HaramKutta's Xanga

"This title is copyrighted (c)" - My brain

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:18:23 GMT

Random thingy weee bang boing flegistratazaizor!

Seriously, if we follow the course we're headed with right now, we might as well dismantle the internet and return to smoke signals.. If a bunch of lobbyists and lawyers can force their mindset through bills passed in foreign countries (and "democratic" such), then something's really f*d up (yes even more than previously believed).

Our current Prime Minister said in one of his campaign speeches "We don't want to criminalize an entire generation", and a few years later with him in office, our privacy has been sold for a few extra yachts and penthouses.

The debate is betweem those who think internet is off limits to copyright laws and those who think that filesharing copyrighted material is a crime. I personally agree to some degree with the latter, with an important difference. Sure if an artist has produced an intellectual piece of work then he/she has the right to be rewarded for it everytime someone uses their work. So far so good. From the LP, Audio Tape, CD, (mini-disc) to the mp3 we certainly have come a long way. A person no longer has to go all the way to a "record store" (dunno why they're still called that...) and pick up an overpriced (yes they are, especially if the record company eats the bigger share of the cake!) album in a cd/dvd format. Today we have an advancement known as le internet (woow..). Which enables the user to d-o-w-n-l-o-a-d (wiki this "bombastic" word if you're not familiar with it) files from the internet, such as audio, video et.c. Now since the entire music industry is built around the (less green!) circular plastic disc with a hole in the middle, the new change has come as somewhat of a shock to them.

It would be wrong not to mention "pioneers" (not rocket science tbh...) as iTunes or Spotify (and a few other small fish) who do take advantage of this "new" convenient/cheaper/greener/smarter technology.

The problem is, they are basically alone in this market. And from the wikipedia economics I know, if a market only has one or two major players. They have something called m-o-n-o-p-o-l-y, which let's them set basically any (within reasonable bounds ofc.) prices. And despite the negative connotation to the word, they have achieved monopoly thanks to the old farts sitting at those titanious record companies who haven't felt the new tide of change yet. Once they realize (and not Amazon-like "oh and we have a few songs you can download (wooow..) from our site (cool huh?! :)" ) this is the way to spin, iTunes will have something called c-o-m-p-e-t-i-t-i-o-n. Which in turn will force them to lower their (now actually increasing .. ) prices. And this legal method will suddenly be a more realistic option. No need for these expensive witch hunts any longer. Use those funds into kicking in the extra brain power (clearly) needed to launch your own iTunes-like services.

With the new Ipred law in Sweden, the "anti-piracy buraeu" celebrated a 40% drop in internet activity the day after the law was set in motion. I'd like to ask them: "before you pop those champagne bottles, check how many percentage your record/dvd sales went up with?" I smell boycott in ze air!

I apologize for the "whine" lately, I hereby swear an oath to return more random and nonsensical from next week! So everyone, well its really only one person from Colorado that seems to read this smudge, stay safe and lock your ips!

Jya na~

now is forever?

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:08:07 GMT

There comes a time in a person's life, when one begins to wonder if all this agonizing struggle day in and day out is actually doing anything. Or if the future is out of one's hands, and ultimately the road map carved on your forehead will be followed as if it was a new cab driver's gps instructions. Will the castles made of sand drift into the sea eventually ? (Hendrix - respect)

I like to believe that the future is solely the result of actions prior to it, these actions aren't always made by a conscious being (i.e. nature). For instance to build up a monstrous metaphor, imagine all actions; small, big, smelly, life altering etc. etc. to be waves. So if one starts such a "wave" today, it might be forgotten and ignored as an insignificant event. But in fact like the shark in the Jaws movie, it has been sneaking right beside you and once you're caught of guard the "wave" turns into a "tsunami"-like reaction or not.

So far all is easy to follow, what makes this rather lame metaphor into a, multidimensional simulation of reality is the fact that you're not the only whose making these "waves". Actions of other people also resonate towards the future and together form more complex reactions. Some might be intentional, most aren't, to further build on the "wave" concept one might say: some waves amplify each other and thus grow in strength; some waves are completely orthogonal and thus are utterly unaffected by each other; and some phase shifted so that they cancel each other out. But most fall in the broader " somehow affect each other"-category.

