What A Week!

Grab a coke, saddle up and buckle your seatbelt boys, this may be the largest update I've ever made! (Just so it's clear, this is in no particular order because, well, I don't really remember when everything happened.)

Last Tuesday (July the 11th) I was awakened by a loud banging noise coming from outside. I went to the window to see what all the commotion was, and, lo and behold, it was a backhoe banging the cement slab we call a patio out of my life forever. Soon after the slab was gone, they began digging. I ran out into the living room overfilled with joy and asked what was going on. I, my friends, am getting an in-ground diving pool with all the works. Be sure to check back here for pictures when it's finished.

I am now officially* level 20. I didn't know this at the time, but this is a terrible milestone to look forward to. In case you haven't heard, there's a Gamespot glitch where at level 20 your progress crawls so slowly you'd swear you'd gone blind and that's the last image you remember. It's not so terrible, but knowing how much stuff I've been doing here recently and seeing virtually no progress whatsoever kind of leaves a big emptiness in my heart. Oh well, my river has been cried and I'm over it.

It's been a long time since I've been so excited about anime. The only good anime I have ever seen up until recently was Rurouni Kenshin. Which is weird, because that is one of the longest running anime's ever (95 total episodes, plus the OVA's). The only show that I think runs longer is the Dragonball series (a.k.a milk it for all it's worth). I've watched others recently too, but I never really got into them. Fullmetal Alchemist was a lot of fun I admit, but it wasn't really anything groundbreaking, and I never managed to see all of Cowboy Bebop or Trigun. After seeing Kenshin, I think Champloo is a terrible show (Here come the flames, call the fire department!).

Anyways, what could get me so excited? Why a short little show called Elfen Lied. I recently posted a video on Gamespot of it. That small clip barely even scratches the surface of what the show's like. I must admit I was shocked by this show. I went in thinking it would be just another one of your typical gory anime's (Which it pulls the gore off just fine), but was happily proved wrong. The story really drags you in and doesn't let go. Not even the ending will leave you content, you'll be begging for more. Really a superb show, and congradulations to the creators.

I also watched all of Hellsing. A fun show, but a very disappointing ending. I sincerely hope a second season will arise sometime in the future, but for some reason I doubt it. Nevertheless, it should be watched by anyone that likes anime, or just vampires. Alucard is probably the biggest badass ever.

I bought both shows on Ebay for a nice low price. They are both fairly old shows, so a budget 2-disc pack was available for each. I'm considering ordering the full Vector series and box set of Elfen Lied though. I really like it that much.

On the PC end, I've been trying to tone my photoshop skills. I'm no master yet, but I believe I'm coming along very well at it. My avatar, banner image and profile image are all made and edited by me. The banner took a while to figure out (Normally the man in the chair and the speaker are much closer together) but after a while I found out just how powerful the clone stamp tool really is. I still haven't been able to put a good motion blur on the text though.

The profile image is a simple one. For anyone who's seen it, you should recognize the song name "Against the Wind" from Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. It's in the soundtrack to the movie Forrest Gump, one of my favorite movies of all time. Very inspirational.

As far as sigs go, most of my work can be viewed in the latter pages of this thread. My favorite work of mine so far has to be my Mustang Sig. Please feel free to comment on any of my work.

My brothers Joel and Jeremy came down for the weekend to celebrate their birthdays and my dad's, and it was a lot of fun. While they all drink way too much, we managed to keep a low profile and still enjoy ourselves. I even got to go river rafting!

Well that's about all I can think of tonight. I had a wonderful (but long) week, and I hope I have more like this before the summer's over.

Please leave your comments.