Sad news

I just learned that one of my uncles passed away unexpectedly.  I don't know what happened, but I sort of wish now that I had read The Lost Symbol so that I could have told him how bad it sucked when he asked me about it; I'd been meaning to give him a full rundown of it eventually (since he refused to read it himself), and now I won't be able to.  We used to act like horrible snobs whenever we got together and bitch about all the bad books that we'd read; I'm really going to miss him.  Whatever it was he went through, I hope it was quick and painless.  I have to remember that I've been relatively fortunate--to my recollection, I've lost very few people so far, and am hoping it will stay that way for at least a while.  If anything, I'd imagine Uncle isn't too pleased about the situation either, but I suppose I can always go on reading bad books in his name and griping to no one about how incomprehensible I found Nabokov's prose in Pale Fire.  He was the only person I know about who ever really got that.

R.I.P., Uncle.  No one ever complained about books with me half so well.

In other news, PopCap got back to me and now I haz Plants vs. Zombies on my new computer :DDDDD It's kind of a grace note in light of the news from earlier today, but I sure am glad to have it; I need this game soooooooo bad, like you have no idea.  Also it was nice coming home to find the free download information lurking in my email...in other news my new comp apparently won't repeat letters when I hold down the key unless they happen to be vowels, wtf.  CONSONANT DISCRIMINATIONNNNNNNNN okay it also repeats n, again, WTF.

Anyway, an obligatory shot of my (relatively) new plants doing their thing:

Meeting Crazy Dave for probably about the 150th time or so:

Great success:

Now if only I could start making money...I never remember what level it is that they start leaving you money lol.

Also recently (the day before Thanksgiving, when I precipitously buggered off from work at the half-day mark in order to get a giant bloody needle stuck through my ear in two places, I swear I'm not actually insane) I got an industrial piercing; it hurt like hell but surprisingly the pain didn't seem to last as long as it did when I got my cartilage pierced, but maybe I was just delirious with pain HAHAHA.  Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to drive...but it's not as if I was fainting so I don't think my judgement was too impaired hahaha.  The piercer was quick and friendly and professional and also super sweet--she made quite sure that I knew we could always take a break between piercings (while I was lying flat going NOGODGETITOVERWITH)--though she had to pierce through my right cartilage piercing (because it was getting in the way); the only way my experience could have been better was if I'd been suddenly and temporarily hit by a bout of congenital analgesia, I am not kidding when I say that shit hurt like a mofo.  And now of course I'm thinking of getting another two (lobe) piercings, one in each ear, and I took out my left cartilage piercings cus they were bleeding and swelling up like bullfrogs despite having been pierced like half a year ago, so I'm going to have to get those repierced I think, but not until after they heal...since when was sticking needles through your ears so addicting?  I don't even like needles, and the aftercare is a pain in the ass, I really wish I'd known sooner that I was going to have to order a special kind of soap off of Amazon :( (RESEARCH???  WATS THAT???)  I wasn't too happy about having to take out the left carts either, but I have to admit it's made sleeping on my side, and just sleeping in general, one whole hell of a lot easier.  Speaking of which, I should probably take a cue from my recent failures to get up with my alarm instead of just turning it off and going back to sleep and actually go to bed at a reasonable hour (that hour being now)...but I edited two papers today, and if that doesn't justify my staying up all night and playing Plants vs. Zombies like an idiot I don't know what does :DDDDDD

Firefox crashes 2011: 99
Books read 2011: 1