Tom Tomorrow, whose website I read regularly, posts a disturbing image of Japan's latest craze 'Nipple Scarves'. You have to see it to believe it.

I'm happy to announce that GalleryIndigo.com has been listed in Paypal.com's excellent shop list. I've already received a few visits from the listing as well. Look for a new artist in the coming week or two.

This weekend my step sister Kelly is coming to town with her hubby Steven. He is displaying some audio equipment at CES (which would be fun to explore!). I'll be sure to post a picture as it's been a long time since I've seen them (their marriage, in fact). That's one of the benefits of living in Las Vegas, eventually everyone comes here whether for vacation or business conference.

My brother David links to an article by Joan Didion. In the article Didion examines some of the issues with the Political manipulation of the post 9-11 landscape. She points out many of the illegitimacies of the arguments being made for war and shines a much needed light on a few of the hypocrisies the USA would be committing if we invaded Iraq. What she doesn't do is offer a tangible solution for the problems we are faced with. Nor have I really seen anyone coming up with an alternate stratagy to deal with Isreal, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, all the -stans, Russia's unruly provinces, and the growing threat of Islamic extremists. To say we've made our own bed is certainly true. But sleeping in it will only cause a greater loss of American life.

How do we go back and fix mistakes made 50 years ago, what about mistakes made 500 or 1000 years ago (or more). We can't. We can, however, marshall our non-military forces of democracy for change (this would be education, infrastructure, industry, agriculuture, and arts) and start to work some magic where we can. The number one point of insertion for these forces of democracy should Afganistan. Too long has that neck of the woods been a playground for the Superpowers and oil-mongers. Now we have the opportunity to spend a generation or two doing good for the people of that country. When we're done, no children will be working to make bricks, no women's schools fire bombed, and commerce and democracy will flow from the region. Those who remember the age of Warlords and fighting for territory will be old and powerless against the ranks of educated and free citizens. Before we're done, a dozen countries will be lined up to ditch their dictatorships and enroll America's forces of change.

Until I see proof of its failure, this must be the model for change from now on.

Stacey and I had a great time and a great view for the NYE fireworks on the strip.



This view was just a few blocks from our house, which is nice. However, maybe next year we'll be able to afford a strip view at The Palms or Rio hotels. The parties were going for $100+++.

We also continued our tradition of the first photo of the New Year (and the first kiss too!).

Happy New Year's Eve everyone. I'm looking forward to this year's firework spectacular. However, we'll be viewing it from the very safe distance of Anthem. Too much craziness down on the strip.

I've started up a second blog that focuses on Las Vegas and Nevada. The plan is to link to many of the local journalists and weblogs rather than the local newspapers. My story today lists my top 5 best and worst events of 2002.

Two "Austin City Limits" broadcasts of note coming soon: Nickel Creek/Ralph Stanley - Dec 28, 11:00PM and Beck - Jan 4, 11:00PM. But Check your local listings.

I hope everyone has survived the holidays so far. I saw on the news that Dorothea and Linda got 30 some inches of snow for a very white christmas. Need any help digging out?

I've been working on GalleryIndigo.com quite a bit. Stacey is working on more eggs, David has some of his photos he plans to send my way, and beginning in January, I expect to have an amazing woodcarver with a variety of great items. However, I'm still looking for new artists. If you're interested please email me.

All you New York fans check this out. The Beast on the back of a business card.

Must. See. This. Before it's outlawed.

In lieu of a post today, we have a picture from our Honeymoon. This is Simba the lion from Disney's Animal Kingdom having just arisen in the morning.

Well, yesterday a mystery package showed up in the mail. It was a very nice gift for Stacey and I from the Pampered Chef. Alas, no hint of who the sender was could be found, nor could Pampered Chef determine the giver. All we know is that it was sent from 'overseas'. If you're the giver of this nice package, please drop me an email and identify yourself so we may send you our thanks.

Went to the post office today to see about shipping some items I've sold on ebay. However, the line was the longest I've ever seen it. Guess I'll be waiting until tomorrow morning to ship those items. The problem with our Post Office is that we share it with another zip code. It's also located in that zip code. I'd very much like to have one built nearby, but that's not likely since the USPS is hemoraging money at the moment and congress is looking at some serious internal surgery to stop the bleeding. I'd settle for a small 'in-store' USPS shipping center, at least that alleviate some of the crowds at the post office. I can't wait until we have to mail out everyone's Xmas gifts, the lines should be really pleasant then.

