Have a nice Christmas everyone!!

• Be nice
• Be thankful
• Be good

And drive safe if you’re heading out anywhere!

Here’s the first three minutes of the 2009 Doctor Who Christmas Special. It’ll be on December 25th in the UK on the BBC and delayed a day before airing on BBC America. I believe this is a two-part episode but I’m not sure when part two is on, the day after this airs or New Year’s or …?

Direct link to the 3 minute preview.

FYI, if you’re not a fan, the Sigma Ood character might not make too much sense. And you might not know that this is David Tennant’s last story which is the reference to his “song ending soon”.

So this isn’t a chronology timeline, but more of a viewing guide on when to watch the TV episodes as they tie together with Torchwood. This is the order I believed they originally aired the episodes and watching them in that order works well.

• Doctor Who S1 Rose
• Doctor Who Christmas Special 2005 Rose
• Doctor Who S2 Rose
• Doctor Who Christmas Special 2006 Donna
• Torchwood S1
• Doctor Who S3 Martha
• “Time Crash” – a mini-episode (only a few minutes) from a children’s fund raiser (BBC’s Children In Need) starring David Tennant and Peter Davidson The Doctor
• Doctor Who Christmas Special 2007 Astrid
• Torchwood S2
• Doctor Who S4 Donna
• Doctor Who Christmas Special 2008 The Doctor
• Doctor Who Easter Special 2009 Christina
• Torchwood Radio Plays (July 2009)
• Torchwood Season 3 (Children of Earth)
• Doctor Who November Special 2010: Waters of Mars
• Doctor Who December 2-part Special 2010: The End of Time

If you read on, I’ll be giving you some spoilers, but I can’t really talk about continuity without talking about it. If you watch them in the above order you don’t need to read on.

I only mentioned the radio plays since they were just released and definitely take place after season two. I’ve listened to the first two and so far it doesn’t seem significant that they need to take place before they should be listened to before the Children of Earth mini-series (no plot ramifications, but they chronologically take place before the 3rd series).

The Sarah Jane Adventures can be watched any time but after her guest appearance in season 2 of Doctor Who would be best (especially if you don’t know who she is) and as long as you’ve started them before the before the end of season four of Doctor Who.

Torchwood Season 1 could be watched any time after the first Doctor Who Christmas episode (but before the end of Season 3 of DW). I don’t think the other Doctor Who specials (or 2009 DW specials) make any difference to watching Torchwood, at least they haven’t yet; but you do want to watch them in order just for continuity of Doctor Who. There are lots of Torchwood references in DW season 2 that might be better if you see them all before watching Torchwood, but I don’t think these tie directly to Torchwood Cardiff (many were just more hints to get you into the new series). Later on, other guest appearances make more sense if you catch them in order, but you’ll probably figure them out, Martha makes appearances on TW and Jack is on DW three different seasons (1, 3, 4) for multiple episodes all at the end of the season. I’m sure someone will disagree with me on some of the significance of some of the references, but I’ll defer back to the original broadcast order listed above.

I think I originally watched parts of Doctor Who season two and caught up on DW season one and saw many episodes out of order and the different actors were distracting, but then I got it all when I finally caught the end of season one and the first Christmas special. This causes me to mix up Christopher Echelson and David Tennant when I think back about past episodes. Also, I think I was watching Torchwood before I watched most of season two of Doctor Who so some of the references came after the fact.

By the time I watched Torchwood, I knew it was the same actor for Jack, but didn’t remember they were using the same character for him. I didn’t even realize it was SciFi at first, the Torchwood pilot seemed more mystical (think of they way the glove worked) until they explained it. Then I realized it was the same guy.

Update: These aren’t all relevant for Torchwood, but it rounds out the David Tennant part of the series (although for that I should add the cartoons and Srah Jane’s Wedding).

I’m guest posting over at We Like Money today.

My post is about using your bank’s Christmas accounts not only for the holidays but other large yearly bills too. So go over and read my post and also check out how Tiffanie and Dave have been working to get out of debt for the last six months.

If you’re visiting Gary Said… for the first time then let me say “Welcome to my home on the internet” and please leave a comment today and mention how you got here. And don’t miss the free Suze Orman finance book download that I mentioned yesterday.

I can’t believe I’m still doing this with 2,000 posts all over the last 5 years! Never would have thought it grow on me so much!

I was trying to come up with something monumental to blog about for this post, but that didn’t happen so I’ll give you a quick update on some tech (the new blog site) and a few personal things:

• I’m averaging more than a post a day, but sometimes I skip more than a few days, so I’m going to try and post more consistently (and more images with posts).
• I’m really liking WordPress, I’ve completely migrated all my old posts (from MovableType) to WordPress 2.7 (at least I think I’ve got all 4,000-ish archive/category/single pages) and mostly updated the “about“-type pages. I’ve been playing around with WP for a year and this interface on 2.7 version beats the interface for the previous six months (it was actually better previous to six months ago, IMHO). I’ll be posting more about my WordPress transition over the next few weeks (I’ve been making notes).
• Google has done an amazing job reindexing the updated site. It’s grabbed a good chunk of the pages and about 80% of the old pages have disappeared been replaced in the search engine. I’ll be posting more about this too.
• And I just saw they picked the new Doctor Who, but I’ll make that my 2001st post
• I’m still sick from when I mentioned it last week. The (medical) doctor thinks it’s some lower lung pneumonia on the right side so I’ve just been staying close to home and taking it easy (I’ll get x-ray results next week). Sleep has been the worse, I think maybe the drugs are keeping me up, or I’m just bored. Hopefully I won’t be posting more about this!
• Even being sick, the holidays were nice and relaxing, exactly what I needed after the last year, I’d have liked some more snow consistently on the ground, just enough to cover the grass. I wasn’t sick sick until Christmas so I made it through everything.

