Smallhouse Log

Sunday, Eighth Week

Sorry if I type slowly today; I'm still learning Dvorak. I keep hitting O instead of E. But, uh, now I gotta go type up some poetry. In Dvorak.

Friday, Fifth Week

Does anyone want a leather armchair? Because I can get you a leather armchair.

Saturday

She says she doesn't know what she wants. Well, I'm tired of trying to figure it out for her. This time, she's on her own.

All I asked was for her to cheer me up, and she wouldn't. She'd rather just get pissed at me over why I'm depressed. And that sucks. That really sucks.

Friday
"If you don't know that what you have is a proof, then you don't have a proof." -Pedro, 01/04/2005

So I saw Monsoon Wedding. Good show.

Not on the topic of good shows: levels, and leveling systems. Yeah, that's right, I misused that colon. And I'm listening to the Magnetic Fields. Anyway.

I was recently introduced to nethack (harper.uchicago.edu) by Lola, and I've been playing around with it. I have also, as Brian and Leah will no doubt attest, been playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Nethack features the age-old level system of accumulating experience until a new level is reached, at which point all the attributes and skills increase in a way relevant to the character archetype, or in some cases, as the player chooses, within or without limits. SanAn, on the other hand, employs a system derived from that wherin one increases a skill or ability (in effectiveness, power, scope, or otherwise) by employing it. The archtype of this system will always be, in my mind, Final Fantasy II. The beauty of the FF2 system is that you're never really sure what makes some things increase, but one can get the general idea, eg. if you put a character in the front row, she will get hit by monster attacks more often and become tougher (that is, have more total hit points). In SanAn, the system is far more blunt, but still in the same vein; the more you use, say, a motorbike, the faster you can go and turn and the less likely you are to fall (or more often, fly) off the bike. The more you shoot, say, a pistol, the faster you can shoot and reload that kind of pistol, and the farther and more accurately you can aim it. However, none of this is sublimated; everything is announced. Instead of letting one notice that one can now run farther than before, or that one is more muscular, they show a little message saying "Stamina: upgraded" or "Body Muscle: upgraded".

Low class. That's all I'm saying.

Wednesday, Second Week, Winter Quarter
"That's where concepts go. In boxes. Okay." -Findler, 01/09/2005

On Monday I was getting on the elevator. The elevator had a sign saying "Out of Order". I found it amusing, right up until I plummeted to my death in a fireball of pain and irony.

Speaking of which,

B: "I'm a deserter from the battlefield of Love."
L: "You should join the battlefield of casual sex."

later

"Even when I'm dead, my head will live inside your RCA cords." Have I mentioned recently how awesome Atmosphere is?

So once again, I choose the night before I leave to mess around with my computer. This time, however, I was far more successful. I formatted the second partition and moved all the music and games over there, without screwing up iTunes. Go, me.

To conclude: "Kill 'em all, and let God give them haircuts."

Saturday
"I am going to deviate from the book on this for the simple but adequate reason that I know more Computability Theory than Dexter Kozen does." -Stuart Kurtz, 11/18/2005

So I was looking at the last entry, and thinking, "Did I write that today? It seems like I did. Did i just think it was Friday?" But no, I really did write that last night.

So i just left the apartment for the first time in five days. I was taking out the trash. the hallway looked weird and unfamiliar, like it does every time I come back from a break. Creepy. I think I'll leave the whole Shoreland this afternoon. Probably be good for me. You know, easing myself in -or rather, out- before I leave tomorrow.

I have the eerie feeling this should be an all-nighter night. thus, while I am out, I'll buy a two-litre of Mountain Dew. Because I've been craving it for six days.... I hope I'm not getting addicted.

So I found this song with the words to that milkshake song put over the Inspector Gadget themesong: it's eerily well fitting. Eerily.