Random Week Notes

Haven't updated this in a week. It feels like a month, between work, school, and a social life that is just confusing the hell out of me.

But, for all of my fans (all three of you), here are some of the thoughts/things that my brain has been up to.

• Fate/stay night is just flat, like week-old opened soda. Solty Rei has been done before, and done better. And, this sucks...I'm looking through some of the anime I have, and there isn't much new stuff-fan or pro subbed-that is about as good as a lot of the stuff in my library that would be considered "classic" anime. I want new stuff, but a lot of what the market seems to be pushing out is...watered down? Dumbed down? As if they know they're aiming for the American domestic market.
  
  I just finished up the whole Full Metal Alchemist TV series, then watched the movie. I liked the note the TV series ended on. I hated the movie, if only because it felt way too much like they were trying to recycle the character models. At least this time (unlike way too much anime) the Nazis were bad guys...
  
• Everybody tells me that I need to do two things-get a Mac, and get a girlfriend. On the first, I like the big iron of my PC-okay, I might have to replace the mobo, I KNOW I'm going to have to replace the sound card...but, I can do that with my PC. Macs...once they get too far, it's time to buy a new one. Tho, upgrading the new Mac Pro with the heavy-duty Xeno processors (violating factory warentee!) and setting up my box as a dual-boot Windows/OSX system has a temptation to it.
  
  On the girlfriend issue? Working on it. So far, eighteen people have told me I need one since the start of the year. When I get to number twenty, I'm making them a plaque...
• Bring me the head of Bill Gates.
• I'm curious-how do most men learn how to date? 'Cause most "men's magazines" tend to be nearly usless on this subject. My female friends have suggested that I try a sneaking a look at Cosmo or Elle or such. At this point, it just might be worth trying...
• Fantasy books have been annoying the hell out of me. I personally found trying to read any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy to be an exercise in homework, which is one of the reasons why I'm reading something else. And, they keep using the same European models, or a Japanese model. I would find it awesome if somebody set a good novel in the Era of Warring States in China, or Byzantinum (the various tales of Bellasarius are good reads).

More thoughts as my brain hits them...

There Is Something Rotten in Redmond, WA.

My opinions of Microsoft are very...frustrating. Yes, they've probably done more to bring computers to people than any other company in the world (in the form of Windows 95), but damned if they aren't frustrating at times.

Case in point is my latest set of issues with my installation of Windows XP. Mind you, this is the Home edition, not the Professional one (and I wonder seriously why this is...), and I've just had to reinstall it after my computer went crazy lately. Every two or three days, the computer claims that it's missing a vital file in the setup folder. So, I boot up Windows from the CD and go to the recovery console.

Mind you, I do nothing else, just go to the recovery console DOS prompt, and exit and reboot the computer. Computer then works fine for about 2-3 days, without a hitch.

I wonder if this problem would mysteriously clear up if I either got Windows XP Professional, or bought Windows Vista. In which case, I'm going to be doing this for a while...there is no way I'm going anywhere NEAR Vista until the SP1 release on DVD. And I upgrade my motherboard and video card to handle the Aero interface. And pay for somebody to replace my cold, unfeeling mechanical heart.

Piss-Poor Excuse

Sad to say, I've been so busy with the rest of my life (namely school and work), I haven't blogged much.

But, seeing this article, I have to comment, even if it's pretty quickly. Why aren't more people going to the movies? When sixty percent of the poll respondents comment that they are avoiding the films because of issues that the studios are responsible for (cost and movies), and the major studios are blaming other factors (namely piracy), there is a serious disconnect.

Honestly, the last few years, most of the movies I've seen have been sausage-a product that is so heavily processed and heavily shaped and stuffed into a focus-group created casing. It takes a director with serious gravitas and authority, or probably kept the studio execs stoned and drunk, to make something that isn't sausage. Most of the nominees for this years Oscars are the "independent" films, not major studio productions. And, most of us don't want to spend $10 for sausage...

Don't know how to solve it. It feels an awful lot like the '70s, when older management in the top in Hollywood were unable to get "cool", and a new generation of directors fought them toot-and-nail to make the films they wanted. My question becomes...who becomes the creative souls needed?

Not Sure If I Should Be Happy Or Sad...

...that the UK foils a terror plot every six weeks.

Happy that the UK is keeping on top of this, that they're able to prevent terror plots like the soldier beheading attempt...it's like the gang that couldn't shoot straight. That the plots are so...amateur. Damn it, if you're the bad guys, you should have at least something that looks like a competent plot...

Sad that the UK-a major bastion of multi-culturalism and a definite effort by people to "get along"-has a terror plot that gets busted every six weeks. That there is such a flood of hate and anger against a nation that wishes them nothing but the best is scary...

I'm curious about what happens if this keeps up-how will England react? And, through England, the United States...

Poached Egg

How my brain feels right now.

There is, somewhere in there, a pretty sharp piece on Iraq...but, I know that if I write it now, and people could understand it...I think the advocacy of saturation nuclear bombardment would come through way too hard, when I think it's probably our last option.

Tomorrow, once the computer's working again (using a friend's laptop for the next day or so...), my brain should be able to write.

It's a neat article, I think.