YSB ONLINE

w00+!

My newest music video is now online thanks to FireFlyFans.net at this URL:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=1926.

It's about Saffron and Yolanda and Bridget, so if you haven't seen the Firefly episodes "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Trash", it contains spoilers and you have been warned.

This is the first media music video I've done, compared to stuff I shot myself or using anime for footage. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. If you are interested in other Firefly mvs, checkout the Firefly fan video webring - lots of really high-quality mvs in there.

Have 2 more Firefly mvs ideas in the background, but I have to launch S4DA first, so they probably won't be around until December or after the new year.

WORK AND PREPPING FOR PLAY

Tonbo did his BagBoy impersonation and helped me at Home Depot getting bags of mulch for the garden. I'm stocking up for my vacation later this week. :)

Stopped by Anime Pop again to drop off the pilot of Firefly and return the Gravitation and Saiyuki DVDs. And since I was there I checked out the rental walls and walked out with the first Wolf's Rain and Witch Hunter Robin DVDs. Again, stocking up for vacation later this week. :)

Tonbo made a preemptive cut of the lawn since he's going to be gone this weekend to Free Enterprise in St. Louis. He's a good boyfriend.

Watched the 4th ep of Wolf's Rain. Basically a Tsume episode, although we do get a brief glimpse into Kiba's backstory and why he is so self-assured and confident. Still a very cool show.

The first ep of Witch Hunter Robin was also very engaging. I knew a little bit about the overall story, and it was a good introduction of the characters as well as the world and situation. Very different opening from just about any other anime I've seen. Felt very much like a music video compared to an opening animation. Also very centered around Robin and Amon - no secondary characters at all which is also very atypical of anime openings. Beautiful soundtrack.

The first DVD has 5 episodes (which makes me feel better about the Gravitation DVD which only had 3. See - if you watch enough anime, it all balances out! ;), but I actually practiced some restraint and we only watched the first 2 WHR eps.

Then I worked on S4DA some more.

Then it was 12:37 am and I decided I really should going to bed.
Have to be able to get through my 3 days of work this week to get to my 5 day vacation ...

GRAVITATION DVD#1 REVIEW

Watched the first episode of Gravitation when Tonbo came back, so we started it over and watched through all 3 episodes.

I've heard this anime described as "stealth yaoi" and I guess it is since you really only get to that aspect after the first 20 minutes of the 23 minute episode. I haven't seen any truly yaoi shows (i.e. Zetsu Ai or Bronze), so I don't have anything to compare with Gravitation. As an anime, I like it and look forward to seeing more. Lots of the voices seem familiar, but I can only place Touma as Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura. [NOTE: if you've only seen the abomination known as Cardcaptors, you have only seen around 20 episodes of a 70 episode show. Yes, this is one of my personal problems with the pro-anime stuff.]

Back to Gravitation ...
The shounen ai is there, briefly, in each episode, but there is so much more going on that the whole "angst is my life" doesn't get in the way, and so far, seems to be limited to the one character. I assume he'll lighten up over the course of the show since he smiles in the closing credits. :)

PHP & ME

Went through the books, went through the online tutorials, went through the newsgroups. Got it to work. Does exactly what I want.

Only what I wanted is not what I needed.

Sigh.

I've lost track of what version of the home page I'm currently on, but that what happens when you learn as you program. Still fun, thought, which is worth quite a bit.

Also starting to prepare to process content. Took a bunch of pictures, some more creative than others, then re-took a bunch of pictures as I decided on a background style for the products themselves.

HOME DELIVERY

Dropped off some products for the parents this afternoon. Had to meet them at the shop because their realtor was hosting an open house and they had to stay away with the dogs. Amazingly well behaved dogs. The back doors were open while the parents were loading up the second container and both dogs were quietly hanging out in the back area. Random squeak every now and then from the chew toy, but that was it.

Brought in Boston Chicken for lunch and hung around until it was safe to go back to the house. As much stuff as they have packed, there is still a decent amount in there, but it does feel a bit empty. Standing in my old room was odd. It's a small bedroom, but I remember it feeling much bigger, even with all of the stuff I had in there at the time. :)

Back home to work on Shop4DA. Tonbo's off celebrating his nephews' bday at a local McDonald's. Don't envy him in the least.

