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    Had to work the Saturday shift again. Started listening to The Lord of the Rings BBC radio dramatization again, in the car during my commute. Went to Sally's Gifts after work, looking for new Dickens Village buildings. Sadly, the one I wanted wasn't there and I did not care for any of the new ones. The style has really changed; they look more like Lego buildings, with lots of little plasticky doodads and add-ons. Maybe the time has come to stop collecting them. Ended up napping on the couch after I got home; woke up feeling quite woozy and ill. Had to lie back down, but felt much better after this second nap. Worked on the Dickens Village in the evening, finishing up three of the four shelves. Discovered Blood Red Sky has the Las Vegas show, so I immediately started downloading it. Also got into an IM chat with my niece Heather, telling her finally about the Ghost page I'd put up (without her knowledge). We edited it together, through MSN Messenger. Stayed up till two:thirty to finally watch Thirteen Days on DVD.

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    My obsession with The Lord of the Rings movies got me thinking I should upload some old photos I have of when I and a friend went to England and saw the houses of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. To give those photos some context I ended up spending the day creating a whole new Photo Album on my site, of my European Vacation. Along the way I also finished up the Dickens Village, including putting up the accessories and putting in the lights. I watched that Jack & the Beanstalk on CBS in the evening, only because of the association with Jim Henson. I taped X-Files, only for its association with seasons two and three.

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    We had another big special broadcast tomorrow, with four or five sheets of sites to enter in. Reid did a couple and I did the rest during the evening. I sent Phil an e-mail asking about his Tampa trip; he tried calling me in the evening, at work, but unfortunately I had too many calls and had to let him go. After work I went to Best Buy and went ahead with buying the Samsung M301 for $149. For the heck of it, I bought the Harry Potter CD-ROM game for myself. I'm not really sure why, especially since it's a kids game. Since I was buying stuff left and right, I gave in and ordered the Sideshow Weta 12" statue of Gandalf. I succumbed to the inevitable. At least I ordered it from TCN Universe, where I was able to save thirty bucks.

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    I guess we didn't quite prepare enough when we got our new computers at work. We were being asked to revise a file, only to discover we had not backed up the program we needed. Luckily we were able to uncover install files for the program (called Visio) on one of the shared public drives. It was a long slow download, which seemed unusual for our corporate LAN, but we managed to get the program up and running and get that file revised. In the evening I spotted a letter from Julie Kryk on the U2 "Wire" listserv. By coincidence, it turned out she'd been in Florida last weekend too, but for the Miami show, not the Tampa one.

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    Went to the post office in the morning, picking up a package which was almost delivered on Monday. It turned out to be the Tolkien audiobook CDs I'd gotten from eBay. Since there's an Arby's on the way I got an Ultimate BLT. Dave has been raving about these, so I felt obligated to try one. It was a messy car-food but it was indeed quite tasty. I really should've stayed home, since my cold was at its peak. In the afternoon I listened to my Tolkien CDs on the CD player at work. I did some research on Dashboard Confessional, since I was told I could get their CDs for my nephew Joe for Christmas. It didn't help that a confused parent said these were "DVDs" (so I assumed it was some indie movie title), and it also didn't help that CD Now lists both "Dashboard Confession" and "Dashboard Confessional" as band names (but with the same album titles). Typically, having ordered two CDs for presents, I went ahead and ordered the Tribute to Heroes CD and DVD for myself. I also tried looking for camera parts for my niece Heather. She said she wanted a remote shutter release for her Nikon N80. This seemed like a good lead...until I discovered the stinking thing was $80!

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    It was quiet for a change at work. The Ain't It Cool News site had posted some images from a Lord of the Rings press kit CD-ROM. Not only could I not wait to get home to save these images to my hard drive, but I was interested in seeing if I could nab a CD-ROM of my own. There were a few on eBay, but the auctions on them wouldn't end for about six days. Still in a LOTR mood when I got home, I added an MP3 to my homepage of JRR Tolkien reading from The Fellowship of the Ring, taken from my audiobook CDs.

