I'm exhausted

I just got back from buying food for the first time in, I think, over a month.  That took hours because with no transportation getting to and from the store is killer.  The sidewalks offer little to no protection from the sun and it's a long slog over when my backpack is empty and I have nothing in my hands.  On the way back with a full bag and, in this case, more bags in my hands, the feeling is more of "kill me now" and it didn't take long before the heat, direct sunlight, weight, and lag of good nutrition of late because I haven't had much in the way of actual food made it so I had to frequently take breaks to recharge in whatever shade I could find and not so much recover as wait for my hands arms and shoulders to stop hurting.

Two breaks from my house someone doing yardwork saw me and offered me cold water.  That was nice.  Blessings be upon his name, whatever that may be.

Yesterday I spent much of the day outside because I have been assured that my house was overrun by fleas and thus I should deploy chemical weapons.  I personally didn't notice because for some reason fleas don't like me very much.  Perhaps I taste bad.  Whatever good fortune it is that keeps them from bothering me does not extend to my family and pets.

Even if I hadn't been told I would have known something was wrong because my cat was afraid to come in the house and, when she did come in, afraid to touch the floor.  She only acts that way when there are fleas or when she's worried there still might be fleas after fleas have been killed off.

So the house was gassed with stuff that had been left for me to use.  (The flea problem erupted when I was away for an extended period.)  This involved the unwieldy process of moving a terrarium (aquarium without water intended for the keeping of land animals) with a more than somewhat startled gecko inside.  It couldn't be in the house when chemical weapons were being used to eradicate all life in the house.

Also moving various wires so his light and heat pad could stay on.  That probably wasn't necessary because it's so hot he probably feels at home, but I wasn't taking chances, two days ago it was cold and rainy.

It also meant staying in my driveway for much of the day.  First to let the chemical weapons spread through the house and kill everything that touches air, then to let the same weapons disperse.  That's why I had to stay out of the house.  The reason I had to stay in the driveway instead of, say, shopping then is that the gecko makes a tempting target for predators.  If you don't believe me, get one and then show it to a house cat.  Small moving thing with basically nothing in the way of natural defenses save the ability to drop a limb when scared (it actually used this ability once.  Picking up an escaped gecko is something that might get you bitten and can involve climbing on furniture due to the gecko habit of hiding on the ceiling, picking up a disembodied gecko tail is just disgusting.  Those things thrash like you wouldn't believe AND THEY ARE DISEMBODIED) is pretty much begging to be eaten.

The top of the gecko tank does not lock down.  Once upon a time we kept something (I don't remember what) heavy on it to stop cats from getting in (well, one cat at a time, but the gecko has a lifespan that means he's met various cats.) but now the only thing on top is the light.  Inside he's safe.  Current cat doesn't go where the cage is, he can't lift the top of the cage.  (He only ever escaped when it was open.)

The end result is that if I left the vicinity of the gecko tank I might come back to find myself without a gecko.

So I was in the driveway.

I played a recently acquired copy of Unreal Tournament III.  It is, of course, wrong to judge a game that exists mostly for the purpose of multiplayer solely on its single player campaign.  On the other hand, they did go through the trouble of having one and since it's there, oh my god is there so much wasted potential.  It seems like lately all I've been doing is seeing things with wasted potential.  At some point I need to write up posts on the movies Driver and Getaway which both had decent premises executed like crap.

The new Godzilla movie is another thing that deserves a post.  It's problem is that the makers couldn't seem to decide what kind of movie it should be, tried to make it over half a dozen different movies and thus failed on all counts.

The game Mirror's Edge I've talked about at length (Quicksave, cheating, and the sanctity of single player, Spoiler Free Post, Plot Post, What I would have done differently if limited by real world concerns like money and time available, what I would do if not so limited, second post on what I would do without limitations) and while some of that, particularly the parts where I imagine making the game without limitations, calls for fairly radical changes, some of it is very much, "If they just tweaked this it could be 200% more awesome."

Recently an eight year old and a five year old have seen me playing Mirror's Edge and they've both grasped both how cool the game is AND how silly and stupid some of the oversights are.  Which is to say that even small children can see the wasted potential.

Unreal Tournament III''s single player campaign provokes the same feeling of wasted potential.

So, basically, more of the same.

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Oh, and money.

Nothing is hurtling toward me that will cause everything to come crashing down all at once, but it does look like there might be enough things that I used to stave off such collapse that things will whither away via interest and, when I can't keep up with monthly payments, late fees.

So yay.