I hope everyone had the Merriest of Christmases. I had a good Christmas. An even better Christmas Eve.

One biff: our relatives think we're too old for presents now. When did Christmas become just a kids' holiday? I also think since I haven't automatically taken over baby-sitting duties, I have fallen in less favor with some aunts and uncles. Right now I'm kinda sick of family obligations and guilt-trips. I'm happy to play with the kids, but I was getting tired of automatically having the kids just handed to me. I've been doing that for so long. Some of my cousins are old enough to take over. If it's all about obligations and guilt-trips, then it's time they start paying their dues.

Sorry for getting bitter. I'm sick with a cold and yesterday ended on a less-than-high note.

I used to love the rain. Now I kinda see it as a nuisance. But today I gave thanks for the rain. I was driving back from church, around 2 pm, when I noticed that the hills by this one stretch of the freeway looked different. I thought it was because I was seeing them in the daytime. (This part has very little light, so I'm used to driving through it in the dark when coming back from visiting friends and seeing nothing but looming black things.)

Anyway, I finally realized what it was. The hills were green. There had been so little rain this past year that I was too used to them being brown and dead. But everywhere I looked, there was a green covering on the hills, and the trees were greener, and the sky, though still a bit gray with storm-brewin' clouds, never looked more beautiful. It looked like a scene from Oklahoma or some State around there. It looked downright Irish.

Speaking of emeralds (cuz... y'know, Emerald Isle... nickname of Ireland... yeah? yeah?), I saw a really beautiful emeral necklace at a jewelry store at South Coast Plaza. Sooo green. Sooo pretty.

I am such a geek that I could ramble on and on about Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers but I won't. Tolkien is on the "respectable" side of geekdom, but I have a feeling that the number of geeks now is probably around the same number as it always has been. (Well, since the invention of geeks around the 1950's.) But it's just that more people are "out of the closet." For instance, it's hard to find people who don't like the Star Wars Trilogy (the original), and shows like Star Trek have come into the main stream. And most people nowadays are impressed with people that know a lot about computers (and want to learn themselves).

I'm guessing it's because of the nature of youth society today, based on video games and collectible trading card games and television. Yeah, we as a nation need to be more active. But the side-effect of our laziness is that not only is the pasty-faced, weak-muscled, bespectacled kid accepted, it is the majority.

Except in low-income neighborhoods, of course. And that's another topic....

So tired yet so much to say....

During dinner tonight, my parents and I got to talking about some really interesting family history:

Somehow during the Japanese occupation, my grandfather (my dad's dad) learned english. Not fluently, of course, but enough. After WWII, he worked in a "gang" to catch "reds", i.e. Communists. The way my dad describes it, they were killed, though I don't know if these gangs did the killing themselves. If so, that's more violent than I would wish it was. Anyway, this came about when I was asking my dad what Grandpa did for a living before he joined the army. For about five years after WWII and before the Korean War, Soviet Communists were coming in and people, especially in the South, tried to resist and ferret them out. So Grandpa was part of those toughs that would go around rooting up Communists and beating them up. (What's really sad about this part is that it was Koreans vs. Koreans, which is essentially what the Korean War ended up doing.) They were paid by the politicians of the newly setup post-occupation government.

Once the Korean War was declared (June 25th, or yook-ee-oh which means six-two-five) then the Communists in hiding started cropping up even more, and the whole gang was threatened. So they packed up the families plus supplies (in a GMC truck) and moved south. Later, my grandpa walked to join his family. How scary is that?

So during the Korean War, the US Army needed translators and they were recruiting anybody who could do any sort of translating. So thus began my grandpa's army career. He was a lieutenent colonel when he left.

Then this led to a discussion about how my parents studied english in school, which I won't go into now, but it kinda brought up something. I could make some major dough teaching english in Korea. Even for just a short while. Considering my jobless state, I am seriously tempted.

Happy Friday the 13th!

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition rocks!!! I really love the new parts. They deal mostly with character and not much with plot (it would have to be, otherwise Peter Jackson couldn't really cut them out to begin with) but they do so much to expand each character, especially the hobbits. I'm such a fan-girl.

On other news, not much else. Applied at yet another retail store. We'll see if I actually get a call. Would it be considered discrimination if you don't get hired cuz you're too educated? Nowadays so many over-qualified people apply for all types of low-wage jobs. I've heard of PhDs applying for lab assistant jobs. Stuff usually reserved for undergrads.

I'll eventually put a link to this blog on my website. I think a major overhaul is necessary. The whole Flash journal gave me ideas.

Well, spent yet another night at the Art Center. Didn't get anything done. Watched the various videos on the official "Lord of the Rings" website. Good stuff, though don't want to spoil the movie. Don't think they will. Such great details. Can't wait to see Eowyn and Aragorn together.

Also checked out stuff on the Firefly website. It's a great show. I'm just sad at the low ratings. It's going on hiatus in the spring. I hope the show comes back. It's so unique and well-done. It's the anti-sci-fi show. All character-driven, with really cool characters. My character in the Greyhawk RPG campaign that my friend Robert was running (for only one session) was based off the character Inara, who is a whore, though in the show they're called "companions." And not only is it a legal business, it's highly respected. Like geishas. And the mix of western and Asian styles gives the show such a cool look. Not to mention all the cussing in Mandarin. :)

I remember gushing like a fangirl in front of Joss Whedon at Comicon 2001. Well, "Firefly" would make me gush only further. Though I would rather come off sophisticated and witty. Ah well.

Okay, this is yet another test. It is sort of annoying that I have to log on and so forth to do it this way, but I think it's better for the most part.

This is another test.

Just giving this a try. The Flash journal was neat, but a pain to update. Well, not that painful, but I could only do it from my home computer.