Destiny

Apartment Crazy

2008-05-15T15:44:56Z

I don't want to move. I really like it here. I didn't like any of the other places we've lived nearly as much.

The problem is, we're paying for the luxury of being content. And now that I know what it feels like...I don't want to go back to making do. Sigh. Just like spending habits, eating habits, etc...I've gotten a living habit going here and I don't want to pare down.

BAH!

Head + Wall, repeat

2008-05-14T15:13:05Z

Most almost definitely, almost for sure, probably moving.
Likely within the next two weeks.

Melissa is probably going to move out of Mike's apartment.
Mike cannot afford to keep that apartment by himself, but it is close to work and a good location and he'd have to break his lease to leave.
Greg could move in with him, and since they work at the same place, it would be a shorter commute for him.

Our lease is almost up.
We could renew this apartment at a $200 total increase split between 2 or 3...however many of us remain (stupid Lynnwood apartment prices).
If Greg leaves, we could move into a 2 bedroom apartment here for a $250-$300 increase on the rent we (David & I) have been paying.
Thankfully, David's job means we can afford either increase without issue.
There is one right across the hall (easy move, good location).
There is a cheaper one across the complex (about a $100/month difference, rounded up).
There are horrible stairs between us and any other apartment besides the one across the hall.
We would have to move into that one VERY soon.
If we were going to deal with the stairs anyways, there's really no point in staying in this complex (other than that we like it) if we're trying to save money.

STICK WITH THIS APARTMENT
Pros:
If Mike and Melissa work it out, no complications or re-shuffling.
Would not have to move.

Cons:
Increase in rent.
Still have a roommate.
Totally screwed if Greg does move out.
Would not be able to support this apartment cost on the lesser salary (mine) alone.

MOVE ACROSS THE HALL
Pros:
Easy move.
We like this apartment, the staff, and the location.
It would be just us for the first time EVER!
It would be easier to diet Yumi if Aoshi wasn't living with us.

Cons:
More of an increase in rent.
Could not easily support a roommate (Greg).
Still moving, just not as far.
Would not be able to support this apartment cost on the lesser salary (mine) alone.
Probably would have to sign up for a whole year.
Would have to move really soon.

MOVE TO ANOTHER COMPLEX
Pros:
Could find cheaper rent.
Would be able to save more for buying a house.
Might get new customer discount.
Could move closer to David's work and make his commute shorter.
Would have to move closer to the end of June to avoid paying rent on two places, leaving M&M more time to work things out.

Cons:
Probably would not like another complex as much as we liked this one...this is the first apartment where we're only compromising on one thing: a general lack of parking after about 9 PM.
Would most certainly have to sign up for a whole year.
Would have to move everything up the stairs.
Nobody is going to want to help us.
If David's commute is shorter, I will have to bus to work instead of walking.

Did anyone get the license plate number of that weekend?

2008-05-13T15:33:36Z

...it blew by so quickly I don't think it had time to register.

Friday evening: SURPRISE! King Crab dinner from Petra & Curt, as repayment for David removing Vista from Petra's new laptop. We knew it was coming sometime, just not when. (When it goes on sale). Very much awesomeness. Fun had by all, ridiculously large claws and melted butter. I had a new kind of veggie patty (Morning Star Pizza Burger) but still prefer my standard Garden. Watched 1941, which was really, really funny. Love hanging out with them. Love it!

Saturday:
morning: yarn shopping with Petra, got wool to make more Christmas presents, and some super soft angora blend on clearance for a baby tshirt and cardigan. I got a muted blue and equally muted green...so it'll work no matter what I end up with (five years from now when I can actually afford a baby instead of just baby clothes).

afternoon: watched Iron Man. Which rocked. A little loud for me.

evening: David dropped me off at the U District to watch Sean for a bit since phinnia hurt her knee and tallin wanted to run some errands. Did some cleaning, made dinner, bounced with the boy. Grocs on the way home.

