So here it is, another year come and gone. And what a new and strange year it's been! Spent this last night at Dennis' with the game-playing group. How appropriate and fun it was. December will be known for deadlines, last-minute shopping, the break-in, holiday dinners, game-nights, family and friends and lots of cold and snow!

This was also the first Christmas that I wasn't traveling cross-country since 1991... and even then we drove 5.5 hrs to Lincoln. It was great to have my family nearby and Dad worked hard to help fix up some holes, electrical outlets and other fix-it items in the home. No lights up yet, but the neighborhood definitely looked festive and more than made up for my lack of lights, though the moment we get a new real snow (and not just short layers on top of our ice), I've got all the fixins for a snowman! (thanks to Phyllis - also thanks to Melissa for sending me one of the items that was stolen as a nice surprise gift!)

Some more rock band playing, Frash and other "groups" - see the latest addition in pics, plus a crazy pic of Dennis, Lizzy, Marie & me being goofy next to the Christmas tree. It's been a big change being in Omaha, and I wouldn't have survived it without such great new friends and family nearby. Lots ahead and looking forward to each day still with a skip in my step (though with the ice outside, may have to be a bit more careful - it's been a lot of fun sliding around on foot and in my car!)

AFI's top 10 movies of 2007. I've seen and enjoyed 4 of them and have the rest on Netflix.

Full review of the redone Blade Runner DVD release. (likely last link to Blade Runner, evah!)

Great fan art of the Simpsons - making them more comic book "realistic" (and her Futurama art, too)

It's finally official - Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh are doing 2 Hobbit movies for New Line Cinema! I often thought it would have to be way too long to get the full book covered in one movie, but where to split it at? Sounds like the first film will be the Hobbit and the 2nd will be the 80 years between it and the LOTR. And who to play Bilbo with Ian Holmes likely a bit too old.

An AP story stating Bioshock game of the year and The Orange Box as best deal & Rock Band best "off-sofa" game. I agree with all except for statement that Bioshock is available fore PS3.

And for the pop scientist in all of us, news about finding tapes by Hugh Everett from the 70's covering his parallel worlds theory which has gained popularity again. I wrote a class paper on this back in '93 - fun to think about. I also like the Eels (band) and Everett is the father of their lead singer - cool!

Lots of snow this past week and it's been very cold. I've been having fun sliding around in my car, driving faster than I should and experimenting (controlled learning?) with how much I can get away with, though unfortunately tonight I was fortunate to be losing control into an intersection that had just turned red so they could see not to go with me sliding into it. Yeah, no one was hurt, but it was an adrenaline check for the night.

Went with a group of 9 to see Blade Runner: The Final Cut at the local arthouse theater. It was wonderful to see my favorite movie for the first time on the big screen! It was gorgeous, but honestly I was slightly disappointed that they didn't "fix" the minor flaws in the movie (transitions, voice-over dialogues, etc). In fact, it was hard to tell what was different in it besides cleaning it up and a couple brief scenes here/there. Three of the 9 hadn't seen it before and had fun mocking the old-school style and technology and the fact that everyone in the theater was quiet and serious while at least two of them couldn't help but giggle at it... silly girls!

Lots of holiday parties - got to see the local botanical gardens last night with the internal medicine department. Our band, Frash, is back in action and we're tearing up Europe in Rock Band. Can't believe Christmas is a week away - I am so far behind. Looks to be one of those years where January is where I send out my gifts. ugh. And, to keep each line a different subject, it seems my fantasy football luck has run out during the first week of the playoffs after doing so well (2nd place in both money leagues). *sigh*

On to the links!
Something to add to my wish list: inside-joke logo from Portal (the game!) This is from jinx.com, creators of the baby-wear that I still giggle about (see, I can be silly, too)

They have a theater production of "Point Break Live" in LA. Apparently, just like in the real movie, they take a no-talent man from the audience and have him play the main character, Johnny Utah (Kueno Reeves in case you don't know the movie - I actually like him, but am not a big fan of his acting).

You may have heard/seen this already, but enjoyed Carly Comando's Everyday original piano composition that you can hear and watch the "inspired" youtube video at. Apparently the Simpsons recently referenced it tonight as well including the Youtube self-reference.

Keeping consistent with my life thus far, a lot happened this past week. Attended a big charity auction for the local Children's Hospital with lots of big-wigs, it was a nice venue (Quest Center) and interesting environment with so many dressed up and people bidding thousands of dollars on unnecessary items (I know, it's for charity!). Big ice storm hit and so I experimented with it and drove out to see a matinee of No Country For Old Men - another excellent Coen brothers' movie. Drove down to Mount Hope, KS on Sunday night so I could be up early on Monday to get a small hole near my front tooth filled in. My dentist is very impressive (besides the fact that his office is in a town or population 800). Very quick and good at fooling me in to letting him do something painful without having time to react. My tooth looks very nice - good luck figuring out which one it was!

