Happy Chinese New Year! It’s not often that this holiday occurs on a Sunday, and it’s even less often that it coincides with my birthday. With all the festivities stacked together, and with work taking a bit of a breather, I was able to enjoy the weekend feeling more relaxed than usual. On Friday, I celebrated my birthday with some friends over steaming Chinese seafood and spent some quality time with Melody over 8-ball at our now-regular hangout. Saturday morning, we woke up early to warm pineapple buns for the bus ride down to NY, where we spent the lazy afternoon lounging about before the super year-end meal. Finally on Sunday, I realized again the benefit of a large extended family as I collected pocket money for the next two months. Anyway, according to Chinese tradition, it’s important to stay happy and enjoy the new year because the rest of the year will follow the same way. To help you along, check out these two clips that are so outrageous you won’t know whether to burst out in laughter or cringe in disgust. The first is David Hasselhoff after an illustrious career with talking cars and bombshell babes. The second features the Dormitory Boys, the newest lip-syncing sensation since the Numa Numa guy. Enjoy!

You’ve guessed it – Jack is back! And since our favorite TV series returned to Fox last week, we’ve been hooked like Bubba on shrimp. This is perfect since I finally submitted the new manuscript to Neuron last night. It was ultimately a bit anti-climactic as two more first authors were added for political reasons. Overall, I’ve become quite disillusioned by the whole publication process, but as my friend told me, it won’t be long before I get to be disillusioned by medicine too! (Yay) Nevertheless, with this paper out of the way, I should get more free time in the upcoming weeks for more Jack, more CivIV, more Kaplan freelancing, and taking another crack at teaching Pharm again.

Wow! I made it through the entire day yesterday without touching Civ IV. I’m so proud of myself. =) Btw, check out this hilarious website based on the official game trailer (yes, even computer games have trailers too nowadays). On another note, it appears that I’ll be speaking at the New York Academy of Sciences in March, the details of which can be found here. I’m actually going head to head with a Yale prof, so it’ll be a bit nerve-racking. I’d invite people to go, ‘cept they’re charging a whopping 20-smackers per head! I only wish that I could get a cut of THAT sweet deal.

I have just gotten my hands on a copy of Civilization IV, and I’m quickly realizing that it may be even worse than crack itself. Just when I thought that I had matured beyond those college days staying up past 4am clicking away with my mouse, here comes the fourth installation of what was perhaps one of the most addictive games in the history of computer gaming. Created by Sid Meier back in 1991, the original version was a simple turn-based strategy game that simulated the evolution of a civilization from the stone age to the era of space exploration. After three incarnations, it now adopts a full 3D engine along with a whole slew of new implementations such as cultural borders, religion, and great people. This newest edition has cost me two nights of sleep, and deservingly earned Gamespot’s Game of the Year in 2005. So say goodbye to sunlight, and as the review suggests, “If you have even a passing interest in strategy games, world history, or getting LESS SLEEP at night, you owe it to yourself to give Civilization IV a try.”

Happy New Year from Sammy and Howie! For those of you who’ve been wondering about our rats, I’m happy to report that they’re doing very well (though we’re considering sending Howie to a weight-loss camp this summer…). It would be a bit hypocritical of us, however, as the holidays this year have been a fattening experience for all of us. I spent Christmas weekend in Stockton with Melody’s family, where we played lots of Scrabble and gorged ourselves with Chinese food. And the night before New Year’s eve, we pigged out at Capital Grille with crab and lobster cakes, lobster bisque, veal rib-eye, and kona-crusted sirloin. I guess our New Year’s resolution will be for all of us to lose some weight.