I was reading the comments to this post over at MajorNelson.com and it got me to thinking. Why are people such zealots when it comes to certain platforms? Where is it written that those who like Nintendo’s offerings must hate the Xbox 360? On what ancient stone tablet is it inscribed that Windows users must despise all things Apple? Who tells Firefox users that they must convert the unwashed masses of IE users with the fervor of a Christian missionary? I really don’t get it. I don’t understand why things need to go that far in the name of whatever technological idol you serve.

I pride myself on my ability to see past the hype (in most cases) of any given product. I use Windows. Macs are cool. I’ve been to the Apple store and gazed in wonder at the sweet industrial designs they sport. I own an iPod and would never think of buying anything else. I use iTunes and love it more than any other music app out there. But Windows is powerful. It has a ton of software and it’s cheap compared to Apples offerings.

I use IE but I also have Firefox installed. In fact I’m using it to corral my links for this post as I type. I like tabbed browsing but I have to admit that Firefox runs like crap. It take three times longer to load than IE and it renders the pages slower. IE has lots of security holes but so does Firefox. The only difference is that FF’s holes haven’t been found yet.

I love Nintendo. I have been a huge Nintendo fanboy since getting an NES in ‘85. I have owned every Nintendo system since then and have loved them all (you people who got headaches from the Virtualboy are wusses). I wish I still had them now but I don’t. But you’d hardly know it to look at my setup now. We have currently an SNES, N64, Dreamcast, PS2 (the thin one as our original one broke, fucking disc read errors), Xbox, Gamecube, two GBAs, two GBA SPs, and four Nintendo DSs. As well as a fullcompliment of games for all. I have every intention this year of getting all three next gen systems and a nice HD set to play them on. Video games are important to me and as such I like to sample the entirety of the hobby (although I will admit that I find online play frightening).

So I guess my question is to you raging fanboy, why do you have to hate the other side?

So after posting last night m excitement over the house left me and I began to realize how much god damn work I have to do this week and next. Today I have to do a bunch of shopping for odds and ends as well as brave the retail madness to obtain a router for my landlord. Tomorrow night I have to go to the landlord’s new house and hook up his TV and Internet. He also just asked me to go to one of his other properties with him to take pictures as he wasn’t happy with the cell phone pics his realtor took for him. Thursday (and part of Wednesday I hope) I get to start moving furniture and such into the new rooms. Friday will be more of the same with the moving and the lifting and the pain. I’m hoping I get off of work early so I can get some of those things done on Friday. Saturday I’m hoping to work and earn a bit of extra cash right before Christmas. Sunday is of course Christmas and there will be much unwrapping and playing and the like followed by feverish cleaning to make the house ready for guests on Monday.

I have no idea what the hell I’ll be doing next week but as far as I can tell right now I’ll be going in at least one day (yes, on my week off) to install a machine. Too many things to do and not nearly enough time.

Christmas Tree 002

Originally uploaded by Vale.

Christmas is in less than a week so I thought I’d add some pics of it. I haven’t taken many but there’s a couple pics of the tree. It looks wonderful in our new house. Better than I could have hoped. I finally figured out that I needed to put the camera on a tripod (of which we have at least two, maybe more for some reason) to get some decent pics in low light. Gifts are a bit thin in the picture due to the fact that we have yet to wrap anything that we’ve gotten. Things will look thin even when we get around to the papering and taping because everything we’ve picked up is pricey. I gave a bunch of money to Lucas this year as well as Nintendo. I also had to pony up a nice chunk of cash to Apple on Violet’s behalf, but I think she’ll love what I got her.

One thing I did want to mention is the fact that this will be our first Christmas in the new house. It’ll also be (Goddess willing) our first weekend alone in the house. Our landlord/housemate recently closed escrow on his new place and will be moving out on Wednesday. We’ve been sharing this house with him for about a year now and things have been great but as anyone who has shared a house with somebody can tell you it can be a little weird knowing that people who aren’t family are in the house. It changes how you live your day-to-day life in subtle ways. You tend to be quieter. You close doors when you sleep (if you aren’t accustomed to doing that). You wonder when you are doing things if it will affect the other people in the house. Now if the person in the house happens to also be the landlord then things are even stranger. You’re always wondering if what you are doing in and to the house is ok. You feel compelled to clean all the time to make it look like you are neater and cleaner than you really are and then you feel guilty and looked down upon if you can’t find the time to do it. It really is very odd.

So one of the biggest changes we’ll be making once we have the house to ourselves will be moving people and rooms around. Lady V and I will finally be moving in to the master bedroom with the big bathroom and closet and such. The kids will be moving around and everybody will be getting better rooms all around. We also managed to purchase a set of bunk beds that can be split so each of the kids get new beds which is something we’ve been trying to do since Utah. One thing V is looking forward to is the large bath in the master bedroom. It’s fucking huge and could double as a wading pool in the summer. Beyond the extra cabinet space in the kitchen and garage one of the coolest things we’ll be getting are offices. Densoro is currently in one of the smallest rooms in the house right now and will be moving in to the downstairs bedroom. His tiny room will now become Violet’s office and I will be taking a room in the converted part of the garage. It should be sweet as I’ve never had my own space in which to work on my non-existent projects which I hope to make existent sometime soon.

So that’s the rest of my week. I’m going to be really busy this week and on in to next week but all in all it should be really exciting. In any case, see you all around.

Only seven more work days for me this year. My vacation couldn’t come too soon as the last few weeks have been hell. This whole year has been horrendous as it seems that every time is historically been slow things have gotten busier. I don’t know what’s causing it but I do want to say that you people need to be nicer to your office equipment. Stop hitting that copier, it’ll only make things worse.

Recently plans for my week off have changed due to the fact that Violet got a job and will be unable to get any time off during my vacation. So it’ll just be me and the kids for the whole week plying with our new toys. I’d tell you what I have planned but I think one of the nerdlings reads this (Densoro! You know this is inappropriate for you!) blog and that would ruin all the fun.

Nothing much going on beyond that. Just trying to run down the clock if I may use a sports metaphor.

I know that nobody reads this so I don’t understand the deep need I feel to apologize. It’s most likely an apology to myself for letting things go so long. In any case here’s what I’ve been up to lately.

Mariokart DS – This game is fucking amazing. Very pretty and easily the best in the series (although to be fair I haven’t played Double Dash yet). The Wifi support is top notch and simple to set up although I seem to be having tons of trouble finding other players most days.

Christmas – Even though we don’t celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday we do partake in many of the traditional offerings of the season. The tree is up now and presents have been purchased but await wrapping. We are planning on staying home this year for Christmas eve and Christmas day mostly due do the intense need to rest after the thrillingly busy last couple of months.

Animal Crossing: Wild World – It came, it finally came. Violet and I had planned on making the four copies we purchased Christmas gifts for everybody but we just couldn’t wait. We reasoned that since the original release date was in October that we would have been playing it anyway had it come out on time and yes we went with that story. We’ve been playing it pretty much non-stop since the 7th and have yet to get tired of it.

The Plague – It happens every year around this time that somebody in the house gets sick and this year is no exception. We’re all a bit stuffy and coughy and such right now and that makes doing anything that isn’t required tough.

So that’s what’s going on right now and now that I look at it, it doesn’t really come up to much of an excuse for not blogging.