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| Thursday, March 31st, 2005 | | 10:17 am |
Oooops.
Okay... I haven't posted in a VERY long time... haven't been doing much if anything in the way of writing... got so distracted by... Forgive me... Final Fantasy XI Online.I can't help it. The game is immersive, huge, insanely fun, and just plain addictive. That, and recurring health hassles (my poor sinuses!) and the like have kind of put my creative impulses on hold. They are still there, it's just that, well, they're taking a backseat to my goblin-thwacking impulses. Bit by bit the revisions on Paragon 5 are taking place, tho, Maybe I'll put a draft up in a bit. But I am alive, I want a new nose, and I'm addicted to the world of Vana'diel. Current Mood:  embarrassed | | Tuesday, May 11th, 2004 | | 5:30 am |
A note to the wise.
I cook. I like to cook, but I also like convienience. I picked up something that I thought might make a passable quick-cooking thing. As in to eat it. It is marketed as Tyson brand Seasoned Beef Sirloin Roast. It says it's the roast for beef lovers. Dear God, I don't want to see the roast for beef HATERS. AVOID this "roast" at all costs. It's the most wrecthed thing I ever picked up at the supermarket, and I have picked up some pretty wretched things indeed. Just trust me. ----- Will the kind people so damn concerned with my nonexostant sex life please stop sending me email about generic viagra? PLEASE? How can I trust your product anyway when you can't SPELL it properly? ----- On the Sub vs Dub wars-- a new take has arisen, where a lot of Japanese Tolkien fans apparently were QUITE offended at slack and slapphappy subtitling of the LOTR movies. And it's even controversial. Check out rec.arts,anime.misc for the thread. ------ Trust me. That Tyson Beef Thingy SUCKS. I mean, HOOVER level. They REALLY need to stick to chicken. Current Mood:  tiredCurrent Music: duvet | | Saturday, January 31st, 2004 | | 1:21 am |
And the world revolves.
Or something like that. Yes, it's been a while since I last posted. It's more a semi-dormant-Journal, I guess. I just find a few thoughts in my mind. If you want to be truly freaked out beyond any possibility of recovery, check out Happy Sabrina. This is a page for a Kigurumi fan. This is a page with semi-live streaming video of a cute girl in various outfits in anime-style masks of incredible quality. This is a page with many many photos of said girl at many popular locations in Japan. This is a page where the girl is actually a guy. But it can be damn hard to tell. Kigurumi is an almost totally Japanese phenomenon using full body suits, carefully made masks, etc. where (At least in Sabrina-chan's case) the person in question becomes the closest thing to an actual real live Anime Girl. And Sabrina is SCARY good at it. #### For those who keep wondering, Paragon 5 is in first draft revision and should be on the page any day now. For those with little patience... Here. Have some water. HOLD IT. #### I just had the delightful experience of a 48+ hour power failure. Well, delightful may be too stroong a word. Sheer Orgasmic Overload would be more accurate. Well, it WOULD be, were I a masochist. As it was, it sucked so much that the Hoover Corporation is trying to sue the outage for patent infringement. #### You know, some day Kim Possible is going to wake up and realise that Ron is the only guy for her because he's the only guy who can keep UP with her. When she does, her problem will be getting RON to understand that. #### I need to buy more canned barbecue. Current Mood:  quixotic | | Thursday, December 18th, 2003 | | 1:57 am |
As we approach the Day of Much Feasting and Inevitable Returned Gifts ...
I am reminded of the Christmas Tree... and how damn TERRIFYING it was in my youth. Today, assuming you have a real tree (which is a dying breed) it is decorated with carefully safe lights that are about the size of a Contac capsule, with all the wattage of a computer screen. The ornaments are also made with the keeping kiddies unhurt in mind. Actually, your tree is probably what the old school calls "fake", the new school calls "Environmentally Correct", and what I call "Sane". Because when I was a kid. we had this fir tree. Every year. A freshly cut, resinous, highly flammable piece of wood. Trust me, they ARE highly flammable. And Xmas tree lights back then were different. Today they are tiny, voltage reduced things that probably couldn't start a fire if they HAD to. THEN... they were Incandecsent Light Bulbs. About two inches long. Drawing on the full power of your outlet. And all too ready, (In my pre-adolecent mind, at least) to change the Symbol of Festivity into a Burning Torch of Death. And then there were the ornaments. Which were made of glass. THIN Glass. As in Light Bulbs are STURDY next to a Christmas Tree Ornament. I could count on at least three being shattered every year. I could also count on at least two nasty cuts from them. These things would have made perfectly elegant murder weapons. Coloner Mustard, in the Foyer, withe the Ornament. Then there was the tinsel. Today, well, people don't seem to USE tinsel. Because we've evlolved beyond the concept that draping mass quantities of flammable silvery plastic on an already flammable resin-stash wrapped in raw electrically charged wire is a cheery holiday thing. No, we now realise that it's DUMB. I know that people (being people) lament much of what we have "lost" of our youth. Just thought it would be useful to point out that some things need to be lost. Trees are the better today. Deal. Current Mood:  cynical | | Monday, November 10th, 2003 | | 10:02 pm |
On the latest Pratchett "Discworld" paperback...
