I really can’t begin to explain how busy things have been over the past few weeks. First it was guest posting at Lifehacker, which I’m so incredibly thrilled to have had the opportunity to do (and hope they ask me back again soon!) and then dealing with my apartment community and the fact that my bathroom floor (my only bathroom, mind you) had been torn up for the bulk of a week while they repaired some water damage that I discovered under the tub, and then a visit to my parents’ place, and then beginning to make plans for Otakon later in the year and then thinking about where Raevyn and I should move to downtown in DC come summertime, and I’ve had more than enough on my mind to keep me up and buzzing at all hours.

It also doesn’t hurt that Raevyn and I are going on a cruise to Mexico (sponsored by her work, thankfully – as kind of a “yay we made it through the holidays have this vacation all expenses paid) at the end of February, and yeah, I’ve got a lot on my mind.

The day job has been an incessant source of stress at the same time – and while I could wax for ages about my many disappointments about the day job and how things are going there right now, I don’t think that’s horribly interesting to anyone, even me. It’s not going to help me de-stress to write out and whinge about all of the things at the office that are irritating me. I’ll keep plugging away at it and see where things go from here.

Aside from all of this, I still have this odd feeling (that I’ve shared several times) that I could really use some time off of work and at home to recuperate and do some of the things I’ve been meaning to do, but it’s quickly getting to the point where I’m not going to have the luxury of picking and choosing a time to do things like digitize my CD collection or get rid of some of my old books and things before the weather is warm and it’s time to move. I’m thrilled about the prospect, I just know there’s lots of work to do before then to get things in order, and February is probably the last month I have to not even look at any of it if I don’t want to.

It’s kind of an energizing challenge, actually. I’m looking forward to it in a way I really can’t describe.

Of course, there is the whole matter of finding a place to live that works though – I suppose it’s time to start wistfully making a list of things that would be nice to have in a new home. Maybe after a good night’s sleep.

Oh, who am I kidding.

I need to stop waiting for the perfect opportunity and get started now. it’s easy to want to take a few days off so I could organize myself neatly and perfectly and get started on the work I want to do, but in reality no one has time for that kind of thing, so they do what they can when they can. No sense in trying to be any different.

There’s a lot to do, and if I sit around waiting for the ideal time to do it, I’ll be waiting for entirely too long, and then wind up hurrying to the point where I wish I had the time to do it right. That said, anyone have any spare boxes?

I’m loving Miku in those autumn colors up there. I don’t have much more time to use these autumn themed images, sadly – full-on Winter is descending rapidly.

For those keeping score, the fondue experiment turned out fabulously the second time around, and we had more delicious treats for dipping at the same time. Since Raevyn and I have been spending more of our weekends together, we’ve been doing a lot of cooking, and it’s been wonderful. This past weekend we got to discussing foods that I vaguely remember from living in Hawaii, and used a tin of Spam that I had picked up idly one day to make some spam and eggs over rice. Turned out beautifully, so much so that I think I’d love to do it again at some point soon. After all, I do have leftover spam.

Aside from the cooking though, the weeks have been spinning by in something of a blur. I don’t think I’m entirely ready for the holidays and the “obligation season,” as I often refer to it, when we’re all obligated to visit family, spend a lot of money, and do a lot of traveling in cold weather when all too often all we really want is the opportunity to stay at home where it’s warm and do something chill for ourselves. Still, there’s no stopping the progress of time, and even though it might not sound like it at first blush, I really adore the holidays, so I’m looking forward to them.

The shops are open late, the lights are all bright and glittery, and world just seems to move just a little bit faster but stay alive just a little bit longer. It’s a wonderful thing and I’m looking forward to being able to hit a local Best Buy around midnight and not worry that the store will be closing in the next few minutes.

Oh, before I forget – I uploaded a bunch of photos over Photowerks; check out the 2010 Album for some of the new stuff, including pics from Otakon, the Renaissance Festival, and unboxing pics of my new laptop, among others.

