Christmas

This isn't really much of a rant, more like an online thank you card to the folks who gave me gifts this year...

Mom and Dad: My latest Star Trek ornament -- I have all of them except for the first one. Guess which one is worth over $300 now. If I ever get back to work I do believe I'm going to try to get me one of those puppies, before they get even more expensive. The cherry jelly was a very pleasant suprise -- it used to be a traditional gift for me when I was younger, but it disappeared for several years. I was glad to see it back. The cash was nice too.

Amy and Clint: Gift certificates to the movies -- we've already used one trip (to see Star Trek: Insurrection -- and yes, there will be a review -- though maybe not in time to be of use for theatre going), and the next trip will be for Prince of Egypt.

Jeremy and Mandy: They finally picked something for me -- before it was stuff they thought I'd like. This time it was something I can use -- mostly.This years gift was a Lotus web bundle including Go Webserver (yea, like I'll ever have a full time connection to make it worthwhile), NetObjects Fusion (will be useful for starting a site from the ground up, but when I fed my site into it, all I got was a mess), and BeanMachine for Java. You've seen the results of that already -- the little applet on the home page, and the starwars applet (if you have too much time on your hands -- the html mess works better). Good choice Jeremy, thanks.

Ken and Louise: The right size, the right color, again -- the perfect gift. Cash

Not all gifts were winners -- some where downright dangerous -- and from people that should know better. But I won't name names -- truth tell, I was suprised to get a gift in the first place. I hope you all had a pleasant Christmas, and that you have a Better Year than the last one.