crazygonenuts

Pope Hilarius was, of course, the funniest of all popes... His humor was a beacon of light in the church during an otherwise dark time, converting many barbarians and heretics with his stand-up comedy.

Not that I'm advocating vandalism on Wikipedia. But this is pretty funny.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.

C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (1960)

Subject line: Téa, Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged episode 25 "Dirty Dueling"

Okay, so I know I've whined about Skyward Sword a lot, but I just (FINALLY) beat it tonight and I may have teared up a tiny bit at the end. Maybe.

By the by, I wasn't kidding when I maintained that I did other things with my life a few weeks ago. They're just not as Internet-shareable as "lolz gaiz check out my opinionz about this vidjagame." (Dibs on that blog title.)

Just a little Leap Day note that these are two films I have enjoyed recently and perhaps you will, too:

1. The Secret World of Arrietty. This was a lovely movie. It was a tad slow-paced, but I had no complaints. Once again Studio Ghibli has succeeded at making a world I just want to crawl into and live for a while. The attention to detail in the animation, especially the differences in scale (and paying attention to physics!) between the Borrowers' world and the human world, was just breathtaking. Also, I thought the English dub was rather well-done. (Can I just say that Amy Poehler is an amazing actress? I'm so used to her as the loveable Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation but I could barely tell it was the same actress that was voicing Arrietty's mother.) And Cécile Corbel's music was just beautiful. (She's stepping into shoes normally filled by Joe Hisaishi, so that's saying something.) I want to see this one again.


2. Departures. I've been meaning to watch this one for a while, a 2008 Japanese drama about an out-of-work cellist who accidentally becomes an undertaker. It's won multiple awards (including an Oscar) and has a soundtrack by my favorite composer (Joe Hisaishi) to boot! And it was well worth the wait. Slow-paced, but again, no complaints. It was just a lovely human story about life and death, with likeable characters and the perfect balance of pathos and humor.

That said...

Obligatory nerd rant re: Arrietty: Lately I've learned to make peace with Disney's usual practice of plastering its name all over any Studio Ghibli release in America. Yes, it's annoying, and, yes, a lot of Disney's corporate practices drive me insane, but let's face it: the Disney name has a lot of influence here in the States. (Studio Ghibli, not so much.) So I'll concede that it's a necessary evil to get people to watch it who wouldn't otherwise.

However, there is little to justify the use of Bridgit Mendler's fluffy pop song "Summertime" instead of Cécile Corbel's original music at the end of Arrietty's credits. I mean, come on, Disney. "Cherry popsicles and sand in my toes"? None of those things was in the movie I just watched.

Okay, Skyward Sword, the recent discovery that Guays legitimately poop on Link slightly mitigates my dissatisfaction.

I swear, I do other things with my life.

Ah, Skyward Sword. I want to like you, I really do. Your level design is, as always, top-notch. Music, amazing. Art style, gorgeous. (I can forgive the ducklips.)

But something, something must be done about your protagonists.

Your titular princess, for instance. What was her name again? Starts with "Z." Can't remember. Anyway, are you aware that she essentially spends the first part of the game emasculating Link, expressing almost no confidence in his abilities to do anything? And then you expect me, the player, to find her a sympathetic enough character to go along when she disappears and it is suddenly Link's ONLY LIFE GOAL to find her?

And then the whole way there Link gets castigated again by pretty much everyone plot-significant and gets called short a lot, while Zelda is apparently living it up, taking baths everywhere, and being called Your Grace. And then when he meets her again she basically admits she used the fact that he is blindly loyal to her to manipulate him into risking life and limb for some supposedly awesome destiny that is still too cool to be revealed to him. And Link still drools over her. Why?

Could you give her, like, one flaw? Just one? Just have one person, anyone, not unquestioningly accept her royal/sacred/awesome destiny? Because she's pretty close to being a Mary Sue. And, as the supposed motivation for Link (and, by extension, me, the player) to continue his quest, that's not a great thing to be. It just makes Link seem kind of lame and whipped. And that makes me start to not like him as well.

Please. This is the only incarnation whose clothes are simple enough that I feel like I can cosplay her.

Today at work while typing up an address I realized you can't spell 'Sacramento' without 'ramen.' Man, I was actually at a ramen restaurant in Sacramento like two weeks ago; ARGH, why couldn't I have come up with that then??

In other news, I have decided to name my GPS Fi, because she sounds almost exactly the same (except she speaks actual English and not Banjo-Kazooiespeak) and is just about as helpful. (See this brilliant comic for a relatively spoiler-free concise summing up of Fi's character and function in Skyward Sword). I was on my way to a weekend retreat at my very-rural summer camp on this past weekend and she did NOT like the route I was taking. ("When possible, make a legal U-turn." Five seconds later, "When possible, make a legal U-turn." Five seconds later, "WHEN POSSIBLE, MAKE A LEGAL U-TURN." I swear, she was getting louder like that, too.) But last time I listened to her (on the way up to camp for an afternoon worship service last month) she took me through what I could swear was actually someone's private vineyard, so BITE ME FI; I AM GOING TO TAKE THIS POTHOLE-FILLED FORESTED ROAD THAT I ACTUALLY KNOW WILL LEAD ME TO CAMP.

Happy eighth birthday, my LiveJournal! I decided to celebrate with even more trivial anecdotes from my daily life.

As someone with virtually no Internet audience, it's really cool to see all these huge blogs and companies teaming up to raise awareness of (and opposition to) SOPA and PIPA. Not since the TSA-mandated gropings have I cared so much about something political.

Happy New Year! (And to think, I was just getting used to it being 2011.) Lots of hopes and dreams for this year, and lots of things I desire to do differently or leave behind.

In other news, I woke up at 2 this afternoon. I suppose some things never change.

Subject line: wakka wakka

So Skyward Sword is beautiful and amazing and epic and it is abundantly clear how much time and love and effort the development team poured into this game. The art and music style is like Ghibli meets Zelda. Gorgeous.

More importantly, for the first time in Zelda history, you can also make Link fall asleep on a toilet.

THIS IS THE GREATEST GAME EVERRRRRRRRRRR