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Sunday, November 2, 2003 9:20:53p: *
Sorry I've been quiet of late. Sleeping and Tetra Master. P:A should get together by the end of tomorrow. I say "should" because, well... now the UPS tracking system apparently is only tracking departures. And only when it feels like it. So the last known whereabouts of the package are Philadelphia. Specifically, leaving Philly. Saturday night. Does not bode well.
Anyway, time for work.Monday, November 3, 2003 7:34:15a: *
What hath I wrought upon the world of tech support? Upon hearing of my intent to join FFXI, no less than three co-workers have purchased copies of the game. One even installed it and started his character already. He's on Caitsith (the server), after I urged him to join that one as opposed to, say, Phoenix (which, judging by today's Real Life, is obscenely overcrowded now anyway) or Leviathan.
Not many people know this, but before I was CX, and before I was The Furry One, I was NeoCaitSith. Ah, the glory days of freaking people out on Yahoo chat. Back before I realized that chat, for the most part, sucks. But yeah. This will be like coming home, for me.
Aaanyway. Package is on track for a delivery within the next few hours-- the last tracking data I got places it an hour away from my house at 4:30 AM, but God only knows how much farther it'll go before it hits here. At that point, I will be a much happier fuzzy.
I may need to take a trip into Olean later. I don't quite know why, but I may. Probably to go get iced tea in big gallon jugs. Been drinking more iced tea of late, actually. Again, I don't know why. Oh well. Green tea is supposedly good for your brain. And lord knows I need all the help I can get.
That is all. Off to play more Tetra Master now.Monday, November 3, 2003 7:34:59a: *
Oh, and Kat-- hang in there. We're all rooting for you.Tuesday, November 4, 2003 7:19:09a: *
Well, folks, it's official. I managed to get FFXI up and running. Project: Aestivalis-- which is, and always was, my attempt to get into a new MMORPG-- is ON. As I sit here, typing away, precious seconds tick by in Vana'diel, seconds I could be wandering through Windurst or trying to find the %$^@!ing exit so I can kill monsters. All in all, though, this has been a learning experience for me. Thanks for putting up with me during the whole ordeal.
I was sick last night, so I didn't get to play a whole lot. Not the greatest way to start off, but from what I heard my coworkers say (I sent an email after I called in, just in case), The Man has decided to disable the wonderful wireless-network-wholesome-goodness that had enticed me to think about acquiring a laptop. So, that's that. We'll see about the laptop later on, but for now, what I got is what I got.
Ah well. Going to get dressed and showered, and then get some iced tea. I am really thirsty for some reason. Expect more updates as time goes by.Tuesday, November 4, 2003 6:53:35p: *
Ladies and gentlemen, lest I forget, I bring to you an extra-creepy edition of Disturbing Search String Theatre. Tonight's reminder that the Internet is populated by strange people who somehow found their way to my site is
you act like it all matters
Unless one was using, oh, NihilisticSearch, I don't see how one would get to my site after inputting that particular string. Come to think of it, a nihilistic search engine would consistently return "no results", wouldn't it?Wednesday, November 5, 2003 11:18:35p: * Dom enjoys his position too much. That is all.
Oh, and... good morning.
Off to Vana'diel.Thursday, November 6, 2003 1:54:45a: *
So there's a 1p showing of Matrix Revolutions in Olean. And, after doing some quick arithmancy, I find I can attend.
The problem, as Neo so eloquently put it, is choice.
Do I go to Olean this afternoon, watch the movie, and then go to Cuba to crash? Or should I come back here, nap until 8:30, and then watch CSI here?
If I go to Cuba, I won't be able to play FFXI. If I go to Coudersport, I might overexert myself.
Hm. I've got a few hours. Think I'll head back in to my own personal Matrix to mull this over. Only problem with that is, I don't have enough gil to buy a trenchcoat and black sunglasses.Thursday, November 6, 2003 2:00:16a: *
I once thought I could respect TV Guide's writing as the absolute last word, the only truth. But it seems they're just as prone to acts of journalistic ignorance as anyone else. Witness this excerpt from the blurb for the most recent episode of CSI (the furry one, not to be confused with The Furry One):
The writers at CSI ... [have] outdone themselves, which makes you wonder: do they have vivid imaginations or does stuff like this really happen?
