I completely forgot about the New Year's Eve broadcast from Times Square until midnight. When I remembered, I only watched because I wanted to see if any terrorist activities had occurred.

I made the long trek in the snow to attempt to acquire some decent food, but that ended in failure. The place that I went to looked like it was closed. The windows were covered. I didn't bother to try opening the door, because the place just looked wrong. There were no signs anywhere to indicate what type of establishment it is. There was only a building number. I should have expected this, because there were no comments or ratings on Yelp, but it was my only hope. There are no other options within an acceptable walking distance. If there is still no train service by Friday, I will do the 80 minute walk to the only train station in operation anywhere near me.

I had originally expected only to have a 3 day weekend due to Christmas, but the blizzard has resulted in a much longer period without work. Today is the third day without train service in my neighborhood. Since the weather got a little warmer, I decided to finally venture outside to take photos and make a deposit at the bank. The bank isn't close, but the 2 mile journey was the only option due to the lack of train service. It took 90 minutes in each direction due to the amount of snow and the unevenness of it.






I will venture out again tomorrow for groceries and to take more pictures..

My family never openly expresses affection, but we care about each other's well-being. My sister called on Christmas Eve. Neither of said "Merry Christmas", although we discussed Christmas and religion from an intellectual perspective. Her excuse for calling was to ask about why Metamucil tastes like a drink that our mother occasionally prepared for us when we were young. It was clear that she just wanted to talk. She called again today to ask about cooking oils. I think she was just really checking to see if I was OK.

Despite the fact that I have never celebrated Christmas beyond the occasional exchange of gifts, Christmas has always had some kind of feeling associated with it. I never knew exactly what it was, but it was clearly something unique. This is the first time that I am aware of not feeling it. I think that the feeling of Christmas for me is a mixture of the "Olympics feeling" coupled with the experience of hearing Christmas music and seeing Christmas decorations.

When I was young, the Olympics was a highly immersive experience that occurred over a relatively short period of time compared to the duration between recurrences. Every television in my home was tuned to the Olympics when it was on, and it was on 24 hours a day back then. After it was over, the Olympics were seldom mentioned anywhere for several years. Christmas is very much like this. It's something that gets rare mention for 11 months, followed by complete immersion.

I think that the feeling is absent this year because I have seen fewer decorations and because I no longer listen to the radio except when my alarm clock radio comes on in the morning.

I notice a lot of people outside my window. This is very odd, because I am on the 6th floor. They are clinging precariously to the exterior window sills of my apartment. I ask someone why she is there and she tells me that my upstairs neighbor is having a party. They are waiting to get in.

The scene changes to a large space that looks like it might be a hotel lobby. There is a party in progress, but it somehow doesn't seem like it's my neighbor's party. I am carrying a handgun which is poorly concealed by wrapping it in a white towel. I do not know why I am carrying the gun, but I realize that I must not let anyone know that I have it.

I need to urinate and start looking for the bathroom. There is no specific room dedicated to that function, but there is a group of toilet stalls in the middle of the large space where the party is happening. It seems to be a unisex bathroom and devoid of privacy. All the stalls seem to be occupied as I walk around. I eventually see one stall freed, but I hesitate a moment to contemplate the possible smell. An attractive woman slips into the stall before I finish deciding if I should go in.

I continue my search and begin to wonder if I should just use my gun to force someone to leave one of the stalls. I decide against it because there are too many witnesses, and I would be a primary suspect, because this is my neighbor's apartment. I decide to return home to urinate.

As I approach the exit, I notice two police officers. I wonder why this party needs such security. I briefly panic when I notice that there is a metal detector at the entrance. I somehow got in earlier without needing to pass through that. My handgun suddenly transforms into a small rifle. I try to conceal it in my sleeve, but the protrusion looks too suspicious. As I get closer to the exit, I realize that only people who are entering go through the metal detector. There is a separate exit that does not require a scan.

The alarm clock awakens me before I go through the exit.

I have been planning to upgrade my computer for several months. In October, I purchased the motherboard. I was planning to buy RAM on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or one of the other pre-Christmas sales. The goal was to get each component at the best price within a reasonable time period.

I had to abandon the plan when my old computer started failing to boot properly. It got stuck at the BIOS splash screen more than half the time I tried to start the computer. This was a very bad sign and immediate replacement was required.

The RAM that I was planning to buy increased in price on Black Friday, which was completely unexpected. I bought something else with similar specifications for slightly less. The CPU that I originally planned to buy was an AMD Phenom II X6. A black edition was recently released, and that lowered the list price for the existing CPUs, but that had no effect on the actual retail price at any of the major vendors. Instead of buying the CPU that I was planning to get for the upgrade, I purchased a Sempron 140, which is a downgrade from my old CPU. It's compatible with all the other components that I purchased for the upgrade and it only costs $36. The plan is to continue waiting for the X6 prices to go down.