Just to hop on the bandwagon far, far too late for it to be useful:

Firefly is AWESOME.

That is all.

To the Nader supporters outside Safeway today:

I didn’t want to sign to put Nader on the ballot for a couple reasons, but I didn’t want to get into them either, because the pair of you were such sanctimonius jackasses I thought you were doing a pretty good job of burying your cause on your own.

But seriously, what about Nader is it that you like? His outsider status? The fact that he’s not tied to one of the big political parties? Here’s what I liked about Ralph Nader – he fought for the little guy, and he stood for something. He had a sense of integrity.

You’ll notice that that’s all past-tense, and I assure you that it’s intentional. But we’ll get to that.

What is it that you don’t like about the major political parties? The sense that the little guy doesn’t get heard? The sense that every politician is at heart, a sellout? The sense that no one’s actually standing up for the people, but rather, both parties are beholden to corporate interests?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/07/09/MNGQQ7J31K1.DTL

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/30/bush.nader/

That’s just two examples, and in case you’re too tired from haranguing people outside Safeway, I’ll sum up.

1.) Nader is accepting money from lots of people that have been supporting the GOP. Now, Nader would have you believe that it’s because libertarians and a lot of conservatives are unhappy with Bush, but I would tell you that if you believe that… you’re an idiot.

2.) Nader is accepting help from such entities as the Oregon Family Council – a right-wing, conservative pro-life group. If you believe that that’s because they support Nader’s platform more than Bush’s… you’re an idiot.

And that’s just the first two links I happened upon.

So tell me this: which is worse? A “normal” politician, or someone who sells out their morals and ideology to get on the ballot? Why would I want to even have the chance to vote for Nader, if he’s going to sell out to right-wing interests before he’s EVEN ON THE BALLOT?

And have you heard his response when he’s questioned about it? It’s traditional political doublespeak – how dare you slander me with such blah blah blah, despite documented *proof* that this is happening.

I would vote for Nader before I voted for Bush. Sure. But only because I’d vote for a pile of maggot-infested shit before I’d vote for Bush. Nader, unfortunately, has proven himself to be only marginally better than the pile of shit. And he’s trending downwards.

So, you bitch about not letting people have “choice.” Here’s *my* choice. I’m gonna tell you to go fuck yourself.

Picked up Das Experiment, The Singing Detective, and The Last Samurai at Blockbuster, used, for $25 for the three. It’s kinda weird that I’ve actually been able to find a bunch of relatively obscure movies in the pre-viewed-for-cheap bin at Blockbuster – stuff I can’t find in Best Buy. *shrugs* Yeah, I know it’s the Evil Empire.

Been sleeping really weird the last few days – every morning, it’s been really hard to wake up. Describing it to one of my co-workers on Monday, I said that getting out of bed was like trying to dig myself out of my own grave. That night, I got to sleep at like, 1, which wasn’t too late, but I kept being woken up by a really strange dream I was having. I don’t remember much of it now, but it involved a zombie Ronald Reagan chasing me around a jail, wielding a huge machine gun. Zombie Ronald Reagan was ripped, like Rambo. Very strange.

Mobius decided NOT to bark at 6am for the first day in like a week, for which I’m grateful.

Other’n that? Not a lot going on since the last post. Heading out to dinner tonight with a friend I haven’t seen in a couple years, so I’m looking forward to that. Then, heading home for either some Counterstrike with the folks from TGF, or trying out Burnout2, which I borrowed from EA’s library. Saw Burnout 3: Takedown at a recent press event, and it look *phenomenal*. As does Need for Speed Underground 2… but that’s a different story.

Sitting here. Ei-Nyung’s outta town. Cleaned up a bunch, and rearranged some of the furniture. Did a bunch of laundry. When we got the new shelving system for our closet, we’d picked up something on the order of two hundred plastic hangers. Turns out, after doing all the laundry… we need more. It’s crazy.

In the mail: Just got Outfoxed, a documentary by Robert Greenwald on Fox News. Pretty illuminating. Nothing I hadn’t heard before, but like Farenheit 9/11, it’s the presentation that really drives the points home. Interested to see how a Fox News fan would react, but my guess is they’d label it as spin, and that would be the end of it.

Whee!

Hm. Yeah. Gotta figure out what to do for dinner. Not much currently in the fridge, and I’m going out to dinner Tuesday, so I’m a little relucant to pick up too much stuff.

Hung out with Klay most of the day, which was pretty good – just lounging around mostly, playing games. Went out to grab some lunch at Barney’s. Really couldn’t have been a better day to be outside. Came back, and then took Mobius for a walk. Went out to the dog park. Fun stuff.

