News & Updates in December 2003

Added the anime profiles of Banner of the Stars, Adventures of the Little Koala, The Adventures of the Little Prince, Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea and Demon City Shinjuku.

Split apart the Tenchi Muyo OVA and TV series into separate profiles: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and Tenchi Universe. Added the anime profiles of Belle and Sebastian, Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy, Shaman King, Onegai Twins, Read or Die, and Crest of the Stars. Added the character profiles of Seina Yamada (from Tenchi Muyo! GXP: Galaxy Police Transporter), Manami Kusunoki (from Variable Geo), Hachi (from Inu-Yasha), Yomi (from Yu Yu Hakusho), Hyoga (from Knights of the Zodiac), Kaoru (from Ai Yori Aoshi), Fiona Elisi Linette (from Zoids Chaotic Century), Lt. Maya Ibiki, Naoko Akagi, and Pen Pen (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Kazuhiko Amagasaki, Yuzuha, and Chief Nobeyama (from Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki), Master Mage Clef and Eagle Vision (from Magic Knights Rayearth), Leena (from Dirty Pair Flash: Mission 2), and Espa Roba and Weevil Underwood (from Yu-Gi-Oh!). Added additional descriptions to several characters.

Wow, it actually started snowing yesterday! And not just a little, as I saw at least 3-4 inches of snow on the ground before going to bed last night. We hit the hay after the power went out around 1:30 AM. Earlier in the evening I had to go outside and knock the snow off the satellite dish so we could get a signal. Right now the roads are covered with snow and slush, so we both have the day off. Well, Treeses had the day off anyway, but the buses aren't running so everyone else at her work has the day off too.

Added the anime profile of Pet Shop of Horrors. Added the character profiles of Touma (from Dirty Pair Flash: Mission 2), Luminous One (from Battle of the Planets), and Victoria Ceras (from Hellsing). I'm finally on to the profiles that I received in October. I have about 350 profiles sitting in my To-Do folder, and receive more every day. Since I'm so far behind, any profiles that have crappy descriptions will be deleted. Sorry, but I just don't have the time to do very much rewriting.

We had a nice Christmas this year. We all got off early on Christmas Eve, which gave me the chance to stop by Raley's and pick up the last of our wedding pictures. Treeses got home at her normal time, somewhere between 9:00 and 9:00, and we opened gifts shortly thereafter. Contained within my stocking was a wooden style electric pepper grinder. We have tried several pepper grinders in the past, and I was always disappointed with their functionality, so I had mentioned that it would be cool if they just had an electronic push button one. I couldn't believe she actually found one, and not just any one but one that would match our oak table and that looked good.

Then Treese opened her stocking. The first thing she pulled out was a Christmas card. And not just a regular Christmas card, but a mushy one. I always try to get humorous cards, and had never before given her a sentimental one. This made her cry tears of joy! The next thing she opened was an envelope containing information about what it would take for her to become a pilot. I knew she has wanted to be a pilot ever since she was young, so I thought I'd find out exactly what it would take. She was so interested in the information, that she didn't even see the certificate for a free flying lesson that was also inside the envelope. I had to pull it out and hand it to her. She absolutely loved it! I also got her a few other gifts, including a desktop fountain that looks like an old, mossed over pot which would fit wonderfully with her collection of fairies, and two videogames: Prince of Persia and Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando. Treeses also got me a Star Wars Unlimited action figure of Darth Sidious.

We figured we would leave that evening to go to my parents' house, but we were too tired so we slept until about 4:30, and left around 5:30 AM. Shortly after we arrived, we went to my grandparents' house where we had breakfast, and after my Aunt Terri and her family arrived and ate, we all gathered around the Christmas tree and opened gifts. That was fun, and Treeses really liked it. She felt really comfortable around everybody this time around. After that we went back to my parents' house where Treeses and I took a nap. Later we went over to my Aunt Terri's for dinner. Before dinner was served, Treese and I talked and played Uno with my aunt and grandma. The others watched the DVDs The Medallion and then The In-Laws. For dinner we had ham, applesauce, blintzes, bread, salad, and some other things that I'm probably forgetting. We talked a little more after dinner, then went back to my parents' house where we soon headed back to Redding. It was a really good Christmas, and Treeses best Christmas ever.

Added the anime profile of Astro Boy (2003 remake), and added the character profile of Yuriko Shinonome (from Eiken).

Last Saturday I finally got around to taking in two disposable cameras that were actually from our wedding. Hey, better late than never. I also sold my Metallica box set on eBay, and when I went to Office Depot to ship it, I looked at the multifunction printers that also fax, copy, and scan. Like I mentioned earlier, we already have one that works really well, but I wanted one with a flatbed scanner to scan all those things that aren't standard document sized. The problems with all the ones we looked at previously is that they were too deep and would take up our entire desk, but there I saw a brand new HP model (HP Officejet 5510 all-in-one) that was very narrow. So far it seems to be working pretty good.

