Robo-nami and iPod

Tonight at work I made a really dumb mistake that caused several people to have to be awakened, and created a lot of extra work for some people. I’ll probably get in trouble for it soon. On one hand I feel terribly guilty, like I misread a bomb-defusing manual and cut the pinkish wire instead of the cyan-colored one. On the other hand I don’t feel anything at all, probably because I’m tired of being here and it feels like I’ll never again do anything truly exciting outside of a book or video game. I want to team up with Qiang and medically research the ailment that afflicts people who have seen Tokyo life and then returned to the mundane. I may sound like a broken record but that’s probably because whatever record I was playing broke when I left Tokyo. Two weeks ago I became ill. It wasn’t even the mixed blessing of an illness that knocks you down into a position where only sleeping, reading, and playing video games are possible. Instead, the oppressive, ever-present headache prevented me from comfortably doing any of these things. It was painful while I read my Cryptonomicon or played my Xenosaga Episode II, and then while I slept it twisted those excellent escapes into frustrating code-cracking and dungeon-crawling nightmares. Hiroko took very good care of me; she came over every day, even staying over one night, and cooked for me what I can unequivocally call the best soup I’ve ever eaten. Finally I went to a doctor, who told me it was hepatitis, and to call back for my blood test results in a few days. I did, and they told me that whatever it was, it wasn’t hepatitis. It then went away. A famous-among-Xeno-geeks [review][1] of the Episode II premium box tipped my impulsive-buying scales and caused me to order the special Evangelion volume 9 with this Ayanami Rei figure. She is called Robo-nami by people nerdy enough to give nicknames to dolls that come with comic books. I continue to glide along, working, eating, sleeping, seeing Hiroko, joking with Ben and Jon, occasionally having sparks of fun with Oshkosh people, not getting called about a job, and trying to get myself into situations where it’s okay to just read my book or play my game for several hours. [1]: http://www011.upp.so-net.ne.jp/pony-hp/XENO-BOX.htm