Christmas was great. It was nice being with my family again after perhaps my busiest academic month yet. Sure, I got some nice things, and I surprised a few people with their presents, but now more than ever I’m shunning the materialistic side of Christmas. Ironically, immediately following my downplay of material greed, I’m going to focus on a present.

My sister got her and me tickets to see the Minnesota Wild play the Detroit Red Wings. I was quite elated, not only because they were great seats (Section 117, Row 12 in the Xcel Energy Center), but that I’ve never been to an NHL game before. A good chance to bond with my sister, too.

The game was great, and so was the arena: If you’ve never been to the Xcel Center, I recommend going just to stare at the vivid, arena circumscribing screens. Wow. If you go to the Wild web site, you can listen to the goal-alert fog horn. However, the tiny clip does no justice to the true sound. Attend a game and be amazed; Whenever the Wild score a goal, a light house lights up, smoke machines pour their vapors, and the horn blares a pair of earth-shaking roars.

The game ended tied after overtime at 3 (quite an improvement from the last Wild – Wings meeting). What a blast. I hope to return soon! Untill then, I plan to see the minor-league Indianapolis Ice in January with my Fraternity brothers. Perhaps that will tide me over until I return to the State of Hockey.

Saturday marked my triumphant return to Minnesota. I found it essentially as I had left it four weeks ago, with one minor change: Minneapolis has snow! We’re going to have a white Christmas after all.

I did some last minute gift shopping today. The good people of the Metro area were out en masse with me. Procrastination seems to be the operative word. I am reminded of a quote from a Cheerios cereal box: "The real joy is not in doing nothing, but in having lots to do and not doing it."

Today I learned two things: MySQL can modify table types without destroying data, and there is no ‘undo’ in the same. Take note kids: Always make backups. Fortunately, I heeded my own advice, and happiness was restored to the land.

On a tangent, check out ActsofGord.com. Funny stories about when video game customers are NOT always right.

It’s official – Rose is getting a snow making machine. This ranks up there with the hand scanners in the SRC and the $100,000 arch curve on Olin. Ah well.

On the brighter side, only 26 hours remain until Christmas Break begins! To celebrate the occasion, I’ve implemented a search function for keacher.com. Now all I need is content. For some reason, this reminds me of the five degrees of the internet: Supposedly one can get from any particular web page to any other web page in less than 5 links. (Yes, I am aware of a similar game concerning a particular movie actor)

Why is it that theaters run commercials before movies these days? I can understand showing slide-show advertisements for half an hour before the movie begins; theater patrons are looking for something to pass the time while they warm up their perfect seat. What gets me are the full-motion, glorified TV spots hogging the big screen and the Dolby sound. It’s not the fact that I just paid $7.50 to see the flick; rather, I cannot ignore the ads. Once the lights are dimmed and the volume is up, focusing on anything other than the ad is an exercise in futility. Kind of like Clockwork Orange, except without the drugs and weird metal instruments. Oh yeah, no Beethoven.

Why bring this up? Well, I saw LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring today. If you haven’t seen it, do so, advertisements and all. Before you go, read the book. Without the book as a background, several scenes would not make sense. For example, outside the door to Moria, Bill the Pony is released both in the book and the movie. However, Bill is never introduced in the movie; all of a sudden, he’s simply part of the group. Despite this and several other discontinuities, FotR is quite enjoyable. The actors were especially good. Gandalf is particularly well cast; Ian McKellan plays the wizard with particular adroitness. Once again, go see the movie. I dare you!