During the recent Memorial Day weekend, my brother and I drove up to Georgia to see our folks. For their 27th wedding anniversary, we went camping with their redneck friends(and some obscure relatives) and pursued fun adventures on boats, ATVs, and golf carts outside of civilization.

To finish off the trip, we stayed at the house of a cousin I didn’t event know I had. They had the greatest cat ever, as you can see above.

I typically hate cats. They are the most useless and selfish creatures ever. All they ever do is lick themselves and claw at furniture. Dogs are incredibly superior as you can train them to kill people.

BUT… this cat is awesome. With only three legs, one eye, and no testicles, he(!) could still run around with the best of them. Appropriately named Tripod, he would travel quickly by pushing off his back leg. I tried to get a shot of him running; unfortunately, he was too quick to catch on camera.

Sonic the Hedgehog wishes he was as fast as Tripod.

He’s got a life filled with more misfortune than most people and he still keeps going on! Tripod, we salute you!

Welcome to May! This means that a new, shitty and over-hyped movie will come out every weekend of the Summer “blockbuster” season.

These will make up the majority of my near future hangouts with friends who just can’t come over to watch my excellent collection of martial arts films and anime, nor will they do something manly with me like go bowling or play Final Fight: Double Impact. Seriously guys, I have Super Street Fighter IV; let’s just play that!

Sure, I’ll see these fucking movies. I’ll go see one this weekend. What’s out? Iron Man 2. Wasn’t the last one about a dude who gets kidnapped and MacGyver’s a robot suit to escape and then his evil corporation he didn’t know was evil – surprise, surprise – copies his suit and uses it for evil things and then explosions happen? Okay, good.

I actually haven’t seen a single trailer or read a single article for Iron Man 2. I just know who’s going to be in it because I go to 7-11 and see those cups. So I will build the plot off of that.

What I am about to tell you is exactly what will happen so if you can’t make it to the midnight showing, you won’t miss a thing!

The movie starts off with Whiplash being all butt-hurt about something Iron Man did and vows to kill him. Tony Stark denies being Iron Man, contradicting what happened at the end of the last movie. But since he is always drunk and saying ridiculous shit, everyone finds it plausible.

Tony Stark drinks, and then hits on women. Then explosions! War Machine starts talking jive because that is still how black characters are treated in mainstream Hollywood action movies. Tony Stark drinks some more and starts doubting self, then hits on women! Nice shot of Black Widow’s ass. She has nothing important to say. More Explosions! Then Iron Man vs Whiplash. EXPLOSIONS! Iron Man wins. Nick Fury calls him a bad mutherfucker, Tony Start drinks to that, and War Machine break dances.

And then every weekend until the fall semester starts, a “new” movie will come out that follows a similar formula!

THE END.

I am extremely grateful for all that I have. I have come along way from being nothing to gaining the success I own today. It’s been through hard work and picking the right moments to advance myself that I’ve gotten this far. Not only that, I’ve had great mentors who have guided me and have given great advice.

I’ve learned many life lessons and I just want to thank all those precious people in my life that have done their best to be patient and understanding as I have progressed this far. It’s never been easy with me and some of you have had to put up with a lot. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thanks aside, I still have a long way to go before I reach some of my grander goals. I’ve known that for quite sometime; however, this past weekend really did well to open my eyes up to the truth I have only seen through tinted glasses.

There have been a few distractions that have caused me to slow down my progress. Over the past few years, I have let a lot of small problems in the form of small people get to me. There are those who I have befriended whose only purpose in existence is to hold people back. They will never do anything significant with their lives and they will always make excuses for their incredible lack of ambition.

I honestly detest these kinds of people and I’ve let some become my enemies. But no more.

The thing is, there’s is a chaotic side to me that enjoys that conflict. I do enjoy succeeding while others would underestimate me and put me down. I fancy sticking to my principles and doing well with it while my opposites would find misfortune with their way of life. It’s terrible, I know.  I never said I was a saint.

