Still going

The busy days continue here at Villa Sternberg. I made Kouryou-chan one of her favorite lunches this morning, egg salad sandwich and more of that yogurt mix. She seems to be liking it and I'm getting more protein into her, which is good. She was very well behaved getting off to school this morning. I appreciated that.

I've got Brain back up and running and have even updated the schedule quite a bit. It's weird actually having free memory. It only has eight megabytes and usually I kept it full. Right now, thought, it's got only a minimal database. I'm going to get fanatical about backups, I can tell.

I had a productive day. I finished steam-cleaning the living room, tidied up downstairs, then took everything out of the utility closet and proceeded to clean it up. That includes a complete wash through the Barney Box (so named for its purple and green color) in which all of Omaha's and my, um, toys are kept. I threw out a lot of things, mostly condoms and lube that was out of date. We haven't actually taken the Barney Box anywhere since Kinky Couples shut down, goddess, it must be almost ten years ago. I also put away all of the Christmas stuff.

I also took more electronic junk to the recycler, stopped by the store to pick up flour and rice and some good cheese, then took Kouryou-chan home.

She got her hour of television, then FallenPegasus stopped by to pick up the dead laptop he'd left here. I made risotto for dinner (standard risotto recipe) with olive oil and proscuitto instead of butter, so I fed Pegasus as well. We chatted and played with Kouryou-chan (taught her the 'five' song from Schoolhouse Rock), and then he took off, leaving me with her. She was easy to put to bed after a couple of Beatrix Potter stories.

[Music] TISM - The White Album

Warning: this post contains adult language and situations.

Okay, so I've finally listened to the TISM album all the way through, and I've got to say, this one had me absolutely laughing my fucking head off. By now, we've all heard Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me, but there are better songs on this record. No, really. TISM perfectly captures the existential angst of guys my age. It's made by late 30-somethings for late 30-somethings. The song Bone Idol is a great expression of that whole "self-improvement thing" that we seemed to be pressured to undergo: "I must invite my vegan neighbors round for a barbecue,/ I'll go on a liver cleansing diet 'cause I've got lots of drinking to do..."

And then there's I rooted a girl, who rooted a guy, etc. (Man, that title length gets annoying fast!). It's about how you're not famous, and not likely to be. It's the angst of being too old to go partying, and too young to admit it.

Do you remember the song, Love The One You're With by one of those hippie bands from the sixties? TISM has an answer for them: "Love the one you're with, and if you can't love the one you're with, go fuck yourself!" There's something postively liberating about-- and joining in-- this shout about how the whole hippie thing just seems so totally fucked up now, thirty, forty years later. The song launches into all the petty evils we refuse to repute even as we dismiss them in others: "Love your flights of adolescence/ Love your cruise to obsolescence/ Love the charity you can't afford to give/ And if you can't love the one you're with..." You know the rest.

But the best song on the album, the absolute total best song on the album, is the unfortunate Cerebral Knievel. It says what I've wanted to say in a long time: young snots are just that. It takes the Beatles' songs "Revolution" and "Revolution Nine" and turns them on their collective arse with a response so biting, so harsh, so incredibly, nastily, horribly vicious that I cringed inwardly that I was like that once upon a time, and then I laughed so hard I nearly had to pull off the side of the road. And it's only four words long! I don't even dare ruin it for you. You simply must hear it. If you're under 25, you won't get. If you're over 35, you'll laugh yourself sick.

It's such a shame that the album is intermixed with heavily political songs like Ken Bruce has Gone Mad, Sorted For D'n'M, and Message from a Big Day Out Port-A-Loo (although, really, the last one's anti-political: "fuck the news, who cares who Abdel Anzis Rantisi is, let's go disco..."). I mean, yeah, TISM is an Australian band, and they're instrumentally talented and their lyrics are amazing, but if they want to sell anywhere else... they'll have to sell out. I don't know if they'd be the same.

But damn, I want more.

[Anime] Kannaduki no Miko, Eps 3-5

So, I watched more Kannaduki no Miko (or Kannazuki no Miko, as some people spell it), and I'm digging it. Chikane still hasn't confessed her love for Himeko and seems really perplexed by the whole thing because she believes its unnatural, but she wants Himeko so bad. Souma also wants Himeko, and Himeko responds to his advances, but she knows there's something, something that she feels for Chikane that's holding her back. Chikane and Souma know they're rivals, but they don't know why. Goodness, it's touching and fun.

And it's not as predictable as I had first thought. There are other issues here being dealt with quite well. Himeko and Souma were childhood friends until they were separated, apparently because both had really abusive families. Himeko's got this thing about her hair, and Souma's brother comes out of his shady past to really turn the story upside down. Meanwhile, poor little Himeko is being teased at school because everyone's jealous of how she has the undivided attention and rivalry of the school's two hottest numbers, and... It's not as predictable as I had feared. Good.

Massive fanservice, mecha, unrequited lesbian desire and a good subplot? What more could I ask for?