MIA, but still Mitai

mitai — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:05:27 GMT

I am tired.

I've been reading all of the posts that I hid because it was upsetting people. It occurs to me - I never used to care. It also occurs to me, though I have general feelings of fondness for those on my friendslist, I cannot say that I am so close to most that judgement would be particularly frightening. The thoughts are still my own. The reason to set them to private is simply to avoid, not judgement, but the motions of defense or agreement.

Therefore, the reason must be that I am tired.

Thirty-one years old, and I have become that which I said I wouldn't. I have reached the point that, in some cases, I stop asking questions, stop looking for new information. Stop learning. In other areas, my appetite for new experience and knowledge remains undiminished, but it's no longer universal. And some might say that simply means I've learned tact and focus.

I suspect the imaginary comforting people are incorrect.

Well, I guess some things are still around . . .

mitai — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:28:34 GMT

I had a thought today. It was relatively painful in more ways than one, and I know a few of you may have something to add to the subject, or perhaps it would behoove you to reflect.

I was talking on MSN to a friend of mine in the anime world, and we ended up on the topic of messageboards. She mentioned not being active on messageboards since sophomore year in college. It occurred to me that I too had not been active on messageboards in some time, since maybe my sophomore or junior year of undergrad. That made me think, huh, I wonder if the Duke-Out Festival board or the Scratching Post are still around.

So I went and looked. I found this. http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/2008/11/06/hometown-has-been-shutdown

Someone on that board suggested using the Way Back Machine, here: http://www.archive.org/index.php

So I did. And I found this: http://web.archive.org/web/19990428152107/www.subreality.com/cfan.htm

Stop and look at that last link for a few seconds. Really.

My first thought was, someday this archive will be gone, and everything Kielle worked on online really will vanish. Currently I am involved in a project that will start making all state records digital, and have been directly involved for many years in the transition from a paper to paperless workplace and society. My friend SF pointed out that even as we push for everything to become digital, there's another push to make it solidly tangible as a way to make it last longer.

My immediate reaction to that was no, I don't think CFAN should last forever, it's a waste of cyberspace because it will never be updated again. But what is this feeling, then? Is it that I am lazy and will regret the loss of triggers that remind me of times past associated with CFAN, and the boards, and the late night conversations and O SO SRS fights? Do I think my memories of the way I was, who I was back then, will fade as well?

What if everything Kielle had done, or Alicia McKenzie and Poilass and Red Monster and Kaylee had done with websites, had been on paper? Languishing in a library somewhere? It would eventually disappear too.

Which of course led me to another thought.

Damn, we do everything in a hurry these days, don't we.

Not the first time I've had that thought, but I'd never applied it to this before. We do see absorb study complete dream more as a society than we ever have before. And all that doing seeing absorbing studying completing dreaming is more fleeting as a result.

I wonder how much faster we can get, and who the hell is driving this bus. Whether my career is enabling or propelling. And whether I care.

And then Finny crawled into my sweatershirt hoodie with me, and my foot was getting numb from sitting on it, and I went back to the list of things I need to make sure I get done tomorrow.

mitai — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 03:31:16 GMT

Hi, Shai. =) What's up?

Someone noted that I hadn't edited my LJ in ages, and so I am adding a post. Post post post. Let's see, what to say . . . dear god, it's been a long time since I've done this. I think I'd rather read up on you guys than babble. Long story short - have new job at outrageously good pay that will either be the best mark on my resume ever, or I will fail utterly and get fired. We'll see.

Still own house. Still do NOT own boy. Finny is recovering from his last bout with his tummy problem, which is apparently tied to the fact that he has pancreatic tissue attached to the base of his stomach and heart. He has a perfectly normal (if slightly swollen at the time) pancreas, mind you. Apparently there are just some pieces of extra pancreas hanging around where they don't belong. And no, at the time, the vet didn't remove them. I suspect this was because if he had put the cat into any more shock, he was afraid Finny would die.

