Happy New Year!

That's my story.

So I was looking at the nutritional info for moes burritos. They all have at least 1100 Calories. No wonder I want to crawl into a cave and sleep for the rest of winter when I eat one.

Brad, you and Martin did indeed have a conversation about Xbox 360 and nice home theatre electronics. It was when we went to see Syriana. I believe we were on West Peachtree St, just before crossing 7th or 8th where it came up. That was the night we went on our never ending journey looking for a place to get a drink before seeing Syriana, because we missed the 9:30 showing and had to get tickets to the 10:30 showing instead.

The never ending journey
oooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaouoouooooooooooooououoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Turns out I didn't have a rager anywhere.

I said goodbye to the Quiznos lady at lunch today. She opened the Quiznos in Frankfurt in October. She said she would miss seeing my face. I bet. I ate there a lot, but not as much as I ate at the Qdoba Mexican Grill. I have Qdoba chicken running through my veins.

I think my driving endurance is improving. I can now handle a six hour drive on six hours of sleep without the aid of stimulants. Hooray! On my way home today I listened to an "old" Ladytron CD, 604. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've bought a lot more CDs than normal in the past few months since I've been making road trips up to KY.

Ted - perhaps my last post was misleading as I will no longer be in KY. My 6 month project there has ended. However, I still want to give my address out:

1457 Scholar Dr.
Lawrenceville, GA 30044

Martin, I was catching up on some past posts and I noticed that I apparently had a conversation with you about graphics, tvs, and the Xbox 360. I have no recollection of that conversation. That doesn't mean much since I'm not much of a recollector, but I would like to say that I currently have little interest in buying an 360. Perhaps when the new Elder Scrolls game comes out my interest will go up. I do have a high interest in buying an HDTV. I have spent way too many hours slaving over Audio/Video/Home Theater forums only to realize that I don't have a good spot to put the tv I want in the house. Drat.

El Calafate, Argentina

Yo, I am here in the patagonia trekking mecca. I spent three days camping near El Chaltén and Mt. Fitzroy. I have some marathon bus rides in front of me to get back to the place with the flights.

I had some great food recently. Shannon and I had pizza with some fresh veggies and garlic. In addition, she had a steak the size of her two fists. They asked her how she wanted it done. She takes it medium rare (pink in the middle, but warm). They way the waitress said she would do it was just a tad smaller than medium. When the beast came back, it was even rarer than she would have liked in parts. The point is, there are happy cows here in Argentina. Any steak person would dig it. Especially, one who likes their meat rare. The will server steak rarer than is leagally allowed now in the states. And, it was five dollars for the meat. No sissy sides with that, just beef.

I'm off to Esquel and Parque Los Alerces. Hope all you are well. It was really good to hear about Martin's road tripping. See youse guys soon.

Yeah, but not until I wrote that post. I didnt want to get caught up in a cover-up. So I've been experimenting with the google maps api. Its pretty cool. Heres what I've got so far:

http://www.floor4.net/mike/googlemaps

It takes a table of GPS points and whatever else I decide to throw in there, and it maps them. It doesnt do anything useful right now because I dont have the GPS collector up and running yet.

Actually, mikex0r, you did tell me the transportation industry was giving you the finger.

Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 20:14:03 -0500
From: mikex0r <mikex0r@workywork.com>
To: chicago ted <ted@clownpenis.fart>
Subject: RE: Thanksgiving

The transportation industry is giving me the finger.

Martin, i noticed a few things about new jersey what drove me crazy. Namely that you can't pump your own gas, you can't make a left turn without first making a right & drivers in NJ love to tap their brakes for no apparent reason. Weird.

Brad, you should email me your address. Nikki's dad lives near Elizabethtown and we see him once in a while. Mayhaps next time we're down that way, we could come visit you.

Markh - i still have your blue nalgene bottle and carabiner you left in my car probably six years ago. i meant to give it to you while you were in town, but i was uh preoccupied with some other stuff.