That aside though, I’ve been looking forward to a number of things coming in the next year or so – thinking more about moving downtown and the kind of place that we may get, and thinking about the furniture I’ll probably have to put away in a small storage space because any apartment downtown will likely not be as large as some of the suburban places I’ve lived in. I’m so eager that I’m almost planning it before it’s really worth planning – since it’ll be a downtown move, there’ll be much Craigslist scouring in the months ahead of the move to find something really nice. I’m thinking about what other opportunities may be downtown as well, but we’ll see how that all turns out.

Regardless, I’m looking forward to a number of things in the near future, and even though last week especially was particularly stressful, both on the full-time job front and the freelancing front and the monetary front (my poor car went into the shop for a fairly expensive repair) and just about every other front, I’m feeling much better this week. I think I can credit a lovely weekend for most of it.

Speaking of which, I can’t help but start thinking about a new car, even though I love my current one – I sank a good chunk of change into getting the windshield replaced last week, and then again into an engine repair that I noticed when I started smelling burning and saw smoke rising from the hood. My car is about 7 years old, but it’s in great working order aside from repairs here and there, and running the numbers a pricey repair now is still less expensive than the car payments I would have laid down on a new vehicle between now and the last time it was in the shop, so it works out okay – but still. Maybe it’s a little technolust for a more updated vehicle that’s getting under my skin.

In other news though, I managed to snag my glorious new laptop last week, and I adore her. I’ve named her Ganymede, which works with the naming convention – the Macbook Pros that I’ve owned so far have been named Io, Europa, and now Ganymede. Raevyn has Io these days, and Europa is now my backup machine (and needs to have her iSight camera fixed) and Ganymede is the shiny new hotness. I have a screencap of the spec of the system here, if you’re curious. So far though, the added RAM and that SSD has resulted in some killer video and gaming performance.

To help pay for that beautiful new laptop, my newest feature is up at Tom’s Guide, where I review three potentially overlooked Android mobile phones. I’m on to some hot phone scoops at Tom’s Guide, and if my editor can keep up with the pitches I keep sending her, I might be able to do more soon in addition to my work for Ziff Davis, and my regular posts at Gearlog and AppScout. I’m still on the hunt for more places to write though, don’t you worry about that.

So yes, aside from a few setbacks, things are progressing nicely. I do regret that I don’t have nearly as much time as I usually do to idly play video games, especially World of Warcraft, since I’m pretty much the only writer left again at the Azeroth Metblogs, which is a shame considering how little I’ve played recently. Still, I’d like to get into it again and play some more, especially with Cataclysm coming in the next couple of weeks, so we’ll see how that turns out. I definitely know that after the move downtown, I’ll have a little more time for relaxing video games, no doubt, but I don’t want that time to come at the expense of other important things and living the urban lifestyle I want to live down there. I’ll have to be careful about that.

Still, Cataclysm looks shiny, and runs really well on this new laptop.

At least this week was a little calmer than the last, I can say that confidently. The beginning of the week saw the solidification of things at the office, with roles shaking out as our department saw a re-org prompted by the resignation of our fearless leader so he could go and start his own company and do his own thing. I wish him the best of luck, but I’ll actually miss him a lot. As for me though, by the end of the week I found myself in a new desk on the top floor of our building in a much improved location with a gorgeous view.

Of course, now it’s all about seeing how roles and responsibilities shake out in the new role and the new part of the company that I’ll be in. We’ll see how it goes, and see how well things mesh, but right now I’m just focusing on doing the best I can at the things that I’ll be doing. Right now though, I’m liking the way it feels to be somewhere quiet where people aren’t having impromptu meetings directly behind me, and where I don’t have my back to a conference room or a door that opens and closes so frequently. Someplace where it feels almost strange to put my noise-cancelling headphones on, since there’s so little noise to cancel or people to tune out. It’s remarkable.

Oh, speaking of that view:

Aside from that, I’m feeling a bit better about a number of other things too, namely around my freelancing (which I really just need to find more time to hustle on) and and what I personally would like to do for myself. I’m thinking about taking a short vacation, maybe doing something fun, but I just haven’t come up with too much just yet. When I do though, I’m sure I’ll have a story to tell.

