Part Two: Nonprofessional

Just F**K! and Christmas Joy to you all
After spending three weeks in what seemed like the stone age; without an internet connection or computer, its great to be back home to put my addictions at rest. Though fear not, a man of my statue is very resourceful in any circumstance and during my Christmas vacation Major Sheppard and I completed recordings for the first episode of Blankmind's podcast! With many set backs things were running smoothly again, or I thought so, until I got the surprise that recordings were left back in England. Though also being a very sharing kind-of-guy, I also gave my whole flat a surprise with my anguish at 1 in the morning (and so the universe is balanced again). As a side note, could you send me the recordings again Sheppard? Thanks. Now that I've established that we here are no where near professionals, let me continue with this notion in the second part of my special posts. Realizing the formality of my last post, I wanted to do something a little less serious. Oh, don't worry, no bad music videos this week, even I have my limits, but instead I thought about collecting some fun links for you all.

The Special Part: Crap from My Bookmarks
Its been along time since I did something for the Crap from the Internet section, but I think I've got enough bookmarks and images now to at least share something. Very few people have seen my bookmarks, and there's a good reason for that, but I'm sure you you'll believe me when I say they are in a highly ordered structure with... yeah like anyone will believe that. So lets have a look here, as I don't even remember what I have. But here are a few links, in particular order, that I think are 10 most essential:

1. Anonymouse.org - Surf the Internet Anonymously.
2. Photobucket.com - One of the robust image hosting services.
3. Deviantart.com - For your viewing pleasure.
4. Minitokyo.net - Viewing pleasure with an abstract and anime focus.
5. Gendou.com - That interesting music is here.
6. Download.com - Need a program for something?
7. Vgcats.com - Internet Comic
8. xkcd.com - Internet Comic for geeks.
9. ZeroPunctuation - Game reviews made by a highly critcial, non-stop, British reviewer.
10. Onemanga.com - Manga Online.

Alot shorter this time, but part three, the final special post, will be made, claming the glory ofthe biggest post yet.

Chrstmas and The New Year

Well it’s been sometime since my last post, we’ve seen a new president elected, Home has come to the public, and I’m still just as poor, well maybe not.

So, you’re probably wondering what happened to our podcast, well its coming, very soon, Akamaruu will be working on the final edits over the next week or so (as we are both back to respective universities on Monday). I’ll take a moment to mention last year’s Doctor Who Christmas special, which I thought was brilliant, nice to see the cybermen make a return to the screen.

Christmas was a good one last year, lots of different things, including some games that we discuss on the first episode, it was followed shortly after by our traditional shopping trip to Birmingham, at which time I brought some more books, (I’ve now started another 3 series of manga, giving me a total of 7 different series to finish, so I think I’ll stop buying new series for awhile).

So, onto this years news, well sometime this year Blankmind may be starting an official website, but were going to see how the show goes first. I’ll be starting up a website for my different works, at the moment it will consist of things made on the university course, and a few things made in my spare time. I’ll update here when that’s up and running.

Well I’m going to make this post short, I’ll post a longer one next time, and update you all on how the first week of the second semester is going.

Part One: God and Revolution

Home: Its here.
Today I received an unexpected call that was beyond having a call from god himself. While I wont praise Major Shepard who called me today by implying that he is better than the all mighty himself, I will say that the news he brought of Home Open Beta Release for tomorrow was, in a few words, a godsend. Yes people, amongst the many delays that seemed to push the release date of Home until the next Ice Age, December 11th will forever be remembered as the date that Home Open Beta was released around the world. OK, so maybe I'm slightly over exaggerating, though for many PS3 fan boys out there, this has been a key date they've been waiting for. I can say in all fairness, similar to how India was once the gem in the crown of the British Empire, Home is that of the PS3's, which in it's towering glory can claim to have over any other next-gen console. (I thank you all for letting me blind you with the brightness of my holy praise of Home's coming.) Full Article Here.

Gackt, Maybe He's God?
Though bringing myself to reality, a lot has happened since the trip to Manchester in September (was it that long ago!?). From breaking my wife (i.e. Ipod, what else did you think I was implying?), moving to uni, getting a HD TV, the end of Code Geass's Second Season to finally watching Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle (I know, do not even start). But why would I bore you all with that when I know what we are all waiting to know about is what I've listened to! I can proudly say though, maybe what I've been listening to lately is not so, how should I put it, "interesting". Actually on reviewing that I'm not going to hold any promisises. So, after listening to 4 albums by Gackt I can finally say that he is truly talented (Lust for Blood ¦ Vanillia ). Ok, aside from the initial response of "Oh my god, he looks like a woman" part, this guy (let me emphasise this) is one of the few talented singers out there. Unlike most artists these days, his singing voice is all real, while his lyrics are written by himself. Its actually amazing some of the stuff he sings. I mean who would of thought that this, great translation by !SuperCat, is what Gackt was singing in that "interesting" music video for Vanilla (I certainly didnt when I posted it on Facebook, honest).

