So last night I was watching an old Nova program called Mars: Dead or Alive. It originally aired, I believe, on Jan. 5th, but my Tivo is majorly backlogged.

Anyway, it’d been a pretty crappy day at work (big surprise) and I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. Then I learn, from this program, that the programmers working on the Rover AI software didn’t have it finished in time for launch. Instead, they had to finish it up while the vehicle was en route to Mars, and uploaded it via radio signal. Now, the software to handle the flight and landing was all done..this was just ‘on the ground’ stuff. But still, can you imagine the pressure? Knowing that you have to finish this project in the alloted time, and can only test (presumably) on a simulator? If you don’t get you code fixed in time, the mission ends up a failure. Sheesh!

After hearing that, I stopped feeling sorry for myself. Heh.

In other news, I’m at the 95% mark in that infernal Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time game. So close…but the farther I get, the harder it gets. I know reviews have complained the game is too easy, but I’m the first to admit my twitch gaming skills are pretty weak. This has been a real challenge for me.

As for this site, I’m looking at some new blog software that will, I hope, give me more features that I’d like to include. I actually thought about writing something from scratch…then I had a rare moment of honesty with myself and admitted I’d never finish such an undertaking…

Three and a half months since my last post here. Man, the place is dusty…again.

Consistency has never been one of my strengths, but undaunted, I’m ready to try this again.

I suppose my first project should be to get a more robust blogging package. I read other blogs and drool over the cool features. b2, as far as I can tell, isn’t being developed anymore (though in all honesty I haven’t checked lately).

There’s no point in trying to recap the last few months right now. But to bring things up to speed, I’m currently playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on the XBox. I’m intending to play Horizons on the PC, though I never seem to get around to actually logging in. I’m re-reading O’Brian’s Master and Commander after seeing the great film adaptation (and I’m enjoying it much more this time around…I guess I’m getting a bit more patient with age). I’ve been watching A&E’s Hortatio Hornblower movies (bought the collection at Christmas) and…I guess that’s about it.

Very much looking forward to Champions of Norrath on the PS2, btw…