Friday, November 7, 2003 8:46:05p: *
I keep forgetting, now that I have my monitor resolution jacked up to "ungodly", that objects in it may appear smaller than they are. For that I am sorry, but I pity the fool who isn't viewing this site at 1024x768 like the little thingy over there says you should be. Anyway. Showering and going to work now.Saturday, November 8, 2003 11:39:07a: *
My life insurance bill came. Yesterday was not a good night at work.
Isn't it always strange how the life insurance bill comes at just the time when you really don't need to be reminded of how much you're worth dead?Monday, November 10, 2003 12:14:02p: *
Linkshell, yo. Insomnimancers in the house. (So named because we're all mages and we all work at night. ^_^)Tuesday, November 11, 2003 7:26:53a: *
Attention Slashdot users:
The Game Girl Advance Article on the Rez Trance Vibrator is officially a dead joke. We know she stuck it in her funny place, get over it already. If you continue to post it I will give your home address to the goatse.cx guy. Thank you for your cooperation.
Just needed to vent that. A real post is forthcoming.Tuesday, November 11, 2003 12:35:18p: *
Sorry about the abundance of non-updates. I know many of you are getting sick of hearing about FFXI, so I'll shut up about it, except to say this-- Insomnimancers now has four members. We honestly don't expect to increase our ranks all that much, but hey, if we meet people, so be it.
But I'm done talking about that. Really.
A couple of weeks ago-- around the middle of October (which I suddenly felt the need to spell with a 'k')-- I put up a short little blurb regarding a couple deaths in my hometown. Admittedly, I did kinda slack off in my duties and I never sent the email or the letter to the families, but for all my non-action, someone saw it. Someone from back home. So ultimately the blurb wound up being posted all over my high school without my knowledge. Not that I'm complaining or anything-- no such thing as bad publicity and all, and the "letter" was well received-- but an e-mail would have been nice. Especially when my parents question me on a letter I don't recall sending to the school. But like I said, nothing major.
Work has been blah. Not massively blah or you would have heard something. And not massively traumatic or you would have heard about that, too. Just... blah.
Oh! I did tear myself away from gaming long enough to read more fanfics for RPGamer. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't. But it was laundry day, and I'd printed them out at work... had some time to kill... Y'know.
Chicken salad sandwich, because I don't want to eat the last of the sub I got for lunch and the half I did eat was scrawny-like.
This 'narrative' has descended into levels of boring unplumbed by human minds, so I'd better go to bed before I put half of the Internet to sleep.Tuesday, November 11, 2003 9:04:43p: *
Oh, just a heads-up-- a new quiz will be up this weekend. Probably tomorrow. We'll see.Wednesday, November 12, 2003 5:22:14a: *
As you can see, I created a second quiz. For those of you who're inevitably going to complain that I stole a few questions from my other quiz, I say this: it's a freakin' web quiz, for cripes' sakes. How much more unoriginal can you bleeding get?
But, as I am want to do, I digress.
I finished my sub for lunch earlier, and of course it was just as small as I thought it would be. But that's a good thing. It forces me to stop playing FFXI and actually cook when I get home. I may even do some cleaning. Don't hold me to that.
Life is mostly good. Thinking of doing a little something more with the website, actually-- going on a neat productive streak like this certainly won't be good for my character, but then again ignoring the world to play the game certainly wouldn't be fair to you guys. So we'll see what I can do to achieve a sort of balance. Weekend coming up, so I'll be OK with splitting time. Expect to see me on the ol' instant messengers sometime soon, those of you who usually contact me that way.
As always, suggestions are best deposited at the forum to my left. Email is wacky these days.
Ciao for now, folks. Breaktime is over.Thursday, November 13, 2003 6:54:16a: *
Blogger is being retarded, so I'm typing this into the index page by hand. I'll probably forget to update it later and this will all be overwritten anyway, but eh.