In somewhat related news, I picked up a few things from ThinkGeek this week as well, partially because this weekend is my Father’s birthday and I needed to get him a gift. I figured it would be a great time to scratch a few things off my wishlist at the same time, and I managed to with some gusto. Now I have a few new mugs and a couple of new shirts, in addition to the gifts I bought for my Dad. I posted a few shots of the unboxing over at Lorelei Complex for giggles. A bunch of mugs, for the most part, and a few t-shirts that I adore. All in all, my new desk will have some new snacks and mugs to take advantage of the super-close coffee machine, water and ice dispenser, and hot-water tap. I’ll be healthier than I’ve ever been, I think.

Aside from that, I’m still going to keep my eyes open for a few new things, and reach out to some of my existing contacts, see what I can turn up. I like free time, sure, but at the same time it’s always good to be busy, especially when you’re busy doing the things you love to do.

So I’ve been posting a lot of Hatsune Miku imagery at the top of my posts, and I love it. I should probably switch it up a little soon, but for the time being I’m happy being a Vocaloid fan – and not a creepy one, thank you. Speaking of which, Miku gave a live concert in San Francisco last night, which it pretty remarkable when you think about it – a virtual idol singing in front of a throng of fans:

I can’t say I’d like to be down there in the pit, but I wouldn’t mind sitting a little ways up and seeing it. She reminds me in so many ridiculous ways of Sharon Apple from Macross Plus that it’s not even funny. All we need now is for Miku to embue her audience with an almost euphoria when she performs and she’ll be there. Ah – spoilers for Macross Plus in that link by the way, if you haven’t seen it.

Now then. I’ve managed to do really well with my writing and keeping up with it lately, I just don’t want to let the rest of my life slip because of it. If I could find some time to set up a backup system at home, hit the grocery store and pick up some much-needed supplies, take a closer look at my finances and do some housecleaning there, and maybe even handle a few other tidbits, I’d be happy. Hell, I might take that vacation just for myself to do the things I want to do for myself – and not tell anyone. It’ll be a staycation and no one will know unless I want them to. Now there’s an idea.

It might be a good idea – the fall is always good to me, and the fall is all but here, thankfully. Next month is my birthday, maybe I’ll do something special around then.

The shot above is something like my own contribution to Our Secret Stash of Stuff, which DBlume brought to my attention over at Plurk. I think everyone there was intrigued by the notion: putting everything that you carry around with you out for everyone to see. In some cases it’s the first time any of us put it all out in an arrangement that you could take in at one time with the eye. It’s so easy to just stuff things into a bag when you think you need them, but how often do we really take in what we carry with us every day?

The photo, with tags, is available over at Flickr, along with a pair of close-up shots of each side of the larger photo. You can enlarge this one just by clicking on it. Yeah, it’s kind of impressive the sheer amount of stuff that I carry around in my bag every day.

So it’s been a long enough time since Otakon, but I’d been meaning to post this tidbit for at least a couple of weeks. Between life and work and freelancing, things have been changing pretty rapidly around me, and I’ve been struck with the task of figuring out how exactly I plan to change – if at all – to adjust to them. I’m seeing familiar faces leaving the day job and my freelancing gig, and I’m pretty bummed about it, but I have to soldier on as much as I can. I suppose this is the benefit of diversification, right?

Still, it’s always difficult to watch so many things change around me and then have to deal with how I want to respond. Even at the day job things are changing pretty significantly, and I have to decide what I want to do about it. I could find something new, I could drop it entirely and focus on freelancing, I could continue to walk the tightrope that I have been…the choices go on and on. That’s my biggest dilemma at the moment.

In somewhat brighter news, the loot is all unpacked from Otakon, and I really need to go ahead and upload my photos of the con and the aftermath to Photowerks. I have plenty – and while I didn’t take as many photos as I really wanted to, I definitely had a wonderful time, and I’m still thinking about my next time away from the office and where I want to go. The longer I wait, the fewer options I have though – I’m pondering another holiday-time trip back to New York City come December, and I’m definitely thinking about going back to CES in January 2011. Maybe I should just save my pennies for then and wait.

In other news, my lease is up in May of next year, and I’ve been thinking about what it might be like to move downtown to Washington DC for a couple of years, to prime myself for the downtown life that I’m looking forward to when I eventually move to New York City. It’ll be fun looking for a place to live in a city, and I think between that and New York I’ll have done some of the things I wanted to do before eventually – someday – settling down in the Seattle area.