However, the people I’ve let become my enemies are absolutely worthless excuses and often human trash. The smallest of the small fry and nothing more than that. It’s not fitting for me to dedicate any of my attention to them and I won’t anymore. After all, there is a whole world that is ahead of me and I have to catch up.

I will get those people out of my life along with the rest of the noise. As of right now, I have no enemies… just a future.

I love the beach and I always have fun there! Any thoughts of “Why the fuck do I still live in Florida?” are washed away the second I dive in the waves. Saturday was my first time at the beach this year and I hope to go on many more trips! The water temperature took some time to get adjusted to but after that it’s fine. I recommend hitting the water before storm season hits in a couple months.

A fantastic day was had with the artist of the above comic. No, she doesn’t look that retarded. In addition to the beach adventure in which I destroyed waves with my fury, we also watched Enter the Dragon(one of the most important films ever made) and played a couple super awesome fighting games. I taught her Hadoken! I look forward to many more days like this in the near future!

Also, I wanted to remind you all that I am so awesome that women appear out of nowhere to hand me sandwiches.

I honestly love a good woman. Really, I do. Unfortunately, I live in Orlando and such as thing is hard to find in this sea of whores and other forms of human trash. I actually have to get on the highway and get out of town to improve my chances of finding a woman who’s worth crushing gangs for if they ever decide to kidnap her. I don’t make it too much an issue to find that special lady but I am pretty satisfied right now.

That being said, there are certain roles each gender has and they should be lived up to by both. Some of this is covered in the Twelve Laws of True Man. In there, I cover the roles of a man on a very basic level. The laws also hint at what a woman is supposed to do. I don’t think it’s sexist when both genders have duties they must fulfill; not only for themselves, but also when in a relationship.

There is a certain kind of woman – other than whore – that I loathe. That would be the feminist. Now that sounds hypocritical since one would think that someone such as me epitomizes male pride. Actually, I celebrate and encourage what a man should be.

A feminist does not celebrate or live by the standards of what a woman should be. Rather, they rebel against the traditional role a woman once had in society. They are offended when they are expected to cook, or clean, or do anything around the house. They get pissed off when a man is supposed to be the one driving the car and they get mad anytime someone tells them what they are supposed to do. You sure as hell won’t see them inclined to comfort a man when he works hard and has needs.

Now, I am for individuality regardless of gender; it’s great if a woman can do something outside traditional roles and move things forward. Which brings me to this point: I expect every human being – regardless of gender – to pull their fucking weight. A feminist does not do that. Not only does such a type of woman not want to do they things a woman should do, but dammit they don’t do anything period! In addition to being a sloth, they also expect to get all of the benefits that everyone else works hard for. And to them, they think it’s okay to not do anything simply because they are a woman!

What a joke.

It doesn’t work that way. Just like everyone else, you are expected to do something. The slit between your legs doesn’t make you special and there are other women setting a fine example of what a a good woman is. If you are not going to do a damn thing to break out of traditional expectations of a woman, then you better get your ass in the kitchen. Now stop being a fucking lazy cunt, do some work around the house, and bring us our damn sandwiches!

First, I have a few announcements to make:

• At the Manime panel, in my loathing rant of hipster douchebags and their theft of the manliness of the beard, I promised, in the heat of my passionate fury, to take it back. They can keep their shitty Pabst Blue Ribbon and their sad obsession of liking things ironically, but the beard is coming back to true men dammit! I promised to sport a manly beard at this year’s Metrocon in Tampa, or else Brotha Kyo gets to kick me in the nuts.
• I won’t be doing events at Metrocon, but I will be there hanging out and enjoying myself there.
• I am going to start up “Kent Ward’s MANcast of Awesome!” this spring. The podcast will cover all things manly in the world of martial arts movies, videogames, Manime, 80s action flicks, norse mythology, and ass-kicking in general. Stay tuned!
• Anime Festival Orlando is coming up in August. It’s the best anime convention in Florida(I’ll be happy to give you a manly headbutt if you disagree with me) and they have started pre-registration. Be there or you’re already dead.
• I’m fucking awesome and don’t you forget it!

And now, my report!

