So we all know that Youtube changed its design in December of 2011. Was the change for the better or for the worse? In my opinion, this is the worst new design I’ve ever seen in my life. Who ever thought this was a great idea for a new layout should be fired. Here’re my thoughts on this…

- They now have a 1000 text limit on the description of your channel. I liked the fact that I could have an unlimited text description of your channel on the old design. Now I have to decide what I want to remove from my old info even though I want ALL of it on there. -_-

- On my profile page, It won’t display my Age, Name, Hometown, etc. It does have the “show” button for this information when you edit your channel but it still won’t “show” up when I hit “apply”! I liked that on the old profile page, all that important information was bolded and well organized and it actually showed up. They also got rid of the Favorite Movies, Music, Books, etc. Why get rid of that? It helps to share more info about that person!

- The comments on a users profile page was one of the more difficult things to figure out. I found that you have to go to the “feed” tab on the top under your username. Sigh, really? It was so much more convenient before having all that on one page. Why separate it? There’s no freaking point! It just makes it more difficult for us to work with. -_-

- On the home page, I keep missing people’s new videos because all the new shit that gets posted makes all the older videos drop down to the bottom and as a result, it gets lost in the mess of the inbox. This is a great downfall especially for people who are subscribed to Youtubers in different time zones. At least on the old layout, peoples videos were bunched together in their own inbox. You could never miss a new video from them because their videos were bunched together! Why didn’t they just keep a similar layout to the old homepage? Mixing up all the new videos makes it very hard to keep up (not to mention find) with everyone’s new videos. It’s quite an annoyance really and I hate missing new videos from my favorite Youtubers!

I’m guessing their “so called solution” to this problem was to create a “pin me up” on our homepage but you can only select 10 of your favorites. Oh my god, seriously? ONLY 10!??!11 What if I have MORE THAN 10!?!?!?! Even so, I don’t want to go through the trouble with having to click on 10 of my favorite Youtubers just to see which videos I missed. I’d rather have it just the way it was before when everybody had their OWN inbox. The worst idea youtube could’ve ever come with was to mix everybody’s new videos together!

- Another thing that really sucks is that they completely removed the subscriptions and subscribers box on people’s profile page! I know they moved the subscriptions box to our own homepage but nobody else can see it but you! Not to mention I can’t even see on my own homepage who’s subscribed to me. What the hell?! How the heck are we gonna know who’s subscribed to who now? I loved that feature because I used that to find channels similar to the ones I love. This really just draws the line and it pisses me off how awful this new layout is.

They’re sadly going to force everybody to switch over to the new profile page in March. I hate the fact that they force people to switch over to something they don’t like. Why not allow their users decide on which profile layout they want? But will they ever let us do that? At this point, probably not since they don’t ever seem to listen to us.

Youtube seems to update their look every year so hopefully come December this year, they’ll realize how god awful this new look is and improve it for the better.

My thoughts: I’m slightly saddened by Asobit City closing down. I visited the store back in May of 2009 (while on my way to Super Potato) and I thankfully took video of the store while I was there. I will at some point, dig the video out of my vault of Japan vids and release it to youtube.  But anyway, at the same time of being sad that it’s gone, I’m also quite interested in JeanMate’s choice of merchandise even though it does seem to be a bit random for a clothes store to be in the heart of the electronics city.  I plan to go back to Tokyo very soon and this store will definitely be on my list of places to visit.

Sources:

http://akiba.kakaku.com/en/hobby/0910/23/184501.php
http://akiba.kakaku.com/etc/0910/14/222000.php (Japanese)

My top 10:

1. A-Channel
2. Bakuman 1-2
3. Blue Exorcist
4. Hoshizora he Kakaru Hashi
5.  Hunter x Hunter 2011
6. Pokemon BW
7. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
8. Ika Musume/Squid Girl
9.  Suite Precure
10. Toriko

Outside of anime, a ton of shows I used watch when I was a kid finally are getting released to DVD. I’ve been buying as much of them as I can to support the releases so they can continue bringing them to us. I’ve bought all the Nick releases from Shout! that’s out thus far as well as a few other titles from them that got released this year. I don’t think I bought any games besides Sonic Generations and a couple of DS games so I can’t really say my thoughts on the gaming community. Anyway, what are your thoughts of 2011 in terms of anime, manga, and video gaming media? Good, bad? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

PS: Happy New Year to you all and stay safe!

Lately, I’ve been noticing so much drama going on between the ‘90’s kids and 00’s kids. The debate going on now is ‘90’s kids are claiming their decade to be the best and bashing the 00’s kids. There’s also this whole thing where the 00’s kids are claiming to be ‘90’s kids simply because they were born in the late 90’s. Now, I was born in ’88 but I certainly don’t claim myself to be an 80’s kid just because I was born in the 80’s. Why, you may ask? Well to put it simply, I was only conscious of the decade for about year and half. I just don’t remember anything from the 80’s because I was too young. However, I fondly remember nearly everything from 1991-2002.

