Welcome to John's Blog (for those who've never been)

And so here we are, one week until Christmas, storm warnings aplenty. I finished my Christmas shopping this evening and here I sit, at my dying laptop, flipping through ads for a new machine. I washed my hair just so I don't get up tomorrow morning and think "Damn, I should have washed my hair last night." I'm watching Episode 2 of Generation Kill. First major LAV sighting of the episode. I wonder if it was built in London. I know that GM switched over to GD in 2003, so if the Iraq invasion happened prior to that, it might not have been built here. Still cool to hear one of the Marines talk of their "respect for the LAV" and to see a vehicle I see pretty much every day.

I sent out my on-line Christmas card about a week and a half ago. Basically I'm pimping my six-month-old nephew out as a way to drive people to my blog here, so I figured I better get to updating. If this is your first time here, welcome to the new home of John's semi-regularly updated blog. It used to be that I'd only update when I had time to write some 500-600 word rant about whatever pissed me off on such and such a day.

2009 is going to be different, I would hope, in terms of a lot of things. One thing that will be different is that while I may still haul out a long-winded discussion about a certain topic, I think this will be more a platform for me to just toss up some short and sweet updates about whatever's been going on in my life.

So let's get to it: I've been working. Watching Generation Kill and hoping to get my infamous To Do list (both personally and at work) cut down to nil by Christmas break.

Today was Audrey Walsh's birthday. It was also "International Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day".  (This is why you can't just wish people Merry Christmas any more, because there are other, just as valuable, holidays at this time of year.)

I've been starting my update of Shelf Life. I'm about a month (almost two) behind on the update. I'm almost finished the November issue update and it will be up by Saturday. Meanwhile, I'm going to try and get the December issue update finsihed this weekend. I also have four books that I need to write the reviews for and send off.

As stated earlier (for those with the same calibre of short-term memory as me) I finished up the last bit of Christmas shopping tonight. I was in Westmount, surrounded by more memories than fellow shoppers. I thought I saw Liz Webb in the food court, but I'm not sure.

Oh, I'll warn you now: if I think I see you in the mall (or any place else for that matter) it may be up to you to come over and say "Hi!" unless I'm 100% sure it is you. I tend not to want to stare to make sure.

Current reading: Last Flag Down by John Baldwin and Ron Powers about the voyage of the CSS Shenandoah that sailed (literally around the world) from England to Australia, Japan, the coast of Alaska, around the bottom of South America and back to England. So far, it's a bit dry but it's an interesting story so I'm hoping it will pick up.

Ah crap! I just realized that I missed tonight's repeat of the Office. I thought Bad Santa was supposed to be on, but according to the on-screen guide, they were going to broadcast Crime Aid. That was a fun episode but, it's not like I forgot to watch a first-run episode.

And double-crap. TNA is on! Another New Year's Resolution for 2009 is to watch more wrestling. I know, some people may say "MORE wrestling" but really I've fallen out of the habit of really WATCHING wrestling. Usually, it's more a case where I've got it on in the background while I'm doing something else.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm outta here. Until the next time we meet, take it easy, don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.