My niece Catherine Elizabeth was born at 8:26PM today. She came a few days early but at a healthy 8lbs 13 ounces. Her mom is doing well and the whole clan (except me) is in Philadelphia to take care of her and the new little one.

Belly Laughs

I just discovered It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and the show is just hilarious. It gives me that rare comedy treat of belly laughs every few episodes. I can't believe I missed this when it came out in 2005, but then who watches FX? I am really trying to procrastinate studying for my Constitutional Law midterm on Monday. At some point I am going to have to dig into the cases and opinions again but for now I have found a wonderful diversion.

Evolution

I downloaded the Spore Creature Creator and have been having some fun with it. I love well done character creators and this one does not disappoint. There are so many choices to make. Will I go with 2 arms and 2 legs? Shouldn't a species I want to evolve to interplanetary travel have arms? Most creatures on earth do not though. Do I want just 2 eyes and 2 ears? Do I set up the eyes for a predator species (closer together) or for a prey species (wide field of view with little overlap)?

Do I want to build for speed or flexibility of function? Humans are incredibly flexible in function. We can use our feet to play soccer or to run with. We can use our arms to lift ourselves up as well as to turn a rubiks cube. The physics are not that great on the creator (I would love to see creatures not be able to move because they are built off balance). I am really impressed with the IK programmer as I can't make a creature that can't move decently without trying very hard.

What I really want to do is to create a truly alien species that would climb to the top of its own evolutionary ladder. I am trying hard to work out four legs, two arms, and a tail, but so far I can't get it quite right.

I downloaded Firefox 3 for Download day and so far I can't see much difference. Of course the add-ons I run could cut into the performance increase. I miss my TV shows. I am resorting to downloading British shows off of TPB to pass the time. I have to wait precious months to get to NFL season. Psych and Monk are starting their seasons in a month but that is a long time to wait.

Nerdtastic

I hate to admit it sometimes but I am such a huge nerd. Now every nerd is a bit different but I am having a nice week. First, my Wii Fit preorder came in. Second, I got into the Warhammer Online beta! (I can confirm that there is a beta and that I am in it... all else is covered by the NDA). I was trying to use my art skills to win my way into beta through one of the contests and I am weirdly disappointed I don't have to.

In other gaming news, I have been playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines again as well as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I am having fun drinking blood and running people over. Thankfully I don't get the urge to do either in real life. However, when I played Carmageddon oh so long ago, I really had trouble not seeing pedestrians as points so I am trying to be careful.

P.S. - I got into the Age of Conan closed beta as well (not the Fileplanet one) and I just got an email today offering me a free drinking cape (free Ambrosia at all taverns). I wish I liked that game because some parts of it are so cool, like the concept of a drinking cape. Actual PvP was the part that wasn't fun (PvE was ok) and it billed itself as a PvP game.