I hate to break it to yah but if you’re a kid born in the mid 90’s, you’re 00’s kid. If you can truly “claim” yourself to be a 90’s kid, tell me how many of these you remember from the 90’s…

In the 90’s:
- The majority of the population didn’t have internet much less a computer until about 1996.

- Google had just launched in 1998.

- Pokemon games and the TV show first came to the States in 1998.

- ‘90’s kids had video game systems such as the original Nintendo Entertainment System, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, N64, Original Gameboy, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast, and Playstation 1 which are all now extinct.

- ‘90’s kids played computer games from Humongous Entertainment (known for Putt-Putt, Fatty Bear, Freddie Fish, Spy Fox, Pajama Sam, etc), Backyard Baseball/Sports, Catz & Dogz 1-4, Sims, Zoo Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon

- Anime and manga started to take off in ’99.

- Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut in 1991 and was an immediate hit. Sonic had his  own Comics in the early 90’s (which are still publishing now), Plush toys (made by Caltoy), etc.

- Many classic Disney movies aired in the 90’s such as The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, The Santa Clause, etc. I remember seeing all these in theaters the day they came out.

- Every animated movie and cartoon was hand drawn and used traditional cell animation (with the exception of Toy Story) in the 90’s. Now-a-days, it’s a rare treat to see animation done traditionally.

- Your childhood heroes were Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen, Michael Jordan, Cal Ripken Jr., Tim Allen, Lindsay Lohan, Michael Jackson, first gen Power Rangers, Bill Cosby, Fresh Prince, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, etc (If these aren’t your heroes, feel free to tell me which ones were).

- You listened to Boy bands and Girl bands for example Spice Girls, N*Sync, Backstreet Boys, Dream Street, BBMak, ’98 Degrees, Hanson, TLC, etc.

- East Coast, US 90′s kids remember the Blizzard of ’96.

- You remember watching TV blocks such as Toon Disney, The Disney Afternoon, SNICK, Toonami, etc.

- You remember 9/11 and became politically aware of what was going on.

- You played with toys such as Kitty/Puppy Surprise, Lite Brite, Sockem Boppers, Skip It, Tyco Kitty Kitty Kittens, Crazy Bones, Disney action figures (Aladdin, Lion King, etc), Littlest Pet Shop, Lite Brites, Hot Potatoes, etc.

- You remember eating these candies/foods: Runts, Disney Wonder Ball, Trix Pops, Fruit Stripes (gum), Amazin’ Fruit, Dunkaroos, ring pops, Fruit String Thing, etc.

- People watched all their movies in theaters, VHS, or on TV. they also went to Block Buster to rent their favorite movie. They also had to sit through the previews in our movies and there was no skip to menu option.

- Cell phones were large as today’s house phones (maybe even bigger). Only parents were able to afford a cell phones.

I could list many more memories but I’m obviously not gonna list every single thing. These are the major things that I remember from the ‘90’s.

In the 00’s, you guys had:

- The Internet: AIM, Skype, myspace, facebook, Google, Google+, etc.

-  Youtube just launched in 2006. Nearly 10 years after the launch of Google.

-  Apple devices such as iPod’s, iPod Touch, iPad, AirMac

-iPhone was the first phone ever to allow you to video call and surf the web in the palm of your hands. Smart Phones then became a big hit after the iPhone was released.

- A lot of your TV shows in the early 00’s were what was left over from the 90’s and some new shows. You all got, The Angry Beavers, The Fairly Odd Parents, Spongebob, The Wild Thornberry’s, Lilo & Stitch the Series, Rugrats, Danny Phantom, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Phineas and Ferb, Adventure Time, Amazing World of Gumball, Kenan & Kel, The Amanda Show, Hannah Montannah, Drake & Josh, iCarly, etc.

- You remember 9/11.

- Your childhood heroes are Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, J-Lo, Kelly Clarkson, Robert Patterson, Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Phineas and Ferb, etc. (If these aren’t your heroes, feel free to tell me which ones were)

- You can now record your favorite TV shows through DVR, skip the commercials and pause whenever you please.

-  You remember when HD TV was a new thing in the mid 00’s.

- Your video game systems are The Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, PS2 and PS3, Xbox, Xbox Kinect, Gameboy Advanced, GBA SP, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS.

See how big the difference is? The 90’s was still in its baby stages of video gaming and the computer tech revolution. When I was a kid, I never had my own cell phone. I don’t remember getting one until I was about in 8^th grade which was around 2003. Today, really young kids have their own cell phone. When I was 10, I remember when everyone was amazed when Google was first launched and every kid was obsessed with Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z.

Whenever we have today’s generation of kids come over to our house, we always have out our old video game systems. (we still have a Game Gear, Genesis, and N64). When they see them, the typical exclamations I get are usually, “Woah!” or “Wow! What the heck is this?!” Like it’s some kind of new technology. However, when they see the graphics, they’re sorely disappointed and lose interest quickly. Which really bugs the hell out of me (graphics aren’t everything in a game kiddos!). I did have a couple kids who actually enjoyed the old graphics and the difficult game play. I remember one kid telling me with a big smile, “Wow! This is like playing on a giant Nintendo DS!”. lol

What I don’t get is when kids born in 1997-1999 are “claiming” themselves to be 90’s kids simply because they were born in that decade. Now, here’s my question to you kids who are doing this same thing now. Can you honestly say that you remember the majority of the things I remembered from the 90’s as seen above? Did you scream at the top of your lungs when you got Sonic 2, a Kitty/Puppy Surprise, or a Nintendo 64 for Christmas?

