Magnifisyncopathological

I'm going in for minor hand surgery very early tomorrow morning so I'll be delayed again in getting new material up here.

However, I have received my property tax assessment. That oughta provide material for at least one big pissed-off post, eh? I have also given up the hope that I can figure out what's wrong with the computer I've tried to build, intending to hire pros to take a look at it. More details to come.

The holidays this year were great fun. I spent Christmas with my immediate family near Canyon Lake and New Year's with my friends at my house. Simple and easy relaxin', even though I'm still waiting on the last gift to arrive for a friend. I'm not making the stupid mistake of ordering 60% of my presents to others from Amazon.com nine days before Christmas.

Best gift I received this year? If the computer ends up working, then it might be the money my parents gave me to put towards it. However, I'm not sure even that can top the 22-pound-plus, 1440-page, three-volume Complete Calvin and Hobbes hardcover collection two friends gave me. I'm going to build a bookshelf around this monster.

One of my buddies got me hooked on Naruto (damn you, Tim!), I'm knee-deep in Samurai 7 (very nice!), and I bought Now and Then, Here and There (finally!), so perhaps 2006 will be Drizz's New Year of Anime. Discovering a relatively nearby rental store with complete box sets at reasonable prices does help. On the other hand, I've been burning up my thumbs on the Xbox version of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, so it is equally possible I'll simply get nothing done anime-wise and use all my free time trying to pull off a switch 540 boneless + Japan air + BS revert + nose manual + 720 madonna + FS revert + manual + 180 pogo + heelflip + fandango + smith grind + 180 hardflip + bluntside +... My currrent high score for a single combo is in the high 500,000s. Lots of room for improvement.

I did try to avoid checking on the news while on holiday, but I let my guard down a few times. Hard to avoid those top stories when checking your Yahoo e-mail! Lots of heat is being generated without much accompanying light. Pleading lobbyists, an executively-privileged Big Brother, and all the local stuff; I see this stuff after forcing myself to back away for a few weeks and I almost hesitate to get back to it. I've been slow to get back and active on MySpace as well.

There are nicer things to talk about and nicer things to keep one focused upon. Grinning nieces, partying friends, and new technology are preferable to discussing robbery, assault, murder, and their systematic integration with society. However, I'm not shy to say I stare at wreckage with fascination whether it be the result of human intention or error. Intentional wreckage, as profoundly malignant as it is, is more interesting to me than accidental.

The neck-craning will commence.