Hope you all had a very happy day off, whatever holiday you celebrate. Or not. Me, I spent Christmas in the safety of my own home (big surprise), although I did venture out to the Orleans Casino--more specifically, the Canal Street Restaurant--for Christmas dinner. Had a very nice slab of prime rib, with a baked sweet potato on the side, and eggnog pudding for dessert. Even better, I met up with friends who I hadn't seen for a while, and it's always nice to renew those connections. (Okay, one of them I had seen the previous week at a crappy Las Vegas Wranglers hockey game, but it had been months and months before that. So there.)

Oh, and in perhaps one of the buggiest licensing deals I've seen in a while, we now have Dilbert slot machines gracing the floors of our local casinos. Considering that Dilbert is a character hallmarked by the fact that he won't do anything to break out of the rut of his own life, the idea of basing a gambling machine on him seems... Well, I don't want to accuse Scott Adams of being a money-grubbing whore, but they don't even have Garfield slot machines (I think), so, come on.

The previous weekend, I went away to Disneyland for a few days. It was fun, but with a few disappointments, the biggest being the closure of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Play It show. Plus it was more crowded on the Monday than I had expected it to be, which drove me temporarily out of the park and into the Downtown Disney movie theater where I finally saw The Incredibles. And it was, or they were, or whatever. I'm not sure if it's the best superhero movie I've seen in years or the best James Bond film I've seen in years. Either way, I'm glad I managed to catch it in the theater.

Book-wise, I finally finished Clive Barker's second Abarat book. It took me forever (well, a month and a half), not because it was dull, but because of my short attention span. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the Oz books I read as a kid, all full of these incredibly mad characters and places with no effort made to explain the wildness. I mean, stuff like Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket are fine and everything, but pale in comparison to Barker's imagination explosion.

As for TV, during the winter rerun doldrums, my favorite new series is probably Mine All Mine on BBC America. It's this mad comedy drama, and with only one week to go, I still have no idea how everything is going to end up. It's written by the new Doctor Who producer, Russell T Davies, but it's not the Doctor Who connection that makes it great. (If anything, I'm more excited about Doctor Who because he's producing it, not excited about him because he's producing Doctor Who. If that makes sense.)

Another new favorite is Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! on Disney's Jetix block. Very much in the vein of Cartoon Network's Teen Titans, it's Disney's fairly successful attempt to create an American Anime series for younger kids. I mean, you look at it, there's no chance of wondering if it's inspired by anime or not, you know?

And then there's House on Fox. Who would have thought another doctor show could be so good? It helps that it's produced by talented folks, and it helps even more that it stars British comic actor Hugh Laurie as a complete bastard (and an American, with a flawless accent). Missed the first episode, but they're rerunning that on Tuesday. And apparently new episodes will continue in January.

Coming up, I'm going to give 24 another shot this season, I think, depending on when it's on. Definitely looking forward to Alias, in it's new, pay-attention-to-me time slot right after Lost. I continue to not see the appeal of Veronica Mars, despite rave reviews from everybody. Sorry. And I'm giving up on Jack & Bobby, in favor of sampling Point Pleasant on Fox, the new show from Marti "Buffy executive producer who isn't Joss Whedon" Noxon. Jack & Bobby failed to ever catch fire for me, and Point Pleasant looks weird and different, so there you go.

Oh, and Sci Fi has picked up Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis for next season. That'll make SG-1 tied with X-Files for the longest-running American science fiction show, I believe. (Longest running worldwide would be Doctor Who, of course.) It's possible that Richard Dean Anderson may not be back next year, but they're adding Farscape star Ben Browder to the cast. Given Farscape's weak ratings, I can't imagine they're doing it to increase the audience, but he's a good actor, so I look forward to seeing what he brings to the show. If they do lose Anderson altogether, though, that'll be a pretty tough blow.

Oh, and according to folks I respect in the UK, the new Battlestar: Galactica (already airing there) is great. So that's something else to look forward to.