But now he's fine, running around the house like a psycho cat, so no worries. =)

Probably going to Egypt on a dive trip this year. Probably going to Japan to visit my cousin this year too. (Did I mention my ridiculous job is as the Director of IT and Telephony at a travel agency? Dear god, I'm a successful adult. What the hell just happened??) Looking forward to that. Ripped out one wall of the house to get rid of a useless wood-burning fireplace that has no chimney attached to it to install a ventless gas fireplace. What else . . . that's really it.

Going to go see what the rest of you crazies are up to, I think. Happy New Year! =)

Potter Question?

mitai — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 05:56:53 GMT

Anyone who's read the last book and finished it, a little help here?

I didn't read any spoilers. Except the 'Gabriel' spoilers, because, c'mon, they were posted to a known IT security site and of COURSE I'm there. And in the official 'spoilers' released, J.K. said there were two major character deaths.

. . . who the heck is she counting as a main character there? Obviously Snape was one, but . . . the other was . . . Dobby? Remus? Fred? Hedwig? Can anyone argue any one of those characters was any more major than the others? Or any of the deaths I've left out (Tonks, yaddah yaddah) were more major than the players listd above?

As an aside? I do so love Minerva. =)

It should be noted I am ignoring Riddle, who was a given, and Harry, because we're either supposed to believe that

A. Riddle's wand was not capable of performing a killing curse that actually killed anyone, given Crouch!Mad-Eye's statement "If the whole class pointed their wands and spoke the words I doubt I'd get more than a nosebleed." (which I think is disproved, I'm pretty sure he used it to kill someone, I'd have to go back and look . . .)

or

B. The portion of Riddle's soul that was attached to Harry was destroyed but protected Harry (which seems like a plothole to me, but it's early and I'm not working on much sleep here . . .) or their shared blood protected Harry but not the Riddle!soulportion, etc.

Either way, Harry didn't die. He might have been given the option to do so, but clearly he was breathing.

50 Things

mitai — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:58:03 GMT

Been a while since I dusted this thing off, neh? Well, nothing much to see. Found a List of 50 that kinda appealed to me, so I will use this journal as it was intended, and make a list of 50 things I need to do before I die. Some of which I have already done, and they will be marked . . . somehow.

1. Own my own home (done!)
2. Watch the sun rise and set consecutively
3. Dive the Red Sea
4. See the Egyptian pyramids
5. See the Taj Mahal
6. Dive the Great Barrier Reef
7. See an opera in the Sydney Opera House
8. Hear real live Tibetan monks chanting
9. See the Great Wall
10. Visit Japan (done!)
11. Do something nice for someone who will never, ever know (done!)
12. Finish and publish my novel
13. Make my family proud
14. Be happy (done!)
15. See the Northern Lights
16. Make an apple pie with the apples from my apple trees (done!)
17. (This is ridiculously hard, to come up with 50 things I have to do in my lifetime) Skydive
18. Freefall in a wind tunnel
19. Hang-glide
20. Buy a homeless person a meal instead of giving them money
21. Drive a tank
22. Own a rifle
23. Finish the portrait of my parents and give it to them
24. Rebuild my fireplace (done!)
25. Donate money to a zoo/shelter every year
26. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
27. Get my mother helicopter flying lessons
28. Learn to speak Serbian fluently (as opposed to haltingly)
29. Learn to speak Japanese (done!)
30. Learn to speak Spanish
31. Save a life
32. Tour a European castle
33. See a real catacomb
34. Run a military obstacle course
35. Run five miles consecutively
36. Snowboard (done!)
37. Ski
38. Rollerblade
39. Stand on the very top of a mountain (done!)
40. Spend a week seeing Europe
41. Play the perfect recital (done! If an audition counts. =)
42. Figure out this love thing everyone keeps talking about
43. Spend a day in a clean house curled up with the cat just being lazy (done!)
44. Let my friends know I love them (done!)
45. See all the major museums in Washington, D.C.
46. Visit a real live jungle
47. Visit an observatory at night and see all the planets live (or go to the middle of nowhere and see all the stars a human can see)
48. Watch a live solar eclipse with those cool glasses that prevent you from going blind
49. Watch a live meteor shower (done!)
50. Spend two days at an amusement park for the sole purpose of having fun (done!)

