Normally, I would post random links today, but hey, it's New Year's
Eve.  The least I could do is reflect on this past year in some
way.  So I've decided to just give out highlights of my 2004

My pet dog - I love my doggie very much.  To think that I was very
much against getting a dog because of a past experience, now, I just
can't live without her.

My new car - It's been one whole year (and a week) with my 2004 Honda
Accord.  I love my car and the fact that it's personally
mine.  It's brand new, not used.  I'm paying it with my own
money.  I've got it personalized to my taste, as well as the
license number.  The freedom of it all.

Area code change for my cell phone - not a big fan of that fact. 
I didn't realize that my cell phone's number was based in another
county.  I still got a whole six months before my current contract
expires and my next phone is going to be super-cool and an area code I
actually want.

I got on Xanga (July 11) - I've always wanted to do some kind of
journal for many years now, but I've always been lazy about it. 
But since I've joined xanga, a post a day has been pretty
consistent.  I'm actually a little excited of just going through
all my blogs in five years from now.

The Presidential elections - Never have I been this engrossed in
politics as I have been this year.  I'm not entirely satisfied
with the results, but at least there was an attempt at change.

I've discovered the Firefox web browser - This is just one spiffy web
browser! I can't believe I waited this long to swtich from Internet
Explorer.  Firefox rulez!

Metallica! - Not only did I get to see them THREE times this year, I
got to win the meet and greet and see all four members in person.
That's a moment I will never forget.

Killswitch Engage - this is the year that I can safely say that there
is another metal band that I'm really digging.  I've seen them two
times this year, and I love their latest album. KSE roxs!

I got a new camera - Man, I can't believe I lived without a 10x zoom feature and video capture (with sound) before now. 

San Diego Comic Con - Been going for a long time now, it looks like the trend will continue.

Foam parties - My age what it is, I'm surprised that this was the first
year that I've been to something like that.  It's fun stuff when I
get to see the women in these things. roar!

Weddings - I've been to sooo many weddings this year.  So far, me
and my girlfriend won three center pieces, one bouquet, and two garter
belts.

I won an award for leadership at work this year - I thank all my fellow employees who voted for me

At the restaurant Macaroni Grill, there is no macaroni dish - BANNED!

and I got addicted to this game - Twins

Well, I'm sure I'm missing some highlights that I'm not mentioning, but these are all that I can remember right now. 

I'll leave this off with at least one random link, video, and flash game...

Mike Tyson's Punch Out - politically incorrect (link)

beat boxing and a harmonica (video)

Letters (flash game)

and at least one comic strip

Happy New Year everyone!

After my trend this week of posting my favorite albums and tv shows, I
figured I'll end it with my favorite movies of the year.  To be
fair, this list might change once I get a chance to watch some movies
that I haven't got a chance to watch yet.  Namely, Maria Full of
Grace, Garden State, Friday Night Lights, Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow, Ray, Finding Neverland, Closer, The Aviator, Hotel Rwanda,
Lemony Snickets: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Million Dollar Baby,
and  Sideways.  Yup, that's still a lot of 2004 movies that I
hope to be able to see by the Oscars.

As for my movie list below, I'm not counting films that were released
in a previous year in a different country, but was only released
recently here (Hero).  I'm also just going to put documentaries in
it's own little category.  So here goes...

patrick005's top ten movies of 2004

10) Collateral
09) Shrek 2
08) Mean Girls
07) Eurotrip
06) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
05) Shaun of the Dead
04) Kill Bill vol.2
03) Spider-Man 2
02) The Incredibles
01) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The three documentaries that I watched and loved..

03) Fahrenheit 9/11
02) Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
01) Super Size-Me

The fall / Winter TV season has been officially over for a couple of
weeks now, but I thought I'd reflect on what I've been watching.

Veronica Mars - I already said how much I love this show.  Kristen
Bell is such a cutie and she brings such life to her character. 
The story and character dynamics is impressive as well, with depth that
makes the show addicting to watch.

Smallville - Lois Lane rocks! The writers did a really good job with
their Lois and it practically wipes out any notion for me to pair Clark
and Lana together.  The problem with this season though is that
they can't seem to balance how they want to handle the episodes. 
The underlining mythological arcs are still there, but a lot of
episodes can feel like they are just filler for the most part.