BUSY LITTLE BROWNCOAT

Did my part to spread the Firefly word and promote the Serenity movie (April 22, 2005 in a theatre near you :) ...

1. 2 tapes to local comic store. Lots of people had recommended the show but I was the first to actually hand over a tape of the pilot as incentive to watch. Go me. Also talked about having them do a Studio Movie Grill night when Serenity comes out.

2. Visited Anime Pop looking for Wolf's Rain (checked out) and got the third Saiyuki DVD and the first Gravitation DVD instead. Also talked up Firefly. Need to bring by a tape by when I return the DVDs.

GOT A HUMMER

Sleek
Very fast
Typical colors
Did laps around the backyard for a while
Lots of fun

BUNBUN LIVES

Saw Bunbun again last night which was nice - hadn't seen him for the past few days and was a bit concerned.

Work is working and my back hurts from my conversation yesterday.

Did spend lunch going through the Unshelved archive. Their claim to fame (besides being a very enjoyable online (and published) comic) is Unshelved is "the world's only daily comic strip set in a public library!" Some of the questions they deal with at the Information Desk are, shall we say, interesting. And yet very believable to me. Having worked the information-supply side of a table that interfaced with the public at various venues on multiple occasion, the true is often stranger than fiction.

Tonbo had some friends over when I got home (but thankfully he called be ahead of time to let me know :). They were watching Firefly music videos and then we sat around and talked about various things until it was time they had to leave. Lent her my copy of the Prehistory of the Far Side. Hentai-kun will probably have to explain a few of them to her since some of Gary Larson's humor may not be obvious to a native Chinese person.

Took a hot bath in a preemptive strike against more back pain tomorrow. Then pretty much oozed into bed and went to sleep.

BLOODY COLD

I'm always cold at work. In January, in July, doesn't matter. This current office, however, seems determined to literally freeze me. My neck started aching and my hands hurt this afternoon. An email to facilities got me about 2 hours of a lack of blowing cold air, but that was about it.

And just generally not happy with the state of my life in its current form. I have an enormous amount to be thankful for and I realize this. I also want much more than I currently have in almost every aspect of my life. The punching bag and I discussed these things for a while this evening.

Watched another Tenchi ep although they are starting to wear on me. I enjoyed the first arc of 5 eps. After that, having to wait through an entire ep of "taking care of baby" just to get 30 seconds of a mysterious Sasami makes me question if I want to keep going. Now into the "get Washu" arc and my response to Zero as she freaks out over Tenchi and wonders why is that she's a female in an anime harem show. End of story.

Need more Wolf's Rain or Kaleido Star ...

Spent the evening working on S4DA and taking another step forward in my php/mySQL education. I'm pretty sure my code is neither efficient nor elegant, but damnit it works, and that's what matters to me right now. Got the randomness working, got the main content working, got it down to 1 variable (it's so weird to think of Web pages in terms of variables!), got the archive links working ... but they are in the wrong order. And I wasn't online or I'd have checked out www.php.net for help. Guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Because I really don't want my lack of knowledge to impact the navigation. At least not any more than necessary. 0_0;

MASTER & COMMANDER

The movie Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World was this evening's entertainment. I really enjoyed it, although I did take a break and unload the dishwasher during the Doctor's self-surgery. Tonbo let me know when it was safe to come back in the room. Excellent acting and wonderful atmosphere. It didn't feel long, but it's not an edge-of-your-seat action movie either. Having seen it, I am interested in reading the books it was based on by Patrick O'Brian.

The only disappointment was the DVD itself - no features. At all. I'd like to check out the Collector's Edition since it looks like it's packed with lots of interesting stuff. Then again, beggars can't be choosers. :)

Found a few rumors about there being a sequel called "Post Captain", again based on the O'Brian books. I'll definitely want to see that in the theatre this time.

NEKO-SAN VS. BUNBUN

Turns out the baby bunny being terrorized by the monster children about a month back has moved into the backyard. It's really cool to see him munching on stuff in the evening. I have a few pictures of him as an example of my urban wildlife, but nothing really close-up. Yet. In honor my sister the veterinarian who always used her vast technical and physiological knowledge to name animals I have dubbed him "Bunbun".

