So I am in a bit of a dilemma...

In case you didn't get the idea, I'm a rather avid Okami fan. (Read: addict, fanatic, enthusiast, etc...) I bought a PlayStation 2 for the sole purpose of playing it, I imported the official soundtrack from Japan, and now I'm facing a problem.

Feast your eyes on this!

It's a big ol' 288 page book containing art, maps and sheet music to Okami. As you can see, it's Japanese. Even to the point where the book is backwards by American standards. (At least it seems that way.) From the place I bought the soundtrack from, this book is about 42 dollars. From Amazon Japan, it's nearly 50 dollars after you go to the trouble of dropping it in the shopping cart, creating an international account, and applying international shipping. I've heard rumors of Capcom concocting an English translation, so I held off on purchasing this.

Fast forward to today! Behold, the English cover:

Finally! I have some idea of what the English version is going to look like! Translated, obviously, but I'm disappointed to discover that the cover seems to be mirrored... It's not just bound to read from left to right, but the very image on the cover is flipped! The bar on the right is completely different, too... The Japanese version doesn't have the Okami title, it has a nice sun, instead. Here's the Amazon page for this version, scheduled for release on July 28th, according to Barnes & Noble. Also, notice that it's clearly a paperback print, as declared by both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I can't read Japanese, but when I try to translate the title of the Amazon Japan book using Google, I get: "Large God storybook bond - large God setting book of paintings - (large-sized book)". Okay, what's a "large-sized book"? Hardback? Coffee table size? Can anyone who knows Japanese please accurately translate the title for me?

This is, and has been since the beginning, my main problem. I would, without hesitation, buy the English translation right now... Except, actually, I have two problems. One is that I'm afraid the entire book might be mirrored and all the art be backwards, and I'm afraid that the English translation is a lame, small, paperback copy while the Japanese version is a big, hardback, coffee table copy!

I might possibly end up purchasing both, just because they're different enough, and I want a NICE book. If, somehow, I find out before hand that the images inside the English translation are NOT mirrored, and the binding and printing is the same quality as the Japanese version, I'll get just that. But, right now, it looks like they're different and I'll need both... One for the original unmodified prints of all the art in Japanese, and one so I can actually read anything that might need to be read!

It's college time again, woohoo... (Real enthusiastic there, eh?)

Classes start on August 20th and end December 15th. For anyone trying to do anything with me during those weeks (all one of you... hi, Iaian!), be warned that we'll need to work around my schedule. Actually, it shouldn't be too hard, considering I only have one class on Tuesday that I'm supposed to be in a classroom for... The others are all internet classes, but I'm not sure how tough they're going to be.

Officially, I'm still taking a 2-year Microsoft Network specialization, and will run an extra semester of light classes to get my Cisco Network and Network Security specializations. Afterwards, I might focus on computer programming, but I'm not sure.

I'm currently signed up for:

• Network Fundamentals (Internet Class)
• Adv. Operating Systems: Linux (Internet Class)
• Essentials of PC Support & Tech (Internet Class, technically A+ Certification)
• IT Technician (Internet Class, technically A+ Certification)
• Intermediate Algebra (Tuesdays, 6:00p to 8:50p)

I don't know the schedule for the internet classes, yet. Last time, they were all on Tuesdays, too... At least for when you had to submit your information. I usually got all the work done on the weekend and submitted everything on Monday.

So there you have it! Hopefully these classes will be more challenging than the last ones... They were so incredibly boring that it pretty much killed my interest in taking further classes, but I'm giving it another shot. (If Dad would ever finish filling out the Financial Aid papers... Geez... Taking his precious time.)

I also took liberty to switch my mathematics class to the professor I had last time! I had some weird guy who I'd never heard of, and my advisor said I could switch classes once the names of the teachers were published for the classes... So they were, and I did! Gotta love Professor Caldwell... He'll give you quite the verbal thrashing for being lazy and stupid in his class. It's awesome! I envision myself as a teacher to be exactly like him... It's almost... Creepy... But at the same time, very awesome.

So here's something I've found incredibly interesting...

