Today's lesson: If you're gonna post a Winamp Playlist online, at LEAST post some music from it as well. Fuckin' bastards... showing off all their accumulated crap without sharing...

Wow! What a long time, and no updates either. Thing is, I could have talked about some stuff, like all the work I put in before Christmas... or the Lord of the Rings showing at my uncle's house on his 55" HTDV and surround sound system... or going to see The Two Towers... or my best friend's wedding in Tulsa, OK... or the very light class load I'm taking in anticipation for my upcoming trip to Japan... or watching the entire run of Escaflowne TV earlier this month (good series)... or putting 12 hours into Metroid Prime this past weekend only to have my visiting friend Adam take his Gamecube back home before I could even face the Omega Hunter... or celebrating my 21st birthday last Thursday, having dinner and drinks with friends (well, *I* did, at least, since all my friends are younger than me), and playing a lot of card games... or how I'm very happy that Cartoon Network's Adult Swim is airing Futurama at a time slot I can actually catch, thus being able to record all the episodes I never got to see on the TV... or how much shit my dial-up has been giving me lately, mostly because of some damn problem with my settings or modem (I know this 'cause neither of the other computers in this household have the same problems dialing the same number.)

I guess I'll tackle what I feel like in the order I presented it. Starting with... the lesson. I'm god damn sick and tired of trying to search for an MP3 online, only to stumble onto someone's stupid Winamp playlist containing the tracks I so desperately desire and can't find anywhere. What purpose does it serve to display your track listing online? How many other people find enjoyment, enlightenment, and purpose by glancing over a 1000/2000+ textual track listing of what's secreted away on another person's computer? Does it make any difference, since I can't get at any of his/her files? If I'm looking for a god damn track listing, I could look up the website for the actual CD and copy the track listing from there. I just wish there were some way for these people to receive some kind of divine retribution, like a hard drive crash, killing all their booty. I hate to wish evil upon someone for (apparently) no reason, but this has been pissing me off for some time now. I can understand the purpose of posting online blogs, statistics, and the like... but Winamp playlists? Please...

Next... all the work I put in before Christmas. There's not much to tell about that, other than I pulled a lot of shifts before Christmas. I earned a lot of extra money for that, met a number of both nice and agitated people, and got complimented by a customer on how incredibly polite, nice, and tolerant I must be to put up with a couple of very pressing, pushing, and demanding ladies. (Truth be told, I usually try to push customer situations out of my mind and help 'em out as best as possible. Besides which, if you can take what they dish out and help them as nice, quickly, and efficiently as possible, you get rid of them faster. *^-^*)

Sometime after Christmas... actually, earlier this month I think... my family and a couple friends of mine went up to my uncle's house outside Clarksville and watched the first Lord of the Rings movie on his HDTV and 5 point surround sound system. Let me tell you... it kicked ass! I need to get me a setup like that when I get older (and actually get some real income.) My dad and my other uncle didn't too much care for the movie though... halfway through, when the fellowship is actually formed, they were wondering if the movie was almost over! Heck, they groaned when we told 'em we had another hour and a half to go! I think the movie was just too much for their attention spans. Besides, it's not really the kind of movie my dad would like, anyway.

Two Towers... now THERE'S a good prolonged battle movie. I still need to go back and see it again. At this time, I don't know much else to say about it, other than that I really liked it, and the fight scenes kicked ass.

My friend's wedding was really nice, though it really came as a surprise to me. I had figured it would be a while before he got married -- namely since he had two bad relationships through high school -- but I guess he was just too big of a flirt to lay low until after college. I'm happy for him, though I hope he can manage being a father while still in college... The wedding itself was nice; it was located in a small chapel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Only 50 guests could attend, however, and the only musical accompaniment was a harp player (though the woman did an supremely beautiful job.) I'd much prefer a cathedral with at least 200-250 guests, a huge-ass pipe organ blaring out the wedding march, and a greater percentage of Catholics at the wedding Mass. But I suppose that's just me. Maybe that's yet another reason why I'm waiting until after college... so I can afford such a wedding celebration.

