Magical Pearl

Closing of this journal.

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:30:06 GMT

Since I am using a different journal these days, I am closing this journal due to non-use. The main reason I changed journals is because I had grown to dislike the underscore/dash in my username. If you are still interested in reading my infrequent tirades and comments, go on over to dv8nekomimi and friend me. This account becomes a "basic" unpaid for accound in 5 days and I will probably delete it in about a month.

I am Ebil!

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:31:06 GMT

You Are 44% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side.

Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Happy Chinese New Year!

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:26:32 GMT

Happy Chinese New Year! Enter the year of the Rat.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:58:46 GMT

I hope that everyone had a very pleasant holiday. Now to make it through to Christmas.

Slinky is finally home.

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:13:02 GMT

I was called yesterday by the animal hospital, who told me that they had gotten Slinky's remains back. So, after work I went by and picked them up. The box we bought for it is VERY nice, and even Darling is happy with it. Right now it is on our fake fireplace until we find a better location for it.

Nekocon X

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:43:38 GMT

After much deliberating, I have decided to go to Nekocon X. It helps that a friend of mine will be driving down to go with me. We are only going to attend on Saturday, but hopefully get to be at the Dance and see some fun.

Sadness.

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:29:49 GMT

I am finally able to try to post something about this.

Yesterday afternoon one of my ferrets passed away. He was a very sweet little cream colored guy we called "Slinky". His disposition was the best you could hope for in a ferret or pretty much any other animal. Curious, friendly, playful, yet relaxed enough that he would let you hold him and pet him.

We found him Friday night lying at the bottom of his cage. At first I though he had caught a cold or was having an adverse reaction to us switching them from pine bedding to kitty litter. I had not played with him in a few days as he was primarily my oldest daughters pet, so I was quite surprised to find he has lost more than half his body weight. We spent all weekend trying to nurse him with cups of water and a mash made from the ferret food and warm water. He improved a little bit, but not enough, so Monday afternoon I took him to the vet to be checked. After an exam and x-rays, the vet told me that Slinky had a large tumor in his stomach area. Even if we had opted for surgery, the vet was not optimistic on his quality of life or survival. We decided to have him put to sleep and scheduled it to happen on Wednesday (today) so that we could say our goodbyes and the kids could see him. Monday night, he drank a lot of water and slurped up a lot of broth from the mash, so I felt confident. But Tuesday morning he would not drink or eat at all. I was worried then, but when I got home at noon for lunch, I knew it was pretty much over. He was moving around in his cage trying to get comfortable, he didn't seem to be able to see. I took him out and cleaned the poop off of him, and laid him on a towel to rest on the floor. Darling (my significant other) was doing some stuff around the house so I left to get my oldest daughter from school. I dropped her off to watch over him and I headed back to work to arrange to take the rest of the day off so I could take Slinky back to the vet. As I was pulling into the parking lot at work, I got a call from my daughter that Slinky has passed away. I returned home immediately and gathered up the family so we could take Slinky down to the vet. We said our last good-byes, and gave him to them to send off to be cremated, his ashes to be returned to us. We will get them in 7 to 10 days.

The tears have started again. I have the same heartache from losing this little guy that I had when my father passed away. I didn't realize until too late how attached to him I was. He is at peace now and out playing at the Rainbow Bridge, waiting until it is my time to join him. I look forward to that day.

I love these anime quizes.

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:52:33 GMT

Are you a Nice Person?? (Girl anime pics)

You're a good person. You know how to be nice without being OVERLY nice...You always try to think of others and their needs, but you know that it's impossible to please everyone and you are willing to accept people as they are. That's great!
Take this quiz!

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And another because I was bored it was cute and a catgirl

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:22:14 GMT

See your neko zodiac pic, and read your zodiac profile!(New version!)

The year of the tiger! Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes tiger people come into conflict with older people or those in authority. Sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons, and Dogs
Take this quiz!

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Ok, so it was cute!

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:35:29 GMT

.:-|What is your true element?|-:. -With Anime Pictures and detailed answers-

Your element is Light: Innocent, beautiful, kind-hearted and pure. You are so sweet your almost angelic! You find joy in others happiness and cannot stand to see anyone in pain. You want to make everyone around you feel good about themselves and if someone is upset you can tend to become rather upset as well which means you are sympathetic and raise others above yourself. Being as kind and good-natured as you are people have most likely hurt you in the past but you pick yourself up every time. You may look fragile but you are stronger then most tend to see. Life is beautiful no matter how you look at it and you understand that people make mistakes. Not everyone is perfect. You try to see the good in the bad which is a talent few posses. Dont ever let anyone change you. You truly have a beautiful soul inside and a heart of gold.
Take this quiz!

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Linux Kernel Birthday!

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:40:47 GMT

For those who may not realize it, the Linux kernel turns 16 tomorrow. Sixteen years ago on August 25th, 1991, Linus Torvolds announced to the world that he would be releasing a free operating system that would later become the Linux kernel.

Thank you!

Mon, 07 May 2007 20:45:46 GMT

Thank you Richie, for friending me. I have also added you as a friend as well.

Burning Issues With Vista

Mon, 07 May 2007 14:47:11 GMT

Here is something I was not aware of. It seems that the Windows Vista CD/DVD burning tool uses a "special" Microsoft file format as indicated in this article:
Burning Issues With Vista

This tells me that it is definitely better to use the burning software that came with your CD or DVD burner. Though how long those will remain pure is yet to be seen. Granted, PJ's lack of current Windows experience is the cause of some of the problems she has in the article, yet the intent of the article is adequately displayed.

