The Next Step

I just can’t seem to avoid them lately. Everywhere I go, there they are, showing off their stuff. How can one help but feel the desire that they try so hard to instill? In malls, stores, and subway stations I find myself trying to ignore them, but my gaze is pulled by some unseen force. I feel my heart rate rise simply from the fact that they are near. My conscience tells me it is wrong, but some piece of my heart takes control and says “It’s ok.” Despite an entire life of lessons to the contrary, I break down. I pay the four dollars for a box of girl scout cookies.

So increasingly large chunks of my spare time are going to my DS lately. I just got Animal Crossing and I’m hooked on it all over again. Except now I could connect to other towns all the freaking time since people don’t have to physically bring their memory card over to do it. Ethan, Lauren, and I had a three-way going earlier and it was most impressive. It saddens me to think that now I can’t play all day since I’ll be at work.

I really want to try the wi-fi stuff, but I haven’t had a good reason to try it yet as all the people I know who own the game are right here. Still, if anyone wants to trade friend codes, by all means give me a yell.

Oh, and as you might have noticed in an earlier paragraph, I mentioned that we were playing Animal Crossing with Lauren. That’s right, she bought a DS and the game today. I’m so proud.

So I’ve started my new job, and there just isn’t a whole lot for me to do right now. Everybody is really busy, so they don’t have much time to teach me how to do things. I’m sure it will all work out soon enough, but these first few days have been a bit boring.

In other news, there is a little fruit stand in South Station that I see every morning just as I get off the escalator. It is called “Panema.” (yes, they spelled it wrong (or they spelled some word I don’t know?)) And so every morning as I reach South Station I have the one word I know from that song stuck in my head for about ten seconds.

Helga is back up and now even connected to the Internet. Now my own laziness is the only thing standing between me and getting artisene.com really up and running. Here’s the to do list, as I foolishly see it:
1. Figure out some database thingy for Mac.
2. Get Rails going.
3. Figure out how to make it serve pages outside the local network.
4. Become a Ruby god.
5. Code up artisene.com
6. Profit?

I beat Trauma Center. It had a few tough levels, but overall not too bad. I’ve decided that the bonus levels are nigh impossible, but the story mode was a lot of fun. Just started Castlevania, too. It plays almost exactly like Aria of Sorrow, which is a good thing. I like the “infusing souls into weapons to make them stronger” thing, because now I actually have a use for all the souls I collect. I never seem to remember that I have them in the heat of battle. I always just run right in there with whatever sword or axe or whatever I have and seem to do all right. I bet actually using my magic power would make those boss fights easier. The only thing that really bugs me is the end of the boss battles. The magic seal thingy appears and you have to draw it on the screen to finish off the boss. Unfortunately, you don’t have the stylus in your hand. You’re playing Castlevania. So you’re left with two options: a) get fingerprints all over your precious touch screen. b) scramble for the stylus. I invariably seem to choose option b. I haven’t had to use any complicated seals yet, but I can see that coming back to bite me later on. Of course, I have no idea what happens if you don’t draw the seal quickly enough or if you screw it up. I’m sure it’s not good, though.

Ugh. Well, work in the morning and all. Need sleep. Goodnight.

And I’m mostly moved in to the new place. I’m lacking a desk at the moment (it’s being delivered Wednesday) and therefore am typing this from my computer sitting on the floor. Also, Comcast seems to have decided that we only needed one cable jack in the whole apartment to actually work, so the router is sitting upstairs giving me a wireless signal that wobbles between “low”, “weak”, and “none”. Very convenient. There are some minor problems like flickering lights and dripping noises coming from the bathroom, but I’m sure we’ll get them worked out in good time.

Reid, Murf, and their respective girlfriends Caitlyn and Meg came up to ring in the new year at the new apartment with myself, Bailey, and Ethan. We all ate out at Uno’s and then came back for a quick game of Munchkin and finally hit midnight while watching The Blues Brothers. I can now say that I began 2006 by watching Nazis die. Caitlyn had a wonderful sending “greetings from the future” to all her friends an hour behind out west.

And I bought myself a copies of Trauma Center: Under the Knife and the new Castlevania. Trauma Center is so awesome that I haven’t managed to even open Castlevania yet. Oh, and Ethan bought We Heart Katamari. It’s everything we expected.