I know, I’m a little lofty about it, but I don’t want to lose sight of those dreams. In the interim, I have a few priorities to refocus on, like saving the money to get there and reducing my own personal debt. I’m not in bad shape, but there’s always room to improve and plan for the future.

Of course, there’s that, there’s more pimping I want to do for The Classy Geek, and there’s some redesign work I want to do at Gears and Widgets. Maybe I should make a list, that usually helps.

The past week or so has been something of a whirlwind, kind of like Miku’s hair up there, but most of the things happening have been largely good. The past week was particularly draining at the office and my personal life hasn’t been any less draining, but at least I managed to get some good sleep and recovery over the weekend that I’d been desperately missing. A couple of major projects went live last week, and it didn’t help that I was on call all last week and over the weekend (and boy did I get calls,) but on the up side, the week is over, a new one has begun, and a lot of our management is out of the office, so the office itself is a bit more relaxing than it has been for a while.

So over the weekend, Raevyn and I managed to escape for a bit and hang out – if it’s not obvious by now we’ve been hanging out a lot more lately – dinner on Friday night at the lovely Carlyle in her neck of the woods, where the meal was fantastic and the cocktails are shaken and poured table-side, and then an old favorite on Saturday in the form of the Paper Moon Diner a little closer to me than to her, where I’ve been meaning to get back to for the past couple of weeks. I normally don’t have dessert at the Paper Moon, but the “Dark Side of the Moon” cake we had was so pretty that I wish I had taken a picture. We actually ate in the back dining room, which they normally don’t open and I have very fond memories of feasting in when I was much much younger.

All in all, it was a lovely weekend, and the ability to have a few meals and drinks out and about without having to worry about cooking and the ability to sleep in as late as I wanted to were both stress relievers unlike any other. They were both more than welcome, and the company was more than perfect, if that’s even possible.

On the up-side though, at least the bulk of those things are behind me and I have a little more free room to move to look forward to. Especially at the end of next week, when we’re looking at Otakon, my regular vacation-y event of the year, even as much as I’ve been traveling recently. I’m still not totally over my “I’m done with airplanes” feeling that I got after flying around so much at the beginning of the year, but I could do with another train ride to New York City and another lovely stay in the New Yorker Hotel like last time.

In other news, I’ve been making a point to pay close attention to my writing lately, something I’m grateful to have the time to do – I don’t always get it done in the order and in the time I’d like to, but I always make sure to get it done eventually, and I think flexing those writing muscles for my own good is a wonderful thing. The paid gigs though, are starting to pile up, and that’s a great feeling too – getting paid to do what you love always does, I suppose.

I’m starting to formulate a few new goals in my head that hopefully will make it easier for me to pursue freelance writing, or even full-time writing in the future – even if I have to take a pay cut in the long term. We’ll see how it works out, but I have a little legwork to do first. I know I’ve mentioned some of the affiliate programs I’m participating in before, but I’m not too proud to beg that when you consider shopping online to buy through my links and blogs, since I make a little money on them. I have a ways to go before I can say things like “buy through this link” or some of the same things other affiliates say, but we’ll see. I want to get there, and quickly. You see where my logic is going, right? If I can make enough from affiliate programs, I can freelance without worrying about how the rent will get paid or groceries bought – or alternatively, I can get enough reliable freelancing gigs so the affiliate money is icing on the cake. Alternatively I can work, affiliate, and freelance, and then just let the savings pile up. Anything’s possible, and it’s refreshing to start thinking that way again.

Speaking of anything being possible, I just renewed my lease on my current apartment, so I’ll be here for at least another 10 months – but after that I’m thinking about moving. Maybe somewhere into the city – by which I mean Washington, DC this time. It’s closer than New York City, and while DC certainly isn’t NYC, it’s closer to my family for the time being and still gives me the city life I’ve been wanting for a while. Maybe I can find a nice condo or apartment with hardwood floors and a nice view. We’ll see – it’ll be new and interesting and only time will tell if I’m really ready to do it.

Wish me luck.