Does anyone else seem to have a problem with Gameforms? They're on my links page and all, and they previously had some very good content on the site-- most notably the fact that they had all the old GIA people, which was almost like having new content-- but somewhere along the line they got not good. Wait, I can tell you exactly when that happened: two months ago, when they stopped updating. The esteemed columnist (and Slashdot devotee) John Hummel even blasted the site-- the site on which his column is published, no less-- for slacking off. The longest break I've taken is about four days, and I don't have anywhere near the readership Gameforms does. Neither do Gameforms anymore, I suspect.
I suppose what's made me take such an active interest in being timely has partly been Final Fantasy XI, but also partly DMG Ice. Phil has had numerous stalls and stops on his site, and not all of them have been explained or even acknowledged. But the fact of the matter is, Phil every once in a while drops in and tells you what's going on. Every so often, Phil will say that he's working on something, or that something didn't pan out as he'd expected. DMG Ice has been going through some minor redesigns, as well-- and actually it's two sites now, with the inclusion of Suki Nihon. So it can be forgiven that every other post on the site is an explanation for why it took a week to update.
Contrast that with, say, Thor. Don't get me wrong-- Thor's hilarious at times. But now is not one of those times. When you take down all your content for a Halloween surprise, and then don't update for two weeks after Halloween-- that's not funny. That's suspiciously like the next update you make is going to be "That's it, you guys suck, go home". Right, Fritz?
On to some game news, now. Dead to Rights for PC had a massive bug. So what? Dead to Rights on all the consoles had a bug, too-- it sucked. You can't patch that, my friend.
FFXI continues to rock heavily and steadily; I've still yet to work up the courage to ask a random person to party up and kill stuff, primarily because I don't know where to go to kill stuff that's worthwhile and/or killable. We shall see, though-- Insomnimancers now has 5 members and one of them is a White Mage. Once we get him caught up, we're going to go hunting wabbits. Wabbits of Doom.
I've been toying with the notion of learning boxen and the 0wnz0ring of such, so I downloaded and readied a copy of Knoppix STD. (Google it, I don't know where the site was now and I'm not sure that I can find it again without losing all this.) Fellow I-mancer Lord Jim-Bob (praise to him) had showed me this wonderful suite a couple weeks ago; he runs it on his laptop with delightful results. What it is, is a bootable CD-based Linux distribution that turns whatever computer it runs on into a decent-powered security toolbox. (I hesitate to use the phrasing "hacker's playground", but there you go.) It may take me months to figure out all the tools, but I intend to break into my own Windows XP machine later on in life just to see if it can be done. It's like jumping out the window of a 2nd-story apartment-- you could do it, but you probably won't; but then again, why the hell not?
Webcam will probably come down in the next couple weeks. It's a failed experiment, unfortunately. I wish I hadn't inexplicably borked the drivers for it after installing WinXP, though; otherwise it might be good to go. But for the time being, I'm afraid it's dead, Kat.
And that about wraps up all I've got to say. Working on getting e-mail back up, but (as with all things) we'll see. Now, I'm probably going to head home to Cuba for a little bit. See if the folken desire my presence, and all. Later, all. Thursday, November 13, 2003 8:39:32p: *
So Nintendo is saying that they're not going to unveil their next-gen console at E3 2004, but what they are going to unveil is something that is unique and neither a console nor a handheld. This smacks to me of the Virtual Boy-- and I'm sure I'm not the first to make that comparison-- in that it's going to be a stopgap measure between the current console and their next-gen offering (probably 2005). Remember how there was all this confusion as to whether the VB was Nintendo's so-called Project Reality, or if it was the Ultra 64? Well, we'll see. We always see in the end-- in this case, just six months from now.
I'm awake for CSI this week. I just wish that Survivor didn't have the scuzzy-looking guy being as the one who apparently everyone likes...Friday, November 14, 2003 7:28:27a: *
The wonderful thing about getting your paycheck direct deposited into your account is that you don't have to go traipsing out into the snow and cold to get your money-- it's magically there when you want it, usually around 3 or 4a the night before.
It's 7:30 and the online banking system says it's not there yet.
