Just wow.
Whoah. Blake won the second set with barely an hour passed. This is gonna be good.
Earlier I watched 2nd seed Lindsay Davenport lose to 6th seed Elena Dementieva. Was a bad match. Davenport just wasn't on her game and it was very obvious. Dementieva won in the 3rd set, in a tie break, by 7-5. Sooooo close, even with Davenport playing poorly. You've got to wonder what's up with her, why she wasn't on her game. Hmmm.
Earlier tonight I had my first of what I call 'incidents.' I knew these were coming. They're like mini confrontations between my mom and I, usually where she pressures or forces me to abandon doing something I'm in progress with that I'm enjoying and that she strongly dislikes or of which she disapproves. Tonight was World of Warcraft. I was in a 20-man raid on the test server with my friends, testing out the new instance, Zul'Gurub, before it goes live. Veeeeeery cool place. And my mom starts up and I leave. Tonight I could. In the future, I can't and won't.
But it's hard. This isn't like 3-4 years ago when I lived in fear of her and did what she wanted when she demanded it. This time I'm trying harder to buy myself slack. I'm also trying to work with her better, to do what I can when I can so she won't lay into me when I can't. In addition, this time she's not pushing nearly so hard. She knows I'm not here permanently and, to be honest, she doesn't want to see me go that soon. I've been helping out with the dogs, taking them out, cleaning up their messes; helping with dinner and the dishes, I've been trying this time. Plus I've been gone for 3 years, not far away but certainly not home. So she's trying not to push me too hard. Yet.
But tonight angered me. And as I typed, this was a time I could let it go. Next time probably won't. And I won't give then. 'Cause I've dug in before and I will again.
I also have trouble blaming my mom for anything. She's on her own. She has the two dogs to deal with and that's no picnic. She wakes up before 6am and gets home after 3pm. She's having semi-elective dental work. She's recently been having trouble with a knee. She's getting old and feeling it. She's worried about the finances. Whatever I can do to help her, I do. 'Cause I know things are rough and she's under a lot of stress. So yeah, how can I blame her?
*sigh*
So far tonight, I've cleaned up dog excrement. Twice. We think one of our dogs is having some urinary problems since he's going on the floor when he normally wouldn't. We're seeing the vet on Saturday.
The little I saw of Zul'Gurub looked wonderful. The 20-man style is very different from Molten Core or Onyxia's 40-man strategies. Plus the difficulty is dialed down a notch, which is a nice change of pace. I'm rather looking forward to the 1.7 patch. It'll probably arrive next Tuesday or the one after that. Good stuff.
I hooked up the television in the playroom, the one sitting behind me. This will allow me to listen to TV while on the computer. Unfortunately, in my packing madness I packed the TV remote somewhere I have yet to encounter tonight. I'm positive I put it somewhere I thought I would remember or know to look. I wonder where that is.
Next up will be the Playstation 2 and the VCR. Then I can watch movies up here. Yippee.
Even though I slept in to 10am, going to sleep at 2am, I'm tired right now. I used to be tired at school unless I got 9-12 hours of sleep. Some weekends I'd wake up "early," after only 7-8 hours of sleep, and be tired for the day. I hate that feeling. It more or less destroys the majority of productivity potential. See I have a problem. I'm a night owl, I like to stay up until at least midnight, 1-3am preferably. But then I want 8-10 hours of sleep. So I like to wake up 10am-1pm. Then my day is shot, especially because my most productive hours are ~11am-4pm.
See the problem?
The likely answer is to not be a night owl. When I worked, I would go to sleep early, wake up early, and be okay. It's just not my preferred modus operandi (m.o.) without some intervening cause to force it.
Ugh.
Neat thing in World of Warcraft. There are two player factions opposed to each other - the Alliance and the Horde. The Alliance are the humans, gnomes, dwarves and night elves. The Horde are the undead, tauren (cow-like creatures), trolls and orcs. See the clear division? (Blizzard's page on the races.) Each faction has one language which they use to speak with each other - common for the Alliace, orcish for the Horde. But here's the cool part - Alliance can't understand orcish and the Horde can't understand common. The "only" way to communicate with the enemy is by pre-programmed emotes, like /wave which reads "Belic waves at Orcking." No other communication. Anything in /say or /yell or such translates as garbage.
Almost.
Players, being the devious players they/we are, have figured out some phrases that almost translate over. For example, I know that if I see a Horde "say" to me "kek" then it means they typed in "lol," a customary online abbreviation for "laughing out loud."
I've also found some phrases that I can type in to "say" something to the Horde. My favorite ones thus far have got to be "go gsdg b puck" which translates to the Horde as "me ruff e nuff" and "go as sd d a p" which they see as "me lo ve y o u." Too funny.
So that was today in a nutshell.
Vanessa: Always wanting to have fun, that's you in a nutshell.(link) Because this is the way my mind works. (Eery isn't it?)
Austin: No, this is me in a nutshell. (Austin mimes being trapped in a nutshell.) Help! I'm in a nutshell! What kind of nut has such a big nutshell? How did I get into this bloody great big nutshell?
ADDENDUM: Holy shit! Agassi just took the 3rd set (to Blake taking the first 2). This is one good tennis match! Damn! Best. Match. Ever. (Comic book guy from The Simpsons.) (Because I doubt all of you will get the reference.) (Yes, I think that little of you.) (No, I don't hold it against you.) (Yes, you can have some ice cream.) (Damnit.) [post time & date]
ADDENDUM II: Agassi just took the 4th set, 6-3, pushing the match to a 5th set. He has come back with a vengeance!!! /rawr
I'd like to play WoW right now but for 3 things. I'm tired. Anything I'd want to do, i.e. instances, would take over 2 hours (including formation time). I can't stop watching/paying attention to the tennis match. [12:27am, 9/08/05]
ADDENDUM III: At 12:35am, USA stops coverage and I'm forced to hunt for it. CBS has it. Sheesh. Blake just broke in the 5th to be up 3-2 and serving the next match. (!) [12:41am, 9/08/05]
ADDENDUM IV: But Agassi breaks back and holds his serve to take the lead, 6-5! THE DRAMA!!! [12:57am, 9/08/05]
ADDENDUM V: AGASSI WINS!!!!!!! In a 5th set tie-break, Agassi wins by 8-6. SUCH A GOOD MATCH. Blake is excellent. After this, his name should become a tennis household name. He's that good, to go toe-to-toe with Agassi and not give an inch. Damn good! He's young. We will see James Blake again. Congratulations Andre Agassi!!! And good luck in the semi-finals!!! [1:10am, 9/08/05]