Walter

I've got a framed vinyl of Susumu's Kyusai no Gihou on my office wall, just next to my computer. The other day, I noticed a small dead spider on it. I guess I squashed it without remembering to remove it. So I've been letting its corpse hang out next to me like I'm the fucking Crypt Keeper. But today I decided I'd just clean it off. So I lean over with a tissue, and surprise—that little guy's alive! It was never dead at all. I apparently never smashed it. It's just been so still I assumed it was dead. So this time, I let it live.

After dinner last night, I went out for drinks with my wife and some friends. I ordered an old fashioned with a bourbon I've never tried before (Whistle Pig). When it arrived, I took a sip. It tasted very... sugary. The bourbon didn't hit me at all. Initially, I thought: Maybe it's just THAT smooth! So in the name of science, I drank some more, and some more; each time trying to gauge whether or not there was bourbon. I drank the whole stupid thing and concluded at the very end: Yeah I think they forgot to add the bourbon. I told the waitress, and she looked into my glass and then at me, and said: You drank it though? THAT'S NOT THE POINT LADY! Meanwhile, my wife says her drink tastes TOO strong. I think they added my bourbon into her drink. So technically we still got our money's worth...? But I'm still upset, guys.

Hello Walter, just finished reading your “Sk.net: 20 years later” and it was wonderful lol Thanks for making it, it was interesting and insightful

I'll be in Japan in a little less than a week now! I'm excited and nervous of course to see the exhibition and "live" in Japan for a week. The future ramen and sushi I'll consume are already occupying a good portion of my brain, even as I type this. I've probably spent $150 on travel materials. I'm overcompensating because I haven't flown since before the pandemic hit, and I haven't left the US since 2008. I've been writing down things I'll need and planning for contingencies. There are a lot of details to consider when you're traveling to a place where you don't functionally speak the language.

I'm a gigantic brain!

Took the day off work just to play Metroid Dread

I've stumbled through the past two days and realized in the end that it hurt more than I expected. I've been distracted and inattentive at work and home. I didn't sleep for about 36 hours after the news. My wife insisted I take a sleeping pill and eventually that won. I've had several tragedies in my life. Most of these—the death of a loved one, being laid off while starting a family, having death dangled right in front of me—were more destructive and traumatizing than Miura's passing. Having survived those and more and never truly facing depression, I consider myself emotionally solid. But there's something unique about this. It's a knife that cuts differently. Because even though it's someone who I didn't know, I followed everything they wrote to the letter. Miura was the one consistent voice that has lifted me up every few months and kept me coming back for more. I feel like I've made my peace with his death. But now I'm facing a wide open road, and I don't know what to do.

I just went into Windows settings to increase the size of my cursor by one. When should I expect my first social security check?

I started taking online, self-paced Japanese lessons about two weeks ago. I've been following Berserk for more than 20 years, and yet I can scarcely ever read anything on the page that isn't a regularly-used kanji or katakana. It's ridiculous, and it's time to put an end to it. (1/3)

I wanted to let everyone know that I know the text formatting options look funky, and that's because it was changed automatically during a recent forum upgrade. Aaz and I are working on restoring it back to its usual lovely self. So please bear with us until that's all patched up and back to normal. Thanks!

Been running on very little sleep these days. Was up 'til about 2am getting the podcast finished last night. Gonna need to eliminate my sleep debt soon, and there's no relief on the horizon. As much as I loved reading and talking about 361, it will honestly be nice to just snooze through the rest of the month when it comes to Berserk.

Gonna commit to not reading the 361 thread until the full ep is available for download on Hakusensha. Don't think I've ever successfully done that throughout all these years... But this could be a big one.