Carlos Was Here

New Year 2012

2012-01-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

New Year has arrived and a lot of deep thinking has been in place since November. Old dreams re sparked and faded, new ideas and people came and went as well.

I've changed a lot during the past years, not necessarily for the better I would say but change is good. It is the one thing you have full control over, at least for the most part. I came to realize this not long ago, and have since then taken minor initiative to take control of my life and myself. There are 4 categories to work on. Finance, Social, health and Self. Two of this which I will attempt to focus on this year.

Health.

As can be clearly seen I am not the healthiest of the group. Any second now I can actually go under Cardiac Arrest but then again any second now a stray bullet from space could crack my skull open as well. That is the rule I have lived by for a while now. And while it may be an absolute truth, it really is not an excuse to live so carefree at times. Health should be my primary focus ths year. In a matter of 1 month, back in November I lost a cool 20lbs on a competition (which I won btw). Since then, I seem to have found them again. I must try once more, with high aspirations this time.

Self.

In the past 6 months, I have been able to concentrate a lot of effort into my SELF. Something I had neglected for a long time. Things like my personal image to improvement of the mind and skills and even adding more experiences to my life. The work for this has already started and should resume at the pace it has been going.

Social.

I have made it a point to surround myself with good people. At least people I feel have mutual feelings/respect towards me. Something I have never ever really accomplished before. I've been out on a few dates, something I had not dared to do for a while now, out of fear. My lack of social experience with people that are not coworkers or neighbors has shown me one thing though, and that is I can be a Dick at times, but not purposely, just a clumsy dick. I am glad my friends can definitely understand that and just move on. Definitely something I hope will improve with time.

Finance.

Short of getting another job, there is not much I can do to increase that salary. Heck I feel I might not even have a job in 3 months if things resumes the way they are in the office. I have done my best to maintain a balance in this field and it has definitely been one of the hardest things to do, considering all the change happening.One thing is for sure; and that is that I am nowhere near where I was financially last year. Let's hope it remains that way.

Sometimes, I sit down and miss the old me, life was simpler and depression can easily kick in, but then I see where I am standing and see that there is plenty of hope and opportunity moving forward. Here's to me being the best ME I can be before December 2012.

Bucket List V3.1415

2011-11-29T20:59:00.001-08:00

December is just around the corner, starting a beginning of the end for this year. Come next year, my clock is due to have been beating for 3 decades. It seems like such a small time but much has been done. My book has opened and closed so many chapters that I can't even remember half of them. It's funny to look back and see how much you've changed but how just how much has truly remained the same.

A few years ago I made a set of goals, many unattainable wishes but some that required time and strategy. Lately I feel I have actually completed most of that list and it feels great to know that I have managed to go through it before hitting the deadline of 30. The only logical next step now is to create a new lists, giving myself another decade to fulfill, but unlike the first time I am finding it quite complicated to do.

Sad to say, I feel as if my ambition has been drained, I no longer feel to have certain things, I just want to be. The joke in all this is that I wish to do more, I just don't know WHAT MORE! can I do with life?

Getting the new YOUTUBE layout

2011-11-20T03:45:00.001-08:00

1. Go to Youtube.com
2. Go to Tools - Developer Tools
3. Click on "Console"
4. Paste the following
document.cookie = "VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE ST1Ti53r4fU "; 5. Reload Page.
6. A Winner is YOU!

Cursed Seal

2011-09-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I decided to willingly mutilate my body for the first time by getting my very first tattoo. And as you can see from the picture on the left, it looks to be healing up quite well. I've been wanting to get one for quite some time now, and thanks to a little nudge from a friend I got over my procrastination and went through with it.

First I would like to say, there was NO pain at all. OK, maybe a bit of discomfort and every once in a while it felt like I was being quickly being pricked by a hot microscopic poker for .0000002 seconds, but a bee sting hurts more. The one pictured took about 1.5 hours which flew by rather fast, thanks to good conversation.

I have never been to another tattoo parlor before but I would like to say the artist was pretty professional. He would constantly explain step by step what was happening and why he was doing certain things. The only downside to all of this, is not being able to donate blood for a year.

If your an anime fan, you might just recognize what the tattoo is, and yes I understand I placed it in the wrong location. For those who do not know, the tattoo is from Naruto. This symbol (Seal) was placed on the should of one of the characters (Sasuke) by one of the bad guys (Orochimaru), in an attempt to control the fate of Sasuke's future. Thanks to some quick thinking a counter-seal was placed around the original seal. Enabling Sasuke to control the effects of it and make his on fate. Not to get too deep into the story, Sasuke to date has become one of the most powerful characters in the story.

