The Franco-Taiwanese Alliance

Today I got Forza 2, and have been playing it for most of the day.  That is all.

Oh, except for this Tower Defense-style game that Ryan linked me to.

I can’t seem to concentrate on anything today… not Puzzle Quest, not reading….  My brain might have melted.  There was a slight lack of sleep last night… maybe that has something to do with it.

Pyrrhic (my desktop) is occupied with starting the task of backing up the hundreds of gigabytes of crap I have stored on his hard drives.  This is the first time I’ve ever burned a DVD, and I gotta say… good god, it’s slow.  An hour to burn a 4GB DVD at 18x?  Daaaamn.  Ah well, it has to be done.  I have about 600GB over four aging drives, and I’ve been too negligent for too long in my backups.  Of course, if one of them was to fail, with my luck, it would do so right now.  You can’t see it, but I am now knocking furiously on wood.

I marathoned the rest of Nanoha last night, while Alice was working on her paper.  In the end, it’s a fun series that uses its cheesy emotional string-pulling and cuteness to make you care about the characters, but also throws in some pretty okay action (relatively speaking).  I liked it.  Nanoha A’s and StrikerS are probably in my future, but not as priorities.

Puzzle Quest is pissing me off.  The AI cheats like crazy… it definitely cheats in at least one way: it makes moves that it knows will give it certain benefits (i.e. extra turns), even when the benefits are supposed to be determined by chance.  For example, if it has two identical matches it can make, but it knows the RNG will give it an extra turn for one and not for the other, guess which one it will take?  Whereas the player, of course, has no way to know….  I’m also fairly certain the game tailors gem drops for the AI to increase its combos… maybe to artificially increase the difficulty or something.  Bah!  I’ve had a string of 5 crushing defeats.  We’re talking about matches in which the AI is routinely taking 5 or 6 turns for every one of mine, and I die when my opponent still has 2/3 health remaining.  Of course, for all my whining, we all know I’m going to keep playing the damned thing….

This weekend was supposed to be pretty full of things, and well, I guess it was.  Alice and I went with friends to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End on Friday night.  For me, the movie was full of face-palm moments, cheap laughs, and predictable melodrama, but it was still damned entertaining, all in all.  Stupid movies can still be tremendous amounts of fun (as I predict the Michael Bay Transformers will be).  And it’s always nice to watch a movie with my wife in a starring role.  Good job, Keira honey!  Best of all, though, was the trailer for Live Free or Die Hard that played before the movie.  Yippee-kay-yay, motherfucker!

Saturday, we drove down to San Jose for the MAAP escort training at Andy’s place.  Good eats, good meeting, and good hanging out with my closest friends, who I miss terribly.  A load of laundry later, this theme was continued up at Mikey’s place in San Francisco.  I really missed the guys, and spending the day with them was great… especially hanging around towards the end of the night and just talking shit, like we used to do.

Of course, Alice and I didn’t get back home to Davis and get into bed until BFT in the morning, so it’s thrown our sleeping off up to and including today.  We didn’t get out of bed yesterday until mid-afternoon (which meant I missed going to watch AFM races at Infineon with the 530 crew), so we just decided to waste the rest of the day as well.  Star Trek: TNG episodes were watched, pancakes were made and devoured, books were read, and video games were played.  We then proceeded to stay up until about 3AM, which meant the sleeping-schedule-fuckup rolled over to today as well.

Today’s activities so far have been paper-writing for Alice and an advance segment of Game Night for me, with Ryan and Andy.  Titan Quest was played.  We’re now level 47, and we just got past Epic Egypt into Babylon.  My character, She-Legolas, acquired a new-hotness bow and a new helm with big stat boosts, but is now sorely lacking in movement speed compared to her companions, Dillios and Leonidas.  It is sad.

I really wish I could sleep less… sleeping is so wonderful, but I really don’t like missing the whole morning part of the day.  Sleepiness aside, I really love early morning, when everything is dim and cool and the world isn’t so crowded.  Early morning rides, drives, biking trips and runs/walks are always so great.  As well, I don’t like losing so much time that I could be putting into all my time-consuming hobbies.  I’ve got tons of games to play, movies, TV shows and anime series to watch, books to read… I’ve still got that massive backlog of car and motorcycle magazines, too.  And in three weeks, it’s off to France for a month… I’ve got to hurry up and pack my iPod full of tunes.