It’s been an incredible couple of weeks. Partially in simply how incredibly busy I’ve been both at the day job and freelancing; I just turned in a massive article for Tom’s Guide (a branch of Tom’s Hardware) that I hope will be published soon. I also wound up writing a couple of hands-on posts for AppScout. It doesn’t hurt that things have been incredibly busy around the office too – staying late because a number of big projects have been coming to a head.

Just at the end of this week I got a couple of pieces of good news – I got a pretty significant raise at the day job, and my editor’s budget got a little boost at the primary freelancing job, so I have some more work to do there. The fact that I’ve been getting more work on the freelancing side and that I’ve been doing well at the day job have both meant I’ve been very busy, but pleasantly so. There’s some other really cool stuff happening, but I don’t want to jinx it right now.

The really nice thing about the raisde at the day job and in freelancing is that they were pretty substantial. I’m at the place now where my parents are suggesting I should start looking to buy a condo or a townhouse or something, and they may be right. I still want to move to New York at some point in the near future, and eventually make my way to Seattle, but I’ve been doing so well at the office I hesitate to make any concrete plans to leave it, unless it’s for the perfect opportunity – like turning freelance writing into the full-time gig and everything else into the part-time or consulting gig. We’ll have to see, but I have a lot of decisions to make in the near future, and while they feel a little overwhelming sometimes, I’m glad to have them to make. Good problems, you know?

Speaking of which, by this time next week I should be just getting back from my trip to San Francisco. I’ll be seeing the sights, doing a few interesting things, and seeing the good DBlume while I’m in town, hopefully. I’m not thrilled about sitting on a plane for that long, but maybe I can get an upgrade to first class where I can stretch out and have a little room to my sides. We’ll see how it goes! The last time I flew – to Vegas for CES – it was a little prohibitive since it would be so expensive, but this time it might be feasible.

In other news and work-related things aside, I think I’m finally getting some space back personally to do things like get back in the habit of exercising and cooking in more often. It seems every time I get on a streak something crazy happens to throw me off – whether it’s a trip, or a weekend of work, or some crazy other event. Here’s to things settling down a little bit, I think – maybe over the next couple of weeks, we’ll see how that goes too.

In the interim though, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of music in my most recent updates. I’ve been listening a lot to Freefall, but I’ve been saving some of those eps for the flight to the west coast. I need to pick up some new tunes. Any suggestions?

Lately I’ve been absolutely in love with a couple of different anime, although I’ve only been able to see snippets of both of them because they haven’t been widely released in the United States yet: ToraDora!, a series with a plot that could very easily be a standard anime plot, but in reality is absolutely fabulous, different, and original in a very familiar way. It’s clearly a slice-of-life story, but sports a nice guy everyone thinks is violent because of the way he looks, a violent girl everyone wants to be next to because of the way she looks, and the unique friendship between the two of them and the way they handle the rest of their circle of friends. I want to be someone’s Ryuuji to their Taiga so bad. Now where will I find a short, sassy, powerhouse blonde? I have no idea….

That’s the bulk of the opening sequence of ToraDora! with some added characters and longer effects – I love the opening sequence, but this one’s just a bit more fun to watch, and it’s in HD! Or…YouTube’s version of HD, anyway. When I hit Otakon this year (and it’s probably about time to start thinking about rooms and such) I want to see if I can find anything ToraDora! related, maybe DVDs of the series, even if they’re fansubs.

The phrase “vanilla salt” comes from the incredibly catchy ending theme:

Which is adorable, but doesn’t tell you as much about Ryuuji’s character as the end theme for the 2nd season does – Ryuuji loves his friends. And keep count of how many people come to see him, and then how many slices of cake are missing at the end there. He reminds me of me a little.

The other series I’ve been a little ashamed to admit I really love the idea of is Maria Holic – another story that’s incredibly unique but clearly for adults. A poor girl retreats to an all-girl school after realizing that dealing with boys not only makes her ill (she’s clearly a lesbian) but gives her hives. At her new school, she meets a boy who’s masquerading as a girl – a girl who’s not just the central character to the series, but is an amazing, brilliant, sadistic character with a world view that I can definitely appreciate. I almost want to pick up the Manga, but I’m worried that anything released in the US would probably be sanitized, and I don’t want to miss the gender-screwing nuances in the Japanese version. Oh, and before I embed this? You…might not want to play it at work. There’s nothing blatant about it, but the floating 3d female figures are indeed nude, not that it’s not obvious.