That’s it for now, I gotta go read up more on the new Doctor Who…

Been getting more and more sick the last few days, but (most importantly) made it through most of the holidays. The coughing got worse throughout Christmas day but the ultra-bad congestion didn’t start until nighttime and hasn’t stopped since. I’ve used my netty pot over and over; more times than I’ve ever used it in a day but it just won’t clean it all out (I use it all the time and I think it helps with my allergies and getting sick). I’d like to take a sleeping pill to help me sleep but I’m afraid I’ll drown/suffocate in all the mucus.

But other than the pounding headache, it’s really not that awful. It’s not too bad when I sit up, which is why I’m typing and not sleeping. I can eat and I’m semi-hungry so those are good things. I just don’t understand where all the snot comes from!

Hopefully you didn’t just read this over breakfast…

So I only thought the Santa Radar Tracker was only semi-interesting. But I brought it up for my cousins kids when I was over there tonight and they went nuts over it (from little kids to a sixth grader). They kept running in to check out where he was in the world. The fact that they give you a countdown to the next update even made it more enticing.

They’ve got photos from various sites around the world and some locations have a video such as this one from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (which includes some very mild educational bullet points in the audio).

THEY PULLED THE VIDEOS (MADE THEM PRIVATE), I’VE REPLACED THE VIDEO WITH A PROMO WITH SEVERAL CLIPS IN IT.

Here’s the direct link to NORAD Tracks Santa – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (and there is a High quality link on that page).

Here’s a little background at the Google Lat Long Blog about the Santa Tracker (and the regular Google Blog).

UPDATE: At 11:11 PM he made it to the United States. I like the video from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Everyone, please travel safe during the holiday festivities! In Michigan the roads are awful but be careful no matter how the roads are (especially if you’re drinking while celebrating).

Be thankful that you get to spend time with your family and friends. It’s a time to be nice (so don’t fight with your family about stupid things)!

And if you’re in a place that has snow, don’t forget to go for a ride and look at the Christmas lights!

 

 

 

The roads are awful right now. I’m working my way down to my neck/back doctor’s office and finishing up Christmas shopping as I pass by places. The speed of the traffic determines how many of those errands that I’ll get done. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be anywhere near enough time…

And the weather doesn’t make it look like it’s going to get any better any time soon. That’s Michigan in the center if you can’t tell…

I swear that I eat more candy and desserts more the last two weeks of December than I do the rest of the year. Plus it’s usually mixed with a few drinks. Not a good mix for my stomach any time of the year let alone the holidays.

On the other hand it’s really nice to see friends and family!!!

THIS OFFER IS OVER.

Here’s a free Christmas Album sponsored by Oprah. This is the same album from a few weeks ago.

Don’t miss the cover art links too!

Once again – It says it’s only available for 48 hours, but I don’t know when the clock started ticking…

• Faith Hill, “Joy to the World” from the album Joy to the World
• Tony Bennett, “I’ll be Home for Christmas” from the album A Swingin’ Christmas
• Il Divo, “O Holy Night” from the album The Christmas Collection
• Josh Groban, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” from the album Noel
• Brian McKnight, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” from the album I’ll Be Home for Christmas
• Amy Grant, “O Come All Ye Faithful” from the album The Christms Collection
• Harry Connick Jr., “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” from the album What a Night! A Christmas Album
• Aretha Franklin, “Silent Night” from the album This Christmas

Until the Doctor Who christmas special!!! And I bet you thought I was going to say “Christmas”?

The Christmas Special is traditionally a pretty great episode and takes place on Christmas (or the eve of). I didn’t think I was going to like it because I’m not a big CyberMen fan but they showed a preview of the first 4 minutes and it looked pretty good.

But, we aren’t getting a regular season of Dr. Who next year, we’re just getting a series of specials throughout the year (3 or 4, I think).

This isn’t the best quality of the preview, but the one I saw earlier may have been pulled from YouTube (even though I thought it was BBC sponsored).

On a related side note, The Sarah Jane Adventures will get a third season and will be overseen by Russell T Davies.

In my opinion, you don’t wear mismatched socks and you shouldn’t wear mismatched bikini tops and bottoms. It’s just weird. A swirl of a dozen colors on the bottoms and then the top is a solid color (“but the blue in it matches the blue on the bottoms”) just doesn’t cut it for me. I wouldn’t wear a blue sock and a white gym sock with a blue stripe and say they match because they both have blue. They do sell these things in pairs, don’t they? I don’t have much fashion sense but my socks do match.

Did you lose your top and had to substitute a bottom from a different pair? Or lose the bottoms? Couldn’t find both pieces in your size but bought the one part because it was cute? These aren’t serious questions but when I get too much of the hot sun I start to come up with bizzaro blog post topics.

The exceptions might be Christmas (red and green) or Halloween (black and orange) or Homecoming (school colors) or something similar, but statistically you wouldn’t be wearing a bikini on those days. But since obviously this rule would also include lingerie you can also use the holiday mismatch exemption for that (at least I hope it’s obvious).

I guess if I wasn’t traveling alone I’d have someone to vent about these important issues with.

Here’s a free Christmas Album sponsored by Oprah.

Faith Hill, “Joy to the World” from the album Joy to the World

Tony Bennett, “I’ll be Home for Christmas” from the album A Swingin’ Christmas

Il Divo, “O Holy Night” from the album The Christmas Collection

Josh Groban, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” from the album Noel

Brian McKnight, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” from the album I’ll Be Home for Christmas

Amy Grant, “O Come All Ye Faithful” from the album The Christms Collection

Harry Connick Jr., “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” from the album What a Night! A Christmas Album

Aretha Franklin, “Silent Night” from the album This Christmas

Don’t miss the cover art links too!

It says it’s only available for 48 hours, but I don’t know when the clock started ticking…

THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED!

Woo Hoo! More guest stars!!! And now on to the good stuff…

WARNING!!! BIG SPOILERS BELOW!So it turns out I was right on target with one of my guesses and what I hoped would happen did, they just showed David Tennant’s hand-in-a-bottle way too many times this season for me to think it was a coincidence. They used that hand (hi hand) to keep David Tennant as this version of the Doctor after he regenerated. And used it for a few other things…

And amazingly my guess about Donna becoming the Doctor came out to be mostly-true. It was a wild guess and since I hadn’t seen anyone else talking about it, but it sure felt that way to me. I wanted to get it in writing so I could get credit for it later!

