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Just looked out my window, and Damn! Mars is like really really close to the moon!!! I thought there must have been an occulsion, and sure enough, I looked in the digital star charts, and there it was… an hour ago. If only I had looked at the sky sooner. It might have clicked — “Where did Mars go?”

But I probably wouldn’t have noticed. ::

I’ve become more and more fond of Macs lately. I used to be afraid of them, saying “Macs suck” every chance I got. Then OSX came out. And now, I want one [drool]. ::

Hmph, it’s the first time in a week I’ve done anything interesting enough to tell everyone. Heh, everyone– the two people who actually read this already know anyway. But whatever.

Went to the beach today, at least for a couple hours. It was fun, and the water wasn’t that cold. I don’t think I’ve been to the beach for more than a year, isn’t that crazy? We don’t go to the beach in Berkeley. Oh, I take it back; I had lunch on the beach when I went to Muir Woods with my Enviro class first semester. But it was the first time in a while I had gone swimming at the beach… or played in the sand… it was fun. And the waves were good for boogie-boarding too.

After that I showered real quick and went to a concert in Ventura at this wonderful little restaurant called Zoey’s Cafe. My friend invited me to see this Swedish folk group, Bjarv, and talk with one of the resident artists about webcasting the Sunday night concerts. The band was great, and the food was great, and the webcasting looks like it’ll be yet another fun summer project. I have a lot to do.

Which brings me to talk of getting rid of my time-wasting addiction to Star Wars Galaxies… I have realized that it’s not a very good game, and that the only thing that makes it worth playing are the people in it. That and the graphics, which are stunning. I kept worrying about getting the next level… about becoming an ‘architect’ so I could build houses for people and myself and live happily ever after. And then, I realized that it was stupid. Having a house in some stupid game means nothing; so does the fake money and the fake resources that I worry so much about mining. I destroyed all my harvesters and decided to stop levelling. I’ll likely cancel my account. It’s just not fun when there’s nothing to do but mindless crafting to get to the next level… as my dad put it, “it just looks like work.” It is work. What’s worse, it’s meaningless repetitive work; like the kind I hated in high school, but worse; and what’s even worse is that I would be paying $15 a month for it!

Okay, it’s a better game than that, but not by much. The exploration game is much better than the crafting game, and I must admit I haven’t tried it much. But for what it is; a life in a fantasy world; it’s not good enough to warrant wasting real life.

Heh. I read a post on the SWG pre-release forums; one of the lamest things I had ever seen. Someone was commenting (and rightfully so) about how some people just need to cool it sometimes and take a break from the game, go out and smell the roses, stuff like that. Some guy posted (in horrible English (yet unmistakably american) might I add) that some people prefer the game world over real life because it offers so much more blah blah you can do anything you want but not in real life blah blah blah blahblah so you should respect people who give up their real lives to live entirely within a game. Okay, the last part wasn’t exactly like that (more spelling errors, no punctuation; more like, “respect ppl who want to liv in the game insted of RL cuz they dezerv it blah blah blah.”). But you get the idea.

I can’t respect that. I told the guy, “yeah, whatever, sure, I guess I have to respect that viewpoint,” but hell if I meant it.

Today, I did some real work. I finished the login framework for the TRIPS project, which was not mindless in the least; it required a lot of real thought and a lot of real knowledge and a lot of real learning; and I got a lot of real experience. I felt great after I finished that. It was more fun and more rewarding than Star Wars Galaxies. And tonight I walked on a real beach, swam in and tasted real sea water, looked out over endless miles of real ocean, listened to some great real music, talked to real people and ate real food… hell, just breathing is better than the game — not because the game sucks, but because it’s not real.

That’s also why it’s so appealing to so many people, why they can charge $15 a month for it. Interesting, isn’t it?

Well, I’ve had enough. And besides, I have too many other things to do; better things. ::

The deeper I get into this game (Star Wars Galaxies), the more incomplete I find that it is. I should have waited a month or more, and I think I will still wait. I’ll let it rest for a good amount of time, and return to it when they’ve fixed things enough to make it playable.

Or maybe I won’t go back; real life doesn’t have bugs…

::

Star wars galaxies came out a while ago, but we got it just last Wednesday. If you’ve noticed, I haven’t posted since. No need, and no time. It’s extremely addictive, and a lot of fun too. I haven’t met a mean person yet, and the content is fun and rewarding though not very complete (needs more, will come). I was worried about performance and crashes… not a problem at all. Maybe that’s because we came in a week after release, but still, that’s pretty darn good. One of the best parts is that we joined a server that had only been up 20 or so hours. They only brought up 10 at launch, and added three more just before I registered (one of which I am playing on — Kettemoor), and I’m sure they’ll continue and bring them all up soon. Very awesome game. My dad complains that it’s too complicated and looks boring, so maybe you wouldn’t like it if you’re a dad, but if you’re not a dad, and you have any sense of what the words “Star Wars” mean, and most importantly if you have many hours and hours of spare time, then I highly reccomend this game.

I might be running out of spare time soon… I just accepted a contract job for a web application — a field-trip data tracking program for schools — from Planware. Also just finishing up their redesigned web site: www.planware.net/new for now, www.planware.net very soon.

Okay, now for something I’ve been severely lacking of late: sleep.   Good   night.    ::