Bliggity Bloggity, Bloggity Bloogity

Alright.

I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly. I'm going to start blogging more regularly.

Seriously.

I'm really excited for the holidays this year. I haven't seen my brother in about 5 months and the last time I saw him was in Vegas, right before the main event. He was there for exactly ONE night and it was right before my Day 2 so I had to head home after eating dinner. I ended up finding him, Danny and Carl passed out in their swimsuits on the couch at 11 AM. That's the last time I've seen my brother and that's too damn long. He gets home on Sunday and I can't wait to see him.

I was supposed to fly to Oakland tonight to help my dad drive up the coast. We had plans to study a Schaum's outline on probability and I was actually into the idea. Tonight, Seattle was hit by a really bad storm so I decided to play it safe and canceled my flight. I now have $109 in credit on Southwest Airlines. Pops is going to make the drive on his own and should be here on Sunday night, the same day that Cliff gets to town. Joy of joys.

I'm really good at the "enjoying family time" part of the holidays but I'm pretty bad at the "gift buying" part. I've been shopping at Amazon.com and Costco.com but all I've managed to do is spend a lot of money on myself. I bought a ton of books on Amazon, mostly travel books for the upcoming trip, as well as all 5 seasons of Six Feet Under and the first 3 seasons of The Wire. I'm saving The Wire for my trip and I'll probably start watching Six Feet Under this weekend. I also bought a Canon Digital Rebel XT 8 megapixel SLR from Amazon for my trip. I'm going to look like a dumb ass tourist but if the shoe fits I'll wear it. I'm trying to learn how to take good photographs but it's hard with the horrible weather we've been having. Here's my favorite one so far. Yes, I'm aware it's a pretty wack picture. Screw you, photography snob.

I convinced my friend Jason to meet me in Australia and I'm really stoked to have him along. Jason is one of those guys that's down to party and while I've never been on vacation with him, I think we're going to have a great time. While planning for the trip, I found a ton of cool stuff that's going on down there. There's a huge concert series every year called The Big Day Out and the timing is perfect for my trip. The Aussie Millions tournament ends on January 20th and the first Australian leg is on the 21st. Artists include Tool, Jet, Muse, The Streets, The Killers, My Chemical Romance, The Vines and a buttload of bands that I've never heard of. Some of them are probably local Aussie bands and some might be known by people with more music savvy people. If there are any such people reading this blog, please take a few moments to look over the lineup and tell me if I should be excited about any of the smaller names on that list. I really like all the artists that I've heard of. I thought that My Chemical Romance was kinda wack ( We'll CAAAARRRRYYYY ON!!! We'll CAAAAAAAAARRRRRRYYYY OOOONNNN!!!!) but I saw them last week at Deck the Hall Ball and I thought they were really good live. Jet is kind of my white whale as far as bands go. After Jet's first popular CD came out I was really into them and I wanted to go to their concert. They were performing on the same day as The Strokes and for Valentines Day, Renee bought me 2 tickets to...THE STROKES CONCERT...even though she knew I was obsessed with Jet because she was more into the Strokes. That's kind of like me buying her Madden 2004 for Valentines Day and telling her, "let's draft a franchise together, it'll be awesome!" I guess it's not quite that bad because I liked the Strokes too and the concert was good but I missed out on Jet. THEN, last week at the Deck the Hall Ball, Jet was the third act so we pre-funked at Davis' house while the first two bands were on, then walked down to Key Arena. Our timing was a bit off because Davis and Duane had to scalp tickets and Renee and Torrie had to eat and we ended up walking into the Arena just as Jet was finishing up the last song of their set. Holy blueballs. I will not miss Jet at The Big Day Out and maybe the anticipation will make things that much sweeter. It'll be cool to see them in Australia, I just hope I stay sober enough to appreciate the experience.

Speaking of sobriety, or lack thereof, the blogging community just had their semi-annual Vegas get-together and I sadly had to miss the festivities. My liver is healthier without the 72 hours of alcohol but I missed out on one of the best trips of the year. Al has a short recap up and promises more later, Otis has something short and sweet, Pauly is pretty much the best writer in the history of the world, but I think Derek's recap was the most entertaining of all. I was already frustrated that I couldn't make it but reading about all the craziness that obviously went on makes me even more pissed off. Most of you reading my blog probably don't give a crap but I like these people so you have to deal with it.

In sports news, the Mariners are having an awful season. Read Cale's blog if you want more details. He does a great job breaking down why the team is so messed up and I'm not looking forward to next year...or the year after that...or the year after that...you get the point. We're getting worse AND getting older. GG Mariners. The Seahawks just lost at home to the Forty-freaking-Niners. After the loss at Arizona last weekend, I was frustrated with the team but I gave them the benefit of the doubt: Hasselbeck still wasn't at 100%, the Cardinals aren't terrible at home, etc, etc. I looked forward to the Chargers game next weekend and decided that the Christmas Eve game would be the ultimate measuring stick: if the Seahawks showed up I'd be optimistic for the playoffs. If the Chargers ran us over like they've been running over the other pretenders of the NFL then I'd admit that the Hawks just didn't have it this year. I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined that we might lose to the 49ers. Or the Forty-freaking-Niners. Unreal. The storm may have played a part in the sloppiness but I just don't think the Hawks have it this year. If they can bounce back and beat the Chargers I'll get all optimistic again but I think the problems run too deep in this team. The Hawks got stopped on a crucial 3rd-and-1 AND the subsequent 4th-and-one halfway through the 4th quarter. If you're a great team, that just can't happen. Ever. Anyway, Hawks win the division, probably win in the first round, then get beat in the Conference semis. Some teams would kill for that...not us. Obviously I hope I'm wrong but I just don't see it.

I bought tickets to Germany tonight, flying out of Seattle on March 17th and coming home on April 17th. Obviously I'll be staying with Cliff most of the time but I'm heading to Monte Carlo at the end of March for the tourney there and we're going to Paris on April 15th. Cliff will be running the Paris marathon and I will be getting tired thinking about it. He's going to try to run under 3:10 and qualify for the Boston marathon. Good luck, bro. Anyway, here's my updated schedule. I'm only posting this to piss you all off, obviously.

Now-December 26th: Seattle and vicinity for holidays.
December 27-January 7: India with Scott, Ivan and Bri.
January 7-9: Singapore
January 10-February 10: Australia for Aussie Millions, Big Day Out, Australia Day, etc.
February 11-17: Vietnam with Davis, Hao-Tam and CJ
February 18-19: Cambodia
February 20-March 5: Thailand. Full Moon Party on March 3rd.
March 5-March 17: Seattle
March 17-April 17: Germany, Monte Carlo, Paris.

I can't wait to get on the road. Seattle is the greatest place on earth but I'm trying to make sure.

P.S. I'm always bad at returning calls or emails but for some reason I've been even worse than usual lately. If you called me or emailed me and I never wrote back, please forgive me and call or write again and I promise to get back to you. I don't know why I just put things on the backburner until they boil over but I'm sorry. I still love you.