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Saturday, 3 May 2014

BLOG -- Recap of April

I'm a little embarrassed that I missed this end-of-month blog. I was so focused on playing as much of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn before my subscription ended (on May 1st) that I completely forgot about this. I am sorry :(


Outings/Events in April:
- Hung out with friends x2.

- Made a new friend through Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (a first for me!).

- Celebrated a friend's birthday x2.

- Reached level 50 for my Bard in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (yay!).

- Started running coils with my Free Company in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (yay!).
 


Exposures:
- (video game) Aeroporter -- This is a very hectic game. I played a couple hours of it, and I don't think I would ever play it again, hahaha.


Finished...
Watching:
- (Movie): Captain America: The Winter Soldier -- I never thought this movie would be soooo goooood. I really enjoyed it.



Playing:
- (PS3 / PS4): Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn -- I am considering this beaten, because I have reached the credits. However, I know I have still so much of it to play and I won't stop anytime soon. :)

Reading:
- Nothing this month.


Currently... 
Playing (not all at once):
- (PS4): Resogun 
- (PS3): Borderlands 2 
- (DS): Legacy of Ys: Book I & II 
- (3DS): Mario's Picross
- (3DS): Bravely Default
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition
- (PSP): Persona 
- (PSP): Crush
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PS2): Atelier Iris 2
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): King's Bounty: The Legend


Watching:
- (TV Show): The Walking Dead (Season 3) 
- (Anime): Yu Yu Hakusho (don't remember)
- (Anime): Shakugan no Shana (Season 1 -- Episode 19)
- (Anime): K-On! (Episode 1) 

Reading:
- (Manga): Judge by Yoshiki Tonogai 
- (Manga): Midnight Secretary by Tomu Ohmi (Volume 5)


That's it for April. Not too much happened. I took very few photos this month, so I'm just gonna share some screenshots from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and a Youtube video of some riveting poetry readings.


My character dozing peacefully in the Free Company's house 
in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

Oh... seems like we have a cute little guest! 
(the green dude with the glowy yellow eyes)

Oh dear... it's got a knife...
(it's a tonberry lamp -- so creepy! xD)


Taylor Mali, "Words and Their Consequences".
This video is a bit over an hour, but it's really good.
I enjoy greatly the 2nd and 3rd reading, Miracle Worker, 
the poem about the dog, the 2nd last reading, and other readings in here. :) 



Thanks for reading! Once again, sorry for the late blog. I think I will blog one more time, and then it's time to prepare for Japan. Wheee!! :D

Take care! :)

Thursday, 10 April 2014

REVIEW/THOUGHTS [ANIME] -- Mushi-Shi (First Season)

Number of Episodes: 26 [25-ish minutes each episode]
Language Watched: Japanese with English subtitles; English Dub
Licensed? (As of this entry): YES
Genre(s): Supernatural, Psychological, Mystery, Drama
Overall Impression: I absolutely love it! If you haven't watched it, watch it!



SPOILER ALERT WARNING!!
This review will contain some spoilers -- or rather, there will be a "Spoilers" section at the end of the review to go into further detail about certain things. There may still be slight spoilers throughout the review, but I've tried my best to keep them at a minimum.


PERSONAL STANDING (Pre-exposures, thoughts, etc.)
Back when Mushi-Shi just came out (it's about 7 years old now), I heard almost nothing but praise for this series. I listened to its opening theme, The Sore Feet Song, and was a bit turned off. The song was just too calming for me. It made me think, Is the series going to be just as calm? Then one of my friends told me that Mushi-Shi was actually overhyped and that she didn't like the series at all. That comment was enough for me to put it off my "to-watch" list for a long time.

Then fast forward to two years ago, when I bought the DVD collection during a Boxing Week sale. It's cheap enough... why not see what it's all about?

I'm glad I took that chance. If you are wondering why I am blogging about this now when there is most likely a ton of content on this already... it's because I love it and I want to write about it! I also mentioned wayyy back in an earlier blog that I would write about it, so...


STORY
Mushi-Shi follows mushi master Ginko as he wanders from place to place, trying to help / protect people from mushi, as well as learning about them. Mushi are etherial, ghostly-ish beings that can sometimes have a powerful influence over the physical world. I guess you can kinda think of them as spirits. Some people can see mushi; most people can't. And there are many different types of mushi that do different things and have different kinds of influences. Some of the mushi influences can be minor and subtle, while others can be downright crippling and unbearable.

