So how long does it take people in your area to take down their Christmas decorations? I'm wondering just how long I'll be seeing Christmas lights up because people just didn't bother to take them down. While I like seeing Christmas lights, once December 26th rolls around, they just seem way too out of place.

So how long does it take people in your area to take down their Christmas decorations? I'm wondering just how long I'll be seeing Christmas lights up because people just didn't bother to take them down. While I like seeing Christmas lights, once December 26th rolls around, they just seem way too out of place.

Roommate Quest 2001 continues, and threatens very... well, threateningly... to become Roommate Quest 2002 as well. I know the holidays are the worst time of the year to be looking for someone to move in and I was told that January is the second-best time of the year to get someone, but me and my lack of patience just can't wait that long. Apparently, people just aren't interested in my place or they're looking to live downtown instead or they've already found a place and their listing is outdated or they just don't want to pay that much for an apartment.

In other news, for the first time in a long time, I'm actually writing something coherent. It's kind of an unemployment diary -- I know there's tons of people out there who are unemployed and my story probably isn't any different from theirs, but people's responses to my writing here has been good so I figure I might be able to at least score points on the writing style itself. It's still a work in progress, though I expect to be done fairly soon -- insomnia can be helpful when you've actually got a project to do, and if Martha Stewart can put it to her advantage, so can I. 7AM may not be so attractive a time to finally fall asleep, but at least I churned out 8 full Word pages last night. If you're interested in reading it when I'm done, let me know. But be forewarned: plagiarize any of it and I'll find you and make you write out a handwritten copy of War and Peace or maybe some Michener novel.

Someone who does not have a way to contact them on their weblog has linked directly to the music section and is advertising them on their blog -- not my site, just my MP3s, and in some cases, directly to the files themselves. I am distinctly not pleased, since common courtesy would be to link to me and not my MP3s, plus I don't have the bandwidth to play Napster to the world, nor do I want the attention because then I might get sued for distributing copyrighted information. The music section is up there to provide you, my readers, with some listening enjoyment and also to expose you to some new songs you might not have heard if you're so inclined to being exposed. This person has already racked up quite the bandwidth consumption over the past couple of days, leading me to believe they're just streaming the files from this site rather than downloading the songs for playing on their own computers as I intended due to my aforementioned bandwidth issue. I left a message on the "comments" message board this blog has, since I couldn't find any other way to contact this person, asking them to please take down the links, but if that doesn't work, I'll have to put that person's site on my banlist. I really wanted to keep this site open to all and I didn't want to put anyone on the banlist, but if it comes to that, I guess I'll have to.

Roommate Quest 2001 continues, and threatens very... well, threateningly... to become Roommate Quest 2002 as well. I know the holidays are the worst time of the year to be looking for someone to move in and I was told that January is the second-best time of the year to get someone, but me and my lack of patience just can't wait that long. Apparently, people just aren't interested in my place or they're looking to live downtown instead or they've already found a place and their listing is outdated or they just don't want to pay that much for an apartment.

In other news, for the first time in a long time, I'm actually writing something coherent. It's kind of an unemployment diary -- I know there's tons of people out there who are unemployed and my story probably isn't any different from theirs, but people's responses to my writing here has been good so I figure I might be able to at least score points on the writing style itself. It's still a work in progress, though I expect to be done fairly soon -- insomnia can be helpful when you've actually got a project to do, and if Martha Stewart can put it to her advantage, so can I. 7AM may not be so attractive a time to finally fall asleep, but at least I churned out 8 full Word pages last night. If you're interested in reading it when I'm done, let me know. But be forewarned: plagiarize any of it and I'll find you and make you write out a handwritten copy of War and Peace or maybe some Michener novel.

Someone who does not have a way to contact them on their weblog has linked directly to the music section and is advertising them on their blog -- not my site, just my MP3s, and in some cases, directly to the files themselves. I am distinctly not pleased, since common courtesy would be to link to me and not my MP3s, plus I don't have the bandwidth to play Napster to the world, nor do I want the attention because then I might get sued for distributing copyrighted information. The music section is up there to provide you, my readers, with some listening enjoyment and also to expose you to some new songs you might not have heard if you're so inclined to being exposed. This person has already racked up quite the bandwidth consumption over the past couple of days, leading me to believe they're just streaming the files from this site rather than downloading the songs for playing on their own computers as I intended due to my aforementioned bandwidth issue. I left a message on the "comments" message board this blog has, since I couldn't find any other way to contact this person, asking them to please take down the links, but if that doesn't work, I'll have to put that person's site on my banlist. I really wanted to keep this site open to all and I didn't want to put anyone on the banlist, but if it comes to that, I guess I'll have to.