Alright, I've moved the website to it's new location. If it works, expect some changes soon.

Looking to redesign this website a little bit, move it to a new webhost (same one David uses), and get GalleryIndigo.com up and running. I am also busy listing a bunch of 'Star Trek' memorabilia on ebay. The auctions start tonight to take advantage of the rising levels of attention that should come with the release of the latest 'Star Trek' movie Nemisis.

Apparently Dean Kamen, and his band of workers, have done it again. Also note this weblog with news updated news about the Segway HT (can I have one for Christmas, please?).

Googleshare! Everybody's doing it. You want to do it too.

Ugh. Today was a doozy. It started off with a massage, which was nice as my back still bothers me plenty, and ended with a mad hunt for Stacey's wallet. But before I can tell you where the wallet was found, you must understand a primary concept of the illusionist's art. It's called 'blackspace' or the use of the color black to fool the mind into thinking a space is smaller than it is. Illusionists use this when sawing a person in half, putting blades through a box, making a person disappear or reappear, and even making a bunny come out of a hat. It's a pretty standard trick. The presense of a black band between two solids (like the frame of a box) is interpreted by the mind to be smaller than it actually is. Sneaking a 3 inch gap between two 2 inch frames gives you enough space to hide a slender sexy assistant (sometimes two!).

So...... we knew Stacey last had her wallet with her in the Escalade (she removed it from her pocket because it was uncomfortable). So the search centered around the truck, the garage, and the store. I searched the truck three times and found nothing, called the store twice and no one had turned in the wallet, and tossed the house (twice for good measure) in case Stacey's memory was foggy, still I found nothing. At this point we assumed the wallet was lost forever. We called to order new credit cards, started planning for a mad dash to the DMV to get a new license for Stacey (who is flying to Indiana on Sunday), and figuring out exactly what else would have to be replaced.

Then it was time to go pick Stacey up from work. We made it all the way home before I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A little piece of black between two beige pieces of car molding. I didn't notice it before because the black space there looked like a normal shadow effect where two pieces of molding would come together. But at some point during the drive, the wallet had slid around and a corner of it poked out from the shadow. I cried "Eureka!" and immediately the two gorillas that had been hanging on our backs ran off down the street.

The lesson, of course, is never remove your wallet from your pants pocket (well unless you need to get money or i.d. (eye-dee?) or something out of it) and remember the secrets you saw when watching Fox's Secrets of Magic Revealed III.

It looks like I'll be So Cal next week. The driver that hit us in July has another court date and I'm going to be there to make sure the D.A. and the Court understands that we're taking this case seriously. Plus, if he's convicted and sentenced, I'll be able to make a victim impact statement. It may be his first drunk driving conviction, but it is with injury, and it is with two uninsured accidents in his recent past.

A list of net.art sites from a German site. Just becareful, once you start poking around here, you'll find your free time very rare.

Sometimes you find an artists whose work just clicks with your tastes. Here is the work of one artist that I find absolutely wonderful.

BlogChalking is an effort to link all blogs together via one searchable engine and to find blogs from geographically and topically close locations to you. This post is my reminder to go back and add the code when I get a chance.

I need to write something here. At least so says my brother. So, I'm sitting here waiting for my ebay auctions to close and Stacey to get off work and I have a few moments, so let's see what comes to mind.

The holidays seem particularly short this year with Hanakah coming so close after Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to doing some cooking (as I mentioned before), seeing friends and family, and seeing Disneyland this holiday season. LaughingPlace.com has some great photos of the decorations up right now.

Speaking of holidays, with a great coupon and a sale, we just bought our first fake christmas tree at Sears. I did have to wait over an hour to pick it up while they fumbled around with which store would get the credit for the sale. But now it's waiting for us to set it up and hope everything is okay (unlike last year when we had to return the tree because of lights being out). Over the next few years, we hope to buy a few more trees so we can have all our ornaments out on display at Christmas.

We've also been dining room table shopping (thanks to a generous wedding gift from Stacey's Mom Rhoda) and found the table we want at a price we want. However, getting it delivered in time for Thanksgiving may be a problem. We've also found a bedroom (alas no link on WalkerFurniture.com) set that is a close enough match to our existing chest to complete the set.

Finally, I'm trying to start writing seriously again. I'll post some story ideas later.