I was carrying a 12-pack of Pepsi by the built-in handle, when the box ripped open and a cascade of 12-ounce cans rained down upon my bare foot.  One can landed on my index toe, busting it open and splitting the nail down the center.  For such a small laceration, I lost a surprising amount of blood.  I believe I have a solid case against the Pepsi corporation.

My LCD monitor suddenly developed a vertical red line down the right side last week.  I'm a little over 2 years into a 3 year warranty, so I shipped it off to Samsung to be repaired or replaced.  In the meantime, I'm having to make due with a 17" CRT.  I feel like a caveman.

I decided it was time to finally put a stereo in my truck after driving around without one for over two years. I chose one that would give me some of the features of my failed truckputer, the Pioneer AVIC-F700BT.

The model with the DVD player was out of my price range. I plugged my Zune dock into the USB and A/V inputs so I can charge my Zune while playing music or videos, and control it with the remote.

Like most in-dash units of this type, you can't watch video or punch in navigation destinations while driving. While searching for a way to bypass this, I discovered that the unit runs Windows CE.  So it's more like the truckputer than I thought.

I've been out of the loop regarding new Zune developments for several months.  The combined efforts of my dog and myself left me with an unsyncable Zune 30.  So when the 3.0 update rolled around I was still stuck with 2.5.  The silver lining was that I didn't experience the leap year freeze that everyone else did.

With the cash I got for Christmas and some of my Amazon gift certs, I picked up a shiny (and I mean shiny) new Zune 120.  After upgrading to the new firmware, I started reading up on all the new additions (games, wireless Marketplace, etc.).  Like with the Xbox 360, Microsoft is encouraging people to write games using their XNA Game Studio.

Although intended for game development, people are using XNA to write apps for their Zunes.  I need to do some studying on XNA and Visual C#, and then I will probably adapt my random restaurant selector for the Zune.

I've been getting free stuff online for at least 10 years.  2008 definitely tops the list for my biggest haul.

$141.41 in Amazon Gift Certificates
$125 in GameStop Gift Cards
$12 Buy.com Gift Certificate
$10 eBay Gift Certificate
$10 Go Daddy Gift Certificate
$29 Cash
Two 1600 Microsoft Point Cards
Two 3-Month Xbox Live Subscription Cards
Fable 2
Dead Space
Xbox 360 VGA Cable
Microsoft LifeChat ZX-6000 Wireless Headset
Leather Zune Case
Magazine Subscriptions:  Electronic Gaming Monthly, Games for Windows, PC Magazine, Car and Driver

The New Years holiday is a notorius time for TV marathons.  I've highlighted a few of the more interesting ones here:

Fans of Warner Bros. animation should take note of the Looney Tunes marathon as they have been off the air since 2007.  A full schedule can be found here.