So, the little project I alluded to earlier was a time lapse video of the blizzard we had. I set up my DSLR in the window of my office to take photos of the world below at 30 seconds intervals. 3800 pictures later, I edited the images together with VirtualDub and made a video of the storm.

So, here you go: the Infamous Blizzard of 2010, not to be confused with the Infamous Blizzard of 2009. There's one gap where the battery died, oops. (I'm still waiting for that AC adapter to show up!)

This is officially the harshest winter I've taken part of in 28 years of life on this little blue planet. Four feet of snow in two months, now that is serious business. I spent Friday evening and the better part of Saturday going out every three to four hours and shoveling the driveway just to have a chance of staying ahead of the storm. The only hard part was waking up on Saturday morning to find that drifts had left over a foot of snow over the entire driveway. The rest was fairly mechanical. I did a pretty cool little project over the weekend and it turned out really well. I look forward to sharing it with the internet this week.

During the blizzard, it's obvious where I was: inside. And during much of that time, specifically when we were not watching television or staring out the window at Mother Nature throwing a hissy fit, I did play alot of video games. You know the name. Demon's Souls. As of last night I am on the last level of the game and I'll probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. I am torn, however, on whether I want to play through it again right after that, or whether I will come back to it later, after pushing the next game through the pipeline. These are the decisions that tear men apart on the inside. Do I play my favorite game from the past year again or do I play another game first? I have no idea how men of power make decisions of this magnitude on a daily basis.

I am glad I'm actually able to finish the game, because my save game got bugged out. Demon's Souls is many things, but unfortunately perfect is not one of them. There are some known bugs and issues, including one that struck me, which makes NPCs from the game vanish without a trace. Luckily, the guy that vanished, although very useful, was not critical to the plot and I was able to press on without him. Now I love this game, and I look forward to playing through it again... but I wanted to finish it first! And I shall.

Finally, last night was the game of games for the NFL. My pick was way wrong, but I think alot of people's picks were wrong. The Saints managed to put it all together in just the right way to defeat this season's near-perfect team. I find it hard to think of Peyton Manning as "the bad guy" in an NFL match, but he looked downright frustrated and angry last night. If you ever seem Tom Brady losing a game, you'll notice he looks like he gets really pissy and impatient and angry. I saw that in Peyton Manning last night and it was weird, since he always seems like such a wholesome football hero. Oh well, Peyton, you can't win them all, and you got shut down by Drew Brees and the first timers from New Orleans. At least it was a pretty good game, and between balls crossing the plane of the endzone while the receiver was upside down, and passes deflecting off of uprights, there was some crazy awesome stuff going on down there. Bravo, Superbowl teams, but mostly the Saints.

Now, for a real challenge, I'm going to see what work I can do today with nobody else in the office.

Based on the predictions of the weather folk and the way people are stockpiling groceries--and the terrifying thing is that this being the south, people are probably stockpiling ammunition too--you'd think the end of days was upon us.

But, seriously, people. What the hell are you going to do with 6 gallons of milk, 27 loaves of bread, and 9 dozen eggs? It is snow, not a nuclear holocaust. Even IF you were snowbound for a month--which is how long those supplies should last--everything would spoil long before the time were up so... what is the point, other than to piss everyone else off and contribute to hysteria?

Bring it on, Mother Nature. I have two furnaces, a snow shovel and all the time in the world. What do you got? You got nothin'.

Curiously, the little bit of snow we got yesterday all stuck to the trees and powerlines, which means what is outside right now reflects the stereotypical image of a "winter wonderland." I wish I had had my camera with me on the way to work this morning because the tree-lined roads actually presented some pretty nice views. It sounds like I'm going soft.

The brokerage approved my API application which means it's now time to play around with it and see just how fast I can ruin myself. This is a grand experiment.

Speaking of grand, I am pretty much at the three-quarters mark in Demon's Souls. Considering how many hours I have racked up in the game, and how I have yet to get bored or frustrated with it, this is easily among the best games I've played. The only issue I have with it is occasional multiplayer instability, and it's bit disappointing that the developer seems less than eager to address that, but the problem usually fixes itself so I will not hold that against the game. Demon's Souls. It is so good.

Over the weekend, they called for an inch or two, and we got six inches. They're calling for another "inch or two" tonight, so God have mercy on us all.

Remember the pictures I promised of that hockey game I said we went to on Sunday? Boom.

Holy crap, it's February. Where does the time go?

