Update: Martin's on his way home with Mom. They're not 100% sure if it was a mini-stroke or just a massive migraine, but the numbness in his face is receding. Mom will be with him until he can see the doctor, so she can make sure they know the family history.

I may not be around much for the next little while. My older half-brother Martin, who's 41, had a mini-stroke overnight and is in the hospital. My mom is on the way up there, but if it turns into a long-term hospital stay, I'll need to go up there and help with Josh and Caleb (5 and 4). I'll keep everyone informed.

Friday morning I went into the attic to open the vents, and grabbed a box that hadn't been claimed in 5 years. Finding nothing in there I wanted, I threw the box and everything in it into the trash.

Two days later, there's been no incriminations, no sudden calls and "Hey, I want to come by and get X". I think I'll press my luck with another box. :-p

Well, my cell phone battery won't hold a charge longer than 6 or so hours, so I guess I'm heading to the Verizon store after work to see what (if anything) they can (or will) do for me...

Or I'll just buy a new one. I'd like one that has the capability of using MP3s as ring tones, so I can make my own. But those tend to be $300, which I sure don't have.

Tim Hildebrandt has died.

You do know him. He's one half of the Brothers Hildebrandt. They're famous for the original Star Wars poster, most of the way we see the Lord of the Rings characters, and some of the most incredible bits of comic book card art in the 90's. The art world will never be the same.

Guess what? Alberto will be in my neighborhood in a few days.

I've been having a rather shitty week, but getting this has made my day. I won a contest sponsored by a Cindy Ngan (check her resume!), so I sent her a pic of me and a pic of Sephiroth, and told her to work her magic on it. I love the results. ;-)

ARG!

Interesting story or not, Chrono Cross is about to get sold back to the store. My reward for trying to save Kid when she's poisoned it getting my ass kicked 7 ways to Sunday in one battle after the other. The leveling system, or lack thereof, sucks and the magic system is a pain in the ass.

Bleh!

You scored as Jean Grey. Jean Grey is likely the most powerful X-Man. She loves Cyclops very much but she has a soft spot for Wolverine. She's psychic so she can sense how others are feeling and tries to help them. She also has to control her amazing powers or the malevolent Phoenix entity could take control of her and wreak havok. Powers: Telekinetic, Telepathic Jean Grey 75% Rogue 70% Cyclops 65% Storm 60% Beast 60% Wolverine 55% Colossus 45% Gambit 35% Emma Frost 35% Nightcrawler 35% Iceman 20% Most Comprehensive X-Men Personality Quiz 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Dear Hotmail,

Your Windows Live Mail sucks like a really sucky thing.

I think I'll configure Thunderbird to make it better.

Love,

Me

What is it about Passion, and Sanctuary, both from Kingdom Hearts II, both sung by Hikaru Utada, that always makes me tear up?

Bits of wisdom for you...

There is a benefit even in misfortune, for it is the rod
With which a man can measure the loyalty of friends.

-Tirukkural 80:796


In reply to the question, 'What is the best that people can possess, what brings them truest happiness, what is the sweetest of the sweet, and what is the pleasantest life to live?' the Buddha answered:

'Trust is the best that people can possess; following the way brings happiness; truth is the sweetest of the sweet; and the practice of insight is the pleasantest way to live.'


-Sutta Nipata

ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod

The second principal on "Buddy the Vampire Slayer" is QUARK FROM DS:9!!!

*dies* *repeatedly*

Blatantly stolen from Dawn...


The soundtrack of your life! Put your music player on random, no skipping, and put music to the following:

Opening Credits
REO Speedwagon - Roll With the Changes

Waking Up
Maasaki Endo - LIVE in Bagdad
Well, that'll bounce your butt out of bed in the morning, heavy metal from the "Cowboy Bebop" soundtrack.

An Ordinary Day
Aesop Rock - No Regrets
And she said:
'Look, I've
never had a dream in my life
Because a dream is what you
wanna do, but still haven't pursued
I knew what I
wanted and did it till it was done
So i've been the
dream that I wanted to be since day one!'
Fuck. Yeah.

Falling in Love
Yuki Kajiura - The Image Theme of Xenosaga II
Piffle. Spent the song looking for lyrics or a translation, but came up with nothing. The song is in Latin but with an almost Celtic feel.

The Rumble
Medicine - Time Baby III
From the first Crow soundtrack, and of course it's one of the slow songs. *sighs*

The Break-Up
Michael Kamen - Mutant School
From the first X-Men movie.

Getting Back Together
Nobuo Uematsu - The Place I'll Return To Someday
LOL! Even the title fits...

Life's Okay
The Chemical Brothers - Asleep from Day

The Mental Breakdown
Simple Red - Sad Old Red
OK, my WMP is scaring me now...

Cruising
Underground Resistance - Jupiter Jazz part 1
LOL! I have gone around town with my windows down and this blaring. I get weird looks... I don't understand why...

The Flashback
Phil Collins - Strangers Like Me
"I wanna know
Can you tell me
I wanna know about these strangers like me..."

The Frat Party
Tetsuya Shibata - Cerberus Appearance
Yeah, I'd approach a frat party with about as much dread as I'd approach a three-headed demon dog...

Everybody Dance Now
Nobuo Uematsu - Ride On
That... would be some weird dancing. ;-)

Regretting
Aerosmith - Dream On
*thunk* OK, how in the hell did my WMP pick that out?!?!?

