Tuesday 6 February 2001

Pic of the day: It's weird, it's twisted, it's hyper, it's Japanese, it's kind of funny and it's all anime. Anime, meet Magnus. Magnus, meet anime.

Platonically cute day

Sick leave today. On the way to bus, I got pangs of nausea, and headed home. I have felt generally a bit "depleted" today, but caught an hour or so of sleep before Cassie woke me up, insisting that it was lunch time. I've eaten mainly yoghurt today. My digestion is still upset.

My dreams were dark and creepy, which is unusual for me. This continued into the sleep I caught in the day. Not exactly nightmares, but unpleasant. Like the last one, featuring big spiders in a desolate cabin in the woods.

***

I did not venture outdoors again, but stayed in. Through my big triple insulated windows I could see the air filled with snow, but it was hard to say how much was snowing and how much was just whirled up into the air by wind. At one time, I could see the countours of the sun shining through the clouds; then it was gone again. I heated the apartment with electricity and candlelight. Yesterday broke the record for electricity use here in Norway, twice. (And one transformator in Kristiansand caught fire, crashing our servers at work.) I think it was slightly better today. Perhaps the river of arctic air from Sibir is moving away from us, now.

Inside, I kept the temperature just below what's comfortable for relaxing. It is quite comfortable for playing The Sims. My hands were cold almost all the time, but my head was hot. Did you know that the brain uses about 20-25% of the body's energy when you're sitting quietly thinking? It can be even more if you concentrate on solving complex problems. Or so I've heard. I'm not actually researching these things myself, you know. I've also been told by many reliable sources that the brain can NOT burn fat, only sugar. And me all out of soda!

***

I'm feeling right at home at the debate forum for the Acid Reflux comic. Lots of nice people. For some reason there seems to be a number of furries there; I guess the cute werefox recently showing in the comic may have something to do with that. Then again, perhaps not. There are also some wild anime fans.

I did not know what anime was, except that it was Japanese cartoons. On the forum I was incidentally made aware that one can download them from the Net. I was pointed to several servers that claimed to have non commercial anime, but only one of them was accessible. I think the others may be too crowded. This one was LunaArts, a nice high quality amateur website. In order to learn more about this strange and expanding phenomenon, I spent a couple hours downloading a short movie. It was strange. I could recognize the "spirit" of the anime fans on the web. It is clear that there is a special style, I would call it "hyper energized". All things are over the top, overdone, at the top of lungs, faster than life. A hyperactive world without Ritalin.

I hear that hyperactivity, which is now called something else (attention deficit? Or was that last year? I think it was shortened almost AD&D, anyway) is now becoming more and more common. Wonder if it will eventually be the norm? If so, anime may be the art form of the future. And let's face it, it is kind of fun.

(The above is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of God Allmighty. But you probably already guessed that much.)

***

Also, thanks to WindKing on the Acid Reflux forum, I have a new slogan. "Still.. In my opinion porcupines are kinda platonically cute in an odd sort of way." That's what he or she said. (On the Web, it can be hard to say for sure which they are, though I'd suspect anyone calling themselves -king is probably male.) No wonder I dreamt that I was changing into a porcupine! Say, isn't that exactly me? "Kinda platonically cute in an odd sort of way."

Now even cuter ... or at least, even more platonic, in an odd sort of way!