Sunday:
early morning: made smoothies and prepped mini frittatas and an attempt at magic cookie bar ice cream. Hung out with Colleen, did some shopping, had Starbucks, drove around Richmond Beach looking for the little real estate fliers so we could gawk at the prices. Went to an ASL (Deaf, sign language) service at church with Colleen, who needs 'community hours' for her interpreter training. It was very different but way, way cool. They did a bunch of songs and the chick who signed them was really really good...watching someone sign a song is pretty much like nothing else, and this girl is a total prodigy. Ice cream was unlike cookie bars but very rich and good.

afternoon: cooked mini frittatas and made fruit kabobs for crunching coworkers who are pretty much at work 24 hours/day from Friday through Tuesday.

evening: was going to watch Sophie but ended up having Mike visit. Things are looking pretty unhappy on that front right now, which makes me sad. I don't like not being able to fix things. Barbeque for dinner. Crashed early but didn't actually get to Sleep-sleep until past my bedtime.

Yesterday we watched Stargate after work and discussed impending apartment lease ending in a month. Still unsure what we're doing. Gonna call on my lunch break and see what options we have. We are now officially caught up on Atlantis...wow, cliffhanger ending. Damn them.

Today is work. And making calls. And paying bills and cleaning. WoooooooooOOOoo!

Princesses Ate My Brain...

2008-05-06T15:39:38Z

...and the world seems pretty set on rubbing it in that I'm addicted to sugar. Or have a sugar dependency. I get it already!

Horrible, terrible articles pointing out that you're really only supposed to have ten teaspoons TOPS of "added" sugar per day and things like soup and pasta sauce and salad dressing (prepackaged) take up a quarter to a HALF of that daily allowance! Felt pretty smug about that because I avoid most preprocessed foods like the plague and don't drink soda...until I considered the allmighty Snickers bar and it's 0 grams of natural sugar and its 28 grams of added sugar...which is like 6 or 7 teaspoons.

I measured 7 teaspoons of sugar into a cup. Now I feel a little sick.

Princess songs running through my head. Played a competing product : Disney Princesses Magical Jewels for hours yesterday, then watched Enchanted with David so we could send it back to Netflix. I'm pretty sure most of my brain leaked out my ears and soaked into my pillow last night. It was probably pink. And sparkly.

Tummy upset

2008-05-05T15:42:33Z

Tummy a little upset this morning. I'll still be going in to work though.

Weekend was good, went to IKEA and got the World's Largest Cubby Shelf EVAR and it's all put together. Separate account for apartment bills so we can budget better (trans. "not have to get out the calculator because we have a roommate but everything comes out of our account"). CAT5 along the edges of the room and not floating freely down the middle. Emergency food supply done. Need to get dust masks and a water filter and some buckets. Yesterday AJ and Liz came over for dinner and we made Split Pea burgers and they were remarkably good. Needed more texture. But tasty. And cheap. Employment cake very good.

Yesterday afternoon, David took me to see his office and we walked around Alki a little bit. The weather was gorgeous. I took a picture of us but he was on the phone so it looks funny.

Yumi is losing weight...but only around her face.

Weekend!

2008-05-03T18:15:52Z

Yay! AJ and Liz are coming over tomorrow for Alton Brown's Pea Burgers (and backup food in case they go wrong) and Employment Cake. I have still not decided exactly what Employment Cake looks like but I am thinking at the very least it should be green. And gluten free.

IKEA today. Also excessive amounts of cleaning, organizing, bill paying, budgeting and grocery shopping. Yes!

Updating in the morning...

2008-05-01T14:47:56Z

...feels a little counterproductive since nothing has happened yet.

I got up. I made David's lunch. I looked through the Bed Bath & Beyond flier. I should update in the evening except then all I could add would be: I went to work. I worked on my design document. I played Phantom Hourglass on my lunch break. I played Phantom Hourglass on my afternoon break. PS I really like Phantom Hourglass so far!

Which is true.

Insatiably hungry at work lately. I think it might just be boredom. Spent a week eating anything that wasn't nailed down. Have resigned self to fact that this is not healthy. Ate two cups of dry Cheerios and about a pound of carrot sticks yesterday between meals. Still not drinking enough water. I really need to pay more attention to what I eat. Actually, I haven't had my multivitamin in a week or two either....hmmmm....this could be a very Doh! moment coming up here...

