I didn't write a post talking about how great the election of Barack Obama is. Not because his election isn't great - it is, without qualification. But I'm just too lazy and if you're reading the internet you can find millions of other people (many more informed and better writers than I) talking about it. But it is the first time since I became politically active that my candidate for president actually won. So that's a new feeling. I like it. I also like Obama more and more all the time, and I like him a lot to begin with.
What else happened recently?
Illustrating my nerd tendencies, the only costumes I had for Halloween this year were to represent Dungeons and Dragons characters at their respective sessions. Neither was a typical LARP assemblage of quasi-medieval costumery, though: the two characters in question were a
wandering cowboy wizard and a dwarf that "dresses like Rainbow Brite". There are photos of the former costume somewhere (pester
scholarinexile, I suppose) but not the latter. Which means you can't see the awesomeness inherent in the ridiculousness of the outfit, but also spares me the embarrassment of you seeing the same.
Maddy dressed as a princess, but did not Trick-Or-Treat. She was very good at handing out candy to other costumed kids, though. This is in contrast to the sugar-powered monstrosity she became after Halloween, as she often refuses to eat any food than candy, and does a lot of screaming. I suppose we are entering the Terrible Twos, though hopefully she'll be better once there's less leftover Halloween candy in the house.
On Election Day, I managed to bust up my Nintendo DS, such that it doesn't work any more. This is especially annoying, as I had just started getting into the most recent Ace Attorney game. This wasn't the first time it's fallen hard on the floor. By my count, it's been through at least three bad falls and countless minor ones. These things are pretty sturdy, though: Up until now, the repeated injuries didn't impair any functionality, though it did look kinda dinged up. This time, though, the LCD on the bottom screen is visibly cracked, and it only shows white. The touch screen still works, which means the system is tantalizingly close to being useable for Ace Attorney: 90% of the time you just hit the "next page of text" button on the touch screen. But the other 10% of the game would be tricky or impossible without seeing what's on the bottom screen. I'll probably finish the game of Amber's DS (hooray for redundancy), but I'm going to need to figure out whether to get this one repaired (~$85, gone for several days at least), replaced with a refurbished model (~$97), buy a new one (~$130) or wait until the
new DSi comes out in America and buy that (cost unknown, wait several months). Or I could import one from Japan (~$300, can't read Japanese) but that's well outside my price range. Being broke at the moment doesn't help this situation at all, of course. I suppose being broke rarely helps any situation.
So all in all, life is still going on mostly as normal, despite a black man being elected president. Maybe America will finally ascend into Heaven on Inauguration Day? Re-election? His last day as President?