Well, I decided out of a sense of morbidity to go see how the Nvidia 5700 Ultra does against the 9600XT. Xbitlabs has a *very* lengthy article on the subject, and it was interesting to see that Nvidia does well in the geometry department, and ATI trounces Nvidia in the pixel shader arena. (this graph will give you an idea *how* badly it trounces Nvidia, http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/fx5700ultra-9600xt/shadermark_640.gif

In general, the 5700's faster memory helps it out at higher resolutions, but at lower ones, the 9600XT leads.
Of course, this is all academic. How do they do in the game benchmarks?

Well, for the most part in the older games, the 9600XT sticks very very close to the 5700's score, until you get to the highest resolution, where ATI takes a small dive. However, the engines used in those benchmarks won't be around for too much longer, as is mentioned in the article.
The tests with the newer engines, taking advantage of Directx9, showed that the 9600XT smacks Nvidia around quite harshly. However, this is partially the fault of the 5700's drivers not being totally compatible with DX9, something that will be fixed later, according to this month-old review. (Does anyone know if it *has* been fixed yet?)
Also, pretty much any game where the 5700 shows an advantage over the 9600 XT? Enable FSAA and AF, and watch the 9600XT take off.
Small bit on overclocking: the 'overdrive' feature, according to the article, isn't yet usable for the 9600XT, a problem that will be fixed in the next Catalyst drivers.

My personal conclusion? If you play Counterstrike, Quake, etc. and run at low resolutions anyway for the max FPS and speed you can get? Go with the 5700 Ultra. But, if you're like me and play non-multiplayer stuff the majority of the time (being on dialup doesn't encourage me to compete online after all), and you just want beautifully rendered graphics, (as well as potential to run games coming out in the next year) definitely go with the 9600XT.

Of course, these conclusions are drawn from only one source, and if you would like to debate any of the above, go ahead and show me another article. Xbitlab's was very thorough however, so I feel confident in my statements.

Anima

Here's a post I just made on a modding forum about the video card I ordered, the ATI Radeon 9600XT, comparing it to Nvidia's equivalent card, the 5700 Ultra.

Ummm...whatever. The quiz is pretty funny though, :K)
http://www.liquidgeneration.com/quiz/images/ironman.jpg
To link it (the actual code):

Well, I was sick, but I'm back now. Back at work that is, wishing I hadn't worn a sweatshirt. Blargh.
Jonesy linked to an incredibly hilarious comic today on her LJ, and I immensely enjoyed my speedy spluring on their archive. I mean...this is the first comic so far to realistically portray the frustrations of trying to get your chocobos to breed. Gawd that was funny...but it wasn't the funniest comic in there either. Go take a look, it's called VGcats. VG...as in, video games. There's also some guy with underwear on his head named pantsman, but just try to avoid eye contact with him.
I got my Christmas card from Lly yesterday, so that rocked. I mailed my cards today, which means that I suck. I hope Lly's gets there in time... The others probably will, going to a couple US states and Canada.
My video card will arrive in four days, according to the shipping tracking order thingy. My sword...who knows? o,O It could be months. But at least I'll have it in time for a convention, if I make it to one. Yay!
Speaking of my costume, I had these fantasies last night (not like that,) about building a pair of uber-cool mechanized wings to wear with my trenchcoat. The idea started small...thinking of running glowire along a pair of those goth black angel wings you can buy at Hot Topics or whatever...but then I thought cybernetic would look much better. So...how would I do it? Alumninum tubing perhaps for the frame/'tendons', anodized steel blue if I can find a place that can do that for less than sixty bucks or so... But what to use for the membranes? Cellophane would suck. Maybe some sort of iridescent fabric? But that would look cheap. I'm thinking...black velvet. And, I could run strips of blinking/trickling blue LED's along the innner surfaces of the frame....yeah...that'd be sweet. But, I know nothing of welding, fabric-trimming, and it would mean lugging another battery around inside the coat, probably a larger one than 9V. o,o But, it's a cool idea still.

My LiveJournal 12 Days
My True Love gave to me...
12 bastians a-smiling.
11 gleesilverwinds a-drumming.
10 jamieotterbeins a-spinning.
9 jonesybunnys a-flaming.
8 kamberlanes a-kicking.
7 kirzens a-kissing.
6 llyanders a-rubbing.
5 red racethecoons.
4 guzzling rozberks.
3 Jamaican shadowstalkerws.
2 donkey talonsaurns.
And a whitekitten in a kiwi tree.
Get gifts! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

Mew. Sad friends all around, lately. It's probably partially pre-holiday-depression, which hit me earlier last week. I remembered things...people...that are lost to me, and teetered dangerously on returning to old pain cycles. So I feel for you folks now who are hurting...I wish I could do more to help.
In lighter news, I received my grades last night. 3 B's and a A, which gets me $410.00 back from my parents, as refunded tuition money. I've already spent 186 of that, buying a new video card for myself. I've bought myself quite a few things for Christmas, *-,-* Some comics, a sword, and now this video card... Oh well. Since I have a feeling the gifts from the family will be somewhat lacking, I can always take comfort in my loot. :K)

Alright! I bought a Boba Fett helmet from Asmo, a local fur. It fits alright, but it's very hard to see out of, not to mention breathe in. Still, looks good on my dresser.
My sister's visiting, with her daughter Abi, so there are four little children in the house again. Oy. Just wait 'til Christmas morning, my pessimism keeps telling me.
Got my issues of Genus and Furrlough that I ordered. Lovely stuff...though unfortunately two of the Genus issues had material already recapped in a 'Best of' issue I have, so it was kind of disappointing.
Also received the silvery wolfess applique meant to go on glass. It's a bit too risque to risk putting it somewhere my folks would see it, :K/ Kind of rules out the car for now. Hummm.

Yea! I won a...*looks at box* Santa Lampshade Votive Holder, in the raffle at the Christmas party! Umm...what the hell?! :KD Anyways, yeah. I'm stuffed. They had that dish with the sour cream, potato chunks and cheese...ohhhhhh... Anyways, I just read a quote in this Terry Pratchett book that was too good to leave unshared with whoever might still read this.
"Animal minds are simple, and therefore sharp. Animals never spend
time dividing experience into little bits and speculating about all
the bits they've missed. The whole panoply of the universe has been
neatly expressed to them as things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run
away from, and (d) rocks. "

What the... This can't be right! I don't even drink...

