Note to self 77: 01/07/2K
  Ughhhhh.... -_- Tired as *&$#...... Some idiot in my apartment complex on the first floor set his patio on fire last night at around 12:30 in the morning... He either fell asleep with a lit cigarette near some newpapers or his grill got out of control. What a git! The alarms started BLARING (the loudest sound I've ever heard) and eventually (25 minutes later) the fire department arrived. By that time, the flames had krept into the outside wall and were up to the roof. The moron who started the fire was working with his neighbors in putting the flames out (they were doing a pretty good job too) when the firefighters told them to get out and away. They then took about 8-10 minutes to get their equipment ready and ladders up in which time the flames had regained some strength. After 10 more minutes in the cold I got tired of waiting to kick the moron's ass and asked the fire chief if anybody'd have to evacuate. He said it was under control and there was nothing more to worry about. So I went back to my apartment and tried to sleep. Last look at the clock was around 3:30am........ G'night.

Note to self 76: 01/03/2K
  Well, well, well.... What can I say? Y2K a bust.... well, at least the buggy side of things.
  I had a pretty good Christmas down at the homestead. Spent a lot of money, got a lot of stuff in return. Got a bunch of clothes, shoes and Playstation games. I even got One Night in Eden (Sarah Brightman's concert DVD:). All in all a pretty good haul. I hung out with a bunch of old friends I hadn't seen in a while, and then got prepared for all things Y2K. I took a bit of money out of the bank, filled my gas tank up beyond the limit and bought a bunch of stock in canned food and shotguns. The usual.

  Then 12/31/99 rolled around. And I partied like it was 2999!!! I went over to a fun little get together consisting of about 20+ friends and we just hunkered down waiting for the "New Year Before the Next Millenium". Lots of beer and wings later I can recall most of the night with a fairly clear memory: Firecrackers, Killians, Firecrackers, Bud, Bud, Bud, wings, Baby's Lovin', thick fog, Firecrackers in somebody's mailbox (several strings), running, Bud, Killians, Bud, Bud, Bud, Bud, wings, Firecrackers (almost blowing off my fore and middle fingers on my right hand due to a farged up fuse [lost all feeling in fore finger tip]), Midnight!, Auld Lang Syne, Olvie proposing to Millie, Millie tackling him with a "Yes!", Firecrackers, expensive champagne, Killians, Bud, Bud, Bud, Bud, Dancing with the moose, calling somebody I know at around 1am to make fun of him for working on the Y2K prob at that time, Bud, Bud, passing out at 4:30am.
  A good time by all! the next morning I awoke to sounds of Reba retching (not a pleasant wake-up alarm), so a few of us went to the store to get her some ginger ale and medicine. Then we hung out for a while watching Ice Pirates on Cinemax while I rehydrated myself and listened as the toilet on the first floor backed up causing a disgusting mess (I never looked, but I heard it was bad). Then after a quick BK breakfast I went home to crash for good.... Next thing I knew it was Monday and back to work time.

  Now, being 1/3 of the UGA Millennium readiness office I knew that jack was going to happen (I mean, only my dog blew up, and we're not even sure that that had anything to do with Y2K), but it was fun preparing a bit and listening to the hype and all :). That kind of thing only happens once in a few thousand years, ya know. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Note to self 75: 12/23/1999
  I finished Nadesico last night and I remembered what always bugged the hell out of me in the last few episodes (well, basically the last scene in the last episode). I don't mind the fact that the last five episodes are a bit rushed and that the writers could have scrapped a few of the filler shows in the middle of the series to flesh out the ending a bit better. I don't even mind that the explanations (for everything in the entire story!) come fast and furious in the last two episodes and that most seemed made up or tacked on at the last minute.
  Nope, what bothers me beyond words is another animated use of women as punching (or slapping) bags. Why the $%*# did Akito have to physically harm Yurica to get her attention?!?! A kiss (at that moment) would have been 100Xs better! I guess I was raised differently than most TV show writers, but it is NEVER right to hit a girl! NEVER! This is why I can't enjoy Tenchi the Movie 2 anymore. The Ryoko bitchslap by Tenchi just ruined his character for me. I hate the bastard now. There are so many other ways to get a female's attention than by slapping the bejesus outta her. -_-

  Other than that I still love Ines' ending and final realization of who she is/was, and the build up of Akito's acceptance of Yurica was a bit more visable this time (which made the slap all that mush harder to accept). I still wish they had a few more episodes to work with though, and I really wish that Izumi (the bestest character :) had an ending.... well, I wish that a few more people other than Akito, Yurica and Ines had completed endings. I do understand that the Gekiganger OAV and the Prince of Darkness movie were planned from the beginning to help tell more of the story, but a more complete finale for the show would have been much appreciated.

