CMS of explosion.fun

Author: reubenroyk@gmail.com

  • The Witch

    The Witch

  • Parasite

    Parasite

  • American Beauty

    American Beauty

  • The Lightning Thief

    The Lightning Thief

    I read an article that claimed that grown men shouldn’t be reading books like Percy Jackson. This ticked me off, so I decided I would go and read Percy Jackson.

    I read through the book now, and I have some thoughts.

    The book is indeed for children. It is not an adult’s book. The story is really not that deep, but it can be made into a movie as it has been.

    What really struck me was the insane amount of product placement in this book. It seemed to me like the author was constantly trying to sell you New York or America or just American brands and products.

    For example, when the kids on the show want to get a train to New York or to LA, they wouldn’t call it the train. They would take the Amtrak. When they got some cookies or biscuits, they would be called Double Stuffed Oreos. They speak of how they want to visit burger king. Dionysus, the god, is forbidden from drinking alcohol by Zeus, so he drinks cherry cola. There are numerous instances where gods make a can of fresh cherry cola materialize and they drink it. They could have just called it soda, but no it has to be cherry cola. There are references to Nike, Pepsi, Converse, Mobil and so many other American brands.

    The story as well, it would have made sense if it were located in Greece or Europe somewhere. They had to make up a whole story about how the gods move according to where the hegemon is or something. Now America is a place to be, so all the gods are in America. Even when it wasn’t an American thing, it was a Western thing; it was all about the Western civilization. The gods were to go away; the Western civilization would collapse, apparently. What is it with this America or West thing?

    I guess the non-white world is not a place mythical Greek gods would want to be.

    Even if we were to ignore this Western civilization and Greek gods connection that the author wanted to emphasize, it’s still so embarrassing to have so much product placement in your book.

    Long ago, I had heard about how movies and books and media were shipping the American culture to the rest of the world and how this was part of how America was keeping its dominance across the world. Books like this make me feel like that’s probably true because I would never expect this level of product placement in a kid’s book from decades ago.

    The book on the whole is pretty good. Can’t complain. It is far from an adult book. It is indeed a kid’s book.

  • Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions

    Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions

    Good show. You could never really tell who would die next, which really made it a bit nicer.

  • Clevatess

    Clevatess

    I found this anime randomly on youtube, so I was very surprised when it turned out to be good.

    The animation is good.
    The story is pretty great.
    The main characters are not overpowered.
    Some of the motivational lines are actually motivating while still managing to remain realistic.

    I’ll simplify the story. Clevatess is a dark beast lord, is incredibly powerful and is stationed one corner of the known/explored world.

    Heros attempt to slay Clevatess and other dark beast lords so that they can venture further and expand the know world.

    Clevatess annoyed by the humanoids (who are like ants to him) attacking him, decides to investigate. He takes a humanoid form and gets to know the humanoid world up close and personal.

    We get to observe all of this through the eyes of a entity that knows little of the humanoids, like an alien just observing humans.
    The MC does not act as the hero himself, if there is death, destruction, violence and injustice happening around him, he simply observes and does not interfere.

    Thankfully the world in question is shrouded in mystery and each new occurrence makes the world a little bit more interesting.

  • Trigun Stampede

    Trigun Stampede

    One of the best perhaps.

    All thanks to Studio Orange.

    They think CGI is the future of animation. Hard to refute, considering the stuff they’ve managed to put out.

  • Vaping: The Silent Killer of Our Atmosphere

    Vaping: The Silent Killer of Our Atmosphere

    In the grand theater of environmental villains, vaping has emerged as the unsuspected yet relentless destroyer of our planet’s atmosphere. Move over, coal plants and gas guzzlers; there’s a new nemesis in town, and it’s packing flavored clouds and LED lights.

    Puffing on Pollution

    Every time a vaper exhales a cloud of watermelon-mint vapor, they might as well be blowing a hole straight into the ozone layer. The very essence of vaping involves the vaporization of e-liquids, a process that, if you squint hard enough, looks suspiciously like a microcosm of industrial pollution. Those fluffy clouds of aerosol might seem harmless, but they are undoubtedly the harbingers of doom.

    Let’s talk about those e-liquids. Made from a cocktail of chemicals, including the ever-elusive “natural flavorings,” these concoctions release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air. Sure, VOCs also come from plants and trees, but when did nature ever get a free pass?

    Batteries: The Heartbeat of Environmental Havoc

    Ah, lithium-ion batteries. The same powerhouses that keep our smartphones alive now propel our e-cigarettes into atmospheric devastation. Extracting lithium is no picnic for Mother Earth. Mining operations strip landscapes bare, guzzling water, and spitting out toxic waste. If lithium were a person, it would be the guy who drinks all your beer at the party and doesn’t even bring a bag of chips.

