It's nice having federal holidays off again, although I wouldn't mind having Tech's week-long Thanksgiving Break again. With no classes since last Wednesday, I managed to get quite a bit of work done. Of course, I finished nothing time-sensitive; my sense of motivation always motivates me to finish the projects that aren't yet important first. I bet that once I'm out of school and thrust into the real world, I'll excel at and be remembered for something that isn't even my main focus.

I still haven't found a way to get the rest of my e-mail files off that corrupt CD. If anyone knows how to force a CD-ROM drive to run at a slower speed, please let me know.

Today I did the exam portions on form and harmonic analysis. It was pretty straightforward and very similar to the practice exam. You get all four days worth of exams all at once in four separate envelopes, and you give yourself four hours to do each packet. I started with Day 4, and might begin another Day later tonight, just to get things over with a little bit faster. Hopefully I don't open the History packet... I'd like a few more days to cram useless facts into my short-term memory.

Finding Nemo is a really funny movie, and ranks up there with the other Disney/Pixar animated features. If you are completely lacking a sense of humour, it's also notable for its insane cartilage and water effects, and its use of colour is justification for buying a DVD player. Watch it.

In other news, Disney is halting all its traditional cel-shading work in favour of 3D computer animation .

This is a great parable for our time: . Just a day after the hubbub surrounding the showing of Saving Private Ryan during Primetime, CBS interrupted the final minutes of CSI: NY to scoop Arafat's death. CBS has now apologized to the billion irate CSI fans, promising to reair the CSI: NY episode in place of a repeat of a CSI: SOMEWHERE ELSE episode tonight.

Firefox 1.0 came out a couple days ago. The footprint is much smaller than the release candidate and things work well so far. Give it a try at www.mozilla.org if you're tired of IE bloat and vulnerabilities.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

5:47 AM: Checking on the status of a laptop shipment from Dell, which I'm receiving for CC, another 12 of 12er who's currently out of Spain and roaming Virginia. She'll be visiting here next weekend, and delivery to Sterling is a wee bit cheaper than deliver to Spain. Had it been arriving today, I would have stayed home all day to sign for it.

7:22 AM: There was a planned power outage at work on Sunday, and the last of the servers wasn't turned back on until around 8 this morning. Rather than go to the office and sit in the dark waiting, I went back to bed for an hour and then took a leisurely shower.

7:30 AM: My fridge is a little more bountiful than it was last month because I had a Thanksgiving Dinner last night with plenty of leftovers. Breakfast was a pair of lonely bacon-wrapped scallops and a glass of orange juice.
Also, the Miller Lite is leftover from Halloween Beer Pong -- I am not still in college.

9:20 AM: Doing a little telecommuting in the morning. Booty took this picture.

10:33 AM: Gas has finally broken $3 here, and every twenty-five miles I drive is the equivalent of six hash browns at McDonald's. Luckily when I drive on business, government perdiem is $0.49 per mile.

10:38 AM: Driving to work, where our building is ominously shadowed by the much-taller giant corporate contractor that supposedly eats little contractors like us for breakfast. Our building also appeared in the background of an image for a Washington Post article on the Dulles corridor today, so fame and fortune cannot be far off.

2:25 PM: Going home for the day. The name of our building is "Two Reston Overlook", but it's situated at 12021 Sunset Valley Drive which, to me, reeks of potential misunderstandings.

3:10 PM: I've purchased several big ticket items with big boxes recently, mainly computers and alcohol. The combination results in a magical funland for Booty and Amber.

3:22 PM: Cleaning up in the basement, the site of last night's Thanksgiving bacchanal.

5:45 PM: Making leftovers for dinner, to balance out the day. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, green beans, and a roll. Tragically, there was no cheddar cheese soup remaining.

6:12 PM: Playing a little Zelda to let the food digest.

6:36 PM: Working on the musical composition for tomorrow's web site update. The word of the day was Gamy.

See more 12 of 12ers at Chad's site!

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

5:42 AM: Clean, awake, and ready to defrost the car. My goatee is slowly growing back after a brief Halloween stint as a woman.

5:52 AM: Breakfast time for cats, who were actually well-behaved this morning, letting me sleep in until 5:15 and not knocking over any lamps.

6:02 AM: Driving to work.