The weekend was a bit of a free-for-all. On Saturday, we were originally going to go to the auto show, but upon closer inspection of the list of displays, it was apparent there would be nothing too exciting there so I decided we should skip it and maybe check out the next one. Also, the "dusting" of snow we were supposed to get turned into about four to six inches of snow, which not surprisingly caused the entire state to shut down both professionally and mentally. To that end, we decided to put our feet up and spend the day at home with two of our respective hobbies. The young miss spent the day working productively and creatively in the workshop I built for her in the basement, churning out brilliant crafts and designs. I spent the day working destructively and violently in the world of Demon's Souls, spending a large amount of time hunting people down as a black phantom and during the spans of time I was still alive, being hunted by black phantoms. Together, it was a fun day at home. Later, taking the trusty off-road-ready sport ute out on Saturday night, we passed at least two cars that had spun off the road (both, interestingly, rear-wheel drive cars that a dose of common sense would have never allowed on the road in those conditions) and were pretty appalled at how poorly the major roads had been cleaned, especially in comparison to how the heavy snowfall of last month had been pretty effectively managed.

Yesterday, after an event-filled morning, we went to the Capitals/Lightning game at the Verizon Center. It should have been an easy victory for the men in red, and though it was a victory, it was not easy and hung in the balance until the closing minutes. However, the game was very exciting, particularly because we had terrific seats right behind the net on the lowest level, meaning only about a dozen rows stood between us and plexiglass. Awesome. Of course, I got some pictures and once I adjust the contrast for your protection, they should be available for consumption.

Oops!

It's been one of those weeks. You know the kind. Walking in at the latest hours of the night, wrecking up the place. The good news is that it's almost over, although the bad news is that I have it on good authority that there will be another week just around the corner. Maybe it won't happen? A gal can dream, can't she?

On a terrifying note, I recently discovered my brokerage documents an API with which you can interface with your account and do trades and whatnot. I give it three months before I bankrupt myself with an infinite loop and find myself sitting on 5000 shares of some mom and pop enterprise. Of course, more likely they will send me an email saying, "look, we really only publish the API to people who matter and who make us money. Your account balance doesn't have enough zeroes, and you hold stocks too long, so you don't matter."

My character in Demon's Souls is doing well. Did I talk about the sword here? No, I don't think so. I found a magic sword that does terrific damage and it sets people on fire. Oh hell yeah. I've completed many more levels, including the entire second and third worlds, putting me at over the halfway mark from a level completion standpoint. I still haven't even touched the fifth world. I did try to gank someone last night but even my fire-setting dragon sword was no match for his ability to turn invisible and his Cloud Strife-sized sword. In comical fashion, he swing and smashed me into the ground like a tent peg, ending my aspirations of killing another player. Oh well, no skin off my phantom nose.

The Superbowl party is coming up! Saints vs Colts! Holy men verses horses! It's gonna be awesome, we're expecting a big crowd. I wonder if Peyton will take home a second victory, or will Drew make the Saints' first visit to the big game one for the history books? My early take: the Colts're gonna win it by at least 10 points, but it'll be a grudge match.

Ok I am freezing my butt off in here. I'm going to find my jacket and then hope someone else in the building is open minded about sharing body warmth in the event hypothermia draws near.

Ugh, weekends are like hot dogs. They're much better when they're longer.

We had a small dinner party with friends on Saturday, which was fun. It was another chance to show off the house and the improvements we've already made to it. I've become such an old man, though. Our house was the first to be built on our block and we were the first ones to move in so as more buildings are going up and more people move in, I find myself thinking, "ah crap, there goes the neighborhood." I can see it's only a matter of time before I start yelling at miscreants to get off my lawn. When did this happen?

The playoffs are starting to wind down, and only four teams remain. That means preparations are going to start soon for our big Super Bowl party. To quote the WWII leaflets dropped on Hiroshima, "it's gonna be huge!" Although I don't have a stake in any of the remaining teams (although the Colts are always fun to watch, and the Saints seem unstoppable) it should be loads of fun for all involved, except the midgets I'm going to hire to fight each other for my guests' amusement during timeouts. They are the noblest spirits of all.