I’ve been reading more of the Alvin Maker series… Alice and I are both done through Heartfire, and I just ordered The Crystal City off of Amazon.  What I most admire about Orson Scott Card and his writing is his ability to create multi-dimensional characters.  There are very few flat characters in his stories, and he does his best to give everyone a fully fleshed-out personality and history, and one that makes sense, to boot.

Under the Tuscan Sun, on the other hand, doesn’t seem like it really has much of a story so far, but then, I’m not very far into it.  Despite the lack of plot development, it’s really putting its hooks into me.  It’s the kind of “classic literature” style that I really love, in which every sentence is a piece of poetry, regardless of whether or not they fit together into some epic tragedy or whatever type of story you want.  I think this is a style that’s becoming lost on people in general, since now all the popular materials depend on Something Happening every few seconds.  Plot development is king now, and I think we’re sacrificing something important for it.

I spent most of yesterday playing Puzzle Quest, and it is awesome.  It’s like Bookworm Adventures, but without the words… I could play this game forever.  Even if I do spend most of it cursing at the AI and its uncanny ability to CHEAT.  Oh well, it doesn’t break the game (and I’m not sure it’s really cheating at all, just analyzing situations really bloody fast, as computers tend to be able to).  I also gave Moto GP a try (finally, I own a PSP game!), and it’s pretty good too.  Hard to control, with the PSP’s stupid “analog disc” thing, so it’ll never really be a good racing sim, in my opinion, but it’s fun.  I gave up on being good and technical with it, turned on all the assists in the game (brake assist, AT, sim mode off) and just had fun with it.

On the anime front, Nanoha is turning out kind of fun… the last couple of episodes I’ve watched have changed the tone around from lighthearted and cutesy to moody and portentious, and I’m liking it.  Lucky Star is also doing me pretty well, despite what seems to be a massive backlash against it in the fan community.  I don’t get it, because the show is funny and cute.  Oh well, we all know I’ve never really been a great meter of public opinion.

Taken from Ferahgo!

ANGER
1. With whom did you last get angry?: Alice… over something stupid.
2. What is your weapon of choice?: SWORD (bokken, to be exact)
3. Would you hit a member of the opposite sex?: I sure would avoid it if I could, but if I had no choice, of course I would.
4. How about of the same sex?: Yeah. =P
5. Who was the last person who got really angry at you?: Alice… over something stupid. XD
6. What is your pet peeve?: Willing stupidity. It’s okay to be ignorant… it’s not okay to stay ignorant.
7. Do you keep grudges, or can you let them go easily?: keeeep… I’m TERRIBLE at this “forgiveness” thing.

SLOTH
1. What is one thing you’re supposed to do daily that you haven’t done in a long time?: Go to the gym. e_e
2. What is the latest you’ve ever woken up?: Does this still have meaning after the hands of the clock have looped all the way around?
3. Name a person you’ve been meaning to contact: Mai-ly!
4. What is the last lame excuse you made?: I’m expected to remember all of my lame excuses?
5. Have you ever watched an infomercial all the way through (one of the long ones)?: For sure. Years and years ago, though.
6. When was the last time you got a good workout in?: Hmm… a month or two ago, when I ran two miles and it killed the hell from me.
7. How many times did you hit the snooze button on your alarm clock today?: None, but I think Alice hit hers a couple of times, which has the same effect.

GLUTTONY
1. What is your overpriced yuppie beverage of choice?: Orangina!
2. Meat eaters: white meat or dark meat?: All meat.
3. What is the greatest amount of alcohol you’ve had in one sitting/outing/event?: Let’s see… it was either that bottle of vodka I chugged, the ten or so shots of soju I did that one night, or one of the nights of ICBs with the guys. Each of these times was in addition to beers. I’m a middleweight!
4. Have you ever used a professional diet company?: No.
5. Do you have an issue with your weight?: Meh… somewhat. I could stand to lose a significant amount of fat, but I don’t think I’d lose much actual poundage from it.
6. Do you prefer sweets, salty foods, or spicy foods?: Food plz. Although spicy foods have a special place in my heart.
7. Have you ever looked at a small housepet or child and thought, LUNCH?: Who hasn’t?

