The Weeaboo

"The world is finally starting to ‘wake up’ to what Japan has to offer."

-The Weeaboo

Japan sure does love their lasers. Oh yeah, and women. Them, too.

Truer words about the relation of the Western world with Japan have never been spoken. After many centuries of isolationism, preferring the Japanese culture so delicately cultivated by shoguns and emperors, samurai and daimyo, relations and eventually trade with the country opened up to the rest of humanity with the mission of the United States to Japan. Since then, it has been an ongoing exchange of culture that has inundated the market with goods from both countries.



As Japan gained a lot of political and economic structure from the United States, especially following World War II and defeat by the U.S.-involved Allies, the U.S. has also gained quite a bit in the way of culture. From anime to manga, Pocky to sushi, many of the wealthy American staples come directly from Japan. So why is there still a stigma to being in love with Japanese culture?

Self-Medicate Music

Who doesn't love a good music blog? After all, music is perhaps the most popular form of modern artistic expression in the world. Naturally, the tides of the internet follow the waves of interest, and as such music is a hugely popular internet item. Blogs ride the popular items, too.

With this inundation of music blogs, you may see a lot of bad ones. A good music blog seems out of grasp, impossible; and yet, we have it here at Self-Medicate, a self-evidently incredible blog. Looking at the layout alone is just beautiful, meshing with music so well. The music that is posted is top-quality. Here's a list of some songs (in their posts) you can find over at Self-Medicate.

• "Good Feeling" by Flo Rida
• "Late Night Special" by Ground Up
• "Maniac" by Kid Cudi, ft. Cage
• "American Psycho" by D12
• "I'm On One" by DJ Khaled (Chopped & Screwed)

Check it out for more! The link is: http://www.selfmedicatemusic.com/

Wordsmith

I have always been a personal fan of writing. Ever since I was young, I always felt more expressive in the literary arts than the visual ones. While I have a healthy respect for all art forms, I feel a kinship to writing that I have never felt with another form of artistic expression. Perhaps this is because of my passion for reading as well, considering the two go hand-in-hand.

At any rate, out of my deep respect for the power of writing, I have chosen today's feature blog, Wordsmith. According to the writer on his About page for the blog, "I am a wordsmith. I need to practise my writing, so I am attempting to write a short story every day for a year. Some will be bad, some will be good, all will be written in a rush as I count down to a daily deadline."

While I have encountered many blogs of similar dedication, most have been with fairly uninteresting layouts or overcrowded with information irrelevant to the topic. Some may find either of these more suitable to their tastes, but as for my own, I believe the writer at Wordsmith employs the wiser of the option choices for his site. It is incredibly easy to navigate and find what you want, which are the individual story tidbits.

Merry Turkeyday!

Bet you're hungry now, eh? ;D

Hey there, blogographers! I have come to wish you a Merry Turkeyday, for one and for all! Let your tables be overflowing with turkey meat drizzled in gravy, or mashed potatoes with all the right seasonings. Stuffing cooked with just the right amount of fluffiness; delicious sweet potatoes covered in marshmellows, and baked. Mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Anyhow, I'd love it for you guys to leave me a comment on this post when you are done with the festivities of the day to tell me how your Turkeyday went! What did you do, where did you go? What delicious foods did you have? I'd love to hear the variety of edible goodness!

For those of you not from the United States (because we know you Canadians do it on a different day for Newfoundland!), you can just tell us if you heard anything about Thanksgiving in your own country, and what did you do today? From the normal to the insanely fun, let us know how your country sees Thanksgiving!

Merry Turkeyday!

The Wise Sloth

The United States of America has always been a country of the most heated contention, beginning even before the country's inception in 1776. The British, and subsequently the allies of England, fought back the revolutionary tides of the American colonists at its roots and through the years leading up to the formation of the United States. Without missing a beat, the U.S. is embroiled in just about every global problem to arise during the current and previous presidential administrations. Less cautious Americans might call this a classic example of poking one's nose where it does not belong.

Naturally, the American government receives contemptuous responses from all walks of life, and from all over the world. The most vociferous of these responses belong to the Americans themselves, most of whom have become disenchanted with their government as of late. Many of the new parties gaining momentum in the country are those parties which address the "uselessness" of the current administration. Amidst economical collapse, a corrupt and exceedingly wealthy upper class with a vice grip on politics, and the type of social revolution not seen since the 1960s in the U.S., new parties are quickly gaining ground.

An example of one such opponent to the current system of government and politics is today's blog feature: The Wise Sloth. Though the site lacks a thorough About page (see the link to understand what I mean), I had trouble knowing what it was exactly at first. It becomes more clear after reading a few of the posts he makes (the majority of which, at least recently, are political comics), but he could definitely use a purposeful About page, in my opinion.

The Skyrim Blog

In the usual year-end culmination of gaming that befalls holiday season, we've seen a lot of spectacular videogames and the shifts in gaming power that comes with them. Modern Warfare 3 made some lines at GameStop's midnight release so long that they could put World of Warcraft's releases (a notoriously big winner) to shame. Battlefield 3 failed to meet the hype its own distributors generated, and EA dredged up the wrath of many of us angry videogame nerds. Minecraft has spawned a fanbase so devout that they can hardly bring themselves to leave the game.

One particular game this year, though, has caught not only my full attention, but that of a great portion of the gamer base. It has essentially launched a bid for Game of the Year against the Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Uncharted bigshots of previous fame. This game is the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In the nearly three hundred years following the Oblivion plot, dragons, as well as their mortal kin the Dragonborn, have returned to the province of Skyrim amid mass unrest between the Empire and a Nord-centric rebellion group.