It's a rather big volume for the latest (that I can afford) return to the Disc, by a man who I consider to be the best damn writer of english language comic fistion alive. It's also, at points, oddly dark, but never loses that ol' Discworld charm. It's titled "Night Watch", and it's once again got everyone's favorite Commander of the Watch, Duke of wossname (I forget, what exactly) and richest man in Ankh-Morpork (to his annoyance), Samuel Vimes. In fact, it's got two of him, because Sam gets tossed back in time 30 years to about when he as a kid joined the bleedin' Watch in the first place, during one of the most turbulent moments in the city's history. Which would be bad enough, but a serial killer-- and one who, in my opinion, makes Hannibal Lecter seem like a creampuff-- has tagged along for the ride. Go. Buy. Read. And learn why CMOT Dibbler is allowed to continue doing business. Current Mood:  satisfiedCurrent Music: none | | Thursday, October 30th, 2003 | | 2:19 am |
Two interesting things.
One. Yesterday, I had a visit from the FBI. No, SERIOUSLY. See, a bank that is about one block away was robbed. So, the FBI (since Bank Robbery is a federal crime, of course) was canvassing the neighborhood to see if anyone recognised the face in a security photo of the perp who had run in the direction of out condominium area. I didn't. Besides, as near as Ican tell, at the time of the robbery, I was just walking out my door to have a Wafle House breakfast. But hey-- it's kinda neat to meet an real honest to gosh FBI agent in the performance of his duties.... And he didn't look ANYTHING like on TV. Denim jacket and beaten jeans. Field agent, I guess. The other thing was today. Now, I KNOW you have heard of Grand Theft Auto III. And I KNOW you have heard of Grand Theft Auto--Vice City. But have you heard that they are now BOTH Playstation 2 Greatest Hits? And that RockStar had BUNDLED them as a set? GTA3 and GTA VC--- in a nice slipcase yet-- for 30 bucks. That's 30 bucks for both. GO ahead. BE antisocial. CHEAP. Current Mood:  okayCurrent Music: Lain OP | | Tuesday, October 14th, 2003 | | 10:47 pm |
Suikoden III. Now, this is a RPG with a DIFFERENCE. Yes, once again I am distracted from writing (not totally, mind you, just a lot) by a game. Well, kiddies, this game is quite different. It's Suikoden like you've enver seen before... unless you've played Suikoden III already, in which case you have seen it before and understand why I love it so much., Most games have you up against an evil entity from the Outer Whatever, which is trying to destroy and/or rule the world. It's a staple of any Final Fantasy game, and most other RPGs have followed that tradition. Why not? It WORKS. It's been working since Tolkien penned the Lord of the Rings. Suikoden III is about nationalism, pride, prejudice, and politics. And plots. Very deep ones. There's no clear cut villian in the game, even where it seems there is. See, Grassland, a loose confederation of tribal groups, and Xexen, a pretty darn highly developed nation, historically haven't always been on the friendliest of terms. Xexen is run by a council of mercheants, which is already bad news. And the Grasslands has all the political unity of the Middle East, but with beer. Now, they are planning to sign a treaty of peace. Yeah, RIGHT. There are THREE main characters in the game-- Well, three and a half. And you play them all through the somewhat strange Trinity Sight System. (Don't ask me where they got the name.) See, it works like this... Pick a character, any chacracter. Hugo, a kinda hot-headed teen from the Kayura (sp?) clan, who is supposed to deliver a message about the truce negotiations to the Xexen Council. Chris, a noble, heroic, and female Knight of Xexen, who seems to sleep in her plate-mail and is a legen in her own time-- much to her annoyance. And Geddoes, a taciturn mercenary captain in charge of a ragtag band of misfits who's caught up in the middle of all this. Then there's Thomas. I WUV Thomas. Where the OTHER three are Staples of Fantasy Literature (tm) Thomas is-- get this-- a Horatio Alger protagonist. No, really. His Mom just died, he's about, oh, 13 years old, and he's sent to his father-- who he's the illegitamate son of-- to be taken care of. Thomas is an embarassment to his father-- just getting in the way of politics. Got to do something with the kid. Oh, here's an idea. There's a nice little castle on the edge of bankruptcy in a disputed territorry. Put the kid in charge. And so that's what happens. And how does the kid deal with his staff of, well, mostly idiots and a property that has all the economic value of a dead flounder? He makes it a free trade zone. And does it all in a charming apologetic way. It's a HOOT. You'll be switching characters up to a point, seeing the same events through different eyes. Allies, they may become through neccessity, but never friends. There are wounds that go too deep for that. You'll also learn a few things that don't leap to mind from otehr RPGs. For example... Ducks Kick Ass. With Big Pointy Things. DO NOT DISS THE DUCK. Handpupets are one of the most effective possible melee weapons. There are advantages to retaining the services of pedophliac appraisers. 11 year old girls in plaid skirts and loose socks, under the correct cirsumstances, are invulnerable juggernuats of hellish destruction. And yes, you will NEVER meet a videogame character you wanted to slap up the head more than Lilly. I guarantee it. So, when you go like the intelligent life form that I hope you are to pick up for about 30 bucks your own copy of Suikoden III remember that there's a TV screen in the way. 108 stars yet again... one of the best series still going strong. (Oh, right. Forgot to mention. 108 Stars of Destiny. That is, there are 108 characaters total to recruit. Including the dogs. Be warned.) Current Mood:  pleasedCurrent Music: The TV in the background... | | Tuesday, October 7th, 2003 | | 3:00 am |
I am SOO bored.
