Blatance

Pictures are seen so often that we simply dismiss most photography after looking at it once. I used to be like that too, but I've came back to look at several pictures lately and some of them are quite mesmerizing to keep staring it. Here are some pictures that I thought were really captivating: There so many things crammed into this one picture, yet it's so relaxing. Although there is an obvious connotation to this picture, it can still be viewed in so many ways. "The ocean's grandeur and vastness reminds me of how very small we are." Who are you? One second later. Subtle yet grand change. Motion makes all better. Or does it? It's so obvious. And then it's weird. And then it's obvious again. Why these? Reality to maximum degree of fantasy and confusion.

Most people listen to classical music when they are relaxing, but I really listen to them all the time. Here are some of my favorites: Moment Musicaux Op. 16 No. 4 - Rachmaninoff An intense piece. A piece filled with passion. It's also hard as all hell to play on the piano. Violin Concerto No. 1 Op. 26 Third Movement - Bruch I really like pieces that give a very warm, fuzzy, yet intense feeling at the end, and this concerto certainly is one of those pieces. The mood within the concerto also doesn't deviate too much from the apogee; it's almost always intense, and that's why I like this concerto. Etude Op. 25 No. 12 - Chopin Short but difficult and passionate. The Chopin Etudes are what really made Valentina Lisitsa, the performer in this video, famous, and she really does play it with a passion that people would expect from these pieces. February -  Levashkevich This piece has its relaxing moments and its defining moments. It's not as musically c...

I love EDM songs, and Monstercat is one of the best labels for EDM songs, so I naturally listen to Monstercat releases often. Here are my thoughts on the latest Monstercat releases: 1. Muzzy - Break Away (feat. Priority One) It's not as intense or ear-popping as other Muzzy songs, but it's still on the better side of recent Monstercat releases. 2. Duumu - Illuminate (feat. Slyleaf) This honestly is one of the best mid-tempo song that's been released on Monstercat recently. The song actually has an uplifting and relaxing quality that has been devoid from most Monstercat mid-tempo songs recently. It actually has a flavor instead of being boring and linear. 3. nanobii - Bubble Beam Not bad, but it doesn't deserve to be on a big label like Monstercat. I can literally find hundreds of better happy hardcore songs than this from INDIE PRODUCERS. I really feel like western EDM in general is not the right place to find good happy hardcore songs... Asian EDM has mu...

I was never really a fan of romance fiction in any form. Well, that was the case until about a year ago when I stumbled upon a particular webtoon called Super Secret . I did always like fantasy fiction, and the description of Super Secret  convinced me to start reading it because it seemed like there were several fantasy elements in the plot. I was wrong, well at least in the beginning. The webtoon's genre seemed to be more slice of life than fantasy, but I carried on because I liked the characters and the art. The story began to add love drama, but I remained fascinated because fantasy elements were infused to realistic issues. I want to praise the author of Super Secret , Eon, because the layout of the plot really kept the webtoon interesting. After a seemingly normal exposition, Eon added major conflicts to the story that kept the audience on their feet. However, Eon really distinguished herself from other webtoon authors by doing this: she ended the conflict without rea...

For fans of Korean and Japanese culture, the primary method to read the latest manga update or watch Korean variety shows is to rely on translations done by other fans. Of course, there are some well-done official translations available, but the amount of those official translations will never be enough to fully satisfy anyone. I am an avid fan of reading webtoons, and I frequently use both Naver Webtoons and Line Webtoons, which is the English version of Naver Webtoons. I sometimes read the fan-translated English version of a Korean webtoon just out of curiosity. Some of them are translated proficiently, but others are not in such a good shape. My biggest complaint of translations in Line Webtoons is that slangs and other informal words are usually improperly translated into English. Also, many of the translators choose to literally translate the Korean word-for-word into English. The translations are grammatically-sound, but they end up sounding awkward and unnatural because th...

