Winding down the 2005 year

For lack of a better topic, I'll just say that I've enjoyed parts of 2005 and not enjoyed others.

I did not evacuate when Rita blew through Houston, though about half my friends tried. Some of them actually got out of town.

Watching the Google updates roll out was interesting. One of my domains was slammed by the February-May update, but it's doing well now.

Finally got to see the last "Star Wars" movie and I enjoyed it. I'm glad I know the whole story (well, the official cinematic whole story as it currently stands). There was only one really goofy scene in the movie. "Padme!" Ick.

I'm liking the Harry Potter franchise. Maybe I should start blogging about Harry or something. I've been waiting for the last book to come out before doing any serious writing on HP.

Have been in and out of dancing all year long. The old group ain't what it used to be, but in November I put out the word that I was going to Tropicana and a lot of old friends showed up. We had a great crowd that night and it was like old times.

And there is a new JRRT-related book out, so I have something new to study and write about in the world of JRRT. I have to admit that the well has finally started to run dry. People keep asking me to write about very esoteric topics, but there just isn't enough JRRT information (that I have access to, at least) to compose a decent essay. Sorry.

We introduced a "M i d d l e - e a r t h Who Am I?" game at the Inklings Roundtable of Houston, and it proved to be very popular. Based on the Riddle Game, it proposes a set of clues to a character from the books or movies and people have to guess the character. Points are awarded in the live version of the game. People on the Endor list loved it. In fact, they seemed to like it more than the long-running "Beowulf" discussion.

Oh well.