Saturday: 1e12 easier.

Ages ago, I should have applied for Pre-Check or something, and for at least the past 18 months, Julie has been saying I should get Global Entry, which is basically the same price and also makes international travel easier.  Today I finally completed all the hoops for that.

Although I initially had to schedule my interview in San Francisco, on December 28th, because they are totally random with how they do interview things.  After two reschedules, I was able to get today at 2:15, in Honolulu.  I printed out and brought all the documents and papers and everything that the webpage said, and then checked yelp, because apparently yelp is where the government assumes information on how to get to their offices will be located.  Luckily, Jamila was there to do that, telling me where to drive like it feels like you're not supposed to, and where to park.  I went in, gave my passport to them, waited like two minutes, went in to do the interview that basically was "Are you a criminal?  Do you still live where you said you live." And that was it.  No video (maybe they don't do that anymore?), and by the time I was home I'd received the "yeah, you're in the program" confirmation email.  So hopefully that means not having to bother with the slow airport security crap.

Followed by a celebration burger.

Then, since I was there, Target, and then, since I wasn't there, a long drive back to town via H-3.

Where I was informed by Colby that he'd caught a legendary Pokemon.

Pokemon Go has been broken since this last major update.  Gyms don't turn over as much as they used to here, and it doesn't feel like it's worth bothering unless there's a big group to play with, so you can stomp on the full gym and fill it completely with your team.  This effectively means all gyms are full, and it's a pain to try and do anything about it.

Plus, my Go Plus just doesn't work anymore.  It associates ok (sometimes), but doesn't do anything.  It doesn't notice stops, it doesn't notice Pokemon, it sometimes does the long red buzz of "I'm worthless," sometimes trying it a few times before disassociating again.  This makes going for walks less fun, because instead of being able to pay attention to walking, I have to actively play the game again.

So, when I was returning home, I saw a massive crowd of people at the park down the street.  There's a gym there now.  I started the app up when I got home:

Damn it.

I had to try, I guess.  Besides, there was a huge crowd of people when I drove past.  There was less of a giant crowd when I got there.  I waited until someone said, "who wants to join?" and then joined.  Unfortunately, that was with only like 20s left in the countdown timer, so I had to quickly spend it replacing the worst auto-selected garbage from my team.  I don't think my CP400 Wobbuffet is going to be much help.

And due to the other people, was able to actually beat the raid.

I didn't capture the stupid thing, though, because that would make the game too much actual fun to play.  You have to find a gym, find people to battle with, beat the stupid thing, and then you have a chance to catch it.  Plus, you can't try things again once you beat it.  I don't understand how they could have earned more than a billion dollars, and still not know what they're doing.

• I mean, JFC.  You plan big catch thing, and you don't schedule additional cell coverage?  Or set up wifi?  Or actually plan how to handle that many people?
• When I saw this story, I thought, "hey, it's cool that they have a place where people who really like trains can go pretend to run trains.  People should be able to do whatever they think is fun."
• Then my brain immediately flashed to a meme from late last year of Icarus saying, "I'm going to fuck the Sun," and immediately added "within reason."
• The sea otter.
• Dog, we both know that you're technically following the rules, but come on.

Oh, also I got dinner at the place down the street because I could walk there, but it actually probably would have been faster to drive to Hawaii Kai for Jersey Mike's because they're really slow.