As the year draws to a close, it is fitting to spend this time reflecting on the year (from my eyes).

This year certainly has been a test and a trying one for me mentally — with stress and worry certainly playing a huge large part. With problems encountered throughout the year (which I do choose to keep private and not discuss), I do owe my current wellness to my wife and family. They certainly redefine the statement “love is an unconditional” as they have given me the priceless support and help I needed to get through a very tough year. I am truly blessed to be around a wonderful wife and family. I am not sure how my wife tolerated my mood swings and emotional struggles this year but I am grateful for her patience and unconditional love. Thank you J, you have showed me that love is a strong bond that can’t be cracked with the toughest of tests. I will certainly be there for you through thick and thin as you have been here for me when I needed you the most. I love you!

I would lie if I said this year didn’t have spurts of happy times, one in particular — the birth of J’s nephew, a cute and adorable addition to an already lovely family. As I am writing this post, I can’t think of other truly happy times besides the end of year Thanksgiving and Christmas get togethers with the family. It seems that being with the family makes me forget some of the stressful times I have experienced throughout the year.

Things that stand out this year (in current national and global news) that made an impact on me were the Amish shootings, the mudslide in Philippines, the Indonesian earthquake and yet another tsunami that killed thousands (in May and July) and Saddam Hussein being found guilty (finally). I also felt more than ever this year that global warming and other environmental concerns are becoming a reality with increased natural disasters and occurances throughout the world. It was pretty unusual to see that many earthquakes and tornadoes happening nationwide too — a scary thought about the earth’s future if we don’t do something about it pretty soon. I seemed to remember a picture on Google that really stuck in my mind i.e. a Polar Bear sitting on a melted iceburg fragment surrounded thousands of smaller other ones as a resultant of the earth’s climate — one that might put them on the endangered species.

This was also the year I sighed at yet another (boring) Roger Federer dominated tennis season, cheered in excitement of seeing my fav. lady tennis player Martina Hingis back on the ladies tour (and winning), watched Andre Agassi play his last ever tennis match and was in awe of Tiger Woods obliteration of his golf rivals in all tournament play. Ohio State made it to the BCS Championship and the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t do too bad by reaching the 2nd round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Also enjoyed the World Cup (soccer) tremendously, something I look forward to every 4 years (as it is only a once in 4 year event).

2006 introduced me to a great outlet of expressing my frustrations, stresses and happiness too — blogging. In the process, I met some good blogging friends along the way and found a loyal group of Foo Logs readers too. What will I ever have done without blogging technology! Thanks to Blogs, Blogging and all of you out there — your well wishes and genuine concerns when I was pouring my heart out certainly went a long way.

As I conclude this post, sitting here alone in my in-laws living room on a recliner with dimmed lights, typing away @ 2.36 am in the morning, I do certainly look forward to the new year, a chance to put 2006 behind me and look to the future. With J next to me, the endless family love and support from my family, I know the future is bright and it’ll stop raining sometime. I can’t forget to mention the joy cute Miles brought to us during the year and I am sure he’ll grace us with his presence for many years to come. (BTW: he is sleeping on my right foot as I type this post).

I do have several New Year’s resolutions/ goals to accomplish (and could realistically achieve). That would certainly make 2007 a promising year and a year that could bring many smiles and happiness back to me again … something I have been missing for a while now.

So with this, I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year. I hope 2007 will be a fruitful one for you and your family! Look forward to reading many of your blogs again and for years to come.

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So a day before Xmas and I am sick! My stomach has been bothering me and my head is spinning — been like that for the past couple of days. We went to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner yesterday and I couldn’t even smell the food without being nauseated. A little better now but hopefully I’ll be ok tomorrow or else it’ll be a real crumby Xmas & Xmas dinner with the rest of the family. Yesterday, it is the first time that I actually went to bed at 7pm and slept all the way through lunch the next day.

Anyways, hope everyone is doing well and got their presents wrapped. Poor J, she has wrapped so many presents for the nephews and family the past few days. J showed me a big boxed present from the her mom and dad which mysteriously appeared yesterday, snug in the house from under my eyes — wonder what it is. I am so envious that kids get so many presents nowadays. Certainly can’t say there isn’t anything to buy for the kids with the hundreds of different toys available at the toy store. Wonder who will be lucky enough out there to get a Playstation 3 or a Nintendo Wii this year.

I stumbled across this on digg — pretty amusing. The site allows you to create a fake identity according to 3 preferences i.e. gender, what country you’re from and type of name (i.e. chinese, danish, german etc) OR you can just choose the random setting. It will then crank out your fictitious fake identify together with a full name, address, email address, telephone number, birth date, mother’s maiden name, fake credit card number and social security number.

For grins, I wanted to have a French name, living in America and this is my fake identity…

Philip Perreault
2636 Hemlock Lane
Raymondville, TX 78580

SSN: 449-93-4834

I had fun with this one with the family — wifey is a Chinese, father-in-law is an Australian and mother-in-law is an Italian.

Goto the Fake Name Generator Site

Watched the animated movie Happy Feet yesterday. I wasn’t too interested in going to go see it but was pleasantly surprised. The music was fun and enjoyable, and had one of the best dance choreography I have ever seen in an animated movie yet. The animation isn’t like the other movies this year - there was a lot of attention to landscape, facial and perspective detail. The view of the animated movie was not from a natural observers point of view but from a different angle. Robin Williams, Elijah Wood, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and others did a good job to match their various characters. The movie does give a perfect message to everyone — being different is not necessary a bad thing and that everyone has his or her own special talent. Kudos to the producers and it certainly warrants being number one on the US box office movie charts.

