While browsing on teh internetz, I came across someone that this very blog worships and idolizes. If we were to ever stumble upon this man's ponytail, we would be like Wayne and Garth, proclaiming, "WE'RE NOT WORTHY, WE'RE NOT WORTHY!". To see what ridiculousness our idol has gotten himself into now, stream the following:

Ever since reading an article in Men's Health, which was about the dangers inherent with soy, I've been wondering just how bad soy could be. Driven by my desire to know just exactly, what the fuck could go wrong, I did some research. You see, soy is a common food of the Knights of Belka(salute!), so news of soy being well, actually harmful, sent the air raid sirens roaring.

The article I had read said that soy could contribute to the following:

Erectile dysfunction
Decreased sperm count up to 30% or more
Man boobs
Increased sensitivity and the likelihood of being a bitch-ass

So as you can see, soy potentially has us by the balls, and it's squeezing, HARD.

Now further research speculates that fermented beans may actually be alright. I found an interesting post while the air raid sirens were roaring. This was posted by venix of CalorieCount:

Soy's been eaten for thousands of years, actually, but pretty much only in a fermented state. Non-fermented soy is high in phytoestrogens which can definitely mess with hormones in both men and women.

Women's reactions to phytoestrogens range from the benign, e.g. stimulated breast growth, to the malignant, e.g. more troublesome periods and increased incidence of ovarian and breast cancer. As for men, there aren't a lot of studies on the effects of phytoestrogens yet, but early evidence is showing a correlation between decreased sperm count and increased exposure to environmental estrogens.

Basically, unfermented soy is not a suitable food for regular consumption. Fermented soy products:

natto
miso
tempeh
traditional soy sauce

Non-fermented soy products:

soy milk
tofu
modern soy sauce (which is actually mostly wheat!)
soy oil
additives to thousands of commercial shelf products

Notice that the non-fermented products are modern inventions and only consumed in huge amounts recently. Also, guess who leads the world in soy consumption: The US. Guess which country has the highest incidences of breast cancer and osteoporosis, despite all the fuss over getting calcium from your milk or soy milk: The US. Hmm.

So then I thought to myself, "well that fucking soy lechitin seems to be in every god damn thing these days...", which led me to an article from Weston A. Price:

Historian William Shurtleff reports that the expansion of the soybean crushing and soy oil refining industries in Europe after 1908 led to a problem disposing the increasing amounts of fermenting, foul-smelling sludge. German companies then decided to vacuum dry the sludge, patent the process and sell it as "soybean lecithin." Scientists hired to find some use for the substance cooked up more than a thousand new uses by 1939.

So the jist of the article is that we are literally eating soy shit. God damn it. Everything from cookies, panties, most brands of Soy milk(I shit you not I saw it on the box), Rice milk(god damn it WHY?!!!), Almond milk(NOOOOOOO!!!!!!), bread, an all sorts of other foods readily available contain lechitin. The only way out is to buy rare brands of foods without it(oh and I've looked, there isn't much). Oh, and you guessed it, the brands that do lack lechitin(like this box of rice milk I found but didn't buy), cost a lot. Why? It's because organic food, being the antithesis of processed, commercialized goods, has become a very profitable business. Yes the Belkan Knights squint with skeptical eyes at entities who make a business out of necessities.

Why is this such a big deal? Soy tastes damn good. I love fried tofu in stir fried dishes. Soy milk has very creamy texture and nice froth. In a cappuccino it's great. We utterly detest how soy lechitin has invaded tasteful products that we enjoy. I guess that it's time to reform 8492 sqn and pillage Yuktobania AGAIN for good eats, and if they don't have them, well we'll see if Osea has soy lechitin-free products on the cheap.

These. Two. Sons. Of. Bitches.

According to various character profiles, Skids and his twin Mudflap are two Autobots intentionally written in as courageous, yet stupid, characters. Basically the "heroes that could". Jesus fucking christ.

Yet the funny thing about these guys, is that their deluxe figures turned out to be solid winners. Definitely worth picking up. I don't even mind their intentionally stupid looking faces, for figures, the faces add a lot of personality.

Transformations for both are intricate, yet definitely doable, detail is good, and gimmicks are implemented well. Their mech alive gimmicks works well too; it's been hit or miss on other figures.

