The Betrayal of Susan

We went to see "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe", though at the price of having to drive through a nasty and rather unexpected blizzard in which the car got stuck twice. I liked the movie. It wasn't 100% perfect, but I thought it was very faithful to the spirit of the book and all the additions made were good and justified.

As days went on and I found myself with a copy of the Making Of book of the movie (and early Christmas present from two people I still have to meet), I found myself thinking about the series quite a bit. I've only re-read the first two books (chronological order), but I remember the whole series fairly well. Specifically, I started to think about the final book in the series, "The Last Battle". (Yes, I know I need to change the name of my story. It was just a placeholder anyway.) I don't hear many people say it's their favorite of the series. It's kind of a tough read. This is the Narnia version of the end of the world, which means a lot of characters dying. I distinctly recall putting the book down for a while because a passage about the death of a bear was just too much for me.

But there's another reason a lot of people find "The Last Battle" rather harsh. See, if you read the books in publication order (Which I think works better if you're reading them for the first time), you learned about Narnia with the four Pevensie children. Gradually, you meet other children from our world who get to visit Narnia. "The Last Battle" gathers them all together again and returns them to Narnia. Well, all except one. If you haven't guessed who, then you aren't paying much attention to the title of this entry. But I'll show you how it's explained:

"Sir," said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. If I have read the chronicle aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?"

"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."

"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'"

"Oh Susan!"said Jill. "She's interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up."

"Grown-up, indeed," said the Lady Polly. "I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."

Now C.S. Lewis was writing in the 1950s, which make could make sexism on his part somewhat forgivable. Fantasy author Neil Gaiman, best known for the "Sandman" comics series, is not so forgiving, feeling that Lewis is all around harsh on female characters who are not young girls or old women or friendly beavers. He's apparently written a short story entitled "The Problem of Susan", dealing with this very idea. I haven't read it yet, and that's partly why I'm writing this now; I want to get my thoughts on the subject out before I read his and start to be influenced by them.

Re-reading this passage, I'm especially surprised by Jill's lines. As far as I remember, Jill never actually met Susan in the course of the books. Yet here she is, talking about how Susan was always too eager to reach maturity.

I've seen some fans of the Narnia books act very much like Jill. With the clear-eyed vision that only hindsight can bring, they look down their noses at Susan. And there certainly are fairly legitimate reasons to do this. A reader can't help but feel sort of betrayed by Susan. It seems almost unthinkable that one of the few children to be able to go into Narnia - an enviable experience for most readers - would turn her back on the kingdom as its darkest hour approaches. For some readers, it may hit a little close to home, reminding them of someone they knew once who suddenly renounced all childhood in favor of "maturity", possibly leaving a few people behind in the process.

For, to be fair, there is no shortage of adolescent girls like Susan. You can find them in any high school, middle school, or increasingly, elementary school. They're the ones who seem to disappear into the school bathroom for unusually long amounts of time, the ones who start wearing revealing clothing and makeup long before it looks remotely appropriate, the ones who seem to believe that female existence revolves around the teenage years, with particular emphasis on sixteen through seventeen. Various media sources, magazines, and products encourage them in their thinking. As for those women who spend the rest of their lives trying to stay at that age, pop culture is littered with them. There's no denying that Lewis's vision of the older Susan has a basis in reality.

But I can't quite bring myself to believe that how Susan ends up is only a reflection of how some normal teenage girls end up. Susan is not a normal girl and I think there's something else going on with her. Something a little deeper and a little sadder.

Imagine yourself in Susan's position. You're a child during wartime, shipped away from your home to live with strangers so you'll be safe from enemy attacks. You don't have much say in this or much of anything that happens to you.

And then, you go to Narnia. And suddenly, you're somebody really important. All kinds of fantastic creatures are looking to you and your siblings to save their world from tyrannical rule and eternal winter. You never even dreamed this place existed and yet your coming and your deeds have been foretold. Of course, it's not without danger. Those in power know that you can bring about their downfall and they'll use any means necessary to stop you. But with your siblings and your newfound friends, you succeed. And then, you're queen! The four of you rule the land together and grown into young men and women.

But it can't last. One day, you find yourself back in the world you came from, the same as you were before. If you take the movie's view of the book, you've gained a new wisdom and appreciation for your family. But it still can't be easy, going back to being an ordinary girl after being a queen. So you're probably pretty happy when you get to return to Narnia. It's tough to see how much time has passed in what felt like a short absence, how much has changed. But it's still good to be back.

Then, the bombshell drops. You are told that this is it. You will never be able to return to Narnia.

(This, incidentally, is something of a contradiction, as Aslan tells Peter that he won't be coming back either. He eventually tells Edmund and Lucy the same thing. I'm not sure whether there's some Biblical reference I'm missing or Lewis simply didn't realize at the time that he'd be bringing three of the children back to Narnia some day. Either way, it is a little troubling and I don't recall any given explanation for it.)

So you go home. You know this time for certain that the adventures are over. No more tea with kindly fauns, no more rescuing innocent creatures turned to stone, just regular life like before you even knew Narnia existed. Except now you do know it exists. But no one else does, save your brothers and sister and possibly that eccentric old professor. You can't tell anyone else about your adventures in Narnia, about the wonderful things you saw and did. They would think you were crazy or ill or just making it up. Heck, even you didn't believe your own sister when she first told you about Narnia. So now you're back to being ordinary you. You've grown from your time in Narnia and you've learned things, but you just can't figure out how to put them to use back in your world. Because no one understands and everyone is still treating you like a child. You've got all these adults still bossing you around and acting like manners and homework and proper nutrition are the most important things in the world. And it's not so much that they aren't treating you like a queen; it's that you've grown so much and no one seems to see that. And all the while, you see all these adults running the country and the world and making a total mess of it and you know you could do better because you did. But n one here is going to give you a chance.

I do realize that the element of the spiritual is an important one in the Chronicles of Narnia, even though you can happily read through them without being at all aware of it. I don't feel I'm really qualified to discuss it too deeply as it relates to Susan. I'll just say that I think it would be very hard to go from a world where the savior figure is very near and physically present and you can get close enough to touch him and feel his breath and even play with him after his resurrection, to one where the savior figure your seeking might seem more distant and less tangible. Religion is tricky and personal, so I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, there you sit, becoming more and more certain that your best days are behind you and nothing you do in this world will ever be as wonderful or as meaningful as what you did back in Narnia. What do you do? How do you keep yourself going? What's your new purpose in life when it seems like destiny is done with you?

I, at least, like to think pretty well of myself. So I'd like to imagine that I'd use what I'd learned from my time in Narnia to put my energy into curing diseases or ending wars or running for prime minister or some such thing. But I can see, and I hope you can as well, how easy it would be to fall back on something more immediate and more superficial. We are talking about a teenager here, so she's limited in what she can actually accomplish right away. So Susan throws herself into being a stereotypical teenage girl. Her energy goes into getting the right clothes and going to the right parties with the right boys. She makes herself believe the hype that if she does all this, she'll be happy and popular and loved and grown up. And somewhere in the back of her mind, she knows she wants this because she wants to be the woman she was in Narnia again, the queen who everyone thought was beautiful and gentle and wise. The adolescent concept of maturity is a poor substitute for the real thing, but she believes it's the best she can get since Narnia is gone now. And slowly, she convinces herself that Narnia couldn't possibly have been real, because knowing that it was real, but she can never go back, is just too painful. So she convinces herself that Narnia was just a childhood game and that this, what she's doing now, is what life is really all about. And she tells herself she's happy and she's never been happier.

It's not the best reaction to being exiled from your kingdom, but it is an understandable one. C.S. Lewis may have intended Susan's turning away from Narnia to seem more clean cut, more black and white. But I can't just turn my back on her as suddenly as Jill and scoff that Susan was always too eager to grow up. I never saw that in her when I read the books. Her actions, as reported to us, may be poor choices, but they are human ones.

All of this begs the question of how the movies might handle this upsetting idea, assuming they get as far as "The Last Battle". The film's characterization of her is setting her up as scholarly and logical, which may be laying the groundwork for what's to come. And yet, the movie is the story of a family becoming closer and stronger through their magical experiences. And I just can't see Susan's siblings turning their back on her, or allowing others to talk about her in such nasty terms, as they do in the book. Even if it does happen, the movie is a long way off, so I won't know for some time. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to find a copy of Mr. Gaiman's short story. Now that I've got my thoughts out, I want to see what he has to say.

A Blip

This post is largely to explain a brief Blogger hiccup some of you may have noticed. Sometime yesterday, BlogSpot went blooey, leaving everyone who didn't host their Blogger blog on their own webspace sans blog. This is not a big deal for my regular blog, which is updated very infrequently. But it was a problem because I'd just put a new story part up at StormWyvern Press (link to the right). Fortunately, I could still log onto Blogger and view my posts. Only the blogs themselves were gone. Worried that the situation might get worse, I grabbed everything I had written of "The Last Battle" so far and saved it to my computer. Today, everything seems to be fine, though I haven't seen any explanation as to why the outage happened. So I'm posting here largely to let people know that both blogs appear to be up again and there's new content at StormWyvern Press.

We're now fully into the holiday season over here. So far, this mostly means trying to get our shopping done. We've had our first snow that stayed around, measuring in at roughly three inches. We're supposed to get more today. "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" comes out this week and I'll likely go to see it at my earliest convenience. My family - both the human and bunny members - is well and the house is staying relatively warm so far this winter, though we do need to get our windows replaced sometime when the weather is warmer.

