Went to Disney to hit the Liberty Tree Tavern (not the Paul Revere Tavern, as I've been calling it). They serve a nice all-you-can-eat turkey and roast beef and ham dinner with mashed potatos, green beans, macaroni and cheese (this seems out of place to me), and apple cobbler with ice cream for dessert. I can never eat more than one plate but outside of the Vegas buffets it's one of the best mixed meals I've had. ;)

Tonight turned out to be a character dining night -- something I never thought I was going to get to, since I figured they were pretty tightly booked and all for the kids, but to my surprise they were still there when I got in, and they visited every table. Pluto came by first.. when I saw him at the next table with the kids I turned back to my food, only to be surprised by his nuzzling his whiskers against my neck (they're rubber, it turns out). Heh, good dog. Minnie came by next, and I flirted with her, so she gave me her hand, and I kissed the back of it. ;) Chip and Dale also wandered by... Dale interacted a bit but I only got a pat on the shoulder from Chip. (C'mon, I like Chip more! ;) )

By the time I was finishing up (and very, very full), they were actually coming around again. (These actors must have the patience of saints.. the kid at the next table screamed every time they came into our section, trying to attention). I didn't get much from Pluto's second visit, but Minnie gave me a hug and a smooch (with sound effect, else I wouldn't have known) on the top of the head (I was still sitting after all). Chip was in my way on the way out, so I made him give me a hug before I left, hehe.

And you know, I know it's cheesy, and I know what it's like inside the suits, and I can't imagine how hard it is to deal with so many people all the time, but it still made me grin. It's nice to fall into the fantasy a bit, and forget about the real world now and then.

So is anyone interested in doing a snowboard lesson with me? I'm planning to go up to Snoqualmie pass on the 23rd, weather permitting. Let me know if you want to come along.

I hope it is a day full of Joy and Love.

>^..^<
.

Here's one last Christmas song; the intro explains it. This is actually written to an original tune, but I haven't been able to record or make a score of it. I'm not sure how to describe the tune; it's latinesque, a samba maybe, except it really deserves to be played by mariachis. Evil mariachis. Maybe juggalo mariachis.
+----------------------------+
Twelfth Night Song

You've all heard of the twelve days of Christmas
Twelve days starting on Christmas Day
If you count down the twelve days to Christmas
January fifth is the final day

[8 BAR PRE-CAP OF MUSICAL BRIDGE]

The toys all broke the games are through
Christmas is over again
The turkey's gone for turkey stew
Christmas is over again
The Christmas tree is out the door
Most of its needles swept off the floor
And school eats up childrens' days once more
Christmas is over again

See sparkling lights unplugged and black
Christmas is over again
At least ten months 'til they'll be back
Christmas is over again
The Christmas star has left the sky
Everyday prices are back to high
There's no excuse left to buy buy buy
Christmas is over again

The Yule log has been burned to ash
Christmas is over again
And you're completely out of cash
Christmas is over again
Your credit cards will soon be due
Mastercard, Visa and AmEx too
And then oh, what are you going to do? [So what the f*** are you gonna do]
Christmas is over again

[MUSICAL BREAK]

The egg nog and the mincemeat pies
Christmas is over again
Have gone directly to your thighs
Christmas is over again
And why oh, why will I not quit [And why the f*** do I not quit]
Christmas is over and all that grit [s***]
It's such fun rubbing your nose in it!
Christmas is over again

[BIG FINISH]
Yes, Christmas is over
Christmas is over
Christmas is over again
Yes, Christmas is over
It's over! It's over!
Christmas is over again
CHA! CHA! CHA!

Copyright © 2009 Allan D Burrows

I hope your day is a very good one dear.
*big snug*

>^..^<
.

(I know those of you in blizzard climates will love this post).

I noticed it was a bit chilly when I got up this morning. I wandered over to the thermostat, which read 64 (note this is at 10am, and the sun had been warming the building for a while already). Growing up largely with Celcius, that's still a big number to me, but as I stood there pondering it, I happened to notice that my fingertips were actually cold. So with that, I switched on the heat and ticked it up to 68. (I don't remember if we turned on the heat last year?)

I do know I felt like I had a very nice sleep last night.. I wonder if my insomnia was in any part due to temperature? I really enjoy snuggling down into warm blankets but I don't like warm air. ;)

Packing is.. close. The GoodWill center is getting tired of seeing me, but I think I only have one more load (the one that hurts me the most... giving away the brand new PC that I bought for my parents, and the PC I bought for HarmlessLion. But I need the space more than I need a pair of replaceable PCs. For that reason.. the printers are going, too. I still think that old HP I bought in Virginia with Foxx was better than the one I bought to replace it much more recently, but, again.. space. Hopefully I can find a reasonably priced replacement.) With a little luck someone who /really/ needs them (and not some greedy guy looking for a deal - as I've sometimes done), will get them. :)

At any rate.. the PODs took their money today, so that's go. I've been calling services to get them dealt with (can't get through topower and cable, full of people with late bills maybe?). Bank account is closed, office final payment was made (still need to train them on the security alarm I repaired and give the keys back). Notice confirmed by the office, back yard cleaned and sorted, all that's really left are my clothes and two desks (personal and work).. and of course sizing to make sure what I'm taking will FIT in my RAV.