Class schedule... now, I'm taking a very light course load for someone who has time for more. I'm only taking 13 hours, and technically, 3 of those hours are for a placeholder class so that I can still appear on my mom's insurance coverage until I go to Japan. The other three classes I'm in include Second Semester Beginning Japanese, Electrical Circuits II, and Dynamics. I have to finish all three courses before I leave for Japan at the end of March, though it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Since I'm going to Japan to study the Japanese language, my instructor for Beginning Japanese will simply rate me on my work thus far. For ECII and Dynamics, the instructors will simply allow me to work ahead and take the final before I leave. It'll be a bit rough (in the sense that I'll have additional material to wade through), but at least I'll have the time to complete it all.

I won't say much about Escaflowne... or Metroid Prime... all I know is that now I'll need to collect both of them. I'd seen the first episode of Esca fansubbed a while back, I just didn't get attached to the series. But having seen it now, I suppose I really missed out. Metroid Prime is yet another reason why I need to buy a Gamecube, as that game totally rocks. It doesn't play the same as all the old Metroid games, but then again, sometimes you just have to move on, 'cause it wouldn't be the same game no matter how similar to the originals you made it. Simply rearranging the worlds and altering the chipset wouldn't do any good. In my opinion, Metroid Fusion is the natural extention of the old-school style of Metroid gameplay; they might release a similarly styled game for the Cube, but I believe that that system is better built for the 3D realms that Retro Studios creates.

I honestly don't feel any different after my birthday. For all my talk about being able to drink, I haven't felt any compulsion to just scurry upstairs and quickly down a couple of my dad's stashed beers. Most likely, I just don't have access to or knowledge of the better alcohols to drink. And I wouldn't want to be spending my money on liquors right now, as I'm saving for anime DVDs and my trip to Japan. At any rate, one of my friends tells me that his roommate and some others have accumulated a supply of alcohol for the simple purpose of drinking with me (or by themselves, of course, if I'm either late or turn down the offer.) Sheesh... at least I could buy Kousuke his spiced rum the other day when the liquor store in Blackwell declined his international ID card. Speaking of Blackwell, my friend Shawn's car engine caught fire on that trip. Heh, what a price to pay for a single bottle of rum... and then to not be able to purchase it! When I went to pick him and Kousuke up, I offered to get the rum for him, since I had been 21 for a whole day by that time. The gent behind the counter merely checked my ID and offered me a "Happy birthday, dude," before checking out my purchase for Kousuke. Geez... It was an experience, though, and experiences are cool.

We're up to episode 13 of Futurama tonight, what with the airing of the Slurm Factory episode. I'll have to start recording on another tape tonight... luckily, I have old copies of Evangelion, Slayers, and Ranma episodes that I now own on DVD. I can tape over them (and already have, actually... Ranma seasons 1 and 2 have been taped over by higher quality recordings of Futurama episodes 1 - 12.) Next up... the tape with Ranma OAVs 7 and 8...

Lastly, my dial-up has been really pissing me off. I've discovered that as long as I keep MSN Messenger shut off, the other computer (or mine, maybe) won't disconnect me so frequently. It's probably something to do with the settings inside my computer, or maybe my POS modem is finally giving up on the harsh, cruel world and committing suicide. Whatever. All I know is that, compounded with my first complaint of this rant/blog and the fact that some of these soundtracks are REALLY hard to locate (Goldenboy OST, Steel Angel Kurumi OST, Princess Nine OSTs 1 and 2, Slayers Try BGM libraries 1 and 2, and -- just recently -- Kare Kano OSTs 1 through 3.) Granted, Kare Kano is probably too recent to establish a lot of MP3 downloads either on WinMX or on websites, but still... whenever I find someone online to download from, my connection kicks out and I can't manage to relocate those files whenever I get back online. GRR!!! If I wasn't leaving in two months, I'd SERIOUSLY sign up for some cable. Or maybe I should just hold out and try to find the original soundtracks while I'm in Japan. After all, that's what I'm gonna do for manga. Screw buying all this Ranma at $15 a pop... I can buy old printings in Japan for probably half or a third of that. Now, all I have to do is learn how to actually READ them... *sigh*

Well, I hope I've made up a bit for that long stagnant period in which I said absolutely nothing. Right now, I suppose I'll list a few webcomics I visit repeatedly (though there are a number I'd also read, provided my connection didn't suck ass.)

