I may have spoken a little too soon when complaining about The Fires of Heaven (book 5 of the Wheel of Time). It turns out the battle I'd just finished reading through was not the epic end-of-the-book battle, which was quite a bit better. Still, I'd have liked to have known how the fight with Couladin went. The last time Mat got to fight with description was fighting against Galad and Gawyn in Caemlyn, if memory serves. Also, the scientist in me would like to know exactly how the time paradox issues of Baelfire are resolved, not just that a bunch of people saw a few people die, but those people don't remember dying. It's a little too vague for my tastes.

My own book is coming along just fine. That is, if "fine" means fixing up the first and only chapter and running into writers' block as soon as I start another one. It'd really help if I had some plot ideas, you know? It seems the only plot I know enough about is my own. Unfortunately my own story is full of plot holes, so it's hard to garner any readers.

I'd start talking about Travis right about now, but at the moment, I don't have any new stories about her.

Shortly after I last posted, say about 10 hours later, I left for Bellingham with my kitties. They so enjoy car rides. Kotenok actually might. He just sits in the box quietly. Calloh cries every few seconds from point A to point B, unless the music is loud enough that she knows she won't be heard. Or maybe she's just not being heard. I listened to that Seabird disk on the way up. It played through twice. I've probably listened to each song now at least 20 times, and about half of them (the ones I really like) more than that. Probably my favorite song, musically, is called Cottonmouth (Jargon). It's kind of depressing though, sort of liberating but vengeful at the same time. It makes me feel good, but dark at the same time. Those two don't mix well inside of me.

Speaking of dark, I just finished Fable a couple hours ago. Alexander loaned it to me on Tuesday after Eureka. On Wednesday I was feeling kind of off, to the point that my manager noticed, and commented a couple times that I was slower than normal (which I guess means I'm fast sometimes?), and I ended up going home early. I think that was a run-on sentence. That night I put in between 5 and 8 hours. On Thursday, yesterday, I was feeling worse, and called in sick. Honestly, it had nothing to do with the game, and I wasn't even all that hooked by Wednesday night. Video games are often restful, though, and I ended up playing another 13 hours or so. The good news is that I felt better today. When I got home I finished up the remaining 4 or 5 hours. It's a decent game, for sure. The gameplay during battles is fun, though it can get a little repetitive. I was light-side, as I always am in such games (I don't know what I'm going to do in the Force Unleashed), so I got the Tear of Avo, or whatever, which is either the second best or tied for the best weapon in the game. I wished there was more storyline behind it. The evil sword had quite a bit of history. Also, there's another legendary sword you can get that's not as good, but takes a ton of extra work to earn. It really should be better than the Tear of Avo, in my opinion. It doesn't have to best the evil sword, but.... Also, the story seemed too linear. I guess I'm used to Knights of the Old Republic, where there are nine different story lines intertwined into yours, and then the villains were interesting too. Jack of Blades was just sort of always out there. And then there was the final battle. It wasn't easy per se, but it certainly wasn't hard, for a game so epic. I expected the fight to be the first of many parts, though not as many as Twilight Princess had -- that bordered on ridiculous, even if it was fun. Having a wife wasn't particularly rewarding. By the time you can really afford to start buying houses, you don't need much money anymore (you rent out houses), and the only way to buy a shop is to kill the current shop owners. Also, I wanted your sister and Whisper to return. And last, but not least, it needed some HK-47.

Bellingham, right. I took my vacation that week because Hime was going to be working two weeks from then, and this past week had too many people taking vacation as it was. It turns out, however, that Hime decided to volunteer these two weeks anyway. It's certainly not that I didn't enjoy visiting everyone else, but she was certainly a major reason I went up there. I didn't get a minute alone with her, and the only time that might have been possible, was during the day she was battling through on two and a half hours of sleep, and so wasn't in the best of moods. There were two opportunities for the two of us to talk alone for a little bit, three if you count dinner on Thursday, but those two she chose to talk with Rosa instead. I know they haven't gotten to talk in a long time, but I guess I was looking at how long it would be before we saw each other again, compared to the next time she and Rosa would be able to talk. That dinner I mentioned, I was under the impression the two of us alone, or possibly a few of us, would be going out to dinner. Rosa and the Maggie (aliased for no other reason than I'm listening to a song called Maggie Mahoney, by, you guessed it, Seabird) wanted to have a barbeque on Thursday. I texted Hime saying, "Hey, where did you want to go to dinner? We could go to the bbq tonight and have dinner tomorrow." She texted back, "I can't do dinner tomorrow, but I want to go to the barbeque." At the barbeque, she basically avoided talking to me at all. Again, on two and a half hours of sleep, I can't blame her for not wanting to talk very much. I guess really it comes down to my hopes or expectations being let down.

