Still, the game was over, and I found everything it had to offer. My DS would go back to being unused for a few months again.

At least that's what I thought until Asma got me an R4 as an anniversary present. It's practically a DS emulator for the DS. The bottom line is that I can download whatever games people have ripped (which I'll eventually buy, of course).

Of the few games that looked interesting, I chose Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime because I saw it at Costco once and the cover art and screenshots looked fun. So far it isn't really challenging (and I don't think it ever will be), but it is the cutest game: cute music, cute characters, cute dialogue, ridiculous story. Beyond Animal Crossing, I think (AC is too spacey/disjointed). On top of that, it's pixel art all over the place, which quadruples the cuteness and charm. I love it.

So my hands and eyes won't be bored on commutes. Yay for Asma and Dragon Quest!

So this morning we started off with french fries, scrambled eggs, and sauteed veggies. It was a breakfast/lunch thing, but not brunch. Afterwards, Asma was planning how to reorganize the bathroom, but then we decided to keep it simple because we can't really do much while we rent. But once Asma gets a job we'll be in good place to buy next year?

We also went to Adams Morgan this evening, just to walk around and see the neighborhoods (we found an area where we want to run 7 miles tomorrow morning), but mainly to get falafels from Amsterdam. It's ridiculously good. I wish I got the large, but we were going to Tryst after that and I wanted a mocha, and I'm a little bit better nowadays in not overdoing all the good foods.

And now we're back home. Early night. I am probably going to do some work, or maybe just read my ‘Dragon Book’ (Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools), which I just got in the mail today. It's the book on compiler designer, and it's 20 years old (the second edition only came out last year, but it's too expensive).

I'm not quite sure why, but my brain is just wanting to wrap itself more and more in software development. I never expected or meant for it to happen, but I'm good at it, and I realize how much better I am than a lot of other people. I'm not saying that out of arrogance; it's more that people come to trust a lot of code in their day-to-day lives, so one would hope that a lot of care and obsession goes into the product.

Not often the case.

Everyone is in a rush to get things out, or maybe things grow fast unexpectedly, and you can't pause to go back and polish things up. I think it's more the latter. I'm really appreciating Apple's approach: keep things simple and update often. I also love their decision to build on top of Unix, and all the possibilities they open up for developers – it's pretty much free to develop and customize software easily in OS X, but you'd have to have Visual C++ for Windows (or Visual Windows). Not at all accessible for anyone wanting to tinker.

And then there's this stigma of open source or anything non-Windows and non-Java as not being industrial strength. Which is completely stupid to believe. How many of the most popular sites are built on an open source foundation?

But that's not the point. I've got an idea in my head for a programming language, and I'm hoping I can actually build it in the near future. I love PHP and all, but there are shortcomings to it, and I haven't been able to really embrace anything else (though Ruby (not Rails, gross) might potentially be something I'll get into). Looking at the source of PHP, it's very messy, almost haphazardly so. I can't believe that there's a good reason the source is so ugly.

It's funny that, a few years after hating computer science [as a major], I would almost willingly get a B.S. in it now if I had the choice (and didn't already have one). There's so much to software that I want to tinker with, and hopefully impact other things in a good way with it. It's my art. I think I can live with the idea of never being a good graphic designer.

At the same time, I am so tired of this world. I can't understand why propaganda spreads so quickly and gets imprinted into the public's head. Ahmedinejad, even if he wasn't grossly misquoted on Israel (which he was, according to Asma and a lot of scholars), isn't saying something that the Israelis themselves haven't already said about Palestine. Many (most?) Zionists don't believe Palestine should exist. Where's the WWIII alert on them? Where's truth and balance to anything any politicians say? Why are people so complacent?

Whatever. I feel blessed with the life and opportunities I have. And I hope that I can use that to deflect some of this bullshit off other people.

I need to squoosh Mishti now. She is the embodiment of all that is good in the universe.

Last Sunday, Asma and I went on our longest run at the time: 5 miles. It was more of the same for my knees and calves, but as we neared the end, I noticed that my right calf didn't seem as stressed as before. It was a couple of days later that I realized that my left knee's pain went down even more, to the point of practically vanishing (a vanishing point?).

Maybe the running re-aligned my knee (the pain definitely flared up during specific movements), but who really cares for the time being. My knee is happy. And sometime soon, I'll go see a sports therapist to make sure things aren't actually getting worse.

Oh, and we ran 6.2 miles today. In a year, it'll be a marathon. Watch and wait.

• Asma is graduating in less than three months. And then she's going to be a professional in the world of demography and urban planning – briefcase, business casual dress clothes, hair bow and all.
• Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is pretty awesome. For some reason I get the feeling that the game is already coming to an end, but there has to be a lot more to it and I'm just being paranoid (no Zelda game is as short as I think this will be). I like that the opening screen is reminescent of A Link to the Past.
• We took Mishti and Shirin to the vet on Saturday. Mishti was given Gentocin for her left eye, and it already looks like it's working really well. Yay. Mishti is also becoming a little fatty. Shirin, however has been slowly losing weight; she's not eating as much as she used to, but it looks like her appetite is picking up again. She loves Critical Care and Nibble Rings, though. Doesn't seem like a dental issue if she can chew the rings easily.
• I over-stressed my calves about three weeks, and it's been difficult to get myself to not run. It's so weird that I actually enjoy it now. If I was physically able, I would run every day. I'm wondering if I'm doing more damage by not taking an entire week off? Running every 2–3 days isn't a problem, though. Maybe it's just going to take more time for my legs to get used to it all. I love running.
• We went to Yuan Fu last night. It's the best Chinese I've ever had, and it's vegetarian. The fake meat is amazing. I want to go every week.
• Trent is no longer bound to any recording contracts, apparently. We're happy.
• Basil was born yesterday. Jasmine is proving to be a very good older sister.