On Friday night I’m going to our Sin City-themed office party, and Saturday, to a murder mystery dinner where I play a 1770’s aristocrat whose lifestyle is one of debauchery. Should be an interesting way to get into the holiday spirit.

It’s time I owned up to this. I’ve been reading Questionable Content since its very beginning, haven’t missed a single one, haven’t told a single soul. Check it out.

(I highly recommend reading it from the beginning, it’s very rewarding).

A year ago today, I moved into my new house.

I was looking around the place this afternoon, remembering that day a year ago, how it had snowed so much, how I unpacked everything right away, starting with hooking up the computer, and met up with the gang at Laika’s later that night. It made me realize how very little has changed since then, how uneventful 2005 has been. After 2004 which saw a major breakup, trips to Morocco and Scotland, career change, house purchase and the adoption of my dog, 2005 was simply the year the dust settled.

There’s an upside to having a life that’s free of cataclismic changes; I got into the best shape I’ve been in since my early 20s, started up guitar again, made lots of new friends, and became better friends of the old ones. Things could be a lot worse. And after all, there’s still three weeks for something memorable to happen in 2005.

Last night a bunch of us coworkers gathered at a friend’s place for music and rhythm-based games. What a great time we had!

We played Guitar Hero, a game where the controller is a guitar with multicolored buttons for frets. Press the right buttons at the right time and tip the guitar in a cool way to keep the song playing correctly and score points. Next thing you know, you’ve got two non-musicians performing in perfect harmony. Too much fun.

Next we popped in Donkey Konga, which had four of us sitting each with a set of bongo drums and banging and clapping away in four-part harmony. That was my favorite.

The night finished with Karaoke Revolution. The best were the rounds where song picks were randomly selected by the console, yielding some pretty odd results.

I now have a few more ideas for my Christmas wish list!

I got this from Martine yesterday…

…after a few coworkers had proudly announced that they voted me Most Geeky for our upcoming end-of-the-year awards. My life holds few distinctions, but this is one I cherish with pride.

Not exactly working ungodly hours these days, all things considered, but still I feel like I’m working too much. Something about living alone with a Boston Terrier - whose conversational skills leave somewhat to be desired - means my mind doesn’t really get much diversion, so I keep working (in my head) until I get back into the studio the next day. That ain’t good. Last night I had a nightmare in which a monster from my game was chasing me. That wasn’t good either.

My guitar lessons are the perfect diversion. Doing something wholly unrelated to games that requires my undivided focus is the only way I’ve found of completely disconnecting. I’m always happy, at the end of a full day, to know have a lesson that night.

I’d enjoy this perfect job more if I got my mind off it more often. I have half a mind to make that a new year’s resolution, but I like to only make resolutions I can keep. Is that stacking the deck?

Barbara Daigneault was the cousin of my best friend in high school. She was in her final year of mechanical engineering, and helped her father, a professor, as a teaching assistant.

Geneviève Bergeron (1968-1989), a scholarship student majoring in civil engineering. She was also a talented musician.

Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (1958-1989), nursing student (she and her husband had chosen to have supper that fateful evening at the Ecole Polytechnique, because its cafeteria offered the lowest prices on campus).

Four more souls, unable to cope with the trauma of that day’s events, ended their own lives as a result.

Source: Wikipedia

Today I learned that the universe is slightly beige. That’s right - if you add up the color of all the light in the universe, you end up with a slight off-white tint (it was originally thought to be greenish white, but the universe is a sort of beige, it turns out).

I wish I could take credit for the latte simile in the title of this post, but Cosmic Latte does seem to be the official name of the universe’s color. Other possible names include Big Bang Beige and Cappuccino Cosmico. Ils sont fous ces astronomes.

Now do I still need to defend my preference for non-fiction literature?