I haven't been able to post in a few days, a result of my own shock at the terrorist attacks of september 11th, 2001. I've spent all day the past three days looking for the latest news online, on the radio, on TV, and then i come home and do the same. How long until I feel better about this? What will it take for me to feel like justice in some form has been served?

a side note:
I've got the theme song to Fraggle Rock stuck in my head.

Dance your cares away,
Worry's for another day.
Let the music play,
Down at Fraggle Rock.

There's a spider living in my mirror. My driver's-side mirror has a gap separating it from the frame that cradles it. The spider hides in there whenever I come by, so I only see some legs poking out when I go to my car in the mornings. The legs twitch and pull back when I pop my key into the lock and open the door. I'm just anthropomorphizing him when I call him a him, really, but it will make the rest of this easier if I can have a nice, personable pronoun, so "him" it is. He's been spinning a web that runs from the outer edge of the mirror in towards the door. The first one just covered the mirror. Not very useful, and not very durable. However, he's been diligent, and when that first web was destroyed (a side effect of my morning commute), he began to work on a new web. This one had two anchor lines running to the driver's-side window. It lasted only until I had to roll the window down, unfortunately. it was a better web, though, as it could actually catch flies. It was spaced out from the mirror's housing, leaving a little "flying room" between the mirror and itself. It mostly tore apart when I rolled the window down, but the rest of it was done in on the drive to work.

Here's where it started to get creepy. The little bastard has been showing innovation and problem-solving skills. His new web design featured the anchor points of the earlier web, but they weren't connected to the window anymore. They connected to the door's frame both above and below the window, so I could roll my window down without ruining the webwork. It still tore apart in the wind, but the next day, there was a new anchor line on the web. This one ran from the center of the web itself straight back to the inner frame of the mirror. When I started driving, the anchor held the web together, keeping the center from blasting out in the wind shear of my drive. The little guy still sits hunkered in my mirrorframe, twitching back as I open my door. One of my friends thinks I'm getting a god complex, knowing I've got the power of life and death over this guy (or at least, the power of comfort and homelessness), but maybe it just appeals to the psychologist in me, watching this little spider adapting to all the little problems of his web one by one, until, I guess, he makes an indestructable web, and I have to surrender my car to his perseverance.

Many months passed, and young Martyr grew to be a man.

Seriously, though, I've been busy. I'm in the middle of a project that has demanded just about 70 hours a week, sometimes more, for the past couple of weeks, and all of my brain power the rest of the time. It's wrapping up soon, and you'll see it on your local Electronics Boutique or Software Etc. shelves within, oh, three months. It stuns me how long manufacturing time for catridges is. I'm used to PC games, where you can ship the gold disc on friday and see games in the stores by the next monday (if you have a good manufacturer) or Playstation games, where you usually have a month or two of lead time before the game hits the streets.

Snapshot of my brain:
Reading: The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay -- Michael Chabon
Listening: Gorillaz, Apoptygma Berzerk, Slowdive, Radiohead
Drinking: Jameson, the whiskey of champions -- a little side note: Washington State controls all hard liquor purchases, so I have to go a sleazy, depressing state alcohol vendor and buy whiskey for twice the actual cost, and I don't get any selection. isn't that great? I miss High Times, down in Newport Beach. Also drinking lots of Twinnings teas, because that's what they've got for free at work. That and awful coffee.
Playing: Advance Wars for the GBA. I think it hits the streets next Tuesday or Wednesday. Go buy it; you won't be sorry. Neither will I. I worked on it. Also playing Dragon Warrior III for the GBC. It's interesting, but only in a historical sense. Golden Sun is/will be very similar in concept to the DW games, I think... the feel is the same, although the gameplay is dramatically different... well, I shan't say more on that subject until the game comes out.
Doing: Writing more. I've been lazy for too long. Oh, and I'm building a model zaku from the Gundam series. Well, I've built it. Today, I primed it, and soon, I will start painting it.

That's all for now. There, James, are you happy?