I’m going to engage in one of the blogging clichés and make a diary post.
Still plugging along. Laptop didn’t arrive Friday, like it should. FedEx said “no one home or business closed.” Well someone was home, just not able to get to the door, assuming the delivery attempt was before 1pm. Not that it’s possible to find out from their tracking. So they’re going to try again on Monday, when I definitely won’t be here. Argh.
My boss has been off work all week due to multiple family emergencies and I’ve been missing work off and on for the same reason. And we’re winding up for a new release on the first. Have to hope it will go better than the last two times. Only way I could handle the multiple responsibilities was to duck about half of them; pushed everything off onto one poor lady and concentrated on the stuff I could do. Also took work home, which is supposed to be a big no-no, but I want to get it done. And it beats doing nothing for 90% of the time that I’m not helping out around the house. (Medicare doesn’t pay for a “sitter” any more, and minimal hospice care.)
Erin blew through on Thursday, but I was at home, fortunately. It was quite a mess, what with all the rain and flooding, although it was mostly of the “street and freeway” variety. What lunatic decided to change the rules for making roads 40 years ago, so that the rain drains INTO the road, instead of OFF it? Nothing like having your transportation network paralyzed because the freeway interchanges are under several feet of water. (Well, in fairness, some parts are going under, no matter what, when you get 8″ of rain.)
We looked at Dean, and although the predictions weren’t entirely ominous, you cannot wait on, “OMG, here it comes!” in Houston. Portable air conditioners and generators were already flying off the shelves on Friday morning. After some agonizing and comparison shopping online, we finally decided to go with a pair from Sam’s Club. Although we abandoned ship back in 2005 for Rita, there is no way we can do so this time. Not only would it be nearly impossible to evacuate all members of the family, I’m considered “vital personnel” by Public Works, and must remain in the city for immediate post-disaster duties. Never mind my own health challenges would make that difficult.
So now I’m down another $700 on top of the $500. Yeowtch. The reserve is going to pay this off my cards. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Looks like it’s fansubs and pulling stuff off the unwatched pile for me. That means G.I.T.S. (obligation buy, already seen it), Planetes, DVD 1 of Coyote Ragtime Show, and oh dear God, that means Ikkitousen may have to ugly up my DVD drive. /shudder/
I am following one fansub at the moment. After four episodes, So Long Mr. Despair, has become the winner of the 2007 summer season for me. Of course, since SZS is the ONLY series I’m following this summer, it’s not like it had a lot of competition. I cut back a lot after I started playing WOW, not just because I now had something to take my time up with, but also because I was getting into some scary territory, where obligation buys would outstrip my ability to buy animé, or at least buy stuff I hadn’t previously seen online. And as Shingu proved, I’d be missing out if I didn’t keep the budget open for discretionary purchases. (Budget? What budget? You just said your budget is shot!)
(Are you talking to yourself again?)
I have seen through ep. 4 of SZS (although a.f.k. has released ep. 5). If you can get past the occasional creep factor in some of the jokes and hit-or-miss blackboard scribbles (and I can), this is the funniest bizarre show since Excel Saga. There have been crazier shows, but there’s a big difference between crazy and funny. SZS has been getting it right, consistently, through the first four episodes. Some folks object to finding humor in suicide attempts, and I understand it — that one episode of Parinoia Agent ruined me on the whole series. But Pink Supervisor is a riot — if he weren’t already suicidally depressed over the most absurd things (“I’m in despair over the internet!”), he’d go insane from the girls in the class he has to teach. So far, one multiple personality, one delusional optimist (as much as he’s a pessimist), one illegal alien, one obsessive precisionist, one shy girl (who sends abusive text messages non-stop), one hikkimori, one “bandage girl” (with an animal fetish), one completely and terribly ordinary girl… who am I forgetting? Well, you get the idea. Their names are all puns on their traits. The guys are utterly ignored for the most part — this is the story of Pink Supervisor and his harem of schoolgirls. (Although the school psychologist is not exactly sane either, if you ask me.)
How did he get the nickname “Pink Supervisor?” Well, there was this discussion of naming rights that went really wrong…
And I think that’s a good note on which to end.