I have the floppy hat, I have a dagger, and I have some blue bedsheets that can quickly be converted into makeshift robes. Don't make me go Black Mage...Saturday, November 15, 2003 8:43:33a: *
The Insomnimancers took on their first real challenge as a team today. We spent some time exploring the southern part of Tahrongi Canyon, north of Windurst. After a somewhat rocky start (Jim-Bob died twice) and the generous slinging of slut jokes (I play the only female of the group, thus far), we managed to take out our fair share of monsters before we had to part. All things considered we were impressed by how efficiently we could work as a team. Jornakai provided a much needed strong arm to the group, while my healing spells often found themselves being applied to Jim-Bob, who was very well-liked by the monsters. We think it was the liberal amounts of Bio spells he slung around the canyon walls. Sadly, Xuushuu couldn't make it-- but he'll be on again some other morning.
So, really, that was just about it for my day. Oh yeah, I did get paid-- the stupid bank page was stuck on the 12th, but was still giving me the correct time and date of my last login. Oh well. Picked up X vol. 7, and put a pre-order on vol. 8 (next week). I'll watch 7 this afternoon and let you know how it goes.
Finally: RPG Maker 2 needs a lot of work. A LOT of work.Wednesday, November 19, 2003 4:34:59a: *
On the whole, the Insomnimancers have had pretty good luck with finding random people to party with when our meat shield, Jor, can't make it. However, two notable instances occur. A few days ago Jim-Bob and I teamed up with a delightful woman from Japan, after a few frantic moments of trying to figure out how to pantomime "join our party or we will die". And there was plenty of time to learn the auto-translator's tool. However she knew the word "go". We did "go" a lot.
Contrast this with the most recent adventure in the random party pool, in which we picked up a straggler from America. This guy was obviously either phenomenally stupid or role-playing your general big dumb and ugly sack of mostly water to the hilt, because he made several crude sexual and scatological remarks which certainly caused us to reconsider ever letting him join. He asked us to keep an eye out for him online, to which I remarked "Rest assured, we will." Thank the heavens we didn't give him a linkpearl.
But enough XI, let's talk about X.Wednesday, November 19, 2003 4:53:41a: *
X volume 7 raises a lot of questions that I find it hard to believe will be answered in the next four episodes. For example [and the spoilers begin here], what is up with Satsuki, Yuto, and the Beast? She's going goofy over Yuto, he's just plain nutty (and yet among the coolest bad guys I've ever seen), and the Beast is being weird. Maybe I should re-assess my initial analysis of the Beast-- perhaps it's running XP...?
Next, Arashi and Sorata. Cute couple, and we know they end up together eventually (reference: X/1999 the film, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle). But he's lost an arm, and she's off flirting with Fuma. Or maybe she's there to see Kanoe? Stranger things have happened.
Karen and Seiichiro. He's dead and she realizes she loves/d him. Great. She, being Catholic, will now proceed to beat herself up over it for the remainder of the series and probably go on a suicide run against Nataku (actually, she does). Which would be interesting, because as these things go, it's been basically a one-for-one battle between the Dragons of Heaven and Earth. Subaru for Seishiro, Seiichiro for Yuto... Then, later on (if the movie sequence holds), Karen for Nataku, Arashi for Satsuki, Sorata for Kusanagi. Wait, though-- didn't Kusanagi snap and take out Yuzuriha first? And actually, Fuma did Kusanagi.... and Kanoe, really. Kakyo doesn't really fit in, does he?
One note: I really don't like how they made David Lucas pronounce Karen's name.
Which brings us to Hinoto and Kamui. He never really trusted her, and now she's acting of the loopy... Nothing good can come of this, I assure you. The question bears repeating, though-- what the hell is Arashi up to? Is it her choice? Is it Hinoto's orders? Is it something else? And Kamui.... something tells me he's going to unravel this sooner than Hinoto and Kanoe would like. This same something tells me that several shields will fall in the fracas.
