As Steve Carrell has left The Office, I have compiled a list of the best and worst antics of Michael Scott to commemorate his character and the role he played. Michael, you will be missed.

I have left out his last day (Goodbye, Michael)  in this list as that is defined as a moment by itself. Not much antics, but a memorable episode that will live on in the hearts of Office fans.

(SPOILERS AHEAD! You have been warned)

Worst

Honourable Mentions:

Demonstrating a mock suicide as safety training – Safety Training

I would say Michael got off pretty lightly with this stunt.

The watermelon hitting Stanley's car. Hmmm...

Firing Devon - Halloween

Michael has always been a poor manager and easily swayed by pressure. Thus he was easily manipulated by Creed in the Halloween episode of Season 2

The reason why this wasn’t in the list is Devon really served as person to be fired for that certain episode. He wasn’t much of a character and never made any impact, plus Creed stays, so it’s all good. Who wanted to see Creed go anyway?

Michael Scarn invading improvisation class – Email Surveillance

Heh, this was rather funny yet still rather cringe worthy. Always good to see Michael’s imagination in full swing.

10.  Fake firing - various episodes (Notable: Pilot)

Michael has done this way too often, fake firing Pam, Stanley and Erin. Not funny and just mean. However, David Brent would approve.

9. Kidnapping the Pizza Delivery guy – Launch Party

I have read that Michael pulling a kidnapping felony was too contrived and way too stupid for Michael, and that Michael from previous seasons will never do that. However, unlike the driving of the car into the lake, this stunt he pulled was more believable to me, considering the previous events that had happened to Michael. He had spent the whole day in delight, preparing to go to a party in New York and wished to see his protégé Ryan, only to find out that he was not welcomed into Ryan’s inner circle and after ordering the pizza that nobody liked, he was naturally irked that even the pizza delivery guy was giving him lip and not cooperative. Michael then treated the pizza delivery guy as Ryan, as a ‘young snot-nosed kid who doesn’t know anything’ and giving him a lecture as to how ‘sales’ should be done.

‘Good business is about respect and accountability and follow-through. You don't just make promises and pull the rug out from under somebody, do you?!’

‘You don’t even know what stupid is! It’s about to get all stupid up in here!’

8. Driving his car into a lake – Dunder Mifflin Infinity

Really, Michael? A GPS made you turn right and you literally drove right into a lake. That’s something not even an eight year old would do. I guess the writers were trying to push the idea of Michael distrusting technology.

7. Pouring coffee over Woody – A Classy Christmas

Poor Woody. I wonder did Andy (of Toy Story) ever dunk him in a glass of milk and tried to bite his head as a child?

6. Wrecking the warehouse – Boys and Girls                                                                                                              

It’s plain to see why Darryl never got along with Michael, and this episode showed one of the reasons. If I was the foreman of the warehouse I would be grabbing Michael by his collar and forcing him to clean up the mess he created. I wonder how much Dunder Mifflin lost that day in terms of goods, equipment and productivity?

Memorable moment – Days worked without accident: 946 to 0.

5. Disrupting Phyllis’s Wedding – Phyllis’s Wedding

Michael’s lack of self-awareness is particularly grating in this episode. It should be a momentous day for Phyllis and Bob, but Michael, as always, wanted to make it all about himself.

Calling the new bride ‘Easy Rider’? Ouch.

4. Buffalo Branch closure reveal – Company Picnic

Slumdunder Mifflinaire was a good idea in theory for entertainment, but the ending really pulled the rug out under an entire branch of employees. And on a company picnic day! Holly deserves an equal amount of blame for aiding Michael. Surely she had a little more common sense than this?

3. Michael dressing up as Jesus and heckling Santa’s gifts – Secret Santa/ Yankee Swap – Christmas Party

So much for the holiday spirit and the season of giving. When Michael demands attention, he often goes all out to get it. By behaving like a petulant child demanding for a whole aisle of toys to be purchased for him. Though there were a few hilarious moments when he poked fun at Stanley, Dwight and Angela, this was not Michael at his best. 