Oh I'm sorry. I didnt know posting was a war. Well heres what I've done everyday this week. I get up make breakfast, scrape enough work to do for a while, take a shower and make lunch, try to come up with more work to do, make dinner and watch tv or read until its time to go to sleep.

I'm going to release a book in the spring for those of you who are interested in learning more about this fascinating period of my life.

Thank you
mikex0r

After 6 months of fun in KY, this is my last night in Frankfurt. Perhaps I'll have a rager at the Dragon (the one big bar/pub in Frankfurt) ... but more likely I'll stay in my room and have a rager there.

Funny that on my last week I should get the pimpin' suite of which there are 6 (out of like 120 rooms) at the Fairfield Inn and Suites that I stay at. Apparently the pimp rooms only come with Queen size beds so my double bed preference setting in my booking profile has screwed me over for the past 6 months. Nice.

I'm looking forward to a week and one day of vacation starting this Friday. Yum.

Again I am winning the war of posting . . . but that's the way it goes when I'm on the road . . . and the rest of you are pussies.

I'm staying an extra day in Jersey, originally not by design (see last post) but now as a man on a mission. One of the things that was on the docket for this trip was to finally take care of returning some of mom Mom's remains to the family plot where her sister and parents are buried. Apparently we can cut open then ground with only a days notice. In fact, everything except for the plaque/stone can be put together in less than 24 hours. So tomorrow, when I was originally scheduled to be in Queens loafing around at a friend's house, I will instead be spending the time with my family burying my Mom by her sister (not her parents, long story).

Speaking of family, I don't believe I have told the story of my cousin Melissa yet. Of all the people I have seen on this trip, it is Melissa that is the most special to me, and Melissa that is the one I haven't seen in a long time. I think the last time that I saw Melissa was when I was 8. I may have seen her once since then, however she was/is very different than the girl I remember. I'll get into it in more detail on a later post. The important thing that I am trying to get to is that hanging out with Melissa is equally as hard as when my Mom died. It is probably the first time I've cried since then. I'll get into it later, I have to go take care of cremains action now.

I'm here in Manchester, NJ at my cousin Sharyl's house visiting. I'll be headed into the city tomorrow, however the housing situation is becoming a bit more strenous. Rich, that dirty rat bastard, has left me for manalapan, NJ. This means that my current housing situation lies in Queens, or apparently Flushing (teehee!). However, I just got an email from Dan HEE-COX!!!! stating that he doesn't want people to show up until the 29th . . . but tomorrow is the 28th . . . and Chowning gets into town the 29th. I was hoping that I would already have my shit on lock down by then, but it looks like I'm up in the air like Matt's Mom's legs (oh, it feels good to stretch an old muscle). It doesn't really matter, everything will work out in the end, the question is how much shit I have to deal with before I get to that.

You should also quit your job and become an accountant. What did your plane ride cost, $6?

I left atlanta with $240 in my pocket, now I'm leaving Branchville, NJ with $252. I'm going to come up here more often.

Next stop it Tom's River, NJ (I think). I am going to visit my more direct cousing, her husband, and the unlimited problems that ail here. Mike, remember how we were talking about how tragic my family is, there a whole lot of shit I haven't told you about. Fuck, half of it I didn't even know about. Let's just say that my cousin is having a very hard tmie in life right now. I was hoping for her to come pick me up from Branchville for what is about a 2.5 hour drive back to Tom's River (for those keeping track, I'm moving from a few hours east of the City to a few hours south of the City), but it looks like it is at least going to be her husband, and maybe she will come.

This is probably going to be the most awkward part of the trip. My time in Brnachville with the Higbie's has been absolutely wonderful. Great people, who are good at letting you do your own thing, while still inviting you to be a complete part of the family. Their sons, who are both younger than me, are great people who have an intelligent way to look at the world. Where I'm going has been filled with sadness for the past fwe years, and I'm going stright to the funeral home to try to settle plans for my mom's remains. I was hoping for some alone time between me and my cousin (older by a few years, ~8) so I could talk to her about how difficult life has been, but I doubt I will get that at this point. Unfortunately that was the bright spot I was looking forward too. But I shouldn't get down. I have been giving to the road periodically, and the road has been giving back to me well. Is it wierd that I have somewhat adopted both the mentality and the religion of a character I once played in a role playing game?