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    Not only had Reid given my cold back to me, but we'd made Dennis sick too. Dennis had been off the last couple days, but he was back today and with us in our room. We did a little bit of training about routing color bars to our frame sync; but we got sidetracked when Dennis decided to try calibrating the color bars and our tone generator. I didn't get started on proofreading the weekend schedule till quite late. Once again it was rather quiet, which was nice since I was hoarse. I had quite the painful coughing attack late in the afternoon, shredding my throat. The only thing I had to take was some water, and I ended up drinking the whole bottle to soothe my burning throat. Back at home, I finally was able to download the Radio Margaritaville broadcast of Jimmy Buffett's Deroit show (only half of it had been available till now on the Holylands FTP server), and I also -- finally -- finished the October diary page and started this one. November would have to wait till I had more time.

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    Worked some more on making an audio CD from the U2 Las Vegas MP3s I'd downloaded. In the afternoon I put up the Christmas tree and strung the lights up. I tried to keep track of how many strings, since my sister-in-law Eileen and I have an informal contest, but about halfway through I lost track. Eleven strings of 100 are plugged into the power strip, but I don't how many others are plugged into other strings. My box of Lord of the Rings trading cards showed up, so I took a break to put a base set together and see how many collectible cards I got. I got a few of the foil cards, but as for autograph cards I got Pippin's and Gimli's. John Rhys Davies's Gimli card was supposed to be the rare one, according to the wrappers, but truthfully I would've preferred Ian McKellen's autograph card. Once again I started feeling ill and had to lie down for a while. I guess this is going to be a weekly thing now. I wondered if my house was making sick, or maybe my lack of sleep was going to give me another cold. I ran out of lights about 3/4s up, so I went out shopping. Not only did I want to buy more lights but I wanted to get some more plastic sheets to hold my trading cards. I blew right past the bank, so I lost my chance to get some cash from the ATM. Target had lights, but they had stupid fussy ones: like with certain colors, or programmed speeds, or the ubiquitous icicle strings. I just wanted a plain string of multicolor lights. I went to Meijer's next but amazingly they didn't have any lights at all. I at least was able to get my trading card sheets, plus a new pair of jeans (dark ones, for Winter). I couldn't believe I would need to go to three stores to buy Christmas lights, but thankfully Kmart had some. I didn't quite trust the no-name brand they had, but I bought two strings anyway. I assumed they'd be expensive, but both strings only came to four and a half bucks, so I felt stupid paying with a credit card. I put the strings up when I got home, but even still the top of the tree looked rather dark compared to the bottom. So I figured I'd have to go back out tomorrow.
   An entry on an Ain't It Cool talkback page mentioned the TNT featurette on Lord of the Rings was available on Morpheus. I'd heard enough about Morpheus but had never tried it, but I downloaded it now. I did a search for "TNT" and only two files showed up. I downloaded one...which turned out to be an excerpt of hardcore porn! But, by coincidence, I decided to check TNT right now and discovered their showing of The Matrix was just about over, so I'd be able to watch the featurette myself. I even digitized it. But then, while reading about how to convert the huge 300 MB file to something less cumbersome, I found that there's not a lot I can do with an ATI MPEG-2 file.