So take a look at StormWyvern Press, as that's where the party is these days. Take care.

Console Wars: Why the XBox 360 Will Be Stupid

I will almost certainly get a PlayStation3 when it comes out.

I might get a Nintendo Revolution when it comes out.

I was not planning on getting an XBox 360 when it came out (have to draw the line somewhere), but someone online just pointed out a factor that makes me even more certain of my decision.

I don't think I've ever been outright down on the original XBox. There are, in fact, a small number of games that make me very jealous of XBox owners (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic being a major one.) But as compared with the other two consoles, there just weren't that many XBox only games that I really wanted. The system had a direction that didn't include quite enough of the kind of games I like to make buying it worthwhile.

Considering this, buying the 360 was never really a consideration. The other two systems will be able to play all of my current game library, plus a number of oldies if the Revolution's retro library pans out. Unless something very odd happened, like Final Fantasy suddenly going exclusive to XBox, there was just no reason to pick up the 360. But after what I've learned, I wonder if a lot of people who actually have XBoxes now might feel the same way.

We've known for a while that there will be two versions of the XBox available at launch. One is a "value priced" version, with only the basics included, pretty much system and controller. The more expensive premium package has some extra bells and whistles, like a headset for talking online, an ethernet cable, and a hard drive. Now you might be thinking that all this extra stuff is fun but fairly unnecessary. Think again. If you have a pile of XBox games sitting around and you want to play them on your shiny new 360, then you NEED that hard drive. That's right, the XBox360 is backwards compatible ONLY IF you have a hard drive for it. The hard drive can be bought separately if you have the core package for about $100. (If you are considering getting a 360 and want it to be backwards compatible with your XBox games, I would recommend the premium package, since the price difference equals the cost of the hard drive by itself and you get some extra goodies as well.)

But wait, it gets better, by which I mean worse. Y'see, your new system will be able to play only SOME of the XBox games you have now. As best I understand it, the hard drive of the 360 contains an XBox emulator much like the emulators for older console that I'm sure none of you have on your computers because it's illegal. The XBox emulator, however, can't handle every XBox games as is. Tweaks to its code will be needed to allow many games to be played. And because this takes time and work, Microsoft is going to have to pick some games for the honor of being playable on the 360. Isn't that nice?

Now to be fair, I checked the stats for the PS3 while writing this article to make sure there wasn't a similar thing going on. And in the interests of honesty, even the people at Sony are saying that the PS3 may not be 100% backwards compatible. Some PS2 and PSOne games just may not play on the new system. Given people's problems with some PS2s not playing various games and DVDs, we may well see the same thing in the new system. But at least they are able to aim for total backward compatibility, as opposed to the "array" of original XBox games you can play on the 360, according to the display ad in Toys R Us. I pretty much knew I'd be staying brand loyal with my consoles, but now I'm absolutely certain.

Well That Ain't Right

I know it's been a while, but I have something I need to get off my chest.

Recently, a house in my town quite literally blew up. No one was seriously injured. The cause was a gas leak which was entirely the fault of the gas company who had connected two lines that shouldn't have been. This has apparently been causing several gas leaks around town and cut of heating for roughly 2,000 people.

For the past few days we have been seeing evidence of this. Gas company trucks have been all over the place. Representatives have come knocking on our door. It's been all over the local news as well.

Today, however, things took a turn for the outrageous. Andrew had just come home from dropping me off at the gym. He found gas company trucks all over the area and a police car near our home. Andrew went up and asked the officer if everything was OK. The officer explained that he and the gas company workers has just been in our house. Apparently, the gas company was going around the neightborhood and checking for leaks. If no one answered the door, they simplyy had the policeman pop the lock and came right in!

There are any number of things wrong here. Aside from the obvious violation of our privacy, there's the matter of our animals' safety. We often let the rabbits run around the kitchen while we aren't home because we keep both doors to it closed and they can't get into trouble. The gas company workers could not know this and the rabbits could easily have bolted out the front door as the workers went in and out. They did not lock the door upon leaving, meaning anyone who observed what was happening and decided to illegally enter our home for less legitimate purposes could have gained access without any trouble. To top it off, they did not leave a note explaining that they had been in our home. If Andrew hadn't come by when they were leaving, we would have just come home to an unlocked door and no explanation.

And what is they absolute best part of this story? WE DON'T HAVE GAS HEAT. As far as we know, this house has long been heated by oil and before that, coal. There is a gas line in our driveway, but we have no idea why it's there. And those gas company guys who came by our house before. We told them we didn't have gas. Twice. On two separate days. You would think they would have made some record of our answer the first time, but no. Andrew tried to explain this to the people who were in our home, but they still insisted on inspecting the house until they had confirmed that there was, surprise, no gas.

What really frustrates me about this is that I'm essentially left with no recourse. If this were a company that I was actually getting service from, I could just call them and say "This is unacceptable and I will be taking my business elsewhere!" But as it is, a company with which I have no financial relationship entered my home without my consent, my prior knowledge, or as far as I can tell, good cause. I did call up the gas company, but I don't know what good it will do. What I do know is that I actually fell less safe after this whole ordeal.

Storm Wyvern Press News

Just becuase I don't upadte there (or anywhere) very often and some of you may only look at this blog, I wanted to let you know there's a revision up at Storm Wyvern Press of the first part of my first story. Now with 30% less suck, roughly.

Real updates here when I feel like it.

Something Else

StormWyvern Press is now up and running. This is going to be where I house all of my writing unless otherwise noted. I got it set up yesterday, but I wanted to wait until I had something resembling part of a story to show before I announced it. Feel free to go have a look. Use either the link in this entry or the one with the links on the right.

NaNoWriMo? No. But Maybe Something Else

One of the other blogs I read regularly mentioned something called NaNoWriMo. Intrigued by the acronym, I googled it and found the aforelinked website. For those of you who don't like clicking on links, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. The month in question is November. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel starting on November 1 and finishing November 30. For those of us who are comics types, it's kind of like 24-Hour Comic Day but without the pictures and a lot longer.

What do you get for accomplishing this feat? You get a nice certificate, a little web graphic, your name on the winners' list, and a 50,000 word novel complete with all the sense of accomplishment that comes with that. No publishing deal, no free lunch with an agent, no promises of fame and fortune. So why do it? Well, it probably has a lot to do with that shiny sense of accomplishment. You'll have positive proof that you can write a 50,000 word novel, that you can meet a pretty tight deadline, and that it is possible to just sit down and get these things out of your system. How many us have an idea for a novel in some stage of development right now, whether it's just a hint of an idea, a notebook full of concepts, or a big text file of disconnected paragraphs? How many of us just keep picking it up and putting it aside because of some section that isn't coming together, some story problem that's too har to solve, some sentence that isn't quite perfect? That's the kind of thing NaNoWriMo can help with. The point is not to write the perfect version of your novel. The point is to get 50,000 words down in thirty days. Some of it is likely to suck, but when you're done, you will have a completed version of your novel. And hopefully, there will be some little spark of of something wonderful that can be nurtured and cultivated, but that likely wouldn't have come about if you hadn't pressed on and written those 50,000 words and all of that crappy stuff. You can always go back and refine and edit and add and cut anything you want. But now you have a framework. You're not just looking at a blank page and holding the whole story up until that perfect word arrives.

So you're probably wondering if I'm going to be participating in NaNoWriMo. Or maybe you've already guessed based on the title of this entry. I'm not going to do it. I think it's a creat idea and anyone with an in progress novel should think about trying it. (I'm looking at two people who may be reading this who really should consider it.) But I think I have a pretty good reason for bowing out. I don't have a novel. In fact, I don't know that I've ever had a real solid idea for a novel in my life. There have been ideas that I thought were novels in the works, but really I think I just wanted them to be a series of novels because that seemed cool. They didn't have enough to them to be actual novels.

What I do have is a bunch of short story ideas. And as a matter of fact, I was just reminded of one of them this morning. So I was thinking tha maybe I could use this idea to get me working on at least one of them. Sort of a LoShoStoWriMo, if you will. I may not even wait for November. In fact, I may set up a second blog for that purpose and start writing in the very near future. I may even let you see it if my first drafts don't suck too much.

I'll keep you posted.

Everything

As usual, I've fallen behind on the blog. So a lot of things that I meant to be in separate posts are now going to all fall under this one big post. I think there's more chance of me getting it done that way. I'm not going to go in chronological order. It's going to be good news, bad news good news, because that's what I prefer.

The first good news is that I had my birthday. It was nice, though fairly sedate. The one person who still lives nearby who I thought of inviting over to celebrate was out of town, so we had a rather quiet celebration. I got some nice gifts from family and friends and several well-wishes. We went to visit may parents, but it ended up being just my mom because of events leading up to the bad news. Thanks to everyone who remembered and took the time to wish me a happy day or bring a gift. I really appreciate it.

The bad news is that my grandfather died. He had been doing progressively worse after a couple of strokes, and the past couple of weeks were especially bad. Andrew and my Mom and I drove out to western Massachusetts for the funeral. (Mom still can't drive because of her eye operation.) Grandpa was 82 years old. He was a writer for his local newspaper and my uncle read several of his colmns at the service. Before that, he was a high school teacher. The success of his work was clear from his former students, some of whom came to pay their respects and one of whom wrote an excellent letter to the editor about him. (She didn't show up at the service and we're still trying to find her.) I learned a lot that I didn't know about him, but I wish I did, like the fact that he carried the ticket from his first date with my grandmother in his wallet for the rest of his life. He was smart and funny and clearly had a big influence on who my family is today. We miss him.

