What is your Fursona's name?
Folgrimeo, same as my screenname, but I shorten it to "Folgy". Yes, I know the name looks like Folgers.

What made you choose the species of your main fursona?
There was no strong reason for it. For a long while I had no idea what species to stick with, I'd variously be a fox or rabbit or something else. Just whoever was fast, nimble, small, seeing as how that was my criteria for characters to pick in videogames. Once I got into Redwall and started having thoughts of joining the furry community, I decided I had to settle on one species. Well, I was trying to draw a squirrel at the time, and realized it looked slightly more distinct than the wolves/foxes I usually drew (once I drew a circle around the left eye, that was all that I needed), so I figured why not force myself to draw squirrels a lot by making that my fursona. It didn't become official until I met my pal Juniper, who had watched the Redwall TV series just like I did, and similarly had a fascination with the Gawtrybe squirrels in the third season. He had his favorite Gawtrybe squirrel, I had mine. Just so happens the one who won me over was a red squirrel with red circle-ish things around his eyes. Seemed as good a coincidence as any, and considering Juniper's fursona was a squirrel derived from one of the Gawtrybe, I would follow suit. That said, I was a fan of Watership Down beforehand (quickly forgotten once I dove into Redwall), and upon seeing the TV show a half year ago, I'm convinced I would have been a rabbit if I didn't see the Redwall show before. I've always had some strong appreciation towards cartoon rabbits, Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh being the shining example... it's just that I saw that Gawtrybe squirrel first, and by then I had drawn Folgy so much I couldn't switch.

Is your fursona just like you, or how you want to be?
How I want to be, which isn't that different from how I am, except for not having a fear of adventure or danger, free to express himself, and not getting lost when taking a single wrong turn. He'd be most at home out in a forest. Ranger Rick was the first furry thing I recall being introduced to and one of the most fond memories I have, so I suppose I'd want Folgy to live in a world like that. And I remember as a kid wanting to visit the woodland hideout seen in the show Fred Penner's Place. Folgy's essentially my inner voice, my online self, who I'd be if I didn't have reservations letting others know I'm furry. In real life I rarely talk. But when I met a fellow furry Hazel in person, we talked for hours. I was at ease, my talking style ("every post is a 7-paragraph essay") and beliefs at last matched how I express myself online.

Does your fursona have the same personality you have?
Yep, as I use him to represent myself. The more I talked to Juniper and got involved with the furry community, the more furry I started to act (more easily enamored by animals, maybe becoming a touch more feminine), so Folgy would subconsciously mimic that. Which is also why he gradually became gay, as my undeniable preference for gay furry art grew. It's strange, I don't identify as gay but those tendencies are very strong whenever I look at furry art/books/movies, I have yet to sort it out but I wouldn't be surprised if Folgy's ahead of me on that one.

Does your fursona have the same dislikes and likes as you do?
Yep, needless to say. Red pandas and raccoons, programming, Redwall, the color blue, Weird Al Yankovic, etc. For dislikes there's monkeys, most Will Ferrell comedies, golf (fine if it's a videogame, but it brings out the worst in me if I play it for real), strategy games, the face expressions you see on lip makeup products, and some other things.

Does your fursona look like you at all?
Not really, just about the only thing in common is we're relatively short (it seems he's been getting shorter and shorter in drawings). He doesn't share the slight belly I have, doesn't have the curly hair I have, and doesn't have a moustache. Plus he's a red squirrel.

Is your fursona the same gender as you, if not why?
Yep, male. Never saw the point in being a different gender, especially not after I've started to identify more and more male characters as cute.

Do you have more then one main fursona?
No. I've briefly thought about trying out an opossum, skunk, rabbit, or a mix of those, but I wouldn't make that switch unless I can actually draw it. I can't draw opossums to save my life, I'd probably draw a skunk just like a squirrel (which in itself looks like my foxes if you ignore the tail), and I haven't drawn a rabbit I could say could be me.

Do you have a back story for your fursona, if so does it have anything to do with your own history?
Nope. Just a squirrel who exists to act out what I experience.

Is your fursona mated, if so is it to your real life significant other?
Not mated, he's just as single as I am. But rest assured if and when that changes, I'd be assigning an animal to represent the other person. Since I draw animals and not people.