For Yankee Swap, Michael being his mean-spirited and petty self.  Phyllis made him an oven mitt, and he turned his nose up on it because it wasn’t store bought with a high price.  Then of course, he had to start Yankee Swap, or ‘Nasty Christmas’, ruining everyone’s holiday spirit. One could see something like this happening at a Christmas party, but never on this level of awkwardness. You could see Jim’s heart being crushed as the teapot was passed to Dwight at the end of the Yankee Swap.

Thankfully, Michael’s booze and Pam’s trade with Dwight did fix things in the end.

2. The ‘sinking’ of the Booze Cruise – Booze Cruise

This was both painful and hilarious. All throughout the cruise Michael was trying to prove his mettle as a leader and give motivational lessons, but was being constantly held in his place by Captain Jack.

After Michael gets drunk, he creates a ‘Titanic Panic’ moment on the ship and leads to one guy jumping into the lake. That moment was both hilarious and delightfully awkward. I loved the part when he was making the announcement, the passengers were all panicking while all the Dunder Mifflin employees were shaking their heads and rolling their eyes.

In the end, Michael gets cuffed, or rather got his hands shackled with cable tie in the ‘brig’. He did redeem himself by trying to motivate Jim by telling him not to give up, no matter what.

1. Promising to sponsor a class of grade school children future college education - Scott’s Tots

You knew this would be in the list somewhere. I chose this as the most painful of the Michael Scott antics moments as even though Michael’s attention seeking stunts were so delightfully cringe inducing, this was just plain painful, and really affected too many people’s lives.  I remember skipping through most of the scenes in the classroom, even upon revisiting the episode, because it really hurt so much. The build-up of the scene with the youngsters all thanking Michael and expressing their gratitude really made me groan out literally, even when I knew it was an episode in a comedy. I guess this was the power of the Office. When a show makes you literally groan at its painful moment, you know it’s one where the characters really resonate with you.

Best

These were chosen not primarily due to the humour but also when Michael Scott really shines as the audience could laugh with and cheer for. These scenes help the audience to remember Michael not as a butt monkey to jokes, but a character that would live on in the fans’ hearts.

Honourable Mentions

Leaving his face in wet cement. – Did I Stutter

Collecting gravel to give to his grandkids. – Viewing Party

Making up with Dwight in the rubbish dump. – New Leads

10. Falling into the koi pond – Koi Pond

It’s not so much the falling in, but the acceptance of his misstep in the end. The Michael of the past would have acted as a petulant brat towards Jim. However, after he learnt of Jim’s reasons on not wanting Michael to go on the sales call, he was comforted by the notion of Jim being somewhat jealous of him. Whether Jim was jealous or merely annoyed at Michael is up for debate, but it is always a riot to see Michael floundering in a waist-deep pond.

9. Prince Paper Company conscience – Prince Family Paper

Michael, for all his antics in trying to be at the centre of attention along with a severe lack of self-awareness, has essentially a good heart. He could see a kind family being ruined by corporate decisions, thus he decided to go with his conscience at first. It’s a pity he didn’t stand up to Wallace and refuse to give him the information in the end, or this would have been ranked higher.

8. Managing to gain Hammermill as their supplier – The Convention

One would assume that within the world of the Office, Michael is constantly regarded as the joke manager of all Dunder Mifflin branches and even Corporate. Josh of the Stamford branch served as an excellent contrast to Michael, a suave, sales oriented branch manager who always has excellent numbers, and was being groomed for advancement in Corporate.  Jan, being always exasperated with Michael’s antics, can’t stay on top of him 24/7. (TWSS!)

Michael proves he is no slouch by landing Hammermill, the exclusive supplier to Staples, as Dunder Mifflin’s supplier. Even Josh and Jan were impressed at Michael.

Favourite Line: ‘Well; maybe you should estimate me.’

7.  Hiring Danny as their new travelling Salesman – The Sting

Michael the head-hunter. Never saw that role coming. When a superb salesman is stealing all their clients, Michael steals him instead. Nice!