Lost - BEST NEW SHOW!  As much as I love Veronica Mars, Lost is
just such a well made show that I can't deny it's greatnest.  This
show has one of the best developed characters on TV today, and the
mystery of the island, as well as the survivor aspect of the story
makes me want to just keep watching.

South Park - Wow.  This year has just been one of South Park's
best years ever in terms of quality.  Stone and Parker are making
episodes that are so memorable and entertaining, that it makes the
Simpsons new season pale in comparison.

Drawn Together - I hated the first episode with a passion, but when I
gave the second episode a chance, it really grew on me.  Very
twisted stuff in this show, and I'm enjoying that.

Joey - I was really skeptical if the writing team of Friends would be
able to pull off an entertaining show involving my least favorite
character from it.  They proved me wrong with the great supporting
cast, the funny stories, and the ability to make Joey a much better
character than he has ever been.  I think they even succeeded in
making me forget that this show is a spin-off from another show, and
that's a good thing.  Color me impressed.

X-Play - After the merger between TechTV and G4, plus the move to Los
Angeles, I was concerned that the show will tone itself down in
wackiness.  I was wrong, if anything else, Adam Sessler and Morgan
Webb has let loose even more.  The interns on the other hand
seemed to get a down grade in quality.

Best Week Ever - Continously entertaining and informative at the same time.  Surprisingly another can't miss TV for me.

The Batman - I admit that it's wwaayyy too early to release another
Batman cartoon after the great run that Batman The Animated Series had,
but this version is actually pretty good.  The fighting is a lot
more in the mode of anime which makes it more kinetic in the
pacing.  The not brooding all the time Batman is actually
refreshing to watch for a change.

Justice League Unlimited - I'm glad to see that the writing hasn't
suffered from the move from having 40 minute stories to 20, as there
has been some really good episodes.  But with all these new
superheroes that they'll get to use, I kinda wished they had even more
time to show them. Also, where's the Flash? I believe he's practically
been missing since the first episode.  Maybe Micheal Rosembaum is
too busy playing Lex Luthor in Smallville to dedicate more voice over
work for Justice League?

The Venture Brothers - How could I miss this show the first time
around?  This is one of the best animated works I've seen produced
in the west for a long time.  It's got a sly humor to it that I
can't get enough of. Go Team Venture!

Full Metal Alchemist - I've been really jaded when it came to anime
lately, but I'm actually enjoying this show quite a bit.  The
dynamics between the two brothers is refreshing.  Still though,
yet more anime characters without parents.

Ghost In The Shell : Stane Alone Complex - I know this is a fan
favorite and all, but I've been more or less bored with this
show.  The only episodes that interested me was the three parter
one, and that still wasn't that great.  Color me disappointed.

Malcolm In The Middle - Still great, still wacky, still original, still
funny, and still a great cast of characters.  Quality show all the
way.  I also won't miss the "dude-ranch" aspect of the show.

The Simpsons - While they produced some entertaining episodes this
season, still nothing that really impresses me like the stuff from the
'90s.

Arrested Development - Last season was good, but this season has proven
to be better.  I'm impressed at what the writers have accomplished
with this show, with their great stories and involving characters.
Great great show!

Well those are more or less the shows I've been following in a weekly
basis.  I plan to continue following them this coming Winter /
Spring season.  With the return of 24, Alias, and Monk, I'm going
to continue having a busy week of TV.  I'm actually not
complaining.

My choice for the top fifteen best albums of 2004.

15) Iced Earth - "The Glorious Burden"
14) All That Remains - "This Darkened Heart"
13) Shadow's Fall - "The War Within"
12) Ten Foot Pole - "Subliminable Messages"
11) Duran Duran - "Astronaut"
10) Jimmy Eat World - "Futures"
09) Sum 41 - "chuck"
08) Megadeth - "The System Has Failed"
07) Avril Lavigne - "Under My Skin"
06) Bad Religion - "The Empire Strikes First"
05) Keane - "Hopes and Fears"
04) William Shatner - "Has Been"
03) U2 - "How to dismantle an atomic bomb"
02) Killswitch Engage - "End of Heartache"

If you've been reading this blog, you know what my number one is already...

