obscure simpsons references are still made of win. lookin' at you, fishbulb.

futurama's writing is much more clever than the public at large gives it credit for.

talent means nothing without inspiration.

inspiration doesn't mean much without talent either.

rammstein = awesome. rammstein singing in spanish = hilarious.

THIS IS SPARTAAAAA!

having an imaginary friend doesn't mean you're crazy.

talking to your imaginary friend doesn't mean you're crazy.

talking to someone else's imaginary friend might mean you're crazy.

inside jokes are f*cking great. (blocksex. lol.)

sonic > mario

downloading music/movie/games is, in fact, theft. don't try to justify it, just enjoy your ill-gotten swag and deal with the fact that you're a thief.

serj tankian has a beautiful man-voice.

it's not mean if it's hilarious.

canaries can learn to sing from anything. mine occasionally ring like a cordless phone.

neither dogs nor cats are as smart or intuitive as their obsessive owners seem to think.

rats are more nteresting anyway.

jesus and elvis have more in common that you may realize, think about it.

batman >>>>>>>>>>>>> superman.

sacrilege can be hilarious.

there's nothing wrong with a little shameless self promotion.

i rock.

avatards need to get over themselves. spongebob is funny, and occasionally rather clever.

clancy brown voices both long feng and mr krabbs.

bleach geeks need to get over the fillers. anime =/= manga. deal.

falling in love is a form of insanity.

falling in love is wonderful.

falling in love is horrible.

if you're old enough to sign up on myspace, you're too old for myspace.

remember coolio? where'd he go?

remember sisqo? neither do i.

"man" makes for a hilarious adjective.

it's better to be loud than to be short.

it is an ill wind that blows no minds.

dream by day.

so i read the spoilers quite a while ago, but i still decided to watch the finale of avatar today. i had hoped that it would all be executed well. that it wouldn't be as stupid as it sounded. no such luck.

first off, i have to say that zuko's confrontation with iroh was very well executed, a real "d;awww!" moment. but more importantly, azula was easily the highlight of the whole event. i knew she was gonna lose it, but i coulnd never have predicted just how loopy she would get. she went a whole new level of batsh*t insane and it was absolutely glorious.

but plot-wise, those were honesly the only good points. it all went to hell in a handbasket. now before you write this off as teh bitter ramblings of a disgruntled zutarian, let me say that despite being all for zutara, i would have been ok with any ending IF it was well written. but they didn't even write an ending, they just slapped one on, and it was bullsh*t.

the last few minutes honestly felt like they were tacked on by a bad fanfic writer.* they jsut didn't fit the rest of the story. we get a cliffhanger on ursa at teh end of the show? what the hell? you end an episode on a cliffhanger, not an entire series.

second, the maiko ending, it was bad enough that mai suddenly grows a heart in the boiling rock when she didn't even flinch at the idea of leaving her infant brother at the mercy of enemy rebels when she was first introduced, but zuko didn't even bother getting her out of prison. you'd think that if you're in love with someone, one of the first things you'd do when you take the throne is have them released from prison, but her creepy transvestite uncle was the one to let her go! (that's right, i know i'm not the only one who thought the warden looked like a hideously old native american woman.) he had no idea she was even out shen she showed up, and this fact didn't seem to trouble her in the least?

and the kataang ending, how the hell do you jump from katara's 'gtfoff me' moment in the ember island playes to her suddenly realising she's in love with this hairless prepubescent boy? i'm not saying 'zomg she should have picked zuko,' i'm saying they didn't write a kataang ending, the attached one to the end with no story, and no resolution.

and while i'm on the subject, the ending completely ignored everyhing guru pathik said. 'you must let her go if you are to unblock the final chakre and master the avatar state.' that is, unless you poke the magic charka reset button. what the hell? all that intense spiritual meditation and sacrifice was jsut replaced by accupressure. and he pops into crazy elemental gyroscope of doom mode, and even then ignores everyone's advice and throws together the most contrived and poorly written excuse for an ending since the invention of the "it was all a dream" device. for a fight that started off with such impressive action, it had a horribly weak conclusion.