One more volume to go, and I've got it pre-ordered. I'm psyched. It's the end of the world as CLAMP knows it, and I feel fine.Thursday, November 20, 2003 9:17:31a: *
As long as we're speaking of CLAMP, I suppose a little gushing here couldn't harm things. I want to thank whoever it was on the Newtype USA staff who decided to translate Satsuki Igarashi's monthly column "Chipmunk Cheeks" from its original incarnation in the Japanese-laguage Newtype. Ms. Igarashi has a very frank and forthwith writing style, and translating it from her words to ours must have been (and probably still is!) a very daunting task. Likely this person responsible will never see these words, but nonetheless, you have my heartfelt thanks and appreciation.
To say nothing, naturally, of the gratitude I must express to Ms. Igarashi and CLAMP themselves, of course. I've been of the opinion that to really understand a work, you have to know a little about the people who created it. Looking at the three iterations of X/1999 so far (manga, movie, and TV series), I'm beginning to see a little of the creators shining through. Not a whole lot, mind you-- it's difficult to see anyone real in the characters, short of suspension of disbelief-- but enough.
Don't look at me like that. I'm not going to go psycho-stalker on them or anything. Though if I do happen to meet them some day, I will probably get a little flustered and flush.
Believe it or not, I first encountered the X/1999 manga when it was being run in Animerica; but for the life of me I can't find any of the graphic novels since passing them up in the Dealer's Room some four months ago. I've been thinking about it ever since, of course; and I do have another chance to rectify this situation. Two, in fact.
Everyone else is announcing these, so I suppose I ought to as well. I plan to be present at two anime conventions in 2004. Obviously, I'll be returning to Baltimore in July to take Otakon by storm for my second year. But in addition to that experience, I think a birthday present is in order as well-- so I may well be present for Anime Central in Rosemont, Illinois during mid-May. (It runs 5/14 through 5/16, with the latter date being my 24th birthday.) If not Acen, then perhaps Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh during March. The prospect of travelling Pennsylvania's infamous roadways during the death throes of winter does not thrill me... but then again, I survived a trip to Baltimore during blazing summer heat. I think I can handle this.
Calling home, grabbing some grub, and then calling it a night. Yes, at 11 am. When you work the graveyard shift, you can call it a night at noon.Thursday, November 20, 2003 9:22:03a: *
On an unrelated note, I $%&@ing hate those stupid video banner ads that basically chew up too much bandwidth to play a too-small trailer for a movie I probably don't care about at the time. For cripes' sakes, they're even in AIM. BAN BANNER ADS, that's all I'm sayin'.Friday, November 21, 2003 7:42:46a: *
There was a discussion a couple days ago on Slashdot regarding personal web pages, and whether or not having one meant the same thing as it possibly did years ago. I made an interesting and/or insightful comment that got me moderated up, which was nice. But one of the other readers posted the remark that during a year, his own personal website became an aggregate for his own writing and suchlike. In the span of a year, that reader had penned almost 100,000 words.
I decided, actually, to take a look at my own past repertiore. Before TFO.net was born, many of you know, I had a different site-- not really a site, per se, but more a place where I wrote stuff and got responses. I kept this site pretty tightly under wraps, but within the community of the site I'd picked up maybe half a dozen consistent readers. From May of 2001 to April of 2003, in the 23 months I wrote on that site, I accumulated a grand total of 189,000 words (in both my own writing and comments left by others-- the comments make up perhaps 15% of the document).
Naturally, this doesn't even take into account the countless story starts, stories I've finished, essays, dissertations, reviews, and other documents I'd written within that time. But 321 pages is still a lot to consider.
Have a good day, folks. I have a surprise for you all on Saturday.Friday, November 21, 2003 1:37:28p: *
Ran in to town for a quick manga fix. I was hoping they'd have more Escaflowne at the store, but apparently not. What they did have, however, pleasantly surprised me-- Azumanga Daioh vol. 2 and Gunslinger Girl vol. 1. I wasn't even aware either of these were out yet, but there they were and here they are. Azu has a couple bits that I don't remember from the anime, which is cool... plus, well, the writing style is hilarious. I can forgive it not being 100% faithful to the Japanese in some parts because the jokes just wouldn't make sense otherwise.
Haven't had a chance to check out Gunslinger Girl yet. I picked it up solely on the recommendation of Dom, who had had it plugged for so long that I thought that was going to be on oop-ack for a bit there. (Seeing the preview for the anime in the latest Newtype didn't hurt, either.) It looks like an interesting series-- definitely along the lines of Noir (which I still haven't finished yet, even though the series is complete in the US). It'll be interesting for me to read the manga before watching the anime. I've only done that with one other series so far, and that's Love Hina.
