This was my first day back at work after a nice, long vacation, and as is always the case when you have to wake up and be responsible again after a nice, long vacation, I was just totally dreading the shit out of today. Course, the dread was pointless — work was work, no better or worse than before. Eh, maybe it was a little better, because I got tons of presents.

A bunch of the companies I’ve worked with in the past year sent swag over in late December, but since I was out, walking into work today was like Christmas morning all over again. The loot included a few t-shirts/sweatshirts with logos for various companies you’ve never heard of on them, along with a few bottles of wine, an awesome black throw blanket that is logofied but not in an annoying way, a lava lamp (!!!), a Starbucks gift card, a big ass gold tin robot that’s so unbelievably awesome that I had to try really hard not to prefix “awesome” with “fucking,” and the ultimate prize — a Mimoco flash drive that looks like a ghost!

Ahhhhhhh so great so great so great. I’ve received many complimentary flash drives in my day (virtually every company that has ever seen fit to reward my relationship with them gave me a flash drive), but I think this is the first one that I’ll really find a use for. I’m in love with this thing. It comes with some kind of goth teddy bear costume (a protective sleeve), and it can hold a gig’s worth of stuff that I’m not comfortable with putting on my office desktop! I love my Mimoco Ghost flash drive! Only 1 of 500 ever made! Site says so!

If you were watching Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Blasteriffic Clashband Partymart, know that my office is like twelve feet away from where Ryan Seacrest stood. I am privileged and rare. As such, the confetti from the midnight hour was still all over the streets. The sanitation wizards managed to clean up Times Square pretty darn well, but you can’t get all of that crap up, and that totally works for me, because I never get anywhere near the city on New Year’s Eve. Getting to stomp the party’s official confetti made me feel like I was part of the action, however fashionably late.

Because many buildings in the area feature porous revolving doors, pretty much every store and office in Times Square had a lobby full of dirty party paper today. The picture above was actually snapped in a bank. When I looked closer at the shreds, I was surprised to find that it was…branded?

Yes, the confetti of the 2006 Times Square New Year’s Eve bash was brought to us by Target. Okay, so on the one hand, maybe you could argue that branding confetti is going a step too far. I disagree, because it’s very nice confetti. Some of the pieces had happy phrases; others were shiny and foily with stupid Target logos on them. Either way, it’s all so much more noteworthy than random blank strips of yellow and lavender paper.

Bit by the materialism bug that comes with getting free shit from companies I barely know, we hit a few stores tonight to cash in on some of the gift cards we got for Christmas. A bunch of you fuckers told me to get Red Steel for the Wii, so I did. I haven’t opened it yet, but now that I’m reading the reviews, I’m wondering why that certain bunch of you told me to get the most poorly rated game on the entire console. I exaggerate, but man. People aren’t being kind to Red Steel. You have around 12 hours to convince me to play it or to exchange it. If you vote EXCHANGE, what should I get? (Catch: I played Rayman; it’s awesome, but not the kind of thing I can foresee playing much by myself. Pick something else please thanks yes.)

Also picked up another Wii remote, which is excellent, because now, the poor souls who enter our apartment will only be charged with challenging me for the championship trophy in Wii Sports bowling, whereas they formerly could only watch me hone my skills in awe. Oh sure, you can bowl with two players on one remote, but that is so disgusting and cumbersome that I’m going to pretend you can’t.

PS: If I haven’t Wii friend coded or whatever the hell you call it back yet, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like you. It means that I haven’t friend coded anyone back yet. I will get on that soon, and I look forward to having your Miis mingle with my Miis and perhaps create baby Miis which would make us related by some gorily nerdy stretch. We’ll have times, you and I.

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!