So... I'm bored. Maybe I'll get ya'll up to date on random goings ons in my boring ol' life.

First, I tried to triple-boot my desktop computer with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS X. (Interesting combination, no?) I was going to shoot for grand quad-boot with those three plus Ubuntu Linux, but I ran into a bit of a snag. See, when I installed Vista, it totally rewrote the boot record to something that no software besides itself can recognize. (Simply because it's so new.) Well, when I tried to install OS X, not only did it not recognize the harddrive, but my preparations for installing it messed up the boot record. It would have worked properly had OS X installed, but it didn't, and I was left stranded without a booting computer.

Luckily, I was able to fix the floppy drive and make a boot disk with a small program to clean up the crazy drive partitions and now everything works properly again. Save for the fact that the new Vista stuff is still there, and I'm not quite sure how to get rid of it.

Second, I never blogged this, but, several weeks ago, I was swimming in our cousin's in-ground swimming pool. They were gone and told us we could drop by and swim whenever we wanted... so we did! Well, I only did once... because, you see, while I was swimming, I decided to kick off the edge of the pool and get some easy momentum on my little floaty rafty thingie I was on. Welp... the cement walkway was a lot closer than I thought, and I brought my left foot down on it with an agonizing crunch. (Literally... ouch.) I'd say it wasn't too bad, but only for the fact that I only broke one toe, hah. The second one from the big one... It was okay at first, but I think I was in shock, because it REALLY started to hurt after a few more minutes.

But yeah... that hurt for a very, very long time... and the reason I brought it up now is because it's hurting again, but I haven't told anyone what happened to begin with, so I thought I would, since I'm bored... and I did! So there!

Third, speaking of them cousins, they moved to Arizona last week to work as sort of missionaries to an indian reservation there. But they had a dog they couldn't take with them... so we're sort of keeping him until they get a house that they actually own. Or at least call their own. So yep! We have a dog now... a Golden Lab, I think. But it's officially "temporary until further notice". If it doesn't work out for them, we keep him permanently, but they don't know yet.

Fourth, I've been reading some new Wheel of Time books. Pretty deep stuff, that Wheel of Time series... and I don't mean "deep" as in it makes you think. I mean "deep" as in, you're waist deep in the muddy muck that is boring, useless actions that make conversations drawn out over the course of the entire chapter. We don't care that this guy itched his beard, WHY he itched it... HOW he itched it... we don't care that this woman brushed the wrinkles out of her dress. Not only do we forget about it when we turn the page, but we're forced to read it in case there's something important buried in there. Lucky for Mr Jordan, I want to know how the story finishes, but I'm getting sick of reading 800 pages when it could easily fit into 300, and I'm dead serious. He wrote a short called New Spring, which is a prequel to the entire series, that he recently released as a novel and it's 300 pages and simply AMAZING. None of the pointless stuffing that makes all the other books just plain crap. New Spring proves he can write good books still, and I completely fail to see why he insists on writing such gargantuan books! 5x7 inches, text the size of this blog, and 800 pages! Insane!

In short, if you really, honestly have to write that much junk? Write more books spaced closer together... it's been almost two years since I read Crossroads of Twilight and I'd forgotten every scrap of the storyline there ever was, except for a few obscure moments. That's really bad, man. Write smaller books, closer together, so they're easy to read and we don't have to wait until we're 50 to get the next installment!

Fifth, while making that banner for the Okami review (in which Ammy is NOT SNEEZING), I decided to make some webboard avatars, too. But since I don't visit any webboards anymore, I guess posting them here is the next best thing!

Tada! Some of them are grainy... some of them are pretty nice. The first one is concept art, and I like the sixth one, personally. Looking up to see where the heck that starlight is coming from. ...and, if you MUST know, she IS sneezing in the second one. Or... coughing... or gagging, maybe.

Seeeee?

Mister crazy-guy-with-an-orange-on-his-head (named Mr Orange, even) is preparing to reawaken the Guardian Tree of Kamiki Village, which he claims includes the consumption of some pretty strong "sake"... which is, well... pretty much just homebrewed booze. It, of course, goes straight to his head and he talks right in poor Ammy's face. The ultimate alcohol test... letting a wolf smell your breath.

Here's the screenshot I used for the NOT SNEEZING banner:

See! Look... they're testing out Brush-made lily pads! Neither of them like water. Maybe it's nervousness or something. She was huffing like that and Issun freaked and told her to wipe that smirk off her face. Something tells me she was plotting something... but nothing ever came of it, because he distracted her with a treasure chest. Sneezing... pfft.

Ah, heck, while I'm on a roll, here's the other banners I made and was picking between them all before settling on the NOT SNEEZING one and started this whole tirade!

The last one is that concept art one. I've got a big ol' 1600x1200 image of it as my wallpaper! So coooool... and now that I've thoroughly bombarded you with a bazillion topics and images, I'm gonna go now!