Guess I can't die in the near future, huh. Except some of those things are probably going to kill me. =)

So pick it up! I don't know why 50, but it's interesting to think about what you really want to do. Apparently I am an adventure junkie - analyzing these results . . .

15 things I need to 'see'
12 active things I need to 'do'
4 things I need to 'own' or 'have'
18 places I need to 'go'
10 things I need to do to 'feed my soul'

Generally speaking, I am apparently all about going, seeing, and doing, rather than having. And I am more about going, seeing, and doing than I am making myself happier or more well-rounded. I wonder if that means I'm all about running away or distracting myself . . . =) Or maybe it just means this world is full of things and places to go, see, and do, and I need to get up off my ass and check them out before they go somewhere.

I'm going with the latter.

The Assassin Sheep are now a motion picture.

mitai — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 17:15:29 GMT

http://www.blacksheep-themovie.com/

Rats. My cover is blown. I'll have to switch to something else now. Damn New Zealanders ripping me off . . .

(In all seriousness, is this a real movie?)

mitai — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 17:05:12 GMT

See the blazing Mitai before us,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Deck the Halls
from the Christmas Song Generator.

HAHAHAAA! I guess this means I shouldn't cook or bake anything this year, huh. =)

You know . . .

mitai — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 14:47:00 GMT

I'm looking at cnn.com, and staring at a picture of the pope . . . and he STILL looks like Senator Palpatine. He's like a really short, jovial Darth Sidious.

Public service announcement

mitai — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 04:29:27 GMT

I type this with one hand. No matter HOW many times you have cooked a recipe involving:

A. heat
B. alcohol

do NOT get comfortable with removing a pan of hot olive oil and thinly sliced garlic to a 'safe' distance from the heating element before adding a sizable quantity of room-temperature vodka, IF that safe distance does not include the counter on the opposite wall of your kitchen. Oil that spatters onto your hand (which is unavoidable even if you do it properly) WILL ignite when the vodka goes up, and this will result in six foot high flames in your frying pan along with a hand that is the surface upon which hot oil is being consumed with fire.

Furthermore, once your pan, stovetop, and hand are engulfed in flame, you can do nothing besides place the flaming pan away from heat WITHOUT spilling it or tossing it in the sink (as oil and vodka floats) and letting it burn itself out. With 1/4 cup of vodka, this takes roughly twenty seconds. (Your hand extinguishes much faster because you jam it into a towel.)

(Technically your container of flour on the counter could have been used, or the baking soda in the cabinet, but you would be more concerned with the flaming pan and your hand at this point and you've flambéd enough French sauces to know the alcohol will burn off before you could have been effective.)

I am glad that I work in a medical center. I can't imagine how much fun operating a keyboard will be tomorrow am.

That's all I got, folks. Second and third degree burns and singed cabinets. (It was a good pan, though - totally didn't wreck the finish.) I can't count the number of times I have prepared Penne ala Vodka carelessly. All I can say is, I'm glad I haven't actually moved into my house yet, and it was my apartment I would have torched instead.

(Also, now I know that I freak but keep my presence of mind when on fire. If I'd tossed the pan, I would have had a SERIOUS problem.)

So! Remove from heat does not mean "pick up off of heat and take two steps back." No matter how many times you have done it in the past.

Edit - and now that I have the fingers of my left hand freed once again (and some nifty painkilling salve courtesy my peeps) I can type! This is a total shout-out to lulabyeleague for not panicking when I started yelling her name after I lit the kitchen on fire. She was playing Katamari and I alternately wanted her to be aware that I was burning the place down and make my hand stop hurting. =) She totally didn't freak out, whereas I did a bit. =) (I think we've played a little too much cooperative Halo 2. Somehow I think I expected her to do something. Given the circumstances, I have no idea what that would have been. She did shut the fire alarm right up, which was nice. So thanks. =)

NOW look what you've done.

mitai — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:29:58 GMT

. . . I haven't been on LJ much lately. I haven't been doing anything fannish lately, except working on a Trigun fic. I haven't been commenting too often on the ups and downs of other peoples' lives, and ::glances down at the journal:: people haven't been commenting too often on mine.