There's always a need for balance. Do you hope and get hurt, which often leads to bitterness, or do you skip a step and go straight cynic? (Do not pass go, do not collect $200 -- which is about the price of my last vet bill.) How do we balance fairness, letting people keep the money they earned, and forcing people to give to those who need it through taxes? Sometimes I think it'd be easier had Jesus been a politician. Then there's balancing giving with making wise financial decisions with spending money on things you probably don't need practically, but realistically need in order to entertain yourself. Or others! -- I technically could probably get by without the internet, but then, how would you read my blog? And then what would you do with your life?

I had a conversation with Donna today over facebook about net neutrality. She's a big Obama fan. I'm on the fence, but leaning toward Obama. I realized I'd seen and heard remarkably few Presidential campaign ads, considering it's election season. Evidently, I don't watch much network television anymore. I'm sure when Chuck, Heroes, and Life start again, I'll get my share. I'm all for net neutrality, as is Obama, whereas McCain said he fervently opposed it and wanted to hire Steve Ballmer. Something tells me Ballmer wouldn't take the job, seeing as how he's had his own for a couple months. Who knows, maybe he's more political than I think. Either way, it sounds like he just wanted to drop a big name, and Bill Gates got out of the business, plus I don't think anyone hires Bill, you know? There are just so many political issues, and neither candidate fits my views all too well. Obama's pro-choice and wants to take more of my money so that they can pay today's old people for a little while longer, and let Social Security go bankrupt around the time I'd need it. McCain supports No Child Left Standing and opposes net neutrality. At least I don't have to worry about immigration. According to cnn.com, they have identical views.

My conversation about net neutrality with Donna led to a conversation on net neutrality with Fran. She didn't know anything about the issue or what it was, so it was fun to taint her view for her. We only hung out a couple times, but I do miss her. She always has a nice, positive outlook on things. I find it encouraging. It doesn't hurt that she has the cutest profile picture on facebook (regarding me missing her), but that's definitely after-the-fact.

For the record, as much as the record can be for'd anyway, I'm not interested in her. I've finally got to the point that I'm not really interested in any girl right now. I've been wanting to get to this point for a couple months now, but sometimes that's difficult; sometimes a girl makes that difficult. Next step: contentment in this place. It's odd to say this, but I feel too tired to be content. I'm also too tired to want anything.

On Friday night, in Bellingham, I went over to Bill's place with Rosa and the other girls in her house. Hime was working. There were about ten of us there, and then three "adults," Bill's parents and uncle. The plan was to watch Top Gun, but that quickly turned into a violent game of spoons. I left for Redmond around midnight.

One thing I miss about Bellingham is the spiritual high of being around a lot of Christians. I visited Rufus while I was there. He's getting moved in with his bride at their new place. We had a good lunch and talked about our lives, ending up on the topic of money. He seems to know a lot about making good financial decisions. I guess if you pay little enough on taxes (so it looks to the government that you're fairly poor), they had this deal where the government would match up to 50% of whatever you put into some sort of investment account. He owed $500 in taxes, so he put $1000 into the investment, and didn't have to pay the government anything. It was basically free money. I don't know that it would have occurred to me to do something like that.

I'm also not quite clear about how my mutual fund works. I was under the impression that I gave the company (Fidelity) money and told them how much, roughly, I wanted in different categories, and they did all the trading for me. The investments, though, all seem to be different companies, rather than a pot with which to buy stock. For example, one category was company stock (Microsoft), and I have so many (2 point something) shares of it. Will they buy and sell when they think it's a good time, or will it just sit there and do whatever the market is doing? Money always has a way of making you worry about it, even when you know you have more than enough. I remember vividly going to Toys 'R' Us with a family friend for one of my birthdays. I bought an N64 game, don't remember which, and I worried the whole way home that I overdrafted my checking account even though I knew I had at least $40 more than I spent. According to that friend (I'm too lazy to think up an alias right now), I inherited that from my mother.

