So, as those of you who read (lj)faithinfire will already know, yesterday I was formally diagnosed with depression. This is a good thing, arguably, as it gives me some framework for handling the overwhelming sense of "oh shit, universe falling to pieces" that I've been suffering for the last few weeks and assuming was somehow entirely my own fault.

So while I was at home feeling sorry for myself and very small indeed, koilungfish went out and came home with lookingforsigns, and they brought me presents! ♥♥♥ There were cookies! And Seiber bought me pizza! And... and, and, and...

There were also a whole five booster packs from the Pirates CSG that Seiber and me have been fangirling over lately! Including one from the "Fire & Steel" expansion that has the gorgeous Switchblade and Scorpion miniatures, which have tiny moving parts! Blades that turn on miniature plastic cogs! Now, Seiber had been lucky enough to get a Switchblade ship, HMS Salient, in our very first packs of boosters and I'd been profoundly jealous. But...

As I tore open the Fire & Steel pack, I saw the glint of silver. My eyes widened. Silver-stamped cards! Black super-rare corner tags! All of them! And...

...three entire cards that went to make up a great, pale, hideous monster of a ship. Grey and black and dust white, the pallid shade of old skin and the rotten muted red of dead, stripped meat. And dazzling, silver, twin scythelike blades...

A super-rare, Cursed-fleet Switchblade. Oh. My. GODS.

Her name is Skin Flayer and she is gorgeous. I cannot believe that a random booster pack my friends grabbed for me as a "please cheer up!" present could manage to be the single most coveted set in the whole expansion - witness the bit of paper that fell out after the Skin Flayer (not to mention the Silver Coffin, the Soul Mark treasure card, and Tabitha McWarren, the Cursed pirate girl who joined the crews of the damned when she threw herself from a clifftop for the sake of a dead pirate lover): a note that read "Congratulations! You just dug up the most sought-after treasure chest in the Pirates of the Cursed Seas Fire and Steel pocketmodel game! It contains every super-rare game piece in the set!"

I mean, how extraordinary is that, in those particular circumstances? I think something out there loves me at least as much as my friends do. ♥♥♥

Laters,
Rath

Obama vows to close Guantanamo Bay.

So relieved. Thank you Barack, because it looks like you really do mean to turn America back into a nation such that people won't back away from me when I tell them I want to live there. Thank you for being someone to whom the word "moral" means "we can't go around torturing people" rather than merely "we do everything it says in this dumbed-down edition of a dusty two-thousand-year-old book and everyone who gets hurt in the process, it was their own fault, y'see?"

I could hug the man, I really could, and I can't remember ever wanting to hug a politician before in my life. *throws flowers*

Laters,
The Navigator

Because it's frankly awesome to realise that you're watching history in the making... I would just like to raise my glass *lifts, er, a McDonald's soda cup since that's what I currently have* to President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama II. Congratulations to the man who stole America's heart, and may he take good care of it now he's got it!

*applauds*


And now a meme, since everyone else is doing it. From deepbluesquee and raisedbymoogles:

One little compliment can make you feel amazing.

So give me a compliment, anything in the entire world, even that my shoelaces are pretty. Put this in your journal, so I can return the favor. And once you get some comments, put that entry in a memory or tag so that when you are feeling down, you can go to that entry for a quick pick-me-up and a smile.

Backhanded remarks, friendly insults, and general abuse are also okay because, hey, I know some of my friends have issues with the idea of ever being overtly nice to another sentient being. *grins*

Laters,
The Navigator

PS Is anyone else who also uses Livejournal finding that their clever security checking measure for their new "find a friend" feature is killing their browsers? I mean, at least they're trying to do what their membership want (ie, allow people to opt IN to intrusive data searches rather than OUT) but nul points for the coding, right there...

(lj)oml404 told me this last night but I only just got around to checking the internet for details - Goteki have reformed! I am stupidly happy about this. Apparently, they had as much fun at their one-off show in London as I and the rest of the audience did. ^____^

New songs. More gigs! Gotekiiiiiiii! *strings self with party lights in celebration and races away to dig the CDs back out of the top of the stack, waving arms gleefully*

(Also, have the Myspace page open in the other tab and the onboard player just randomly spun up Shinjuku Lullaby. ♥)

Laters,
Rath

I usually don't have much (any) time for Christian metal, but even I have to sit up at the idea of a Capuchin friar, aged 62, fronting a metal band.

This is fantastic. The guy's not even preaching from the stage, or at least he alleges not to be. He's just a former missionary and member of a holy order who caught heavy metal and decided he had to be part of it. There are no words for how much glee I feel at this - it certainly provides good evidence for my belief that if you have metal in your blood you will find your way to it, no matter how long or circuitous or downright bizarre the route. ^_^

And, this? The fact that I'm amazed to hear something so open-minded from a Christian is probably a damning reflection on Christianity's spokespeople in general, but:

"I never did it to preach, I did it because music is beautiful ... If I want to convert people, I simply want to convert them to life, to welcome life, to enjoy life ... I am religious and I am a priest but I am not doing this to convert people to Christ, to faith or the Church, but for them to try to understand life, to be able to enjoy it. Nothing more." - Friar Cesare Bonizzi

Yes. YES. Because what the hell else are you supposed to be doing up on that stage? Amen, brother!

Incredulously but frankly delightedly,
Rath