Attempted to invite coworker and his girlfriend to apartment this weekend. They haven't said yes or no just yet. Trying to create a social circle is awkward and unfun, but as I seem to have borked or not been compatible with all previous RL offerings (give or take a few), I'm guessing effort might need to be applied.

Hm. I should probably clean the apartment if that's going to happen.

I'm awake! Sorta.

2008-04-30T15:24:59Z

Got up more on time than usual this morning, but am feeling it already. BUT! am also already almost done with morning routine and haven't surpassed 8:40 yet. This is reassuring. Will take painful shower in hopes of awakening.

Got a comp copy of HSM TV game from work yesterday. Debating whether or not to open it. The controller design is truly hideous in person, I'm not sure who thought mud brown, drying blood red, and mustard yellow made a good combination. Eh, resume fodder, I suppose, if I ever go anywhere that might care. I'm still proud of my pizza sprite--it "cooks" without any additional animation frames--just color swaps. :D And the cheese actually gets, like, kinda spready-er and looks melty-er. Kinda. Without any pixels moving. Yay me!

David is attending Columbia Tower Club with new boss and some people from out of town tonight. I was asked if I wished to join them but frankly feel fish-out-of-water enough just walking around the mall. I can't imagine what I'd do in a club that has membership dues...especially ones that cost more per month than I've spent on clothing all year. All LAST year AND this year. David, luckily, has some nice dress clothes due to being a pallbearer at his grandfather's funeral last year, and working in the Attorney General's office.

Work is frustratingly slow. I keep getting new information about the thing I'm designing, and every time I have to backtrack I lose more steam. CEO bought an old Tempest cabinet for the office. It is quite loud and does indeed make me feel like I'm working in an arcade. They put it in the area by my desk. I don't know where else it would have gone; but it doesn't do much for my productivity. Glad I bought new headphones. It's kind of cool to watch.

Showertime!

Game Ahoy!

2008-04-29T15:28:12Z

STILL not getting up on time to deal with lunches and breakfast in a proper manner. Totally spaced last night and didn't even bother with dinner, just had crackers, brie, and carrot sticks.

Work not so much fun at the moment. Although you can pick up the first US released game I worked on, the...er... High School Musical Plug & Play (the Mi Digi World was only released in Europe) at Walmart for $20...I don't know why you would, but the POSSIBILITY remains and therein lies a smidgen of cool. Woot?

Better get on with it...

I have been be-socialized!

2008-04-28T15:23:12Z

Sat: Helped at the UPS Store for several hours with seriously the WORST program ever created (no real help other than 'here's the name of this button, which is already printed on it, never mind that it does something completely counterintuitive), no manual, and a slew of horrible features such as field with date that you CAN'T TYPE IN, instead click the little calendar and navigate from there. ARGH. But I got to do the part of that job that I miss the most (talk to customers) and play with Nico a little bit.

Went to see Forbidden Kingdom. Yay martial arts mayhem! Enjoyed quite a lot even though some bits were full of traditional kung foo cheese. Had lunch with Adam, Kelsey, and Spiz afterwards and walked aimlessly around the mall. Decided if I ever became a film-maker, I would make a documentary on those massage chairs they have in Brookstone, etc. Just put some hidden cameras around to watch all of the facial expressions of people. Cause that's hilarious. :D

Drove around a bit afterwards. Weather was nice but not nice enough by the time we HAD time to take a walk or ride bikes, so we didn't.

Sun: Went to Fry's and purchased stuff to re-wire the apartment so that there's no more CAT5 strung all the way through the halls and dining area and living room. Also bought DSes and a couple of games, as David's treat to both of us now that there's regular money coming in. He got a bonus from the last temp job he did, for finishing the project early, and we agreed that could be treats while everything else (tax return, paychecks for quite a while yet) will go to savings and debts and bills.

Got groceries and had Adam and Kelsey over for dinner and to watch five episodes of Atlantis (incl. 3 parter). Got complimented on my It Girl painting and wanted to paint more. Lots of dirty dishes in the sink. Must wash before I leave for work.

Morning Thoughts...