Some people think they don't hold the joystick of their fate in their hands; that there's a grande or otherwise plan laid out in front of them, all they have to do is to match their feet into the footprints marked out in front of them. whilst others argue that you're the only person who with hard work, a jug of sweat and a bag of (non-donateable) blood will be the sole contributor to your future. Then there's those who think, although we dont have a joystick that can take us exactly where we want to, we still have the control over the rudder of our ship (with sails and the whole shabang) which we can try to steer with or against the winds that ultimately decides our destination (ok that made me puke a little, but I had no choice..)

Uh my pasta seems ready, catch you later?

(Unless your neighbour decides to pick up his mail on his way back instead of his usual morning routine, and thus allowing the local mail thief who incidentally chose this unorthodox day of your neighbour's to stick his grubby hands into his mail box and unknowingly picking up his lab results from the check up he went to after feeling a sharp pain around his liver last week thus unknowingly causing his urgent ambulance visit two days later when the pain was so unbearable he collapsed right in front of you when you were on your way to shop some groceries which made you call the earlier mentioned ambulance and accompanying him to the emergency room therefore ultimately missing my next post which coincidentially happened to be on the same day ...)

Ain't life complicated?

Jya Na (?)

Iguana?

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:39:31 GMT

The world is your oyster.. grill it and serve it with piping hot rice!

Uisu, chisu, gokigen ikaga desu ka? ~
Thought I should swing by to drop my top 10 pool of j-dramas. I say "pool" and not "list" since depending on your mood, stress level, breakfast or nail cutter's sharpness.. each one can be argued to be better than the other. So without any further ado, brace yourself, 'coz within each one of these glistening pearls lies a secret. A secret so cunningly wrapped in a shroud of simplicity and subtle deception, that the observer at first might mistake these epic pieces of art for "any other tv-series". It pains me, inspite of the somewhat cushioning quotation marks I so loosely tend to throw around, to even describe them as ordinary tv-series... I tremble with trepedation as I set out to name these grand masterpieces of this age: *deep breath*

1. Spy Kids (no ofc. not ..)

The real list:

- My Boss My Hero
- Papa to Musume
- Nodame Cantabile
- Nobuta wo Produce
- Kekkon Dekinai Otoko
- Tokkyu Tanaka
- IWGP
- Kisarazu Cat's Eyes
- Tiger and Dragon
- Pride

can be found @ www.d-addicts.com. Now go, be freee~... seriously my neck is killing me.. must pay a visit to the workshop.. gotta tell the doctor I need to replace some of my oil.. I mean.. no, I'm not a robot.. how old are u? I'm a cybo...*everything suddenly turns dark, and I mysteriously loose consciousness only to wake up not remembering anything that happened just 30 minutes ago . . .*

AnyhowlingSoLoud I'm feeling sleepay!
Jya mata nee~

pssst...pssst...

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:59:31 GMT

*whisper* don't tell anyone, under any circumstances, that I was here... especially not to that grim looking dude with a Yankees baseball cap some people call "life"... he's a bother.. to say the least...or is "he" a "she"...dunno...hard to say these days..

Well anywho, as you might have guessed, and correctly so (good job), that I had to sneak here to once again add my few bytes, and if you're lucky and I upload a big random picture, kbyte(s) to the internet..

So what's new on my end of the hemisphere/mountain/lake/town/building (depending on where you are..) ? Well besides me being hunted like some bad guy on 24 by Jack Bauer and his trigger-happy friends by an armada of school work .. not much really (which partly explains my tardiness in writing a new post... that and the fact that "life" wasn't looking the other way for all this time... ).

I've started my Japanese classes as well, so that's kewl. Kinda blows that there's a 6 month gap in between each level .. and since people in Sweden have (for some odd reason) stopped speaking Japanese... I don't get the opportunity to keep my own level at it's sharpest.. So I have some serious reviewing to do now!