The Long Night Alone
Pink Floyd - A Great Day for Freedom
"I dreamed you had left my side
No warmth, not even pride remained
And even though you needed me
It was clear that I could not do a thing for you"
(I swear, it's on random!)

A Death
Nobuo Uematsu - Boss Battle 1
From Chrono Trigger. OK, Dawn, which one of us has more Uematsu-san than should be allowed by law? ;-)

End Credits
Avril Lavigne - Forgotten
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
I'm giving up on everything
Because you messed me up
Don't know how much you
Screwed it up
You never listened
That's just too bad
Because I'm moving on
I won't forget
You were the one that was wrong
I know I need to step up and be strong
Don't patronize me
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

[Chorus:]
Have you forgotten
Everything that I wanted
Do you forget it now
You never got It
Do you get it now
Yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea yea yea
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah

Gotta get away
There's no point in thinking about yesterday
It's too late now
It won't ever be the same
We're so different now
Yea yea yea yea yea

[Chorus]

I know I wanna run away
I know I wanna run away
Run away
If only I could run away
If only I could run away
Run away
I told you what i wanted
I told you what i wanted
What I wanted
But I was forgotten
I won't be forgotten
Never Again

[Chorus (2x)]

Forgotten
Yeah yeah yeah
Forgotten
Yeah yeah yeah
Forgotten
Yeah yeah yeah
Forgotten
Yeah yeah yeah

(camera pans as I walk away from it)

Er, sorry. ;-)

I have spent the last 5 1/2 hours getting my ass kicked by a laptop.

Badly kicked.

Like, Horseman-style curb stomping kind of kicked.

*sigh*

Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride.

-Sutta Nipata


That is the hardest thing, believe me... but a worthy goal.

Woke up yesterday morning a bit feverish, with a sore throat and a bit of a dry cough. Since my sister came up with strep throat Thurseday and I saw her daughter, who had a juicy cough, that night, I figured that as much as I don't have the sick leave, I'd better stay home and rest it out, or I would miss a lot more than one day. Last year strep throat cost me an Urgent Care visit, IV fluids, and 3 days off from work. :-p

So I spent the day playing FF VII, and the following is some rambling as I try to work out Cloud and what he is, exactly.

Timeline-wise, we know things happen in this order:
1) Sephiroth is born, Lucrecia "dies", Vincent is turned from Turk into Vincent
2) Gast leaves Nibelheim and ends up in the frozen north, where he meets Ifalna, the last Cetra
3) Aerith is born, Hojo kidnaps her and Ifalna, Gast dies
4) Cloud is born

We know Cloud is a real person by the middle of the second disk of the game, when he and Tifa piece together his shattered persona in the Lifestream. But Hojo insists several times that Cloud is a Sephiroth clone, and a failed one at that. This confused the hell out of me for a while, but now I think I can say that the two are not contradictions.

For all that Rufus calls Hojo and second-rate scientist, I think it's pretty obvious that he's not. When Nibelheim happened (and boy, was "Last Order" a retcon or what?), Hojo's biggest experiment, his son Sephiroth, was gone, as well as a chunk of JENOVA. All he had left was the boy who had somehow managed to hurt Sephiroth, and he was in pretty bad shape, and a headless blob of JENOVA, which might or might not have been sentient. Wanting to save the boy so he could figure out how he was able to defeat the undefeatable, he jammed the broken body with JENOVA cells and Mako energy to try to save it.

Unfortunately, Cloud's mind could not handle it, and he was deamed a failure. So we end up with a broken-minded Cloud being rescued by Zack, who is eventually killed by Shin-Ra soldiers. When Tifa finds Cloud in Midgar, it's not until she says his name that he pulls himself together, but what he grabs is some weird combination of himself, Zack, and even Tifa. I have a feeling that the JENOVA cells made him a bit telepathic, and he picked up memories from the two people who cared for him and made them his own, even though that didn't fit, because it helped make him somewhat whole.

Please feel free to debate this with me... I'm sorta tossing this out there so I can get some things straight in my head for a bunch of FF related fan fiction.

There's nothing that'll put you in a better mood than watching 2 week old kittens crawl around. The biggest, a boy named Karl, is quite like a human baby at times. I held him a while, then when he wasn't noticably warmer than my hands, I put him back into the pile with his sisters (of the other 3, 2 are definitely girls). He rolled around his fat belly and mostly onto his back, then shook out one back leg, then looked at it.

"Yes, that's your leg."

He looked at it, then at me, then back at it while he shook it out some more. Then he put one front paw into his mouth and chewed on it a bit.

"Yes, that's your other leg, too."

After munching on his own toes a minute, he turned and munched on one of his sister's ears.

"Now, those are hers, be nice."

I love babies. :-)

Just fair warning, I have been in that mood since Wednesday morning... I'm tired of work, of having to work 9 hour days and Saturdays because I owe the hospital a stupid amount of money, of having to be nice to people and co-workers who are stabbing me in the back more often than not, etc.

I need to show "Advent Children" to my mother.

Not because she doesn't understand me...

...quite the opposite, she's the Crone of the Three who would truly understand me in this world...

... but because there is so much in this movie that would just further her knowledge of where I come from. Of things I say. Of why I rejected Christianity and embraced Zen Buddism.

She's going in for some colon tests on Monday, which means she goes through a lot of pre-op things I have done many, many times. I'll take this with me when I go visit her.