  Well, the office is dark and everybody's gone, so a Merry Christmas to all and a happy new Century!!!!! (Remember, the 3rd millennium ain't till 2001..... Hmmmm, would that make the next century 2001 too? Ah, who cares. Happy 2000!!!!!! ;).

-the Rossman

Note to self 74: 12/20/1999
  It's alllll done! All of my Christmas shopping is completed :)  It was an expensive season this year, but everybody should be happy on the 25th (I'll be happy until the Visa bill arrives -_-).
  Well, the beard is now a part of me, and it's interesting to think that people that I meet from now on will only know me as "Wilderness Man". But change is good.... every once in a while. And unlike my shoulder-length hair I once had, I'm keeping this for a while now.

  I also caught two movies this weekend: Deuce Bigalow - Male Gigolo and Mononoke Hime. Deuce was the bigger surprise! It was hilarious!! There were so many funny parts (my fave was the tall Swedish chick ["Dat's a huge b*tch!!"]) and every character was great. Especially the man-whore pimp. He rocked!
  As for Mononoke, well, I own it subbed and have seen it 7 times in the past year and a half, but never on the big screen. It was gorgeous!!! I was so awed at how bright and crisp it was! The voices weren't even that bad... Well, except for "valley girl" Daines. But as the film went on she got better. Hopefully I'll be able to see it again soon with that incredible surround sound and giant silver screen @_@   Heaven I tell ya, heaven.

  And finally, I've gotten past the half way mark through Nadesico again..... Now, I still like Nadesico a bunch, and it's a really fun show to get into, but I have to admit that the fourth time seeing it is bringing a bunch of stuff to light that I hadn't noticed or thought about before. For instance: Ruri now bugs the complete F*** out of me!!! I can't stand her!!! I still like the episode in Peace Land, but her "Baka ba'ka" got old after the second time she uttered it -_- Urgh! It's also moving a lot slower this time through. Great anime series (and stories in general) hold up no matter how many times you view it (see Eva, Nadia, Giant Robo, Porco Rosso, Mononoke, Macross, UY, etc. etc.). I don't know right now if I'll even buy the DVDs when ADVision actually gets around to releasing them (and I won't even think about doing so if they don't include the original display screens that they covered up in the dubbed release with their horribly cheesy CGI). I'll continue through till the end and see if the finale still holds up along with the movie Prince of Darkness. Then I'll get back to you.

Note to self 73: 12/07/1999
  Where to start @_@?
  Hmmmm, I guess it all began back in the middle of November with a little game called "Final Fantasy VIII".

Final Fantasy VIII Review

  I also caught a bunch of movies since my last update. They include the most awesome and most darkly entertaining Sleepy Hollow (one of the top 3 of the year!!!), the so-so Bond: The World is Not Enough (well, it did have Denise "Wild Things" Richards in it... so it weren't all that bad), and Toy Story 2 (almost as good as the first one!). I hope that Sleepy Hollow at least gets an Oscar for some of its great visual elements and costumes.
  I was able to keep another tradition going this year in the gathering of old friends for the holidays. I got the Wolfman and Chi-Chi to meet for a dinner a few days before I left for Grandma's. Unfortunately Jen will never be a part of this again, but that's her loss :p  We didn't do much this year, but it was fun to joke around and tell stories together again with everybody's comments and laughs. Hopefully we can do it again before Christmas.

  Then I joined my sister and parents to visit my Nana in North Carolina for Thanksgiving. It was an adventure, but we all had a good time and Nana really appreciated it. She's now back in NJ with the rest of the clan.
  During my holiday (that's European for "vacation" ^_~), I also got to finally finish watching Escaflowne (once more) and in a two day stretch of time got to see all of Shin Seiki Evangelion for the 7th time (the 26 eps, Death [True] and End of EVA)...... It was the first time I watched everything in that short a time period in order... It really hits you hard when you see NERV getting "erased" in EoE after just seeing the build up of characters in the series. I was depressed for a while after that..... That is until I got on a plane and went to SCOTLAND!!!!! (well, England first, then Scotland)!!!!!!

Note to self (continued): 12/07/1999
  Well, after I got back from Grandma's for Thanksgiving, I packed up and hopped the pond for the British Isles with my friends Angus, Alec and Meg. To make a looooong story short, we had a great time and I was the first Ross or Taylor to see snow fall in Edinburgh since my Grammy in 1911.... Now to make the story long.
  We left late Tues 11/30 and arrived a wee bit before noon on Wed, 12/1 British time at Gatwick Airport. We checked into our hotel (a pretty nice and relatively cheap place) and then we went walking around the British Museum and saw all the mummies and other cool stuff (Let me tell you, Cleopatra got the royal shaft with her mummy. Her sarcophagus was wooden and her cheaply wrapped mummy had kindergarten fingerpaintings on it). Then we wandered the streets looking for a Tavern when we had to eat because somebody (not me dammit! I wanted a damn tavern >:(  got hungry and made us eat at the s***tiest sandwich shop in all of London.... That sucked. After that we went back to the hotel and they crashed for the rest of the night (at 6:30pm.... on vacation.... half the world away).

