OK, under normal circumstances, I don't post Uncle Festerish images of myself, but here's roughly what my hair looks like with blue streaks.



I definitely need more blue. More blue!

Reason #4582 why it isn't all that bad being single:

I don't need to consider any relationship ramifications when I go out and dye electric blue streaks in my hair.

Some of the great things about working in the game industry are the small, surreal moments in my workday when I realize things are not quite normal.

Today I was sitting in a conference room listening to a discussion on source control solutions when I noticed the white boards lining the walls were covered with black magic marker detailing use case studies on fish detonation.

Yes. Fish detonation. As in, "Who would want to detonate the fish?" "Why would they need to detonate a fish?" "How would they detonate the fish?" "What would be the outcome of fish detonation?" All of the possible scenarios in the grand scheme of fish detonation.

One of the boards even had a scribbled mathematic forumla detailing just how far bits of fish would land from the fish, dependent on the fish detonation method.

Yep. Some days it is readily apparent that I just don't work in a normal world.

Way back in the trees and rocks along the shores of Lake Travis, I found part of what I was looking for today.



Unfortunately, I remembered a work obligation, so now I'm sitting at home in front of the computer when I'd rather still be out there on the rocks by the lake.

When I was younger and less bound by things like work hours, I would spend afternoons in my Ford Fiesta with a mix tape in the stereo, driving the eastern Iowa highways and backroads just looking for whatever caught my eye. I never really chose a direction, but would just head off down a highway until I saw a turnoff that struck me as interesting. I found secluded creeks, ancient foot-bridges, fields full of Angus cattle, and abandoned bits of history.

The idea behind these trips was to avoid looking at a map until the sun was low in the sky. You're never far from the road to somewhere, after all - and I always found my way home by dark.

It's Friday and I've got the day off. I could do laundry, spring-clean the house, or relax and sleep in under 33 pounds of cats. But there's a whole lot of Texas out there to either side of me today - and I think I need to drive.

It's strange. I can look at this site and realize I leave it empty and lifeless - a floating derelict in the web sea - but when I think to myself that I should just shut it down, I get all tense about it. 'What? Shut it down? But then I wouldn't have a website!' In my conversations with myself, I tend to stop there. It's the best argument my inner demons can come up with. 'Because!'

Who knows. Maybe my inner eight-year-old just doesn't want to give up my toys, even if I'm not playing with them.

Fray Cafe was amazing and wonderful and brought out the urge to get up in front of the spotlight again. I expect I was neither horrible, nor wonderful - and I know I could have been both far better and abysmally worse. It did remind me that if I can make a room full of strangers laugh, I can do anything - which is always a nice feeling.

Amusingly, however, "anything" does not include one thing. There was a guy there who pretty much checked off all 1001 boxes on the list of things I find attractive in a man - well, except the one about living in my town. But for various reasons, only one of which is that I'm a big chicken, I'll just amuse myself with a crush from far across the web.

And I'm done. With something like 3 hours to spare. I think that's a first for me on a deadline... ;-)

Ask me if I've written down my story for Fray Cafe 2 yet. Nah, go on. Ask me.

Yep, you guessed it. Unless everyone is interested in hearing 10 minutes worth of competitive analysis and web marketing 101. Because if that's what you're looking for, I am so very covered on this whole thing.

Yeah. I think I'll go back to hyperventilating now...

You buggin' me? You f*ckin' buggin' me? Yeah. You buggin' me.

Here is something I hate about myself. There are times when I am an exceptionally poor judge of character. Most of the time I gravitate towards funny, kind, good people and yet occasionally I happen upon a bad apple. And I never recognize it. Maybe I'm gullible. Maybe I like to believe that people are all good at heart. It's just that whenever I'm proven wrong by this fact, it makes me sad and angry. This week, I was proven wrong again by someone I thought was a good person. But good people don't do what this person did.

And as I grow older and learn about myself I've discovered something. I may be a poor judge of character, but trust me - I never forget a wrong.

I was driving home from Central Market this afternoon and passed a Sunday pickup softball game in progress in a block lot near my house. I wanted so much to stop and sit in the afternoon sun and watch them play. But I had mahi-mahi sweating in the hatchback and once I got home it was easier to stay here. Now it's midnight and the weekend is over and it's back to work in the morning.

And I wish I'd gone back to watch.