Obligatory Journal Entry

It's been a couple of days, so I really should put in a few words here just so people don't think I've up and forgotten about them or something.

For the last couple of days, I've largely been playing Starcraft. Every so often, I get to where I want to play that game; I'm fond of a lot of the Blizzard web/trigger maps, like Bazaar or Trade Masters. And today, as it happens, I was finally able to beat Mercenaries II, a rather tough trigger map which pits three teams of human players against four computers.

At the moment, I'm back home with the parents, visiting for our Christmas observance. The brothers should be arriving within an hour or so, and then we'll share a family meal and perhaps open presents. It's funny--this is probably the first Christmas where the younger generation of our family is spending Christmas Day with other families. Or at least two of them will be; they're married or girlfriended. I'm still single, so I'll probably come back home, weather permitting.

I can't think of a whole lot more to say at this point. And even if I could, I'm having to deal with the parents' annoying split-down-the-middle ergonomic keyboard, which makes it a lot harder for me to type than I'm used to. So I think I'll cut this entry short and add more at another time.

Christmas Gift Tally

Well, my family's mini-Christmas celebration is over, and I have given and received.

On the given side, I gave my father the DVD of Rush Hour, my mother a set of two Motorola 2-mile 14-channel walkie-talkies (for use while horseback riding and such), and each brother (& associated wife or fiancee) the DVD of The Matrix Revisited and a CD-ROM I burned of a high-quality DivX :) of a Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind fansub I downloaded via Morpheus.

I received (in addition to whatever Joe's getting me--he said he'd get it tomorrow) a sweater, a small plug-in fluorescent light--essentially a nightlight, which is good because I kind of needed one--a Gerber to replace the one I lost a couple of months ago, a $15 Barnes & Noble gift card, and a total of $75 in Best Buy gift cards. Heh . . . when you have a DVD collection as large as mine, I guess people start getting reluctant to get you anything specific, out of worry that you might already have it. It's just as well, I guess; I think I'll save these for a couple of weeks to get the Buckaroo Banzai DVD, the Legend DVD whenever it comes out, and perhaps even some of the Batman/Batman Beyond collections. The folks suggested I look into getting a printer, but I can't help but think that Christmas presents should be at least somewhat frivolous.

And now to shower, sleep, and work 8 hours. Later!