Bye, 2007!

I'm going to pause and reflect on 2007 only because it is ending on a pretty high note (that was a Wesley joke). High- and lowlights of the year:

-First couple weeks of 2007 spent in Japan
-Acquisition of the Wii
-Spontaneous pneumothorax
-Awesome boss, good times at JRL 170
-Spontaneously started up piano
-Upgraded materialistic living conditions
-Engagement
-OMG graduate school
-Zelda, Mario Galaxy, Animal Crossing, Phoenix Wright, Guitar Hero, Rock Band
-Lost my signing-in-public virginity to the Rock Band vocal part of the Killer's "When You Were Young"

And now I'll be stocking that Belgian raspberry beer at Trader Joe's for whatever might be in store for tonight.

LOL this cat.

I've been using Photo Booth to take pictures with the cats. Emu responds well to the screen, but Morgan is too fussy. I like the one above where Emu is stting the way Scottish Folds often sit, but that's just because I caught him in a weird position while he was licking himself. He looks like he's busy researching how to express deliver sardines and scoffing at all of the inferior cats on the LOL cat sites.

Here's another good one where he's looking curious. He's quite handsome.

It rained on and off today on Strong Island, so there weren't many opportunities to take pictures. Tomorrow it is supposed to be colder, but sunny, and we are supposed to go into the city for a field trip. Perhaps some outdoor pictures to come.

BOSS.

On Strong Island, there lives an Emperor. His name is Emu. Once a year, Memu pays homage. And lying next to His Holiness is Carlos, who looks like a miniature combination of Emu and Sponge Bob. The Emperor likes milk and cream cheese.

Recent Acquisition

I bought a piano recently, and it was delivered today. It is a 1977 Baldwin with light action, but a nice sound.

I still hate Nintendo

But, meanwhile...

Did you know Carleton listens to music? Did you know he sings? His vibrato is pretty impressive.

Coming soon: the contents of my bag on any given day.

Nintendo Algorithms vs. My Heart

It's 3AM, and as custom goes, I play Animal Crossing before going to bed. I get a letter, sans present, from Cube. He left. GONE.

Today in my discussion sections, I talked about atheism and morality. There was a short Nietzsche reading, the famous passage where the madman runs around saying "God is dead! We killed him!" and so on. This is obviously a rejection of theistic morality, where moral right and wrong are defined by a monotheistic god's approval or disapproval. To an extent, this means that we are free to come up with our own value systems. Morality isn't universal, we should appreciate this material life, and so on.

This freedom entails both awful and awesome consequences. One might think, Oh no, God doesn't exist? Everything I know ceases to have meaning. I'm scared. Or, one might think, Oh really? God doesn't exist? Well...to each his own! I'm going to create new meaning. How exciting!

In some sense, I have really lost meaning in my Animal Crossing life. At the moment, I really hate Nintendo. They have created algorithms that seriously fuck with my heart. It cannot be totally random. I even tried to time travel (Ultimate Sin), but the game knows. Yet in another sense, Cube was not everything in Animal Crossing, so it'd be stupid to reject the entire game for this one travesty. I could rationalize Cube's departure and move on with my Animal Crossing life. I could make Mordecai try to get Cube in his neglected town; he'd have more incentive to play, with an almighty Cube + Static combo. I certainly almost cried.

What do I do?