PA is in Jersey, not the "Sopranos" part of Jersey, which I got to go visit a house enshrined to, but rather in the local paper of Sussex county in the north part of Jersey (where few live).

I'm eating breakfast and my cousing Monica is reading the paper. On the back fo the paper is a spread on "Child's Play" complete with the logo and location map from PA. They talk about the endeavour and shit. I was floored, not only at how big Child's Play has become, but that it was getting press in Newton, NJ. I thought about sending Tycho and email to let him know, then I remembered that my last email recieved no response and was no doubt filtered by his hordes of lackeys not that they have made this e-comic legitimate and shit. Man, they've totall fucking sold out. I remember the old days when we used to hang out at Gabe place on the 2nd floor and play Smash unitl we were twesked . . . wait aminute, that was fitten . . . wait anotherminute, what does it mean to be twesked . . . god I have to lern how to spel.

The robot factory is locked??????? What the fuck?? I've been having a great time here in New Jersey. I will be on the road again visiting another aspect of my family starting the 28th. After that it is off to the City.

But really the reason I wanted to post was to tell Mark that I will be trying desperately to call him tomorrow. I don't know if it will work, but I want him to know that I'm thinking of him and can't wait 'til he comes back.

Oh, I was able to introduce our egg-nog 43 mix drink. We have to come up with a name for that bitch. I know Jevi probaly had one, but no one knows where he is so we're going to have to do it ourselves.

WTF

The robot factory is locked. I feel as if I've just discovered that big bird is just a guy in a suit, or that tuna fish is really made from dolphins.

Well, I have made it to Branchville, NJ, where my uncle Bill and aunt Monica live. It is way not-in-the-city, but I must say that it does feel a lot like home. The converstational timing, and way that things get handled feels very comfortable. I actually had a different post from the atrium at the Charlotte airport, however that post didn't make it through the wireless for some reason. I'll post it some other time.

NYC has a lot of graveyards. I got to see many of them while I was flying over the city. My flights were good, as Matt had intimated the night before, I spent my time sleeping on the second flight. When I got to LGA there was a driver ready to pick me up. From that point it was a 2 hour drive to get to Newton, where I was going to meet Bill at a diner, and then drive another 30 minutes to get to his house. It was hard not to feel like I was a package being handed between carriers. The people here look like what I remember, at least on some level. Even the kids, who are now either in or done with college, still look somewhat like they did when they were 12.

This house is old. And I mean really old. Apparenly it was built in the 1800s. That would be a source of pride, but apparently there is an even older house down the street. The bitterness grows and can ne'er be abated since you can't make your house age faster then the other. Maybe a burning is in order? I have been given a bed, and have spent a lot of time talking about life, mine, other peoples, and about our families. There are lots of things to do around here that aren't things that I can do back in the ATL. Oh, and Mark, I gots snow too mother fucker so put that in your pipe and throw it in a ditch . . . noooge.

We are going to visit Monica's relatives for their Christmas-eve-athon. It is interesting/good that I will be going to a more distant part of the family's tomorow. I like it because (unlike when I go with Chowning's family places) I am legitimately a part of the family that I am traveling with. I'll post more about it when I get a chance.

In addition to that trip, I think Bill and I are going to do some hiking, and go see the Delaware river (Which may have frozen over). All in all this is turning into an outdoors session for me, which I am fine with. Things will no doubt change as I get to the City to do city things and get mugged or some shit. This trip has started well, I need to get a few more things in order (getting to where my mom's sister is burried so I can dispose of the ashes . . . which are in our most modestly priced recepticle), but those will happen in time.

Punta Arenas, Chile

I'm far south. Word.

Puerto Natales, Chile

I see that I have not written since Argentina sometime. Let me sum up. I stayed only a little while in El Bolson. The city was very nice and beautiful. We did a day hike around town and up to a mirador, saw the happening saturday market and met another American couple travelling. We had dinner with them which was cool. We also stayed in a really nice cabaña for really cheap. The place had a bath, kitchen, dining area and sleeping space for five. Had I known, I would have stayed longer there. But, I needed to catch a boat.