2008-04-25T14:56:14Z

The morning issue is still...an issue. After this weekend I'm going to move bedtime to 9:30, which sounds ridiculous, but I'm not sure what else to do. After 19 years of chronic insomnia, I thought I was at the very least in control of my sleeping schedule. Apparently not. I just don't get why it feels SO GOOD to go back to sleep in the morning...I don't even remember that from the high school days of horror and regular 2-4 AM nights...

Having Curt & Petra over for baby back ribs, baked potato, salad and roasted cauliflower tonight. I have approximately one hour to get the apartment tidy before I have to leave for work. And a shower. HAH! David will pick up where I left off...he gets home earlier than I do.

My homework for the next week is to play various video games and pay attention to the sound effects-where they are, what they sound like, what they indicate. I still have not gotten over the weirdness where we played Raving Rabbids for two hours yesterday AT WORK. DURING WORK HOURS. It'd be really cool if it weren't so surreal.

Need to make doctor, dentist, optha...eye doctor...and physical therapy appointments for both David and myself. Plus allergy assay for David. I really hope they're all free on the same day...or are open on weekends.

Clever Solutions...

2008-04-22T15:33:27Z

Seriously considering setting the alarm for five thirty instead of six.

Starting an exercise regimen? Not enough time in the morning? Saving money on the water bill by showering before peak hours begin?

NOPE.

Because David and I usually spend the half-hour following the alarm going off in Ten-Minute-Snooze-Button-Intervals of Sleepytime-Cuddle-Mode. And as much as I want to get up on time (6:00) and have a nice sit down breakfast in something other than my pyjamas, I am NOT willing to give up my cuddle time.

Especially since I've been going to bed with an ice pack on either my wrist or elbow for the last few nights and that's a cuddle-blocker if there ever was one.

Still...five-thirty. *SHUDDER*

Hello, Work Week.

2008-04-21T15:50:33Z

This weekend, I:

Sorted and shredded THE LAST box of old paperwork!!!
Did rudimentary pre-budget tasks with David--categorizing the last 5 months of bank statements and getting credit reports.

That's it.
I didn't even cook any meals.
I wasn't sick, but I sure as heck wasn't motivated. I zoned out in front of the television for, like, 14 hours a day. I didn't play any games, even though my backlog is reaching critical mass. Work is eating my brain, or my energy, or something. Of course this means that this week will be killer, since all the weekend stuff (meal plan, groceries, post office trip, laundry) is going to get lumped in with work and the weekday chores. Bah.

I need to get back to art. Not pixel pushing (which I have yet to escape from despite the "Designer" thing) but real, visceral, Arty Art. I haven't truly painted in two years. The last painting I expended an appreciable amount of effort on was a portrait of Adam's WOW character. Work came first, you know, the roof over head, the food on the table. Now I can relax a bit about that and maybe get back to sketching or something. Except for the galloping carpal tunnel begotten of the pixel pushing/document typing...ergh...

Fine.

I need to get me some physical therapy, and THEN I will get back to Mr. Arty McArtenson.

Is there cake?

2008-04-18T15:02:53Z

Nearing the end of Week One : Our New Life, and we're still alive! It has been an interesting week. It was:

First week EVER where both David and I worked full time at something other than retail.
Third week in the most intensive attempt to fix David's guts yet (gluten free supplemented by aloe juice, a probiotic called Primal Defense, multivitamin, ground flax seed, daily salad, fiber supplements, and coconut). So far, so good.
First week for me to be writing a real Game Design Document (that might eventually get used)
A week with BOTH of David's brothers living with us (Mike needed some unwind time)
And the first week in a long, long time that I have breathed semi-normally. I can FEEL stress leaving, and it is AWESOME.

Big long weekend ahead (cleaning, budget, a weeks worth of errands). Tonight we're going over to Adam's apartment to watch more Atlantis and play Rock Band.

I wonder if David remembered to bring the Atlantis with him...

Check, check, check...

2008-04-13T22:36:44Z

Mmmmmm, I love checking things off. Almost as much as I like making the lists in the first place.

David has a job.
We filed taxes.
We shredded FOUR BOXES worth of ancient paystubs, bills, credit card applications, etcetera.
Laundry is mostly done.
The cat's skin is finally clearing up due to a combination of pills, baths, and avacado-based cat food.
DAVID HAS A JOB!
I finished part one of my cheap cool thumbtack project and now have a nice display of photos.
Debit cards have been reordered and will finally be in my married name.
I actually beat Pikmin (the first one).

