Avoiding the problem doesn't make it go away. *SIGH*

Just got back from AX 2003. There were some cool premieres this year that I have to mention because they fall under the DO NOT MISS category:

• Heat Guy J (Pioneer Animation) - A new TV series from some of the major players in the team that brought us the Escaflowne TV series and Movie: character designer Nobutero Yuuki (Record of Lodoss War OVA, Chrono Cross, Battle Angel, X the Movie, etc...), director Kazuki Akane (Geneshaft), and music master Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop, Arjuna, Macross, Jin-Roh, Wolf's Rain, etc...). Yuuki-san's character designs in this series seem even more amazing and beautifully detailed than Escaflowne (if that's possible). It seems like the animation in Heat Guy J has more of a CG feel to it than Escaflowne, though not as much as Blue Sub and definitely smoothly and naturally. Akane directs this sci-fi/action/comedy in such a way that the pace is fast and steady, the action exciting and the dialogue amazing. Its hard to describe animation direction -- its just so clear that this series flows together and creates anime that is above average. Kanno's soundtrack is the icing on a delicious cake. As always, her music compliments the mood while adding personality and depth to the settings and characters as well as the plot. These three work so well together -- kind of an anime "dream team" IMHO. If the series remains consistent with what I saw in the first two episodes, Heat Guy J could definitely rival Cowboy Bebop as one of the top sci-fi/action/comedy series.

  (description and comments for the following three premieres and more anime coolness will appear in a later journal entry - I can barely keep my eyes open tonight after staying up all night last night to catch a couple of episodes of Macross Zero !!!! and Wolf's Rain !!!!!!)

• Haibane RenMei (Pioneer Animation)
• Patlabor the Movie 3 WXIII (Pioneer Animation)
• Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) (Viz)

WBGG

Anyone else heading out to AX this weekend?

I hope the convention runs a bit more smoothly this time around. I was bummed about the AMV contest last year. There aren't any big premieres either, but I'll settle for a 35mm screening of The Animatrix.

They have some cool guests again this year: Nobuteru Yuuki, the esteemed character designer for the Record of Lodoss War OVAs and Escaflowne; speaking of Escaflowne, Kazuki Akane, the director will also be there; one of The Animatrix directors, Mahiro Maeda, who did The Second Renaissance I&II is stopping by; and one more I look forward to is Koushi Rikudo the creator of the twisted and hilarious Excel Saga manga.

For the first time in ages, I didn't enter a video in the AMV contest. It was getting too weird for me, and the fun of the contest disappeared over the past few years. (Plus I was pissed that I didn't make finals last year!)

WBGG

I've spent days researching video cards, mobos, cpus, fans, cases, RAM and also, looking at boutique custom built systems at places like Alienware and FalconNorthWest. The price markup for getting a boutique machine is pretty stiff. I can probably save $500-$600 dollars if I build the machine I want, myself. I had originally hoped to build one myself, because I have a great case mod planned out that I want to make. I haven't ever built the whole thing with components as expensive as these, though, so I'm a bit nervous.

• The setup I'm considering now is:
• Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard
• Athlon XP 2700+ (333FSB) CPU
• ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (128MB)
• 2xCorsair XPS PC2700 512MB RAM (for 1GB total)
• Maxtor ATA133 7200 RPM 100 GB HDD
• Sony CD-RW
• Floppy drive just in case
• Antec Performance Plus 1080 case (great modding potential)
• 420W Powersupply

Anyone ever bought a Boutique system? Any suggestions on whether to try building on myself?? I figure between reading and a lot of patience and previous experiences with assembling computers, it should be too hard.

I'd love any suggestions or info anyone has to offer? I wanted to get this question on ask /., but it got rejected. :(

'night WBGG PS Oh yeah, I don't plan to overclock anything or anything else that uber...This will be plenty of speed for what I want to play. Mainly SWG and NWN.

I finally got to play for real tonight. My awesome friend was kind enough to let me borrow his uber box so that I could try out the game.

Wow, its so cool. I loved mudding, and I really like this. I guess I suspected that mudding with a GUI and lots of fancy stuff was coming some day, but I was thrilled to finally play it.

I spent hours just creating my Twi'lek. Its so much fun customizing her face and body to just the right proportions. Picking her colors for eyes, skin, markings, makeup was really cool. I could probably waste a day or two just doing that.

Anyway, she is fun to play. I was planning to have her be a scout, but I got a little sidetracked when she learned to dance. I did finally take her out hunting and she made a shiskabob out of womprat meat that some guy bought! How cool and fun. I'm going to have trouble killing though, all the little mobs around the cities are so cute, with big eyes and goofy smiles. It would break my heart to kill one. Why can't they make UGLY mobs?

Anyway, it'll probably consume too much of my time if I ever get my computer put together. Its been years since I stayed up mudding all night...I'm getting too old for that.

