Please for to breakup with your girlfriend.

So, this weekend went very nicely. it was probably the most relaxing three days I've had since coming out here.

Friday I slept in until 8:00; don't laugh, that's nearly 2 hours of extra sleep for me. I got up and did my laundry, did my dishes, and finally got out to make a doctor's appointment. I've needed to make that appointment for upwards of a year now, I think; nothing life-threatening or debilitating, but I'm slow to get medical attention of any kind. Then I drove up to my sister's house and we took her kids to Busch Gardens, mostly because it's Hallowscream up there and that's my favorite time to go to Busch. since we had the kids we couldn't go to any of the really scary bits, like the mazes or the train ride, but we did manage to see all the different shows, and they were generally pretty good. The magic show left something to be desired (like quality magic tricks), but I think a big part of that was a matter of having a mostly-unresponsive audience.

After getting home I played Guild Wars until 3am. I really enjoy that game, and it's almost restored my faith in MMOGs. In fact, I may even rouse my CoH/V account or, if I *really* start feeling good about the genre, reviving my WoW account. My biggest complaint for those two was always that I never had anyone to play with, but GW has given me faith that pick-up groups (just joining people you've never met before) aren't (always) the tools of the Adversary.

I slept in until 8 or 9 again on Saturday and spent most of the day reading and catching up on emails and stuff. I really didn't do much at all until about 4:00 when I called Leslie to see if she wanted to get dinner and maybe watch a movie; when she found out that I had "12 Monkeys" from Netflix she was all about that. So I cleaned up my apartment really quick, which made me feel a lot better than I would have thought (I like my area to be clean, I'm just slow about getting it that way).

We ate at the Macaroni Grill which was a lot better than I remembered it being (and it was so nice to have a glass of wine after so long). Then we went and watched 12 Monkeys, which I really enjoyed (time travel + insanity = A+ in my book). unfortunately, it seems I forgot my PS2 power cable when I went to visit Jesse and Louis, so Leslie brought hers. Unfortunately, I forgot to eject 12 Monkeys before Leslie left (with her cord), so now it's kinda stuck in there.

The reason I forgot was because Leslie brought over The Office, and wow. I'm in love. I need more. Really need it. But it was nearly 1am before we were done with the 3rd of the 4 episodes she brought, so she left (with her cord) while I was still entranced. i think I've seen bits of The Office before, but I can't think of when. Maybe my buddy Marcin (back in Monterey) was watching it once. He does that, watches strange adapted-from-British-TV shows. He's a big fan of Coupling, which I've also seen somewhere else before. To know about the giggle loop is to be part of the giggle loop.

I played Guild Wars until 3am again.

Sunday I got up for Mass later than I wanted to, but ended up going to St. Gregory's which, it turns out, is just around the corner from me. On top of that, aside from a few small personal preferences, it was just the sort of formal, traditional mass I like. Then I went out and bought groceries for the first time since I've been out here. I've been eating out a lot, and I really need to stop that. Dinner out with friends is one thing, but there's no reason I have to have Wendy's or something every day for lunch. Then I wrote an email to Jean (something else I haven't done in a long while), and got in touch with Katie Lapp on Facebook (she just joined, apparently, when they Opened to the world at large). Spent most of the rest of the day reading (I'm nearly done with The Amber Spyglass), and then played some Guild Wars before getting to bed at about 10:00.

And yeah, that was my weekend. No big plans, no far-ranging trips, but it was really low-key, really refreshing, and I feel renewed. which is a good thing to feel on Monday morning, before work begins to crush your soul again. And on that note, I should get back to said soul-crushing work.

Characters and the lives we give them.

This, ventriloquism and it's implications in human psychology, in another one of many things that fascinates me. In particular I'm intrigued by the divorce case that named a dummy as a co-respondent, citing that the dummy insulted her and physically abused her. I think it's very much like the phenomenon of masks (which maybe isn't necessarily too different from the phenomenon of the Internet, or really the phenomenon which is simply inter-personal interactions). How much can a dummy be said to be separate from it's operator? How much life can be given to a character above and beyond what it's creator intends, or even understands?

Nothing impoatant.

Tired today. Yeah, I know, you're going to get on me about playing Guild Wars all weekend, but it's not that. I really didn't sleep well last night. I got to be early enough, at 11:30 though I started heading that way at 10:00 -- I remembered just as I was crawling into bed that rent was due, then I couldn't find my checkbook. *wince* But then I kept waking up, at like 3:30 and 4:45 and 5:15 and stuff. I laid awake for nearly an hour before my alarm went off this morning.

Anyways, just thought I'd complain about it.

Senate Scandal

The recent senate scandal and related events remind me of something I heard once, and tend to believe myself: we hate most in others that which we hate in ourselves.

Foley, a six-term lawmaker known as a tireless advocate of protecting children from sexual predators, had been favoured to win re-election against his Democratic challenger Tim Mahoney in the November 7 elections.

He co-chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and recently introduced legislation to crack down on internet child pornography sites.