I have another confession to make. I'm not too fond of driving through tunnels that go underwater. Maybe it's just the fact that the tunnels here in Boston leading to and from Logan Airport are antiquated and look like there's a chance they might crumble at some point, or maybe it's the fact that I just don't trust the designers and contractors given the massive construction and flooding problems and they're having building the new tunnels now, but I'm rather apprehensive of getting sealed in a tunnel or having one burst while I'm inside and I'd end up drowning.

It's no wonder that I avoided the asinine-looking Sylvester Stallone movie Daylight when it came out five years ago, but it still amazes me that I will so readily say yes when people ask me for a ride to the airport here. Despite the fact that I have to get through the tunnels under the Charles River both ways, Logan is a mess with all the construction they're doing there and what with all the taxis and buses driving maniacally through 6 twisting and turning and exiting and entering lanes -- I have truly come to hate Logan Airport.

I'll drive to Logan -- and even though I know it will do absolutely no good if anything actually happens -- but I always put the car's fan on "recirculate" whenever I go into the tunnels. It's one of the very few really stupid and irrational habits I have, but it makes me feel better.

I have another confession to make. I'm not too fond of driving through tunnels that go underwater. Maybe it's just the fact that the tunnels here in Boston leading to and from Logan Airport are antiquated and look like there's a chance they might crumble at some point, or maybe it's the fact that I just don't trust the designers and contractors given the massive construction and flooding problems and they're having building the new tunnels now, but I'm rather apprehensive of getting sealed in a tunnel or having one burst while I'm inside and I'd end up drowning.

It's no wonder that I avoided the asinine-looking Sylvester Stallone movie Daylight when it came out five years ago, but it still amazes me that I will so readily say yes when people ask me for a ride to the airport here. Despite the fact that I have to get through the tunnels under the Charles River both ways, Logan is a mess with all the construction they're doing there and what with all the taxis and buses driving maniacally through 6 twisting and turning and exiting and entering lanes -- I have truly come to hate Logan Airport.

I'll drive to Logan -- and even though I know it will do absolutely no good if anything actually happens -- but I always put the car's fan on "recirculate" whenever I go into the tunnels. It's one of the very few really stupid and irrational habits I have, but it makes me feel better.

I promised a recap of the year in my usual style, so I rewrote the lyrics to Britney Spears' "Oops! I Did It Again" with the current events. (No, I didn't rewrite that stupid Titanic dialogue section.) If you want to sing along -- although I know that secretly, you probably all have it already -- here's the original song.

Oops! Two Thousand And One
I think it's kind of insane
That Chandra is gone
And Napster's no more
Oh baby
Michael Jordan is back
But it doesn't mean he'll play ball for good
And to win the election
And have asses rule for four years
Oh Georgie Georgie

Oops! Two thousand and one
It was quite a year
For all of us here
Oh baby baby
No! We're sick of it all
No trips to the mall
We're in "recession" now

We battled cows in Europe
And sunk Asian teens
Yes and our Navy is truly a mess
China blew us away
They brought down our plane
And took it apart
And Aaliyah fell prey to
Too much weight in a cargo bay
Baby oh

Oops! Two thousand and one
It was quite a year
For all of us here
Oh baby baby
Hey there Tom and Nicole
Your hearts became cold
Who gets the children now?

[stupid dialogue section]

Oops! We -- let terrorists strike us bad!
World Trade... and the Pentagon too
Oh and -- Osama has yet to be caught
We've hit Afghanistan
Ooh! We're all so afraid
Pull Arabs off planes
We profile on race
Oh baby baby
Anthrax is in the mail
Ashcroft will impale
Those guys in prison now

Oops! Two thousand and one
It was quite a year
For all of us here
Oh baby baby
Save us Harry Potter
From all of this stuff
I can't take more of this...