Most of my action figure purchases are character based; I typically skip figures of characters I loathe. However I take exception to the fact if the figure turns out rather well, as with the twins. Here's to hoping they don't fail to impress me in the theater as they did in that fucking trailer: "IT'S UPGRADE TIME"! SHUT THE FUCK UP SKIDS!

One of the best RPG's and one of the best stories to emerge from Star Wars is Knights of The Old Republic(KOTOR) by Bioware. The sequel(KOTOR II) to the crusade of Darth Revan was lackluster and made by a different company. It's funny, KOTOR II was hyped up for the ability to play as Sith or Jedi, yet that was an inherent capability in KOTOR....

Now, what can be called the true sequel is making it's way towards PC and hopefully the Xbox 360(FUCK YOU RED RING!). Star Wars The Old Republic is an MMORPG for the KOTOR series, and good fucking almighty it looks amazing:

Video Games | Star Wars: The Old Republic | E3 09: Jedi vs Sith Cinematic

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Could the destiny of Darth Revan be revealed? It's something I've been pondering for a while, he is one of the most well developed Sith characters.

The Knights Of Belka like to dine on good food. Who doesn't you may ask? Yet we are different, which no doubt led you, our loyal worship- I mean readers, to this almighty brutally honest, catch-with-pants-down blog of righteousness.

So with that said, codes, codes, codes:,

Yukai Byuffe=Yucky
Uptown Buffet=Are you flying UP today?
Happy Buffet=Are you HAPPY?

For some irony, a YUCKY place isn't exactly yucky at all, it tastes damn good, god damn I've become a bigger fan of sushi and Yukai is fucking amazing. I've heard that it is actually worth it to eat there at night. I JUST LOVE THE SIGHTS AND TASTES THERE THEY REALLY ARE SCRUMPTIOUS.

This is the best dogfight footage I've seen in a very long time. I just had to post it:

Today marks the 11th death anniversary of Matsumoto Hideto, also known as hide from X Japan. During college, I used to think that X Japan was overrated, the band that j-rock newbs would bring up just to prove they had clout. I didn't think much of them.

One day, while drunk, and possibly on a rampage(I don't really remember), I thought to myself, "alright, this band is so damn popular and revered, there's got to be something about this band that keeps them so popular even up until now"(bear in mind this group is over 20 years old). So I streamed the intro for their Last Live concert. My first thought was, "damn these guys like explosions, and damn that's a ton of fans". Then, after the members were introduced to the background song of "Amethyst", I hear some instruments, reminiscent of a piano. Then Yoshiki tapping his drums. Then I hear something that would finally change my mind on this group; the guitars.

God damn, the guitars. Amazing. Melodic. Melancholy at times, but always melodic. Very expressive. Unique. Catchy. Timeless.....

So in a sudden, drunken moment of clarity I realized just why these guys were revered so much. They're actually pretty damn good. Thanks in large part to Yoshiki, each instrumental flows very well together, same goes for the vocals by Toshi, and sometimes by hide. As I streamed more videos, I realized that their influences ranged from classical to alternative, from piano to guitar, from vocals matching the notes of the piano, to a guitar's wounded melody.

Still drunk, yet determined to learn more about this band, I looked up who the band members were, and was itching to find out who the lead guitarist was. It turned out to be a guy named hide. I listened to more, found his guitar solos from Last Live were incredible, and sought more information on how he started, what other music he contributed to, et al.

It was then that I found out that this was indeed the same guy that had died in 1998(I knew someone from the group had died, but didn't really know who or which instrument he played). The authorities, not surprisingly, initially announced that it was death from suicide. His friends and family all say it was an accident. It did seem like an accident, there is no proof that he killed himself. He was found hanging from a towel tied to a door knob, what the authorities completely failed at acknowledging was that it was a technique for relieving shoulder/back pain, and that all X Japan guitarists/bassists practiced this on tour all the time. This would include Pata, Heath, and Taiji Sawada, who left years before and was replaced by Heath.

Also, hide's solo career was about to explode. His group, Spread Beaver, was about to debut an album and new videos, Zilch was going forward, and other artists under his Lemoned label were rising. Revealed after his death, was the fact that he and Yoshiki were planning to resurrect X Japan sans Toshi in 2000.