“In Anime is Already Dead?”, I discussed the rise and fall of anime in the 2000s, citing factors that lead to anime’s near demise. Moe anime(fetish anime about little girls being boring every episode) was considered a major culprit, but the lack of risks and variety of newer anime and the fact that America has caught up with Japan in anime releases are also problems.

When anime boomed in the early part of last decade, there was 30+ years of great stuff to get from Japan and on to U.S. retail shelves. Anything that was crap was abandoned for the most part. Halfway through the decade, all that was left was the stuff that just came out in Japan. Because the load of good anime was already blown quickly, there really wasn’t much good anime left to release.

Sure, great stuff like Full Metal Alchemist, Baccano!, Summer Wars, and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann have recently come out, but those good series and movies are far and few between now. Because of this, along with the glut of moe shows and generic shounen shows about twelve year old kids with powers being impossibly cool, the interest has died down over here.

I made some points on where anime needs to go and I think I will follow this up with a talk “How to make anime cool again” at a later convention.

The “Panel about Everything” was a joke name inspired by a panel that happens at some other convention. It was actually a convention etiquette panel. But we didn’t want to call it that because the people who need to be taught about that the most would not show up. They didn’t anyways but there was some great discussion with both the audience and my co-panelists. Some great stories were shared too! Maybe calling it “Super Kawaii-chan Glompfest Desu” will attract the audience I am aiming for with this?

“It’s MANIME! The Manly Anime panel” was clearly the best part about all of MegaCon, period. If you did not go, then you wasted your money and wristband. That is the fucking truth. Everyone who did go, in fact, became manlier just by being there! Brotha Kyo and I covered a final revision of the Twelve Laws of True Man and we are hoping to get such laws published. I heard at least one feminist was angry during our panel but my manly spirit does not care too much about that. Maybe she should have brought us sandwiches if she was that offended? That would have fixed her good.

We discussed what made anime manly citing examples such as Fist of the North Star, Beserk, Grappler Baki, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Violence Hero Riki-Oh! We also made time to give some love to Cobra: The Animation, Guin Saga, and the granddaddy of Manime… Golgo 13! Granted, these series have excess amounts of violence, muscles, and testosterone; however those are all core ingredients of Manime.

It was the good time had by all who did not have sand in their vagina! For some reason, these three bros were upset that we did not cite Kamina and Gurren Lagann at all in the panel? I still have no idea why. Kamina has more in common with Street Fighter’s Dan Hibiki than he does the likes of Kenshiro, Gutz, and Duke Togo. I should have blown them off but I felt the need to have a debate. I hope to be able to write more in-depth on this matter later.

I helped out with other events in addition to mine. Most notably, the Cyberia dance that Anime Sushi puts on at MegaCon every year. It’s a dance for weeaboos to have seizures with glowsticks while loud electronic music and phat beats are blasting out of the speakers.

I worked security along with my friend Shawn and nobody dared to start a fight, have sex, or break out the pepper spray. This is sad because we were given permission to destroy people if such things were to happen. Perhaps, they felt our manly aura and knew the line to never cross? The dance went on without much incident to speak of, though I did have to clean up someone’s puke off of the dance floor.

MegaCon was a fun experience this year! I got to cosplay classic Terry Bogard on Friday which is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. In addition, I spent plenty of time with close friends while even making new ones. I got some cool gifts from friends and a very sweet girl brought me homemade sandwiches and cookies that gave me super powers! I bought myself the Baccano! boxset from FUNimation’s booth(which I started watching that last night!) and I saw some good panels that I helped schedule. I didn’t get to meet any guests, which I don’t feel bad about because it was they who missed out by not meeting me!

It was a great weekend and a lot of hard work and I look forward to new followers on my Twitter, more readers for this blog, and soon enough – the MANcast!

I have been told in one too many public speaking classes that it is rude to point your finger at someone while talking to them. I disagree. Pointing your finger at someone is an effective technique to gain their attention. Why is that? Because it triggers some level of anxiety. When you point your finger at someone, you are showing a form of aggression. Someone who interprets that as such will begin to feel scared because they know they did something wrong and that someone just found out. And when someone begins to feel fear, they try to become more aware of the source.