And that's all good. Maybe my journal is finally going to get used as a journal, instead of a place to get insta!feedback and feel loved. =)

(But I totally feel loved anyway! aj didn't nuke me when she pruned her flist! That's love, ladies and gents. And Ajpresto. I heart my ajpresto. =)

But now I'm done pissed off, and let me tell you why. Half of the posts of my friends are about NaNoWriMo (or however it's spelled) and for some reason, someone attempting to write 50,000 words in the month of November is a reason to wank as you as a group have never wanked before.

"LJ-CUT YOUR GODDAMN BAR! I DON'T FUCKING CARE IF YOU ARE DOING NANOWRIMO OR NOT!"

"HERE'S A GUIDE FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE FRIENDS DOING NANOWRIMO!"

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE THAT I'M DOING NANOWRIMO, I'M GOING TO POST THE BAR ANYWAY! IT'S MY JOURNAL!"

For pete's sake. Of all the ways my flist has spammed before, a little bar is hardly the most offensive. It doesn't eat your flist page's formatting. It doesn't require Flash to be installed. It doesn't crash the browser window. It doesn't even take up more room than a single line post.

If you don't care that other people are doing NaNoWriMo, then why are you screeching about it? If you do care that other people are doing NaNoWriMo, then instead of telling them to stuff that bar up their ass, how about at least a coherent post about why? Most of my flist are writers - sure, the novel that NaNoWriMo entrants write in the month of November will probably be crap, but why discourage an activity that we all share an interest in in the first place?

As for me, I'm staring at a half-finished FANFIC that is currently . . . 131,000 words. Give or take fifty. It was started in mid-July. The first six chapters alone add up to 50,000 words. I don't need NaNoWriMo to know that I can write a novel-length, coherent story, and I can do it in a relatively short amount of time.

Yay me.

But there are a lot of people out there that are not like me. (You may take this moment to thank your deity(s) of choice.) They need the personal satisfaction of knowing they can accomplish that task, even if the end result is crap. Very few published authors can write 50,000 words of good, solid content in a month, and some of them don't even have full or part-time jobs. They sit around all day and can't output that kind of content. NaNoWriMo isn't about getting published, it's about understanding what goes into writing a novellette in an effort to teach would-be authors what it really means to write something of appropriate length. It's also, weird as this may sound, probably fun to the majority of the people who enter.

It is also completely harmless to those that did not enter.

Why is everyone so up in arms about that? Sheesh, people. Do we have so little to angst or fight over these days?

(And, for those interested, I got my security deposit and the closing came and went. I will move in by the end of November. RL friends will get a postcard with my new address! EEeeeee!)

mitai — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 13:29:48 GMT

Closing on the house today. Renting it to the previous owners until the 16th. Renting it WITHOUT a security deposit because they refused to give me one. o.0 We'll see how this works out.

As I live and breathe.

mitai — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 02:39:52 GMT

Yeah, so, long time no see, huh. ::peers out from underneath rock::

Big news first - I am the proud owner of a house. I have purchased a home on 1.27 acres of land in the middle of Podunkton, Bible Belt. It is a 2067 sq ft. home built in the 1950s, renovated in the last ten years. My closing date is technically Oct. 31st (Halloween, oddly enough =) but the current owner is a minister and has decided that closing on the 31st is bad news. I will probably move in at the end of November.

Lesser news - lots, but none worth noting. My toe itches. I have added Trigun Maximum to my list of manga/anime that I can't live without. My television is slowly dying. I still have a problem with stress. I have purchased a Halloween costume this year instead of making one.

Everything is going to be okay. =)

I can't do the cool poll thing, but here's a new question for you kitty folks.

Question: I have a kitty. He is now a two year old, neutered, declawed, orange tabby with giraffe spots on his tummy. His name is Infidel, but he goes by Finny when he's being good. He spends all his time at home and I suspect he is very lonely. He is an only cat, and I am home less than 12 hours a day on average.

1a. Now that I have a house, unfettered by evil apartment requirements, should I get him a companion?