WBGG

Face it, you're at your job for a fairly decent amount of your waking hours. You put a lot of time and effort into it, and if you're miserable it starts to impact your health and mental well-being regardless of how much money you make.

Unfortunately with this economy, my employer has me by the balls. (figuratively only)

1. "Fear" (1996) - the one with Marky Mark - it can make for some awkward hand-holdin moments
2. "Kids" (1995) - good movie, but the mood just isn't right...you don't even feel like makin' out after seeing that
3. "Robocop" - not a date movie, period, end of story, end of date.
4. "Hannibal" - ewwwwwwwww! I have to admit that the sexual tension between Clarice and Mr. I-want-to-eat-your-face was extremely intense, but all pretense of romance must be abandoned after someone eats Ray Liotta's brains.
5. "Grave of the Fireflies" - I watched this with my boyfriend and spent the next two hours crying!! NOT romantic...at least not my idea of romantic!
6. "Blood Sucking Freaks" on a blind date is not a romantic thing :(
7. "Schindler's List" *cry*
8. "Reefer Madness"
9. "Requiem for a Dream"
10. "A Zed and Two Noughts"
11. "Deliverance"
12. "Natural Born Killers"
13. "Meet the Feebles" - maybe it would be romantic after you're married....but not for a date

Ok, someone else help me out here... How about a guy's point of view? N

How some people can find some of these posts so interesting, when I can't figure out what the poster's point was???

Maybe I dig too deep.
WBGG

I am so screwed at work tomorrow - its 3AM!!!

Finally! Ren & Stimpy returned to TV tonight after so many years. The new episode was funny and felt like the old Ren & Stimpy on steroids! Up until tonight, I thought the R&S episode with the tooth beaver was the grossest episode ever and the hardest to watch without cringing or throwing up. Tonight made the tooth beaver seem like the smurfs.

*hork*

I guess I never really picked up on any sexual connotations in the R&S episodes from the past that I've seen, definitely nothing that made me think they had the Ernie 'n Bert thing going on! ;P (Just kidding, Ernie is totally not Bert's type.) Anyway, the homosexual connotations early on in the episode just turned into fairly obvious references and then abandoned all pretense and the two love vermin went at it!!

BTW, I didn't know they could show that kind of stuff on cable. The part that I'm surprised about is where Stimpy closes his eyes and expects a kiss from Ren who sticks a rat's bum on Stimpy's lips instead. Stimpy sure seemed to enjoy what he sucked outta that pour rat's intestines! Eeeeew!

Grossness levels aside, I was shocked that another R&S episode managed to bring me to tears. The episode where Stimpy's "buddy" Stinky runs off and marries a fish skeleton is guaranteed to make me cry. It melts my heart to see Stimpy so upset. So tonight when the potatoes were whipped and gave up, thier devastated countenances brought tears to my eyes and I would have cried except Ren asked for gravy and the puking that followed was so horrific that I was distracted before any tears could fall.

I remember thinking Beavis n Butthead were the most offensive cartoon ever... Whatever, that was before SouthPark came out and before I started watching anime! *blink*

'night
WBGG

I'm running out of time to build my system.

The only requirements:

1) SW Galaxies requirements are met
2) not a lot of $$$
3) the motherboard/RAM/Graphics Card/CPU/etc... are all compatible with each other!!!
4) can't be top of the line, but definitely not something I'll have to upgrade again in 6 months

So....AMD vs Pentium 4....Radeon vs GeForce....Asus vs. MSI...? The next plan of action is to do more research on Tom's Hardware Guide cause its got lots of nice reviews, benchmarks and toys to look at!

For now, I gotta go to bed so I can make it to work in the next 6 or 7 hours and be able to stay awake enough to write code.

'night
--WBGG

*shy glance*

welcome to my journal...

*urge to run away and never use this journal thingamajiggy again*

bare with me, I'm really nervous about this...

*fingers shaking too much to type*

*deep breath*
*confidence restored for the moment as I begin to write my story*

I've journaled for 21 years on tree pulp with all kinds of fancy gel pens, eraser pens and even crayons. The thoughts just poured out onto paper so easily then, I couldn't write fast enough. It was so natural. (Of course, no one else, certainly not the zillions of weirdos that stop by slashdot, could read my journals before now..) *anime tear-drop*

*getting cold feet*
Uh...errrrm...ehhhh--This is a bit different. I feel a little bit like I'm getting naked in front of a bunch of strangers...well, ok, not naked, but maybe I'm showing more skin than usual. ;P I'll do my best!

*tentative glance at the submit button*
(Do I really want to blog?? What if I suck?? What if someone makes horrible comments and I fail miserably at blogging?? What if I get flamed!! What if I accidentally spill my guts and its forever immortalized in some dark, cobwebbed corner of the web on someone's top ten list of the worst blogs of all time!!? )

*courageously reaching for the mouse to click that submit button*

be gentle...its my first time