blakerson.com

I was packed up and ready to go at 5pm. So was Adam, who I was dropping off at his place in north Austin along the way. Where the hell was Thomas? I made a few attempts at his cell and never got an answer. Adam and I decided to load up my car and fill up my gas tank so we'd be ready to go when Thomas showed up. While filling up my gas tank, Mel called and asked for a last-minute favor: he wanted a ride home too. No problem, I figured, since I was already here. By the time Mel got loaded into my car, it was 5:45 and I was a little peeved that we were so late. We headed back to the Quad to check some things on the computer (and get Thomas's room number in the Castillian) and right after I get the number from Thomas's mom, Thomas calls on his cell. He thinks he's shown up early, since he has 6:00 written on his hand. We proceed to give him hell about it for the rest of the night.

Austin traffic was moving about as quickly as Thomas was to show up. We got almost to Round Rock by way of access roads only, the 3 of us bound for A-town were starving, and then we spotted the giant storm headed our way. Luckily, there was a Pei Wei very nearby, so we voted to stop there and chill and let the storm pass.

8pm: We get to Adam's house and drop him off. From there, it was incredibly smooth sailing and I got home at 10:45 after dropping off both Thomas and Mel. Much thanks go to those guys for making the trip much more entertaining than usual, especially whilst driving at night. So it was a 6-hour trip overall, but it was way worth the hassle considering how damn much fun it was.

Then, while I was out at dinner, I get these wonderful little messages from aroon:

aroon: so im sitting here in the airport
Auto response from blakerson: running around a-town (most likely dinner)
aroon: best airport ever
aroon: free wireless
aroon: fast freakin wireless
aroon: and NO ONE is online
aroon: the one time i actually have time to dick around on aim
aroon: this is your fault blake.
aroon: you should feel bad.
aroon: baaaaad.
aroon signed off at 6:49:32 PM.

Happy holiday everyone, and don't die.

I spent an hour in the middle of the night writing about what's happened with that girl Jessica, and how it's now over and it's my fault for letting it go as far as it did, and then I realized that it really shouldn't be published, since nothing good could possibly come of it and it would violate my policy of posting on girls/relationships/emo crap. I've definitely picked up a big, big lesson from this, and if I could put it into a sentence I would. Maybe I'll turn it into a set of romantic axioms or something.

Speaking of embracing my inner nerd, I've learned to *love* singledom. Why, do you ask? My gaming life is about to go berzerk. Here are the games in which I have very little progress or haven't even started, all of which require being played:

-Doom3
-Half-Life 2 (haven't started, don't spoil anything pls)
-Halo 2 (played about one mission on co-op)
-GTA San Andreas (still in Los Santos, maybe 1/2 or 2/3 through the missions before 'leaving' the island)

More importantly, I'm an Xbox Live *freak* for Halo 2. I'm still playing as a guest all the time, but my pseudo-clan formed with my friends (we play nothing but Training Ground games) is one of my favorite activities. This may be my next big part of my gaming life - and considering I've asked for my own box for my birthday, it's pretty damn likely. Either way, once I get done with finals, I've got my work cut out for me for the Christmas break. 5 weeks, 4 games, 0 girls and tons of friends - damn, that just sounds awesome.

This Thanksgiving is going to be a much-needed prelude to the festivities and a much-needed break from this silly life I'm living on campus. I need a few days in the land of familiarity to get my bearings straight again. I'm bringing home probably very little for gaming (at most a PS2 + GTA:SA) and planning to spend just about all of my time and energy on seeing as many people as I can. Most of the A-town crowd gets in Tuesday night, so we'll play it by ear for getting any festivities underway that night, but I could definitely stand to make a Starbucks/Friday's run and do some philosophizing over tasty beverages and loads of breadsticks. We're just two nights away - praise jebus.

You are 10% geek OK, so maybe you ain't a geek. You do, at least, show a bit of interest in the world around you. Either that, or you have enough of a sense of humor to pick some of the sillier answers on the test. Regardless, you're probably a pretty nifty, well-rounded person who gets along fine with people and can chat with just about anyone without fear of looking stupid or foolish or overly concerned with minutiae. God, I hate you.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

IE required.

They gave up on us, just like we gave up on them:

Colin Powell, who was offered the SecState position for Clinton's second term and has been in Washington since before the Reagan administration, handed in his resignation after being made the guy to take Bush's heat for the stupid shit he's done - even though Powell saved us from certain destruction after that spy plane went down in China in 2001. His replacement can't possibly be a better choice. Yet AGAIN, Clinton was right and Bush is wrong. Get used to it.

Better yet: The chiefs of the CIA's Directorate of Operations and Director of Central Intelligence - the two heads of the agency's Clandestine Service - resigned on the same day in protest of Goss's (see bs) management of the agency.

Then again - maybe we're stupid enough to deserve it.