Been spending the week getting over a sore throat (lots o' soup and tea), and revamping my image display and analysis code at work. Perhaps soon to be published and released as open source. Veronica and Naomi hit Popscene with Jenz on Thursday night, i stayed home and played some more Sniper Elite. I also got in some further practice on Winning Eleven 8 International, although it looks like i'm going to get my clock cleaned at the upcoming SMFA tournament.

Friday night was Depeche Mode at the HP Pavilion/Shark Tank in San Jose. V rushed home from work so we could head down, but unfortunately we still missed openers the Raveonettes. DM were pretty good. We had good seats off the left side of the stage. Good enough to see Dave Gahan preen shirtless, watch the ancient-looking Martin Gore and his bizarre black sherpa outfit, and laugh at the hopelessly dorky Andy Fletcher. The set was mostly post-Violator ("new DM", in my estimation). The new song "John the Revelator" was kickin'.

Saturday night was the Leisure one year anniversary at 330 Ritch. We were supposed to get in early for free food and drinks (knowing people is great!), but some last minute organization snafus at the club prevented that. We did get in before the horde of people there to see the latest UK indie buzz act Arctic Monkeys started swarming through the doors. I had four pints of Boddington's and was singing Smiths songs and doing my Ian Curtis dance before long. We cut out early on the mediocre Monkeys set and ended the evening eating late night Del Taco and driving Jenz to work at 1am (eek).

Sunday was a lot of things. Lunch with my parents in Fremont at Panera, followed by a look at the local Honda dealer. I finally saw the new Civic (not a hybrid, but the bodies are the same), which is ... okay. Not fabulous. I seem to have swung back into the Prius camp. Returning home, i graded some midterms and got ready for our two day radiation oncology retreat in Sonoma. With houseguests Naomi and Geoff, we also caught an evening showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was okay. My affection for the first movie was largely derived from the whole "poor kid's fortunes suddenly change" thing (à la Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), and that sense of wonder is long gone now. But i'll spare you the gripes, the movie was ... okay. We also got in some time with recent PS2 acquisition Guitar Hero, a friggin rad rhythm game featuring a full guitar controller. We thought it was brilliant, and then we discovered the whammy bar. And now it's the greatest game ever made.

Tomorrow morning i'm off to Sonoma for two days, followed by a day running errands on Wednesday (centering on getting the Jetta serviced in Fremont). Then it's on to the long Thanksgiving weekend. No sign of a new car yet. I've gotten several calls from Honda dealers informing me they've got the Civic hybrid i wanted. So far none has gotten my nav system request right, and just today i got one saying they had the car, the price is $2000 over MSRP. No thank you, and take me off your list you money-sucking leeches.