6:16 AM: The view out my window before sunrise.

11:58 AM: Heading home for lunch.

12:07 PM: Checking to see if Anna was working today. Since she was not, she forfeited a trip to Chick-fil-a.

12:15 PM: Arriving home to discover my dad fixing the carpet in the living room.

12:29 PM: The return of the ham sandwich for lunch.

3:29 PM: After finishing up my work, I raked and mowed. You get a lot of leaves when you live next to a forest.

5:12 PM: Working on a website for future nuptials while listening to a new CD, Spoons by Wallis Bird.

7:04 PM: Totino's Combination Pizza and a glass of Frontera for dinner.

7:56 PM: Powering up the Wii for the weekly Mario Kart match, which hasn't actually been weekly in months.

See more 12 of 12ers at Chad's site!

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

This month's pictures definitely aren't as cool as last month's.

5:52 AM: Back on the early morning schedule.		6:17 AM: In the office on a gloomy, damp washcloth of a morning.
8:36 AM: On a muted conference call, apparently sleeping under my desk.		1:26 PM: As the view from my camera did not change while I was working, I shelved the camera until on my way home.
1:35 PM: Passing the tree that was hit by a freak thunderstorm last June.		1:42 PM: Amber likes when I come home, because she can lick the newspaper bag. Apparently our delivery man continues to eat sausage biscuits while delivering our paper
1:53 PM: A lunch of leftover turkey, stuffing, and bacon bits.		2:24 PM: Tweaking some MP3s of the Ewazen accompaniment I transcribed a few years back, for some Canadian trumpeter who plans on performing the piece.
4:30 PM: Playing a little Torchlight, which is addictive but vapid, with a few minor annoying bits.		6:14 PM: Time for some closet organization!
8:23 PM: Dinner tonight will be a Totino's pizza with extra cheese.		9:22 PM: Rebecca comes home from hanging out with Emily and hilarity ensues.

See more 12 of 12ers at Chad's site!

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

5:46 AM: When it comes to encroachment, football players have nothing on Booty.		6:05 AM: Showered and ready for work.
6:14 AM: It's nice to have the sun up an hour earlier.		7:07 AM: It's not so nice to have my office in the winter, when the sun shines directly on my monitor.
9:00 AM: Someone stops by to assist with the candy removal operation.		12:32 PM: Arriving home to find Rebecca studying hard.
12:53 AM: Booty tries to convince me that it's food time by showing that her ribs can be seen through her fur.		1:52 PM: Relaxing with Minecraft.
2:39 PM: The bin Rebecca uses to keep her bags in one place and cat-hair-free is not working as intended.		4:30 PM: Raking the back yard. Guest Photographer: Rebecca
5:19 PM: Sorting through some boxes of Rebecca's stuff from her parents' house. Incidentally, when you buy lots of cheap beer for Beer Pong at your Halloween Party, and then no one plays Beer Pong, you are left with a tragically large amount.		7:07 PM: Since it would be inappropriate to have Shells and Cheese for dinner after having had it for lunch, tonight's meal is a batch of Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks with cocktail sauce.

See more 12 of 12ers at Chad's site!

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

5:35 AM: Time to wake up!		5:48 AM: Showered and ready for work.
5:55 AM: Arrived at the office.		6:22 AM: Cats do not work from home.
7:21 AM: Reading about the cloud.		8:00 AM: Bagel for breakfast.
11:25 AM: Thawing steaks for Mike Catania.		12:33 PM: Leftovers for lunch.
2:45 PM: Amber reminds me that it's way past time for cat dinner.		4:03 PM: Fall Cleaning has come to the basement.
5:12 PM: 24 and treadmill time.		6:31 PM: Chicken bacon alfredo pizza for dinner.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

5:15 AM: Ready to work.

5:26 AM: This intersection looks a little seedier every year.

7:50 AM: Working.

8:11 AM: Incoming cold front.

11:33 AM: Lunch stop.

11:48 AM: News and lunch.

12:15 PM: Back to work for a little while longer.

2:14 PM: Making maps for upcoming trips.

4:00 PM: Digging through the archives for something to post about tomorrow.

4:18 PM: Playing 3D games.

5:01 PM: Exercising and watching Alias, at the point just before it started to suck.