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    I continued looking for Lord of the Rings files on Morpheus. I found several AVIs but most were trailers for the movie. A couple though purported to be "work prints" of the movie itself. I knew I shouldn't bother and should just wait till the movie comes out in ten days, but I couldn't resist. I couldn't wait and curiosity got the better of me. I started a download before I went out to shop for more lights. This time I tried a place called Ritter's, a nursery a few miles south. I'm not sure why it was recommended to me, since their lights didn't appear to be any better or sturdier than many others, but I got another two strings. When my Lord of the Rings download was done, I found it was animated. But it wasn't a case of me mistaking the Peter Jackson film for the Ralph Bakshi film, since the animation was from Rankin/Bass's The Hobbit, which meant the file had been deliberately misleadingly labeled. I was irritated and disappointed, even though I knew I had no right to be.
    It was time to put the ornaments on the tree, now that the lights were all on. I also brought up some of my Santabears from the crawlspace. He'd been a wizard in 1999, which seemed appropriate for this year's display, with two high-profile wizards at the movies this Winter. He'd been a fireman in 1996, which certainly deserved a place of honor as an appropriate albeit somber reminder of this year. In the middle of decorating, I got an unexpected Sunday mail delivery. I guess the post office was working seven days a week to make sure packages arrive on time. I got my Scrooge & Marley counting house, which I'd ordered from eBay. I also finished up producing CDs from those Las Vegas MP3s. Remarkably, Futurama was on at seven, which is unheard of in football season. I raced upstairs to start taping it, and remembered to go back up at eight to switch over to Sci Fi channel. They were showing their own documentary for Lord of the Rings, which turned out to be an hour long. I switched my VCR over to SP speed so the copy would look good. Following a movie such as this as closely as I do can be a terribly frustrating thing. The sets and costumes and cinematography look wonderful and excellent, and I would be entranced and excited and desperate to see the whole thing. But as more and more full scenes were shown, it became apparent how much of the book was being altered and revised, which pushed me away. I didn't know how to feel; I was ping-ponging back and forth, running hot and cold.
    My tape had run out when I checked on it afterward -- and I suddenly realized that when I'd switched back to recording X-Files on Fox I'd forgotten to switch back to EP speed, so I'd missed the ending of the latest episode. With my luck it would have some great ending, which I'd never be able to see now.

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    Stopped at the post office again to mail a package. It was quite a long wait, even there was a postal worker at every counter window. I guess the close confines of our office were making us all sick, one by one. This week it was a boss's turn to catch another cold. I too could almost feel another sore throat coming on, so I'd started taking multivitamins to see if I could break this cycle. My lack of sleep over the weekend left me quite tired; it was a struggle to keep my eyes open. Even though I was the only one working in the evening, I left the room to use the lavatory; the phone was ringing when I came back, I probably sounded overly defensive when the guy on the other end joked about my sleeping on the job. MTV had their own Lord of the Rings special tonight. I was almost getting used to visual splendor of the movie, which was allowing me to be more crticial.
    MTV touted an "exclusive scene", which oddly enough I'd already watched elsewhere. Seeing the "Buckleberry Ferry" scene this second or third time, I became aware of how badly choreographed it was. Frodo needs to escape the Black Riders, and Pippin or Merry blurts out "Buckleberry Ferry!" as if the idea had just occurred to him. But when Peter Jackson cuts to a wide shot, the ferry is only a short run away. And then, as the other hobbits work to untie the boat, Frodo is close to being run down by the Black Rider. Of course. The one hobbit they need to protect and hide is the one they ignore and leave behind. Despite the glowing reviews I'd been seeing all over, I again had the sinking feeling that this movie would fail me.
    Regardless, later, I broke down and bid on a few of the LOTR autographed trading cards to try and complete my collection.

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    I forgot to set my alarm, but got up at around ten. The boss who'd been out yesterday was back in, but evidently work was slow over in his building since he called me up several times during the day to ask me questions about using a newsgroup reader to download binary files. He even called me up from home, later in the evening. I brought a new water bottle, since I suspected my old one was germ-ridden, but then I forgot it in the car. On the way back to the parking lot I discovered that Christa's cubicle upstairs was empty. (She was the girl I'd worked with at my old job. And now she'd moved off to another one, presumably. Evidently her recent complaints had been for real.) Almost got in a traffic accident on the way home, when some giant pick-up truck tried to merge into me. I got confirmations on some of my LOTR card bids, so I paid them off. I also put in bids on some more cards.

