Well, another year has rolled by very quickly and now we are halfway through this decade.

Let's hope the next five years are not like the first five of this millenium.

So, a Happy Hogmanay to everyone out there.

So, I got The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition) for Christmas and Liz and I decided to do the whole trilogy in one day.

We started at 10 am and did not finish until 12:30 in the morning.

That was followed up by 6 hours of Return of the King documentaries today on the other two disks.

Well, I would have posted a picture of Paisley under the snow but the photo posting app has died.

It always was buggy and now it thinks that multiple copies of itself are running.

Not good.

So, I will gaze upon the snow and the ensuing traffic collisions as I wish you all :

Merry Christmas folks

A good review of the items that would drive our parents absolutely nuts at this time of the year is found at TV Cream's Top 100 Toys.

So relax and peruse the top 100 pieces of plastic crap that kept kids up at night and drove adults to participate in mob violence. Back in the good old days.

Nothing says the Last Christmas like a good does of Cthulhu. It is on page three right now. Enjoy all of the pages.

OK I have found my christmas gift. Anyone who wants to get me a D-BOX Motion Simulators will be making a MrLithic very happy on Christmas Day.

I love this Sandbag Shelter. How long till we see these popping up in areas hit by disasters or in need of International Aid?

I have been thinking on this topic for a while but I think that Mark Pesce says it best.

Abridged Comment

Hey, Hollywood! Can you feel the future slipping through your fingers? Do you understand how badly you've screwed up? You took a perfectly serviceable situation - a nice, centralized system for the distribution of media, and, through your own greed and shortsightedness, are giving birth to a system of digital distribution that you'll never, ever be able to defeat. In your avarice and arrogance you ignored the obvious: you should have cut a deal with SuprNova.org.
In partnership you could have found a way to manage the disruptive change that's already well underway. Instead, you have repeated the mistakes made by the recording industry, chapter and verse. And thus you have spelled your own doom.

It's said that the best sequels are just like the original, only bigger and louder. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for one hell of a crash. This baby is now fully out of control.

Mark Pesce
Sydney/Hobart
20 December 2004
Released under the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0
www.creativecommons.org

The complete article can be found here.

Take Scared Kids and a Maniacal Grinning Bearded man and you have a photo opportunity for Scared by Santa.

A new mashup to check out.

dj BC presents The Beastles

If you want to see the beauty of industrial environments, then check this out.

I thought I was the only one who thought that the light and shapes of some industrial scenes were gorgeous. Obviously Kevin Scanlon thinks the same thing.

My new Handknitted iPod Sock - to avoid copyright infringements, I may call it an iPod Toque 

Wondering where to take the family this year?
The World's Largest Cheese or the most depressing town on earth.

No! Take them to a place where dogma becomes reality.

The Creation Museum!

Nothing says komfort like a Komfort Travel Trailers

Weren't the 70's wonderful?

The lights around GOMA have been expanded to Buchanan Street and up to Borders. Looks better than last year (which was stunning) 

The streets of Glasgow lit up 

Nelson's Column with an absent Nelson and lots of lights 

The trees in George Square all lit up  

Some pictures from the Celtic vs. Hibs match.

Good game and very nice of these guys to provide me with tickets.

Hartson scored two very good goals with Camara driving one in that should have scored. Second half was a stunner with Hibs looking better than they should with the 2-1 final score in favour of Celtic.

Big Kev keeps his eyes peeled for the steward who wants to kick us back to our old seats 

10 minutes into the first half - very nice man invites us up to the posh end  

Hoops is out harassing small children 

Pre-game warmup 

Ars Technica have released their annual holiday gift guide which is filled to the brim with technogoodness for the well-deserving geek this Christmas.

Remember the well known rule - every time a sysadmin saves your butt by salvaging a file or sorting out your file rights, it equals a tenner in material gratitude.

We give of ourselves every day - now it is time to give something back.

I have not blogged very much in the last couple weeks.

I have a new plan for getting some certs. I have studied for several but never written the exams.

So the current list includes the Novell CNA, Cisco CCNA, and Microsoft MCSE.

Some others I am looking to include the CWNP, CISSP, and the LPI.

I have studied for all of these to varying degrees, but never written the final exam. So, I plan to make a change and start on a plan for getting the certifications.