There are so many good things! I am probably as happy as I have ever been.
- Anna – We are getting married in June. Words cannot express how much I love her. Well, actually I think they probably can, but I am far too lazy to spend the time constructing prose of the complexity required to do so for this post.
- Friends – You are all so cool. I have people to play DDR with me on a regular schedule again, which is very motivating (thanks Lucas, Mark, Bill, Jon), even if the schedule is not as often as I would like due to my busy schedule. Sean and I have been off the rails of our jogging schedule, for a variety of important reasons; hopefully we’ll be back on track starting tonight. Hugs to all the geeks for making the world a better place.
- Work – I just had an all-weekend work meeting, wherein colleagues from several other universities flew into Madison for our annual software bash. It was incredibly productive, and good to see some of them again. My task list is now 13 items longer, but the end result will be better, faster, stronger. For SCIENCE!
- Deus – Despite the fact that the Monday session last night was incredibly frustrating, the campaign has still been immensely satisfying overall. I hope the players are enjoying the experience as much as I am (but without so much accompanying pain).
- Anime night – It continues to be really fun, although I am often quite tired on Thursdays since it’s one of the days I go into work early. I am looking forward to the switch to Sundays in July, since right now my Thursday night is a bit saturated by the experience.
- Game night – It’s something I crave, yet am glad is being hosted by someone else (thanks Joey). I simply do not have time to attend every week, but really value the interactions it provides.
- My sweet huge new HD-TV – I shit you not, this TV is magnificent. I got a good deal buying it from my uncle (who is a very cool guy), since he does not have room for it at his current place. The thing weighs 240 pounds, but with Sean and Kelsey’s help we got it up the stairs into the office. It’s nice to have a really nice TV up there, since I spend so much time in there with Anna watching TV with her, or playing video games while she uses her computer.
- Invigorating summer convertible excursions – They are pure joy. The weather gods have smiled upon us this month. Though my 1991 Miata needs a checkup and is probably going to have to retire soon, I am planning to replace it with a 2000 or 2002 Miata as soon as I can afford it. Fortunately, I am receiving a monster tax rebate this year, which I plan to spend frivolously (though I’m still trying to decide on what – a new receiver, since my current one randomly cuts out in bizarre ways; new furniture, since my upstairs couch and two of my comfy chairs have gotten pretty grody over the years; a mini-PC for the upstairs office, for use with the spiffy new TV, so that I can hack around on development stuff while Anna works on her computer; a MacBook Pro with Intel chip, so that I can use Parallels to run Mac OS X, Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux simultaneously!). Hopefully there will be some money left over to put towards a new car. Actually, two new cars – Anna’s will need to be replaced within a year or two as well, if not sooner.
My major frustration is that Deus consumes nearly all my free time. I want to play more video games (Makai Kingdom, woo! Also We Love Katamari, Contra, Baten Kaitos, Digital Devil Saga, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, the Phantom Brave post-game, Monkey Island, even Final Fantasy X-2…). I want to prepare for the Zelda challenge. I want to spend more time dicking around with computers. I want to spend more time with friends individually. I just have to console myself that it will all happen in good time, after Deus ends in June. Well, except the Zelda challenge, which will be long over. :-/
It’s a good thing it’s ending, too, because I am more certain than ever that I could not keep up this pace forever. In February I developed a blepherospasm (twitch of the eyelid), and it has been with me ever since. In March I quit drinking caffeine (I now drink about one Mountain Dew a week), but the problem did not cease. I saw a doctor in March and basically told me what the above linked page says. The fact that I still have the problem after nearly three months is disturbing. It seems like it gets worse when I have not had enough sleep, but even when I have, it is still there. So the logical conclusion is that it is probably stress. You see how dedicated I am to Deus? I developed eyelid spasms for you guys! It is abundantly clear to me that despite how rewarding it has been for me, the first two words that enter my mind to describe the Deus campaign are NEVER AGAIN.