Ohāyo Gozaimasu!

Well, well, it's the day after New Year's and I'm back at work for one whole day this week! The Christmas-day-through-New-Year's stretch was something of a drag, as I spent most of it in the car. Yesterday and the day before were crash days, but I'm bright and chipper and ready to face the world today. Go, me! ;)

This year, I have a plethora [1] of desk calendars. I couldn't bear to be without my beloved Forgotten English desk calendar (source of the quotations I've been posting), so I got myself one of those for work, as well as a "Dictionary of Cultural Literacy" desk calendar to help me not feel so ignorant about stuff.

For home, I bought myself a "Great American Pinups" desk calendar, figuring it might give me idea fodder for Tiffany pics. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to use it, tho, because frankly some of the pics just make my scalp itch. These things were done before women's lib, and some of them are just creepy. A particular recurring theme that I don't know that I'll be able to stand looking at all year is "Oops, my panties fell down around my ankles in a room full of leering men." Gah. It's not sexy, just sordid.

I thought three would be plenty, but then Burt, my co-worker from China, gave me a Zen desk calendar for Christmas. Oops! So now at work I'm staring at "Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions" on one calendar, "eventriqueness: corpulence, formed on Latin ventrem, belly" on another, and "In chemistry, what is the term for any material (such as carbon, hydrogen, iron, or oxygen) that cannot be broken down into more fundamental substances?" on a third, while at home, I put today's picture face down 'cause it gave me the willies.

Maybe I'll take the Zen calendar home and use it there, and just go through the pinup calendar and pull out the best ones, forgoing its use as a calendar at all.

Oh, by the way, New Year's Resolutions! Trying to decide what mine should be. A prime candidate is "stop running late all the time!" Anybody have suggestions for others? ("Run SJ every day" and "bring back NeverNever" are not viable candidates, I'll tell you that much right now.)

-The Gneech

[1] As in, "Si, El Guapo, you have a plethora."

Speaking of Forgotten English

This one is a day late, but that's okay. It's still interesting!

On this date [January 1] a century ago, four-horse chariots reminiscent of those used in Ben-Hur competed in an alternative Tournament of Roses sporting event in Pasadena, California. Two years earlier, in 1902, the tournament's first football game was a lopsided content between the University of Michigan and Stanford in which demoralized Stanford, trailing 49-0, conceded defeat in the third quarter. Although the Tournament of Roses Association did post a modest $3,100 profit that year, it decided to host a polo match instead in 1903. From 1904 until 1918, however, chariot races reigned supreme as the macho portion of the Tournament of Roses. The next year, the football classic that has come to be known as "the granddaddy of them all" was resumed in what is today the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Wow, and I thought that last Redskins/Dallas game was embarrassing!

-The Gneech

Hither Came Conan...

jamesbarrett gave me a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble for Christmas. So today, I preordered Conan d20 to be delivered to the store up the street as soon as it hits the shelves (should be January sometime). Good thing, too, because the retail price for this massive (352 pp.) full-color hardback is $49.95! But my B&N discount card makes it $45, and the gift card brings the actual cost to me down to $20.

Oh yes, Conan d20, you will be mine, make no mistake about that ... muuuhhahahahahahaaaa!

-The Gneech, Wizard of Acheron

Hey camstone, moovios, <us

You have mail! =)

-The Gneech