So, bright and early we catch the 6:30 bus from El Bolson to Bariloche and then the 10:00 am bus to Puerto Montt. On the way we pass through customs (which at this particular stop was a joke), Osorno (which I kinda wanted to see but with prices so high in Chile, I said no), and Puerto Varas (which looked really cool). We arrived in Puerto Montt and the first thing we said was man, this is a dump. We should have gotten off at the town before. It was Sunday, things were closed, its a port town, the main street was having sewage work done, just a pile of shit all around. We did stay in someones home for the evening which was cool. We ate McDonalds because there was nothing open. And we bought some food and water for the boat trip the next day.

The boat trip itself was cool but not really worth the price. I did enjoy the whole boat experience though. If you are travelling to Alaska by boat I think it would be cool. Especially if you have never gone on a long boat journey before. I hear ya though... 600 plus dollares is a lot.

I have seen a few very large glaciers. One on the boat trip south and one on the trek in Torres del Paine. The trek we did was six days, five nights in the park. It was very cool. We saw glacier Grey with many crevases and striations. We saw the Valle Francias. Also very cool. And finally, we had a sunrise at the Torres. We had great weather for all the days. It was brutally windy on one day and rain on one other. That was all the bad weather we recieved. We were very lucky.

I am travelling to Punta Arenas today. That is as far south as I think I will get.

I will be staying in a hostal for Christmas eve and Christmas day with the phone number being +54 2902 493 525 if any would like to phone.

By the by, Bloodrayne is a movie now too. I heard rumors to this but ... huh. Check out the trivia. I may go see it just because....

So I started looking into trains to Alaska, and from here to Seattle is very reasonable, $222, but thats a good thing because apparently the ferry is 650 effin dollars.

ONE WAY

Mark, you'll never guess what happened. We actually found those droids you were looking for. Yeah, they were in that place where you never look. But the thing is, Martin was messing around with them, you know, cause he thinks he's hot shit cause he has a robot factory and everything, and he broke them. So we sent them off to the "droid repairal facility" in DeMoines, and the thing is, the Post Office lost them. So, uh, well, if you see any droids down there in South America you might want to think about picking up a couple.

mikex0r

So after all that, I still had to spend the night in Dallas and get up for a 640 flight. Also, I hadnt told Ted that the industry was giving me the finger. Apperently the message wasnt sent because the VPN wasnt up, or some other nonsense like that.

Martin, you cant spell or type.

Trains are a hell of a lot more interesting than boats to me. I'll have to look into that one.

Mikex0r: yeah, i know what you're talkin about. All too well. If i had a dollar for every time a work trip plan got fucked up by someone else's retardness, well, this wouldn't be hosted on my router with the side case off (memories of Chumpy Matt's El Chumpo Grande compaq piece of shiq) with the el cheapo tri-color led encrusted power supply computer in my library/computer room.

Martin: skip cali and head straight north by northwest. Alaska fucking rules. Try to take the Trans-Alaska railroad if you get a chance or take the ferry from ...Anchorage? Skagway? i forget... down to Anacordes, WA. It's a three day trip that is awesome in every way. F-16 sized bald eagles, some of the most beautiful scenery ever, tons of hackey sack with the hippies living in the solarium (if that's your thing), playing ass-old arcade games in the cafeteria.

Mark: what's new with you?

I think The Girl and I have both come down with Influenza A H5N1. If you hear of an epidemic starting on the south side of Chicago, you can thank us.

While it seems that the travel demons have had their fun with mikex0r, as usual they are working pretty well for me. I feel like I haven't traveled the way that I want to travel in a long time. By that I mean a trip where I spend a lot of time either on the road, or in a location, just seeing things. Mark, you ever heard of anything like that?

