ModernGeek

     The last episode of Death Note aired this week, and I've downloaded and watched it. This may seem weird, but I have a strange attachment for Death Note, seeing as for the past five months, every Wednesday I would wait obsessively for the next episode to be released with subs, and then once watching it would go and proclaim it's glories to my brother while he rolled his eyes. Then there was the C&D letters sent out by Viz Media, where I spent three days worrying about where I was going to get my subbed episode, and then finally finding one. And now, it's all over.

     I think, that if there was an award for "the" anime of 06-07, then Death Note would probably win it. The manga was very successful, and was made into two live action movies, before the anime began airing. And then there's also the fact that three amazing soundtracks were composed for it. Granted, there were some tiny "holes" in it, where Light did something more complicated than needed, but all anime is like that. I doubt you could find one that doesn't have little tiny issues like that. Whenever I happen to discuss anime with a fellow fan I always ask "Have you watched Death Note?". If they say yes, then we both proceed to have a long discussion of the characters, and true justice, and if they say no, then I strongly encourage them to watch it, because it's one of those series that shocks you, changes how you see things, and makes you think about value of human lives. After watching the ten episodes, it took me three days to find the answer about whether Light was right or wrong. 

   One of the questions that always comes up in Death Note discussions is "Who represented justice?". My answer is this. Light's mission may have started out as an attempt to "purify" the world, but it ended as a matter of pride. L also treated the case as a game between him and Kira. He even said once "I am also childish and hate to lose". For Near and Mello, it was also a game, a game to see who could catch Kira first. In the end, I think the only one who really represented justice was Lights' father, Yagami Souchirou. 

     Now, I don't want to spoil it if anybody's planning to watch Death Note, but the ending was beautiful. One of the things I noticed was that the last few music bars played at the end of episode 37 were the same ones that were played right at the opening scene of episode 1. Whether this was intentional or not, I don't know, but it was a really neat effect for me. The ending while still the same basic story, was a tiny bit different from the manga. While, some parts I'm was were cut out, there was others I wish had been kept in. Right now, I'm really torn, because I do want to be able to watch Death Note with the official subs, and somewhere else besides a computer screen, but I also DO NOT want to buy Viz Media's subbed/dubbed episodes. And there's also the fact that you pay $15 dollars to get six episodes. I'm also facing the same issue with the manga. 

    I was wondering today, if Death Note will become one of the series, which you HAVE to watch to be able to participate in any discussion. You know, like Cowboy Bebop, or Neon Genesis Evangelion? Or even if it will be remembered eight years from now. Well, we'll see. 

Goodbye Death Note. 

EDIT: I've just found out that aparrently there's going to be a special aired this summer. Here's a quote from animeonline.

Surprise! An announcement at the very end of the final episode of Death Note, given by a group of the voice actors and a pair of cosplaying shinigami, announced that a special is going to air to wrap things up for the show.

The special is going to air sometime this summer during Golden Time (Japan's equivalent of prime-time, a.k.a. NOT at the usual Tuesday at 2am). What will happen during it? Presumably we'll find out what happened to all the characters after the final episode - the ones that lived, anyway.

So, at least, I have that to look forward. And in the meantime, I'll be trying to find a translated version online of Death Note: How To Read 13. Wish me luck with this, I'm going to need it.  

  Well, I'm back from Strings camp, and it was totally amazing. I counted up that I played for about 27 hours during the entire week, and for about  5 1/2 hours a day. I met lots very cool people, got to talk to talk about anime with fellow anime fans, and burst out laughing about five times a day. They also have this scholarship thing, that's awarded to one boy and one girl, who's been the most hard-working, move improved, best citizen, etc, and I won that, so I can go back next year for free! When people were asked what they would like best about going home these three things were almost always said. 

1) To be able sleep in a bed that didn't give out a huge squeak every time you moved a muscle, thus making you wake up several times during the night.

2) To be able to shower in a shower that didn't have two temperatures; hot and hotter.

3) To be able to eat food that wasn't cafeteria food that tasted like it was about three days old and warmed up in the microwave. On this note, this Civil Air Patrol training thing was going on at the same time. So, we couldn't go to breakfast until 7:00, but the Civil Air Patrol(about 300 people) would leave from the building next door at 6:45 to go to breakfast. So, we would get there are there'd be a line of 50 to 80 people in line in front of you! And here, every morning I faced a hard choice. I could either take the short line and get cereal in about five minutes, OR I could take the long line and get a more substantial breakfast, after waiting in line for 20 minutes. I always choice the second choice, but jeez, it was a hard choice. And, I promise you, I think everyone gained a few pounds during that week, after eating the Cafeteria food. 

   About Death Note, yes, I was able to find episode 36 subbed, even though VIZ Media sent out C&D letters. A different fansub group did it. This episode was amazing, and as it takes forty seconds after writing the name in the death note for the person to die, there a count down to see who would win the final battle. 37....38.... 39.....40, and then the episode ended! The next one is titled "New World" so it's not clear how it ends. Okay, I admit, I know how it ends, I've read the manga, but still I'm so excited I can hardly wait. If you were to name "The Anime of 06-07" it would be Death Note. The manga was very popular before the anime, and two live actions films have already been made. I tell all anime fans I see to watch it. So, more on that next week when the final episode comes out.

   I've got a huge list of "Anime stuff to do" that I'm going to put down here, otherwise I'll forget it all! 

1. Finish the last two episodes of D.N.Angel
2. Finish Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni
3. Watch the final episode of Death Note next week
4. Watch Naruto as it comes out each week
5. Watch Bleach as it comes out each week
6. Watch Darker Than Black as it comes out each week
7. Watch Kaze no Stigma as it comes out each week(this anime rocks! I was totally hooked after the first half episode!)
8. Watch Devil May Cry as it comes out each week
9. Start Reideen
10. And if possible, re-watch Fullmetal Alchemist

Woah, so that brings my number of anime series that I'm watching as they come out each week to six. My anime calendar where I write the dates they air on, is going to be full...

I recently downloaded all the openings and endings of Naruto. And you know how the episodes got worse in the fillers went on? Well, the openings and endings got worse to....seriously, there's some at the end that are truely horrible. And if an anime's opening is really bad, chances at the anime is bad to. I was very put off by the the opening to Lupin III that consisted for a minute and thirty seconds of a guy singing "Lupin III, Lupin III, Lupin III" over and over again on different pitches. Wow, a real showing originality there. *rolls eyes*

   I'm out of town all this week, so you won't be hearing from me until Saturday evening!

   My new anime I'm watching is Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni(say it five times fast!). It's really freaky, and it's done in, like, little sets of mysteries. So, in episode 4 the protagonist died, but then in episode 5 he was alive, and everybody was normal. It's like different sets of stories. But, do NOT watch this at night. I promise you, you'll get freaked out.

But now, by until next saturday. 

-Moderngeek 

This is the first time in a while that I've been truely disgusted by something. And this time, my disgust is directed at a certain company called VIZ Media. Viz Media just today sent out Cease & Desist letters to fansubbing groups such as Kuro-Hana, and Animada, concerning their subbing of the anime Death Note. Said company demanded that all Death Note episodes be removed from the fansub groups sites by June 22nd. Now, the really disgusting thing is that Viz Media does not, in fact, offer SUBBED EPISODES OF DEATH NOTE!. Is this not a prime example of why copyright laws hurt the market? If Viz Media does ever decide to release subbed episodes of Death Note, then they will be able to charge any price they want, and nobody will be able to do anything about it. And does not the Copyright Clause of the Constitution state(I'm copying this down from my copy of the Constitution

The Congress shall have the power to promote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries

Exactly what about Copyright laws is "promoting the progress of Science and useful Arts"?

Here is a picture of the letter sent

My Dad works for a non-profit organization, but they have a small online store, which sells t-shirts, books, etc. So many times I've seen the situation where a book is copyrighted, but out of print, and there Dad is with the book in his hands, dying to scan it, but can't do it because of copyright laws. Something wonderful that should be made available to the world, can't be. It happens all the time.

I am not apposed to the idea of buying anime. I have bought some of the Death Note manga from VIZ Media, and when the series ends in two weeks,(kind of late so be sending out C&D letters!) I was planning to possibly buy some of the DVDS once they were released because I love the series to much. But now, I, Julia Tucker, solemnly promise that I will never buy another Viz Media product unless I am unable to download it, and there is absolutely no other solution.

