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I'm sitting outside on a deck, my feet kicked up on a chair in front of me, right above a giant lake sprawling in front of me. My hair is pulled back, a slight breeze mixed with the smell of a campfire just wafted past me. I'm watching the sun set behind the trees across the lake as I type to you, the dull roar of boat motors off in the distance. I can also hear the constant soft lapping sounds from the water against the shore, a mere ten feet from where I am currently sitting. As I look out onto the lake, I see the tree-covered island that's very small. Someone actually has a house out there. Would be pretty neat to live out there, I thought to myself today. I think it would be a pain, though, having to cart your groceries to and froe, especially in the winter.

A pontoon boat is lazily motoring by right now. The party on the boat just waved at me. How incredible this entire area is. It's so beautiful. I could think of nothing more relaxing than sitting out here each night, checking my e-mail, watching the sun set over cool blue waters. Matt's parents' place is the best. They live on Red Cedar Lake in northern Wisconsin. I've been trying to scope the northern lights these past few nights, as I was told they were visible a couple of weekends ago, but have been unsuccessful.

The air is almost chilly now, as I watch ducks floating lazily by me. Yes, this area is certainly beautiful. It's been a wonderful getaway. We should be leaving to go back to the hustle and bustle of home by tomorrow afternoon. After all, it is a six hour drive.

Crap. I should go now, as my signal keeps fading periodically, and the battery in this laptop is going to die at any point. I'm really glad I got the chance to do this - sitting outside, describing sights, sounds, and my overall experience as it happens is pretty neat. Thank you, Airport. Pictures to come shortly.

Yay, the weekend's finally here! Well, kind of. I have to go to work in five minutes for about 7.5 hours, but hey. At 3pm today, it's smooth sailing till Tuesday. What are you doing this weekend?

Pilfering through my RSS feeds has become my daily routine the second I get home from work. I'm obsessed! Anyhow, I ran across another neat blog I think you might find interesting. It's called Kandahar Chronicles. I put a link to it under the Blog section of my site, if you ever need a quick reference. It's a peek into the daily routine of a man we'll call Carlos, who works as a relief worker in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Ugh, only one more day of work! Really, I can't wait. Work has been insane. There seems to be this animosity growing between my group and our “support” group. My group speaks with attorneys and legal personel all day. When documents need to be sent to court or the attorneys themselves, we put in a request via our support team, who, in turn, gets the paperwork out to them. Currently, the support team is down to four people. Granted, they've been working long hours/weekends to get caught up, but it doesn't seem to help, because more work keeps pouring in. While our group recognizes this as a problem, it is also getting to a point where it is affecting our work, and, more importantly, our paycheque. Things aren't going out in a timely fashion, wrong information is being sent out that wasn't listed on the request in the first place, etc. Meanwhile, we have a ton of work to do and it just keeps coming. The situation is beginning to turn ugly. It's never pretty when you screw with people's money. I hope they can get *something* resolved soon, be it hiring more people or allowing overtime. I know it certainly can't continue the way it's been. Anyway, enough about work.

My weekend should be fun. Tomorrow, hopefully, will fly like the rest of this week. It will be nice to have three days deep in the forests of northern Wisconsin, hanging out by a lake. I'm hoping to see some northern lights. I'll be sure to fill you in on all the dirt.

So I went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean tonight. Not a bad flick. Could have been a rental, but I wasn't bored. Numerous humorous parts, and all that. Oh. My favourite part - Johnny Depp can have my love child, but hey. I've always thought he was meow.

On a completely unrelated topic, on our way home tonight, Matt pointed out Mars, the brightest star in the sky. It even had a reddish hue to it. As I craned my neck to stare at it through the moon roof, it occurred to me that I'm staring at a planet that neanderthals wondered about 60,000 years ago. Kind of trippy, when you think about it. One thing I'm confused about (maybe you can clarify it for me) - apparently Mars will be seen at close view in two hundred years. Why not 60,000 more? I realize an orbit is eliptical, and I realize time is irrelevant when it comes to this, but why the large gap? Something to ponder as I fall asleep tonight, anyway. If you have any idea, lemme know.