That’s the opening sequence. You…can see how awesome the series would be. The end theme on the other hand is adorable by comparison, and definitely a pick-me-up kind of video that i turn to whenever I need a little 8-bit happiness.

Anyway, this has already been a pretty video heavy post, and if any of you follow my exploits over at Plurk you’ve probably seen them all already, and I apologize for the repeats. If not, you’re in for a treat.

In other news, it’s been a pretty hectic week; I haven’t had time to really get back to the things I’ve been making a habit of quite yet like exercising every night when I get home and picking out records to spin into a mix at the end of the week; but I’m hoping that I can get back to it pretty quickly. I have managed to get myself back to the regularity of cooking my own food and doing some light exercise in the morning, both of which are lovely, refreshing returns to normalcy for me after the holiday traveling. That’s not to say I didn’t like the traveling, and that’s not to say I couldn’t have put more effort into exercising while I was on vacation and when I was in Vegas working CES, but I just didn’t – now that I’m home though, I’m happy to get back to it.

Speaking of CES, I did my taxes and I should be getting a very pleasant surprise back from Uncle Sam this year because I can claim my home office and travel expenses for freelancing as deductions. The hilarious thing though is that while I can claim those things and I clearly upped my withholding far too much last year to compensate for my freelancing income, and the federal government is willing to pay back my interest-free loan, the state government on the other hand wants a little cash. Not much, but something. The best part is that I was due a refund until I put in the county in which I live.

Besides that, I still have so much stuff from CES that I want to write about and photos I want to upload. CES really was like a treasure trove of experiences and sights and sounds, and that was only partially because it took place in Las Vegas. I’m definitely planning on going back next year. Considering there’s something like 28 inches of snow on the ground outside, I might have the time to post those pictures, and those products I haven’t written about just yet. I already took the time to dig myself out today, so tomorrow I can relax and spend some time uploading pictures – including those of the snow.

I’m glad I went shopping before the snow hit though, I should be good in here for a good while, curled up where it’s warm with a hot cup of coffee. Now, to move the space heater over to my computer.

So I’m home, no travel plans in the immediate future – I’m not even entirely sure if I want to spend the money to go to PAX East if I don’t know anyone else going (although I’m sure I’d meet a ton of awesome people), but I have my feet up and I’m planning to work my way through the hands-on reviews and press contacts I made at CES while playing through my ever-growing backlog of games for that shiny new XBox 360 I got for my birthday and the variety of PC games I’ve installed but haven’t so much as opened. I have a lot of entertainment here at home I haven’t dived into lately – I’ve even neglected my poor Netflix movies: I took them with me to Vegas in case I had time to watch them (yeah, right) and they traveled back with me in the same place I packed them. There’s a lot to do back here, and it might be time to put my feet up for just a little bit before jetting off somewhere else.

Although, I can always hop on a train to New York City and stay up there with friends for a few days – the 3 hour trip up there gives plenty of time for a little single-player gaming on my MacBook Pro (I’ve been looking for a reason to Boot Camp it again) and watch a movie or two. I guess I want time to put my feet up, but I love the fast pace of traveling and seeing people and doing new things. That and all of the people I love so dearly are a ways away from me – I mean, even my family are about an hour and a half drive.

But no sooner than I get my feet up at home does my mother fall ill and take a trip to the hospital. She’s doing well, there’s no worry there, but she’s in for quite a recovery and I want to be there for her and my father as much as I possibly can right now. Watching my father around my mother, being her rock, her anchor – it’s amazing to see. My father uses me occasionally as a sounding board, especially in tough times, but if someday I could be half as strong and brave as he is, I would be honored, and I think I would honor him.

Regardless, that means I haven’t had a lot of time to spend at home even though I’ve been back in town. It’s kind of ironic, but as things smooth over, I’ll be able to get back to my routine, my resolutions, and my habits – I’ll get back to spinning on the weekends and working out every night, and I’ll get back to cooking more (I need to go to the grocery store first!) – especially now that I found out the wellness program at my office sets you up with a registered nurse who’ll call you to check up on your health every couple of weeks, make sure you’re doing well, offer advice working out or eating well, even send you recipes or refer you to doctors or specialists! And it’s all included with the insurance I get – I’m appalled I didn’t know about this sooner: if I had I would have been all over it.

