Ukraine never sounded so lovely

Voice of Steel

Little Duckies, today I bring an offering from the bowels of the most metal part itself. In this episode of “Bands that Alex likes on ice in 3-D” comes a complex, beautiful accomplishment from today’s band “Nokturnal Mortum”.

Voice of Steel MOTHERFUCKER

Hailing from the Ukraine, “Nokturnal Mortum” started out in humble beginnings….As a Black Metal band. So already having practice since 1994 makes this CD just bring in all of the different styles this band has to offer.

This album will just take you...By force

Beginning with an intro of a haunting horn dwelling into a traditional medley consisting of skin drums and what may or may not be bagpipes, the CD begins. Sounds of a blacksmith hard at work is audible at the very start of the second track “Voice of steel” accompanied with some of the heaviest drums/bass /guitar heard in a long while. Continuing on the amazing nine minute barrage of amazingness, that is only the beginning, pretty subtle compared to the rest of the album.

Or so you think

If you can even believe the Third track “Valkyrie” is even better. Begins so suddenly then slowly but surely condescends into slow, mellow melodies.

Onwards to my personal Favorite track from the album, “Ukraine”. No, it is not the national anthem….But it very well should be. This eight minute piece may very well have been plucked from the ear drum of an angel/demon (whichever is more metal to you). Combining beautiful chanting vocals amidst the very brash growls we have become very accustomed to, “Ukraine” just shines with a love for their country so high not even Hulk Hogan could stand up to it.

not even he can help us

While slowly fading out “Ukraine” becomes “My Dream Islands”, an eleven minute jam-out (or so it sounds that way) a slow descent into madness, a circus of different “experimental” sounds all jumbled into one great track.

We still have three tracks to go, BUT I REALLY want all the duckies from the interbutts to look for this album. It is that good. Every song on this album sounds completely different from each other. Even though all of the songs are in Ukrainian, you can feel the love, sweat, tears, and aspirations that this band wanted you to hear with “Voice of Steel”. Very fast paced and energetic sans the last two songs, “Voice of Steel” just does it right. In my opinion it is one of the most perfect albums out there, while it is my opinion I strongly urge you guys to listen to it.

Welp guys this album review was awesome, but alas I am late with this one as is. Time to work on another one lol. Until next time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ZzqWhvOVA

Before I go, I leave you with the majesty of Ukraine

Peace

MAS8705 interview with John Perez

How is it going everyone? I’m MAS8705 and today, I’m actually not going to talk about video games!

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Don’t look at me like that! Fact is that I have more interests than just simply video games, like movies. While I’m not much of a movie goer myself, I do normally enjoy the indy movies done in and around the el paso location. In fact I did star in one as a main actor’s stuntman; I was dragged away zombies by the end…

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Anyway, back to my explanation… While there are many indy groups in El Paso, there are just as many people who like to make fan Parodies of their favorite shows. One such person is John Perez- Age 17.

Yea, he was very comfortable talking to me...

…

Anyway,

John has done a fair share of fan parody work, and now he is planning a Yugioh Fan movie. While Augmented Reality is working with John to make his movie, I was able to speak with him and ask a few questions.

MAS: Hello John, thanks for taking some time to speak with us

John: No problem, I'm honored to have this opportunity.

MAS: Alright then John, first off, tell us a bit about yourself.

John: Well I'm currently a Junior High School. I'm extremely involved in my school's theater program and I'm a youth leader at my local church, which I also volunteer for their drama ministry. Other than that, I've been directing for about a year now, including the Night of the Living Dead production that my school performed, the fan-made mini-series, Kamen Rider DX and currently this project, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Blood of Razel.

MAS: We will be talking about your latest project in a second, but first, go ahead and tell us about some of your earlier projects.

John: Before I began this project I was heavily involved in another fan-made production which was Kamen Rider DX. If you don't know, Kamen Rider is a yearly Japanese show. Well I decided to make a fan-made miniseries. I spent nearly a year on making costumes and creating scripts. It was very rough and eventually the project died out. I felt a little disappointed because both I and my actors spent a lot of time and we worked really hard especially on the stunts which on occasions were dangerous and it just didn't work out in the end. Other than that I directed The Night of the Living Dead play which my school's Theater Club performed and I'm proud to say that because of its popularity, my school will now be doing horror plays around the month of October.

MAS: Also from what you told me earlier, some of your action sequences in you Kamen Rider DX episodes were a bit dangerous correct?