Now while the above two Doctor items were mutually exclusive, it wasn’t likely I’d be right on both but I think I should get at least one-and-a-half points out of two; she was “a” Doctor just not “The” Doctor. But with a title like “Journey’s End”, I wasn’t too hopeful about Donna but it did turn out to be a strange ending for her.

(I have to put these things down somewhere ever since I’ve never truly gotten over that I had completely worked out how X-Men’s Jean Grey was going to come back to life and I never wrote in about it…)

No preview for the Christmas special, I’m under the impression they are filming it already. So that’s a little surprising we didn’t get a peek like the last few years. Not even a reference to it. The Christmas special preview was after the credits, more Cybermen, didn’t notice for sure if there was a companion.

I’m not a big Dalek fan, when there’s a bunch of villains (1,000s) they generally get rid of them with some non-reproduable miracle cure, so I didn’t like that part of the story-line. That part was a little bit slow for me, but they had a lot to wrap up too.

All in all, it was a bit of The Doctor dumping everyone off somewhere and him being alone (again). It’s not like he didn’t have some choices of a new (return) companion.

But, still, I can’t wait until the Christmas special! Unless we get a Torchwood (mini)series before then. Although, I’m thinking Torchwood is getting Martha and Mickey and that’ll make a completely different kind of team…

Amazing episode! Should have been a movie!

Can’t say much about it without giving much away. But lots of names in the main opening credits…

BIG Cliffhangers!Sadly, the one thing that I didn’t want to happen appears to be happening (and I think it’s happening they way I particularly didn’t want it to). But it’s Russell T. Davies, so you never know what’s going to happen until it’s over…

The Doctor’s hand (Christmas 2005) got some excessive screen time this episode and this season, so there is still hope it might be able to fix the one item I’m not happy about…

To make up for not seeing Donna last episode, I think we see The Doctor even less this time around. And while most episodes just take place in a different time/place, this is more of a a time-travel type episode (my favorite);it’s another excellent episode by Russell T. Davies.

I won’t tell you much about the episode except that we still don’t know what’s up with the bumble bees (I’m starting to wonder if we will this season) but we do finally get to really see Rose. That’s not really much of a spoiler since Billie Piper’s actually in the main opening credits!I watched the amazing preview for next week: Imagine a guest star that could possibly be on the show and they’re probably on next week (or the week after), I’m so excited!

It seems like there is so much to happen still? Are they going to have a cliff hanger? (No, that’ll goof up the Christmas episode). Continue it in another series? And who’s going to travel with The Doctor next series (season).

So it’s Episode 10 (Season/Series 4) of Doctor Who, it’s pretty much a Doctor Who only episode, Donna Noble hangs back at the spa so we see her about a total of 60 seconds. The episode “Midnight” is written by Russell T. Davies, the man who revived the Doctor Who series four years ago and is still executive producer for Doctor Who and does the same for spinoffs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures (occasional writes episodes for both).

The conversation is cRaZy and and has a bunch of people talking and no one listening and when they are, they aren’t paying attention. It made me think of a David Mamet story multiple times, the conversations seemed so much like that of Oleana and other things he’s written, if you don’t know what I mean I’m not sure how to explain it. It was an interesting episode, if you watch the show you’ll see what I mean, if you know agree with me please let me know. Actually, it was a great episode, but it certainly wasn’t a “regular” episode.

Oh, and Rose shows up on the monitors again. No big surprise there…

I’ve got some spoilers (labeled with “SPOILERS”) but I’m going to talk about the next 3 episodes: previews, rumors and conjecture (some might consider the next few paragraphs spoilers too, so stop at any time). Generally Doctor Who seasons have 13 episodes and several times that last story has spanned the last three episodes (even if you didn’t realize there was more to come after episode 11) and generally the final episodes aren’t too much of a cliff-hanger since the Christmas Special (actually broadcast on Christmas between seasons of the show) has generally been meant to sort of stand on it’s own.Obviously at some time in the next few episodes Rose Tyler will return, we’ve seen her trying to contact The Doctor since the beginning of the season. Since I’ve heard that next episode is the opposite of this episode (not much of the Doctor) maybe it’ll be sooner than later. I’ve heard nothing about who’s going to be his companion next season (is Bilie Piper too busy with Secret Diary of a Call Girl?). But many months ago (I try not to listen much) I’ve heard that Rose, Donna, Martha, Capt. Jack Harkness and Sarah Jane Smith (maybe K-9 and Mickey too) will reunite to save The Doctor but that could just be a big rumor; I’ve seen nothing in the previews (they tend to give things away at the end of the Christmas previews) nor heard anything lately. But I’m pretty sure that John Barrowman (Capt. Jack) mentions that he’s in season 4 in his book Anything Goes so I’m assuming at least his part is true.

Also, we’ve never gotten much from the multiple times that they’ve mentioned the bees have disappeared from Earth (early 20th century), I’ve no clue what they are going to do with that.

SPOILERS – In this episode, Midnight, it really illustrates a really disappointing thing about the human race is we’re so stupid. No one wants to say “I don’t know” and no one wants to be the person that disagrees with the whole group, especially when it’s easier to agree with the whole group (especially if someone shouting you down). As the viewer you’ll see it, depending on how clever you are depends on how soon, but you’ll see it. The sad thing is because of peer pressure they almost sacrifice the wrong person and instead even more die.

Eh, I probably had more semi-spoilers in the speculation paragraphs than I actually did in the one with this episode spoilers.

What a great (non-productive) day! I computed, watched TV, did a little web maintenance, computed some more and got nothing practical done. Haven’t had a day like this (that I wasn’t sick) in a long time. I’m still in my sweats too.

