Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
The holidays are now passed, but still wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy 2006. Hope everyone got lots of nice presents and quality time with their loved ones. I had the last week off, which is always great. My whole family was gone on vacation, so it didn't feel all that "Christmas-y". But I still had a good break, and am sad to say that it ends today.
My Christmas present to myself was the White Sox World Series DVD, probably a "must-have" this year for a Sox fan such as myself. I have to admit, I was a little underwhelmed with the DVD, as it seemed more of a recap of events, and not really done with a fan's perspective in mind. The "behind the scenes" stuff was limited, and overall they probably should have included more than the 75 minutes of running time. If you are a Sox fan that hasn't gotten the DVD yet, I'd say just borrow mine, and then wait for the expanded DVD set to come out in the spring.
I watched the Chronic-what-cles of Narnia. I thought this movie was pretty good. It's not as polished or exciting as the Lord of the Rings movies, but I remember reading these books when I was younger and wishing there was a movie about them. And they did a pretty respectable job with it, so I was happy. If you've never read the books, or you are expecting really grand special effects like Star Wars or LOTR, then it might not be for you.
Also saw Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels for the first time. It's been a while since I watched a movie on VHS, so it was kind of a nostalgic feeling to have to be messing with tracking and thinking about rewinding the tape after finishing the movie. This was a good movie though. Much like Snatch, which I also liked.
Speaking of nostalgia, I played some old school 8-bit Nintendo, and not just any Nintendo, but "Chinese Nintendo" (actually Japanese Famicom). Some of the old school games I think never made it to the US, like Ice Climber or Circus. The best were Tetris and Super Mario 3 though. A few days later, I had a chance to play Madden on XBox 360 (not mine, at a friend's house). The graphics were so amazing that I can almost understand people paying 900 bucks on eBay to get one. Almost, but not quite.
Finally, let me say that I think this whole "Open Road Tolling" thing is such a sham. It looked cool in the pictures for some reason, so I was excited at first. But after months of construction, and the traffic slowdows and money spent along with it, what was it all for? 3 I-Pass lanes instead of 2? I've been an I-Pass user for longer than most people, but I don't like what I'm seeing with all this. Aren't tolls supposed to be temporary? It's like once the government has a source of income, they never want to give it up. If you want to encourage people to switch to I-Pass, why not discount the I-Pass tolls instead of jacking up the cash tolls? And is it only a matter of time before they start giving out speeding tickets by tracking the times you pass through tolls?
