Life Hacks Volume 1 (note: discretion advised)

Instead of writing off some generic New Years aftermath blog entry, I've taken it upon myself to begin the construction of a series of lists in which suggestions are given to make one's life just that much easier. Such tips and tricks have come to be known by many as "Life Hacks". Some of these will be taken out of my own experiences while others will have been graciously donated by friends and collegues. Therefore, I present to you, volume 1 of Hadyn's life hacks:

1) Get free phone chargers from hotels. Apparently when it comes to repacking their shit, phone chargers are statistically the last thing on a hotel guest's mind. If you've lost your own phone charger and really can't bring yourself to spend money on a new one, go to a random hotel and say you've lost it there and they're bound to have an array of multiple types of chargers in the lost and found.

2) Get a sneeze out by looking at a bright light. I don't understand the science behind it but simply put, if a sneeze is being a son of a bitch and holding on for dear life, turn on a bright light and look at it and that sneeze will be forced to evacuate.

3) Do not eat anything during the 12 hours before you want to wake up. Not only is it unhealthy, but your body will not understand it's time to wake up when you've consumed something substantial atleast 12 hours before you attempt to awaken. If you refrain from doing this, your body will understand when it's morning and waking up will be just that much easier.

4) Thoroughly wash inbetween your legs. I can't stress this enough. You'd be surprised how many people DO NOT bother to do this. The area in-between your legs, more specifically, for guys, the areas on the periphery of their scrodums, reek to high heaven with sweat under hot weather and strenuous activety. Wash that shit. Oh, and in conjunction, make it a general rule to wash anything that's a creves because those can get incredibly gnarly if unattended to... believe me.

Criticising Skyrim (Continued)

3) Random outbursts of epic music. I don't need a thunderous anthem as if I'm scaling Mt. Olympus while Im stabbing an oversized rat to death. It's just really obnoxious as all when I'm trying to accomplish something incredibly menial and my speakers blasts a monstrously intense horn-section that would bring LOTR to shame.

4) Enemy mages. Hate them. They just stand there shooting magic at you in the most obnoxious fashion imagineable, glaring the hell out of your screen while your trying to charge them. Don't give me that "that's how mages work" crap because it's tiresome. In most games mages take a lot of tact and skill as a general rule, but nope.. not in Skyrim where our mages stand there like retards relentlessly firing the same spell at you in a single stream while you trudge like a motherfucker through a blizzard before you can cut them down... and that's if they don't decide to back up a couple feet. God, do I take such satisfaction in killing those assholes.

More to come...

Cliques Today

I often sound like an old man reminising about eras I never lived in and chastizing the trends of our own. I suppose the dominant "counter-culture" youth group as of now are "hipsters", though do they really even classify as counter-culture? Regardles, I fucking hate them. No, this isn't just simple scorn for a group I don't identify with or because I am ashamed that they hold a measure of representation for my generation. While that may true, above all, I don't respect hipsters. I could hate another trend like "goth" and still respect it because atleast the people within that clique had balls. Goths dressed as goths because that's who they were... I mean, how could you possibly bring yourself to dress they way they did if you didn't identify yourself as such within your soul? Goths were proud to be goths, and though I may have made sligh remarks when they started springing forth on the west coast like fucking wildfire around 2001, I can atleast admit that my dislike of their culture was peppered with respect. And then the clique affectionately known as the "emos" came... and this is when shit hit the fan. At some fucked up point between 2005 and 2006, a fraction of the gothic culture was shed off to spawn a new, far more pussy-esque group with an emphasis on the most girly forms of sorrow you could ever fathom. There was no pride at this point; this is when conformaty began to blossom at it's greatest strength. In mass, people seeded to this group that held no grip on pride what-so-ever. Constantly I heard these whiners insult and ridicule other emos they didn't like for BEING EMOS. It was this mixture of self-loathing and one-upness associated with conformity en mass that birthed a hideously disfigured child of disjointed cliques. And now we have hipsters using "hipster" as an insult for not just people of their own clique, but literally as a general insult for anyone. The term "you hipster" will never be said more by anyone than an actual hipster himself. There's no pride, they can't even hold on to music they like for more than a few months based on some ridiculous concept that popularity will literally make it taboo. They don't respect themselves, so why the hell should I respect them?

...and that's what really grinds my gears. Tom.

Giant Robo

Giant Robo has become, above and beyond, my favourite anime of all time. The scope and execution of the story is masterful and the depth and/or intrigue to each and every character make the cast the greatest I have ever seen. To call it the Star Wars of anime wouldn't give it enough justice; it is downright operatic. There is zero cheezyness in the events that take place, nothing to make you cringe like so many animes do. It's simply a story with a great personality backed up by brilliant music and production quality.

