Journal Entries
(5/12/03) Dreams and Checkout Girl again...
Posted May 12, 2003
The other night I had another dream about Heather. This time, we were being intimiate. There wasn't anything else to it other than that, and I remember being extremely happy. This dream comes at a time when Heather doesn't have time for me, as her finals and job interviews and other stuff are all coming to a head. Perhaps in a couple of weeks we can be together.
Of course, my hedge against that not happening is Checkout Girl. A couple weeks after I mapped out my strategy, I happened to show up while she was on a smoke break outside. She was with someone who looked like a boyfriend, although it could have just been a friend. In any case, I decided that it was a lost cause and didn't show up for a month or so.
Oddly enough, I did go one Friday evening when I didn't expect to see her there. I cruised the lines as usual to see if she was working (she wasn't) and settled on the shortest line. Strange thing was that when I got to the front of the line, she seemed to magically appear out of nowhere. I presume that she had to talk to the person working the line about something, but perhaps she saw me and decided to come out and have a look.
Last week I happened to go through her line. This time, right before Checkout Girl rang my stuff up, a lady came up behind her and demanded her attention regarding some cat food that she wanted to return. Once the lady was gone, Checkout Girl turned to me and mouthed the word "B---h." I take this to mean that she feels comfortable enough around me to let me in on what she's thinking. And then, when she totaled up my purchases, she rounded down to the nearest dollar and gave me my money back, rather than breaking the five dollar bill that I had. As I was leaving, she gave me a big smile.
Is this the sign that I need to proceed with the rest of the plan? Perhaps. Am I going to do anything besides think and fantasize? I dunno. I'm still kind of nervous about breaking the employee/customer relationship to try for something more, especially if there are people in line behind me to watch it all go down.
In other news, the house situation has gotten a lot better. With more roommates (two other guys as well as the married couple), the feeling is much more balanced than before, when it seemed like it was me vs. them. Everyone besides me in the house smokes, but it doesn't seem like there's much of a problem with smoke in the house. The big dumb roommate got drunk again last Saturday, and I remembered why I wasn't getting along with him in the first place. However, I just waited that out rather than doing something that would have lasting effects.
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Latest reply: May 12, 2003
(3/6/03) More on Checkout Girl...
Posted Mar 6, 2003
I asked my roommates about the general strategy for getting the attention of the checkout counter girl. They expounded on the point for the better part of an hour, but what they said pretty much boils down to, "Let her make a place for yourself in her heart, to the point where she looks forward to seeing you again. Once that is done, be direct in asking her out (you only have a minute or two to talk to her, anyway), and give her your phone number. Let her come to you; if she doesn't want to, don't press the point."
Since I do kung fu training on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the supermarket where she works is on the way home from kung fu training, I'll go visit her every Tuesday and Thursday night around 8pm or so. That way, if she's paying attention, she can predict when I'll show up. If she really does think I'm worthy of attention, then she'll start to look forward to when I'll be there.
The next objective will be to distinguish myself in her mind from all the other stupid customers she deals with every day. Last Tuesday, when I went through her line, I made a point of complimenting her hair style. I'll go through her line a few more times, and when it feels right, I'll introduce myself. I'll probably wait for a moment when I don't have any other customers behind me, so I can take my sweet time to talk to her.
After introducing myself, I'll probably bide my time as I gather little bits of information about her in idle conversation. I need to find out what nights she doesn't work, whether she's seeing anyone at the moment, and what kind of person she is (laid back and lazy, or busy busy busy).
When I'm ready to ask her out, I'll say something about how I want to hang out with her outside of her work, and give her my business card. I figure my card is good enough proof that I'm gainfully employed, and if things go bad, it would be better if she didn't have my home phone number.
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Latest reply: Mar 6, 2003
(3/3/03) AHHH! He's talking about feelings and dreams! RUN!
Posted Mar 3, 2003
Lately I've been having unsettling dreams. Not nightmares, per se, but dreams in which I've gotten annoyed, or had a general bad feeling to them. Details are very sketchy, as usual, but I remember one that I disliked so much I actively tried to wake up. When I woke, I still felt annoyed, and I felt strange all over, like pins and needles. Turns out I hadn't really woken up, I was only dreaming that I had woken up. Eventually I woke up, took stock of myself, and went back to sleep.
Last night I had a dream about Heather. I think we had finally gotten together as boy/girlfriend, and were hanging out. Or trying, anyway. Somehow we kept being interrupted by her life, and she seemed always too busy to pay attention to me, and gradually she started getting less and less pretty in my eyes. That dream is a no-brainer as to why I didn't wake up happy.
