Just so I don't have my Manchester United supporter friends accusing me of unfairly bashing them, let me spout a few words on my most hated footie team: the dull-as-mud Liverpool. Something about this side just completely irks me. I can watch Man U and appreciate that they are a brilliant team (one match in particular stands out for me, their 8-1 drubbing of Nottingham Forest from their treble-winning season). But watching Liverpool ... ack, it's torture.

The feather in their horrible cap is their ridiculous manager, the idiotic Gerard Houllier. A poor man's Alex Ferguson (very poor), this bonehead has an excuse for everything. Take last weekend's draw against Arsenal, in which Houllier accused Arsenal's Francis Jeffers of diving under a mild challenge from John Arne Riise to earn a penalty. A quote from Houllier: "I asked John Arne Riise and he's very honest and fair, and he said he didn't pull the shirt. He was very unhappy as he felt it was unfair." Translation: "My player is a good guy, so come on. He wouldn't lie now, would he?"

Maybe it's the fault of the British sports media. If I commented that last night's meatloaf was okay, the headline would read "Graves Launches Scathing Attack On Mediocre Meal." It's insane that in the articles on Soccernet you have to scroll through five paragraphs of interpretation before you read an actual quote. After their loss last weekend, my beloved Chelsea are five points behind leaders Arsenal, in second place ahead of Manchester United on goal difference. 21 games have been played, 17 to go. But according to Soccernet, "Chelsea's title hopes were dealt a crushing blow" by the 2-nil loss to Leeds. What? Five points is insurmountable now, eh? I'm not saying we're going to win the championship ... personally, I think the Chelsea squad needs another year to gel ... but where did that claim come from?

I can't believe I referred to the Doves song "There Goes The Fear" as "Here Comes The Fear" below in my post of December 18. My brain is trying to tell me something. Something along the lines of, "you've lost it". Seriously, I really do like Doves. No, really!

Had a midwestern-style Christmas last week, in Ames, Iowa, with Veronica's family. A week of getting up at noon, then watching movies and playing video games until little Ana decided she wanted to play/watch cartoons/make a lot of noise/throw a fit. All in all, it was a relaxing time and allowed me to recharge the batteries a bit. I saw a few movies for the first time (and a lot for the eighth or ninth time) ...

• Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones - The Star Wars mystique grows ever smaller. Sure, the Yoda lightsaber duel was cool, but that doesn't make up for the groans I was making every time they went to a scene involving Anakin and Padme's sappy love story. Better than Episode 1? Perhaps. Probably. Who cares? I'd rather watch The Empire Strikes Back again instead.
• Black Hawk Down - Not at all what I expected. A really brutal war film in the tradition of Full Metal Jacket, only without Vincent D'Onofrio. I was crying by the end. A very powerful statement on modern war and the role of the United States as an international policeman.
• Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - A movie I actually had to go to a theater to see! I made Veronica watch The Fellowship of the Ring the night before to prepare. It's a good movie, not fantastic, but worthwhile. I loved the Gollum/Sméagol scenes. The battle at Helm's Deep goes on for about 15 minutes too long, as do several other scenes. The whole movie feels like it could have used some more editing.

I also watched a lot of Father Ted and The Young Ones, as Veronica got those DVDs for Christmas. My presents included a nice new electric razor, a wireless Gamecube controller, and FIFA 2003 for the Gamecube. FIFA is good, definitely a beautiful game to look at. I haven't mastered the gameplay yet. The big advancement is the manual passing system, which allows you to pass not to where a player is, but to where a player is going. It's tough to get the hang of, but in the odd instances that I've done it correctly the quantum leap over previous soccer games becomes apparent. Must improve my skills so as I can once again raise my beloved Chelsea to the title of Champions of the Known Universe. Embarassing Manchester United 7-nil is a stress-reliever second only to beating the crap out of someone who cuts you off in Grand Theft Auto.

And yes, I finally picked up Splinter Cell for the Xbox yesterday, using some Best Buy gift cards (thanks Em!). I could just watch the lighting effects in this game, let alone actually play the game. Head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. It's a frigging hard game ... I can finish the training course no problem, but then I get dumped in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and all hell breaks loose. Got to work on my stealth skills.

(of course, it helps when you've got Johnny Marr playing guitar ...)

I've had relations with girls from many nations
I've made passes at women of all classes
And just because you're gay, I won't turn you away
If you stick around, I'm sure that we can find some common ground

Sexuality, strong and warm and wild and free
Sexuality, your laws do not apply to me

A nuclear submarine sinks off the coast of Sweden
Headlines give me headaches when I read them
I had an uncle who once played for Red Star Belgrade
He said that some things are really best left unspoken, but I prefer it all to be out in the open

Sexuality, young and warm and wild and free
Sexuality, your laws do not apply to me
Sexuality, don't threaten me with misery
Sexuality, I demand equality

I'm sure that everybody knows how much my body hates me
It lets me down most every time and makes me rash and hasty
I feel a total jerk, before your naked body of work

I'm getting weighed down with all this information
Safe sex doesn't mean no sex, it just means use your imagination
Stop playing with yourselves in hard currency hotels
I look like Robert De Niro, I drive a Mitsubishi Zero

Sexuality, strong and warm and wild and free
Sexuality, your laws do not apply to me
Sexuality, come eat and drink and sleep with me
Sexuality, we can be what we want to be

... because I've been sick the last three days. One of these years I'll try out those flu shot dealies. I never thought I'd say this, but I was dying to come to work today because I was actually tired of doing nothing but playing video games all day long. Who'd have thunk it? I finished Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on Monday. Well, finished in the sense that I completed the final storyline mission. I could still play that game all day long. That last mission was a bitch though. To all those who are familiar with the game: I'd been itching to knock off Lance Vance since I first met him.