Unlike Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment usually releases sane updates to its games, which includes Overwatch, the highly-acclaimed first-person shooter game. Although the latest update to Overwatch includes hundreds of new skins, voice lines, and other customization, the slightly more minor balance and gameplay updates will be discussed in this post. Probably the biggest gameplay update in this patch is the Lucio nerf (downgrade). Up until now, Lucio used to be the essential support for any team because the range of his heal was massive. Even though Lucio is not supposed to be a primary healer, he could frequently heal more than heroes designed solely for healing like Ana and Mercy. The dramatic reduction of the range of Lucio's heal coming in this update should put an end to this dominance. Another notable gameplay update in this patch is the removal of draws in competitive matches. In certain maps such as Hanamura, draws were extremely common, and that led to the genera...

The author of Orange Marmalade is back with a new webtoon. Seokwoo, the author of the hit webtoon Orange Marmalade , which was even made into a TV show, is back with another fantasy webtoon called Hana's Day . Orange Marmalade  dealt with vampires, and the new webtoon deals with werewolves. Coincidence? I think not. Hana's Day  also seems to deal with the social issues of fantastical minorities in the world just like the author's previous work. I did not expect Hana's Day  to be a warm, fuzzy webtoon considering how depressing and serious some parts of Orange Marmalade  went, and my expectations did not fail me; a werewolf mother is shot dead in the first scene of the first chapter. There are only 3 chapters that have been released so far, so I can't exactly know how the plot will turn out, but the webtoon has been coated with a tint of innocence after the somewhat shocking first scene. The two main characters make promises, there is love jealousy, etc.....

Recently, Riot has released both promising and suspicious updates to League of Legends. Mostly suspicious. 2 new champions, Rakan and Xayah are about to be released, and they are probably the most creative thing Riot Games has done to the game in over a year only because it's literally been years since Riot had released more than one champion at once. However, the release of Rakan and Xayah is most likely going to make the game's balance, which is already in ruins, even worse. Both Rakan and Xayah have an ability that gets buffed only if they are playing in the same lane. This is going to bring an immensely easy synergy to a Rakan-Xynah bot lane, even to the lower tiers where people typically don't seem to even grasp the idea that League of Legends is a team-oriented game. Since Rakan and Xayah are going to bring easy synergy to lower tiers, that will possibly make both champions overpowered in those tiers. Tanks, or generally any champions with a lot of HP have also ...

Two underrated girl groups came back recently, and they are Lovelyz and Gugudan. Both of their comeback singles attracted a decent amount of views on YouTube, but they were out of almost all charts within a couple of days after their songs' releases. I honestly believe that the groups' performances in the charts did not represent the quality of their comebacks very well, so I will take some time to go over the various pros/cons of their singles. First up is Lovelyz with their single "WoW!". The song may sound a bit unconventional on the first listen, and this nature of the song is what I believe led to the song's failure on the charts. Lovelyz's previous songs such as "Ah Choo" and "Destiny" did not deviate much from the average cute and bubbly K-Pop girl group song, and both songs stayed on the chart for a couple of weeks. "WoW!", on the other hand, was eliminated from all K-music charts within a matter of days. I had t...

Friday is known to be a highly competitive day among webtoons in Naver Webtoons, the Korean version of Line Webtoons. Due to this high competitivity, several high-quality webtoons are frequently overlooked by people, and one of those webtoons is Golden Change  by Brims, the author of UnderPrin (currently airing in Line Webtoons). Even though UnderPrin was a fairly popular webtoon, it was marred by awkward illustrations and rough story progressions. However, it is clear that the author had toiled to craft a better story and improve illustrations in the year-long period between the airing of UnderPrin and Golden Change since Golden Change seems to have none of the complications that made UnderPrin unpleasant to read. When the first episode of Golden Change  was released, several of the comments praised the author for the beautiful illustrations. Those comments weren't unfounded; the colors are bright and popping, the facial illustrations are clear and dramatic, and the...