Two more trips to the manga store. The first was to get one volume of the most awesome Berserk manga (for the outrageous price of 14 euros). Sadly they just stopped making the anime precisely when the story was picking up, so now I have to continue following it in manga form...
The second trip was for me and my friend Fredy to enter in the ever misteryous world of Magic: The Gathering. Yeah, joke like a kid in the store:
- What? You're going to start now? Lol... - Yeah, how long have you been playing? - Since...August...
Yeah, you sure are a pro compared to us...
Anyway, after years of marvelling at the ever intriguing nature of those cards, we finally decided to make the jump, mainly because now, not only can we play with each other, but we can go to said store and play with other folks who go there precisely to play Magic (they have Friday Night Magic tournaments there). Besides, it's always damn fun to socialize with others from our kind. Yeah, contrary to popular belief, gamers and animetards ARE sociable.
About Magic, we only started playing now, so we still kind of suck at it, but for beginners I actually think we're learning pretty fast. Just yesterday me and Fredy played 3 games for the first time and they were actually pretty fun. Ok, except for the second game, I couldn't, for the love of god, manage to get a fucking land in my hand. At least with my deck I could conjure spells with just one land...
My good friend Fredy just brought this to my attention. See the picture above? And the one below? Apparently they were found in some guy's Hi5 (fred, who was it, by the way?). They may look ordinary at first glance, but the funny thing is, see that (badly done) skull graffited on the wall? That's my work! In fact, the first graffiti I've done, a kind of experimental work for the big one that came after. The world is indeed a strange place, I would've never have thought that a lot of years after it would be on the web...
Because Elvenking is such a fucking awesome band I felt the need to post more of these guys. Since for some reason I need to listen to some music while I type my book (50 pages done, BTW, only 250 more to go!) I went ahead, grabbed their whole discography, and I got to tell you, it's pretty damn good. My favourite album is still Two Tragedy Poets and my least favourite is also still The Scythe (not that it's bad, just not as good as the rest), but the others are pretty good in their own way, too. What you're (hopefully) listening is The Regality Dance, from their first album, Heathenreel, and below you'll find Another Haven, from the second album, Wyrd. Enjoy!
Some time ago I heard about a comics and manga shop here in Aveiro called Secção 9, but, busy as I was with my studies, I never got around to search for it (and when I finally did I couldn't for the love of god find the damn thing). Yesterday all that changed. In the company of a friend who happened to know it, we searched the city's darkest alleys looking for that hallowed place, and guess what, we actually did it! Man, that place rocks. Hard! For some time I thought I was in fucking heaven!
That place has everything, from manga, to american comics, to graphic novels and more indie stuff, to action figures and board games! Thankfully I was prepared, with 20 euros in my wallet to spend as I pleased, and I almost spent it all. The first thing I bought was the surprise of the day. You see, once when I was a kid I stumbled upon a graphic novel that was awesome as hell, but as the stupid kid I was, I never memorised the title. Needless to say, I spent the last years searching for the damn thing, but with only a vague description of the content I never went too far.
But yesterday all that changed. Not only the guy there was able to recognize it from my vague descriptions, but he also had it for sale! Fuck yeah! Turns out it was called The Mercenary, and it's as awesome as I remembered it. I bought all the 6 volumes he had.
But I needed something else, something Japanese. I was getting short on money, and didn't have enough for the Berserk manga. A Naruto volume was more affordable, but they didn't have the first volume. Just try to guess what I got...
A fucking Shonen Jump! That's right! This beauty is the american version of the weekly shonen jump, the biggest manga anthology magazine published in Japan, and they had last month's issue! Fuck yeah! Now I'm officially an otaku! And it feels so good... :D
Because everyone loves lists ant top tens (or top fives in this case), I thought of going back and seeing what bands made the best music this year. Here it goes, in no particular order:
Eluveitie - Slania
I can't recommend this album enough. A fantastic blend of folk music, heavy guitars and growling vocals more common in the heavier sub-genres of metal, this cd just blew me away. In fact, I think that, despite it being released earlier in the year, I still listen to Bloodstained Ground and Elembivos pretty much everyday. Truly spectacular songs.
