OMG I totally slept with Kaiden Alenko tonight but I closed my eyes and pretended it was Carth Onasi the whole time.

I'll be honest. I like stuff. I like material goods that are completely unnecessary in my life. A new obscenely large TV. Pairs of shoes I have worn only once (or in some cases not at all). A car I am contemplating spending $5K more on for the sport version. All completely unnecessary, and it's debatable whether or not they will truly impact my standard of living and my ability to be happy.

Sometimes I feel guilty about it. I think, but there are so many more worthy things to spend money on. For the price of that pair of shoes I have never worn, I could buy someone ten sandwiches. Ten nice sandwiches with pickles. I'm hoarding ten sandwiches in a box in my closet.

And then I wonder, what are my values? As in, what do I *value*? I say that I value humanity's progress in the world, peace and justice, food and an opportunity for everyone. But I don't spend my money on those things. If you look at where I spend my money, you would say that I value looking good, eating rich foods and drinking fine alcohols, diverting myself with electronic entertainment, and decorating my house.

Are these things I want to value?

I am not normally one to feel bad or guilty about things that I want; if I really think it's wrong to want something, then I will stop wanting it. So I don't think it is *wrong* to want a gorgeous new TV.

But I wonder what it says about my values.

Harmonix's Chris Foster pointed this out to me: Jonathan Coulton is playing the Great American Music Hall on the last night of GDC. The venue is a really great one - long ago when band actually played shows we played there with Bis. One of my favorite shows ever was seeing The Magnetic Fields there. It's a very nice space. And should be a good show!

Tomorrow I will be heading to a place where this is in my future:

Hooray! It will be a welcome change from the winds and rains that have lashed the San Francisco Bay Area for the last week.

New blog game-ism has the right idea: this Yoshida brothers tune would so rock to play! No vocals though, so I think it has to be a Guitar Hero tune, not Rock Band. Hm.

I used to think the shamisen was a very ugly instrument - it has this twang that I never liked. But it works really well in these tracks.