Okay then. I just had a freaky experience... I don't think I mentioned before, but I bought a new, Logitech keyboard last week. The //? (get it? slash/question mark - I'm funny) button was sticking on the old one. Also, after using SuperOpie's Logitech, I found I liked how the keys feel.

Well, they also come with lots of shortcut buttons. Which are pretty cool once you get used to them. It auto-detects all the media apps on the computer (Media Player, Quicktime, Winamp, et cetera) and has one button that'll bring up a menu. Nice. So after playing Morrowind (and having it crash on me) I couldn't get the shortcut things to work (other buttons include volume controls, a messenger shortcut, so on). Wasn't a big deal, but a little odd.

So just now, fully four hours after playing Morrowind, all the keystrokes I'd futilely logged happened all at once.

Yeah. Spiffy.

Little surprise involved, but Microsoft's made another patch for Internet Explorer. You know, I've had less virus infections since switching to Firefox? One has to wonder. It could be a coincidence, of course.

This cheers me immensely: they are planning to release Butcher Bay on the PC.

Here's something creepy: Colin Powell performing YMCA? Oh jeez...

Absolutely nothing interesting to talk about. I did finally beat the hell that is Meteor Herd. MH being a Knuckles level in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Ugh. Damn emerald.

My me hurts...

EDIT: Catystorm was right in her comment. Free Comic Book Day is Saturday, not Friday.

I took a walk today, and didn't turn back at any sort of reasonable time. So now I'm lethargic and my legs hurt. Actually, I have pains in improbable places, like my back, but that's okay. I'll actually go to sleep, I think.

Everyone remember: Free Comic Book Day is this Friday!

And certain people thinking of buying GameCubes might be interested in this: We're hearing rumors of a kick-ass Metroid 'Cube deal.

The complete item shall purportedly include the system, one controller, a copy of Metroid Prime, and a meaty demo of this November's sequel to the original, aptly titled Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Things are certainly getting interesting: national defense apparently hinges on good clock speed. This is just silly. A 650MHz processor is "militarily critical?" Humbug.

Oh, and Kevin Rose (of The ScreenSavers fame) apparently did a feature on Bittorrent goodies, though I missed the show itself. Someone cancelled, it would seem.

Quicksilver, the first book of Neal Stephenson's newest series, The Baroque Cycle, is frustrating in some ways. In a very real sense it is plotless. This isn't a mark against it, actually; it is character driven, which is theoretically the point of fiction, really (if such a point exists). The characters are enchanting, engaging, and erratic, so no faults there. It is very thick reading, if you will: meaning it does not go by swiftly. I did some calculations as to length. I am used to gauging books' lengths in terms of paperbacks. 'X' number of pages paperback means more to me than 'x' number hardcover. So I calculated how many pages, paperback, Quicksilver would be. (I used A Wheel of Time novel as reference, I own both versions) It is 926 pages in hardcover, which comes out to over 1100 pages. I had the exact number written down, but I seem to have lost it. I still adore the book, but one must take breaks from it. In fact, I am already over half-finished with Smoke & Mirrors, and have even read a bit of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Ah, there we are: 1193 pages, rounded up.

This is a very amusing article. Whether you support, despise, or (joining my party) are ambivalent towards George W. Bush. The system exists to some extent with every president I've seen (which would be a round three now, really).

Joe has a point. That's a bit of an odd decision for a fourteen-year old, isn't it? Here's a better article. Er - and a lot of strange people commenting. Strange piece of news really.

Harry Potter post - those averse are warned.

Yes, this is amusing. A meager day after I discovered (with a bit of help) the sixth Harry Potter book title on J.K. Rowling's website, they announce it all over the internet. Hmph. Bloody bad timing on my part, as is usual. The title's Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which I feel is loads better than most of the things that have been suggested online.

Also, a note to those of you who spend your time hypothesizing such things: Rowling does read the internet, and she mentioned in the Rumours section of her site that all the suggested names were awful. She's paying attention, and is amused.

It's not all bad on the personal Potter front though: I finally got to see the third movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (as if you didn't know). I agree with what the consensus seems to be: it was a very good movie, but certain scenes and additions made no sense. As I have to slog through all the tripe of romantic theories, or "ships" as strange, depressing people prefer to call them, a few of my notes I took (yes, I took notes) are in that bent:

• Where did the picture of Ron and Hermione dancing come from? It's silly.
  