If not are they looking for a mate, or are they a swinger so to speak?
Not actively looking, and he wouldn't get the hint if a squirrel tailwrapped and kissed him like in The Sword and the Stone. But a swinger, no, he'd stick with one mate, just like I believe.

Is there something special about your fursona that you think sets them apart from others?
Not that I can think of. That circle around his left eye, I only chose that to say "you know that one's me and not a random squirrel I drew". I'm quite lazy at details. At first he had a grass skirt and necklace (to approximate the loincloth and collar thing the Gawtrybe squirrel had), but when I got tired of drawing them, they were dropped for good. But hey, if looking like the squirrel version of the Target mascot is unique among fursonas, then so be it.

Do you have much art of your main fursona/s?
Tons. I mean, before my extended ongoing period of no art (having a job tends to do that). I counted the number of times I've drawn Folgy (as of March '13), it was 171 pictures, in second and third place were drawings of Shaui and Juniper (39 and 25 pictures respectively).

Would you ever consider parting with your main fursona, if so why?
Not unless I get really attached to drawing a different animal, not just in having fun drawing it but also being able to draw a unique version that I could say is me. But if there is a next fursona, he will probably have rabbit ears.

If you suit, do you have a suit of your main fursona?
Don't have a fursuit and never felt like having one.

Have you ever roleplayed with your main fursona, or do you prefer not to?
Once, along with another person playing their fursona. And it felt so personal, like the fursonas failed to separate that it was us (probably since their personalities were the same as ours), that I preferred to not do it again. That'd probably be different once I get romantic with someone, but still, fursonas represent people to me. The strange thing is I maintain I have no personal connection to my fursona, toss him into a volcano and I wouldn't care. But if I'm roleplaying as him, that's different since we become one and the same.

Do you consider your main fursona to be a part of you in any way?
Only that he's convenient to represent me. Like I said above, you could turn him into a Shakespeare rapper and I wouldn't mind. I'd still draw him though, kept him around for so long that I don't feel like switching to something else. And if I have to express myself through art, something that I can't say out loud or am reluctant to admit, Folgy's going to be the one to say it.

Might as well update this since the show ended in September. Still no word on whether there will ever be a second season.

I really liked the TV show "Arashi no Yoru Ni: Himitsu no Tomodachi". It has a few serious flaws, but the style and occasional precious moments are too good to pass up. I can see the potential for it to be awesome, the final episodes were proof of that, and I appreciate what it showed us.

The movie that it's based off of is one of those treasures that some of us may treat as sacred. It was very emotional, had a strong story, great lead characters and voices and visuals, a wonderful unofficial English dub... it instantly became my favorite film. So it seemed disrespectful that there'd be a kid-oriented TV show. Mei suddenly being female, I can forgive that. The unfortunate promo pic that gave us our first look at their new designs... I mean, geez, take ANY screenshot from the actual show (heck, take one from the intro!) and it'd look better than that. It's one of those shows where you have to give it a little bit of time to make an impression.

For what the show does right, it has amazing animation and visuals (amazing to me anyway), excellent Japanese voice acting and voices, the spirit and occasional shoutouts to the film, and its interpretation of Gabu. As for what bothered me, there's the heavy kid-friendly slant where the characters take a long time to understand simple matters and rarely ever talk about anything meaningful. So the storylines and dialogue are sometimes painful to listen to. The English dub is indeed slow and wooden, but it seems intentional to help teach English to Japanese children. I got used to it after a while, and there are a few times where it sounds more natural. And just to put it out there, the English dub voices for Barry and Kuro rock. Still, I'd trade it for the Japanese dub in a heartbeat, it's much better.

Gabu's the reason I watch this show, he's the reason I love it. He's been exaggerated to be very insecure, having a face like an open book, and getting way too emotional. And this show exploits it by putting Mei in peril in nearly every episode, or having a conflict. This overacting makes me feel like Gabu thinks and cares more about Mei than he did in the movie. His Japanese voice actor did an outstanding job. Not only is it the kind of voice that makes me smile upon hearing it, but he is really good at sounding panicked or crying. Which Gabu does a lot. I'd swear it's the only vocal performance that feels like it lives up to the facial expressions (lives up to the most, as the other Japanese voices are believable, but Gabu just tends to be more expressive than the rest). True, he looks younger and less ferocious, but he also has beautiful blue eyes and I like him better as a softy.