Speaking of spirits, I obviously cannot make a post on this ancient website (hey, at least it's probably AOL friendly!) without mentioning Demon's Souls. I put another few hours into it this weekend. Although late last week I did manage to defeat the second boss as part of a three man team, I was only there helping out as a blue phantom and not the team leader, which means I did not receive credit for finishing the level. However, I later went back solo and defeated the terrifying giant spider of a second boss all by my lonesome. Holy crap though, it's a giant spider that shoots meteors at you. This means I have successfully completed the first part of the first level (remember, there are five levels and four parts to each level) and the first part of the second level, henceforth referred to as 1-1 and 2-1. I've been to the end of the second part of the first level (AKA 1-2), but that boss is a real dickhead. I have also played a bit on the second part of the second level (2-2) and the first parts of the third and fourth levels (3-1, and 4-1, I think you're picking up on it now). 3-1 is terrifying and I never want to go back and 4-1 is brutal in two words: ninja skeletons.

I have come to the realization that one of the reasons I like this game so much is because it is so rough and that it requires a serious gametime investment. In most RPG-like games, you need to level up, but you level up as you go from place to place and generally keep up with the challenges. In Demon's Souls, you need to spend extra time "grinding" and building up your soul bank to upgrade your character. I have spent more time repeating levels I've already finished then I have advancing the game, and frankly, badadadadaaaa, I'm loving it. It's the oldschool gamer in me that enjoys spending lots of time just trying to get up to snuff for the next challenge instead of lovingly being guided through the motions or placated with lifeless eye candy. I have no idea when my character will be powerful enough to tackle the next few levels, but that doesn't dissuade me. Bring on the pain!

I'll be taking a road trip this weekend while the little lady spends some time with her sister at our house working on their shared hobby in the nifty little work center I built for her in the basement. Once I get back, it's time to get ready for the football showdown that will be two weeks away when I return. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. I can worry about the Super Bowl in two weeks. Right now I should probably worry about the next few hours.

Maybe it's the oldschool dungeon-crawl fan in me, but I am still rabid about Demon's Souls.

Last night I pushed through the first level again, saving up souls and recovering some very valuable items I couldn't get the first time. I have a good excuse. There was a damn dragon sitting right there watching over the items! If I had tried to take them, I would have been a goner. After I went back to the level with the boss defeated, however, the dragon was gone so I raided the treasure. There were tons of "people died here" bloodstains on the ground, indicating to me that some people had been impatient and tried to grab the items with the dragon watching.

I upgraded my character several times (which requires large numbers of souls) and my equipment. I tried the second part of the first level (the game has five levels, each of which is divided into four parts. You can play any of the five levels, but within each level you must play through the four parts in order) and the first part of the second level, both of which were tougher than the first.

In other news, we've got a big Superbowl party coming up. It will be awesome!

Oh man, this was so worth the wait. Demon's Souls is so good. It's a lose-track-of-time game. The remainder of this post is a summary of how the game is played and why it is so awesome and why I want to play it more right now.

The game is infamous for its difficulty level, which I have so far been able to deal with. Last night before quitting I had killed the first boss and cleared the first level. There are traps and enemies that will kill you very quickly. In combat, you have to be on your toes at all times. If you button mash or expect to get lots of easy monster kills, you will get you stuff kicked in. If you go blindly running into a room or around a corner without some defense or some looking around, you stand a good chance of getting clobbered. The game forces you to constantly be worrying about what is next. You can't veg out and just press onward.

The fact that you never know what is coming up is balanced by the fact that the game is always played online. You don't play with the other players so much as you are just all playing at the same time. While playing you will see ghostly figures running around the level, moving, attacking, dodging, going through basically the same actions as you--because that's the image of another player playing his game. You're watching him deal with the same dangers you are, and perhaps by watching him you'll learn something about the environment you didn't know. Additionally, if a player dies, a stain of blood appears on the ground in your game. If you approach the bloodstain and press a button, his image appears and pantomimes the last few seconds of his life, showing his final actions and the exact spot at which he met his untimely fate. Some of them are hilarious--such as people trying to somersault out of danger and ending up falling off a cliff--and some of them are ominous--a person running around the corner you are approaching, then coming back in a full sprint before dying instantly from what looks like a powerful blow to the back. Although he had died, everyone else who would go through that area of the level learned something from his loss.

Dying is not the only way to help (or amuse) other players, though. You can also write messages and leave them on the ground. Future players to walk through that space will be able to read your message. You can leave hints such as, "Beware the strong enemy ahead," hinting that future players might want to slow down a bit if they are rushing or, "Watch out for a trap," indicating that things are not quite what they seem. My skin was saved at least twice last night thanks to some especially helpful messages, and I left several of my own based on things that I saw. It's a brilliant and fun system.

