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and the entertainment side November 11, 2007 1:54 pm

Let’s see…

Books
Finally finished up Steven Erikson’s Midnight Tides the end of last week or so, fantastic as usual, though the characters perhaps outshone the story this time, particularly Tehol and Bugg, one of the best duos ever. Kicking myself for putting it down for 4 months. Argh.

Plowed through Warren Ellis’ Crooked Little Vein immediately afterward. Very, very good book, but be warned, its a twisted book, full of deviance that may disturb you deeply if you aren’t already aware of how messed up both America and sexual fetishes have gotten. I had almost as much fun imagining the reactions of the less hardened as I did in actually reading the book, but then again, I can be quite twisted myself. If you pay attention, there’s also some strong insight to both where things are headed and where things are at(for better or for worse), something Ellis has always been thinking about, as evidenced by Transmetropolitan and Doktor Sleepless, among others.

Followed that up the last couple days with the Welcome to the NHK novel, and I’m of mixed feelings on it due to watching the anime first. On the one hand, the book absolutely moves, and is definitely more manic than the show, but due to this, the characters weren’t nearly as endearing and the plots weren’t as fleshed out as in the anime(the lead’s high school crush doesn’t even get named in the book vs having a fairly prominent role in the show). As such, its still good, but not nearly as much as the show. I’m still working on the manga, and it seems closer to the goings on of the show, but the show is what I absolutely recommend as far as the title goes. Part of that, though, is that I can draw strong parallels to so much of what goes on in the show with my own life, and as such, I wanted the lead to succeed and get through the painful state of his existance.

I’ve just started Stanislaw Lem’s Hospital of the Transfiguration, and despite being similar in size to the prior two books, it should take me more than a couple days of reading on the bus to get through(~20 pages coming in this morning vs ~50 one way with the other two), but that’s a given with how dense his work is. Those 20 pages have already resonated pretty strongly though, as our lead, awkward and an outsider among his own family, is forced to stand in for his ill father at the funeral for his uncle, and we get to ride along with those outsider thoughts. Of course, I haven’t even gotten to the meat of the book yet, but given this and taking place in WWII Europe, I have a feeling I’ll be as deeply enamoured with it as I am Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.

Following that will be either Erickson’s Bonehunters(whose release prompted me to pick up Midnight Tides again) or Goodkind’s Phantom, haven’t quite decided which bit of meaty book I want next. Assuming I don’t go back to focusing on the handhelds…

Gaming
November is both an awesome time to be a gamer and a nightmare of a time to be a gamer, particularly in the last few years. This month alone sees so many games coming out that I want to play, from Soulcalibur Legends and Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 on the Wii, to King of Fighters XI on the PS2, to Final Fantasy XII:Revenant Wings and Geometry Wars: Galaxies on the DS, to Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops+ and Disgaea on the PSP, to name but a few! It’s a good thing that Super Smash Brothers Brawl got shunted to early February, means a few more dollars to spread around. Picking which ones I can afford to pick up will still be very tough, and I may have to try and hit up the Black Friday sales for Toys R Us or KB Toys, as they both seem to have Buy One Get One Free on all their video games, though I don’t quite know if it’s worth the hassle.

As to what I’m actually playing, despite flirting with Soul Calibur III a little bit in the last few weeks, most of my attention at home has been on Hellgate: London, which despite its best efforts at giving me good reasons not to play, is proving just as addictive as Diablo II. If I can actually manage steady online play by the end of the month, I think I’ll probably be diving in for their Founders offer, lifetime access to subscriber content for about a year’s worth of subscriber fees, though that’ll put a dent in getting other games for a while.

On the go, Disgaea’s been getting the nod, what with Tetris-level gaming crack now in portable form and with nearly no load time. though I’ve not coughed up the $40 that they want for it(I’ll probably pick it up if the price ever goes down, but I’m not paying for it in full twice, despite how much time and enjoyment I got out of the PS2 release).

