Hello to all!! I hope everyone is gearing up for their parties and get-togethers, or at least having someone to ring in the new year with. As for us, we’ll be going out to dinner and then coming home to relax and ring in the new year with a beer and a kiss. Sorry… I don’t do the champagne thang!

Before 2007 comes to a close, I’d like to highlight the posts that were special to me and either lots of fun to create or just a plain ol’ challenge! Not all of the months had a great post; some months were just duds in the blogging department. I’ll leave you all to visit my mental scribble-ings and find out just why I hold these posts so dear. Also, feel free to expound on, in the comments, just what posts you’ve enjoyed the most, even if they’re not featured in this list. Enjoy… and please have a happy and safe New Year’s celebration!

Introducing Bailey!

A Pale Blue Dot

A Blogging Life Takes A Worse Turn

Video: Our New Home

Moving In And The Video Aftermath!

Sweet Home Chicago

New Photos From The Vacation

My Rubik’s Cube Video

The Scream Heard ‘Round The World

Video Blog Entry Featuring Leopard

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use – washingtonpost.com

Lemme get this straight… I buy an album from my favorite band. Or it’s a gift for Christmas. Whatever. I want to have the music on my iPod. It may not be available for download from iTunes or Amazon or wherever you get legal paid downloads. So I rip the songs from the CD to the computer to put the songs on said iPod.

And that makes me guilty of breaking copyright law!!!???

The songs aren’t even in any folder that can be accessed by a file-sharing network, FTP application or even the one other computer that’s connected locally! How the heck can having a personal copy of a CD I bought or rightfully acquired, somewhere where only I have rightful access to it, be considered copyright infringement!?

It seems that the RIAA are hell-bent on making enemies of the entire United States music consumer base. I hope a ruling comes soon that will rule in favor of the consumer, and the fact that the consumer spends their hard-earned money to do what they please with music they bought, within reasonable limits of fair use!

In other words, making a copy for the act of listening on a portable device that the same consumer owns should be considered very fair use! I know that they are talking about files stored on the computer, and not necessarily a portable device, but it’s the same difference when the RIAA is saying any copy is illegal!

That’s all I can say or stomach for now!

This week’s questions are brought to you again by Friday5.org. Now the questions are all about acronyms and the meaning they hold in our otherwise uninteresting lives. These are some good questions to answer, so I’ll just dive in:

What is an acronym specific to your workplace or profession? (students who don’t work: What is an acronym specific to your campus or major?)

– Here’s one I can think of right away… MIT – Manager in training.

What is an acronym you use a lot in your personal life?

– FUBAR… F—-d up beyond any recognition.

Internet acronyms are unavoidable, but what’s one you particularly despise, and what’s one you particularly like?

– I really don’t like using AFAIK. Never mind that in the same length of time one can usually type out most of what it means, the K is supposed to be “Concerned”, which is just plain nutty! However, I love using RTFM (Read The Fine Manual)… I say it to all those who can’t be bothered to do the research!

What acronym could you create right now for some regular annoyance in your life?

– Rude and Insensitive People… RIPS!

What would be a memorable or appetizing acronym for your most recent meal? (if your most recent meal was a BLT or SOS or some similarly acronymed food, please choose the next-most recent meal, smart alecks!)

– TCQ (Tamales Con Queso)!

Well, that’s all I have for now. Oh, did you all know that I’m coming up on my 400th post? This will probably happen during January and I’ll have to plan something big for that. I’m planning a special New Year’s Eve entry, so stay tuned for that one as well. Cheers!

This year was better for the family get-togethers than last year was. Last Christmas, more than half of the family got really sick from one of the earlier family gatherings. They encouraged us to stay home and keep well. Well, this year we definitely made up for that, at least on Christine’s side. The downside to all this is that I couldn’t see anyone on my side of the family. I’m thankful for phone conversations, but I do miss everyone that I couldn’t see this year. Also, I’m thankful that this year’s holiday didn’t have any bad surprises (ie. deaths) to mar future memories. This seems to happen to more families than I care to think about. All in all, I’m just thankful, and that is one of the main points of the holiday, as it is a gift in itself.

Now that I’ve said that, it’s time to bring up the gift bag so I can talk about the cool stuff I received! Just to let you all know, the order that I’m going in does not dictate most favorite or anything like that.

First, I got a neat little toy called a Rubik’s Revolution. I say “toy”, instead of “puzzle”, because that’s really what it is. At first glance, it looks like a super-sized Rubik’s Cube, but the centers are hollowed out and have lights in them. Plus, the layers really don’t move. What is cool about it is that it is an electronic game device with six games built-in. Most of these games are themed on turning off multicolored lights within a time limit. However one game, “Pattern Panic” is fashioned like the classic Simon game where you repeat a growing pattern from memory. Another game, “Code Cracker”, has the player figure out a hidden pattern in the fewest turns possible. While this is a fun little thing, I only have two small caveats about it. One, you can reduce the volume, but there’s no way to mute it. For that reason, it stays downstairs per the wife. Two, I don’t like the fact that Rubik’s name is being used for a mere toy when that name has been synonymous with brain-busting puzzles. Still, I’ll be enjoying it for a long while.

Next, I was given an awesome box set of the second season of Doctor Who . I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have this, and it’s also a gift for both me and Christine because she loves the show, too. We have seen some of the episodes on it, but not all of them, so we’re going to have a fun time watching the unknown ones. The extras on some of the discs, I can tell, are going to be awesome. I’ve already watched the out-takes, because I really love blooper reels. There’s just something about watching your favorite actors flubbing up lines or breaking out in lunacy. Maybe after we watch all the episodes, I’ll make some episode reviews.

Also of note, I was given a CD of Lunatica’s “Fables & Dreams”. I just recently heard a few songs of theirs and I got hooked on their smoother form of Symphonic Metal. So far, the whole CD is just great and I’ll do a review of it on this site soon. Speaking of new music, we just received a late-arrival gift today for Christine: Din Fiv’s “Escape To Reality”.

We also got the usual assortment of clothing and gift cards, which are equally appreciated. However, I figured that the above mentioned items were most interesting and worth talking about in detail. I will say that the only bad thing about the DVD box set is that I’ll be tempted to get the other two season box sets later this coming year!

Cheers!

A Christmas greeting from the Walls family!

Before posting it here, I had not only just posted it on YouTube, but also Facebook and MySpace as well. We kinda rushed this one because I wanted to get it out before Christmas day ends! The birds also have been hormonal, cranky, restless and uncooperative, so no day was really good for this. Well, we hope you like it anyways. Next post will be about the cool gifts I received and my thoughts on this past holiday season.

In semi-related news, I really don’t wanna go back to work tomorrow. Waaaaaaah!!