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Random philosophical question of the day: Say a genie offered you the chance to just fast-forward, like, forty years of your life. You’d remember everything just as if you lived it, and your body would age just as if you lived it, and you’d have all the material possessions you would’ve had as well. The only difference is that you wouldn’t actually have to go through all that. You could just skip it. You’d have lovely memories (and photographs and T-shirts and whatever) to remember the happy bits, and you’d also have distance from all the bad stuff that will inevitably happen. Would you?

(Snookums and I thought this one up while drinking wine out on our balcony. I think I might go for it, while he would prefer to simply know that he’d be happy at seventy and to then go through life thinking that he had that to look forward to.)

I had the medical examination for my visa application today. They have to make sure that I don’t have any expensive diseases that I’m trying to make the Australian Health Service pay for. I had to have an HIV test, and a chest X-ray, and all sorts of other stuff. Luckily I had just managed to shake the rest of the hangover, so I think I passed. Oh, and if there are any sort of quotas based on country of origin, I’m golden. I was the only non-Asian person there, and there were a LOT of people waiting.

Notre Dame might actually hire a black coach. Huh. They’ve really been loosening up in the last few years. We had a female Irish Guard member, and a black leprechaun, so it’s not like this is a total surprise. I’m just annoyed that Jessie Jackson will probably feel like he had something to do with it, when in reality the guy is just the best person for the job.

Happy New Year! Ow, my head.
I hate wine. Wine hates me. But other than a nasty-ass hangover, I seem to have made it to 2002 in one piece. Our dinner was great; Snookums outdid himself with steaks and onion rings and yummy chocolate mousse for dessert. When we hit midnight, I spent an hour trying to call all my relatives in the States but the lines were mostly jammed. Hey! Y’all still haven’t reached midnight yet, have you? It won’t be for a couple more hours. So don’t let my suffering be in vain; let me be an example of the dangers of excessive New Year’s imbibing. It’s all about moderation, kids.

I’ve never been one to go all-out for New Year’s Eve. In fact, I can’t recall one single memorable occasion of it in my life. The big Y2K event? I was asleep at home. It always seems like people go to such trouble for what is essentially as meaningless as watching the odometer roll over. But somehow, this year, Fate has contrived for Snookums and I to host a New Year’s Eve dinner here in our apartment. (No, I won’t be doing the cooking.) I’ll let you know how it goes.

Jordan scored 51 points??? Jee-zus. If he keeps this up, I might have to eat some words. (I still feel partially vindicated by that all-time scoring low against my Pacers the other night.)

The Snook and I went to see The Man Who Wasn’t There yesterday and we both recommend it. I’m not a big film noir fan myself, but I really enjoyed it. Billy Bob Thornton is hilarious and amazing. (I loved the subtle and random fact that nearly everyone in the movie – male and female – hits on him at some point.) I could hardly believe that he’s the same guy that wears a vial of Angelina Jolie’s friggin’ blood around his neck. Tony Shaloub was great too, and he looks damn fine in a razor-sharp pinstripe double-breasted suit. He can explain Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle to me anyday. 🙂

Do you know how hard it is to buy dominoes in Australia? The other day I was randomly reminded of this game, Mexican Train Station, that my friend Hoey taught us all in Acapulco during Spring Break ’99. I thought it would be a fun one to introduce to the Snook and his friends, since they enjoy such things. Unfortunately I couldn’t find bloody “double-12 dominoes” anywhere. The only places I could find them were in the U.S. and wouldn’t ship internationally. Finally I resorted to the Yellow Pages (the dead tree version, no less!) and tracked down a store that would sell them to me. Man, the hardships of living Down Under. (Okay, so I’m not a pioneer or anything, but that was hard work!)

Apparently MBTV have finally finished recapping all of My So-Called Life. Unfortunately I can’t read them because their server is still stuffed. My web surfing has ground to a halt. I’m going to bed.

My friend Martin posted some pictures from me and Snookums’s former employer‘s Christmas party. It’s weird to see everybody and realize that things have gone on without us.