You begin the game in typical video game fashion, as a lone warrior setting out to drive back the evil that has gripped the world and threatens to conquer it. You begin your quest in a tutorial level where you learn how to move, attack, and play the game. At the end of the tutorial, the game rewards you by killing you. Upon dying, your body is gone and you resume play in "soul form" in which you can perform all of the actions you could while alive, but your maximum health level is cut in half. That's right, if you die, the game rewards you by making your maximum health lower. There are a few ways in which you can regain your body and leave "soul form" for the realm of the living again. First, you can clear a level and defeat the boss demon--with only half health available, remember. Second, you can find and use a rare item. Thirdly, you can assist or take advantage of other players.

You can more directly intervene in other players' games than leaving messages or bloody reminders of your own fate. Using one of two special items, you can either join another player's game as an ally and help him clear a tough area or invade his game and hunt him down for a fight to the death. If you are victorious, your body is restored and you return to your own parallel game refreshed. So far, the only method I have successfully applied is the first, by killing a boss demon.

By killing monsters, you collect souls, which act as the currency in the game. You need large numbers of souls in order to buy or upgrade weapons or magic spells. While in soul form, dying will send you back to the beginning of the area in which you were playing. It will also strip you of all of your souls, leaving you broken and broke. There is no bank or place to store souls--if you have alot or are saving, you have to risk losing them to advance. Also, all enemies that you had slain in the level will come back to life and be ready to attack you again. You practically have to start the whole level over again, this time with empty pockets. Your one hope at this point is to go back to the place that you died--which was likely a dangerous spot in the first place--and find the characteristic bloodstain which you created. If you can reach it and not die again in the process, you will be rewarded by reacquiring the souls you had lost. There's one sticky bit though: if you die at the hands of a player that has invaded your game, all of your souls are stolen by the other player. So you're broke. And you're dead. And now you're a soul. Tough break, champ.

Some of the rules and mechanics seem convoluted, but if you experience the game in person, things start to work really well. The difficulty is not for everyone but as a fan of hard games (HARD GAME CLUB) I really like this game so far.

Yeee-hah! I finished GTA4 last night. The last level was an involved affair, but a fitting climax to the game at hand. I must warn that this headline will contain multiple spoilers, so read on at your own risk if you're antsy about that sort of thing. To set the stage, during the game, I was presented (as you would be if you played it) with many choices that affected the game, and one that would affect the end. The first such choice I encountered was when drug dealer Playboy X and old-school kingpin Dwayne Forge had a falling out and each one frantically tried to hire Niko Bellic to kill the other. Not liking Playboy X's cocky attitude and dismissal of his mentor too much, I decided to take him out. Thanks to this, I was able to call Dwayne later and use some of his old gang buddies as backup on a tough job. Later, a falling out between two of the McReary brothers, Francis and Derrick, led them both to suspect the other of betrayal, and Francis nonchalantly asked Niko to assassinate his brother while the two had a peaceful meeting in the park. Francis had been a thorn in my side for most of the game, and although his connections to the LCPD might have been useful, he was one of the most corrupt officials in Liberty City and was at best a jerk to deal with. Derrick, on the other hand, had been at my side during one of the most combat-heavy levels of the game, and was just trying to keep his head above water. The choice was easy for me: Francis was out, and Derrick was free to go. Finally, the big plot-changing choice of the game: just prior to the final level, Niko is ordered by his current boss, mafioso Jimmy Pegorino, to take part in a heroin deal in which he will sell a large amount of the drug to Russian gangster Dimitri Rascalov, a deal from which both Pegorino and Niko Bellic will profit handsomely. However, Dimitri had previously betrayed Niko and tried to kill him several times, and at one point had kidnapped Niko's cousin Roman. So, I had to choose between doing the deal (and working with the snake Dimitri one last time) or complete the revenge and assassinate Dimitri. This was a no brainer: Dimitri had to die for what he did to the Bellics. As a result of Niko's action, the drug deal between the Russians and the Pegorinos fell through, and without that injection of cash, the Pegorino family collapsed. Pegorino sought revenge on Niko by attempting to kill him at Roman's wedding, but Pegorino botched the hit, killing Niko's new girlfriend, Kate McReary, in the process. This set the stage for the final level of the game: Niko's friend Little Jacob identified one of Pegorino's agents and Niko and Jacob, along with Roman, chased the man back to Pegorino's hideout, an abandoned Casino on the northwest shore of Alderney.