...as for Mei, she's okay. Annoying perhaps, but she has a few good moments (like when she cries or gets assertive).

My favorite animation/visual details are the eyes constantly darting around (makes the characters seem more alive that way), the very detailed grass, tears welling up in the eyes when a character's about ready to cry, the wide-open areas... and the sunsets. Oh those sunsets, they are glorious. Everything takes on a golden hue (even the eyes seem to change color, which the end of the first episode plays with to give Gabu a blue eye and green eye simply because the sun's only hitting one side of his face), and you'll see them in several episodes. It's a nice show to look at.

For people who expect the show to actually follow the movie (books actually, but I never read them)... it does for the first episode, hints of it in the next two, then it just goes off and does its own thing. It's not until the final episodes that it resumes the movie storyline, which are easily the most powerful. What the bulk of the show does, then, is show the other kinds of things that Gabu and Mei may have been doing. I don't care for all the ideas it had, but I like that it was trying new things. Some of them were entertaining, especially giving some much-needed development to the side characters.

So if you've seen the film, I'd recommend giving the show a try. Not as good as the film, but it succeeds in other ways that make it a good companion.

Because  mixy recently posted a journal about it, and I like talking about videogames.

1) What was your FIRST video game console?
NES. Probably when I was about six. My cousins gave it to me, being really excited about it like it's the most awesome toy out there. I think they later went on to Genesis and Playstation whereas I remained a Nintendo kid.

2) Name a few games you played on said console.
Bubble Bobble, Snake Rattle n' Roll, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Tetris. I'd get new games from Half-Price Books, Sears, or garage sales. Also my parents would buy whatever games looked interesting... which is how I got stuck with the trash game Dino Riki.

3) Excluding handhelds, how many VG consoles do you own presently?
N64, GameCube, Wii, PS2... so four.

4) Were you a Street Fighter nut? Any character in particular?
No, I wasn't into fighting games, or most other genres that didn't have Mario in it. Which is why I didn't get into RPGs until "Super Mario RPG" came along to give me a gentle introduction.

5) Do you think Capcom is a FUCKING awesome company?
After "Okami", yes. In hindsight I see they made great games in the past as well (like "Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers"), but I stuck close to games made by Nintendo or Rare.

6) Here's the scenario.. You had some friends over and you all ate FRIED CHICKEN! After the meal you all decide to play some video games. As your friend reaches for a controller you notice his/her hands are very "greasy." Are you the type that would insist they wash their hands before pawing the controller, or is it no big deal?
I'd prefer for them to wash their hands, though I know I probably had a greasy hand or two on controllers before. It's why I had to retire my blue N64 controller because of how greasy it was. Plus I broke the B button on a GameCube controller once.

7) What's your favorite RPG/Action RPG? I will allow a second and third fave if you insist.
Favorite RPG that I never owned is "Secret of Mana", followed by "Chrono Trigger". As for RPGs I have owned, "Final Fantasy X" is my favorite, then "EarthBound" (snagged it from Funcoland, although without a player's guide), then "Super Mario RPG".

8) Do you prefer 2D games or 3D games?
Either, though I lean towards 3D given the many great 3D games that have come out. And yet I can't deny my belief that SNES was the best overall console. There are so many classic 2D games out there.

9) Are you an SNK fan?
No. Like I said, I'm not into fighting games. Unless it's Smash Bros.

9) Are you good at DDR?
Somewhat. It introduced me to a lot of music that I wouldn't listen to otherwise, mostly because there were dance steps put to it. And then I found myself liking said music. Difficulty doesn't bother me (unless it's 7 or higher), I just play for the music. "Synchronized Love (Red Hyper Monster Mix)" is my favorite DDR song, followed by "Cutie Chaser". That's probably the only game where I can admit liking music with cheesy titles like those. Tried DDR at an arcade once. ...ugh, IGN or whoever was right, you need the force of a small atomic bomb for a step to register. I'm a soft stepper, so I couldn't manage anything above a C at the arcade.

10) Who wants to kick that dog's ass from Duck Hunt?
I may have shot at him a few times back in the day, but now it's a lost cause. Because I'd much rather shoot Seymour from "Final Fantasy X" in the face. What an annoying boss he was...

11) Have you skipped out on important events in life because of video games?
Probably.