Phoenix Wright 3 has also been seeing some playtime, and the dialogue is just as awesome as ever, but its been more of a cool down at night than anything(though that’s somewhat dangerous as its hard to put down).

I also had to put in for the Magic:The Gathering Online release for Lorwyn, and amazingly managed to win enough packs to make it worthwhile. Though I’d been somewhat concerned with the set earlier, I’m really starting to enjoy it, especially as we finally get some great faeries to play with. I may even have to go in for a decent investment in the actual cards, if I can find the cash for it :|

Comics
As stated in the last post, I just dropped a ton of that hard to find cash catching up on (the bulk of) the comics I missed in the last month or so, World War Hulk, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, and DMZ continue to be outstanding monthly purchases, Mouse Guard’s gotten going again with the Winter 1152 storyline, I’m starting in on DC with Green Arrow Year One finishing up and Green Arrow-Black Canary getting started(<3 Black Canary), Strange Girl’s just wrapped up in excellent fashion, and more!

I’m also getting more entrenched in reading the DC universe, recently catching up on post-Infinite Crisis Batman and Wonder Woman stuff, as well as going back now to read the Cataclysm-No Man’s Land arcs and starting in on Catwoman v2, on top of most of the whole spread of Countdown and most of the other current releases(of which I’m now really only neglecting the Flash and Superman books).

Anime
On the fansub front, Seirei no Moribito and Oh! Edo Rocket finished in excellent form, Bokura no closing out pretty solid as well, and I look forward to seeing them come out over here. Baccano and Dennou Coil continue to be absolutely amazing shows that get even better with each episode. I’ve stalled on Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, with almost as many unwatched as watched now. Angel Heart slowly is finally into the final quarter of the show, and I’m still enjoying it enough to ponder City Hunter proper at some point. Genshiken Season 2 is just as good as the first go around. You’re Under Arrest Full Throttle has also been in line with its prior incarnations. Sketchbook ~full color’S has been showing itself to be an excellent substitue for ARIA(the President even makes a cameo!). Dragonaut is looking like it will go the way of Divergence Eve or Witchblade, with a decent story/concepting buried under excessively endowed women. Despite the hype, I haven’t been able to get aboard CLANNAD, even though there’s some really nice animation to be found within. And lastly, the sleeper surprise of the season, Bamboo Blade has been proving itself to be quite an entertaining show and one of the only ones I’m actively keeping up with as episodes come out.

DVD-wise, I’ve finished up Noein and have just lined up the rest of BECK, one more to go on Ergo Proxy and Black Lagoon. Welcome to the NHK and FLAG have both started to hit DVD now, and I desperately need to pick them up. I’m also looking to get started on Mai-Otome and possibly Tide-Line Blue, though I’ll probably wait on a cheaper bundle on the latter. I’m still on the fence with Gunbuster 2, as even the discounted $27×3 for ~2-3 hours of show is a bit ridiculous.

Other
Haven’t watched any television since moving, so I’m completely out of the loop on the fall schedule, so the writer’s strike doesn’t leave me hanging on anything. I still need to finish the last few episodes of Eureka though :|

Movie-wise, the last I’ve gone to see was The Darjeeling Limited, which was just as awkward and entertaining as The Life Aquatic, though I think I still prefer Life Aquatic, as it was completely out there. Up shortly is Beowulf, and I’m seriously considering trying to find it in 3D as it sounds like they’ve finally nailed that aspect of it. Outside of those though, hasn’t been too much that I absolutely needed to see in theaters, until Blade Runner: The Final Cut on Dec 1st, that is. Yeah, that’s going to be Fricking Awesome(despite not owning a Blu-Ray player or HDTV, I’m even considering the Blu-Ray uberbox that comes out shortly after, I love Blade Runner that much).