The last mission was a challenge, and I noticed that it included tests in almost every skill the game had presented up until that point: there was high speed driving in the chase sequence, including driving into oncoming traffic on the highway. I did not like that this part of the mission had to be played in a sluggish sedan rather than allowing me to use one of the many sportscars I had amassed, but I was glad I did not have to drive Roman's crummy car again. After the car chase, there was an extended (and heavy) gun battle behind the casino. I found the easiest way to deal with this part of the level was to use rockets to destroy all of the cars which served as cover for the enemies, conveniently taking out the enemies as well. Then, there was another gun battle inside the casino, which was a bit tough because there were no good vantage points or safe spots to find cover on the inside. I discovered an easy way around this: there are several holes in the roof of the casino through which light pours, with dramatic effect. If, instead of running in the front door, you run around behind the casino, there is a ladder to get on the roof and you can then shoot down through the holes at the mobsters below, with dramatic effect. This makes the inside gunfight much, much easier, since it can almost completely eliminate the chance for further injury. Finally, there is the showdown between Niko and Jimmy Pegorino. Pegorino makes a run for safety as Niko chases, involving some final gunfights on the water front. At the end of the chase, Jimmy jumps into a speedboat and tries to escape, while Niko comandeers a nearby dirtbike and chases Jimmy down the shore--where the game gives you a final test on your motorcycle skills. With the speedboat escaping, Roman and Jacob swoop in on a Deus-Ex-Machina model helicopter gunship and give chase while Niko catches up on the bike. The bike sequence culminates with a notoriously frustrating ramp jump. I only missed the jump once and realized the easiest way to do it was to take it easy on the throttle up until that point, to avoid wiping out on the bike and failing the mission on the beach, but then floor it onto the ramp and let go of the handlebars at the last second to ensure the launch was perfectly straight. Niko jumps off the bike and boards the helicopter in true action movie style. The game then throws you at the controls of the helicopter, testing your ability to fly low enough to dodge the rockets that Pegorino conveniently starts firing from his boat, but not too low as to crash into the river. The latter is what happened the first time I made it to this point, as I did not realize until the helicopter was hitting the waves that I was actually supposed to drive; in retrospect this was foolish of me, as there is no point in the game except for riding in taxis at which you are not the wheelman. The helicopter is then hit with a missile and spirals out of control--at which point I was angry, believing I had been shot down again--but as part of a scripted sequence, lands safely on Happiness Island (AKA Liberty Island in real life) where Pegorino has ditched his boat and is making a mad dash for safety. In the final moments of the game, there is one last foot race, and then the last duty is to find Pegorino hiding somewhere on the island. I discovered him as he jumped out of a bush yelling obscenities and shooting me in the head, bringing me dangerously close to death. I responded by spraying him with a barrage from my submachine gun, finishing the defeated mob boss, and securing revenge for Kate's murder.

The game would have finished differently if I had worked with Dimitri instead of killing him, but I think the general structure remains the same. I have read that Dimitri flies the helicopter in that scenario.

If that long-winded, descriptive summary does not betray it, I will say it now: I really, really liked this game. It was not without frustration (especially with the cover system and many of the controls) but in the end I think Grand Theft Auto IV was an awesome game and I am really looking forward to hearing more about and seeing what Grand Theft Auto V will offer.

So, with GTA4 under my belt, it is time to start that game of games that I have been yearning for months now: Demon's Souls. I can already predict it will be a brutal fight, but I plan to see it through. You should expect to see me crying here tomorrow when it beats me up mercilessly on my first attempt tonight.

I made it! Last night I started the last mission of Grand Theft Auto IV. It's a tough one, for sure. At one point I almost had it done (by my estimate) but ended up in the drink and failed. I am going to put this game down tonight, barring a complete inability to play. As always, I will collect my thoughts on the game and post my postgame analysis here.

I'm also making good progress in Chrono Trigger. It's occurred to me that the last time I was playing through the game, I might have wandered into a dungeon that was several levels above what I should have, because I turned left when I should have turned right. This time through, I turned right and have found things much more palatable and plot-explanatory.

It would be awesome to be able to travel through time, would it not?

Yep, yesterday was my birthday again. It happens the same time every year. I scored some nice swag, too. Hurray!

I ordered a copy of Chrono Trigger for the DS several days ago and it arrived yesterday, too. I needed a game to play with Castlevania finished. Would you believe I've never played CT through to completion? For some reason I was never able to get into it even though I loved the contemporary Final Fantasies and Secret of Mana, the combination of which seems to have produced Chrono Trigger. The good news is I'm now obliged to finish what some people call the greatest console game of all time (Kanye?) so I will finally experience it.