Everyone keeps dredging up the articles detailing how President Bush's approval rating is so dismal and that he's possibly the worst president we've ever seen and how he should be impeached and blah blah blah. Just yesterday, American Research Group put out a report on how they see the approval rating right now. 25% of the country agree with Bush, 71% disapprove, and 4% are undecided. (Just to be clear, I'm probably in the disapprove box, but I don't want him impeached. He was better than the alternatives during the elections, and he's at least keeping some things together right now.) Here's the report if you want to look over it.

Digg is a perfect insight into far-left liberal politics. It's depressing at times that people can be so insane, but it also gives a glimpse into what the future could become if people elect to go in that direction. They don't like Bush. Okay, that much is clear from the hundreds upon hundreds of anti-Bush articles and immature comments on such articles. Some are well-founded articles, some are just anti-Bush for no reason other than to be popular. But let's forget Bush for a second, and let's forget about how "corrupt" and "evil" the Republican party is for juuust a few minutes.

Everyone loves the Gallup Poll, don't they? I've heard people say it's probably one of the most accurate polls there are! Of course, this was coming from people the polls agreed with, so I'm sure they were somewhat biased. Let's see how accurate they say these polls are right now, shall we?

According to Gallup, the current congress approval rating is at 14%. Uhm... That means 86% of the entire country despises who's in there right now. Do you remember who the majority is right now? Thaaat's right! The Democrats who promised to clean up the Republican's "culture of corruption". Let's see... According to what I learned in school... 14 is less than 25. That means that the United States disapproves more of Congress than they do of President Bush. The liberals are calling for the impeachment of President Bush, but they're ignoring congress completely? Why? Congress is WORSE than the President. I would think common sense would dictate that you get rid of the worst problem first.

Nooo, of course not. Because, according to the Democrats, the reason they can't get anything done and the reason for the poor approval rating is solely because of the minority Republicans getting in the way and causing problems. Like Peter Heck said on the radio, it's probably a GOOD thing you're not getting anything done, because the people don't like what you're trying to do! Especially when 88% of the country jams your phone lines to keep you from voting on that amnesty immigration bill.

But let's look at some more numbers... In 2006, before the Democrats took over, CBS News had an article on the approval rating of the Republican Congress. Down near the bottom of the article, it says that the overall approval rating of Congress was a record setting low of 23%. Republican majority was better off than the current Democrat majority. Back then, Democrats blamed the low approval rating on... Guess who! The Republicans, because they were stopping the Democrats from getting things done.

So a little review on the reasons for the low approval ratings of Congress according to the Democrats:

• Reason for 2006: "The Republicans are in majority and are preventing us from pushing through our bills and laws that the people want! It's not our fault everyone hates us!"
• Reason for 2007: "The Republicans are in minority and are preventing us from pushing through our bills and laws that people what! It's not our fault everyone hates us!"

Hmm... So which is it? You really can't have it both ways. In fact, it sounds like the Democrats can't ever get anything done either way! So why not vote majority Republican again and at least have a marginally better Congress than there is right now with a Democrat majority? Remember with the Democrats made a huge deal about staying up aaaall niiiight to discuss the Iraq War and get things done, and then the next day, they reported that... Nothing got done? Yeah. That's the Congress right now. You'd think that with a majority, you could get things done despite the minority! Isn't that the very definition of "majority"? Being bigger than the other side?

So it comes down to this: The minority Republicans must either be coming up with some really, really good, convincing points on topics... Good enough that even enough Democrats agree with them, or the Democrats promised everyone something they simply aren't doing.

And all this time, President Bush's approval rating is plastered all over the unbiased news networks!

Okay, so...

An article covers something that our level-minded leftist friends are jumping all over.

So President Bush was in Ohio on the 10th, talking about... Stuff. Politics, no doubt. You know... Presidential stuff. That's not important. In fact, this entire thing is incredibly unimportant and just terribly oversensationalised because it's a chance for everyone to point out how horrible our President is.

So there was a crowd of 400 people at this gathering, and a 13 year old girl asks President Bush about the failed immigration bill and where he was planning to go with it. The article says this is something nobody's dared to ask since everyone was so upset about the bill's failure, and a 13 year old has the guts to ask the President directly this question that everyone else was afraid to ask. Okay? Keep that in mind.