1b. I swore after seeing what I had done to Finny that I would NEVER de-claw another cat. However, I don't want to bring into the house a kitty that will attack Finny with claws, thus giving the new cat an unfair advantage. Do I . . .

2a. bring in a female kitten with claws and see how he does?
2b. adopt a partially grown cat that has already been declawed from the Humane Society?
2c. buy him a companion that is not a cat?

1c. Do nothing, assume he is happy as a single cat, and just attempt to be home more often?

I have offered the possibility of renting out some of the space in the house to lullabyeleague but as the world has been on fire for her for the last several weeks, and there are four months left in our respective apartment leases, I have no idea when or if she will consider the offer and give me an answer. She certainly doesn't need to do so this instant. So I will not count on another human being living with me until I secure a boy to become a husband. I've decided that I should just give in and get one - a second income would be nice, and someone to go adventuring with on a regular basis. =)

What do the cat experts think? Get him a companion? Leave him alone? He's a very friendly and affectionate cat, and he hangs out with large groups of human women without apparent fuss. Most of the time I spend at home he spends with me, but give me a break. I live in an apartment - there are only three main rooms, so he doesn't have much of a choice. =)

I just found this.

mitai — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:26:57 GMT

http://www.revver.com/view.php?id=59686

The following link will take you to a website that is sponsoring a home-shot video account of 9/11/2001.

Despite my pretty steadfast refusal to watch extensive 9/11 footage, I watched this. It was not filmed with the intent to be sold, it contains real reactions. It is not as difficult to watch as some of the other footage which I refuse to see.

I believe it was finally released by the family for any number of reasons, mostly selfish I'm certain, but it's pretty clear that it was not filmed to be so. It's astonishing how quickly power was restored to this family's apartment after the first building collapsed. It is also the most stunning footage of the second tower's collapse that I have ever seen.

Just thought, in perusing my friendslist, that there were some out there that might want to get this perspective.

I'll try to be a bit more chipper later. =)

News!

mitai — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:40:39 GMT

Went to Cozumel. Dove past recreational dive limits. Had a blast. Will eventually post photos and possibly highly embarrassing video footage of crashing into a reef. =) I paid for it by getting stung by a jelly. And the reef bit me once. Will wear a wetsuit next time.

Going to Dragon-con. Have room in . . . uh, the Hyatt, I think. Will be there from Thurs-Sun. Will have strawberry daquiris, wine, and sake if anyone's interested. =)

Need to call LOTS of people on the phone. Owe LOTS of people. Will update soon.

Trying to catch up on journals. Lots of love to everyone! ::hugs!::

Mmm. Birfday.

mitai — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:04:44 GMT

So, yesterday was the big B-day. Though I suppose my birthday this year is just strewn all over the month of July. On Sunday a bunch of the friends forced me to tan by the pool before taking me to dinner and THEN inflicting Sin In a Box on me. (It's a chocolate chocolate with chocolate and a little chocolate ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery, and OMG was it good.)

Then I killed it on my ACTUAL birthday, which was yesterday.

I think my parents are planning to celebrate my birthday this coming Saturday.

And I plan to celebrate my birthday on July 28th, when I will be in Cozumel, checking into a dive shop. =)

Until then, I am fighting with WINS and trying to make it work across VLANs - but wait! I just figured that out. Nevermind. =) Well, mostly.

I should stop starting journal entries, running away for half an hour, and then coming back. I bet that made sense to no one. My WINS problem was caused by a firewall configuration rule that told one VLAN that it couldn't talk to the VLAN where the WINS server lived, even though the WINS VLAN could talk to it. I assumed they could both initiate communication because the firewall allowed ping, but then discovered it didn't allow anything else. Silly me. =) Firewall reconfigured, WINS now resolves everything except . . . itself. Haven't figured that one out yet. Checking WINS again.

I will stop technobabbling on my journal. I leave for Cozumel on August 27th. I will be in St. Louis late Thursday night, catching my jet to Mexico, and be back on August 4th.

CANNOT WAIT!!

mitai — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 00:56:17 GMT

Thanks to all of you that contacted me (in your various and creative ways =), things are under control again. Phew!