Mudvayne - The New Game
A late entry in the year, this album is the successor to a personal favourite of mine, the amazing Lost & Found released back in 2005 (and which sadly brings back some bad memories along with the awesome music). Overall I didn't like this one as much, despite the overall sound being the same (still a departure from the first Mudvayne albums), but it still has some good songs. I personally love Scarlet Letters, which ironically is somewhat beautiful and tragic at the same time.
Slipknot - All hope is gone
Looks like this year marked the comeback of many old-time favourites. I have to confess that at first I really didn't like Slipknot's latest effort, but with time the album kind of grew on me. It's heavier than Vol. 3 - The Subliminal Verses (which is a good thing for many but not really for me, I liked that cd), but still not as heavy or as raw as the first album (still my favourite to this day). It really is kind of like a cross between Iowa and Vol .3, really. Anyway, what really sold me on this was the song with the name of the album. This is really Slipknot at its best, powerful and angry and heavy and...fuck, it's awesome!
In Flames - A Sense of Purpose
I talked about this one already so I'm basically going to repeat myself. At first I didn't like this album at all, but after repeated plays I started to appreciate all that it had to offer and now I end up listening more to it than the predecessor, the awesome Come Clarity. The Chosen Pessimist is as epic as in Flames have ever done, Drenched in Fear sends chills down my spine and if there's anything I have to criticize this album for is not having the songs from the EP in the regular edition. Eraser, Tilt and Abnegation are some of the best songs of the special edition and truly deserved to be in the regular edition as well. Now you know, if you have the album but never listened to these songs, do it, now!
Elvenking - Two Tragedy Poets
The surprise of the year. The last album by Elvenking, The Schyte, didn't really impress me, but this return to the roots (or so say the fans), with impressive duets between the two vocalists and more acustic instruments than electric ones was already a favourite even after just one play (and you know how rarely I like an album after just listening to it once). The first track reminded me of Eluveitie, which is saying a lot, and the rest just... I don't know, it's so different from what I usually listen to, but so awesome at the same time. A truly fantastic work (and probably the only one my esteemed readers will care for...).
The title makes more sense in Portuguese... (it's a Christmas song) Anyway, update time! The exams are finally over (finally!), although I still have a project to do for Book and Publishing History (that sounds weird in English, doesn't it? Maybe I translated it wrong...) and I'm fucking sick! Fucking tonsillitis, it's the same shit every year... And the doctor didn't even gave me an antibiotic... (not to mention I waited two hours to be checked in 10 minutes...)
Other than that life is good at the moment. Sort of... I'm definitely in a bad luck streak when it comes to hardware. My PC is starting to break (poor bastard, it's been 4 years of intensive (ab)use), my PS2's laser finally wore off and now the bitch doesn't read anything and, to top it off, my Xbox 360 got the RRoD. AGAIN! I can't fucking believe this shit! The first time I was like "ok, nothing to worry about M$ will take care of it". The fuck they did! Only one year has passed and this shit happened again. On the same console! (I know it's the same because of the serial number). Shit...
On the other hand, yesterday I occasional passed by a GAME store (they just recently started popping up over here, before we had no major retailers, only independent shops) and OMG what did I see? A used Xbox for 50€! That's as cheap as they get here! I couldn't resist so I passed by today to pick it up and it really seems to be in good condition, looks like the previous owner barely touched it (it has practically no scratches and only a handful of gamesaves on the hard-drive). It came with two controllers too, although I had to pay an additional 10 euros for those (still pretty cheap).
Right now I'm preparing to mod it because, you know, given the awesome potential of the system, having an unmodded Xbox is practically a sin. Wish me luck (I so hope my bad luck streak as finally passed, otherwise I'll probably brick it when trying to mod it...).
Edit: Great success! I managed to mod the sucker! :D Here, take a look at the process:
Welcome friends! Welcome to my personal blog, where you may find articles about the most various things. Videogames should be a constant presence here, but expect to see the occasional movie or music album review, for I'm a fan of all forms of entertainment. Also expect to see everything that comes to my mind, since this is my own blog I feel free to post all the shit that I want.
Now, have a seat, grab a beer and read what goes in my mind...