	The webcomic that started it all for me. At least five years in running, seven books in printing, and numerous shirts and Sluggy slogans. Two wacky roommates, a normal girl, a psychotic talking mini-lop rabbit, a hyperactive ferret, an occasionally mutating alien, even more girls, vampires and undead, an artist (whose world is a crotch!), occasional NPCs, demonic kittens, magical artifacts, a vendetta against Santa Claus, a Book of E-ville, flux agitators, and more!!! Check it out, though I warn you that you'll have five years of *daily* strips to read. Not that I don't want you to read it, of course. It really kicks ass. I'm just mentioning that, unless you manage your time well, you might well read through two or three years before you realize how much time you just spent at this website... ;)
	Relax, they understand j00! Coolest and spiffiest manga-style webcomic on the net. He's got one book printed and two more waiting in the wings (I think... maybe those two chapters are merely consolodated into one book.) Anyway, Piro's (terminally shy, anime-watching, dating-sim-playing fanboy) and Largo's (loud, overbearing, zombie-hunting, shoot-'em-up-playing l33tm4st3r) antics in Japan are hilarious, and Fred (though he denies it periodically) is a really good artist and storyteller. So, head on over to Fred's rendition of "Crazy Americans in Tokyo" and have fun!
	A very nicely drawn and inked page-a-week online comic (though to describe EE as a "comic" might be a stretch; there are numerous comedic elements, but the priority of the strip seems to be mostly adventuresome.) There's a weever mage, a mischievous elf, a beautiful defender of gifted individuals, a brooding cursed semi-genius, a bundle of standard knuckle-headed cronies, and an evil dragoness in disguise. Lots of cool stuff, and Weird Al is mentioned in Chapter 1! Hooray!
	From the same person who brought you Exploitation Now. Lots of mature and cynical humor, not to mention people with problems, ass kickings, and lots of cool inked images. Check it out. This latest story is only one story arc complete, and the general direction of the story is a bit harder to make out, as he's focusing more on setting the stage rather than being crazy (as with Exploitation Now.) I believe this one should last a bit longer, and from the looks of it, will probably be pretty cool. I just hope he's got a battle plan, 'cause I'd like to see this one develop really well.
	A little fluffy satire on magical girls in general. Very cute, quite humorous, and always updated on time. Wanna see Alex blast some nasty looking monsters with a magical wand she received in a Freudian dream? Wanna see Tristan release a great evil into the world in exchange for governing rights to France, and maybe Germany? Wanna see lil' genius Riley swoon over a handsome non-entity sent from the higher authority to monitor the situation? These three girls are Earth's only hope in defending the world from Vashi, and Miyaneko Gato -- resident feline mentor -- has serious doubts about the planet's future... Go for it!

Lastly, there are a couple quizzes ready...

What Kind of Virgin Are You?
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Considering the images used (I checked 'em all), this is most likely a quiz for girls. Bah. Oh well. Considering the alternatives, I think I got a good one anyway. Besides, what difference does it make? (And if it *does* make a difference, the author should have labeled it as such. Hmmph.)

How Emotional Are You?
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Me? NORMAL?!? Well, maybe emotionally, and that's a good thing. ;)

Visit this and other SelectSmart.com selectors: The Great Ranma 1/2 CHARACTER TEST!!!!!!!! by Maia-chan What were your results?

# 1 Genma	# 2 Ranma	# 3 Kasumi	# 4 Kodachi
# 5 Nabiki	# 6 Ukyou	# 7 Akane	# 8 Cologne
# 9 Dr. Tofu	#10 Happosai	#11 Mousse	#12 Shampoo
#13 Kunou	#14 Shinnosuke	#15 Soun	#16 Ryouga

I must be anal... I set up the above all by myself... Sheesh... At any rate, I'd mostly have to agree. If I'd be anyone from the Ranma-verse... it'd be one of the Saotome men.

ANIME QUIZ - Which Escaflowne Character Are You?
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Pretty cool. There are a lot of worse characters to end up with in this series (guh... a good story, but I don't think I'd want to be like any of the girls in this series. 'Course, that goes with numerous series. Hey, I'm a guy.) Only problem is that I end up--- ('Ya can't say that! Someone might not have seen it yet!) Oh, right, right. Nevermind, then. I didn't say ANYTHING.

And that's that. I'll *try* to update more often. Definitely once I leave for Japan.

- JR