i say all this not from the perspective of a shipper, but as a writing point of view. the ending ships, among other things were quite frankly, poorly written, and it's a disgrace to take what could have been an absolutely gorgeous show and sh*t all over it with such a weak conclusion. as far as zutara goes, i will say that it undeniably would have fit into the story perfectly after zuko took a bullet for katara, but that's just something i would have liked to see. the presense or abscence of zutara wouldn't have detracted from the story as a whole the way the points above did.

that's my review of the avatar finale. you're more than welcom to comment, but if you're jsut gonna whine about me insulting your precious cartoon, take it to your own blog. avatards have a way of getting way too defensive whenever someone doesn't hail the show as the greatest invention since penicilin. it was turning out to be a brilliant show, but with a crap ending, my final review is that as a whole it was mediocre at best.

i will add, however, that suki is the sh*t, and azula is easily one of the top 3 best villains of all time. i don't even have a top 3, but i know she's up there.

*i'm not saying fanfic writers are bad writers, btw. but we all know there are some really bad fanfic writers out there. you know the kind i mean.

so i finally have the lineups decided for those 2009 pinup calendars i've decided to make for no good reason.

Jan: Izumi Curtis (Fullmetal Alchemist)/Inuzuka Kiba (Naruto)
Feb: Jill Valentine (Resident Evil)/L (Death Note)
Mar: Shego (Kim Possible)/Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing)
Apr: Haruhara Haruko (FLCL)/Kimihiro Watanuki (xxxHolic)
May: Suki (Avatar: The Last Airbender)/Gambit (X-men)
Jun: Peach and Daisy (Nintendo)/Grimmjow Jeagerjaques and Ulquiorra Schiffer (Bleach)
Jul: Jessie (Pokemon)/Daisuke Aurora (Heat Guy J)
Aug: Aisha Clanclan (Outlaw Star)/Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Sep: Suzumiya Haruhi (The Melancholoy of Suzumiya Haruhi)/Hagi (Blood +)
Oct: Harley Quinn (Batman)/Batman (Batman)
Nov: Fran (Final Fantasy XII)/Vincent Monroe (Bizenghast)
Dec: Neliel Tu Oderschvank (Bleach)/Koizumi George (Paradise Kiss)

june, being the predominantly gemini month, gets two chicks/studs for the price of one. in case you're wondering, no i will NOT be drawing the adam west version of batman.i can finally get started with the actual drawing process now. w00t!

narrowing it down wasn't easy, but them's the breaks.

for those who don't know, batman: gotham knight was released yeasterday. it's a collection of six integrated shorts by six different animators, all taking place between batman begins and the dark knight. they were GORGEOUS. absolutely brilliant. so i'm gonna rant about them now.

SPOILERS!!!

the first film, have i got a story for you, was a sort of foreshadowing precursor to the other five. it's basically some kids telling their colorful accounts of their encounters with the batman that day. each of their descriptions shows him as something supernatural, a living shadow, a human bat, even a robot. in the end he busts through the window fighting the same random baddie he was fighting in all theirstories, and the real deal is shown to be quite human. he arrives battered and bleeding. that'll happen when you fight someon all day. he still kicks ass, of course, with the help of the only kid present who didn't already have a story.the point is the remaining films follow a similar theme.

the second short, crossfire, shows batman in all his legendary glory. being unnaturally awesome in every way, saving cope, beating down criminals. he's depicted as superhuman, not jsut a man, but a legend. unstoppable and indestructible. in field test, he passes up the prospect of becomming quite literally bulletproof, guns and bullets are a bit of a theme here, because the deflected bullets are a danger to those around him. that's the turning point.

the fourth short is in darkness dwells, and it features a couple of animated favorites, the scarecrow and killer croc. he still has that theatricality about him, but he's not untouchable. he's wounded, and poisoned but, being the badass he is, keeps kicking ass, fully aware that he's losing blood and the scarecrows toxin is affecting his mind. at one point gordon asks if he's in pain, to which he responds, "i work through pain."

working through pain is the title of the fifth film, and it shows batman at his most human. he's injured, bleeding, and limping through the sewers of gotham trying to get to the surface. the real stry takes place in flashbacks to his training in india, where he learns to deal with pain. he learns what he wanted, from a mysterious woman, by the time she's done with him he doesn't even flinch when a 2x4 is splintered on his head, but the focus in the end is on the pain she couldn't help him with. he makes his way to a sewer fent where he finds a gun in a pile of garbage. he starts digging through it finding more and more guns. alfred arrives to rescue hi, but when he reaches down and says "give me your hand, batman is standing with his arms full of guns all he says is "i can't."

