It might be more exciting if I’d lived through the era, but it’s still interesting to know who he is. Woodward confirmed today an upcoming article/interview that reveals his identity.

Finished with FF7. I think this is the 4th time I’ve played it (though only the 2nd time I’ve actually gone through to the end), which means even with the occasionally horrendous translation, the plot, disjointed as it is, is understandable.

I guess it’s hard to strike the right balance with that. You don’t want to make the plot completely linear or else the game is dull. But if too many scenes essential to understanding are triggered by going to obscure places or can only be seen during a very small window, you can come away with a lot of confusion and loose ends if you didn’t manage to pick them all up.

Decided, after some waffling, to play FF6 next. One, because the theme, which we heard at the concert last week, was very catchy. And two, because it was originally a SNES game which means it all had to fit on a cartridge and can’t be all that long.

After, I’m not sure. I sort of want to actually finish FF8 — there’s another game I’ve started at least twice and never managed to sustain a level of interest long enough to finish. Haven’t played FFX at all. I’m not sure we even own FFXI. And then there’s Harvest Moon, of which we have several versions, none of which I’ve ever completed.

The scene: A man dozes in a chair with a mostly naked, napping baby in his arms. He absently rubs the baby’s arm while the two of them rest, presenting what’s supposed to be a cozy warm scene. Cut to a woman in a shower, rubbing a new body wash all over herself that contains baby oil. The woman dries herself off and dresses, relishing her baby soft skin. She is then revealed to be mom, as she plucks the baby up from its cozy nest and puts it in a crib so she can snuggle up with the man. He complacantly begins to rub her arm instead, presumably finding no difference in the feel.

Um. Ew.

Ew, I say.

Soft skin is great. But equating a woman with a baby in such a blatant fashion is (1) demeaning to women and (2) kind of gross when you consider the sexual overtones at the end. Is it really a good idea to be saying that Dad will be thinking ‘wow, my wife’s hot body feels just like my baby’? I thought not. Bleh.

Hurrah! They’ve been releasing episodes of the show on single DVDs for a little while now — a ‘best of’ situation, which I dislike. Season sets are a promising change.

Okay. So, we are, or should be, familiar with the shoujo manga Patarillo. It’s a strange little series about a fat little boy and his homosexual compatriots. And some robots. And, well, it’s a very long story, running for about 80 volumes (and maybe still ongoing? Not sure about that.)

In any case, a long time ago it was an anime.

And, it appears, it is now to be an anime again. Except the anime is not Patarillo. It’s Saiyuki starring the Patarillo characters. I’m so confused.

The amazing Bob has effected an exchange of our broken circuit breaker for one that works. There is now power to the group of outlets that includes the overhead light in the kitchen. Hooray!

On Wed J and I added the top layer of paint via sponge to the walls of the upstairs bathroom. It looks good! Tomorrow mom is coming over and we may well -finish- this monster. At least as much as it can be finished with the toilet misbehaving and the tub still with that nasty sliding door on it.

Tonight I went out to dinner with C from my old work. We met at the mall near the office with the intention of going to the Cheesecake Factory that just opened at the mall there. But we were quickly disabused of that notion — it was a zoo, as I expected, but more of a zoo than I’ve seen in quite a while. A 2 hour wait at minimum. So we instead trotted down the corridor to Uno’s where the wait was a more acceptable 15 minutes. On the way back out we stopped by the take away counter and got some dessert from Cheesecake Factory.

Mmm, carrot cake. (What, you expected cheesecake?)

Now that 24 has ended for the year, I suppose I need to actually watch it. Having it all sitting on the Tivo is not making the Tivo very happy. In protest, it hasn’t recorded a single ’suggestion’ in the past four weeks.

I also started downloading a UK series called “The Murder Game”. It looks like it could be interesting. Some sort of gameshow, but it sounds rather Clue like in the description.

Been plowing through all the Elizabeth George novels I got out from the library as well (as one can see if you look at my current book list). I have four left of the ones I’ve got here, plus the most recent one which was checked out of the library the last time I was there. And then I suppose I’ll have to wait another two years for the next one. Sob.

The Lynley books are decidedly different from the PBS series of the same name. I’m not entirely sure why that is — one can see the reasoning behind simplifying a plot when adapting for the screen, but I have more trouble justifying renaming characters who are essentially unchanged between book and tv version. And the plots are not just simplified, they’re virtually unrecognizeable as the same ones that occurred in the books. Thus far, having watched a handful of the episodes, the only thing that’s been retained faithfully is: Lynley’s name, Havers’ name, her mother’s situation, the murderer in each case. But motivations and methods are fair game for change, along with every other detail, apparently.

On the way to Hartford last week, Bob and I rediscovered one of the gayest songs from Broadway.

Woot! It is in fact the case. Much less annoying to write an entry now.

J claims blogger will now publish directly again. Let’s see if this is the case.