LUST
1. How many people have you seen naked (not counting movies/family)?: In the ballpark of six or seven… I hope I’m not forgetting anyone. XD
2. How many people have seen YOU naked (not counting physicians/family)?: Same ballpark as above. Naked Stadium!
3. Have you ever caught yourself staring at the chest/crotch of a member of your gender of choice during a normal conversation?: “Caught yourself” implies that I was doing it unintentionally.
4. Have you done it?: I think I’ve probably tied it up, humiliated it publicly, and made romantic explosion all over its face.
5. What is your favorite body part on a person of your gender of choice?: Whatever looks good on the person! I generally like the part right above a girl’s hips.
6. Have you ever been propositioned by a prostitute?: Yes, but I’m pretty sure she was joking, since I was like fifteen, and looked younger.
7. Have you ever had to get tested for an STD or pregnancy?: Yes, Your Honor.

GREED
1. How many credit cards do you own?: Three credit cards and a debit card. Woo, credit!
2. What’s your guilty pleasure store?: GUILTY pleasure? I think all of my pleasures are pretty much out in the open.
3. If you had $1 million, what would you do with it?: Seriously, I’d invest it… it’s not capital that’s important, it’s income. Not seriously… McLaren F1!
4. Would you rather be rich, or famous?: I don’t know, really… probably rich. Fame brings too many problems.
5. Would you accept a boring job if it meant you would make megabucks?: Boring, yeah… meaningless, no.
6. Have you ever stolen anything?: Yeah.
7. How many MP3s are on your hard drive?: Jesus, I have no idea. I know I’ve got in the ballpark of 110GB… how many does that translate into? (My desktop is off, or I’d check)

PRIDE
1. What one thing have you done that you’re most proud of?: Gee, nothing, really… =(
2. What one thing have you done that your parents are most proud of?: I don’t think they’re really proud of anything I’ve done… I’m sure they’re relieved I got a bachelor’s degree, though. =P
3. What thing would you like to accomplish in your life?: I think the only one that’s really important to me is having kids and making them into good people.
4. Do you get annoyed by coming in second place?: Ohhhh yeah. I’m a terrible loser, but I realize it, and therefore do my best to hold myself in check.
5. Have you ever entered a contest of skill, knowing you were of much higher skill than all the other competitors?: Yeah, but nothing serious, like official tournaments or anything… just games with friends.
6. Have you ever cheated on something to get a higher score?: Yeah, but never anything that actually mattered.
7. What did you do today that you’re proud of?: I haven’t really done anything yet today. =P

ENVY
1. What item (or person) of your friends would you most want to have for your own?: I’ll take that 944 off your hands, Brandon! Or James’ Evo IX. Or Frankie’s ZX-14R… drool. Or Brandon’s salary… does that count?
2. Who would you want to go on Trading Spaces with?: What’s Trading Spaces?
3. If you could be anyone else in the world, who would you be?: Dani. (of 530riders, not Ryan’s Dani… sorry, Dani!) Farm + motorcycles = winnar
4. Have you ever been cheated on?: Yes.
5. Have you ever wished you had a physical feature different from your own?: Oh yeah.
6. What inborn trait do you see in others that you wish you had for yourself?: Motivation!
7. Finally, what is your favorite deadly sin? Lust. ^_~

THE SEVEN HEAVELY VIRTUES

FAITH
1. What religion do you follow?: None (or insert “Fred Potato” jokes here)
2. What religion were you raised as?: Hmm… Nichiren Buddhist, but not all that diligently.
3. Do you believe that forgiveness is a religious property, or a human property?: It’s a human property that I’m not very good at.
4. Do you have your own commandments?: Sure do. Ask Ryan about my “Moral Pillar”.
5. What was the last promise you broke?: I can’t remember… probably some silly thing I said to Alice about doing housework or something.
6. Have you ever said the words to a prayer and not meant it?: Of course.
7. Do you believe that anyone could be perfect?: Nah.