I tashte like Alcohol. Heh. Heh. I taste like beer. I like beer. Buy me a beer. I'm not drunk, I can drink plenty without... What was I saying? Beer. What Flavour Are You?

Wow, been awhile since I posted. o,o Anyways, I won an Ebay auction yesterday for a really nifty sword called the Ninja 3000, (okay, kind of a lame name, but you should see the pics. Google it, they're easy enough to find.) It has a scabbard that locks to the sword, and releases with a pushbutton. It ought to be longer than the crappy katana I bought, and should have much more of an edge to it. (My crap-tana doesn't *have* and edge, just a point. But the point is nice. It penetrates cardboard boxes with ease. ;K)
I did the Christmas shopping for three members of my family online, and hope to do the same for the other two members, once I know what they want. 'The Joys of Yiddish' for dad, an Amazon gift certificate for Mom, and a REM cd for my punk brother. (I had a dream last night he was messing with my computer, so I cancelled the downloads he was trying on it, and he attacked me! Cut my hand up pretty badly with a shard of glass, the freak. The cops came, I explained what was happening as I stood there bleeding, and they nodded and left. o,O Ooookay...)

I need to send out my Christmas cards... I don't have too many, just four really nice ones I bought from Ozfoxes (the couple that does the Fauxpaws webcomic). One for Shadowstalker, one for Kirzen, one for Llyander, and one for Krys. Everyone else gets cuddles when I see 'em online. ;K) I'm also sending a scan of a card to Finfarenath. *hugs the dwaggie*

Today at work is the holiday party, in an hour or so. I brought green bean casserole, but it really needs to be heated up. :KP I'll try microwaving it, if I can fit the dish in the microwave. I'll update ya later.

Here're some of my favorites,
(http://www.fit2a-t.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=X-6893 is a panther one available in 3xl, 19 bucks) (http://www.fit2a-t.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=X-0328 wolf, 3xl, 19 bucks) (http://www.fit2a-t.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=X-19645 wolf, 3xl, 19 bucks) (http://www.fit2a-t.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=X-19871 wolf, 3xl, 19 bucks) (http://www.fit2a-t.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=X-6811 wolves, 20 bucks) (http://www.fit2a-t.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=X-6830 cute wolf, 3xl, 19 bucks) (http://www.fit2a-t.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=X-8311 tiger, 3xl, 20 bucks)

Ohhhh, cool! There are tons of wildlife T-shirts here, http://www.fit2a-t.com/default.asp and they have my size! (*grumble, for 3 bucks extra, grumble*)

GAWD I hate not being able to get comments from people, on blogger...
http://blog.sms.ac/animakitty/ will let you leave comments, but...it's so ANNOYING. The site is built around the concept of updating your blog and such using your mobile phone, and...ugh. It's just so demanding and linear and stupid... So I'll use it sparingly. :KP Does anyone even read this one anymore? If ya do, drop me a comment at the *shudder* new blog up above.

Just got out of a HURT team briefing here at work. A meeting, in other words. Not really sure what HURT stands for...
Anyways, there's a new Badgery animation on Weebl's page, blended with the Two Towers. Good stuff, go see it.
FRIDAY!!!! Just 5.5 hours left until the weekend. I'll hear in a couple weeks how I did in my classes, and see if I get my tuition money back. If I *do* get it back, (And I think I will,) then I'll go ahead and buy that new video card I've been agonizing over for months and months. Then I can pull the Geforce 2 MX and stick it in the server case, and render Windows 98 in it's 32 bit glory. :K)
Anyways, slow day at work, being a Friday. Dunno what I'll do this weekend...we'll see.

Listening to: The Devil Went Down to Jamaica

Ummm...okay. MSN posted 10 stupid US Laws today, and I thought I'd post a few of them here.

1.
LAW: It is illegal to transport a skunk across state lines.
COUNTRY: USA / STATE: Tennessee
CITATION: 70-4-208. Unlawful importation of skunks - Penalty.
ACTUAL: (a) It is unlawful for any person to import, possess, or cause to be imported into this state any type of live skunk, or to sell, barter, exchange or otherwise transfer any live skunk, except that the prohibitions of this section shall not apply to bona fide zoological parks and research institutions.


9.
LAW: It is illegal to wear a bulletproof vest while committing a murder.
COUNTRY: USA / STATE: New Jersey
CITATION: 2C:39-13 Unlawful use of body vests.
ACTUAL: A person is guilty of a crime if he uses or wears a body vest while engaged in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing or attempting to commit murder, manslaughter, robbery, sexual assault, burglary, kidnapping, criminal escape or assault under N.J.S.2C:12-1b. Use or wearing a body vest while engaged in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing or attempting to commit a crime of the first degree is a crime of the second degree. Otherwise it is a crime of the third degree.

I had two exams yesterday: Western Civilization, and Conversational French. French was kind of a joke, but I choked badly on the essay part of the test, (50 points) But, guess what? It doesn't MATTER! *maniacal laughter* See, I learned from a student that the professor is *dropping the lowest exam score*. Now, of four exams for the entire class, that being pretty much our only grades, that's a *big* deal. And since I never scored lower than a 83 this quarter, it meant I could happily bomb the exam. :K) I tried my best of course, just in case, and did well up until the essay question about the absolutist-style rules of Lous XIII and XIV. Bleah. I BS-ed it almost totally. 'Louis the XIII prepared the way for Louis XIV'. |KD
Tomorrow I just have to go in to hand over some reworked homework, for more credit. For some reason Journalism counts his handing-in-of-stuff as 60% of my grade, o,o So, yeah, I *do* have to go. But then, I'm free 'til Jan 5th!

Another weird quiz. Whee. I don't really know how well it portrays me...I expected a black rose or something...but the text along with the black rose is terrible.


Your soul is bound to the Yellow Rose: The
Gentle.

"I've travelled through the land of
surrender and seen it all. I throw my heart
out and keep my head up, and now I travel
through the land of peace."

