Critisism Eve This week was mostly peaceful. Work was easy and I got to box a bit (which is a peaceful thing, really). Wednesday night I had some random sadness. It was like my October mood when I would randomly want to cry. The thought of drinking entered my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. Perhaps it's because I haven't seen her in a few weeks. I still need to take her to Phil's and show her the coffee that I named after her -- you know, just to reinforce to her that I'm psycho. I miss her. In 22 hours I fly to New York for Christmas. It's a quick trip -- 12/25 to 12/28 -- but I'm really nervous about it. My family is going to pick me up from the airport and we're heading to my uncle's house. There I will answer such wonderful questions like "Why aren't you getting married?" and "When are you going to get a real job?" Hopefully there aren't too many gatherings planned. I just want to hang out with my brother, catch a few flicks, and eat lots of pizza. It's a bit ridiculous huh? I'm past 30 and I'm still terrified by what my parents think of me. Having lunch with my dad in November was pretty ... discouraging I guess. Four days with the family will be nice, but it could also help me start of 2005 with more issues than I already have. Oh, my last column is the most obnoxious thing I've ever written for work. I think it's part of my heel turn. We don't really have a "bad guy" at the site so it might as well be me. Fargo can be the face and I'll be the heel. Maybe Justin can come in for a run-in and give him a good chair shot to the head. Playing the heel is kind of fun. Some of the readers are into it and others really hate me. The latter might be cooler because they read my stuff and are inspired to send hate mail. Here's a snippet from a recent one: "Raymond Padilla, you're a moron. You're new year resolution should be to play games that don't suck, have opinions that don't suck, stop wearing sunglasses indoors, and to quit acting like a woman trapped inside a fat woman's body. If you could work on any or all of these this coming year, gamespy would be a much improved website. Good luck." The kids are great for improving my self image!