Yesterday I went and hung out with Mike & Melissa...and baby Sophie! Sophie and I took a walk because it was gorgeous out. They have the nicest stroller I've ever pushed, and she's such an "Easy" baby...all smiles and giggles and friendlies. AND I got a cool experience to boot. We walked under a tree and I swear it sounded like popcorn, but after a minute I realized it was all of the pine cone's scales popping apart. It was really cool!

Might finally have a project instead of more pitches at work. Much as I like the challenge of coming up with game ideas, it'd be nice to settle down and concentrate on one.

Oh yeah and DAVID has a JOB!!!!

We're very excited. :)

Dah Dah DAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-11T05:19:52Z

David has a job!

A paying job!

*giddiness and spontaneous stress shedding ensues*

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Looking up...

2008-04-10T06:16:29Z

Exhausted.

Flowers, dinner out, and potential good news from David today. Got a lot done, errands, haircut for him, work on my 'cheap, cool thumbtacks' project for me. Very much ready for bed but a little afraid to go to sleep as I worry I will wake up tomorrow and it will have been a dream.

Bad/Good

2008-04-04T15:42:38Z

Yesterday at work, I had what I would euphemistically term "a bad day." Nothing horrible happened, but nothing good happened and it just dragged on and on and on. It was overly warm in the building, which doubled my annoyance with everything and gave me a migraine toward the end of the day.

Then I had a good evening. Adam came over with the last disc of Stargate:Atlantis...we're now officially out until June. Now what'll we do? Petra and Curt dropped by to give us soveneirs from their trip to Arizona and show off Petra's amazing Technicolor skin. They brought strawberry shortcake (DELICIOUS!) and David gave them some salsa--he's really into this make-your-own thing at the moment. After Petra and Curt took off, we had burgers (so rebellious, dessert before dinner!)...David and Adam tried mozzerella and pepperoni on theirs, which was apparently quite good. David had red onion and Adam had red peppers, and David wants to try again but drizzle the whole thing in vinagrette. My veggie patty was good too, but I didn't do anything weird.

The Critical Stage Analysis has exposed a brutal flaw: my short term memory sucks and even after just a week I have a hard time remembering what's happened. So...found a problem, decide on a course of action...I guess I'll do them daily for a while until I'm good at paying attention to these things, and THEN I'll go to weeks. More lists? I think I can handle it. :) I'll hold it to three things instead of five though.

YAY:
1. Not wasting all of the in-between projects time paid off when I had a quick and easy solution all ready.
2. Practicing game-flow charts and reading game design theory books is also having noticable effect, quickly and easily sketched a flow and found holes in it during meeting.
3. Walk with purpose during lunch made me feel good and made David happy when I came home with salsa ingredients.

BOO:
1. Shut down during meeting when I felt I wasn't being listened to.
2. Got up too late to do anything around the house. AGAIN. Deadlines are looming.
3. Both desk at work and at home are too cluttered for me to feel comfortable working at them.

TRY:
1. Prepare better for meetings, phone calls and conversations, by reviewing the topic.
2. TRULY LISTEN to people even if they're parroting the same thing that was said five minutes ago. Maybe they have a new spin on it.
3. Clean desks and the area around them.

Survived...

2008-04-03T15:18:22Z

Field trip documentary was actually quite nice. Saw previews for one called Young at Heart that I really want to see. I wish more mainstream theaters showed (and advertised) this sort of film. The twenty or so previews before 21 contained about ONE I considered watching. There were four previews shown at this theater (which had multiple screens but seated perhaps 40 per screen) and I could see myself enjoying them all. Maybe I'm just not mainstream (I can hear all y'all laughing from here).

Downtown Tacoma once again chewed up any semblance of "Oh, I'm sure we can figure out where to go from here" and spit it out 30 miles away. We had some small issues finding a restaurant that wasn't a bar (we had kids with) and ended up in a fancy place that would have made me feel uncomfortable even if I weren't dressed in a tshirt and a hoodie that said GIMMEE GIMMEES across the front. I heard the food was excellent-it certainly looked beautiful- but there wasn't a whole lot for a vegetarian and that was fine by me. Expensive food makes me uncomfortable too--I start freaking out that I won't like it.