In the world Japanese Dramas, it seems like (bizarelly in parallel to the economic crisis) these are dark times.. since there are no "epic" series coming out this season .. just some random "hey I'm in a boy band and that's why I'm automatically qualified to be an actor" - series jumbled up in cliché plots of the tried and trusted hospital elite weird "I'm not so good yet but wait until episode 7 when some random old guy's words will turn my sloppy hands into hands with robotic surgical precision, the type of hands that once were whispered only in legends" or "the typical school friend scenario, where people meet each other by accident and somehow simultaneously get the sudden urge to solve mysteries together (and of course they are rich as Arab oil sheikhs) where someone by the 34-35th minute will get in trouble and the protagonist will run half way across Tokyo to show his cool idol ninja moves that no yakuza gang members stand a chance against (nope, not even if they are 20 and twice his body size)"..

Being the J-drama junkie I am, I'm still compelled to grind something of the "nippon"-tongue, and thus the dramas: Voice and Kami no shizuku seemed like they could be skimmed through.. somehow... I know they still are of the cliché kind that I just rambled about... but what choice does a Japanoholic have in this dark hour... "it wants to be found"..

*suddenly looks up, sharpening his hearing* :o Someone's coming this way... he found me! Gotta scram.. until next time.. I'm safe nowhere these days !

Jya mata!

happy holidayz!

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:03:00 GMT

I don't mean to make flashy entries, but somehow once I realize that my entry has turned into an entry of the flashy kind.. it's usually too late and thus it might seem that this is a conscious habit of mine .. when in reality it's nothing other than my drape swinging behind me, as I soar the skies of randomness.

So 24th December hmm.. what's so different about this day from all the other days? Well, if nothing else.. then it's the birthday of Sant...I mean Jesus according to the Christian belief! But what baffles me is all the decorations I see around me on the way going from my neighborhood to a shopping mall. They don't really convey to me that this is the day the Lord of a religion was born. How do I know this? Well... unless Bart Simpson or Donald Duck are reincarnations of the Great One.. something clearly is amiss.. And no this isn't an attack on commercialism, but more of a "5 min waiting for my train" - pondering about how religion quickly is absorbed into culture and tradition. And before one notices the Biblical (or for that matter Quranical(?)/Tora'ical(??)) significance takes a backseat while, the "fun bits" remain in the foreground as the focus of the holiday. Which of course, is only beneficial for the sales of products/services related to that particular holiday. Oh darn, there's my train, can't think anymore about this - finally I can numb my brain with some soothing melodic death metal spewing out from my headphones.. Maybe next time I have to wait for my train I can pick up from where I left off? Who knows?..

Until then (or even sooner :o!)

Meari kurisumasu (merry X-mas) and happy new year to ye all!

the calm before the storm ..

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:51:08 GMT

is what I could call it and use it as an excuse for my recent absence .. but such actions are against my principals (at least on Mondays..) and thus I shall give you the truth. Its simply school swinging it's scythe at me and therefore I've been ducking from the rest of the world for these past few days. But fear not, I shall return - shortly. Ahh *a shriek of agony* (excuse the undramatic spelling of my cry but I promise to work on it once I return in full form!) there goes the bell/gong. Time to run in my hamster wheel (aka. school work) again..

jya mata!

Wow you’re still reading this ..

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:48:19 GMT

Aaaand we're back... well more like I'm back.. but sometimes I count as two... but only momentarily just before I fuse back into myself again..hmm..ok now that I've mind boggled you a little, let's move right along to this "smudge's" main topic! (which I just came up with while writing this). Anime and Japanese TV series!

So yeah.. I'm somewhat of an admitted anime/Japanese TV serial junkie. In my "prime" I've been known to juggle 20+ of these series simultaneously and thus sacrificing my nocturnal slumber at the altar of Japanese genius.

