I’ve been living up the Amplitude, and I’m finding that the more I play, the better I get (as you would hope but not necessarily expect). It being a musical game and me with [what I would like to think is] a decent sense of rhythm, the only real thing you have to figure out is how to get your fingers to move in the appropriate pattern.

Jenn was watching me last night as I was going through a pretty complex set of tracks and was saying that she didn’t think her brain could work that fast. That’s when I realized the key to the game: You can’t think about what you’re doing, you just have to do it. If you take the time to analyze and cogitate the pattern, you’ve already taken too long and you’re done. I guess it’s sort of like any other inherent sort of talent, kind of like riding a bike - you don’t think, “Okay, now I balance this way, now I step on this pedal…” You just ride the bike. I think that’s one of the things I like best about the game - no analysis, just raw action.

I decided, since I’ve fought enough with SharePoint Portal Server 2003 today to last three lifetimes, that, in the immortal words of McDonald’s, “I deserve a break today.” Though not necessarily in the implied proverbial “McDonald’s Way.” Instead, I went to the cafeteria and got myself a pepperoni and garlic pizza, a favorite among my colleagues in the department.

Jenn and I watched a movie last night, Holes. It’s a family movie, but it was surprisingly well done and I didn’t feel cheated out of my time like I usually do with family films. The character played by Jon Voight reminded me very much of my grandfather, which was a little scary.

I got notification today from Microsoft that I’m officially a Microsoft Certified Application Developer in .NET, and I should be getting my certificate (suitable for framing) in the mail shortly. That’s cool; it signifies that I’m making progress, which I like.

I think Jenn and I will be going boating this weekend with some friends of ours that we haven’t seen for a long time. It’ll be good to get out, and even better to see them again. Fun stuff.

While cruising around, I found this site called JList that carries all sorts of Japanese contraband of dubious nature. They’ve got some Domokun stuff on there, which is cool but expensive, as well as some… interesting “photobooks,” as they call them. Heh.

I’ve figured out that there’s something odd with the way the SSL is working with my webmail access, so accessing without the SSL has let me into my 147 messages. Actually, much less than I expected, but most of them are spam, which was exactly as I expected.

My email is still down (at least, the web mail access) so I sent a note to the support folks that maintain the server a note to find out what’s up. Which means that I’m going to have like 4,000 spams waiting for me by the time I’m able to get it.

For the last two nights, my Tiny Cat has decided that she’s bored or something so every two hours or so she cries and then lays down on the pressure-sensitive alarm mat we have outside the bedroom door. Apparently she’s figured out that it’s equally annoying for the humans and that if she can lay there long enough, someone will come out and chase her around the house. What a fun game!

Sunday night she did it enough that I threw a slipper at her, so she got mad and peed on the bathroom floor. I can’t believe she peed the floor, but I guess I should be happy it wasn’t on carpet.

Next step is to get the electronic shock mat - she can stand on that and get a jolt of electricity all she wants. I’m tired of this. It’s not like she doesn’t get total love and attention when we’re awake. We play with her, we buy her toys and stuff… she’s totally spoiled. But she wants more. Not much I can do about that. There’s a whole other cat she could play with, but apparently that’s not as much fun as playing with humans.

Needless to say, I’m draggin’ today. It’s going to be a long one.

Jenn and I went out to eat last night at Applebee’s and I got the all-you-can-eat rib tips. I’m not a big ribs fan, but the promise of “the meatiest part of the rib” convinced me, so I tried it.

Eh.

Ribs, in my opinion, are way too much work and not enough payoff. If I wanted to eat barbecue sauce, I’d just go buy a bottle at the store and throw a straw in it. Plus, they’re really fatty, and I’m not a fan of the chewiness of fat. Next time I’ll get the chicken.

I also went and got my nice Sony earbud headphones at the local Circuit City. They’re awesome. I’m listening to them right now. They’re everything earbuds should be.

I saw a couple of news articles this morning that got me thinking.

First, there was a pedestrian killed in the middle of I-5, so the whole thing was pretty much shut down. I don’t really feel too bad about the whole thing, though… I mean, what was a pedestrian doing on an interstate highway? No, no, no.

Second, the Portland police apparently requested some suggestions from the “Police Assessment Resource Committee” or something like that to find out how they could better deal with police-involved shootings.

Now, for the record, I think that if you’re in trouble with the law and you run when they tell you to stop, then they shoot you, you probably deserve it. If you shoot at the cops and get shot, you definitely deserve it.

One of the recommendations of the resource committee was that the police not be allowed to shoot at moving vehicles. I think if I was a criminal, this would be great. The thought process would be something like this:

Oh, shit, here come the cops and me with all this crack that I’m selling to kids in grade school… What am I going to do? I got it! I’ll just get in the car and drive away! They can’t shoot me while I’m in a moving vehicle!

Morons.