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    It was time for a haircut, so I stopped at the bank on the way for some extra cash. I was informed I could not withdraw anything, my account was empty! Evidently I'd gotten carried away with all my LOTR spending. I skipped my haircut, since the fifteen bucks in my wallet was now all the money I had! I guess it wasn't too bad, since my payday should be at the end of the week; but things would be tight till then. I got my Amazon package when I got home, with the Dashboard Confessional and Tribute to Heroes discs.

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    We got a replacement part delivered this morning, at work, and it would my job to install it. This helped the afternoon pass by, but I didn't get tomorrow's schedule finished till late. Tonight was our company Christmas party; I couldn't make it since I was "holding down the fort" at work, but my bosses had said they'd take me to lunch next week. No one seemed particularly eager to go, but I guess it turned out to be worth their while since I found out later that both Dennis and Reid won 25" TVs as door prizes! One of my LOTR cards showed up when I got home -- along with a note from my bank saying I owed extra fees for bottoming out my account. Even worse than these charges, and the general feeling of incompetence and stupidity, was that tomorrow would be our annual Guys' Shopping Night, where my buddies and I would meet at Southland Mall (specifically, at the bar at Southland Mall), and because of my insatiable greed I now had no spending money for it!

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    It seemed too much to ask that my paycheck would be deposited in time for tonight's Shopping Night. I could make major purchases with a credit card, of course, but it would be tough to go to Ruby Tuesday's, at Southland, and try and pitch in my part of the bar tab that way. Even more irritating, a couple guys e-mailed me that they'd be starting the night early, going to a strip club beforehand, at 3:00PM. That hurt, knowing they'd be at a Breast Buy while I was still at work for another five hours. I was so depressed by the whole thing I forgot to bring my camera and a Motorola Talkback walkie-talkie like I would traditionally do.
    I got a break though, since my bosses took pity on me, knowing tonight was our big Guys' Shopping Night, and approving of the idea, they turned a blind eye on my skipping out early. That was extremely cool of them, so I didn't want to spoil it by mentioning I was too broke to really make a night of it. I tried the ATM at work on my way out. I couldn't remember the PIN for my credit card, so I couldn't get a cash advance; but I did find that my paycheck must've shown up since my checking account had some cash again -- minus about three hundred bucks in payments and surcharges.
    It was nice to see my friends again, it was not that the waitresses remembered us from last year, but it was too bad I had to keep watching my spending. Unlike most years, I actually did manage to buy something (a gift certificate from Bath & Body Works).
    I guess we're getting older: security wasn't called on us, unlike last year. Although one of us did put a panty on his head, for old times' sake, at the second floor lingerie section. The party broke up around midnight, a good two hours earlier than usual. And I did not argue to go the strip club afterward. It seemed kind of useless to go a Breast Buy with only two twenties. I got home around twelve:thirty, but ended up staying awake till around two:thirty reading and listening to music. I got my 12" Weta statue of Gandalf from TNC Universe.

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    Had to work the Saturday shift this weekend. The program was later than usual, so I got to sleep in. I got The Cratchits building today, which I'd gotten through eBay. Finally had the chance to get dinner from Taco Bell. I stopped at Office Depot to buy some CDRs and jewel cases. The Christmas lights outside went out; couldn't figure out how to repair them. Did some work adding more of the above entries. I spent some of the evening watching the Holiday at Pops special on A&E. Since the weather has been so warm and wet, it's tough getting into the Christmas season; so this show and the carols were a nice reminder that the holiday is fast approaching. Spent most of the night watching the Thirteen Days DVD again, going through its "Infinifilm" material. I broke the record on getting the most out of my Saturday, staying up till five in the morning!

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    Didn't get up till around eleven:thirty. Spent the afternoon burning discs for some guys at work. Still trying to watch everything on the Thirteen Days disc. Had homemade pizza for dinner. Worked on a week of entries on this here page here. Suddenly dawned on me, since I'm short of cash, to cancel my Real Networks Gold Pass subscription. I've only used it on the one U2 concert, so there seemed no reason to keep it and it would save me ten bucks a month. I also changed my AOL pricing plan, going from full service to the Bring Your Own Access plan. I'd gone back to full service so I could access AOL at work, but this no longer seemed necessary since I've been able to read my mail through their web site.

