So um.... yeeaaaahhhh.. I just finished watching Oldboy. Spent the last 10 minutes leaning away from the monitor in shock feeling sick as if I just watched Serbian Movie or something, even though all it was was a conversation between two men.

This is my first ever attempt to watch and finish an Asian production and bam, right in the kisser, there it is. I vaguely remember stumbling on Youtube upon a finale of some anime a few years ago, I remember the words "death note" (I could be wrong) and I remember the SAME type of dark stomach-twisting tragic vibe to a tragic end. Is it a mere coincidence or do Japanese productions tend to have this melancholic shocking tragic atmosphere that makes you lament your own life? (I realize Oldboy is Korean but it's based on Japanese material no?)

I will say that until that last confrontation, the movie felt like one big stroke of genius. Everything from the humor to the camera touches to the little foreshadowing details was amazing. Then there's the revelation pictured above and it's just sickening.

Verdict: 8/10. Two points dropped for being too long and sounding funny.

Anyway.. I've always disliked anime because, from what I've seen, it looked and sounded like an unnatural abomination but I kinda dig the fucked up feeling I have right now. I wanna be shocked and disgusted some more by extreme boundary-breaking narrative of incest and malice that will make me gag, I LIKE THE FEELING OF IT. So... I guess what I'm saying here is.... can you... recommend an Asian movie or anime that is filled with ridiculous tragedy like this?

What have I become.

After over 200 hours in the same character since 11.11.11, I took a long break from this game and enjoyed the titles of 2012. But now I have that good old Elder Scrolls devil in my head making me home sick for Skyrim :) Time to get back to my Wood Elf and continue the journey.

I should mention that during that period I listened to the full Skyrim soundtrack everytime I studied for college. Great music that kept the Skyrim spirit going!

Though I finished hundreds of quests including the main one, dark brotherhood and thieves, I managed to completely ignore the civil war in Skyrim. I haven't encountered the Rebels or the Imperials once. (So as you can imagine it was incredibly annoying for me to enter the Windhelm castle and listen to the Swedish rebellion king repeat the same goddamn line each and every time).

I reached about 20 mods with this game the last time I played it, but in the last few hours I managed to add about 36 mods on top of those 20, and the game got all the more exciting with these mods.

Just now after fixing up the new mods I played for about an hour and BAM, already discovered a few new locations, and sat back and read some new Skyrim books that I looted just now. This game really feels infinite.

I'm really glad that I am not one of the people who ruined this game for themselves. Too often I see people saying they put like 300 hours into the game in the first month, or they kept dropping out and losing their flow, or ruined the experience by starting over with a new character several times, or even spoiled the game for themselves by using cheats, the game console, or too many mods than gave them too much freedom.

I just took it slow, developed the one and same character throughout long months of moderate playing, with some weeks of addiction in between, and I just let the universe of Skyrim naturally unfold as I marvel at it. I feel good about reserving the experience to thoroughly enjoy it!

I don't even see myself buying the new DLC for another year. This one playthrough is faaaar from over. I see myself continuing the journey of the Wood Elf for another 100 hours!

So let me ask you some questions:

1. What was your experience with the civil war? Whose side did you take and what did you think of the two sides? NO SPOILERS PLEASE
2. What was your experience with potions and alchemy? I can't help but feel that the potion variety is too little and I'm not using that many. Just health and stamina restoration for the most part!
3. What graphical mods do you recommend? My 40+ mods are all content and gameplay, and some are minor graphical tweaks. Is there a mod that really enhanced the graphics for you? The ENB one seems waaaaay too exhausting to apply.
4. Are there any interesting content/quests mods you've installed and played?
5. Overall, what is your relationship with Skyrim, are you still playing the same playthrough like me, got burnt out on the game, keep creating new characters, or haven't played it at all?
6. What staff, one-handed weapon and two-handed weapon did you mostly use? Can't find anything exotic and powerful beyond the same old 30-40 damage weapons.

You know you wanna get back to Skyrim and ride your horse through the country side while the amazing soundtrack plays! Do it!