I was happy that the other good news came about just as my grandfather was taking a turn for the worse and my family could use some good news. I was also just plain happy that it happened at all. After almost nine years of being together, Andrew and I decided to get engaged. I think only one of you who reads my blog regularly doesn't know this already. I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you more privately; I've been having a tough time getting a hold of you. It happened on my birthday in a fairly casual manner. No big buildup, no getting down on one knee. It just felt pretty natural at this point. The ring came a little less than a week later (photos available upon request). After that, we started telling family and friends. There's a lot going on with many of the people we want at our wedding right now, so we're not thinking about a date yet. We do know we want it to be fairly small and intimate, so don't start anticipating a cake that costs more than my car.

So that's the news from me. I'll try t keep you updated as more things happen, but I doubt I'll have anything quite as big as this to report.

Portland

My trip out to Portland was a somewhat spur of the moment decision. My mom was supposed to go and visit my sister for her birthday, but instead, she ended up having surgery and a lengthy recovery afterwards. (Surgery went fine and she's doing well.) This started me thinking that maybe it would be a good time for me to go to Portland. I didn't end up making it in time for Donna's birthday, as that was only days away when my mom had to cancel her plans. But before very long, I had made the necessary arrangements for a week's vacation. I would be going by myself; Andrew had kindly agreed to stay home and care for the animals, which turned out to be an even bigger deal than I initially thought. Shortly before I left, the website I had booked my flight with sent me a link to a list of songs and movies that would help me "get in a Portland state of mind". I never did get around to looking at that list, thought I should see if I still have it, as I can't think of any films or songs that prominently feature Portland.

My trip started out a little rocky, but went smoothly after that. I had called for a taxi the night before since Andrew was sick and I didn't want to make him drive me to the bus station at such an early hour. The time I had scheduled pick-up for came and went with no taxi in sight. As it was getting late, Andrew drove me out to the airport shuttle. I called the taxi company on my cell (earlier calls only got a machine) and learned that they had assumed I was in the town that they're based in, despite the fact that I had told them I wasn't. Scratch one cab company. The bus got me to the airport in plenty of time and my two flights went smoothly. After I brief mix-up where I ended up in the drop-off area instead of the pick-up, I found Donna and her Andrew and was on my way to their place.

First on the agenda was, of course, meeting the kitties. They were a little wary of me at first, but that didn't last too long. Phoebe is a little shy, generally well behaved, and vocal. Owen is a little mischievious, but he's also a total cuddle kitten. He'll come up to you and purr, whether you pat him or ignore him. They're both very playful and, not surprisingly, cute.

I was pretty beat when we got to the apartment, having read on the plane instead of sleeping. Donna gave me an early birthday present: the DVD of "Firefly". I was too tired to watch it that night, but we got about halfway through the episodes before I left. I fell asleep before anyone could even turn the couch into a bed.

We spent the week alternating between touristy stuff and hanging out at home. We checked out the Portland Museum of Art, which has a particularly nice collection of Native American art from around the country. They were also showing a collection of John Singer Sargeant's paintings of children. It was interesting, showing a nice variety of gift portraits for friends and patrons and more artsy works. They tried to include some biographical info about each of the sitters, which was neat. But the endings were pretty much "He was killed in WWI", "He was killed in WWI", "He never married and shot himself at age 40." (I stopped reading them after the last one.) Later in the week, we went to the Oregon Zoo and did a little sketching. Towards the end of the week, we saw the Chinese garden and Powell's, the ginormous book store. (I picked up some gifts for Andrew and Nancy Cartwight's autobiography to read on the plane ride home. Time at the apartment was spent watching "Firefly", playing video games (with focus on World of Warcraft), watching a little TV, and chatting.

Of course, we also paid a visit to Les and Jon, meeting at the local comic shop. We had a nice dinner with some very tasty pesto mac and cheese. I also got to meet Donna's Andrew's parents and have more mac and cheese (at a different restaurant). By the way, Jon, Andrew seemed into the idea of having a "hockey buddy", so give him a call whenever an interesting game is on.

The one real downside came near the end of my trip. Andrew called and said that Blitz wasn't eating. This persisted the next day, so he took her to the vet. It turned out that our bunny was blocked internally. Blitz is not the most cooperative bunny, so Andrew had a pretty tough time getting her medicine into her, in addition to being worried about her health. I felt really bad that this was happening while I wasn't there to help. Fortunately, Blitz has recovered nicely and has regained her appetite, thanks in large part to Andrew.

Portland is a nice city. In my limited experience, it's not too overwhelming, but there's still a lot to do. It was great to see my sister and her boyfriend and Les and Jon, all of whom I miss. And it's always nice to travel every once in a while. I'm sure I'll be back again before too long, though next time I'll probably have Andrew with me.

The Revolution Starts Now

Yeah, I know, I should really be doing a write-up on my trip to Portland or finishing those two unfinished entries I still have bumming around my blogspace. But before all that, I did want to do a quick follow-up to one of my earlier entries. I did say that I'd let you know if I heard anything new regarding the Revolution, Nintendo's entry for the next battle in the Console Wars. Well, we have some news. At this year's Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo revealed the much anticipated controller for the Revolution. (As usual, I'm overcautious about grabbing images, so you'll have to check out the link to IGN.)

"So," those of you who are too lazy to click the link are likely asking, "What is this industry defying new controller?" Well at first glance, it looks a lot like a rather skinny TV remote. It's vertically oriented and designed to be held in one hand. Not impressed? Well, I haven't got to the good part yet. The controller comes with a sensor which you place near your TV. This sensor is used to translate movements of the controller in your hand into movements on the screen. The sensor apparently reads not only up, down, left, right, movements, but also forward and backward as well as various twists and tilts.

So what does this mean for actual gameplay? Just imagine exploring a 3D room by simply waving your controller in the direction you want to go. Consider what it would be like to steer a plane by tilting your controller left and right. The demo shown at Tokyo Game Show included a few generally crude demo games suggesting other uses for the controller. One was a crude fishing game suggesting how the player would use the controller like a fishing pole to cast and pull in a catch. (The standard controller is reportedly rumble ready, which should add to this experience.) A slightly more polsihed demo showed how the controller could be used for aiming in a first person shooter.

It's certainly an innovative idea, not what I was guessing at all. (Though to be fair, that dumb hint about the controller having to accomodate games from all Nintendo's past systems didn't help at all.) I'm certainly interested, but I do still have some concerns. The most notably absent feature on the standard controller is an analog stick. I imagine this is designed to force both gamers and designers to use the "point and move" feature to get around 3D spaces, rather than just ignoring it for the more familiar control. Still, the lack of an analog stick out of the box may well put off some gamers. Nintedo has designed two addon peripherals for the controller, one of which is an analog controller with two trigger buttons. Dubbed "the nunchuck" (I'm pretty sure the fans came up with that), it attaches to the main controller via a short cord that plugs into the bottom of the controller. The demo suggests that in a first person shooter, for example, this would control your movements while the pointer would let you aim. The other scheduled add-on is a shell resembling a more standard controller which the remote-styled one can be plugged into. This is probably intended to allow for easier play of your games designed for the earlier systems. Please note that the picture IGN has of this is their own mock-up and not necessarily what the actual controller shell will look like.

My other big concern is on that's been voiced a lot by gamers: Is the Revolution too revolutionary? For various reasons, the GameCube was left behind on a lot of cross-console games. I'm a little worried that the Revolution may suffer the same fate, in part because its creators freely admit it's a less powerful system, and in part because it's just too different. I know virtually nothing about game programming, but I imagine configuring an exisiting game to respond to a pointer-style controller is going to be trickier than just switching the functions of a few buttons. Developers may just ignore the feature, require the anaolg add-on, or skip the Revolution altogether. If Nintendo wants this to work, they're going to have to woo some big developers and/or get a lot of first-party software out there. Hopefully in a timely manner. ("Twilight Princess" is DELAYED?!?? I'm upset, but hardly shocked.)

I haven;t really come to a conclusion about the controller yet. I feel generally positive towards it, but it's not a "i'm sold" or "No way" situation. A lot may depend on me getting my hands on one of the new controllers and seeing how it feels, how easy and intuitive it is to use, and whether the button placement works. Once again, I'll let you know when I know more.

Time Slip

Note to Self: Starting in on big long posts and then leaving them to be finished later is not conducive to regular updates.

Yeah, it's been a while and I'm sorry. I have had a number of things going on, but it's really no excuse. Right now, however, I'm at work without a whole lot to do (at least as long as the printer keeps telling me there's no black ink when my boss says she just put a new catridge in). So consequently, you get a long overdue update on just about everything.


Listen to the Toon Nerds

I think most of you know this already, but in case anyone doesn't, I now have an internet radio show. AnimationHQ's Animation Roundtable (we are trying to come up with a new name) can be found on ToonRadio Sunday nights at 8 PM Eastern and Thursday nights at 7 PM. (There's also a 4 AM airing on Wednesday, but I don't think many people tune in for that.) My co-host and I pick a couple of animation related subjects each week and discuss them. We also do a brief news segment and profiles of people in the animation industry. We've even had a guest host. I really enjoy doing the show, but it's been frustrating at times due to various problems we're still working out. Still, I think our content is good and I'd appreciate you tuning in.