Super stressed over it all.. it's hit my health a little as a result.. but once I'm on the road that stress should melt.

Regroup, plan next attack. You haven't beat me yet, life. ;)

As suggested, ganked from this post of stauros'.

I've never been a fan at all of high profile evangelical types. At all. In this slightest. But that said, the Rev. Chuck Swindoll has some really good advice here on exactly how one can go about being a completely miserable, curmudgeonly asshat throughout the year.

It is advice that I believe Rev. Swindoll believes you should distinctively not follow. Unless, of course, you really want to be a complete miserable, curmudgeonly asshat.

How To Have A Miserable Year

1. Worry. A lot. Read the newspaper. Watch the evening news. Dredge up old regrets.

2. Fix your attention on getting rich. Watch real estate infomercials.

3. Compare yourself to others.

4. Lengthen your list of enemies. It will help you play the blame game.

5. Set unrealistic expectations and cling to them desperately. Make a long list. Be specific. Write it in ink.

It is now 2010, and I have recovered from the holidays.

My God, it's full of... um... sunshine?

(Reflection on the past year is yet to come about)

Well, that was a fun start to the new year. Went over to ksharra and dennisthetiger's place and played some games, drank some leftover celebratory liquor, and generally socialized for four hours or so. I do a lot of games, especially on Sundays, but this was particularly nice because 1) I haven't seen K'Sharra and Co. for at least three months and, barring RainFurrest, perhaps six; 2) we played Munchkin, which the gang that usually gathers at jurann's place on Sundays loathes because they either lose too often or I know the rules and insist they follow them, and so this was the first time in at least six months that I played it; and 3) we played CutThroat Caverns, which the Sunday gang is also reluctant to play —albeit less so than Munchkin, so far — though this time I honestly am unsure why.

So I did three things I haven't done in a while, and it was a lot of fun. Yay!

I suppose I should put something up regarding how my Xmas/GnuYear's holidays went.

Basically, they were nice, but nothing super special. Mostly because they happened on a Friday. This was nice, because I don't work Friday evenings, so I didn't have to work Christmas around work for once. On the other hand, NYE is thus on a Thursday, and I do work then. So last night was entirely normal from my perspective, except for hearing fireworks going off for about an hour after midnight. I only actually saw one, though.

So what did I get? Hmmm... a flashlight, chocolate, a calendar, two shirts, Best Buy and Borders gift cards, some macadamia nuts, a new mouse (that I need to exchange later today), a heating blanket (which would have come in really nice two or three weeks back!), and a few other things. And snowboarding lessons. My parents bought a certificate good for 3 lessons at the local ski place (about 45 minute's drive from here, or so), along with equipment rental and lift tickets for all three lessons. Damn fine deal. I'm hoping to take one lesson each month this year.

Anyone want to come along? One of the reasons I considered getting snowboard lessons in the first place was because I already know how to ski, but it seems few of my friends do, so if I went skiing it'd be alone. But at snowboarding we're all on an equal level! So anyone want to come and take a lesson along with me?

     As the sun sets on 2009 and rises on 2010, it more than just brings a year to a close, but an entire decade. Looking back, a lot of revelations about life, career, happiness and personal issues. I learned that if I apply myself I can do anything anywhere, in my career I bounced from being a Dot-Com startup guru to being a global deskside support rep to being a game developer to being an applications architect. I learned that I have some problems with addiction and dependency to substances and people and possessions and that I have a long way to go toward cutting myself free and learning to stand strong on my own legs. I've learned a lot about how to love and how not to love and especially how to let go. Towards the end of the decade I learned to become more introspective and look inward at all of the things I feared seeing about myself, started becoming aware of what I don't like about myself, and started to idealize about who I -want- to be as well. Lately I've started to explore science and philosophy and try to see the world through different eyes with a different attitude, and I like the direction it's moving me.

     Towards the new decade I intend to begin working on improving myself, my knowledge, my self-esteem and begin adapting to a new direction in life. I plan to get into my own house within the next year, both as an investment to the future and to have my own personal homestead in the world. I plan to go back to university to regain knowledge and become connected with the scientific community, because working toward my ideals as a Secular Humanist demands it. I plan to start edging my career more and more in one of the directions that align myself with where I want to be: science or simulation. I plan to get my arse in the gym more often to keep healthy, and work at improving my relationships with people around me while continuing to remove myself from the negatives and grow closer to the positive influences. I can do anything I apply myself to, and I am putting plans into motion.