Before and after Eureka on Tuesday, at Swood's place, we watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's spectacular, if you haven't seen it yet. Well worth the $5 on iTunes, though I'm sure you can watch it on Youtube for free. I guess it was to test the waters on this kind of comedy. I hope they make more eventually. Unfortunately, it may be too smart for network television, or maybe I'm not giving the American people enough credit.

That's something I've noticed I'm really snobby about, is humor. If it's not brilliant, it's not funny, and anyone who laughs at such a plain, overdone, typical joke really has no appreciation for the art of comedy, and therefore is stupid. I need to work on that.

It's only 12:30, but I think I've written enough for now. I'll probably go read some more WoT, or maybe start up Phoenix Wright again. I'm about halfway through the second one.

... a thing.

I've still not figured out a good way to allow backward access to my posts. For now you can use the search bar at the top that blogger puts up there and search for "postxxxx" where "xxxx" is the post number, like "0012" for this post. Saying this here won't be too helpful in ten posts, when it gets pushed off the front page though. Hopefully I'll add buttons to the top by the time that happens.

Right now I'm loving this band called Seabird. If you listen to Spirit, they sing Rescue, whose first catchy lines are "I'm pushing up daisies / I wish they were roses". The music just leaves you longing for something. It's rare that music these days can stir up that kind of emotion. The whole album ('Til We See The Dawn) is worth buying if you're an iTunes or Microsoft Marketplace fan. Also, iTunes right now is selling it in aac format for $.99 per, so no DRM, plus higher quality sound.

Also lately I've been reading a lot of different things, particularly webcomics. I read all the way through Queen of Wands at least until it started over with commentary. The author quit writing them. As I understand it, she (Aerie) ended up marrying the author of Strip Tease, Chris Daily, and now they write Punch an' Pie together. I've (and am continuing to) read punchanpie, and have read most of Strip Tease now. (Note: 'read' in the previous sentence has multiple tenses.) They're alright. Like with most story line oriented web comics, most of them are a little funny, and then once a month or so they make you laugh out loud. (An example of a comic that makes me laugh out loud almost every time is xkcd which is not story line oriented.) Then there's qc, Wigu, Dinosaur Comics, Ctrl+Alt+Del, and SAMWAR.

What else is interesting to me lately? I have two kitties now. My sister and mom each bought me one, though my mom wasn't there to help pick them out. Their names are indeed Kotenok and Calloh. They're both tabbies. Kotenok is short-haired, greyscale, and super affectionate. Calloh is long-haired, lynx-tufted eared, greyscale plus brown, and a bit more individualistic, though she likes to cuddle when she's sleepy. They're slowly becoming a bit more obedient with the help of Sheriff Squirt Bottle.

Work's going decently. I'm actually on vacation right now; SQL Server 2008 was just released so everyone in the database side of MS gets a week off. I'd just like to point out that I feel I deserve this break. Countless hours of my life went into that release and I'd just like to take some of that credit while it's still fresh in people's minds.

Today I saw The Dark Knight at the IMAX theater with Minnie, after watching Batman Begins at my apartment. Both movies gave me the same reaction, I think, though I enjoyed how demented the Joker was in the second movie. I don't like it when there are situations with no right choice. They make me irritated and feel hopeless. That said, I still recognize they were great movies, even if I didn't enjoy the themes. Anything more I say on this topic will just be spoilers.

I've done a lot of driving lately, and I'm heading to Bellingham tomorrow for a couple nights, so there's another two hours there and two hours back, assuming moderate traffic.

On Friday, I got off work two hours early, having expected to drive up to Bellingham to pick up Hime and head back down to Port Orchard. That day was stressful, perhaps the most stressful I've had. On top of doing the work I'd normally do in an eight hour day, I also had to leave a readme for whoever was going to pick up my slack this week, explaining everything I was working on and its current state. I have no idea whether I left enough information and it took me a night to calm down from that. Anyway, Hime ended up having to drive to her parents' house anyway, which turns out to be about 15 minutes north of my place. So, when I got home, I watched the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring. After she called me to tell me she'd gotten to the house, I left and got there as she was getting out of the shower. We left about ten minutes later, after she'd met my kitties.

