With the upgrade to Leopard came some incompatibilities with my software. It's been fixed and now pictures are up where they belong and I also put up the mystery party. Hopefully will keep up this habit of writing once a week or so and getting videos up as well.

Had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Nice time with family and celebrating my sister's birthday. Ate lots, played lots of games (Wits and Wagers, Zooleretto, Werewolfe). Friday was a surprise birthday party for Dennis - played games of all types for 13 hours! Took a lot of Rock Band breaks - yes, my living room looks like a garage band hangout. Four of us created a new band... called "Frash". The name came in second to "Fresh Produce". The game is a lot of fun. We'll have to meet up and practice more this week.

Watched some football. Kansas played a good second half, but the first put them too far behind (couldn't make any field goals!). Hope Missouri will go all the way. Even though Nebraska was horrible, I did laugh out loud when Eric Cartman introduced the Colorado defense. Chiefs & Stanford lost, too - made it a perfect losing weekend!

This blog entry is a month overdue. Here's where people who attended can post comments and questions about it. Especially if you want to try and put it on somewhere else. It was held at the UNMC Alumni House and had 35 attend in costume on a cold and rainy October evening - maybe perfect for such a dire event.

Just some quick links I forgot to include yesterday - whew, a lot this week!

First, it was in the 70sF outside on Monday - a gorgeous day! Didn't even have a cool wind or anything. Yesterday was tremendously dismal with grey skies and a high in 30s (it's really hard to imagine such a change from one day to the next!). Waking up today to watching snow come down! Makes me appreciate this cat. (by the way, it's been hard to hold back with so many funny lolcats on icanhascheezburger.com the past few months)

Sesame Street just came out with 2 volumes of their "old school" programs (440 mins each, yowsers!). Nice NYTimes article on it and lots in the news about how it's now inappropriate for youngsters (lots of changes over the years). I watched this old stuff and turned out ok... *twitch* *twitch*

Maybe one of the best placed online ads I've seen (for Mac) - be sure to turn on the volume.

I'll be watching and cheering for the Kansas Jayhawks this weekend as they try for an undefeated miracle season as they take on Missouri. Hope either one of them can go all the way. Interesting article about their relatively short QBs.

Played and beat an incredible game called Portal (part of the Half-Life 2 Orange Box for Xbox 360 and PC). It wasn't very long, and no shooting, all about solving puzzles, but there was incredible narration to the story where you are a guinea pig. The end had me awestruck and throughout the game I was laughing even at the sinister aspects. Apparently it was written by Erik Wolpaw, one of the 2 great minds who wrote my favorite game for the original Xbox, Psychonauts (Tim Schafer is the other). This wonderful interview sheds some life on the great mind at work. Even now I'm listening to the youtube video of the final end-game song that is well-done in its own right - a new ipod addition!

If you were thinking of getting a Playstation3 with 15 free Blu-ray movies, this Saturday's secret sale is your best chance at WalMart. I've debated it, but am sticking with my 360 & HD-DVD player. Both formats will be around for a long while.

And for my future movie theater, here's the chart detailing on when you can tell the differences between 720p & 1080p projectors.

In the more controversial links, here's a 2 hour movie, Zeitgeist, (in three parts) that's entertaining and thought-provoking, though good at making one angry as well. Lots of paranoia in presenting this "documentary", but some aspects I enjoyed debating with others. Each part puts together relatively well-discussed (ie. old) arguments as to 1) Christianity was created for social control, 2) 911 was an inside job & 3) world is run by international bank cartels. Here's a decent review. There's a bit of truth to all of it, but I don't agree with much of the main messages/conclusions. The 2nd part has been what has upset me the most. How we (mankind, US, etc) have gotten into many of our recent wars. Anyway, if it doesn't create some sort of reaction within you, check your pulse.

In a more constructive conversation, there is an interesting series called Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival. I haven't watched more than one, but will do so bit by bit over the coming weeks.

