My stomach hates me for reasons unknown. I hope it wasn't the SmartDeli bolonga sandwich I ate. God, how I had missed bolonga, and how I had rejoiced to that same God about finding it again in a meatless form (though the classification of bologna as meat is questionable enough).

I'm working on downloading SimCity 4 for Mac. This will prove to be my ultimate downfall, my "Waterloo." I downloaded a pirate copy the other day that I was disturbed to find was made for PC. I moved it to our desktop unit, and rejoiced in playing the game for five minutes before the computer was overwhelmed and bombed. It's so insanely geographic that I might enter the rabbit hole and tumble down for the remainder of time. And this new (I say new, but it's nearly four years released and sadly too much for our desktop PC) version is beautiful.

I'd like to think that I've garnered more of a control on my addictive personality, having quit meat now nearly two months ago, quit beer about a month and a half ago, and psuedo-quit my stinky cigars about five days ago. Everytime I smoke one, I quit, until I smoke another a number of days later. I guess those stinky cigars and cheese are my final two vices to deal with. I've always wanted to adopt a more Buddhist lifestyle, I guess.

My semester may end somewhat quietly. I've finished my major works for climate change and disasters, and only have a minor final remaining in each. Well, I have a project for climate change that I've been putting off for about a month that's due Wednesday, but I think I'll hammer it out with the help of my (also apathetic) group. Global economy will require no paper. What remains is a major paper, and a portion of my dissertation, for Qualitative methods. It's a scary notion to work on, but time will come when my thoughts are moving that it will hammer out.

I can't wait for a month-long break for Christmas. I will actually need at least a week or 10 days of this to recover from the semester, no matter how quietly it may end.

SimCity is 90% downloaded, and has something like 54 minutes remaining. My little iBook will work on this project overnight and report to me in the morning. I will undoubtedly lay in bed awake like a kid the night before Christmas, staring into space and dreaming not of my new Schwinn bike, but of how I plan to lay out my new metropolis. Crack itself can't possibly be that enriching.

Two mentions of Christmas and this is certainly not accidental, not on my part but on the part of the structured concept of Corporate America. I'm quickly beginning to hate everything about Christmas. I like family, but not the hubbub that comes from family because of Christmas. I hate when family gets offended by my hatred of Christmas, and I hate when Christmas becomes a point of contention, such as if will we be home on that particular day to celebrate it. I hate non-religious Christmas, and I don't like giving or receiving gifts. I certainly don't like shopping. I don't like that Christmas season began this year on Halloween day. I could have dressed as Santa Claus for Halloween and probably made money from Best Buy for putting the idea into people's heads that they need to shop. By 2020, it will start on the day after Christmas, and television ads in July will feature children looking out the window at snow, and couples cuddling up to cocoa and fireplaces with a lit tennenbaum. I don't like that a holiday has been turned into a profit-driving machine. I would choose not to participate at all, but see the part about family contentions of Christmas.

Luckily, this year we will go home early, and hopefully celebration will be minimal. My parents are too poor for presents, and we are too, so that will be just like any visit. Amy's parents insist on presents, so that likely means more empty Build-a-Bear skins courtesy of Uncle Kenny among other things. I do like the ideas of Christmas. And I do like Amy and my new tradition of moving the futon mattress into the living room and creating a massive pile of human, dog and cat in our living room next to the Christmas tree while we watch corny movies late into the night. But why stress out something that could be so simple and nice?