Examples of some mushi.

EPISODIC STRUCTURE
Mushi-Shi is entirely episodic. Besides one recurring secondary character (though he doesn't appear in many episodes) and Ginko, each episode introduces us to new sets of characters.

I think the episodic structure works very well. It allows each episode to highlight one mushi type and to allow development for whichever characters come into contact with that mushi.

Overall, I greatly enjoy the episodes. Not all of them are winners, but each episode offers something -- many of them can provoke such deep thought... and such varying emotions, depending on how you relate to the characters or the situations. I can admit to crying to several of the episodes -- even after watching it for the xth time!

I should mention that not every episode ends on a positive note or with complete resolve. Sometimes I go, Ooooooo... at the end, often meaning, 'the ending's so harsh, but soooo gooood', or 'it's not over yet for these guys...'.

I'll list the episodes I really enjoyed in the "Spoilers" section. AND... I will link to Youtube videos for each one. Funimation was really nice to upload the entire series on Youtube, so it's completely legit. :)

THE CALMING YET UNNERVING ATMOSPHERE
For me, I find Mushi-Shi's overall tone and design to be very calm, unearthly, and beautiful. Annnnd... at times, unnerving. As I've mentioned in one of my older blogs, "I find that almost every episode has one scene or imagery that just makes my skin crawl." I find it interesting that a series so beautiful can also have such spine-tingly moments. That said, the skin crawling feeling doesn't detract from the series at all. In fact, I think it adds and reinforces the unearthly, supernatural essence of Mushi-Shi's world.


CHARACTERS
As mentioned before, there are a wide variety of characters, one occasionally-recurring secondary character... and Ginko. Ginko is a really cool dude! He's kinda a go-with-the-flow-type guy, but with strong beliefs and values. One thing that I really like about him is how he tends to take a neutral stance when dealing with the mushi and the people affected by them.

Ginko.
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MUSIC
I can't begin to tell you just how beautiful and powerful this music is. The tunes sound like a mix of piano and traditional Japanese instruments (most likely other instruments, too, but I don't know). Many of the tunes have a sombre sound, with an otherworldly, mysterious feel. They are also capable of inducing very strong emotions, whether it's a feeling of intense sorrow, bliss, relaxation, horror, or wonderment. At least, that's how it is for me. If I could buy the soundtracks (at a decent price), I would in a heartbeat.

Here are a couple of tracks that I really, really like:

-"Ri (Kotowari)": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSRAYy0ljz4
This is such a sorrowful tune. Sometimes I cry when I hear it. Still like it a lot!

-"Kago no Naka": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPKQMO5nT4E
This is also quite sorrowful, but with a bit of a hopeful feel. It almost makes me feel that there is still some light in the darkness (whatever the darkness may be).


JAPANESE / ENGLISH DUBBING
The Japanese dubbing is great. The English dubbing -- is AMAZING! And this is coming from a person who generally prefers Japanese dub over English dub. I think the English dub really captured the subtle air of the Japanese dub, and it just fits so well with the series. I want Travis Willingham (the English voice-actor for Ginko) to come to Fan Expo so that I can get his autograph!


MUSHI-SHI AND THE MANGA
I actually haven't read the manga, so I can't comment on this. I'm just leaving this as a placeholder until I do (if I ever get the chance!).


MUSHI-SHI AND THE LIVE-ACTION MOVIE
Ummm... I'd recommend that you stay away from the live-action movie. The beauty that was in the anime was... not here. I am very disappointed.


MUSHI-SHI AND THE OVA
For those who don't know about it, an OVA was released early this year. I actually just found out about it when reading about Mushi-Shi on Wikipedia. The OVA carries the same feel as the series, so I very much enjoyed it. The music was also really nice.


DVD EXTRA CONTENT
Since I bought the DVDs, there were some extra content. There's not much, but here they are:

Commentary (25 mins [go to "Episode" and select "With Commentary" under Episode 26]) -- It's a talk between Travis Willingham and Mike McFarland on various things about Mushi-Shi. One of the things they talked about was the decision of keeping all the Japanese terms in the English dub instead of using English terms -- and then the difficulty of speaking those Japanese terms with the proper enunciation in the English dub. I'm glad they made that decision. They also talked about episodes they liked; episodes that creeped them out; life lessons; and more. Supposedly there is an Easter Egg in the DVD that I have yet to check out. There are spoilers here, so listen to it after watching the series.