Anyway, I think I will be getting back into form in the forseable future. Next friday I head to NY to go visit family that I haven't really seen in at least a few tears. Sometime next spring I will be headed to California to go visit Stanford and also to finally drive I-5.

Then there is the next trip . . . which hasn't gotten much play on the FoC, but it is about time to start . . . Alaska. Now, if Matt has his psuedo-drunk dreams this would really be a trip around the world, but Matt's and idiot sometimes. We're headed to Alaska next summer. In addition to many other things, this trip will mark the last of the 50 states for me to visit. I am very excited, there are some details/possibilities, however I will leave those for mikex0r to explain.

In the end, I am just excited to get back to my traveling ways. I developed a healthy sense of wanderlust from my mother and from role-playing. It has been dormant for too long and needs to get out.

Like I just told Ted, the transportation industry is giving me the finger. But I thought it deserved a slightly wider audience.

The transportation industry is giving me the finger. It started yesterday morning when I tried to take MARTA to the airport. I succeeded, but only after MARTA tried to thwart me. I was taking the train south, and 2 stops before the airport, aka East Point, the driver made an announcement that everyone was going to have to get off because there was a "medical emergency" at East Point. Not that they had any plan for getting people from East Point to the airport or College Park.

Actually, this started earlier than East Point. It started at North Avenue with the announcements that both lines were delayed by "weather." Apparently MARTA trains are maid out of solid sodium and explode when precipitated upon.

So after 10 minutes of standing in < 32 degree Farenheit weather for 10 minutes, the driver announced that they were going to continue to the airport station. So everybody got back on. We took the north rail south, and encountered a stopped train on the southbound rail. No blood and guts, no flashy lights. No medical emergency on that train. So we got to the station, where there was another train on the southbound rail. There were also EMS personnel going from car to car asking if anyone needed an ambulance. So apparently the medical emergency was on our train.

Not that anyone found the medical emergency. It was just part of the industry's conspiracy to give me the finger. We continued to the airport. I was taking American, which uses the T gates, and whose check in counters are at the opposite end of the airport from MARTA. There was a long-ass line (organized by American employees, obviously) but not for the self service kiosk. Which isnt to say that half the people in the line didnt think that the line was for the self service kiosk. So after I waded through morons, I got in the shortest line. Then I found out why. Apparently this line was for idiots. I mean, if I had taken a survey, I probably would have found less than 2% of all shoes were on the correct feet in this line. I had to help the guy in front of me check his baggage.

So what was the long-ass line for (besides giving me the finger?) I thought it was for turning your luggage over to the TSA for screening. So I decided not to check my bag, which meant I couldnt take my screwdrivers I'd packed. So I decided fuck it and I'd buy more screwdrivers. At this point I was cutting it very close.

I turned over my screwdrivers to the guy who looks at your drivers license. Meanwhile I noticed that the long-ass line was not in fact for turning over luggage to the TSA. The solitary reason was to give me the finger. I got to the gate to find that the flight was delayed by 2 hours.

So now I was going to miss my connecting flight in Dallas. Which meant I would get to where I was going much later. Which meant I would not have as much time as I thought. Which meant I was getting the finger from the transportation industry.

I got to Dallas when my flight to Lubbock was landing in Lubbock. I couldnt get on the next flight to Lubbock, that one was already full. I had to get on the second flight to Lubbock, which put me there after 5pm.

And then I drove another hour.

Then I worked until 11:30.

And then I worked from 8am - 4pm. And missed my 5:30 flight to Dallas.

So I went to the self service kiosk to find out what I already knew. My flight had left. But do American's kiosks let you get on a later flight? No. You have to talk to the idiot behind the counter. But he's guarded by a dragon and a line of fellow idiots. The dragon was easily dealt with, but not a single idiot was actually checking in for a flight. But I made it in time.

Maybe I'll finish this later. If I'm lucky I will get in at midnight.

The way I'm dealing with this is $4.19 coors lights on my company card.

yeah, i know what you're talkin about.

For those of you who know what I'm talking about (everyone, I think) Bellsouth has been turning their lights on every night lately. Red and green lights. I can see the Bellsouth building from my apartment.

