Chink

I spent nearly an hour today trying to get my house's printer working right. No matter what I did the damn thing just didn't work...at all. It wouldn't even recognize that I had plugged it into a computer. I was like, "Okay, what gives? It should at least give me some feedback, an error message or something." I tried many times, over and over, but still no dice. I figured it had to be something simple that I had overlooked. I turn the printer in every direction looking for small switches or buttons that might give me a clue as to what was amiss.

Nothing.

I figured it was time to give up. I pulled the USB cable out of my computer, and ran my hand down it on the way to the back of the printer. During my hand's journey it encountered something most peculiar. I pulled the cable from behind the desk and was greeted by the following sight:

Yep. The cord was F.U.B.A.R. Completely and utterly. I replaced the cable with a spare I had lying around, and got the whole deal working perfectly in less than a minute. As a matter of fact I used it to scan the above image.

It figures.

Politicate

I've been playing this game I downloaded called "The Political Machine". You get to play as a presidential hopeful, doing the whole campaign deal. Even though I dislike politics, and talk thereof, I've been having a whole load of fun playing this game. I'm actually pretty good at it, too. You know you're busting moves when you get Texas to vote democratic, or pull New England to the Republicans.

I created my own guy "Matthew Lawson" (It took me hours to think up the name), from NC. I should have make my "home state" something besides NC, maybe California, or Ohio. I only say this because you're rating is pretty much untouchable in your home state; unless you really mess up bad, you've pretty much got the electoral votes from your home state locked down. With NC only worth 15 votes, it doesn't give me much of an early advantage. My character has mad "comeliness" (visual appeal), though, so running TV ads in other states does very well to boost my rating abroad. It also helps to pick a running mate like John Edwards, the fact that we both hail from NC spots us an insane amount of charisma, giving us a great amount of power when we give speeches. My character is also high in the intelligence area, giving me better responses when I appear on television.

The game can be tough, though, especially when you play against someone like Arnold schwarzenegger, who has a "home state" of California. (I know he's from Austria, but the game includes him just for fun) Not only does he start with 55 electoral votes, but he has the state where TV ads have the greatest effect (CA) locked down, making it impossible for me to get a following there, he also has a great deal of charisma, making him good during speeches and TV shows. I do my best to manage my money, as my character doesn't have a great deal of fundraising ability, but it's tough, I use money fast.

I'll write more when I get home. Peace.

Elated

I'm so happy right now I could shit a brick. A gold brick.

I totally dominated this test in Physical Science that I didn't think I even passed. Well, I didn't dominate it per-se, but when you expected a 20 and you get served up a ~79, you tend to have a high opinion of yourself for at least an hour or so. I also got a 85 on my Latin project that I was sure had borderline 70 written all over it. It goes without saying that I had a pretty good day today.

I'm a little hesitant to get too excited just yet, as I have a 12-weeks test in Physical Science, and I assume I'll get my grade back for my paper in English III tomorrow. Effectively, if I screw up too bad tomorrow, all of today's good fortune will amount to nothing. I'd like to keep on the positive, and think that I'll do well enough not to screw myself over, but no matter how confident you are, that part of your mind that says "I'M SCREWED!" always seems to drown out the one that says "I'll beast this thing". Like I said, I'm doing my best to keep positive.