Hit the ice again before work yesterday. Did the first climb by headlamp, set an anchor, and got 4 more laps in before we ran out of time. Course thinking about climbing and tacoma pretty much made for an unproductive work day. The little I did was spent on a proposal for 2009! I don't think I'll be here, but I've pretty much been assured I'll get funded.

Over the weekend Bob, some of his friends from work, and I went to the Art musuem to check out an exhibit inwhich they brought a bunch of stuff over from the Louvre. The highlights for me were an oak table every inch of which had some very detailed carvings and another table with these little (~4X6 in.) inlaid landscapes made entirely of semi-precious stones. The craftsmanship was pretty amazing. Afterwards we went to a Pint's Pub which I'd been meaning to go to. I'd been meaning to so long I forgot why I wanted to go. When we walked in I realized it was because someone had told me they had the best selection of scotch in the city. It was impressive. I'm not into scotch, but am always enticed by a homebrew. Unlucky for me they produced absolutely the worst microbrews I've ever had. I couldn't finish the first so ordered a second and it was so bad I had to use the first to rinse the taste out! It's obvious why they needed to have good scotch around.

Other than that I've been playing a lot of Mass Effect. It's only alright. Developers seem to have this thing for spending a lot of time making sure the game caters to the gamer and not so much in making a good game. In this game you can have all kinds of weapons, appearances, abilities, but in the end it's pretty much your standard 3rd person shooter. I think of an RPG as kind of a story the gamer writes as he plays; this game is pretty linear. There's a couple off-shoot things, but they're pretty lame. It's basically a prettier version of KOTR, without as many side stories.