  The next day I made sure we toured London properly. We got on a double-decker tour bus and spent most of the day hitting the main spots: Buckingham, Trafalger Square, Big Ben, the London Dungeon, Tower of London and Harrod's. Near around 7pm, we were headed towards a show (Phantom of the Opera) to make sure we did something big that night to make up for the previous night, when our plans changed to Les Miserables instead, and then to nothing. They didn't want to do anything again and I got fed up and just bought a ticket for myself to Les Mis. They eventually came around and joined me in the theater and we had a fun time. Then while looking for food after the show, Angus led us through the *ahem* gayest district of London... There were some interestingly disgusting.... naw, they were just some of the most disgusting scenes I've ever seen... -_-. Urgh! We ate at some truly trendy Italian Cafe (great food!) and stayed way past their closing time (we didn't much care though). It was at that cafe though, that the three others decided that they didn't want to go to Paris the next day after all. This disappointed me a bit, but then I decided to go by myself to Edinburgh for the day (my original plans since I first bought my plane ticket :). So after a mad dash to catch the last tube from the theater district to Russell Square (and after Meg almost broke her back), we tried to catch some sleep. I was too excited though and just lied awake allllll night, well, the 4 hours between crashing and when I had to arise.

  Then came Friday! I got up at 6:30 to catch the 8:30am train to Scotland, paid for the room, let the others sleep, missed breakfast and hurried to the station. I didn't have any cash on me, but I thought that I'd be in Edinburgh by 1:30 and could catch lunch there... I thought wrong. An hour and fifteen minutes into the ride, the wind was so bad that we had to slow down to a crawl before coming to a complete stop in Grantham station. The electric wires were blown down and a train was stranded up ahead of us. We stayed there for 3 hours waiting for any kind of movement (other trains were coming up behind us and people wanting to go back to London could get on them, our train would wait for the lines to be fixed). Then, after all that, we were told that our train would return to London too!! With the help of an angry Scot, though, me and some new friends found out that we could take busses around the trouble in the line and catch a train on the other side to the land of the kilts and bagpipes!... So we did.

  We traveled by road through Sherwood Forrest and saw some gorgeous visions of the English countryside! Then we hooked up with our awaiting train and eventually rolled into Scotland.... We arrived at around 7pm and I was famished (no food since dinner the previous night) and tired (no sleep for two days really). So I got some currency and then I got a really cute redhead to help me book a room (at a great 3-star hotel right around the corner from the station). I got her picture too :). The Jury's Inn rocked! Their bar was even better!!! Because of a family reunion in the main restaurant, I had to eat in a little guest-room restaurant down the hall, which was okay ('specially cause my waitress was so lovely and had such a great accent!). I had an incredible meal despite the company of a few disgruntled and drunk Brits and I got my picture taken with my cutie-pie waitress too.
  After dinner it began to snow and I chased flurries for a long time before eventually crashing the private family reunion in the main restaurant (hell, I was probably somehow related to them anyway). I was kicked out though after 45 minutes cause I took a picture and they apparently thought I stole their souls or something. Eh, what ya gunna do?

  Sooooo, the next morn I walked around town taking snapshots of the glorious scenery blanketed in snow as I made my way up to the castle. Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful towns I've ever seen, and it has some of the cutest girls I've ever seen too!!
  I soon made it to the Castle Gates and took the whole tour of the grounds. I saw the oldest building in the city (St. Margaret's Church, close to 1,000 years old), the Royal Dragoon Museum (where I bought a scarf to bundle up with from the -2 degree F windchill), the Scottish Crown Jewels and Stone of Destiny, and eventually the giftshop where I spent over 145 pounds on silver and gold gifts for my family that they collected (yup, could only be from that giftshop :) and a great Celtic Music CD for myself (the lady behind the counter was really nice and freindly :). Soon after I saw the 1o'clock gun and raced back to the hotel and the train. I had an infinitely better time on the ride back (I listened to 4 Scottish teenage girls talk and talk for a couple of stops. I didn't really listen to the conversation, but just to their wonderful accents @_@). And except for the poor-little-rich-boy ranting about how stupid Americans were (his arguments were ever so laughable, and embarrasing to his mum [as she sat across from me and could see just how American I truly was, though he was looking only at his friend or straight ahead]).... What a smeg-head.

  Well, back late on Saturday in London and I had one more night to hit the town. I basically just walked around and visited a few pubs before retiring to my crappy hole-in-the-wall hotel and crashed (but not before watching a bit of late night Brit TV 0_o). Then the next day I talked to the Canadian cutie-pie at the front desk for a while, got her picture and then met everyone at the airport for the long 9 hour trip home.... The END!