It's always been a stereotype that online games were for teenage boys who locked themselves in a dark room for fourteen days, colourful phrases emitting from the room when the dragon raid goes awry. Being a chick who likes games, I've always wondered exactly how many women compared to men actually liked sitting in front of a screen for hours, killing, maiming, burning, and god knows what else. The results are pretty astonishing. According to a poll released by Entertainment Software Association, 26% of game players are women 18 or older, while 21% are boys 6-17 years of age. In line with that trend, adults over 50 now make up 17 percent of the gaming population, the ESA said, compared with 13 percent three years ago. The largest group of gamers, at 38 percent, is men 18 and up, while girls 6 to 17 account for 12 percent of game players, the poll found. The average gamer spends 6.5 hours a week playing games, the ESA said, while boys 6 to 17 average 7.3 hours per week of game time. Ever wonder what games are selling? They're certainly not Barbie-ish types. War titles are amongst the top picks, as well as games rated “M” for Mature.

Pshhh. Wanna play Dress Up Barbie? No! I'd rather put a bullet in some nazi's skull at close range, then stab them a few times, and watch them die Die DIE! I like death and destruction in my games, man. And I have boobs!

Just got done with laundry. I don't know that this night could get any better. Really. *cut sarcasm with knife* Been dealing with a lot of personal crap lately, none of which I care to tell you. No offense. Launching into it just makes me tired. I'm just sick and tired of being a pawn between my folks. I've had enough. I feel guilty, though, because I feel like I could be doing something. My family went from your average run of the mill midwest family to Jerry Springer. So, I'm dealing with all this crap I'm not willing to launch into here, and, while digging through three baskets of laundry, I discovered I bought two damned flat sheets instead of a fitted sheet. Lovely.

Matt and I just walked in the door. I'm dead tired. But I wanted you to know how incredible the Radiohead show was tonight. It took place at Alpine Valley Theatre in southern Wisconsin. It's an outdoor arena that seems to sprawl forever. As the show got underway, I turned and glanced behind me, only to view a giant sea of countless smiling faces. It was a pretty chilly night - perfect for an outdoor show. The Jicks opened for Radiohead (lead singer from Pavement + other crew), and they were really good. I love how much energy Radiohead has live. They definitely put on a good show.

Leaving the place was nuts. The show got over around 10pm. We knew parking would be a nightmare, and so did everyone else, apparently. Several people around us were grilling some hotdogs, swiggin some beer, etc. After about an hour and fifteen minutes, people started to move. We couldn't, however, due to this couple in an Altima blocking us in. Apparently, they had fallen asleep. Matt politely tapped on their window, but it didn't wake the guy up fully. He just sat up, looked around, saw people weren't gone yet, and layed back down. Matt beeped the horn. Nothing. After people *really* started moving, Matt went and knocked on the guy's window and motioned for Washington dude to move. Well, this seemed to do the trick. On come the lights, and he began to move forward. We came to a spot where you had to kind of stick the front end of your car out and force your way into the giant line of cars or you would never get out. Washington guy just sits there, not even attempting to move. Guess what he did. Kicks off his lights and proceeds to take another nap. Thoroughly disgusted, we decided to wedge our way between cars and do another route. Ten minutes later, we were on our merry way, Washington guy still sitting there, reclined back in his seat again. Washington dude got the finger.

Something I came across via Boing Boing disturbed me:

The US government has set out to scupper the proposed World Intellectual Property Organization summit on Open Source and Open Culture. Lessig writes:

But the astonishing part is the justification for the US opposing the meeting. According to the Post, Lois Boland, director of international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said “that open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to promote intellectual-property rights.” As she is quoted as saying, “To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO.”

If Lois Boland said this, then she should be asked to resign. The level of ignorance built into that statement is astonishing, and the idea that a government official of her level would be so ignorant is an embarrassment. First, and most obviously, open-source software is based in intellectual-property rights. It can't exist (and free software can't have its effect) without it. Second, the goal of WIPO, and the goal of any government, should be to promote the right balance of intellectual-property rights, not simply to promote intellectual property rights. And finally, if an intellectual property right holder wants to “disclaim” or “waive” her rights, what business is it of WIPOs? Why should WIPO oppose a copyright or patent rights holder's choice to do with his or her rights what he or she wants?

So I'm trucking through my RSS feeds and come across Ben Hammersley. Apparently, as we speak, he is enroute to Afghanistan for ten days to truck around and write about what he experiences on his blog. Might be kind of interesting. Definitely quite the adventure. Good luck to you, Ben! I'll be reading!