first home purchase achieved

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Not my furniture
Ok, yup, I bought a place. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet. I mean, I believe it to be true and am slowly (slowly) warming up to the idea but until I actually move in it's still a rather unreal thing for me. Certainly, it is nice to not have to flip through ugly, ugly housing listings. Now, paperwork and all the tedium that it brings are my daily plate. Oh, and financial strains, indeed and oh yes.

Speaking of strains, my freakin' harddrive died! And it would seem I lost everything -- old photos (more recent ones are on flickr and at work), shows, movies.. and all my saved games! My personal notes on stuff. Gone. Well, not GONE gone.. presumably they're in stasis, comatose on a few drive platters, locked by a $1K key i.e. a data retrieval service. It's a frakking nightmare I tells ya! Although to be truthful I am getting more reading done at home; nearly halfway through The Crossing.

Saw a couple movies recently, A Serious Man, the new Coen brothers film, and The Road. The first quietly delighted me, the second made my blood boil; it seemed like a flagrant slap to those that had read the book. Looking back I suppose it's made the story more palatable to those who've not read it, but I still think it unnecessary and an insult to viewers. But ah well.

Winter is here with a frosty backfist to the cheeks. Bicycling has become officially a painful thing to do, so I've been taking the streetcar for the past couple of days. Gives me a chance to catch up on "The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe" podcast. HOLY COW it's -9 outside? That's Mother Nature for ya: turn around and she's kicking you in the ballsack.

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