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    I was unsure whether to try for the midnight showing of Fellowship of the Ring tomorrow or not, but seeing the movie get a write-up in the local paper was swaying me. Left early for work so I could finally get my haircut. After a few minutes I realized I was being stared at, but then found out my barber was training someone.
    We were inundated with calls at work. Everything was working fine at our end, but there were troubles aplenty out in the field. After a while we figured out that there were simply more customers taking video classes to get their certification done before the end of the year. Lots of calls from Canada, too, incidentally. And I'd expected this to be a quiet week too.
    I went with Reid to the weekly meeting, for the first time, while Dave stayed behind. Unfortunately no one was around at that other department, so I wasn't able to weasel my way into a tour. Tried to find more info on theaters and showtimes for Fellowship, but the Moviefone page didn't say much about theaters by me. I was a bit concerned, that night, to find I'd only read through the Moria sequence from my book, which meant I'd have to read five chapters by tomorrow night!

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    Sadly, it didn't look like I'd be going to the midnight showing of Fellowship tonight. Only three theaters were offering it and none was in my area. Just so I could finish volume one of Lord of the Rings I sneaked it in to work. I felt like changing the movie countdown on my homepage, from midnight to end at eight:fifteen tomorrow when I probably would be seeing the movie, but I had to wait till I got home. Reid and Dave had a meeting about those extra-special broadcasts we're being saddled with; they were gone for over two hours, so I got to get some reading done then. There weren't as many calls today as yesterday, thankfully. I got an e-mail from Jeremy -- the guy who used to temp with us -- saying he was going to see Fellowship tonight. I went to my brother's house after work, seeing if he was still interested in seeing a midnight show, but he agreed they were too far away. Still, it was nice to see him and his family again.

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    I successfully managed to finish The Fellowship of the Ring book this morning. But if I hoped to match the movie, I'd have to read the first chapter of The Two Towers as well, which I didn't have time for. So it was an ambiguous accomplishment. I couldn't resist bring the One Ring with me, wearing it on a chain under my shirt. Sure it was silly, but I have to admit I enjoyed being a Ringbearer for the day. The evil of the Ring announced itself when I broke my toilet seat this morning! I was sitting atop the closed lid, putting my socks on, when the bolt inside the lid hinge snapped in half, causing the lid to open lopsided.
    Dennis was over, along with another employee who works for our same company but over in Dennis's building. They'd gotten pizza, and I was able to finish it off. Shortly after I arrived there was trouble with another special broadcast: the programming department had started the show a halfhour early without telling us, so dozens of people were tuning in to find they were not authorized. It was ridiculous that we were the last ones to find out, and it was also puzzling how everyone had known but us.
    I got an e-mail invitation from Mike to come to a Christmas party he was throwing at his house for friends and coworkers. I also got Jeremy's review of Fellowship: he did not care for Arwen's expanded role, but he liked the Balrog and the performances by Viggo Mortenson and Sean Astin. He also thought Peter Jackson's dramatic style was strange, in his use of close-ups and music.
    I was uncertain how crowded my neighborhood theaters would be. Dennis called me up around five to say his wife reported the MJR Southgate had long lines. I still recalled how empty the Star Taylor had been when I'd seen Monsters Inc the second day of its release, so I was hoping to swing by there after work and see if I could luck out again. I impatiently left work early, just in case I needed to wait in a line. It felt strange to exit at Eureka again, since I'd just done so for Guys' Shopping Night. The Star Taylor was once again practically empty. I got my ticket, found a seat right near the center, and then realized I now had quite a long wait till the movie started. I even had a rather long wait till they started showing coming attractions.
    I don't know what to say in reaction to the movie. I loved it, I was irrtated by it, I was overwhelmed by it, I was lulled by it, I both knew and didn't know what to expect. I hoped to write a review, probably on my message board but I wouldn't know what to write.
    I found out Jeremy had seen the movie again, twice in two days. I read the Boromir chapter from The Two Towers, catcing up with the movie, but with a little overlap. I could've quit reading till next year, but I decided I might as well keep going. I doubt I'll read the book for each movie, but maybe I'll read it now and then again two years from now for Return of the King.

