Time for more video games! I'll be quick and to the point with this one. About 3 or 4 days ago I got bored out of my skull and decided to go retro with my gaming. So I picked up Star Ocean: Second Story for the PS1.

Finally! Finally we make contact with the third main category of addictions that I suffer from. Anime! The feature of this post is without a doubt my absolute favorite anime in the history of EVER! *echo, echo*
Hajime no Ippo is about a high school student, Ippo Makunouchi, who's been bullied a lot pretty much is entire life. One day when he's getting beaten up, a boxer happens to come along and save him, and since then he's been infatuated with boxing and what it means to become a strong person.

The reason that I love this anime is that its a mix of all things that make anime great. It has constant comedy, a lot of action, and just the right touch of intimate story lines thrown in. No character is wasted, as Ippo either becomes either a dear friend or a heated rival to anyone that he comes across, causing for great moments when they are reunited either way.

The series ended quite a few years ago, but fortunately it was picked up again in the spring of this year, as Hajime no Ippo: A New Challenger. It wasn't re-introduced during the fall anime line-up, and I sincerely hope that the project wasn't dropped once again, and that it will make its triumphant return during the spring of 2010!

By now you've probably noticed that to the right of your screen, *points* ----->
there's a picture link with a cute little anime girl on it. Don't worry its not an ad, and I don't make money every time you click it. It's just a link to my all-time favorite japanese radio station EVER. Its called Kawaii Radio, and their theme is... you guessed it, cute(kawaii)-ness! They play a great number of anime opening and ending songs, so their database is great if you want to find out a name to your favorite anime's theme songs. It also has a spiffy (yes, spiffy) automated request feature, that allows you to browse their songs, request one that you want to hear, and it inserts it into the queue, and voila, after some other songs have been played, there's your little gem, sitting right in the 'Next To Be Played' slot. The only downside I see is that there are no live hosted radio programs with a DJ, but they make up for it with a wide selection and 24 hour broadcast. Registration is free, and it only takes 10 seconds, for a lifetime of fun asian radio goodness. In fact, this radio is the source of 72% of the music on my mp3 player currently. Thanks Kawaii Radio! *thumbs up* And here's another link, just for the sake of cute-ness.

Another post concerning music! Which makes sense considering how much I listen to it. Though this post is more about a single song, as opposed to an entire group, like 2NE1, in a recent post. I do enjoy the latest album from the featured group of this post, 4minute. They made a lot of good songs, and it has a good feel to it, kinda R&B-ish (of course with a little korean rap thrown in). I'm especially fond of For Muzik, Muzik, and Anjullae(Won't Give You), the last of which is the subject of this post.

Technically this falls outside of the realm of my three main addictions (music, anime, video games) but there are exceptions to everything. This is one of a few of those exceptions. This show is without a doubt one of my top 3 television programs that I've ever watched. I like it so much so, in fact, that I even watch the reruns several times over, which I would normally never do. I suppose there's something kinda bad about it though, the show is about robbing people's houses. Honestly, It Takes A Thief makes crime almost cool. 

This post will inform you of the 2nd of 3 of my vices. Following video games very closely, its music. And not just any music mind you. For quite a few months now I've been listening almost exclusively to Asian music, specifically Japanese and Korean music. It started off as just listening to a song here and there that a certain friend introduced me to. But once she got me started I really couldn't stop. She's introduced me to quite a few, and I'll touch on them all in good time, but this post is to identify my current favorite, a group called 2NE1.

Just released earlier this year, they've blown up to superstar status. Two smash hits of theirs have pretty much been dominating Korean airwaves since their respective releases, Fire and I Don't Care.

They have a good sound, I think, different from most of the other Korean girl groups out there (and trust me, there are a lot).

To kick off the insanely long list of my addictions, should be the category which takes up the most space in aformentioned list. Which would be video games. I play video games a lot. A LOT. I'm usually more of a console gamer, but ever since an unfortunate incident involving my PS3, a faulty blu-ray drive, some duct tape, and a wild platypus (kidding about the last 2) I haven't had much chance to play any console games, aside from my trusty PS2. As such, I've been taken with playing emulators as of late. Mostly the best GameBoy Advance emulator ever, the Visual Boy Advance(http://tinyurl.com/vbal121).

The current game I'm addicted to is Mario Tennis: Power Tour. I didn't really like the first Mario Tennis for the N64, but this one has, in my opinion, much better gameplay, coupled with a lot of new features, like power shots, various training mini games, and a plethora (yes, a plethora) of characters to play against and choose from. The in-game graphics aren't amazing, but that shouldn't be dissuasive considering its a GBA game, right? Right. They're decent enough to not be a sore to look at, and that's good enough for me. The music is... well, its Mario-ish. It's upbeat and it makes for pretty good background music for a tennis match.
The gameplay itself more than makes up for lacking in any other department though. Power Tour utilizes a decently in depth level up system so that you directly choose how your character and also your doubles partner develop as a player, and there's dozens of power shots to learn so they never get too old or boring. Unfortunately for me I just recently beat this game, both through singles and doubles, and even more unfortunately, there's no beginning of another tournament after you play with the Mario characters in their special tournaments. Still, its a good game that I like to come back to frequently because its easy to pick up and play, regardless of skill level.