dog$

Well this has been a fun week, and none of my diversion was directly related to the holiday season itself.

#fwp first, shall we. The prior Sunday's excursion to the arcade was mostly a good day and it came with a distasteful conclusion. Things were fine, I had the machine to myself for a while and was playing nonstop, and closing time was eventually around. They gave me two warnings before close, and they were ten minutes apart with the second coming four minutes before close. I said OK both times and kept playing as long as I could, on the assumption that the machines would have their power cut off once closing time hit. It turns out that this assumption was wrong. What happened instead is that a security guard stood behind me and waited for me to be done with a credit after the closing time (how long did he stand there? I have no idea. I turned around to check the floor to see if anyone was around before starting my last credit, and there wasn't, hence I continued playing). Once I was done, he informed me that it was past close and that I needed to go - and then he asked me why I kept playing after 2AM and receiving prior warnings of the time, saying that he was "irritated" by my doing this and it was something that I "did all the time". I explained that I was aware of the situation and was expecting the power to be promptly cut at close; and as for the second statement, this was the third week that I visited there on a Sunday night - the first week I left before close, the second I left ten minutes afterward because nobody cut power and nobody informed me that I was stalling the closing process at that point. As I was in the process of explaining this, at one point he interjected to tell me that he "doesn't care" as to why I continued to play. I had to repeatedly state my understanding that in the future, the power to the machines would be cut promptly at closing time. The entire tone of the conversation was tense and made me feel uncomfortable and on the defensive. Look. If I'm there and the machine is on, and nobody is telling me I must go, I'm going to keep playing the game as long as I can ascertain it is permitted. Also, I understand that closing time means that the location is closed and all patrons must go. I am not questioning this. I was not trying to do anything otherwise disallowed. I don't have a direct view of a clock from where I stand at the machine. If the game turns off in the middle of me playing it, that's my loss. Why did this situation have to get to this point? Why give me a four minute warning before close and not instead simply tell me to go immediately at that point? What would I have done in response to that? Beg for more time, only to be justifiably denied? Otherwise, wouldn't I have left as requested? Regardless, with this lesson learned, I'll now take measures to ensure that I either (or both) have a clock in view or an alarm set to my phone and have it vibrate in my pocket so that I leave at the correct time without their intervention, though now I can't help but feel dismayed in knowing that at least one person has a negative perception of me as an "irritant" because of all of this. I'd just as soon never go back if I really was that much of a problem. I guess this is me hoping that it doesn't get to that point.

I wasn't home from work until 3PM on Christmas Eve. This is the longest that I've been out on the job in a single day. I didn't even get a chance to make my last stop on the route, as that location was closed at 2PM and I wouldn't have made it in time. I was shut down for 3.5 hours once I had reached the middle stop of the route and came to discover that my liftgate at the rear of the trailer was out of battery and wouldn't lower itself downward. All of my deliveries are prepared in collapsible pallet boxes, and I had a few engines to take with me from the stop where I was at as returns, so continuing on the route without using the gate was basically infeasible for me. After waiting a half hour to attempt to let the battery recharge from the tractor idling and hoping to use it while having the tractor on, and discovering that neither of these things worked, I had to call maintenance. A service person did arrive, and the issue was fixed. After two full cycles of moving the gate up and down, however, the sensor decided that the battery was dead yet again. So I promptly called maintenance again and the service person returned for a second time. This time, the batteries themselves as well as the electrical cord connecting the trailer lift gate outlet to the tractor was replaced. When I arrived to that location, the sky was still dark because it was before sunrise. When I left, it was 11AM. The family gathering occurs on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, so I still had that obligation to attend after all of this. I was rather exhausted when I finally returned home at 830PM. While it was something of bad luck to have this happen on this specific day, it realistically was for the best as I had the following two days off of work.

Capping this week off is the response I finally managed to get today in respect of my elliptical machine. The pedals locked up again yesterday (and left me without a day of exercise, and I feel negatively affected my sleep and work performance today). I asked my wife to inquire as to the repair status (as she had handled the communication in all of this), and we received the response today that it seemed to be unlikely to find the proper replacement without incurring prohibitive cost and that it was the opinion of the repair technician to cut our losses. If they don't tell me how to do so, I now have to figure out how to mutilate this machine to liberate the pedals so that I can at least freely walk in place. As long as I can do that, I can use the machine for purposes of daily exercising.