the final short brings back an old-school villai. deadshot expands on batman's obsession with guns bringing in a villain who specializes in assasinations via unbelievable accurate stiper fire. the last story really brings things around. he's kicking ass again, dodging bullets and generally being the hardcore badass he is, but we see his humanity in there too. he gets shot. he bleeds. but more importantly, he talks to alfred about guns. about their allure, almost with a sense of respect. and about his own obsession, saying that he always seems to be trying to stop those two bullets.

the target edition of the one-disc set (the only one i found T_T) alsoincludes the first two eps of batman beyond, which tie in beautifully. as many of you know, the night bruce wayne retired the bat suit, it wasn't because he was too old, of because he had a heart attack and was nearly beaten to death with a wrench, it was because in that moment of desperation, he pulled a gun on someone. i love it when a story just comes together like that.

END SPOILERS

notes:

have i got a story for you/working through pain: by the animators of linkin park's breaking the habit video (in very distinct looks, though)

crossfire: by the animators of ghost in the shell.

field test: by the animators of noir, tsubasa chronicle, and .hack

in darkness dwells/deadshot: by the animators of death note(also very different looks)

ok, i'm done babbling now. enjoy.

unrelated foreword: thanks, STQ, for all your little additions on my last blog. awesome stuff, really.

i'm a huge fan of VH1's 'i love' series. nearly 100 hours of geeky nostalgic b-list goodness, 30 of which are dedicated to the 80's alone. awexome, no?

but honestly, i love the new millenium? can we at least finish the decade before VH1 starts loving it? we need time to forget things before we can remember them. maybe i'm just an optimist, but i'd like to think our collective attention span hasn't degraded to the point where we need to be reminded of something as recent as clay aiken or pirates of the caribbean.

don't get me wrong, i'm still watching enthusiastically. i'm just saying, it's seems kinda silly to reminisce about and american idol and weakest link so soon, and gems like oops i did it again and who let the dogs out are still too freshly annoying for me to appreciate them for their camp value.

many of you already know that george carlin died of heart failure yesterday. i truly admired the man. he will be greatly missed.

Carlin on death

electron: particle of matter
positron: particle of antimatter
photon: particle of light
crouton: particle of toast

i love me a good salad, i really do. and croutons add texture and deliciocity, but how the hell are you supposed to pick them up? it's hard to impale them on the fork, because they tend to simply break in half. it's hard to scoop them up with a piece of lettuce already on the fork. the only easy way to get them is to scoop them up by themselves, but that completely defeats the purpose of integrating them into the salad in the first place. you might as well just have them in a little bowl on the side if that's what you're gonna do. i think i'd just be better off eating my salad with chopsticks than a fork.

it's still worth the effort, of course, it's not like eating a salad with croutons is particularly difficult, it just seems to me that it's more difficult than it should be.

so america's best dance crew is finally underway. i was juggling between soreal cru and asiid based on teh auditions, but super CR3W won my heart today with their crazy ninja b-boy action. that intro was flippin' sweet (no pun intended*) so they're now my current fav. discuss.

*okay, maybe a little

Leon Morado is spanish for purple lion. obviously i use a purple lion as my icon, my symbol, my coat of arms, if you will, for reasons explained in the wall of text about 8 blogs ago, right above the corn statemen (which still stands, btw). not exactly a clever gag, i know, but i like the fact that leon's an actual name. i can actually use this as an alias, should the need arise.

where's your name come from, and why'd you pick it? and the same for your avatar?

i'm gonna go sit in front of the air conditioner while you guys answer that. *combusts*

i like my hat. it's a dark grey denim patchwork fedora style hat with a skull and crossbones embroidered on the front right, designed by peter grimm. i got it at hot topic, and i've added some subtle accessories to it. a pac-man button, the rock lee ipod spoof button i got at last year's AX (i still lol @ iRock), and a very dia-de-los-muertos-esque shoelace i've carefully sewn onto the 'ribbon' part. being patchwork denim, it didn't have a proper ribbon to speak of.

to those of you wondering why characters like urahara kisuke or indiana jones are seemingly so particular about their respective hats: if you find the fight hat for you, you'll get it too.