The Yellow Rose is associated with friendship,
intuition, and fun. It is governed by the
goddess Hestia and its sign is The Intertwined
Rings, or True Friendship.

As a Yellow Rose, you always look out for your
friends. You would much rather have strong
ties with friends than a single tie with a
lover and your devotion to your friends is
clear. You may have great intuition and be
able to read emotions clearly, but sometimes
you can seem distant yourself.


What Rose Is Your Soul Bound To?
brought to you by Quizilla

I finally did the engraving on the plexi over the weekend. I placed a stencil over the plexi panel, used masking tape to fasten it around the edges, and then used a black marker on the protective plastic on the *opposite* side of the panel to mark out the detail lines. Then, I cut tiny little strips of masking tape to lay along the black marker paths on the engraving surface. Then I went to town with a dremel and an engraving bit. The pics below (scanned, sorry. The digital camera, bad as it is, is out of commission.) give you an idea how it turned out.

http://www.lemonizer.com/upload/uploadsNov/lion2a.jpg

The frosted look is nice, but wait 'til you see it with light behind it!

http://www.lemonizer.com/upload/uploadsNov/lion2b.jpg

MAN those lines were annoying to do.

http://www.lemonizer.com/upload/uploadsNov/lion2c.jpg

This part was probably the worst done...the stencil I drew and used wasn't wonderful right here, and the errors just multiplied in the engraving. But from a distance it still looks alright.

Well, not bad for a first try, eh? Different patches look a bit different, as I was still refining my engraving technique. I'll be going over it again to get any tiny patches I missed...then give it a good washing, before drilling the holes for the hinge.

Anima

Kinda slow weekend. Loooong weekend too. I had Thursday off school, and took Friday off work to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday better, (not that we had one; ours was last week, so my sister could share it with us.) Played and (accidentally) beat Castlevania, but it was the worst ending Shirra tells me, so I went back and did things right. I'm currently collecting body parts of Vlad the Impaler. o,o
I finally got my engraving done for the plexi sidepanel! Woot! It looks okay, really. I'll use the scanner here to get a nice few images of it, and post 'em somewhere.
I think I may got to Anthrocon this year... I have an offer of roomspace with a MUCKfriend, and a very probable ride up there, with local furs. Cool, no?
Final exams are this Tuesday, (I think both of them are, at least.) The other classes...well, it's just a deadline on Thursday for turning in revised projects for credit. Whee.

First day of my Thanksgiving vacation: Wasted. I woke up really late, played some Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (or whatever it's called) then ate some food, then did some stupid stuff, went online awhile, backed up 4 gigs of stuff to CD's and cleared it off my hard drive, went offline awhile, played Panzer Dragoon for the Xbox (Mindless but entertaining, until your hands start to hurt), went back online, and now I'm about to sleep. I did nothing creative, went outside very briefly, and I feel sluggish. :K( I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Went to a furry potluck on Monday, and had a great time! Met some new furs, like WhiteShepherd, and...hmm, I'm not sure how to spell the others, but they were all really nice. :K)
We ate clam chowder, chicken, pasta salad, and drank Mt. Dew... Then we watched Mortal Kombat, and then The Ring, which two of us hadn't seen up to then. Ugh, that movie's just plain icky.

Geez... Sounds like Jace is in big trouble with diabetes, and has a huge doctor's bill he can't possibly pay. If you can help him out, please do so. He's offered to do art in return for donations, if that makes it easier for you to justify on the 'ol budget.

Played Xenogears again last night; finally on the 2nd CD! But... So far the second CD has SUCKED ASS in a major way, because they're leaving out huge chunks of the game... They've been narrarating the bits I've had to play up to now, then dumping you into a boss fight, or a *small* facility to retrieve an artifact... I was told they ran out of money while making the game, so had to cut out a lot of stuff...I guess this is what they were talking about.

Work today, then a four day weekend! Woohoo! Probably won't have a turkey dinner again, (had ours last weekend when my sister was visiting) so we may just go out to a restaurant. Mmm...Waffle House...

The RAM I bought off a guy on a forum arrived night before last, and I slotted it with much difficulty. This is the first time I've had 512 MB of RAM...and it doesn't help Windows at all, ;K) Not even with the Double Data Rate stuff in operation now...

RL pause: Cool! The safety people just came through, and are pushing to get the air back on in my office! With the little fan here at least I haven't been dying, but it's been miserably stuffy.

This is great stuff! Sort of... Things that happened on my birthday, throughout history:


1647: The first recorded execution of a witch in America takes place in Massachusetts.
1937: The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, opens; at the time of its completion, it is the longest suspension bridge in existence.
1994: Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to live in his native Russia after 20 years in exile.
1996: Russian President Boris Yeltsin signs a truce with Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, leader of the breakaway state of Chechnya, although fighting continues on both sides.

Born on this day:

Rachel Carson, marine biologist and author (1907)

Julia Ward Howe, author and reformer (1819)

Wild Bill Hickok, frontiersman, marksman, and law enforcement officer (1837)

Hubert Humphrey, vice president of the United States (1911)

Herman Wouk, novelist (1915)

Amelia Jenks Bloomer, reformer (1818)

Well, I'm starting to hear from my friends who made it to MFF, and it sounds like they had a blast. :K) I'll go next year guys! I hope...
Spent the weekend at home. Inside. With the family. And my visiting sister/brother-in-law/baby. That makes FOUR kids to survive, three of them a year old or less. (The last is three, and the worst of them all barring their sane bedtime.)
Watched the extended version of the Two Towers; it rocked my socks. Still need to watch the rest of the extra features...
Here at work, they've apparently turned off the ventilation to my part of the building. :K( I'll have to bring in my fan again... Tonight I'm attending a potluck at a local fur's place. I'm bringing eggnog and Vernors, :K9 I wanted to bring cider too, but I guess it's too late in the year now...
I'm considering more seriously trying FFXI now... I mean, it isn't *that* big an expense, you know? Aside from the initial investment... So I might try it. Mebbe.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/game111903a3.shtml

Cool! FFXII will be set in Ivalice, the world of Final Fantasy Tactics.
The screenshots are cool, but look like a blend of Final Fantasy IX and X. That's both a good and bad thing... I hope it's nothing like FFX (which I loathed) but I hope it's more than FF9 (Which I liked, but would never obssess about like FF7, which I looooooved.)

