So yesterday, I remembered the tamales my neighbor had brought a few days ago when we had people over. I opened the refrigerator and, not noticing them, I asked my wife if she had thrown them away. She tends to do that when she thinks the food has gotten old. She told me no, she hadn't. That's when I realized those guys who had ripped us off had also taken the tamales fromt he refrigerator. I remembered noticing something was different in the refrigerator the day before; I realized at that point it was the tamales. I guess people tend to get hungry after a day of breaking into houses to steal stuff.

downer

Well, today was my nephew Matt's birthday. My sister and I had lunch with him at Chile's. The staff came and sang him Happy Birthday and brought him cake and ice cream. Wouldn't you know it, I spilled some on my pants. I got home and changed then left for the lab at 1:30. I got back at 4:00. As I drove up, I noticed the front door wide open. I approached and noticed the frame was broken. Someone had kicked in the door and burglarized our home. They (it had to be more than one 'cause some items were heavy) took two 24 inch flat screen tvs, two dvd players, some jewelry, some movies on vhs, and wouldn't you know it, my laptop. It seemed to have been a very quick job since no one heard or saw anything and they only took the electronics (not that we have anything valuable) and a jewelry box they could easily carry off. Of course, we have our suspicions, but proving anything is another thing...
The sad thing is my laptop has some manuscripts for some books. There's one from an professor at San Marcos; there's one from one of my cousins who's been working on his for several years. And I've got at least a couple plus a lot of short stories I've written. Luckily I've got backups of everything, but still...at least I never put personal info in my computers, such as credit card or finances.
Oh well...

Ok, so I finally finished reading Cyberterror. R. J. Pineiro does a good job capturing the reader's interest with his tale of terrorism in the real world and in the cyberworld. While a special force composed of FBI and CIA operatives fight terrorism in the physical world, another member of the special task force fights terrorism in the cyberworld. Of course, there are many incidents and background developments that make the book interesting reading, but ultimately, it's about the confrontation between the US and terrorists.

The other night I watch That Thing You Do, and I really enjoyed it. It's been a while since I'd seen it, and I was happy to catch it on TV. I think that movie, along with Almost Famous, is one of my favorites. Usually I like the sci-fi action movies, but I also enjoy movies that have a (rock) music base such as those two. It's funny, though, I'd just seen the actor who played Lenny in another movie in which he came out as a vampire, The Forsaken. The other actor I recognized in that movie was they one who plays Michael in Roswell.

Well, Christmas is almost upon us; I haven't done any real Christmas shopping yet. Maybe next week. I'm at a point where I don't know what to get anyone anymore. I'll just have to look around for interesting items, I guess, or ultimately rely on gift cards or gift certificates.

Tomorrow I'll be in Laredo; maybe I'll see something to pick up at La Mall del Norte, but I've been there before. They have the same stores as the malls in the Valley and Austin. It doesn't have a Waldenbooks, thought; it has a B. Dalton, and I've never seen a Barnes and Nobles there. Maybe the fairly new Best Buy will have something I can consider....

Still reading CyberTerror by R. J. Pineiro
Music running through my mind: Devil With a Blue Dress by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels

Argh! Don't you just hate it when you can't stop running a tune over and over in your head? For some reason I started playing that old Mitch Ryder tune this morning and it keeps going on and on...I didn't even hear it on the radio; it just popped out of nowhere. Still, I'd rather keep hearing that than Like a Rolling Stone any time. And when Devil came out in the mid 60's, I really liked that song, thinking it had a better sound/beat than most of the popular music at that time.

Friday Dec. 3

Currently reading: Cyberterror by R. J. Pineiro

I started reading Cyberterror a couple of days ago; it's fiction, but it gives a scary look at how someone could use the internet to take control of situations and create a terrorist attack pretty much like 911. According to the writer's info provided, Pineiro works at AMD and lives in Austin, so that was one reason I picked up the book . The book begins with a look at San Antonio, the target of the terrorist attack, and I have to admit, that the way the attack is coordinated is a little scary because from I've read so far, such destruction could be created using the method described. So now I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book to see how (if) the culprits are caught.

Writing Lab
It was a little after 7:00 when I opend the lab, and once I lit up the rooms and opened the doors, people started coming in to use the computers. Although I don't mind letting them come in so early, since I'm here, I've noticed students come to expect the lab open at such time when in reality we're officially opened at 8:00. They get upset if we're not here early enough for them; that's usually because they probably wait until the last minute to work on assignments. If one has something due at 7:45, why wait to do it at 7:00, especially if they want to compose/edit/print out an assignment so early?

At 7:30 a student walked into the lab, and wouldn't you know it, he sits at the computer in the lab closest to mine in the office area. That's nothing wrong with that, but his cologne or his hair gel or something smells, and not very good, so unless I move to another office computer or away from this area, I have to put up with it. I never thought I'd be picky about this in my old age, but I guess old age has its peculiarities.

Birthday
Yesterday was my wife's birthday. Wouldn't you it, we had our Christmas party too, since most students will be leaving soon. So at the party we had tamales, beans, rice and all sort of other goodies. So...
For dinner I took my wife to Fresco's, a New York Style Italian restaurant on 10th Street at the new minicomplex. Needless to say, I could only eat part of my chicker parmiagian and penne pasta, and my wife could only eat part of her chicken umbra, so we ended up taking most of meal home. Since it was cold and raining, we decided to go home instead of going shopping for a flat screen tv.

Well, hope to catch up on my reading this weekend.