Once again, day looks beautiful. I need to get my sleep schedule back on track so I can start walking to and from work again.

This morning? DO NOT WANT.

2008-03-28T14:35:00Z

At work late last night (7:15), then watched three episodes of Stargate: Atlantis (10:30, and actually semi-decent episodes, wow!), then off to feed and medicate my friend's kitties while she is off in Arizona. As I put the key into the lock, I think, "Wouldn't it suck if this key didn't work?" Guess what happened. HA. HA. HA. So after scrambling around the house checking windows, trying to turn it only about four hundred times, calling her to leave voicemail, we return to the apartment (11:30), I find an old key ring with a likely candidate, which I had assumed was replaced by previously mentioned key due to a changed lock or something (11:45). Return to her house (midnight), try key, key works, call her back, locate kitties, pour roasted chicken flavored medical oil (!) down the one with asthma, feed kitties, cuddle the ONE kitty who really was into me being there, get back in car (12:30), return to apartment (12:45), go to bed (12:50)....find I can't sleep. ARGH. Playtest a comparable product from work until 2, go to sleep, get up at 6:45.

Would rather go back to bed but am in actuality going in to work early because unlike last week where I had nothing to do and had to resort to my "God I wish this would get fixed but have no time to do so" list. By the end of the day I will probably have nothing to do again, but...I don't like people getting held up because of me.

Tomorrow I am sleeping in. And making plum ice cream. And making it up to David.

My Life : A Postmortem (not literally!)

2008-03-27T15:07:25Z

I think I've finally accepted that I'm really and truly a designer now, which is good because now I can get on with it and immerse myself in figuring out what that means. I've been hovering insecurely, waiting to be pushed back to artist or worse...

ANYWAYS, yay for me, blah blah, POINT:

Yesterday the designers as a whole had a discussion (I was included! Thus the acceptance speech) about the practice of postmortems, which is a system in which, once a project has all been completed, everybody gets together and discusses what went right and what went wrong and how to streamline the process and never have those problems again. Of course, by the end of the project everyone's forgotten half of it and gotten really emotional about the other half, and everyone's so tired that they don't actually pay attention and forget it all by the time they get to the next project.

And we all read an article on Gamasutra about ditching the postmortem. The article, by one Wolfgang Hamman, suggests that instead you have micro-postmortems at every milestone, or at predetermined checkpoints, so that you can find out what's going wrong BEFORE it gets out of hand, and maybe fix it for THIS project instead of the next one.

AND maybe I was a little distracted by thoughts of my hubby, who was in the middle of a phone interview with a very, VERY cool company (not jinxing), and of our relationship and my tendency to wait and wait and wait and wait until something gets unbearable and THEN mentioning it to him. (Eheh...) I thought, that's kind of like a postmortem (and just like a postmortem it usually doesn't solve anyone's problems). Hmm...think about other people's relationships. Think especially about how when I've seen one fall apart and there's a million billion unresolved issues that come pouring out like a shaken mouse nest, SURPRISE! Hmm, have also seen people swear they'll never make those mistakes again and then hop into a relationship where that's bound to happen...DUDE It's JUST LIKE a postmortem!

So last night, I suggested applying Critical Stage Analysis to our relationship.

I got The Eye of course. The one that says, with naught but a cocked eyebrow, "Did you try to drink coffee again?"

Okay, yeah, maybe it'd be a little weird...just a TEENSY WEENSY LITTLE BIT. And awkward. And perhaps I shouldn't have started out the conversation with the phrase, "So I've been thinking about our relationship..."

....yeeeeeeaaahhhh...

So before I do that again, I'm going to pre-test it on my life. I have goals, I have deadlines (milestones). I most certainly have issues with the way I end up doing stuff. I also 100 percent look back on my life and try to analyze what went wrong, but usually way too late to fix problems. That's a pretty close analog...should be a walk in the park, right? RIGHT?

So every weekend I will list in order of impactfulness:

5 most important things I did right,
5 most important things that went wrong,
5 ways I could improve for next week.

