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