It’s been a couple of weeks, but not of my own choosing. Most of it has had to do with the fact that the day job has been crushing me. I had expected to spend this weekend working on a bit corporate integration project I was working on at the office, but we simply weren’t ready with the pre-tasks required to hit the weekend (for a variety of reasons I won’t really get into here) so we pushed for a few weeks. Next weekend I’ll probably be at the office anyway for a different project. I was hoping to have both big things out of the way by this time next weekend, but no such luck for me.

In any event, having to stay on top of activities all last week and then the week prior to that has had me pretty high-strung, trying to keep on top of my writing, much less other regular things I had to keep on top of at the day job. This past week just about everything fell by the wayside, sadly – but I think I’m caught back up as of this weekend – updates at the Azeroth Metblogs, over at The Classy Geek, and Gears and Widgets all this weekend. About the only blog I managed to update easily last week was Not So Humble. Here’s hoping that I have the time this week to keep on top of things again.

Right now, I’m watching the Olympics (great Gold medal hockey game between Team USA and Team Canada – Canada won, and man was that an amazing game!) catching up on podcasts, and trying to relax out the rest of the weekend before I have to be in bed for werk in the morning. It’s been a very intense week (and past two weeks, really) for a number of reasons, both personal and professional – and for those folks who know me well enough to follow me in some more personal and private places, they’re aware why. None of it is particularly bad, I don’t think, and other things are definitively good; specifically on the job front and the whole “what do I want to do/where do I want to be” kind of questions. I know I’m being vague, but I just don’t want to jinx anything, and I don’t want to deliver too much detail on matters that aren’t mine to talk about.

Aside from this, I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep; that’s been the big thing. In the run up to crunch time on any big major project, I’ve been having days where I don’t leave the office until as late as 10pm some nights, and that’s after a full morning and afternoon’s work. Really don’t want to make a habit out of that.

The more I think about it, the more work has completely dominated my life for the past few weeks. There have been a few other distractions, although I’m not unhappy about either of those things. I think the energy I put into the things I focused on this week were worth it. Even so, if anything, the fact that I’ve been absorbed in these things recently has forced me to realize that I really should spend a little more time at the office listening to music – something I normally do all the time but haven’t done lately. It reminds me to get back into my DDR workout routine. It reminds me to get a little more sleep, and do more of the things I keep saying to myself when I remember them, “oh yeah, I really ought to do that.” I’m normally really good at that – time to get myself re-organized.

I think it’s really a matter of getting back into my personal flow; sleeping well, eating well, exercising, and doing the things I want to do. Let’s see if I can get back to those basics this week. Once I’ve got those things down, the rest come a bit easier. Wish me luck.

In honor of all of the snow we’ve been getting in the mid-Atlantic region in the past week or so, I post some happy looking snowbirds that are very likely CG, but still make for a gorgeous photograph. Thankfully I’m all dug out, and our worst snowstorms are almost always met on the back end with warm days that help get the melting process started, but after 3-4 feet on one day followed by another 1-2 feet two days after, there’s still a ton of melting to do and literally mountains of snow in places where it’s been plowed up. The roads are largely clear, and my shiny new shovel that I bought 2 years ago is no longer shiny, and it definitely got a workout.

Seriously, we’ve been without significant snow in the DC area for so long that I had almost forgotten what it was like to have snow that was deep enough that you could stand in it up to your waist. It was kind of refreshing, but at the same time, I’m definitely over it. I love the fall and winter, I really do – and although I don’t always look forward to spring (I often say that only bad things happen to me in the spring, but I would be kidding myself if I didn’t say I loved watching the world bloom bright and green and flowery. I should stop saying that – even if it feels like the world reinforces it sometimes – I’ll set myself up for a self-fulfilling prophecy.) I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the leaves on the trees again and seeing the bare ground again.

