During my time here in Lincoln, I feel that updates have been woefully lacking. I'll try to amend that now.

The past week, more or less, has been spent job hunting, with marginal results so far. At this point, I'm almost inclined to go ahead and pack up and head back, but I guess I'll stick around until the end of the week.

[Bitscape zones out listening to the fantastic music of Within Temptation.]

Need to dezone. Need to find inspiration. More than just stimulation.

About to go off on a small tangent here. Please bear with.

If life is like a video game, as I so often like to suppose it is...

You know how, playing adventure games, you sometimes just get stuck? Like there's some secret item you need to find in order to advance, and until you find it, all you can do is wander around areas you've already explored, kill the same old easy enemies over and over again, and talk to the same town people (who invariably say the same thing every time you approach them). After a while, it gets boring, and eventually I would either give up and quit playing, or look in one of those cheat books to find out what I needed to do next.

That's where my life is now. Or so it seems.

And in regard to this job search, I'm not implying that getting a job would mean I necessarily "advance" to the next level, because even if I do find a job, it's more like I'd be repeating the same level I've already been through, albeit with minor variations. Software programming? Been there, done that. Retail sales and customer service? Ditto. Serving the soulless corporation? You know the drill.

Then again, maybe there's something hidden in one of those levels that I didn't find the first time, and I need to go back and hunt for it. But even if there's nothing there, what are the other options at this point? It's like you could wander all the levels for weeks, pushing every button combination on the controller that comes to mind, and still not find anything new.

Maybe my thinking here is too narrow. Maybe trying to fit perception of life into the limited scope of a video game is the mind trap. In classic adventure games like Zelda, you're always trying to "advance", with the eventual goal of "winning", usually by defeating the "evil" boss monster. But what if reality in all its complexity and isn't like that at all? What if cartesian geometry itself is a sham? (Or, to be more precise, an incomplete method of expressing the true nature of the universe?)

What if the real function of video games is to trick our subconscious minds into buying into the paradigm that this is what the world is about? That life is a quest, you need to be constantly moving from one level to the next, that the world is full of enemies that need to be defeated, and that when you do everything right, it all culminates in a climactic battle against the ultimate foe. Do the archons benefit when we think in such terms? I wonder.

Oh yes. Aside from the job hunting, I've also spent a little time playing video games during my stay here. In case anyone was wondering.

Last week, Yanthor gave me some tips on polishing my resumé, and even went so far as to have his boss send it to a few of his contacts around town who might be needing help. So far though, that hasn't resulted in any inquiries.

On the non-tech side of things, I also inquired at several gas stations and retail establishments. Responses have varied from "I think we might be hiring for the night shift", to "Nope, all positions here are full, but you're welcome to fill out an application", to "Not at this time."

In the good news dept, I managed to fix my bike's flat tire last week without even realizing it. My earlier attempts at using the patch kit I had bought had failed, as air always seemed to leak around the flimsy, stupid little things. So last week, in a last ditch attempt, I ripped the old patches off, applied one of the remaining ones, pumped up the tire, which initially seemed ok, and rode it around the block. Within a minute, the tire had deflated again. I declared the patches to be utter crap, and decided to just give it a rest until I could attain something better.

Enter last Saturday afternoon. I was venturing around Lincoln on foot, and found myself at a local used bike shop. I explained my predicament to the guy running the shop, and he recommended that I use cement glue, even on patches that had sticky stuff on one side. I looked at the patches he had, and they appeared to be far superior. I decided to buy one of his little kits, which included cement glue and better patches.

Enter yesterday. I took the tubing out, all set to apply one of the superior patches with glue. Just for kicks, I tried pumping it full to see how fast the air would leak. Lo and behold, no air seemed to be coming out. Could the old patch actually be working? I put it back in the wheel, rode around the block, and the damn thing actually stayed inflated this time.

I took the bike for a nice ride, and it stayed inflated. So maybe I didn't need a new patch after all. My only guess is that it took the silly thing a while to "dry" on after the patch had been applied, even though it was an adhesive strip.

Anyway, I was overjoyed to be able to go biking through the city again. I'll just keep the "good" patches around for future mishaps.

Well, I'm getting sleepy now, so I think I'll go to bed. Trying not to get too down about what may or may not happen. Need to keep a positive vibe, if possible.