Ramblings at 5 AM. UG!

February 19, 2004

Well here it is, 4:22 AM and I can’t sleep a wink. I have no idea why, either. I kept yawning while I was in bed trying to sleep, but no matter how long I lay there I just couldn’t make myself fall asleep. And isn’t that the real bear? The more you WANT to go to sleep, the less you actually can. My mind was jumping from thought to thought, though, so that may have had something to do with it. Plus I had a couple of Cokes today, first ones since Sunday when I was at my Dad’s house, though I did have some coffee the other day so my blood wasn’t completely devoid of caffeine. I don’t think that was it, in any case. Only in very large doses does caffeine bother me anymore.

So what’s keeping me up? I was thinking about this weekend and my cheap little vacation that I’m planning to take just for fun, plus my game. I know, silly me thinking about my game. But I reached an interesting milestone today that marks the first step in more gameply for me. You see, when I originally picked up the game, I had a goal in mind of what kind of character I wanted to play and what profession I wanted to be (Commando), but as I began playing, I discovered that I really didn’t want to do that, or the next couple of ideas that I had. I finally concluded that what I really wanted to do was to become a Jedi in the game. Now mind you, it’s not entirely some fanboy drooling over the idea of playing a Jedi (I said not ENTIRELY), but because becoming a Jedi will give me the widest variety of gameply that I can get. The current system for becoming a Jedi is quite difficult in that certain extremely rare items must be procured, and those items tell you your path to becoming a Jedi, as in, they tell you what professions you need to master. You get the item, you master the profession it tells you to, then you have to get another. The last one, however, doesn’t tell youanything, so you have to guess. Out of the 30 or so professions, you have your work cut out for you.

Anyhow, every player was given one of these items as a Christmas present from the company that runs the game, and today I mastered the profession it told me to. So, I could stay this profession for awhile, but instead I’m going to do something else that interests me until I can get another one of those items. As I said, this gives me the best variety of gameplay possible, and hey, in my process of doing things that interest me in the game, if I happen to come across one of those items, so be it.

Now that it’s 4:31 AM, I’d probably be playing the game if it wasn’t down for maintainance right now. I guess that’s what I get for being up at 4:31 AM, no? But anyway, my weekend plans. I’ve been talking with my friend Heather, and we decided that for the hell of it we’re going to get together this weekend. Unlike previous times, there won’t be an airplane involved. That’s right, I’m hitting the road, baby. Now that she’s working in northern California (Fort Bragg, actually, so right in your area, Helen!), she’s within reasonable driving distance, and so we’re going to split the difference and spend the weekend down on the southern Oregon coast.. Five hours of driving for me, five hours of driving for her. Actually, Yahoo! Maps said it was 6 hours for each of us, but c’mon, it’s only 300 miles. I can do that in about five hours the way I drive…er, if the roads are good, I mean. I’ve already talked with my Dad and he’s given me a preliminary OK on borrowing the Escape (”Es-COP-ay!”…yes, I’m still thinking of the line in Finding Nemo every time I think of the car) for the weekend, and I found a place we can stay that will only charge us $35/night with my AAA membership. Right on the beach, too. I think that’s a good deal to split between the two of us. Add in gas and food, and you’re looking at about a $45 trip, tops. Since she has to work on Friday and Monday, we’ll meet on Saturday and leave on Sunday, just to chill for awhile.

We were originally going to camp, and I was going to borrow a tent that my Dad has and dig out my sleeping bag from the garage, but the weather on the coast is pretty iffy right now, and given how much it’s been raining in the last few days, I don’t really want to fight the rain outside. Setting up a tent in the mud and then having to deal with the mud even AFTER that is just too much of a pain in the ass for me. So instead we’ll hit a cheap ocean-view place and hang out for the night. Should be nice.

My boss came back this week and tried to get ahold of me today, but I missed his call and left him a message. I don’t know how many of these little trips down south I’ll be able to take, so I might as well get them in while I can. She’ll be in Fort Bragg for six months, though, and if it only takes $45 to see her once in awhile, I’ll consider myself lucky. I do look forward to getting some additional work (and getting the money I warned before he left, too), even though it’ll cut down on my game-playing time, among other things. No problem. It’s really not that important to me. I have a lot of fun playing it, but it’s mostly a time-filler right now. I don’t have a whole lot else that I can do, I’ve been reading more than I normally do (three books in the last couple weeks), watching less TV, that sort of thing. I’ve also picked up jogging again, as I mentioned last week. I intended to go jogging on Friday when I got to my Dad’s house after a day’s rest, but it turned out that my muscles were too sore, and so from Thursday to Saturday I was walking pretty much straight-legged because my calves and parts of my thighs hurt so much. But it was a GOOD kind of hurt, y’know? I like muscle pains. It doesn’t really hurt, it’s just uncomfortable. Certainly means you can’t use them heavily. I should know, too.

Nonetheless, I jogged again today. I’m using my old, initial jogging route that I got accustomed to last summer, even though I’m pretty certain I can jog for longer and further than the route takes me. 1.5 miles isn’t that far to jog, but getting back into using the muscles AND doing it on pavement is something I’ll have to take slowly, especially after what happened last time. 1.5 miles every other day is fine for now. I’m likely heading over to my Dad’s on Friday afternoon or evening so that I can take off from his house early Saturday morning, so I’ll do my jogging on the treadmill over there. Less impact, too, so I can go for further, like 2.5 miles.

Well, Thursday is pretty much upon me, now. 5 AM is about my limit for going to sleep. If I’m still up, I might as well just stay up, because the sun will be up in an hour or so, and it’ll be difficult to get to sleep after that. My Mom always asks me in the morning what my plans are for the day, probably half out of curiosity and half out of concern that I may not be doing things that necessarily meet with her approval (playing my game for multiple hours is not one of them), but I don’t have a whole lot on tap for the next couple of day. Wait for Martin to get back to me, that’s certainly true. Maybe I can even get some work done on Friday if he gets to me in time before I leave. Maybe lunch with my sister, if she’ll want to go out today (and if I’m awake, for that matter). Probably a nap in the afternoon, too, depending on whether I go out with my sister and have a beer or two with lunch and how tired I am. New “Friends” and “ER” tonight. And that’s about it, really.

I hate being up this early with nothing to do, that’s for certain. When my Dad gets up early, at least he has his slides to work on scanning and cleaning up, but me? Gameplay and nothing more. I’m at a point where starting a book wouldn’t be worth it right now because my mind can’t fully focus on it, but I’m not unfocused enough to sleep. *Sigh* Guess I’ll go check and see if the servers for my game are up and running again. Until later, I suppose. Adieu.

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