I was just going to bounce over here to post that I love the internet. Where else can you get a bug up your ass at seven pm to go look up the lyrics to Sairin: Kata Tsubasa no Tenshi (One-Winged Angel) in Latin and everything?

Noli manere, manere in memoria.
Noli manere, manere in memoria.
Sephiroth, Sephiroth.

Saevam iram, iram et dolorem.
Saevam iram, iram et dolorem.
Sephiroth, Sephiroth.

Ferum terrible, ferum fatum.

Noli manere, manere in memoria.
Noli manere, manere in memoria.
Sephiroth, Sephiroth.

Veni, mi fili. Veni, mi fili.
Hic veni, da mihi mortem iterum. - (Can't translate this one - help?)
Veni, mi fili. Veni, mi fili.
Hic veni, da mihi...

Noli manere in memoria.
Saevam iram et dolorem.
Ferum terrible fatum.
Ille iterum veniet.

Mi fili, veni, veni, veni, mi fili. (x4)

Mi fili, veni, veni, veni, mi fili.
(Qui mortem invitavis,)
Mi fili, veni, veni, veni, mi fili.
(Poena funesta natus,)
Mi fili, veni, veni, veni, mi fili.
(Noli nomen vocare.)

Mi fili, veni, veni, veni, mi fili.
(Ille iterum veniet.)

Sephiroth, Sephiroth.

It amuses me to NO END. It's, like, Carl Orff meets electric guitars, and the holy mass meets the word "Sephiroth." I am making a CD of crack music to take with me to Cozumel, and I'm amazed how many of the titles are from anime/video games.

Titles such as:

Knives - Trigun
Sound Life - Trigun
Advent: One-Winged Angel - FFVII, Kingdom Hearts II
Dearly Beloved - Kingdom Hearts II (opening piano/oboe theme)
Sanctuary - Kingdom Hearts II (and the Japanese version, Passion)
Asterisk - Bleach
Houki Boshi - Bleach
Mission In Taisakusen - Bleach
Requiem for the Lost Ones - Bleach
Will of the Heart - Bleach
Spiral - Bleach
Never Meant to Belong - Bleach
SSX - Hybrid - Finished Symphony - SSX Tricky
Windows XP Welcome Music - Microsoft (it lives under c:\windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma)

(The Bleach ones are not my fault. The author is about our age and he has really good taste in music.)

It is ALL about the crack tonight, man! I should probably eat dinner . . . when I have finished the CD I will probably cut the list. It will the the crackiest collection of music ever and it will relax and rejuvinate and make you SMILE! It's going to be my vacation mix.

Cannot wait for the end of the month. The thought puts the biggest smile on my face . . .

Oh, and I need someone to practice my newly learned Spanish on. Any takers?

::grooves off to the shower::

(This is my gratuitous 'I am indeed still alive' post for the Month of July. Carry on.)

Babbling.

mitai — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 18:59:14 GMT

My shady internet friends FAILED me! You all get F's. And no cookie.

However, I finally dug up a number for Blackberry and got it straightened out, so all is well.

I am VERY, VERY ANGRY with the co-worker that got me interested in Bleach. Even though I hate the Bounto arc in the anime (god, did I just admit to watching anime?) I'm MUCH happier to see the captains and vice-captains coming into the real world. And the manga - don't get me started. Seriously looking forward to the next issue! Knowing our boy Kubo, I'm sure the really good part won't happen for at least two more issues, but eh.

I also cannot express how wonderful it is that I don't have to wait on imports for any of this. If the sites came down to $5/mo subscription fees, I would glady pay it to get my Bleach fix.

I passed up a 50% raise that would have gotten me out of my current situation because they wanted me to have to learn Visual Basic and write web apps. This is NOT something I would enjoy. Strangely, the momster called me an idiot. Is it wrong not to pursue money when the entire reason I want to flee my current position is because I'm unhappy? Money isn't going to make me happier. Getting away from my current management will make me happier. If I move on to a job where I like my management but hate my job, isn't that just about equivalent?

