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** - reread
Book List 2003
Book List 2002
Book List 2001
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Wednesday, December 31, 2003
2003 Year-In-Review
This may be tougher than I thought it would be, but here goes. In all, utter, and complete honesty, I don't recall much that stood out about the winter months of the year. I do recall that for the most part, the winter did not dump a ton of snow on us, nor was it particularly brutal in terms of cold temperatures. Early this year I expanded my comic reading almost exponentially. Late 2002, I was only reading the new GI JOE and TRANSFORMERS titles out of pure nostalgia factor. Christmas of 2002 Julie bought me a classic Batman issue, and that stirred my superhero love from my childhood days. Now that I'm an adult with a job and disposable income, I try very hard not to come home with ten pounds of comics every week. They do cost a bit more than I remember from my youth. Every March I take a few days off to coincide with March Madness, aka the beginning of the NCAA College Basketball tournament. This usually involves watching about 12 hours of basketball a day, eating copious amounts of bad-for-you foods, filling out brackets/betting money on who will win, and enjoying the patented Big Upset of the tourney. This year we've already had preliminary talks about the Big Benito Pizza, the Full Slab o' Ribs, and the White Castle Crave Case. We had a few weeks of vacation in May, but in an attempt to curb spending, we decided just to hang out and not go tot work rather than drop dough on a trip. This was a bit of a scary time for me in a way, since it was around this time that the dire news of reduced state funding for the University trickled down to us. When the cuts were made, we did lose a part- timer from our group. I feel a bit safe -- I have two people below me on the totem pole -- but I still get edgy cause 2004 doesn't look any better. If I were to lose my job, man... I don't know what I'd do after that. I don't feel like I have superlative skills that would get me a job over anyone else. You might see me working retail or something like that. I love my job dearly, but I can also state that the specificity of my duties could certainly make it hard for me to get work in a non-University position. In June we were integral components in the Haskell-Fuller wedding, which was great. It was terribly warm that Saturday -- I remember the vinyl black shoes that we en-tuxed gentlemen wore heating up and cooking my toes -- but there was no rain, and the reception at the Gandy Dancer was terrific. I was worried about the toast I had to give (I started giggling as I stepped up to the mike and had to pull it together) but it was well-received. We spent a weekend at the cabin in July. On arrival, my first act was to pull a muscle in my back getting a bike out of the back of the truck. Fun was had anyways, even though I was hurtin'. Shortly after than I had fun with the M-Care (-ousel) Health Circus in diagnosing a torn ligament in my left foot that bugs me to this day. Injuries of this type will occasionally take a full calendar year to heal. I have some special inserts in my shoes that are helping. I had folks over for a birthday barbeque which went well, and the dinner we had for Julie a week later at Don Carlos-Pablos seemed to work out for the best. Around this time I started playing cards on a weekly basis, and then decided to check out playing with real money online, through Ultimate Bet. I don't recall if this was spurred by watching the first few episodes of the World Poker Tour or if that was coincidence, but I found myself hooked. Worried interested parties can relax; my total investment for calendar year 2003 has been about 50 bucks. I'm not hopelessly addicted, though I can boast that I own several texts on the subject. Fantasy football started up again -- I took the initiative and set up our league on Yahoo, since the old host wanted money -- and that went decently enough for me. I had horrible injuries to most of my big names, but I put it together and finished with a winning record (8-7-2) and in fifth place out of ten teams overall. I've never had a losing record in about six years of our league. October is one of my favorite months, because football is in full swing, the weather becomes reasonable, the leaves turn color, Halloween approaches... it was all great this year. I suspect things will be a little better when we get a house and move into a neighborhood that's gung-ho about it, the way the subdivision I lived in as a child was. Speaking of houses, we're got serious about it this year, working to eliminate debt -- I became credit card debt-free this year, as well as eliminated a student load -- and adding to our savings account for the ever-important down payment. November, to me, was just a few weeks to endure before Thanksgiving and, my other coupla weeks of vacation kicked in. I cooked the turkey again this year to rave reviews, got most of my Christmas shopping done early, bought a GameCube, and basically threw my sleep schedule upside-down by staying up too late. December? Well, that should be all fresh in the mind and in the blog. Christmas was very good to both Julie and I, even though I had some speaks with the Amazon people about the triple nunchuck fiasco. Everyone seems to have enjoyed the stuff I gave, which is the best part, of course. Now there's really only a collection of hours left of this year, and I suspect this will be the last post until 2004, so I hope this space entertains you and that it will continue to in the days to come. Have a happy New Year celebration, all.
Token Pursuits Update
...only took half a year. In it I lament the closing of the Wizards of the Coast retail stores. Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Monday, December 22, 2003
dwinn vs Amazon.com
I heart Amazon.com. I'd put some fun "nunchucks" on my Amazon Wish List. This weekend we got together to exchange gifts. I open one of Dann's gifts to me -- the nunchucks! Jason grumbles and hands me a wrapped packages that looks suspiciously like nunchucks. Then Julie sighs and says she won't even bother wrapping the nunchucks she bought.
Monday, December 15, 2003
Excuse Me, May I Caress Your Buttocks?
http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/wwn/20031204/107055000003.html Thursday, December 11, 2003
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Ninja v. Milkman
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/3301687.stm There are two jokes for this one: 1) "I love ninjas with all of my body (including my pee-pee)" and 2) "Why they call you Milkman?" -> "Cause I killed the milkman." Vote for your favorite! Thursday, December 04, 2003
Game^3
I've got a Gamecube now -- it was bundled with four previous versions of Zelda. I picked up Metroid Prime and Resident Evil Zero used on the cheap, and then Gamespot loved me so much they gave me Star Wars Rogue Leader II for free. Now it's on like neckbone. Monday, December 01, 2003
Blarg
Vacation is all good and stuff, but there are some things that are annoying me:
Ok, enough ranting for now. |