Well. I am. Anyway, nothing important to discuss. It's a kind of Livejournal check in. Deal. | | Wednesday, September 3rd, 2003 | | 11:37 pm |
Back from Dcon.
Two days ago, in fact. STILL tired. LONG con. MUCH stuff happened. And I now own ALL the Ironclaw books. Yay. | | Monday, September 1st, 2003 | | 10:22 am |
What a night.
Okay. Up till last night, DragonCon was kinda slow in the party department-- as in, there weren't any that I (or my companions) could find. Last night we found one. It was good. There was a raffle, and I won it. I'm not SUPPOSED to come out of a con with a profit, am I? Also, INSANE goo luck with dealers. Heading home later tonight... sigh. Almost wich it would never end... | | Sunday, August 31st, 2003 | | 3:57 am |
A pretty good day.
Which, I am pleased to note, it was. I did get to meet Kittyhawk. Nice lady, quite cute in fact, and she was wearing the bear hat. (SGVY fans take the bear hat seriously.) Picked up a few bargains in the dealers room. Found tracks that were informative. entertaining, and enjoyable. At NIGHT, the con gets dull. Where other cons resound with parties, and beer, and stuff like that, so far this one is kinda uptight. Can't bring in your own beer, should you want a few in the evening... and the "open bar" wants FIVE DOLLARS for a DOMESTIC. Come ON. The last two nights, in fact, have been rather then the parties I am familiar with from previous conventions a hapless search for parties that never are realised, except for the admittedly entertaining spectacle of watching literally a thousand people mill about the lobby from an upper floor-- and there are twenty thousand plus preregistered at the con. No telling how many at the door. First con I was ever at where (at least for me) things wind DOWN at night. YEESH. Oh, well... still having fun. | | Saturday, August 30th, 2003 | | 2:26 am |
I'm at DragonCon in Atlanta...
And I almost wish you were here. Almost, but being the insanely selfish bugger I am, I prefer to keep all the fun to myself. Heh. I am preening over my victory in the Anime Trivia Contest-- first place, these kids apparently never heard of Daicon (And I got extra props for using the FULL names of the three series that made up Robotech-- Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Century Southern Cross, and Genisis Climber Mospeada-- they were only seeking the final words in each. GOt an extra keychain prize for that.) I am happy with my first time in a hot tub (Yes, 45 years old and never been in one. It's An Experience.) I have, sadly, failed to meet up with any old friends. But I have made a few new ones. And I met George Takei in passing this afternoon. Shared an elevator. Kinda cool, that. Tomorrow I intend to attend a special symposium on Magical Girls, try to enter a Buffy the Vampire Slayer tournament, and meet my all time favorite webcomic person, Kittyhawk. Wish me luck. I'm getting so revitalised by this, I might actually get my witing back on track. ^_^ | | Thursday, August 14th, 2003 | | 1:55 am |
FLCL It's in it's second time around on Adult Swim. It's rather hard to explain. Well, let me begin by summarizing the first episode. There's this kid, Naota. He's 12 years old and somehow already world-weary. His older brother in in the US, playing pro baseball. His brother's girlfriend, who may or may not be homeless-- it's uncertain-- and who is a chainsmoker seems to like to mack on Naota. Something about earlobes and overflowing. His father is an anime geek, his grandfather is something of a loon, and he's about the only sane person he knows. He also hates sour drinks. While talking to his brother's child-molesting girlfriend on a bridge, he gets run over by a lunatic on a Vespa (A kind of motor scooter). After wailing a while about how she's killed him, the lunatic-- one Haruko-- revives him with mouth to mouth. And for some reason insists on calling him Taro-kun-- despite the fact that that ain't his name. THEN she hits him with an electric bass. Repeatedly. Now, somehow she winds up as a live in housekeeper at his home, a bakery, and there's this thing popping out of his forehead, but that's okay because he can keep it hidden under a bandage, but she's DAMN nosy about it, and his brother has an american girlfriend, which kinda almost destorys Miss Chain-smoker, and then a robot pops out of his HEAD, and has a fight to the death with a disembodied robot arm, and then Haruko clocks the robot with her guitar, changing it from red-- Did I forget that? IT used to be red-- to blue, and then the robot moves into his house as a sort of housekeeping assistant. IN episode two, things start to get strange., I LIKE this show. Current Mood:  confusedCurrent Music: None. | | Sunday, August 3rd, 2003 | | 11:29 pm |
New Big O. It rocks. Current Mood: pleased | | Wednesday, July 23rd, 2003 | | 2:02 am |
Sailor Moon. For real this time.
