KOLCHAK & RAHXEPHON

Just a quite night at home with Tonbo, take-n-bake pizza, and lots of stuff to watch. We're still working our way through Tonbo's original Kolchak: The Night Stalker DVDs. While obviously filmed in the early 1970s, it's really not that bad. It makes me curious about the re-make, although the original Kolchak is pretty cool in his own way.

Also watched the RahXephon movie. Like the ending *much* better than the TV series, which seemed to suffer from an EVA complex. But the TV series developed the characters a lot more and had some very interesting characters that weren't in the movie at all (the reporter being an excellent example). Therefore Kestrel recommends you watch the RahXephon TV series - good animation and music, interesting characters, boy-in-mech plot with a twist. Then go watch the RahXephon Movie so you'll understand a little better what you watched in the TV series, and you'll have (IMHO) a better ending to satisfy your potential WTF reaction to the end of the TV series. ;)

LIFE WITHOUT PAIN

is truly amazing. I completely take it for granted that 98% of my life is without pain. And then I have 5 days of constant vice-on-my head, pressure behind the left eyeball pain, and a lot of things that used to matter, don't.

And then it clears, and the memory fades, and everything is back to normal. But in those first few hours, as my life becomes pain free again, and as more hours go by and it stays that way, I'm grateful for how lucky I am that my "normal" state of being is a life without pain.

64F

Tonbo is off to his family all day so I have the house to myself. Nice and quiet.

And warm. Had the windows open and worked a bit in the garden to enjoy the high 60F we are currently having.

Didn't get as much done as I wanted because my head hurts again. Clear blue skies, little wispy clouds. And pressure systems bumping into each other miles away that plays havoc with my cranium's internal pressure. At least it's not a tumor. :P

Emailed a bit w/KC. He won a cd player at his company Xmas party. He got the package I sent ok, which was good to hear. Need to send him some HP stuff as well, since he hasn't read them, but has seen the movies. Amazing how fast they get stuff over there.

Have seen the 4th HP movie and think it's the best so far. Kudos to the script writer who got the huge book down to movie-length and kept the action moving. Didn't really miss the House Elves subplot at all.

Also just saw the Chronicles of Narnia. I haven't read the books since jr. high, so I really had no reference for what it "should have been". I completely enjoyed what I saw: the kids are great actors, the witch was perfect, Aslan and the other CGs were very impressive, and I love Liam Neeson's voice as Aslan. The cheetahs and griffon's in Aslan's army were also favorites. Hope to see more Narnia movies by these same folk some day.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

First year without any family around for Xmas. Parents are in BC at the condo, surrounded by snow, learning to ice skate again. Sibling is in Mongolia, surrounded by much more snow. So, just me and Tonbo this year.

Which means ... pizza for dinner!!! And Swiss Madrissa for dessert.

Watched some MADLAX, and realized that not all of the DVD volumes are out yet. :(

Very cool show, very NOIR, and yet ... not. And music by Yuki Kajiura is always a treat. I have the first MADLAX soundtrack and really enjoy it.

Then it was present time. Got some lovely stuff from London from my hook-up with the International Browncoat Santa, sock monkey socks, books, gloves and more from the parents, super Winston wear and other Bath & Body stuff from Tonbo.

And I bought myself a copy of the Wild Divine. If I would have planned it better it would have been here for the 25th, but as is, it'll probably show up after the 1st. I've been looking at it for several months, and having a tremendous headache for the past 3 days, all day, as 2 pressure fronts battle it out over the center of the state, pushed me into buying it. And Amazon had a great price, and a special $30 offer to go with it. I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy the game itself, and if it helps me to learn how to relax and de-stress a bit, it'll be a great bonus.&nbps; ^_^

AMD UPDATE

Finally discovered the ease of putting up photos with the built in Blogger tools compared to Picasa, so there are now pics from the first Amsterdam trip I took in August of this year.

Enjoy.

SERENITY DVD

Serenity is now out on DVD!!! You can order the Full screen (TV like) Serenity DVD or the Wide Screen (movie-like) Serenity DVD from Amazon.com, or a local store that sells DVDs like Best Buy or even Fry's. Buy one for yourself, one for your friends, and 1 or 2 extras to hand out when who ever you lent the FIREFLY DVD box set to comes back wanting more.

Spent the evening at the Serenity DVD party held by Keith's Comics. Much fun, and some Fan Done sales, which is always a good thing. ;)

FIREFLY SOUNDTRACK

Got my copy of the Firelfy Soundtrack composed by Greg Edmonson and it is shiny indeed. Has my favorite track of "The Funeral" from the end of episode "The Message", and River's Dance from the ep "Safe".

Ha-pi!

HG/SS FANFIC

I have written and posted a Hermione / Snape fanfic to my site.

And I can't believe I just typed that. O_O;

There was a discussion on a local friends list about fanfiction in general, then some Harry Potter stuff, and the topic of Hermione / Snape fics came up ... and wouldn't leave me alone. So after a few days of dwelling, some dialog on the ride home from work, and 8 hours of writing later, I am done. Purged. Not to be bothered with such a thing again. Made my point, although undoubtedly it will be lost on many.

Enjoy.

WW UPDATE

okay, finally got pics of the FanDone.com and ShinyShirts.net booth we had a Wizard World Texas at the Arlington Convention Center in November.

booth pics -
http://kff.blogspot.com/2005/11/wizard-world-texas.html

summer glau pics -
http://kff.blogspot.com/2005/11/summer-glau.html

EVILBAY

So, I did a little Xmas shopping for myself on eBay this past month:
- 2 Stargate Atlantis trading card boxes
- 1 Stargate Atlantis trading card binder
- 1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone trading card box (Artworks, I already have the Wizards of the Coast set)
- 1 LOST trading card box
- 1 LOST trading card binder
- 1 Alias Season 1 trading card binder
- 1 Alias Season 3 trading card binder
- 3 Yukito (Cardcaptor Sakura) animation cels

There are still things on the wants list (there always will be), but I need to curb my eBay habit for a few months again. :P

My name is kestrel and I'm non-sports/anime trading card addict.

DEAR BLOG

Someone recently made the comment that I don't update here much - and he's completely right. Looking back on what I have written, however, I am impressed with me. Over the past 3 decades, this is the most I've ever kept up with any kind of journal with any amount of consistency.

I think I want to try and get some more updates in here before the end of the year. Because as I look back, other than my collection of digitial pictures and a few paper journals I kept on travels, I have no other record of what I'm doing with my life right now.

Which is actually full of a lot of stuff ... which is why I haven't been blogging.

Cruel irony.

At the very least, I hope to get some pics up from the Amsterdam travels. And maybe Mexico City. And Summerland. And daily life. And ...

2 positives can make a negative: yeah, right.

10 YEARS

So, I've been working at the same company for 10 years as of today. That's about 1/3 of my life. And it's like the typical 90's joke of being the "same company" that changed names 3 times and has moved locations 4 times during those years. I only changed departments once. ;)

No one noticed, so I guess it's not that big a deal. Mostly I'm still glad to have a good job post-tech bubble bust, and I do work with some mighty fine people.