My back hurts. I started kung fu a couple of weeks ago, and last week was my first night of learning how to punch. I practiced all weekend, and my back muscles are complaining sharply.
There's another girl who has my attention. She's the checkout girl at a nearby supermarket. I've always thought she was pretty, but a couple of weeks ago, when I went through her line, instead of saying her usual customer service line she said, "Hey, you," in a really friendly way. That certainly got my attention. After that, I've made a point to get eye contact with her every time I go to that store. 
Yesterday, I think she smiled when she saw me; it was kind of ambiguous because she was busy scanning items, and she glanced towards me and smiled while she looked down at the next item. Maybe next time I'll introduce myself.
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Latest reply: Mar 3, 2003
(2/27/03) Master of Orion 3
Posted Feb 28, 2003
Master of Orion 3 came out in stores yesterday, and I made a point of going to pick up a copy. I tried Best Buy first; turns out their PC game section looks like it has been picked over by massive hoards of high schoolers with too much money and not enough homework. The employees, of course, were no help; in response to my query about the game I got a blank look and was pointed towards the X-Box games section.
I tried a smaller video game shop and didn't see it on the shelf. I asked the person manning the counter, and it turned out that they had one copy left behind the counter; it was as if they had put it there especially for me, so it would be me getting it instead of a less deserving 13-year-old with no concept how to run a galactic empire. I purchased it on the spot, and ran home to load up the game.
Now, I am a big fan of the MoO series. How big? Let's just say if I spent as much time training martial arts as I spent playing MoO and MoO2 during my formative years, I'd be able to give Bruce Lee a run for his money, right after I broke a few of The Rock's bones and let Steven Segal know who his daddy is. I figured with all the time and effort I had put into those games, combined with my reading the internet previews, reviews, and manual included with the game, I'd pick up the game in no time.
What actually happened next is something that Tycho from Penny Arcade describes best (he's referring to his own experience here):
"...(After reading all the previews) I thought I was ready to manage my star empire and so forth. I would soon find out that was a lie from the pit of hell, I was so pummeled by the raw data the game provides that by the end of Turn One I needed a hug. I will spend the day teaching this bull to dance, matador style."
If you've played MoO or MoO2, MoO3 initially feels completely different than both. The interface feels completely different, things are arranged differently, and there's a lot of emphasis on being able to set the computer to do things automatically with you to nudge things a little every once in a while. The learning curve is so steep that some have called it the "learning cliff." After playing for 6 hours straight, during which I restarted my empire 4 times to get the hang of it, I think I've only just scratched the surface of how to play.
The graphics are so primitive that it's like playing a spreadsheet. Instead of graphical representations of things (like having a little person icon to denote 1 million citizens on a planet), there's just a whole bunch of numbers. You'd think that in the 7 years between MoO2 and yesterday's release, they'd have had time to put some graphics in. Instead of the old way of showing new scientific discoveries with a scientist standing next to a spinning hologram of the new technology, they just tell you "Nuclear missles have been completed." You don't get to see, visually, what you've built on the planet; instead, there's a spreadsheet looking window with a list of what's there. It reminds me of the first MoO, which had no buildings at all; it was just assumed that whatever new buildings and improvements you researched would be built with the money you put into planetary improvement.
I have to tip my hat to the makers of this game. They created a game that is literally all substance and no style. This game is extremely newbie unfriendly, and has absolutely no bells or whistles that would attract the casual gamer. Only a true 
would have the time and patience to play this game enough to truly master and enjoy it.
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Latest reply: Feb 28, 2003
(2/24/03) Geek II
Posted Feb 24, 2003
From www.penny-arcade.com:
"I don't doubt that moving with geeks always shares certain characteristics. The comparisons to Tetris, and indeed, the humming in unison of the Tetris tune. In a single truckload, Porkfry and Doc were able to fit an entertainment center, a couch, and a desk that I had built inside the apartment that was nearly impossible to get out. They referred to this as 'rolling a natural 20,' which makes them huge f*****g dorks, but then I take them to task for their liberal reading of the the Player's Handbook. Because they had ample time, no penalty for failure, and were not harried by fierce orcs, they could make attempts until they got it right - making it more akin to 'Taking Twenty,' as shown on page 62 of the PHB. Someone else came over and argued this as well while my things waited silently in the car. They don't care when they get in there, they're things."
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Latest reply: Feb 24, 2003
Wampus
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