Well, I'm back. For private reasons, I'm no longer going to post on LJ. I'll keep my account, but I won't be posting there anymore. So...hi again. o,O

If anyone even reads this thing, be warned that I'm pretty much moving over to my new Live Journal account. No offense to the Blogger people, but LJ is much better developed, and has a buttload more features. If blogger does too, I haven't heard of them... Aaaanyways, look for Animakitty over on LJ.

I went to go see Kill Bill last night with Asmo. My thoughts are varied, and it took a consultation with Kamber to really clarify a few points I was confused about.

Alright, for those who don't have a clue, I'll give you the basic premise so you can decide whether to see this film or not. An assassin squad murders a nine person wedding party in a chapel. One survives, a member (or former member) of their own squad, but her injuries leave her in a coma for 4 years. When she awakens, she vows revenge, and goes out to hunt down the four or five henchpersons and their leader Bill.

This film pays homage to the old wire-fu and Hong Kong action movies, as well as a good dose of anime and blood opera. Confused? It actually blends rather well, even if it does make the movie seem like a cartoon in points. The blood spurts for instance, are terribly exxagerated and forceful. This is *intentional* and does not reflect on Terantino's budget. ;K)
The sword sequences are wonderful, the choreography incredible. And of course, the characters are *quite* memorable. Some might complain about the dialogue, that it's cliched and stiff, stilted, forced. It's *supposed* to be, because these people are fighting each other with their strongest tough-guy/girl facades in place. Inside they might be afraid, or regretful, etc. and they show it in their eyes, if you look closely enough. Layered acting like that is a joy to see, and it impressed me to no end.
My greatest complaint is that they split the movie into two parts, and I wanted to see the rest of it immediately. Grrrrrrrr! Guess I'll have to make do with Matrix Revolutions, Brother Bear, and Return of the King while I wait. ;K)
Do NOT under any circumstances take anyone under 16 to see this movie. It may be violent to the point of silliness in some parts, but in others, the violence is tragic, horrifically realistic in many details, and would surely damage/influence a child or even a teenager. The anime sequence in particular is one of the most horribly violent things I've ever seen, and managed to convey a big lump of emotional trauma. That isn't to say I hated it; to the contrary, it was one of the most stylized and interesting scenes in the movie. Terantino put that level of violence in there for a reason, explaining the origins of one of the Assassination squad's most powerful members. (It sure explained why she was so screwed up and violent...)

Anyways, I've blathered on long enough. If you hate martial arts movies, don't see it. If you wanted gunplay instead of swordplay, don't see it. If you possess a strong sense of empathy, I doubt you could watch this film without getting sick to your stomach, feeling for the characters. And finally, if blood makes you squeamish, go see Brother Bear for petes sake. :K)

MAN this day just keeps dragging on... Still got a couple hours to go, and I'm dying of freakin boredom here... Still no news on where the heck my shipment from SVC is...they never told me they shipped it, so I have no reason to believe it's on the way. Darn people. www.battleon.com is kinda fun, if simple and badly-drawn. Nice game to play on your lunchbreak. I'm lvl 23! Muah hah hah! Wearing my dusk robe, I strike down yon enemies with my selection of elementally-biased weapons! Oh CRAP, I don't have an ice weapon...Ahhhhhhhhh! *snatchslurpgulp...BELCH* Mmm, spicy food. If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em. :K9

Ugh. Tiring day yesterday. Took that bloody history exam, (Was easy, definitely not worth the study-time I put into it) turned in the journalism assignment, (It wasn't as bad as I thought it was). Then I drove home...Shadowwulf called me up and told me to come over to watch CSI, (the furry episode.) I told him I was tired, but I'd call him back. Then Bastian called and told me to go to Shadowwulf's, and that he'd be bringing kit-kat bars. So I went. 9,9 I can't turn down kitkat bars...particularly frozen ones.
We watched the episode, laughed at it, discussed it a bit, then looked up stupid animations online. ;K)
Today, I had to bluff my way on base without my ID card, (left it in my office desk) then had to go exchange my old ID card for one with my fingerprint and SS information on it, (This one you can stick in various slots and get authorized for...espresso? I don't know.) That took awhile...but I got back to my office and microwaved my pathetic frozen dinner for lunch...and then dropped it. Gravy-splatters everywhere...peas everywhere...mashed potatoes saved by the plastic wrap on top, but...*sniff* It was still a horrible scene of carnage. I almost cried. My fooooooood...

Tonight, I am going to SLEEP. I want SLEEP, and I'm gonna get it. Then I'll go see Shadow and Senajit again, play games, and miss out on sleep. Bah.

*sighs* I'm about as well as I can be. A couple friends talked with me about it last night, and it helped a little. I missed French class yesterday... Journalism prof gave us a nasty assignment due tomorrow... I have another history exam tomorrow as well. Doesn't leave me much time to relax tonight, dang it...
Ordered some more stuff from svc.com on Monday. Maybe it'll come by Friday. Wish I had the will to write...but I just feel awful. Wrung out. Listless.