The up-side to being snowed in is that I’ve managed to work from home almost every day for the past week. Friday was the first day I’d been in the office since the previous Thursday, and there’s supposedly more snow coming tomorrow. Tomorrow’s a holiday, so I don’t have to worry about going anywhere, but still. The last thing we really need is more snow – it’s not that the amount of snow is a huge hassle, it’s just that the region just isn’t used to this much so we don’t have a great way of handling it. People elsewhere in the country like to say “well around here we know how to deal with snow,” but seriously if 6 feet of snow wouldn’t disrupt your life then I don’t want to live anywhere near where you live.

In other news, a little time off (and I don’t mean working from home, which in some ways is more stressful than working in the office) is more than welcome. I could use the excuse to sleep until I actually feel like getting up, and playing through some of my backlog of video games. I did manage to beat Crysis, what with all the time at home – maybe now I can dig in to Crysis Warhead, or Far Cry or Far Cry 2. Seriously, my backlog is pretty deep.

One thing I’ve come to realize though is that I haven’t been happier as I was recently was when I was visiting friends in New York City and when I flew to Las Vegas to cover CES. I think about how I felt during those times, even when I was a little lonely, and I’m thrilled by the memory. I had a great time while I was in either place, and I had a great time going and coming. I think I could do more of that. Maybe I should think about traveling again soon.

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.

that’s one of my favorite desktops up there – I guess I just have a thing for girls who know how to handle a blade or two.

What an amazing couple of weeks! I didn’t expressly mention it last update, but I went up to New York City for New Year’s, and had an amazing time. Rang in 2010 in proper style with a party at Alms‘ pad, and met a ton of new people I was more than happy to be introduced to. Spent a good couple of days in town too, seeing a few places I hadn’t seen before, and eating in a few tasty places that I hadn’t experienced – including this place called The Grand Lux Cafe, which served hefty portions of really elegant food, and if you order your dessert when you order your entree, they’ll bake it to-order in the back while you’re eating your meal.

That’s right – we had an apple tart, fresh baked beignets, and pecan chocolate-chip cookies: all fresh baked, brought to our table to eat after our meal. Naturally we wound up boxing most of the desserts up and taking them back with us for future devouring while watching the Doctor Who marathon on SyFy. Thinking back, it’s hard to believe that I was on a train to and from New York City only about 2 weeks ago.

As soon as I got back in town from New York for New Year’s, I was packing my bags to head to Las Vegas for CES 2010. I couldn’t even begin to explain how fantastic the trip to Las Vegas was here, or how wonderful CES was as a whole, but if you follow me on Twitter you’ll see all of my updates in my history for that time period. The trip out there was interesting enough, but the suite I stayed in was even more amazing than the trip (photos of the suite at my moblog, and yes I really need to upload the rest of the pictures I took!) and since I could see the fountains at The Bellagio (where I stayed) from my suite window, it was an even more memorable trip.

The show itself was fantastic, and I saw a lot of really promising and really interesting technology there. I’ve posted a number of those sights and sounds to Gearlog, and I’m planning on posting more as I get review units of some of the really awesome gear I saw at the show. I even have some video in my back pocket, if my editors like it. Today I picked up my box of swag that I mailed to myself from the hotel in Vegas, so I’ll have plenty more to write about when I get a little more free time. In fact, this has been the first couple of days I’ve had some free time to write at all since I got back in town last Monday, and then werk set in full-force.

But back to Vegas for a second – I managed to meet up with a lot of PC Mag folks while I was out there, the least of which for dinner once before everyone flew back out of town, and my editor at PopSci happened to be in town as well, so it was really good catching up with her again. Also, Blogging Molly herself, of A Duck a Day was there too, and it was good talking to her again as well. I also got to meet the illustrious Narilka in person after knowing her digitally for oh, what now, 10 years, for dinner, and meet her husband Zadesquieb as well – that alone was worth the trip. Actually, now that I think about it, there were probably a couple of dozen moments like that, that I could say were alone worth the trip.

