This is a repost of an article published on February 19, 2005, as part of an effort to feature older popular posts. On the subject, there are only a couple dozen copies of Xenogears Light left, if you’re interested, snap them up while you still can.

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Site updates today. Firstly, my ten latest bookmarks from del.icio.us are on the bar to your right, if you use either of the following skins:

• nautica2l-bss (the default)
• plain-bss (new)

If you want other styles to show the bookmarks, because you absolutely love the skin yet can’t live without knowing what I’ve been bookmarking, let me know and I’ll add the bar.

Second small update is that nautica2l-bss (the default skin) finally has a link to let you select your skin, in case you want to change it. I suggest the aforementioned new plain-bss, which I’ve been using for a while now. It’s a simple and clean (nod to Shrubey) theme, but as to not jarringly change things for anyone, the old skin is still the default.

I remember how when the month started, I was thinking “maybe December will be the month that I average a post every other day…”

I’m off to a great start on that one.

Applications to grad schools have been submitted and I’m just waiting on letters of recommendation from one professor. And then, the long wait to mid-March. And then we’ll see what happens after that. I bet a lot of places throw their entire scholarship budget at me.

In personal screwing around, I’ve gone back to using BitlBee, an IRC to AIM/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo!/Jabber gateway, meaning I can chat on all of those crazy IM networks I barely use via Irssi, the best IRC client ever. While this itself is mostly for my benefit, tying my IM presence to IRC means a couple things for you, the intrepid chatter:

• I’m online more, because I make a point of being connected to all my IRC networks
• I disconnect (and thus forget to reconnect) less, as with screen I can shutdown the desktop and keep Irssi running on my server
• There’s a better chance of me not hiding behind away messages all day

And hey — the logs are in a convenient format, too. And since those are backed up via Subversion… Okay, gotta stop linking to software. Especially software only I really use.

In stuff you can actually participate in, I’ve started using del.icio.us again, a “social bookmarking” site. You get to see what I’ve bookmarked, along with others. Join in on the fun and we can get some networks going, and stuff. Or whatever. I want to try integrating it with the blog, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. For now, if you care to know what random stuff I’m bookmarking, just keep an eye on that URL.

That’s all for now.

Productivity! Enterprise! Hi-keeba!

I got stuff done today. Like actual, legitimate, I’m-slightly-less-behind stuff! One document is nearly done and on track to be fired off to the professor on Monday. And the other thing has been the target of some slight yet motivating support work, so while no progress on that was made today, I’m not feeling as horribly doomed with it.

Happy days are here again.

I celebrated by doing two things:

• Gently prodding my Grand Scheme of MST3K Obtainage, which some have heard about. Slow and steady wins the race, some insist. On the subject, The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide that I got from Josh has been a wonderful read. The writers of the show are, astonishingly, quite the funny chaps.
• Working on my anime backlog. I have Ah! My Goddess from early 2005 to watch. I said I’d get to it eventually. I’d forgotten just how much the opening theme to the series (or the first season, anyway) reminds me of spring 2005. The series was a nice piece of comfortable routine in an otherwise hectic first couple months in La Crosse. And it meant I got to abuse the new broadband, which was a bonus. Such a happy theme, very soothing. I’d even save the episodes for after my one evening class, so I had something to settle down to.

Industry!