Turns out the local Siamese (who I also have pictures of as an example of the urban wildlife in my yard) has taken an interest in Bunbun. Even when it was raining, Neko-san was out prowling the overgrown flowerbeds in what definitely looked like an engaged hunting mode.

Didn't see Bunbun that evening, so hopefully when I get around to weeding again I won't find Bunbun parts amongst the dandelions.

Watched Underworld for dinner with Tonbo. Way cool - lots more plot than I thought it had. Lots more practical (ie non-computer generated but actually built out of foam and latex and stuff) special effects than I thought as well. Those Lycans running along the hallway walls? Guys in suits on wires with like 4 sets of remote-controlled servos to control the face action! Impressive stuff. And Selene's jump/land/walk was just as cool as it was in the trailers. She's also a ballerina and that extra bit of grace and balance really show through. Open for a sequel which looks to begin filming this fall ...

KADISH TOLESA

So, finally finished Kadish Tolesa. I guess I got cocky after figuring out the compass puzzle all by myself because I just didn't do well on the rest of them. Hint and nudges got me close, and sometimes off the far side, and eventually there was the inevitable descent into the walkthroughs. Not a pretty sight. And then, even after reading the walkthrough and doing the puzzle - I still didn't understand it. Granted, sometimes I over think these things, but the vault console I just didn't get. :(

Not sure what I expected, but the end of the Age disappointed me a bit. It's an incredible place with some fantastic views, but I guess I was hoping for more plot/story/journals/something. I'm not very good at "journey for the journey's sake" - I'm a destination kinda of person.

Got a bit further in Teledahn, then hit a tablet page that dumped me into a totally different Age, which I didn't really want to start since it was time to hand the laptop back. Patryn gave me a quick tour of some other sites before he left, so there's lots left to explore and play with. After I launch SFDA.

Sigh. Delayed gratification sucks.

Stargate Atlantis episodes were very cool (insert obligatory link to the Dumping Grounds ;). Having now caught up with the rest of the viewing world, it'll be (hopefully) 2 eps every other week. Have passed the pilot and first 2 eps on to my parents since they are also in dire need of good entertainment and are Stargate fans. And on their way to becoming Farscape fans as well. heh heh heh.

Stayed up later and watched the original Manchurian Candidate with Tonbo. Very interesting flick. The interview with Angela Lansbury was a great extra. Be interesting to see what they did to update the new Manchurian Candidate movie with Denzel Washington.

SHOP MINOYA PLUS

Tonbo took me to a discount Japanese stuff place today before we picked up Pizza Guy Take & Bake for lunch. Everything 99 cents - $2.00 - even the Pocky and Ramune. Picked up some Strawberry Pocky (complete with Hello Kitty cover graphic) and some Ramune Desu Yo (not sure what the difference is in taste compared to the usual Ramune [which they also carried], but it's got more fluid ounces and comes in a plastic bottle, similar pop-top and exactly the same marble :). Tonbo grabbed some boil-the-bag curry and rice and cookies.

Very fun place that I'll likely be back to soon.

SGA = URU

Happiness - the Dumping Grounds came through with another 2 Stargate Atlantis eps so I can have my little Uru blowout this weekend! I'm really hoping to finish Kadish Tolesa and get a bit further in Teledahn. Or at least come to a reasonable stopping point, because another personal goal (after this weekend) is to get SFDA launched before I play any more.

Card sorting winner, hands down, is WebSort. We couldn't develop an internal tool for near their unlimited 3 month cost. Hopefully we'll be able to use it on a project soon, because just looking at the demo and the study manager, it's a nice little package that's very easy to use. Analysis is up to you or EZCalc, though, which is fine for our purposes.

Tonbo's off to a bday party tonight so I'm on my own until Patryn drops off his computer. Think I'll take a nap so lack of sleep shouldn't affect my progress until after I've (hopefully) solved a few puzzles. :)

SEATTLE KIND OF DAY ...

as Grape put it, and he's pretty accurate. It actually rained all day, something quite rare around here where it usually only takes a few hours for the thunderstorm to come and go.

Lunch with Grape and Nissan because I'm pretty burnt out on card-sorting software and this kind of weather really isn't any incentive to work. On much of anything.