Doug's Darkworld

Greetings, blogographers! In our little corner of the internet today, I will be writing about a blog that has absolutely captured my own heart, in more ways than just one. It is an elegantly written blog with a minimalist layout, allowing for the words to speak to the reader for themselves. This blog is Doug's Darkworld.

Source

"Welcome to Doug’s Darkworld, a blog about war, mysteries, history, strange things, science, logic, photography, cosmology, paleontology, anthropology,  current events, religion, propaganda, philosophy, psychology, sociology,  ghosts, paranormal events, movies, astronomy, space exploration, metaphysics, foreign policy, propaganda, and whatever else strikes my fancy. As the esteemed Robert A. Heinlein said: 'Specialization is for insects.'"

-from Doug's Darkworld blog 

Daily Car Reviews

Today on Blogographer, I am featuring a wonderful blog on cars, that goes by the name of Daily Car Reviews. The blog displays, "reviews, pictures, specifications, and more," going all the way down to the bones of the particular car-maker in question to get a good review. Impressed is just one of the words I would use for Daily Car Reviews.

Here's a sample of the Spyker C12 Zagato post:

"This article is about the former car manufacturer Spyker, who are now known as Spyker Cars. Spyker was a Dutch car manufacturer that started back in 1880 by Jacobus and Hendrik-Jan Spijker. To make the brand market internationally they decided to change the 'Ij' into 'y'. Started in Hilversum and moved to Trompenburg, Amsterdam in 1898.In this year they made the "Golden Carriage" which is still in use by the Royal Family of the Netherlands. 

Cell Fame

In the day of smartphone prowess, where everyone is as avid a smartphone user as a computer user, customization of your cell is highly regarded. There's always been tons of high definition wallpaper sites for laptop, desktop, and various other mediums, but it seems that smartphones, particularly Androids, get left in the dust by their technological brethren in this department.

Cell Fame is an excellent blog for your high-def Android walls, though! It's clean, easy to navigate layout makes it a cinch to step right in, find the wall of your choice, and get going! Ever wanted some artfully gorgeous girl to adorn your smartphone?

BAM!

'Kerli' on Cell Fame

Eye of the Beholder

To visit Eye of the Beholder via direct link, or without having to go through the article, please click here: http://steadytest.blogspot.com/

Everybody who has read my blog knows that I am no serious fan of the "random" blog genre. I think it's honestly more than overdone; I believe the internet is inundated and saturated with random blogs. This is why it is so relieving to find random blogs that are actually good. They usually still have structure, and are less like diaries and journals as they are like blogs centered around the interests of the writer.

Such a rare blog is Eye of the Beholder, a blog penned by the very well-written Patres, a man of distinctive knowledgeable taste. Eye of the Beholder is for whatever Patres wishes to write about, though the articles have a general, background flow to them.

Here's an excerpt from EotB's "Keep your helmets on! 2005 YU55 near pass:"

A Tuesday Laugh, Big Five

As with every Tuesday, today's Tuesday post features A Tuesday Laugh, where we all have a bit of a chuckle at the expense of us bloggers (trust me, we're laughing at ourselves, too!). Enjoy the pictures below, and check back every week for a good laugh. :]

Here's links to the previous four Tuesday Laugh posts: [1] [2] [3] [4]

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HiveGamer

To visit HiveGamer via direct link, or without having to go through the article, please click here: http://hivegamer.blogspot.com

With the Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim just around the corner (midnight launch for 11-11-11), I thought it would be appropriate to do today's blog feature on a gaming news site! After all, Skyrim is looking to be one of the biggest games to be released to-date, and I am going to be enjoying the midnight festivities of Tamriel with my friends (LAN parties FTW!).

Source

Personally, I am all for the independent, small site game reviewers and news writers that seem to pepper the internet with a ferocity. I think that they make up an important part of the overall gaming community, because it is their mass of opinions, and their reviews, that influence the whole gaming market, not just that of the magazines and sites like GameInformer and Kotaku.

Designer Musik

Hey there, blogographers, I know you absolutely adore music. After all, who doesn't like at least a little music?

Well, today we have on Blogographer the wonderfully convenient site Designer Musik, which is a blog by a music connoisseur named Haezer. The writer posts a new song every five or so days (give or take a couple of days for his schedule), but each song seems to be quite enjoyable and well-picked. You would probably enjoy it more if you really enjoy the electronic genre (drum n bass, dubstep, etc.), but I'm sure the casual listener can find something here to enjoy, as well!

Why I Enjoy Paying Taxes

I'm sure that title caught your attention, eh?

It must come as little surprise to you (or anyone else, to be honest) that nobody likes to pay taxes. Not one bit. Or.. is there one out there that really does? It would appear that the only guy in the world who happily pays his taxes has opened a blog about it. He must be interesting; I mean, come on!, he's got 57 reasons so far to enjoy paying taxes, and I've yet to find the first! That's creativity right there.

While many bloggers open a blog with a generic niche (see Blogographer), there's always the one guy with something to say. Even then, much of the time, that one guy blows a lot of hot air. This time, though, Pittsburghian videographer and writer Mike is that one guy, and there's nothing average about Mike. Not even when it comes to taxes.

Here's a small piece of Reason #26 from his blog, Why I Enjoy Paying Taxes:

A Tuesday Laugh, El Cuatro

It's that time again! Tuesday strolls around, and so today we will have ourselves a Tuesday Laugh!

You can have a Tuesday Laugh, indeed! For more laughs, check out previous "A Tuesday Laugh" posts: [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

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