HOPE
1. Did you get everything you wanted over the last holiday season?: Hmm… not really, but I don’t really care all that much. =P
2. Regarding your future, what is the best thing you could hope for?: A high-paid job doing something I love, like writing, or racing a car.
3. Do you let yourself get your hopes up for something even if you know that there is a large chance of failure?: Sure do. What can I say, I’m a hopeful kind of guy… although I’m pretty pessimistic at the same time.
4. Freedom or fate?: I don’t think either one completely pins it down.
5. Have you ever bought a lottery ticket?: Yeah.
6. Do you gamble?: Poker home games! I’ll gamble at casinos, but it’s not a driving desire of mine.
7. Have you ever had something called off on account of bad weather, but then gone ahead and done it anyway?: Er… yeah, I guess.

CHARITY
1. What causes do you support?: Non-idiocy.
2. What causes have you given money or time to?: Non-idiocy.
3. Have you ever worked in a soup kitchen or done another kind of outreach for the homeless?: Yeah, but because I was required to. Not that I hated it or anything, but I didn’t do it out of the goodness of my heart.
4. Would you ever consider joining the Peace Corps, Amnesty International, or another travel?: Meh.
5. Do you give money to the homeless on the street?: Occasionally, but not usually.
6. Have you ever helped out a friend with basic needs, like rent or food?: Yup.
7. What’s the greatest extent you’ve gone to help a friend in need?: Let people borrow lots of money… traveled long distances to lend my wisdom… etc.

FORTITUDE
1. What are you most afraid of?: Spiders. Not being needed. Failing a friend. Things going in my eyes. Doctors and dentists. Making some mistake and crashing in car or on motorcycle. Never finding out what it is I want to do with my life and drifting, lost and useless, forever.
2. What did you do today that was really brave?: Nothing yet.
3. Who is your favorite superhero, and why?: Does Spider Jerusalem count?
4. Would you put your life in danger to rescue someone?: Yeah.
5. If you were to face the Wizard, would you want more courage, more brains, or more heart?: More motivation? =P I’ve got plenty of all three of those things, I’m just too damned lazy to do anything with them.
6. Have you ever gotten stage fright? If so, when?: When I was younger. These days I don’t really ever.
7. Do you consider yourself to be a leader or a follower?: I can be pretty decent at both, but I’m more of a Bean than an Ender… somewhere in the middle, I guess.

JUSTICE
1. Have you ever been summoned for jury duty?: Yeah, but never had to serve yet.
2. If they reinstituted the draft (for both genders), would you go, or would find some way out of it?: I don’t really know. Find some way out of it, probably.
3. Do you support capital punishment (the death penalty)?: No. I think it’s situational, and in some cases it’s one of the least-bad options, but everything I’ve learned in life so far leads me to believe that everyone deserves a chance for improvement and atonement, and that can’t happen if they’re dead.
4. Which should be guaranteed legal?: Definitely. Which should definitely be guaranteed legal. Do you know my dad? PORK CHOP SANDWICHES
5. Do you believe that Dubya is rightfully President of the USA?: Leave me out of this eight-year debacle.
6. What was your favorite media circus trial?: >_<
7. Have you ever written a letter to a politician?: No.

TEMPERANCE
1. What do you have the hardest time moderating yourself on?: Anything. =P
2. Do you collect anything?: Hm… I like having things, and I hate getting rid of anything, so I guess I collect everything. Not avidly, though, like stamp collections. Maybe I collect books… or CDs… or video games. I guess I definitely collect cars and motorcycles, but that’s a pretty slow, long-term collection. XD
3. Are you addicted to anything?: Leisure?
4. Have you ever put anything on layaway or used an installment plan?: Not really.
5. What’s your preferred method of paying for things?: Money? I don’t really care.
6. Tell us one thing you wish you hadn’t let yourself do?: If I had chosen differently, it wouldn’t have been me doing the choosing.
7. Do you feel that you obsess over things?: Of course. Maybe not enough, in some cases… =P

PRUDENCE
1. Who is the wisest person you know?: Unfortunately, me. I KNOW there’s people out there much wiser than me, I just haven’t gotten to meet any of them. There are people out there I think are wiser than me who I haven’t gotten to meet (Neil Gaiman at a signing doesn’t really count), and there are people I know who I think are equally wise, but dammit, nobody seems capable of besting me. I really want someone to, I really really do, so that I can ask them all the questions I can’t answer. =(
2. Have you ever participated in a vigil?: Nope.
3. Do you take advice when it’s given?: If I think it’s good advice. I consider all advice, if that’s what you mean.
4. What area are you wisest in?: Interpersonal matters.
5. Do you drive defensively?: Hell no, I drive very aggressively. I’m polite about it, though, unless you do something stupid on the road and I have to avoid it. And I’m more defensive these days, since Alice tends to freak out if I, y’know, approach a slower-moving car. =P
6. What did you learn today?: Lots of things about Emily. =P
7. And of course, what is your favorite heavenly virtue?: Shrug. They’re all pretty good. =P
1.Story behind your username?
It’s me and what I do.