    When these batteries die, as all good things must, they rarely get the eco-friendly send-off they deserve. Instead, they are often tossed aside like yesterday’s news, seeping hazardous chemicals into the ground and water. But hey, at least they had a good run powering up those sick vape tricks, right?

    Plastic Fantastics

    Let’s not forget the unsung heroes of the vaping world: the disposable plastic pods and cartridges. These non-biodegradable little devils are the epitome of modern convenience, use once, toss forever. They’ll be around long after we’re gone, serving as tiny, colorful tombstones of our collective environmental apathy.

    If only we could harness the longevity of plastic pods to create something useful, like indestructible space habitats. But alas, their destiny lies in clogging up our landfills and waterways, outliving generations of aquatic creatures who will never appreciate the irony of choking on a grape-flavored vape pod.

    A Symphony of Smog

    For those who thought vaping was just about personal choice, think again. Every puff, every charge, every discarded pod contributes to a larger symphony of smog and pollution. It’s a harmonious dance of environmental degradation, choreographed by our insatiable desire for novelty and convenience.

    In conclusion, while the world wrings its hands over carbon footprints and melting ice caps, vaping stealthily advances its agenda, one flavored cloud at a time. So, the next time you see someone exhaling a cloud of blue raspberry vapor, remember: they’re not just indulging in a harmless pastime. They’re partaking in the grand tradition of atmospheric annihilation, one puff closer to the end.

    Vape on, planet – while you still can.

  • What cause more mental fatigue: Video, Audio or Written Text?

    My friend recently made an interesting observation, watching movies can be draining. Well yeah perhaps. But to make this more clear, we’ve got to think of watching two movies or even three movies at a time.

    Then you can actually feel the drain.

    What’s the problem with this? Movies are often associated with resting or recreational activities, perhaps activities that don’t require much mental effort. But it’s instead possible that movies provide no rest and instead are quite draining.

    During strenuous work, we sometimes like to watch and episode or a series to re-charge and come back to work more energized or motivated, and often times, the episode does not produce that energizing effect.

    Anyway, I wanna know, if I were to study a certain topic, what medium should I study that in? From a text book or a doc? Or a youtube video lecture perhaps?

    After a small amount of research, it was noticed that videos are probably more draining that text, one because, the video moves at it’s own pace, not at the pace you’re comfortable with, so you would then have to operate at a faster pace in order to keep up, and because there is more information to process.

    But also, if you’re imaginative like me, then your mind does a lot of imagining and visualization as you’re reading. Which could also lead you to become distracted by thoughts and get side-tracked. Video having a set pace, does imply the subject will come to an end within a specified duration. So accumulated drain over time is likely reduced for’ information consumed through the video medium as opposed to written text.

    Written text while not as draining, could take far longer to complete, resulting in a stronger draining effect overall.

    Anyway, I remember watching a veritasium video about something similar before. I think he summarized that learning is probably best done through a combination of all media.

  • Pluribus

    Pluribus

    The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.

    It is not very good.

    One aspect I’ve come to expect from most series coming out of Apple TV+ is that none of em really have much story to tell. They have a bit of story, it’s kinda interesting.. But they will use 9 episodes to show you story and character development that could have been done in 3.

    I hear of a new type of TV series, one that is meant to be watched while you’re doing other work. Like cooking, cleaning, and other chores. In these shows, next to nothing will happen every episode, so you miss out on nothing, so we have no issue working as the series is playing in your headphones, not even looking at the screen. I was able to watch this series so quickly, because I was skipping through most of it. I assure you, I missed nothing of worth.

    Several series I’ve seen on Apple TV have been as disappointing or worse. Another show ‘Alien Invasion’, episode 1 was quite interesting, there were crop circles and something was coming! Oooh! What could it be I wonder. And then absolutely nothing happens for the next two episodes.. A guy cheats on his wife.. Apple assumes I care? Where are the f*cking aliens!

    I tried a few other shows on Apple TV, and then cancelled the subscription.

    The actress actually got a Golden Globe! Great! The show is still poo poo.

    The story is something a couple of friends would come up with at random like,

    Person 1: “Yo bro, what if aliens took over, but here’s the twist they’re not trying to kill us. What if they’re super nice”.

    Peron 2: “Yeah that’d be new, I guess..”

    “Wouldn’t it be boring though?”

    Person 1: “We’ll add a Karen to show the contrast or something?”

    Person 2: “Suure..”

    Dumb ideas like this should die here, not get onto Apple TV.

    Is it better than Blumhouse?

    It’s more effort than Blumhouse.. so we’ll give it a pass.

    Character development was alright though.