The simple joys of life

1) Reading Charles Dickens' Hard Times. A sweet, if terribly one-dimensional portrait of good and evil characters. Not nearly as rich as Little Dorrit or Bleak House, but certainly on the level of Oliver Twist, and, of course, beautifully written.

2) Walking in the snow. Makes you warm if you walk fast enough, feel smart for bringing a neckerchief to keep your neck and chin warm, and keeps you in training.

3) Playing board games, like Clue or Settlers of Cataan. Even if you don't win, it's fun.

4) Watching movies, like Speed Racer. Even if it is an ephemeral bit of candy colored fluff, it is fun.

5) Discussing interesting things, like 1980s Jane Austen movies and how you think they are wretched, agreeing about how excruciatingly bad Gone with the Wind is, and explaining why you like Twilight.

6) Playing Halo 2 with three other people who are about as bad as you are. Getting pwned the first time because the map is nasty, someone is vastly overskilled for the other players, and you don't like the weapons. Then having a new, flat map, which you initially are having trouble with, then you hop in a hovercraft with lasers and proceed to snape, splatter, and otherwise obliterate everyone else. Cars with Guns! Only surpassed by the enormous pleasure of no-scope sniping people at close range, then finding a rocket launcher. There are few things in a gamer's life more satisfying than ambling around with a mini-missile launcher on your shoulder, running across another player, frantically scrambling to get them in your scope, then firing a huge gout of flame at them. Whooo. Verra, verra exciting!

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