I promised a recap of the year in my usual style, so I rewrote the lyrics to Britney Spears' "Oops! I Did It Again" with the current events. (No, I didn't rewrite that stupid Titanic dialogue section.) If you want to sing along -- although I know that secretly, you probably all have it already -- here's the original song.

Oops! Two Thousand And One
I think it's kind of insane
That Chandra is gone
And Napster's no more
Oh baby
Michael Jordan is back
But it doesn't mean he'll play ball for good
And to win the election
And have asses rule for four years
Oh Georgie Georgie

Oops! Two thousand and one
It was quite a year
For all of us here
Oh baby baby
No! We're sick of it all
No trips to the mall
We're in "recession" now

We battled cows in Europe
And sunk Asian teens
Yes and our Navy is truly a mess
China blew us away
They brought down our plane
And took it apart
And Aaliyah fell prey to
Too much weight in a cargo bay
Baby oh

Oops! Two thousand and one
It was quite a year
For all of us here
Oh baby baby
Hey there Tom and Nicole
Your hearts became cold
Who gets the children now?

[stupid dialogue section]

Oops! We -- let terrorists strike us bad!
World Trade... and the Pentagon too
Oh and -- Osama has yet to be caught
We've hit Afghanistan
Ooh! We're all so afraid
Pull Arabs off planes
We profile on race
Oh baby baby
Anthrax is in the mail
Ashcroft will impale
Those guys in prison now

Oops! Two thousand and one
It was quite a year
For all of us here
Oh baby baby
Save us Harry Potter
From all of this stuff
I can't take more of this...

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are saddling up. Carson Daly's new late-night talk show debuts on NBC on January 7. NBC has already failed three times in the past five years trying to put a successful talk show in that timeslot, what makes them think that putting America's #1 Tool in there will make it work this time? Carson's main demographic and harem has been in bed for several hours by the time that 1:35AM rolls around, and I doubt that Mommy and Daddy will be amenable to letting their daughters wake up at 1:30AM on a school night to watch a half-hour of TV and then go back to sleep.

In other joy-killing news, the prime minister of Cambodia has ordered the destruction of all karaoke bars and nightclubs by tank. While I don't completely advocate the destruction of karaoke bars, I do advocate tanks going after that person who insists on belting out a drunken rendition of "The Piña Colada Song."

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are saddling up. Carson Daly's new late-night talk show debuts on NBC on January 7. NBC has already failed three times in the past five years trying to put a successful talk show in that timeslot, what makes them think that putting America's #1 Tool in there will make it work this time? Carson's main demographic and harem has been in bed for several hours by the time that 1:35AM rolls around, and I doubt that Mommy and Daddy will be amenable to letting their daughters wake up at 1:30AM on a school night to watch a half-hour of TV and then go back to sleep.

In other joy-killing news, the prime minister of Cambodia has ordered the destruction of all karaoke bars and nightclubs by tank. While I don't completely advocate the destruction of karaoke bars, I do advocate tanks going after that person who insists on belting out a drunken rendition of "The Piña Colada Song."

Just passing along the message -- Blogger was hacked earlier today, so anyone who either posts on Blogger or uses their engine to power their blogs should change their Blogspot passwords or their FTP passwords. Someone I know has already had her site hacked, so be forewarned.

I'm back in Boston now, more in a few once I've unpacked all my stuff and put all the food Mom gave me into the fridge.

Just passing along the message -- Blogger was hacked earlier today, so anyone who either posts on Blogger or uses their engine to power their blogs should change their Blogspot passwords or their FTP passwords. Someone I know has already had her site hacked, so be forewarned.

I'm back in Boston now, more in a few once I've unpacked all my stuff and put all the food Mom gave me into the fridge.

Christmas is drawing to a close, and the malls can look forward to abject mayhem beginning at 7AM tomorrow morning. I have my dad's tests to look forward to tomorrow morning, it's just routine stuff but I still don't like the fact that he has to go through with it.