Geez...that completely ruined my night. My week. The rest of the month.
If you're reading this, and I hope you do eventually since you've page ignored me again, I don't even know what to say. You expected me to continue to punish myself for no reason? Once you were gone, there was no reason to stay away. You were *done* with me, you made that clear. I need all the friends I can get, but you come from 'beyond the grave' to yell at me for taking up with someone I left just because you loathed them? No, I did not 'learn' the lesson you wanted me to. I certainly don't hate you, despite all the pain and heartache you've dragged me through. If you've actually been through suffering because of me as well, then I'd call us even...but I don't owe you anything. If you want to try and dictate my life again, you're going to have to be part of my life again. And of course, that will never happen. DAMMIT why do you have to come back and tear me open again?! I was doing better!! I'd finally started to have fun again, and you shove that horrible pain of the past into my face like a handful of glass! I WANT the air to be clean between us, but you drag out the old hates the second time you contact me this *year.* I haven't changed! I'm not good at change! But I do learn, eventually...
I have to fight myself not to beg and blubber, to try and get you to take me back. I don't want to put myself in that position again, even though I want it. Painfully so. Whether everyone's right and you lied to me over and over or not, or whether you've been truthful all along and coincidence explains the rest, it doesn't matter. What matters is that our recent past was nothing but pain, hate, cruelty, and an utter lack of empathy, on both our parts. You didn't want me to see my friends, and I put up with that for awhile, willing to do so in exchange for you...but I never got you. You never materialized. I was tolerated... Then someone went too far and I left them, and you immediately cast me off. Now you stick your head back in, see that I've gone back to the friends you decreed I stay away from, and you're angry? Don't you see anything?! Are you that blinded by your assumptions and warped morality?! You didn't want me! You threw me away! Was I supposed to follow 'all of your teachings' in the hope you might one day deign to return?! NO! I won't do it! Your mere absence hurt me for so long; but now your brief presence brought back that old pain three-fold! You MUST hate me to do such things to me...
I'm out of time... For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, disregard it...

I didn't get to see Fin this weekend... :K( Looks like shi showed up for a couple hours early in the day Sunday, so I missed hir... *sigh*
My sister visited this weekend, and Mom was totally ga-ga over the baby, Abi. (She *is* a cute baby, and very smile prone). Mostly I stayed home and watched movies, worked on homework... I picked up three movies for less than eight bucks at the store, (to own.) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Contact, and The Postman. I hadn't seen the Postman before, though I'd read the book...I must say I hate how they murdered the story. (At least, I think they murdered the story. It's been awhile since I read it.)
I'm worried about my computer's continuing problems. I wonder what could be causing them... My CD-RW continues to elude detection by the computer at bootup, though I can 'scan for hardware changes' and force it to reveal its presence.

Updates on the website are going to be slower; my trail ran out on the software I was using. x,x Besides the registry, anyone know where a shareware program hides its 'days-used' key?

Someone sent me an email about my rant on Sport hunters and such, but I accidentally deleted it along with my junk mail. Could they please resend it, if they want me to read it?

That's about it I suppose... A new week, a new series of miseries at work and at school. Bah humbug. :K/

Anima

Finally got my PSU yesterday! Though it has a few annoying quirks, it seems to work just fine. I sleeved all the PSU wires, and switched out the fan grille for the lion grille I've been itching to use. Unfortunately, I experienced the same reboot problem I did with the other power supply, so I guess the PSU wasn't the problem. :KP

Fin emailed me today! It's so great to hear from her... There's a link to her page on my site, though I call her DreamDancer there. Go peek. :K)
I have to stay late today, on account of coming in 20 minutes late, and taking a half hour lunch. Gah. Staying late on Friday suuuucks.
I feel like writing something today...don't know what yet. But it won't be on the website for awhile, :K( My trial period with the web page creator software I've been using ran out, and my usual tricks to make it forget I've used the trail aren't working. Oh well.

I'm considering going to MFF this year... It sounds fun, and it might be feasible...
Is anyone reading this panning on going? :K)

Anima

*falls over laughing* http://weebl.fluent.ltd.uk/
You *must* see this stuff if you haven't already. Yes, he did create that addictive Badger/Mushroom/Snake thing, but his Patrick Moore and Scampi toons are just as good if not better. Of course, now they're stuck in my head... Oh well. :K)

I've seen things! I've seen them with my eyes-- I've seen things, they're often in disguise, like Carrots, handbags, cheese, toilets, Russians....
I also came across 'Arfenhouse,' which is...bizarre. o,O But also very very...funny. O,o There's a link to it in Weebl's forums somewhere, I'm too lazy to pick it out again.

Stupid FedEx. No one was home to receive my package, so they took it back with 'em and will try again tomorrow. Bastards!!! I wanted my new toy *today!* *sobs pitifully* Darn them...darn them all and their geek-hating black hearts... Why Jeebus!?! Whhhhhhhhhhhy?!

*Grumble*

My new power supply arrives today! Squee! :K)
I'm scanning technical documents today at work. Lots of fun. *waves a tiny flag* Adobe Acrobat is one of the crappiest OCR products ever made, in my opinion. You know you can't even hi-light all the converted text on a page, and normalize its font or size? It just won't let you. You have to do it by sentence, word, sometimes by bloody *character*. Infuriating work.

I turned in relatively early last night, and so I actually got to work on time today. Which means I can *leave* on time today! Or, actually, a bit early. :K9 I stayed later than I had to a few days this and last week, so I'm leaving 1/2 hour earlier so I can get home and play with my new toy.

From the Ohiofur list it sounds like the Boo at the Zoo and the Kreepy Krawl activities went well. :K) Wish I could've gone, but I was also happy with how my camping trip went. Someone suggested I try and make it to Mephit Fur Meet this year, and I'm considering it... Would anyone like to see me there? :K) I'll have to think of a quick costume though... Maybe a rubber panther muzzle, and face paint? And a headband with kitty ears? And a tail? Mebbe gloves too. Trenchcoat over that, with my battery-powered EL wire wound around the sleeves. :K9

I'm reading an odd book Senajit lent me called Excavation. Booby traps, archeologists, murder, etc. Interesting read... A mummy's head exploded and spurted gold-goo everywhere. o,O

I may add some more stuff to my webpage today...we'll see.

Ta for now!