To end this little rant, I just want to say this to everybody. Don’t try to pretend you grew up in said decade. Be proud of the decade and generation you are born in (I know I’m proud to be a ‘90’s kid). Also, claiming that your decade was better than somebody else’s is invalid. Every decade had its ups and downs.

If you’re a kid today, Just remember that you can’t go back into the past. So enjoy every moment of your childhood while you still can. And a message to the ‘90’s kids, Unfortunately, we aren’t kids anymore but we sure had one hell of a childhood! Remember the good times but always remember that this is the present and again, we can’t go back in time.

Last edited: 11/4/2011.

Looks like it’s pretty much just a lot of re-releases of series this Holiday season. I’m a bit disappointed I have to say.
Is there anything that ya’ll are looking forward to?

According to the next month’s issue of Ciao magazine, Chibi Devil! will be getting a TV anime this fall. The show will be airing on October 10, 2011 on Japan’s NHK channel.

Thoughts: Looks like I’m adding another show to my fall watch list! I remember reading the series when it first came out in Ciao magazine back in 2008 and I own the first 2 volumes in Japanese. This is certainly exciting news since not many series in Ciao magazine get animated.

Hunter x Hunter 2011:

Air Date: 10-2-2011

Notes: I’m currently watching the old 90′s series since I heard there was gonna be a remake. I’m kinda disappointed that there’s gonna be an all new cast. I thought the old voices were perfectly fine but we’ll see how this new one does.

Bakuman 2:

Air date: 10-1-2011

Notes: Watched the entire first season and I’m currently reading the manga. Really great series so far. I hope that the 2nd season does well so we can continue to see it animated!

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi 2:

Air date: Oct. 2011

Notes: Watched and loved the first season. Looking forward to season 2!

Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume:

Air date: Oct. 2011

Notes: The first season was hilarious! Can’t wait for season 2!

So that’s really it. Mostly ended up picking continuing series. Not that it’s a bad thing but I’m still looking forward to watch these! What are you guys watching this season?

I’m sure most 90′s kids grew up watching Nickelodeon. I obviously did and lots of the 90′s kids have been asking and asking for our favorite shows we’ve grown up with to be back on TV. Finally in summer 2o11, we’re getting what we asked for! Nickelodeon has given us a late night (12-4am) marathon block of 90′s nickelodeon shows starting off with Kenan & Kel, All That, Clarissa Explains it All, and Doug. According to Wikipedia, other shows such as Real Monsters, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, The Amanda Show, Catdog, GUTS, Double Dare, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Hey Arnold!, Rocket Power, Rugrats, Rocko’s Modern Life, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Secret of Alex Mack, and more will be coming on soon as well. No news of when the other 90′s nick shows will air.

My thoughts: I miss the shows I grew up with and while I do think this is a nice idea, I would’ve preferred a channel that’s dedicated to all 90′s shows. That way, they won’t have to rotate shows out. Nickelodeon seems to have forgotten that their viewers have jobs and many of them prefer not to stay up just to watch their old favorite shows. Thankfully for me, I have DVR so I can watch them whenever I’d like. For now, I’m definitely enjoying a good taste of nostalgia with Kenan & Kel, Clarissa, All That, and Doug.

On a side note, I’ve been getting into other shows I used to watch. I own DVDs for Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck, Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Animaniacs, Adventures of Sonic, Sonic SATAM, and a bunch more nostalgic shows on my shelf. I’ve got Tom & Jerry Kids, Quack Pack, and Goof Troop on my computer ready to watch also. I’m crossing my fingers that if the 90′s block on Nick does well, then they’ll have a channel just for the 90′s shows. I’m hoping that Disney channel will consider doing the same thing in the future.

Here’s a list of everything I bought during the month of November:

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Complete series)
Avatar: The Last Airbender Artbook (gift from my parents)
Kirby’s Epic Yarn: Game + Guide book
The Second Jungle Book

Stuff on order (rightstuf.com):
Trigun: Complete series (FUNimation)
Dragon Ball Z Movie 10

I’m about half way through (And I just bought it this Friday) Kirby’s Epic Yarn and it’s definitely my type of game! Cute, not too long, and did I mention cute? As for Avatar, I’ve already watched the entire series through TV while before reruns started. But I really wanted to have it on DVD so I could watch it without commercials. Plus, it was on sale for $20 per boxset, so I couldn’t pass that deal down. ^^; So since Christmas is on its way, I probably won’t buy myself anymore gifts. ^^; All this should keep me busy until I’m all healed. Plus, I’ve still got to catch up on some of the Fall anime, as well as the Fall TV shows.