It looks really cool on a clear night.

I think that the cost of the 360 is still too high for me. Maybe because I do not havef an income currently and my discretionary budget is very low at this point. However, I first and foremost like games to help me interact with people in a set organized way. It feels to me like a board game night where you know the game and the rules for said game. You do or do not know the people and you can use the game to interact with them. Maybe its because I'm socially inept sometimes. I bought a GBA strictly to play Final Fantasy with my friends. I played other games on it after I already owned one (ie, after initial cost). So, playing with others is fun. I also really liked playing Quake 2 on my hall and hearing the joys and frustrations of others all the way down the hall. Very fun. However, playing Quake 1 gave me a good feeling too. I do feel that Q2 was 'more fun' though. Was it the graphics? Was it a better game with better mechanics? Was it just my first FPS that I was good at? I don't know.

The other reason I play games is for a good story and for a good long term logic puzzle. That is why I constantly go back to single player type campaign games. I enjoy the story. Just as much as a movie or a book. I want to find out how the story ends. So much so that on Starcraft: Brood war I think I used cheat codes to get pass the last few missions just so I could see the story. And for puzzlers, I love to need peen and paper for my games. I like to optimize and tweek. That is why I like SP games with 'equipment' or 'skills'. If I have to use excel and regression, even better.

These are my thoughts.

Well Mark, I do not own an Xbox 360. I think aside from you I am the poorest of our cadre, so the $400 price tag is a bit beyond me. I think I will have to wait for the "next generation" for a while. Since getting the real benefit requires an HDTV, which is another grand or so, I don't think I can afford it any time soon. Fortunately for me the Revolution is being predicted not at the normal $200 that the last generation of consoles started at, but at . . . $150!!!! It seems that Nintendo has realized that the best way to beat Sony and Microsoft is to change the way the battle is fought.

Which brings me to a thought. As I watched mikex0r beat Shadow of the Colossus I noticed that the experience didn't seem nearly as engrossing for him as it was for me. Perhaps it was because I won the game at 2 in the morning after playing for hours, but it had an emotional response akin to what I felt when (at the end of Disc 1) Aeris died at Sphiroth's hands. I was sad, confused, and in the end happy. I think I have fallen into Nintendo's propaganda that the purpose of a video game isn't necesarily just to look pretty. I think games should be fun above all else, but then I asked Brad if better graphics necessarily meant better games (he's thinking of dropping the 2k to get a new TV and a 360) and he aswered an emphatic YES!

So, we play games . . . lots of games . . . and lots of different types of games. I figure most of us might even have an opinion on games. What is the point of games? What are we trying to get from a game? Is it a diversion? Is it to create a visceral experience? Is it to be "fun?" Should they make you think? More than likely the answer is dependent on the type of game (if not other things). If we strip games down to their basic vectors, what would we have? Your opinions please.

Oh, and Mark you should try to save between 150 and 200 dollars for games when you get back.

Bandwidth? I'm drowning in the stuff. Not only do I have my home network (with wireless if I so please) but Phase I of my plan for mobile bandwidth is complete.

http://www.stompboxnetworks.com/

I saw this article in Make: magazine. Its basically a router between a cellular internet connection and standard 802.11 wireless. The main components are a PCMCIA card that can connect to the cellular network, and a embedded board that you can install Linux on. From there you can start doing anything you can think of with a network. GPSs, mobile webcams, stuff like that. Plus, I'm on the road enough to justify a device that can give me bandwidth anywhere.

So Phase I was to get the card and try it out on my laptop. It works nicely.
Phase II is to buy the embedded board and use the ethernet connections to provide this to multiple computers.
Phase III is to add 802.11
Phase IIII is to add cool stuff like webcams in my car and what not.

I also have to get an antenna in there somewhere.

El Bolsón, Argentina

Man, bandwidth trickles back into the Robot Factory and all of a sudden there is a slur of posts. Fantastic.

