A midnight note: I always start my day by greeting my fish, Mo. Jason called over the wall, "How's Mo doing?"

"Mo's fine," I replied. "Joe didn't play with him yesterday."

Poor Joe.

My XPS arrived the other day and is parked on my desk at work (it's a big desk). Yesterday, to run it through its paces, I installed Sims2. Rob had to get me the key to the game since I'd forgotten mine at home, but once I had the key, Sims2 was off and running in fine style :)

Sometimes the guys in the office will stop by to harrass my fish, Mo Betta. They've been stopping to admire the XPS (one of them gave it a hug). The Sims2 brought them over to cheer on the adventures of Doofus Goofball, a singleton like most of them.

Rob had mentioned to me earlier in the evening that he liked the fact that two Sim women would be just as happy getting it on with each other as they would with a Sim man. One of the first comments I heard in the office was, "Is that the Sims? Man, I love that game. They have lesbians!" Men.

So Doofus puttered away beside me while I worked. Every so often other designers stopped by to check his progress: "Has he got a girl?" "What kind of job does he have?" "Can I pull the weeds in his lawn?"

This last comment from a designer who hadn't played the original Sims (other than SimTower). He was entranced, directing Doofus in cleaning the yard, then the kitchen, then cooking a meal for the visiting girlfriend. Minutes later as I was over at Matt's desk, Joe called us back over, "Look! They're making out on the stairs!" Men.

Later on, Doofus got engaged to his girlfriend. The other designers were impressed by the cut scene. "He needs a bigger bed," commented one of them, "so they can get it on." Men.

At about midnight I was getting ready to leave. Joe came back and observed that Doofus' TV was smoking. "I call the repairman so they don't electrocute themselves," I said. Joe decided Doofus should take care of his own things and directed Doofus to repair mode, where Doofus immediately went into shock. This drew a crowd of designers again. We all watched as the Grim Reaper arrived, took a cell phone call and Doofus' soul, then floated upstairs to use the facilities before leaving. "Oh, man," said several of the designers to Joe, "We've been rooting for him all night...and you killed him."

Joe was horrified. "I had no idea! I'm so sorry!" he said over and over. He did look horrified, his hand clapped to his mouth as the Grim Reaper did his business (the soul-sucking part, not the facilities). Joe's got a new nickname around the office now: SimSlayer Joe.

When I was in high school I liked to write things intended to shock my audience (the teachers). Amy might recall a short play I wrote for our religion class one year: "Jesus Meets the Devil, or, You Win Some and You Lose Some." It was about Jesus (Amy) wandering the desert while the Devil (me!) tempted him with stuff and things.

So play Motherload. It has absolutely nothing to do with my play. Or does it? Or (using the inflection from A Bit of Fry and Laurie)...does it? And it's free! My boss's boss (Broos' underling) recommended it to me and Matt the other night. I've been playing it during my supper breaks. Matt stayed up till 6AM playing it (well, he was working too...he scripts stuff so he does stuff while waiting for things to compile).

It's nice to have Mittens with me. When I hear burgurgalurs in my living room, I grab a pillow and spend the rest of the night curled upon the couch (how this will stop them, I have no idea). When I curl up on the couch, he comes over to curl up with me. If I get up and go back to bed, he'll follow me there and curl up with me again. Right now he's chasing a twisty bread tie but in a couple of minutes when I shut the laptop and turn off the TV, he'll dart back into the room to sleep beside me. What devotion :)

It rained today!

It's also cooler at night. I've brought out my beloved down comforter. Mittens is in feathery heaven, curled up into a purring ball at my feet.

Earlier this year I attended the GDC in San Jose. The hotel in which I stayed sported featherbeds. I looked online for one, but I'm a cheapskate. After work this afternoon, since my plan to go to the beach and lay out was foiled by clouds, I stopped by Tuesday Morning and found one for $50. It's intended for a king-sized bed, but all that means to me is that it curls over the edges of my queen-sized mattress. I hope it will help me sleep.