My main Christmas gift which I have received from my wife are Sennheiser HD 380 Pro headphones. I definitely like how they fit as much as how they sound. Song sessions were mostly good before and afterwards, though Friday's plays were the worst (which I again attribute to the lack of exercise). Also, I finally got around to adding the BMS of Fighters 2014 set and some other BMS packs to the library recently, so there should be more new plays coming around in the upcoming weeks. I think I prefer having them come up randomly rather than plow through the set list one by one.

Lunar Beat. Extra Mode. Double play. "@" denotes Random chart modifier. All songs are of highest difficulty type unless specified.
First line, by column; song title, EX score percentage and letter grade rank, EX score value and pass/fail, judgment readout (just great, great, good, bad poor), highest combo reached, note count of chart under Extra Mode, original note count of chart, percentage increase of Extra Mode notes over original note count, timestamp.
Second line, by column; pass count / play count, EX score percentage difference from record, EX score value difference from record, judgment readout difference from record (if current play is new record), highest combo reached difference from record (if current play is new record), timestamp of old record (if current play is new record).

Code:

			EX% & Rank	EX.p/f	pg.gr.gd.bd.pr		combo	nc	onc	%+nc 	date
mendes 8bit @		30.03 E		1354.F	452.450.749.149.758	0061	2254			2014-12-23T20:35:42:325Z
0/3			07.63-		0344-

nemesis @		35.16 D		1105.F	373.359.477.85.474	0053	1571			2014-12-23T20:39:09:308Z
0/9			05.53-		0174-

madrugada @		68.60 A		1287.P	486.315.121.2.26	0177	0938			2014-12-23T20:41:56:061Z
8/11			02.77-		0052-

dr love @		77.10 A		0495.P	195.105.20.0.3		0233	0321			2014-12-23T20:44:27:685Z
3/3			01.86-		0012-

journey to fantastica @	72.38 A		1565.P	603.359.101.6.38	0327	1081			2014-12-23T20:47:56:741Z
11/11			02.12-		0046-

snow flower @		41.70 D		2022.F	691.640.570.193.787	0091	2424			2014-12-23T20:51:32:717Z
0/2			00.70-		0034-

im for real @		76.35 A		0730.P	284.162.26.1.7		0288	0478			2014-12-23T20:53:54:461Z
8/8			03.66-		0035-

injection of love @	75.51 A		1308.P	531.246.65.7.33		0171	0866			2014-12-23T20:57:54:925Z
3/7			01.38-		0024-

d 25 disintegrate @	42.72 D		1567.F	569.429.470.103.464	0090	1834	1318	039.15	2014-12-23T21:01:56:949Z
0/1

day dream @		41.92 D		1028.F	346.336.282.86.388	0058	1226			2014-12-25T19:28:59:336Z
0/5			04.03-		0099-

extreme mach collider @	39.75 D		1501.F	510.481.487.154.568	0038	1888	1007	087.48	2014-12-25T19:32:09:673Z
0/2			03.17+		0120+	76+32-12-38-71-		0010-				2014-01-15T02:21:44:150Z

blueberry stream @	66.01 B		1146.P	418.310.116.3.50	0189	0868			2014-12-25T19:36:16:111Z
11/13			02.47-		0043-

innocent infant 2369 @	50.90 C		2412.F	903.606.421.164.585	0122	2369			2014-12-25T19:41:00:817Z
0/13			01.87-		0089-

lab H14 @		69.20 A		1470.P	570.330.131.7.56	0179	1062			2014-12-25T19:45:20:312Z
4/9			02.49-		0053-

galgalim @		30.88 E		1445.F	470.505.684.274.930	0059	2339			2014-12-25T19:49:34:408Z
0/8			03.05-		0143-

drive me crazy @	65.78 B		2271.F	878.515.163.43.289	0103	1726			2014-12-25T19:54:20:248Z
0/11			01.33-		0046-

