barely fatal

In some regions of this little blue planet the new year has already begun. I’ve seen the party in Sydney, Austria. Pardon me, Australia. Now, does it make any difference? I got me a bottle of Tequila and a few lemons. That should do the trick.

Christmas was just as cozy and quiet as I hoped it would be. I had wonderful days with my family and I enjoyed it very much. When it comes to the food – or feast – maybe a little too much. I brought tons of chocolate and cookies with me, as usual.

My sister got me a USB pot warmer for Christmas, THE geek gadget number one. It doesn’t get very hot. In fact, not at all. But it also serves as a 3-port USB hub, so be it.
I also got some books, a new alarm clock and one of those great suitcases with wheels, perfect for short flights.
As every year, I also bought a few things for myself. I got a MX518 mouse and finally a proper mouse pad. I’ll probably change the mouse for a G5 though – I miss the 4-way scroll wheel just too much.

I won’t make any wishes for next year. It’ll come, and I’ll see what I’ll get, and the world’s gonna see what it gets, and heck, lets be honest: What difference does it make? I won’t start smoking or anything, and eventually I’ll visit New York. Maybe!

Have a great party!

… as every year, James. This is the last post before Christmas. For the first time ever, nobody asked me for a wish list. Meaning: Either I don’t get any presents, or very interesting ones. I don’t know what I should fear more.

So, a happy weekend to all of you. Enjoy the food, family, presents, warmth, laziness … and if you happen to have none of these things — no, I seriously hope not one of you lives in such a cold place.

“Christmas is not about being with people you like. It’s about being with your family.”

I just noticed, barely fatal is one year old as of … three days ago!

One year of stuff, things and then some! Important debates, read and discussed by a vast, constantly growing number of spambots as well as not more than a handful patient humans who don’t have anything better to do and simply feel too responsible.

What does the future bring? Will we expand even more, maybe get another reader? Become all-controversial, splitting our readership in … two? Or will we just go on, doing what we do (whatever that might be, I know I’ll play a lot of sinful, destructive killer games before I get arrested and sentenced to 10 years of Pony Ranch Tycoon).

Congratulations, you have just reached the middle of this post. For your amusement, a few statistics. In one year,

• we wrote 111 posts (this one’s not included)
• people commented 161 times
• we had 59.1% IE and 33.9% Firefox users, most of them on Windows (93.4%)
• quick: GER 30%, UK 27%, US 20%, NOR 8%, SWE 3%
• one of you read us with his/her Nokia 6600 occasionally, now that made me cry a tear of joy
• we intercepted 5,616 spam messages!

Yes, the last number’s right, and that’s only after I turned on trackbacks and unregistered comments some time in spring. So lets celebrate! Here’s a picture of some random guy who doesn’t look like me at all.

So, on Friday we had our company’s Christmas party. Food and drinks were great, the music was just way too loud. We couldn’t talk unless standing right at the smallish bar or outside in the cold. Anyways, it was a fun night and although I wasn’t as hammered as I thought I would be when I came home, I slept well through Saturday.

When I finally got up, I had my brunch in front of the TV and after that never left my sofa. Just being lazy sometimes is the only way to go. Especially on cold rainy winter days. I started off with War Of The Worlds. Now that’s a fairly good movie, despite the odds, having Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and aliens. The end was weak, but well, that’s how the story goes. The graphics are great, as is the sound. The little girl (what was her name again) played incredibly well, what an actress! Dumb aliens, but still a cool movie.

Then I continued with Lord Of War. The trailers showed that one off as a fun action flick, which it isn’t. In fact, it’s pretty serious business, and yet hardly political. Nick Cage plays an arms dealer, selling all kinds of light guns and war materials to war lords all over the world, including the worst of the worst. He is chased by the ATF and other agencies, but with little success. In the end, after he got his brother killed, his family has left him and he’s in government custody, he is set free, because he does the jobs the government can’t. Some of the story bits seems totally absurd and silly, but if you believe the (independent!) film makers, the movie portraits real-world events and tactics used by actual arms dealers. Seeing all that really gives you the creeps. Besides the ethical importance, the screenplay is very entertaining and the cinematography is top notch. A safe recommendation.

Coming up next: Deadwood, I think.