So why did I choose it? In the story, the seal not only gave Sasuke control over his own future but it opened up his eyes to his own weakness. He reminded him that while he is a genius at what he does he is light years beyond what is out there, and so he decided the only way to remedy that was to gain even more power. The seal was the fire under his behind, and without it he probably would've been great but nowhere near his true potential. Putting anime to the side, the symbol can also be identified as a Ying/Yang which is balance. Overall I feel these are things that I need of myself in order to live a life worth living. Ambition/Power/Control and a balance between all 3. I placed it in my left forearm to be constantly reminded of that, as I type, as I reach out for something, as I do anything with my dominant left hand.

You can find the Naruto Manga here.

Attempting to learn to play the Guitar!

2011-07-31T22:06:00.000-07:00

Just me attempting to play the guitar. Ill be a pro in another 20 years or so. Also, Note to self, close your mouth when you are thinking hard.

Epic Beer Commercial

2011-06-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Caught this beer commercial on youtube the other day and was instantly in love. Definitely plays with my emotional love for many things 80's, including night right, the A team and rock and roll.

Soapbox Derby

2011-06-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

This was pretty cool, on my way home from the AnimeNext convention this year, I decided to take a stroll around the train area and caught this. As a kid I always wanted to build in one of these things, they are super cool. To add the whole racing feeling there are even speedometers at the street corner telling you how fast your car is going. If I ever have a kid, we are definitely gonna have to build one of these ^_^

AnimeNext 2011

2011-06-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

I had a good time at the AnimeNext convention this year. While I did wish to do a lot of things I did not get to do all of them but that was ok. I got to meet and see some very cool and interesting people. The convention was definitely much better organized when compared to previousyears but from what I gathered it showed where withering or refining anime culture is at.

Friday:

Unlike previous years, the first day of the con was actually pretty mild for me. Normally I would expect lines to be extremely long with people waiting to get their badge. I also expect at least 1 badge design to be all out, as it has happened in the past 3 years for me. But arriving at 3 as I always do, I was pretty much able to stroll on inside, get my badge and be on my way.

After a quick stroll and recon I did my ussual gather at the hotel room to access the gathered data and create a plan of attack/schedule. The con got a bit high tech this year and offered a scheduling application for my phone that worked quite well, and would remind me when it was time to move onto the next event scheduled.

The first thing I noticed is the lack of panels from major company's like Bandai or even Funimation. I always enjoyed these as I could question about plans for future anime's and of course they always give out cool free swag like dvd's and manga they are promoting. Instead I noticed a lot of fan made panels, many I still wanted to attend to. I kept chilled for the remainder of the day, taking some pictures and just looking around. Did not even go to the retailers section.

Saturday:

I was in shock, I expected the amount of people to pickup but it seemed like the people who did not come on Friday gathered with the ussual Saturday crowed, the place was packed. I woke up early and hit up the schedule, going to various panels such as Anime Vocabulary, Animating from home and Learn to read Japanese.

All the panels were great, I learned some new vocabulary, and got some tips on voice acting and editing your own videos. I also found it surprisingly easy to translate Hiragana and Katakana characters to romanized sounds, which then I would translate to english, although I did not appreciate the people who already knew how to read Japanese answering the questions in meer seconds, not allowing the amatures to have time to translate themselves. In between panels I would hit up the Retailers where I managed to buy a ton of stuff. And finally I ended the night by spending a while over at the Saturday Night Rave. It was hilarious watching an older lady constantly ask guys how old they were, so she would be caught with a minor.

Sunday:

Sunday is packing day, and not much ever really happens on this day. Wake up late due to going to sleep late and you are asked to be out of hotel room by 12 so, best you can do is concentrate on getting ready to leave. I went over to the retailers and bought myself a few more things and called it a day by 2pm where I took the shuttle home.

In comparison to previous years, you can definitely see the maturity of this convention. The organization of panels and locations were very well done, schedules were kept and even the equipment worked without a hitch. I was upset about the lack of many major entities and the lack of people on Friday, but come Saturday my hope for this convention surviving came back again. Next year would make year 6 for me I believe, I can't wait. :)

Click Here to see the crappy pics I took.

Everybody Chromercize!!

2011-05-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

Got my Chromersize finger bands in the mail today, now my fingers can exercise with style :)

Egg Nests

2011-05-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

Egg's Nests/Eggs in a basket, the first time I ever saw this type of thing was while watching V for Vendetta. Apparently it is a common english meal. In the movie one of the characters cuts a circle in the middle of a slice of bread, he then proceeds to throw it in a buttered pan and dump an egg to fry in the midle whole. You can say this is the healthier alternative, as for starters it is baked and requires no bread of any kind. The instructions can be found here. It is a cool, fun and extremely easy recipee to try.

In the future I'd like to try a few different things with it. Since the egg whites are so moldabe maybe use a gingerbread cookie cutter and shape the egg whites into "egg-men". Or try to dye the egg yolk different colors, possibly based on a season or event.