John: Yes, actually most of them involved me. One stunt involved me jumping over an actress and kicking and actor. I made the jump but by the time I was in front of my fellow actor, I couldn't kick so I punched him and I actually connected with his chest, so what you see on the episode was real. He was fine but we decided another take was out of the question. In another scene the same actor runs away and I'm suppose to appear suddenly in front of him and he's supposed to bump into me and jump back. Well when he bumped into me, he accidentally shoved me, some of my armor went flying in the air and I nearly fell down a ditch. The last episode we filmed there was a stunt where I am kicked by an actress and I fly back and land on my back. We had to do several takes. On the second take I land really hard, and because the helmet was very hard, I actually was knocked out for a few minutes.

MAS: Scary, hopefully you don’t try and do anything like that again anytime soon. So now let’s talk about your latest project. Go ahead and tell us more about it.

John: Like I said, right now I'm directing a fan-made film based off the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series and franchise. I don't want to give much away, but I will tell you this: This movie will follow a whole new protagonist and will take place between Yu-Gi-Oh! And Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Expect to see duel disks and Shadow Games galore.

MAS: Very nice. What do you hope to achieve by the time this project is completed?

John: I hope to be able to develop a great relationship between myself, my actors and Augmented Reality. I hope that not only I, but everyone involved will be able to make a name for themselves and become respected as actors, cameramen, make-up artists, hairstylists, etc. I want everyone to be able to enjoy themselves and for everyone who sees the film when it is finished will be able to enjoy it as well.

MAS: Alright then, well best of luck to you John. We hope your YuGiOh fan movie turns out well.
John: Thank you very much MAS.

So there you have it, the main actor taking a bit of time out of his busy schedule to speak with me. Of course, we can’t say for sure how the film will turn out (as it is still being planned out), but you can bet that Augmented Reality will be following John’s progress from beginning to end…

And I don’t mean because we are helping him produce his film and how a few of us are going to be in front of the camera.

…

Whatever gave you that idea? Anyway, if you want to see some of John’s work on his Kamen Rider DX Series, click the link below to go to his youtube channel, while the 2^nd link is to his personal youtube page.

http://www.youtube.com/kamenriderdxseries

http://www.youtube.com/icantgetausername6

I’m MAS8705, and if you excuse me, I have to practice how to throw down a facedown without accidently hurting myself… Those duel Disks can be dangerous if left in the hands of an untrained professional…

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Oh yea, one last thing… While John Perez isn’t working on fan projects, he also likes to do his own set of rants and reviews on his youtube channel… We here at Augmented Reality are always looking for those who want to take their creativity to the next level, so for the time being, we are letting John Perez in as a… a…

…

Well… I can’t say for sure since I’m not Mike or Alicia, so I can’t give John a proper title…

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How about a special guest commentator? Yea, that will work for now…

So be on the lookout for Augmented Reality’s Special guest commentator: John Perez as he talk about Kamen Rider and other things of interest...

Marginal Gaming - Waiting to EXPhale

In his latest column for 8bitfix.com, Mike Cervantes discusses what it's like to play DC Universe online. No wait...I mean, what it's like to DOWNLOAD DC Universe online. yeah that's right.

Check it out on 8bitfix.

[TOG] Dakimakura- Japanese Hugging Pillows

Ah! Hello there in the nettaverse!! Welcome to my brand new series "the otaku guide" where it is my humble goal to teach you some things about being otaku you may or may not have known about. For this entry I will be teaching you about the infamous hugging pillow aka dakimakura. Now please do not judge, these soft pillows are perfect for male and female otaku alike! I myself have 3 of them (as you can see in the picture below). My favorite one is my over-sized dakimakura (which has been recently named Shelby) which is perfect for resting my head on when watching anime, playing some World of Warcraft or even when friends come over and need a nice big pillow for bed time ^_^ The one to the right is Sebastien (but I call him Sebas-kun) from Black Butler and the one to the left is Nia from Gurren Lagann (but she is often called pedestrian by my friends). I love them all!!!

Let's break the word dakimakura down:
daki 抱き- to embrace or cling
makura 枕- pillow

Now a lot of otaku come to the misinformation of thinking dakimakura's only have anime females pictured on them and are exclusive to anime, manga, bishoujo games, etc BUT they are very very wrong because this type of pillow has been around in Japan since before being heavily influenced by otaku culture in the 1990's. During this time many galge (aka bishoujo or "pretty girl" games where the goal is to interact with attractive anime style girls) and anime received official dakimakura pillow covers through Cospa (a cosplay store in Japan that also specialized in goods such as dakimakura covers) and other companies. These pillows are also sometimes referred to as dutch wives.... but I am not here to explain to you what that is! Find out on your own if you really want to know...

A screen from the galge game Sakura Wars V.