12) Do you listen to video game music?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Of the music collection I just put together, 238 of the songs are from videogames, nearly half of it. I'm a strong believer that videogame music can be just as powerful as other music.

Anyone who asks me will know my favorite overall soundtrack is "Ecco the Dolphin" (the Sega CD versions of the first and second games). It's the soundtrack I find to be the most perfect, the only music that I can fall into a trance listening to, the embodiment of exactly the kind of music I like most. Specifically "Maze of Stone" from the second game.

In second place is the "Viva Pinata" soundtrack (I like Day 2), in third place is the "Star Fox Adventures" soundtrack (thanks to Thorntail Hollow at Night), in fourth place is "Donkey Kong Country 2" (man I love Mining Melancholy, played in the mining stages like Squawk's Shaft).

13) Have you ever cosplayed a VG character?
No. But if I did I'd likely be Yoshi. There has been many other characters since then, but Yoshi's the first one I really went wild for.

14) Have you ever been in an arcade playing a fighting game, KICKING ASS, and then some 6 year old asian kid comes in and OWNS YOU??
Nope. Haven't stayed in an arcade long enough to have that happen.

15) Name three games you would love to see remakes of if it was done properly.
Oh boy, uh... okay, definitely "Star Fox". Give us back the atmosphere and timeline of the first game, give us voices and the Star Wolf team, make the teammates competent, and make it resemble "Ace Combat 6". My loyalty to the series is because of the characters, but I never felt like I was really interacting with them. The happiest I ever felt was when Falco warned me about an enemy on my tail ("move it Fox, he's right behind you!"), or telling the enemy "you are NOT taking him down today!". I want to actually get cover from a teammate, or have two of us work together. ...More realistically, just remake the first game with a better framerate, less seizure-inducing graphics, and an "Easy" difficulty.

Wouldn't hurt to get a remake of "Yoshi's Island" (SNES) using "Yoshi's Story" graphics. I love Yoshi's look and animation there (even if he does look noticeably younger). You know what, get rid of Baby Mario too or at least his crying. The Mario-only segments aren't too interesting, you almost never die since retrieving Mario's easy and the number of stars go back up to 10, and I've lost so many perfect scores due to getting hit by an enemy near the end of a stage.

And I'd like "Spore" to be remade to look like it did the first time we saw it. Back to the lofty goals of the original. None of this cutesy stuff. More of the science side.

16) Mario or Sonic?
Mario. I was a Nintendo boy growing up. I later bought "Sonic Mega Collection" for GameCube and found the games to actually be good... but even then, I was a Tails fan (even if it took me a decade to realize he was male) and specifically a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I never had any love for Sonic or most of the rest of the game series. The Sonic SatAM cartoon was awesome though.

17) When a movie shows up in the theaters, let's use Spider-man as an example, are you likely to buy the GAME version?
No.

18) What is your LEAST favorite genre of video games? (ex. fighting, sports, shooters, etc.)
Strategy. I'm vaguely competent in fighting games I never played, and I can last a few minutes in a sports game before dying of boredom, but I have absolutely no skill at strategy games. I can't get past the first level of "Command & Conquer". My strategy is to get a few tanks together and blindly charge forward, hoping to overwhelm by force.

So by extension, I'm usually horrible at first-person shooters. That changed recently when, by some miracle, I finished the first Half-Life game. Granted I abused the heck out of quick-saves because I got sick of getting a rocket to the face, but I didn't reach for the "impulse 101" cheat once. I'm still terrible at first-person shooters, but I could live for a little while. By comparison, I got through about half of "Half-Life 2" before I had to abuse quick-saves.

19) Is there a game out there that you feel was unique and didn't get enough love?
Certainly there are several, but it's hard to narrow it down to one game. I'll nominate "Mario's Picross". Has nothing to do with Mario, but nearly anything he touches is gold. Fans may have liked the Game Boy version, but as far as I know it came and went... then people see the Picross game for Nintendo DS and think it's a new novel idea. I'd much prefer Picross to be the puzzle craze of choice and not Sudoku. I've gotten quite good at it and maintain my belief that in most cases any puzzle can be solved without a hint.

I didn't say "Beyond Good & Evil" because chances are you've heard ten other people recommend it.

