Thursday - November 30, 2000
[Seraphim] - 12:25:23 - [link here]
Piro and I rented Princess Mononoke for the holiday weekend. He had seen the American release of the film when it first hit theaters, but I knew he would like to see it again (and again and again...) Our sweet little kitten got her name from the Japanese title of the film, "Mononoke Hime" (Demon Princess). Both names suit her well. Hime has single handedly destroyed $2000 of appliances, clothes, and computer equipment with her little sharp teeth and razor sharp claws. Piro actually made me watch Mononoke Hime a long time ago - it was a VHS version of a Chinese subtitle that had THEN been subbed into English. It was awful, and I started to regret my impulsive generosity...
Over the past few weekends I have made Piro endure some things that really are beyond the call of duty, including a co-worker's hoe down birthday party and a boiled corned beef and cabbage charity dinner. He is such a good sport. I owed him BIG. So i figured i owed it to him to sit and watch the american version of the movie. Don't tell Piro, but I really enjoyed it.
I am not very familiar with Japanese legends and lore. I grew up Catholic - very Catholic. Put me in the middle of Catholic mass or rite in any language and I would know what is going on. My moniker is even based on Catholicism. Piro keeps mentioning something called "Seraphim Call", but I have no idea what he is talking about. The Seraphim are the highest order of angles that sing the praises of God and have three sets of wings. My girlfriend, Mary, and I were the first female alter persons at St. Francis of Assisi.
What really confuses me is when Japanese anime uses Christian symbolism. Take Seira in St. Tail - in reality she would be a novice in an order. But what order does she belong to??? Dominican, Benedictine, or does she belong to the Convent Hall of Justice for semi-super heroes? The only thing they seem to get right is the school uniform - but it should be a really ugly green and blue plaid with criss-cross suspenders, a white blouse, and saddle shoes. (I'm sure even Dom could draw it).
As for Mononoke Princess, with an excellent translation, beautiful imagery, and Piro to fill in the blanks, the story is superb. It has some violence (decapitations like school girls popping off dandelion flowers) and disturbing visuals (animals turning into worm beasts). Really, it is no more scary than a story about making a man wear a crown of thorns and then nailing him to a cross. The beliefs in the movie seem more similar to Native American mythology - the reverence for nature, animals, and the theme of birth, death and renewal. The final scene where a Kodama stands over the tiny new saplings leaves me verklempt. Forget having a conscience sitting my shoulder, I want a Kodama to watch over me.
Tuesday - November 28, 2000
[Largo] - 10:31:00 - [link here]
You may have noticed this week's strips are a bit on the for lack of a better word 'mushy' side. See guys, this is what happens when I go out of town and leave Piro alone in the director's chair. Not that I object to our dichotomy of interests. So far our complete lack of common ground has produced something almost unique, and sometimes readable. The strip is about give and take, which on a good day means I give Piro hell, and he takes it.
Josh over at the awesome webcomic called Stubble, made us this gift art, very cool stuff.
After playing some Mechwarrior 4 this week, I've determined some things that I'd like to share with everyone today. First off, after years of playing mech games I've finally figured out the appeal of giant robot simulations, it's the big feet. There just isn't anything as satisfying as stepping on your enemy, except maybe if you get a kick out of scraping your enemy off your mech's foot - you'd know if you were into that sort of thing. However, for me nothing really captures the spirit of total domination like squishing your opponents into the ground like the ants they are, and that requires some really big feet.
I just can't get enough of the new Mechwarrior game, I'm hooked, I'm sold, I'm hyping this thing as if I worked for Dailyradar. Some people have complained about the lack of realism in the new incarnation of this popular series, but they should all be shot - so they don't matter. See, in the past there were little to no restrictions on the load outs of the weapons you could outfit on your mechs besides the issue of weight and physical space. However now in order to better help play balancing, you can only outfit certain amounts of certain types of weapons on any mech used. This gives the game something it never had in previous versions, balanced play.
Sure the purists of the genre will bitch and whine like political candidates that have lost an election and refuse to admit defeat, but I say just ignore them and they'll go away. That happens to be my solution to most problems, like when your car starts leaking a strange colored fluid, or if your body starts leaking strange colored fluids.
I've spent the last few weeks moving to my new place, which has been a strain on my time and energy. I am happy to report that it's over and I now can rest, well - I would rest but my new place does not have DSL or @home yet, so after years of having a fast connection, I'm being forced back into the dark ages and using a modem. For those of you who don't already know, modems suck. Modems suck in ways that I can't even describe, other then to say they suck.
btw, modems suck.
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