• Why in the hell are there shrunken human heads dangling about? (In the Knight Bus and the Three Broomsticks?
  
• In fact, why were children kept out of the Three Broomsticks anyway? That didn't happen, and there's no sense it it. Bloody hell I'm gonna keep out my briskest business.
  
• Why do the dementors freeze everything? I mean to check, but I'm pretty sure you feel cold. It's not a climate thing.
  
• I saw the choir in trailers and such, but they still bother me. While amusing and great sounding, I still didn't like it overall. Now mind, I love instances of life in the books, and the movies: the scene in the boys' dormitory was fantastic. As were all scenes with Fred and George.
  
• The Divination classroom is reached by a trapdoor in the books. It's not a terribly big change, but that makes it stranger still.
  

There were things I particularly liked, too.

• Person in the Leaky Cauldron reading Stephen Hawking's book.
  
• Sir Cadogan lurking in the background, twice.
  
• The map was done very well, though I did miss the scene wherein Remus reveals who made it Yes, one could figure it out, but the scene was fun, and wasn't too long.
  
• Did anyone else notice what Buckbeak's favorite food was? Ferrets. Book readers: what does Moody turn Malfoy into?
  

Most everyone has probably heard Rowling's quote; she felt the movie was spooky, as she saw references to things she has planned in the sixth and seventh books: no one but her knows them, but Cuaron apparently picked up on the hints. Now, everyone and their annoying siblings has decided this is relationship news, coupling Hermione with either Ron or Harry. I think, instead, it could be Harry's mention of wanting to live in the country with Sirius. Rowling has already clearly told everyone Harry won't be the Minister by the end of book seven. So I feel it's quite likely, if he lives, that he'll retire off into the countryside somewhere. Voila: it even makes sense in context of the books.

(Yes, I too think about these sorts of things as well - but I don't obsess over single points that quite possibly won't even be mentioned in the books.)

The movie also brought Aunt Marge's comment back into focus: "...bad blood will out." Sounds like it's all about book six, really.

I thought everyone might like this picture I snapped while playing Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga 

That's wild.

I surprised everyone (especially myself) by pounding out a complete, 2400 word short story today. I'm quite satisfied with it (unlike my previous short story), and have emailed Dr. Blythe, my creative writing teacher, about proofreading it before I submit it to the dark travails of the publication trails. Interesting times... SuperOpie, I'll probably ask you to proofread it as well. Now to bed, folks.

A trip to the cemetery.

I've always been fascinated with graveyards and cemeteries. It's not the dead that draw me, though that makes for good gags. I like how they look, and how they feel. It has to be hard, being a sloppy cemetery groundskeeper. So the scenery is well kept, usually. Around here they're usually on hills, too. Hills (like windows, doorways, arches, hollows, and tunnels) fascinate me as well: they're balanced between exit and entrance. Another aspect of burial grounds I love are the stones: I like stone all by itself, really. It looks nice and clean. I especially like simple things, with function and form mingling: so the clean lines and bare look of gravestones: those are nice. Especially very old stones. Finally, the combination appeals to me. Clean white or gray stones buried in grass, hill, and trees. And in the back of this particular place, some stones are right on the borders of what's considered the cemetery, so trees and vines drape over and bury a few stones.

Yes: "this particular place." We visited the cemetery where my patriarchal grandparents (that is, my dad's parents), are buried. The sunlight was slanting, as I'm fond of seeing (and writing: "slanting sunlight" is a nice piece of consonance). Honeysuckle wind surrounded us in that pleasant place. There are stones there that have the names wiped from them, with the dates following slowly. Shrouded in growths, they stand still, some broken, some mysterious. One broken slab, weeds and shoots growing from the cracked gaps, is perhaps the top of a crypt. Nearly six inches thick, it bars most from finding the truth.

Some of my favorite headstones I've only found there. Small for a large monument, large for a small, they rise to about chest height. Small steeples, they square nicely, and point well. A combination of everything I like about stoneworks. There was even one with an extra level of interest: still quite readable, it reveals the name and birthday of the deceased. But no deathday has been carved on. And the birthday tells us, if the monument itself isn't evidence enough, that this person is dead.

The entire trip was wonderful. Clouds were that peculiar sort of cirrus that I enjoy, making shapes with tufts and spikes and swirls. Swordfish and purple sandworms scudded the sky.