I also got to relax and drink Coca-Cola from a glass bottle^*, that’s such a treat! I got a case of it for Christmas.

Back to the regular work week this week, the number of people in the district where I work will jump from about 20 to about 4,000, so it’ll get significantly busier…

It’ll probably be a long while before I get another day like this.^* For those of you reading from other parts of the world, glass bottles for soda pop are pretty rare in the United States.

“I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” is one of my favorite songs. And that’s what I got! As I present I got a certificate that I’ve adopted a Hippo at the Detroit Zoo. I’ve got a Hippo, a certificate and background (see the photo).

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is a Christmas novelty song written by John Coctoasten and performed by Gayla Peevey (10 or 11 years old at the time) in 1953. You can listen here or at the iTunes music store.

This is a favorite Christmas song of mine and I remember it being on a holiday Mix tape that Jim (a co-worker) made one year. It was a few years before it got re-popularized about 10 years ago (maybe from an Ally McBeal episode).

Plus, it includes a trip to the zoo, which (once I go) crosses another item off my 101 in 1001 list…

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday today! I’d like a little more snow outside but other than that, it’s perfect. Lots of fun gifts and I think Mom liked everything I got her. More on some of the gifts later…

On a side note: One of my favorite things about Christmas (the last few years) is the Doctor Who Christmas Special! This year’s episode it titled “Voyage Of The Damned” (Starring Kylie Minogue) and takes place on the Titanic. So I’m hoping I can “tune in” to that tonight!

If you’re a Dr. Who fan you might be interested in this odd little Dr. Who 7 minute special, it takes place in the middle of the last 30 seconds of the season finale. Right after Martha walks out the door of the Tardis and right before the Titanic crashes in through the Tardis. A little mishap lets the Doctor meet one of his former selves (the 5th Doctor played by Peter Davison). It was part of a BBC “Children in Need” Special. If you don’t watch Dr. Who this clip will not be entertaining at all.

The stupid rain washed away all my Christmassy snow

Have a great a happy holiday and / or vacation!

Be nice to everyone!

It’s easier to smile than to frown (it’s a scientific fact) and the results are always better (another fact).

Drive safe!

If you’re a few minutes late everyone will still be there. (I promise).

Don’t fight with your parents! Or your kids!

It really doesn’t matter who’s right. (Although, I sure like to be right).

It’s not the dollar$ $pent, it’s really the thought.

It really is, think about the times you’re gotten a useless gift, or thought they spent too much. (Yes, I know it’s nice to get expensive gifts).

Be thankful for everything and everyone you have!

It’s all you have so take care of all of it and them.

Just smile and be nice to everyone as much as you can for the next few weeks…

I’m SO far behind for the holidays. All my family get togethers start this Friday and I’m just not ready. I guess I’ll have to worry about it for another few days and I’ll either be caught up or I won’t!

I think a vacation day on Thursday will help me get the job done…

So I did get to go to the Holiday Nights in Greenfield Village. It was all snowy so I went this weekend! I don’t like to do these Christmassy, wintery things when there isn’t snow out.

It was cold but it was fun. I was hoping for more lights decorating things but since it was old fashioned and such a thing didn’t exist in those times I was disappointed on that part. But the “Sleigh Ride” (it actually had wheels) and al the kerosene lanterns and all the little fires and carolers and everyone dressed up old fashioned was fun! And the fireworks at the end made it all worth it! (It was really cold)

It’s beautiful and it gets sure me in the holiday spirit! And I live on the third floor so it gives me a nice view! But, I’m going to hate it when I have to go out in it. ..

Lots of people parked in the street last night (the Snow Emergency alarms went off so they shouldn’t have; it’s an expensive ticket $50+, I think), and while I’d like to mock them (but they probably got tickets), it’s now screwed (as parking goes) since the trucks didn’t get to plow in there. And even when the cars get out it won’t be plowed properly for a while since they’ll be some new cars in there.

Hopefully they’ll plow my lot soon, I’m not sure if I can get out. But it’s still coming down, so I don’t think they’ll be back for a while.

I’m definitely going to do something Christmassy tonight. Like look at the lights or something (unfortunately, I think that Greenfield VIllage Holiday Nights are sold out)…

So it’s snowing and we’re supposed to get a lot tonight (the “don’t park in the street” siren already went off). I’m geeked about that since it doesn’t seem like Christmas without it.

But I’ve noticed I’ve still got a fall theme up on my blog so I’ll be changing that to a Christmas theme that I’ve used before (if I can find all the parts). I’ve been learning WordPress and so far I’ve learned it’s SO much easier to change themes in WP than in Movable Type…

So it looks funny over the next hour or so, I’m working on getting out the fall colors!

I’ve got my Christmas tree up! It always makes me very happy to get it up, I was even happy when I got it up last night and didn’t even have ornaments on it, just the lit tree makes me happy. I always dread putting up of it and the decorating, this year I got Mom to come help with the decorating. We got it and the house done. We ate out at the Seahorse Grill (review later). We computed a little bit on her laptop. And we returned my copy of of Living Abroad in Costa Rica which it turns out I had a copy of already by a different publisher (same author) and I purchased a copy of Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette in Costa Rica. And of course, we listened to Christmas songs…

So the bloggers met in Chicago again for DaveCago2, about half of us met early June 2006 and we had a bunch of new people too (but we were down a few too). Here’s the “blog roll call” that I’m pleasec to be a part of – Dave, Kevin, Jenny, RW and Mrs. RW, Ariana, Ajooja, Birdcolor, Diane, Kilax (who hand codes her blog!!!) and me. Several brought spouses (or spouses-to-be), it easier to not mention who than to remember who blogs (or doesn’t blog) their private life. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out, it was so hard to keep track of everyone…

Dave made us lanyards and had buttons and shirts and it made me feel like it was Christmas, I’m just happy with meeting new people. We ate at Pizano’s Pizza on The Loop (near Millennium Park) and we got a bunch of different pizza and lots of (different) drinks. Then we wandered around and found another place for more drinks (Congress Plaza Hotel, the Gazebo Ba I thinkr), that too a while since most places didn’t have space for all of us. It was great to put a face and voice to some of the bloggers and just chat and get more info on stories we’ve heard and stuff like that.Neither restaurant or bar had drinks like Mike’s Hard Lemonade or Smirnoff Ice and I was way above my daily caffine limit, so I hard to drink Long Island Iced Tea, it was my only option (really).