Interview with the Director (20 mins) -- This was pretty interesting. I could see that the director really enjoyed the manga and that he wanted to make the series as faithful to the manga as possible. His reasoning and intentions behind the scenic opening theme was also really interesting.

Production Studio Tour (4 mins) -- This was a short tour through "Mushi-Kago" (translated as "Mushi Cage", the building the production studio and director stayed at while creating the series.

Mushi-Shi Manga Pages, Presented by Del Rey Manga (few pages) -- I think this was Del Rey Manga's way of enticing viewers to buy the manga (which I would happily do if it wasn't long out-of-print). Unless you are viewing this on a large TV screen, you won't be able to read anything.

Textless Opening Song -- I'm not sure how necessary this is, but I'm sure some fans would appreciate it. I actually do other things while the opening theme is running.

Original TV Spots (5 mins) -- I was super surprised to find out that Mushi-Shi aired in Japan at 3:45 AM. Crap, that's late! The director mentioned that Mushi-Shi was a late-night show. I never thought that it would be that late!



CLOSING THOUGHTS
Mushi-Shi is peaceful, creepy, mysterious, intense, and beautiful. Even with all the unnatural tendencies that happen in Mushi-Shi's world, it poses many thoughts and ideas that can be relayed back to our everyday lives. I mean, do I feel overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the next day? Would I want to completely start my life over? When I think I am, am I really accepting others as they are? Even though I've already had some of these thoughts before watching the show, it just reinforces them so much more, seeing how the characters deal with these thoughts and ideas.

As I mentioned before, Funimation was really nice to upload the whole series on Youtube. The entire Japanese dub with English subtitles is uploaded, but they also have the first four episodes uploaded in English dubbing, so you can hear how amazing it is (the English episodes are in this same link): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ELMvwzjNR4c5A

If you want to see which episodes I really like, get to the spoilers section! I'll put a bit of commentary next to each one.

And... after watching the first season on Youtube, get yourself to Crunchyroll and watch the OVA, and then Season Two, that's currently airing as of this blogging!! It makes me so excited that more episodes are being made!!! :D I should note that non-premium Crunchyroll users will be hit with commercials throughout each episode, so don't be surprised.


Thanks for reading! If you want some more input about something I didn't cover, feel free to ask. :)

So I'll do the scrolly thing and the "Spoilers" section will appear after that. Then I'll add some more scrolly things after the "Spoilers" section in case anybody wants to comment, but not see the spoilers.

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SPOILERS

I'll list the episodes I really enjoyed in the "Spoilers" section.
And here they are! There are a lot, hahaha. Unless I mention it, the links are to the Japanese dub with English subtitles.

-The Green Seat (English dub link) -- Really nice.
-The Pillow Pathway (English dub link) -- Makes me go, Ooooo.... what an episode.
-The Traveling Swamp -- Bittersweet.
-Those Who Inhale The Dew -- I like the thoughts in this one.
-The Sleeping Mountain -- So sad.
-One-Eyed Fish -- This is also sad.
-One-Night Bridge -- This one, too.
-Inside the Cage -- This makes me cry every time.
-Sunrise Serpent -- I hope something like this never happens to me.
-Pickers of Empty Cocoons -- I like the hopeless / hopeful feel of this episode.
-String From the Sky -- This makes me cry every time.
-A Sea of Writings -- I really like the story in this.
-Cotton Changeling -- Oooo...
-Shrine in the Sea -- I like the idea in this episode.
-The Sound of Rust -- It's a bit tough to watch, but I like it.
-The Sound of Footsteps on the Grass -- I like that it was told from another character's perspective.

I debated whether to have more scrolly things after this... these aren't really spoilers... but I think I will. Thanks again for reading and feel free to comment :D


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Monday, 31 March 2014

BLOG -- Recap of March

So let's just say I played Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn all March and be done with this blog. Haha. I'm just kidding. Despite my now sporadic blog entries, I did do a few things this month, and had a good number of exposures.


Outings/Events in March:
- Attended a very long wedding reception (4.5 hours long -- I timed it). I didn't want to go, since I barely knew anybody... ><''

- Stayed over at my sister's place x2.

- Attended the Spring One of Kind Show.