Traffic wasn't too bad, but we were still an hour and a half to my mom's house, where we dropped off our stuff and the got the kitties situated in my room. From there, Hime and I drove to El Sombrero, which was closed, and then to McDonald's. I must be growing up because McDonald's only disappoints me now. My McDonald's cravings cannot be fulfilled because their Big'n'Tasty now tastes Big'n'Nasty. The McChicken isn't like it used to be either. All that they have over me anymore is the Barq's rootbeer and their fries, the first of which I can get elsewhere, and the latter I don't crave. Anyway, we got to the farm where my mom's wedding rehearsal happened just as the last people were leaving. Hime was introduced to people I've known my whole life and people I didn't really even recognize at the same time with equal importance. It seems like introductions should have some weight to them, but I haven't figured out how that would work. I don't mean to say people that I've known forever are more important than people I hardly know, but my best friend was meeting a lot of the family and close friends that raised me, and somehow that felt important to me. I don't think she felt the same gravity.

My aunt, whose not really my aunt -- she was my mom's foster-sister growing up -- and her daughter, Navi, were staying at our house, as well as my grandma, so we were short one bed. Hime took Ashley's, my aunt and Navi took my room, and my grandma slept with my mom; I gladly took the couch, despite the objections I predicted Hime would have.

The next morning, my mom headed off to get her hair done up. The night prior, Hime had asked my mom for her hair straightener. Apparently, my mom handed it to Hime right in front of me, but somehow I missed it. When I woke up well before Hime did, and couldn't find the straightener in my mom's bathroom, I figured she'd packed it and left with it, so I called around, eventually borrowing Ashley's friend's sister's an hour or so before Hime got up. When Hime found out about that later, she thanked me for my effort.

We left for Silverdale shortly after Hime woke. She had wanted to get my mom chocolates for a wedding gift. Anytime I'm around Macy's I always get a few boxes for my favorite women: my mom, my sister, and usually someone else if there's an obvious pick. My mom likes milk chocolate, while Jack likes dark, so we decided to get two boxes, and give the gift together. At the wedding, I, unfortunately, forgot to give Ashley her box, so it remains in my car. Hime and I finished off the box I bought for her of assorted dark chocolate mints within the day. Evidently I've had enough calories to last me the rest of the year, so I've started a 140-day fast. Should be interesting.

The wedding itself was interesting to say the least. I think it was special. In fact, I'm glad that it rained. It seemed to be meaningful rain. The rain started when the ceremony started, and ended when the ceremony ended. Then it waited for us all to move down to the reception and started again until we all finished eating. I like the rain, and I think my mom does too. I don't know about Jack. My grandpa walked my mom down the aisle. He'd told my mom and me that he wasn't going to, because he didn't feel she was his to give away anymore. She was a grown woman, and this was her second wedding. So, I was surprised when he did. Both Jack and my mom pulled a prank on the other when presenting the rings. Jack pretended to have lost my mom's and had this entire skit play out. My mom pulled out this giant ring big enough to fit three fingers, with an enormous glass diamond on it.

After the rain stopped the second time, a breeze started which didn't help Hime or me, as we were drenched to the bone, I in my full suit, and her in a sundress. So, we went back to the house, changed, and headed back just in time for the garter toss. Apparently the ones that he shot into the crowd were all the ones he'd gotten at weddings in the past. There were about eight. I did not participate in the catching. That would just be too awkward. After that, my sister and her friend (the one whose sister loaned me the hair straightener, but I don't want to think up an alias for her) fought over the bouquet. Ashley ended up with about three flowers, and her friend with the rest. Then Jack gave a short speech about a couple "batons" he wanted to pass on. The first one he started off by saying, "Is Jordan Hitch nearby?" I said, "nope," as I was walking up. There really ought to be a word for something between 'said' and 'yelled,' because that's more of what I did. My baton was a book called "A Man, A Can, and A Grill" which was a cookbook of sorts. Our handshake turned into a semi-hug which was a little awkward. I've never hugged a little person before. The second baton was to a friend of mine: bachelor 'til the rapture. I think that would have been embarrassing, but he seemed to take it in good humor.