More Construction

A couple of posts back, I told you about the completion of our basement bathroom. Well I'm now happy to report that our upstairs bathroom has been redone and is now virtually finished. We learned various fun things about our bathroom as it was being torn apart: there was no insulation on the wall facing the outside, the wall facing the attic stairs was nothing but insulation inside, there were several sizable holes in our floor under the tile, and our sink's poor drainage was due less to clogging and more to a lack of venting. Needless to say, the bathroom is now in much better shape and we're very happy to have a functioning toilet on the same floor as the bedroom again. Coming up next is the repaving of our very long driveway.

Movies

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was pretty awesome. Probably not everybody's cup of tea, but I was really glad to see Tim Burton doing a Tim Burton film again. It was also good to see some new twists on a story that most people already know. I cannot wait to see "Corpse Bride".

Most recently theaterwise, we saw "Broken Flowers" with Bill Murray. It was pretty good, but not quite as satisfying as I'd hoped. The film has a somewhat ambiguous ending and that's kind of tricky to pull off. I'd say rent it; it's not the kind of film that you need to see in theaters.

On DVD, we got "Pom Poko". It's a Studio Ghibli film, but it's directed by the studio's other major director Isao Takahata, not Hayao Miyazaki. (This should not be counted against it; Isao Takahata is also a great director of "Grave of the Fireflies", among others.) The American DVD release of "Pom Poko" came as a surprise to some people as the film has a rather odd reputation for being about shape-shifting raccoons who attack people with their giant testicles. While this is a part of the film, it's not really a fair description. "Pom Poko" tells the story of a tribe of tanukis - not actually raccoons, but native Asian canids with a striking resemblance to raccoons. The forest home of the tanukis is being destroyed by rapid expansion of the humans cities. As their habitat shrink, the tanukis decide to fight back through the ancient art of shape-shifting. Their attacks take various forms, some of which do include using the family jewels as weapons. (The traditional Japanese depiction of a tanuki include large testicles, said to be a symbol of good fortune.) But "Pom Poko" also features beautiful naturalistic and cartoony animation. The story itself is actually a serious and sad one highlighting Japan's huge problem of urban sprawl and loss of green space. I very much enjoyed it and I'm quite happy to see it being released here. (incidentally, the dub gets around the potential crudeness of the story through use of the word "pouch". The subtitles feature no such euphemisms.)

Time Bandits

That refers to things that eat up my time, not the movie.

I've continued to play World of Warcraft while trying not to be too unreasonable about the time I put in. Donna's computer is working again and she made a new character who's closer to my level. So we play together sometimes; other times we just chat. It's a lot of fun and leveling up isn't too difficult, which was my main problem with Final Fantasy XI.

I got a Nintendo DS, essentially the new Game Boy. I bought mine on eBay at a pretty decent discount and with a few games to boot. About a week ago, Andrew picked me up a copy of Nintendogs. It's kind of like a very sophisticated virtual pet. You pick out a puppy from a variety of breeds. The touch screen and stylus allow you to interact with the puppy: patting, training, playing, feeding, and going on walks. You can train your puppy for specific contests. Make it to the top three and you earn money for supplies, redecorating, or more puppies. I currently have a Shettland Sheepdog named Blue and a chihuahua named Chalupa. I'm hoping to unlock beagle puppies soon. (There are three versions of Nintendogs. Each has different starter breeds, but every breed can be unlocked on all cartridges.)

Trip

Next week, I'll be headed out to Portland, OR to visit my sister and Les and Jon. Andrew has kindly agreed to stay and watch the animals so we don't have to go through checking the sitter's availability. This either means that I owe him or I already did something nice for him and I forgot what. Probably both. I'm looking forward to seeing people I haven't seen for a while and checking out Portland for the first time. And trying what I hear is some really exceptional mac and cheese.

That's likely all you care to read for today, so I'll stop. Oh, if you want to reply, please notice that I added word verification. It's one of those things where before your post goes through, you're shown a picture of some letters and numbers and asked to type them. One friend of mine got 13 spam replies on one entry in his blog and another got a particularly tasteless bit of spam that start off talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, literally drops of mid-sentence, and starts plugging a site about co-op advertising. So I'm being proactive.

Filler Fun

I have two big entries in the works, but I'm taking a breather to post this, which was on the blogs of a few friends. I think the response I send is supposed to be via e-mail, since I've never seen anybody respond in the replies on thei blog.


Reply with your name and I'll respond with one (or more) of the following about you.


1. I'll tell you what song/movie/book/fictional character reminds me of you.

2. I'll pick a flavor of pudding to wrestle with you in.

3. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.

4. I'll tell you my favorite memory of you.

5. I'll tell you what animal or plant you remind me of.

6. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.

If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.

So Long and Thanks for the Cold

I'm trying to get back up to speed with the blog, so I should probably mention the most major event of the past week or so. Our friends Les and Jon have taken off on their big move out to the west coast. Needless to say, my feelings on the matter are mixed. I do think the move is a good idea for various reasons, so I'm happy for them on one level. But it is pretty tough to have friends go from being people you see at least once a week to people you only see when you have time to make the trek across the country. I've never been all that adept socially and though I have improved over the years, it's still not easy for me to meet new people. So having friends leave tends to be a pretty big deal. On the plus side, they're going to be living pretty close to where my sister lives now, so I can get a lot of visiting out of one trip. Still I imagine these next couple of weeks will be an adjustment period.

One lingering reminder of the guys is the cold which they passed along to me while we helped them pack up the moving van. It's a pretty nasty affair with a lot of congestion and soreness and coughing. I've spent the past few days on Nyquil, Dayquil, generic Robutussin, throat drops, orange juice containing massive amounts of vitamin C, and ice cream. The latter two were inherited from Jon's fridge and have been rather helpful. Les and Jon are apparently still suffering the effects of the cold, which I hope is due to them being on the road and not to the normal duration of this particular illness.

If you're curious, Jon is documenting the roadtrip on his blog, which you can get to through my link over on the right.

And Now, The Kittens

Don't worry. I haven't expanded my fuzzy family, or at least, not the immediate one. But remember how I said there was some big news a while back? Well this is it. I just wanted to wait until I had pictures.

A month or so ago, my sister and her boyfriend adopted two little kittens from a rescue organization. They're now about three months old and pretty well adjusted to their new home and people, from what I hear.


That's Phoebe




That's Owen




Since I haven't actually met them yet, there not too much more to say. I am working on a report on my trip to ComicCon, but it's kind of slow going. Once I work my way through that, I'll have more new stuff to discuss. For now, enjoy the cute kitties.

Questions

I answered this for Jon and now I'm putting it up here. For the sake of honesty, I'm copying the questions verbatim and not removing any. But "No Comment" and "I don't know" are perfectly acceptable answers. Just post your answers in a comment reply to this entry.

1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. When and how did we meet?
4. Do you have a crush on me?
5. Would you kiss me?
6. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
7. Describe me in one word.
8. What was your first impression?
9. Do you still think that way about me now?
10. What reminds you of me?
11. If you could give me anything what would it be?
12. How well do you know me?
13. When's the last time you saw me?
14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
15. Are you going to put this on your blog and see what I say about you?

Congratulations, It's A Bathroom

The big news for today is that our basement bathroom is finally finished. This is the second bathroom in our house and the first is in need of a major overhaul, which is part of why we had the new one put in. (Not having a bathroom for unknown number of weeks ain't my idea of fun.) The tile is all in and everything works. It's not the most conveniently located bathroom in the world, but it seemed like the best option given the space we have and it works.

After getting pretty fed up with the one I had, I went out and bought a Mac keyboard for the Mini. It's a great improvement. My shortcut keys all work again and the extra USB ports allow me space to plug in my iPod. I started to install Creative Suite yesterday, but then I realized that I needed to install Photoshop first. It's not a huge deal, but I kind of lost enthusiasm for doing it that day. Maybe tomorrow.

I've also got some other pretty exciting news, but I think I'll save that until I have some pictures to go with it. Stay tuned.

Independence Update

Whoops, sort of slacked off on updating this thing for a while there. Chalk it up to momentary peaks of busy interspersed between the usual valleys of lazy.

I guess the big news of late is my new computer. For a variety of reasons (not least of which was wanting to play World of Warcraft with my sister), I decided I needed my own computer. So I got a little Mac Mini, the desktop computer that's slightly larger than a CD case in length and width and just two inches high. It's about as powerful as the older computer (now completely Andrew's) with a few new bells and whistles. I bought it a few accessories and it's been running pretty well despite a brief hiccup due to the mouse's software and a keyboard that will likely need replacing. Of course, my sister's computer is currently out of commission, but at least I can get my new World of Warcraft character caught up to hers.

As it's the Fourth, I should wish a happy birthday to my dad. I called him with my well wishes earlier today and the present I want to give him should be arriving sometime this week.

We're getting into the final countdown for the San Diego Comic Con. It's our first year going, so we're excited and a tad overwhelmed. The full schedule just went up and there's tons of stuff I want to see, some of which overlaps. It's going to be really hard choosing between the Teen Titans Q&A and voice actor script reading and the Slave Labor Panel with Greg Weisman discussing the new Gargoyles comic. And that's not even factoring in all the other stuff I want to see and shop for.

I'll try to get back to more frequent blogging soon, but I make no guarantees until after my vacation.

