joy and shadows

It's about that time again, yes.

Before I try my luck on eBay, I'm offering the following for sale:

Excel Saga complete set, original release (not the thinpak): $30.00

Gunslinger Girl v1 + box: $10.00

Wolf's Rain v1 and 2 + box, plushie, and soundtrack: $30.00

The Incredibles, new in package: $10.00

Texhnolyze v1: $5.00

RahXephon Movie: $5.00 (already have a copy)

Saiyuki v11 - Following the Scripture: $5.00 (already have a copy)

PS2 Game Spyro: Year of the Dragon: $5.00

Shipping via Priority Mail or Media Mail, to be determined by how many things you want. I do ship internationally, but all DVDs and games are Region 1.

I haven't blabbed about my weekend in weeks! I'm sure you all missed it a LOT.

Busy weekend, but in a good way. Friday night we went out for a very swank dinner at 3 West with one of my husband's friends from the R&A. They're visiting the USGA this week, and husband is good friends with the technical director. I tried merguez for the first time, and we had a lovely bottle of cabernet to go along with dinner, and dessert was banana and peanut butter spring rolls with vanilla ice cream. Mmmtasty.

Saturday was spent on domestic duties such as cleaning the floor and bathroom and making polenta and spezzatino for dinner (alternately titled "How Arafel Discovered the Joys of Instant Polenta.") Normally to make polenta, you boil cornmeal in water while stirring until it softens and cooks, and it takes 30 to 40 minutes. Instant polenta - dump it in and it's done. w00t! Husband spent the day setting up our new home theatre system, and we tried it out on Serenity, which fadingembers gave me for Christmas.

Sunday was Team Haxx0r Cosplay Day. jaina came over about noonish, and we spent the day on our knees in the kitchen (not that way, you dirty pervs!) drawing lines on black fabric. I have to say that things went VERY well, and we had plenty of time to watch Bleach 64 before we moved on to basting pleats in front of the Steelers/Broncos football game. Lookin' good for Katsucon, yes. Afterwards, I did some work on my own cosplay while dropping in and out of watching the Panthers/Seahawks game. We had the Traditional Football Meal of bratwurst on a bun with sauerkraut accompanied by beer. Neither game was terribly exciting, IMO - both the Broncos and the Panthers committed four turnovers, and you can't do that shit esp. in the playoffs and expect to win.

Now, back to work. I have done nothing productive for work all morning. Oh, and GIP too.

There's nothing quite like going to the eye doctor and having her tell you that you need reading glasses to make you feel old old old.

Le sigh. Fartiness, ahoy!

It has been a banner week for Intarweb lolz, and the week is not over yet.

First, on some video game forum, a cosplay thread is started. Late in the thread, someone posts a photo of me as Diao Chan and makes a comment sth like "nice costume if the girl was hot." Several other prepubescent gamers chime in with "she looks mannish." I found out about it because the OP stole my own bandwidth to insult me. (This whole thing just made me laugh - when you have a bunch of pimply kids who prefer underaged Japanese porn stars waving around your photo and calling you mannish, you have to consider the source and just say "LOL INTERNETS!") At any rate, I posted to say "Wanker, don't steal my own bandwidth to talk smack about me," and the rest of the thread goes "LOL INTERNETS" and they all come down on my side. Sadly, it looks like the thread was deleted. :(

Then we had a shiny new Usagi Kou wank, and that ALWAYS makes my day. The icing on the cake was some pics posted by the now deleted cospoop that were recently taken of Ms. Kou, and she's getting a tummy. Ah, grownup metabolism, you are the great leveler of playing fields.

Now World Wide Web War 1 is brewing between YTMND and eBaum's World, and the dramatic reading of the emails and the associated YTMND stupidity is going to entertain me all day long.

Oh yes and ( House MD minor spoiler )

The fellow who runs Fansview had a heart attack at Ohayocon!

It has been a bad couple of days for hearts. I hope he'll be all right - he's a very large guy, so that upped his risk, I suppose.

Tell you one thing, when I get back to work tomorrow, I'm getting me a new GP and a cardiologist. Good grief.

I got nearly ten yards of a nice quality white coarse-weave fabric for 60% off of $3.99/yard. I don't think it was supposed to be on sale, but they gave me the sale price anyway.

Made dinner tonight and had to nearly sit on my mother to keep her out of the kitchen. You'd think she'd be happy to let someone else cook, but noooo, she was hovering like a Huey.

Football all afternoon. The Skins/Bucs game was exciting, though we didn't want the Skins to win. NE and Jacksonville is shaping up to be another nailbiter, and while I'd rather see the Pats win than the Jags, it would be good to have someone new in the Super Bowl.

Given what's happened over the last couple days, I'm not going to complain about going to church tomorrow.