There are only seven episodes in the series, though each episode is roughly an hour long. Therefore, there is only so much time to actually tell the story or work on character development, and it is in this limitation that lies Giant Robo's greatest strength: you have to figure things out as it goes along. There are too many animes out there that over explain every god damn detail. In Giant Robo, the scope of each character's backstory is epic, and you figure these things out through hints given by others characters so as to alude to this. No, Taiso's not going to sit there for an episdoe reminising about his past so the audience gains an understanding... we figure out his past through confrontations with his rival Alberto or a flashback that connects to the actual meat of the story. In other words, we get to know these characters naturally as if we're there and not just watching some show.

Another of the many aspects that make the show operatic is the individuality of every character. Everyone, good guys and bad, seem to know eachother because the backstory to the main plot is such an elaborate and strong foundation. Even the minor characters bring something significant to the table because everyone has traits that make them them and not just a part of the foreground. It is a truly great adventure with a story so sprawling that my standards have been raised to the point where I can now only watch one in every fifty animes.

Highly recommend.

Criticising Skyrim

First off, I want to make this very clear: I like Skyrim. I do. It has succesfully succeeded Dragon Age as my rpg fix and for good reason. It's expansive, epic and, above all, entertaining. Every game has its flaws, however. Whether that be in story, gameplay or whatever. Skyrim is no exception.

Therefore, I present to you...

My Criticisms:

1) The companions... and I don't mean the mercenary group. One thing I adore about rpgs are the relationships and interactions between you and your teammates. Bioware games in particular excel at this. In Skyrim, there is absolutely no grounds what-so-ever for establishing any kind of relationship with your companions other than the lore you create in your head outside of the game. I hate having a souless piece of meat with an axe follow me around without any potential means of atleast driving some kind of sub-plot.

2) Ugly character creation options. I'm incredibly vain when it comes to character creation... if it's a human, he must look somehwat like me... and if not, then he has to look how I would look if I were that race. It's simply hang up I have, I don't know why... probably because I'm obsessed with myself. Anyway, I've made atleast three characters so far, all Elves (a Dark Elf, a Wood Elf and most recently a High Elf) and now matter what I do, they all look ugly as sin. And before you say that's because that's how Elves are supposed to look in Elder Scroll you can stop right in your tracks because I have seen many an attractive npc Elf in Skyrim, and I have had no problem making one in Oblivion. So why haven't I just gone with a human race, like a Nord or an Imperial? Well, while it may be true I have yet to make a human character that doesn't mean that I haven't messed around with creating one before. All ugly as fuck. Maybe I'll just make a cat-man...

More to come...

Exam Week

For all the college students out there, it's your favorite time of the year! Sleigh bells, snow, Christmas tress... that's right, that special time of year that brings people together and warms your heart. Of course when I say sleigh bells I mean the insistant ringing in your head as your mind sparks after an hellacious assload of studying. When I say snow I refer that tundratic nightmare of a drive you have to take to your college or university for some forsaken exam, praying to fucking Ganeesh for a safe journey and a good grade. And when I say Christmas tree I mean that saturday afternoon you planned to dedicate to studying for the biology final before your family drags you out of the house with an iron clench of guilt to chop down some filthy tree, adorn it with colourfull shit and worship in accordance to some Pagan ritual.

YES! It is that faithfull week again, my brothers in stress and cousins in student debt. With courage in our hearts and valour in our souls we shall resist the call of Skyrim, condemn the temptations of our girlfriend's unrelenting horniess, and deny the siron songs of Facebook and Twitter. Our path is laid before us, friends, and it is riddled with pen, paper and insomnia. A one week journey through the river styx, through the seven layers of hell itself. We will fight, press on and we will triumpth! What we do in life echoes throughout enternity; immortality, take it... it's yours!!!

Elfen Lied

If you have the stomach for it, I highly recommend the anime "Elfen Lied". I am an anime/manga fan, but there only so many out there worth recommending, so believe me when I say that I have little criticism and nearly all praise for this one.

It's not an ongoing series of over a hundred episodes, it's a mini-series of 13 entries. It's short, sweet and to the point but at the same time incredibly fullfilling. Because there are onyl 13 episodes, it really seems like a really long movie more than anything. The production is excellent and the writers are very eloquent with the dialogue and story, which is no easy task for a plot so wrapped around blood, gore and nudity.

The first ten minutes or so of the first episode is sick and unsettling in its unrelenting violence, but please don't let that deter you. The story touches on topics of various human qualities which drives the plot on an emotional rollercoaster of sci-fi and human sin. It is anything but one-dimensional, in fact I've never seen a show with such an awkward balance of violence and cuteness. Several of the characters and themes are incredibly adorable that it's a complete punch in the face when people are being butchered by a psychologically-unstable devil girl the very next scene.

That being said, watch the anime. You will not make it through the whole series without atleast coming close to shedding a tear, I guarantee you that's how impactfull it is. If you don't feel anything, then you have aspergers.