Nice coversation with the Dumping Grounds and there may be a MovebleType tutorial in my future. Haven't done anything more with it since hitting the Perl wall and getting buried under it. Also talked zoo pics and another potential personal project is now a little more possible. Probably.

Taped more Firefly for Jewel and now just need to put the mvs on there.

Found a converter for my Firefly mv so hopefully it will be available to the masses soon.

Didn't get around to Kinko's yet, but I still have time before Patryn drops off his laptop tomorrow evening. These personal goal thingies can really get in the way of having fun, ya know?

FORECAST: RAIN

Head hurts again, but the Snapple seems to have taken care of it. A little rain this weekend would be nice to soften up the ground so I could get my path finished.

More card sorting stuff. Think I know the winner, but still have to do due diligence on all the other. Not that there are that many of them...

2 more candidate reviews today, so that took up some of my time.

Finished color printing and cutting and stacking of FSXmas and now just need to get them bound.

Created temp gfx for SFDA and created the home page. Haven't decided exactly how to the subpages, but the random quotes are working and now I have content to play with regarding the home page layout. Massive content generation is still in the future, but I've got a bunch of stuff sitting out on the dining room table waiting to have their picture taken.

GIFT ALBUM GIFTS

Helping out with a pitch which means site reviews and competitor site evaluations. Also researching various card-sorting applications. So far, I know I'm not interested in the beta that was released in 1999 ...

Having dinner w/Elgebar and Tonbo this evening on a gift card we got at Xmas.

Personally, I think gift cards are the greatest thing. My biz has Gift Albums, which are an interesting variation on the traditional gift card. There are various types/themes of Gift Albums (Bath & Body, Teen, Wedding, Men's, Travel, General, Gourmet, etc.). The giver buys an album which has a variety of products related to the album theme. The recipient get the album, chooses what they want, and then can redeem the album either by sending in the attached card or going online. Their chosen item is shipped directly to their door.

It's a great way to send something to someone far away without worrying if it's going to get broken. I've used it as a new home gift, birthday gift, "thank you" gift, etc. With the variety of themes, you can pick something you know they will like, and then let them choose the specific item. This way it is personal without the situation of getting something the recipient already has or getting something they won't like. Unless you pick the wrong type of album. If that is a concern, go with General and it'll be okay. :)

MONDAY MONDAY

Work is starting to interview for various positions, so I and a co-worker talked with a first-round applicant this morning. Have another 2 on Wednesday. First time I've interviewed someone in my same discipline, since the last time I was involved in interviews was waaaaaay long ago and things were a little less structured back then.

Cut and stacked FSXmas and came oh so close to completion. Except I used the wrong margins on 2 of the pages and will have to reprint them. Decided to add color so the reprint will be worthwhile. Then off to Kinko's for binding (good thing my biz gives me a discount :). Hope to get it all done before Friday so that when Patryn drops off his laptop with the time-sink on it, I'll be able to play without feeling guilty. Not that feeling guilty about not having stuff done would stop me from playing at this point, but it does make it easier to concentrate on the puzzles. ;)

Also hope to have more Stargate Atlantis by the weekend from the Dumping Grounds. Unfortunately, that will catch me up on everything that has aired, and I will be stuck in the one-episode-a-week boat with the rest of the world. Bummer.

Did want to point out that the SciFi Stargate Atlantis site and the Stargate Atlantis site have a bit of different content, especially in the Gallery and Episodes sections. So far I prefer the main SGA site, if for no other reason than they have through ep#11 accessible - nothing significant, but there is the ep title, a short synopsis, and a picture.

URU OBSESSED

Cleaned up behind the back fence (again), but hopefully the Roundup won't be washed away this time and get rid of more of that grass.

Ran errands while Tonbo was working. He has a plan to go shooting with the guys this afternoon, but the guy with the gun(s) hasn't been in contact so that may/not happen.

Back for lunch and Tonbo swings by to say shooting is on.

Yes! This is cool for me because Patryn, that evil generous soul, will leave his computer with me while they hurl projectiles and I can go play Uru. Decided to stay out of Path of the Shell this time and concentrate on the main Uru worlds, mainly Kadish Tolesa (big tree with falling leaves world).