I do have photos, but I’ll have to get them up later. I’ve been running around all day and I’m too tired to take a chance at accidentally deleting photos.

So I’m really liking the 2007 season of Doctor Who, the second episode of “The Shakespeare Code” was excellent. They’re still introducing the new character, Martha Jones, and it’s working out well, IMHO. I’m trying to figure out how many of the jokes are inside jokes since I’ve watched for two seasons and how many people will get it on the first time around. As I’ve said before they do ignore the technical details about how things work which they illustrated with this episode by having Martha ask all sorts of questions about the time machine and paradoxes by pretty much ignoring them or saying don’t worry…

So they went back in time and had an adventure with William Shakespeare, I’ve never been a huge fan but I do appreciate that all the right people say he’s a genius and I accept that, especially since a lot of writers I really enjoy think he’s a genius. So it’s great that they had a character like The Doctor actually thinks he’s a genius and treated him as such. Lots of Shakespeare jokes, makes me wonder if I missed any…1

Plus, there were a few Harry Potter jokes/references that I thought were great. But I’m getting tired of the Rose references already three episodes now (the first two of the season and the Christmas special which kinda took place between seasons) and while I loved Rose, if we’re going to ignore much of the science (and concentrate on the story) then maybe they should ignore the fact that he’s lost Rose.

So I made out like a bandit at the auction at school. I ended up with five baskets (three of them were the hugest ones there) and two gift certificates. I got good deals but I still spent some cash but I use to donate to the foundation by having it taken out of my check, which was boring, now I just go nuts at the auction and spend it there.

Results on the stuff I donated: My Costa Rican coffee basket had gotten quite a few bids but I think it still only went somewhere in the thirty-ish dollar range. My Cat in the Hat Visit basket wasn’t selling very high at all (it had a few books, an audiobook, stickers and a visit from the Cat in the Hat [that would be me] for story-time or a party) so I bought it. The few times I’ve done it before I did birthday parties and it’s hot inside the costume and the parties are usually outside and if someone isn’t interested in donating enough money I’ll donate it myself (and keep one of my Saturday afternoons free). Plus this means I’ve already got my basket made up for next year!

So here’s the loot I got (click the image for a larger photo):

Margarita Basket – Glasses, mix tequila, chips, dip, etc.

Another Margarita Basket – Glasses, mix tequila, gift certificate for a mexican restaurant (no address or phone, just a name) and some kinda frozen popsicle molds. The basket was a serving tray.

Christmas Basket – This had some beautiful things in it: a cool serving bowl that the spreaders look like light up bulbs (but they don’t light), paper, ribbon, candles, beautiful ornaments, and lots of other stuff. This was the best deal and I got it for a steal. I don’t know where I’m putting this stuff since all the Christmas stuff is in storage.

Family Basket – Four board games, Uno, some books a puzzle, a movie, popcorn and movie candies (and the basket was a laundry basket).

My Cat in the Hat basket – Ready for donating next year!

A gift certificate for a hair cut – at the Fantastic Sams by work (where I go anyways).

Another gift certificate for a hair cut (but not really) - when I opened the envelope I saw it was for something else, I’m assuming someone else complained and I’ll switch with them, otherwise I have month of free karate lessons.So I’m not a big Margarita drinker but last year I didn’t get any of the booze baskets I bid on (I got scads of chocolate ones though) so I bid a little higher this year for the booze. For a while I thought I was going to end up with a 1/2 dozen margarita baskets but in the end I did okay. Now I need some of the salt and the thingy so I can put it on the rim.

Not counting my own basket, I got it all (two baskets of booze + accessories, “two” haircuts, the family night stuff and the Christmas basket) for $185. Kind of a deal, especially when you consider all the little items I didn’t list, and the money does go to our schools.

My mom went this year and had a blast, not as boring as some of the things I drag her to. She ended up with a few coffee or coca baskets (maybe 3 of them?). She’ll be back next year and I bet she’ll bring a friend.

FYI, the auction is not held on school grounds so we’re not violating any state/federal laws with liquor on school property. I won’t mentioned the generous people who do lend us their location in case the liquor donations violate any other rules…

So I keep forgetting to mentioned that I found iLike, it’s kind of a music social networking site.

The big difference is it recommends music to you and allows you to download it for free. It appears to work best with iTunes, if you download the iLike sidebar it’ll upload lists of what you listen to most and make recommendations in the sidebar where it’ll let you preview music and download it directly to iTunes. Now the free songs are mostly artists that you haven’t heard of, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t any good, I’m really enjoying some of my new found music. It seems like most (all?) of the new music comes from GarageBand.com

My iLike page is at http://ilike.com/user/garylapointe

They just keep adding new features that they’re pretty god a keeping you up-to-date on the iLike Blog. And they’ve got a widget for your web page (which I’m hoping is showing up on your screen as you read this) and it’ll even let you play my recently played songs as you read this post!What I don’t like about it is it calculates favorites based on the songs in iTunes on your hard drive and not what’s on your iPod (even if this was some manual option I had to select I could deal with it). I’ve got a 60 GB iPod, I don’t have that much room on my laptop to carry around all my music on it all the time (besides I’ve probably got it with me on my iPod). So really what it thinks is my favorite is what I’ve bought from the iTunes store that’s on my laptop and played the most (on the laptop or the iPod). So Conjure One is what it lists as my absolute favorite and while I like them a lot they wouldn’t be listed as my favorite. And when I was playing a lot of Christmas music (which I also had on my laptop) it push that up on my favorite list (I see Kenny G is still high in my rankings because of Christmas.

