years ago, my iMac was running craaaaaazy slow. it was pretty much unusable and seemed like anything that touched the disk took minutes instead of milliseconds. initially i thought it was from a macOS update (like maybe they didn’t bother testing on spinning disks anymore and just let things become unusable on old systems) but eventually realized it must be a problem with the hard disk drive. all the disk’s i’ve had die in the past would make crazy noises leading up to an eventual complete failure.

my cat Storm passed away. i’m pretty heart broken, i loved her a lot. Storm was already an adult cat when i adopted her from the animal shelter. my other cat Scratchy was so bored and miserable at home alone while i spent way too many hours at work so i wanted to get him a companion. like Scratchy when i adopted him, Storm was the cat at the shelter no one wanted.

there are some cats in the neighborhood that come over to my place regularly for snacks and treats. one day i noticed two of them lounging on the patio so i put out a scoop of cat food for them. out of nowhere this chunky raccoon scurried over, chased the cats away, and started chowing down! for over a week he came back every day or two at dinner time. it was so fun watching him eat with his crazy paws.

so it’s been a year since i moved to my new house already! moving was such a pain but it’s been nice since everything is done. i probably visited with my family more in just a few months than in the past 10 years combined. my cats took some time to get used to the new place and divide the territory between them, but they’ve settled in nicely by now with their own favorite areas.

this past month i FINALLY moved into my new house! being nocturnal, having a house now is soooo nice! waking up in the evening and going to bed in the morning didn’t leave much time for noisy things like laundry, treadmill running, and loud movies / games when surrounded by units filled with sleeping noise-sensitive daywalkers. having more space is cool too. i wonder though… when you put a pet fish in a bigger tank they end up growing bigger right?

this weekend i got a pet hamster for my cat scratchy! he’s a super fat black and white dwarf hamster who loves exploring and eating pie. i haven’t given him a name yet so you should help me by leaving a comment with your suggestion. :) some names i’m considering are: domino, doob, itchy, lump, modo, tweak, twitchy, and wiki.

ouch!! i just got hit by this best buy scam. apparently best buy teamed up with time warner to sneak recurring charges onto my credit card. yeah nice try! i only caught it by luck when i glanced at a statement online today and saw $39.95 from best buy and assumed it must be from a game but couldn’t remember buying anything last month. it turns out i didn’t and when i noticed the ENT WKLY letters and googled i discovered the details of the scam.

thursday night coming home from a company christmas party there was a crazy windstorm and i had to dodge branches and such that littered the roads (which didn’t seem all that odd because the party was at an arcade so i had already spent a couple hours driving crazy in rush and other games).  i came home to find the electricity was out and after fumbling around in the dark for some time trying to find my flashlight i gave up and went to sleep.

ok e3 this year was awesome.  the biggest thing at the show was nintendo’s wii, but the lines to see it every day were crazy so i didn’t bother.  i did wait in line to see spore though and that was totally worth it.  will wright didn’t show too much more than he had previously at gdc, but it was really cool to watch him go through the latest version of the creature editor and the different

it’s time for another e3!  for the last week i’ve been spending a lot of my time at home standing up to try and get my legs ready for all the e3 standing.  my plan was that by e3 my legs would be super strong, but i think it may have backfired!  my legs are already so tired and sore.  hopefully today and tomorrow is enough time for recovery and by wednesday, when the show starts, my legs will be extra strong and my plan will pay off.

it's amazing how full of life this planet is.  if i leave a dirty dish out for just like a week it sprouts this whole miniature world on it with like tropical rainforests and magical pools and civilizations of bacteria and microbes all with their own little societies and mythologies.  it makes me sad to do the dishes.

ok so i was originally scheduled for jury duty back in november but it was the same week as thanksgiving and i was leaving the state so i had to postpone it.  it was rescheduled for this past wednesday which was absolutely terrible since that is when we were pushing a new live build for the Guild Wars Factions beta event.  whenever a whole bunch of new code is promoted live people have to be around to make sure no bugs were introduced and if they were they have to be fixed asap.

christmas was fun and relaxing.  i started writing a text on a special technique i came up with for making spikes and spiky things.  i haven’t finished it yet, but here’s a couple images as a sneak peak.     in other news, i’m almost half way to my goal of 1000 subway points!  do you know what 1000 subway points means?  100 oatmeal raisin cookies.  that’s right.  100!

it’s christmas and that means it’s time for me to migrate to the midwest.  i’m hoping to find some time to code some elite max scripts to feed my new addiction.  if i do then maybe i’ll post some.  i’ll probably also be spending lots of time playing video games with my brother and sister.  last time i was home we beat every one of the updated games in the psp namco museum.

after what i’m sure was a lot of careful consideration, i was chosen to serve on a jury for my county’s supreme court! as if that honor wasn’t enough they’re even go to pay me 10 us dollars a day!! man with that kinda cash coming my way i’m tempted to tell my current employer to go shove it so i can be a juror full time! ok, actually im not that excited about it.

a couple weeks ago i got a pro-gaming mouse pad. i needed a decent mouse pad so i figured i'd get something elite. this thing is no joke. it has seriously boosted my micro in warcraft 3. good luck trying to take me out when my fiends are burrowing and unburrowing like mad and my heroes are using skills and potions with perfect timing.

i've finally bought a real place to live. after like 3 years of owning one light and moving it from room to room depending on where i want to read or use my laptop, having lights in all rooms is almost magical. oh and not having to use quarters to do laundry... it can't get any better than this!