New Years 2008

New Years 2008 was less eventful than I would have hoped. The video that James showed me from last year made the dense crowds Roman Candle fire was coordinated - after the bell rang that only occurs on the New Year; it looked like AA gunfire from Desert Storm. Then there were "real" (Class A) fireworks overhead. This year there were a lot of candles, but people were lighting them off for well over an hour straight. I'm told the bell (right) rang once at 11:40 and no fireworks. There was an absurd amount of building and tree lighting, an ice skating rink, several bands, and more police officers than I've seen in my life combined. It was cold, but we still ran around and had a good time.

This has little relevance, but I'll mention it anyways. So I bought a computer at the Electronics Mart, a local nice, high end retail building housing many small vendors. After spec'ing out a computer and negotiating the price they were very nice. They gave me an Internet terminal and a cup of coffee to occupy myself while I waited the hour and half for them to build it. Upon completion I was shown that everything worked - the Internet connection, audio, etc, etc. The first thing I did at home was try to boot to a CD. Big problem, though - pushing the button just made a grinding sound. As you can see in the picture, Adashi shoved the DVD drive in behind the cables that connect my sound and USB ports (above) to the motherboard. He apparently installed my English version of XP from a hard drive image. It took longer to decide if I wanted to fix it than actually do so. Then I realize that he DeWalted the nice anodized thumbscrews on the back. Nothing a screwdriver couldn't handle, but disconcerting nonetheless.

An update for close friends and family: I've been busy throughout the holidays. Went to several coworkers places for parties, had a work holiday party, and several other festivities. Guess I've been too lazy to post lately. Been spending too many geeky hours watching The Office, My Name is Earl, and Star Trek.