Please! Someone Kill Sasuke Already

Anime/Manga, Rants and Raves - No Comments » - Posted on September, 7 at 9:44 am

If you haven’t had a chance to read the latest chapter of the Naruto manga, chapter 415, go read it now. I’m sorry, I know the series is all about second chances, especially since Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi want so desperately to bring Sasuke back to the leaf, but his actions are now completely unforgiveable.

It became apparent when he joined up with the Akatsuki that he wanted revenge on the council elders and Danzou for giving the order to have his clan eliminated. Never mind that the Uchiha clan were planning a coup d’etat and that their elimination was necessary to protect the rest of Konoha. Oh no, he had to be the stupid and self-centered child he had always been and sided with the ultimate Uchiha traitor, Uchiha Madara. Still, people were crying that he was still “good”. After this chapter though I think the Konoha would have to be fucking stupid, excuse my French, to ever accept him back into the village again.

So, what did he do? Why, he just used Ameterasu, one of the eye techniques of the Mangekyo Sharingan, to incapacitate the Hachibi jinchuuriki, Hachi Kira. And yes, his group, Taka, have collected him and are returning him to the Akatsuki for extraction. And as they set off Sasuke has some ominous words to leave for the readers “but now…” before he trails off.

Seems pretty obvious to me that this guy is just too self-absorbed and obsessed with power. His so-called bonds mean nothing to him, because even if he acknowledges (which admittedly he does) he has no qualms using them to further his own goals. Not to mention, it’s pretty obvious that he sees Naruto as just another jinchuuriki, another container to collect and extract a Bijuu from.

Even if, for some odd reason, Sasuke turns over a new leaf and refuses to capture or extract the Kyuubi from Naruto, as far as I’m concerned, his capture of the Hachibi is completely unforgivable. My only hope is that since some of the ninjas from Hachi Kira’s village saw it all go down and spied the Uchiha crest being brandished arrogantly on Sasuke’s back, word will get back to Konoha and finally Tusnade will put a stop to Team 7’s attempts to bring him back, if Naruto and the others aren’t disgusted by him themselves. Not to mention, the political fallout that would occur if he was brought back. Hachi Kira, jinchuuriki or not, was the Raikage’s brother after all.

So, could someone please just chopped his head off and pluck out those stupid sharingan eyes already?

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Posted in Anime/Manga, Rants and Raves | No Comments »

WIP: DOD and NASA LASIK Providing Program

ORLY? - No Comments » - Posted on September, 7 at 8:16 am

I’m not the same self-conscious kid that I used to be, back when I first found out I needed glasses, but that doesn’t stop me from really wishing that I didn’t have to bother with glasses or contacts some days. I swear there are some days where it just doesn’t bother, and others where I am very nearly tempted to stomp on my glasses in order to vent my frustration.

I’ve seriously wanted get corrective laser surgery done for a while now, lack of funds and insurance holds me back though. That doesn’t stop me from reading every little of LASIK information out there that I can find though. And after reading some interesting tid bits from ilasik.com all I’ve to say is it’s a shame I’m not a part of the military or NASA. There are a lot of jobs and positions in these fields that require excellent vision as well as others that can strain the eyes. Now, the military and NASA are giving their men and women the same service civilians have been receiving for some time now.

According to Steven Schallhorn, M.D., leader of clinical studies and research for the usage of LASIK conducted for the Department of Defense (DOD), today’s LASIK technology and procedures is the safest it’s ever been.

Today’s LASIK procedure, known as iLASIK Procedure, utilizes two lasers where as its predecessor utilized only one. The single-laser procedure made use of a hand held microkeratome blade. Risky! The iLASIK procedure is much safer however as wave-front technology makes a map of the characteristics in the individual’s eyes and a computer-guided laser creates the corneal flap. After that the second laser comes into play and corrects the vision.

Obviously, if the risks are too great it doesn’t behoove either NASA or the DOD to utilize such a procedure. The fact that this is changing is a sure sign of the high level of safety for the procedure. According to some of their states, out of a hundred military personal, 95% of them achieved 20/20 uncorrected vision or better. I think the sampling pool was too small, however, to give truly astounding results. But the results that were yielded are indeed promising.