She asked this: "Mr. President, I know immigration has been a big problem in the U.S. And what is your next step with the immigration bill?" And then President Bush replied with a simple sarcastic joke: "Yeah, thanks." The crowd laughs and the girl cries... Now, before you also jump on the bandwagon of "that awful President", let's please read the ENTIRE article.

The article itself says the attention caused her to cry, and then later, the girl said herself that she was crying because she was so nervous. (Also, notice that the article says that when the president's sarcastic answer was mentioned, she said, "I heard that too." Yes, way to press your point, you dumb reporters. I'm sure it contributed, but she said herself that wasn't the cause. Buzz off.)

Our fair, unbiased liberal buddies seem to just stop there. But not me! I'm not going to ignore the fact that President Bush actually went on to answer her question and repeatedly complimented her on having the guts to ask such a good question, and when the event was over, he personally met with the girl and her family backstage.  Here's what she has to say about that: "He said it was really brave of me to do that and he said he probably wouldn't have been able to do that, and he said it was the first time anybody had asked him about [immigration] since it happened." The article even goes so far as to say that all she said in reply to the President was "Thanks." Duh... She's shy.

So, to recap in the proper perspective!

13 year old girl attends event and asks the President of the United States himself about the failed immigration bill and where he was planning to take it. President Bush respond with a joke "Yeah, thanks," at which the entire crowd laughed, making her cry. President Bush realizes what is happening and quickly recovers the situation by saying it was a great question and makes an 1100 word speech about it. Later, he meets with the girl and tells her that nobody asked him that question since the bill died, and that she was very brave for doing that.

So... Bush is an insensitive maniac, eh? Yep. Looks like it. I'm going to admit that the girl has way more guts than I do... Asking the President the biggest bomb of a question ever? Yeah... I'd like to see you do that, too, and then have 400 people laugh at you.

Now, the only way Bush could possibly be labeled insensitive is if he blew off the whole thing and ignored her for the rest of the time. Did he do that? No... But it doesn't matter. The girl said she cried because she was so nervous. This entire article is baseless and sensationalist. More anti-Bush propaganda.

This is awesome. What can be better than writing the music to the best song on the NES on an SNES game?! This guy has put lots of music on Mario Paint... It's amazing. And just... really awesome. Listen! Very creative and cool and... You can almost hear the Doctor going "YES! You humans are always coming up with the best ideas!" (Okay, well, maybe not... But it's still just really neat.)

...Well, will you look at that. ThinkGeek is selling a genuine Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver. Like, even the description says this: The story goes like this: the prop made for the new series was small. Then this toy came out - it was bigger to accommodate the batteries - and the Doctor Who producers revamped the TV prop on a mold from this toy. So this Sonic Screwdriver is exactly the same size as the one Doctor Who uses on TV!

How awesome is that? How many people would redesign their in-show prop models to match a toy? To the extent that they used the molds from the toy itself to remake it? Needless to say... I'm the proud new owner of a SONIC SCREWDRIVER, bwahaha. Of course... They haven't shipped it, yet. But oh well. Now I need to find some clothes that more or less match what the Tenth Doctor wears and I can go around zapping things!

Here... come... the drums!

This is quite possibly the best scene ever... It's from Doctor Who, from those of ya' who don't know. Basically, The Master unleashes the end of the world on planet Earth. The music came off as totally unexpected, but it fits the insanity of the character perfectly... Coupled with the awesome visuals and the emotions of watching an unstoppable madman obliterate the human race entirely for fun.

Yep, yep. Best scene ever, and the best bad guy I've ever seen. He redefines insanity. And by insanity, I don't mean your happy-fun-time craziness... I mean clinical insanity. Woo! Just watch! It'll probably weird you out at first... Apparently, it's a love or hate thing. Pretty much you either think it's the best thing in the world, or the worst disgrace of the 40 years of Doctor Who. And please ignore the creepy dancing woman. I think she's been brainwashed by the Master, which would explain... The weirdness.

Me, I'm a newbie... Started with Ninth Doctor. I think this is the best thing ever.