Tastefully Odd Blog Entries

Unfortunately for yours truly, the world did not come to a complete stop during the holidays. Sure, it might have slowed to a crawl, but it crawled for over a week while I essentially sat on my ass, forcing me to run like hell to catch up with stuff. First things first, though.

WE MADE THE PLAYOFFS!! THANK YOU JETS!! Green led us to a 24-16 victory today with lots of support from our D. Green’s 64 yd TD and that impressive D line stand are things I will always remember. Gameballs to KJ, Green, and the D-Line. Goats to Miami, NE, and Holcomb. I could go on, but it’s hard to express my happiness in words. Simply put, I’ve never been happier to be proven wrong. Oh yeah, there was another Kardiac Kids V2.0 game last Sunday. *Sigh* I’m gonna need the whole off season to recover from all these last second finishes.

Next on the block, we got my new PC set up and running this weekend. For a windows box it kicks ass. I miss itunes though already, and most of tonight was spent getting all my programs downloaded, installed, migrating email, etc. Once I get everything the way I want it, I’ll be fairly productive I think. While waiting for stuff to set up (drive formating, etc.) we got in 3 rounds of a game called Settlers of Catan. Addictive game when you have the right people, although we were quite tired of the game after the last round. It wore us out more than anything else. After I take a week or so to recover, I’ll be more than ready to play another game.

Best…Christmas…Ever Ok, it started off a bit slow, but I ended up spending lots of time with friends and relatives. I always had something to do, somewhere to go. I barely missed having dsl/cable, and I didn’t have time for much gamecube action at all. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure how good that was. Poor time management on my part I guess. Finally, and most importantly of course, here’s the loot I made out with: My new PC, a sweater, a stupid criminal stories book (the criminals are stupid, not the book), a quasar pen (we engineers always need pens ), a portable mp3 cd player, metroid fusion, use of Jim’s gameboy for said metroid fusion (it doesn’t sound like much of a gift, but the certificate is so hillarious it’s a gift in itself ), a solar powered watch (very nice), and a well-intended digital camera that registered very low on the l33t scale. (I know you meant well, mom, but dad had the right idea!!)

Can’t believe it’s over already
-later

This will be the last post made for awhile, as I doubt I will making updates during my week off. Watch for a big post on the 30th, as there will be lots to talk about I’m sure. This Christmas looks to be full of events, some endings and new beginnings. For starters, I will be giving up my imac and getting a new athlon box, ending my mac-only days. I have mixed feelings about the beginning of what I’ve dubbed the dark ages. I can’t wait to get my powerbook!! Well, time to pack my computer up. I’m gonna miss it.
*sniff* I’ll still visit you, Big Blue!
-later

Lots of Warcraft memories came back while watching LOTR:TTT last night. I got the biggest charge when while we were watching the battle for helm’s deep with that massive Orc army overwhelming the fortress, Jeremy blurts out “Our town is under attack”. Just a little before he said that I thought to myself “Hey, I remember this happening a lot to me on Battle.net…” The major difference being that I could never hold out as long as the movie heroes did, and there were never reinforcements. Dammit Gandolf, where were you when I needed you?!

Anyway, the movie was awesome, and I liked it better than the fellowship, whereas I liked the fellowship better in the books. There’s tons of action in the book that you don’t fully experience. I just don’t have a big enough imagination I guess. In fellowship, it’s all like run! Hide! We’re gonna get our asses pounded! But in TTT, to quote Matt from MacHall, Gandolf comes back and he’s like “Hold on to your asses, ass-holders! It’s go time!!” Here are some other random things I have to say. Gollum’s talking to himself makes a helluva lot more sense than it did when I was reading it. I reread those pages over and over until I understood what was going on, and when I did, it still took a long time to decipher his soliloquies. It’s also pretty funny watching him in the movie. You can’t get that same visual humor from the book. Finally, I’m not sure whether or not I like Gimly being made out to be comic relief. It was funny, but I don’t know how true to the book that is.