6. Pulled a reverse coup on Dwight – The Coup

The real coup goes to Michael in this episode, where he was clearly on form. Who knew Michael could outfox the farmer? He even had Dwight grovelling on the ground (which was both astonishing and surprisingly heart wrenching). Of course, one may argue that he could not have pulled it off without Jan tipping him off, but the way it was handled was so masterful, Michael may just have been channelling Brando. Most of the episode was Michael acting in a very non-Michael way, speaking in low tones and almost seems menacing. Shudder.

5. Prison Mike/Date Mike – The Convict/Happy Hour

Michael and his alter egos are always a riot. Prison Mike lasted a lot shorter than Date Mike, but it was so memorable that I couldn’t decide between the both of them.

Favourite Lines:

‘Do you really expect me to not push you up against the wall, beyatch?’

 ‘The worst thing about prison was the Dementors! They were flying all over the place and they were scary and then they'd come down and they suck the soul out of your body and it hurt!’

’Hi, I am Date Mike, nice to meet me. How do you like your eggs in the morning?’

4.  Securing the client – The Client

From crude jokes to singing Chili’s jingles, Michael was clearly so much in sync with the Christian, the major client handling the needs of Lackawanna County, so much so that Jan had to play the third wheel in their conversations.

After all the seemingly pointless digressions, Michael managed to clinch the deal in the end, even earning a smile and a kiss from ice queen Jan. All in all, quite a successful day for Mr. Scott.

3. The counter-roast of the office employees – Stress Relief

The entire counter-roast was unforgettable. Mainly because it could have been awkward had not been for the outburst of laughter by Stanley, which salvaged it and made it a funny and heart-warming moment for the Office.

Memorable line carved for posterity: ‘Boom, Roasted.’

2. Michael’s marriage proposal to Holly – Garage Sale

It has been a long bittersweet road of romance for Michael, and it was a bittersweet ending for the episode with the proposal, and the announcement that he will be leaving. (Which the audience has known for quite some time, but has never quite accepted it.)

Of course, Michael had to have an outrageous gasoline idea in the beginning to suit his outrageous style of doing things. Whether it was too over-the-top or not, you can’t deny the touching moment at the end of the episode which raised a tear in many Office fans’ eyes.

1.  Michael negotiating his return to Dunder Mifflin - Broke

It’s funny how Season 5, while being hit-and-miss with most fans, has the utmost memorable moment of Mr Scott (in my opinion). Michael shows off his true form as a character that even when he fails, he still wins.

Favourite moments:

Michael turning the turn-tables on David Wallace himself. Well played sir!

Michael’s moment of maturity in choosing jobs over money, for himself, and his employees.

Michael cutting Charles off and telling him he’s done. Revenge is sweet.

The celebration in the conference room.

Favourite lines:

‘I know. But I always thought that the day that he died would be the worst day of my life and I was wrong. It's this.’

‘We are not just ‘tightends’, we are also quarterbacks.’

‘Well, well, well. How the turn tables...’

‘I'll see your situation and I'll raise you a situation. Your company is losing clients left and right. You have a stockholder meeting coming up and you're going to have to explain to them why your most profitable branch is bleeding. So they may be looking for a little change in the CFO. So I don't think I need to wait out Dunder Mifflin. I think I just have to wait out you.’

‘I don’t care if Ryan murdered his entire family; he is like a son to me.’

‘Our company is worth nothing. That's the difference between you and I. Business isn't about money to me, David. If tomorrow my company goes under, I will just start another paper company, and then another and another and another. I have no shortage of company names.’

‘Our balls are in your court.’

Bonus: Ranking the Productions of Michael Scott

5. The Scranton Witch Project – The Merger

Not much information on this one. But that one line and Michael’s ‘fearful’ face really stood out for fans. Wished we could have seen more of it.

4. Dunder Mifflin Scranton Video for David Wallace – Valentine’s Day

Introduced viewers to the ‘Great Scott!’ credits. In Comic Sans font no less. The whole video could have been used as a tourist video for Scranton, Pennsylvania. 

3. Lazy Scranton – The Merger

The hilarious rap video of Michael and Dwight. Gave viewers gems such as:

 ‘Lazy Scranton the Electric City, they call it that ‘cause of the electricity!’

‘Plenty of space in the parking lot, but the little cars go in the compact spot! Spot! Spot! Spot!’