I think I owe someone a thank-you, and I'm not sure who it is, so do speak up if this sounds familiar.

I got a package today from Anime Palace containing two Bleach zipper-pulls. Very nice, very cute, absolutely no clue as to who bought it. I've never ordered anything from Anime Palace, nor do I remember shopping at their kiosk at a con, so it stands to reason that someone who shares my Bleach interest bought me a present.

So, if it's you, stand up and be counted! And, thank you! :D

Phew. After three straight days of running around like ninnies, we have an entire evening to sit down.

Wait, did I say that right? I meant "clean up house and put away presents."

No rest for the weary, so on the 22nd, we both took the day off in preparation for the holiday rush and to clean the house up before our friend Jason came over for Festivus Eve dinner. It was a pleasant and warm evening, and as we said to Jason, it's about the only thing we do during the holidays that we have complete control over and actually want to do. We watched part of "A Christmas Story" (which I still think I haven't ever seen all the way through) and then it was more than time for bed.

Husband and I opened our presents with one another the next morning, and we had a happy morning playing with our new toys. Husband got a bunch of compilations of old video games that we played until it was time to leave for PA. My parents invited us for a fancy dinner at Lacroix in the Rittenhouse Hotel, so we drove in all haste to husband's parents' house, visited a bit, got dressed, and hurried off to Philly. Dinner was very fancy, and the service was first-rate, but the problem with these avant-garde restaurants is that the items on the menu that aren't seafood tend to be game meats. I tentatively tried a rabbit leg, adding to the list of "Cute Animals I've Eaten." Not sure I'd eat that again. Possibly the weirdest thing I tried was the bleu cheese ice cream. Now, I adore stinky blue cheese with a passion, but it's disgusting when made into an ice cream. Bleh.

Early on the 24th, we went to the Radnor Inn to have breakfast with our friends from Buffalo. They were very happy to see us, and Wyatt was well-behaved. We had some downtime with the in-laws until they went off to their two Christmas parties (something husband was a bit irked about; we were sorry they didn't set aside some time for us on Xmas Eve.) At any rate, we went off to Longwood Gardens for their annual holiday display in the gardens and the Conservatory. My folks and my aunt were also going to the same place, but we didn't plan our evening around them; instead, we met up for the Christmas organ concert/singalong in the Conservatory, and a good time was had by all. Husband and I decided not to eat at the gardens and instead opted to try to go out to eat, but all the restaurants were closed, so we ended up making pasta back at the house. We decided to go to vigil Mass at St. Thomas at Villanova, because I like to feel all Christmas-y like that, and my parents had decided to go to that Mass as well. The music was spectacular (except for a very strange arrangement of "Veni, Veni Emmanuel") and it was exactly midnight when the Mass let out, so you could say that we heard the bells on Christmas Day in the morning.

Our Christmas Day was a bit chaotic. P and G decided that they'd stay the night to open presents with us and Mom and Dad Q in the morning, and they brought both their large dog and the dog they were dog-sitting. I am not fond of dogs, so it was something to put up with, but P & G's dog is pretty well-behaved, and the other one wasn't too obnoxious either. After breakfast, we tidied up our things and headed out to my parents' not long after the in-laws left to visit other family up north. We had presents with my mom and dad and stretched it out a couple hours. My mother made dinner, and we made a valiant attempt to watch "Babes in Toyland" after dinner, but husband and I were pooped and we didn't make it through. We did get a nice long sleep out of it, though.

Now we're home, and I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow, though it'll be a working holiday. Got to get that cosplay done! Hoo-ah!

In the immortal words of Dr. Stan Johnson...

PHAT CITY! SCIENCE WINS AGAIN!

Judge rules against 'intelligent design' in science class

I've been following this story for a while now with trepidation. One of my major bitches with the current administration - aside from all the other bullshit - is the anti-science, pro-religious attitude. Our Fearless Leader has cut funding for the NIH and NSF, has consistently quashed pioneering research in areas he considers objectionable while flying in the face of hard data like global warming to protect his own interests, and has fostered a climate of small-minded religious justification. While I don't suggest that our Fearless Leader is responsible for intelligent design, he does encourage it, and he encourages other similar religion-based ideas to flourish under his watch.

The defeat of intelligent design in PA gives me hope that the intelligent people in this country will begin to fight back against the relentless push of a vocal, religiously motivated minority. A summary of the trial was given in the New Yorker a few weeks ago - for an excellent article on the subject, I direct you to Why Intelligent Design Isn't. (Sadly, the trial summary was not published online, but you can read a Q&A with the author here.) While my scientist's soul cringes in horror at the misinformation we are fed, at the repeated rape of our natural resources, at the anti-science crusade, this one victory gives me hope that maybe things will change.