- Hung out with my sister and friends x1.

- Had Lunch with a good co-worker buddy.

- Had Lunch to celebrate a team-mate's birthday.
 


Exposures:
- (restaurant) Vera's Kitchen -- Yummy food.

- (restaurant) Very Fair Seafood Restaurant -- Meh.

- (restaurant) Pho Hung -- I'd like to go back and try other dishes.

- (person) Madilyn Bailey -- One day I was Youtubing "Titanium David Guetta" and her cover was near the top, so I thought, Okay, let's try it out. I was totally blown away. She has a really lovely voice!

- (person) David Choi -- My sister told me about him. I never noticed, but he was in one of Ryan Higa's old Youtube videos. Anywho, he's got a really nice voice and sings his own songs. Brings the sappy romantic out of me, hahaha (I'm exaggerating a little here... the sappy romantic side of me is always out and active ;))


Finished...
Watching:
- (Anime): Polyphonica Crimson S -- Despite the suggestive DVD cover, this series doesn't have any fanservice (that I can remember) and is quite enjoyable. I wish there was a video game based on this world -- I want to play it!

- (Anime): Boys Be -- There were some interesting thoughts, but it didn't do that much for me. I also really don't like the eyecatches.

Playing:
- Nothing this month.

Reading:
- Nothing this month.


Currently... 
Playing (not all at once):
- (PS4): Resogun 
- (PS3): Borderlands 2 
- (PS3): Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn  
- (DS): Legacy of Ys: Book I & II 
- (3DS): Mario's Picross
- (3DS): Bravely Default
- (GBA): The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition
- (PSP): Persona 
- (PSP): Crush
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PS2): Atelier Iris 2
- (PC): UnEpic  
- (PC): King's Bounty: The Legend


Watching:
- (TV Show): The Walking Dead (Season 3) 
- (Anime): Yu Yu Hakusho (don't remember)
- (Anime): Shakugan no Shana (Season 1 -- Episode 19)
- (Anime): K-On! (Episode 1) 

Reading:
- (Manga): Judge by Yoshiki Tonogai 
- (Manga): Midnight Secretary by Tomu Ohmi (Volume 4)


That's it for March. Here are some random photos, plus a bunch of Youtube videos I was exposed to this month:

A neat-looking table at the One of a Kind Show.

Some delicious cookies that we bought at the One of a Kind Show.

A very pretty collection of Tales of Symphonia.

"That Girl" by David Choi.
It's such a sweet song.

Madilyn Bailey's cover of One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful".
It makes me want to dance! :)

A cover of Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Walk off the Earth feat. KRNFX.
It sounds cool!

"Marry Me" by Ellegarden. It's a catchy tune.


Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to comment or ask about any of my experiences / exposures. Don't fall for too many April Fool's jokes tomorrow! I was already fooled by one today (nooo, I wanted to woo Thancred or Silvarre!!) T.T.

Anywho, take care! :)

Thursday, 27 March 2014

BLOG -- My Day Without Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn; Spouting About Daigasso! Band Brothers

Since Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is down for maintenance for the whole day today, I'm going to take this chance to blog. And what better thing to blog about than this very day... as I suffer from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn withdrawals. Hahaha, well, I'm just joking... a little.

Anywho, the game is down for the whole day so that Patch 2.2 can be implemented. New quests, new features, more crafting, more fishing -- added gardening (kyaa!)... it's really exciting stuff. 

So what did I do today? Well... (my apologies if this read is not too interesting to you)

6:30 AM: I woke up (bleh...)

6:30 AM - 7:15 AM: Did my washroom stuff (brush teeth, take a shower while singing)

7:15 AM - 7:30 AM: Prepared my lunch and breakfast.

7:30 AM - 8:10 AM: Normally, I would log onto Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and do a bit of crafting and gathering, but today I checked Siliconera for any gaming news and then I checked my e-mail. I got an e-mail from a close friend asking for song suggestions to download for this really cool Japanese DS rhythm game called Daigasso! Band Brothers DX. If you have never heard of Daigasso! Band Brothers DX, here's a sample playthrough (it only shows the top screen of the DS, and you can only pick one instrument to play through at a time):

 Sample playthrough of Impossible's version of Chrono Trigger's "To Far Away Times"

About two weeks ago, I alerted this same friend that Nintendo was shutting down its Wi-Fi servers for the Wii and DS on May 20. See, one of the really cool things about Daigasso! Band Brothers DX is its song editor that allows you to create midi songs of pre-existing songs (as you may have seen in the video above) and upload them to Nintendo's servers for other players to download (a player can download up to 100 different songs). I remember that when this game came out, there were over 1000 available songs a month after its release. And to download them, you need to connect to Wi-Fi (bleh).