While the main sources for these life size pillows are that of galge games, manga, anime, light novels and other properties with girls you can get dakimakura with male characters and even some odd ones such as Gundam or if you so desire comics book characters such as Iron Man, Spider-man and even Wolverine. In fact if you so desire you can get just about anything made into a dakimakura pillow cover these days thanks to websites that specialize in customizing a pillow just for your otaku flavor. I personally would love to have one of Archer from Fate/Stay Night or Satoshi from D.N.Angel.... or even Deadpool!

Example of male dakimakura using the
twins from Ao no Exorcist.

Dakimakura are infamous for being made from naughty images, but you can also get ones that aren't so naughty that are really just pictures of your favorite characters (as seen in the ones I have and the Ao no Exorcist one pictured above). Or if you want to get creative you can get covers made for your original characters! I have censored out the one below because it is an example of a naughty dakimakura. To see an uncensored one any of the sites listed in the if your interested in buying list will have some but most of the time online the pillows are censored but will not be on the actual product depending on the retailer.

Obtaining dakimakura can be as easy as asking one of your local anime goods shop if they carry the item (such as El Paso's own Robo Gato of which I bought my Sebastian pillow from) or asking to special order one. Now bear in mind there are two main types of dakimakura; the ones that are a printed pillow or the ones that are a case that you have to buy apillow for. The ones that are already printed can run anywhere from $20 up to about $45 while the covers depending on if you want them custom start at $30 and can go up to $90 depending on the retailer. The "innards" aka the pillow itself is usually around $10 to $25. I've even seen the proper size at Walmart for only $10! Which is a steal considering you won't need to pay for shipping.

If interested in buying your own dakimakura I recommend these sites:

Milanoo (Shelby is from this site)
Anime-Pillows
E-bay is good as well if the seller is verified

Next time, we'll go over galge games, visual novels and the like.

Aspect Ratio - LCAD 2012

Join Sonic Man as he learns about an upcoming convention coming in July, 2012, and visits with cosplayers and participants of Las Cruces Anime Days 2012 at the NMSU Corbett Student Union!

Sexy Taco Productions - Las Cruces Anime Days 2012

The guys at Sexy Taco Productions outrun the camera, Sing some Will Smith, and race chairs at this year's Las Cruces Anime Days.

MAS8705's Rant under 500 words: $60 downloadable games on CDs

How is it going everyone? I’m MAS8705 and today we are here to talk about the future of games! I’m so excited since I can’t wait for the Wii U, but for now, we got details on the XBOX 720! I mean, yes this is a rumor, but bet it is going to be something absolutely incredible!

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/121/1217310p1.html

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WHAT!?! Are they serious about this? This has got to be the most stupid idiotic thing I has ever heard of since SOPA! In case those of you can’t connect the dots, allow me to do it for you…

*start the count*

First off, this can be understandable as this could be a mean to combat Gamestop, who goes ahead to sell used games… Now I admit I am part of that small percentage that loves to do business with Gamestop as I do love to get rid of my old games to get new ones, I can understand why people feel ripped off if they decide to trade in games, but really if you have a problem about it, then why trade your games in the first place? However, in this case it is completely stupid to make CDs work on only one system and that’s it…

Imagine if you will the same examples giving in the article here: Used Cars, used Books, Used clothing, what do all of this have in common? The idea here is that much like games, these are traded in or donated in order to get credit back for other goods. Imagine if you weren’t allowed to get used books for college, you are spending another $50 compared to used books, or you have to spend $1000s to get a new car when an older car can still get you from point A to Point B. Hell, we can go as far and say that there would be no goodwill store if this wasn’t allowed…

Basically, if this is true, this is basically DOWNLOADABLE GAMES ON CDS! You see the problem here ladies and gentlemen? Why the hell would you spend $60 on downloadable games? Even complete 360 games are being sold for $30 at best, but would you seriously spend $60 on a game, especially if the price may drop in the future? And what rental stores like blockbuster? If you try to knock out used games, you also knock out rental games too…

This is almost as stupid as SOPA; they want to stop the idea of trading, but they are only shooting themselves in the foot by doing this, as it is taking away the ability to try out games before buying.

Why not simply say that Blockbuster ruins Hollywood studios because people rent movies?

I can understand that when you buy used games, no money goes to the developer, however this plays off the idea of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Not to mention, if a friend of mine wants to play this game I have, how can he play it? Do I need to give him my system too?

In conclusion, unless if games are going to be sold at $20 each, don’t expect people to fall for this trick. By removing the ability to play on multiple systems, you might as well be playing Downloadable games, and screw the CDs all together. Again though, this is a rumor, however let’s hope that it stays just that and Microsoft realizes that this is a completely stupid idea, for if they don’t, I’m getting a PS4 or Wii U…

I’m MAS8705 and that was my rant under 500 words…

Word Count: 499

Side Note: As always, if there is a rant you would like to see, feel free to leave a comment below and I will be happy to discuss it...