Saturday, February 23, 2008

My Wikipedia History: Letter A



Ah, Wikipedia. If you know me at all, then you also know that I hang out there all the freaking time. Whenever I'm bored on the internet, or curious about something, I'm usually there, eating Wikipedia's cyberchips and sleeping on its websofa. I've been doing this for years.The two of us go way back.

I've been doing this for so long, and neglecting to clear my search history on this computer the entire time, that every letter I start a Wikipedia search with, anywhere from 3 to 73 words that I've searched for on previous occasions (no exaggeration, I just checked) automatically pop up, depending on the letter. The only exception to this rule is, understandably, the letter "Q". In any case, I figure that it'd be both kind of fun and a decent introduction to my interests and tastes if I did an article detailing all the search words that pop up when I type in a single letter, and my motives/experiences/etc behind searching for them. If it's successful, that's awesome because then I can exploit this idea up to 24 more times!

Here's how it'll work: I'm going to list and provide a Wikipedia link to every single word I've searched in a given letter, and give details on my personal stock and/or what I've learned from the more interesting ones in that list. I'm also going to do them in order, so if I was doing the letter "C" you might see a couple blurbs on Captain Crunch and Captain Falcon, then links to Carrots, Chalk, and Chewbacca, then a blurb on Cherry Pie, and so on and so forth. For letters with a shitload of search words, I'll probably stop after ten blurbs or so, then continue where I left off in a future post.

Now that that's out of the way, it seems only fitting to start with the letter "A"!


APE, Inc
APE, Inc (yes, the comma is included in the company's official name) is a video game developer that's responsible for one of several titles I'm totally in love with: Earthbound for the Super Nintendo, which is part of a franchise called Mother in Japan. This won't be the last time you hear me talk about Earthbound, because it's an amazing little game. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, it's pretty much a Dragon Quest game if it was set in modern times, had sci-fi elements instead of fantasy ones, and included an amazing sense of humor throughout the entire quest.

But alas, this is about the developer and not the game. They made two Mother games and, apparently, a video game based on Monopoly that only came out in Japan (what), before they dissolved the company and formed a new one called Creatures, Inc. I guess the apes in the company decided they needed more variety and started hanging out with tigers and owlbears and shit so they had to change the name. Jeez, thanks a lot for getting new friends, apes!

Creatures, Inc eventually made another Mother game that never came out here, but they're also responsible for helping make main entries in the Pokemon series, another one of my obsessions. For some reason, Game Freak gets all the credit for making the games, but Creatures, Inc. owns one third of the rights to the franchise so they're definitely involved. Maybe Aipom and Chimchar are actually those freaking apes that changed the company's name! Jerks.

Accepted

Accepted is a movie about a guy played by Justin Long who gets rejected from so many colleges that he pretends that he got accepted by a college that doesn't actually exist, so that he could please his parents. The hoax, of course, gets "hilariously" out of hand as hundreds of fellow college rejects find Justin Long's fake website that looks like it's for a real college and go to the abandoned building he made look like a real college building, so that they can enroll. I was initially really interested in this film because, as a college dropout, I have to admit that the concept of doing things the way you wanted to for college, while skipping the boring mandatory classes that don't benefit your major at all, was really appealing to me. I know that it's completely unrealistic, and that's exactly why I thought it'd make such a fun fictional story. Also, Justin Long! He's charming!

Of course, the movie ended up being a typical teenage "boobs and drugs everywhere, aren't we cutting edge" comedy, and it actually did have its moments, but I was left disappointed.

Ace Attorney series


Awesome!

The Ace Attorney series is pretty awesome. Way more awesome than you'd expect for a video game franchise about lawyers. It's just really well written! And the dialogue is clever and funny! And the characters are amazing! And oh man I love it so much, and that's why I looked it up.

Man. So far three out of four articles I've looked up have been related somehow to one of my favorite video games. That probably tells you quite a bit about me! And possibly depresses you a little.

Across the Universe
Advance Wars

Adventure Time

Oh Adventure Time, you wonderful, wonderful cartoon. Why can't some people appreciate the amazingness deep within your hilarious frames?

Adventure Time is basically this incredibly hilarious, incredibly surreal short toon about this kid and his pet dog (voiced by Bender from Futurama) that like to go on adventures. It sounds like a five year old came up with the idea, and the episode also feels like it's written by a five year old sometimes. It's the best thing ever!

Funny story, this cartoon was supposed to air on Nickelodeon, along with a bunch of other animated shorts, about a year ago, but the feature keeps getting delayed over and over again. It's currently set to air in June. When the shorts do start airing, the three shorts that are best received will be turned into full fledged cartoons to be shown on Nickelodeon.

Adventure Time WILL be one of them. Or I will make ANGRY FACES at a BABY.

Adventurers!
Afterschool Boy (by the way, if there is no article about it on Wikipedia, then I won't leave a link)
Alien Syndrome

America's Next Top Model

Hello, Tyra Banks! How are your breasts? Actually, you don't have to answer that, I can already tell that they're fantastic!

EDIT: Actually, I just looked again and they... well, they're okay. They're not great. You have a beautiful body, but it's definitely not thanks to the breasts. I'm sorry, picture of Tyra Banks wearing underwear.

Okay, so I've watched a few episodes of this show. What I'll usually do is watch the photoshoot footage, leave the room when the contestants start crying for ten minutes, then come back at the end when Tyra Banks starts acting crazy. Because seriously, Tyra Banks is FUCKING. CRAZY. And as a result the show is actually pretty entertaining and not as gay as I initially thought. That said, I don't see myself ever watching this show on a regular basis.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Hey, two Ace Attorney articles in one post!

This is the most recent title in the series, and it just came out in the states. I haven't played it yet, but it'll be a happy day when I do! At least I hope so. The Psyche Locks feature is gone and you no longer get to play as Phoenix, the protagonist in the first three games, but hey! Sharper graphics and music, and the same awesome writing team. It'll still be great, even if it's not as great as its predecessors.

Architect
Art Spiegelman
Atomic Skull

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar is one of many cartoon series that I've been meaning to watch but haven't had the opportunity to yet. Especially since DVD sets for the show are still 60 fricking dollars at the cheapest. It's too bad, too, cause I keep hearing great things about it. I have seen one episode, though, and it's actually pretty good stuff. I initally expected it to be American animators trying to be Japanese and failing, but it actually comes off as a pretty unique show. Maybe one day I'll get to watch the whole thing.

Did you know that the main character has hair in Season 3, though? Bald characters aren't allowed to grow hair! It's fucking illegal!


And that's the letter "A"! I hope you enjoyed reading all that. Tune in next time, when I decide to write an article that doesn't take so freaking long to put together!

(But if you do like these kinds of posts, let me know and I might make more My Wikipedia History articles in the near/eventual future. I likes feedback!)

1 comment:

Chief said...

Okay so that was actually worth waiting for.