How does the cricket live in the basement? What does he eat? We have no known plantlife down here. There may be a few crumbs of food around the couch or desks, but the cricket lives in the bathroom.

The weekend at home was... good I guess. I got to see friends and family. Hopefully, I didn't offend anyone. I just wasn't feeling very energetic and interactive or whatever.

I don't entirely want to go to bed now, but I'm not sure I want to stay up either. I guess going to bed would be the responsible thing to do.

Dating... hmmm. frustration. The biggest hurdle may be getting over myself... that and finding someone i want to ask.

Regarding online dating thingies:
I hope that's not a good picture of you.

Yes, I know it's mean. Yes, I know it's shallow. No, I'm not looking for a beauty queen. Yes, I'm more interested in the internals than the externals although the packaging is important to me. Yeah, it sucks. And maybe I am a jerk ;)

I received this text message tonight:

"I tried u proved u didn't love me so im through take care goodbye have a nice life without me
From: 1434251XXXX
9:41pm 11/15/04"

Either someone had a wrong number or I'm really REALLY oblivious. Or maybe whoever it was didn't try as hard as they thought. Or it's someone trying to scam me. It's from the area code I live in but it's a cellphone from Danville, VA. I have no idea who it is. The only person I can think of who'd send it, most likely doesn't have my phone number. I'm not calling it. I don't even know if its a girl or a dude.

What a great age we live in. :)

My 64 Dollar mistake or how Halo 2 cost me $80.

Hmmm... the money thing... I made a mistake this week that cost me a decent chunk of money unnecessarily. I noticed that my checking account was getting low so I transfered some from my savings to cover it until monday (payday). The mistake was not checking to see if it went through before using the check card. Apparently I didn't click the button that made the transaction final (online banking) and I ended up overdrawing my checking account with two transactions so I was charged two fines. Argh. Usually, I have a decent amount of padding in that account but I had an extra tax bill last month. Oh well, my mistake. It just kind of put me in a bad mood today, but there isn't much I can do about it now.

Okay, how does that relate to Halo 2? Well, the game came out on Tuesday this week. Sam's club had it for $45 or so. My room mates and I decided to split the cost three ways. I was the one who bought it and that is the transaction that put me in the red.

($46.xx/3)+($32 fees * 2) = $80

I hate math.

am I the only one who sees the irony or oxymoronicness of this headline?
Bush Sets Ambitious Conservative Goals -

I sunk into a bad mood today. I think it may have been the weather. Perhaps a combination of that and poor sleep. I'm doing better now though. What's it to you anyway?

Well, let's dip into politics a bit.
I voted for Bush and he won. Yay. Actually I felt like I didn't care too much until I saw how close the race was and thought that Kerry might win. I didn't want to deal with the stress so I went to bed and tried to sleep. I shoved earplugs in my ears because my room mate had the TV on pretty loud and I didn't feel like yelling at him to turn it down. I can't say I slept well that night. It was warm in the room and I guess the stress dealt with me. I drempt that Kerry won 278 to 273 electoral votes. Of course, the numbers don't add up in reality so It didn't take too long for me to realize it was just a dream. Even with the win, I'm somewhat ambivalent. I'm not very passionate about politics. I'm kind of wary about the notion that we can steer the country's moral health from the top rather than the bulk. Still, that doesn't effect how I vote. I thought it was kind of funny on the Daily Show Wednesday night, when John said that "maybe we are the media elite they say we are". He was surprized to learn that maybe he and his friends don't share the same beliefs as the rest of the country.

Another thing that's been crawling around in my head the last couple of days is the thought that government shouldn't be directly reponsible for the success of it's citizens. John Kerry repeatedly talked about 5 million americans not having health insurance and 5 million Americans not having jobs (or perhaps that was 5 million Americans losing insurance or jobs). Is it the government's job to eliminate poverty? Is the government responsible for me being hired at a privately owned business? Can the govt invest be the reason for my financial success or failure. Well, I guess in a lot of instances yes. The govt's fingers are in so many areas these days it'd probably be catastrophic if it pulled out. On the other hand I don't think we can blame the govt if we get knocked around in life and just give up. I was watching a tv show about Stalin. At one point 5 million tons of grain were being exported while 5 million people in the Ukraine were starving. They had opposed his taking over their farms and other property and he punished them by letting them starve. He actively prevented them from leaving the country. That was an evil, evil man. That was government controlling wealth. I don't really have a nice, tidy conclusion for this thought. I'm still sorting through it. Should govt provide health care for everyone? Can govt provide quality health care for everyone? Should govt be involved in health issues on the individual level? I tend to think no, it should not. Just because someone is suffering doesn't make it the government's job to try and fix it. This is life. Bad things happen. Bad situations happen. Hopefully someone will help, but I don't think it's the govts job. Of course, it's easier to say that when one is in good health and privately insured. I guess the closing thought is that I'm uncomfortable with the government of a country being involved (and therefore controlling) in an individual citizen's life... providing food, shelter and health care to the individual. I don't know.