2. Ad for Dunder Mifflin – Local Ad

All the triumph of an Olympic win without the medals, but with plenty of heart. Corporate/Ryan really blew it when they went with the run-of-the mill ad instead of Michael’s creation.

1. Threat Level Midnight – The Client, Threat Level Midnight

In ‘The Client’, the first glimpse of this production was shown by Pam finding the screenplay of the Threat Level Midnight movie, written, produced and directed by Michael Scott. The office had fun reading the various roles in the screenplay, and Dwight finding out he was the bumbling Samuel L Chang was the highlight. 

Upon watching the episode, ‘Threat Level Midnight’, I would have to say this is Michael Scott’s greatest production. I burst out laughing at Lazy Scranton, but I laughed my ass off at the Threat Level Midnight movie. It’s so bad it’s really hilarious, even though Michael intended it to be a detective/action/sports/ spy-thriller film, I’m not sure which genre he wanted to be. Having the entire cast in the movie was a riot. With Karen, Jan, Troy and Todd Packer, it was like the icing on top of an ice-cream cake.

Favourite lines: ‘You jump to the right and you shake a hand, then you jump to the left and you shake their hand. You meet new friends and you tie some yarn. And that's how you do the Scarn!’

‘If doing the Scarn is gay, then I am the biggest queer on earth!’

‘Looks like we are going to need a cleanup on Aisle 5.’

‘See I'm gonna lure him here and I'm gonna kill everybody. Then I'm gonna dig up Scarn's dead wife and I'm gonna hump her real good. Hahahaha!’

(sigh) This was harder than I expected it will be. You have left me satisfied and smiling everytime.

Before people start going ballistic and filling up my inbox with hate mail, listen to me first: 

Zynga - Facebook games that are popular online for getting many friends to play for advantages.
Valve TF2 team/ - FPSes that are popular with players online for creating many meme-worthy videos. And hats.

Zynga - Payment gets you higher stats, higher possbility of rare items
TF2 team- Payment gets you higher chances to gain rare items, no gameplay altering items via payment, yet.

Zynga - Uses cross promotion with artistes for events for users to increase more in-game items
TF2 team - Uses cross promotion with other games to increase more in-game items

Zynga - Has online shop for payment of items, occasional discount rates and holiday bundles
TF2 - Has online shop for payment of items, occasional discount rates and holiday bundles

I will conclude that while I don't think Valve is 100% becoming like Zynga, it certainly is slowly adapting its business model. The next step would be add plenty of friends that play TF2 and exchange items to and fro and request constantly. Eh... Trading, anyone?

 Today’s mandatory rant for the day is about anime.

I get rather pissed at people dismissing anime by calling the fans 'weeabos' and '宅男'.  People who don’t understand anime often sneer, ‘Yeah, anime? Isn't it for kids?’ or ‘It’s just a bunch of animated characters running around with funny hairstyles and weird colored hair.’

Hmm, The Simpsons is animated too. Is it just for kids? Would you call it an anime? Can I call Matt Groening to ask him if he created these yellow skinned, funny head shaped characters while inspired by Japanese characterization? Oh yeah, Marge and Milhouse have blue hair too. Oops.

South Park has a whole cast of kiddie like characters animated. That show must be for children too! Look at Eric Cartman, isn’t he the cutest fat little kid in the world? Such a role model too. I want my kids to behave like him!

(Just to be clear, I like South Park. Humor that makes you laugh, cringe and think at the same time is at least trying.)

Most of the arguments that these people put forward on Japanese animation really make no sense. Some of those arguments are that anime is for geeks who like to play dress up at cosplay conventions. Really? I guess those people in Storm Trooper costumes must be some form of anime geeks as well. Which anime, I am not sure.  And what about those people wielding toy light-sabers? Are they real anime swordsmen? Gosh, I must be careful not to let them cut off my hand then. And have these people making these arguments even seen a Trekkie convention?  

Another misconception against anime is that it comprises primarily of tentacle porn. Hey, if you are sick enough, you can find porn on just about anything on the internet, not just anime. It’s just that anime comes from Japan, which initiated the tentacle imagery to simulate sexual restraining. If you want something really messed up, try 2 girls 1 cup. I am pretty sure it didn’t originate from Japan, and that was some sick shit. Literally.