Spent a few days working in Wichita - lots of projects to work on. Took the parents out to see the Digital 3-D showing of Beowulf at the Warren Theatre. Truly amazing show! I HIGHLY recommend this - we had such a blast even though we had the dorky plastic 3-D glasses on.

Tuesday night found out from my neighbors that someone had broken into my house. Left work early on Wed so I could get back and have the police check things out (they wouldn't do anything other than a quick house check while I was away). On the drive up the mall shooting occurred near my home in Omaha. I found out about it from friends texting me before I heard it on the news. I called the police when I got home and an officer spent a few hours working on the report, talking to neighbors and getting the crime lab guy over for taking prints. The latter came over from the mall where he said he had seen "too many dead people today". President Bush spoke earlier in Omaha that day, then the mall shootings, then getting home...

As for my house, the thief broke in through a back door and stole ~$1500 worth of electronics. Mostly xbox hardware, peripherals and games. Yes, it sucks to lose such things, but the bigger thing is a) feeling less secure because of it (I haven't had a full night's sleep yet, very sensitive to any noises) & b) losing all of those saved games from the last 6+ years including my 100+ hours each in DDR and Morrowing/Oblivion. Needless to say I've more sensitive to securing my home and improving it as well. A great thanks goes out to my neighbors for watching my house, calling the police, and boarding up the broken door window as well as taking care of my kittens (of which TB has blackened paws as she apparently stepped in the powder used for fingerprints and is now leaving her mark many other places... argh!).

One of the residents at work told me a story. She asked her technician to get her something at McDonalds last week. The tech came back fairly late and unhappy - said she had horrible experience, bad service and yelled at McDonald's worker. Apparently the guy she worked with was the same one who got fired last week and then went on killing spree in the mall on Wed. Trippie. Also, while I expected this, saw a letter to the local editor stating that this crime was due to growth of secular humanism and turning away from Christianity. This knee-jerk reaction always disgusts me (as it happens after every tragedy).

On a lighter note, the week ended with friends and games. Also watched Labyrinth ('86) and remembered how much fun it was to sing-along and dance to David Bowie in it. Also, here's a line I didn't pay attention to 10+ years ago when I last saw it. Jennifer Connelly says "Sorry Hogwart" to Hoggle, the dwarf. I wonder if JK got the name from this?

So what will next week bring?

Giving Him The Business - great college game referee detail though apparently first used by a ref in an NFL game 15+ years ago.

Decent plan for establishing a playoff in college IA football, though we'd have to decrease total games or make it ok to have possible 16 games for a couple of teams! I'm a big football fan, but still find this aspect frustrating. The lower division playoff games have been more exciting than the bowl setup.

Disturbingly funny motion picture of a guy and a kitten...

Interesting direction NIH could take on future funding - I've been discovering the pain and "system" young faculty must go through in order to compete for grants. Got my first (of many) rejection letter this past week and what I got out of it was: don't apply for money for anything new and exciting, just do simple things that you've already done all of the work for. Seriously, damn frustrating.

I've made reference to how much I enjoyed playing Portal previously even for a 4 hour game, well here are a few articles that touch on different aspects of it. Very short, Why Portal is perfect; overstuffed but entertaining, Portal is the most subversive game ever; and while I love the end-song for the game, apparently it was written by Jonathan Coulton (I know him from his many songs including "Code Monkey" (an important namesake) and "Re Your Brains") and here is a live acoustic performance of it with scenes from Portal. Portal did pick up the Video Game Awards "Best Breakthrough Technology" award today and yes, I did notice that 3 of the big VGA winners were stolen from me (Bioshock - game of the year, Halo3 - best multiplayer & most addictive & Portal).

Some older science news about a huge body of water discovered underneath East Asia.

Here's something cute that you can go to everyday - the Human Calendar. Fun how it works! Let me know when you see this as a widgit or maybe put it in someone's digital photo frame.

Two days without setting an alarm and two nights of interesting dreams. The only one worth mentioning here was from the first night. I was at a family gathering (anniversary, birthday, etc) in a large catered room that may have been connected with a shopping center with dozens of relatives. I noticed some people across the large room through a window in a connected small storage room gathering expensive A/V equipment, purses, coats, etc and then taking it out with a couple relatives with them looking distraught. It looked like they were robbing my family right before my eyes! Ok, will skip the rest - it goes on into a chase/action movie and gets blown out of proportion (including driving a car through a Walmart/mall and underground in ventilation/sewers - fun!).

The next dream (same night) I'm at the same party, but this time I'm one of the "robbers". Apparently we came to get the A/V equipment to film another event while some others needed to use this smaller room so they had to move the coats/purses and at the same time a phone call was made that apparently someone who was supposed to attend was in a bad car accident so the people who got that call were upset. We start to leave and on the way out I'm being chased by some crazy people...

Anyway, it was fun as I was convinced in the first dream that something was awry. The second dream gave me a completely different perspective. I love it!

Lastly, I'm suspecting that this is my grandparents' 60th anniversary which is scheduled for next fall - stay tuned. I used to log such dreams in order to show that many of them would come true - also entertaining.

Off to brave the ice outside!