Anima

Well, gleaned from my net searches today, I learned that a) Yes, the price of the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro video card has dropped somewhat...but most haven't caught on.
b) The Warcraft-ized version of 'Badger Badger Badger Badger Mushroom Mushroom' can be found here: http://ninjarobots.net/weebl/badger.wmv
and c) That the battery-powered inverters for Glowire (electroluminescent wire used in casemods) cost around 15 bucks and can be found at www.glowire.com's online store. Sunbeam, the company who makes a similar product, doesn't offer battery-powered inverters.
Oh! And d) There's been an interesting project involving hi-tech lasers at Stonehenge that has uncovered some *markings* on the stones that are invisible to the naked eye. Sweet! I couldn't learn more due to the posted addy being wrong. *pout*

I also read SomethingAwful's collection of furry forum posts, and laughed/sighed/snickered. All the stuff I find perfectly fine, (Well, except for that bit about jerking off to Moogle pictures, eek!) absolutely disturbed the writer to the core. Hee hee, hope he never stumbles across my site. Anyways, I wish I knew where he collected some of these posts. :K)

Anima

Returned from camping this weekend, and a visit to Shadowwulf and Senajit's place before that. Meep, I'm sleepy... Camping was nice; Asmo and I really enjoyed nature's Fall Fashion Show, (Those trees have great figures,) though there were too many people around (and we made too much noise crunching through leaves ourselves) for the animals to make an appearance.
We also stopped by the Bookery, and picked up a few comics. I found some more Captain Atom! (Silver plated quantum-powered hero from the 80's. :K) Let's see...
I ordered a new power supply; they shipped it today, most likely. So I'll get it Thursday, if nothing untoward happens. It's quite...premoddy, so I'll have to mess it up a bit.
I have some new story ideas queued up in my Writer's Notebook, so I may do a bit of writing sometime soon. I have shortened schooldays this week, so it'll give me more opportunity than usual to put fingers to keys. (Hmmph. So much of the romanticism of writing is gone...but I can't say I miss ink-stains and cramps from writing for hours at a time.)
Oooooooh! I wanna see Kill Bill! Mebbe next week, Asmo may have some time off.
(Asmo, Shadowwulf and Senajit are all furs somewhat local to me, by the way. The latter two are gamer-freaks, while Asmodeus is more nature-tied.)
S'pose that's all. I'm just here at work whiling away the hours... Mebbe I'll do some more website work later. Kirzen signed my guestbook!!! :KD So, that's one entry. She got the number one spot, all you layabouts. ;K)
Anyways, be well.

Anima

I wrote a letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the people proposing this policy change. How on earth could those people, who are all about conservation and everything, be deluded enough to think such a change would be a GOOD IDEA?!
Here's my letter.

To Whom it May Concern,
I barely had time to comment on this draft before it was closed to public comments. I feel these proposed changes would do far more harm than good to protected/endangered species. There are too many ways to convince the bureaucracy that the blatant exploitation and harvest of endangered animals could somehow conceivably aid in their preservation, not to mention gaining permits through illegal means.
Making this legally feasible is a grave mistake, sacrificing members of a dying species in a feeble attempt to bolster the economy. Enough endangered animals die every year to register as a tragedy; why on Earth would we allow American commerical interests to compete with the loathed poachers?
Certainly there's some benefit to the poor countries where many of these animals are found, but there are alternatives to allowing them to drive rare beautiful creatures out of existence!
Endangered animals in the wild are not exactly a renewable species at the rate they're disappearing, and if this policy change goes into effect, we'll all watch the dim remaining flicker of hope for the species blow out. For what? Some nice rugs, an ivory chess set, and a few hundred coats? Maybe some new shoes or a purse? Surely, that's well worth the price of never seeing a unique creature again in its natural setting.

A disgusted US citizen,
Joshua Hastie

Okay...this just makes me feel ill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10660-2003Oct10.html
Apparently, the Bush administration is considering allowing American circuses, pet enterprises, and hunters to kill, capture and sell endangered animals outside of the US. That is, as long as the animal isn't endangered in the US, it's okay to capture/kill/sell it.
Why? They think it will help the economy of both our country, and those whose people badly need the money to be had from exploitation of these animals.
We need to do something about this. The sooner the better. Maybe we can start a petition, and send it along to our government reps. If it looks like it's gaining support, we could resort to picketing someplace. And of course, we could find out which pet enterprises/circuses participate, and boycott the stuffing out of them. But I have a feeling it won't go that far. Surely there will be such an outcry over this that they'll apologize for ever proposing it.
I hope.

Disgusted,
Anima

Okay, I made it to that fur's house on Sunday, and slept there so I wouldn't have to drive home in the dark. :K) (I'm a terrible navigator; I get lost on every trip at least once. This time though, I was only a block and a half from my target when I called them and mewled for help.)
The fur, his furry roomate, and a visiting fur and I played Total Annihilation for awhile. Nasty computer problems kept it from being *great*, but it was still a nice bit of fun. While I was there, I also raided their computers for pr0n, and will be weeks sorting it all. ;K)
But one thing I got, and that I want to talk about, is a bit of Associated Student Bodies. It's a comic about a young lion who is put in the 'gay' dorm, and discovers he too is gay. He takes up with his roomate, a pretty wolf, and over the course of the year is immersed in gay culture and all the strangeness of it. Then he's finally forced to tell his parents, and his father disowns him...his lover started to pick a fight with the dad, and the poor lion just went off on them both, and ran. He patched up later with his wuff, and with the help of a (thankfully) rather liberal priest, he even made his father face facts and try to accept his son's homosexuality. It's a terribly touching story, and I cried several times working through it... If you haven't had the chance to read it, find a place that still sells it if possible, and pick up the nine or so issues.

I'm going camping this coming weekend with another fur, so that should be fun/cold. :K) Not a whoooooole lot going on aside from that. My brother's still an ass, Dad bought a chest-type freezer for the basement, (I was stabbing the box it came in with my wakizashi when he asked to try. He swung it with a good bit of force, but lost his grip, and it sliced along his leg!!! Luckily, it's a really CHEAP sword, and has less of an edge to it than those plastic serrated butter knives. So he just got a bruise. Oy ve! Never let your Dad handle your weaponry!) I don't have any journalism classes for the rest of this week, and all of next week, so I can come home hours earlier! Woot! French test tomorrow, (pfft) and I'll see how I did on my history test, (quaking in my boots) aaand submit the final draft for my memoirs essay in English. (Yay.) I wrote about my first harrowing night in Africa, with my silly parents. It was an attempt to get back into missionary work, but we were only there three months before rebels marched towards our village, and we were called back to the capitol. A week later, the rebels were making for the capitol, and the mission was closed. MAN that screwed up my life...Oh well, maybe some good came of it I just can't see.
Well, guess I better work a bit. Later!