Finally figured out the dial alignments and opened up the door in the tree. And realized I didn't have any audio. I'd been so busy trying to figure out the puzzle that the lack of audio hadn't sunk in until I got the door open and there was no door-opening sound. I'm not one to mess with configurations on another's computer, so after I poked around what little interface interactions I safely knew about, and found everything grayed out/inaccessible, I gave a call to Tonbo/Patryn. They were having dinner and Patryn assured me it was okay to reboot. So I did. Got through boot-up, clicked on the desktop icon to launch the game. And got a nice black screen with an intermittent cursor.

Time for dinner.

They came back as I was finishing up another Tenchi ep. SPOONPrez was going to be able to stick around, so I suggested that they watch the Stargate Atlantis premiere (to catch up SPOONPrez), and then we could watch the 2 eps I had on another tape.

And I could play more Uru.

Figured out the path of light puzzle but had to ask Patryn for the final piece, which he was happy to supply since it lead to his favorite view in the whole game. And I agree - it is truly impressive. Have entered the temple-like thingy and have an idea of what to do with all the stuff on the floor, but that will have to wait for another session.

Also poked around in Teledahn (land of the giant shrooms) a bit, got power, got stuck, got a hint, and now need to jump back in and explore some more. In another session.

Watched the first 2 eps of SGA and they are great! I'm happy with everything they are doing that Atlantis is a truly worthy successor to Stargate SG-1.

Evening ended around 11:30 pm and I made the wise decision to have Patryn remove the obsession from my house. Because I still have to go to work in the morning and be functional.

Friday night, however, is a whole different story ...

THEY REALLY LIKE ME

Anime Day, Center at the Mall, Richardson Square Mall, 2 pm - 3 pm

So, there I am, standing by the video equipment, trying to talk a little louder than all the music and background noise since the video "room" is a curtained corner of the Center, peering through the darkness at the 20+ people who show up (and stay!!!) to listen to me and watch my mvs.

It was so cool.

And the one I thought would clear the room ... got applause. Tonbo had told me that when my >Kenshin music video was shown at Project A-kon, there was massive groaning as everyone identified the song. And then they got quiet. I guess I believed him, but experiencing it for myself, and then having them applaud, was .. surprising, happy, wondering, grateful, tired, all kinds of stuff. Including being glad I had volunteered to do the talk in the first place. Because I remember sitting in front of my computer, wondering if I really wanted to do this.

Go me. :)

Then, Hawke was at his office so I went down there to teach him how to edit and upload his own HTML. But the hosting server was having issues (my sites weren't coming up either and I have the same provider), so we went out to dinner. Came back and tried again, but it wasn't destined to happen that night. Had a fun time talking and various stuff.

Also pointed him to Thinkmap and once he grokked it, he got very excited. It could be a really great project for the TRAC and help a lot of people.

I'M GOOD

Training at work on some new tech that looks like lost of fun!

Tonbo's uncle is in town for family portraits and various birthdays, so I'm on my own again tonight as Tonbo has dinner with the fam.

Finishing up the FSXmas stuff, and got my php to pull random row info from my db. Ha-pi!

Also spent time taping my mvs for my music video talk tomorrow at Anime Day. Since it's just me, I'm planning on talking about why I make mvs, what a mv means to me, and then showing examples. So far have a pretty good line up. A lot of the songs are softer/slower, and I have no idea what the room set-up is like other than it's a big room in a mall(?!), so this should be really interesting ...

ALL BY MYSELF*

Work isn't, so I'm still hacking away at some php/db interactions.

Tonbo's out doing business so I'm doing production work on my FS Xmas idea.

*one of the funniest anime dub out-takes I've ever seen

HEAVY CLOUDS, NO RAIN

Heavy head, much ache

but it's supposed to be a cold front, so even if there isn't any rain, it ought to drop the temperature a bit, which is always nice.

Another CASHFLOW game, different people. I didn't join in because of the throbbing in my head. I did remember to ask if I was going to have a talk about music videos at Anime Day, since I hadn't heard anything about it and well, it's this weekend. Good thing I asked - it's all about me and my mvs from 2 - 3 pm. Need to prepare.