I am here in the land of more mountains. We went hiking around Bariloche. We stayed in a refugio at the top of the hike which is a cool concept. You don't have to carry a tent, just some bills to pay your way. However, it was not as nice as the romantic image I had in my mind. There were many backpackers there and it felt very cramped. The kitchen was not cleaned well. The upstairs of the building was the sleeping area. It too was cramped. It had loft type bunks build so that there was an upper and lower sleeping area on both sides of the room. Also, the mattresses upon which one slept were crammed together side by side. You got very cozy with your neighbor. That and all the snoring really made me long for my tent. I was glad to have my ass warm sleeping bag though. To get to the place we hiked for about 40 meters through some snow (a similar six inches that Ted has... oh and by the way, I have your six inches right here).

The plan was that after a night in the refugio we would hike to the next refugio about 5 hrs away (see the plan here: refugio hopping). We were told that this would not be possible as there was still snow on the trails. When we got to the top there were some other people planning to go on and brave the snow. One of those six had snowshoes. The others were just crazy. When we left in the morning it was snowing anew. It carried on for about four hours past dawn. I met up with the guys later at the bus station and they said that they did in fact go on to the next refugio. It was nicer and had fewer people. To get there they walked through snow that was up to their knees or mid thigh at some points. Then, when they were at the top of the pass they slid down the other side for a good two minutes. Thats pretty cool. There was also talk of fording some glacial melt stream with calf deep water, though I don't know where that was on the trail.

All in all, some amazingly beautiful scenery. I am digging it. We have met far more americans now in the more touristy towns in patigonia than we have on our whole trip. That is cool, but the imersion thing suffers some then.

Do you have the Xbox... looking at you Martin, possibly while high....

Tell me how much a DS costs (and maybe the game of the moment) and I will attempt to save money for such a purchase. I do want to play dual strike when I get back if you have not already gotten all 300 stars.

Hope all is going well.

as michael knows, I am 511160-820752 . . . I will put Ted in right now.

Oh, and Jeremy is correct. Woo!

yeah, woo.

go to my apartment and find out why.

Holy shit!

They are actually advertising babies this year.

http://www.baby.com/ads/

They dont have the one I just saw on CNN though. That one was basically: "This year, get them a baby for Christmas"

Woooooooooo?

Soooo, what kind of games do you have, Ted? My code is:
403786-515579

I'm waiting for them to do something really cool with the wireless. Mario Kart is cool, but it uses the wireless in a really simple way. Theres always a good chance you will either completely own the other 3 people you race, or completely get owned. Theres also no means of communication or ways to add people you race to some sort of 'buddy list' but it looks like Nintendo wants it that way.

Have you used the wireless? It can be frustrating.

I hear there was a wreck over there at 55th and Central.

Wooooo.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

While marriage is not for everyone, it's working well for me. In fact, my lady bought me a christmas present and let me open it 11 days early. So those of you with a DS, for a good time call 214809 - 048653.

It's hell of snowing here. Took me over 2 hours to get home when it usually takes 45 minutes. We've already got 6" today with more expected.

Mark, glad to hear you're learning some Spanish. I've been listening to the Pimsleur spanish mp3s on my way to work and home, but nothin beats immersion.

No interweb sucks, Martin. We just switched to cable modamn and cancelled our dsl, because sbc is a bad company to deal with, almost as bad as commonwealth edison.

We are at a very small (infinetesimally, if you will) crisis point gentlemen. The problem is as follows . . . mikex0r is better than me at Mario Kart DS. Now, I know that I have long led this band of assholes down the path of videogame righteousness. With competition from Jeremy when we fight with our puzzlers (however not puzzle fighter . . he kicked my ass in that), I feel like I have resoundly owned the videogame market amongst out group of friends. ALAS THAT IS NO MORE. I honestly can't explain it . . . mike is just better than I am so far. I think I am starting to bridge the gap, but the man is close to getting trip-stars, TRIP-FUCKING-STARS dammit!!!!! Soon the name mikx0r will be pasted atop all the forum as the mythical man that no one can beat. Children in the corner of the room will wisper that they once saw his avatar (The Green Face of Death) with three, yes three stars by it. The kids will be slapped by their parents as they explain that "we don't talk of such thing! What if you draw his attention, surely we will all perish." Needless to say falling to *urk* second has destroyed my self esteem. I am currently prostituting my self to bums that don't even have money. The are paying me in insults, because that is all that I am worth! Fortunately my soul still burns.