I picked up the Sailor Moon Season One UNcut DVD set the other day. The evil Japanese people gave ADV the old masters and not the remastered masters because they didn't want Japanese people importing the much cheaper US sets. At least that's the speculation. Whatever it is, ADV was given older, somewhat degraded masters. The sound can be kind of weak. and especially in the first 10 or so eps the picture is kinda less than stellar. That being taken into consideration... this ROCKS. It also gives me new appreciation for DIC and Cloverway. Seriously. A case in point. I have read, quite often, about how DIC evilly made Usagi/Serena a whiny, fluffheaded, and ditzy crybaby. Guess what? They were KIND to her. The US Serena is much tougher than Usagi is. Heh. You know the complaints about how terrible it was that DIC made Zoicite into a girl for the US release? It makes NO difference. Guy Zoi acts EXACTLY like Girl Zoi. In fact, it's my opinion that Zoi-chan was a girl in the JAPANESE version, just pulling an Ukyo stunt. Breast wrappings and the like. And a really good job at deepening her voice. I will not say that the DIC adaptation was perfect. It certainly was flawed. But it's a DAMN sight less flawed than many purists would have you believe... Yet, the uncut DVD set does show you some things that we didn't have. For example, who KNEW that Haruna-sensei wore smily-face panties? Current Mood: okayCurrent Music: Three O'clock Fairy (Sanji no Yousei) | | Thursday, July 10th, 2003 | | 11:15 pm |
Hex-stat?
Guardians of Order recently released BESM d20. It's kinda scary. See, it's basically Tri-stat-- attrubutes, skills, defects, everything that makes BESM BESM-- but fitted (rather elegantly) around the d20 system. Point based. 15 character classes... covering almost every possible genre of Anime. Seamless mechanics. They actually did it. I can hardly believe it, but they actually made a d20 version of BESM that is still BESM. Man, if anything is impressive, that is. And more, they made it a part of the open source thing. So you can go to thier webpage and DL the machanics for free, if you want. We need more exceptional game companies like them, that we do. Current Mood:  optimistic | | Tuesday, July 8th, 2003 | | 10:47 pm |
I just saw HULK today.
It's an interesting interpretation of the original... and although there's a LOT of Big-Ass Green Guy Smashing Action, the movie is really hardly about said Big-Ass Green Guy Smashing Action. Rather, it's about two nearly psychotic fathers (well, one that's nearly so and the other one has happily jogged past psychotic and gone one to greater things) and their children, who aren't totally there themselves. It's just that one of the kids happens to turn into the Big--- aw, YOU know. It's entertaining. The Hulk FX aren't always totally convincing, but most of the time there's a major "WHOA" factor there. Of particular note is the Hulk acting often in a stumbling, almost clumsy fashion... which matches very well with my mental image of Mister Green Genes. Face it... graceful he ain't gonna be. It's both a rather telling piece about mental and emotional abuse and turmoil (Which you would expect from Ang Lee) and about Hulk smashing (Which, admittedly, isn't what you expect from Ang Lee but it's done DAMN well). I saw it at a 12:25 matinee... which had the very nice side effect of almost NO-ONE in the theater. Hardly ANY chatty kids. It's worth a viewing. Current Mood:  lazy | | 1:41 am |
Heat. I hate it.
It's getting hot here in Augusta... well, hot for me, and I'm not good with heat. I mean, by that, I am very BAD with heat, Heat and me do NOT mix. I have to ask either my Mom or my Sister to give me a lift to the supermarket. That's kinda embarrassing. But I can live with that. What I can't live with is the unreasonable laws that make heat so unbearable. I mean, there's no law about how much clothing we can wear in the winter... Current Mood:  annoyed | | Sunday, July 6th, 2003 | | 3:26 am |
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