Yup, get used to that sound all night today . Possibly the only time of the year we're allowed to blow things up without getting arrested. Here, it's raining pretty heavy, so I'm laughing at the fools who are failing at lighting fireworks (seriously, it's not as loud as it should be ). I'm going to have a few beers and call it a night. Anyway, Happy New Year's fellas and have a great '10 (doesn't quite sound right without a zero, does it?)! Oh, and for all you guys who love a great explosion: my boss told me about duct-taping two boxes worth of sparklers air tight, leave one out as a fuse, and watch armageddon ensue in bite sized convenience. Apparently, it was an explosion so loud it shook the windows from stores across the resturant, and scared the hell out of everyone around. I wasn't around that time, but maybe next year....

More specifically, you guys . (I could care less about the 62% that make up internet trolls and fanboys ). Enjoy the awesome meals, time with the family/friends, and...what else, seeing what really sweet gifts we got. Take care guys, and happy holidays!

Life has many conflicts, but I never thought that purchasing a laptop would be such a huge pain in the ass. First, I saw this sweet Alienware laptop, with some minor tweaks, turned out to be something I was willing to afford. I took out a $2,000 loan from Dell (which I'm estimating I can pay back in about five months, giving the holiday bonuses and tax return) and let my imagination go wild. Anyway, I'll admit that I went over the budget a couple times, but eventually built a model I was proud of ($1,970 total, including tax and shipping...yeah, I like to stretch it ). After an hour or so, I got an e-mail telling me my order was put on hold: unable to obtain authorization from Financing...so I call the customer support number in my e-mail, and let me tell you...if you thought Microsoft customer support was horrible, I was put on hold about six times with one minute of conversation each break . To top it off, I couldn't make a lick of sense what the operator was saying, so all I could make out of the conversation was my message was sent (about my purchase), and something should come in my e-mail or snail mail in about 3-5 days...seriously, I had to fill about a half dozen apps just to create my Dell account, half an hour building my specs, filling out my personal information at least three times, waiting for an approval for a loan, then have it all crash and burn over my order being on hold...honestly, I was hoping to get it in my hands before Christmas, and if it went according to plan, I would've had it by the 21st. So, I have no idea what's up with my order. I've been checking for the past two days, and it's still in the pending process. Well, if worst comes to worst, I could just save up a couple paychecks and pay the thing off in full (and maybe add in more stuff I had to kiss goodbye ) by the end of January. So, nothing much I can really do but wait and see, and by then I should have the money to fully tweak the thing anyway, so I really have nothing to lose but patience (and for someone like me, that is torture ).