Spent the evening cleaning parts of my room and got totally side-tracked by my pile of Far Side pages. While they were being produced, my dad would get me the 365 comic-a-day Far Side calendar for Christmas. I'd kept all of the pages for several years worth since at some point, I thought it would make a great idea for wallpaper in a bathroom. Then, Dad gave me The Complete Far Side, so I really didn't need these little duplicate pieces of paper. But in the process of moving them from the keep pile to the recycle pile, I ended up looking at them.

And had an idea.

I've already appropriated Mr. Larson's artwork for my own purposes once, so why not again? Plus it makes Xmas presents a lot easier. ;)

And that pretty much kept me busy the rest of the evening. Asking Tonbo's help on whittling it down to the final selection and wording, so now I just have to produce it.

DESIGN AMERICA

Project still on hold, although likely to start tomorrow, which means likely travel next week.

Did get to finish and launch the Design America site. Very happy with it. And so it Hawke, which is the important part. :)

Now need to work on my part of the site. Have new thoughts about the php/mySQL/cron stuff I was going to do after Ender showed me Movable Type. If I can really make it look not like a blog, it would take care of one of my bigger obstacles of the weekly and monthly archives. Would likely still need the crons for getting the new content out, but it's a possibility I need to investigate.

CASHFLOW game at the house tonight. And while they're busy getting out of the Rat Race, I'm going to be wandering around Uru, thanks again to Patryn. So looking forward to it. If I would have had the time and money, I would have subscribed to Uru when it first came out. It is still on my list of "Things I Want", but considering I still haven't finished Exile, it didn't seem like a good idea to get into. Plus I don't have an online connection fast enough to do it justice. Or even a computer fast enough to run it.

And at some point I will get the updated MYST. Because I played the original. And at the time, that little Hypercard stack was the most incredible game I had ever seen on a computer. It was multi-media in every sense of the word. A puzzle that had to be solved by listening. It's difficult to describe (and makes me feel old), but it really was ground-breaking at the time. And addictive. While is why I really shouldn't have played it during finals. Live and learn.

And there is Uru: Path of the Shell...

And then MYST IV: Revelations...

And then Until Uru...

And then ...

HTML SNOB

Looks like even if he got it into the right directory, Hawke's comped HTML wouldn't work anyway. Because every HTML file exists in its own directory?! Lots of FONT tags surrounding spaces. And tables within tables within, guess what, a table. Would you like a table with your table? How about a side of tables?

It is my duty as a member of the write-your-HTML-by-hand community to make things correct.

Not like I had anything else to do anyway. ^_-

Didn't get as far as I wanted to on the site since I was broadsided by a huge headache on the way home. Did find enough charms to fulfill my card quota, and hope to get those out this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, if you are in the area on Saturday, August 14th, come by Anime Day at Richardson Square Mall, located behind Barnes & Noble on the back side of the mall next to Sears. Admission is $3, or free with a same-day Richardson Square Mall receipt - i.e. a receipt from some store in the mall on that same day.

STARGATE ATLANTIS

Watched the pilot of Stargate Atlantis with Tonbo and Patryn this evening. Special thanks to Ender for the copy [go comment on his posts even if he doesn't use the fBomb :]

For a TV pilot, I was impressed. Not that I expected it to be bad, but it went a lot smoother than most pilots/first episodes. A couple of things cause me minor confusion but that's because I haven't seen any of SG-1 Season 7. Yet.

Like Weir, like Sheppard, little scientist guy isn't nearly as annoying as he was on
Stargate SG-1. Overall, pretty cool. Looking forward to more eps. Whenever Ender has time to tape them out for me. [you can post comments about that too ;]

ORDERING NATURE

Thanks to the cooler weather (high 80s compared to high 90s :), I spent the morning in the garden. Not really weeding as much as cutting back, well, pretty much everything. Even found stuff under stuff that now has room to grow properly, i.e. up instead of horizontally out from under another plant. Again, it's always nice to see visible signs of progress, and while there is still a lot to do, quite a bit got done.

Tax free weekend and while there are lots of things I want, there are very few things I need, and none of them need to be bought this weekend. Delayed gratification is a difficult practice, but ultimately worth it.