5-Minute Chocolate Cake

2010-06-01T03:30:00.000-07:00

Originally found here. This is pretty Cool. I have already tried it twice with small variations on the recipe. Since its so easy and fast, it lets you try out various flavors until you reach the one you like. So far I have done basic vanilla and chocolate with chocolate.

Another Day

2010-06-01T01:39:00.000-07:00

Today, just like yesterday, tomorrow and any other day, life goes on. Those deadlines that are catching up on you. Those disappointments from the past. Those terrible predictions for the unknown future. They do not matter. With or Without them, life will always goes on. What should matter is the NOW. Absorb and learn from your surroundings. Make the best of what you have. So your past is filled with joy, your present is filled with comfort and your future is filled with hope.

Anime Invasion Hits US Theaters

2008-04-19T06:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while now since a live action Evangelion movie was announced to be in the making. Sketches and even actors were annouced, but no new production information has been released, personally I think the project was killed. Which would suck, as Eva. is a kick ass story, that would make a great live action film, as long as you hire the right special effects company.

Next comes Dragonball, I first heard of this movie when they were scouting for locations to shoot the film in, over in canada. The movie has already started filming in fact, and while the cast might seem a bit funny, I am still hoping this does not become another street fighter movie.

Finally, today I was actually thinking it would be cool if they made a live action Akira, unfortunately I've yet to hear of any production for this. So I will have to settle for the next best thing. It appears as is DreamWorks studios has taken it upon themselves to start production of Ghost in the Shell. Even co founder of the company Steven Spielberg seems to be exstatic over this project. If it comes out to be anything like transfomers, I can expect to wet my pants many times. For more info just Click Here.

So why all these new american live action adaptations of Japanesse anime and manga? Most likely, hollywood is running out of comic book super heroes to make movies for. I should add these in the next update Ink to Flesh list that is coming up.

Its not just 1 manga, it’s a WHOLE LOTTA MANGA.

2008-04-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

I believe I had mentioned on a previous post just how much I have been reading manga lately. Maybe it's old age, or maybe, just maybe it could be the huge conveniences that come with it. For starters, manga compared to anime, are smaller downloadable files, meaning quicker to download. And in a world where you get your internet capped, for just about anything. There is huge convenience in downloading the same story in text form in a matter of seconds, oppose to a matter of minutes/hours/days. So why bring all this up?

I was browsing around the other day and found OneManga.Com, and while this concept is not 100% original. I found that this website implemented the ease of reading manga, quite well. It almost felt like I was reading the manga with one of my favorite manga readers.

But the implementation is not all, the library of manga hosted and organized for free is just as great and updates are on a regular basis. I've been able to catch up on my favorite manga that I was behind on and most likely will replace having to download my manga (Bleach, Naruto, HXH, Gantz) over this page and save me some hard drive space.

Yakitate!! Japan! Finally makes it to Food Network.

2008-04-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, cable tv's Food Network, had a press conference announcing it's new anime block for kids. Between 3pm to 6pm. Along with some original programing, older episodes of Elmo with the Frougal Gourmet, I was surprised to hear to very familiar names. Those being Cooking Master Boy and my ever favorite Yakitate Japan.

It seems food network has secretly licensed both shows themselves from TVTokyo and will be using its own food network stars to voice the characters. I'm not so sure, just how they are gonna pull this off, hopefully they can voice act as well as they can cook. Master Griller Bobby Flay has been placed to voice Azuma Kazume, the rest of the cast will be voiced by chefs like the ace of cakes and Rachel. I hope this does not ruin a good show.

Over all I so excited that anime has finallly made it to one of my favorite tv channels to watch, and over all that it was one of my most favorite anime's to date. Oh did I forget? It starts today, April 1st. Already set my dvr to record it while I am at work, I will probably give out a review later. Hope everyone enjoys it.

Happy Birthday to me.

2008-03-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, 1 more day and I shall finally reach the tender age of 26. Being 25 was not so bad, I quite enjoyed it. It did get a bit sour towards the end though, but no worries. Let us hope I have a better 26 than a 25.

For those who don't know, tomorow, will be saint patricks day. Here in new york they always have a parade on that day, which is great, cause I just make belive the parade is of course in my honor. Best way to gas yourself up on your own birthday, I always say.

So anyways, so far this week has been pretty heavy, lots of smash smash smash. Got most of the characters unlocked already. I'd probably have more of them unlocked if I weren't playing online so much. Oddly enough I still have no friends added to my friends list, so if anyone is interested, just holla me your friends code and I will holla back mine. I just wanna warn ya though, if you don't like getting shocked by 100000000000000 volts of electricity, coming from a little mouse. I suggest you don't bother to challenge me, as I would just whoop your ass anyways. :)

Confirmed for the Ultimate Coolness.