Viz Media's lost customer,

-Moderngeek

     First of all, I want to apologize with the empty blog that was previously just below this. That mistake happened, because I was gone all this weekend starting Friday, and while I was in the car on the way there I thought "Oh, I'll bet I can text message to my email blogging address that will automatically pos the message, just mentioning that I'm away this weekend." So, I spend forever(I'm not so good with the 'thumbs' messaging thing) writing out a message, I click send, and then I get a box that says "Sorry, your message is too big to send to an email address". So, it sent the message, but deleted all the text except for my signature which is "-Moderngeek". I'm telling you, knowing that you all were probably going "huh?" was killing me all weekend!

     So, that being put aside, on to the main reason I'm blogging.

     A very important skill for life(as I'm sure most of us know) is learning to tell the difference between a fake smile and a real smile. I consider myself pretty good at reading people, but here's a funny test I took that's supposed to judge how good you are at it. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml 

My score was 17/20(two of the ones I missed I had misgivings about), so, going from the comments on digg, that's higher than the average. But, here's a tip. It's all in the bottom eye lids. If they crinkle a little bit, then it's real, if it doesn't move, then it's fake. 

After you've taken the test, anyone else notice how everybody in this test looked really weird? #13 what the heck? Is that supposed to be a sea goddess of some sort? 

1) All people of any importance whatsoever are required to wear black leather all the time, no matter how useful it really is.

2) All people of importance must also be able to magically temporarily glue their glasses to their head when they flip, otherwise those glasses would surely fall down.

3) All people of importance must also always wear trench coats, and be able to magically keep them from getting cauaght on things, even when running through extremely small spaces.

4) What ever the oracle says... the opposite happens.(This one can actually be applied to any movie with an oracle)

5) All agents look exactly the same.

6) If a machine is to have any plot impact at all, it must have ten zillion wires leading to no aparrent place.

7) To be able to do anything with a computer, you somehow have to master the skill of reading letters and numbers(the Matrix code) that are scrolling by several times too fast for the human eye to be able to read.

8) Bullets, when slowed down, have little spirals coming out of the back of them.

9) To be a person of importance you also have to be able to shoot a gun with perfect accuracy without even looking at the target. 

So, as you can see, I was completely unimpressed with how unrealistic the whole movie was. I can deal with unrealisticallity when it's in an anime, or cartoon, but in what is aparrently trying to be a serious movie, it's just totally stupid. I also have no intention of seeing the next two Matrix movies, because aparrently these are WORSE, than the first, and I don't think I could sit through them.

For about the past four days in Auburn, where I live, there's been an astonishing increase in police. Every two blocks, there'll be a police car parked just waiting for you to slip up. Even if you don't slip up, they can still pull you over and detain you for an hour. If you drive off you'll get arrested, and if you resist, the policeman is given the right to shoot you. What is this but a breach of an individuals freedom? If the number of police keeps increasing at it's current rate in Auburn, at what point to do you think a person will stand up in public and say "I proclaim there to be too many police in Auburn Alabama!"? The answer is... never. Nobody would ever publically say that they think there are too many police in Auburn. I think there are two reasons for this.

Number one would be that, quite simply, they would get arrested. And nobody would be able to do anything about it.

Number two is that people always seem to think that security=more police. They seem to believe that if a town has a low crime rate, it must be because there are lots of police hanging around. When, in fact, security has to provided privately, otherwise it's useless.

Police here, are also starting to give out tickets for unbuckled seatbelts. People can make decisions for themselves, and they shouldn't be punished if they make that a decision that harms no one else, but disagrees with what our government thinks is best. Also, if cars came with huge spikes coming out of the stearing wheels, do you think people would drive more or less carefully? Maybe the same principle would apply to seatbelts, hmm?

The whole idea of the police controlling people decisons, goes against what principles that this country was built on, and breaches our rights.

A very wonderful book named 'Time Will Run Back'(available for sale HERE and for reading online HERE ) by Henry Hazlitt discusses many of the points just made. It's actually a Novel about the son of a dictator who had lived away from his father all his life, and comes to live with him for the first time when he's about 20. Then, when his father dies he becomes ruler of his father's empire, and has to rediscover capitalism, with no help from previous writings at all, because all records containing all mention of capitalism have been erased. It's painful and humorous at the same time, and one of the best and most interesting books I've ever read.