And lastly, I managed to go to a concert on Wednesday. Not just any concert though, a Dethklok concert. Despite a horrible choice for an opening act and a no-moshing rule, the show was a blast, as our eardrums were assaulted with an hour or so of nonstop music by the most metal fictional band around. I think I may have even had just about as much fun as I did with all of Ozzfest. The best part might be that none of my Metalocalypse-loving friends got to go, so I get to brag about it even more. That, or sharing one of my favorite photos ever with the entire crowd:

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And on that note, I’ll wrap this up. I’m sure there’s more I missed that’s worth pointing out, but maybe you’ll hear about it in a couple months or somesuch :|

In Anime,Books,Comics,Console,Film & TV,Handheld

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state of the month, or somesuch 11:12 am

Yep, that’s me, absolutely terrible at blogging. So what’s going on for me?

New apartment’s working out alright, no problems with the roommate, though I think I’ve seen her cat more than I’ve seen her. I’ve even started taking random pictures of the cat :| Room’s a bit chilly when I come home from work, natural with living in a basement in Minnesota though, and it’ll be nice once summer, heck, once spring rolls around. And as of tomorrow, we should have a 60″ (not HD)TV in place, which I will have most of Tuesday to play with :D

Work’s work, I’m enjoying it, but there’s still things that fly over my head that I have to deal with on the fly. I’ve started working over on the St Paul side of things, and so now I’m finding out exactly how much more downtown St Paul sucks at night in comparison to downtown Minneapolis. I’m also fully hired on finally, no more of this contract work silliness, woohoo!

Somewhat in celebration of that, I’ve gone and spent too much on comics and anime this past week, even though the monster known as holiday video game releases is just rearing its ugly head, presenting me with well over a dozen new games that I want to pick up within the next month or so. My Amazon wishlist is a scary, scary beast right now at around 1100 items. But I’ll do a followup post here with entertainment goodies…

Other than that though, not so much going on in my life directly. Family issues persist, but as I’m essentially completely removed from the situation, its not something that I dwell on. The holidays could get… interesting, assuming I’m even able to get anywhere for them.

In My Life

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Cleanup on aisle 12 September 15, 2007 9:00 pm

Just closing some tabs with various art-bits from the last month or so.

First, some really cool architecture in the form of water towers converted into homes. 1, 2, 3.

Secondly, made my way to the Walker last week to see the big Picasso/American Art exhibit before it left, and I was fairly impressed. As I’m fairly uneducated in the ways of Western art, I couldn’t really do a good job of describing it, but this blog will probably give you a fair idea of what was there to be found. As it was also my first time actually getting to go through the Walker, I came away impressed with a few other things, and am resolved to bring a notebook the next time I go, as I forgot so much of what was there.

A couple of pieces did stick in my head though, the first is this awesome piece, Visions in Paper by Olafur Eliasson:

Visions in Paper

He’s done a number of other cool pieces as well, as seen on his site.

The second piece is Zak Smith’s Illustrations For Each Page of Gravity’s Rainbow. Essentially illustrating the events of each and every single page of the book, this monster project is on permanent display at the Walker, with all 760 or so pages taking up a pretty hefty chunk of wallspace. While not quite as impressive, you can go through its entirety online or get ahold of it in book form as well, all 4 pounds of it. On second thought, it might actually prove to be an awesome experience to go through it side-by-side with the original story.

And that’s that, more writings at some point.

In Western Art

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When it rains… September 14, 2007 8:47 pm

It pours.

So the start of the week I’m waiting for a Wednesday interview at Wells Fargo, do or die for finding a job so I can stay in Minneapolis(see below). Interview comes, the guys interviewing me immediately remember me from when I interviewed with them in 2005, speeding up the process considerably(gogo distinctive appearance, I guess). During the interview it also came up that there might be another opening for me in a different position in case I didn’t get the one I was interviewing for. Around the edges of the weekend, I’d also ended up in contact with another recruiter who turned out to be looking for someone for the same spot and apparently works with Wells Fargo on a much more regular basis. E-mail this afternoon said I was on the top of the pile, but waiting for final word sometime next week.

