Happy New Year! Apparently I'm having a BBQ tonight... Shawnie let me know this just yesterday, but I suppose that's more notice then I typically give people. It's going to be a bring your own meat type deal.. I'll have some sides available... I doubt there will be more then 10 or so people there, but if you're reading this, you're invited. 2 Comments

	learning pains My fingers hurt from attempting to play the guitar. I keep getting told that eventually I'll build up calices and it will no longer be a problem, but I gotta say this seems like a very bad design. How many people would buy a chair if they were told that their body would have to learn to adapt to it, as opposed to the chair conforming to the contours of their body? 3 Comments

	11:30pm day after Christmas I throw some clothes on in the dark.. All in all, I would have to say that I made out pretty well for Christmas. The highlight being a new guitar along with tuner and "learn to play" software which I have to admit I'm a little skeptical about. However, I'm optimistic that I'll be able to pick it up fairly fast- with a little practice which I'm sure will drive my roommates insane for a few weeks. Saw the new movie version of The Phantom of the Opera tonight with Shawnie, Brennian, and Nick. I wasn't particularly impressed, but I've never been much of a musical fan. Shawnie and Brennian made the mistake of comparing it to the Broadway production and as a result hated it with a passion. This was semi-encouraging as I had wanted to see the live version myself, and now would feel justified in doing so if the opportunity were to arise. Last night (on Christmas ironically) there was a shooting on our road. I don't know too many of the details right now, and to be honest I'm not really all that interested. Maybe TV has desensitized me to violence or something. Hope the guy who got shot turns out to be alright and al... but as it was a head shot, I would be pretty surprised. Not much else to report on the home front. Sorry that my blogs have been especially uninteresting lately... I'll try and work on that. 4 Comments

	Merry Christmas It's christmas eve, and I still haven't finished all my shopping. Fortunantly, the vast majority is complete. I was even focused enough to mail out a couple presents which breaks my long standing rule "out of town, off the list". Technically it's not really so much a rule as a way of getting out of extra work, but I think that it still counts. 3 Comments

	Modern Christmas This is kinda neat... I think I want to make one. 2 Comments

	Half Life 2 Beat it the other night. The end was predictably open to interpretation, but I highly suspect there will be a part 3 at some point... although at the rate it took this game to come out, we probably wont be seeing part 3 until well into the next decade. So, what does everyone want for Christmas? I'm horrible at choosing gifts for people. It would be far easier if you would all just tell me what you want. Dom did this for her birthday, and it worked out beautifully. She got what she wanted, and I didn't have to spend time trying to figure out what she would like. 6 Comments

	Slightly creepy? Peter just showed me this. It strikes me that people should really not be buying these things in bulk, and if they are, we should probably be investigating them. 7 Comments

	Parking ticket I think I'm just about finished contesting my parking ticket. If anyone would care to offer comments or criticism, I certainly wouldn't object as this is pretty much the extent of my legal battle experience. In other news, I'm going to be cooking a turkey this Saturday and having a very small, make shift, Christmas party. No gifts, no dressing up. Just hanging out, eating, and probably watching some movies. Anyone who's interested is welcome to stop by. 0 Comments

	Good morning The gay post is finally gone from the main page! Woot! In other news, I just drew a perfect @ sign, free hand. The curves.. the width of the ink.. I've seen fonts that aren't as precise as me! 4 Comments

	Weird Customers I've been getting a lot of really weird calls from customers in the last couple of days here. Yesterday, there was a lady who called in to report a down DSL connection. I log in and reset the CPE which brings her up again at which point she literally screams into the phone "OH THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!" then, in a slightly calmer voice "you probably hear that all the time though.." Now, this one wasn't too weird. Believe it or not I've had several customers confess their love to me. Two have even called me a god before (although admittedly one of them preceded it with the word "email"). The call I got this morning, however, was... creepy. A lady calls and asks me to set up a port address translation table for her. I tell her that I can do this, but that it's going to take me a couple minutes. I start entering the translations while she sits on the phone with me. Perhaps she felt some need for small talk or something, because she started the following conversation: Lady: "We're just sitting here listening to each other type... just like we're on some sort of computer date" Me: "Uhh... Okay..." Lady: "Except I'm married, so we couldn't really be dating" Me: "...Oh... <awkward silence> Well, I'm just about done here.." 3 Comments

	Another movie Intolerable Cruelty was not quite the chick flick I imagined. In fact, it may have been worth watching for the line "Now you both wait a minute. Nobody hired anyone to kill anyone. Apparently, from what I can gather, a burglar broke into your house--became despondent over his lifestyle and shot himself" alone. I also rented the Ali G show, which I highly recommend to everyone. It has quite a few layers to it.. the first couple times I watched it, I thought it was especially stupid, but after a while I began to see some of the humor hidden behind mocking famous people to their faces. 0 Comments

	Updates! I suppose it's just about time for me to update here. The big ATG christmas party happened on Saturday. It was held at the Hilton, and unlike last year, had no free drinks. This ment that the three drinks I ordered over the course of the night (one being a beer) ended up costing me over $25. The food was alright, although nothing to write home about. The day before the party I got a parking ticket for parking my bike in the same place I've been parking it for months! I'm annoyed and have decided that I'm going to contest the ticket. Even if I don't win, I'll make sure that they spend 10 times the amount of the ticket trying to uphold it! (Sorry to all you tax payers out there... The bad judgement of Officer Price is to blame) 0 Comments

	Its go time! For those of you who don't know my roommate Steve, let me tell you a little about him. Steve is 6'5, with an IQ of 150. Recently graduated from Sonoma State, Steve hopes to get a job in either military intelligence, or marketing (specifically advertising and public relations). Steve is a fairly attractive guy with a great sense of humor and an all around good personality. For some reason, however, he has been single for over a year now. I imagine the guy must be somewhat lonely by now, and it seems like trying to help him find that special someone would be a good way to show my dear friend my love... of money! That's right ladies, step right up! For the next few days, right here on KissTheNerd, we will be auctioning off Steve to the highest bidder! Bid starts at only $1! Offer open to U.S. citizens, 18 years of age. Winning bid will receive a minimum of one date, including pre-dinner drinks, dinner and an activity of mutual consent. 18 Comments