I am duly impressed. Usually I get about 2 or 3 responses to any given
journal entry on this mailing list, but that last one, "Pretty in
Pink," brought in almost TWENTY responses. Apparently, I hit a real nerve
in a lot of people; my inbox was overflowing with prom night horror
stories, sad tales of love lost, and the nightmare that is The Grown Up
World.

To be less-than-poetic, it was really cool. I feel for you all, and will
be responding to each of you in turn.

But, the need to vent has passed, so we can now get back to the dick and
fart jokes.

But first, one more thing about this Palm Pilot; the writing you do on
it, called Graffiti, is REALLY ADDICTIVE. I tried to write a check today,
and I was writing Graffiti on paper. Instinctually. And I've only had
this thing for four days. Plus, if you can get around the fact that the
'k's look like lowercase alphas, I would say it's vastly improved my
handwriting just that quickly. Creepy.

I'm thinking of putting up a webpage of old journal entries. I'll get
around to it one of these days...

...in the meantime, in case anyone wants to see what I've been working on
at Loki all this time, there's some screenshots of the Heroes III map
editor up at:

http://www.lokigames.com/~icculus/

[They're gone, now. --Ed.]

Note the files are pretty massive, as I like my big screen
resolutions.  Also try to ignore the "Chef's Salty Balls" track on the
MP3 player in that first picture.  :)

Other than that, I finally shaved off all that facial hair I've been
carrying around. All 12 or so pounds of it. I swear I must have the
weirdest beard in the world; it comes in mostly red--which not the color
of any other hair on my body--but there's also some pure black and some
platinum blonde in it. The only colors that aren't in it anywhere are
green and the hue of the rest of the hair on my head. I must have about
18 or 19 genetic donors standing behind my DNA.

Still, my face is cold now. I wonder if this is how sheep feel.

After 5+ years of putting it off, I've decided to get a full body
checkup. I've got a cavity that I just can't pretend is a little
toothache anymore. That, and I took a close look at my teeth under a
florescent light. Big mistake. Have you ever done this? I don't care if
you're Miss America, looking at your teeth under a florescent light is
always a humbling experience. You might as well guage your attractiveness
by examining your sphincter under a magnifying glass: it's just not going
to go well. Also need to have someone look at my wrists (although they
have somewhat leveled off in irritation, they aren't really improving,
either) and a thousand other deteriorations and betrayals of my body.

So, as soon as I figure out how to set up a doctor's/dentist appointment,
I will be officially submitting myself to pokes, prods, and probing from
strangers that aren't even going to buy me breakfast when they're done
with me.

Finally, I think that subconsciously, frisbee has become the offical
sport of Clan Loki. At the risk of exposure to fresh air, we've stopped
working to play it several times this week...just because. Isn't that so
stereotypically Californian?

--ryan.