Speaking of which, when I did the House of Urashima back in July of 2002, I was working from a very incomplete knowledge of the final outcome of the series. I believed that the manga had ended after Volume 12... and it could have, for all I knew. After all, there was closure, and a romantic, happy ending. But once again I'm proven absolutely and delightfully wrong-- Tokyopop has just released volumes 13 and 14, which detail the real, final, "Akamatsu-san has left the building", ending. Naturally, the store only had volume 14.
My sibling has expressed a nascent interest in manga, too-- I might pick up a couple books of Ceres Celestial Legend for her, even though I despise Viz Comics' translations (traditionally). And yes, I know X/1999 is under the purview of Viz, but that's an exception I'm willing to make. But anyway. We shall see. For now, however, I think I'm going to start Gunslinger Girl and then head off to bed. DDRMAX2 will have to wait until this evening, I fear.Saturday, November 22, 2003 5:14:07a: *
It works. The wireless connection is flaky at times-- like when we're fighting something REALLY BIG AND CRASHING OR LOSING CONNECTION WOULD BE BAD-- but it works. That's all I'll say on the technical side.
To say that the Insomnimancers have not made extensive use of the PlayOnline search services would be a gross misrepresentation of the truth. We have always looked up the profiles, where possible, of those random folken with whom we have adventured. Primarily because we enjoy learning about our fellow Hume, Elvaan, Mithra, Galka, or Tarutaru; but also to look for a possible excuse for the aberrant and downright bizarre behavior of some of our comrades. Case in point. It was a slow part of the evening, and Jim-Bob and I were out hunting in the canyon. The canyon, in case you didn't know, is part of a hotly contested region between Bastok and Windurst; at least on my server it is. While there, we came across two meat-shields-- warriors, in the common parlance. One seemed pretty level-headed and a good leader. The problem was that he was not the leader. This wonderful example of why you don't want a low INT score took it upon himself to attack large deadly things while both Jim-Bob and I were hurting or low on MP. Or in some cases, both. The party, such as it was, was over when Bright Boy's companion died, then said he was logging off. Jim-Bob and I took it as our cue to escape as quickly as possible.
So what do we discover upon searching for our new special friend but the interesting revelations that he is a high school student from Texas whose primary interest is "girls".
(note for Dani: No, I don't think that he's representative of Texans as a people, and please don't let Greg kill me.)
I think from now on the Insomnimancers are going to institute mandatory background checks on all potential party members. Just a hunch.Saturday, November 22, 2003 8:15:22a: *
So I was thinking about an addition to the site, probably an Azumanga fansite. I had aborted a previous attempt at a fansite-- I was going to spend a few MB extolling the virtues of Rez, but that's old news by now. Everyone knows Rez is the greatest game of 2002, hands down, bar none. So I did a Google search for Azumanga, and came up with... eight billion results. So, perhaps my voice won't be as appreciated.
What I would like to do, then, is a little something for Gunslinger Girl. To date, there's been precious little U.S. info regarding this series-- which is a shame, because it's a fantastic work. (In case my past blog entries weren't indicative enough of this.) I had to sift through three pages of Torrent links and Japanese sites before I came to any English-language info regarding the series-- and even then what I found was a stale press release stating that the book would be out on the 18th of November (considering this fact, I should be a little more grateful to the store). So, when it all boils down to it, I suppose a little bit of attention should be paid to the series by me. I'll probably do a little work on it over the break.
The hardest part, really, of getting a fansite together is always and has always been (for me, at least) the images. I was lucky with the House of Urashima-- I'd been collecting the translated scans for close to a year by that point, and had plenty of digital source material to work with. But with GG, all I really have to go on is the official site (which I can't read), the book (which I can't scan-- no scanner), and a short little blurb in Newtype. It might seem like I'm not going to make it, but we'll see. I am nothing if not resourceful.