I’ve been doing really well at keeping my blogs updated, and it looks like another gig is coming my way – I don’t want to jinx it quite yet, but I’ll say that it’s political blogging, and while my politicial blog, Not So Humble tends to be the least trafficked of my blogs (I don’t exactly make a huge effort to get it in front of people, I admit) this might serve as a bit of a boost for it and for my political writing. There’s been so much political news and I’ve been thinking about it so much that I think it’s time I let off a little bit of steam from that direction.

Speaking of my blogs, I’ve been on a weekly update schedule for my newest (and most popular) blogging project, The Classy Geek, and I’m considering a twice-a-week update schedule to get more eyes on the site. Sheesh, there just aren’t enough hours in the day or week to do all of this delicious writing. Thankfully all of the traveling and business hasn’t skewed my update schedule too much – I’ve still managed to keep updated, even if a few blogs slipped a day or two before getting back on schedule.

Talk about good problems to have.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to get all of my CES photos up on Lorelei Complex, after which I’ll organize them into galleries and put them up on PhotoWerks. My box of swag from CES arrived last week, and I just got around to opening it last night, that’s how hectic things have been. Now I have a stack of stuff to write about in addition to what I’ve written about already.

Sheesh – I need to stop thinking of new projects. The more I sit here and think, the more I come up with new things I need to do. I need new pictures of myself to share on the Web, I need to move my home office around a bit and tidy it up, make a little more room for my laptop, the list just grows the more I think about it. I certainly know how to keep myself busy.

I know, I know, good problems to have.

I’m making a note here. Huge success.

Seriously – I’d be lying if I said that my trip to New York City wasn’t the best vacation I’ve had in years, and even that might be understating how wonderful the trip was by some margin. I had an amazing time, and hanging out with Alms and Rae who were both my company and my local guides out and about New York City, and seeing the lovely Dia for a couple of days while she breezed into town and meeting her hilariously funny girlfriend Lauren, all made the trip that much better for me.

I think it helped that I didn’t have a specific agenda in mind when I landed – my primary goal was to spend time with friends and decompress a bit, and I certainly did that. I posted all of the photos I took as I took them over at Lorelei Complex (my moblog) – all the sights I saw, the walk through Times Square I took in the middle of the night and my visit to the Macy’s store window (and the raciness nearby), my visit to Rockefeller Center, the delicious mac n’ cheese at S’mac, the spice table at the Union Square holiday craft market (from which I bought some lovely loose tea), the insides of The Strand bookstore – including the rare books room, everything. I can’t believe how jam packed the trip was with experiences and things to do, and I even got a decent amount of sleep.

I managed to drop by the PC Mag offices to meet up with my editor and go to lunch at a fabulous Vietnamese with her and some of the other folks I work with remotely up there, and I even got a tour of their labs. (seriously, the PC Mag labs are full of amazing shiny devices and are encased in glass walls and doors that remind me of something straight out of Star Trek – when you badge to get into the labs, these huge glass-paned doors slide open to let you pass. It’s awesome, I could live in there) My editor even walked me through an awesome Indian market in the area of their offices, one I would have bought tons of stuff from if I had space in my suitcases to bring the stuff home.

As it was, I already had enough extra stuff to try and get home, but I managed to get back in good shape. The only thing I had to actually carry on the plane back was a very swanky new hat I bought while walking about with Alms, and all of the Pocky and fresh tea I had.

I can’t thank Rae and Alms enough for their hospitality and their company and their love. Words can’t express how welcome they made me feel, and how much I miss them (and their respective families and cats) already.

No sooner than I got back to town, picked up my car (it was in the shop while I was away – somehow I managed to kill 3 out of my 4 engine cylinder coils) and went back to the office did we promptly get something like 12-20 inches of snow. And it’s still falling. It’s bad enough that the major weekend work that I flew back in time to make got canceled (which technically means I could have stayed out the snow with Alms and Rae!) but I managed to stock up on a few supplies before the worst of the storm hit. Right now it’s bad enough that I have no intention of heading out of the apartment for anything.