01) Green Day - "American Idiot"

A Random Man and a Random Woman

this some fast finger snapping (video)

snow tow (video)

lots of robots (link-video)

test or tazer? (video)

Japanese sword vs pistol's bullet (video)

crazy tricks with a soccer ball (video)

party at Saddam's palace (video)

yup, only half the amount of links I normally do, plus they are all
videos.  Because of my recent PC problems, I haven't had time to
really look around much. oh, and some play time with Prince of Persia : Sands of Time doesn't help either.

Well Christmas has past, and we just have a new year to go now.  So what has happened to me these past days?

I mentioned my reinstalling windows because of a problem with Service
Pack 2.  Well, I'm now in the process of finishing up installing
programs after the THIRD time of reinstalling.  Windows update is
telling me to update to SP2, but I think I'll past for now until I have
everything settled.

As of Dec 24, my car is one year old!  What's funny is that I
already have about 20,200 miles on it!  At this rate, in five
years it will aproximately have 101,000+ miles, and in ten years it
will probably have 202,000+ miles.  But by then I will probably be
getting one of those hybrid cars or maybe a flying car! My God, by then I will be 38 years old!

My aunt and cousin are visiting for the next two weeks. 
Unfortunately I'll be primarily at work, but I hope to spend some
quality time with them.

Remember how I said I got KOTOR2 for the xbox,
but I haven't even beaten the first one?  Well, my cousin gave me
Prince of Persia 2 : the Warrior Within for her Christmas gift to me,
and you probably guessed it be now but just like KOTOR, I haven't even
beated the first Prince of Persia game.  

My cousin is actually not much of a video gamer, but she recently felt
the urge to learn how to play video games more.  You know, she
needs to work on her hand to eye coordination in moving a virtual
character through a virtual world.  I offered to help her learn,
and I decided that the first Prince of Persia game would actually be a
good game to accomplish that.  It's a complete package in learning
how to play a game actually.  You got the platforming elements,
the fighting, the puzzle solving, and the adventure aspect that is
common in gaming.  Actually, we played a good four hour session on
it, and in turn I might actually get to beat the game as well. 
The game IS actually pretty darn good, and I can't believe I let it sit idly by for a whole year.

Well, I still have about 6 - 8 programs to install and I plan to sleep by 6AM, so that's it for now.

Well here I am still awake in the process of reinstalling Windows on
my PC.  The reason for that is because for whatever reason, my
system just kept acting up. I blame it on Service Pack 2, but what the
hey.  Anyways, back to the reinstalling process.

oh yeah, Happy Holidays!

All Because Of Random

wanna buy a laser beam? (link)

play with light sabers (flash)

pierced eye glasses?! (link)

some hard-core wrestling right there folks (video)

EA is in another buying mood (link)

uuhhmmm, you call that a real dress? (video)

firing on all cylinders (link)

Family Guy flash games (flash games)

Sin City trailer (video)

great Mike Tyson quotes (link)

she fricking blocked me (flash)

scared of santa photo gallery (pics)

big boards ranking (link)

Micheal Jackson's Thriller with LEGOS (video)

So my Mom asked me to go to HoneyBaked with her to buy some hams for
Christmas.  I commented that I didn't even think their hams were
that good, but my Mom said that I should just humor my Dad because it's
a tradition for him.  So there was a long line to get them hams,
but we were able to get two of them.  I put them at the trunk of
my car and brought them home.  When I opened my trunk, I find that
the Ham juice spilled from the bag and all over my trunk!  It was
a mess and I had to clean out my trunk because of it. So let this be a
lesson to you all, don't talk smack against ham.

uurrhhmmm, I'm experiencing some pain lately.  For the past weeks,
I've been getting aches in my right leg.  I blame it on sitting
down in my work van too much, but I dunno.  I've kinda just let it
slide because I believe in willfully healing myself back.
Yesterday I woke up and my left big toe was inflamed!  I think it
was a combination of my sock and my work shoes, but it's kinda hurting
now.  But still, I refuse to go to a doctor or anything because I
don't want to spend money on something so unimportant.
So now I got aches in my right leg, and a left foot with an inflamed
toe, what a combination ey? I am walking with a little bit of a limp
now, but c'mon, I'm willing myself to get better or maybe I should use magic....

... speaking of magic.  Here's one of the first official promo pics for Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire

also, wouldn't you know it?  Book 6 : Harry Potter and the
Half-Blooded Prince will be released July 16, 2005.  That's my
birthday! I think that's pretty darn cool.