Early Morning Hijinks

So... it's been an eventful few days. I'll put the most important news first, I guess. This new sleep med - Sonata - is just awesome. This morning I actually woke up feeling refreshed. And that never happens. I'm really looking forward to getting a few weeks of sleep under my belt and seeing how I feel after that. My dad was in town last Thursday - he and my sister and I went to the Asuka Japanese Steakhouse. You know, the kind of place where they grill everything at the table with you. The chef was strangely interesting. He recognized the Carolinean accents we were all sporting; it turned out that he was from West Virginia, and had lived in the same town we had lived in in N.C. for a while. That was where he had done his apprenticeship, and we had actually been to his previous restaurant. And it turned out that the place I first went skiing, Winterplace, was right by his hometown. Small world. Outside of that, I've been having fun with some seekrit projects. But I don't want to say too much about them just yet. John picked up an Xbox, for which Robert and I got a few games. Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Gunvalkyrie, Shen Mue II ... all the good stuff that doesn't actually sell on the Xbox. Dirt cheap used. (When Rob saw the games we'd picked up, he asked "Like Smilebit much?" Three of the four games we'd gotten were by Sega's Smilebit dev team. The fourth was by Sega's AM2 dev team. Why oh why did Sega throw in their lot with Microsoft?!) I've been doodling about in the fantastic Jet Set Radio Future. It's an absolute ball. Groovetastic. Unfortunately, nobody else here seems to appreciate it quite like I do.. oh well, someone will come to see the light. (I can't believe this game was only $4.00!) A copy of Karaoke Revolution found its way into our apartment as well... it turns out that while I have a decent singing voice, my lack of knowledge of pop music lyrics is quite crippling for this game. That and the fact that I sing at least an octave or two lower than the pre-recorded singers makes it difficult for me. Although, the game does have REM's It's the End of the World as We Know It. Which is a song I like quite a bit. It moves really fast though, and you basically have to know the lyrics beforehand because reading them off of the screen is just not practical. Outside of that... I'm going to make use of the nice long weekend by playing some FFXI and serving as the emergency minister of foreign affairs for my sister's game of Diplomacy. Which should be interesting. We'll see if I can live up to my reputation as a shrewd strategist.