Season 7B is going to be upon us. I call it 7B, not the second half of Season 7, simply because every good final season is split into two. Breaking Bad. Mad Men. They’re all doing it. It’s all the rage now, a term which probably dates me back in the 20th century. Oh well…

There are a few things I need to get off my chest. First, this is probably going to be the final blog post, like ever. It doesn’t really make sense for a twenty year old to still be blogging, not as if I was still writing much, but dammit, has it been fun. But with the series finale looming, I guess it’s time to have finality to what was a crucial aspect of how I grew up. So yeah, this is the final blog post. Until I post another one, because when you say you’re never going to do something, you inevitably do it. Law of the universe. Up there with smelling when someone says “Don’t smell” and burping or farting at the worst times. The latter might just be me.

Secondly, I liked Red. Wasn’t better than Fearless, but I preferred it better than Speak Now, but not by much. There’s a distinct listener fatigue when you listen to her songs, but at least it doesn’t fall into the lyrical issues Speak Now suffered from.

Thirdly, I have made many allusions to the series finale, an ongoing thing that has hatched from my mind for seven years. It is one that I genuinely believe in, and not just me making a joke about how much of a TV geek I am. And right now, it’s Act 3 of Act 3. There’s a certain finality impending, and while I know life goes on, this series is ending. There will be many more, but it’ll never be the same. And I want to make this final season count. It’s already looking like it’s going to be an awesome one.

One last round. Here we go. Beyond!

Thank you.
– Tokyo Disneyland Busted! –

Here’s a cryptic blog post that you may choose to decipher any way you see fit. You’ll either understand, or you don’t (No shit, Sherlock).

It’s a case of arrested development. Season 6 finally had its reunion episode, but honestly, it did not deliver on any of the hype. It was more stalling, yet, ironically, it provided more closure beyond anything the draggy episodes prior had provided. It was a nice, albeit inconclusive, ending that, as anti-climatic as it was, might prove to be the end of this five season and a half arc. Only time will tell.

The first part of the mid-season finale then was the closure, while the second now seems to be the reboot. There was some prep work done to ease people in during the earlier parts of Season 6, but I guess the higher-ups decided that a fresh cast was needed. Oh well.. That final half, especially February sweeps, should prove interesting.

Beyond!

“If there were a late-night comedy show completely run by comedy writers, without any interference from a host, producer, or network, that show would probably be called The Darkest and Most Impossibly Horrible Things You Can Imagine, Presented as Comedy. Every sketch would end with a gunshot or an infant’s stroller engulfed in flames, and the show would be canceled halfway through its opening titles. That’s because most comedy writers are so inured by humor that only the most shockingly toxic ideas can achieve the proper velocity to penetrate their indifference.”

– Conan Writer Todd Levin

I’ve been spending the better part of the past 36 hours trying to break a children’s drama for a module. Every time I shoot an idea I have, my fellow group mates deemed it too morbid. Complicated. And they were right. Fact is, so much of what I, as a writer, think when I’m creating a universe is what obstacles a character faces that, after a while, you become desensitised.

Truth be told, I’m in the midst of toning the story down. My philosophy as a writer is to break characters to their lowest points before rebuilding them. But that does not work for a kids programme. Children are easily moldable creatures. They take things at face value. If something is fucked up, they will believe it is fucked up.

So, in trying to create a somewhat messed up universe, what I realised I have to do is to create one that is impossible to happen. One which kids know can never exist. I really need to get going and finish up the treatment, but thought I should share this. Beyond!

Hugs & Kisses =)
-Tokyo Disneyland Busted!-

WWDC has come and is still going on, but as a consumer, Apple’s Keynote has addressed the 3 most important things at the conference – New MacBooks, Mountain Lion & iOS 6.

The new next-generation MacBook Pro is absolutely lust-worthy. The 2880×1600 screen resolution is simply insane on such a small 15.4″ display. However, it is the innards of the new Pro that prevent me from getting it.

It isn’t Apple’s fault, but Intel’s 3rd generation of i7-CPUs, Ivy Bridge, isn’t the revolution that the 4th generation Haswell will be. My MacBook Air is still going strong, though next year, once the new Haswell-enabled MacBook Pro comes out, I fully expect to jump on board.

Mountain Lion? Meh. Still rather ticked off by it, but really, I don’t think the PC industry can really evolve at this point. There comes to a point where you iterate rather than innovate, and I think that’s what Apple is doing with OS X.

Do I think Apple should follow the Microsoft route and release an integrated OS for PCs and tablets? No, not really. I’m of the opinion that the Metro UI is shoehorned into the PC version of Windows 8 to get increased developer support rather than to add any substantial functional uses, but Apple does not need to do that with the iPad’s insane sales.