So search engines are tricky to understand, especially if you want the search engines to find your site and people to find your site via the search engines. One of the things you may want to do is restrict pages that the search engines find, that might seem silly to exclude yourself but I don’t want people inadvertently finding my site.

Here’s an example, I don’t let^* the search engines search my monthly archives. Because on the page of 20-50 unrelated posts the information on that page is pretty much unrelated by the end of the month. In December 2006 the mention of “iPods” on the 3rd, has nothing to do with any of the mentions of “family” or “Christmas” but if some searched for “iPods” & “family” or “iPods” & “Christmas” they may come upon that page and while I want traffic I’m not trying to lure people here under false pretenses. This is why I have categories like “Apple” and “Friends + Family” that will have related posts in one location (and even then it’s still kinda a wide range of articles).

So far I’ve just told you why you want a ROBOTS.TXT file but I haven’t told you how and I’m not planning on it, because Google just put together on “Controlling how search engines access and index your website with ROBOTS.TXT”. It’s got a lot of links that take you all over the place but there’s lots of good info there.If you’re just getting started don’t get confused with all the “User-Agent:” rules, just use “User-Agent: *” for now and that will apply to all search engines (that’s all I still use although I’m going to start working on getting some of my pages more mobile-ish).

For another example, I don’t index my Search Results page, this page lists what search words people have used to find my site. Because it those pages were indexed it would just kind of create a self-fulfilling loop of search results.

While on the other hand I do allow my “Talked About” page to be indexed since it doesn’t seem to give a lot of false positives to the search engines. plus once someone gets there they’ll quickly see that it’s probably not the page they’re looking for. But if they did put in some eclectic words that they see I mention often, they might hang around a bit.

* Please note that no search engine is obligated to find your rules, but it they want good results, they’ll probably want to follow your suggestions in your ROBOTS.TXT file. People wanting to steal content from your pages (text or images) will still traverse all the links on your site.

So I’ve just been behind with blogging and posting info from the trip to Costa Rica. Partially since I’ve been so busy and sick in the parts in between. So, some little tidbits:

$1.79!!!! – Okay so I’ve mentioned gas prices occasionally and that I get excited with great prices, but today I got it for $1.79, I think that’s my record since I started blogging…

Wine bags – So I was cleaning up today and put away bottle of wine that I received for the holidays. It came in a wine bag (which was really cool) but what do you do with the wine bags after you take the wine out? Do you re-gift the bag the next time you take a bottle of wine somewhere? I have more than a few wine bags and I just don’t know what to do with them (I’d probably reuse them but I never think of it when I’m taking wine somewhere).

Christmas cleaning – I hate putting away the Christmas stuff when the holidays are over. It’s a pain in the ass for one thing, but I miss the holiday atmosphere and the lights. Actually, it’s mostly the lights that I miss.The lack of blogging also ties into not feeling well, since I’ve been feeling yucky (I’ve been so stuffed up I cannot believe I’m getting enough oxygen to the brain) I’ve been tired. And when I’m tired my eyes get really tired and the screen looks fuzzy, so I’ve been computing less (Have I mentioned I’ve been wearing reading glasses? That’s another story). Today’s the best of felt in days and days so hopfully I’m on the mend so I’ll try and catch up when the weekend hits…

So Mom seems pretty happy with the gifts that I got her for Christmas. In particular she likes the book Before You Leap: A Frog’s Eye View of Life’s Greatest Lessons by Kermit T. Frog. It’s very cute but seems like it really might have some interesting thoughts on it. I just spotted it at Borders, I hadn’t heard anything about it but it looked like something Mom might like.

The other item was one she specifically asked for: a new vacuum. Her last vacuum was 34 years old, so it was about time. I settled on the Eureka Altima Bagless Vacuum and it was a good choice, she’s been playing around with it today. It’s got a great extendable duster thing that is self cleaning (I don’t even know how to describe it). It was a breeze to put together, three (3) screws and we were done (they could print the manual a little larger though!). It’s nice and light too. I had spotted it at Target and the line was horribly long so I figured I’d check out some other models and maybe come back. Later, Kelly mentioned it was the same one she just bought to replace hers and then it was on sale the next day so I took those two things as a sign and picked it up.

She seems very happy with that and all the other items that Santa and I brought her!!!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope everyone everywhere has a wonderful day!!!

I’ve got a few updates and a few things to cross off my list that I’ll be updating y’all the next few days…

So I’m very excited about the holidays!!! Tomorrow my house will be packed with people. I’ve never had this many people in my condo so it’s going to be a tight fit. Twenty-eight people, I think about 10 will be kids and while I’ve generally got stuff for kids to do things, I don’t have much space for them to do it in, that’ll be the trick!

Saturday (the 23rd) will also be the closest to Christmas that my extended family (on my Mom’s side) has celebrated Christmas since 1997, I think every year before that we got that group together on Christmas Eve. That’s why I’m having it this year, I wanted it closer to Christmas and this way, I get my way

Well, I’m off. I’ve got a bunch of little things that need to be done, but enough of everything is done so I don’t have to worry about it. I think I’m done with all the kids except one (and I think that will require a call to his parents since I’m clueless).

So I gave up Coca-Cola for a few weeks for several reasons. It’s on my list of 101 in 1001 to try and see how if it makes me feel any better or sleep any better, etc. I chose this time just to hopefully have less sugar/caffine in my body to maybe stay healthier for the holidays (especially since I’m hosting Christmas for 25-ish people on Saturday). I’m not allowed to substitute other (inferior) caffeinated drinks or extra amounts of chocolate, etc.