I finished all of my holiday shopping before I left, and the packages were waiting at my desk at work as soon as I returned, which is nice – ow I just have to wrap up everything, mail some cards, and get ready for the big event next week. I’m looking forward to it – it’s actually surprising how much more festive everything is in NYC – when I flew up from DC, there were no carols being played in the airport, no stores playing holiday music, but as soon as I landed in NYC, the carols were blaring, the trees and ribbons were up, and the Empire State building was lit up blue and white for Hanukkah. Even the lobby of my hotel was incredibly festive – the whole trip really got me into the spirit of the season.

As for now, I finished uploading the last of my pics to Lorelei Complex, updating all of my blogs (looks like WordPress 2.9 is out), catching up on some backlogged writing I missed during the last days of my trip, and watching the podcasts I didn’t have time to because I was out enjoying NYC. I’m glad I’m home, but I miss NYC in ways I can’t describe – and miss the people up there more.

The heart swells.

It’s been a long long week, not to mention a long weekend, but I managed to finish a lot of things in the past week that I’ve been meaning to get done for months now. I’ll make another announcement tomorrow on the big news so I don’t spoil or bury it here, but suffice to say it’s been a project months in the making and I’m so so so glad to have it all finished and ready to release to the public. There’s even more I want to do with it, but there’ll be time for that.

I can’t believe I didn’t mention it last week (unless I did it this week and time just flies) but it’s official: I’m going to CES 2010 in Las Vegas! The lovely Narilka had a coupon code to get me in for free, which I had every intention of using, but then I discovered that if I registed as press I could get in for free and get access to some other shiny behind the scenes goodies – so I cleared it with my editor at PC Magazine, made sure she’s okay with me working for her while I’m out there, and there we go – I get in for free and get to cover the event as a freelance writer!

I’ll be staying in The Bellagio in a lovely suite while I’m there – and I’ll be there for the whole conference, complete with the pre-weekend show days when things are traditionally a little quieter but still packed with product releases and other interesting things. I really can’t explain how much I’m looking forward to this.

Before I get there though, I’ll be in New York City this time next week for a couple of days – flying up next Saturday and then back the following Thursday to hang out with some good good friends, one of whom is coming in from out of town and bringing her girlfriend with her who I’ve never met. I haven’t been to New York City in years, and I love the place. It’ll be good to be back. While I’m in town I’m going to try and eat at every landmark place I can think of, and I can get started by eating at the Tick Tock Diner, which is on the ground floor of The New Yorker Hotel, where I’ll be staying at least for some of the nights while I’m in town.

I’ll also wind up dropping in on my PC Magazine friends while I’m there, and hopefully taking a tour of their labs and offices and seeing where the magic happens up there – and reconnecting with the people I work with via e-mail. It’s kind of an unusual vacation in both cases, but I’m definitely looking forward to them both. I haven’t been on a plane in entirely too long, and it’ll be nice to take the one-hour jaunt from DC to New York City to get warmed up, and then the longer 5-7 hour flight out from DC to Vegas after New Year’s for CES. I said I was going to make this a jubilee year and I was going to get off my ass and start traveling and experiencing the world around me, and I think I’m finally making good on that promise.

In not quite as exciting news, I finally got around to posting the last 2 mixes I spun over at Plastic Bohemia, and I’m uploading a third (that I spun tonight actually) as we speak. My little plan to set aside 2 tracks every night for a week and then have a full mix for the weekend has actually gone really really well (holiday weeks not included, of course) and I’ve spun and recorded more mixes in the past couple of months than I have in the past couple of years. It’s really refreshing to have some time behind the turntables again, and it’s not so much time that I can’t fit it into an otherwise busy schedule.

Admittedly some things have had to slip because of all of the time and attention I put to writing, music, and friends – namely video games. I can’t remember the last time I logged into World of Warcraft – probably while I was at my parents’ place after the office LAN party. The LAN party made me want to play more video games something fierce, I just haven’t had time. Now though, I’ll make a point to relax a bit this week before I have to fly out of town.

Hey, at least I managed to finish my holiday shopping!