Then comes iOS 6. Apple missed several boats with this release from my standpoint, but people don’t see the big picture with releases like this.

Siri adding an insane amount of language support is important to reach to a larger market who might not know how to use a smartphone. With Mandarin & Cantonese support, I can’t wait to let my grandparents try Siri out. It is the kind of thing that brings people into technology, and while most other pro users, including myself, don’t use voice recognition services, it draws people who were previously afraid of the complexities of technology in thanks to natural speech recognition.

Oh, and Siri being able to find sports scores is insanely useful. Right now I bring up the LiveScore page when I wake up, but now, I actually think utilising Siri would be faster and actually useful.

Oh, and Apple ditching Google for their own proprietary Maps services was a bad move on their part, because they have not gotten a feature-for-feature likeness of the current iOS Maps app. And by features, I mean transit navigation.

Look, that is the only reason why I use the app, and if it’s taken away, it’ll cause so much more trouble for me. But Apple pulling the trigger now makes sense from a business standpoint. Too much of iOS is based around Google technology. Maps, YouTube and to a certain extent Mail. The more distances itself from Google, the better.

From a daily user-standpoint, iOS 6 could have been better. Opening up a Widgets SDK is a much-needed, and not delivered, feature. The ability to send text messages via Notification Centre is still missing. Tons of little stuff.

I’ll touch more on my thoughts on Android in another post, because that was is currently being written and is insanely long and nerdy, but for now, Beyond!

I like being average.

When you’re on top, you have nowhere to go but down, and sooner or later, you’re going down. Even if you don’t, you just have this immense pressure to be the best, and that really reeks.

And being at the bottom just sucks.

Beyond!

I’ve never read a single page of The Hunger Games series, and as such, all my impressions will be based on the movie, which if applicable (I really have no idea) also applies to the book. Unlike my previous analysis efforts, no attempts will be made to conceal spoilers. Read on only if you have seen the movie.

*START SPOILERS*

The Hunger Games is the type of movie that I love. It was a fascinating character study that worked in tandem with the plot rather than have both elements be independent. As  such, it was an absolute joy to watch, even if I had several complaints.

My favourite aspect of The Hunger Games is quite simply the character development of the various tributes as the game wore on. The human psyche always plays a crucial role in any work of non-fiction, and here it is no different. At its crux, what the games was is a study of people, who come from various walks of life, with different ideologies and beliefs, put in a identical situation.

What I particularly enjoyed was Katniss development throughout the game proceedings. In the beginning, she wasn’t looking to kill anyone, despite it being last man standing. The scene where she notices the fire as she sat on the tree at the start of the Hunger Games was poignant, because it was a chance for her to advance further in the game, but she chose to remain on the tree. Her motive was to win, but her character wasn’t so much willing to kill for it.

There were also many instances where killing an enemy would have been easier that Katniss didn’t jump on, which I appreciated, along with the fact that her solitary kill (Before the final battle) was in self-defence. It helped that final battle, when she shot Cato, in an attempt to save Peeta, because it was the moment when she realised that it was indeed a zero-sum battle.

Katniss’ brilliance lies in the fact that she is human. Between saving Peeta and her emotional attachment to Rue (Which conclusion led to an absolutely brilliant scene), to the self-sacrifice to save her sister, Katniss’ character was one that was fully realised, somewhat of a rarity in movies nowadays where characters don’t grow beyond their initially established traits.

With that said, The Hunger Games would have made an absolutely brilliant TV series. While I understand that the movie would make infinitely more money than a six episode television run, I believe that it would have salvaged arguably the weakest part of the movie, which was its plot.

In truth, too little was established despite the film running 142 minutes. The ending felt rushed beyond belief, while many key plot points were confusing as hell. Why be worried about sponsors when, in reality, it only came into effect twice. So what? Only two people out of the apparently insane amount cared enough to sponsor Katniss despite her being so popular? Why did the Capitol decide to suddenly change the single victor to a double victor only to revert their decision? And furthermore, how did Katniss know that the Capitol would rather have two victors rather than none, after showing a lack of aptitude for the whole situation just a couple days before.

It is the little things like these that annoy me about The Hunger Games. I love so many aspects about it, but while it teases a bigger picture and a bigger conflict incoming, I find myself lacking interest in it because of how little I actually know about the whole situation. It sets too much up but doesn’t include enough substance in any one of them.

But even saying that, at the end of the day, what makes The Hunger Games stand out is this insane character study that is presented. How the tributes’ actions were looked at by so many people with so many different layers to explore, and how their every action that happens in the game can create a domino effect outside it.