Well, the health thing didn’t work out since I got sick a few days later (last week) and don’t know if I slept better due to the illness or the decrease of sugar/caffine. No friends or coworkers have noticed I seemed to be less hyper

But I do get cravings for Coke, even when I haven’t removed it from my intake. But the other day at McDonald’s I got my number three which includes a drink, fries a Quarter Pounder with cheese, no pickles or mustard for those of you who may not know what a McDonald’s is, let alone what a #3 is. And as I took a drink of my soda I realized I was taking a really really long drink through the straw and it was tasting really really good. And then I realized why, I accidentally got a Coke. So while I hate to be wasteful, I went and dumped it out and got a Sprite instead. The Sprite just wasn’t the same…

So I’ve got two more days to go. Actually, about two days and five hours. And I’m really ready for it. And I know I need to try this experiment again sometime, the getting sick really through off the results the “experiment”. But I think I’m gonna stick it out for a few more days just because I can. Maybe…

So my last post wasn’t to make you believe that life isn’t good, it was just pointing out the blah things and not being in the mood for blogging (or even much blog reading). Life has been good and even today in general has been great.

I got some gifts for a wedding and not only did I find somethings on the registry that I didn’t mind buying but I found things I wanted to buy for them and one was something I had even considered before reading the registry. I won’t list the items in case they’ve been keeping up on my blog.

I went to the library to pick up two new books I had on reserver and they actually had a third waiting for me! The items consist of: Brother Odd (Koontz), Next (Crichton) and Wild Fire (DeMille). These plus some other one week books are going to generate some nice fines for the library.

While I couldn’t get to sleep last night I slept like a rock once I did get to sleep, got a little over nine hours, if I can just do the same tonight…

While I was at the library I found a few 25 cent paperbacks which I’ll take on my next vacation (and not need to bring back).

Plus I drove by my local bar just as happy hour started and I popped in. So I’m currently blogging this over a Long Island Iced Tea and some and some free appetizers! Plus, it’s very Christmas-ish here thanks to Dawn.

Other good things coming up: We’re celebrating Christmas at my place for the extended family in a few weeks and I’m way excited about that. I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to put 25 people in my condo but I’ll make it work. For the last few years my (Mom’s) extended family hasn’t celebrated Christmas anywhere near the 25th (we used to do it on the 24th every year) which is why I volunteered to have it on the 23rd. I actually sent out invites in April to make sure this would happen. And on top of that, next month I get to go on a warm sunny vacation to Costa Rica!

In addition, many of the things in this post and the previous post gets a bunch of items off my 101 in 1001 list. I’ve completed 24 of 101 things done and I have 637 of 1001 days left to do them so I need to catch up a bit (23.76% of tasks done but 36.36% of the time had passed). The Costa Rica trip crosses off two (maybe three items), family Christmas knocks off two and the eye appointment is another. I might get a few more but those are guaranteed to be done in the next 60 days.

So I’ve definitely fallen behind in my 101 in 1001 list (23% of my tasks done and used 32% of my time.). I’ve got more than a few things lined up in the next few months.

I’m having the family Christmas at my house this year. This covers two items: 1) Having the Family Christmas and 2) Have the extended family over once a year.

If I go to Costa Rica this winter I cover several items: 1) Going back to Costa Rica, 2) A warm winter vacation, 3) Possibly deciding if I want to move there some day.

I could also succeed in doing one (or two) more Christmas related items: 1) Greenfield Village or 2) The Hines Drive lights tour.

So I could start to catch up soon. It’s likely I’ll get five items just from the above list (maybe 7). I’ll likely get more done, but these are very likely to happen by January…

Can you tell I’m feeling a little behind on the list. I’m not sure why, the purpose is to give more time to do these things. And if you consider most people don’t complete any of their New Year’s resolutions I’ve already got 23% of my list done…

So on October 17th Sarah McLachlan is releasing a Wintersong, a Christmas Album. Looking forward to this a lot! I always liked her “Song for a Winter’s Night” (which is on this) which is kind of a holiday song if I remember correctly.

It’s a new album but the downside of this begs the question “where is some new original music?!?”…

FYI – She’s also releasing Mirrorball: The Complete Concert newly re-mastered and on 2 CDs to be released on October 3rd. I really like her live, I’m generally pretty fussy about live recordings. But again, where’s the new music…

I was tagged by RW to do this meme

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
Web Programmer
Computer Trainer
Cook
Camp Counselor

Four movies you could watch over and over:

The Flight of the Navigator

The American President

The Cutting Edge

A Christmas Story

Four places you’ve lived:
Berkley, MI
East Lansing, MI
Haslett, MI
Dearborn, MI

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Gray’s Anatomy
Psych
Dead Zone
Kyle XY

Four websites you visit daily:
Blogography
SlickDeals
The Daily Meme
Google

Four of your favorite foods:
Pizza
Hot Wings
Chicken With Pineapple (Chinese)
Beef With Brocolli (Chinese)

Four places you’d rather be:
The Beach
Costa Rica
London
The Moon

Four albums you can’t live without (for the moment):

Avril Lavign Under My Skin

Anna Nalick Wreck of the Day

Tori Amos Little Earthquakes

Indigo Girls Strange Fire

I’m stopping at four (2 new & 2 old) but I really couldn’t stick to four…

So the weather was great again today. Lots of sunshine. Not too hot. Great day.

I got my Christmas invitations mail out. Why? Because the family has been having Christmas too early lately and I want it closer to Christmas. So I’m formally inviting the family or when I want to have it this year. So I sent out Christmas-ish invites (glitter was on them and now it’s everywhere) and a map with directions for those who don’t remember where I am. I’m probably at the opposite end of the map than everyone else, but I’m right off the expressways (I-75, I-96, I-94, M-39) so I’m probably a shorter drive because of the time. Plus this is one of the items on my 101 in 1001 list, having it is, not just the inviting…

Plus, I took the sports-coat with the permanent ink into the cleaners the other day and I went to pick it up today and they got the stain out! I wish I had taken the shirt in too, I think it’s already in the trash. I should look up their name so I can give them credit (they’re on the south side of Ford, just west of Dearborn city hall).

