Thanks everyone for a good break! Now it's 7:30, I'm well-fed, and it's time to buckle down and get set for a pretty nice pile of homework. I'm in hell week for the foreseeable future (since I have 5 finals starting Thursday), so forgive me if I'm not around.

The big update of the break is I am now in possession of an Xbox (thanks mommy!) While it's not in Austin with me, I'll probably get a few chances over the next two weeks to access Live and play with my teammates. If you're an XBL player, go ahead and add blakerson to your Friends list. Thanks to the ridiculous MS bundles on the system and the Live Starter kit, I'm the owner of H2 (obviously) as well as Top Spin, NCAA Football '05, and Crimson Skies. Should be some fun stuff to tinker with.

I was packed up and ready to go at 5pm. So was Adam, who I was dropping off at his place in north Austin along the way. Where the hell was Thomas? I made a few attempts at his cell and never got an answer. Adam and I decided to load up my car and fill up my gas tank so we'd be ready to go when Thomas showed up. While filling up my gas tank, Mel called and asked for a last-minute favor: he wanted a ride home too. No problem, I figured, since I was already here. By the time Mel got loaded into my car, it was 5:45 and I was a little peeved that we were so late. We headed back to the Quad to check some things on the computer (and get Thomas's room number in the Castillian) and right after I get the number from Thomas's mom, Thomas calls on his cell. He thinks he's shown up early, since he has 6:00 written on his hand. We proceed to give him hell about it for the rest of the night.

Austin traffic was moving about as quickly as Thomas was to show up. We got almost to Round Rock by way of access roads only, the 3 of us bound for A-town were starving, and then we spotted the giant storm headed our way. Luckily, there was a Pei Wei very nearby, so we voted to stop there and chill and let the storm pass.

8pm: We get to Adam's house and drop him off. From there, it was incredibly smooth sailing and I got home at 10:45 after dropping off both Thomas and Mel. Much thanks go to those guys for making the trip much more entertaining than usual, especially whilst driving at night. So it was a 6-hour trip overall, but it was way worth the hassle considering how damn much fun it was.

Then, while I was out at dinner, I get these wonderful little messages from aroon:

aroon: so im sitting here in the airport
Auto response from blakerson: running around a-town (most likely dinner)
aroon: best airport ever
aroon: free wireless
aroon: fast freakin wireless
aroon: and NO ONE is online
aroon: the one time i actually have time to dick around on aim
aroon: this is your fault blake.
aroon: you should feel bad.
aroon: baaaaad.
aroon signed off at 6:49:32 PM.

Happy holiday everyone, and don't die.

I spent an hour in the middle of the night writing about what's happened with that girl Jessica, and how it's now over and it's my fault for letting it go as far as it did, and then I realized that it really shouldn't be published, since nothing good could possibly come of it and it would violate my policy of posting on girls/relationships/emo crap. I've definitely picked up a big, big lesson from this, and if I could put it into a sentence I would. Maybe I'll turn it into a set of romantic axioms or something.

Speaking of embracing my inner nerd, I've learned to *love* singledom. Why, do you ask? My gaming life is about to go berzerk. Here are the games in which I have very little progress or haven't even started, all of which require being played:

-Doom3
-Half-Life 2 (haven't started, don't spoil anything pls)
-Halo 2 (played about one mission on co-op)
-GTA San Andreas (still in Los Santos, maybe 1/2 or 2/3 through the missions before 'leaving' the island)

More importantly, I'm an Xbox Live *freak* for Halo 2. I'm still playing as a guest all the time, but my pseudo-clan formed with my friends (we play nothing but Training Ground games) is one of my favorite activities. This may be my next big part of my gaming life - and considering I've asked for my own box for my birthday, it's pretty damn likely. Either way, once I get done with finals, I've got my work cut out for me for the Christmas break. 5 weeks, 4 games, 0 girls and tons of friends - damn, that just sounds awesome.

This Thanksgiving is going to be a much-needed prelude to the festivities and a much-needed break from this silly life I'm living on campus. I need a few days in the land of familiarity to get my bearings straight again. I'm bringing home probably very little for gaming (at most a PS2 + GTA:SA) and planning to spend just about all of my time and energy on seeing as many people as I can. Most of the A-town crowd gets in Tuesday night, so we'll play it by ear for getting any festivities underway that night, but I could definitely stand to make a Starbucks/Friday's run and do some philosophizing over tasty beverages and loads of breadsticks. We're just two nights away - praise jebus.

You are 10% geek

OK, so maybe you ain't a geek. You do, at least, show a bit of interest in the world around you. Either that, or you have enough of a sense of humor to pick some of the sillier answers on the test. Regardless, you're probably a pretty nifty, well-rounded person who gets along fine with people and can chat with just about anyone without fear of looking stupid or foolish or overly concerned with minutiae. God, I hate you.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

IE required.