When I feel like calling out someone’s bullshit, I will most likely point my finger at them. I see them tense up with shock in their face as they try to blurt out whatever unprepared response they have when they receive their accusation. And because it’s unprepared, they will probably say whatever response comes from their brain first, contradicting themselves with lies or weak excuses that will of course be pointed out by me and my finger. With my finger pointing at them, I pierce into their very soul.  This works even better when that person is singled-out in a crowd of people, because then they feel even more anxiety gets generated as they feel the eyes fixed on them.

Pointing your finger at someone while you talk to them shows that you have no fear in confronting them and is guaranteed to generate results in getting someones attention as you break their spirit.

There were also last-minute convention meetings that I attended that were very productive and I actually did get to visit Full Sail University to see the presentations of the Orlando branch games of GGJ. They looked pretty awesome for 48 hours of work and the quality jumped up from last year.

Good job guys!

Check out the Orlando City Wide GGJ here.

I also discovered that an online manga website had all of Violence Hero Riki-Oh translated. That made everything better.

It was another successful Down Right Fierce New Year’s party and a lot of awesome stuff happened. Nobody got Falcon Punched this time, which is pretty good. To any of my readers who came, thanks for coming! It was a blast! Har har, get it?

Here lies my awesome fireworks haul for the party! Yes, those robots on the right are indeed from the original Mobile Suit Gundam. We doubt that they art was used with Bandai’s permission but it was still an awesome purchase! That particular one lit up the sky!

And now here’s some related YouTube poop:

Sometimes, I wonder why people have negative year end reflections every year that I have known them. It really makes me wonder what they are really trying to do with their lives. I’ve come to believe that you have to make the most of every moment in your life or else you are not living.

This has been a weird decade for the world overall. I can’t even describe it without writing an essay where I will most likely contradict myself often. However, I really hope the world changes in the next decade- and for the better. But it is going to be our responsibility to make that happen. I really think in this decade, too many people gave up on personal responsibility and depended far too much on people with authority to do things for them that they should have done themselves. And really, because of the lack of personal responsibility, we let our whole country fall apart.

Our economy would not be the way it is now if Americans didn’t become so lazy and health care wouldn’t be such a critical issue if everyone took better care of themselves. That is the basic truth that no politician will ever have the balls to tell the people. We are the only people who can make our lives good; nobody else can do that for us.

Enough of the negative; this has been a year for me that I will never forget. I’m going to now list every significant thing that happened that defined Kent Ward in 2009.