20) Have you ever verbally abused a game because you couldn't beat one of the levels and/or bosses?
I'm usually quiet when playing games, so a game REALLY has to frustrate me to make that happen. I mean, more frustrating than F-Zero GX or playing golf in real life. "Sly 2" reached that when I tried to steal keys from the Contessa. Must have failed that mission about 20 times. But the little-known game "Mr. Nutz" (SNES version) takes the cake. I curse up an F-word storm every time I play it. Took me about a year before I finally got good enough to (almost) beat it, and even then I still curse at it. Try it sometime and you'll see what I mean. I blame the unpredictable movement of the birds.

21) Do you own any VG apparel?
I used to have a Mario wallet. I think it fell in a pool or got worn out. Also own a few videogame music CDs.

22) What are your thoughts on the live-action Super Mario Bros movie?
It's cheesy, and disappointing when re-watching it, but it's okay as long as you don't think it has anything to do with the games. Which I found out only after seeing it the first time. I was a kid and even I knew it was trash. The worst moment of all was seeing the pitiful film version of Yoshi, and Yoshi getting kicked. The "Super Mario World" cartoon (with its flaws and embarrassing interpretation of Yoshi) is more entertaining than this movie was!

23) On that note, what did you think about the live-action Street Fighter
Never saw it, don't want to see it. Though I thank the Nostalgia Critic for telling me about the "OF COURSE!" line.

24) Who's hottest out of the KOF chicks?
Don't know the game, can't find a comprehensive cast list with pictures. There may have been a couple fighters in other fighting games I liked (for fanservice reasons), but nowadays I look and can't really see any of them as "hot".

But move to games with furries and it's a different story. I really liked Kangoo from "Clayfighter 2". My favorite Smash Bros. character is Falco. What about non-fighting games? I most definitely had a crush on Krystal during "Star Fox Adventures" (in hindsight Fox was pretty good-looking too). And I guess Amaterasu from "Okami". It's a great game, Ammy's wonderful to control... and the people who liked the game would shout to the hills how profoundly deeply in love they were with Ammy, treating her like a real-life goddess. I don't think I love Ammy -quite- as much.

25) Do you say "old-school" a lot when you're having a VG conversation with others?
Not really. If I do mention old games, I might say "classic" or "old" or "SNES".

26) Have you ever lent someone a game and they returned it to you damaged?
No. But I left a "Popeye" NES cartridge outside by accident and my dog chewed it up. Since it was "Popeye", it got the death it deserved.

27) Do you own any imported games?
No. But I played "Mother 3" via emulator with help from a Japanese-to-English guide on GameFAQs. I'd happily buy the game if only it were released in America. Same with "Xenoblade". At times I really hate NOA (Nintendo of America)...

28) Are you ready for this meme to be over, or could you keep going?
I can keep going. Videogames are one of those topics I can talk for hours on (or Redwall for that matter).

29) In this scenario, let's pretend you're going to get a video game tattoo! What would you get and where? (This can be simple or elaborate.)
I never decided on one since I consider them to be permanent, so I'd have to love the character for life. I'd either go with Yoshi (recognizable, my favorite Mario character), Falco (because Peppy turned into a meme-spouting geezer, so at least Falco's still cool), Flammie (he's the reason I wanted to play Secret of Mana, and remains my favorite kind of transportation), or Jazz Jackrabbit (a rabbit wearing a bandanna is awesome). Not sure where I'd put it. Maybe my chest.

30) Have you ever cried after you beat a game? If so why?
"Okami". That epilogue with Ammy walking as the credits scroll by is... magical. As awesome as the game is, the epilogue is by far the best part. When I saw it, I instantly had flashbacks of all the good times I had with the game, and some sadness that it was all over, but man they couldn't have had a better sendoff like that. I weep for anyone who owns the Wii version, which does NOT have the epilogue. You are REALLY missing out. I think Okami fans were outraged over the omission.

I also cried a little at the end of "Final Fantasy X"... and crying tears of joy at the end of "Star Fox Adventures"... uh, what else... maybe "Donkey Kong Country" because I loved the idea of seeing every enemy in the game walk by. Special mention goes to "Jazz Jackrabbit". It used to be I only had the trial version with the first episode, so I never knew how it ended. Didn't come across the full version until *cough* stumbling upon it online *cough* years later. Played through it, beat it. The ending was SO worth it. Jazz and Eva finally reunite, making my #1 childhood wish finally come true.