William basically fell in love with Hime as soon as he met her. He's usually my shadow, but he was anything but subtle about wanting to hang around her and not me during the wedding. I thought it was funny more than anything else. His sister had a crush on my sister's ex-boyfriend while they were dating. Tastes must run in the family. (That, of course, is not to imply that Hime and I are dating, or that I think we ever will -- even driving to the wedding she reinforced that we weren't going to go down that road.) Right before William and his family left, Hime and I played some sort of blob tag. It was fun, which I normally would not say about playing with children. It was out of my comfort zone, for sure, but it was fun.

We stayed for a couple more hours, and helped clean up after the newlyweds left. Hime was feeling a bit ill and had medicine back at her parents' place, so she and I packed up at my house and left back for Redmond. She was cold the entire time despite the fact the heat was all the way up and I was sweating. I suspected she was sick on top of what she needed the medicine for. Her mom picked her up from my apartment.

Just to finish the Hime-related material, I'll skip ahead a bit to Sunday night. I texted her: "Hey, if you're still here and you're not sick of me yet, would you want to go out to dinner?" She responded that she was already in Bellingham, and otherwise she would. So, I asked if she wanted to go out to dinner one of the nights I was in Bellingham. We're going on Thursday night. In the context of the moment, it seemed like we both were picturing just the two of us, and while I know her well, I don't know whether that's actually what she was picturing. Either one-on-one or with a bunch of our friends will be fun.

Sunday morning I went to church. I've been visiting the one Solomon suggested I look into. It's an Assemblies of God church called Life at the Ridge. I gather it's about sixty people large, but during the summer somewhere between thirty and forty usually show up. I really feel at home there, and everyone seems alive and excited and genuinely loving. I met with the pastor last week over lunch. He and I had a long talk, basically giving him my life's story, hitting on everything from my becoming a Christian to Eowyn, to my parents' divorce, to Jamaica, to my mom's remarriage. We talked a bit about his history too, how he's lived in every state touching the pacific (save Hawaii), and knows a bit about programming, and so on. I really like him. He called me today while I was at the movie, just to say he should have remembered it was odd to see me on Sunday because I had told him I'd be at my mom's wedding still, and wanted to know how it went. Do most pastors do that? I guess I could see John at Harper doing that, but the church is too big to do that sort of thing for everyone.

Last week after church, I went out to lunch with a few people from the church. Sadly, I don't remember any of their names. One guy led worship the first two weeks I was there. The other guy was visiting from the midwest, where he goes to college, and he works at Starbucks there. And the woman is a financial advisor type person in Seattle. Actually, come to think of it, I do remember her name now, but only after a friend of hers said it at church this week. Also, it won't do you any good that I remember it because I'd only alias her anyway. In fact, I could alias to the two guys whose names I don't know. How would you like that?!

Man, I've had some funny thoughts lately. I wish I could remember them. They were just one-liners, typically ironic or oxymoronic. There was a line like that in Batman that no one laughed at, too. I chuckled. Then again, the movie was so loud there, that I don't think I would have been able to hear someone next to me laugh. The fire truck on fire was a nice touch.

After church, I went down to Kent to go to IKEA with my grandma who was on her way back up from my mom's to Camano. She bought me two bookcases and some pictures and frames to go with them. The bookcases were heavy, too heavy for me to carry, anyway, and she's not as young as she used to be (as can be said of anyone). She asked me if I knew any of my neighbors yet. I don't, really, but I had a solution to get the boxes into my apartment by myself. See, I have a computer chair with wheels. All I had to do was put one end on the chair, and carry the other end. My grandma guided the chair, but really, I could have just gone in front and the weight of the box would have pulled the chair along. My grandma looked at me and said, "You're one in a million. Most intelligent people aren't smart." That made me feel really good.

Yesterday, I didn't have anything planned, and an old friend from high school got online for the first time since January. We started talking and then she asked if I wanted to get coffee, which turned into mall pizza in Auburn. So that was another long drive, though entirely worth it. It was good to catch up with her. This isn't a bad thing, but it reminded me of the differences between Port Orchardites and people on this side of the water. Cultures are weird.

In closing, I've finally almost finished the fifth Wheel of Time book. I didn't like this one as much as the past four. The climactic battle was pretty lame. It lacked description of the would-be cool scenes, and there was no real battle between Rand and one of the Forsaken, like in the last ones.