Too Early

I woke up at something like 3 am, after going to bed at 8:30. I'm still trying to catch up from spending eight hours on the road getting Steve from WV, and my body is sore from that and this cold I'm nursing. Why can't I sleep?

At least I can surf the Net without having Thomas (age 2 1/2) supervising.

More human

Amazing what a shower can do for you. Am dressed, have taken the recycling out, and am thinking about getting shaved.

Thomas is waking up. Later.

Kenshin, Our Bi-polar Bishonen Samurai

For those of you that love anime & manga but haven't seen or read any of the Ruroni Kenshin series, you're missing out on a treat. Its fun stuff, set in mid-19th century Japan, eleven years into the Meiji Era. Our hero is Kenshin Himura, wandering Samurai. In an age when the Samurai's weapon of choice is outlawed, he gets by with the "reverse blade sword", a katana with the edge on the inside of the blade, allowing him to use his signature style without killing anybody.

You see, as a former assassin for the revolutionary group that overthrew the old Tokagawa regime, Kenshin has a *lot* of blood on his hands. In penance for his old ways he took a vow to never kill again, and to help any indviduals he encountered during his journeys.

While this sounds oh so terribly serious, the anime and manga aren't all doom & gloom. For one thing, Kenshin is pretty much the opposite of imposing, being fairly short, with relatively delicate features, and a tendency towards self-depreciation. As the series progresses, he and his friends form a tight bond, and he falls in love with the pretty kendo teacher Miss Kaoru. The drama is leavened with the typical anime pratfalls, with Kenshin often uttering his signature "Oro!" phrase when mildly distressed.

Well, that's the original series anyway. After the run of the original manga and anime, two DVD's entitled "Samurai X - A Romantic Tale of the Meiji Era" were released, expanding on the details of Kenshin's revolutionary days. The discs are dark stuff, the animation leaning more towards the realistic, with the humor of the original series totally absent. Blood and water are a running theme through the episodes, and you get plenty of both.

In fact, it's so dark, that I've pretty much reached the conclusion that post-revolution Kenshin is, in fact, utterly insane. *Nobody* could be as natteringly cheerful and domestic after living through the horrors he both perpetuated and endured. The boy just *cracked* and everyone around him (all friends he made after the revolution) are just too ignorant to realize it.

Watch 'em both, and try and tell me I'm wrong.

Swag

I've written four or five articles for Pyramid http://sjgames.com/pyramid/, Steve Jackson Game's online gaming mag. Not only is it a fairly painless way to dip my toes in the publishing/RPG industry, I can also take payment in the form of store credit for their Warehouse 23 gaming store http://www.warehouse23.com/.

Just got payment recently for an article that was published three weeks back, and I'm sending out my order this afternoon. Effectively I'm getting four books for the price of one (and a little bit of my creativity.)