2. What’s bothering you right now?
Nothing, really, except the piece of rice that’s stuck in my throat.

3.Where do you live?
Davis.

DESCRIBE YOUR:

4. Wallet?
Odd question. Black leather bi-fold with a bill clip.

5. Background on your cell phone?
Alice and Gandalf. <3

6. Your best friends?
HAY GUYS
7. Say something about your avatar.
I don’t really have one in most places… my LJ avatar is a picture of me that Alice chose… on LS1tech it’s a closeup of the “WU8″ RPO code on my Camaro, which signifies a genuine SS.

8. Eyes:
Brown. When I was a kid I thought they were black, because they look black, and I didn’t know that nobody has truly black eyes.

9. Life:
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds.

WHAT ARE YOU:

10. Doing this weekend?
Let’s see… MAAP escort training at Andy’s, then Alice’s family’s house, then possibly hanging out with Alice’s SJ friends, then possibly going up to Mikey’s in SF… and that’s all on Saturday! And Sunday, going with 530 to Infineon Raceway to watch the AFM races.

11. Wearing?
My old ratty Nautica pajama pants and my “Watch the Snow Fall” Threadless T-shirt.

12. Wanting?
To poop. What? You asked!

13. Listening to?
Hammer blows outside. Although now “Both Sides Now” is playing in my head.

14. What do you smell?
Nothing, really. I have a bad sense of smell.

15. Drinking?
Nada.

DO YOU:

16. Believe in love?
Yes. <3

17. Believe in soul mates?
Not of the exclusive kind.

18. Sleep naked?
Sometimes. Usually boxers.

19. Like seafood?
Oh, yes. :9

20. Remember your dreams?
Sometimes.

21. Consider yourself a study freak?
HAHAHAHA! You don’t know me very well, do you?

22. Believe in miracles?
I believe people can see things as miracles, and those things do sometimes happen.

23. Burn easily in the sun?
Not easily, but it happens.

24. Speak another language other than English?
I speak lots of languages badly… French, Mandarin, Japanese… but only English well.

OTHER:

25. What’s something you wish you could understand better?
Suspension. >_<

26. What did you do last weekend?
Mmm… poker, The Big Lebowski, video games….

27. Who do you miss?
Lots of people.

28. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?
Yes. Mr. Asian America 2005 First Prince, baby!

29. Orange or apple juice?
Either.

30. Who was the last person you went out to lunch with?
Alice!

31. What was the last text message you sent?
To Alice a couple of days ago, about my Wyotech appointment yesterday.

32. Last text message you received?
Reply from Alice.

33. Last time you ate a home grown tomato?
I have no idea.

34. The most annoying sound(s) in the world?
I can’t really think of one…

35. Best hugger you know?
Lots of my friends are good. Alice is up there, as is Ryan, and Andy.

36. Who do you hate right now?
Nobody, really.

37. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
Hmm… I don’t think I’ve ever visited someone in the hospital, come to think of it.

38. Do you like someone right now?
:3

WHAT’S YOUR SISTER’S NAME?
Unborn?

WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 MIN AGO?
THIS DAMNED SURVEY.

WHAT ARE YOUR BROTHERS’ NAMEs?
Alan. Why’re you getting so pushy all of a sudden?

MTV, BET, OR VH1?
BET! Only because it at least has no pretentions about what it is.

IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE RIGHT NOW, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
The money factory? =(

I just had a pretty decent game of Supreme Commander with Ryan… us against two Supreme AI.  We got creamed in short order the first time, but got our revenge the second time, with the assistance of T1 bomber-rushing on one of the two AI to take him out of the running early.  The rest of the game amounted to us stalling the other AI with suicidal base attacks while teching up, taking his infrastructure apart with T3 artillery, and striking targets of opportunity with T3 strategic bombers and T3 gunships.  We may suck (especially me) compared to serious SupCom players, but it’s fun for us!  I managed not to let my base stagnate this time around… usually I start forgetting to build upon reaching T3… I’ll set a bunch of things with long build times going, and then I’ll forget all about my base and run around like a maniac with a small group of units, get them killed, get my base attacked, and sit back until I die or Ryan saves me.

