February

I've been working a lot of hours at work, so I really haven't had a whole lot of time to blog. I still wish I was getting about 10 more hours, just so I could finally pay off my bills, but I think 30 is good enough for now. I also think the new manager quit. I didn't like her, but I feel bad that she quit/got fired/whatever.

I'm getting behind in my reading. I still haven't finished The Tipping Point or The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design, both of which I got last year. For my birthday Jason gave me The Black Hole war (quantum physics), and The Drunkard's Walk (mathematics). They're both really interesting books that I had considered purchasing, but never had the money. Then my parents gave me a gift certificate and membership card at Barnes and Noble, so I picked up four more books: The Zombie Survival Guide, Book of Lies, The Web Designer's Idea Book, and a nice coffee table book about graffiti. I think I'll be set on reading materials for a while.

I still haven't fixed the wipers in my car. I bought a wiper motor and thought it would be a pretty straightforward installation, but I was wrong. It looks like I'm going to have to remove the mounting bracket along with the motor (because it bolts in from the side that's inaccessible), but I'm not really sure how to do it. I've been trying to get it in to the local mechanic for two weeks, but he keeps telling me to come back the next day. That's kind of bullshit when I work every day and can't otherwise get there. I'm not paying another $80 for him to install it when he can't do it when I need it, so I ordered the repair manual for my car from the Port Huron library so I can do it myself.

I've been playing a lot of new games, namely Age of Empires 3. For the time being I'm stuck with PC games because I don't have a TV to use with my PS2 (which is on it's last legs anyway). The problem with playing a lot of PC games is that they take up a lot of hard drive space, and 70 gigs runs out pretty quickly, especially when I need to download a lot of other files and play multiple neighborhoods in The Sims. I'd really like to get a 500 gig IDE drive, which are pretty cheap, but I don't really have the money available.

There was a point (just after my tax return came in) that I did have the money and planned on buying the drive, but Fred and George were quickly outgrowing their cage, so I bought them a new one. It's 30" tall, has 3 platforms with ramps between them, a built in water bowl (so they don't spill it and don't have to drink from the bottle), and a hammock. I also picked up some new treats, but like the rest of their treats, they don't like them. They do like dog toys, though.