Wow, a lot's happened since December, but I don't want to write a book about it. A couple notable things:

I became Santa Claus at our company holiday party. I was informed of this about three hours before the party started! It was a lot of fun, I told a lot of pirate jokes (Yo-Ho-Ho-Ho!). Really fun, but goldang that suit was super hot.

Zack turned another year older and we had a pirate party in his honor. Bloody hell I like pirates.

Alice was kind enough to take me home with her to Honolulu. Wow. I'll never forget it, words can't even describe how beautiful it is. Photographs of the area can't even prepare you, it's so gorgeous. Even their shrubs have flowers! There are Tarzan vines! Her parents are so nice! There was hugging! And they have a fat pad! Such a great time. I spent Christmas and New Year's there, and was kind of bummed coming home. But, Hawaii's not my home. Seattle is my home. But I'm starting to wonder why it's not the other way around.

Poor Alice was sick the entire trip! But what an amazing trooper, she still showed me all that is Oahu, and I could talk about it forever. I hope to have a bunch of photos up on flikr or something so y'all can see them. In the meantime, here is a picture of me looking like a gangsta (this is what happens when I don't work for a week):



And here is a letter I wrote to my new friends Dave and Buster:

To the fine people at Dave & Buster's:

I am writing with hope that you can help settle a debate my girlfriend and I have started regarding your establishment. I recently had the chance to spend some time at the Dave & Buster's in Honolulu over the holidays. It was a very fun experience for my girlfriend and me, and we became completely lost in the games on the midway. Much of our time was spent behind the ticket-reward games, and we certainly racked up the tickets until our bucket was overflowing.

After ‘cashing in' and taking home a few D&B prizes, my girlfriend and I had an animated discussion on the way home. We didn't agree on how your establishment counts the tickets that somebody has won. This is where I need your help. I will first present to you an objective observation of how our tickets were received:

We walked over to the ticket redemption store entrance. The employee emptied a plastic bin of tickets from the previous customer in front of us, and then asked for our tickets, gesturing towards a new bin. This bin was on top of a metal surface. We emptied our tickets into the bin. The employee asked for our Power Card, and I obliged. She then swiped the card in a machine, and told us we have 376 tickets on the card, and we could proceed into the store.

Now, my girlfriend's theory of how tickets are counted: The metal surface the bins were on was a scale. When we emptied our tickets into the bin, they were then weighed. The scale was able to determine how many tickets were in it. When the D&B employee asked for our card, it was so she could transfer that number of credits onto the card after it was weighed. My argument is that a scale is too easily manipulated, and that the weight of a ticket is so small that it would be difficult to accurately measure many tickets at once.

My theory: Since we must swipe our Power Card before playing any game, I believe that data related to that particular card is updated, including how many tickets have been won. So, say I swipe my card, play a game, and win 50 tickets. My card is aware that I've won 50 tickets. When we finished and went to redeem our tickets, I was only asked for the card so the employee could tell us how many tickets were on it. The actual tickets emptied in the bin did not matter. My girlfriend's argument is if physical tickets don't matter, why does D&B go through the trouble of having tickets at all?

It is my sincere hope that you can help clear up this debate. Thank you very much for your time, and some fun in Hawaii!

Happy New Year,



Mike Karikas