Oh yeah one bad thing, Mark spilled a big cup of coffee all over my living room floor but I think most of that is cleaned up. Right now, I think parts are cleaner than before it spilled, but I’d rather have it looking a little bleached than brown. I won’t know for sure until it dries later…

So I noticed I haven’t been blogging (or even reading other blogs) much lately. I’ve been busy and working a little later and I’ve been cleaning around my house. Lots of garbage this week again and lots of organization. If I can get the Christmas tree down this weekend I’ll have even more room from that (and the holiday boxes that are pulled out of storage), I’ll miss the lights though…

So I noticed that this will probably be the fifth lowest month of posts I’ve done (these numbers show up in the left sidebar of the main page next to the months). What’s really odd is three of those five are January (the other two are in the first few months of blogging). So why don’t I get more blogging done in January? I should go back and read some posts and see what I was up to…

I got so much stuff done yesterday. Shopped for a new desk (which I never found). Ran countless errands on a beautiful day. Cleaned. Reorganized. Managed to get the last two done with out making the house a disaster. Got gas at a reasonable price. Ate delicious leftovers (my takeout Thai for the day before and some delicious BBQ chicken casadias from the day before.

I’ve been on a cleaning/organizing spree lately. Got rid of a broken desk (it was supported by a file cabinet), moved a bookcase to where that was. Most of my books that are out are actually in bookcases (not in a stack somewhere). Set up a table for the computer I want to move upstairs (this is where I wanted a new desk for). I always want things more organized but I always keep so much crap. Crap is old bills, bank statements, article clippings, computer parts, magazines, software, books, monitors, TVs, electronics, etc. I’ve thrown out more the last few weeks (and most of it clearly trash).

Free stuff: I’ve still got the Martha Stewart Christmas tree to give away for anyone who wants to come pick it up (this will not still be here in a few more weeks).
THE TREE IS GONE.

I’ve also got a few monitors if anyone local has some problems with their computer monitor (I think two 15 inch and one 17 inch). And two VCRs that only play.

Cheap: I’ve also got a variety of stuff that I’ll probably be putting up for sale if you know anyone who needs stuff cheap (TiVos, stereo receivers, speakers, CD changers [5 and 200], 15 inch TV, etc.). It’s all great condition, but I tend to upgrade often. I’ve just got to recoup a little of the cost. So if you know someone moving out / off to college, etc. ask me before they buy new stuff.

So it’s really cold out and icy! I needed to be at the shelter training for a volunteer panel orientation and I left extra early but they closed the expressways. I took some back roads and Hines Drive and I got there a few minutes late (but not too late to do my thing).

But these Michigan people and their four wheel drive have no clue how to drive. They were the ones sliding all over the place almost causing the accidents. Just drive reasonable and they’d probably be safer but they drive like the roads aren’t even icy. They closed the expressways, that should tell you something…

So that inspired me to change my theme to something cold but less Christmas-ish.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
Web Programmer
Computer Trainer
Cook
Camp Counselor

Four movies you could watch over and over:

The Flight of the Navigator

The American President

The Cutting Edge

A Christmas Story

Four places you’ve lived:
Berkley, MI
East Lansing, MI
Haslett, MI
Dearborn, MI

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Gray’s Anatomy
Two and a half Men
Medium
Veronica Mars

Four websites you visit daily:
Blogography
SlickDeals
The Daily Meme
Google

Four of your favorite foods:
Pizza
Hot Wings
Chicken With Pineapple (Chinese)
Beef With Brocolli (Chinese)

Four places you’d rather be:
Egypt
Costa Rica
London
The Moon

Four albums you can’t live without (for the moment):

Avril Lavign Under My Skin

Anna Nalick Wreck of the Day

Tori Amos Little Earthquakes

Indigo Girls Strange Fire

I’m stopping at four (2 new & 2 old) but I really couldn’t stick to four…

Via Webmiztris via Kimi and Wendy.

1. Which of the following generally costs you more: a normal trip to your barber/hairstylist, your usual lunch at your favorite restaurant, the most recent amount you paid to fill up your gas tank, or your biggest single contribution to a single charity in 2005?

My biggest contribution to a single charity was the largest: which would to First Step (the shelter I volunteer at). Next would be Gas, Hair, Lunch.

2. What drink — alcoholic or not — do you drink entirely too much of?

Coca-Cola. My other drinks are water, Cap’t + Coke, Long Island Iced Teas, and a fruity drink that tastes like Hawaiian Punch.

2. What drink — alcoholic or not — do you drink entirely too much of?

Coca-Cola. My other drinks are water, Captain + Coke, Long Island Iced Teas, and a fruity drink that tastes like Hawaiian Punch.

3. Did you receive a Christmas card from anyone you didn’t send one to? Did you send them a belated card in return?

Yes. I got lots of nice ones this year (I sent none).

4. Take this quiz (if you haven’t already!): What is most important in your life?

Family. (See the details of the quiz below).

5. Before taking the quiz, which of its categories (career, love, money, health, family or fun) would you have said would be your answer?

Family and Fun.

6. Do you believe in soulmates? Do you think that there are at least one out there for every person, that there is a single “true” soulmate for every person, or that there aren’t soulmates for everyone?

I hope there is at least one, ’cause I think I’ve let a few get by already.

From the Saturday Six.

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Family is most important in your life. Having a high focus on family indicates that you are a loving and nurturing person. You want to have a nice big family of your own, and you are very close with your siblings and parents. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

I’m not sure how it divided out the Fun and the Love to decide on just family…

Merry Christmas!! I was going to try and sleep a little more but my mother is visiting and is downstairs trying to use the remote control to turn the lights on down there. But she keeps blinking lights (and relays) on and off in my room. Scared the crap out of me! I guess I should get up so we can eat and do the present thing. Yea!!!

Everyone have fun today and don’t forget to be nice to your family

I’ll have a report on some of my loot later…

I’ve been out doing a little more shopping today, I didn’t think the stores were bad at all. Some stores had long queues but lots of registers open, so I didn’t wait much more than an average day. Plus, I cashed in one of my gift certificates and bought Makers: All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things In Their Backyard, Basement or Garage while at Borders (thanks!).

Everyone please drive safe and take care today. Be nice to your family even if they are making you cRaZy!