I checked my old folders and luckily I found a really old Excel file (it's 5 years old!) that listed almost all the songs I downloaded back then (yay for me and my list-making tendencies!!). I wanted to double-check the list before sending it off to her so I responded, telling her that I would send her the list tonight.

8:10 - 9:10 AM: My commute to work. I ate a mild patty on the way since I only had soy milk for breakfast (I forgot to buy cereal for this morning. And yes, I was late to work... *ack*)

9:10 AM - 6:00 PM: Work. At least I made up for my tardiness... by working for an extra 50 minutes.

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM: Bought some cereal (not gonna forget again...).

6:15 PM - 7:15 PM: My commute back home. I played some Bravely Default.

7:15 PM - 9:15 PM: I looked through my old download list for Daigasso! Band Brothers DX while eating dinner. That was really fun and nostalgic. I actually have two copies of Daigasso! Band Brothers DX so I was listening to nearly 200 song snippets. I ended up playing some of them and realizing just how rusty I had become. 

You wanna know why I really like the Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (and the series overall)? You're probably not interested in knowing... but I'm gonna tell you anyway. There are several reasons:

1. I get to practice my Japanese. Since the game is in Japanese, all the song names (unless they were originally in English) are Japanese and are written using the two alphabet sets that I've taught myself (katakana and hiragana). Sometimes I still get some characters mixed up, but it was definitely a good chance to get better at it.

2. Only one person needed to own the game for others to play (up to 8 people!). That is just awesome.

3. This is the biggest reason why I really like Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (and the series overall): it was what I considered a very large hub for various music exposures. Because I often have the attitude of "being open" to various genres (for any kind of media -- music, video games, movies, etc.), I let myself get exposed to a ton of new songs and artists. If I didn't recognize the song title, I would try Youtubbing it. It was because of my attitude that I found a Korean Pop song that I now really really like ("Love Love Love" by Epik High). 

It was also through a Daigasso! Band Brothers game that I found one of my most favourite Japanese Rock / Pop bands (I will blog about it in due time). Other artists that I found through Daigasso! Band Brothers were Greeeen, Spitz, Aqua Timez, Arashi, The Back Horn, and Kobukuro.

Here are some Youtube videos of just some of the cool tunes I found through Daigasso! Band Brothers (you may not like them, but to each their own). Most of these songs are in Japanese, BUT there are also a couple that are in English.


 
"前進 僕 戦場へ" by Lunkhead.
I love the opening guitar.



"Bored of Everything" by Ellegarden.
I want to find a karaoke track of this. I want to sing it!
This song is entirely in English.



"Robinson" by Spitz.
It sounds so melancholic. I love it.



"Be Free" by Greeeen.
It was this music video that led me to a Japanese movie that I like:
Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge


"Discography" by Straightener. This song is entirely in English. If you ever catch the original music video, it is weiiird -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3zlxtsFlcE



"Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Everton Nelson, and Jacques.
This is an instrumental piece and it is so beautiful...

And last but not least...



"とくそうせんたいデカレンジャー" (Dekaranger Opening theme).
Listening to this just gets my blood pumping! So intense and exciting!


9:15 PM - 9:40 PM: Watched an episode of Boys Be while finishing up my dinner.

9:40 PM - 12:10-ish PM: I am blogging this blog!


What am I going to do after this? Go to sleep. Hahaha... This is the first in weeks that I have a chance to sleep at a more reasonable time (instead of staying up to 1-1:30 AM, playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn...).


If you've read this far in the blog -- thank you!!

You all have a good week and see you all again (hopefully in a more timely manner).

Matane! (See you later!) :)

Monday, 10 March 2014

BLOG -- Some of My Thoughts on Time and Time Travelling

Okay, so Final Fantasy XIV still has a ridiculously tight grip on me. I mean, I completely missed blogging last week -- I was busy crafting, gathering, and leveling up my character. I am also at the point where my inventory is filled with items (my character's inventory + my 2 retainers' inventories) and every now and then I find myself playing the "Manage my inventory" game. I probably wouldn't have this issue if I was focusing on one class at a time, but I don't want to play that way, haha. I want my various classes to support each other. If my fighting class needs new gear, I want my crafting classes to make some. And if my crafting classes need the materials, I want my gathering classes to get most, if not all, of them. But I'm already getting sidetracked here.

