I think I’ve been a pretty good boy this year…well, other than that one night in Paris with those two women who were students at the Sorbonne. I still can’t look at a jar of honey and keep a straight face. So I’ve been relatively good. But let’s overlook my moral lapses and talk about what presents I want for Christmukkah this year:
Books
Woken Furies because Richard Morgan writes kick-ass noir SF
Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days because who can resist a comic about a civil servant with superpowers?
A Feast for Crows because the first three books in George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy got me hooked and it’s required a supreme act of will not to buy this myself
On Beauty because I never got through White Teeth and I feel like I owe Zadie Smith a second chance.
DVDs
Star Wars: Episode III because seeing Anakin Skywalker get his legs sliced off makes up for the previous two films.
War of the Worlds because those alien tripods are way scarier than Tom Cruise.
Sin City: Recut and Extended because it stars Jessica Alba’s navel
MST3K: Volume 5 because it’s got Time Chasers (“Matt, it’s time for you decide if you’re gonna be one of my team players or not”) and A Touch of Satan (“This is where the fish lives.”). None of this will make any sense to you unless you’re a MST fan, so just move along.
Assorted Geek Goodness
Civilization IV because if I’m going to spend all this time in front of the computer, I might as well do something productive.
I’m blogging this T-shirt because I want to put everyone on notice.
Sapien Bookcase because it’s oh-so-mod.
Darth Vader mini-bust because it would just look so cool on my desk.
A Movado watch because you want me to look good, don’t you?
Of course, you should feel free to get creative and stray from this list if you think it’s appropriate. I trust you to exercise good taste in expressing your affection for me through material things.

A late entry tonight because I was out for most of the evening. I’ve been messing around with Firefox 1.5. Nothing too revolutionary, but I do like being able to drag and drop tabs in the browser window. And pages seem to load a bit faster. I toyed with the idea of switching to the Thunderbird e-mail client, but Outlook does what I need and it integrates nicely with some work-related tasks. So I remain, in many respects, a loyal Microserf.

Genre television has undergone a resurgence in popularity this year. Network executives are frantically searching for a formula that will give them a ratings success on par with Lost. I’ve checked out a few of these contender and my impressions are less than favorable. Surface is generic and a little too cutesy. Invasion has potential, but I might be collecting Social Security by the time the plot gets to wherever it’s trying to go. I never even bothered with Threshold or Night Stalker. What makes Lost so good (and what these other programs lack) is its deft character development. Once you take away the back stories of each character, all you’re left with is a rehashing of Gilligan’s Island.
Good genre television puts character first and uses the standards of the genre (whether it’s spaceships, vampires, or monsters) as tools for exploring the light and dark aspects of those characters. Yet this concept seems to elude the creators of most of these shows, who think it’s sufficient to slap some new computer-generated effects on stories that were already stale ten or twenty years ago.
Over the weekend, one of my nurses persuaded me to elaborate on my usual holiday decorating (which typically consists of one string of lights). I have these paper snowflakes affixed to each of the windows in my living room. At first, I was worried they would look a little…well…girly. But I kind of like how they capture and reflect the light.

I’m off soon to pick up some lights to string up in my condo. I may be an atheist, but I’m not above participating in some mainstream holiday festivities. Nothing wrong with bringing in a little color and sparkle into our lives to stave off the dreariness of the long winter ahead.
I’m a big fan of end-of-the-year lists relating to all things pop culture, so I’ll be tracking the Fimoculous website over the next month to get my fix. These lists usually point me to a couple interesting things that I might have otherwise missed over the course of the year.

I woke up this morning and saw snow steadily falling outside my window. I feel sorry for all the sheeple (yes, sheeple) swarming through the stores today. Not only do they have to be prepared to engage in physical violence for that last discounted flat-screen television, but they also have to contend with hideous traffic. The wild-eyed consumerism that infects people after Thanksgiving is a little creepy. I like shopping for people close to me, but I don’t feel the need to run the gauntlet of pushy, grabby lemmings just to save fifteen bucks on a sweater.