Checksum Arcanius

Nothing like a little bit of physical activity to lift the spirits. The family snowshoeing trip was much fun. I have some pictures that I am working on now, they should be up later today.

I recently downloaded Mozilla Firebird 0.7 – it is an excellent web browser, and I am weighing it against IE as a replacement. It is nice to once again have a viable alternative to the MS domination.

Last night, I didn’t go to sleep until after 5:00 am. I woke up today at 2:00 pm. Most fo the day’s light is already gone, and I still haven’t done anything. Clearly this is not ideal. I propose a plan of action to ameliorate the situation, which involves a ban on my laptop while I am not seated at a table or desk (ie, not in the bed with me, although I have pretty much mastered using my pillows to prop me up on my right side just I can type and read the screen). This way, bed is actaully a place to sleep, not a place to play another hour of Counterstrike or another hour of chat or anything else.

I feel like listening to surround sound music, watching football, eating a nice breakfast, and generally doing something with what little of the day I have left. We may be going snowshoeing soon, that should be a good change of pace, but it is awful late int eh day to be starting something outside.

Today, I slept in late, then didn’t do much until evening, when I got surround sound set up in the living room by connecting the dvd player to the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum in my desktop (“oasis”) with an optical audio cable, and by bringing down my 4.1 speakers and setting them up around the room. After some tweaking, the Audigy started decoding the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and output it to the speakers. There was a small, but noticeable delay in the sound – something which I think would be fixed if we were to use the dvd player on the computer. That remains to be seen. We watched the original Italian Job, a not-very-good movie.

Had a big dinner party today, with Scott, Maneesh & Parents, Joel & Family, Amy & Parents, and some ppl from church. Food was good, company was great, had a great time.

Had a great Christmas. Hung with the family the entire day, opened the socks first, as we do, then to the presents. I got, among other things, a big book on FreeBSD, a Best of REM CD, and some very nice clothes from my mom. Played some CS, went on a walk, ate some good food, had a lot of candy, watched Winged Migration (my gift to my Dad) and generally had a great time.

Yesterday, I finished the bulk of my shopping. Now all that is left is misundry items for non-family members, and of course, wrapping. On the way back from Seattle, I stopped by the church where a live nativity was being held. It was interesting… mostly because there was one movement invovled in the entire program, so I’m not sure why it was live. But then a hand bell choir performed, some very good songs including Carol Of The Bells and George Winston’s Joy. I then left to go to Jeana’s party, where a teacher from long ago, Sarah, was. We talked cordially despite my breakdowns and mistreatments of her during my junior year :-/. There were also lts of other people there that I hadn’t seen in a long time. We all reconnected, and some of us stayed at Jeana’s until 1:00. I picked up the album I am now listening too, and decided that One Step Closer wasn’t the right song to start with – its very screechy, but the rest are enjoyable after you get into the paradigm of the string quartet tribute.

Today I went shopping with Ben after a late start. After Ben and I parted ways, I went a few places with Scott to get things for Ben. Got a few gifts, but there are still many to be gotten, and then wrapping. Its fun. After shopping, I came home and helped pull together dinner. Its the best dinner I’ve had in months, if not a year. The salmon, the salad (which I made), the rice, the shrimp (which I cooked), the blueberries (which I ate a lot of) – everything was excellent. It helped that I was hungry, but that really just left enough room for starberry ice cream (all natural and irresistable!). A fabulous day overall.

I also played a little bit of Counterstrike and made the Inernet connection in the laundry room more permanent. I have some screenshots of my CS ownage here!