Mick was talking about the TerraServer just now. It’s been a while since I checked for our location, and it’s now there, in creepily high detail.

Christmas write-up! This was written for a messageboard, so if anything is worded oddly, that’s why. Anyway..

I was rather proud of the way I literally wrapped up Christmas well in advance this year. I also went a bit nuts with the game buying, but I was also thinking of it as a bit of a last push before Baby X arrives.

Christmas Eve means presents to each other. A few years ago, an import/specialty anime/game toy store (Action Ace) was having a clearance sale and I picked up a bunch of little things for all of us. One of the things I bought myself was a Motoko Kusanagi action figure. Sam has coveted that thing ever since it came into the house. A few weeks ago, he was getting quite agitated, and arguing rather well that we share things in this house, and he’d take good care of it, so why couldn’t he just play with it? But I didn’t want to back down on this one, and he needs to understand that sometimes we have our own things that our just ours (something he’ll really appreciate when Baby X becomes Child X, I’m sure). Anyway, these figures are no longer being sold (although I think they’re doing a reissue next year, funnily enough - but at 25 bucks a pop, which is ridiculous), so I kept an eye on eBay, and found one for a few bucks that I didn’t get sniped on. Even better (in Sam’s eyes, at least), it’s the original paint, and not the red-haired black variant I have. When he opened it, his eyes went wide and he exclaimed “OH! YOU do care!”, much to our amusement.

He also received the traditional pajama present and a Homer Simpson poster from us. My mum sent him another Action Man to add to his collection of 12″ dolls that get up to wacky hijinx, and some English sweeties. Amy’s mom presented him with an Amazon gift certificate (because he’s always complaining that he never receives packages in the mail like we do), and a mini trampoline. Cash money and the Spider-Man 2 DVD were cunningly hidden in a box my sister-in-law labeled as LOTS AND LOTS OF BORING CLOTHES.

We gave Amy a hemp jewelry book, a fabric screen-printing kit, one of the ..of Avalon books, a Pussy Wagon keychain (I’d bought it because she really likes Kill Bill, but in her red-faced shock at opening it actually forgot that it was from the movie, d0h!), the first season of Arrested Development, and a belly dancing DVD. Mum sent some peace sign earrings and necklace.

I had announced that I really didn’t need any presents this year, because I knew Santa would be bringing me a couple of games (hehe), and we’d traded up to a new PS2 when the slim one came out. But I still ended up with Advance Wars 2, a spiffy cordless drill that I’m aching to make holes with or make some screws REALLY TIGHT, and my mum sent my cash monies that will probably pay for a new dance pad. My sister-in-law made a lovely gift of various English and Japanese snack treats, too.

We (along with Amy’s sister) got Amy’s dad a Sirius satellite radio system, and her mom a DVD player, and presented one sister with a new set of dishes and another with Mr. Show DVDs. I already said that we got my niece a trike, but I need to point out that Amy would not let any niece of hers ride around on a mere Barbie trike, and instead opted for the badass West Coast Choppers trike. My mum took Bejewelled 2 and a parcel of fine junk foods such as Twinkies and Zingers will be making its way across the ocean.

A rather tired Santa arranged presents under the tree at about 2am I believe. As no cookies were left out in the Windmill family haste to get to bed, he had to sneak one of the Club biscuits that I received from my mum, and a note was left explaining as such. Sam was awake at 4am according to Amy, but must have gone back to sleep again. He was heard just before 7, but he dutifully waited until 8 to come downstairs. It’s funny though, we were awake just after 7 and I was actually getting impatient to start the fun. But eventually we got started, video camera rolling as always, to record the opening of the following:

Ranma 1/2 graphic novel, Urusei Yatsura graphic novel, 12″ Motoko Kusanagi doll (which is pretty.. umm.. anatomically correct, it turns out), Syndrome + Mr. Incredible figures, a 12″ Voice FX GI Joe, a Rikku action figure, a tan Stikfa, a Beat (Jet Set Radio) figure, a Fortune (Metal Gear Solid 2) figure, PoP Sands of Time (Xbox), Hunter: The Reckoning - Redeemer (Xbox), Oni (PS2), MGS: VR Missions (PSX), Time Crisis II w/ Guncon 2 (PS2), Splinter Cell (Xbox), DoA Xtreme Beach Volleyball (Xbox), Fear Effect (PSX), The Bouncer (PS2), DDR Extreme w/ pad (PS2), DDRMAX (PS2), Mario Golf (GC), Jenga, Star Wars Top Trumps, and a surprise MP3 player for Amy.

I’d said before that this was to be a bit of a last push before Baby X, so that’s why we didn’t bother trying to introduce new hobbies to Sam this Christmas as we have before, with stuff like code books or craft kits. No, this year it was all about the two cores - action figures and videogames. It was also a transitional period with regard to Santa. I’ve posted before about how we had a talk about a few Santa facts earlier in the year. Sam processed this information, mulled it over, and decided to ignore it. There was no question in his mind about the validity of Claus. This year though, I put gift tags on everything, saying they were from mom and dad. He understood this, but also managed to block some things out, and has assigned certain presents as only being possible as Santa presents, because they were just too awesome to have come from his parents.

This was a great Christmas. We all put a lot of thought into the presents we gave, we received some lovely items, there was no whining or crankiness even by the afternoon, and I actually enjoyed the Christmas celebrations with Amy’s extended family this year (maybe because I made sure Amy’s cousins brought the Xbox like they did at Thanksgiving, and I brought our controllers and we spent all day playing Burnout 3 Party Crash and 4 player DoA:U tag battles). The only downsides were that Amy had to work a few hours on Christmas Day, and yesterday’s trip to get materials to mod our dance pad was a complete bust.

So I updated the front page for the first time in two years, after being inspired.

I’d always intended to update the front page style every few months, but I’ve always been so busy, it’s been way down on my list of priorities. I also spent a few minutes cleaning up the lab, moving the not-work-safe files into the nws directory, so your chances of getting fired due to cool powers are greatly reduced.

It’s a bit dated, but A Parent’s Guide to Anime is an excellent resource I just discovered yesterday. I like it because for the most part, their suggestions are sensible, and the end of each mini-review goes over the main points that parents probably want to watch out for.

Of course, you have to have spoilers in this sort of thing, so be warned.

I tried to post this earlier, but my rantings got lost when I clicked on something someone pasted on IRC. At least it had boobies.

Anyway, yeah. I’ve really not wanted to post anything for a while; I’ve either been busy or just spending my time being productive, watching anime (Genshiken is fantastic) or playing videogames (Dead or Alive: Ultimate is fantastic).

And Christmas is almost upon us, so that means more games. A lot more. I’m almost embarassed about the number of games which will be under the tree this year - Amy is seriously going to kill me.

These Milk Duds are really chewy. And I got a Twinkie too. I’m gonna be SOOOO fat!! OMG!!

Empty again. I think I need to get back into the swing of things, then this can be a real blog again. So, here we go..

I’m so depressed, OMG. I think I’ll eat some Milk Duds.