gogmagog | OMG TURTLE POWAR

Yesterday I went to my stepbrother Nicholas' high school graduation. He graduated from Blue Springs High School, which is one of the most ginormous high schools I've ever heard of. I mean, the graduating class of seniors was about 500-600. They had to hold it at Municipal Auditorium in downtown KC (which is like a half hour's drive from the actual school district XD ) because it was the nearest place big enough for it. x_x

It was nice to see Nikko graduate, but since graduations are inherently boring unless you're involved in them (and even then you want the commencement speaker to SHUT UP AND DIE PLZKTHX), I distracted myself by reading the program, which was delightfully suburban. Lots of kids named "Ciara" and "Ashlee" and "Darin," of course...that's to be expected. But then there were the few REALLY weird ones that I loved, like the boy whose middle name was "Glade." XD

But the best part? There was a Brittany Spears graduating. XD

(I feel so sorry for the poor girl. It's not her parents' fault, either, since she must be about 18 and Britney came to power long after she was born, but still it's an unfortunate coincidence.)

Fortunately, there were no commencement speakers; unfortunately, they had two of the top students speaking, and they were...well, "vapid" might be putting it kindly. The first gave a speech about how graduation was like this one episode of "Ninja Turtles", and proceeded to give a series recap for all those "not in the know" and then episode specifics to support his claim that the Real World is like Shredder, and we must all not be afraid to let our gigantic rat sensei save us. (Or something to that effect.) The second gave a much more traditional speech, comparing high school to a marathon, but (despite her impressive record of academics and activities) still came off like a brain-dead bint.

...They all seemed so YOUNG. And I guess it's only gonna get worse from here, huh? x_x

ANYWAY. As for my more fannish hobbies, I've recently discovered the manga Sgt. Frog after hearing glowing reviews of it from

surlykitty. It is everything she said it was, and it is now one of my new favorite series. (I'm so a cross between Tamama and Fuyuki.)

I also beat Digital Devil Saga. Seriously, I thought I was pretty overpowered Mantra-wise (if a bit underleveled), but I won basically because I was lucky enough to randomly equip the skills that meant I learned Black Sun (the most powerful combo attack in the game) at the beginning of the penultimate boss battle. As it was, I had issues with the last boss' final form - while I wasn't taking too much damage (since both Serph and Heat had Null Phys and Null Element, and Argilla had Null Element), Black Sun was only doing about 200 damage per hit even post-Ragnarok. Finally I just got to the point where I used Black Sun repeatedly to kill off the repelling crystals surrounding Hari-Hara, then used a Power Charged Executioner with Heat once I'd taken out the Physical-repelling crystal. Then she'd resummon it, and rinse and repeat about a zillion times. I used all my Great Chakras, but I finally beat the bastard.

The ending was overall not too bad (though I cringed at the cheesiness of Sera and Serph's Titanic-esque "No, I can't let go!!!1!" scene). My mom said it was a piss-poor ending that just stopped abruptly to set up for a sequel, but I think she was expecting the wrong things from it. She was figuring, I think, that the ending would be like, I dunno, Star Wars, where each section may be part of a larger story and use the same characters, but still tells an independent story and so has a clearly defined ending. It's actually more like Lord of the Rings, where you have one big story and so it does just kind of stop at a logical spot to leave a cliffhanger to make you want to get the next one (which I do).

Anyway, I didn't save because I'm going back to my last save so that I can take on all the optional bosses and get the SEKRIT MANTRAS. Then I get to go through all this again, and then go through a second playthrough so that I can master all my Mantra for everyone and then fight the SUPAR SEKRIT BOSS (the hero of Nocturne, a.k.a. Tattoo-kun) for bragging rights. x_x

Let's Positive Linking!
- More fun links from ProgressiveBoink.com: an essay on how Family Matters was actually like Fight Club, and an essay talking about Nietzsche and his implications for S Club 7.

- I officially love the good men and women of the magazine Der Spiegel for their no holds barred interview with Tom Cruise about his ~~clambaking~~ Scientologist proselytizing. (Link from

jokersama.)

- See, people asking for money on the street can be funny! (Link from

pekeana.)

Edit: Because this is quite possibly the best rendition of ~~Megatardrama~~ unnamed fandom drama there is.