January 2004

01/24/04 First off, there is a simple poll, on the right, that I would so much like you to participate in. It's quick and painless, the results should open in a new window. If you do choose either "It needs more.", "I don't like it!", or "It really sucks!", it would really help me out if you would also visit my contact page and submit a comment or suggestion on what you would make the site more enjoyable for you. I can't make this site better for you or others if I don't know why you don't like it or what it is you want to see. I would like to thank the creator of www.free-web-polls.com for the availability of his free web polls that have no advertisement at all. If any of you visiting my site have your own webpage or website use www.free-web-polls.com because it doesn't visually dominate your site. It looks like it belongs in that bar.

Speaking of the bar that is on the left, I have changed it on all the pages now, or so I think. If you happen to notice a page that still has the old side-bar that features an ad for my freeservers site please let me know by clicking here and filling out the form, be sure to select the "Report Site Error" topic from the scroll-box.
I changed the side-bar because I really didn't like how it looked. I don't want people to visit my old site anymore so why have some huge eye-sore of an ad that shouts "Look at me!" So the ad is gone, and so is the other site. But now the side-bar gives me the opportunity to make my site more user-friendly. But this change isn't Grekomon friendly, evrytime I want to change the side-bar, I'll have to change every single page of my site. Now, you're probably wondering, why would Grekomon be so stupid as to purposely inconvienence himself? Reason One- I'm doing it for you, the visitor. Reason Two- Self negative reinforcement. Eventually I'll get so fed up with having to change every single page, that I'll force myself to learn Javascript, which I keep putting off.

Time for a rant. I really like reading manga. In fact, I think I like reading manga more than watching anime. I've also found that I like the manga versions more- except for FLCL and Exel Saga- than the anime series which I watched first. It's strange since I've only been reading manga since around the time I started this site last April.
Since last April I have bought about $840(American) worth of the English translations that are released by ADV, Dark Horse, Tokyopop, and Viz. I'm glad that there are companies dedicated to bringing manga to the masses. Another thing that makes these companies great, is that they are now releasing manga the way fans want it, unflipped and without the altering the sound-fx, kudos to Viz which goes one step farther by adding translations for the sound-fx in the back of the manga.
I like manga so much that I plan to emulate the manga style with some webcomics that I'll eventually get around to making once I get better at drawing. (I'm currently enrolled in a drawing class at my college so my art won't look my crappy drawings I've made so far.)

Until next time.
Grekomon

01/20/04 There is a new link on the fansites page, it leads to a great Yu-Gi-Oh! site that is still under construction. Also I finished the review that I promised for the two volumes of FLCL check it out here.

You may notice that the bar on the right now features links to the newest additions instead of my old site. This is something I've wanted to do for a while but it isn't part of the planned changes that you will see in the next few months. I have not finished changing the right bar on all of the sites pages, so you might notice pages that still have the old bar, please don't report sightings of the old bar.

01/19/04 Happy New Year... I'm a little late for the calander based New Year so... Happy Chinese New Year, that's this Thursday, January 22, 2004 (The actual observance/celebration of the Chinese New Year lasts about a month since it's actually based on the lunar year which is 365 days but the movements of the moon don't coincide with the calander year.). There just so happens to be a new fanfic on this site, so go check it out. By the way, it turns out that the Wizards Legal Department didn't know that I had recieved permission to post the Anime Insider article on my site but for convenience I won't put the article back on my site.

I have a lot of anime and manga that I need to write reviews for. Currently I'm working on a review for the two volumes of the FLCL manga. Next I might review the Samurai Deeper Kyo manga or the Full Metal Panic anime.

I plan to slightly change the look of my site, while the layout will remain the same the navigation graphics and the main banner wil change. I can't say when this will be since I don't really have a schedule as of yet but I am currently thinking of waiting until April for this sites One Year Anniversary.

As you may have noticed, this post is a slightly different font and font size. Not only that, it's longer. In a past newsletter I mentioned that I wanted to have a rant section where I would write something at least once a week. Instead of creating a new page, I've decided to use the main page for my rants. The rants will be my views so if you disagree... too bad.

One of my pet-peeves are the common message board debates about something being better than something else. One of those debates happens to be Subs vs. Dubs. It's not the actual idea of the debates that bothers me but rather how comments evolve from reasonable statements of ones opinions to hate filled biased arguments. The more posts that accumulate on the topic the more insulting the posts get. The first post will be "I like subs/dubs cause this and that blabbity-blabbity...what do you people think?" and the later posts will be somebody saying, "Dubs/subs sux because you're all stupid!" I say, if you can't put any intelligence into your comments or you're unable to be polite then don't post any comments at all. The fact is that there are merits and downfalls to both dubbed and subbed anime. I don't feel like ranting anymore on this subject today, so I'll just end it here. Maybe I'll write an article about the subject in the future.

Site created April 2003. Version 2 revealed April 2004. All characters depicted in writing or picture are owned by their respective companies and I claim no ownership whole or partial.