I'd like to take some time here to thank everyone who continues to visit the site, as if it were not your encouragement - voiced either actively or passively through hits - then I would have abandoned this little HTML experiment a long, long time ago. It's great to see Razor Witt evolve into the canvas it is today, and I am happy to have the opportunity to use it. One year down, many more to go.

In the interests of keeping the ball rolling ever forward, I've just completed another anime movie review, Voices of a Distant Star. Along with this new review, I also took the time to reorganize the Archive section, compiling all the old entries into their respective month entries and adding a short description - so check'em out. I was planning to do more, but I had no idea how easily end-of-year exams/papers/projects pile up... well... at the end of the year. I'll try to finish out the Cowboy Bebop and Read or Die reviews I'm well underway on, but whether that will have to wait until this weekend is still up in the air at this point. Just note that unlike a lot of idle chatter I say about what I'm going to be uploading "here soon," I do tend to finish what I start. Look for those two reviews soon.

Just downloaded the new Xenosaga 2 trailer, and I'm getting mighty anxious for a firm release date. I had some initial reservation over the decision to basically remake the entire cast in a more realistic fashion, but I liked what I saw. Especially that I know Albedo is back - he was certainly one of the most sadistic bad guys to ever grace a console, and I look forward to spanking his ass royally for a second time. Bring on the pain, indeed.

In case you haven't been abreast of absolutely vital videogames news, then allow me to inform you that Black Isle Studios is no more. Yes, that means the creators of Fallout and Baldur's Gate are no longer making videogames - a tragedy which could only be equaled by dragging them all out into the street to be shot.

In similarly bad news, it appears that The National Institute on Media and the Family are no longer content in embarrassing themselves using standard avenues of the English language - they insist on using new words altogether. Apparently their new word "killographic" is supposed to be similar to the term "pornographic," except the former sounds unbelievably stupid. The NIMF (or Numerous Idiotic Mother Fuckers as I prefer to call them) seem to have gone through with this terrible assault on an already beleaguered English language to raise awareness surrounding the impending holiday release of such titles as Rockstar's Manhunt. Unfortunately, coining asinine terms will not fix bad parenting.

Along the same note of uselessness is the news that the former director of the ATF is retiring to head up RIAA's anti-piracy efforts. "Over the past six months, RIAA has filed more than 380 copyright lawsuits against computer users its says are illegally distributing songs over the Internet." Yeah, out of how many file-sharers? Thirteen, fourteen million of the people on Kazaa daily? How about the 65 million Americans who have admitted to such an activity?

Now, for the updates. The Cowboy Bebop review is finally up and the promised Read or Die review is in the later stages of completion. I also went ahead and went back through the Archives, putting the individual entries back into chronological order - seemed a bit silly to keep them reversed as they are up here.

I have a few more things I want to talk about, but I will have to save them for the weekend. Most of the papers and final projects will be out of the way by Saturday, with only the Final Exams to worry about next week. I'll just be glad when all of this is over. "Most wonderful time of the year," indeed.

First, you may have heard that story about how an XBox can deflect real bullets. Beyond this being absolutely hilarious, I also got wind of a preliminary bid to replace police officers' more traditional bullet-proof vests with ones padded by XBoxes instead of high-priced ceramics. The details are still a bit sketchy, but I have otherwise secured a photo of one possible sales pitch. More photos probably will not be forthcoming.

While it may be old, I certainly hope everyone has seen the immensely amusing "The Matrix Reloaded in Tokyo" website. I am almost ashamed how completely the Japanese upstaged us at a premiere for our own movie.

I have some more interesting links, but I think I'll save them for the eventual Links page.

First was a Medieval Civilization exam which was rather easy, being open-book open-note and having a study guide. The other exam was an optional Astronomy oral exam which really was taken to replace my first in-class exam/test grade of 68%. I scored 87% actually, which cemented a B+ for my grade in Astronomy. This is good, as the professor also mentioned that it may be bumped up to an A- after he adjusts everything. I have a solid block of Japan tomorrow in two exams: East Asian Politics (12:30-3:00 pm) and Beginning Japanese (3:30-5:00 pm). The good news here is that I have a solid B in Japanese, and the teacher told me a good grade means a B+, and a bad grade would still be a B. That's nice to know.

In the off-chance you didn't already know, they caught Saddam. In the words of my generation: w00t!

Since it's a thing going around, I went ahead and set up a Friend Test of sorts about myself. I think the answers are pretty easy to deduce, but if you score badly, you could always redeem yourself. I also enjoy large sums of money, regardless of how you score.

"Girls x Guns x 3D CG mecha Tokyo western" by GONZO? Rest assured, this is something that I will be keeping both eyes on...

East Asian Politics was easy, and the Japanese Final ended up being only worth 5% of my total grade. I had an 87.5% going in, not including a final performance that I did well on. Hell, I could have skipped it altogether and still gotten a B. I think that's game.

Packing stuff up at the moment, and I'm not sure what my update schedule is going to be for the Break - maybe good maybe bad. Either way, I'm going to be playing some Magic, some RPGs, watching some anime, and definitely schooling some people in Mario Kart: Double Dash. Consider it brought.

I'm outta here.

Fortunately for you, my hand-wringing has wrought two, yes two, new anime reviews: Read or Die and Chobits. Fourteen down, twenty to go. In the interests of remaining internally consistent though, I'm not going to promise any additional updates until January - I have way too much on my plate before even considering tackling the mountain of material I wish to work on for the site. Mixed metaphors aside, I also appear to be losing my internet connection for possibly the duration of Break. So, just in case: I do hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

See you on the flip side.