This is truly a case of a guy with so much potential, who died very young. It left a huge effect. Yoshiki stopped music for 2 years and hadn't talked to most of his friends. He and Toshi would go on for 10 years without talking to each other(Last Live was a concert dedicated to the fans, as they announced earlier in 1997 that X Japan would disband, shortly after Toshi announced that he was leaving the group).

Yoshiki returned to the music scene, and he and Toshi finally reconciled a few years ago. What everyone wonders, is what if hide were alive today, how far would X Japan have gone? What if hide wasn't even at the peak of his career? What if he was just starting? Same goes for X Japan.

The questions could go on forever, what we know is this: hide left behind a legacy of music that a lot of fans still enjoy today.

I'll admit, it took me a while to get used to his solo work, but the more I listened to his guitars, and eventually his vocals, his work grew on me. He was brilliant, his first solo was almost entirely composed by him, nearly all the intruments were played by him. Despite being different from his work with X Japan, there are key similarities while maintaining his own unique direction.

With that said, here is a video of his solos from Last Live, one of the first videos that changed my view of the group:

So a few days ago, I was approached by an auntie, a mother of, actually forgot that part. Anyways she asked if I was going to watch the Manny Pacquiao fight, always a source of supreme outbursts of irrational, irrelevant, Filipino pride. The guy is a good boxer, I've seen a couple of his matches. She also asked if I was going to represent....uh yeah..that pretty much says it.

Anyways, no one with a coherent mind is oblivious to the fact that once this guy started winning some matches, many Filipinos decided that the new millenium was upon us, that Manny was in fact, Jesus with boxing gloves, and that World War III would be won with this guy's fist. That Jerusalem would be saved by his smile. That this man would show other boxers a thing or 2 about Filipinos other than lumpia, pancit, giving rise to uncles pointing at his opponents; "YOU SEE DAT HAH?! HAH! DAT IS SOME PANSHIET RIGHT THERE PUTANG INA!"

In other words, all of a sudden an ass ton of Filipinos became boxing fans over night. All of a sudden, I would hear would-be experts talk about boxing as if they had known about this all along. Right. So here is an example of what we see everytime a Pacquiao fight is announced, or hell every time you go to an auntie's house with the damn fight on:


Getting warmer? How about this...what if he was black?


Pinoy pride has taught us, that like the election, unfortunately, race is a deciding factor on who people will root for.

This was a surprise to me, or perhaps I shouldn't be surprised considering that it was probably bound to happen. I mean, there already is a ....fan-made...movie...of these 2...live action...non-canon...anyways....

Some enterprising company in Japan has made these 2 Macross Frontier mousepads to the joy of perverted otaku who lusted after Alto's 2 lovebirds.

Here we have that naughty, conceited bitch Sheryl Nome:


Next up, we have the woman who can no longer sing from her tummy because her of the
"increased" size of her lungs..yeah lungs:


Jesus Christ.

The artists for these mice have not-so-innocently drawn Ranka Lee with an innocent expression on her face. Yeah, like we really didn't see that one coming guys.

Anyways for 4,200 yen a pop, you can have these 2 mousepads in your home, and be ridiculed by guys like me for free.

This new trailer for starts off rather corny, but the later half is amazing! Perhaps Bumblebee is crying because of how lame his scene in the garage is.

Anyways to more important matters, this trailer confirms the return of Blackout(who really deserves a better toy)! Also shown is Devastator walking on all 4's(yeah...about that....), the return of Megatron(which the TFW crew pretty much revealed via deductive reasoning after NYCC FTGDMF'NEW!), and Optimus Prime receiving an ass beating at the hands of a few Decepticons.

I've been to anime conventions in the past, ranging from mediocre, to exceptionally great. Some of the local ones, such as AMA(Anime Mid Atlantic) are good(except for last year when they were booted out of a hotel in Richmond last minute and forced to go to a crappy location in Va. Beach). Others, such as Katsucon and Otakon, are worth going to, and within the state(for the most part).

