Happy?

I got to chat to Ritti last night. That was fun. I told her some news, we chatted about what was up, who she'd spoken to, how people were, it was all good, and she asked me if I was happy.

"How loosely woven is the fabric of our happiness. A tug or two and it unravels to reveal how empty our everyday lives really are. ... Simple beast! He has peered beneath the masks of happiness we all wear, and seen what lurks below, infected by our sorrow, his once care free [canine] world has been shattered, forever."

That quote, prosaicly beautiful, wouldn't look vastly amiss in classical literature. Poe or something. Alas, as documented in the remainder of the play, the speaker is flawed, as he learns merely minutes later that what he has just said is as fragile as the happiness he seemingly destroyed. He goes on to say:

"Even the happiest of us can find reasons to be unhappy if only we look for them. So don't look for them. Take a tip from our dog friends, and treat yourself to your favourite toy; whatever that might be. ... This is Dr Frasier Crane, reminding everyone that life is too short to dwell on every bump in the road."

I say that because that particular episode of Frasier was poignant, and I enjoyed it a lot. It involved the characters trying to find every depressing thing about their lives, and it didn't achieve anything, and convinced that they had no reasons to be happy, they found their fortunes changed at the mercy of biscuits.

So I replied to Ritti that life was really swell. Not just at the acquiring of new material possessions, but because I'd spent a lot of time with Emma and Housei, and we'd done a lot of fun things, like race Mario Kart together, and complete Mario Bros 3, and sit there making translation puzzles for each other. I realised that being around them made me laugh so much. Emma gets me like no-one outside my family. Housei is just a really fun guy, and they obviously care for each other.

I picked Becky up from Reading today. She was too tired to get her rats, but I hope she plans on getting them tomorrow. They aren't hyper-pleasant smelling. Mandi came over and saw them. And I saw her rats too, they seem very cute. And slightly smaller than Becky's.

I leave you with that minimal news. And this picture I made. It's geeky, but keep up with the news.

I Remember the SNES

I saw Qian, and I gave her the presents for her and Weiwei, and she really liked hers. So I'm glad, I made the right choice. She gave me a tshirt too, a really nice one. Emma says it's too good for me, but I will wear it immediately after showering.

Well, I picked up Becky's rats after that. I'm looking after them for the weekend with Emma, and we found one has proceeded to bite anything that comes near, the other is friendly and nice and defecates all over our sofa. But we prefer him to the horrible one.

I was planning on going to Geek in the Park, a geeky get together with Web Accessibility lectures and lots of techies showing off. Becky said I was a nerd, but she can hardly talk, she's going to a reading festival!

I'm looking after her rats because she's going to Reading (the music festival, for those unfamiliar), and my parents are away. I drove her at 6AM, her and her two friends, to Reading. My car doesn't cost much to run, I am proud of it. It was very tiring, and since I didn't sleep, I technically got to bed at 10AM.

For the rest of the day, Emma and Housei and I watched YouTube movies and then I turned on the XBox, booted up the SNES Emulator on it, turned on Mario Kart, and House heard the intro music and almost flipped, stating (in Japanese) that he was really good at it. Turned out, he is. He drives Bowser, and I drive Koopa, but he is fast. We then played Super Mario Bros 3 for about 6 hours, getting to world 6 I think, and it was really fun. We'll play more SNES soon enough I'm guessing. More Star Trek downloaded.

Anyway, I'm going to watch Frasier now. Goodnight.

Oh And Speaking of Normal

I'm seeing Qian today. I have missed her and Weiwei. I'll be giving them their gifts as well. I don't have much to say, other than I have been watching one eBay item incessantly, almost obsessed, never closing the window, even though it ends in eight hours. I'm quite interested.

Post 180 by the way.

Hey Hey Hey

Mizuki's back!

The house is returning to its term time state of affairs. In two weeks Kiana comes back, and the house will be alive and bustling like it is during the term time.

What else is back? Prison Break. I surprised Emma with an episode from the new season, and she was happy enough. It is good to start getting back into the Serial television phase. We had it with Lost and we miss Lost. And now we have a minor place filler for the mean time. Which is a pretty good show. And omigod they're pulling some nasty stunts for a beginning of season.

Anyway, I might have to go up to Norwich on Thursday or Friday. It's a 3 hour drive, but it'll be worth it once I get there.

I have now watched Frasier from Season 1 to 3, and have begun to watch Season 5. The quality television I have been watching has risen. I have also been filling my 42" screen with more Original Star Trek then I have ever seen before. I'm noticing more precursors to TNG than I anticipated, and it's a better series than I remember. And I'm getting more Futurama jokes.

I drove Mandi to my old school today.

I'm not going to tell you why.

Anyway, it's far too late, and I'm needing to play some CS on German servers. Speaking of all things geeky, I got rated +5 interesting on a Slashdot comment I made. Here is the link to the article, but you'll have to find my comment yourself. But it's really cool, isn't it? Only if you know what it is and you don't think I've made a typo if I go /..

Anyway, this is now appearing on my Facebook, and this is the first entry where it should auto-update. Hugs to you all.

Sad Movies

You know that sad movie that really tugs your heart in the right way? I see them every so often, where the main character dies, or loses his/her girlfriend/boyfriend, and it's really sad, but makes the movie great. And I think it's good to have that kind of emotion every so often, taking over from the usual Hollywood endings, but aside from relief, I wonder how sad it would have to be to become unwatchable/unreadable. I know of certain films and books that really hit hard, and become difficult to watch or read, but afterwards, you do feel satisfied with the story.

I read something today that didn't have that quality. It was too sad to read, and having read part of it, I feel much worse than before I read it. I regret reading it. That isn't on the merit of writing, that is on that the content is too sad for me to deal with, and had I read all of it I would be in a worse position.

I haven't had that before.