Last year around this time, I was cursing George W and talking smack on the amount of jobs I've held. Not much has changed, except my outlook on life is tremendously better. A quick recap of what 2002 held for us:

I got rejected from the PhD program

I got shitcanned from Contextual

I got a job at an Indian restaurant

I quit my job at the Indian restaurant

I built a bunch of websites, some of which sucked

J & I had our first anniversary

Gramma died at the very rich age of 102

I got a job teaching college in Savannah

My sister got married

J & I moved to Savannah

And here we are :) Goodness, a year holds a fair amount of things.

Back from Pittsburgh, after xmas with J's folks .. a new tattoo, lots of drinks and a few pounds heavier. Here are some pictures :)

An evening of drunken debauchery. The big jolly man in the pictures is The Commander of the American Legion, Savannah Chapter - we were over at the Legion Bar, enjoying impromptu live music courtesy of The Judge & The Jury.

Totally bizarre.

Anyway, added an organized list of the photo sets I've uploaded in the past .. How vain.

Got to love this one:

My Philips CD burner came bundled with some software: Roxio's Easy CD Creator 4. It's hardly easy to use, so I didn't - I used the built in XP support for CD burning, and it worked just fine.

Until yesterday. When it decided it didn't work at all. And neither did the rest of XP.

A little searching on the web, and about 45 minutes of pain with the Philips website and tech support (my drive, after six months, has been EOLed and is no longer supported. What?!), it comes to light: The awful burning software is incompatible with XP. Why it stopped working six months after being initially installed is a mystery; why it stopped working and brought the entire operating system to its knees is another mystery. Regardless, a few more clicks on the Roxio website makes it very clear what the solution is: shell out $75 to upgrade to CD Creator 5.

The other choice, unfortunately, turned out to be both easier and cheaper: reinstall Windows XP.

I'm really curious how any sort of substantial information revolution can really break the boundaries of the elite or the very patient if this sort of thing happens - daily - to people who Just Don't Care. I wonder how many people took the even easier, cheaper and faster route: they decided they didn't need to burn CDs at all, and now have a $99 doorstop.

yay :) merry xmas 2002, brownbear style .. we celebrated tonight with presents! jess got me the super-absurd Kodak DX4900 that I wanted but was hardly expecting, along with a killer one hour massage ... you can see how kickass the camera is here:

yeah, that's right: 4 megapixel. what?! :)

Here's some photos from the unwrapping festivities . . .

Tuesday is bread day at the bean, and j is cooking up a storm of punkrock breads; it smells amazing.

We've been dorking around with the numbers and it doesn't seem possible to turn a profit making only bread, but it sure is fun.

Kind of dreary in Savannah today ..

Teehee, these are a riot. I hope this show up in the States. What a stocking stuffer.

Amazing show last night. I'm still in pain, but what a pit; 250 punk kids in a room intended for about 75? Awesome.

Sloppy Joes tonight, after a day of general lazy lounging; it's going to take some effort to get into a groove next week. I'm very, very ready to start the job; I feel like I'm as prepared as I can get, and I need to just jump in head first now.

Made a Pork Vindaloo tonight, after finally finding Tamarind Paste .. That silly dark sludge paste is the hardest substance to find on the face of the planet, but it clearly made the dish .. complete. The whole house smells fantatsic :)

Off to see an up-and-coming tonight, and then to The Casualties tomorrow .. should be a good weekend, but I plan on spending Sunday recovering.

Thanksgiving was great :) It was good to be back in Rochester; our dinner was fantastic, and our family was surreal as usual. Graham got to talk politics with Uncle Melvin, and Jess got to experience stuffing herself senseless all weekend with me for the first time.

Went to our sixth (?) high school reunion for about 45 minutes; it was absolutely bizzare. People look the same, but dirtier; for the most part, everyone seems to have matured, but my brain was having a hard time with it, like when you run into someone in Texas you know from Pittsburgh; the free-association mechanism kind of breaks down and demands alcohol.

Glad to be back; bought a new Sony receiver yesterday, and then slept till 2 today.