Something I picked up.

Did not find any new DVDs to pick up at the store, did find a older one on sale in the $9.99 bin.

• Shooter with Mark Wahlberg

The calendar come today.

My Calendar from SnapFish came today.

I did not do a calendar for my friends this year due to time, scaning a lot of old paintball pictures and the cost of it. I did have some nice pictures os a few paintball, 2007 Comic Con, family pictures and a few shots from New York.

There were a few shots for a few dates that I could have centered. But all in all, it came out good.

I started the month in February, so I would full month on my wall at work.

My YouTube first post.

Gingerbread City



At work, they gathered up all the Gingerbread Houses that the teams did and placed them in a conference room. It looks like a Seattle city scape done in food and candy all spread out on a conference table.

See my pictures that I took here.

This is my first post on YouTube. I took video with my camera phone, a LG-9900 (aka the enV). The upload was simple, fill in some info and upload the origanal file that was stored on the phone. Once uploaded, YouTube did its thing and converted it for the web.

Some things I saw and picked up.

Pick up two DVDs:

• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, The Laughing Man DVD
  (Put together from the Laughing Man plot from first season. Most of, if not all, the voices of the main characters voices have been redone. From what I recall, some of the scrip was rewritten to fit all the bits and parts into a 160 min DVD.)
• Ragnarok: The Animationm, First Quest

Due to geting a Wii for Christmas (or will get soon), I am looking into some games. Here are a few that I saw in the store and looked good.

• Super Swing Golf Season 2 for the Wii
  
• Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure for the Wii

One item of note that I snaped a picture of with my cell:

Sports Pack for the Wii

Attachments for your Wii remote from NERF. Looks to include a club attachment for golf game use, a bat attachment for baseball game use and racket attachment for tennis game use.

Moving.

I just got a call about the apartment that it not needed that I move out of my current apartment. Yea, I can get rid (recycle) of some of the boxes that I started to collect. When asked, looks like I could renew the lease with out being kicked out.

Books I have read in 2007.

2007 is over and my list is complete. The total of books read is: 19. Which is good for me. There were some comic books and mangas that were read in between the books and are not listed.

The list is in order of read. The top is most recent and the bottom is one I stared reading the beginning of 2007.

1. Ringworld by Larry Niven
2. Trail of Time by Jeff Mariotte
3. Class Dis-Mythed by Robert Asprin
4. Phule's Errand by Robert Asprin
5. No Phule Like An Old Phule by Robert Asprin
6. Phule Me Twice by Robert Asprin
7. A Phule And His Money by Robert Asprin
8. Phule's Paradise by Robert Asprin
9. Phule's Company by Robert Asprin
10. Conrad's Quest for Rubber by Leo Frankowski
11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
    
12. Ghost In The Shell:SAC Revenge of the Cold Machines
13. The Last colony by John Scalzi
14. The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey
15. Myth-Told Tales (2007) by Robert Asprin & Jodi Lynn Nye
16. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Book One, Lord Foul's Bane
    
17. Conrad's Time Machine by Leo Frankowski
18. His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
19. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Things you do not say . . .

Dad's birthday is Jan 5th, but my brother is us in Seattle. We got a cake, wrapped our presents and planed on celebrate it early, today. We got them in the house with out him knowing about it. We set them up in the dinning table while Dad got dinner ready. Benjamin (my nephew) came into the dinning room and yelled out "Who is the cake for?". He quickly was silenced. He had looked at the cake, but he did not read it. It did say"Happy Birthday Dad" on the top of it.

Happy New Year.

Out with the old: 2007

In with the new: 2008

It is a little early, but HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Drive Someone Insane with Postcards

See ebay listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320196148761

Below is the ebay description:

You are bidding on a rare chance to traumatize a treasured friend or relative with baffling, mind-numbing, mystery correspondence from abroad.

Here is the arrangement:

I will be spending the Christmas holiday in Poland in a tiny village that has one church with no bell because angry Germans stole it. Aside from vodka, there is not a lot for me to do.

During the course of my holiday I will send three postcards to one person of your choosing.

These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the addressee. Details you will provide me.

The postcards will not be coherently signed, leaving your mark confused, guessing wildly, crying out in anguish.

"How do I know this person? And how does he know I had a ferret named Goliath?"

