My Killer Instinct cartridge was in the drawer all along, and not in the storage box with all the other SNES/Genesis games! What a refreshing diversion to have punches and kicks that respond to each press of a button and not have to wait upon auto-attacked 100% TP weaponskills. Chief Thunder's combos out-badass my Black Belted MNK75 Asuran Fists anyday.Now that I'm dual-wielding axes, too, I was hoping to complete an ensemble for my Beastmaster to resemble him: the JSE already has the whole Native American theme going, but I was thinking an orc helm might do for the mohawk and the swimsuit top would be the closest I can get an Elvaan male to the bare-chested look …God, is it any wonder I haven't killed myself yet?

Had this idea at In-N-Out Burger today for a restaurant that would offer a dining temperature that's freezing cold (well, not The Thing freezing cold, but to a degree where patrons would feel great coming in from this heat—and get uncomfortable if they stuck around too long), and feature chilled food like sushi and cold noodles… come to think of it, maybe it'd be neater to make it soup instead. No, frozen daiquiris and 冷やし中華 are the way to go. The place'd be insulated like a sea lion and kept environmentally friendly and cost-effective by huge blocks of ice. In the winter, the Cooler would become Fireplace, check your coats and serve it up hot & spicy. Management assumes no responsibility for colds caught upon exit.

Then I thought a bit about the Ship of Theseus paradox. If human cell replication is a humongous ongoing process of growth and substitution, could I not argue that I can reuse those one-coupon-per-person coupons?

Heard some pretty fucked-up shit on Pacifica coming in late this morning. Was about the alleged use of experimental "death ray" weapons in Iraq, describing an almost Mortal Kombat-like scene:

About 20 of them had no head, the head had been cut, some of them had no arms or no legs. The only unwounded was the driver and really I don’t know how he reach our hospital, because one arm was on his side, one head just beside him. It was a very strange and horrible situation. In the roof of the car there were parts of the body: intestines, brains, all parts of the body. It was a very very very miserable situation.

Sounds too outlandish even for way-out conspiracy theorists to concoct.

Encountered a problem with my JPN FFXI client that bummed me out of playing so I turned to former distraction digital cable and watched the premiere of Life on Mars on BBC America. I'd read about the show when it first aired in England earlier this year and was intrigued enough by the concept to remember: detective's girlfriend kidnapped by a serial murderer and he's hit by a car, only to wake up in the Seventies and work on the same case "back then." Is he in a coma? Has he Quantum Leaped? Or has a higher authority imprisoned him in a Matrix of their own making? The answers are sure to come by the end of the series, short-lived as they are there, but I especially enjoy the main character's attention to detail; were it one of my dreams, a trip to the record shop would find all kinds of gibberish on the track listings of old albums I can't possibly remember. Ooh, and at 11 was an Emma Peel episode of the Avengers! Tempted to buy the whole set now.

Last year I went ga-ga over Amazonian Miss Japan, and while 2006's easily deserved to finish behind—holy crap—Miss Puerto Rico, otakus all over the world probably went nuts when they saw her in this 鬼武者 getup:I would've voted for her, too, if ninjas attacked and she did flips and stuff.

One thing that annoys me (if only it were) is the way people, and it's always them ahead of me in line, don't pull out their wallets until they're rung up. I always admired folks who prepared their supermarket checks down to the amount, and sighed when they didn't—like they didn't see the giant sign outside and have to ask who they make it out to—or even stuck around to make their balance entries. Stupid lady at Fuddruckers waits for the exact figure before beginning the excavation into her monstrous bag. I'm certain she wasn't keeping up with the register. Are they afraid of being overcharged if they display too much money? A mugger or beggar hiding within our ranks? A contract-voiding last-minute myocardial infarction? Or maybe it's a gamble they'll be relieved the chore by being announced as the 1,000,000th customer and getting the meal on the house?

Panda Express: "An unusual dream will come true." Please let it be the one where I find an unusual amount of quarters lying on the ground, and not the one where I have to eat leather shoes and find them unusually edible.

I got one of those funny urges last night so I watched only the last half of 宇宙戦艦ヤマト２. (Star Blazers, to the IME-handicapped.) Absolutely brilliant. The drama between the main players, the rousing music as they make their final assault on the Comet Empire, the tears in Kodai/Wildstar's eyes as he bum-rushes the guards to escape before the place blows. You never saw the GIJoe guys cry. Not to stifle the creative spirit in any way, but I've always wondered why people bother to try and follow up something that good with the clearly predictably not. I remember first having that thought seeing Highlander 2 in the theater months after Terminator 2. Or do sequels, homages, derivative work, subsequent generations in the genre, whether they be true products of inspiration or just junky attempts to cash-in, serve a worthy purpose to confirm the original impression? I can't tell if I'm grasping, to justify my conservative pessimism or being an old retro fart.

"PULL KNOB" is different from "PUSH KNOB." Bleh, I'm going home.

Oh, as delighted as I was to find a Fuddruckers nearby (and detrimental as a ½-lb. Works is to my productivity after lunch), I am bewildered by their policy to discourage to-go drinks by telling customers that they don't have lids when the bakery counter has a basket full of them. One more time and I just might have to mention it. Then again, this might jeopardize my stash.

Realized that this game has dead ends; as I recall, I couldn't progress in Infocom's "next-gen"—meaning it'd recognize articles and prepositional phrases—Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, either, because I missed a step that I wasn't able to backtrack to. I was supposed to give the mermaid that was in here with me a comb from another room above. And now I'm in a pit with the shoes, ticket, bottom of heel, watch, rusty key (which doesn't work on the locked door here), letter, pile of bones, hard dry chewing gum, stick with gum on end, 5 dollar bill, match and soggy fuse (which I will probably end up having to re-do to keep dry, too). There's a valve without a handle on a large warm pipe that's too hot to touch. Where's my FAQ, damnit? I remember posting walkthroughs to BBS's for higher download privileges.

More than twenty years later, and I'm still stuck in Mystery Fun House. How the fuck am I supposed to get out of a drained water tank with shoes, a ticket, bottom of heel, watch, rusty key, letter, pile of bones, hard dry chewing gum, stick with gum on end, 5 dollar bill and a soggy fuse when "CLIMB SLIDE" is the only line I get a response to, and it's too steep?

I heard some rumbling outside last night, but ignored it. And lookee, it's the North Koreans firing off rockets on our day to do it! Speaking of whom, Monday night I tried a couple of the newly downloadable maps for SOCOM3. The game would be so much better without such lifeless environments and the shoot-anything-that-moves mentality of the twitch genre; GTA3-like innocent bystanders, for instance. (SEALS might shout for them to disperse during firefights, and terrorists take them hostage, or in the very least both could use them as cover.) Is it too much to ask for some roaming cows in the fields? Either that, or empty it out completely, and make it online Manhunt.