January 24-25, 2001 — A little game that I made up

I was awake until 5:00AM last night working on the new antigreg message board. And then I worked on it for much of today. And it's still not done. But gosh darnit, things'll be better when it is. Well, a little better, anyways. I worry that forcing people to login will reduce the number of comments that I get on my journals even further, but I think in the long-run it's a good idea. As it is now, things are sort of hanging by a thread and I know that someone with evil intentions and a knowledge of PERL could do bad things to my page. It probably won't be the last message board I use, but it should be the last for awhile. (Although I'll be going through all this customization nonsense again when I upgrade to the newer version of the same board late next month. I'll be able to import messages and members, though, so it's not like everything'll be deleted and you'll have to register again.)

With my nerd interlude for the night over and done with, I guess I can get into the rest of the last two days, not that there's much left. I feel bad for skipping a day after such a long string of daily journals, but at least I'm caught back up after only one day off.

On Wednesday afternoon, before I'd entered message board hell, I took a trip with Jeff and Stefan, Jeff's friend from Trinity, down to Rotate This on Queen Street. Nobody bought anything and it would've been a wasted trip if not for the sights and sounds of Chinatown. Sights and sounds that were summed up by the presence of a tractor trailer with a door open to reveal a stack of dead pigs, yet to be butchered. Jeff suggested that we grab one and run down the street with it, hucking it onto the road while yelling "You're free!" if the people who would no doubt be chasing us started to catch up. If we had a digital video camera, I'd've considered it. And if the raw pigs in the truck weren't enough, there was always the decapitation of a cooked pig in the window of a restaurant to be enjoyed.

But before you start to think Chinatown is all dead pigs, I should mention that I also saw a place that describes itself as a wholesaler of tshirts that I plan on visiting sometime soon, perhaps with Justin. It would be nice if they had hoodies, too. That would really get the antigreg merchandise section off the ground. Assuming I ever get that "silkscreening" thing figure out...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch and prior to really getting into the whole message board coding spree that would take me deep into Wednesday night, there was a switch from all things pork-related to the simian extravaganza that is "Beneath the Planet of the Apes." Jeff and I are reasonably confident that episodes three to five are much better than part two, so even the heavily phallic doomsday device and the death of Dr. Zaius weren't enough to turn us off from the series completely. There's something about Charlton Heston erradicating all life on earth that just makes sense. Go NRA. Insert further nonsensical, hyperbolic, vaguely left-wing criticisms here.

Which brings us to today. I wish I could say that the highlight wasn't Jeff drawing obscene pictures at iSketch, but I'd be lying if I said otherwise. iSketch is basically Win, Lose, or Draw, but online. People alternate being given a word to draw and guessing that word, all in little chatroom-style categories. For "plaza," Jeff drew Dr. Zaius. For "mess," Jeff drew a man defecating into another man's mouth and had Johnston's IP address permanently banned from iSketch in the process. Party.

Andrew visited and we played on BME for awhile. Little else happened. Gillian called, but the cordless phone was dead and it was awkward talking to her for very long with other people in the room. I've barely been able to talk to her for the last couple days; that neither of us are incredibly (or even slightly) good phone people doesn't help this long-distance relationship thing.

If I really put my mind to it, the new message board could be working as soon as tomorrow. But I wouldn't hold my breath, if I were you.