Your beloved friend or relative will try in vain to figure out who it is. Best of all, it can't possibly be you because you'll have the perfect alibi: you're not in Poland. You're home, wherever that is, doing whatever it is you do when not driving your friends loopy with international prankery.

Your target will rack their brains in the shower. At dinner. During long drives. At work. On the golf course.

"Who did I tell about the time I got fired by a note on my chair?" they'll ponder, "And where the hell is Szczeczinek?"

But wait, there's more.

To add to the sheer confusion and genuine discomfort, one missive will be on an original promotional postcard announcing the 1995 television premiere of Central Park West on CBS.

Another will be a postcard celebrating Atlanta's disastrous hosting of the 1996 summer Olympic games.

Your mark will be at a complete loss, desperate for answers, debating contacting people he or she hasn't talked to in years.

"I know this will sound weird," they'll say, "but by any chance were you in Eastern Europe ranting about cantaloupe... twelve years ago... right before some show with Mariel Hemingway debuted?"

When you decide to end the torment is completely up to you. If you can, I recommend owning up on 1 April 2008 - giving you nearly half a year of joy and a George Clooney-esque level of prankage. If you can't hold it in that long, I totally understand.

The winning bid was $415.00

After work today.

With Christmas over, there are sales discounting most Christmas items. I hit two Bartell Drugs store, a Walgreens, a QFC, a Hallmark store and a JC Penneys. Found some stocking stuffers (for when family comes down this Friday), two ornaments (at 40% - 50% off) and switched out some Levi's 501 for Levi's 505 at the correct size (for dad).

Around the block.

Happy Chrismas day. My and my day tried to goto a buffet we have gone to the past and found it closed. We tried a few other places. I think I say a Starbuck open. We did find a Safeway that was open and picked up a few things and some hot food. Back at my parents place, while we ate our food it started to snow. It melted on the road and given some time it did stick to the grass and trees. With it snowing, I headed back to my place in Bellevue for the rest of the day. Thats my story for today. No gifts today, we are waiting for my brother to come down this Friday.

A Chrismas Greeting, of sorts.

The 12 Days of Email



This YouTube video was done for my brother's work and features his family.

The Apartment

A few weeks ago I was offered a deal to move to a different apartment. A free month's rent and repayment of any cost of utilities due to the move. When they remodeled the apartment, I think there is a problem with the placement of the water heater. At the time of the offer, dad was still in the hospital. About two weeks later, I informed them that I would like to do the deal. I left a message and did not hear back them. I pick up a package in the apartment rental office, they said they are waiting for work from the owners. Today there was some info taped on my apartment door. There are some new owners and new apartment manager(s). Looks like the deal may be off. Not sure if I should bring the issue up, maybe I will not have to move. Time will tell.

Our HERO game tangents.

Here are some of the off topics that came up durring on HERO RPG game on 12/08/07:

Book: Wizard's First Rule
TV: Chuck
Podcast: Dragons Landing

To start up again.

Things are getting back to a little more normal. I started to walk to work again. It was a bad day to start. It was raining and there was a wind. When I got to work I was only a quarter wet and found out that I left my lunch. The walk home was dryer.

Wacky news

A New York judge lost his job after taking 46 people into custody after they all refused to admit whose mobile phone rang (WENN)

Another Update

Dad is at home resting and working around the house. From the last few weeks I have been busy with family business. Today I got some me time and took it easy on my day off. Getting back to a more normal schedule for me. I did find out that part of my FMLA thru Metlife was approved and the other part needed some missing info to be completed.

Update

Dad is doing good on his rehab. With the holiday, there was a day of no rehab, but with my work. It game me some additional time off with out using any more FML. I go thru Metlife for FML, it took a while to get the paperwork, get it to the doctor to fill it out and get it faxed into Metlife. I should know if they are approved by this Wednesday.

The floor up stares.

I found out today, from dad that he will be moving up stares to rehab (physical and speech). It turns out that his room is right above the prev room down stares. He stares tomorrow with a full schedule.

Walking it off.

Found out that my dad is walking (with a little help from a walker, to keep him steady). He walk times up and down the halls. Given he had a fever yesterday and is clear for 24 hrs. He will be moved up to the rehab floor.