I know of at least one plot point that the book touched on that the movie did not mention, which would have made the movie that much more better, but even then the whole movie is still a masterclass on this front, and it will be the reason why I’ll be watching Catching Fire when it comes out next year.

*END SPOILERS*

Beyond!

Kony 2012 isn’t going to work. I’m sorry, but that’s reality. Yes, I firmly believe that Joseph Kony deserves to be stopped, but saying that it has to happen in 2012 is just setting yourself up for failure.

With the American elections set to happen at the end of the year, it is obvious that politicians hoping to be in the Oval Office want to seem that they are championing a cause that many voters feel passionately about. This, however, creates an illusion as to what is really happening, and what will happen post-Election Day.

Truth is, the Obama Administration cannot afford to be aggressive in their hunt for Kony. Not at the risk of American lives without results. That’s campaign suicide.

As the documentary stated, the USA has sent around a hundred soldiers to facilitate and co-ordinate, not actually go into the field, to find Kony. This number pales in comparison to that of the amount of troops that went to Iraq, and for good reason. Kony isn’t a threat to America.

Financially, it does not make sense too. Why fund a capture that does not directly affect your country when your own country is severely in debt? It’s not that Kony isn’t a menace, but the American Government needs to think about the interests of their own country rather than that of others. It is, after all, their job.

Then you have to look at the future ramifications that going aggressively against Kony will invite. It will spread a message that the government will bend towards the will of the people rather than make unpopular, but right, decisions.

Going forward, post-elections, how much effort will be out perusing Kony? Very little, if any at all. This #stopkony mentality that people are on now will slowly dissipate, and with it, the USA’s interest.

Even ignoring the political aspect, actually finding Joseph Kony will be a challenge in itself. We do know that the L.R.A has access to the Internet, and would without a doubt take extra precautions to protect himself from danger.

How long did it take to find Osama Bin Laden? Just shy of a decade, and he was the most wanted criminal in the world.

While I’m not saying that Kony will take as long to be found, it does raise the question – How do you expect to find Joseph Kony within a year? A man who has a 30,000 strong army. A man who, despite his evil, is ruthlessly smart.

I believe that putting the message of Joseph Kony’s actions out there is a noble cause, and should be done. However, Kony 2012 won’t stop him. He’ll simply hide away in the distance.

Before I end, I think it’s best that I state my stand on Kony 2012. I believe it’s wonderful the support this cause is getting and I’m behind it 100%. While I don’t think that Joseph Kony will be in custody by the end of 2012, for the reasons I mentioned above, I firmly believe that more awareness about the situation can only be a positive thing.

So yes, support Kony 2012. But once 2012 passes by, don’t simply forget about this. It’s going to take a long-term effort to stop this tyrant.

2012 is going to be a big year. No, not because of the impending apocalypse. No, that’s not real, but if it was, I’ll revise the previous statement.

In case you could not tell, the blog has been updated rather infrequently over the past year. No excuses, just pure laziness and, to be honest, lack of content. But I decided to do something different, change up the way this blog works. Ooo.. Twist.

Yes, my normal blogging style is going to be changed, somewhat. You’ll see. Post #1 of the new style will arrive Friday, or Saturday if I’m too exhausted to do everything. It’s going to be a departure from my previous posts, and a gimmick that will probably wear me out by Post #0.5, I.E. when I’m writing the first entry. Either way, it’ll be fun, I hope, and hopefully this marks the start of me actually writing stuff on this blog. Beyond!

Hugs & Kisses =)
-Tokyo Disneyland Busted!-

A yearly tradition for this silly blog
On New Year’s Day, I rhyme, not talk
It was a year to remember in some ways, to forget in others
Along the way I’m sure I ruffled many feathers
Also last year I didn’t blog much
For my one reader, I seemed so out of touch

But oh well, 2011 is behind me, and I leave it with glee
Unfortunately with it, leaves some depressing memories
I’m speaking of the homework that awaits me when I awake
Oh, the horror, I really can’t take

I kid, somewhat, to make this rhyme longer
To make this post not quite so sombre
2012 is upon us, as apocalypse awaits
“We can’t stop it!” they say, “It is our fate.”
To them, whoever they are, I say get a brain
This year won’t be filled with regret and distain.
For 2012 will be awesome, I can fill it in my bones
My hands and my fingers, as I type on my iPhone
It has already started great, and I say it with no irony
If I had a band, I’ll play Beethoven’s ninth symphony

But alas, this post has to come to an end
Know that I’ll always love you, my reader(s), family and dearest best friend.
May 2012 be the year we strengthen our bond
I had to write that line in to end with a Beyond!