For those of you interested in that sort of thing, I'm going to be headed home this Sunday, and probably won't be back until Friday (barring unforeseen catastrophe). Updates will likely be sporadic-- well, more sporadic anyway-- and I'll probably be slacking off in my FFXI as well. Be aware.
Talk to you folks later, then. If something presents itself, you will be told.Saturday, November 22, 2003 12:26:53p: *
Gunslinger Girl was good stuff. Definitely not what I expected, and that's always a good thing. I went into it expecting Noir, and strangely enough what I got was CSI. I like the interaction between the Fratello; Henrietta and Guiseppi particularly. Though Triela and Rico have some charm, their handlers are kinda scary.
What I really like about it is how everybody's aware of the abominable thing that the Agency is doing to these girls, and yet they're going on as if it's no big deal. The girls themselves are aware that they're "broken", that their rights and liberties have been grossly violated, and yet they find a kind of happiness at the end of the day. Even Rico, who is constantly on the receiving end of abuse by Jean, finds that she has a sort of... well, fondness for her handler. This could probably be because she's drugged up to the gills, though. (In contrast, Triela and Henrietta's handlers don't like to use the Conditioning drug if they don't have to.)
What it is, is a story about people doing their job. It's not a pretty job, and some of the particulars are pretty damn nasty. But these people show compassion for each other, each in their own way. And in the end, after the horrific violence, these people go home and they live their lives, each in their own way. What it is, is a story about life. And death. And the place between the two in which these people live.
Can't wait for the next volume. Can't wait for a lot of stuff.
Got to play a little DDRMAX2 this evening. I used the controller-- shame on me, but I had just showered and was getting ready for work... Anyway, I'm very much pleased with this purchase. The difficulty has been significantly ramped down from the original DDR-- "Light" mode is easy enough for me to get in to, and it has enough advanced steps (eighth-notes and hold-arrows) to keep things interesting. Plus, well, I like the song selection a bit more. I kinda hoped that it had included JT Playaz' "Let's Get Down", but I'll console myself with "Long Train Runnin'", "Heaven", and "Busy Child". Still good stuff. Gotta get it together and start a routine, especially here for the new year.
Anyway, not much else going on. Got the laptop together, and I'm just about to see if FFXI is doable over the wireless at work. Later. ^_^Tuesday, November 25, 2003 3:16:17a: *
Just a quick note during my vacation... From the "Holy crap" department comes news that Conspiracy Entertainment will release Sega's 3D Ages remake sets in the U.S., starting with the first five (including Fantasy Zone). Later releases include Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Streets of Rage... oh yeah, and some RPG series you may never have heard of... Phantasy something.
I try to be clever, and look where it gets me. PS1, PS2, and PS4 are all to be released. Which is good, because I already have PS1, PS2, and PS3 for the Game Boy. (And, despite having it a year, I still have not finished Phantasy Star yet. Say what you will, but that game is damn hard.)
Enough small talk. I must sleep now.Wednesday, November 26, 2003 8:46:29a: *
All this good stuff arrives when I'm not here to talk about it... well, I'm here now, so let's chat, shall we?
When the site comes back, I suggest everyone pop over to Penny-Arcade and check out their latest project, Child's Play. The short version of the story is that they're raising money to donate games and other needed toys for kids in Seattle's Children's Hospital. Despite never having been to Seattle, let alone not having set foot in a Starbucks for well over eighteen months, I intend to donate. But I wonder if any of y'all out there might be interested in joining me. There's at least, um, six of you. That's something. How about this: We all donate what we can, and feel good about it, too. I like that idea.
Come to think of it, I like the idea in general. There are two things that will always get me to shell out money-- video games and a guy in a Santa suit ringing a bell and standing next to a red can. Combining the two into a wonderful cause, like a candy cane of Christmas cheer. Who'd have thought?
I had a strange dream about an old friend, but unfortunately couldn't find anything once I googled his name. I'll do a couple more searches, but I only hope I'm not too late...Wednesday, November 26, 2003 7:41:24p: *
Submitted for your approval, the End of the World, as told by the Angels of Art, CLAMP. Not to give away The Ending here, of course, but spoilers for X/1999 TV lie beyond this link.
