Have you ever played a videogame from your childhood and noticed, with the sobering objectivity of adulthood, that some things just don’t make any sense (not even within the game’s fictional universe)? For example, I can accept that the Reptites of 65,000,000 B.C. are sophisticated enough to construct sleep-inducing Smoke Bombs. They are a fictional race and the game sufficiently presents them to be more technologically advanced than prehistoric man. But why would a robot from 2300 A.D. be the party member most susceptible to the Sleep effect of their bombs? Does Robo have air-intake valves, or a respiratory system? Do the robots of 2300 A.D. even sleep? I am only capable of suspending so much disbelief! ww

My Dad showed up at my Mom’s yesterday with an unexpected package addressed to me from Conlan Press. Upon opening it, I practically began to hyperventilate! It was a limited edition art print of the Lady Amalthea that I had placed an order for back in 2006 or 2007. The prints sold out immediately due to unexpected fan response (only 500 of each piece existed) and unfortunately my order was placed too late. I declined a refund at the time, hoping that someone might cancel their order and I would be next in line to receive it. Eventually I forgot about the print (and refund) altogether; but it would appear that Conlan Press didn’t forget about me! Somewhere, somehow, someone’s returned or canceled print turned up, and I’m now the proud new owner.

The artwork in the print is from one of my favorite animated films: The Last Unicorn. Without going into too much detail, both the film and the novel it was based on are very special to me. I was obsessed with the film when I was younger (I watched our VHS copy to death) and fell in love with the novel once I read it as part of my assigned reading in junior high. I even devoted a website to the film when I was in high school. It is a bit embarrassing for me to look at my site now though, seeing its 800X600 design and my poor writing. =P

I have a new dollie! Her name is Moni and she is a 2003 Kinder by my favorite doll artist, Annette Himstedt. Gosh, she’s just the most darling little ginger girl I’ve ever seen with her cute freckles! X3 The hat she’s wearing is not original to her outfit (crocheted it from alpaca yarn), but I think it compliments the colors.

I don’t know if I’ve ever discussed my doll hobby on here, but I basically get it from my Mom. She’s a pretty crazy doll collector and when she still lived with my Dad, we had two bedrooms (one being a masters) where she displayed all her dolls. My Mom moved into a smaller house when they divorced, so she has much less room for her dolls now even though she continues to collect them. So, whenever she needs to make room, I offer to adopt some of them. I began taking the Himstedts originally because something about their mohair and precious faces appealed to me. Then I got into knitting because of them, wanting to make little hats and outfits, and it just took off from there! The ironic thing is that I probably play with dolls more now than I ever did when I was younger. I never owned a single Barbie because I was more interested in Transformers. =P Maybe that is why I find dolls so appealing now? Or maybe knitting for them is just easier. *L*

The Oncidium (Sherry Baby) that I purchased back in October 2008 developed its first blooms earlier this week. It only bloomed once this year, so I’ve been taking advantage of every opportunity to display it. I usually move it to some area of the house in the morning and put it back in my bathroom at night, since I keep overhead lights running in there to get the most out of photosynthesis for my plants. My Grandma remarked that I should just buy a fake orchid for my room instead of going to all of this trouble, but part of the appreciation that I have for my orchids comes from growing them. =P I also don’t consider moving a plant twice a day to be that big of an inconvenience when it is for my own enjoyment. Now that I write it all out though, it does sound a little… OCD. =X I suppose that I am a rather strange person!

I went to the Main Street Mercantile with my Mom this weekend because she wanted to buy a lamp. While we were there I saw this adorable Tea For One set (still new) marked down to $15. Basically I used to have a thing for collecting teapots and tea sets, but stopped because they reminded me of my ex (not in a bad way). So, I was indecisive about buying it and finally decided that I shouldn’t get into the habit of buying things when accompanying my Mom on her own shopping trips anyways. But when we met up at the register, there it was! My Mom had noticed me eyeing it and decided to buy it for me. *L* She’s so perceptive. =P

I actually like the convenience of it a lot, since I usually brew tea by the cup. Now I brew enough for the teapot and just keep it in my room. It also encouraged me to do some knitting and have fun with potholder patterns. Here are the ones I’m using now — what do you think? The only drawback is that the yarn wasn’t as thick as I would have liked, so I end up using two of the potholders instead of one just to be safe.

So this is what my TF2 backpack looks like following Valve’s nerf. I couldn’t play TF2 for two days because they deleted all of the weapons that I had earned through Milestones/Achievements and didn’t restore them until today. I don’t mind losing the items, but I really hate how Valve has treated and divided the community over this. I vented my thoughts about it like hundreds of other people over on the Steam Powered Forums.

I’ve been decorating my knitting needles using sculpty clay. How do they look? They’re supposed to be flowers if you couldn’t tell. ^^; I also made a new hat like my Mad Hatter one, except that this time I used 100% silk yarn so that it wouldn’t be too hot to wear in the summer. I know, I’m so uncreative, it is the third hat that I’ve made like this! I can’t really think of anything I want to make though now that spring is here.