Not to sound crass or heartless, but I'm wondering if any Christians get sick of the barrage of Christmas music, specials, Santa Claus displays, "Meet Santa" mall events, etc. Most of the radio stations in Connecticut are playing "24 Hours of Christmas" (some are being a little excessive -- the big country station broadcasts at 92.5FM, so they're playing 92 1/2 hours of Christmas music) and it's driving me up a freakin' wall. I'm not trying to be Scroogish, but I think I had enough of Christmas around December 10th and was ready for it to be over already. Maybe it's because I wasn't getting presents or doing anything special, but I'm wondering if people who celebrate the holiday actually get as sick of it as I do. I'm not trying to deny people their Christmas, I'm just trying to grant the rest of us our normal lives without having Christmas shoved down our throats into the sub-cockle area of our hearts (or at least past the gag reflex point). When I turn on the radio, I'd still like to hear some decent music no matter what day it is.

On kind of a similar tone, I had a discussion with Aimee a little while ago about how Christmas is basically a commercial and non-religious holiday -- when asked for their first response of who they associate with Christmas, how many people choose Jesus over Santa Claus? How many people still go to church either for Midnight Mass or for Christmas Day? While I maintain that first and foremost, Christmas is a religious holiday that was brought about to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I find that -- at least from the impressions I've gotten from people and from the media -- that Christmas has become more about revelling in the actual season with music/specials/Santa appearances/trees and presents than it has to do with actually celebrating one of the holiest days according to Christianity. Despite the fact that I've never really celebrated it (except for once, I was dating someone who wasn't Jewish and spent Christmas with her family), I'm trying hard to find the true meaning of Christmas but I'm having a hard time wading through all these flyers and newspaper inserts advertising last-minute Christmas sales and gift ideas.

Or maybe I'm just being cynical and cranky because I'm really tired. Who knows?

Christmas is drawing to a close, and the malls can look forward to abject mayhem beginning at 7AM tomorrow morning. I have my dad's tests to look forward to tomorrow morning, it's just routine stuff but I still don't like the fact that he has to go through with it.

Not to sound crass or heartless, but I'm wondering if any Christians get sick of the barrage of Christmas music, specials, Santa Claus displays, "Meet Santa" mall events, etc. Most of the radio stations in Connecticut are playing "24 Hours of Christmas" (some are being a little excessive -- the big country station broadcasts at 92.5FM, so they're playing 92 1/2 hours of Christmas music) and it's driving me up a freakin' wall. I'm not trying to be Scroogish, but I think I had enough of Christmas around December 10th and was ready for it to be over already. Maybe it's because I wasn't getting presents or doing anything special, but I'm wondering if people who celebrate the holiday actually get as sick of it as I do. I'm not trying to deny people their Christmas, I'm just trying to grant the rest of us our normal lives without having Christmas shoved down our throats into the sub-cockle area of our hearts (or at least past the gag reflex point). When I turn on the radio, I'd still like to hear some decent music no matter what day it is.

On kind of a similar tone, I had a discussion with Aimee a little while ago about how Christmas is basically a commercial and non-religious holiday -- when asked for their first response of who they associate with Christmas, how many people choose Jesus over Santa Claus? How many people still go to church either for Midnight Mass or for Christmas Day? While I maintain that first and foremost, Christmas is a religious holiday that was brought about to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I find that -- at least from the impressions I've gotten from people and from the media -- that Christmas has become more about revelling in the actual season with music/specials/Santa appearances/trees and presents than it has to do with actually celebrating one of the holiest days according to Christianity. Despite the fact that I've never really celebrated it (except for once, I was dating someone who wasn't Jewish and spent Christmas with her family), I'm trying hard to find the true meaning of Christmas but I'm having a hard time wading through all these flyers and newspaper inserts advertising last-minute Christmas sales and gift ideas.

Or maybe I'm just being cynical and cranky because I'm really tired. Who knows?

Went to see Lord of the Rings tonight with the parental units. What a quality film that was... I was blown away. As some movie reviewer whose name I can't remember said, I'm not planning on waiting around for the next two films to come out in order to find out what happened -- I'll read the trilogy myself beforehand. I'll probably end up seeing Ocean's 11 (again) tomorrow with my mom and then it's Chinese food for Keith! Gotta love the Christmas traditions.

Despite my own religious leanings and despite the fact that I am kind of "lonely Jew on Christmas," I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and I hope that Santa brings you all everything you wanted. Except for Georgie and Johnny -- Bush & Ashcroft can get... no, strike that, if I wish them lumps of coal, they'll figure out some way to convert them into fossil fuels. So I'll just wish them a nice boot to the head.