Christmas went well.  I woke at 1 AM, took a walk, read, shot people, and prepared for a new day.  About 7:30 AM I prepared breakfast, then spend 2 hours waiting for someone to wake up. I opted not to roust the house with slamdancing and assumed the scent of delectable breakfast meats would do.  Apparently sausage doesn’t waft as well as one would anticipate.  At 10 AM gifts were exchanged and by 10:02 my father and I were done and watched the love-match between my brother and his girlfriend take turns out-gifting one another.  Somewhere in the middle my brother got a really nice miter saw.  He doesn’t really use or need one, but should he, he’ll have a really nice one at the ready.  In other news I think my brother won Christmas, but I suspect him of cheating as Amanda pitched in on the tiebreaking decorative bench.

My single gift request for 2008 was a new speaker set for my computer and received the Logitech Z-5500 set.  I thought they’d be much smaller and found of the 55 lb package that 54 lbs was the sub woofer.  This fucker’s HUGE with a warning label cautioning not to use it within 2 feet of magnetically sensitive devices like pacemakers or credit cards (or simply ‘electronics’ as they put it).  It has an air intake for it’s turbocharger (I assume that’s what it is) big as my fist and fat heat-sink.  I’m confident I could sit on it while playing whale songs or something equally bassy and ride the thing like a hovercraft.  Alternatively, sneak it into Bestbuy and play Foreplay by Boston and permanently magnetize every CRT and erase every hard drive there.   I can now hear entire instruments that I could make out before like the “bones” in Great Big Seas Rant and Roar album or the wicked Bonnie Rait-inspired slide guitar opening to Appalachian Spring; true story.

My brother asked why I had the speakers on when I wore headphones while playing Team Fortress 2.  The answer: With the headphones, I can hear my enemies.  With the speakers, I can feel them.