Author: Andy Scheffler

On the way home a few days ago, there was a live-acting nativity scene in front of a church. First time I’d seen one of those.

We got our annual company holiday present, which this year was a bit more useful for other people than for me… seeing as I already had the previous model, which wasn’t that outdated. At least I ended up getting a free 64MB MMC card out of the deal.

I am so very tired. I don’t understand why. Perhaps because it was raining so hard it was making a dull roar that kept me from getting enough sleep?

Luke is taking the PS2 home with him, so no Final Fantasy X for me over the weekend. I guess I’ll have to settle with Dragon Warrior 7.

I know I had something else to say, but I’m so tired I can’t think. Blugh.

As pictures of the party are starting to get sent around, these two pictures of my DDR’ing have made their way to me…

Yes, I was DDR’ing in a suit. Yes, my feet hurt afterwards.

I am now getting junk faxes to my efax account.

So last night was the Yahoo! year-end party, which was held just three days after the second round of layoffs. It was known, however, that anyone who was laid off was still invited. And luckily, there weren’t any “incidents,” at least that I heard of. It was fun, once again, to see coworkers dressed up, and the few who just came as they were… and of course, looking to see who came with a date, and who didn’t…

The high point of the evening had to be the Dance Dance Revolution game, though. As a part of the festivities, they had a bunch of video and pinball games set up in one section. Nothing can be funnier than watching coworkers dressed in suits and formal dresses, including a founder of the company, stomping their feet blindly to a beat that can’t be heard because of the pounding bass of the live band overpowering the pounding bass of the DDR machine. Then showing off, even if it was only a medium difficulty song, because anything harder would have been close to impossible without being able to hear it. Then impressing said founder of the company. Heh. Yep, high point of the evening.

Low point was the bus back to work not starting and having to move into another bus with all the belligerent drunks, the sick drunks, and the tired drunks, and not getting back home until 3am.

My feet hurt.

Another layoff day, come and gone.

Still here…

Sunday, 2:00 p.m.: My head sort of hurts. Maybe I should eat something.

Sunday, 5:00 p.m.: My head still hurts, I should take some medicine. And take a nap.

Sunday, 7:00 p.m.: Nap over. Try to eat something. Pizza with spicy meat stuff on it does not go down well. Put back in refrigerator, go back to sleep.

Sunday, 9:00 p.m.: Okay, I feel good enough to at least roam around, and finish that pizza.

Sunday, 9:30 p.m.: Excedrin start to wear off; take more Excedrin. Try playing some video games. Ate some jellybeans.

Sunday 11:00 p.m.: Tired. Bedtime. But I’ll read something first.

Monday 12:00 a.m.: Perhaps eating jellybeans (sugar) and taking Excedrin (caffeine) wasn’t such a good idea.

Monday 1:00 a.m.: Still awake. Change alarm from 9:15 to 9:45.

Monday 2:00 a.m.: Still awake. Take a shower.

Monday 3:00 a.m.: At least my bed is very comfortable. Change alarm to 10:45.

Monday 4:00 a.m.: Bed is starting to get very warm. I consider going into work, but only very briefly. I feel the caffeine starting to wear off.

Monday 4:30 a.m.: Unfortunately, the pain killers also wear off. I take some non-awakening ibuprofen, but am still in pain.

Monday 5:00 a.m.: Clay arrives at work, and I’m still in pain, in bed, and wide awake.

Monday 5:30 a.m.: Approximately, I fall asleep.

Monday 10:45 a.m.: Alarm. Fortunately, no headache. Day begins.

I’m tired.

December 21st? Hah! Winter starts when I put the flannel sheets on my bed.

It started last night.

I think that over the course of the weekend I ate most of a turkey.

This is what happens when there’s leftovers that need eating, and Luke is either not here or glued to Civilization III too much to partake. It was, to be honest, a smallish turkey. But I was quite sleepy all weekend. I took naps.

I played quite a bit of Dragon Warrior VII. This game is very time-consuming. I’m at the 58 hour mark, and I’m still on Disc One. Well, right at the end of Disc One. Must… finish… game…

Something I forgot to mention yesterday: as a part of my walking trip around Berkeley, I stopped in front of Bowles Hall and shouted “Hello, Bowles Hall!” and got the appropriate response. It’s good to see the traditions continue on.

I am actually quite sore from my wander around campus. I’m such a weakling now.

So I played my GameCube quite a bit. Finished Luigi’s Mansion… it’s a short game, but very cool looking. Super Monkey Ball can be quite frustrating until I get a hang of the controls. Rogue Leader is more of Rogue Squadron and all that implies. Wave Race is Wave Race.

And I built the Lego Blockade Runner. I’d take a picture and post it, but I’m feeling quite lazy right now. The problem is now where to put it…

That gets us to Saturday Afternoon. Saturday Evening, I drove up to the city for dinner and the late showing of Harry Potter. Quite weirdly, only one other person in the group had actually read the book, so we had a bit of trouble actually discussing it without giving away future plot points. There’s also an inherent problem with watching a 10:45 showing of a 2 1/2 hour movie… especially when they show 20 minutes of previews, we got out of the theater at 1:30, and by the time I got to driving back, it was 2:00, and I was driving down the freeway, with Peto in the passenger seat passed out, watching meteors fly by on the horizon (I counted a total of ten in the 45 minutes I was on the road), finally made it home and crashed on my bed at almost 3:00.

Woke up at noon on Sunday, grumbled my way off to a FanimeCon meeting at 2:00, which lasted a surprisingly short amount of time, then drove up to Berkeley to kill time before I was going to meet a High School friend at 7:00. Remembered at the last minute that the CAA Member’s Only Marathon was going on that day, and peeked in just long enough to watch them play 10-player Bomberman during the dinner break.

I walked down and back up the Berkeley campus, and realized why I stayed in shape while I was a student. Man, that campus is slanted.

Had an intense catch-up conversation with a High School friend I hadn’t seen since our graduation day. Found out that even more of the people I knew are married. At this point it gets more of a “Yeah, okay, whatever” reaction than a shocked reaction. In fact, I think that I got a very odd sort feeling walking away from tonight. I got such a feeling of what’s happened in these last 7 years, and more of a sense that people have continued on with their lives. It helps with the whole nasty getting caught on the past thing that I’ve had problems with before. I may turn into an accepting, productive member of society yet.

I’m glad it’s a short week. I’m doubly glad there’s a four-day weekend.