Mindy Christmas and a Longish Post to Everyone

So the missus and I spent Christmas with my folks. She prepared samosas and pasta. Yummy! And somehow it has become tradition for several years now for my mom to cook beef casserole during Christmas, especially if I'm coming over. Shame that she only cooks it during Christmas dinners. But I guess that's what makes it special.

It was a very nice evening. Good food, good company. It would have been better to have my brothers and their families there but one's in the province and the other was with his wife's family. But we did meet a new friend: Mindy! She is a Yorkshire terrier puppy (I think), otherwise known as 'the cutest thing'. One of our guests brought her over. I would love to have one of these but they cost a few months pay so I'll settle for borrowing other people's dogs.

So, I took pictures of the food and the dog but forgot the people. Shows you where my attention was at :P If the missus is reading, I have a picture of you too!

By the way, if you didn't already know, the Internet is broken. I definitely noticed my connection at home slowed down. There were even a few sites I couldn't access.

I have finished reading Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. Now comes the hard part, waiting for the sequels. I was surprised to find that the story was told in the first person perspective. That poses a lot more challenge to the author. Can you imagine? To speculate what might have been Jesus' thoughts? Anyway, I enjoyed it. The pace is slow, but the writing is good. It's like listening to your parents tell a story about their life. You're invested in it. Of course, hardcore Christians might want to stay away as they may find it blasphemous. Good thing they don't have the Inquisition no more :P

So now I'm moving to Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. This is the story of Hannibal's childhood, his origin. I bought this during the month of the missus' birthday. Because she was a Powerbooks member, she gets 40% off on the month of her birthday, so I got me a present. Yup, I realize it was her birthday. Believe me, she took advantage of that 40% off. This will be the first book I read by Thomas Harris. I haven't read any of the Hannibal books but I have seen the movies. Thomas Harris fans might cringe at that. They've already started filming Hannibal Rising. This time Anthony Hopkins is out of the picture though.

***Geek Alert on the remaining paragraphs***

Microsoft is giving away Ferrari 1000s Laptops to bloggers as a marketing strategy in anticipation of the MS Vista launch next year. Hey! Where's mine? I'm a blogger! Some bloggers who received the gift are now questioning the ethics of it all. Well, all I can say is that it's a smart move. Judging from the list of bloggers who received the gift, they must have based it on the volume and return traffic these bloggers get. So basically these bloggers have a lot of loyal readers. As to the ethics questions, well, people who received the unit also got a note saying they are not required to blog about it. They can keep it either way, give it back if they choose, or even give it away on their site. So if you're conflicted, give it away - to me. This is called a "Win - Win" situation. You solve your moral dilemma, I get a new kick ass laptop. Of course, MS would never send me one :P I only get two or three hits a day on average, not to mention the rampant piracy over here. If you haven't been to Manila, we all greet each other with "Ahoy there matey!" and wear an eye patch. Shiver me timbers!


Posted here is an excerpt of the going out of beta Blogger announcement. I've never played Warcraft but I love the Battlestar Galactica metaphor. Yes yes, it's geeky. If only my high school english teacher came up with this kind of examples during the figures of speech lessons, I would have done a lot better.