Inter-Holiday Greetings!

We are poised in the tiny space between Christmas and New Years, so I thought I'd quickly dash off a brief post.  I hope everyone had a cheerful Christmas, despite the severe weather much of the country has been experiencing.  Here in the blessed realm of Northern California we've been (for the most part) lucky.  Despite heavy rains and howling winds, I haven't seen much locally in the way of flooding or overturned trees, compared to the last big storm five years ago.  December 25th was one of those eerily dark winter days.  Even at noon, with the curtains open and the Christmas lights lit up, a weird gloominess had settled in; it looked more dusk than daylight.

For anyone out there in Japan, I hope you were able to get your hands on the traditional KFC dinner.

My own Christmas celebration didn't turn out quite as planned.  My father-in-law suffered a minor heart attack on Christmas Eve, and we were told he would be undergoing "heart surgery" on Christmas.  This turned out to be not quite true.  When I spoke to his nurse on Christmas night, I learned he only had a couple stents inserted.  Anyway, Christmas dinner was scheduled to take place at my house. My wife's family wanted to delay it until later on Christmas evening, and then, on the afternoon of the 25th, asked if they could come by on the 26th instead.  As a result we ended up doing Christmas dinner twice.  Not what I was planning, but, hey, it happens.

Bubble Bobble?  On the Master System? No way, dude!

Those of you who listened to Chrontendo 35 know that our next episode will be Chronsega 6, covering summer/fall 1988.  It's going to be sort of an odd episode: heavy on ports of arcade and computer games, including a surprising number of non-Sega titles.   Yep, just as Sega is getting ready to pull the plug on the Master System in Japan, they start getting third party support.  Of course, Sega would continue to promote the console in the US, Europe, Brazil and other parts of the world.

So -- have a nice New Years. Please keep in mind the dangers of drinking and driving.  I'll post something more substantial in a few days from now.