Meet with Hawke for a few hours, going over the design for his Website. Very nice, clean design, although the WYSIWYG editor he's using concerns me. The code is pretty nasty and unnecessarily over-burdened, but it lets him comp on the fly. And if the publishing works, it works. We'll see.

Been watching the original Tenchi OAVs and wow, are they different from what I expected! I had always been aware of Tenchi Muyo (kind of difficult to be involved with anime and not see something Tenchi somewhere ;), but had never sat and watched any of them. Just wasn't that interested. The animation looks old and the painted backgrounds are very painted, but it was also drawn quite a few years ago. A lot more comic expressions than I expected, and, having been aware on Tenchi characters, the second episode was confusing compared to the suspenseful/scary thing it could have been when Ryoko calls up the other demon. Oh well. Still fun to watch, and it fills in one of those anime gaps I have.

On the more recent anime front, Wolf's Rain is awesome! Have seen the first ep and I love it instantly the way I did Last Exile. The animation is smooth and detailed, the color palette smooth and subtle. Music by Yoko Kanno of Cowboy Bebop fame, so you know it's wonderful as well.

g0 733+ m3

Have installed Apache, php, and mySQL on my laptop. Okay, it was a no-hassle package install, but it actually worked the first time. On a Windows system. ^_-

Have created by first db. Yes, the infamous newbie tutorial of the employee database is now my own.

Have created php page to run query and get info from above mentioned db. Yes, I copied the code out of the tutorial, but it actually worked. The second time. Had to change the user login variable. But I figured that part out on my own. ^_^

HACKING IN BLACK

Found some javascript banner refresh code that I hacked at until I got it to do what I wanted. Very happy about that.

Had thoughts of trying to pay for the CMS stuff I need for Hawke's project (back again :), but after the success of my lovely javascript, have gotten cocky and decided to learn PHP and MySQL and take care of all of it myself. Will need help on the cron jobs, but have gotten an offer for assistance on that already (he's sooo coool!)

BBear's bday so everyone was dressed in black to celebrate the 18 year old with 22 years of experiences. Office was decorated in elementary school photos complete with funny captions. Promised self that such a thing will not happen when it came my time.

Going down to the parents house since it is also Mom's bday.

Got an email from sibling that she is/was in Kuala Lumpur getting warm and healthy.

GOOD FRIENDS

1. got a copy of Stargate Atlantis from a good friend at work

2. got to borrow a copy of the original Tenchi Muyo OAVs and the Record of Lodoss Wars DVDs from a good friend when I went to pick up my Stargate SG-1 Season 3 DVD box set, since he's set up DVD profiler and can keep track of where his stuff goes :)

Yes, I am such the DVD mooch.

But I get to pass on the Atlantis goodness to Patryn in thanks for his lending me Stargate SG-1 Season 4, Season 5, and Season 6 DVD box sets.

LAPSED

So much for daily blogging :P

Instead of individual posts, here's the "what I can remember form the past 5 days" spiel:

Thursday
- work
- start season 2 of Farscape
- another 2 inches of rain (to add to the 4" I already got)
- make LJ icons for Serenity Movie/Browncoats site

Friday
- work
- go to FNA, watch Singles (Korean almost-30-somethings movie), first ep of second DVD of Kaleido Star (very cool anime, must see more)
- rain lilies start to bloom
- submit LJ icons to Serenity Movie/Browncoats site
- get most awesome logo for group info site

Saturday
- clean out (most of flower patch)
- it's hot
- rain lilies out in full force
- pizza & my kind of booze (ie sparkling white grape juice :)
- Tonbo runs a
CASHFLOW 101 game, I (kinda sorta) clean up the Helpful People & Travel gua
- inspiration/distraction for group Xmas gift
- review above w/Tonbo & finalize
- put print 365 on hold for new project


Sunday
- clean out rest of flower patch
- it's still hot
- take pictures of rain lilies
- Tonbo off to Texas de Brazil dinner with friends
- re-watching Kino's Journey because I'm out of new stuff

Monday
- meetingsmeetingsmeetings
- get notice about nearing bandwidth limit because of my mvs ... need buy more
- researching domain names for group info site
- hitting blocks, need to talk to Tonbo tonight
- gang over for rest of Kaleido Star eps
- review domain names and decide on one, back on track