If I haven't seen and/or talked to you in the past couple weeks, then let me wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year here in this blog. The holiday season has given me a week and two days off from work (ending tomorrow), and of course I have no complaints about that. It was definitely nice to get this time to spend on things other than circuits, lasers, and status reports for once.
Among the things I've been doing instead of work:
- Got some nice gifts (and also my second annual Christmas card from the one friend I know who sends out Christmas cards). I won't list all of the gifts I got here, but they were all very nice and I appreciated every one a lot. Since I'm not really into gift giving as much as other people, and I suck at thinking of gift ideas for friends and loved ones, I don't usually expect to get a lot of gifts for Christmas, birthdays, etc. But to all the people who made the effort to get me something, I just want to say thanks again.
- Watched a bunch of movies, all on DVD, none in the theater. Some of the DVDs were gifts, actually. I saw Mystery Men for the first time, pretty funny if you like Ben Stiller. Also cross off Major League from my list of movies to see, now I will have to watch Major League 2 and 3. And of course I had to watch Home Alone on Christmas day, it being one of my all-time favorite movies.
One DVD I really wanted to watch, but was denied, was Napoleon Dynamite. I wanted to see that movie when it came out in the theaters, it just looked hilarious in the commercials. Then I kind of forgot about it until the DVD was released a couple weeks ago. Some people I know who watched the movie told me it was funny, and they are more mature than me, so I'm almost positive that I will love this movie. Unfortunately when I went to buy it, they were sold out at Best Buy, Circuit City, and Wal-Mart. I didn't know so many other people wanted that DVD too, but what do I know. The good news was that they had plenty of copies of the Anaconda DVD still available, so I bought like 10 of those for myself and to give to 9 of my friends. Gotta grab those while you can, you know. Anyways, I'm still fiending to watch Napoleon Dynamite one of these days, so this story is far from over. Stay tuned for updates on this ongoing saga.
- For the 3rd year in a row, I washed my car on New Years Eve or New Years Day. It's weird, but the weather just seems to get warm on those two days for some reason. Those of you who know me know how I feel about washing my car, I love it. Getting all that salt off is like a huge sigh of relief for me.
- News of the Tsunami was easily the worst part of this year's holiday season. Just the thought of well over 100,000 people dying in one single event is nuts. Compared to some of the tragedies we deal with in our country, this just blows them all away. As I hear more and more news of major disasters around the world these days, I can't help but be reminded of all the prophecies in the Bible. These are all signs that the end times are near. Not trying to be Chicken Little here, but at the very least, I guess it's a very sober reminder for each of us to value our lives and our limited time here on this earth. Whatever that may mean.
- Went with Olivia to Room 22 for the New Years countdown. I think every single 20-something Asian in the Chicagoland area was at this party. Well, maybe not all of them, but there were a lot. I didn't bring my camera but some of Olivia's friends took some pictures of us there, so if I get those, I might put them up. Other than that, there wasn't much else to note about New Years.
- Bears/Packers game earlier today, thanks to Olivia getting the tickets a few months ago. Our first time at the new improved Soldier Field, and I'm not sure if I like how it looks. The game sucked, since the Bears suck, but it was still a good time. I do have a couple pictures of this:
I think that's about all I can think of as far as highlights from the past week or so goes. By the way, congrats to Greg for winning the 2005 McNown League championship. Not that I won't be bitter about this season for a long time, but that's another story. It looks like I might pull out a 2nd place finish, which I guess isn't too bad.
Also, congrats to the #1 Illini for completing an undefeated non-conference schedule. The latest win over Cincinnati was yet another great game to add to this year's team record, but hopefully the best is still ahead. Now seems like a good time to close this entry with an old picture I dug up, one my sister took with Dee Brown a year or two ago. It might be the Chen family's only brush with true greatness:
