I went down to Paducah for a pleasant but simple Thanksgiving with my parents. We didn't go overboard for Thanksgiving dinner, mainly good grilled steak and vegetables. We had a couple of other family-tradition meals while I was there (holiday breakfast is almost more important than holiday dinner). I also had a bit of early Christmas, so that I could get some practice with my Christmas present (the new iPod Nano with the micro video camera) before...

My parents are taking me on a Caribbean cruise over Christmas and New Year's. I'll probably be spending a lot of time before then just getting ready for the trip. I'm flying out ridiculously early on the 20th, but I'll try to make it to the Christmas party on the evening of the 19th, just to see everybody before I escape to warmer climes.

[via mightygodking]

I'm running Windows 7 now, although that's not entirely my fault.

My work laptop, running Vista, has been crashing more and more over the past month or so, and finally came damn near an irrecoverable bluescreen last Thursday. I managed to bring the beast back online one more time, just long enough to copy all my important user data to my external drive, before reformatting and loading from scratch. I figured I may as well go ahead and move up to the latest and "greatest" Windows, so I grabbed a Windows 7 ISO and key from the department, and got to work on the install, which only took me three tries. (Tip: Don't install Windows on a docked laptop if you can avoid it.) I then spent the rest of Thursday and most of Friday reinstalling all the software I need -- multiple versions of administrative and development tools, that sort of thing.

It's a damn good thing I had my Friday the 13th a day early and got all the resources I needed for the reinstall on Thursday, as all the systems guys got slammed on Friday. Then, for maintenance weekend, the planned upgrade of our VMWare infrastructure went wahooni-shaped, and I was just as glad to be out of that as well.

I got out Saturday and found out that St. Louis finally has a decently large computer store once again: There's now a Micro Center by the Target at I-40 and I-170. I've missed having somewhere to go for oddball cables and the like (Ever needed a 3-pin fan extension cable at 7:30 on a Tuesday night so you could put your desktop back together?) since CompUSA shut down their local retail operations.

Also on Saturday, I helped kukla_tko42 and thesigother move the last of their stuff from their old condo to their new house, as did professor. We got treated to some yummy Thai food on the way for our trouble, and sat around and inflicted internet video on each other after we were done.

Sunday was quiet. I managed to get my laundry done, and eventually managed to get my grubby little paws on the latest Doctor Who special from the UK. Shouldn't say much, to avoid spoilerating.

Alestorm - Nancy The Tavern Wench

Is it wrong of me to love a comic book story-arc where the protagonist "wins" by being beaten into a coma by his archnemesis?

Tomorrow's episode of Cartoon Network's The Brave and the Bold will feature the matchup you've all been waiting for: Batman vs. Dr. Horrible! Or, well, Batman vs. a singing villain voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, anyway.

Just a reminder that most of Mojo Nixon's catalog is available for free download.

Just because I understand why the event calls are different between two slightly different versions of what are effectively the same control, doesn't mean I don't find the subtle shift in API painfully frustrating.

According to Boing Boing, all most of Mojo Nixon's musical catalog is now available for free download on Amazon in the continental US. (Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors' Christmas album "Horny Holidays" doesn't seem to be listed.) Yeah, if you're looking for something to complain about, you have to have an Amazon account, and will need a special downloader to fetch files by the album instead of track-by-track, so you have an excuse. Still, this is some high-larious damn music.

To much fanfare, the Beeb has posted the new logo for the 2010 series of Doctor Who. I'm sure there will be much arguing as to its merits over the days to come; I'm still a bit undecided, meself. (Personally, I'd have to say my favorite version of the logo is the old neon tube, though it just barely beats out the diamond under which I first met the Doctor.)

Anyway, I gave into temptation and spent a few minutes in Photoshop to produce icons for them as wants 'em:

  

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