Tonight there's a volleyball game to look forward to! I even shaved my legs. =)

Attn: Shady Internet Friends!

mitai — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:38:00 GMT

You know who you are. =)

Anyone have any information on how to unlock a T-Mobile Blackberry 8700G? Break it down into small words - my tech skills with a cellphone including buying it from my service and letting them set it up. I found a real shady deal for a code on E-bay that I'd rather not take.

Also, for those that read this that are Bleach fans: Kubo just refuses to kill anyone, doesn't he. I was actually talking to my monitor when I watched this last ep. At least it's a good tie-in to the manga regarding Keigo.

And for those SG folks - thank you so much for the nominations! I love you all to itty bitty bits and gooey fudgey brownies!

Oh. In other news, I'm alive. Hi!

mitai — Fri, 05 May 2006 13:36:33 GMT

Huh. Aside from informing everyone I was not dead, I haven't posted in quite a while.

I'm boring. =)

I have beaten Kingdom Hearts II the first time. As in, didn't bother synthesizing all the items, didn't bother getting the Ultima weapon, probably missed most of the optional bosses, ignored Phil's training, didn't get Jimminy's journal completely done (89%, I think) and didn't work my way above level 50. The ending definately depends on what you complete. I say this because the PS2 loaded about eight scenes in the course of five minutes instead of showing me one solid cutscene, so I'd say a good portion of the conversations Sora has with other characters at the end depend on what you completed in the game.

And yes, there's a generic "Holy cow! The journey will continue in KHIII!" part at the very, very end.

Everything is tied up by the credits except Maleficent and Pete, and Cloud and Sephiroth. I expect if I'd bothered to hit Hollow Bastion (aka Radiant Gardens) before I took on the main boss I'd probably have had the option of dealing with Cloud or Sephi or both. I think Maleficent's behavior depends on what you complete in the game as well. Either she got eaten by a metric assload of Heartless or she won and took over Organization XIII's castle. Which means she disintegrated. I was a little disappointed that particular plotline wasn't tied up, considering you spend a ton of time dealing with Pete.

It's awfully pretty. And you get to spend about thirty seconds fighting as Riku. But the boss fights are not as nifty as they were in KHI. They're long and have lots of pretty combos, but the combos are a bit too pretty, and there's too much emphasis on them. I'd prefer to see scrapping than pretty slow-mo acrobatics with funny whizzy lights around them. One of the boss fights is ridiculously hard, while the others are ridiculously easy. This one has the same main boss setup as the previous game. You have to kill the head of O. XIII at least four times. In a row. With no save points. You get Riku, who really has no cool combo moves (at least nothing as cool as Auron's or Mulan's). He does appear to do decent damage, however.

All in all, it's a fun game. I'm glad I own it, and I will definately play it again. The cutscenes and voiceacting stayed absolutely true to the first game. (Give me a break. Haley and Christopher Lee ALONE could have held it together even if everyone else sucked donkey balls.) Drive and Limit are cool, but I don't like the fighting system as much. I found it more difficult to use items and magic, I found certain menus were disabled in certain instances and I didn't understand why, and I disliked some of the challenges in the game. The gummi ship combat system was significantly better, though. The worlds were just as interesting and engaging, but a bit too short and a bit too small.

But. Hot men. I could have done without the new Cid voice, I could have REALLY done without the Aeryth voice, but I loved just about everyone else. Especially that one scene with Cloud and Leon in HB facing off against Maleficent's army of Heartless. It was just extremely well-done.

I agree with the ratings on the main gaming sites. I love the game, but it's not as good as the original.

So. Other than that, picked up Bleach thanks to a coworker and watched all the eps, I'm about halfway through the manga. I really need to make an animated LJ icon of Kon farting at Yoruichi. Going to IL this weekend briefly for a birthday party. An 80th birthday party, complete with surprise guests (like my family) and the taking over of a nice Italian restaraunt.

Started studying Spanish.

That's all I got, guys.

mitai — Mon, 01 May 2006 20:06:08 GMT

Well, I just got a call from Matt (Nute, actually, and it was an internal call, so that kinda freaked me out) who informed me that I died two weeks ago.

This is not the case. I am in fact not dead.