Whether or not I’d go back next year though depends on who I’d meet there and what I would do – the show was amazing and an incredible experience, but Vegas really is a “buddy city,” one where you simply see and do so much while there that it’s ten times better having someone to bounce your sights and sounds off of. I was incredibly proud to make the trip myself, frankly, but next time it’d be cool to go with a friend or even another journalist covering the event.

In the meantime though, I’m back in town now, and my spate of traveling over and across the holidays is all said and done. I don’t have any travel plans at all for at least several months, and I’m going to have to do something about that. Talking to my mother and father about my recent trips has been wonderful, and they wholeheartedly encourage this new wanderlust – I’m young, single, and have nothing tying me down – I should be able to freely go see my friends in far-off places, meet new people, eat at fancy places, and fall head over heels for new cities…and the people who live in them.

For the meantime though, I’m back here in my apartment with my feet up, making sure to suppress the start of a cold that’s trying to eek it’s way up my throat. I managed to stay well my whole time in Vegas, and not catch the same CES-plague that caught up with just about everyone else I knew who traveled out there, I have no intention of slowing down now. The real question is whether I should hop a train back to NYC sometime in the near future to see some people I miss dearly, or whether I should head off somewhere new and different. We’ll see.

In the meantime though, I have a ton of writing to catch up on, photos to upload, and for once I think I’ll get a good solid night’s sleep.

Just for you guys though, I’ll…just sit this here. It’s one of my favorite new blogs – never ceases to bring a smile to my face.

Thanks in no small part to Rae, I’ve been diving back through my back collection of CDs, finding music that I haven’t listened to in a while. When I was in New York and at her house, she played U.N.K.L.E.’s Lonely Soul, and when I started marveling at it she mentioned it was on a soundtrack and she liked it, but hadn’t heard the rest of the album. So…we took care of that. U.N.K.L.E.’s Psyence Fiction is one of those storytelling albums that you absolutely have to hear at least once from start to finish, starting from the first track all the way through to the outro track at the end – the narrative of the songs is really amazing, and some of the short tracks in between some of the longer ones are fun to hear as well. Between that and The Avalanches, she and Alms have a tendency to stumble on really awesome bands completely by accident.

Speaking of whom, since I’ll doubtlessly be busy this weekend with New Years festivities, I figured I would take care of my annual look back and reflection ritual a little earlier rather than later. Usually I wait until sometime in January to really start thinking about the things I want to do with the coming year, but I think this year I have some pretty strong ideas of the things I’d like to work towards and the things I’d like to do. Let’s take a look back to this time last year, shall we?

A lot has obviously changed between the time I wrote that post and now, but most of my goals and desires haven’t. (Can you believe my beloved Deneb, the computer I was building at that very moment, is a year old now? Sheesh – it feels like it was just yesterday I was reading all about the new hotness in processors and video cards and making tentative decisions on the components I wanted to install in her that Christmas.) So here’s what I wanted to do and how I did:

Media //

** Rebuild my home theatre/media computer (Polaris) with more storage. This will allow me to rip and store more music and movies easily, and back up our main computers to it!
So this one came kind of inadvertantly! Polaris is powered down now and Orion is my new home server/theatre computer, and he’s stuffed with four 1TB hard drives and a 250GB drive for the OS and applications. And good thing, too – I’ve been collecting video podcasts and other various video downloads! I’m glad for the space, now I just have to figure out how to get the video to the TV over something other than s-video. Maybe I should pick up a new video card that supports HDMI, now that I have a shiny new TV. No rush here though!

** Figure out an easy way to digitize VHS tapes before they disintegrate.
Ugh – I still need to do this. I have tons of VHS tapes still, and I’d really like to get them in a format I can back up or even take around with me when I travel. I’ll try for this one this year!

Personal //

** Take more pictures. (partially so I dont have to start every post with a picture from Lucky Star) When Photowerks seemed to die, I stopped taking and uploading photos. Photowerks is fine now, let’s put it back to good use!
I’ve actually really nailed this one, it’s just not been in the way I thought it would be! I thought I would start taking lots of photo galleries of trips and such and uploading them to Photowerks, which I did for a few outings, but I’ve been making use of Lorelei Complex (my moblog) much more than I thought I would! In fact, all of the photos from my trip to New York City are up there!

