Watching Lost...

...and still amazed at how it still surprises me. That and South Park are the only TV I watch anymore. It's evidence of fate that these two shows are on at the exact same time. Thank god for Tivo and the fact that South Park was a rerun.

I'm reading Flow by Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi. It's an eye-opener, and talking about an experience of self that happens when I code, or write in a flush, or swim for an hour non-stop. It's amazing the amount of research that went into that book. I also have Chi Running on queue, and may start it at the same time.

I read an interesting post on The Simple Dollar. This guy claims to read 4 books a week. I'd be happy with two, especially if I get better comprehension out of it. However, one thing that rang true through the article was how much time I've been wasting. If he has enough time to dedicate at least 8 hours a week reading, I can at least dedicate as much to read 2 books at my own relaxing pace. It's at least better than wasting time with my console collection.

915 stars

I'm really close to the 1000 mark. Just finished Survival of the Sickest... a most intriguing book. I'll write a review tomorrow, along with the movie M, which I just rewatched tonight. More tomorrow.

777 stars...

and still climbing. If you're wondering which game, it's called Sudoku Gridmaster for the DS. I wouldn't recommend it; I just happen to like Sudoku a whole lot. I probably will get sick of all things Sudoku when I beat everything in this game. Part of the reason I'm playing through every puzzle is that I can only find cheat pages (really just unlockables) for this game. I cannot find a proper FAQ anywhere. I know there isn't that much to say about Sudoku (puzzle solving tips, perhaps), but no one seems to say what happens when you either a) get 1000 stars or b) solve every puzzle. I know solving every puzzle will do one thing: after solving the Platinum test (in 2:55 now, I'm getting embarrassingly good at it) it adds up your times for every puzzle and displays that time or 999h59m59s otherwise. Any unsolved puzzle is scored at 99h59m59s, so you won't see any difference unless you solve all but 9 puzzles at least. There are 193 puzzles remaining. One puzzle a day will take me until October 12th, and I'll probably finish before that, since I've owned the game less than 6 months and solved 211 puzzles in it which averages to >1 puzzle a day. Enough geekdom; getting ready for work.

Taxes and other boring tasks...

Did my taxes... thank god for automated tax programs. It saved me a lot of trouble, and a C-note to boot. I got a lot of stuff done this weekend: filing, cleaning, laundry, reading, and I got 766 stars on my Sudoku game. I then went to type my blog entry, and it started going really sour. I completely wiped it out and wrote what I have here. I now understand what Sarah was saying (Sarah's my sister, and quite probably the only other reader of this blog). I tend to only feel like writing down my thoughts when I'm down, to get things off my chest. What I didn't realize was that these negative thoughts reinforce when I'm typing like that and saving it to be reread in the future. I need to stay more postive. But first I need good sleep. :)

Really, 766 stars. That's at least 153 puzzles each in under 10 minutes at normal difficulty. I'm getting really good at the sudoku. Some of the harder puzzles take about 25-30 minutes, but never longer than that. I remember when the easy ones were taking that long. Maybe you can make yourself smarter with this thing. Or maybe I'm just teaching myself the test again. It does wonders for the ego though. :P

Refreshed...

Today was a fun day, even with its length. A lot got accomplished at work; that always feels good. Also, Dawn took me out to eat after work today, a place called Myrna's on the east side of Stamford. I always groove with these smaller shops; usually the owner is there to wait on you, and is very nice to boot. Dawn always picks out the best Mediterranean restaurants, and it was a perfect choice. I even yielded my coffee fast today to have a little Lebanese coffee, which is similar to Turkish but "brighter".
Anywho, other cool things about today:
1) Feel a lot more awake without coffee than I usually do. I guess that's what anxiety will do for you. ;) I'm trying to reduce to cold turkey, but I'll be smart this time and go slowly. This way I can enjoy the buzz when I need it, and only then.
2) The new Modest Mouse is great: Florida is one of the best MM songs I've heard in a long long time. Even as I had left Florida, far enough, far enough wasn't far enough. Unbelievably brilliant. I felt that way about Texas as I was leaving it. I may send a copy of the album to Adam, he's still in Florida. Poor dude.
3) Expert systems are really hard to put together. Mine is coming together very slowly. I'm using it to start coding up some example Wumpus problems, and then use it to solve Nurikabe puzzles.
4) Almost finished with Survival of the Sickest. What a strange book; it is the first time I've seen the use of evolution as a route to prognosis and diagnosis.
5) I am at 714 stars in my DS Sudoku game. Soon I will be at 1000 stars and will have no reason to play Sudoku ever again. Yeah, right. :) At least I can say I'm good at it. I can solve the Easy puzzles in 3 minutes now.
6) I will sleep well tonight.
It's about damned time I start thinking positively.

Exhausted

I have not been this tired in my entire career. This was one of the most exhausting weeks I've been through. I am so ready to just crash this weekend.

Disconnected...

I had no idea how tired I was at 1am writing my blog entry. I didn't get enough sleep and am rectifying that tonight. More to write tomorrow. It's amazing how a lack of sleep can make you feel more disconnected than you do in your dreams.