I'm up to about 70% completion with Metroid Prime. This game keeps throwing new effects at me that have me going, "whooooaaaaa". My new favorite is when a bright flash (such as a missile) flies in front of your face and just for an instant, you catch a glimpse of your own reflection. That freaked me out the first time it happened.

Oh boy ... Splinter Cell, here I come!

Music? There's something out there besides video games, you say? Let me compile my "Best of 2002" list for you. It begins with Coldplay, A Rush of Blood To The Head, and ends with Doves, The Last Broadcast, and there's nothing in between. Seriously. If I adhere to the strict rules set forth by Excellent Online for year-end lists, everything else I've occuppied myself with this year is excluded. Honestly though, those two albums really took me by surprise. Coldplay was a band I blew off after hearing "Yellow" for the thousandth time. After Veronica bought their debut album Parachutes, I gave it a half-hearted listen and was amazed. But for some reason, the same thing happened when their sophomore effort was released ... I just wasn't interested. Until I heard the song "Clocks", which is far and away the song of the year. Doves are a similar case: I lumped them in with the "new britpop" and didn't pay attention. Now I'm finding I need to be more open to experience (as Veronica keeps telling me). "Words", "Here Comes The Fear", and "The Sulphur Man" are all wonderful.

I spent a little (more) time debugging the site, and it now works (in some way or another) on Internet Explorer 5 (Mac and Windows) and Netscape 7 (Windows). There's the odd wrong size margin on different browsers, but you can at least see everything. If you have a choice, go with Internet Explorer 5 for Windows. Submit to Bill Gates and Intel.

Let me know if you have a browser that just doesn't cooperate with my site.

Back from a small hiatus. A lot (and yet, not all that much) has been packed into the last few weeks for me. I'm fighting this weird shoulder pain that's been bothering me for months now, so some days I just feel like giving up at 11am and going back to bed. The doctor has been little help so far, but was at least kind enough to give me an EKG to assure me that I'm not having a heart attack. It's not an incapacitating pain, just a kind of dull soreness in my left shoulder, upper arm, and occasionally back. Oh well. Ever forward.

Turkey day was spent at my sister's house in Chicago. I was amazed we got there at all, seeing as when we arrived at Boston airport on Wednesday to leave, the snow was coming down strong and steady. Amazingly, our flight left right on time. I saw some uncles, aunts, and cousins that I hadn't seen in 15 years. Chicago was frigging cold, so much so I was constantly assuring Veronica that Boston wasn't this cold last winter. Of course, the last few weeks in beantown have demonstrated that this winter is no piece of cake like last winter, so my reassurances were all for naught. Veronica's family drove to Chicago from Iowa for the event. Her three-year old sister Ana assumed her usual role as the center of attention (like it or not).

The video game front has been keeping me busy busy busy. Finally got my hands on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. At first I wasn't so impressed, but after giving it a fair shake I can safely say it is everything Grand Theft Auto 3 was and much much more. More hilarious radio stations to listen to ... Lazlow is back, and there's a great new valley girl talk radio DJ ... tons of great 80's music from metal to new wave to hip hop. More vehicles to try out ... the motorcycles are terrific, and unlike most I think the helicopter and seaplane controls work great. More missions ... the main storyline missions are more involved, and there are so so many side missions to keep you busy. If you are over 18 and are into video games, this is for you. Unless you're one of those Nintendo fanboys who'd rather raise a village of teddy bears instead.

Speaking of Nintendo, the GameCube has a winner of its own now too: Metroid Prime. Veronica bought this for me not long after I got GTAVC ... big mistake. Too many video diversions. This game is sooo beautiful. The effects are just mind boggling. Your hero's faceplate fogs up when walking through hot areas. The heads-up display goes staticky when near electrical disturbances. The controls mimic actual movement almost perfectly. A real tour-de-force video game experience. My only complaints lie in the simplicity of the puzzles ... a lot like Eternal Darkness in this respect, overtly designed for adults but able to be quickly solved by 5 year olds (the red key goes in the red slot? wow!).

I've put off getting the latest Xbox headline-maker, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, until I've put GTAVC and Metroid Prime to rest. Splinter Cell looks primed to wrest the stealth gaming mantle from Metal Gear Solid. I loved the first Metal Gear Solid, but last year's sequel on the PlayStation 2, while very pretty, suffered from a ridiculously awful storyline and was just more of the same gameplay which, in my opinion, wasn't the strong point of the original. Splinter Cell looks like it has much more sophisticated gameplay and perhaps the best real-time lighting effects around.

Christmas will be spent in the heartland, in Iowa with Veronica's family. Hopefully it will be a nice relaxing week. 'Cause then it's back here to plow through my last six months at CMIR before I undertake the title of assistant professor at Stanford. It's a daunting task, moving from working on a predefined project to actually defining the project itself. A lot more complex than it sounds. But I'm looking forward to the challenge.