Then yesterday I get a call for a completely different opening, with an interview set up early this afternoon. Got up, went and did that as my roommate’s mom showed up to help get him moved out(again, see below). Position sounds pretty intersesting, mid-sized company with a smallish casual help desk, but in an industry I can’t say as I’d be too excited about, and the hours would be the death of me. The way the interview was going, it was almost as though I would have ended up hired before I walked out the door.

But! Even though they all seemed to be mine for the taking, they are not to be! For you see, my prior employer called me up this morning before the interview and asked if I wanted to come back on as a permanent employee. Given that I absolutely loved the environment, people, work, and location, it was a bit of a no-brainer(though I did still go to the other interview on the off chance they’d make a killer offer, and out of common courtesy). I still have to spend a month or so as a contracter employee, technically, but after that the full awesome begins. It also reduces me to one major headache to take care of…

As mentioned the roommate is moved out as of today, no way in hell I could afford the place on my own, and having been without work its been pointless to look. With the job though, I’ll have income, meaning I can afford to actually, you know, live somewhere. But this means most of my free time should be being spent finding a place to stay. How much time I actually devote to it, we’ll see, its not like I have much of a choice in the matter. Money’s also gonna suck for the next couple months as I struggle to catch up on things. But otherwise, the apartment is effectively mine until the end of the month and I have work again at a killer job, so things are actually looking pretty good at the moment. Oh, and I’ve also been killing time playing games online at Kiphakes.com, and they are a lot of fun!

In My Life

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(Un)Holy Tetris Skills! September 12, 2007 3:50 pm

(found here)

In Gaming

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More pictures. August 31, 2007 5:10 pm

So after walking out to Big Brain to pick up comics today(as it isn’t worth the light rail fair to pick up 2 comics), I finally decided to head for the Stone Arch bridge and take a look at the I35 bridge remains. Unfortunately the view (now anyhow) isn’t much more exciting to the Gold Medal hill shots I took a couple weeks ago. However, I did turn that into an excuse to wander up the river instead of heading straight for home, taking a pile of pictures in the process. So here’s some of my favorites from the bunch:

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I also made it to the new Central Library finally, and it looks just as awesome on the inside as it does from the outside, very roomy, many titles to be had(including about 2 feet of shelf space devoted to books on Japanese architecture, among other things). No pictures though, as I felt akward about breaking out my camera in there. A shame I’ve waited so long to go there, but something I’ll have to keep in mind in the future.

In My Photos

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Photos! August 25, 2007 3:15 pm

I’ve been going a little crazy with my camera this week, as usual they’re mostly skyline shots, but here’s some of my favorites:

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As well as a couple from the thunderstorms a little while back:

and not so suddenly, another thunderstorm!

And suddenly, a thunderstorm!

As always, more on my flicker page

In My Photos

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And a week later… August 8, 2007 1:47 pm

So I’m sure you’ve all heard about the local excitement by now, all 2 of you. Clearly I’m still up and about, just slow as always with this stuff. Not that my route ever takes me across 35, but I was still at work at the time of the collapse. As soon as I left work though I was headed for Big Brain Comics, just a handful of blocks away from the bridge, which was within half an hour of it happening. Police car after ambulance after firetruck just kept flying past on their way to the scene, newschoppers were buzzing overhead, and the light rail conductor had let everyone know that the bridge had gone down while we headed over there, eliciting shocked reactions from everyone on the train. Despite an urge to rush over and see what was going on, I stayed away as by that point I would have just been an in-the-way onlooker that wasn’t helping the situation(or so I tell myself).