Mark Twain wrote a hilarious commentary on how confusing the German language is as part of a book he wrote in 1880. Here's a link to the text of the commentary (a little bit of profanity, but used in an educational sense).

I may be fairly new to Twain's work and have an aversion to old books, but he's refreshingly modern in tone, has a great sense of dry humor, and says far better than I ever could why I'm not wild about learning another language. I'm sure people who learn other languages when young would have no problem, as well as those who accept having a good grasp or living among native speakers for years. For all I know Twain might be exaggerating a little, but he provides some German sources and I've seen the same sort of exceptions and multiple word forms in Spanish, so his observations sound genuine. However, for someone like me, it's quite daunting to spend a long amount of time only to be able to say a few canned phrases with confidence. I used to know a bunch of Spanish verbs and have some grasp of its grammar, but it's still not broad enough to carry any normal conversation for any length of time without looking in a dictionary.

The only thing I find odd in the text is the notion that roughly three months is enough time to learn a language, or have a firm grasp of it, or for that matter be qualified enough to speak about it. That was the length of my elementary Spanish course that tried to shove a semester of Spanish into one quarter (it was fast-paced but felt right). Even after that I could barely say anything. Were people back in the 1800s just really devoted to education and learning?

Today was the day. We have had enough of our TV service, the contract expired this month, it's time to cancel. $75 a month for DVRs that keep dying, so many channels but not the ones we want, channels that appear and disappear, occasional freezes, each button press takes two seconds to register, 4x on fast-forward is slow as needed but 4x on rewind goes at mach speed... we need to get rid of them.

Mom cancels the service (something that they can do instantly), then reinstates it upon remembering there's a couple season finales coming on tonight, holding off the cancellation until tomorrow. "The Office" season finale won't air before that occurs, but that's okay, we'll catch it online. If only that were the end of it.

So we check the TV and channel 4 is missing. Local channels may or may not have been an extra for our package, but Mom told the guy to bring channel 4 back when restoring service. Incompetence? Maybe. So she calls up and gets someone else, someone who babbles on that he can't bring the channel back. It's not the company that can't restore it, it's *he* can't restore it. But there's no call to another person, no talking to a supervisor, our attempt to restore is in the hands of someone who can't do their job. Also, he has a typical thick accent. Listen guys of India descent: it's not racism, you know English well enough, it's just Americans like Mom and I have a hard time understanding what you say. So she's tired of doing this and hangs up, admitting defeat.

I'm not about to leave it at that. It's the season finale! So I call up. I get someone who's comprehensible (hmm, imagine that). We uncancel the cancellation, he says we'll have to cancel manually tomorrow, and he says the channels will be back in a couple of minutes. I'm skeptical, so I ask whether I can keep him on the phone until I see proof that the channels are back. No, the guy hangs up on me. Nice customer service, guys. A couple minutes later the channels are back. That's good for two of the season finales we wanted to watch, but that doesn't account for "The Office".

While I was on the phone, Mom was looking into seeing the episodes online, just in case restoring the channels didn't work. So she hops onto ABC, and we're in luck, they air full episodes there. Good customer sense, not everyone can be on the TV on that special night, yay for internet TV. Just for fun, we try it out, just to verify it will work. It... doesn't. It's bad enough that Linux is on the computer and their viewer uses Flash (Linux and Flash don't exactly go together). As expected, the video pauses every two seconds to buffer. Okay then, can we pause at the beginning and wait for the episode to buffer? ...no. You pause, you watch the little gray loading thing... it doesn't move. You press play, and then it starts moving. So what is the point then!? Actually it did jump up by a significant amount, but that just means I don't know how much has loaded until I start playing again.

See, that's my problem with internet video. We're on satellite broadband, probably one of the worst to boot, so managing to stream anything is a miracle. Why do we accept having video that stutters every few seconds and does not load in the background unless it's playing? We don't have Comcast, we aren't at some university in Seattle, we aren't rich. We do not have the broadband that you think every city in the country does. Let's be frank, the world is not ready for high-definition video streaming. It's just not. Not with the atrocious broadband caps we have to swallow. Oh, and we're paying $65 for broadband. Ironically, dial-up would cost JUST as much to buy a landline again, get a long-distance line, and to hook up with a provider so hurting for revenue that they aren't any cheaper than they were 5 years ago. Let's add this up, $75 for TV and $65 for internet. Granted it's not much worse than $100 to bundle TV/phone/internet with Comcast, but we can't do that because Comcast doesn't go out to rural nowheresville. It does one town away though.