2008-03-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Super Smash Brothers: Brawl has finally come out and god dammit I want to shed some tears of Joy. This being the only reason I bought a Nintendo Wii, after countless delays and tons of teasers, I have finally been able to play with this work of art. The game came out tonight with a midninght release on gamestop, but I have been playing it practically all day due to some internal connections.

I do not believe there is anything more that can be added to this game to make it any better. The character lineup is great, and it even has Internet. Internet was the first thing I jumped into, while it did take a while to find some users (most likely due to the game not being released yet). When I did manage to find other players, the game went through without any problems, I even got to see the bot switch in person.

Anyone has a friends code they wanna trade so we can kick some ass let me know. I'm going back to my game now.

Happy Birthday Kirby.

2008-03-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Seeing as we are only two days away from the release of one of the greatest games ever made. I will try to post game related posts until release date. That being said, let us start with the Kirby Bday Cake, this cake is definitely not a lie but it might suck you it.

While not much information is actually provided about the cake itself, it is fairly obvious this cake will satisfy even the most hardcore kirby fans.

Source

Objection!! For Great JUSTICE!!

2008-02-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

Finally, the latest line of the Phoenix Wright series has been released. While I have not gone to the store to buy it (which I will in a week), I have at least managed to download and play it for a while. Currently I am about to end the second case, which is not so bad, considering I have only been able to play it at 15 minute intervals since its release the other day.

One thing though, and maybe I am wrong, but the storytelling has completely changed. At least for me, the type of humor being used is not as wise and funny as the on the original titles, so most likely a new writer was hired to write up the new characters. To my surprise Phoenix Wright has done a bigger appearance in the game than I expected.

Phoenix, being of age 33 has been a retired lawyer for 7 years already. Meaning he retired at the young age of 26, the funny part being he has a 15 year old daughter, which was never ever mentioned in any of the other games. And so far I have not seen any mention of any of the other original cast, which I am hoping will make at least guest star appearances.

Anyways back to my game, write to you later.

I want me some RAWBERRY PowerThirst!!

2008-01-24T08:04:00.000-08:00

Creating a Simple Video Animation.

2008-01-24T08:02:00.000-08:00

The most recent picture I have added to my myspace page has brought a few people to ask me how it was done. So I figured I'd do a quick explanation.

For starters you will need some kind of video device to record for you, for my image, I used my own cellphone. Some people are lucky and their recording devices can save automatically as .gif image files, but unfortinately I was not one of them. My phone uses windows mobile 5, thus it saves in .WMV format.

Not all hope is lost though, once you have recorded your small video into a video format, you can go to a site like Media-Convert and have the page automatically convert any of your vids into .gif files.

Be very afraid, I can see everything you do.

I should warn you though, ny vid was 386kb in size but increased to 5mb once converted to .gif..

Finally, something that can top Wrestling and the UFC.

2008-01-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

All this guy needs is a betting system and he's on his way to become some kind of Gambling billionaire. Every wanted to know who would win in a 1 on 1 fight? A mantis or a grasshopper? A scorpion or a Shrimp? Well now you can find out, by going here. This guy has posted lots of videos portraying our favorite bugs in an all out battle to the death. Hint: never bet on the Mantis.

Oh the AGONY

2008-01-16T18:18:00.000-08:00

Why?
WHY??
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY???????????

Nintendo has again delayed shipping of Smash Brothers Brawl, to yet another month. The new release date is March 8'th. No specific details were mentioned as to why the delay, but hopefully it will be to add something bigger. Dammit I could've programmed this game faster than it has released.

On side news, at least I will have more time to play Apollo justice (Phoenix Wright 4), since it is due out sometime hext month.

Build your own Flying Spaguetti Monster.

2008-01-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

I am sure all you Pastafarians out there will love this.

Along with the link comes a great recipe on how to create your very own Flying Spaguetti monster for you to worship to.

‘Tis a Sad month for Anime.

2008-01-10T19:13:00.000-08:00

It seems that anime has mellowed out a bit from the mainstream lately. We have a long time anime distributor shut down in december and now two branch anime medias from ADV seem to be going under as well.

For whatever reason, The Anime Network has completely discontinued its 24/7 service and gone back to it's roots of on demand. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to experience the channel, other than on demand. And while it was good, the channel only had adv licensed anime, they needed more diversity IMHO. I am still a paying subscriber, even if I do not actually watch it on a regular basis though.

Now, Anime magazine, Newtype USA has announced it will stop printing starting next month. I subscribe to newtype when it was first released, and while the price was a bit high, I did enjoy all the extras, like dvds and posters. The magazine had a short run of about 5 years.

Both media's, owned by ADV I believe have gone down in the first month of the year, maybe it is a sign of ADV liquidating its assets, either to build a new company or to try to stay in the same ground it stands on.