For lack of a better title, I'm going to call dub the fest that is wrapping up the Unemployment Fest (or Phest), for the simple reason that 3 out of the 4 people in attendance are currently unemployed!

Jaeger and Kiesa arrived last night at 22:00, with Zan Lynx not far behind. Jaeger had brought the recently beefed up Ziyal, Kiesa brought the laptop Elssbett, and Zan Lynx brought Titania, the mighty dual Athlon. I temporarily relocated Argo into the main festing area for maximum festing fun.

Pfesting commenced. (I hereby submit that when a mixture of Festing and Phesting occure, the result shall be known as "Pfesting".)

Festing activities:

Jaeger cropped photos, and purportedly worked on the Content Solutions 2.0 infrastructure.

Kiesa borrowed my TNG Season 1 DVD set, and started to watch Encounter at Farpoint on Elssbett. Despite her attempts to prevent it from distacting other festers by rotating the display out of visual range, we all found ourselves gradually getting sucked into the classic scifi television action from the kitchin. Since everyone was more or less watching it anyway, we decided to move TNG to the main viewscreen.

Zan Lynx and I went on a fortification run to Safeway, where we acquired a standard compliment of caffeinated beverages, and I also grabbed some ingredients to make the patented Delicious Dish formula. (In a slight break from festing tradition, Jaeger and Kiesa had brought their fortifications before the fest began, so they required no fortification run.)

At the checkout register, Zan Lynx generously offered to pay for the sum of both of our entire orders. I raised mild protest, but he insisted, on the basis that he is actually able to comfortably afford it right now, while I am in a slight financial pinch at the moment.

I couldn't really argue with this, and... well, it does make it a little easier on the overtight bank account, so I swallowed my pride, and allowed Zan Lynx to pay. At some point, when I am less financially strapped, I'm going to remember to give back to everyone who has given to me during these rough times. One way or another.

In the Safeway parking lot, a group of teenagers in two cars, who had been there as we entered the store, made cryptic hand gestures at us as we returned to Tobias. I wasn't certain whether they were attempting to signal comradery or hostility, so I made signaled some random hand gestures of my own, and flashed the peace sign. This seemed to amuse them, so they made more random motions, and the one who appeared to be the alpha male of the pack made a peace sign, pointed at the sky, and laughed.

(On a tangent: I have to say that since I moved here, I have gained a certain degree of empathy for the teenagers of this town, due to what I see as hostile attempts by the local law enforcement and government officials to needlessly suppress peaceful night time activities.

A few months ago, I recieved a letter from the city, informing all residents of a new draconian ordinance which had unilaterally been passed by city council. (Did they even bother to ask any of the local taxpayers whether this was wanted? I certainly wasn't consulted beforehand.) It is now illegal for anyone to drive past the same intersection in the same direction 3 times between the hours of 10pm and 5am. Violation of this ordinance may incur a penalty of $500, and I don't remember how many points on a driver's license. I wish I had kept a copy of the letter, as evidence of the insanity to which our government has lowered itself.

The letter specifically stated that this was designed to curb disruptive teen behavior, prevent drug abuse, and all the other usual "protect the children" line of garbage. Somehow, I don't think so.

I saw those teenagers hanging out in the Taco Bell packing lot at 3am back last spring. They were peaceful. They were happy. They might have been doing some X and acting a little goofy, but who's to say for sure? They weren't hurting anybody.

But the cops sitting in a car nearby certainly didn't seem to like it. Those officers were just looking for an excuse to crash the party. The new ordinance gives it to them. After all, a cop could "remember" someone passing an intersection 3 times, giving them due cause to pull just about anyone over, whether it's even true or not. Whose word is the court going to believe? A 16-year-old with blue hair, or an honorable officer of the law?

So... the town is mean to kids. City council should be thrown out on their asses, and replaced with people who know how to make worthwhile laws. But it probably ain't gonna happen anytime soon. What else is new?

End offtopic tangent.)

Zan Lynx and I returned to the Castle Lair, and commenced with festing activities.

I decided to spruce up the Content Collective's login interface a bit more understandable, since it has been known to confuse people in the past. Whether I actually succeeded in making it more easy to use is up for debate.

Zan Lynx worked on the design for his theoretical web page, doing lots of fancy stuff with stylesheets.

Kiesa went into a phest mode, watching more TNG on Elssbett, hanging out on the couch, reading, and intermittently watching the various music DVDs that we put on. (Jaeger's Yanni disc, followed my my Sarah McLachlan live Mirrorball concert.)

After coding on Ziyal for a while, Jaeger engaged also revereted to phest mode, and played some Pikmin on the Cube.

Zan Lynx and I attempted to play some Quake3, but some unknown bug in Titania's hardware or drivers caused it to repeatedly crash, usually before a round was one. So we gave up on that endeavor.

I cooked up some Decilious Dish, which turned out to be not the best Delicious Dish ever, but still tasty. (The patented formula produces slightly different results with each iteration.)

I went to bed at 0600. Jaeger and Kiesa had colonized the couch. I offered Zan Lynx my sleeping bag, in case he wanted to crash, and retreated to my quarters.

When I awoke at 1000, Jaeger and Kiesa had departed. Zan Lynx woke up shortly after I did, and and proceeded to pfest a bit more.

Zan Lynx departed for his D&D club, leaving Titania behind to pick up later today.

I will now take a shower, and do something more or less useful with the afternoon.