1. I started off the year right with the now legendary Down Right Fierce New Year’s Day Party. The main highlight was that I got so wasted that I Falcon Punched a friend in the chest because I thought he was raping a girl I liked at the time. He was actually trying to hug her goodbye and was on the ground hacking for six minutes for no good reason whatsoever. He helped me clean my house the next morning.
2. Four years ago, I had graduated Full Sail University with a Bachelor’s of Game Design and Development. There has been a lot of uncertainty – that I refused to show – about where it would take me. Sometime after I graduated, I was offered a chance to be a lab specialist at the school. I took it and over time, I became one of the best. I constantly challenged myself and it was a great opportunity to get better and meet lots of great people. I’m really glad for the experience because it did so much for me as a person as it did for my career.
3. I was also proud of myself for being able to take charge as head lab specialist for courses such as OpenGL and Real Time Animation this year. It was a lot of responsibility in addition to already being in charge of Engine Development I. It wore on me a lot and I still wonder how I was able to keep my sanity. Richard and Shawn provided me with many opportunities to advance myself and I am truly grateful for that.
4. The last one about my time at Full Sail: I created new lecture and lab material for RTA that would help students with getting animations working in their games sooner in their final Game Project course. It seemed like it took most groups two or three months to get that sort of thing working, but now they have a system in place that they can adapt right from the get-go.
5. I participated in the Global Game Jam in January, which is a 48-hour game making event. I really am proud I did that because it really lit a fire in my belly that I kept going for the rest of the year. I also got to work with badasses such as David Brown and Jay Baird.
6. Over the years, being exposed to epics such as Fist of the North Star, Berserk, The Alphabet of Manliness, 24, The Epic of Gilgamesh and every single Bruce Lee movie, I had started to develop ideas of what a man should be. My personal experiences were also a big factor in all of this. I noticed over the years that the manly spirit has died amongst many of my fellow brethren and that there was confusion on what makes a man manly. So I co-wrote the Twelve Laws of True Man, which I think does a good job for providing laws for true men to live by. When I first presented it, my audience was the local anime community, but I will write a revised version in the future where my audience will be all of humanity.
7. This year has been an awesome year for the Propeller Anime Club! We kicked ass at several conventions, organized a couple of fun game tournaments, did a lot of outings, got drunk together once or twice(the truth comes out!), and of course we watched lots of great anime – both old and new. I plan to write a reflection on the club blog, but I truly appreciate the amount of time I spent on the club. Hell, I’ll even go so far as to say that the Propeller Anime Club is what people should look towards as an example when one would want to describe an excellent anime club.
8. Speaking of anime conventions – ANIME FESTIVAL ORLANDO 10! Oh man, that was such a good life victory for me. AFO, every year, is the best damn anime convention in Florida and if you think otherwise then you must be retarded. Myself, and many others, worked our damn hardest to put on Swords of Orlandia III this year. The live action game has now become the premiere anime convention experience in the entire state, if not the country. I am really proud of how the game turned out and that many people enjoyed it. The icing on the cake was being made one AFO’s newest staff members because of my efforts(and those of the people who supported me helped with that too!).
9. I went to Disney World for the first time since I was twelve a little while ago. I went with one of my best friends, Fuzzy, and a couple of deceitful women. It was a double date that epically failed for both of us but the trip was still fun regardless of that. I loved Epcot the most out of the trip and I can’t wait to go back and drink around the world!
10. I played Beyond Good & Evil this year and I am really glad I did. What a fantastic game!
11. I really don’t think that this was the “Year of the Fighting Game” that I was hoping for, but I did get Street Fighter IV, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, The King of Fighters XII, and Tekken 6. I really feel like there was far more hype than delivery with the return of fighting games in mainstream gaming, but the games were still better than most of everything else that came out this year(which really isn’t saying much). I plan to write about Tekken 6, which I have determined to be this year’s best fighting game. Don’t worry; I am about as surprised as you are.
12. Since I was ten, I’ve always wanted to take martial arts. This past month, I finally did. I am still a beginner when it comes to Muay Thai and I have some interesting bruises on my body because of it. However! It was about damn time that I finally got to follow this path I dreamed of for so long. I look forward to getting better at it and becoming more of a complete person as a result.
13. My brother, my parents, and I had Thanksgiving together in Alabama this year. We haven’t had Thanksgiving together in six years so this was definitely an accomplishment! I also discovered Grey Goose vodka during this trip and I love it so~
14. I saw Dethklok and Mastodon with excellent friends Jacob and Jess last month. I wouldn’t exactly call the experience “Metal.” The show was at the Hardly Rock, where moshing and crowd surfing is forbidden. People tried to mosh anyways but it was pathetic. I really feel like half the people who showed up were just posers that were there because they watch Adult Swim. We showed up to the concert after the opening acts played and I somehow made it to the front. Actually, it was easy; just about everyone else there was a pussy so knocking them out of my way as I made it front and center at the concert wasn’t much of a challenge. I had my horns closer to Dethklok front man Brendon Small than anyone else, which automatically makes me the most metal person that went to the concert.
15. I left Full Sail to become a game developer simulation scientist.
16. I really think I became a legitimate adult this year. I am more proud of this than anything. I’ve accomplished a lot this year, but I also had to deal with some supreme bullshit along the way. Despite that, all the experiences I’ve had up to this point have made me who I am today and will help make me into a better person in the future. I have learned so much about life this year and I think from this point on, if I truly make the effort, then life will continue to be good.

 It’s been real good, 2009! I couldn’t have asked for a better year or a better way to end the decade! Here’s to the future!