So, I've done' some major work on the site this week. Look around and tell me what you think.
We put up our Christmas Tree last night. It looks great. Hopefully we won't have to kill the cats for knocking it over any time soon. They're a couple of fiesty bastards, and I know they're just waiting for me to leave for work to have at it.
Finally, I found an interesting site. I'm thinking I'm going to start answering the questions to generate some content in this thing. So here goes.
The Friday Five (yeah, it's Saturday... suck it up)
1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?
Cold Weather? No. Snow for the Holidays? Yes. I'd be happy if it was no colder than 55 until Christmas Week, then it snowed (and there were no cars, so it'd stay pretty) from a couple days before Christmas, until New Year's Eve, when the snow would promptly go away and the temprature would return to at least 55. But since that's not real likely, I take what I can get. I'd rather have seasons with some extremes than have the same damn weather all the time.

2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?
An ideal holiday celebration would be me, my wife, my family, her family and some friends, chatting and enjoying some good food. That's all I need.

3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?
I have several, and am developing new ones and trying to mesh mine with my wife's. It's a fun process.

4. Do you do anything to help the needy?
I give to the United Way every year and put at least $5 in the first Salvation Army Kettle I find, among other things.

5. What one gift would you like for yourself?
A job I enjoyed and that gave me the money and time to be able to spend with my wife. But otherwise this would be cool.

link for tree pics changed 10-16-05

They've captured Saddam Hussein. I see this as a good thing. However, I've been having a discussion on IRC about the impact of this overall. I think that things will begin to change more rapidly in Iraq. The people of Iraq can now see that he will not be back, and that the US, by capturing him alive, is at least making some attempt to follow the non-assassination policy. In the perspective of the Middle East as a whole, I think that there will be slightly less tension as it is more visible that Hussein (who is hated there by many as well) will not become a martyr. However, Iraq is a side issue in the greater perspective of the Middle East and will remain so until a government is satbilized there. Finally in the context of the world as a whole, I think that Hussien being brought to a war crimes trial will expose a lot of things that will (hopefully) prove that what the US has done was not only justified, but necessary. What remains to be seen is what happens after. Does the US government put as much effort into building a government that the Iraqi people want and need as they do into the economic restructuring. And does the US continue to pursue the "war on terror" with the same determination, when the terrorists aren't as hated as those who have attacked Americans. Will we go after the IRA? Drug lords? The Russian mafia? What about racist police officers in the US? I'd like to think that we will go after each of these with that same level of determination that we have pursued bin Laden and Hussein, but I'm enough of a realist to know that since these things have almost no effect on the people who spend $40,000 on an SUV and bitch about the high price of gas, that they will encourage the government to work on other things that have more impact on them. Like building wider roads and walls so they don't have to see the houses of people who could live on what they pay for gas. But whatever.

So... I've found a new web site, that's loads of fun. Freaking News is a place where you can photoshop the news. The pictures are for the most part pretty good quality, and it's fun to do. I've done a picture for one of the contests "U.S. Arab population shows rapid growth". Check it out.

My wife got a raise. Sweet...
So we went out to dinner tonight in celebration. At the restraunt there was a group of people at a nearby table. One of the ladies at that table was significantly overweight. Normally, this would not bear mentioning, but apparently she ordered a pizza for dinner. A 14 inch, thin-crust, cheese pizza... for herself. But the worst part is, the waiter didn't even give her a plate. Whether this was her request or not, it just seemed amazingly tacky for her to have this big old pizza pan sitting in front of her while she munched away. Mind you, we ate a lot ourselves; possibly more than she did but it just looked bad. Either the waiter was bad or the woman just had no self-respect left. Crazy.
Plus we almost got T-boned on the way home. Guy pulled out of a parking lot and almost straight into the side of our car... which would've sucked big time for me, being in the passenger seat. But it didn't, so it's all good.

What am I thankful for... well... pretty much everything.
The obvious: my wife, my parents, my brother, my extended family, my friends, my health.
Nearly as obvious: living in a country where I'm free to disagree with my leaders, my neighbors, my friends; having the money to put good food on my table; having the time and resources to do this nonsense; having more than I need.
Not so obvious: the pain in my life that has made me understand how good I have it, not having as much as I want
and so much more...
Yeah... this doesn't begin to cover it, so I'll pick one specific thing that I never realized was something to be thankful for. My brother is a senior in college. He's got a lot of options open to him in the near future, and he doesn't really know what to do with them. He's made some decisions, but he's also changed a few fairly regularly. I think he's a little scared, a lot curious, and very excited. This is what I'm thankful for. The stage he is at, I was at 5 years ago. Different decisions had been made, and different plans were in the works, but the emotions, and curiousity, and trepidation were all similar. But from 5 years down the road I can look at him and see the strength of character and morals that he has will get him through the biggest transition of his life. He has a strong spirit that he owes almost entirely to two of the hardest-working parents in history. While he questions the structure of their beliefs, he lives by their spirit, and that in itself shows the strength of both him, and them. While he doesn't know where the path he's on is going to take him, he's prepared to head down that path with all his energy. I believe that he will do at least as well as I have, if not better, and I'm very happy with my life as a whole. While there are things I wish were different, there is little I can truly complain about. I'm thankful to see that the lives of those I love have so much potential for greatness. There's nothing more I could ask for in this world.

