military game I will spend years researching the subject and I could just as well be researching race car driving a few years afterwards. It’s quite rare to find a job where you can always be doing something new and exciting I think.


3. If you had the chance to, would you want a promotion to a higher level of the workplace, or stay in your current level of job? Why, or why not?

[Philippe Therien] To me the sky is the limit, as I grow more experienced and older I realize that transferring my knowledge is important and I enjoy coaching junior designers at work. As I take more responsibilities in higher positions, it keeps me stimulated and i will keep doing this. I like being a designer but in the long I will eventually want to have more influence so promotions are an obvious career path for me.

4. What types of training did you need for your current occupation?

[Philippe Therien]When I started there wasn’t any training available so I trained myself. These days there are good classes available but personally I studied in electrical engineering, finished my degree in psychology and I worked 5 years in the movie industry before jumping over to Ubisoft. I think overall the important thing for a designer is to have great communication skills and be able to write properly. Having great ideas is awesome but it goes to waste if they cant be communicated to others.


5. What kind of Education is needed?
(Example: High School courses/ University/ College)

[Philippe Therien] Nowadays there are some great college level courses offered that train people in the basics of game design. They are not a must have however, as we routinely hire designers who aren’t necessarily finishing a design class. The one thing that helps tremendously with these classes is that as a junior it tells everyone that you have basics and that you have a clear interest for the job. I would have to say that right now, any design training course is great.

6. What kind of advice would you give to a high school student looking into your field of work? Please be specific.

[Philippe Therien] The important thing is to always try to understand games. Figure out how things are done, reverse engineer as much as possible. You should have a keen interest in making already existing games better. Ask yourself, could you make Pac-Man better? And if so, how would you do that? Another important thing is networking, when you get to the stage where you are looking for work, you should attend IGDA meetings and read up on www.gamasutra.com all the advice and interview related articles on there.

Doing these things will give some knowledge about the video game world and it will surely help you get your foot in the door somewhere.

Lastly, never stop playing games, no matter what! Knowing what others are doing is as important as having good ideas.



Thank you very, very much to everybody who directed me to contact Ubisoft Montreal.
An extra hug gigantic thank you to Philippe Therien and Mathieu Perreault.

Thanks again for helping me out!

It really helped me understand Game Developing a lot more, and I can say that talking with you was (still is!) a great experience.

Assassin's Creed 2 is OUT NOW!!
Please go and buy it :)
(However, I'm already 'married' to Ezio ;) So he's mine <3

Aka-Chan: Character Designs (Blog#12)

Even if you've never drawn in a sketchbook, painted a canvas, messed around in Photoshop or doodled on your math assignemtn that's due in seven minutes, there's a high chance that even once in your life you've thought, "wow, that would-" and then insert something positive about whatever you see and in whatever format you think of.
For me, anything can set off a thought of a new character for a short story, comic or Novel.
Today, let's look at how I designed my characters for a Novel I'm writing.



Above is an image that I made up in Photoshop a while back when I was first designing characters. The story plot was that I wanted a girl to have her identity erased from all the world's memory.
But anyway!

Origionally I was thinking that I wanted her to be a really girly character- wearing skirts and having bleached blonde hair. But then I was thinking that I wanted her to resemble who I want to be.

Pumpkin orange hair, can stand up for herself, is loved unconditionally by her boyfriend and is thin

Though I have dark blonde hair, can't stand up for myself at all and I'm now boyfriend-less, I didn't care!



And so, character design started.

Because I am obsessed with Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed, those kinds of designs came out first. I took Ezio from AC 2's outfit, made it blue instead of red and sculpted it to fit a female- and it looked really good!

But even if you're happy with something right off the bat, keep going with more ideas; this is a skill I'm starting to learn that I need.

So I tried out Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy, Ulquiorra and Halibel from Bleach, and so many others!!

But you always want a character who represents you, represent you. Right?
I started looking at Lolita Fashions that I've always wanted to be able to fit into (But because of my weight I'd look really stupid.)



The final design was based on the Assassin Creed character, and I ended up with an unusual-looking character.
Her name is a secret, but for fun let's call her Aka. Aka has pumpkin ornage hair, and as you can see her outfit is designed tight-fitted so that she can fight properly and efficiently.
(I apoligize that there is no image, the file is currently too big to upload.)

Oh, I forgot to mention, it's a fighting story.

Anyway, she holds her assassin gear in pockets and has two hidden blades.
I hope my character design inspired you at all to start thinking of your own!!

On The Bus by Aaron Chan

Okay!
Today I went to the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children with the CyberARTS classes of Year one to four. We were shown many movies in the time span of an hour and a half, and then had a sit-down with some of the script writers and directors of the movies.

These movies were animated, acted, or a documentary of creepy, very creepy bugs. But what really interested me was a movie called, "On The Bus".

"On The Bus" is a short film directed by Tracy D Smith, written by Aaron Chan, starring Jeffrey Bowyer Chapman and Giles Panton. However, before you read the rest of the post I would like you to please watch this video first.



Well, I hope you watched the video, because this post will make more sense if you did.

In the movie, you can see that the boy Jeremy is talking to Sean, the boy sitting in front of him. Sean keeps talking to Jeremy, telling him to "just talk to me!".
When he says this, you know something is wrong.
Is this a daydream, like Sarah suggests in the beginning, or is it really happening? But then again, Sean did just show up out of nowhere.

SO many questions!!

At the end of the movie, Sean suddenly disappears and then you see him walk right back onto the bus. He looks around and, despite all of the empty seats, sits right next to Jeremy! AT the very, very end the two boys turn to look at each other and I'd love to hear in the comment section what your reaction to what happened after was.

Mine? Well, when the screen turned black and the movie stopped I slunk into my seat in embarrassment after I howled, "what?!!" But I really did like the movie.



After, during the talk with the directors/ script writers I was able to talk to Aaron Chan and ask him a quick question.

"So how did you come up with the idea for 'On The Bus?'."

Aaron told me that he had expected that question sometime, and that it was based on something that he would always do as a teen on the bus. He told me- or really, the crowd- that if there was an empty seat in front of him on the bus we would pretend the guy he liked was sitting in front of him and they were talking.

He continued on, however my memory fails me as the conversation was over six and a half hours ago. And I feel bad about not remembering, which I do apologize for, really.

"On The Bus" has been featured at many festivals and award ceremonies such as the Long Island Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Washougal International Film Festival, Vues d'en Face, Mezipatra Queer Film Festival, Paris Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and in London, alllll over the United States and finally here in Canada.

Over all I really quite enjoyed the video, and it was good to see that something was brought into the festival about homophobia. Being part of the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) community, I was glad to see that something was shown. Although I didn't expect the reaction from the audience when they kissed- most people went 'awww'- I was glad to see it was accepted.