As I have been reading the blog from the beginning I have come up with a few observations:

1. I think jeremy has found his job where he gets to wear his hawaiian shirt and list to npr . . . the only draw back is they don't let him leave.
2. I can't spell/type for shit. Honestly, I have no idea how anyone understood anything I wrote a few years ago.
3. I seem to fall into cycle where my life will be stable and then utter chaos.
4. I miss Brad and Mark.

Went to a wedding this weekend. It, like many other things, made me realize that I'm not at a point in my life where I think it is wise to be married. Chowning, however, is totally at that point.

Still no bandwidth.

Bariloche, Argentina

I am in the northern outskirts of Patagonia. I am going by boat south on the 12th. Until then, I have time to trek around here. Unfortunately though, most of the trails I was hoping to do are still covered with snow. I asked at the information place and they gave some alternatives but not exactly what I want. I said that this is the wrong time of year to visit and they said no, not the wrong time, just the wrong year. Supposedly, this has just been a harsh year with erratic weather patterns. So, we shall see what will happen in the mountians. I did not bring snowshoes or plastic boots. Boo hoo.

Hope all is well, look at you Martin and your bum knee. Speaking of it... have you gotten it cut up yet? Are you rehabing now?

Mark

Jeremy . . . mark . . . you two are getting getting a fucking DS at some point soon. If for no other reason than because this will be coming out . . . wait . . . no!!! this is unfair. Afer further reading this is not a puzzler at all, it is instead a platformer. Kahn!!!!!!!!!!! Why won't they make another puzzle game.

As we near the holiday season I find my bank account strained again. Funny, only a month ago I was sitting well and hoping to backroll a good bit of cash . . . honestly I don't know what happened. Still, with a trip to New York in the works, car work to get done, and the holidays ahead, I am going to be pushing a tight budget for the rest of the month. We'll see how Chowning reacts to that.

Yeah, I think it is all flash to be in The City for Christmas and New Years. I'm actually going to see family (a new, but strangely important concept for me) during jesuscupleanos. The rightful heir the the king of the Ehrhardt clan has been keeping up with me over the past few years, and when he gave me a call a few months ago I was completely floored. I certainly haven't done much with my familty, even after my mom's death, however I haven't felt all that bad about it until a cousin died and I found out that they were tracking me. So I'm headed to go spend time with people that I can only remember seeing for an extended period of time once. Still, I feel like I need to be with family during Christmakwanzikuh. Last years Xmas with Chowning's family was nice, and thanksgiving was fine, but when I hang out with Chowning's family it really makes me wonder why I'm not at least trying to find mine. Chowning isn't very happy about me going to NYC, however she will be joining me for 12/31/05.

It has now been a month since the Robot Factory has had functional internet. This is absolutely fucking absurd. I'm not sure what the fucking problem is. According to Jeremy he has sent all the checks in to get our internet back . . . then where the fuck is it. I don't want to step in and pay the bill myself because Jeremy gets his shit done when he needs to, but not having internet (as we all know) affects every aspect of our being and is slowly killing me. If the problem isn't resolved soon I will have to move to the streets to try to find used bandwidth in dumpsters and try to live on that. I'm really at a loss about what to do with this problem. Jeremy isn't home enough for him to take care of the problem at home, and I guess he either doesn't think to check up on things at work, or (more than likely) doesn't have the time with the tough schedule Playmotion has.

Meanwhile I would like to thank HeckNet and Spiro's World, the two unWEPed emitters in the building that have been letting me leech a trickle of internet when I can. Although the service cuts out periodically and I can only get a weak stream, if I didn't have that I would even be able to do my fucking job and update grades at home. This is fucking ridiculous. Whoever I need to kill to get my bandwidth back better get ready to die (as soon as my knee is better). Out.

M