First!

Don't really have anything to write about today. Just wanted to start off the brand new year with a blog entry, anemic though it may be. Guess I can voice some of my random musings, if nothing else:

Next week I return to work. Doesn't feel like I've had much of a 2-week vacation due to all the running around and errands I had to do, but it wasn't overly stressful either. That's always a good thing. Don't know that I'm ready to jump back into office work, though. I could probably use another month or two away. :)

Playing Uncharted 2 for the Playstation 3. What an awesome game! As of right now, I can't see how it can NOT be Game of the Year. 2nd place, imo, would go to Batman: Arkham Asylum. Most gamers would put Modern Warfare 2 in the 1st or 2nd slot, but while I thoroughly enjoyed the game, the single-player mode was simply too slim to qualify as a full-fledged game.

Looking ahead for the year, I think I'll be cutting back on short stories a bit and focusing more on the practice novel, which has yet to be started. I still have an outline to write before I jump into that experience, but I'm upbeat about it all. Rather exciting, actually.

Re: movies -- For the immediate future, I'm looking forward to The Book of Eli and Legion in the month of January. Clash of the Titans in March. Kick-Ass in April. And a slew of other films for the summer blockbuster season beginning in May, chief among them Iron Man 2! I don't know how 2010 will possibly top 2009 in overall movie awesomeness, but I'm willing to wait and see.

As for travel? I was thinking of cutting back on all the trips this year so that we can save more money. But there are just so many places I still want to visit! First and foremost, we almost definitely will be returning to Paris. We might even visit the south of France, if I can figure out how to make it work given that neither of us speak a lick of French. That's doable when you visit such an urbane and international metropolis like Paris; doesn't seem to work so well anywhere else in France, though. Unless I'm wrong.

Other possible destinations for the year include Rome and Naples; a Mediterranean cruise to the Greek Isles; a combo England/Scotland excursion; and Tunisia in northern Africa.

Realistically, we'll probably only get the France trip in. But if we can do a second, the Greece cruise sounds lovely to me.

Hmmm, I think I'm fresh out of musings right now. So anyway, here's to my very first post on the very first day of the new year. May there be many more!