Hasn’t actually been that long since I last posted something, but feels like it’s been forever since last real post of substance. So here it is.

Games! First and foremost, there’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Got it at midnight release, played the hell out of it, unlocked all the characters and stages (I think), then haven’t played it too much since because of time spent on other stuff, like…

Fate/stay night. mirror moon has released version 2.0 of their English translation patch, this one encompassing the second story arc, Unlimited Blade Works, and lets you add the voices from RN to boot. And the game itself is, of course, awesome. A lot of the characters with minor roles in the Fate story arc really come into their own in UBW – Rin, Archer, and very surprisingly Lancer, who is incredibly cool. Can’t wait for Heaven’s Fate – I have no doubt that the remaining characters will get fleshed out as well, but that’s probably just me being a Type-Moon fanboy. ^_~

Moving onto anime, which I finally started again (or went on a binge of, depending on how you look at it…). Watched all of Monster. It really is a wonderful series, but I think it got drawn out too long, and I really dislike the majority of the character designs – though it really does show the contrast between Johan/Nina and everyone else. Still, as far as psychological thriller type anime goes, it’s the best I’ve seen (not that I’ve seen many…).

And then Elfen Lied. Seems to be very well received judging by the rankings on sites like MyAnimeList and ANN, but I don’t know, it really didn’t do too much for me. The concept is somewhat interesting, and the characters are very cute if not anything special… but the gratuitous use of nudity and blood is just unnecessary. And 13 episodes isn’t enough to really take develop the story properly.

In between, watched Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, one of a few anime that has managed to impress me with the animation quality (I’m usually not one to really pay attention or even notice). And the rest of the movie is pretty damn good too.

Oh yeah, also finally watched The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. After all that’s been said about it, I don’t think it was possible for it to really live up to the expectations. It’s definitely an interesting series, but… just not enough actually happens in it. And I really don’t get the nigh-fanatical following that the namesake character has.

What else? Started work again, probably less playing of WoW in future (FOR REALZ THIS TIME! …maybe…), and March Madness started. Hopefully Texas can take advantage of the home field advantage (Houston, San Antonio) and get to the Final Four and beyond.

Another WoW expansion!

And this picture is just ABSOLUTELY FUCKING AMAZING:

Someone needs to make a (good) replica of Frostmourne as it appears in that picture… I think it may have just replaced Soul Calibur as my favorite videogame sword.

Ubuntu 7.04 was released. Their naming scheme is fairly interesting – the version number is in the format of Y.MM (so 7.04 means released on April 2007), while the nickname follows the form of “Adjective Animal” – we’ve had “Warty Warthog”, “Hoary Hedgehog”, “Breezy Badger”, “Dapper Drake”, “Edgy Eft”, and now “Feisty Fawn”.

Anyway, I waited for it be out for a couple of weeks before deciding to update, but the progress went as clean as can be. Started up the system updater, clicked yes to a couple of dialogs, went to sleep, and by the next morning (or maybe it was afternoon X-D) I had a fully functional Feisty Fawn setup, and everything I had previously configured on 6.10 (namely the webserver bits) were still working perfectly. I’m very impressed. Oh, and 7.04 comes with a Sudoku game. Doesn’t help me try to forget… /sigh.

On to other things. What will probably be the biggest WoW content patch ever, 2.1.0, is near, and the it’s shaping up to be almost everything I’d want it to be (fix the invisible fel cannons that keep killing me too, thanks). So looking forward to that and some dead SSC bosses.

Spider-Man 3 comes out this weekend. Will have to see it. Early returns on impressions aren’t favorable, but this is now one of those movie franchises where you’d see it just to see how it turns out, regardless of what people say about it (much like the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Read The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy for the… I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read this. But damn it, I still enjoy it as much as ever, and I’m saddened whenever I remember that Douglas Adam’s genius sense of quirky humor will never grace us again.

And finally… what a choke job by both the Mavs and Heat. Not gonna get into it much more, but damn.

So it’s been a while… somehow the site seems to be working more reliably (*knocks on wood*), but of course nobody actually reads this, so it’s still more or less something I keep around for my own amusement, or more accurately to give me something to kill time with.

I guess it’s really of no surprise that I’ve returned to this after the lapse in updates it’s had in the past year or so. After all, it seems that once again this has become the only way I can express myself – the person that I felt I could most share my thoughts and emotions with, is no longer around… and probably never will be again. :’(

So here I am. What have I been doing? Well, you can probably guess. That’s right, WoW is once again the game/addiction of choice in my life. I basically power-leveled my warlock to 70 (took less than 6 days) and jumped right back into the raiding scene. Since then, I’ve gone through almost all of the new instances (except HFC) up through Karazhan and Gruul/Magtheridon (who we just downed this past Thursday). Impressions? At it’s core, it’s still the same WoW that consumed so much of my life these past two years. Sure, there are some problems in terms of class balance, raid tuning, and especially itemization, but overall it’s still very much an enjoyable experience. That said, today/yesterday’s Karazhan raid, especially the stuff involving Prince, has got to be some of the most frustrating I’ve had in a long time. Anywho…

What else? My iPod has finally given out. Seems like the Microdrive finally gave out (the computer won’t consistently recognize it, and iTunes always says it’s corrupted), so I’m gonna see if I can get a 4 or 8 GB CompactFlash card to replace it with and get that to work. In terms of music… liking Namie Amuro a lot more these days.

Since last post, I’ve watched Initial D 4th Stage (sucks), Ah! My Goddess (as enjoyable as ever, waiting for 2nd season to finish before watching that), and finally, the big surprise, Ouran High School Host Club.

The concept was interesting: a guy (actually a girl, but everyone thinks she’s a guy) who is a special student at a school for the rich and elite (which is to say, she’s from a “normal” family) accidentally wanders into the room of the host club, breaks a 8 million yen vase, and has to become a host to pay off that debt. And that sets up one of the most memorable anime comedies I’ve watched in quite some time. The animation and sound aren’t really anything special, but the characters are fascinatingly unique and interesting, and the story does a very good job of balancing the humor and the plot progression. All in all, I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a something lighthearted.

And finally, I think I should mention that my NCAA Tournament picks this year were horrid. The lack of upsets, and my ridiculous over-estimation of our Big XII (I had Kansas, Texas, and A&M all in the Final Four… oops) pretty much guaranteed that it was my worst bracket, well, ever. Good thing I wasn’t in a “real” pool…

And I guess that’s about it.