Hot, Hot, Hot

It's hardly original to complain about the weather, but this heat is pretty tough to ignore too. It was roughly in the high 90s today and that's been pretty near par for the course this summer. We do not have central air conditioning, but we do have a window unit in our bedroom and a relatively cool basement to retreat to when we're feeling overheated. I'm really more concerned about the animals. Terra the hamster tends to do pretty well as her ancestors came from the desert. (She did, however, give us a brief scare when she was resting outside of her cage earlier today.) The bunnies, however, just aren't built for this weather. To help them cool off, we mist them with a spray bottle of cold water, give them a bottle of ice, and keep the kitchen fan on for them. We even tried bringing them up to the bathroom today and putting a little cold water in the tub so they could splash around if they decided too. They didn't seem to care for it, but we did get to shop them how to hop down the stairs afterwards. We also try to brush them frequently, though that's harder than it sounds. Their fur is very light and fine and they shed a lot this time of year, making it tough to get anywhere close to everything with any kind of brush we've tried. Plus, neither of them will usually sit for it; the scars I have from Blitz's struggling last time we held her down for grooming are still faintly visible.

Aside from the heat, I'm doing OK. It does, however, seem like a lot of stuff is coming up all at the same time. I might, in theory, be able to deal with it separately, but piled up together, it's a bit much. You know what they say: when it rains, you get wet.

Oh, I should definitely mention that Jon graced us with both his presence and his famous souffle omlettes this morning. The heat and humidity made things a little complicated, but they were still delicious and definitely on my list of top omlettes. After breakfast, we watched a trailer DVD I had received with my copy of Nintendo Power with previews of all kinds of games. Andrew is starting to find the Nintendo DS very tempting.

Hope you're all staying cool.

"I Too Am In Suburbia"

Two days ago, I discovered a dead pigeon outside of the building where I work. Either the building or the city has a potted plant next to the door for beautification purposes and the pigeon was lying right behind it. I didn't look to closely, but there were no obvious signs of injury, so I'm guessing the bird just settled down in the shady spot and passed away. At least, I hope so.

I do feel somewhat sad in situations like this even though I realize that they're natural and hardly uncommon. But when I come across a dead animal, I have a very definite gut reaction, in that my gut gets tight and I'm stuck between a desire to look away and an inability to do so. I'm not sure why this happens. Maybe it's the fact that it's unexpected and I never know how much carnage I'll end up seeing. Maybe it's related to something in my childhood; our cat Sheba would kill the occasional mouse and sometimes I'd come across the remains. Or going further back, maybe it's an instinct inherited from my distant ancestors who, upon coming across a dead creature, might well have become very concerned that whatever had killed it was still lurking around. Or possibly most likely, maybe I just don't like being reminded of my own mortality.

The strange thing is that I never have this reaction when I've had to deal with my own pets passing away. I certainly have a reaction; when our hamster Jinx died, I was upset to the point where it started to effect me physically. But we did make the decision to see her before we buried her. (The vet kindly wrapped her in a towel after he euthanized her, so there was the option not to.) Again, no tight gut or anything. It's possible that in these situations, I'm more prepared or too sad to have the usual reaction. Whatever the reason, I'm glad of it, because I think I needed the closure in that case.

Anyway, between the building owners and the town, the pigeon was taken away at some point. Which is good because there's a educational toy store two doors down from us and I imagine most kids would be pretty upset seeing a dead bird. And I'm not traumatized by it or anything. It never lasts more than a few seconds. It's just one of those things that gets me thinking, and that's what blogs are for, right? I do wonder how common it is for people to react like this when seeing a dead animal unexpectedly. Is it normal or is it just me?

Beyond Words

(I did want to have pictures for this one, but I think it'll be easier if you just head to the official site, check out what they have, and go from there.)

I like to think of myself as a fairly articulate person most of the time, especially when I'm writing. But there are times when I'm so completely blown away by something that I'm quite literally at a loss for words. This seems to happen when I see Miyazaki films. I spent several minutes completely unable to say anything after seeing "Spirited Away" for the first time. I suppose that partially explains why it's taken me a few days after actually seeing it to try to write about "Howl's Moving Castle".

In the world of "Howl's Moving Castle", witches and wizards are common, but exist largely on the fringes of society. One particular wizard by the name of Howl travels about in a giant structure that walks about on spindly little legs and is rumored to devour the hearts of pretty young girls. Our heroine Sophie doesn't figure that she has much to fear from Howl; she's never thought of herself as pretty and her work at her late father's hat shop seldom leads her into danger. Nonetheless, she does end up getting mixed up with Howl, who seems much less dangerous than the rumors suggest. And shortly after, Sophie is transformed into an old woman by the much less pleasant Witch of the Wastes. Seeking a cure, Sophie leaves her home and ends up at the titular castle where she becomes Howl's cleaning lady.

So that gives you some idea of the story. But like a lot of Miyazaki's films, "Howl" is impossible to appreciate from just a plot synopsis. The story isn't just an excuse for the visuals as it tends to be in some anime. But it is definitely what makes Miyazaki's films truly breathtaking. Very few other animation studios so consistently show me things that I feel I've never seen before. Take the castle itself, for example. It looks like a mishmash of mechanical parts with occasional pieces of house sticking out of it and a vague face on the front. It's also the most convincing moving "background element" I've seen in animation. Its various components retain a 2D handcrafted look, unlike many oversimplified or overdetailed 3D elements in 2D films. And it has a very distinctive way of moving around, a trait which all of the characters seems to share. In this one film, you've got a fire demon with a mostly amorphous body, the grotesquely fat Witch of the Wastes whose rolls of fat are largely concentrated around her neck (or lack thereof), an enchanted scarecrow who bounces around on the stick that serves as his legs, and an aging dog who the elderly Sophie has to lug up a flight of stairs at one point. It's a very diverse cast of characters, yet they all still feel like they belong to the same world.

Another hallmark of Miyazaki's films is the level of detail. In "Howl" this ranges from the elaborate hats Sophie is working on at the start of the film (making her own plain hat seem all the more so), to the dust and cobweb strewn mess of most of Howl's castle that Sophie has to clean up, to the strange assortment of pendants and toys that clutter Howl's personal quarters. The result of all this detail is a world that you buy completely, one that you almost want to reach out and touch. I'd actually take deep breaths during scenes in wide open fields. The lushness of these places is just so convincing that I wanted to breathe it in on some level.

So to sum up my fairly obvious impressions, GO SEE THIS MOVIE. It's a work of art and an incredible experience.

Oh, and am I the only one who thinks that Howl is pretty hot?

Anyone?

hello?

At The Movies

Andrew and I went to see "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". I realize this movie is not exactly breaking news, but we somehow never got around to seeing it when it was in the first run theaters. So we went to an evening showing at a second run place.

I've actually never read any of the Hitchhiker's Guide series. (I know, I'm a failure as a nerd.) Andrew was the one who really wanted to see it. I myself am more excited about Hayao Miyazaki's latest, "Howl's Moving Castle", which should be getting out of my dreams and into wide release this Friday. So I went in with a kind of "take it or leave it" attitude. Given all this, I did have a pretty fun time.

The "Hitchhiker's Guide" movie isn't going to change your life in any direction. It's not a total visual extravaganza, it's not mind-alteringly deep, and it's more subtly humorous than gut busting funny. But sometimes that's fine and this is one of those cases. It was kind of nice to see a movie that wasn't trying to wow me with special effects every other scene. Not to say that the effects aren't good, but they seem content to take a back seat to the story. The various aliens all looked good, though Marvin felt a little light in the weight department. The sets were nicely understated, the acting was solid and convincing, all in all it did it's job. I guess my one real complaint, though it's fairly light, is that most of the aliens did end up looking human. It kind of took away from the whole "Earth blew up and you're the last two humans in existence" thing. But again, I haven't read the book so I don't know how accurate this was.

So yeah, it's a fun view, if not really must see material. I'd recommend it.

Oh, and Andrew says the robot waiting in line is the Marvin design from the "Hitchhiker's Guide" TV show.

Clocks are Full of Elixir

Confused? Well, I'm replaying an old favorite video game: Final Fantasy VI. It originally came out for the Super Nintendo and you may know it as Final Fantasy III. Y'see, back in the day, Japan actually had about three more Final Fantasy games that we in the States did. Japan's Final Fantasy IV was actually only the second game released here, so we knew it as Final Fantasy II. FFVI underwent a similar name change for it's US release. Then someone at Squaresoft apparently decided that life would be much easier if Final Fantasy games had the same number in Japan and America. So Final Fantasy VII was known as such worldwide, even though it had only been preceded by three games over here. And when Square started re-releasing some of the older FFs for the PlayStation and including some of the formerly Japan-only titles, they used the Japanese numbering.

So where was I? Oh yeah, the title. Well, one interesting thing about FFVI is that clocks are indeed full of elixir. Walk up to pretty much any wall clock in the game (there are a few exceptions), search it, and you're the proud owner of an elixir. Considering that elixirs fully restore your hit points and magic points, it's a pretty good deal. But there's only one elixir per clock, so it's not an endless supply.

I usually find that old RPGs are still a lot of fun. As I've said before, RPGs are heavily based around telling a story, which doesn't tend to date the way the graphics do. And since the fighting controls are menu based, you don't have problems with the controls not being as responsive as they are in modern games. Even though Final Fantasy games have stayed the same in a lot of ways over the years, it's fun to see changes in gameplay that either influenced a later game or never really showed up again.

Just in case you're getting the only half true impression that my life is nothing but video games and the internet, I did had something of a social life this week. Jen came by to visit yesterday. Since Jen now lives out in Michigan, I don't get to see that much of her these days. We were hoping to have some more people join us, but unfortunately, that didn't pan out. So we just hung out in my living room and chatted for a while. It was a good time, though it did remind me how little time I spend with any of my few girlfriends. It's not so much by choice; distance and time just seem to get in the way. I suppose I should probably make an effort to meet more women around my age, but I've realized that I don't know what women my age do.