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In light of the Daylight Savings that happened yesterday, I'm going to share some of my thoughts on Time and Time Travelling.

I have to first put this disclaimer: I do not know much about science. These are thoughts that I've pondered and developed over the years. And due to that development, this is the perspective that makes the most sense to me. Do NOT take any of these as fact -- again, it is my perspective. Also, please excuse my term of "man-made" and "Man". When I use it here, I am referring to humans as a whole.


So... Time. Besides it being what I consider to be one of the most expensive gifts anybody can ever give to somebody else, I think Time is a man-made concept that controls our world.

Yes, Time exists, but "Time" is just an arbitrary term to a state of being (humans just had to put a label on it). Time isn't an entity; it has no thoughts; it has no feelings; it is not even made up of molecules. If the world blew up and nobody was alive to witness it, Time would still be present and moving. To me, Time is simply "progression".

My thought about Time being a man-made concept comes from our measurements of it -- a year, a month, a day, an hour, a minute, a second, a nanosecond, a millisecond. It is to this measurement of Time that I think many of us (I would dare to say all) are slaves. You have a report due in a week? In two days? In an hour? Or you have to get to this shop before it closes for the day. Or you have to catch a show that starts in 2 minutes. Whether we want to or not, I think we have all ended up prioritizing our actions around Man's measurement of Time at one point or another. 

Now, I'm not exactly against this measurement of Time -- it's useful when you want to meet up with your friends, or when you want to hype up a product's launch date or whatever. I just find it a little funny and sad sometimes that we stress and worry over it (like a report's deadline, a bill to pay, whatever). It's just the thought that Man stresses over something Man created. It's... amusing.

So... with that out of the way, here are my thoughts on Time Travelling. 

Just so you know, I would love to be able to time travel. I would totally go back in time and adjust some of my errors. Not all of them, but definitely the ones that still affect me today (not going into details here, but it's nothing bad -- just bad for me). BUT... with my opinion of Time and how the measurement of Time is man-made, I think that travelling back in time is impossible.

Let's try to it break down a little:

You want to travel back to... umm... 1994. You build this crazy contraption, and then when you start to define the days, the years, the minutes, etc., you pause. Just how are you defining this?? Sure, you can define the length of a minute, the length of a year... but then what? How would this contraption that you just built know exactly what happened years ago? Time is not an entity -- it doesn't have memories. Time is a state of being that progresses nonstop. It's... just impossible.

Sorry if I burst anybody's bubble here. I so want to believe in the possibility of travelling back in time. But I just can't.

In that same regard, I think that time travelling to the future is also impossible. Again, it goes back to what time travelling involves. Time travelling is the manipulation of the progression of Time. BUT... the progression of Time is man-made (a day, an hour, etc.). Manipulating that progression means nothing to Time. Because, again, how would that be defined? I guess a machine could determine how a world's state could be in the future, given specific constants and such, but to place somebody there? Impossible.

Still... I do believe in something Time-related. I wouldn't really call it time travelling though some people might. So I don't believe in the possibility of Man creating a contraption to manipulate the progression of Time in any way. What I do believe in, however, is the possibility of areas or forces that alter the progression of Time in a natural way -- something where Man doesn't have to interfere. Maybe a specific spot on Earth has a slower state of progression than another spot -- or even out in space (which is more probable). I don't know if such areas or forces exist, but I'd like to believe in it. Even with this line of thinking, though, that would still alter the present progression -- altering the past is still impossible.

You know what can travel back in time, though? Video games (and other man-made programs). ;)


That's it for this blog!

If you disagree with my thoughts or anything, go ahead and comment or send me a message. If I am completely off the mark in terms of science, feel free to let me know, too. Sometime after this blog, one of my friends is going to beat some knowledge into me by having me read a book by Stephen Hawking. I can't say for sure if I will understand it, though. If it changes my thoughts about Time, who knows -- maybe I'll revisit this topic again.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week! Now back to playing Final Fantasy XIV... after a bit of Call of Duty: Ghosts... :)