“Our hero has fallen”
-later

That’s the number of hours I worked today. I woke up to my alarm at 8, shut it off, and didn’t wake up again until 9:45. I planned on working a short day Wednesday or Thursday, and since I’d only get 5.5 hours in if I stayed until 5 (b/c of our Olive Garden luncheon at 1, do the math), there wasn’t really any point in going back to work after lunch. I love it when decisions are made for me! I love setting my own hours, I got so much more done with my afternoon off than I could at work. I went shopping with Kim B. (name unchanged to incriminate the guilty) and found some dress shirts to go with my xmas tie, one of which came with its own tie. I ended up spending close to two hours at the mall, but I was more efficient than someone else I know. Plus, I didn’t want to rush Kim along since she was nice enough to keep me company. I cleaned the dishes when I got home, caught up on DB & JS, and still had time to wrap all my presents. I’ve also checked my finances, and I’m not feeling the need to work much the week before school. I’m thinking I’m going to be quite the lazy bum. Again, I love setting my own hours.

I am on a streak of productivity, so I’ve got to get to bed now. Tomorrow is a full day of work to fill my bank account b4 my credit card statement arrives.

It’s all about the benjamins
-later

Everyone in Dayton decided to do the same thing as me again, and we waited forever to bowl a game or two. Well, that’s a slight exaggeration again as it was league night, and I was too stupid/busy to think ahead and find out when the general public was allowed to bowl. I still had a great time, thanks to my favorite CS/Spanish/everything-else-under-the-sun major, Krista, hooking me up with a group of people who also wanted to bowl. That’s about all I have to say tonight… this is looking to be a pretty good week!
so sleepy…
-later

After the many hours spent dealing with PoS lights this holiday season, I’ve taken it upon myself to look for alternatives to the crap sold at local stores. Here are my findings:
Christmas Lights, Etc. has the best selection and is the most professional looking site of all the links I found. They’ve got a wide variety of C-7 and C-9 strands should we need additional/replacement strands in the future (more and more sockets are going bad in our ancient strands & it could be time to invest in new ones). As for icicle lights, however, I couldn’t find any info on a brand that would last at least 2 years if not longer. If someone makes them, they aren’t doing a good job of promoting them. It’s a damn shame, too because I know at least 3 aggravated souls who are fed up with their planned obsolescence. I’ve had slightly better luck with regular strands of mini-lights, but only very slightly with some strands lasting 3, maybe 4 years. (Not because they’re better quality, mind you, it’s just that they don’t take as much abuse from the wind, hanging directly on the bushes and not in mid air.) Indeed, there has always been the rouge strand or two each year that forces me to make a trip to Wally World. It’s doubtful we’ll see improvements in xmas lights until some patents run out on stuff like LED lights.

Did everyone in the whole damn state decide to do their shopping tonight or what? I tried to do a simple thing like get across 675, and I crawled all the way to Sears. Once I left the mall an hour later, things had calmed down somewhat, but it was still a fight to get across North Fairfield to Circuit City. (I’m really sorry again that I didn’t say hi, Krista!!) I was gonna do some price comparison at Best Buy afterward, but I wanted to get the hell home by then. Long story short, I got most of my shopping done despite my frustration, and I still had time to down a few at BW3’s with some friends. And now it’s time for bed even though I’m wide awake since the beer’s worn off.

I feel like I’m forgetting something…
-later

Why do I always give myself false hope? The loss to Indy today crushed all dreams of ever making the playoffs. We just started out flat in the second half. Period. It seems like we can never put two consecutive halves of good play together. Since I’ve given up all hopes of a playoff berth, everything from now on is meaningless… everything. Therefore I’m skipping the usual gameballs and goats for the game and giving a whopping goat to the whole season.

This weekend just seemed to fly by… after Friday night, that is. Longest shopping trip ever. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we didn’t look at furniture for 3 hours while I starved. (I still love you though, mom!) I just wish I could have got some of my shopping done if I’m going to go hungry, you know? I got plenty of sleep, which is always good for helping to catch up from the rest of the week (note the time this is posted!).

Hmm, what to say about the Inkrott xmas… I think it could be summed up in two words: “Jockstrap Barney”. I guess I should explain in more detail. We had a White Elephant exchange this year, which involves everyone bringing a crap-tacular gift, picking a number, and picking a gift out of the pile collected from everyone or stealing a gift from someone (and that person then gets to pick a new one out of the pile or steal something that hasn’t been stolen in that round). Among the many “unique” gifts were some nice ones that didn’t quite belong. We’ll have that fixed next year hopefully. Between that, the food, and some fiercely competitive cards (damn you, Mitch! I’ll get you next time!!), it was an exhausting day. Speaking of which, I’m getting sleepy.
“Life is just one crushing defeat after another until you just wish Flanders was dead.” -Homer
-later