August 18, 2001 8:25 PM

Wow, I just got back from shopping, and man are my legs sore! I’ve been running around Eastland Mall for the past 3 hours trying to find decent things to wear to school. Amanda, my girlfriend, and her friend Stephanie were kind enough to accompany me. I’m a little annoyed about the clothes to time ratio I’m getting here; I got one shirt and two pairs of pants in three hours! I was hoping to get three to four shirts and maybe one pair of pants, but that’s just not how it worked out. We started off going to Pacific Sunwear, where I got my shirt. Amanda and Stephanie really like to move fast. We were in the store for around fifteen minutes and I was doing alright looking for shirts when they accosted me and demanded that we move on. Shopping just takes me a long time; I can’t help it. But we moved on anyway, despite my reservations. Next we hit Old Navy where I got my two pairs of pants. After we got finished there, we wandered around the mall in what has become a blur to my sleep-deprived mind. I need more shirts. I guess we’re going shopping again next weekend.

Other things that happened today include my winning of a two versus one (I was the one) game of Starcraft. This has really bolstered my confidence; recently I have been in somewhat of a slump. Last night I was up until three in the morning playing Starcraft with CR, one of my brother’s friends from the Indiana Academy, the high school from which my brother recently graduated. CR is a really nice guy, I’ll be the first to say, but when it comes to Starcraft skills, he’s a pop quiz you aren’t prepared for – that is, he’s really, really bad. So him and I were playing two versus two against random people on the internet. We played four games. We lost three of them. It was terrible. I’d have to say we lost the first mostly because of me. That is not to say that CR did better than I, oh no; the thing is, when we play two versus two, CR can pull his weight early in the game, when things aren’t very complicated, but once we reach the mid-game point, it’s my job to produce, expand, and attack for two players. Usually, I don’t have any real problem doing this; I’ve been playing Starcraft for about three years now, and I will not hesitate to tell you I’m better than the average pubbie (better than TWO of the average pubbie, even). A pubbie is a nickname for someone who joins internet games of Starcraft hosted by someone said pubbie doesn’t know. Pubbies have a well deserved reputation for being the mold on the shower curtain that is battle.net; they’re ignorant, mean, obnoxious, and annoying. Playing ten games on battle.net can really mold your views about whether or not humanity is generally good at heart. Getting back on topic, in the first game we played our valiant attempt to end it all in the early game went up and came down harder than a cow shot from a cannon. Sometime after our forces retreated, I noticed it – “it” was a sort of spacious feeling I get when I’m playing Starcraft sometimes. When I notice it, its like I’ve been daydreaming and am jolted awake. If a game of Starcraft was a man’s life, I’d be sixty and saying to myself “Where did the time go? What have I been doing?” I knew I was playing miserably. A few short minutes later our fate was sealed; the mid-game had come, CR was useless and I was a feeble sixty-year-old. Soon after the mid-game arrived, I had a heart attack and was forced to conclude the game. Two of the other games I don’t remember, but I do remember the fourth, and it was by far the worst. The fourth game lasted fifty minutes, and at the end the scores stood with me having 400,000 points, our enemies having 300,000 points each, and CR having 100,000 points. Ugh! Bedtime for Patty.

This was not exactly the ideal way to end my gaming for the night, so I made up for it earlier today, when I won the two versus one. It was beautiful. I laughed. I cried. I sniffed my arm. I don’t know why I do it, but when I’m really nervous I sniff my arm. It’s really weird, when you think about it. Usually I catch myself doing it during a long, hard game of Starcraft, during a test, or during any other activity that requires concentration.

I decided today that I really like Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm. It’s a great song. It’s stuck in my head now.

I have so much homework. Well, I don’t, really. I guess I’m still getting used to having homework after a long summer. Actually, it seemed like a pretty short summer. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I took a math class at the University of Evansville, which was pretty fun. Mostly I updated my website, though. I love my website. It’s a lot of fun to make things to put on it and know that they’ll be seen by about 30 people a day.

Whew! I’m doing venting for now.