Blackjack

I'm 21! I wish I could say I had more to show for it, but other events have overshadowed it.

I had the flu from roughly 26-29 November. While I was under I exacerbated my headache by redoing the layout of this site; it's a lot simpler and cleaner now. Some notable changes:

• The blurbs have been moved to the front Media page.
• I added a list of the anime I have burned to DVD; let me know if you want to borrow anything.
• Some books added as to-reads; I've got some spoken-word and lyrics to go into the poetry section soon.
• Links page redone to take advantage of the built-in Wordpress links system.
• Archives pages still broken. Links to http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/_year_/_month_/ are generated by WordPress when the actual pages are at http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/date/_year_/_month_/; for example the August 2004 archives are [here](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/date/2004/08/), not [here](http://khaerukama-o.geodave.net/2004/08/). This will need some looking-at.

I realize I haven't been linking Stock.Xchng for a long time, but that's where I get all the pretty background images you see at the top. I'm using a script from here so that the title image (a PNG) should be transparent in IE 5.5+ as well as Mozilla/Opera.

In other nerdy news I've switched from Bloglines (which is still an excellent web-based newsreader) to Google Reader. An OPML file of my feeds is here - for the untutored, that's basically a list of sites with regular news updates or posts (like friends' blogs) that I read on a daily basis.

My birthday itself on Wednesday was a bit of a non-event; I was studying most of the day, although I did sort of greet the day in style 12:01 AM Wednesday morning - thanks for the help, you.

Friday was the day of a truly excellent and well-attended party. We started off at SUDS, where I got through about 90% of a hardhat full of beer before burping half of it back up - Pete of course finished, because he's huge. Crazy Italians. After that we had a solid, filling two-hour dinner at Korean Grillhouse with 19 friends. I was persuaded to sign up for the Charity Date Auction that goes on during Godiva Week; come bid on me and drive up the price. It benefits both charity and my ego, yay. After KBBQ we headed to O'Grady's on College, and encamped for several hours of just sitting and drinking and shooting the shit, which I've found I enjoy thoroughly. I'm always glad when my high school friends and Skule friends get along; it makes me happy that I know so many quality people and that they recognize that in one another. Unfortunately I was apparently stealthed as far as Dave is concerned, but that will be remedied. Thanks to everyone who trickled in or tried to make it.

Yesterday (Saturday) I headed home and thence to London with my parents to see the Conspirato Chamber Singers, including my sister Marla and cousin Laura. They were truly excellent for a choir of random undergrads conducted by a Masters student, and sang some beautiful pieces. The price ($0) was right, too. For dinner we pigged out at Mongolian Grill - if you haven't been, find the nearest one and make a beeline.

For gifts I received a really comfortable sweater and a pair of cords from GAP along with an expensive dress shirt and heavy blue tie from my parents; Virgil's The Aeneid from Marla, and a pair of wireless headphones from Bob, Brian and Kim - thanks everyone!