Been on vacation in Maine for almost a week. It's great. My parents' house is on a lake, and I've done plenty of boating and swimming. There's also plenty of food to go around which is also awesome. We'll be having lobstah in a couple days.

It was incredibly hot the first couple days we were here. Hot and humid. I'm not really used to either. Now it's cooled to a reasonable temperature, but it's started to rain. The other night there was some lightning. The sky above was clear, but close to the horizon were some clouds and the lightning was away from the house. There was no thunder, either. Just lightning. I took some long-exposure photos but I won't know how they turn out until I get home and can develop my black and white film. If they turn out OK, I think they'll be really cool.

Man, the New York Times is awesome today. Here's another gem (free reg. required): Hostesses in Shorts? This Is No Ordinary Flight.

Violent crime and traffic fatalities are down, but that means there are fewer organs available for transplant, the New York Times is reporting (free reg. required).

I left work this afternoon and won't be returning for over two weeks. I'm looking forward to visiting family in Maine and relaxing by a lake. Since I'm going out of state, I left the cell phone at the office. I wasn't 100 yards out the door before I started missing it. Well, not really missing, but definitely noticing its absence. For all the trouble it is (getting calls in the middle of -- anything), it definitely has its advantages.

The State of Alaska recently sold one if it's Marine Highway passenger/vehicle ferries on eBay. I don't really know what else to say. I just thought it was very odd.

This was in the New York Times but the byline says "NEWS.com": Internet Survives Power Failure (NYT: Free registration required). News flash: The Internet is not in New York, it's a distributed network that spans the globe. If servers in New York shut down, packets get routed elsewhere.

Someone went on the tour of Seattle's underground and took pictures. I went on that tour a couple years ago. It was rad.

According to the local newspaper, Sunday's accident was fatal for two motorcyclists.

Alaska 3 is the shortest land-based route from FAI to ANC. At approximately 360 miles, it is usually possible to make it from one city to the other in about 6 hours (60 mph avg). However, due to construction at several points along the way and two accidents, it took over seven yesterday. We were stopped for about 15 minutes for one accident and the line of cars extended around two miles. As we drove by the scene, there were two motorcycles lying together in the Southbound lane and a body covered by a shroud lying not far away. I've seen wrecked cars before, less than 100 miles earlier that day even, but I hadn't seen an actual body until today. I can't really describe how I feel about it, other than "weird."

Last night some friends and I drove to the top of Ester Dome. It was about 11:30 p.m. but it wasn't quite dark yet, the sky was still dark blue, and only a couple stars were visible. We were enjoying the panorama when we noticed that the Northern Lights were visible. They weren't as dramatic as they are when it's pitch black and below freezing, but it was impressive to see them in the summer time.

Blogger has served me well for quite some time, but I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on cool features. So, after only some minor problems, I've gotten both Blosxom and MoveableType installed on my Powerbook. I'm going to fiddle a bit locally and then decide which one I like. So far, MoveableType is in the lead, but I like how simple Blosxom is. We'll see.

After spending quite a few hours with Jak and Daxter (PS2), I reached the final boss. After defeating the giant robot, the credits rolled and then there was a brief cutscene during which I was prompted to continue playing until I collected all 100 power cells. I grabbed a few I missed until I had all 100 and returned to the big gate. It opened and a bright line shone from it, and the characters were all really impressed, but I never got to see it because the credits began to roll once again. Looking through the completion statistics I found that there was another power cell making the grand total 101, although only 100 were required to open the big door. I got the remaining one and returned, hoping for some glimpse of what was behind the door. The exact same cutscene played out, and I once again got to watch the credits. Being a platform game, there's other things to collect, but I'm not sure I want to try to find the remaining 50 or so orbs.

What really bothers me is not this game specifically, but bad endings seem to be a trend in video games. After spending so much time working toward completion, I want to feel like I've earned something. After defeating the final boss in any game, I want some kind of reward. Seeing the credits may have been enough for NES and SNES games, but the bar has been raised. I want to see something that warrants my efforts. A good example is Metal Gear Solid 2. After defeating the final enemy, I was treated to an elaborate audiovisual sequence that I actually wanted to watch, not just names scrolling up the screen.

I got a copy of Ender's Shadow for my birthday on Friday. I finished it today. I really enjoyed it. It was good because there's obviously a lot of references to Ender's Game but you don't have to have read it to enjoy this story. It's been nearly 10 years since I've read Ender's Game and I don't remember much of it, but Ender's Shadow was still a great read.

That's me wishing a happy birthday to, well, me.