Had an update to the whole Pacesetter situation, but I already wrote about on the Pacesetter page, so you can read it there if you want. Um, went to a Christmas party last night which was fun. Didn't really do much except talk though. Oh, Christy moved out last week and into her grandma's place since her mom had been ill lately. What else...well, we went to see the midnight showing of Return of the King on Tuesday (or technically on Wednesday). It was, as expected, an amazing movie. Unfortunately the air conditioning was busted and they wouldn't open the doors so it was burning up in there. Anytime there was action on screen, the heat wasn't noticeable, but anytime other than that it was really distracting. We will definitely need to go back, although I'm sure we'll be waiting a few weeks for the crowds to die down.

Added the anime profile of Eiken and the character profile of Chiharu (from Eiken).

Added the character profiles of Mask of Flesh, Mistress Centipede, and Jinenji (from Inu-Yasha), Marla (from Adventures of the Mini-Goddess), Princess Sienna (from Saint Seiya), Princess Rona (from Kirby: Right Back at Ya!), and Sumomo (from Chobits).

Added the anime profile of Zoid Fuzors. Added the character profile of B.D.N. (from Trigun).

Added the anime profile of Fighting Foodons. Added the character profiles of Kyo Sohma (from Fruits Basket), Hakudoushi and Jakotsu (from Inu-Yasha), Ayane (from Gate Keepers 21), and Chef Kawasaki (from Kirby: Right Back at Ya!). Added an additional description to the character profiles of Gan-chan (from Adventures of the Mini Goddess) and Knuckle Joe (from Kirby: Right Back at Ya!).

Added the character profiles of Juri Arisugawa and Chu Chu (from Revolutionary Girl Utena) and Aoi Sakuraba (from Ai Yori Aoshi).

Added the character profile of Pikachu (from Pokemon).

Added the character profile of Yugi (from Tenchi in Tokyo).

My Zelda game arrived yesterday, although I haven't had a chance to play it yet. It's the promotional one you can get when buying a new Nintendo GameCube or subscribing to Nintendo Power. I did the subscription, as it was only $20 and I already have a GameCube. I also got the Golden Axe import for the PlayStation 2 a few days ago. It's a 3-D remake of the Sega Genesis version of Golden Axe, and it was a blast to play... at least with Ax Battler, the barbarian. I first tried starting the game with the dwarf, my favorite character, but his controls seemed really sluggish and his polygon modeled body was horrible. The graphics aren't that great all-around, but his seemed to be the worst. They really should have released this as a 2-D game with all new enhanced graphics. With the power of the PlayStation 2, they could have made it look really spectacular in 2-D...then again, that probably would have taken a lot of work too, as it isn't really a simple task to do 2-D graphics on the PS2.

Oh, what else is going on? I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau about Pacesetter and how they are ignoring their warranty obligations. I cleaned off part of the desk and filed away hundreds of papers that had been stacking up for some time. I opened our receipt box to find a receipt for something we need to return, and ended up cleaning that out. I found receipts from the year 2000 in that thing, not to mention all the diner and grocery receipts! Why the hell am I keeping those?! Really it's just because we empty our pockets when we get home, and when receipts start to pile up we throw them all into the receipt box. We really need to stop doing that. Okay, what else? I brought in the Halloween decorations and turned on the Christmas tree lights. I didn't have to set up the tree, as it had been standing all year. I put up our stockings, so now I just need to find something to put in them.

I received my Ranma 1/2 seasons 1 and 2 box set this week, but haven't had time to watch any of them yet. I've ordered a couple gifts for Treeses so far, but still need to find some more. Umm...what else? We had Clark come by to confiscate more dead mice and reset the traps. We discovered that one of our hall closets smelled really bad, and came to the conclusion that it was probably a dead mouse above it in the attic. The Clark guy picked up a mouse from that area, and said that it was probably the one that was dead last time which the previous Clark guy didn't get. Most Clark guys are really awesome, and I would highly recommend them, but the guy before last had some kind of issues. I wasn't there we he came, but my wife was and she told me about how he was very apprehensive about going into the attic. She said that he just stuck his head up there and said he couldn't see any traps, and that he actually had to call someone else to ask where they were. Geeze dude, just get up there and look! That's what I did to see that the traps were full, and that's why I called you guys.

We've been looking into getting a multi-function printer with fax and scanner capabilities. We have a nice Hewlett Packard one at the moment, but I would like to have one with a flatbed scanner. Unfortunately all of those are pretty big. They all seem to have a depth of about 23 inches, which would take up the whole desk, so we'll probably just stick with what we have.