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    I wrapped up three of my SFG glass mugs last night, and I gave them to Dave and Reid and Dennis this morning. Dave and I met Dennis for a Christmas lunch; we and three other coworkers ate at the Big Fish by Fairlane Mall. Can't say I like seafood, but I could at least have crab cakes since I've had those before at Bill Knapp's. I almost did a spit take when I saw the crab cakes here were nineteen dollars! Dennis urged us to not pay any attention to prices, but I hated to order that just on principle. (Heck, crab cakes are only seven bucks at Bill Knapp's -- with soup and salad.) I got the stuffed salmon instead. The meal was quite filling, especially since Dennis insisted we each get appetizers of buffalo rock shrimp. I was so stuffed I was afraid I'd fall asleep during the evening shift. I'm surprised to say I did not.
    Once again I exited the expressway at Eureka Rd and went to Southland Mall. I conceded defeat on what to get my niece for Christmas, so I simply got another gift certificate at Bath & Body Works, like a half-week ago. At least this meant I was completely done shopping. On my back to the car I spotted a baby in a stroller toss out one her toys onto the ground; I kept on walking, even though I expected the baby would start crying and the mom wouldn't be able to find the toy. A couple storefronts later I regretted my ambivalence and turned around; the toy was gone and so was the woman and stroller. The toy might've been returned, but regardless it bothered me how cold and inconsiderate and unfeeling I had been, as if I the season were turning me into a Scrooge.

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    I hated to take any more money out of the bank but I needed to pay for the Galadriel autographed card I'd won from eBay. I also hated to go to the post office to get a money order, but amazingly the Flat Rock post office was practically empty. Since it was the last day before the holiday Dave did not come back after lunch, and Reid left early too. I'd be able to get out a little early, but not by much -- but then I found out the last show of the evening was canceled, since the moderator had not show up, so I got to take off two hours early!

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    Had the weekend shift again, but it was short and uneventful. It wasn't too early either, which was nice. The roads were crowded though. I got an early dinner from Taco Bell on the way home. In the evening, I went to Mike's. It worked out well he'd invited me since I was able to hand him one of my glass SFG mugs as well as give a present to his son Brian, who's my godchild. Brian weaseled his way into opening the present before the night was out. I'd gotten him Professor Snape's Potions Class, despite the fact Mike and Sarah have light-colored carpets. Watched the news at Mike's house, following the late football game. I was confused when the weather lady said we might have a white Christmas, but then showed a long range forecast with temperatures in the 40s for Monday and Tuesday. I made a stop on the way home, going to Meijers to buy DVDs of all things. It had occurred to me that since I was giving a DVD player I should throw in some movies too, and it also occurred to me that Meijer's at two in the morning would be less crowded than Best Buy during the day.