Here we are, the last book review for the year. It's a shorter block of books this time, but hopefully there wil be more on the list next year.
( Cut for Length )

     Saw it again in 3D on Monday night with Skylos and Dhugal in a slightly bigger and more comfy theater down in Renton. Will be seeing it at the big IMAX in Seattle on Friday with Skylos, Dhugal and G'razel.

     I also picked up the PC game Monday night and installed it, haven't gotten to play much of it yet, but so far it seems pretty good. Some of the controls are slightly wonky, there are some camera angle issues (a lot of 3D games have those lately it seems) and it's a BEAST on performance - but with that said the rendering and detail of animations, physics, objects, weapons, etc. is just stunning. Obviously not nearly as good as the movie, but a better facsimile than I expected. Another neat little thing is that scattered throughout the game world are plants, animals, documents, research, items, etc. which you can scan to add to a "Pandorapedia" to learn more about the game world and history of Earth and the RDA, etc. The game is also littered with neat little side games like "Conquest" which can earn you bonus XP or effects during normal gameplay. There are also multi-player modes, but until I know some folks who also have the game I won't be able to explore those. Now I need a better computer, lol... =D

I was thinking, "the Post Office has really stepped up and become a great contender, often-times better even, to UPS and FedEx."

Of course, this fiasco with them ceasing my mail delivery two weeks early, while I'm still waiting for important papers and products for my move, is not impressing me.

Today they removed my taped-in note saying I'm NOT moved yet, please deliver mail through the 5th, and please don't remove the note. Oh, and they also chose not to deliver mail again. WTF?? The two days of mail I /did/ get from the note had exceptionally important stuff in it, so that's good.

I don't even know if it's being redirected yet. If it's not, where is it going?

Frig, I don't even know who I'm supposed to call, or if I should bother at this point. But this is really ticking me off.

I've seen Avatar. It's made of win, awesome, killer FX, and hugely tall blue stripey sort-of-cat-like aliens.

...my cousin was found. She was with a friend.

So yesterday my final checkstub of 2009 arrived. Looks like, as expected, I'll get about $400 back in a refund.

Woot.

I finally got my computer to work again last night. I'd like to thank Kratsminsch for letting me have his old laptop while I tried to get my computer to work again. And I'd like to thank Tamakun for pointing out the solution. I'd like to let everyone know what happened; that first. But I also want to talk about my experience with Krat's laptop!

Tamakun heard my story and suggested reseating the cables, making sure that each is in the proper position for Cabe Select mode to work properly. IDE cables can only be about 45cm long because parallel signals are prone to chaos. The case itself is only a little shorter than that and there's now an obstacle, (my new video card), and besides, I only have the cables that came with the computer. So instead I made sure that the jumpers were set with the boot drive as master and the new drive as slave. Then I made sure that the hard disks were on the "IDE1" header and the optical drives on the "IDE2" header, (there was no 0 header), and all the data and power cables were seated firmly at all connections. Then I plugged in all the peripherals and turned it on. AND IT BOOTED! I have both hard drives available now _and_ both optical disks!

I hadn't expected something as simple as that to work. In fact, I still don't get it. It doesn't make sense that one jumper on one cable on one header could effect everything on the controller! I guess it goes to show that adding hardware inside the case is a very fussy business.

BTW, at first when I booted the system, it reported a bunch of broken dependencies. (I'm using Kubuntu.) When I booted it this morning though, kPackage downloaded a bunch of fixes and everything's fine now. (Except one program, (Bettr Privacy), which deletes LSO cookies won't close completely now. I don't know how serious that is. It'll be fixed soon, I'm sure.)

( BEHIND THE CUT -- My Week with Windows )

But this little otter is happy to have his Kubuntu box back!
-- Dee

Software update: Super Space Acer Colecovision Version Updated on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:31:29 -0800.

-Added defines in code for boss, sprites, enemy types, to make it easier to work with
-Made score a 16-bit variable
-Increased player shots from 3 to 9
-added helper function to delete all sprites but the player
-hide screen while loading VDP
-fix glitches when dying during a boss battle
-Updated shot spacing - 4 frames for level 0 and 1, 2 frames for level 2
-moved countdown for shot spacing to player movement code
-optimize boss pattern testing for body damage

http://www.harmlesslion.com/cgi-bin/onesoft.cgi?64

It's better the second time around! =D At least it was for me. Second night in a row I've seen it in 3D. I will skip going to see it tomorrow, but I may very well see it again on Monday night. G'razel and Skylos and I are working out a time to all go see it at IMAX in Seattle in the next week too. Just an absolutely amazing film and I was gripping my seat just as hard this time as last time. I'm not sure I could see it enough to make it any less amazing when I watch it, the immersion is just stunning and awe-inspiring to me.