I'm back from, as my sister described it, the "black hole" of communication that is my parents house. Spotty cellphone reception, no internet connection, like 2 tv channels, and an 8 minute drive into a small town or 15 minute drive to the nearest reasonable-sized town. Luckily the electricity didn't go out for any extended periods, like it has in the past. One time in high school it went out for 4 days, just because a branch fell on the power lines on our street and the power company was too busy with problems in more populated areas.

Anyway, it was a pretty quiet, relaxing vacation. I saw a few high school friends, and my entire family including new in-laws and my new niece.

After hearing the song "New York I Love You" in a clothing store, I went and checked out the album (by LCD Soundsystem). Perhaps not surprisingly, that song is totally unlike every other song on the album. Instead of soft and melodic, every other song is a nasty combiation of ska and funk and I can't resist hitting skip after 20 seconds. Deleted.

Happy New Year!

(from a review of the Path of Neo. In the game you get to pick new skills to learn after each stage, but occasionally you're only given one skill option.)
"What is the point of giving me one, I repeat ONE, skill to pick from at the end of a stage? What do the developers expect me to do, not pick it for the sake of variety? It feels like election day in a totalitarian dictatorship."

Working super late tonight because my flight is early in the morning and all this stuff is going to be due. Blah. And I'm still kinda sick. Not at sick as Kate, but that's probably because I got her sick in the first place. (Though she did think that she was going to get healthy before me just because I have to keep working through my sickness. But I showed her!) Merry Christmas people! So long, East coast! I'll be back just before New Years Eve.

(responding to a poster who complained that he'd rather install offical DRM than go to a sketchy torrent site and downloading software that does who-knows-what to his computer)
Wex: There is a difference between going to a proper site and getting a torrent hundreds of people already tested, and going to a "XXX BRITNEY NAKED! WAREZ! RINGTONES!" site to get infected. If you know where and how you surf you don't get exposed to malware. And whoever doesn't should first pirate a good antivirus.

I'm eating a little of the turkey kate very kindly brought me back from her thanksgiving. I'm not sure how long turkey keeps, so if you don't hear from me again you know what happened. Kate was a little surprised earlier when she saw I still hadn't eaten it. It smells good anyway. Why can't all food be like rice, where if it's bad then it turns different colors. Instead you have to be some kind of food connoisseur to figure it out with turkey.

(quote pending)

I went to Ravi Shah's wedding in Florida last weekend. It was a good time but now I'm sick. Either it was the lack of sleep, the drinking every night, constantly eating Indian food, or sharing a room with Eric, but for whatever reason I'm now sick, and it's no good. Kate thinks I get sick 3 weeks before the end of every quarter (because of stress or guilt), but I haven't noticed that pattern. I'll make sure to keep track from now on. Is it possible to get sick 4 times a year?

I fell asleep in my office chair, for the first time in like a year (my officemate had already gone home so it was okay). I blame my lapse on the sickness. But anyway, there's something about sleeping in that chair that causes really disturbing dreams. This is like the third time that I've dreamed (dreamt?) I was under anesthesia on the operating table or in a dentist's chair and totally unable to move. It's a little disturbing.

Eric thinks reusing water bottles will give you cancer. Hmm, lots of webpages about this. Ususally he accuses me of being a conspiracy theorist but lots of hippie webpages and conspiracy theorist webpages that agree with him. I was going to site a bunch but that's too much trouble. I figure that these bottles don't have expiration dates on them so you don't know how long it's been sitting on the store's shelf before you drink it. There's no reason that you'll be drinking more plastic when you're actually changing the water than when the water is just sitting and marinating the plastic.

(I think we split a toothbrush double-pack from target)
me: Whoops, did I just use your toothbrush?
Kate: Umm, no, that one's mine. (shrugs)
me: Whew. I was about to induce vomiting.
Kate: Just like I want to every time you kiss me.