Absurd Singularity

Apparently hell isn't freezing over fast enough so Apple's deciding to hasten it a bit more by releasing their first ever multi-button mouse. Although it still looks like a one-button mouse. They're so deceptive. ;-p Anyhoo, I would've been tempted to get one, but it's not Bluetooth-enabled. Oh well.

Anyway... Apparently, I can browse, but I can't purchase.

BTW, What's up with Stefani's Harajuku fetish? Is there such a thing as (a single representative) "Harajuku Style?"

Just started our condo search last week and daaaamn it's a lot of work. So many newspaper and website listings to go through I think I'm going cross-eyed. Got a bunch more places lined up for this weekend but after that I think that's about it. Slim pickings in the areas that I'm concentrating on at our price range unfortunately. May have to expand the search zone.

Discovered that wandering randomly into open houses usually isn't very effective since you have no idea what you're going in to see until you actually enter. We did find an absolutely awesome 1 year old 3BR condo in Union City this way though. Perched on top of the cliff overlooking Hoboken, you had a clear view all the way into Manhattan. Plus it was on a short dead-end street. And the interior was super nice. With 2 parking spaces (outside though) and 400 sq ft of storage in the basement. Unfortunately it was also $770,000. With $14,000 property tax. Krikey.

So move on we must. At least we're not in a huge rush just yet. But man, when's this damn bubble gonna pop eh?

It's ok every now and then to wallow in memories of the past isn't it? People seem to have a love/hate relationship with the past. You shouldn't live in it, but you should learn from it. Bah, people these days don't have time to dwell on the past anyway. Well, at least not often. Me, I enjoy the past, that's why I've had a website for the past uh, decade or so now. It's a superb way of chronicling one's life, that is, as long as you remember to back up often. ;-)

The first few (could've been one, or maybe three, don't remember) iterations of my online existence has been lost to the void for a good 8 years now but while reminiscing about the classic anime series of yesteryear (Patlabor to be exact), I dug up my previous website and had a good and hearty laugh. Good lord I was such a NERD back then. Now I'm just a geek. ;-) Actually I was kinda shocked that I had actually kept that design for as long as I had. Chalk another one up to laziness I suppose. Anyway, I've decided to retrieve it from the dustbin of my past, give it a much needed cleaning (broken links and images and all that), and eventually repost it in an obscure archives area. Might as well, what's a coupla more megabytes of fluff on the world-wide web?

In the process I discovered my old guestbook and remembered that hey, I have a long-neglected "new" guestbook as well. Obviously I (well, at least my site) was more popular back then than I am now. ;-p Plus the old guestbook links back to an old location that for some reason still exists even though I cancelled that account years ago. Oddly half the pages are gone though. I think this may have been a temporary site while I was moving things around inbetween Chicago, Hawaii and Taiwan.

Ahhh.... good times. I wonder what I'll be thinking 10 years down the road when I come back to look at this current site. Maybe I'll even have the same design, I still rather like it at the moment. Nice and simple and clean. Probably just do a little tweaking here and there.

Anyhow, more on this in the future when I finish remodeling the past. =)

While we're talking real estate ... I really like the blog, Curbed.com.

Here's a cute image from today's entry:

and an interesting article.

So, I was reading this article on the San Francisco Chronicle's web site about a woman named Mary Anne Mohanraj who has become one of the most popular erotica writers on the web and a "queen" of alt.sex.stories. It goes into her upbringing in a traditional Tamil family, and her attending a Catholic girls school in Connecticut, and how when she went to school in the Windy City, she found her voice.

Kimi ga Nozomu Eine (The Eternity You Wish For)

It's been a while since I've watched an anime that put me in an emotional headlock and rammed me headfirst through a couple of walls. Obviously it's not a feeling that one usually wants inflicted when watching some sort of entertainment (masochists excepted), but I haven't had this kind of experience since... well, I'm not sure. What made it even more unexpected is that this came from a genre (Japanese PC dating game) that typically isn't known to embody stories with this type of emotional impact and story depth (at least not when converted to anime form).

Intrigued that it was ranked #2 overall at AnimeNfo, I dl'ed it and I gotta say, I haven't felt this satisfied with an anime ending in quite a long time. Lot of the stuff I've seen recently have all had either rather vague endings, or endings that left some things still unresolved, or just simply non-endings, which gets rather annoying after awhile. But with stories like KgNE, a good ending makes or breaks the series and after all the gritted teeth, fist clenching, and scowls, KgNE does not disappoint. Very much like the endings for the ol' favorites, KOR & MI. It's one of those endings that ultimately leaves you with the "all's well with the world", "balance has been achieved", "boneheadedness has been made up for" kind of feeling. MI's ending I feel was much better dialogue-wise but a good ending nonetheless.

Haibane Renmei (Charcoal Feather Federation)

Speaking of anime that end with unanswered questions, Haibane Renmei is one such title. Although in this particular case, it doesn't really matter. The questions left unanswered have more to do with the world and background that this anime is set in, not so much to the story itself.

The story is a powerful and moving tale of redemption, salvation, and friendship and as such is one that's alternatingly sweet, melancholic, painful, and reflective. It does start off rather slow as the viewer is eased into the new-born Rakka's life as a Haibane so if you're an impatient sort of person, this series won't be for you. There is a mildly religious feel to the series but it's not really coherent. Left up to interpretation you might say.

The series also has quite a good soundtrack that fits the overall tone of the story well. Good for staring out a window and contemplating life on a rainy day. :| Could be mildly depressing if you're already leaning toward that sort of mood.

on a previous entry regarding Asian women and some sorta of newfangled visor that apparently is making its way into Cali. Images of them can be found here.

Cleaning up the ol' site took less time than I thought. But man I've got some ugly-ass pages in there. =) Anyhoo, you can get to it from here. I take no responsibility to links to other sites that may or may not still exist. Some notes after the break...

Granted I'm a big proponent of Apple computers but even I wouldn't go wait in line overnight for $50 4-year-old iBooks. And believe me, I've waited in line for much less than that. ;-) If they were $50 4-year-old Powerbooks on the other hand... =)

But dang, a line half a mile long, 5 to 10 thousand people? I mean it's not that poor of a county is it? Guess people just gotta have their laptops.

from our deserted office on the 19th floor of Saint Bartholomew's Church directly behind us. Noticed it while I was up there scrounging around for supplies and thought I'd take a few pics.

House-hunting's turning out to be much rougher than originally expected. Places we like are too expensive, places that are cheaper are in more suspect neighborhoods. *sigh* Although I guess I shouldn't be getting too discouraged since it's only been about a month. =p

Anyway, just upgraded this site to MovableType 3.2. Looking good so far...

[UPDATE]: Looks like I spoke too soon. Entry form page doesn't work on the new Safari 2.0.1...