** Do more for myself on weekends than sleep. It’s so easy to get into the mindset that the weekends are for relaxing and getting away from the stresses of the week; which is true, but that relaxing doesn’t have to always entail sleeping in super-late and lounging around. At least not all the time.
This one actually was kind of reactive to some behaviors I was indulging in around the turn of the year, and I would say that with some of the major life changes that came early in 2009, this was all but wiped away. My weekends are still chill-and-relax times when I’m not traveling or something, but they’re also times for housekeeping and tidying, laundry and cooking, and often staying up late with some ideas in my head and a glass of wine. I’m definitely over this one, happily.

** Experiment more. See strange places, visit wierd and new things in my backyard, try strange foods and restaurants – I’d like to branch out a bit. I keep hearing from people who live in my area about restaurants I’ve never seen. I’d like to try some of them.
If I had to rate this one on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give myself an 8.5 or a 9 on this one having knocked it out of the park. It took a lot of changes to get me where I am now, but especially in the latter part of the year I’ve been making plans and getting out of my comfort zone. Traveling to New York and back twice, headed to Vegas for CES next week (good lord it really is next week), deciding to go through with Otakon earlier in the year…it’s all been pretty amazing, and even though it’s forced me to peel back some of the layers of my comfort zone and my semi-hermit nature, I’m glad for it. The only thing I’d like to do a little more of is trying some new restaurants in the area. I live in a different place than I did when I made this resolution, so I have a whole spate of new eateries to try!

** Revive Before I Sleep. I all but forgot about it around the middle of the year, and I want to follow through on those lists, and come up with more.
Hmm. I keep stopping and starting on this one because that list is over at Aeria Gloris (my livejournal). I made a little inadvertent progress on this one, but not a ton. I’m not going to hold myself strictly to that, but I’m kidding myself if I don’t admit there’s a lot on that list that I really want to accomplish, even if they’re actually really small and quick little things I can do for myself.

Well then! I made more progress this year than I thought I would. I actually made some other serious changes this past year that I think reflect really well on my personal goals: I update all of my blogs at least once a week, and put them all on an update schedule that I strive to keep. I’ve been doing that for a couple of months now and it seems to be working out really well. I’ve been making a point (just like I mentioned above) to travel more and see the people I love who don’t necessarily live within arms reach of me. I’ve been doing more personally and spiritually enriching things: indulging in more music, spending time at my turntables, posting my mixes for the world to hear, doing more reading of both books that make me think and manga that make me feel good, watching more movies and making use of my Netflix subscription, reconnecting with old friends, and so on. It’s been a delightful change, and as negative as the impetus for all of those changes may have been, if there’s anything that’s true, it’s that there’s something in my blood that burns and churns to take bad things that happen to me and turn them into something good.

So let’s look forward to 2010 and see what I can do this year, shall we? As well as keeping up the momentum on the things I’ve been doing (taking pictures, traveling, ripping music and movies, etc) what else can I do?

Media //

** Digitize those damned VHS tapes! – Even if I have to buy a stupid USB VCR, I’ve got to do something; I’ve moved a bunch of my tapes several times, and I wonder how much more they can take.

** Get back to ripping CDs – I fell off the wagon a little here when I moved, so I have a lot of music ripped but there’s even more that’s not…and I’d probably listen to a lot of my older stuff if it were digitized, not to mention use the mp3s in some of the vinyl mixes I’ve been spinning.

Personal //

** Keep Experimenting! – Don’t let up on your traveling, don’t let up on trying new things, and find some new interesting places to eat…and people to eat with!

** Revive Before I Sleep – Time to look harder at this; some of the items are obviously harder than others (catch and gut and cook my own fish? really?) but some of them are pretty easy things I’ve always wanted to do.