Matt lent me his George R. R. Martin Song of Ice an Fire series. I finished the first two and tomorrow he'd better bring in the third one. My favorite character is Arya, probably because I was a tomboyish child (who grew up to be a girlie girl). It's a very good series that all y'all have probably read already. As usual, I'm late to the party :)

And for the true geeks I know, these are some of the interesting specs of the XPS I'll be getting:
Dimension XPS Pentium® 4 Processor 550 with HT Technology (3.40GHz, 800 FSB), 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 256MB PCI Express™ x16 Nvidia® GeForce 6800 GTO Graphics Card, and two 20.1 in 2001FP Dell Ultrasharp™ Digital Flat Panel Displays.

Whatever :)

There's a Midnight Baker somewhere in my apartment complex, no doubt the apartment at the far end of my own building. I suspect them because they are the same folk who grill at 10PM on their front patio. It's not loud and annoying, other than it smells really tasty. The other night I woke at 1AM, having left work a little early with a headache that knocked me out cold by 8PM, and I could smell something baking. Cookies, perhaps, or maybe even a cake.

I have a new computer coming my way, an XPS. So do several of my co-workers as Matt found on one of the cheapskates.com type websites he frequents a 40% off coupon. Rob calls me a geek, but I don't know a SDRAM from a dramamine, so Matt and Jason stood in as surrogate men (well, I mean they are men), telling me what I should get. "Scroll down, scroll down," they ordered as I paused to see what I was getting, "You don't need any of that crap. And you don't want to pay for that. Click here, click continue. Click, don't read!" So I am not entirely sure what exactly I'm getting, except it's an XPS and it has two monitors and was 40% off. With 1 gig of RAM. Baaaaaaaaa! I know someone you know who ordered a new PC with this deal, too, but I'll let him tell you about it. :)

I took the quiz: 'Which American City Are You?'

"New York
You're competative, you like to take it straight to the fight. You gotta have it all or die trying."
This tied with Seattle. Bwahahaha! Must've been the coffee. :)

I'm watching an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." It's interesting to note how well this series has held up despite the time since it originally aired. They did a very good job with the clean lines of the set and their props.

Jason and Matt, the co-workers whom I sit between, have a thing for "Family Guy." Jason brought in the entire series on DVD for me to watch. I watched an episode tonight. It's pretty funny, and you certainly can't keep your eyes off the screen as there are plenty of quick cuts to different visual bits of humor.

I don't know that it will be as long lasting as TNG, though. But it's good for a chuckle :)

I missed the wedding of my old little game npc. :/ I'd meant to attend, to see how it would turn out but got caught up doing some work last weekend and there you go.

It's certainly odd to me to see "me" being played by someone else. I kept reading the capture of the big event going, "Well, I'd never say that. I can't believe I typo'd that." Heh. It looked like it turned out relatively well, although I miss seeing the back channel stuff and fifty points of view as various characters get split off to run in different directions.

That's probably the thing I miss the most: events. There's a certain joy in knowing that somewhere, someone's staying up late or missing their supper because they have to know how whatever it is you're doing for them will turn out. On the other hand, I'm so happy to be writing all day long. I absolutely love being able to turn out semi-alliterative verse, oddball stories and romantic little vignettes, all within the same week (and often the same day). I'm happy doing what I do.

So "I" did not get married last Saturday after all, and yeah it almost hurts to see "me" going on without me. It's like seeing your ex-boyfriend dating someone right after you dumped his ass :) But then again, I've moved along to something better than I dreamt, so everything'll be all right.

We had a paper airplane fight at work the other day :) There's also the Traveling Garden Gnome that's been touring the design area. The other day, it buggered the stuffed sheep that usually sits on my monitor (though I've thrown it over the cubicle walls sometimes when someone says something groan-worthy); I have a photo to prove it. I emailed the photo to Rob, who showed it to his boss. Everyone knows about Rob and sheep; his boss said to him, "What have you been doing?"

In the afternoons, my cube mates and I will occasionally head to the local Starbucks. Jason drives, Matt and I ride along. Jason goes to Starbucks a lot. A lot. Every time we've gone, a different barista will call out, "Hi, Jason!" Today one of them hollered that from the espresso machine while we were still in line, which made the folks behind us grin, too.

And finally, it's cooling down! It was so cool this morning I wore my boots to work with my utilikilt today. Yay!