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    Richard Roeper is an idiot. This morning's facile and cluefree review of Lord of the Rings cements this fact and had me wondering once again how in hell he got the job. Gene Siskel must be so continuously spinning in his grave that it's likely he's struck oil.
    I wrapped all my presents this morning. And speaking of Lord of the Rings, the movie had started to appear in newsgroups. I'd gotten part one yesterday and parts two and three showed up later today. Not only that, a better telesync version (without subtitles) was supposed to be on its way as well. Tom Cruise, in Indonesia, referred to me as a criminal for what I was doing. In this instance I beg to differ. I was not taking money from a movie studio, since I'd already paid an admission to see this movie -- and I fully expected to do so again in a week or so (and certainly when The Two Tower scenes are appended to it). I was downloading this copy simply because I liked it enough that I could not wait till that next viewing. I spent the day chained to the computer. Part one of the Centropy version showed up late at night and I stayed up to download each RAR as it appeared. In the meantime, I watched Inside the Actors Studio and a Stockard Channing profile on Bravo and a PBS retropspective on Andy Williams Christmas specials. I was reminded what a great pleasing voice he has. After about thirty-four of these RAR files, they stopped with the announcement that the files were corrupt but would be reposted tomorrow. That was my cue to go to bed, and I realized it was five in the morning!

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    I got up surprisingly early, at around nine:thirty. I got right back into downloading RARs, once I saw the Centropy repost had begun. I was only able to download about half the first disc before I lost connection with the @Home server. I could still get online though, and I realized I must've maxed out the 3 GB download cap. It couldn't've happened at a worse time either, since now I might miss out on the entire upload. I didn't even have enough of the movie to unRAR it and see how good or bad the encode was. I also subscribe to another service, but I was only able to download ten more RARs before I maxed that out too!
    I guess the white Christmas forecast was right after all, albeit by a technicality. It snowed lightly during the day, giving the lawns a slight dusting of snow. I went to Christmas vigil Mass with my mom and dad. We went to St Joe's in Wyandotte. I can't say I particularly enjoyed the Mass, which was a poor way to start the holiday. Their new female singer had a nice voice but no sense of time, so she seemed to be at war with the organist. Also, some young girl behind me, goading her brother, actually said aloud "Well, do it, bitch!" I'd be tempted to berate her here, if not for my own similar lapse which I'd only just recently written about.
    Per tradition, an aunt and an uncle who are my godparents came over for a Christmas eve get together. They stayed till eleven. I checked newsgroups after midnight but found out I was still shut out. Hopefully the files would last till tomorrow.

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    Didn't get up till around nine Christmas morning. I heard my nephew Jake was so impatient he forced his family to get up at four in the morning to open gifts. They'd gone right back to bed afterward, but my brother's family managed to rouse themselves and come over here at around ten or eleven for breakfast. We opened our gifts afterward. One gift I got was easily identifiable: a new high-backed chair for the computer room. I also got an amazing amount of DVDs: the first season of Upstairs Downstairs, the Fawlty Towers collection, the Monty Python Live box, Jabberwocky, The Terminator, the Die Hard special edition, and The X-Files fourth season. Twenty-two discs! I put a couple on, but my brother's family ended up crashing on various couches or beds for the afternoon.
    I grew more and more antsy when I still could not get into newsgroups. I discovered @Home's 3 GB cap covers three days, not one, so I wouldn't be able to use them till tomorrow afternoon. My other service's ban only lasted 24 hours, and as the afternoon wore on I became more and more puzzled over why I still could not connect with them. I got so impatient I eventually ended up doing a Google search for other newsgroup services, and I broke down and signed up with a third company just for access today. It was a slight relief to finally be able to start downloading again, but the speed was crushingly slow. Coincidentally, as soon as I connected with the third service, I was able to connect with the second. I knew their daily cap was only 350 MBs which wouldn't even see me through part two, but I tried for anyway. Somehow, amazingly, I was able to download the two and a half remaining discs anyway, which will probably engender their wrath and another ban tomorrow. But at least I had the Centropy version, and was able to show it off to my nephews (who had also already seen the movie). I was so obsessed with this that I barely saw my relatives when they arrived and was even late to the dinner table.
    After everybody left I watched the first episodes of Upstairs Downstairs and Fawlty, about a half hour of Jabberwocky with commentary, and all of The Terminator and Die Hard. I didn't mean to watch the entire movies, but once started I could not stop, even though it was late. Once again I got to bed at five.

