Oh dear. I'll do this backwards for the sake of convenience.

Anime Weekend Atlanta is almost here! I haven't been to a con in a few years due to a lack of time, money and interest, but Hope and Cara, two of my best friends from high school, will be there this year. My current plan is to drive into Atlanta Saturday morning, spend the day with them and come back that night. I haven't seen either of them since I got the hell out of Falls Church after graduation and that was over four years ago. I'm sure we've all changed a lot since then, but I know we'll all still get along as great as we did back then. I'm really excited to see them and catch up.

Last weekend Matt and I drove up to Charleston to spend the weekend in a rented condo with my dad, stepmom, sister and brother-in-law. The condo was on Folly Island and literally opened up onto sand, but due to the crumby weather and short stay we didn't spent much time on the beach. On Saturday we went into Charleston and strolled down one clear, narrow, winding road of shops that looked like a movie set. True to appearance, I guess, the retail chains were all as outlandishly expensive as the musty antique stores. That night we dropped by my dad's boss's condo, which, at three floors, is apparently the tallest building on the island. From the rooftop patio we could see the horizon in every direction, the lights of Charleston blinking in the distance. Maybe it was because of the crappy 5 1/2-hour drive there, or the weather being bad, or everyone else having already been there for almost a week, or simply because having three couples within the same family sharing space for an extended time is never too wise, but something about the entire stay seemed sort of off-kilter. I'm glad we went, in any case.

In the past few weeks I have become alarmingly adroit at stealing from the vending machine in the lobby at work. I was originally taught the tools of the trade by one of my co-workers, but now it's him who comes to me for advice. Since I work evening shifts and the entire building is deserted except for us, it becomes a bit like the Island of Lost Children, with no risk of being caught by anyone of importance. It wasn't even about the food; I just felt this immense sense of satisfaction at getting back at this ugly machine that sits there tempting us day after day with exorbitantly-priced junk. I say this past-tense because I've now turned my back on the whole seedy trade. It was fun but there's little good that can come of this and no honor to be found in petty thievery. It's like Calvin says: how come I only have the patience to learn skills that are totally useless?

I've been in class for about a month now, and this is the first semester I can remember where I've truly enjoyed all of my classes. I'm taking Shakespeare in Film, Humanities Computing, Intro to Programming and Intro to New Media. I'm learning both Java and UNIX now, neither of which I've had any experience with before. UNIX has been hard to get into, but I really love Java and I've been picking it up surprisingly quickly. I don't even mind that I'm not sure how either of these actually relates to my major. My graduation plan seems to have been coming apart at the seams for a while now, but so far I've yet to begin choking on the loose stuffing.

Quick notes on other things: plowed through William Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy in about two weeks am now working on the second set; watched up through episode 48 of Full Metal Alchemist one of the precious few anime that don't suck, but now there are only three episodes left; had to give Disgaea back to Charlie, it's rightful owner, and will probably break down and buy it when I get some spare money and the withdrawal is bad enough (which reminds me: expect a post about money in the near future).

I plan to be updating far more regularly now. It feels good to be doing this again.