And (kicker alert) pay attention to those the following week.

Kitchen of DOOM

2008-03-26T14:57:20Z

When you come home from work every day to a guy gazing into a monitor sporting 22 characters with ridiculous weaponry riding on tigers and rams, sometimes it's hard not to be frustrated and feel like you're doing all the work and he's just lazing around. Unfair? Yes. Self-centered? Undoubtedly. Human? Why, yes again!

It is also incredibly telling that in the past three days where David has had work to do (yay, temp agency!) and hasn't been home, the kitchen and bedroom have become complete disaster areas.

Ehehehehehe...dammit.

Cubicle Joy of the Esoteric Variety

2008-03-26T03:55:31Z

If you ever maybe worked at a company in an alternate reality, that makes licensed video games, hypothetically, you might come across a license that you hope and pray doesn't ever make it out of the pitch stage. Perhaps your fervent prayers could come true and you might dance ecstatically in your cubicle and praise the heavens and celebrate with a visit to Walgreens for clearance holiday candy. And then possibly your deskmate might buy you a doll from aforementioned license as a birthday gift. At first, you might think this is horrible torture because it might just make you think of hookers and fish people and those things shouldn't even come together hypothetically except maybe NEVER but then you find out how much torture value could be inherent in such a toy, especially if it maybe possibly is supposed to represent a 16 year old and has painted on lace panties and you work with a bunch of nerdy guys perhaps.

Yeah.

This made me ridiculously happy, and the programmer that sits next to me whimper in mental anguish. Bwahaha!

Jackal Sniper on the left, by the way, abandoned at my desk because it was purchased by a coworker for the beam rifle packin. He and Cloe have become quite close.

New Schedule...

2008-03-25T14:51:46Z

Trying to be a more productive person (sound familiar?) this week partially due to David's ecstatic-ness over having something to do that doesn't involve A) our apartment and B) being there. Getting up at six-thirty? Check. Staying awake until work is over? ......check... Making healthy dinners each day? So far, amazingly, check.

We've been really impressed with this temp agency. Not only did they find something in a reasonable amount of time, but they offer web-based classes to help clients study for certifications to round out resumes (genius!) AND they pay a completion bonus if you get a job done early, based on how much time you didn't waste. WHICH MAKES COMPLETE AND UTTER SENSE HOLY CARP FINALLY. Plus they're actually sending his resume places.

Reading a game design theory book I borrowed from another designer at work. It's quite thick--almost 700 pages in 10pt font, maybe 1.5 spaced text. Pretty hefty considering there really isn't a working equation for A + B - C = "Fun" (which the book admits to in Chapter One). So far it hasn't said much I didn't know, but having someone else organize and remind me of my own ideas is wonderful. I'm actually taking substantial notes. Wow, school skills revisited. I guess I DID learn some stuff after all!

Saturday...

2008-03-23T18:48:28Z

...was fantastic. The weather was great! David and I got lots of errands done, made strawberry ice cream (deeee-lish!) and went to Petra and Curt's for a lovely dinner and lessons on how to medicate their cat Shmitty. We're cat-sitting for a few days. They have FIVE kitties, and the stars must have been aligned or something because we saw ALL of them, even Badger, and I got to pet Starshine. The last time we kittysit, we didn't see Star for the entire week. At all. I was afraid she might have gotten out, but no...she's just really shy. I wish I could have five kitties...

Speaking of kitties, Yumi is having a rough time. Not only is she on a diet, but we're thinking she might be allergic to something, who knows what...she's constantly chewing and scratching herself. Now she's got big welts in a couple of places that she's scratched, and her chin and cheeks are all swollen. We got hypoallergenic cat shampoo for a bath today, and special food that has avacado in it to see if that will help. If not, we're taking her to the vet.

Today is Easter, and in the spirit of renewal we're doing a three month plan/budget and our taxes.

David got a short temp job for last Thursday and Friday and all of the next week, and the difference in his mood/attitude/posture/attentiveness/self-esteem is pretty amazing. He's back, baby! I hope this new temp agency can find him more things to do. He's signed up for classes starting in April, just in case they can't...and he'll finally be done with his AA.

THREE CHEERS!