キャトられ恋はモ~モク@	29.73 E		2004.F	670.664.851.397.1660	0021	3370	2120	058.96	2014-12-25T20:00:22:977Z
0/2			02.73+		0084+	80+76-134-80-4-		0006-				2013-10-23T02:38:10:164Z

blue program @		41.26 D		1285.F	448.389.341.139.550	0068	1557			2014-12-25T20:05:03:393Z
0/4			01.12-		0035-

love magic @		69.06 A		1380.P	519.342.114.6.38	0200	0999			2014-12-25T20:10:27:833Z
7/9			04.90-		0098-

rebirth castle @	44.47 C		1853.F	658.537.422.192.624	0165	2083	1560	033.52	2014-12-25T20:15:44:384Z
0/7			00.60+		0025+	14+3-49-2-18+		0014+				2014-04-24T02:15:29:477Z

vital sign @		54.97 C		1381.F	502.377.225.33.173	0061	1256	0547	129.61	2014-12-25T20:20:49:944Z
0/4			02.78+		0070+	17+36+30-10-14-		0007+				2014-06-17T00:11:29:092Z

feeling of love @	64.03 B		1624.F	609.406.162.34.138	0119	1268			2014-12-25T20:28:42:296Z
0/20			02.64-		0067-

moontide @		77.26 A		1754.P	715.324.61.12.42	0140	1135			2014-12-26T19:45:59:635Z
8/10			00.79-		0018-

melt in my arms @	74.01 A		0376.P	151.74.16.2.12		0084	0254			2014-12-26T19:48:58:956Z
6/6			03.54-		0018-

bad routine A14 @	56.51 B		1682.F	610.462.218.56.274	0142	1488			2014-12-26T19:53:35:503Z
0/9			04.63-		0138-

大桟橋 @		72.25 A		1328.P	520.288.83.8.48		0195	0919			2014-12-26T19:56:53:487Z
6/12			02.33-		0043-

the limbo @		34.53 D		1615.F	556.503.615.241.875	0125	2338			2014-12-26T20:00:35:391Z
0/10			03.25-		0152-

debtty daddy @		38.02 D		1855.F	616.623.646.191.743	0057	2439			2014-12-26T20:04:40:983Z
0/14			06.68-		0326-

あめふりこねこ @	39.84 D		1738.F	611.516.574.248.780	0027	2181	0860	153.60	2014-05-04T00:09:21:932Z
0/2			02.56-		0112-

ubertreffen A14 @	56.75 B		1428.F	509.410.252.20.142	0114	1258			2014-12-27T19:06:22:909Z
0/9			02.66-		0067-

chariot @		40.44 D		1621.F	574.473.486.178.675	0101	2004			2014-12-27T19:10:33:052Z
0/2			01.64-		0066-

dripping blood @	29.27 E		1649.F	565.519.786.308.1234	0037	2816			2014-12-27T19:15:48:697Z
0/10			00.78-		0044-

ヒマワリ @		70.51 A		1722.P	661.400.126.11.63	0127	1221			2014-12-27T19:19:14:998Z
3/12			03.27-		0080-

elegante @		52.37 C		1961.F	726.509.374.82.366	0080	1872	1281	046.13	2014-12-27T19:22:55:199Z
0/1

the lost dedicated @	43.37 D		2061.F	773.515.450.202.800	0083	2376			2014-12-27T19:28:36:476Z
0/10			02.63-		0125-

斧と盾 @		40.75 D		2608.F	888.832.760.206.1031	0108	3200	2573	024.36	2014-12-27T19:35:02:444Z
0/1

drumming @		40.96 D		1506.F	524.458.438.112.591	0117	1838			2014-12-27T19:39:38:522Z
0/4			01.22-		0045-

happico happico @	26.88 E		1712.F	549.614.894.404.1438	0016	3184			2014-12-27T19:43:55:960Z
0/2			00.40-		0026-

take me higher @	56.97 B		2009.F	743.523.314.53.272	0058	1763	1253	040.70	2014-12-27T19:48:31:268Z
0/8			02.44+		0086+	38+10+55-2-8-		0036-				2014-07-20T20:32:56:610Z

brightness darkness @	66.18 B		1550.F	573.404.133.22.107	0407	1171			2014-12-27T19:52:35:483Z
0/14			03.20-		0075-