So the 6th installment of Rocky came out today. I may have to watch it as I am curious which way they take the storyline (for a franchise that is way past its sell by date).

On another note, I think I’m going to gain about 30 pounds this next couple of weeks with all the Xmas cookies around me. There was Xmas cookie decorating last Sunday and there are more cookies of all colors and shapes here. Temptation of the worse nature!

Five days to Christmas and 11 more days till the end of the year. This year certainly zipped past and I look forward to a productive 2007.

BTW: Be sure to visit my Blog of the Week “The Island Life”. You can click on the thumbnail on the right column to visit it. It’ll give you a good Hawaiian feeling.

Let’s welcome my Blog of the Week - The Island Life. This Hawaiian blog just makes me envious of the great beaches, clear blue water, warm weather, cool breezes and great scenery they have there instead of the cold and dreary weather here.

The blog is written by Local Girl, a Full-time Mommy, part-time Flight Attendant, occasional wife living a chaotic life in Hawaii. She is a regular reader of The Foo Logs as I am of hers too and I have to say that every time she puts up a Wordless Wednesday photo of Hawaii — I am extra jealous. LOL, rub it in why don’t you. Her flavorful blog comprises of posts of her family life and happenings in Hawaii’s main island. She also has adorable kids too in “Girlie Girl” (4 years old) and “Baby Bug” (11 month old baby).

So why don’t visit The Island Life, be sure to say The Foo sent you. I promise she’ll make you feel welcome and she’ll probably wish you a “Mele Kalikimaka” Hawaiian style.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out Girlie Girl’s cute letter to Santa while you are there.

I have a new favorite on TV — Justice. It’s about a bunch of dream team criminal/ civil lawyers that defend clients involved in controversial and newsworthy cases. It is great in that it gives you a detailed perspective of how lawyers trial cases in CSI type style graphical reenactments and investigations. The series is brilliant and it is no surprise that it is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer… all his productions have a distinct “keep you off your seat” flair and excitement. Been catching up on the Justice episodes on my TIVO this week, I think I must have watched about 6 episodes.

Getting ready for another road trip today — seems that I just came back from one! This one would be a long one at the in-laws i.e. will be there for the next 2 weeks for Xmas and through New Year. Will be still blogging though! They just installed high speed internet too, so I won’t be pulling my hair out with dial up like I have used there in the past. Nothing worse than going from my usual high speeds to dialup speeds — it’s like waiting for water to boil.

BTW, I have not been very good in visiting and reading my usual fav blogs lately. Sorry, been pre-occupied and busy. Promise I’ll visit you soon. Thanks again for keeping up your visits and commenting.

Anyways, hope everyone has a good weekend. We’ll be having a long 8 hour drive but at least we won’t be taking a long drive home for another 2 weeks yet. Miles doesn’t like it too much in the car but he’s a good kitty nevertheless.

“Honey, what do you want for Christmas?”

“Ummm, I dunno, maybe an 8-inch USB Pole Dancer?”

Marks & Spencer (a famous British store) started selling this 8-inch pole dancer last week but had to can it after complains and protests from angry shoppers. The Barbie-like pole dancer plugs into your computer’s USB port for power, comes with her own silver pole and actually dances to multicolored lights & disco music.

I am quite curious to know the thought behind selling it at a place like Marks & Spencer which is a store in the UK that has rich and dignified customers i.e. I was told when I lived in UK that M&S is where the Royal Family gets their food. I guess they feel that even the rich and famous need a little loosening up - especially during the Christmas time. LOL, I can just see Prince Charles’s face when he opens his Xmas present up (from Prince Harry) to reveal a box plastered with the title “Girls Girls Girls” (yes, that’s what is on the box) on it.

(Sorry to digress) Since its controversial axe, demand for it has been high and now an online store Boys Stuff is selling it for £29.95 ($53) instead of the original £19.50. I could see it being a good present to give the in-laws as a joke. Those of you who want it for yourselves, order now and you’ll get it by 12/20.

The Poseidon Mystery Island Resort may be the world’s first underwater hotel. It is currently in construction and scheduled to open in late 2008. It is in competition with Dubai’s hyped $500 million 1.1 million square foot Hydropolis complex but may beat it to the title due to the later’s current “land acquisition” problems.

The hotel, which will sit in about 40 feet of water, will boast individual suites, as well as a library, a wedding chapel and a restaurant. In addition to scuba diving, the guests will be able to cruise around the lagoon in either a 16-person submarine capable of 300-foot-depths, or learn to pilot a three-person Triton sub, which can reach 1,000 feet.

Each individual suite will be 550 square feet large, will feature a Jacuzzi, and will be capped by four-inch-thick acrylic windows, which make up about 70 percent of the wall space. Fish feeders will fire food into the water to attract local wildlife. To prevent overfeeding, the system will be limited to a prescribed number of cartridges each day. Rate will start at $15,000 per room and they have already taken reservations.

Love the idea, but a little out of my price range in a hotel room. I guess the rich and famous might like it.

Update: Specifics of the two resorts had been mistakenly swapped and thus corrected. Thanks to Bruce Jones of US Submarines for pointing that out.

Via [Popular Science]