Happy New Year

Greetings on this, the second day of 2008. At least I'm assuming it's January 2nd when you're reading this, but really, I have no way of knowing. Please be sure to double check the date. I don't want to be responsible for you fucking up your checks.

I hadn't planned on taking a break from writing over the holidays, but that hey, breaks happen. I certainly had the time, what with absolutely nothing going on at work, but instead I chose to stare blankly at the monitor, wondering why I didn't take more time off. I also finished up my Six Sigma training which was horribly, horribly boring. Whee.

Of course, the big to do at Hyphenridge is the Redskins' gloriously surprising journey to the playoffs. I don't want to jinx the team by going off on how well I think we're going to do, but I will say that after everything the team has been through this year, I'm very happy that they're able to make a trip to the post season, win or lose. When I read in the Atlanta papers every day about all the tragedy the Falcons went through this year, and how it was only natural for them to do so poorly this season, I feel nothing but pride for my Redskins as they have had a far, far worse time this season and have responded better than I think anyone expected, including me. I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't buy a Sean Taylor jersey earlier so that I could have it for the playoffs, but I'll get one this month when they start stocking them again. In the meantime, my stable of jerseys will do us just fine.

In gaming news, I've been playing a ton of Mass Effect and making pretty good progress, both in the story and in grinding for achievements. I'd like to get all of the achievements for this game, but it's going to take at least three, if not four complete runs and I don't know if I have the attention span for that. With so many great games still out there unplayed by your's truly, I don't know if I can justify spending another 60 hours, on top of whatever I have left, just to get all of the points. Instead, I'll probably see how I can get the most amount of points from one more run and then call it a day. We'll see. Thankfully the release calendar has ceased its relentless assault, so I have nothing but free time until the black hole that is Super Smash Brothers Brawl drops in February. That should give me plenty of time to finish Mass Effect, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and the various tours in Rock Band. I also have Odin Sphere coming via GameFly so I'll need to find time for that one too, but given that game's purported length (40+ hours) it may end up lost to the sands of time. I'd like to play Assassin's Creed and Super Mario Galaxy at some point as well. Curse my lack of free time!

Sadly I have to return to working out in 2008 as my pants are all a wee bit tighter from my holiday eating. Bummer. I'm hoping that my idea of ripping TV shows from DVD to my PSP will keep my interested enough to stick with it. Between all of the seasons of Cheers, and the various Batman cartoons, I have something like 130 hours of TV which, at 2 hours a week should keep me occupied for some time. First up is Cheers with a small break to plow through the latest season of The Batman.

I know none of this is horribly interesting but it's going to take a little time before I shake the rust off and get into the really uninteresting stuff. I hope that everyone is doing well, that your holidays were filled with joy and merriment and that you're well on your way to breaking all of your resolutions for the new year.