My counterargument here is really to those people claiming the moral high ground by stereotyping anime as a playground for people with sick fetishes. I think the term they were looking for is ‘Rule 34’. When and where it originated I have no idea, but it was probably around the advent of the internet, I suppose.

It seems that the Western world really has only 2 examples to go about when referencing anime in general, the 2 mainstream shows (ironically dubbed by the awful 4kids Entertainment): Pokemon and Yugioh. I would add Cowboy Bebop as well, but it’s not really mainstream as mature audiences really get it, and is on a genre, nay tier, on its own.

I am not defending Japan too much either. They do have some weird fetishes, hentai not included, and a disturbing high amount of underage school girls in their country soliciting sex. Must be their highly stressful cubicle life.  No wonder the birth rate is low over there. Who knew that the nation that created escapism gadgets such as the Wii and the Playstation had so much stress in their lives?

Animation is really a form of media. A show can be live-action or animated, it’s the really the content that allows for it to be targeted to grown-ups or children. Some shows with live-action are really just targeted to kids and brainless baboons (Seltzer and Friedberg, I am looking at you) and some animated shows have surprisingly controversial messages and meaningful content.

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to accompany my nephews watching Happy Tree Friends.

• For some people, the only issue for them is the level of attractiveness of the other person has
• For others, the importance of being staying with gender assigned to the genitalia you were born with, no exceptions.

Still I passed the test!!! With some help from above, ;-)  and in 6 months and 1 attempt too!!!
 

WOOHOO!!!!

 

Started new job today. Wasn't too bad, but I kept havng nostalgic flashbacks to my previous job. Hmm... I wonder why.
Well, hope to get more acclimatized soon.

Totally thrashed and need to crash soon. G'nite.

Piracy. No, I am not talking about the drunk on rum type of pirates that sway from side to side and have braided hair, but more on the copyright infringement kind. It is the very act of copyright infringement, which its definition is:  (Quoted from wikipedia) Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works covered by copyright law, in a way that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.

So where does One Manga fit in? Well, an online manga aggregator like One Manga does infringe on the copyright of publishers such as Shueisha and other publishers of magazines in Japan, even when they claim that the manga scanlated is not for personal profit. But as it is with the internet, copyright laws that cross international boundaries make enforcement a very tricky thing.

Well, now One Manga is closing down due to distributors opening that one eye they have closed for so long. Needless to say, many people that use the site are not happy. Myself included. I guess what gets me riled up is fact that distrbutors of manga see shutting down of manga aggregators as an easy way out. However, publishers going after manga aggregators only attacks the problem of copyright infringement at its symptoms and not at the roots.

So why not work together with the scanlators for a solution?

If I may suggest: All publishers and international distributors should collaborate on an online distribution platform like Steam  (which distributes games)? I am sure with digital distribution, there would be an increased amount of readers, especially people from countries that manga is not readily available.

Another solution: If One Manga had a donation button which guaranteed 50% of its donations go to the mangaka (the other 50% to the running of the site), the distributors wouldn't have their panties in a knot like this. After all, true fans would want the artists of original work to be properly rewarded. Proper due needs to be given to great artists and writers such as Oda, Kubo, Ohba and Obata, Toriyama, Amano, Arakawa and so on.
 
Piracy is going to keep on existing. It can diminish due to enforcement of laws, but it will always find a new way to manifest itself. It feeds off on the demand that was created through its easy access and fast speed in which it reaches its targets.  And that is the medium that publishers and distributors need to embrace when facing this problem. Its rather like hackers. They are always causing mischief online, though you could get some over to your side and help you resolve certain fallacies in your own internet security. It also applies for scanlators. Some of the work that scanlators create is so much better than official translations of publishers, which serve as an extra reason why people like fansubs rather than dubs in anime.

In the past, when distributors only cared about what happened in the home country of Nippon, and the paperback sales of Jump and tankōbon issues. Now with the internet, and global viewers reading manga online. The rules are slowly changing. So is the environment. Distributors and scanlators should understand that.

It's like Napster all over again.