after my regular cardio-esque workout last night, which has moved to the STAIRMASTER for 20 minutes as I want my butt to look good :), I opted to do some crunches and pushups. And my sides and chest are feeling it today. woo hoo!
I'm now tasked at work with a project that, the last time I was tasked with it I was really, really pissed. It's not really suited for my job, but it was a "no one wants to do it, so why not put it on QA" type deal. Fine, it gives me leverage here. But what made it bad was it was tasked on me on top of my other stuff, without any room in my schedule to do it, just to "do it, it shouldn't take you long" Um, yeah, it took me 2 weeks just working on that.
So this time, I made it loud and clear I didn't have the time to dedicate to this project unless it was fitted into the schedule. And I kept saying that. Well it needs to get done, and though not fully in the schedule, I did get some days cleared to do it this week, though I'm off to a slow start. It seems our IT department (the manager of which is also the manager of this extra project) has now run some scripts on all computers in the company that prevent it from communicating with various servers. And, yep, I need to communicate with these servers to test and work this stuff I'm supposed to work on. So it's that classic cycle, one step forward, 2 steps back. But what can you do, besides just be more vocal. and it seems to work!
Okami is an excellent game. There are some quirks about it, but it's very pretty (+1), a great story (+1), and has some great humor that was translated well, unlike some other classic games (+1). Some waggle issues (-1) and camera angles (-.5) harp on it a little, but I've taken it as a learning curve, and the story and prettiness compensated for it. And the music is excellent (+1) and who doesn't love feeling animals so they show hearts for you whenever you pass (+100000000).
Last night I saw the movie "God Grew Tired of Us". It was produced by many star people, and was a documentary about the Lost Boys of the Sudan, who fled from their country during a civil war to two places, and eventually entered a refugee program with the US and went to various parts of our country. Their aim was to have a better life and do something. And really, only one person got that. Here's what I took away from the movie:
- the Catholics have really infiltrated the African nations like woah. Missions are rough. Half of Sudan is Christian, the other half are Islamic.
- the British fucked up in their leaving of this area and making it a country. According to the documentary, this was just fucked up to have 2 conflicting people need to create one country. Seems the classic formula for civil war
- life without electricity, for the most part, actually seems to make you happier, once you compare it to American life
- one comment one of the Sudanese guys made was about how isolated we are. He mentioned (paraphrasingly) "People here don't talk to one another. We travel in groups, and hang out and chat with people all day. If you're lost, someone can ask you 'Hey, are you lost?' and you show them around. If someone is sad, you ask them what's wrong. Here, you can't do that.' There was even a point where police were called because these guys were going around the town in big groups, which is what they were used to. They were asked to travel in smaller packs.
- the introduction of our "modern" society to people who have never had to learn our customs is a real wake-up call.
- only one person from the movie found a "calling" and major benefit of this program, and that was to create awareness for his country so they can send money to find their families and help them.
There was talk of loss of culture, loss of identity. Torn from your parents, to travel to the US to work 2 jobs, send most of your money to your family, and see quality of life really go down. I wish they were asked which was better, the US part of their story, or the camps they were in before. The documentary is biased to a degree. US will save you/US will haunt you. I'm torn on many aspects of what was presented to see where I'd like things to go. But it's something that makes you think about everything around you, instead of living in the expected haze we find ourselves in day to day.
2 nights ago I had a dream that I made out with Brian, Jeff's best friend/ex boyfriend, and a good friend of mine. I even felt guilty in the dream. I mentioned it to Jeff, and he said what he's always said on the topic and seemingly whenever the three of us are together: "Why don't you guys just go and fuck already. I'll watch." Hahaha. I'd make him join in. If it were ever to happen, that is.