As an aside, I loved her comment:
"An OS and user interface should behave like the perfect butler: make your life as easy as possible while remaining as unobtrusive as possible. Vista behaves more like a very stupid servant in a flashy outfit."

While I agree with her point, I think that I am more inclined to want my OS to be like a smart and energetic young girl in a pretty french maid outfit. Cute as hell to look at, yet is efficient and quick to get her job done. But that is just me. ^_^

Visual Novels.

Mon, 07 May 2007 14:01:32 GMT

I have been playing a lot of Japanese Visual Novels lately. Not the Eroge kind though I have played those before, but rather some of the free non-adult doushin kind listed on http://shii.org/translate/. So far I have played through the following novels:

Red Shift
At Summer's End
Wanders in the Sky
Flood of Tears
Summer, Cicadas, and the Girl

Most of these can be played on either Windows or Linux, though some are Windows only and needs your environment set to Japanese.

Martian Successor Nadesico

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:15:34 GMT

I sat down and watched 5 episodes of this series last night. Now I know why Ruri is a favorite character. She's cute and a loli, so all the lolicons are in love with her. Plus she seems to be the only INTELLIGENT character in the entire show. In fact, I would say that she is the ONLY redeeming thing this show has going for it.

The story premise is great. The delivery, horrible. Something much more like Kiddy Grade would have been better in my opinion. But then, I dislike shows where the majority of the characters are excessively silly. I will probably sit through a few more episodes (scroll advance wheel ready), to see if it improves any. Comments from people who have watched the entire series are appreciated.

Danbooru - A demonstration on how not to do things.

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:59:54 GMT

This morning I discovered that one of my favorite image sites, Danbooru, had closed its doors to the public. Oh if you are part of a special group you can get it. Two different reasons for the closure were offered up, and while either (or even both) are usually valid reasons for such actions, the site owner's attitude and handling of the situation leaves a lot to be desired. Here is my take on things:

Reason 1 - Loss of a 75GB/day server: Valid concern. So why didn't he either ask for donations or move to a subscription plan. Perusing the forms revealed that there were a lot who would gladly join some form of subscription system.

Reason 2 - Unwanted images were being uploaded: Image boards and forums do not moderate themselves. To believe otherwise is to live in a fantasy land. Yet that is exactly what Danbooru's owner expected to happen.

Running an image board/database or a forum takes two things, work and money. If you are not willing to accept that, you shouldn't bother with a site on the Internet in the first place. Probably Danbooru's worst failure in my opinion is that you get no warning of what is going on when you visit the site. You are told that you now have to log in to access functions that previously didn't require such, and then you find out that signups are disabled. Also, many people who had logins are finding them not working now. If you want to know why you have to do some serious looking around to get an answer.

I am not saying that Danbooru's owner doesn't have the right to do what he did. But I think that his attitude is a bit much about it. Fortunately, there are other image boards out there. And I don't mind showing my support financially for a good one or two.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:34:17 GMT

I want to wish anyone who reads this journel a Happy Valentine's Day!

Darwin Day

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:01:37 GMT

I didn't get a chance to post this any sooner, but yesterday was Darwin Day. I think it is a pretty neat idea, but then I am a believer in evolution.

Ground Hog Day

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:27:03 GMT

So today is Ground Hog Day. And everyone is making a big deal about whether or not some ground hog in Pensylvania saw his shadow or not. I have always considered this an exercise in futility. Today I heard evidence to support this. It seems the ground hog is correct on predicting the end of winter 28% of the time. Not that you are likely to get much better results from the National Weather Service who has a success rate of 31%. I don't understand the big deal of trying to forcast what will happen 6 weeks down the road anyway. Winter will end when it ends. :)

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:26:56 GMT

I finally got around to watching this entire series over the last three nights. I had originally watched the first 3 episodes when they were first released by the fansubbers. Then went on to read the translation of the first book. Now having taken to see the anime I don't know if it was better to have read the book first or not. In either case, both the book and the anime are very good. The anime WILL drive you to distraction due to the rearranged order of the episodes in relation to the book.

The anime has been licensed now by Kadokawa Pictures USA, and distributed by Bandai Entertainment. See their website at http://www.asosbrigade.com/.

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 22:47:11 GMT

Now this is interesting:

You Are 32% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.
In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Teddy Bear Day.

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:46:05 GMT

Supposedly today is Teddy Bear Day in Japan. I think that is a pretty neat idea. So be sure to hug your Teddy today. If you don't have a Teddy Bear, why not? :)

Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 03:39:12 GMT

This anime seems like a light hearted and humorous romp. Typical harem romance with the wishy-washy male lead as usual. What makes this series fun so far through two episodes is the incredible luck the lead guy has. It almost seems as if this series is poking fun at other series (like that never happens). The tough guys look like they stepped out of Tenjou Tenge, and the student council looks like it stepped out of Princess Princess. The lead guy brings to mind Yukinari from Girls Bravo without the phobias, or possibly another guy whom I cannot recall the name of right now who didn't want to get involved with anything during his high school years. At any rate, this is on my watch-list for another episode at least.

Lovely Idol

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:44:11 GMT

I just finished episode 2 of this new series. The art is top notch and similar to that in Shuffle! The story at first glance appears to be a harem, but I am beginning to suspect that it really isn't a harem story deep down. Both episodes left me interested in more so this series will remain on my watch-list.

La Corda D'Oro

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 20:06:21 GMT

Another new series out this fall, this one should appeal to the girls in the audience. The art style is that common to girls comics and the quality is very good. The story has started out well and there are many indications of a bit of rivalry and romance to come. The touch of magic in the story makes this something more than just some mundane "slice of life". I recommend it.