Just came back from dinner with Lana's family and my family at Koi Palace. I actually never knew this until today, but I had been to Koi Palace before. It's one of those "shoot, I've eaten in this place before" moments. I need to start being a little more observant. And of course to end every dinner, there's always the battle for the check, or as I call it, The Chinese Reflex Test. Whoever has the better relexes and can grab the check always wins the battle. Of course, the placement of the check by the waiter is key, but the waiter is pretty smart and places the bill between the two families. I think deep down, all waiters get a little kick out of their role in The Chinese Reflex Test.

Thanksgiving weekend is almost over. I guess it wasn't as great as I thought it might be. I was hoping some things would have been different during this break but things change fast sometimes, and plans don't always go the way you dream them up. But life is always like that for me, disappointments seem to pile up on me. Thanksgiving dinner with my family and mom's side was good. There was plenty of good food and good catching up.

Then spent Thanksgiving night playing Madden 2006 at church. Warning, the following is Nerd Talk. Anyway, we've started a Franchise mode where Norm and Brian control one team, Ed another, and Kenny, Alex and I have the third team. Of course, we're the New England Patriots. And no Patriots team is complete without Superbowl MVP stud Tom Brady. We've been playing this franchise mode for awhile now, so Tom Brady is 36 years old in the game. To sum it all up, Ed and Brian kept ragging on us for Tom being "past his prime" and "washed up". They kept saying it was "time to take him out to the pastures." Well we ended up winning the Superbowl in our game, a feat neither of the other teams has done yet. And suddenly the room got very silent, except for me, Kenny, and Alex cheering and hi fiving each other. Now they can't rag on Brady anymore because he's a winner in our game. There was this feeling of satisfaction, because they kept talking so much trash to us. Ok, that concludes this nerd talk.

Me and my brother went to go venture out into the Black Friday crowd, except there wasn't anything we really needed, so we left the house around 10:00 AM. We got really lucky and found parking spots at Circuit City and Best Buy. We just walked around. I was tempted to buy this electric drum set. I know Martin would have been jealous. But I figured two guitars is enough so I passed on that. The best part of Black Friday: buying lunch at Burger King. Nothing says value like $.99 chicken tenders.

I was too tired to go clothing shopping at Stonestown. Guess I'll have to buy my tight leather chaps and pink polo during the Christmas rush.

Time for music news:
1. Did anyone happen to see Scott Stapp aka "The Guy From Creed" perform on Leno Wednesday night? And that's basically all he did: perform. It was possibly the worst live act I've seen on tv in years. He was doing all these cheesy hand and body gestures. He kept emphasizing every word. He couldn't even hold a note. It was like he has a wad of chewing gum in his mouth as he sings, but it sounded nothing like his CD voice.

2. I got my new John Mayer cd, TRY! I have to say, it's very good. Even though he's deviating from the acoustic guitar, sensitive guy image, his new blues stuff is awesome. I was reading reviews on Amazon the other day and people were calling him the greatest blues guitarist of our time. I think he's going this direction to show the world he isn't just a pop artist, but that he can actually play the guitar with the best of them. I'm glad he's finally getting recognition.

Finals begin for me in about a week and a half. I'm very scared.

Sorry, but no more Bevis and Spud comics until Christmas break. Just haven't had the time to draw new ones.

So I'm not really sure what to do right now with things in my life. I kind of feel like "big changes needed" Maybe I just rely on others too much. I always thought I could be self suficient but it's not true at all. Sometimes I feel like maybe there's a chance that others would want me to be a part of their life like I want them to be a part of mine. But there's rarely that even balance of dependence between two people. I guess I never will be able to be Superman. I'll settle for Martha Kent or some second class superhero, like Captain America or North Star.

Almost time for Christmas. If you have any gift requests, please leave it on my comments box. I don't care how attainable or unattainable it is, just let me know and I will do my best to get it for you.