2008 has been an interesting year. The biggest thing has been a mixed blessing. After 11 years at the same job, having a great deal of difficulty making ends meet, constantly working and always tired, I finally left. I moved half way across the country from CA to TX. The new job pays a wage that is comfortable for the region I am living. I have paid off the student loans (finally) and am within a few paychecks of being debt free. I find I have time off of work now, which is great! Except all my bestest, nearest, dearest friends live back in CA, and I miss them something fierce. So, I feel very fortunate that I finally feel financially comfortable, but not so fortunate as I am a bit lonely. Time will cure the second. I just gotta get out of my shell and meet folks.

That said, 2008 has been rough on those I care about, so it can kiss my ass. I look forward to the hope that is 2009. To making new friends, and having time to spend with them. And to the New Hope that will descend on Washington on the 20 Jan 2009.

Sláinte! L'Chayim! Cheers!

abc.com says Charlie Brown special is showing 8pm eastern/7pm central tonight in case anybody is looking for it.

The new Muppet Christmas special is on tomorrow!

So I got home this evening, and there was an unexpected box from Amazon waiting for me.

Inside: A wrapped present!

Thank you, Austin! I had forgotten about that, and I just turned it on!

...And my Secret Santa is Barb! I got a Time-Life picture book, Strange but True: The World's Weirdest Wonders.

Thanks, Barb!

I got a wonderful box of soaps from my secret santa! THANKS! They smell fantastic. What a lovely gift particularly because it supports Serrv. Super fab. Thank you.

...And my Secret Santa is Barb! I got a Time-Life picture book, Strange but True: The World's Weirdest Wonders.

::looks sheepish::

Amazon wouldn't let me send anonymously, darn them. And I'm HORRIBLE about getting to post offices. I guess I sort of suck at the Secret part of the Santaing. Ah well, the intent was definitely there and lesson learned. Next time I get my lazy ass to the post office.

The secret part is pretty optional.

And my Secret Santa is Barb! I got a Time-Life picture book, Strange but True: The World's Weirdest Wonders.

Ooh, that sounds like good Secret Santa.

I have no secret santa. I do, however, have a Wallybee, and an early Christmas pressie courtesy thereof. It's Life: The Science of Biology (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Science-Biology-David-Sadava/dp/0716799014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229484564&sr=1-1). It's all Hec's fault! A few weeks ago he asked what uni course people would want to do, just for themselves. Got me to thinking, I love the weird and wonderful (and the Wallybee), but it's really about time I had some more rigour in my biology knowledge. Time I got beyond the popularisations and into a genuine biology textbook.

So, I do some careful research via the Uni of Melbourne and the accumulated resources of the interwebs, and a trip to the Melbourne uni bookshop for final confirmation of the book's credentials (it has a picture of an echidna). Wallybee then buys this magnificent 1,100 page tome for me. (She has since told people that in the Uni bookshop, I was like a mouse in a rice sack. I find that rather charming.)

Oh, also on the list, and unearthed by the same process: How Children Develop. [link] We're going to have one of our own shortly, after all. Won't it be awesome to watch him develop a sense of time and self and a bunch of other conceptual tools? (I think developing a sense of echidnas is a little more haphazard.)

But I digress. I now have this biology textbook, and the fun part about all this is that there is so much cool in living creatures, and I generally find that it just gets cooler, the deeper you go. Like, scientists get all excited about finding evidence of water on Mars, and that makes life possible there. And I think fair enough, but why is water so important here. I mean, obviously yes on Earth, life on this planet all needs water, but might not another hypothetical planet have another abundant molecule that can perform a similar role? And Chapter 2 gies some detail on what makes water so special, and it's really quite cool.

Now I'm in Chapter 3, the macromolecules (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids). 2008 is giving me proteins! I shall note here that Wallybee's father is a lecturer in biochemistry. She hasn't yet told them what I wanted for Christmas. Anyway, I am rapidly forming the impression that macromolecules are awesome.

I probably have the timing all backwards, I'm pretty sure that even third-year Biology students aren't supposed to be creating life, but we play the hand we're dealt, am I right?

ETA: Oh, and I get post 33! That's my user number. So that's nice.