So, for Thanksgiving, my wife and I decided to blow off the day. We didn't want to cook or anything like that, so we got a bunch of easy to prepare snacky foods and a bunch of movies.
The movies we rented (in order that we watched them) were Star Trek: Nemesis, Casablanca, The Italian Job, Holiday Inn, and Punch Drunk Love.
StarTrek: Nemesis was decent, but I can't say I'll miss the franchise if this is the end. The characters are still great, but with 5 different Star Trek series, and almost a dozen films, they are running out of things they can do that are truly new. As a Star Trek fan, I enjoyed the movie, but they just don't bring out the excitement that they used to for me. 7 out of 10
Casablanca is, of course, a classic, and justifiably so. This movie has been seen and reviewed so many times that there's little I could say that would add to what's already out there. Suffice to say, if you've never seen Casablanca you've done yourself a disservice. If you've ever said "This looks like the begining of a beautiful friendship." or "Here's looking at you, kid." than you know that this movie is a part of life. 9 out of 10
The Italian Job is the kind of movie that as a red-blooded, american male, I enjoyed. There were fast cars, stuff got blown up, there was humor, and a pretty girl to top it all off. What it didn't have was much in the way of anything new. New ways of doing old things... ways that were cool... but still nothing particularly new. Edward Norton's character was fairly two dimentional, which is dissapointing for someone as tallented as he is. Seth Green was the best part of the movie with some good one-liners and entertaining moments. This is the kind of movie to rent for a guys night, decent for background while playing cards and having a few beers. 6 out of 10
Holiday Inn is another classic. Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire... This is the movie where "White Christmas" comes from. There is great singing and amazing dancing, and a pretty good story which uses a circular pattern of having a movie made about "Holiday Inn" as part of the plot of the movie. There are some things that are clearly dated (such as a blackface number) but on the whole, it's a classic that deserves to be such. 7 out of 10
Punch-Drunk Love is an entirely different kettle of fish than the previous movies. This movie defies classification, and in-fact understanding to some extent. I'm not sure that I'm able to wrap my mind around it even now. As best I can tell, the movie was about relationships and how they give life meaning. People are all insane, especially when seen through the eyes of an outsider, but love can give that insanity reason and meaning. This movie is surreal and strange. Not at all what I would expect from Adam Sandler, but amazing in its own way. I want to watch it again, and my opinion of it may change if I do, but for now... 7 out of 10 (maybe 8)

So, my little brother came up this weekend from Iowa. He went to a concert at the metro with a couple of his friends. It was good to see him. We got to sit an chat for a while, and that was nice. Not that many years ago, that would never have happened. Somewhere along the way we've both matured... a lot. I guess it's one of those things, you either grow up or your life sucks. I'm glad that my brother is more than just my brother. I'm proud to call him my friend.
In the last couple days I've finished a couple books. First was The Teeth of the Tiger by Tom Clancy. I've read a lot of Clancy's stuff, and I've liked most of it. This one, not so much. I think he's trying to introduce replacement characters for Jack Ryan and John Clark, who are getting a little bit old to be doing the things they've done in earlier books. However the characters he's introducing in these are too far of a stretch for my tastes. They are much more two-dimentional and even a little more jingoistic than previous characters. Jack Ryan was his stand-by and John Clark was my favorite, so things were already going down-hill in my opinion. But oh well, perhaps the next will be better and he'll develop the characters more to the point where I can care about them, but for now, I give The Teeth of the Tiger a 6 out of 10.
The next book I read was The Ice Opinion by Ice T. This book was interesting, and entertaining. While I don't agree with some of Ice T's opinions, I really liked his outlook. His opinion was that the people who defend his First Amendment rights have been as in-effective as those who oppose what he says. He feels that the issue of what he's saying has been overshadowed by the people who are saying that he does, in fact, have the right to say it. The issue should not be "Does he have the right to write and perform 'Cop Killer'?" but "Why would he want to write 'Cop Killer'?" That i agree with. Like I said... it was interesting.