Apparently this rumor was started in IM today, as my account /msged Frito and Shai and someone told them that I was dead. I do believe I locked my workstation when I left to go to a meeting this afternoon, and have just interrogated all the guys down here to determine if they'd taken advantage of my NOT locking my workstation, but so far everyone is staying mum. This does not necessarily mean one of them isn't guilty. However, I will be changing my main IMing account just in case.

So if you get an IM from jayamitai, that account is compromised. Do not believe a word it says. (This is only assuming that someone actually guessed the password of the account, and assumes that it wasn't one of the children that I work with.)

Shai, Frito, Matt - sorry for scaring the crap out of you. Or cancelling the party you were about to throw. Whichever it was, thanks for the head's up.

mitai — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 23:03:38 GMT

I'm finished.

mitai — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:00:45 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/03/31/coral.death.ap/index.html

Sorry, lullabyeleague, it really is going to be a once in a lifetime trip.

This article, followed by internet research on the topic, left me in tears. At work. And maybe that's because of ten million other reasons. And ecosystems are destroyed every day. They have been across the history of the planet, and change is inevitable, yaddah yaddah.

Well, this is a change that we can see, and a change I would not have chosen. A change that we caused. Knowingly. A change that is merely a symptom of a much bigger change. And there's nothing wrong with change, sooner or later the coral reefs of the world would have died due to any other scenario even if there were no humans. Evil trout would have eaten them. Or giant rabbits. Who knows.

It still makes me indescribably sad.

I SLEPT!!!

mitai — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 15:15:04 GMT

I actually got some sleep last night! I went to bed at ten, and woke up briefly at 1, and then SLEPT AGAIN UNTIL 5:30!!!!!

Not that anyone cares, but I am a happy panda. =)

Hmm.

mitai — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:11:10 GMT

Just a quick drive-by. Haven't said much since I geeked out on 24, and I have plans to acquire seasons 2, 3, and 4 for my viewing pleasure.

Saw V for Vendetta. A few plotholes, but overall a really interesting movie. Hats off to Hugo Weaving, who stayed in a mask the entire movie (yes, the entire thing, you never get to see his terribly scarred face save a badly lit memory of one of the scientists that tortured him) and still managed to believably convey an entire range of emotions. The mask was probably hotter than hell most of the time, and difficult to project through, but I imagine he got a real kick out of the chance to try something like that.

It was a little weird that earlier that same day, I was at work in my favorite mission-critical department, and we were watching the French rioting over labor laws on the flat-screen. It spawned a conversation on what it would take for a large group of Americans (30,000 or more) to march on the US Capitol Building in protest. A conversation with lullabyeleague confirmed what we had originally speculated - unless the US government did something to obviously and inarguably affect the personal and private lives of a vast majority of their citizens, the US is too lazy for that sort of thing. Not to mention when we do protest, looting is involved - we don't even know how to effectively protest anymore.

I hate my generation sometimes.

I sincerely hope our next president can shrug off the pressures the Shrub will put on him and actually have an independant idea or two on how this country should be run.

In other news, the government's sudden habit of taking private land for public use, and using it to build malls and condos, needs to be stopped. Now.

Also, I have insomnia, I may have to kill my cat, and the server rebuild is about to begin. So I'll see you folks later.

24 Marathons are bad for Mitais.

mitai — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:16:09 GMT

OMG! Jack Bauer is wearing my dive watch!! Except the face of his is black, and the face of mine is blue. Same model Invicta. Which I saw earlier today being sold on QVC as I was flipping through channels this morning . . . but WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Perhaps I will get the answer if I shoot the next person I see in the thigh.

::is going to be VERY TIRED tomorrow if I stay up to watch the end. It's season one, and apparently Teri bites it in ONE of these eps, so I will watch until that happens. Whenever that happens.::

UPDATE: Wow. He's actually, like, nice in the first season. There must be a huge change between season 1 and 2, to explain the current season Jack. I like the fact that he used to be a human being. I also notice that the producers have gotten a little more 'shock value' oriented, as Teri was killed off camera and I expected to see her executed per the last three eps of this season that I've seen.

::snugs Jack all up:: Poor dude. He didn't even get to kill Nina.