Here’s a list of my top 10 recommendations (anime):

1) Hunter X Hunter

2) One Piece

3) Naruto

4) Code Geass

5) Bleach

6) Soul Eater

7) Death Note

8) D-Gray Man

9) Rurouni Kenshin

10) Hellsing

I’ve recently started watching a new anime that goes by the name Toradora (as most of them, based on a manga with the same title). To be honest its not my usual genre of anime, but you’ll see what I mean if you give the first couple of episodes a chance. It’s rather entertaining in the way each character’s personality has been presented. Give it a try, you won’t be sorry!
Next time I’ll whip up my top 10 drama recommendation list for you. So look forward to that!

Jya na!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas (?)

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:56:54 GMT

Greetings carbon-based bipeds!

Scratch what I wrote about our first (yeah I wrote "first our snowfall", if you happened to see this and sniggered a little, you can't see it but I'm frantically waving my index finger back and forth at you!) snowfall in my last entry, 'coz when I woke up today this is what I saw through the window of my bedroom:

Pretty neat ey ^^ - sure it is, but try going to school in that weather 5 times a week 7.30 in the morning ;).

Through the Dark

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:28:42 GMT

So today we finally(?) had our first real snowfall (yaaay~! some would say..) and it blew (double meaning). Ever felt your eyelashes turn into icicles dangling down your eyes and the rest of your face turn so numb that the first thing you have to do once you come home is to stick your head into your fire place? Yeah imagine that and then multiply it by 273.

And to all you people who think this is just a whiner with no sense for the "prettiness" of a snow covered landscape perfect for the Christmas season - I hope your deckchair snaps in half and that Piña Colada in your hand lands on your head while a tsunami on that beach you're sitting on hits you head front! Trust me, it looks a lot nicer on a post card!

Having said that, snow isn't all bad once it stops blowing (yesh, still double meaning).

In other news, a song from the last minutes of the latest House episode kinda stuck in my head. But for some reason I cant find it anywhere on Le net !? *agony* After some tedious research I managed to find this incomplete version of it --> Apparently Alexi Murdoch (the singer) hasn't released it on cd/mp3 yet. It's not my usual music genre to be frank, but for some reason the mellow acoustic guitar strumming and soulful singing just worked for me. I'll be looking forward to the album/single release!

Before I forget, ye who haven't already, have to watch Death Race. It's by far the most satisfying hour and half you'll spend in your entire life - seriously. And if you're thinking "sounds like another one of those brain dead action flicks with zero plot and greater emphasis on explosions, fast cars and hawt chicks" - it's exactly what it is AND more. It takes that widely appreciated theme on to the next level (yes believe it or not, there is another level!). For those who enjoyed Jason Statham in Crank, you'll adore his latest frantic "obliterate everything that come in my way"-installment.

And now my beloved nabla operators are starting to feel lonely again and require my tender curling (sry, it's a very lame math joke.. but that's probably superfluous?)

Until next time

Jya na!

fukkatsu! (rebirth)

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:03:09 GMT

What goes up must come down (that's what she said!..). Sorry about that, not even sure how that's relevant to anything about anything.

Aaanywho.. after being dead for the last half year (or more?) I've decided to return to the mortal realm.. *almighty laughter*. No seriously, there's no excuse for my laziness .. m(_ _)m moshiwake gozaimasen ! ( like (I’m sorry)^∞ in Japanese). The reason I’ve decided to resume (“that’s what you said last time” sssh..! read first, comment after!) writing random stuff here that 3 people (not me, myself and I .. that’s just lame) per Britney Spears scandal read (yeah I wish..), is because I’ve suddenly come to realize that I’m losing a lot of my English. Like today for instance, I wasn’t even sure (I’m still not btw.) if “Now there’s two of them” or “Now there are two of them” (ß my vote) was the correct form.

This hiccup has made me realize that since I’m not being exposed to the English language on a daily basis, except for perhaps listening to some podcast or watching a news bulletin from time to time, I’m going to be retar’ – sorry linguistically challenged (?) at English before I know it (perhaps already am .. no way to tell really o^).

So for all those devout fans of mine, rejoice, coz’ a new era has come to this dominion of random blabber (partly due to no good Japanese drama series this season… sssh!..)

Oh yeah, I had to write “0 + 0 + 0 = 0” twice in math class today… made me a little sad :(.

until next time!

Jya na.