Never forgetting the old year...

That's a hip, Spanish song I like about how the New Year approaches (which you can listen to and download right here) that talks about a man who will never forget the passing year because of all the good stuff it has left him with (among which he mentions a girlfriend, a white mare, a black donkey, and a good mother-in-law)

Enough about the vid for now. The end of the year is imminent, and I want to do two things. First, I'm going to do this thing I've always wanted to do: a list that acknowledges the five people that have the most influence over me, concerning this project. Notice that I will be also mentioning my book, Brotherhood.

Here it goes. I will start with:

1. Dad: You threw me into this cesspool, and I'll never regret it. Blogging is a great way to put your thoughts into readable content (also an excellent stress reducer) But you had to force me into my Gmail account to know all of this. And you gave me the idea to put all of my invented superheroes in anoter blog. AND you suggested to turn my wacko stories into a $12 book. Thanks, pop, I'm your NUMBUH ONE FAN.
2. Mr. John R. Weber: You aroused my interest in writing in the first place. I remember your first year in my school (I was in 7th Grade) After the ITBS, you realized that I had potential in many areas of study (Math & Science) but you also saw my writing skills as well as my wacky ideas for a lot of stuff. Also, you had a book in the school library, and that was it. Brotherhood came out.
3. Classmates: I think that a little more than half of my classmates have NOT read anything I ever wrote. I don't blame them, 'cuz they have other "important issues" to handle (Even though I did show the book to some of you) But still, it ought to be fun to read all the stuff I write, especially since a little more than half of it refers to my school issues (which implies that most of you guys are mentioned at least once)
4. Miss Eileen Pfefferle: (<= Did I spell that correctly?) When I met you, I already had this blog (In fact, I gave you the address right then) but, being an English teacher, you gave me a few tips on lots of issues around the blog as well as the book. I remember that at first I kind of dissented with your ideas, but then I tried them and kinda liked them. I haven't forgotten your teachings ever since. Oh, and I'm still waiting for the edition you want me to autograph.
5. Family: When my book came out, my mom announced it to her sisters and their husbands and children. In two days, I was tagged in an image on Facebook, where one of my uncles ripped out a picture of my premiere animation and talked about what he thought the book was about, based on my description. As for the rest, well, everybody was asking me via Facebook Chat (ahh, the wonders of modern culture surpass anything I could've ever imagined) how much for the book, what were my plans with the money, and one question that has bugged me ever since the animation came out: Is Aric a girl??

Okay... let myself out.


Second, I want to let out my inner gamer:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARIO!!!!

Okay, so Mario is 25 years old. Pretty young for someone with an Italian mustache and a belly that's more suited for a 40-year-old (no offense, Dad) The point is, developers in Japan have launched a special edition Wii CD that [I think] includes:

• The original Super Mario Bros
• The Donkey Kong game where Mario made his first appearance
• Perhaps more of his other NES games like Super Mario Bros 2 and 3 (Fun fact, the SMB 2 launched in America is actually a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic where the characters were switched with Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad. The real SMB 2 was launched in the SNES as SMB: The Lost Levels)
• A brief movie showing the history of Nintendo

So that wraps it up for this decade. Oh, and don't  forget to read my post on the history of this guy's career.

May all of you who read this (and the unlucky ones who didn't) have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Update: 1/1/11... Well, I kinda forgot to mention that the same band that played during our beloved country's anniversary played for Xmas break. Remember that song at the beginning of the post? Yeah, we played that. Well, actually, only I played it. Solo. Alone. Apart from everyone else.

It just happens that not all of the band members have such acute musical hearing as us glockenspiels do. In fact, not even the glockenspiels could figure that song out. So it was my mission to find the tune, figure out the notes, and fork over music sheets to everyone.


AND EVEN THEN THEY STILL DIDN'T KNOW THE SONG.

So I got to play it solo.

PS: There, Dad, I did it.