..and getting an XBox. Yes, really.

My partner and I were staying at a friends' house for the weekend to watch their dogs while they were out of town. They have an XBox, and KOTOR. I'd seen some of it before, and felt like trying it. Well, I ended up playing for most of the weekend. Played long enough to have my character become a Jedi, and start to get to what appears to be the real meat of the game (the Star Forge and all that).

It's amazing what a change on your outlook just changing your hair color can have.

I did the purple and black for fun. It wasn't really on a whim, since I'd been thinking about it for a while, but it is a pretty radical change. It's not something that you see a lot of - except for a few neighborhoods in some cities (such as Capitol Hill in Seattle). So it stands out, and for someone who has rarely done anything to stand out, it has significant effects.

Look what I did!

Why? Cause I can.

First, I have GMail invites if anyone wants one and hasn't already got one - not like they're in short supply anymore.

Second, I have to say that AudioScrobbler is actually pretty darn cool. It's interesting to see the tracking of what I've been listening to, and how it's starting to match me up with people.

Life is strange...

I recently had a strange nostalgia for some of the old BBS doors I used to play. I did some looking around to see what I could download for the heck of it. Eventually, I found the old Dungeons and Dragons multiplayer door game, which was like a proto-MUD I suppose. I downloaded it, tried briefly to get it working, which I couldn't yet because I don't know how to load ANSI.SYS into Win2K or command prompts or such, and gave up. Somehow, I decided to play around wit

They're passing the things out like crazy now! I got 6 on Monday, and used them up over the next couple days. I logged in this morning to find I have 6 more. I gave out two, but I'm running short of people to invite!

So, if there's anyone out there reading this who doesn't have one yet and wants one, let me know and you'll get one as long as I have invites left.

This morning, I placed my new personalized license plates on my car. So, what did I go with? The most popular choice back when I did the poll, of course!

I now have Washington plates with "CH1X0R" on them! I'll try and get some pics taken and placed somewhere for everyone to see soon!

So much cooler than "120 SGZ"...

I know I had mentioned in the past after I started working at Microsoft that I couldn't really say what I was working on, other than that it was part of Visual Studio. The project was being kept quiet at the time.

Well, Google's Gmail is in beta, and it looks like the demand for them is already pretty high. How can I tell? Well, some enterprising person
has created Gmail Swap, a site for the sole purpose of giving those of us who want a Gmail account a place to tell people what we'd be willing
to give to get a Gmail account, and those who have Gmail and the ability to invite others can get something in return for using that invite.

OK, this looks like little more than some hollywood gossip column talk, but what looked like a random link from a Plastic story contains some suprising information.

The Wachowski brothers aren't going to be brothers much longer. Looks like one of the Matrix guys is going to now be a Matrix gal.

You know the drill... submitted to Slashdot... blah blah... if it is accepted I'll remove it from here... blah blah... enjoy.

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Surely all of you who grew up the U.S.A. took classes on civics and government and all that, where your teacher taught you all about the importance of checks and balances. That each branch has limited authority to prevent the other branches from going overboard.

Apparently, a number of our congresscritters didn't take such classes, didn't understand the classes when they took them, or just plain hate the idea that they don't have the final say.

Yes, it's just an e-mail forward. But one worth keeping in mind next time someone talks about "protecting marriage".

DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

Ronald Reagan - divorced the mother of two of his children to marry Nancy Reagan who bore him a daughter 7 months after the marriage.

Bob Dole - divorced the mother of his child, who had nursed him through the long recovery from his war wounds.

One of the things about living in the Chicago area was that outdoors activities were limited. Mainly, it was go to one of the forest preserves (of which there are many, fortunately), and walk/skate/bike the paths, maybe some sports stuff if you can get enough people together. Not bad, but with so many people, even the significant amounts they have in the area could get pretty crowded.

I just never did a whole lot around there.

Poor Gabby. I just ran across an article about her - a little girl with the curse of feeling no pain. A curse, I say? Yes. In case you haven't thought about it or heard about the stories of those who don't have it, pain is very valuable.

It tells you when you're doing your body harm. Without it, how would you know when to stop doing something? Especially as an infant or small child?