I'm currently into watching Heroes, season 1. Suspect it may go the way of many popular new drama series (ie. go downhill fast), but here's to hoping. I'm not a fan of the narrator or his character (acting-wise) and I could go on for other criticisms, but the premise and multiple-converging stories are great hooks.

Lastly on the tech theme, the new Beowulf movie is absolutely gorgeous! One to see soon in a digital, IMAX and/or 3D theater. (Sadly none of which are near me - wait, in Olathe, KS!)

And some more help on what to buy this Black Friday.

The trip to Boston was a full one. Got to see Allison, play Wii for first time and get my butt handed to me repeatedly on boxing. I love the implementation of the wiimote in Wii Sports, but not going to get one, yet (graphics are lousy, too many good 360 games). But, as I play DDR for exercise and my legs show it (tight!), after only a little while with the Wii, my arms were sore - clearly a sign that I should be working out with them, too. OK, from now on DDR with punch moves!

I'm going to skip a lot of the business of the convention in Boston. Needless to say, I spent 18 hours a day in meetings, finishing posters/talks, networking, and working on new project ideas. But enough about that! (I was fortunate enough to see some great friends during the week, too, and made some new ones - so I kept what little remains of my sanity in tact)

Got to see Wicked at Boston Opera House. Wonderful story! Music was pretty good. When I returned to Omaha, 2 hours later I got to see Spamalot - hilarious! Fun all the way through - better music and comedy, but less on the story (imagine that). Feel fortunate to see them both in 8 days.

While away the neighbor-folk took care of the kittehs. Here's a picture of them ensuring that my dining table is being used well... but where are the kittehs?! (edit: picture currently not working )

Actually, the heater hasn't been working. Neighbor "Stevo" brought in an expert who did the quick fix and last night he was nice enough to come over and finish the job. Too much humidity getting in, causing buttons to get stuck, metal to rust and fuses to go out. Still more to fix, but so good to have heat - though it was nice to have extra attention from the kittens, though now I know it was because they were cold and wanted to curl up!

Had another game night - expected only 3 to show but in the last 3 hours everyone wanted to come over and there were 14 or so who came by throughout the night. Take 6, Ticket to Ride, Guitar Hero jams, DDR match-offs and Werewolfe were part of the fun. We also got to figure out who was allergic to cats and who wasn't. I HAVE to get rid of the extra cat hair! Even my allergies have gotten much worse.

Got to be part of a surprise 40th birthday party for my coworker, Ted. A wonderful surprise put on by his wife, though I don't think anyone really wanted to see him get his arse beat with a paddle by 40 different attendees - his siblings were rough!

Good to be back for a while including being able to spend the holidays with family without having to go far. Spent time on weekend trimming down the plant growth from around the house. So many leaves! Planted some tulips for next spring... we'll see if anything comes from it. They should be deep purple.

Running behind. May be an all-nighter as I have an hour presentation to give in the morning on a subject I know little about and I have yet to start. Why am I here? Good question!

Halloween was nice - fun to have so many little trick or treaters come by for the first time as a home-owner. Though I was surprised of the number of toddler/babies (ie. Momma wanted some candy!) as well as undressed teenagers - or maybe it wasn't the number as much as these just stood out. I watched the Muppet Show (family friendly fare for kids to see in the window) for a bit, but still have too much leftover candy!

I'm obsessed with getting a nice metal DDR pad for my xbox 360 - hoping to get one made for it, or better yet, one made for PS/2 with an adapter for the 360 (I know, M$ would never agree to this, but thank goodness for the mod-crowd). Here's where I've been looking... mymybox, cobalt flux, bunker project (may be my best bet), and possible PS/2 adapter XFPS 360. Yes, I miss my 360 while it's being repaired, but even more I miss my DDR exercise (especially with so many sweets this past week!!!). Anyone have advice or want to help me mod one?

There have been lots of Halo3 videos this past month, this bug cracked me up.

Fan video of Batman, Joker and a little bit of AVP thrown in for spice (from 2003).

Looks like I'll have my hands full with GH3 & Rock Band this holiday season. My living room will look like a garage with so many "musical" instruments! Well, that's what I have a big closet for, I guess.