Well, we're glad the ABC shows will tape anyway. Mom goes upstairs, so I decide to check out NBC for "The Office", see how that will fare, because we have no choice but to see that online. Okay, advertisement playing, annoying but normal, it finishes... oh, nice, I have to see a second advertisement. You know it's not 30 seconds when it stutters to get through it, what good is an advertisement if not even that will load smoothly? And yeah it's Flash too. ...okay, that's over... the episode starts, it seems to be playing without pauses, seems fine. That's a relief. Sure, there will be commercials occasionally throughout, but at least watching "Office" online seems viable. One complaint though. If this is supposed to be high-definition and all -- I'm assuming so, wouldn't a network want to provide the best thing for their customers -- why is the "Office" feed noticeably low-quality? I'd understand if they're scaling it down just so the computer can handle it. That's good. Why the heck couldn't ABC do that!? Why can't Netflix do that!?

So we will watch our shows, tomorrow I'll try cancelling our TV service, and we'll see if there's any problems in pulling that off. Then we'll watch "The Office" online, 11:00pm or later because that's the only time the internet caps are lifted (don't you love when caps are so low that you can't do what 90% of the rest of the population does?), hopefully have a good experience. And then this madness will be over. I sure didn't think it'd be this much hassle.

I saw the "Goodbye Michael" episode of "The Office" that aired last night. Nearly choked up on some of those final scenes. Even though it's not the final episode of the series (three left to go), it sure felt like it. There's been many shows over the years that I've followed, but only maybe a couple that I saw the final episode to, and boy do they have a tendency to pluck the heartstrings. I really should watch series finales more. I saw the unforgettable final episode of Malcolm in the Middle, and I saw the season finale marking JD's last episode as a regular on Scrubs (which really should have been the final episode, you can't top that).

But this one felt a little different. Maybe it was the closure offered and the nods back to the show's beginning. Maybe it was seeing Steve Carrell with tears welling up in his eyes during one of the scenes. It was probably just as hard for him to leave the show as it was for us to see him leave. But also, I don't think he could have asked for a better send-off. After all the office antics were over, that last scene with him was fairly quiet and peaceful. It's something we needed to see, so we could say goodbye.

Before I ever heard of "The Office", Steve Carrell seemed like a name thrown out there as the next Jim Carrey, someone who I initially doubted, like Will Ferrell. Then I started seeing some of Carrell's films and he was pretty good (Ferrell's good too, I particularly liked him in "Stranger Than Fiction"). But it wasn't until watching "The Office" that I saw why he became a star in the first place. He's in his prime there. Every member of the cast is hilarious, but Michael was a big part of holding it together. Maybe with time I would come to accept Ferrell as the new boss, but it's very big shoes to fill and I would always remember that role belonging to Carrell. Good luck to his future, and I look forward to seeing how the series will end.

Well, the first journal I've decided to do is a meme. It's the Animation Meme, using the version  sn provided. I've edited it by adding missing years for some of the titles. Since it goes on for ages, I've put it up onto Angelfire.

Instructions are at the top. Proper way would be to have the whole thing in a journal post rather than linked off-site, but I leave that up to you.

Animation Meme
(blank version)

There's a few others I'd like to mention:

Balto: Wolf Quest [Balto II] (2002)
{the storyline is too ridiculous for me, but I love Aleu. Also notable for being unusually beautiful to look at}
Balto III: Wings of Change (2004)
{I was more disappointed in Balto 3 than Balto 2 because this film played it safe by trying to resemble the first, despite keeping the nerfed personalities and lack of excitement. Stella is the most embarrassingly bad character I've encountered in an animated film. I cringe every time she's on screen}
Despicable Me (2010)
{love it, highly recommended}
Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
{surprisingly good film. I liked the kangaroo most of all}
Trumpet of the Swan (2001)
{yeah I know it's horrible. But despite me being an avid fan of the book, I... actually liked this film. Once you get past the eye-gouging first half hour, you start to see the messages and tone of the book are preserved. It must be doing something right for not killing my childhood. I even wrote a COMPLETE SPOILERS review while I was watching it.}