My guilty pleasure for the past several weeks has been Jersey Shore on MTV. It is a hilarious show, and whether that is intentional, I have yet to figure out. Regardless, watching these kids and their antics, and more amusingly, their rationale for their antics, is pure gold. I'm interested to see what happens on the new episode tonight. One of my personal favorite quotes: "the situation is indescribable--you wouldn't even be able to describe this situation."

Touche, Michael.

So far. It was not easy at all to get up this morning, after a week off. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, both belated.

The past few days have been very cold and surprisingly windy. Secretly, I love it. Even if I am getting old and crotchety, I still enjoy the coldness of winter's core. And I a certainly am getting old and crotchety--in fact, a year older and a year crotchetier in a few days.

What did you get for Christmas? I received, among other things, copies of Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles, which made me really excited since that is exactly what I wanted. I also received a brand new jigsaw and, in an unexpected twist, a second hand miter box saw, adding significantly to the workshop inventory and capability. The latter was already used to great effect on a small project in the garage. Now I'm eager to get my workbench installed so I can mount it there and be ready for bigger projects. Man, I love home ownership.

I also received and read a book titled Racing the Beam, which describes how development occurred for the Atari 2600. For a nerd like me it was absolutely fascinating to hear how the thing worked, and how primitive of a computer it really was. The timing requirements for programming it were pretty ridiculous. It has made me really want to download a 6507 assembler and try my hand at writing a simple demo. It also gives me a new appreciation for the little wood-trimmed box gathering dust in my parents' closet.

I haven't started either new video game yet because I did not hit my Christmas goal for Grand Theft Auto IV. This game is proving, like Ninja Gaiden Sigma before it, to be much longer than I anticipated. However, I am making steady progress and plot revelations are taking place so I am hoping to be getting closer to an end. The road has not been entirely smooth, however. After dying five or seven times on the same mission several days ago, I threw my SIXAXIS controller across the room. Luckily it was easy to put back together and works just fine with no visible damage. I should note that I intentionally play the game with auto-aim disabled. Despite the aforementioned ragequit, I had a last-vacation-minute marathon session yesterday and finished many missions. When I get home tonight, I may likely play a few more.

I did, however, finish the HARD GAME CLUB-worthy (you can only be in this club if you like hard games) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. This was one of the few games that I actually felt compelled to finish side quests and hunt down rare items, finishing with something like 98% completion. I thought the game was good for most if its run, but then I entered the last level and it quickly went to great. This is how you do a last level in a video game, folks. It is larger than all of the previous levels combined and is full of challenges, secrets, and rewards. I am currently waiting for my copy of Chrono Trigger to arrive and that will be the next NDS game through which I play since there is an opening that queue.

In addition to waiting for my annual evaluation (and associated moneyhats), I'm waiting for news on a big advancement opportunity at work. In all likelihood there will be no news until February or later, but if it came earlier that would be six kinds of awesome, unless you use the metric system, in which case it would be eight and a half.

We got a touch of snow this weekend. A touch is close to two feet. Pretty heavy stuff, that. It was snowing hard pretty constantly all day Saturday. The above picture shows Saturday night, specifically about 30 minutes after I had finished shoveling the driveway for the third time. As you can see, the driveway is already under another inch or so of snow. Luckily, we had plenty of supplies in the old towncabin so we just kinda rode out the storm.

My car, which due to a humorous conversation last week is now known as the Four Cylinder Fortress is going to be stuck in the garage for a while since the roads are going to be crappy for probably a week or so. The all-wheel drive sleigh (AKA SUV) will be much more useful on roads with spotty (if any) plow work applied. I am not very impressed with the plowing I have seen. My road is a side street off a side street of a minor road, so I'm not surprised we've only had one plow (!) go by yet, but nearby major roads could also use another once-over to make them safer (and wider). It also helps that like one out of every fifty people knows how to drive in these conditions, while the rest like to think that they know, but they do not. These are the people I have already seen back their cars into snow drifts, fishtail their Grand Cherokees, and leave their Tauruses stranded on the median on route 50. You all know who you are!

Christmas is four days away. Holy freaking crap, this holiday sneaks up on you like the clap. One minute you're thinking you can put off shopping for one more week, and the next I'm standing in line at the doctor's waiting for test results while doing the tingling two-step. Luckily, shopping, shipping, and medicating are now all done. (Author's note: medical condition fictional.)

I still want to finish GTA4 by Christmas but it might take a Christmas miracle at this point. I have a feeling this means I'll start 2010 with a larger log. Wait, backlog, I mean. A larger backlog.