Okay, I just finished up Puni Puni Poemy. Now, I knew it was a spin-off from Excel Saga. I didn't realize how much of one (it contains all manner of back references that aren't clear unless you're really familiar with Excel Saga or watching the commentary, you don't have a clue). I watched the first episode and thought it was like being on drugs. Pretty "eh." Funny, but very confusing. The second episode, well the second half of the second episode, was a freaking riot though. The whole bit about Japanese culture and what people want, based on hentai, was one of the funniest things that I've seen in anime. I thought that the show was canceled after two episodes because it was two extreme. I was wrong. There was only meant to be two episodes. Probably for the best. You can only maintain that level of sheer insanity for so long. Good show, though. Lots of fun. Though it's about as appropriate for children as Sin City.

--Update--
Favorite line from the commentary: "The last time I flew through the air naked, somebody shouted, 'Capture the gorilla!'"

You know, I'll bet all those Firefox afficiandos don't actually write HTML. Because getting Javascripting to work properly on Firefox seems to require you to offer up souls to Mozilla. I've spent the past hour wondering why it refuses to actually reference any of the objects on my page by their names. With IE, it works just fine. There aren't any errors, it just won't actually access the object. I can do it via array index but that is a really awful way to do it (makes doing changes nightmarish). I know I've said it before, but I'm really starting to wonder at the value of this browser. It just doesn't behave. Maybe it's trying to help me by inflating my billable hours. If only it didn't also inflate my blood pressure.

-- Update --
Of course, the really irritating part is that it largely seems to be a problem solely of the Firefox build on my laptop, and other computers with Firefox seem to work just fine. Argh!

Now that I finally got the Internet, I spent some time in Imperian. Didn't get my new armor until I was about to sign off, but I can leave the city again now, without having to worry about terrible death coming all too swiftly. And, as it happens, Loenar's fiancee's player got her folks talked into letting her play or something, so he doesn't have to worry about being horribly lonely. Which is good, because I can use a little psychological trick to poor all my relationship crap into him and then I can be happy being alone -- after all, I can't very well play Imperian if I'm on the phone with a girlfriend all night, can I? See, everybody wins that way. I'm not mopey and you don't have to listen to me whine.

At long last, I've returned to the Internet! It took much ado (the install guy for the cable was here for a total of two or so hours while we sorted out some serious problems with it all), but I'm finally back online. Now I've got to get everything run through the router and I'll be good to go.

Gee it'll be nice to be in Imperian again. And be able to talk to people on the IMs. And keep up on world news. I've missed you Intarweb.

Well, with any luck, I will regain the Internets tomorrow, in the early afternoon. I look very much forward to being able to get back into all the things that waste my time....the blogs, the webcomics, the Imperian, the IMs. See you all there.

Oh, and for your enjoyment, here's your daily dose of emo, courtesy of Blue October (Foiled is a great album, BTW):
"Leaving little rolls of tape,
To remind me that I'm alone;
Playing movies in my head
That make a porno feel like home."
-- "Hate Me" by Blue October

Well, that was quite the weekend. We started Friday night and it was early Sunday morning before we quit drinking. A weekend filled with movies and more drinking than was probably advisable. Part of it was commiseration with Impresario (he had a bad end to the semester, and I'll leave it at that), part showing him the new apartment since he'll be moving to *LOCATION SUPPRESSED FOR NATIONAL SECURITY* soon and will miss out on the big move in party, and part just having a big party with all my friends I could get together. Ahhzorro, Sapph, Mal, Imp, and I sat around my apartment, drinking, watching movies, playing SPANC, and eating Pizza. Zorro had us get 'not normal person' pizza varieties, but they were pretty good in the end, and he produced some fine spinach artichoke dip. He left me the recipe even, though I'll leave out most of the hot pepper in the future. So sue me, I'm bland. Good party all around though, I think. Also, I discovered that there is a variety of peppermint schnapps that I like. That would be Rumplemintz. It's 100 proof. Mmmmm. So it's double the fun for the use of peppermint schnapps that I gave a few months ago. I can even see just doing shots of it on occaision.

And my fears were finally confirmed. I'm not sure if I should be more afraid now that I am sure it is reality rather than half-imagined horrors, but the images do exist. Private fears realized, I'll admit to the talent behind them. It might be a slight abuse of his talent, but Sapph is pretty darned talented at what he does. He could probably make pretty decent money with it. I mean, that's what Mr. Bernal did. I'm just glad that no one but my close friends stand much chance of tying me to the images, assuming they've seen the light of the Internet. I can't complain about the quality, or the care given, it's just the subject matter that distresses me. But I don't know if they've gone into the open or not. Care to elucidate, Sapph? Honestly, I'm handling this a lot better than I'd expected I would. And a hell of a lot better than I would have a couple years back. Oh Lord, seeing that two years ago would have left me catatonic for days. At least I'm a little "better," I guess. I'll leave you with this advice -- be wary of friendships with artists. They can be dangerous. *grin*

Well, I've moved to my new apartment for the summer. Now all that's left is some settling in and finish moving out of the boxes. I'll try to post some pictures once I'm done. Now I'm left to deciding when I want to do my moving party. If any of my friends have an opinion, leave a comment.

I'm still without the Internet at my new place, so all my Online stuff is done at work. The drawback to this is that I can't really not do my work in favor of MUD'ing, so Loenar is taking a long journey out of the realms. I keep checking messages, and it looks like the guild decided he needed a promotion -- I've gotten three guildfavors in the past couple days. And I haven't been around for any of those days. I'm going to stop in after I clock out one of these days, at least to get the rent paid on my virtual apartment.

Anyhow, it's back to work for me.

Feel it take you
Fire in your blood
Pain, Rage, Hunger, Lust
Power
The voice speaks
Yours and not yours
The Beast is you
A new strength tears your body
Blood and bone and teeth and fur
More than human
And less
Beast in man
Man in Beast
Fire in the blood
Pain and Pleasure and Hunger and Death
Hate, Rage, Love, Lust
Power
Strength

-- BR, May 3, 2006

I just got back from United 93. I cried the whole drive back from the theatre, and solid through the last twenty or thirty minutes of the movie. The movie's dull, almost boring at first. You think, "I paid six and a half dollars to watch people wait to board a plane?" Then things happen. It certainly didn't feel all Hollywood dressed up, nothing over the top. The terror, the heroism, it was intense and felt so real. I still can't stop crying. There's nothing I can say about it that hasn't been said already a hundred times and a hundred times better. So all I'll say now is, go see the movie. If you're American, and, let's face it, odds are good that you are, you should see it. See what heroes are like -- ordinary people, who unbuckle their seatbelts, and stand up.