Hello, it's groundhog time and apparently winter is going to end around the third week of March.

Which is when it always does anyway.

So... I watched a ton of "The First 48" lately. They had a couple good marathons to set up some new episodes. There was also a run of "How It's Made" that I think lasted four days. Wow. I think I know how to build anything, now.

I continue to look for work. I signed up to be a volunteer at the library, just so I have something to do on days when I am not at interviews.

I've had time to do a lot of reading. I finish a couple of books a week, at least, and I'm looking forward to summer reading. I also found a bunch of free stuff on Google Books. Feels pretty good to download the epub files and put them on my Sony Reader. Some of the books are old and would cost a lot to buy in print. Some of them probably aren't even printed anymore. I really enjoy being able to read big ol' books without spending a nickel.

My video game skills are lately not so hot. I got some new games, but I took a shellacking in Smash Court Tennis 3, and I wreck out a lot in Indy 500 Evolution. Still, I don't want to give up. I want to play online some more. That'll help me get more practice.

The World Cup is coming up in a few months. I am enjoying the regular games on Fox Soccer Channel, from the different countries' club leagues. They play Italian and English games all the time. There are even stations that carry the Greek and Argentinian leagues. It's nice not to have to wait forever between coverage, like I used to years ago when all we had were basic channels.

Gotta go for now. See you later. Thanks. Here's my dog's toy football. Wonder if Fetch will ever be in the Olympics one day.

Hi, everyone. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas or whatever you were celebrating. I got a new camera, which I have yet to try out. I also got some X Box games. I lost my first two FIFA games, but I guess you have to learn in everything. I'm also playing a really offbeat racing title, "Crash Time," where you drive on the Autobahn and try to arrest people who are wanted for crimes. It's harder than it looked in the ad (isn't that a surprise). There is a ton of traffic in front of you, and since you play a police officer, you have to not damage the car or stop the wrong person. The crooks are good at getting away from you. I've played twice so far, and both times wound up getting too much damage on my own car... but that's what practice is for. There are a lot of cases in the game. Hopefully I'll be able to solve some of them soon.

I'm watching a pretty good anime series, "Moonlit Mile," and also got a Japanese car show video. It's been good to relax with some Netflix titles. I hadn't slept in two days at the end of the work week, so I was glad to get some time off. If the weather is good today, I'd like to do some things outdoors as well.

I've been watching a couple new things on TV. There's "Campus PD," which follows all sorts of mayhem at different schools. It's just like "Cops," but they follow the college area police, instead of the city and state ones. It's all right as such. Today I watched part of the "National Parks" series on PBS. It's really well-filmed and makes a good introduction, if you haven't had time to travel to many of them. "Cats 101" isn't so new, but it is very cute and has a lot of good details on the different cat breeds. I also have a bunch of other DVDs to get to. A few of them are movies; some of the rest are Discovery specials.

Okay, that's it for the moment. See you soon. Thanks!

(This is a picture of the neighbors' house, with the Christmas lights on. The camera was wobbly... which kind of makes it look better!)

Hello. I watch the teevee every day, and I have learned one thing: the commercials on the C&I (Crime and Investigation network) are longer than the shows themselves. Could they please put a stop to the epic commercials? I swear, they take a break in the night's episode of "The First 48" or something, and several dozen minutes later, you know almost everything about the upcoming episode of "Philly"! All right, I'll watch it! I'll watch it! Just stop driving me crazy!

Whew. On the good side of things, I've been watching Champions League soccer. Today is Arsenal vs. Olympiakos PK. I like the Champions because it gives you a chance to see different teams from all over the place.

My dog wandered over to say hi, but she'll have to know, I'm out of cookies.

I finally did get around to watching the new show, "Steven Segal: Lawman." The verdict is... it's not bad. I've only seen one episode so far, and it was kind of weird, but it's interesting to see how he teaches the other officers about aikido, how he catches people on the run and then what he does to relax, such as play in a band. I'm surprised that I had a good time watching this show. I think I'll keep watching the rest.

That's it for now. Thanks. I'll see you soon.

This is a nice group photo from not too long ago: my parents and Keisha on the couch.