** Keep Writing – One of the biggest changes I made this year was to focus on my writing, and through all of the writing I do I’ve met so many amazing people: World of Warcraft players, technology writers and pundits, wine and liquor lovers, and all around classy people. I have so many blogs on so many different topics, I want to keep that up.

** Continue exercising; losing weight – My DDR workouts have already helped me shed about 30 pounds, and I’d like to keep up that momentum. The holidays had me stumbling a little bit, but I’d like to get back on the pads and keep up the workout. Eventually I may even pull the workout clothes I already put in the trunk of the car out and use the gym at the office!

I think those are pretty good, don’t you? All doable, all reasonable. I was going to toss in a little something about making sure to treat myself to more media like music and movies and books every now and again, but I don’t think I’ll have a problem doing that – I’ve never had an issue making sure I had something shiny when I wanted it, but I’d like to be a little more targeted in the coming months, remembering to get albums from artists I already love as well as spontaneously picking up one from someone I just discovered, buying manga I’ve been meaning to read as well as titles I’ve been keeping up with, stuff like that. I’ll consider that a reminder, not so much a resolution.

Anyway, here’s to a happy conclusion of 2009 for all of you. The year started out well, hit some turbulence early on, but emerged pretty strongly and has turned into an amazing year. Here’s to keeping up the momentum, and to great things in 2010!

From the Vocaloids and I to you and yours, I hope you’re having a very happy holiday season – a happy hanukkah, a merry christmas, and a very very happy new year.

Yes, I’m being a bit facetious, but I can happily say that this holiday has been absolutely fantastic, and I like to think that it started long before the actual day – Thanksgiving was lovely as I mentioned, and my trip to New York City was phenomenal and I still have tons of stories to tell from it. (I’m only partially kidding when I say I left my heart back there.) I got all of my holiday shopping done before I went to New York, so it was all waiting for me when I got back, no last minute rush there, and like most years I managed to get all of my holiday shopping done without setting foot in a store or having to shove my way through people. (with the exception of having to pick up holiday cards and wrapping paper, so there was that) All in all, it was chill, relaxing, and almost entirely without undue stress. I even had a chance to get a little people-watching in when I went to get my wrapping paper.

Everyone was happy with the gifts they received this year, and I splurged a little bit on my parents – picked my mom up some gadgetry that she needed (an iPod Touch to replace her now-dead Palm Zire and a
Nintendo DS she can’t put down) and gave my dad something to make the most of his shiny new HDTV he picked up after Thanksgiving – Planet Earth on Blu-Ray, and a Harmony One remote. I gave them a few other things, but I think they really appreciated those.

I on the other hand picked up a few things I needed, some workout clothes that I like a lot, a little bit of spending money, all lovely things (I may take some of that spending money and put it to some of the Blu-Ray discs on my wishlist!) – and thanks to the lovely Narilka and Zannah, I now have a shiny new copy of Borderlands! I really can’t begin to say how grateful I am for such generous friends this year.

My white elephant for the shack was very well received, and mine should be on its way, so I hear; and the secret santa we set up over at Plurk (again thanks to Narilka) went swimmingly – my giftee has yet to get the ones I ordered for them, but the ones I got were lovely, delicious treats and some gloves to keep my hands warm! (you can see them at at my moblog here)

So all in all, it’s been a pretty bountiful holiday season, and at the same time it’s been personally rewarding too – lots of time with family and friends and people I hold near and dear to my heart. It’s been good to be surrounded by people who love you and cherish your presence in your life, it’s a feeling I’d recommend to anyone, and if you’re ever in town, hey – let me be one of those people, okay?

In other news, I’ve been fixated on the closing theme to K-ON! lately, it’s been firmly implanted in my head and it won’t come out, so of course I’m going to share it with you:

The first line (and the chorus, wherever you hear “lazy” and “crazy”) translates to “Please don’t say you were lazy when you were actually crazy.” I love it. It’s a little misrepresentative of the anime, since Mio (the dark-haired girl singing in that video) is actually the Bass player and Yui is the lead guitarist and does a lot of the singing, but I love it anyway. They also did a lot for a closing sequence to make the characters actually appear as though they’re singing the words of the song, which I thought was a really nice touch. Mio’s expressions in various places are kind of compelling too. All in all, it’s pretty well done, I dig it.

