Midaregami

I really want to use TextMate. I mean I really, really want to use it. It seems like it would solve a whole litany of minor problems I have in using LaTeX as my primary environment for academic writing.

But there is one absolute dealbreaker. It doesn’t support multibyte character input. That means no Japanese.

So frustrating.

I believe I’ve sung the praises of the first two Flight books already. Book 3 has been out for some time—since June, actually. Lacking, as I do, a regular comic store at which I can obtain this sort of geek paraphernalia in a timely fashion, I only remembered to get Flight 3 a week or so ago, and am only now managing to write about it.

I said “geek paraphernalia,” and it is an inescapable fact that Flight 3 is what most would call a “comic book.” But this collection of stories is something that transcends such a lable, shedding the raiment of the nerd ghetto somewhere on the way to the house of High Art.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, go out and buy this book right goddamn now. It will make you want to do something beautiful.

I was taking some pictures for a lengthy comparison I had written on my two messenger bags, a Chrome Kremlin and Timbuk2 Laptop Messenger. I stepped out of the room for a moment, and returned to this grisly scene:

… the Chrome had eaten the Timbuk2. This… this is the only image of the carnage I can bring myself to publish.

Julia’s duck watches helplessly in the corner. What savagery will the voracious Kremlin indulge in next?

I’ve been playing a lot of Crimson Skies and Halo 2 lately—I have much to say about it, especially the latter. But for some inscrutable reason, I was possessed to write a Terzanelle on the subject of getting blown up in a Crimson Skies dogfight, something which happens with alarming regularity.

And now I’m going to inflict it on you.

In the crimson skies I died today
Shot down once, twice, thrice, and more
How will I live—I cannot say

Tho’ others might think me a bore
I cannot but to slow my craft
And opening fire upon the fore—

But while I slow, to my abaft
Yon ace takes steady aim with Hound
And smiles at his target daft

And then his blazing guns do pound
my hull—my engine, flaming, screams
that awful, ghastly, deathly sound

So gathered here we are, two teams
the red and blue, in mortal war
And O! my shameful failed scheme

And so it’s writ in crimson lore
In the crimson skies I died today
To land again, upon death’s shore
How will I live—I cannot say.

The dorkier among my largely imaginary readership may have noticed this Penny Arcade strip, which hilariously fictionalizes the real-world fact that both the writer and artist of that high-profile comic have just bought Macs.

The astute reader will note the absence of the term “switched,” there—both because, as high-profile gamers, they will not be constraining themselves to a platform as hilariously devoid of games as the Mac, but also because the notion that one can use one and only one operating system is pretty stupid.

Looks like my very first email address is gone for good…

Ah, GR2STARR. Hard to believe that was a decade ago. The DEC Alpha server that hosted that account—and on which I learned Pascal—was rumored to have 64 megabytes of memory. Sixty-Four Megabytes.

I suppose if I wanted the full computer nostalgia experience, I could install GNU Pascal and run GLTerminal full-screen. Of course, that leaves out the insanity of using VMS, but some experiences are fun only in retrospect…

I thought… I thought this day would never come.

If anybody needs to reach me, I’ll be over here basking in sweet, sweet validation.

My counterpart’s iBook’s display has had a couple of ominous backlight flickers recently. Her backlight has failed before (just like my old iBook’s did—damn you, Apple) but that was when the machine was still covered by AppleCare, so she was able to get it repaired free of charge. It’s out of that coverage now, so there is some concern as to what the best course of action should be, in the event of another backlight failure.

Alright, I’m delinquent. There are a variety of topics I could be discussing here, now that the semester’s over and vacation’s started, but haven’t been very… proactive about it.

I have been proactive about other things. Tuneful things. For example, it has occurred to me that The Second Line Dances Even When Dead. You may or may not agree.

I have also heard things, things about Youth and Transience—but I have not finished transcribing the message. Rest assured that it will be here when it is ready.

Some of these would be hilarious. Some would just be awesome. Others would destroy you.

• Neon Genesis Evangelion’s Shinji with Feist’s “Secret Heart”

• Spike and Julia from Cowboy Bebop with MC Solaar’s “La Belle et le Bad Boy.”

• Golden Boy’s Kintaro with Momus’s “Born to be Adored By Women”

• Omoide Poroporo, just in general, with Spitz’s “Countryside Life”

• Arima from His and Her Circumstances with the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody,” especially around episodes 18 and 19

• Chii from Chobits with The Flaming Lips’ “One More Robot/Symphony 3000-21.”

• Miyu from Vampire Princess Miyu with Blonde Redhead’s “Melody.”

• I will be god-damned if I can think of a good Kimagure Orange Road music video. I just can’t think of the right combination.

• Finally, they need to do a Nana anime, and Shena Ringo needs to cover The Killers’ “Indie Rock & Roll,” so that somebody can do the video and make me weep openly, sobbing great sobs for a past that never was.

Okay, I think I got that out of my system. Also, comments are back on. Thanks, Fluffy.