Laaaaaazy Saturday. Didn't go to the fur's house like I planned, too laaaaaazy. Umm...wow. I had a weird dream last night... I was at some sort of English school with all these weird stone houses, (Like, rocks, with the mortar between them, not cement or anything) and I couldn't find where I'd parked. Finally I encountered my Mom, and we wandered around until we found an old rusty factory or something. We were trying to climb to the top, to get out through a door on the top level to...somewhere, when we come to a place where a bit of walkway was removed. Mom jumped like, ten feet, over to a place with spare boards and stuff, and jumped back, to bridge the gap! But the next walkway buckled under her, and she was like, bouncing and scrambling like some kind of cartoon...but finally fell in a heap, and had stars over her head and everything. Bizarre!
And since I was lazy today, that's pretty much all there is to report. Oh, I also decapitated several million lifeforms today. IRL. (I mowed the lawn.)

Wow...lookit all the hits my page has gotten. o,O Over 200, and it's only been like...three weeks? I didn't expect to be up to 40, by then. :K) I also added the URL to Google, but it'll take some time for them to crawl it. (Whatever that means.)

I'm in a timewarp, I suspect... I feel like I've been here at work for three days, but it's only been...four hours and six minutes, 4 seconds. I've already read all my webcomics, messed with the homepage some more, answered my emails and done some banking. (And even a little work.) And I still have half the day to go!!
Anyways, home network is screwed up, I can no longer make use of the upstairs computer's internet connection when it's on. Gotta fix that... Making XP and 2000 get along is like...mixing Ovaltine into a kiki V8 smoothie. Or something. -,-
Lil down today. Last night was a disappointment in many respects. I may go see a semi-local fur (About an hour's drive away) this weekend, and hit him up for some computer parts. (We're trading junk.)
The Pregfurs site was covered by Somethingawful today... Boy, those guys just never cut us furs any slack. *snicker* Still, it's kinda funny to see them obssess over us. I suspect a few of them are starting to get interested. :KD
Had school yesterday, (I go Tuesdays and Thursdays.) No tests, just lectures and French culture presentations. I got out of doing mine when an older lady in our class held forth on Monet for a good six minutes. Cha-ching!

Maybe I'll fire up Freelancer again tonight, see what I can do with it. Or mebbe I'll get to see one of the three furs I've been hoping to catch, on the MUCKs... *waves to a pony, a she-wolf and a 'coony if they're reading* :K)

Well, now it's 1:13, so I've used up some more time. :K) Later all. Guess I'll wander around the building for a bit. :K)

I guess for the sake of conformity, I'll add an 'about me' section to my website, for those who care. :K) It will be a big disappointment to most, I'm sure. ;K)

I'm trying to figure out an easy way to transfer the design from Alucard's gloves onto the backs of my own winter gloves, just for fun. Nothing seems very easy... A stencil is pretty much out of the question. To get the detail I'd need, it would have to be huge. And I'd need to use spraypaint or something...and I don't know how that would stick. I suppose I could try to draw it on using a...a what? A whiteout pen maybe? Tacky. Puffy paint? Too inaccurate. Maaaybe a gel pen. I wonder if that would stay...

Neeeeeew shoes! Ahem. They're black. ^,^ (This isn't funny to anyone who doesn't see me IRL everyday, [Which, come to think of it, will rule out everyone who reads this...oh well.]) But I wear black almost exclusively. Neck to toes. Why? I'm not a goth, exactly. I don't write angsty poetry *coughanymoreahem* I've never worn fingernail polish or an ankh, or any article of shiny pvc or vinyl clothing. (Now all the goths are like, 'that doesn't have anything to do with being goth!') It doesn't? Really? Wow. You guys need to start handing out pamphlets then, 'cuz I'm confused.
But anyways, black. I have been wearing the busted brown shoes, disrupting my shadowy outfit, but not it's all black. :K) Now, if I can manage to maintain two-days worth of beard growth, I'll be nearly invisible at night!
Anyways, I've been sick. Sinus infection, coupled with bronchitis. Woo. It happens every few months, so I'm used to it, but I still missed a day of work and a day of school.
Here I am at work now, and I've been downloading and listening to 2's rants. (For those who don't know, '2' is the name of a gryphon who records mp3's of rants on various subjects. He's loud, foulmouthed, darn honest, and I appreciate him.) Boy...I'm not sure if there's a point to most of my rant page now, after hearing how 2 blasts people on various subjects. o,O Maybe I'll just point you folks to his site on certain issues.
Haven't seen anymore news on FFVII Advent Children, though there are a few new screenshots and such out, at gamespot. Everyday I watch the trailer and pray for its success. *bowturnaroundbowturnaroundbowturnaround*

Hee. I, um...impaled my first victim last night on my Wakizashi. (It's a 20 dollar piece of pot metal I suspect, but it does have an admirable point.) The only thing I can really stab in my basement/dojo is the occasional empty popcan box. I went to run through one such box last night, but...it wasn't empty. I quite cruely slashed open a can of orange diet soda, and watched in horror as the box gushed arterial sugarjuice. On the good side though, it *did* soak one of my brother's textbooks. Yay! (For future reference, my brother is the most selfish person I know, and I hate him. Perhaps more on him later.)

UGH! I hate this Journalism class this quarter...they're making me read the newspaper and actually care about what goes on in the world! I'm a YOUNG person, I only care about myself and my friends, not world events! ;K)
Anyways, they give a quiz every Tuesday on the Sunday paper...I took the paper in without checking to see if it was all there...and I was missing four or five sections. Missed two questions on the quiz...dangit!
Spent a lovely evening last night with a friend on the MUCKs I haven't seen in ages. Mmmm...I'll post the log later for whoever might like to see how...happy I was to see hir. ;K)
Well...suppose that's it. Work tomorrow, then school, then work, then weekend. I'll go get some new shoes, (the rubber in the heel *imploded* on my right shoe!) And maybe get my eyeglasses prescription updated.
Byeee!
Anima

Semi-lousy weekend. My cold flared up again, so I *did* miss church, but feel pretty rotten. Met some new furs online last night, renewed relationships with another. *waves to Irena*
I'm at work. Whee. I worked on my webpage s'more, filled out the Rants section, added backgrounds to the pages, (They're just colors at this point, but they look a lot better than slate-gray did.) If you want to see and are a consenting adult, http://animakitty.furrynet.com/Main.htm
I know not everything works yet.

