This Saturday Night Live clip is further proof of the debauchery of these marsupials. (I'm sure I don't need to tell you that anything involving kangar**s is definitely not work-safe, my friends.)
How can I trust my online data to a company that cavorts with such dirty, dirty marsupials? Every time I open my Gmail, skim through my Google Reader or even just Google something, I will be reminded of this sleazy logo that has since been burned into my retinas.
I am left with only this one question. Google, for a company that claims "Don't Be Evil" as it's motto, how can you explain this?! For the love the Internet tubes, how?!
(Don't understand the "fucking kangar**s" bit? Watch this!)
On the first day of Giftmas, my true dOrange group gave to me:
- Poker and Popcorn Tin (courtesy of Ernie in our second annual white elephant gift exchange).
- Okami video game and an accompanying Play-friggin'-station 2 from the ever-awesome Anthony. Way to rock L's and my world, my friend.
- Your Whole Family Is Made Out Of Meat: The Best of Dinosaur Comics book. Claws-down, the most sexy, exciting gift I got a week early. ("I guess there is a lesson here for us all.")
- Trace Memory video game for the DS.
- Veronica Mars soundtrack.
- "Guns don't kill people. Magic Missiles kill people." t-shirt. My newest, coolest and geekiest apparel.
- I (Heart) Huckabees DVD. ("How am I not myself?")
- Green fleece jacket, which I look super great in.
- Official ACI purple fleece jacket (courtesy of Drew in our family white elephant gift exchange). Go Yotes!
- Tsuro board game (courtesy of my Dad and Femie in our family white elephant gift exchange). This was actually L's pick, but since we're married, we get to share!
- Cold, hard cash from my Dad and Femie. (They know just what to get newlyweds!) My parents are pretty darn awesome and I love them.
- Warm, black pajama pants. My legs shall be frozen no longer!
- Old Navy and EB Games gift cards (from L's mom); Fred Meyer gift card (from Andy); and Record Exchange gift card (from L's Drew). I smell a shopping trip coming on.
- Picnic basket.
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Cryptonomicon book. Looks like a very meaty, man-sized read!
- Mickey and Minnie cheesy Christmas ornament for the newly married couple.
All in all, it was really rockin' Giftmas this year, not merely because of the super fine gifts, but mostly because of the fabulous times with friends and family. What an awesome end to an awesome year! Here's to hoping that 2007 will be even more crazy delicious!
It terms of close friendships, it has come to my attention that I tend to live by the Rule of Four (no, not the book). It's funny how patterns (or the illusion of patterns) start to emerge as time goes by.
Back in my halcyon days at the Gryphon's Guild (see Looking Back) there were four of us who were collectively referred to as the Romantic Four, being a set of two couples who were extremely good friends. We were a tight little group and I have many fond memories of conversations and jokes that were shared among us. There was only one short span of time that all four of us were together in person and it was wicked awesome. (Chee-rific you might say.)
This eventually segued into the Quartet during my Albertson College years, made up of a close group of four friends who mostly met through Circle K (the college version of Kiwanis). Jay and I started as friends, next became roommates and eventually ended up as "the old married couple". Colleen and I met on the first day of summer orientation, became friends, had a nothing-happened romance, and finally became even better friends because of it. Emily and I met through Jay (if I remember correctly) after which we became friends and she infected me with her love for post-modernism, Sandman and good movies. Together, all four of us had many a great time, with far too many stories to even know what to begin with.
Finally, working at the Ada Library has introduced me to my latest foursome (no, not that kind of foursome) which is covertly referred to as Dead Fish. (Strange name, but if you want an explanation, you'll have to ask me elsewhere.) I married L and as for the Pants and Ernie, well, they're like sisters to me. Collectively, they've made my first full-time job extremely kick ass and outside of work, they've also made my life kick ass.
I've been blessed to have many awesome friends in the past several years. You never know what the future holds and it's true that friendships are organic things that wax and wane with each passing day, but this I can say with perfect certainty: I hope I always have friends as amazingly incredible as I have and as I have had.
Here's your inspirational quote for the day:
Perhaps the most delightful, life-affirming discovery of all is how willing Americans are to embrace their passions and broadcast them to the world, regardless of what that world might think. Geeks, in a word, have become chic.
But it's not just computer nerds or chess dweebs who have found a voice for their interests. If you define a geek as a person with any oddball proclivity, then geeks are flourishing in every stratum of American society.