Despite the very hot weather, Andrew and I are finally getting around to doing some much needed painting. He's working on the front door and I painted one of our basement windowsills. It's a bit of a slow process, but the heat does make the paint dry faster. We'll probably get some more done tomorrow.

....But It's Never Over.

I hate conflicts. I know there are some people out there who get a kick out of arguing their viewpoints with others, but that's not me. Even really minor disagreements tend to upset me more than they should. I can deal with friendly debates, but that's really about it. Given the choice, I'd rather avoid the whole thing altogether.

But just because I don't like arguing doesn't mean I don't end up doing it on occasion. There are times when I'd really rather just let something slide, but there are times when someone pushes me a bit too far and I pretty much have to take some kind of a stand. I think I'm pretty good at articulating my views, I just don't have that much confidence in the very often. I like to believe that my ability to see another person's side of things is a positive trait, but it makes me pretty lousy in arguments.

Even when I do have some confidence in what I'm standing up for, I still hate arguing about it. No matter how much both parties try ( or claim to try) to keep things objective, there's always emotion in an argument. There probably wouldn't be an argument were that not the case. And the more emotion you get tied in, the less likely it is that there's ever going to be a solution. Both sides get emotionally attached to their positions, they start hearing what they want to believe the other person is saying, and nothing gets resolved.

Now I'm probably as guilty of this as anyone. Andrew has told me that I can be really nasty in a fight and he probably gets the worst of it since he lives with me. But I try. I try to listen, to stay relatively objective, to address the points the other person makes. But unfortunately, that's seldom a guarantee that the other person will extend the same courtesy to me.

As usual, no specifics, at least on the blog. It was kind of a rough day or two but we'll live. And I imagine I will be totally off this subject tomorrow. So stay tuned.

Over

Two posts in one day. Weird, isn't it?

Well, the thing I was talking about earlier pretty much came to a head tonight and now it's pretty near done with. No one is physically hurt, Andrew and I are both pretty much OK in all respects. We've made a decision. It's not the outcome I would have preferred, but I think under the circumstances, it's for the best. Like I said, it's not a huge deal, nothing big and life changing, so don't worry. I still don't feel that it's appropriate to talk about it since the matter isn't totally resolved and I'm still fairly upset. I may well never air it on the blog. So just remember that everyone's OK and don't worry.

I Chase the Bright Elusive Butterfly of Sleep

I guess this title is a little out of date. You see, I was going to write about how I couldn't sleep either Sunday or Monday night. But due to that fact, I was really too tired to make a post about it, especially yesterday evening. And having exhausted myself for two nights straight, I actually slept pretty well last night. And this after I'd thought up a nice post to make about sleeplessness and that metaphor from the commercial for some sleep aid pill where elusive sleep is represented by a butterfly. Oh well.

So why couldn't I sleep? I dunno. I figure it could be any number of things. The weather has suddenly become very hot and sudden changes in the weather tend to affect me adversely. We haven't moved our air conditioner down yet either and the fan we do have can be a bit noisy. I was also nervous about a couple of things Sunday night, though that wasn't really the case on Monday. Sometimes it's just that my brain refuses to shut up, even though it's run out of intelligent things to say.

Anyways, I'm feeling a lot better today, despite a brand new cause of stress rearing its ugly head last night and continuing into this morning. Its not something I think I should discuss here. What you think should and shouldn't go on your own blogs is your own business and I'm not about to tell you you're wrong. But my personal feeling is that this is not a diary and I can't just assume it's only being read by a few friends (even if that's probably the case). And no matter who's reading my blog, I feel it's generally best not to put feelings I'm having in the middle of a dispute out in the open where everyone can see them and they'll remain for the foreseeable future. However, I did hand write a rather lengthy synopsis of the issue in question in my sketchbook just for my own use. I've found that writing out all my thoughts on something can be rather therapeutic and I may actually have need of them sometime in the future. I'd also be fine discussing the issue privately if anyone is curious or concerned (though trust me, it's not that big a deal). I just don't want the whole thing roaming around the wilds of the internet.

Big Yellow Birds

Andrew helped me make this avatar for the Atomic Underpants Message Boards. I imagine everyone who reads this (all three of you) already know that this is a chocobo, preferred mode of transportation of many in the Final Fantasy games. Oh sure, you almost invariably get an airship which is usually faster. But chocobos have more character. They can sometimes get to places where airships can't land. And they have their own theme song which has remained pretty consistent through the games.

Aside from letting you ride in style, chocobos have also been involved in several side quests which allow you to reap great rewards upon completion. One of the first was in Final Fantasy VII, which allowed you to raise, race, and breed the birds in order to hatch chocobos with the ability to cross different types of terrain. Final Fantasy IX allowed you to go on worldwide treasure hunts with a single chocobo. Final Fantasy VIII could have been a really great chocobo game, but the stupid PocketStation never came out in the States, so you never got to go adventuring with your little feathered friend.

There have also been two games released in the U.S. with a chocobo as the star. Chocobo's Dungeon 2 (the first one never got a U.S. release) had a rather cartoony chocobo working his way through the levels of a deep dungeon with various allies in tow. Chocobo Racing featured many of the same characters from Chocobo's Dungeon. Chocobo zips around on jet powered roller-skates and settles various disputes by racing. A version of the Chocobo's Dungeon chocobo as a coin bank sits atop my PS2 next to a plush Final Fantasy IX chocobo.

Before everyone gets completely sick of me going on about chocobos, here's an amusing little animation that Kim linked to on her blog. The tune is the famous Chocobo Song, but the lyrics are original. Enjoy.

Getting Back on Track

Sorry about the lack of posts as of late, but I have actually been somewhat busy. The Atomic Underpants Robot Contest, which Andrew was running, came to an end on Tuesday. And as the one of us who has a better understanding of HTML and GoLive, I was charged with putting the site together. It ain't perfect by any means, but I did manage to get everything up a day after the contest ended, which was pretty good. We're keeping it open to submissions, but without the deadline or the prize. So if you or anyone you know would like to do a one-page comic about robots, here's your chance.

The "Gargoyles" layout drawing I purchased came in the mail a few days ago. Based on what someone online told me and the size of it now that I have it in hand, it is definitely a layout drawing and not a storyboard. Storyboards are much smaller and "Gargoyles" apparently used the format where the boards were drawn on xeroxed templates. It looks really nice, though these is a crease down the middle. Art for features tends to get archived or at least treated very well these days, but I imagine no one realized that TV show layout drawings would ever be sold to rabid fans someday. The cel is not here yet' it was sent back to studio for repairs on the linework, which I was told would be necessary. The people at Van Eaton Galleries seem really nice; I almost wish I could buy things from them more often.

I've got a few more random things I want to talk about, but I think I'll save them for future posts. Stay tuned.

Thank You, Jon (Again)

I know I already gave a shout out to Jon when he pointed me in the direction of the soundtrack to my beloved "Final Fantasy VII". Well, now Jon has helped me to expand my little iPod mini's musical vocabulary. Quite a bit. To the point where I could probably go to the gym for several weeks without repeating anything whatsoever. Now there is some stuff on here that likely won't be accompanying me to my workouts. (And I probably could have led a perfectly happy life without ever hearing William Shatner's cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man".) But the majority of what I've listened to or found so far is pretty awesome, and that definitely includes the orchestral Super Mario Bros. Theme.

So thanks, Jon. I really appreciate it. Hope you enjoyed the food and "God of War".

The "Revolution" Starts at an Undetermined Date in 2006

E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo, I believe), the video game industry's big shindig to show off shwag, is over. Has been for a while, in fact. Granted I haven't followed every update or kept up with every revelation. But what I did see was pretty interesting. There's a lot of games coming out, like "Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts 2, Nintendogs, and a bunch of other games that I'm either very interested in or definitely going to buy someday.

But of course, the big news was the next generation consoles. The first story to break was the XBox 360, followed by the PlayStation 3. And last but hopefully not least, there was Nintendo. Along with a new iteration or two on the GameBoy, Nintendo gave the public a preview look at its new system, codenamed the Revolution. Now it doesn't seem like the Revolution is quite as far along in development as its competitors; fans mostly got a looks at the box and a few tantalizing bits of info about what it's going to be able to do. From what I've seen and read, this has the potential to be a big step in the right direction for Nintendo, but there's still a few things that may end up holding it back.

The Good:

Backwards compatibility, All the way backwards - In what may be their smartest move with the Revolution, Nintendo announced that not only will the new system be able to play GameCube discs, it will also give you access to N64, SNES, and NES games. Through the Revolution's online capabilities, players will be able to download older games to play on their new system. Nintendo is reportedly even talking to other companies in an effort to get non-Nintendo titles made for the old systems into the library of available games. There's no word yet on what, if anything, this service will cost. But if Nintendo can keep the price reasonable, it'll help to take a big bite out of the emulator market.

It's Online - The GameCube really got left behind when it came to online gaming, with essentially only one title to make your modem worthwhile. But no more. The Revolution will be able to go online and the only title announced for its launch - a new version of "Super Smash Bros." - will make use of this feature. (Kim, if we both get the system and this game, we can play "Smash Bros." together all the time!!!