I made myself go back out there on Sunday, but the area’s completely cordoned off(I guess the Stone Arch bridge is back open now though), so I couldn’t get much of a look, despite being on the high ground(the area with truck between the bars is all I could see of the bridge):

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Given the location, I ended up mostly taking shots of the gathered crowds(look over on the sidebar). This morning though, I was given a link to some much more poignant shots that were taken right at the scene, so go look at those instead.

This whole thing is just so completely freakish that I can’t wrap my head around it. Thankfully I haven’t heard of anyone that I know being there when it happened, but its still a terrible tragedy for those who were. I’m also thankful that it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been… Thanks to the road work, there was only one lane open in each direction at the time, drastically reducing the amount of traffic on the bridge, and secondly, a thunderstorm that was very close to happening that evening never materialized, keeping things clear for those working to help the victims.

So that’s my late two cents on the matter. What went wrong, what comes next, I’m not going to touch because its too early for that by far.

In My Photos

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PEBKAC Coworkers July 25, 2007 2:21 pm

Coworkers are such fun, they give me opportunity for conversations such as this:

Them: My mouse stopped moving (and fiddles with the connection)
Me: Try pressing the Windows Key (to see if Windows responds, natch)
Them: I don’t see it. Oh there it is, but how am I supposed to press it when the mouse won’t move?
Me: (smacks forehead) It’s on the keyboard, the little Windows logo
Them: Could you give me a hint where to look?
Me: Between Alt and Ctrl
Them: The Spacebar?
Me: (slams head on desk) No, to the left
Them: Oh, the little windows flag

At which point Windows had stopped whatever it was doing and let the mouse move again. I shit you not, that’s how the dialogue went. These people are being paid to help other people set up their e-mail.

In My Life

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Oooh Shiny! July 23, 2007 4:39 pm

And yet another week goes by without a post. The work newbies are getting slightly better, they can sort of navigate people around different programs, but they’ve still got a pretty stiff attitude dealing with the customers and they panic if they get the slightest bit out of sync with what the customers are seeing/asking, which is a very common occurrence with software. Fortunately(for me, anyhow), they’ve figured out the transfer button and are shipping a lot of people to the regular support rather than bugging me about it. That’s not why I’ve been silent though… That honor goes to my new toy, a PSP I picked up on the cheap(that given my current situation, I really shouldn’t have bought, but screw that). I’ve even dropped off the vicious web haunting that I usually spend the bulk of my day with.

I’ve been burning a ton of time on it since picking it up Wednesday night, and its absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately though, the previous owner had run the firmware all the way up to date and that prevents me(for now) from unlocking the full potential that I was buying it for. Hopefully it gets cracked again soon, or I may just go nuts and try trading PSPs with someone… :| Nowhere near the depth of games that I want when compared to the DS, but still plenty of stuff like Burnout that are well worth having on the go until I can start playing the PS1 game ISOs that I was really buying it for, as there’s a lot of excellent RPGs that I missed the first time around and don’t have time for at home, plus portable Soul Blade would be awesome.

This week should be pretty awesome beyond that though. Warren Ellis’ Crooked Little Vein finally hits, along with the first issues of Black Summer and Doktor Sleepless and his new graphic novel Crecy. 24/7 volume 2 and PULPHOPE hit this week as well, an anthology of short stories in the NYC Mech universe and an awesome artbook respectively, and that’s all on top of the regular comics I’ll be buying(well, maybe not PULPHOPE right now, but you all should), desipite the cries of my wallet. The other big joy of the week is that the roommate is out of town until Sunday, giving me the apartment to myself for a while, hooray.

I’ve got a couple possible nibbles on the job front, still very early on those though, so I’m not really sure where that’ll go. Housing, well, today we officially tell the landlords that we’re out the end of September. Unfortunately, trying to line up housing this far in advance (particularly with the work situation still where it is) is pretty much a hopeless endeavor, but I’ve been poking around Craigslist a bit to see if I can find something that looks good. Otherwise, it looks like I’ll be headed up north again at least for a while. Into the family mess. Joy.

In Comics,Gaming

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