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    It continued to snow overnight, adding another faint layer.
    Remarkably there was nothing to take back this year. I spent a lazy day at home. I watched more episodes of Fawlty Towers and worked on the computer (in my new office chair). As if doing some end-of-year clean-up I ran defrags on several of my partitions. Rick's family came over around six for leftovers. Afterward, I finished off disc one of Fawlty and restarted Jabberwocky without commentary.

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    I'd recently joined a listserv about U2 SHN files. This had clued me into a program called Direct Connect. I'd already downloaded it but had never taken the time to learn how it worked. I did this now, figuring out how to connect and how to find the ElevaSHN Hub where I could download U2 SHN files. I found a copy of the Las Vegas show I'd been to and started downloading them. At two I visited my Aunt Grace for a couple hours. Despite living alone now she has a very busy social calendar, what with card parties and bowling and baking goodies for New Years.
    Got the Christmas photos back from Meijer, including some on a black and white roll. I was amazed at how much fatter I've gotten.


It took all morning and afternoon to download half the Las Vegas show, but at least I now had a CD-quality boot. At night, watched more Fawlty finishing the first season. Watched a couple episodes from my X-Files season four box too on my desktop.

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    I finally had to go in to work today. I could've sworn I needed to get in at twelve:thirty, as usual, but I found out my shift was supposed to start at noon. Programming didn't start till twelve:thirty, so I was still partially early. I guess Reid had had unexpectedly busy days yesterday and Wednesday, but things weren't too bad for me. Still, I hadn't counted on getting any calls at all. I guess the last batch of autographed LOTR trading cards is out; incredibly, these last three or four cards are selling for up to four hundred bucks a piece on eBay! I was at least able to win one or two of the older ones, but my collection seems destined to be incomplete now. I managed to kill time and got out a halfhour early. I'd downloaded disc two of the Las Vegas show while I'd been gone. I felt like I should be sharing, so I made SHNs of my Detroit recording. I started downloading the Cleveland show too overnight.

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    I enjoyed how strange the days felt. I only had to work one day this week and it was fun feeling completely lost as to what day it felt like. I finally cleaned my fish's water, after a few months of watching it almost turn yellow. (This was probably mostly due to the fact the frond in the cube was dissolving.) I found out later this cleaning was kind of a belated birthday present, since my fish was a year and a day old today (not counting the time he spent on sale, of course).
    I watched some of Fawlty Towers with commentary, on my desktop, finishing off disc one. I got sick of how blasted loud AOL's events sounds (especially with headphones) are so I re-saved them all at lower volume. Got the Galadriel card in the mail. Decided to go to church today instead of for the Octave Mass. We were pleased to find out Cass Pawlowski (my old junior high school English teacher) is back again. I was struck by something said during the first reading, from the book of Sirach: "Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and, when he prays, is heard." Since my dad and I do nothing but bicker and butt heads, this would certainly explain a few things. For dinner, went to a new high-priced soup and sandwich place, Panera's, on the corner of West Rd and Allen. Finished the Cleveland download, started a St Louis one (for my Illinois penpal perhaps). Someone started downloading my Detroit SHNs, which slowed things down considerably. Wasn't able to get much before the St Louis guy disconnected. The Detroit guy got knocked off too (but I wonder if that's because of the Comcast 75 MB upload cap).

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    My lethargy caught up with me. Didn't seem to do much at all yet the day flew by. Worked on the computer, worked on this Diary page, and suddenly it was dinner time. Took some pictures of the front of house at dusk, before the lights come down in a few days.


Took some of the tree too...

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    Found another, perhaps better recording of the U2 Las Vegas show. Left my computer running all day to download the SHN files. Went to my brother's house for New Year's. Rick and Debby were going out to dinner, so I was there partly to babysit. The nephews and I had Greek avgolemono soup for our own dinners. We played cards for the evening and then rang in the New Year with Dick Clark. I got home at two, and then stayed up to unwind and watch some DVDs. My first choice was the disc of the America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon. I ended up staying awake till six.

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