Normal Sized Discs and DVD - finally. The shape of their software was another problem that held Nintendo back in the console wars. While the first PlayStation doubled as a CD player and the PS2 and XBox could both handle your DVDs as well, Nintendo brought up the rear with cartridges and mini-discs. Now Nintendo has shown that the Revolution will take full sized discs and - with the aid of a separately purchased peripheral - be able to play DVDs as well.

Wireless Controllers - This looks like it's going to be the standard for next-gen systems; XBox 360 is definitely wireless out of the box and it looks like the PS3 will be as well. But after Nintendo missed out on so many opportunities in the past, it's nice to see them getting in on the ground floor with their competitors.

It's Cheaper (Maybe) - One of those most tempting tidbits about the Revolution is that Nintendo is going to try to launch it at under $200 retail. This could give the system a major boost if the 360 and the PS3 debut at higher prices. I'm not going to hold my breath on this one, but it'll be pretty cool if they can make it happen.


The Bad:

Timing - XBox 360 us due out sometime this November. PlayStation 3 is supposed to come out in March of next year. The Revolution . . . well, we're not quite sure yet. Like I said, Nintendo's newest system still seems like it has a ways to go before it's really ready for the public. So it's a good guess that the Revolution will be the last of the next-gen consoles to debut. If gamers decide that they want a new system sooner rather than later, Nintendo could get burned.

The Dumb Hint about the Controller - probably the biggest mystery surrounding the Revolution is its as yet unseen controller. Nintendo says this is the feature that will really make the Revolution revolutionary. But details on what makes it so special are few and far between. Which is fine. But Nintendo's on hint about the new controller strikes me as kind of dumb. They're saying we should think about the fact that it needs to be able to play games from all of Nintendo's past consoles. Well guess what? I can already do that on my GameCube controller! So it's hardly a helpful hint. (Andrew however, has made a guess that it's going to be an LCD touchscreen that can show any number of different button configurations. Just a guess, since neither of us know anything more than the general public.)

It's a Smaller System - By Nintendo's own admission, the Revolution is just not going to be as powerful as its competitors. It's designed to be a smaller, more affordable system that's accessible for the whole family. If Nintendo can keep the price low at launch, this might work out for them. But still, potential buyers may be tempted away by the 360 and PS3.


So that's my layman's view of the Revolution, from what's been said so far. There's a lot of factors that are still up in the air that could tip the scale in one direction or the other: launch titles, prices for downloading old games, third party support, and what that mysterious controller ends up being. I'll keep you informed if I hear anything new. But for now, the Revolution is looking interesting at the very least.

But It's So Pretty!

Okay, so I bought something today. Two somethings. And they're not exactly inexpensive either. But this was one of those rare opportunities that doesn't come around all that often. And I think I'd be kicking myself if I hadn't taken it.

I bought this:




Also this:




Now really, how often am I going to have the chance to buy original artwork from "Gargoyles", my very favorite animated TV show? Not many, I'd say. There were quite a few other cels and drawings to choose from and it was not an easy decision. (To my very slight credit, these are nowhere near the most expensive they had.) What I like about this cel is that it's a multi character composition and they're all on model, but it's not too perfect like a sericel. (Sericels are those limited edition cels depicting popular scenes from movies and TV shows or sometimes simply groups of characters. Production cels are the real deal; cels that were actually used in the animation process.) It also shows them breaking out of stone, which is something unique to this show and its characters. The drawing (which is either a storyboard or a layout drawing, I'm not sure yet) may not be a perfect match to the cel, but it's definitely the same scene. And I really love Angela turning and smiling at Bronx, even if it's not in the final scene.

So now I own artwork from "Gargoyles" and all that's left is to atone for having spent the money. I have promised myself and Andrew to lay off the big ticket purchases. But I should probably think about selling some stuff as well. Or maybe I could fast.

Gray Days

I know, complaining about the weather is pretty pointless, as there's very little you can do about it. Yet, here we are. If you happen to live in Massachusetts (and most of the people I know to be reading this do), you know that the weather has just been really lousy lately. It's cold, it's gray, it's wet, and it's not going away. The odd thing is that I often like rain, though not necessarily being in it. I especially like thunderstorms (part of the inspiration for my blog's title). But this is just several days of thick clouds and little showers here and there. Nothing really dramatic; just kind of depressing. The kind of weather where you'd rather just stay in bed in the morning because anything you have to do seems pointless and too hard. (I skipped the gym today, on Andrew's suggestion. Probably going tomorrow.)

So what did we do on our dreary Wednesday? After work, Andrew picked me up and we went to get comics. Later on, we had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, which just opened near us. I am slightly addicted to cheesecake, so going to a place with possibly the world's widest selection of cheesecakes is somewhat dangerous. We both had sandwiches and each took half home. I finally settled on a slice of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Cheesecake (I think that's the order it went in) which was the longest name on the menu and extremely tasty. The prices weren't too bad either, so we had a good time.

Oh, and we watched some of the commentary on the Batman DVD last night. Fun stuff, as usual. The commentary for "Read My Lips" included Michael Reaves, one of my favorite TV writers who's been all over television animation, including "Gargoyles". Oftentimes, Andrew and I get into a minor dispute because he like going straight to the commentary track for TV shows we've seen before and I like to watch them straight first to refresh my memory. But I saw these Batman episodes so many times they're pretty much ingrained in my head, so I didn't object to watching the commentary right away,

The march of DVDs continues. It looks like "Danger Mouse: Seasons 1 and 2" is coming out next week. How am I going to watch all these DVDs? Where will I put them? Is this really a problem I should be complaining about? Probably not.

In Brief

Got home from visiting Tim and his kitties a little late, so I'm kind of beat. The iPod works great at the gym. "Demon Days" seems pretty good so far. I'm just about to head upstairs to watch my Batman DVD. I wish this rain would stop so I can go get comics tomorrow.

Tuesday Anticipation

With a title like this, you can tell it's been a slow day.

But regardless, Tuesdays are often pretty cool. New DVDs, music, and video games all tend to come out on Tuesday. And this week looks like it's going to be a lot of fun for me. Two items I've been eagerly anticipating are coming out. Specifically...

Gorillaz - Demon Days

I wish I could find a picture to go with this that I felt OK about snatching; I'm probably overly cautious about taking images off the web without explicit permission. Anyway, Gorillaz is probably completely unique in that I enjoy the visual aspects of the band's products as much as - if no more than - their music. Don't get me wrong, I really like the songs too and "Feel Good Inc." gets stuck in my head for about three days every time I hear it (in a good way). But it's the illustration and animation that really gets me jazzed. If you haven't seen the video for "Feel Good Inc. yet, I suggest you stop reading this immediately and go see it now. It's some of the best animation I've seen in quite a while.

Also...

Batman: The Animated Series - Volume 3

(Linking to IMDB because Warner Brothers' Batman:TAS site is pretty craptacular.)

This - it seems - is the last of the episodes of this spectacular show's run. (I'm 99% certain some of them were run under the "Adventures of Batman and Robin" name, but it's still all before the move to WB and the style change for "The New Batman/Superman Adventures".) Quite simply, for me, this IS Batman. Forget Michael Keaton, forget Val Kilmer, and please for the love of all that is good, forget George Clooney. (Well, not entirely. Just in that movie.) At this point, I can't even remember if I saw any of the movies before I saw this show or not, but no matter. This is what shaped my view of who Batman is and what he's all about. Granted, this particular box set contains the worst Batman: TAS episode ever ("The Terrible Trio"), but it also has some of the best, like "The Demon's Quest", "Sideshow", "Showdown", "Harlequinade", and "Harley's Holiday". (I'll be happy to summarize these episodes for anyone who might be curious.) Plus, the DVD has sweet, sweet commentary, including a video commentary that I'm looking forward to. All in all, the nostalgia shall be heavy in the air.

So if I don;t get a post done tomorrow, you'll know why.

iPod!

iPod!

iPod iPod iPod! iPod iPod iPod! iPod iPod iPod, iPod!!

iPod! (mini)

So if you've been keeping up since my LiveJournal blog, you know that I had a deal with Andrew, where if I went to the gym regularly and stuck with it, I could get an iPod. As you've probably guessed, I have been very good and gone to the gym at least twice a week, usually three times. So today, we went out and I bought an iPod mini. I went with the smaller mini as it's less expensive and I don't atnicipate needing more than 1,000 songs or so with me at any one time. I put the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack on it to test it out and it only took up a teeny bit of the iPod's total capacity. (I'll probably take most of it off eventually. I don't really need every track with me all the time.)

After that, I spent the evening importing CDs I like into iTunes for future listening. I imagine it will bring me closer to my CD collection, which I don't normally listen to that often. It's also helped me to notice a few boxes without discs in them. (Have you seen my copy of the "Kill Bill Vol. 2" soundtrack?)

Anyway, the iPod seems to work quite well, though I haven't tried out all of its features yet. The earphones appear to be staying in when I shake my head around, so I'm hoping they'll stay in through my workout. I'll keep you posted once I've taken it for a "field test".

Random

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday. We ended up going to a midnight showing of "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" so between that, work, going to the gym, and visiting Les, I was not home much. And when I did get home, I just wanted to collapse. My post for today was going to be about Episode III, but Andrew requested that I post something I said today. So . . .

"The worst kind of chocolate croissant is one where you bite into it and realize that all the chocolate is kind of solidified in one corner and the rest is just hollow and empty inside and then you feel hollow and empty inside."

Thank you.