These days you can’t turn on the news without hearing about the AIG bonus scandal. To provide a little back story: AIG, which is the biggest insurance company in the world, received $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money this month to prevent bankruptcy. The concern was that AIG was too big to fail and that its bankruptcy would kick an already crippled American economy into depression. When news broke last week that AIG had awarded $165 million in bonuses to its financial services division, politicians and media alike seized upon the opportunity to grandstand on the issue; expressing outrage over what they perceived to be an example of the greed and excess that had gotten AIG and the American economy into this mess. There is no rationale to who the mob targets for blame. One of my state’s congressman, Darrell Issha, even called for the resignation of Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury (something which would lead to a depression if it happened).

Recently there has been a great deal of finger-pointing in the direction of AIG’s CEO Edward Liddy (who is himself earning only $1 in pay). The American public has demanded that Liddy rescind on the bonus payments, while politicians have threatened to impose a special tax on the bonuses if Liddy doesn’t follow through. Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution however states that no ex post facto law shall be enacted. Money paid on a valid debt is not recoverable or taxable after the fact, except of course in a bankruptcy, which is what bailing out AIG was supposed to prevent. Repayment of bonus money can be required as part of a new contract with an employee, but the government can’t get payments back under the existing contract. These bonuses were written into the employee’s contracts years before AIG’s bailout.

As a Californian and Republican I find the outrage over this whole affair to be ridiculous. Hollywood movie stars are paid around $10 million per movie. $165 million spread across AIG’s entire financial services division amounts to about $1m per person, when they are doing highly skilled work. To the average American making around $60,000 a year, it might seem excessive for someone to be making $1m a year at AIG. But the people in AIG’s financial services division are handling $1.6 trillion in credit default swaps and billions of dollars in cash and assets every day. As an American I would rather see AIG succeed than fail. If that means a fraction of 1% in bailout money going towards their financial services division, keeping those people on, I could care less.

I stayed up late last night to watch Dream 7 air live on KeyHoleTV. Of course the two fighters that I was most eager to watch were my heroes Tatsuya Kawajiri and Shinya Aoki!

The highlight of the night for me was Aoki’s rear naked choke on David Gardner. Honestly, I feel sooo bad for this guy! I haven’t seen anything quite this embarassing since Franklin decided to duck out of Anderson Silva’s Muay Thai clinch at UFC64 (subsequently re-arranging the alignment of his face in the process… ouch). But how cocky can you be to let down your guard like this when you have the tobikan judan on your back? XD These American guys need to stop underestimating Aoki’s submission skills; neck cranks and heel hooks hurt!

Let’s play a game of ad-lib: What was Gardner trying to say before getting choketapped? ww

So I saw The Watchmen recently and it was above and beyond my expectations. The movie comes close to following the events of the novel exactly and is probably the most accurate comic-to-movie adaptation I’ve seen from Hollywood to date. I liked it more than the Dark Knight, which is saying a lot! I know that most Watchmen fans were upset by Snyder’s miniscule changes to the story and characters, particularly the removal of the squid, but I actually felt that his ending was more appropriate for the film while still keeping the spirit of the novel intact. My only real grievance was with the lack of character background/development in favor of overly drawn-out sex scenes. Silk Spectre for example came off as transparent as her namesake on screen because her character was never really explored. Rorschach’s mask isn’t explained either, even though it is the most iconic aspect of the character and Malcolm Long provided the perfect opportunity. I don’t think that I’m a prude, but doesn’t it seem like Hollywood is more concerned with sex than story in movies these days? The Archimedes scene was so horribly paced (and out of place) that it defies explanation. LOL

World of Goo is such an addicting game with an equally wacky atmosphere. The cute and creepy illustration style, clever “Sign Painter” narration, and music score are akin to something between Tim Burton and Dr. Seuss. LOL One of my friends has been raving about this game for awhile now and at 75% off (only $4.99) how could I refuse? The game is a giant physics simulation where you solve puzzles by stacking balls of goo with different properties to create bridges, towers, and even airships. Sometimes knowing what I need to do in order to clear a map only makes it twice as more challenging, because I limit myself to only one way of thinking about how to do something. I’m making my way through the last level of Ch.2 right now.

I crocheted this hat from leftover cotton yarn recently in the same style as my rainbow mohair hat. My Dad says that I look like the Mad Hatter from Alice and Wonderland when I wear it. LOL I feel accomplished when I make stuff like this out of leftover yarn, but the colors continue to pose a problem even after I’m done with the project. I have no idea what to pair this with for one thing. I mean… green and purple? ArGh!!

I celebrated Valentine’s Day with Charon by touring the mall of our nation’s capitol (IE, playing Fallout 3). LOL