Onwards, to Autumn
Well, I need something to make this journal a little less depressing lately. How about a birthday update.
I had a pretty nice day on Tuesday. I was relieved just to be off work (having worked the whole Labor Day weekend, yeah, eww), my parents and I went to Red Lobster, and we ate clam chowder (New England only please, kthanx) and lots of shrimp. Lately I've been getting into Venture Africa, the precursor game to Venture Arctic, and it's pretty good. Surprisingly addicting. It's a simpler game that looks and feels more like you're playing a *game*, rather than being immersed into this whole, huge world, but it's fun just for fun's sake, which I'm not going to argue with. It's a cross between a dynamic, living world and a card game, which seems like two mutually exclusive categories but somehow in this title they're not, interestingly enough. The dialogue exchange between the two anthropologists (the only humans to be found in the game, and you don't even see them, just their hot air balloon) is pretty clever sometimes.
Also, my chief birthday gift this year was an iPod touch (to be hereby shortened to iTouch, for future reference) which is absolutely amazing. ^_^ I love being able to check my email from the living room or lay on the bed and instant message somebody - yes, technically I could do those things with my laptop anyway, but the machine is very heavy, for a laptop, and its AC adapter is literally the size and weight of a brick, which doesn't lend at all to its portability; as a rule, I've transported it as little as possible - mostly only to Rutgers and back - so in a way it's like a new lease on life. My next mission will be trying to learn all the various places in this town that have free WiFi access (I'm not expecting many, but I'll take what I can get) so that I can take it on the go, if I know I'm going somewhere that provides wireless internet. Then of course there's its primary functions, as a music player and a video player and a photo album, all of which it excels at terrifically. I spent over an hour with it on YouTube one night before bed. I'm quite impressed, overall. I had fun with my dad's, but getting one of my own made me realize just how cool the things are. And I've got a picture of Kubby on it that comes up when you first unlock it. ^_^
Other things that aren't specifically related to my birthday: Been playing with Google's new browser, Chrome, a little bit, I have to say, it's very bare-bones ATM, but I think it'll flesh out and grow with time, and what I see so far seems promising. I welcome any rival to IE, and it's been an old hobby of mine, since the Netscape Communicator series, to search for and acquire new browsers and test them out. But I probably wouldn't switch to any of them for the life of me, SeaMonkey has everything I need all in one application. And it took me over a day to set up all its bookmarks because of its lack of importability. ^_^;
Other than that, just generally enjoying hanging out and not having to go back to school for the first time in my life since I was 3 years old! Feel bad for everyone else who's gotten stuck into it, though. Your day will come, nothing lasts forever.
Things are finally starting to take a more positive outlook in my life. Welcome, Autumn. You shall be greeted warmly.