After going to these conventions I've experienced the good, and the bad. So with that said, here are some tips for con hopping:

1-Go with the right people. Don't make the mistake of going with people who are just casual. By the same token, don't go with overly obsessed anime fans. There are good otaku, and bad. Too much of one thing is bad, and this applies to otaku. Otaku tend to get a negative reputation due to horrible misreporting by the media, and downright idiots I've met who have disgraced the name.

Aim to go with people whom you know will actually enjoy the damn con. For example, don't go with these guys:

These guys will most likely complain the entire fucking time on the way to, during, and back, from the convention. Don't set yourself up for disaster and bring these guys along. Trust me on it. It's often said; "don't judge a book by it's cover". In this case, no DO JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER! You'll thank me later.

To those guys the only good convention is every other one but the one they are currently at. Save the grief. At the same time, don't take these son's of bitches either:

Jesus Christ. God damn it. Going with either of the above groups will absolutely DECIMATE your chances of getting anywhere close to the following prime choice, cuts of rump:



Yeah, bringing the wrong people will make sure that last chick won't be brushing her teeth with anything of yours, just her tooth brush. Motherfuck, right?!

2-Bring water. Sufficient enough so that if you are thirsty, you don't keep going down the elevator to the hotel lobby before midnight, when they take away the water. It is a pain in the ass. I did it. Once. It sucked. Never. Again.

3-Get to where you want ahead of time. This will help in avoiding traffic, assholes in general, and the massive amounts of idiots who just fucking stand there and won't move the fuck out of the god damn motherfucking way.

4-Speaking of going where you want, try to get a feel of restaurants around the area. This way you won't be scrambling for food amidst a ton of fucking otaku, both crazed and decent but neither FUCKING MOVING THE FUCK OUT OF YOUR FUCKING WAY! I had never seen a Chipotle packed the fuck up with a line going outside, to the other surrounding restaurants, until last year. Holy fuck.

5-Bring a sufficient amount of cash. This is the money of choice for the dealers room. Most dealers do not take plastic. You love plastic. Hell I do too. Don't count on dealers taking plastic. Most won't and you'll set yourself up for disappointment if it's the only monetary stuff you've got in the dealers room. Instead you'll be walking around the dealers room, looking at all this shit you can't buy but someone else fucking bought. In fact you'll have no choice, it's not like the sons of bitches will move out of your way...

6-Keep a cell phone handy. In a large con it's the ONLY fucking way to keep tabs on where everyone in your group is. If not, it's "WHERE THE FUCK IS WALDO" only real life, and with a lot of fucked up people. Oh, that don't move out of your way.

7-Plan out expenses for hotels, gas and anything else before hand. Don't be caught by the balls paying more than you thought you had to. This hasn't happened to me but I know assholes dumb enough to let this shit happen every year.

8-Get to the dealers room early and scope it the fuck out. Last year, I missed out on a GREAT fucking deal. Oh well. Hobby Link Japan tends to deal up every time they show up, and they bring good products. Buy what you want if you think it won't:

A-Last until the last day of the con
B-Be seen much later online(yes this happens)
C-You know it's a product that while you like it, is obscure and is bound to go up on price out of fucking nowhere like at imageanime.com(god damn it why the fuck did I pass that valk up...fucking..)

9-Try to score deals as much as possible, especially during the last day. The best way is to ask for a few dollars off, if the dealer is nice and willing, try to go in for the kill and get a better price. I've managed to do this a couple of times, netting great results.

Oh yeah imageanime.com doesn't really budge though.

10-Expect to see anyone you didn't anticipate seeing. This ranges from mortal enemies, would be ex-lovers, mecha, 30ft tall cosplaying costumes(no shit I saw this), friends, and family members. My cousin was there last year and we had no fucking clue until a week later.

11-The dark room in the raves smells like shit and is crowded with people just bobbing up and down. I recommend:

12-The actual dance floor for the main rave where all I had to do was sit indian style to watch 2 girls go at it 2 nights on the row, and enjoy the view just mere feet away. Try to watch out for the breakdancers who fly the fuck out of nowhere and form circles during the rave.

Cons can be fun if you let them. If you are an anime fan who has watched at least a few series, you can have a ton of fun. It's primarily dependent on the above tips and who runs the cons.