Soooo...I've been without internet since Dec. 15th. Money's tight and something had to go. My friend (and landlady's son) Michael ran a line over to the cottage, so now I have internet access at home once more. I just have to be careful not to stream too much stuff because of the usage cap.
Anyway, it's good to be back. I've been using the time without internet to read, game, and watch some of the many DVDs and BluRays in my personal collection. More on that later.
Christmas 2014 was a bust. It was spent dealing with family issues in New Hampshire. My mom was sick again, there was lots of drama that I'm not going into here, and it basically sucked. Luckily, I got to go to Jason's dad's after I got home and that almost made up for it. Christmas presents were horribly devoid of gaming goodness, but I did get a $30 gift card to Bull Moose Music from Jason's youngest brother, and an awesome Firefly hoodie from Jason's parents.
New Year's was a quiet affair, Jason spent the night and the plan was to watch Lawrence of Arabia. I made it 20 minutes into the movie and crashed, waking up at 12:15, long enough to tranform the futon from couch to bed and wish Jason a happy New Year. In my defense, I'd been battling some virus, plus dealing with the effects of stress from Christmas. I had more fun the following weekend at my friends' annual 12th Night party. There was music and song, good company, and Fred made a concoction called "A Yard of Flannel" from a colonial recipe. It consisted of warm ale, rum, eggs, sugar, and nutmeg. It was pretty tasty, and had a kick like a mule. Good thing I was spending the night! Apparently, most colonial taverns in New England had their own recipe.
And now the random bits you've all been waiting for!
Reading: In the past month, I've read quite a lot. The first two books of the Tarzan series (there are 24 in all, and I've got the whole collection), A Devil in the Details by K.A. Stewart (urban fantasy ala Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, just not quite as good), The Skull Mantra and Water Touching Stone both by Eliot Pattison (mysteries set in Tibet), Tea With the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy (an oldie but goodie found during the basement/garage salvage job. It's kind of a mystery, kind of an urban fantasy), A Wind in Cairo by Judith Tarr (another old favorite salvaged from the garage/basement - fantasy in a historical setting), and Black Robe by Brian Moore (about a Jesuit priest in Canada in the 1600s trying to get to his new assignment. I didn't really care for it, but Jason recommended I read it. It was also made into a movie).
Watching: Watched the first two seasons of Third Watch, the first three movies of the Sharpe's series (Sharpe's Rifles, Sharpe's Eagle, and Sharpe's Company), Die Hard, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (both of those for Christmas, obviously), Season 11 of NCIS, all three seasons of Veronica Mars, The Dark Knight Rises, and I'm currently half-way through rewatching the first season of Agents of SHIELD.
Playing: Finally played Batman: Arkham Asylum. I'll do a Late to the Party blog on that in a day or so. Michael came over and played some LBP Karting with me, which was fun. Played some Mod Nation Racers, as well as PGR 3 and PGR 4 (I was on a little bit of a racing kick for a while). I got all the steel medals for PGR 3 and started playing through to get the bronze medals. I didn't care as much for PGR 4 as much as I did PGR 3 and lost interest rather quickly. I also sampled Yakuza 3, Red Dead Remption, and LA Noire without getting pulled into any of them. I just wasn't in the right mood, I think. Now I'm replaying Lost Odyssey because I want to. I finished it once, so this time I'm cruising through with the strategy guide to see if I can find all the treasures this time.
Listening: Haven't really been listening to much lately. I tend to listen to music the most when I'm driving, and I haven't done much of that other than my frantic trip to NH and I forgot to bring music in my haste to get out the door.
Well, that's it from my little corner of the 'verse.
If I wasn't so deep into DA, I would be playing ME right now. I'm a sick man. 
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