Normality ensues.
Managed to get a whole lot of fixing done. Resorted to having to take the hard drive out with the intention of backing it up and reinstalling Windows. And even that couldn't go easy, as the laptop chose the opporunity to choke on its own OS, so I had to go next door and ask the neighbors if I could use their computer.
Helpful as they were, they didn't have USB 2.0, meaning the task would have taken hours. So I just went for the really important stuff, the files that would be too terrible to lose (no, not porn) but while I was there, I found what I suspected might have been the offending program (deskband, something I use to control winamp from the taskbar). I deleted it, hoping that'll shift the blockage, and if not, I'll just do what I was planning anyway. Well, it worked (nice when something does) and so the computer was saved and nothing of importance was lost.
Also, downloaded a copy of Windows 7 and stuck that on the laptop, because Vista can suck my fat left one.

Moving swiftly on. Recently with the release of the FF14 trailer, I lamented that it probably wasn't going to be a sequel to FF11. Then I took a much closer look at the logo.



This isn't one of my sexual fantasy photoshoppin's, this one could really happen.

Anyway, if you haven't had the chance yet, you should check out On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel. I didn't even known they'd animated this. I mean, I'd known about the FFVII "novels", though I considered them a rather lazy into the compilation.
I know, I know, saything something against the printed word? Sacrilege, of course! Well, it would be, if it were any other series. Or even a series told through any other medium. FFVII, by its very nature and its own origins is a VERY visual story. It was, if not the first 3D RPG, it's certainly the first 3D RPG anyone can remember playing. And one reason why Advent Children was so successful because we, as fans, loved getting to see how the characters and their world "really" looked, unhindered by the restrictions of 1997's technology. All (er, "both") of the other games and animation in the compilation also drew us with the visuals (don't say the things you liked best about Crisis Core and Last Order was the retconning of a perfectly fine origin story), but a written-word tie-in is surprisingly lazy.
There's no point in describing what Midgar looks like, for example - anyone who's reading your stuff already knows that. Hell, the ones who are going through the trouble of hunting down a translation or doing the translating themselves are the ones who could probably give you directions around Midgar. Mako Reactor 1? It's down the street, past the train station, turn left at the girl selling flowers, you can't miss it.
Now, if it were other series like Discworld or Harry Potter, it wouldn't be such a big deal because although being adapted to movies, they began as books. And you'll always get more in a book than you will in a movie. But on the other hand, if you take something that began in a visual medium and try to hammer it into a book, you're forgetting a picture paints a thousand words, so in just typing "Midgar", you're already 999 words behind the games, movie and animations. Are your words really better than Square's pictures? Come on. These people do shiny for a living.

You ask me, they should do more FF-based animations. I know Fullmetal Alchemist is their flagship manga/anime, but they were to release a whole series based on one of their games (a sequel to VIII? An adaptation of FFVI?) it would outsell the pants off the Brothers Elric. Oh, and I'm not counting Final Fantasy Unlimited because, well, who in their right mind would?

One last thing, but still anime-related, though I still haven't seen the first part of the new Rebuild of Evangelion series, I have found out that an English dub has been recorded. Alison Keith and Spike Spencer have come back to voice Misato and Shinji respectively (don't ask about Tiffany Grant. Asuka isn't the first part, but considering this woman bends over backwards to go to cons in her character's outfit and lend her voice to fan-projects, she is a a safe bet). Surprisingly enough, Amanda Winn Lee isn't back to voice Rei, who will instead be voiced by Brina Palencia. I don't know any of her other roles, I checked. And although, having heard her on youtube, it's hard to imagine her as Rei since she hardly sounds like her at all, if you've heard Amanda Winn Lee in literally anything else, you'll know she hardly sounds a thing like Rei either.