UPDATE ON FFVII DVD: It's not a game. *pout* It's a 60 minute CG movie called Advent Children, due to come out 2004 in Japan. So, I'd estimate we'd have it six months after Japan does. (Fan-subs a lot sooner.) Even though it isn't a game, I'm still thrilled! Sephiroth and Cloud duking it out in beau-ti-ful CG goodness...pulling materia on each other... Yeah. I'm getting it. I will put it on a pedestal, arrange lettuce around it and call it George and it will be my best friend forever and ever and ever. :K)

Aaaaaaanyways...oh yeah. Work. I should prolly do some. Later!

Anima

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Okay...prepare to fall over and twitch in ecstatic shock.

http://www.fffusion.com/FFVII-2/25-09-2003.asp

Apparently...a FFVII DVD, Advent Children, (Unknown yet whether it's a movie, or a game) is on the way!!!!! WOOT! This is the best news I've gotten since....umm...my last dentist visit. No cavities!

This is incredible. This made my Friday, like, infinitely cooler. WHEN WILL THIS BE OUT IN THE US?!!! Oh GOD tell me!!
Ahem.
I am sane. But I have a problem. I'm a Final Fantasy addict...(except for FFX...that was some bad stuff...laced, or cut with something nasty.)
Anima

Well, I worked on my webpage yesterday, and now have the stories page and the images page pretty much working. :K) It isn't a site for kiddies, so don't go poking around there if it's still 3 years 'til you can drink. Legally.
http://animakitty.furrynet.com/Main.htm

I'm very aware that some links don't work. I'm also aware that for some people, the images won't load. Still have no clue about that one....
Things yet to do: Put links in the link page; get a counter; get a guestbook; add good looking backgrounds; probably move the image page to links instead of inserted images (It's a lot of art to load at one time); maybe join a webring.

I used a program from Sausage software to do it all, and it's a nice little package, even if it is infernally annoying sometimes. Did you know that website names are case sensitive? This thing sometimes lowercases stuff you wanted uppercase! And won't let you change it unless you edit the HTML directly. :KP

Anyways, I got in really late to work this morning due to an accident on my usual road in. See, down in good 'ol New Lebanon, you have to drive four miles out of your way to find a road that runs parallel to your original road, so you can bypass it.

Dreading a long day,
Anima

Ooh, lookit, I finally managed to change those pesky 'Edit-me' links. Now I can do some serious....um...enhancing. o,O

Well, now it's Monday again. Rrf.
I met some furs at BW3's this past Saturday, and had a lot of fun. :K) It's always neat to find some company where you can freely talk about porn, and laugh about it.
Also foolishly ordered more computer crap online...rrf. Might meet Asmo this Thursday for something, but who knows what; I'm so wasted after a day of classes.
I wrote some Final Fantasy 8 fanfiction at work, and sent it to a site...haven't heard back from them yet. Looking at what they *have* posted though, I think I'm a shoe-in. At the moment I'm working on my webpage, as I finally found a place to host me! Whee!
:K) I'll post the link here when I'm done, and no sooner. Don't expect much, I'm lousy at webdesign.

Later!

Anima

It's Friday! Ugh. Tomorrow I'm heading to BW3's to meet some local furs, so that's good. But I also have to pick up a battery for the Toyota, which died yesterday after I parked it at school. Dad came and...um...'fixed it' by clamping the battery connection on with a pair of vicegrips (They're like an evil version of pliers) and taping the vicegrips so they wouldn't short out the battery when the hood came down. I was extremely careful going over bumps on the way home. o,O
Played some more Final Fantasy 8 last night, won some more cards. Man those card games tick me off...but I WANT those rare cards! Anyways, the Playstation crashed after I solved the fourth Chocobo forest, so I gave up on it for the night.
School started Tuesday. I have English, History, French, and Journalism, in that order. I go Tuesday and Thursday, and work the other weekdays at the base.
The classes are all close together, usually just one building apart, so that's good. But time-wise, they're screwed up. After History, I have two hours before French. And after French? 2 hours and 15 minutes. Excellent opportunity to do my homework! *BARF*. I sleep or read.
I will try not to eat at the cafeteria again. They charged me five bucks for a bowl of rice and chicken! That's just the bowl too, no drink, no fortune cookie... Bah.
The other day I read about a new RAM product from XMS, with LED's on the heatsinks! They measure memory activity. Silly, and expensive, but I bet they'd look pretty cool...

Okie. Enough for now. I ought to be working...

Anima

Well, welcome to my blog. I'm Anima, generally a black panther around the WWW, (I'm a furry. If you don't know what a furry is, you probably haven't been around the internet too long.) For those not in the know, furries are people who identify strongly with animals, and the results of that identification run the gamut from 'Giving yourself an anthropomorphized animal persona,' (Think bugs bunny, but usually less cartoony. Bugs is a talking, walking, human-like rabbit.) to romantic relations with stuffed animals (plushies) to dressing up in full-body fursuits (Like mascots) and attending conventions hosted by like-minded folks.

That's one of the most important things about me, out of the way. I'm a writer, (self-styled? Well, a few other people agree that I'm a writer, so I feel justified claiming the title) and I write poetry, sci-fi, fantasy, and erotica.

I'm also a geek. (Isn't anyone with a Blog a geek?) I like screwing around with my computer, upgrading and/or modding it. I game a bit, and surf the web to an unhealthy degree.

I'm male, 20 years old in dreary Real Life, and a junior in college. Once I get my BA, I'll move out of my parent's basement and try to support myself, both with a 'real job', and my writing.

Now, the reason this post is so frickin long is because I get nervous when meeting new people, and tend to talk a lot. So, future posts will likely be shorter. :K)

Before anyone asks, my :K) smiley is a cat, with whiskers. I chose not to use the more common :X) Because I think it looks like someone right after plastic surgery.

I'm on IM services like AIM and Yahoo as Animakitty. If you want my ICQ number, you'll have to prove you aren't an automated smut-site script. (Still embarrasses me to think she had me going for five minutes...)

Ta ta for now!

Anima