Geekiness has become an acceptable, proud badge of honor in America, the mark of someone who's actively engaged in some facet of the world around them. If this isn't something to celebrate, I don't know what is.
(Excerpt from Who Are You People? by Shari Caudron.)
A great quote from a great book about fanatical passions, from pigeon racing to Barbie collecting and from ice fishing to furry conventions. Or maybe I just liked it because it reaffirmed my sense of superiority in being a geek? Either way, it was a fun read.
Thanks to Ernie's confectionery-intervention, I now know the true incarnation of the holy duality of chocolate and peanut-butter is the ambrosia of 5th Avenue. False god Butterfinger, I cast you down!
(mouth-watering photo via Candyblog's Head-to-Head: Butterfinger vs. 5th Avenue.)
Weeks since my last update, just what have I been doing lately??
- Didn't get a Wii, but I have started playing Oblivion on L's 360. Even if it's a bit campy at time, I'm lovin' the crunchiness of the system. (And Argonians are just sexy.)
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Finished reading the third book in a kick-ass fantasy meets alternate history series, Temeraire. Definitely my favorite series of the year. Love dragons? Love historical fiction? Throw away Eragon and read this!
- Saw the rockin' production of The Adventures of Silence, starring the Pants, Ernie and my very own L. These gals were awesome! I'm never going to pick a fight with the Pants when she's donned chainmail nor Ernie when she's posing as an old male wizard.
- Work's been fabulous -- I'm still getting paid to play with LEGOs and to tweak Dragonfly (adalib.org 2.0). I'm damn lucky to have the job that I do.
- All the Christmas shopping's done (minus a couple minor things), courtesy of the Internet tubes. Who wants to fight the manic crowds worshiping at the Church of Capitalism (also known as the Mall) when it's so much easier online?
- Currently listening to Breaking Benjamin's latest CD (courtesy of our library's awesome Young Adult audio collection), Phobia. Wow. Just wow.
- Best of all, had some great conversations with friends, including hitting the Pita Pit with Colleenist, playing phone tag with BlueDelt, doing the girl talk with Ernie and the Pants, attending a book signing with my brother, chewing the dOrange old guard fat with Piscis and L, and IMing the Mattiepie. You guys and gals are too awesome for words -- thank you!
Alright, I promise to TRY not to slack off in my blogging, so you won't have to endure one of these lists again. But feel to free to kick me every so often if you fear one of these long list-type posts is building up.
I leave you with something truly random -- BACON ON A CAT!
What are you thankful for?
I am thankful for another four-day weekend and break from the chaos of work (even though I love it). And I am again thankful for two Thanksgiving dinners this year (one on Thursday, fasting on Friday, and then again on Saturday). I am thankful (as always) for my family and my friends (you all rock!). I am thankful for reading, gaming, natural 20s, Nintendo DS parties and dOrange. I am thankful for my awesome wifey wife. I am thankful for a warm apartment, good food, and a comfortable place to sleep.
I am thankful.
With Facebook's preexisting import features, that means my personal blogging bases are pretty well covered. Regardless of the flavor you prefer, you can now read my rambles on Vox, on LiveJournal, on Facebook or (my favorite) through RSS with the reader of your choosing.
This is technology (and the Internet) at its best -- empowering us with choices for how we receive (and send) information. If the medium is the message, what does it mean when each person gets to choose the medium? That may just be the great question of the Internet Age.
LiveJournal and Vox. Two great tastes that taste great together.
This ain't your old-school Pokemon video game -- there aren't any humans enslaving the Pokemon forcing them to perform Quick Attacks or the like. Rather, you get to play as a Pokemon, which is a helluva lot more awesome than commanding the critters to do your bidding (unless your into that sort of thing).
The replayability of this game might be it's best features, with an endless selection of random quests and dungeons to explore. It's one of those rare games that's easy to pick up, but difficult to master -- the tweaks they made to the original battle system makes this game far more interesting.
Sure, it's a strictly "E" rated game, so you won't find anything objectionable; Grand Theft Auto it ain't. But so far, about five hours into the game, the plot has kept me engaged and wondering what will happen next. You can't say that about every Pokemon game, nor every RPG for that matter.
Though I picked it up on a whim and not expecting a whole lot, PMD:BRT has definitely gotten my seal of approval. In fact, it's overall a more polished game than Contact, much to my surprise. Call me juvenile if you like, but I'm going to stick with kick ass cute critters. But for the love of Squibblequick, keep the Pikachus away.
