The trip to DC was a fine opportunity to meet up with Tom and Leah, some friends from my Tokyo-life. Tom recently became employed at Mythic Entertainment, makers of the popular MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. Between demoing various quirky and nichey games to one another, watching the fine Millennium Actress, and eating bad-for-us snacks, Tom took us to see his workplace. It was actually really reminiscent of YesTrader, the startup dot-com I worked at in Chicago. I guess we all perceive game companies to be these big glamorous fantasylands, when they’re just dinky offices in normal neighborhoods like any other company. In mundane news, I’ve been asked to stick around at ShopKo for a while longer. I guess it’ll be nice to have income until I can find a job, and to be able to split at a moment’s notice once a new job finally shows up. It’s hard to find computer jobs with minimal Microsoft exposure.
In our adolescence, family weddings were a very special time because they allowed all of us overflowingly creative and adventurous cousins to gather and hatch schemes. A tradition was revived this time: the Shirley Temple contest. After six glasses each (and a couple of very, very confused bartenders), we started to question the accuracy of our previously claimed record: 14 glasses. Unrelated: I discovered roomie Jon’s [Europe Journal][1] (RTF file). Some bits are inspiring and some bits are simply hilarious. The file also gives me a lot of new insight into a friend I’ve had for years but could conceivably never see again. [1]: http://rubicon.cx/~vertigo/journal.rtf
The wedding was DC-themed, and took place in this historical Presbyterian church that was apparently attended by several presidents (my crappy memory has forgotten which ones; maybe Lincoln). I had Zinn’s _A People’s History of the United States_ along, which lent the US-history significance of my trip a pretty interesting twist. The more history, news, and culture I consume, the more I dislike large associations of humans and the more I like individual humans and small groups. It’s also getting harder for me to accept nearly anything I read, even things supposedly “on my side”. I almost always find inaccuracies and bias when reading about things I’m familiar with; who knows how much exists in subjects in which I don’t have the benefit of that familiarity? This all just strengthens my AT Field (see _Evangelion_).
The 17-year cicadas are out this year in the USA, and they’re everywhere, flying around, chirping a lot, and crunching underfoot. I read that the reason such periodical insects tend to have prime-number periods is to avoid overlapping periods with potential predators. Evolution++.
I went to DC for the weekend to see my cousin’s wedding. DC’s Metro system is pretty impressive; the subway stations are in these huge, cavernous, dramatically-lit spaces underground. The trains come often and are quite modern and clean. DC seems like a city I wouldn’t mind living in some day.