The Special Part: The Future of Anime and Fansubs.
So after my last annoucement about Dattebayo to soon finish subbing Naruto, with Crunchyroll to be a replacement for the latest Naruto to be found, I thought It would be a good idea to take my magnifying glass, smoking pipe and rename myself Sherlock Holmes and discover what this place was about. I did. And. It was the best thing I had done since deleting my Facebook account after posting those lyrics (joke, but I did delete my account). In short, Crunchyroll is another website that has sprung up in YouTube's fame, though unlike other such sites, Cruchyroll is a preview of a changing anime industry after the Anime Revolution. During the early 90's, before the time of broadband Internet, fans of anime looking for subbing had to receive the such in VHS format. Though fans were limited to a small selection of anime that made it through translation, not to mention depleting the little remains of their disposable income from their expense. While this situation has picked up with better variety, I assure you all the price has not. It is no wounder that fans turn to fansub groups for their supply of anime. While fansubs originally emerged from the days before broadband, it wasn't until the Internet really picked up that fansub groups revolutionized the anime world. Now many of us are use to having subs of our favorite anime a day or less after their air on TV for free. Yet the anime industry was missing out. I'm sure many of us have either read in an article or by word the problem of the TV as a declining format for watching video. But it has only been since YouTube and the progress of the Internet that a solution has arisen for companies. Instead of fighting the change ahead, many have now chosen to go along with the flow with their own view services on the internet. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that Cruchyroll or other of the like will be the main means where broadcasting and licensed publishers will present their shows or movies. By doing so the corporations eliminate the expense of distributing DVDs, allowing for faster and wider distribution of their productions and importantly putting them in direct competition with fansub groups. In other words, the corporations have setup shop next door on the high street, offering all the same services as the fansub groups, but only better in quality of subs and video. But, there is one huge difference and this is why, while fansub groups will now begin to decline, they will never die. And again the issue is the price. While technically illegal, fansubs will always offer free subs of anime, while the corporations will ask for a price. This is a pivtial difference. Though maybe its only a mater of time that this fee will be removed, where the revenue will instead be gained from advertisement. At the moment Cruchyroll offers the best of both worlds. But not only that, it combines features from those famous social sites making Crunchyroll in my eyes, probably better than Youtube. I highly recomend it to anyone to find out new anime as I have so done: Kuroshitsuji and Time of Eve.

But thats all for me until the second part of the special post.

You would think we'd died or sumthin.

Where on Earth have we been!?
You would think that this blog was dead or close to it from the lack of activity, but believe it or not its far from it. Yeah, ok, I have been slacking off, but give me some sort of break cuz I recently (within the past two months) moved to my university and settled in to what I like to call the slums. I do admit that there was alot me and sheppard wanted to do, but couldnt for some reason or other, however I do come with great news that we will be revamping a few things around here. First off I'll announce that I will be publishing a three part post over the next month dedicated all things anime. In mean time, sheppard and I will be also working on a new podcast for this blog, with its first episode to be published around xmas (exact date still to be confirmed). The podcast will model itself around the blog and should include a bit more info here and there. As sophisticated as I want to decide the podcast, we all know that it will be just as random as any other post in this blog. Plus on the bright side you will get to hear my songs in full quality, with no music videos of course! We all know we are looking forward to that!

Anime News!?
While I'm not going to make this post incredibly long, there is some news that cannot be avoided, which of course has to involve Naruto. To most fan's surprise the only comprehensive fansub group of Naruto, Dattebayo, will be halting its subbing of Naruto Shippuuden affective January 2nd 2009. The reason for the sudden announcement, as surprising as it might sound, is due to redundancy with TV Tokyo announcing to begin streaming Naruto Shippuuden English subbed one hour after it has been aired in Japan. Furthermore, Viz Media has also announced it too will be streaming free English subs of Naruto from its website Naruto.com, starting from episode one. The original article can be found here. On a personal note I know that many will find this disappointing, less so with the fact that viewers will actually have to PAY to watch Naruto, but that an era of Dattebayo subbing has come to an end.

Catch us soon.
I will be back within a week to post the first part of my three part special post (god damn thats wordy). But for now, I'll leave you with a more uplifting note.