6:48 PM: Leftovers for dinner.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

5:12 AM: Showered and ready for work.

5:25 AM: Driving through the fog of war.

5:45 AM: Breakfast of BU.

7:00 AM: View from my window.

12:58 PM: Home for everyone's lunch.

1:07 PM: My own lunch.

1:20 PM: Back to work for a bit.

2:54 PM: Harvesting the last immature red pepper before tonight's frost.

3:40 PM: Raking the yard.

4:30 PM: Hearthstone daily quests.

8:10 PM: Safeway pizza for dinner.

9:15 PM: Ending the day with TV time.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Red Oaks, Season One:
This Amazon original series features a young college guy with a summer job at a country club, and falls squarely in the "coming of age in the 1980s" genre. The pilot episode had mild promise, but the first season never really builds on that foundation. Plots wend their way to nowhere and individual episodes often have minimal shape or thrust. Every character and plot line is an 80s movie archetype, but beyond checking them off a list, the show doesn't offer anything new. The supporting characters are more sympathetic than the mains, and the show jumps the shark about halfway through in a traditional 80s "body swap" scenario. Rebecca hates when fantasy trods on her realism. Free on Amazon Prime.

Final Grade: D+

Sherlock, Season Three:
The third season of Sherlock is very tonally different than its predecessors. The mysterious cases take a back seat (or even get relegated to the trunk of the metaphorical car) to the characters and the amusing antics they get up to. This makes the show more amusing and easier to watch without missing details, but it's definitely not the same show it originally sold itself as. Within that caveat, I enjoyed its meandering ways but felt that the third episode's attempt to tie everything together was pretty weak. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B-

Sneaky Pete, Pilot Episode:
This pilot stars the actor who played Phoebe's brother, Frank, from Friends, and tells the story of a con man who cons his way into a rural family and helps out with their bail bond business. The strongest aspects of the pilot were the performances of the actors, including Margo Martindale and Bryan Cranston. However, the format of the pilot felt very "episode of the week", like something you might find on CBS (and in fact, the show was originally on CBS before getting dumped and picked up by Amazon Studios). I'll definitely watch the first season (it was greenlit in September), but might not stick around if the serial story is overshadowed by the weekly cases. Free on Amazon Prime.

Final Grade: B+

Mad Dogs, Pilot Episode:
This is another Amazon pilot that got picked up for a full season, and is a remake of a like-named show that I never watched. The cast (including Michael Imperioli and Steve Zahn as stereotypical Steve Zahn) is fun and the pilot does a good job of building an undercurrent of menace, but it didn't necessarily make me want to see how everything turns out in future episodes. Watch if you like the "super serious thriller" genre but be warned that it feels like a slightly faster Bloodlines. Free on Amazon Prime

Final Grade: B-

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

6:08 AM: Showered and ready for work.

6:24 AM: Setting up in the satellite home office to mitigate the risk of hungry, loud cats waking up sleeping babies.

8:13 AM: Encroaching wildlife and sad pinwheel.

9:00 AM: Breakfast and the news.

9:58 AM: Back to work in the regular upstairs office.

10:08 AM: Our mime has learned to help clean up by throwing trash away. She has also learned that you can make more trash by tearing up tissues. She is still working on understanding that you cannot make trash by tearing up lift-the-tab books.

12:24 PM: Working lunch (Mexican). There may be more queso than strictly necessary.

3:13 PM: 12 minutes of Zelda between the end of my conference call and the awakening of Maia from her nap.

4:05 PM: Reflections in a mall decoration.

5:36 PM: Self-driven story time on the big rocky chair.

6:48 PM: Baked salmon and broccoli for dinner.

7:24 PM: Giddy and tired.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

6:24 AM: Up for a Beat Saber workout.

7:14 AM: Showered and ready for work.

7:31 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

8:39 AM: Pre-pre-school colouring session.

9:25 AM: Still working.

10:35 AM: Not helping me with work.

11:14 AM: Clam chowder and Puzzle Boat for lunch. 82 puzzles solved.

2:12 PM: Currently using rolling as a form of transportation.

3:21 PM: Very excited to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend!

5:42 PM: Practicing his major scales.

6:00 PM: Panera for dinner.

7:07 PM: Waiting for bedtime.