Are You Near the New Year?

Happy New Year!!!!1!!1!

I thought I'd lead off the post with a bleak, though oddly intriguing photo, which begs for symbolic interpretation... does it speak of journeys, cold and unclear? Does it speak of division, between those on a "path" and those doomed to wander aimlessly in a "field"? Does it speak of hope, represented by the way of escape from a cold, wet situation? Does it speak of a man-made barrier, keeping people locked on a fixed path when freedom beckons from just out of reach?

Or was it a random pic I grabbed, for no reason at all? MUAHAHAHAH!!! You decide!!!

Sheesh! Making you work for it today! Will you ever forgive me? Come on, it's a new year! Time to forgive old grudges, like times when your Favorite Blogger makes you work for it. Or when he makes you wait forever for a new post. What can I say? Over the New Year's weekend, when I had time to kill, I would say, "Hmm, should I blog, or play Minecraft?"

Well, you know the answer, eh? Doesn't mean I don't love you, I do! It just means, temporarily, I loved Minecraft a bit more...

Back in the day, when I was clan captain for an online game called Unreal Tournament, I had a teammate named Dagger, who joined the clan back at its inception, right before I did. Anyway, the clan died away back in 2003, but I stayed in touch with Dagger. I recently found out he has a Minecraft server, so I've been hanging out there this past weekend, building up a storm, and brought Middle Daughter and another couple friends along. It's so much fun, I'm sorry. I'll grow up someday, I promise...

So I thought I could squeeze King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence into my 2012 Read List, but I'm still only 30% through it, so I'll start the 2013 List with it. I'm surprised by it, actually... it's considerably more dull than I'd hoped. I'm finding it difficult to maintain interest. At this point, I'm reading right before going to sleep, mostly, which means I'm on the edge of zonking out to begin with, so maybe that's part of the problem... but during the day, when I contemplate a few minutes of reading, I find it hard to generate sufficient enthusiasm for the story.

All that to say, I'm still plugging along. When I'm done, I'll let you know the verdict. Since, I know you're dying to know...

So after spending a few months reading the Winnie the Pooh collection to my daughter over and over again, we've moved on to The Bible. I tell ya, it's a challenge. Do I just read it as it lay, or reword it on the fly, to adjust for her comprehension level? I don't have a Kid's Bible, all I have is the New King James Version, lol... but she wants to read it with me, and I want to read it with her, so we're giving it a go. Started in Genesis 1, then skipped ahead to John 1... wish me luck. The good thing is, she's full of questions (as befits a 7 year old), so it shows me she's listening...

So I found out this past weekend that a friend of mine at church (Cathy O) had a father with an amazing war career... he fought in three battles in particular, any one of which would be cause to lower one's voice in reverence when discussing it... he fought in both Guadalcanal and Tarawa in WW2 and he also fought in the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War... She was telling me some of the details that she knew... holy mackerel... she said he also served in Vietnam... so by the time he was my age, he'd fought in WW2, Korea and Vietnam. Can you imagine that? And I mean, in some serious situations. Much respect. First and Second Marines. Semper Fi indeed.

I told her I'd send her the info on that Chosin documentary I watched in 2012. Thanks for reminding me...

OK, so let's say you're on Facebook, and you notice that your number of "Friends" has decreased by one? Do you ever wonder who it was? Do you pull up your Friend's list and scroll through, trying to figure out who's missing? The only reason I ask is that I finally achieved 200 friends, and thought I was someone extra special now! I just noticed it dropped to 199 recently... I'm not special anymore... and I want to know who to blame!!!1!! I mean, who wouldn't love me?! I'm perfect!

Resolutions, eh? I know, tis the season, and all that. I could swear off of Starbucks again, and see how long that lasts (I count the victory in hours in that case...). I could vow to write more and play games less. But that seems to go in phases, regardless of how I'd like to structure my time. I could vow to be less windy... but as much as my wife and Youngest would LOVE that, I simply find too much enjoyment in it, so I doubt that vow would last either. (I'm typing "vow" because it's less unwieldy than typing "resolution/resolve")... I could vow to buy fewer games/books... that would be easy -- at this point, I have more games than any reasonable individual could play in three years (and get money's worth, I mean)... same with books.

Ah, well, I guess I'll just keep bein' me! I'm so good at it!

I had more to cover, but I'll have to hit it next time.

Adios for now,

Dave the Gump