Sitting Through "Sith": A Review

As I said last time around, we went to see "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" at a midnight showing. We weren't planning on doing this; in fact we waited and saw a midday showing of "Attack of the Clones" a week or so after it came out. But due to a snafu, our friend Tim had two tickets that weren't attached to anyone. So we went.

Now before I get into the actual movie, I would like to say that going to the midnight show was actually a very pleasant experience. When we did the same thing with "Phantom Menace" back when we were living in Savannah, it was much less so: huge throngs of people, hot, bright spotlights from the news crews, and all kinds of complaining from the audience. The audience we saw it with was much more pleasant. Sure, there were people in costume and guys with lightsabers, but no one was being obnoxious or anything. Plus, movie theater employees brought popcorn and drinks in while we were waiting in the theater, for a dollar each no less. I'm glad that seeing the first showing of the last Star Wars film was such a good experience atmosphere-wise.

OK, the movie. So the verdict is . . . I'm really excited for "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe".

Yeah, I know, I've stalled long enough. But it is kind of tough to sum up how I felt about "Sith". If I had to choose between "I liked it" or "I hated it", I'd say I liked it. It's definitely the best of the three prequels, though that isn't saying a lot. But sadly, there are still some pretty big flaws.

Visually, this is definitely the strongest of the three prequels. We get a nice big space battle in the beginning and the CG works pretty well for the most part. Pretty much all the battle scenes are fun to watch. This also delivers on being the very dark movie we were promised. Most of the Jedi we've been introduced to through the past two movies die onscreen and though it isn't actually shown, it's made very clear that Anakin slaughters the children in the Jedi temple. Some of the acting has improved from the previous two films. The script actually surpassed my expectations in some places. I had been concerned that Anakin would come off as rather stupid and side with Palpatine before figuring out who he really was, not understanding the truth until it was too late. So I was pleasantly surprised that Anakin actually uncovers Palpatine as the Sith lord prior to joining with him. The clueless role then falls, unfortunately, to Padme. Oh, and there's almost no Jar Jar.

Poor Padme seems to be at the root of a lot of "Sith"s problems. Unfortunately, the romantic dialogue hasn't improved any. You believe that these characters are in love largely because you have to. Even the hardcore midnight showing audiences still laughed at all the Anakin and Padme scenes. Padme's role and strength as a character has been reduced to almost nothing. Her main concerns now are with starting a family and trying to pry information from her troubled husband. (On a side note, I really don't want to hear a Star Wars character talk about "fixing up the baby's room". It just seems so mundane. The scene could have conveyed Padme's excitement about the baby's impending arrival just as well without the line.) I wasn't expecting her to take up a lightsaber and start slicing up clone troopers. But in the previous films, she was an active participant in the battles. And she's still a senator. In the scene where Palpatine ends the republic and establishes the empire, she has a little line about democracy ending to the sounds of applause, but we don't see her standing up and protesting formally or anything. By the end of the movie, her unwavering love for Anakin just seems pathetic.

Andrew and I were discussing after the movie how "Star Wars" is in the rather unique position of having characters and concepts built up by its merchandise. The big example of this backfiring was Darth Maul, who was on virtually every piece of Episode I product and gained an aura almost as big as Darth Vader. But when the actual film premiered, Maul really didn't have the presence or the lines to back up the status he had gained. While there aren't any characters in Episode III for whom perception and reality are that greatly different, the same thing is going on. Take General Grievous for example. There's tons of merchandise featuring this alien cyborg and building up his reputation as a killer of Jedi who takes their lightsabers as trophies. And if you happen to watch the "Clone Wars" cartoon explaining the events between Episodes II and III, you get to see him in all his vicious glory. But in the actual movie, he's introduced with a vaguely Russian accent and a lingering cough. He's looked on by the Jedi as a coward who's constantly running away. He just never really rises to the level you expect him to. Same thing goes for the wookies in general. You'd think from the merchandise and advertising that they have a pretty big role in the film. But they actually have a pretty minor role and their inclusion seems to be more about getting a Chewbacca cameo into the movie.

If you enjoyed Episodes I and II, I imagine you'll love "Revenge of the Sith". If not, it is an improvement, but it doesn't make the first two films any more worthwhile. It's an OK flick, but it's deeply flawed movie that still lacks the charm and wonder of the original trilogy.

Animation Talk: Sure To Be the First of Many

Take the Last Exit to Springfield for all your Simpsons needs.

As of today, I've got a good sized chunk of animation stuff to talk about. So let's get going, shall we?

First on the agenda is "The Simpsons". I know there's been a lot of talk already about whether the show is just past its prime or really going downhill at top speed. Putting that aside, I want to talk about something that I noticed on Sunday night. For anyone who hasn't been watching FOX lately, the network has a new block of Sunday night programming known as "Animation Domination" which launched just a few weeks ago. "Animation Domination" consists of two episodes of "The Simpsons", the revived "Family Guy", and new series "American Dad". ("King of the Hill" is currently separated from the Domination by "Malcolm in the Middle" for some reason.) So last Sunday, I was checking the info on the latest episodes, and what do I see? The second "Simpsons" is the season finale!

Now granted, "The Simpsons" may no longer be the anchor for FOX's Sunday night lineup. But what could the programmers have been thinking? Now they're either going to have to make a change to the "Animation Domination" lineup scant weeks after its premiere or treat us to a double dose of reruns every Sunday. Prior to the new lineup's launch, we got maybe two or three new "Simpsons" episodes in a row with reruns and movies filling the weeks between. But once the new animation block debuted, FOX seemed all too happy to race through its limited supply of remaining new episodes. This seems like an extremely dumb move that will only weaken the lineup's appeal. Maybe what we're seeing is the beginning of the end. Maybe FOX realizes that the show's golden years are behind it and is getting ready to call it quits. But even if that's the case, this move seems like it will hurt the lineup FOX has put so much effort into promoting.



Groupshot from Station 8 Gargoyles

All right, how about some happier news? After a somewhat underpromoted release of its first season on DVD, it looks like "Gargoyles" may be getting a second season DVD. A representative of 3oh!5 Creative - a company that Disney uses for DVD production - started showing up on the boards of "Gargoyles" fan sites asking what fans wanted to see for special features on a Season 2 DVD. Greg Weisman (one of the series' creators who answers fans' questions over at Station 8) confirmed that this guy was legit and the show's fans collectively jumped for joy. Mind you, there's been no official announcement from Disney, so nothing's set in stone (sorry) yet. But this little revelation means the chances for "Gargoyles" - Season 2 on DVD are looking very, very good.


Finally, I've been looking at the special features on the "Pocahontas" DVD Andrew got me recently. I'm well aware that this is not many people's favorite Disney film for numerous reasons, many of which I don't disagree with. But the movie does have one big thing going for it, that being GLEN KEANE. My first favorite animator not only did supervising animation on the main character (and if you try to tell me that the animation on Pocahontas isn't good . . . well, I'll just tell you you're wrong. 'cause you are.), he also worked on the film's storyboards. The result was some beautiful pen and ink sketches and tons of spectacular charcoal drawings, which is what I'm enjoying on the DVD at the moment. If you've never had the pleasure of seeing the concept art for this movie, you should check it out. Beautiful stuff.

I really wanted to have a nice Glen Keane drawing to go with this part of the post. But there don't seem to be many online, my coffee table book is too big to scan, and I can't capture from my DVD here. So instead, here's an interesting little story by my boss (of sorts) about how and why the development of "Pocahontas" started out very differently and then took a sudden U-turn, resulting in the film we have today.

Thanks for indulging my long-windedness. I'll try to do something short tomorrow.

And Now, The Bunnies

Andrew requested that I write something about our rabbits. And since I do find them an interesting topic of conversation, I'm obliging.

For about a year and a half, we've shared our home with two bunnies. Their names are...

Larry


and

Blitz


Much like cats, rabbits tend to be happiest living in pairs (or sometimes larger groups). They're very social creatures and enjoy having a friend to interact with when their people are away or busy. Larry and Blitz were already a bonded pair when we adopted them from the House Rabbit Network, which saved us the trouble of having to introduce two bunnies. They're very sweet to each other (most of the time) and a lot of fun to watch.




Larry and Blitz live in a large dog crate in our kitchen. The kitchen was the easiest room in the house to clean and to shut off from the rest of the house. The big dog crate gives them a home base with plenty of room to lounge around, as they're demonstrating in this photo. It also makes sure that they stay safe and out of trouble while we're out of the house or sleeping. They are litterbox trained and are pretty good about remembering to use it. We give them lots of cardboard and other fun toys to keep them busy in and out of the cage.




Both of our bunnies were named before we got them. Larry has two brothers who were at one time known as Curly and Moe. Larry is a dwarf rabbit, which is why he's significantly smaller than Blitz. This also makes him much easier to pick up, a fact that he sometimes resents. Once you're actually holding him though, he's generally well behaved. Sometimes he even enjoys sitting with people and shows his appreciation with bunny kisses. Larry is definitely the more adventurous of the two. If we leave the kitchen door open, he's almost always the first to hop out. If he's in the right mood, he'll perform a dance in the front hallway.




Blitz is a pretty grey rabbit with a bit of an attitude. She absolutely hates being picked up and tends to struggle and nip if you try to hold her. But she's also more receptive to pats than Larry, especially when she's in the cage. Blitz usually prefers to stay close to the back of the kitchen, but she'll sometimes venture out into the living room with Larry. She's very good at getting on top of the cage. She loves getting treats and Andrew was able to teach her to go "up" and "down" with voice commands for a raisin reward.

Check out the House Rabbit Network website for more about rabbits and rabbit care.