Posted in ORLY? | No Comments »

BTT: Peer Pressure

Bookworm, Memes - No Comments » - Posted on September, 5 at 8:23 am

I never did get around to answering this week’s Booking Through Thursday question yesterday. However, when I glanced at it today I knew that I just could not pass it up.

I was looking through books yesterday at the shops and saw all the Twilight books, which I know basically nothing about. What I do know is that I’m beginning to feel like I’m the *only* person who knows nothing about them.

Despite being almost broke and trying to save money, I almost bought the expensive book (Australian book prices are often completely nutty) just because I felt the need to be ‘up’ on what everyone else was reading.

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because ‘everyone else’ was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist? If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it’s your duty to keep up on current trends?

Sadly enough, I’d have to say that yes, I have felt the pressure to read the currently “in” books. Ironically enough, I remember reading and following the Twilight series before it became popular. Very weird feeling. My most notable cave-in occurred with the Harry Potter series however. When the Harry Potter series first started I remember writing it off in favor of series that I was actively hooked on, specifically Laurell K Hamilton’s works. I read the summary for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and looked at the wonderfully illustrated cover and passed on it. I thought it was likely to be aimed more at the little kids and I was heavily leaning in the dark fantasy and horror genres at the time.

It wasn’t long before the series took off and there was a lot of hype around it. I was in high school at the time and I couldn’t help but to be a bit put off by the sudden fad that surrounded the reading of the HP books. Eventually there was a sale in one of those book clubs, one of those buy X-amount and get Y-amount free, kind of things. I remember getting the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter collection in three hardback volumes and being able to get all of the [at the time] current Harry Potter books free. If I didn’t like the books then it didn’t matter. I didn’t spend money on them and I could probably sell them on Amazon or Ebay easily.

But as you all know, I am a big Harry Potter fan, so it’s pretty obvious that I actually fell in love with the series, despite its flaws. There have been other instances where I caved and some where I avoided following the masses.

With regards to being a book reviewer, I try not to follow the trends so much as to review a variety of different books from different genres. I have my favorite genres, that’s readily obvious when you look at the numbers next to each category on my book blog, but I try to provide an assortment regardless. My aim is to find new authors and new books constantly, and by reviewing these titles, I hope to bring them to the attention of the masses.

That’s not to say that I won’t review popular books, I’ve done it several times. However, I try to limit it to books where I feel that I can contribute a different on contrasting view. Despite liking the HP series, I only reviewed one of the books, Deathly Hallows, despite having been doing book reviews on the blog and my personal site long enough to have reviewed at least three of them.

If the book is popular, in one of the genres I read, and I feel my review would differ from the majority that I might have already seen, then I’ll gladly post it. I want to provide a voice that will be heard and not just lumped in with the crowd. Not to mention the fact that no one wants to read the same thing over and over.

Posted in Bookworm, Memes | No Comments »

Replacing the Keyboard

Tech - 1 Comment » - Posted on September, 3 at 12:41 pm

Hey, remember when I mentioned the keyboard going out on me? Well, we had a spare lying around the house that we replaced it with, specifically it was the old one from the old computer. Which means this sucker is several years old - as in roughly a decade old. I was surprised it worked, to be honest. So we’re kind of wondering if it’s going to go kaput as well, and if so, how long it’ll last. Especially since that means that if it does, there is no spare now.

Well, when I was checking out the Weekly Deals at Buy.com I noticed there was a sale on a keyboard and I couldn’t help but seriously consider it.

The keyboard in question is the Logitech EX110 Cordless Desktop. It looks like it comes with a mouse as well, and although the one I’m currently using is working fine, it wouldn’t hurt to have another on hand. I am notoriously rough on mouses. I get frustrated with something on the computer and tend to “bang” the mouse on the table. This usually occurs when I’m growling at the slow loading pages or because something froze up.

But seriously, thus far I’ve had no problems with any of the Logitech products I’ve used so I feel that I could definately trust the brand. Buy.com has it listed at $28.29, and readily admit that other retailers sell it for $24.62. However, after rebates the price comes down to $18.29. That seems reasonable, does it not?

Posted in Tech | 1 Comment »