Given the fact that Viz Media is taking their sweet time with the Hikaru no Go release schedule, I got impatient and decided to read the rest of series online. Numerous manga series have been translated by fans, and the scanned and edited results (known as “scanlations”) can be found far and wide.

Well, I found the Hikaru no Go scanlations, read the whole thing…and boy, did the ending fucking suck.

Not only did Sai disappear without warning and for no apparent reason about three-quarters of the way through the series, but they never explored the “Divine Move” concept, which was central to the plot! Furthermore, the final go match (the Hokuto Cup) was a huge downer, as well. It kept you guessing as to whether Hikaru would win, but when he didn’t, there was really no proper resolution. He said he wasn’t strong enough, wept a bit, and went back to the regular life of a professional go player. Bor-ing.

It’s a damn shame, because Takeshi Obata’s art was flawless throughout the entire series. The US DVD releases got cancelled halfway through due to lack of interest, and I’ve got a feeling the manga releases may follow suit. Not that it matters to me anymore; I sure as hell won’t be buying the rest, and I’m likely going to sell the volumes I’ve already bought. Ugh; what a letdown!

This is forcing me to re-examine the other series I read. I read Bleach online, and collect the US volumes as they’re released; the quality level there has been consistent. The same goes for Fullmetal Alchemist, which is another one that Viz is dragging their feet with. As for series I don’t read online, like Zatch Bell! and Kurohime…I’m wondering if I should bite the bullet and start checking out the scanlations. Kurohime’s been excellent so far, but Zatch Bell! has been getting rather stagnant. What’s the sense of continuing to collect the series, if it’s going to slide downhill and possibly end on a bad note?

I’ll have to give it some more thought.

I recently found out that Carcass has reunited for a tour (sans Ken Owen, due to health concerns). This makes me very happy; my first exposure to the band was their 1993 album Heartwork, and it just knocked me on my ass. (Imagine what happened when I discovered their material from the 1980s!) Absolutely mindblowing British extreme metal, and that helped start me down the dark musical path I still walk today.

Their reunion got my thinking about other bands that need to reunite. There’s actually been a groundswell of them lately, and 99% of them are completely unnecessary. (The goddamn Backstreet Boys reunited. Christ, what is this world coming to?) What we need is a reunion of a group that propelled rock music forward in ways no one can ever duplicate; a true “avant garde” band, whose music is equally important today as it was nearly twenty years ago.

As such, there’s only one band that absolutely, positively needs to reunite:

Faith No More.

Those guys were so ahead of their fucking time, it’s ridiculous. In fact, you go back and listen to 1989’s The Real Thing, and it’s ahead of the time even now. Seriously, nobody else sounds like them, to this day. Every single album was unique and powerful, right up until the very end in 1998 (Album of the Year). While Faith No More’s lineup changed multiple times over the years, I think what most fans would want to see is the Real Thing/Angel Dust-era lineup of Mike Patton, Mike Bordin, Jim Martin, Roddy Bottum, and Billy Gould. They’re all still alive, which is a good start. Most of them are involved in other projects, especially Patton, who’s in about fifty-three different bands right now. But come on; I’m sure they could carve out some time to do a reunion tour. (Hell, I’d be happy if they played nothing but the Introduce Yourself album live, and Patton wasn’t even in the band back then!)

I know there were some rather severe personality conflicts as time went on, but cut the shit, fellas; let bygones be bygones, and give us a reunion tour that will shake the foundations of the planet. And, hope against hope…a new Faith No More record? That’d be the album of the damn millennium, without a doubt.

I’ve been quite surprised lately by the number of complaints about LittleBigPlanet. Aside from the expected bashing due to it being a PlayStation 3 game (there’s still plenty of sheep within the gaming public and press that hate Sony), the big complaint I want to focus on today is the sheer amount of people scoffing at its focus on user-created content.

First, a bit of background information. LittleBigPlanet is a platformer created by Media Molecule exclusively for the PS3. You control little customizable creatures called Sackboys (or Sackgirls), and run around vast worlds solving puzzles, jumping on stuff, and engaging in other platformer fare. LittleBigPlanet also sports a robust level creation system; you can not only build your own levels, but share them online, and invite friends to play along with you within them. Sony is pushing the community aspect of the game very hard, so expect to see boatloads of creative levels flooding the PlayStation Network very soon after the game’s release.

Everything sounds good, right? So why are people complaining? The most common complaint is “I have no interest in creating my own levels.” Okay…so don’t. No one’s forcing you to. That complaint’s counterpart is “I don’t want to play other people’s levels; I want professionally-designed ones!” Did these whiners read any of the information on LittleBigPlanet? The game comes preloaded with plenty of levels from the developer. You don’t have to indulge in any of the user-created stuff if you do not wish it.