They gave up on us, just like we gave up on them:

Colin Powell, who was offered the SecState position for Clinton's second term and has been in Washington since before the Reagan administration, handed in his resignation after being made the guy to take Bush's heat for the stupid shit he's done - even though Powell saved us from certain destruction after that spy plane went down in China in 2001. His replacement can't possibly be a better choice. Yet AGAIN, Clinton was right and Bush is wrong. Get used to it.

Better yet: The chiefs of the CIA's Directorate of Operations and Director of Central Intelligence - the two heads of the agency's Clandestine Service - resigned on the same day in protest of Goss's (see bs) management of the agency.

Then again - maybe we're stupid enough to deserve it.

Got some links for me? I'm looking for those search sites where you can put in what you want in an apartment and it returns complexes with contact numbers and information on the amenities and so on. Can a brother get a little help?

This guy is our hero for a week:

The $1,337 Jeopardy player

So mommy sent an email asking for a list. I'm going to put one of two things on the list:

1. Xbox + Halo 2 + Live Starter Kit

2. Valentine One

Any thoughts?

Update: I decided on the Xbox. I'm gonna borrow a V1 from my buddy Joel some weekend to check it out and see how well I get along with it. In the meantime, I'ma start leveling up on Live. When I have a gamertag, I'll post it and everyone can buddy up with me. Thanks for input, everyone.

Remember Get Your War On, the comic I used to link to?

It came back, and I had completely missed it! There was some great election commentary and in the wake of the Republican victory, David Rees (the artist) hasn't given up, and he's a good source for some of the better-written leftist propaganda.

So. If you hated Bush, and maybe even still do, then go give this a read: it'll cheer you up, I promise.

Sorry for not posting this earlier, but the Blogger backoffice was being kinda slow when I last decided to do it.

Anyhoo: in continuation of the last comment thread, many of us will be home in A-town for Thanksgiving week(end). I, for one, will be home Tuesday 11/23 to Sunday 11/28. Post your details and exchanges and perhaps we'll get a party going (especially if Thomas is in town =p).

What a truly crazy weekend I survived.

I already wrote about Thursday night, but it's worth noting that that was the first time I really technically went out on a Thursday night. Really wasn't that bad, nor was it that bad on Friday.

Friday night was a Plan II party at the P2 house. Lots of hilarious costumes, a hugely hoppin' dance floor, and even a few serious hotties. Pics may or may not go up depending on how many I can scrape together - my own camera didn't go to the party. But I know I definitely didn't get home until about 4AM. A sign of a quality night.

Saturday night was a random frat party in West Campus. Kinda lame, but the company (a handful of freshman architecture majors - long story) was great.

And Sunday night - wow. I didn't go out but it was definitely the highlight of my weekend. Let me backtrack for a sec.

A couple weeks ago, I was leaving the cafeteria to go to class when this girl walked in my path, gave me a quick glance, then turned back and completely looked me square in the eye and smiled. I was feeling brave, so on the way to class I walked up and just introduced myself. Completely outta nowhere. When I reached my class I got her email address and moved on, thinking it was a good start to a day.

A few days later, while between different classes, I bump into the same girl (her name's Jessica) in the government building, and she nicely mentions that she wanted to give me a shout to have dinner a few nights before, but had no way of contacting me. So we traded phone numbers and went along on our merry ways again.

That weekend, I gave her a call and asked if she wanted to grab something to eat. She was out of town but thought it was "really sweet" of me - here I thought I just had a cool idea. But it got interesting when she called me back a couple hours after she got home. She wanted to drop by for a minute and give me a Halloween treat (no, no, it wasn't a giggity moment) and 'tell me something.' That part just confused the hell outta me. I've talked to this girl three times in my life and she has a bomb to drop. That minute ended up turning into a couple hours (still not giggity).

The treat turned out to be some snacks and candy - which flattered me a lot. Then her bomb to drop was that she had always had an eye on me since last year and went on gushing to all her friends about my apparent cuteness after we actually met. Completely outta nowhere. At this point, my jaw was on the floor - this girl is pretty cute herself, she seemed to be quite into me, and she's evidently really sweet. At that point, she decided to drop another bomb: she's had the same boyfriend for five years. That's just plain nuts.

Now, I've learned my lesson about trying to steal girls, so nothing's going to happen with this chica, but I can say that I think it'll be really good to have her around anyway. Either way, it was a hell of a way to finish the weekend.

Two words: England. Japan.

At least this gives me a nice project for the next four years: ending the Republican Reich.

What happened to you? You were supposed to be mild and a nice transition month from summer to winter.

Instead, on Halloween it was a little warm, and by the night of November 1st, it was freakin' cold. Today, Election Day, is pretty damn chilly here in Austin - I went from a short sleeve t-shirt to a long-sleeve sweater and a jacket.

Welcome to winter, I suppose. Or this will last a few more days and then it'll get hot again. But more importantly, the fate of the free world hangs in the balance today. My life's been seriously awesome lately, but that's all going to take a backseat tonight and for the weeks to come.

Best of luck to us all, America.

but this article is the bible of standard Counter-Strike defense. CS players might want to read this.