I've kept up the running, and have pushed out to 32nd Ave. I'll probably go out to 33rd in the next few days. I think the current route is about 1.3 miles, and I probably walk another .3 as a cool-down at the end.

Haven't kept up the other parts of the workout quite to the same degree, but as noted in the subject, it's been a busy week.

Last Saturday we had some friends over and played a 'friendly' game of Tribes, which is a prehistoric social game designed by Steve Jackson and David Brin. Apparently they're working on a new version, and we had a playtest copy to try out.

To say that the game was grim would be charitable. Our tribe had an incredibly bleak 20 years, which eventually had us plunging to cannibalism, the deaths of two adults (myself and another) and a third player running away from the tribe to escape death.

It was fun, but I was a bit let down because the game basically hit a stalemate where combat was the only option, which struck me as a massive flaw in the game design. I'd have preferred we call the game there rather than stick it out, because, frankly, if there's a social game where some players have to stop being social, it's not really a good game anymore.

Still, a fun concept, and after looking at the math involved, I'd like to try it again. There are some possibly largely unbalanced points in it.

Sunday I rested, not running and sleeping in. I downloaded the Puzzle Quest trial on XBLA, which subsequently sucked me in enough to buy the full version. I've since wasted many hours over the past week essentially playing Bejeweled.

On Monday while running, I was struck by an amazing thought. In the past whenever I've run, I've always been struck by how chilly it is. Perhaps because I was moving faster the air going by was cooling me down.

Of course, that's not true. Well, it probably is true to a degree, but no, the reason my hands are always freezing when I run has little to do with the weather.

So my low blood pressure strikes again, this time to bring discomfort to my digits. Not really problematic, but a combination of amusing and annoying at the same time.

Also while running, I've been wearing my backpack, because it's the only thing I have which can hold my iPod such that I don't have to carry it. (Well, and my keys). It's not really much weight, but I probably should get an armstrap at some point.

Thursday was probably the biggest day of the week. I got up early and cut my hair. Here's me contemplating my new do:


While doing the cutting, I figured that cutting your own hair isn't really something you can do by a half-measure. Once you start (especially with the buzzing or shaving), you kinda have to go all out.

Still, it was rather quick, easy, and painless, so I'll probably keep doing it from now on.

And after that, I went and got my driver's license. Or rather, I attempted to do so. This isn't something I've been particularly enthused to do, because I have little wish to actually drive in California. I do plan to do a fair amount of driving in Washington, but we've gotten to the point as a culture where your personal identification is tied to your license to drive. Really dumb, but is necessitates that where I live (California) be mandated to determine whether or not I may legally drive, even if the vast majority of my driving will come in Washington.

Go in, wait in line. Find out I can take a shorter line becuase I made an appointment. Wait in shorter line. Realize that they're not actually checking appointment times, good because I was a bit late for mine, but making me wonder if they'd care if I just came up that line anyway.

Fill out form. Get number. Do vision test. Get picture taken. Do written test. Wait in line to get graded.

It's a funny thing about tests and waiting. 36 questions, and I can miss 6 and still pass. I'm feeling iffy on a few of them, because I didn't review all the little bits of the driver's guide, but I figure upon finishing that I'd missed three or four at the most. While in line, I'm second guessing myself and wondering if I'm up to five or six or the dreaded seven wrong.

Not really sweating, mind. Apparently we can take three tests before we have to come back another day, but it'd be a bit annoying to have to come back again.

Hand my test in. Guy grades it.

Wait, no red marks? He writes A+ on it, hands me a piece of paper as my temporary license and sends me on my way.

It's the first time in years I've taken a test, and I really enjoyed the feeling of getting everything right. Sure, not a hard test, but that alone made me want to go back to school. It's a nice feeling, getting a good score.

While looking around for programs for my Mac, I found this, which is completely useless, but also totally awesome. Perhaps the best dashboard widget I have.

And I'm rather eagerly awaiting my trip back north. Just a few more weeks.

I've been hit by a fairly strong bout of homesickness. Mentally, I know that this is my home. The previous problems are settled, but I just feel ennui about a lot of things. There's a lot of things that are really neat about San Francisco, but I find myself thinking about the things that I like better about Tacoma. Missing my friends I expected, but all the annoyances associated with my car and the extended inconvenience about getting anywhere to do anything. Plus, I really don't know where anything is or what to do.

I realize that I don't really have any friends to visit to do things, so I'm often just doing stuff here at home. I have gotten a membership at the climbing gym, and will be shooting for 2-3 days a week there, which I think will be good, but even so, I don't have that two-days-a-week or so that I'd go over and watch anime with Chris. I don't have Pete asking me every week or two to go out for dinner and drinks.

When I moved to Arizona, I think it was about 5-6 weeks before I really started to miss being back in Washington, too. I had other overriding concerns then, though, which caused me to decided to move back sooner rather than later. Even so, I wonder if this is just a hump to get over or if it'll just build. The former is fine (if annoying), but the latter would really suck. At the very least, it would ruin my plan C idea (move around for a few years, seeing what it's like to live in different areas.) It kinda ruins plan A (live in SF for the forseeable future.)

*sigh* Need to focus this into writing. Must write more.