The reason I find these complaints baffling is that a vast majority of the complainers enjoy online multiplayer games, which I consider to be user-created content in and of itself. Sure, you don’t build levels, but when you’re playing an online game of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, you’re certainly creating the game experience in realtime. And when you invite your friends to play…isn’t that technically the same as having them run around in a LittleBigPlanet level with you? You’re not constructing the environment brick-by-brick, but you’re certainly creating unique content based on the other players, the ruleset used, and so forth.

Maybe it’s the fact that the Sackpeople just look cute, and therefore don’t fit into the overly violent world of video games today. If that’s your beef, then at least Media Molecule has you covered with this Sackboy, dressed as Kratos from God of War. (You can nab that costume by preordering the game from GameStop, as I did.) If that’s the subconscious basis for people’s problems with the game, then I think need to get outside more. That whole digital machismo makes me both laugh and shake my head, as they’re obviously sad little human beings.

The moral of the story is twofold: don’t knock it until you try it, and do some damn research before you bash the game. LittleBigPlanet looks to be one of those rare games that offers something for everyone, so don’t be so quick to damn it.

I’ve come to the realization lately that movies really need to stop using slow motion and bullet time. We all know that The Matrix shot the popularity of that stuff into the stratosphere, and its sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, made it ten times worse. Since then, slow motion and bullet time have been stuffed into films whenever possible, and it’s distracting at best, annoying at worst. Cut it out. If an action sequence looks cool, you don’t need to slow it down so we can see every damn shard of broken glass!

My brother suggested I do an entry on my first car. Why? Because it was a piece of shit. My first motor vehicle was a 1988 Dodge Aries K station wagon.

Just like this one, except it was gray.

As you may have guessed, it was originally my father’s car. My dad’s always been a big proponent of station wagons; they were convenient for family vacations and such, and they get better gas mileage than minivans. In fact, he still drives one today, and makes use of the storage space when he buys stuff for the house.

I learned to drive on the Aries K. My folks’ other car at the time was a 1991 Plymouth Acclaim sedan, but I was lucky to ride in that thing, let alone drive it. So, the station wagon was my hell on wheels. Allow me to wax poetic on the various quirks with that car that drove me up the wall.

First of all, the air conditioning sucked. Being a station wagon, it goes without saying that it’ll take while to cool down the whole thing, anyway, but the AC in that jalopy wheezed like an old man, and took forever to kick in. The same goes for the opposite effect: the heat. During my winter breaks in college, I’d obviously have to spend the month working to scrape together some extra cash; driving twenty minutes or so in the freezing cold in a car with barely functioning heat is not fun at all. Actually, the heat would kick in…right as I pulled up to my employer. Fucking worthless.

Next up was the sound system, or rather, the miserable excuse for one. The radio worked fine; the cassette and CD player did not…because they didn’t fucking exist! Somehow, this car was equipped with an AM/FM radio only. Being a broke college student, I didn’t have the then-necessary large sums of cash to buy a proper car stereo, so I was shit outta luck. I’m not a big fan of the radio, so you can imagine how much fun drives of longer than half an hour were for me. Not only that, the rear speakers had crapped out some time ago, and they tended to buzz and crackle annoyingly. (I eventually just disconnected them.)

How about the car’s lack of power? It had a straight-four engine. In a small car, that’s no big deal, but in a station wagon…holy shit, was that thing slow as dust. The acceleration was poor enough to annoy other drivers behind me at red lights! Granted, I wouldn’t slam the pedal to the floor, but a little pep would’ve been nice. It got considerably worse when the car was laden down with cargo, too. Since the car was a station wagon, it had a large turning radius, which made pulling into smaller parking spots a real chore. Backing in was impossible, as was parallel parking, but I avoided those whenever possible. (I didn’t even have to do them for my driving exam, and yes, I drove the wagon for that, too.)

Last but not least…the car wasn’t exactly a chick magnet. Personally, I think the amount of value that the common man puts on his car in order to “get” a woman is rather ridiculous, but when your car’s so crappy that the female population snickers whenever you’re seen in the damn thing, then you’ve got a problem.

The car wasn’t all bad; the extra storage space was nice (especially during my college years), and it rarely had any severe problems. The beast finally started to seriously break down in 2001, and by then I actually had the money to buy a new car. (And by “new,” I mean “used.”) I joined the rest of the populace in driving a sedan, and I’ve been able to blend in with normal people ever since.

Do I miss the old Aries K wagon? Maybe a little bit, but then I remember the constant grief that car caused me, and the memories are promptly flushed away. Rust in pieces!