I won’t embed another one, but the opening sequence to K-ON! is a different matter. Aside from being one of the most sugary adorable things I’ve ever seen, the work put into making it look like Yui is actually playing the guitar (look closely at 0:07 and 1:01) although I’m not a guitar player, so it could just LOOK impressive and be nothing more. Still! Cool effort.

I haven’t actually been paying attention to anime lately – I don’t remember how I stumbled on the K-ON! opening and closing themes, I haven’t seen any of the actual anime, although that may have to change if they’re that adorable. I could use a few more uplifting and actually happy titles in my collection – not everything I watch and enjoy has to be heavy and difficult.

Speaking of heavy but still enjoyable, the office treated us to Avatar in IMAX and 3D, and I have to say it was worth the experience. I didn’t have to pay for it or the snacks, but even if I had I would have been happy to – and to spend the 2 hours and 40 minutes I spent in there. For being such a long movie, I have to say it moved VERY quickly and kept the pace up throughout. The story’s been told a dozen times, so I didn’t expect too much there, although it was still enjoyable. What was absolutely fantastic was the world that the movie created: the world was distinctly alien to our own, but familiar enough that it really did seem like a place you could go to and set foot on. Everything from the bugs hanging in the air during some of the panning shots to some of the amazing animals were all impressive – and the fact that the Na’vi characters were all entirely CG but came off like real human beings (complete with emotion on their faces and non-verbal actions that were completely believable) made it incredible. I’m actually really glad I saw it, and glad I saw it in the theaters on a huge screen, and in 3D. That’s saying a lot for me, since I’m normally not a huge “go to the movies” person.

And yes, Avatar completely rekindled my love for Michelle Rodriguez. Yum.

That aside though, here’s hoping this coming workweek is nice and slow, and since Alms and Rae will be in town for New Year’s, there’s something else to look forward to – it’s actually funny, since I just found out, and I had been thinking earlier about whether I wanted to head down to Annapolis for First Night or do something a little closer to home. Looks like closer to home it is!

Then the weekend after that it’s onto a plane and out to Las Vegas for CES! Another adventure, and I’m staying in a lovely suite in the Bellagio. I wonder if I’ll be able to see the fountains from my room! Even if I can’t, I hear they’re not to be missed, and Nari and a ton of PC Mag folks will be there at the same time as I will, so I’ll have some company when I want it. I hear there are crazy nerd parties out there – cocktails and marketing reps showing off their hot gear. Kinda looking forward to that. I should probably put my stuff in to the dry cleaner’s before I go.

In the interim though, I hope you all had as lovely a holiday as I have, and have a wonderful wonderful New Year’s. I’ve been thinking a bit about my resolutions from last year, and how well I’ve done. I knocked a few of those off the list pretty easily this year almost unintentionally, but it’s good to see that I’ve internalized so many of my personal goals, large and small. I have to chuckle at myself from a year ago though – I’ve learned so much in such a short period of time. Here’s to 2010.

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.

Today my “Secret Project” is no longer a secret project! I’ve been working on this little side-project for months now, writing and writing and writing long-form articles and how-tos and segments and putting them all together offline and then building out the perfect design for it all, and finally, FINALLY all of my work is complete, systems are ready for launch, and I’m pulling the tarp down.

I give you: The Classy Geek.

Your weekly dose of all things geeky and classy, and proof the those two things don’t at all have to be mutually exclusive. If you want to read more about what the whole project is about, check out The Classy Geek about page.

I’m really excited to see where this project goes – I have a list of columns a mile long and some additional articles in the hopper to publish over the coming weeks, and I’m even thinking about doing a video podcast, if there’s interest around it. In any event, head over, take a look, leave a comment, and let me know what you think!

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!