2012: My bunker is secure

I have been reading (or listening) to a couple of really good books lately. First, Reamde by Neal Stephenson. The gist is, Russian mafia boss' hard disk becomes encrypted by a Chinese hacker, so the mafia boss goes looking for him. It's a big book, 1,000 pages, or about 35 hours of audio book, so it took a month to finish. Great story, never boring. I haven't tackled any of his other books, they have always intimidated me, especially Anathem, which I heard was great, but I might give it a look now.
When I finished that, I was really keen to read Dan Simmons' new book Flashback. He wrote Hyperion, which is one of my favourite books. I listened to the first few hours, but it was... ugly. I just couldn't get into it. So I dumped it. Easy to do when you haven't paid for it. Next I started with Stephen King's new book 11.22.63, which I heard was really good. I'm not a big fan of Stephen King. I don't know why, probably a bit of snobbery there. I've started two of his books in my life, Dreamcatcher and Pet Semetary, both of which I enjoyed, but both times I ended up getting the movie just to see what happens, and both times thinking, wow, what a sucky ending. His premises are great, but I think resolutions are hard for him. Some of his ideas are just so out there that any ending is going to fall flat. In 11.22.63, a man travels back in time through a time gap in the back of a diner owned by his friend, back to 1958, and he decides to try and stop the Kennedy assassination. I'm half way through it and really enjoying it. His books are very American, and some of his themes don't really work on this Australian. Yes, there's a murderous clown. The main character of the book the main character is occasionally writing is a serial killer who dresses up as a clown. The American guy I work with says his greatest fear is clowns, so there you go. But I can recommend both if you want something to read over the holidays.
Jo Jo had a stomach bug over Christmas, so I got woken up more than a few times to the noise of 1) chucking 2) splashing 3) crying.
On the other hand Will was very excited of course, excited about getting his Nintendo DS from Santa. Only Santa didn't bring him one of those wretched, boy-stealing devices. Instead, Santa in his wisdom brought a dinosaur book and an indoor soccer kit. No mention of the DS no-show, which was a relief. We had our reasons ready, "Santa doesn't want you and Jo Jo to fight over a toy", "You are too young for a DS", even "Santa didn't think you were a good enough boy to give you a DS," but they weren't required. He loves the soft soccer ball. Jo Jo got a book, and some Lego that he didn't touch, he just wants to play soccer too. I can't wait to take them home and introduce them to a better sport, Australian Rules Football. They are going to love it. You get to use your hands, too. And jump on heads!
Willy's got chicken pox now. Not too bad because he had a vaccine years ago, but he's itchy and sooky. Jo Jo will have it in a couple of weeks, the doctor said.
So that brings me to News Years Resolutions. Mostly the same as last year. Get fitter, get better at Japanese. Get a job in Australia. Read more. More quality computer gaming, less watching Liveleak and Youtube. I've been playing Limbo, which is a good puzzle game, one of those running left-to-right games, there's a word for these kind of games, but I forget. I've also got a WW2 flight sim game called Wings Of Prey waiting for me when it's done. If you aren't on Steam, you should be. Lots of great games on there, and the sales they have are awesome. So many times you find a game that you heard was awesome two years ago or so for just $5. One click, and it's yours. Too easy. Speaking of too easy, Amazon. I ordered books 5-8 of the Magic Treehouse series for Willy for $14, and it'll be arriving today, about 40 hours later. If Australia gets an Amazon, you can say goodbye to the retail industry. You'll be going to the mall to try on clothes so you know which size to order on Amazon.
Getting off Facebook has changed my life for the better, reduced the BS in my life enormously, and given me a lot more time. I miss it occasionally, but when I see the latest garbage news story about it, like "Man arrested for abusive Facebook comment", or "Store apologizes for Facebook thread", or whatever has been going on in Australia recently, I think, thank god I have nothing to do with that craziness anymore. I have come to think it's a bubble, and Facebook will go the way of Myspace and Second Life, somewhere for 15 year olds and pedophiles to meet and chat. In ten years we'll look back and think, how on earth did we believe that was going to last? Something else will come along, and it'll fade away like everything else. Or maybe it'll end up running the world. Dunno. I just know that it's good to be out.
I want to read less news. It's funny, but this year I have noticed a pattern. When I'm tuned in to what's going on in the world, the more I'm convinced we are on a precipice, about to tumble into an age of desperation, class warfare, and martial law. Then, when I don't read the papers or blogs for a while, I think everything's going to be okay. I do think we are at a critical time in history, and that is exciting, and I think people want something to change. Problem is, any kind of change probably won't work out for overpaid, petulant, semi-skilled underachievers like me. We'll see what happens.