The Transformers trailer… wow.  It looks like it’ll be a fun action movie (as expected of Michael Bay), with no substance whatsoever.  And forget about adhering to the source material… Megatron isn’t a gun, and you can’t even tell what any of them are supposed to be when they’re in humanoid form.  Half the fun of the old Transformers was that you had a robot with distinctly recognizable car (or whatever) parts as arms and legs.   Bumblebee as a new Camaro, though, I can live with that.  And Megan Fox… I’d like to have a relationship all over her face.

The Alvin Maker books (Orson Scott Card) are pretty good, as expected of Card.  I’m going into the fifth book (Heartfire) soon.  My favorite character so far has been the judge who presided over Alvin’s trial… pity he didn’t get a bigger part.  Judicial pwnage ftw!

It looks like we’re not having that comment contest, since nobody seems interested.

Oh, and I’m now officially enrolled at Wyotech, in their chassis and powertrain program.  I start in October.  Nine months of eating and breathing cars, and doing terrible things to make them go faster.  You can bet Faye won’t come out of it stock.

First things first.  I’ll be installing the newest version of WordPress soon, so if anything breaks, I’m sorry.

Now, then.  I’m thinking of running a contest over the next couple of weeks to try and drum up some comments on the site.  I’ve got a pair of $25 Banana Republic shopcards I can use as prizes, valid through June 20th.  I was thinking that I’d give one out for the 100th comment (we’re currently around 20), and the other for the most entertaining or thought-provoking comment.  I’d probably let the contest go through the end of May, and then mail off the cards to whoever wins, and if nobody wins one or both cards, I’ll just use it or them myself.  :D  What do you guys think?  A strong showing of comments on this entry will convince me to run the contest.

So far today, I’ve spent about 4 hours playing Titan Quest.  I think my slow-gamer-ness is showing itself again, because in those 4 hours, I only got through about 1/3 of an act, and only a few levels.  Warfare/Defense has lots of tasty skills, and in the low-mid 20s, I’ve only just maxed my masteries, with some of the more basic Warfare skills decked out.  It looks like this character’s going to go with either sword/shield or mace/shield, although later on I’ll probably really want to throw some points into the dual-wield skills.  We’ll see what happens!

Giving pills to a cat is Serious Business.  Except when it’s not.

I’ve got a large stack of magazines on my desk from the past three weeks or so… mostly car mags, with a couple of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics type mags thrown in the mix.  I will attempt to carve through this stack in the next few days, and would like to chronicle my efforts.

Under the Tuscan Sun is a good read so far, 30-odd pages in, but I think Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has spoiled me for sheer solid meat.  It’s hard to imagine another narratively-framed book that could have the same kind of tangible intellectual substance to it… excepting The Sparrow and cyberpunk.  Back to chasing Stephenson, I guess.

I really want Guitar Hero 2 for the XBox 360.  And two controllers.  ROCK!

I am no mad-eyed prophet, and that makes me kind of sad.

I really wish I had a garage.  Or at least a driveway to work in.  Le sigh.

I was reading some stuff on the Interbutt last night about XCOM and XCOM 2: Terror From The Deep.  It made me all nostalgic for those two games, as well as Silent Storm.

Parts of my thighs are pretty sore from squatness (didn’t manage to hit up a second set yesterday).  Sooo out of shape… but that’s the point of this, stemming the downward slide and getting back into it, right?  ROAR.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a fabulous book.  You should all go read it right away.  It’s long, though, and fairly heavy.  And it’s not really about motorcycle maintenance at all.

How is it already noon?

I did a set of 100 squats yesterday, and another one just now.  I’m going to try and keep up daily sets of squats for a while, in hopes of toning my leg muscles for motorcycling.  Currently, any ride longer than 45 minutes or so gets me sore… whee.  I’m so out of shape!  Let’s see if I can get in another set of 100 by the end of the day… don’t know how that’ll go.