Ah, 12:20am, sitting here at EA, fucking waiting for some god damned lightning to strike, in order to figure out what the fuck is wrong with the stereos in the game. Simple fucking change, not a problem in the world with it when I left at 6pm today to go to a BBQ, and when I got back to work at 9, the god damned things are crashing the game. What the fuck. So I’m sitting here at 12:30 in the morning, trying to figure out some garbage that can’t possibly be my bug, and getting progressively more and more pissed off that I have to deal with other people’s lousy shit on a Sunday fucking morning.

Argh.

Not happy at all.

I’m gonna be pretty majorly pissed, either at myself, or at someone else when this bug clears out, let me tell you. God fucking dammit.

Feeling good about work. I think I’ve been cranking pretty well, and tomorrow, (yeah, I know it’s Saturday) I’m gonna go in and clear out all my bugs, and make some improvements to the in-game stereo system. It’s weird, though – nominally, that’s the entirety of the work I need to do until Wednesday of next week, but they want people in this weekend to do stuff for a big demo next week. I suppose I could get some stuff done on the early side, but so much of what I’m doing is waiting on art to be done, it’s sort of hard to say, yeah, I can really get ahead. Maybe I’ll clear out my bugs, and start working on this idea I’ve had for a bit. Could be interesting.

I miss having unfettered weekends, though. Sure would be nice to work more regular hours, but I suppose we’re in alpha crunch, I shouldn’t expect much. We’re gonna be pretty hosed in the next couple weeks, due to the art lockdown, and the following code lockdown. But it’s nice to know that we’re at least approaching the finish line. There’ll be *lots* of tweaking, and such, but I think it’ll be relatively straightforward, and nothing’s gonna jump out that’s too surprising.

*crosses fingers*

Spent some time last weekend clearing rocks out of the front yard. Yeah, it’s sorta strange that they’re there, but there’ve been rocks all over the front yard for a year or so due to the construction that finally finished up. So now the front lawn is (relatively) free of rocks, and it’s probably time to start figuring out what to do about it, landscaping-wise. Be interesting to see what we can come up with that’s relatively low maintenance.

Mobius is doing well. Ei-Nyung has taught him (mostly) to squeak his squeaky ball on command, which is cute. I’ve gotta figure out something to train him to do. I was thinking maybe I could get him to turn the lights on and off, so that he could keep the house lit, as long as he’s interested in staying awake. That’d be sort of funny.

Neck’s sore. Slept on it funny, and the right side of it feels like a steel cable running through my neck. Hopefully, that’ll clear up soon, ’cause it’s pretty unpleasant.

On the iPod: 2503 songs, 6.9 days worth of music, 9.75/20 gB used. I thought I’d ripped like, 75% of the music I have, but after a reorganization, I’m actually only at about half. Yatz!

Kind of strange. We were crunching towards the first playable version of The Urbz(tm), and I’d spent a couple pretty late nights last week making sure all of my stuff was gonna be done on time, with time to get all the bugs knocked down, etc. So, I’d been pretty stressed all last week, making sure everything would be ready, and such. So, it was. I’d actually succeeded in meeting all the deadlines I’d had, and I knocked down a fistful of bugs for other people, as well as kept my own bug count low.

The only stress I felt was weirdly different. Some people were staying late, working on their bugs, and features they hadn’t yet implemented. Some of them were really kicking ass, working on things much more complex, and finding problems because they relied on a lot of other people for features, and such. I’m not saying I was working harder than them – I’ve been really amazed at how dedicated everyone is – but the point was that I felt guilty for having my stuff done. I’d asked how I could help, but by and large, there wasn’t much people could give me to work on, given that they were most familiar with what they were doing, or it was something only one person could work on at a time.

So, I’ve gone home at a relatively normal hour the last couple days (making my workday 9:15-7, more or less), but I’ve had this strange guilty feeling – for what, for finishing on schedule? It’s strange.

Ei-Nyung bought me an iPod! It’s awesome! I’ve just finished DL’ing the 1300 songs I’ve got ripped (every single one legal, incidentally. Lots ‘o CD’s over the last what, fifteen years?). The inscription says “I’d buy you a monkey.”

It’s a reference to the night we got engaged – I was scrounging around for a song to play, since we’d felt a strange urge to dance. I doubt most people would be able to place the song without a couple extra lines. I think the next one is, “Haven’t you always wanted a monkey?”

It’s been six months to the day since we got engaged.

Finished The Chronicles of Riddick. It’s an amazing game in pretty much every respect. Phenomenal graphics (really, truly next generation stuff – I wouldn’t be surprised if this game’s graphics actually are better than Halo 2’s), great game design, and though there are a few relatively minor flaws, the overall game is absolutely stunning. If you’ve got an xbox, pick this one up, without hesitation. It comes out later in the year for the PC (I’m looking at you, K-M). Excellent stuff.

Eight hundred thousand dollars.

That’s what the house next door sold for.

Wowzers.