China Daily reports that Anita Mui has died

Hong Kong pop queen Anita Mui dies

Hong Kong pop star and actress Anita Mui, well known in Chinese communities the world over, died early on Tuesday less than four months after revealing that she had cervical cancer. She was 40.

She died at Hong Kong’s Sanitorium Hospital at 2.50am (1850 GMT), according to her friends, including action film legend Jackie Chan and fellow singer Alan Tam, who were keeping vigil at the hospital.

Earlier reports said that she had been admitted to hospital after slipping into a coma.

Other reports said Mui died of lung failure due to the side effects of the drugs she was taking to fight the cancer. [China Daily]

I think the first thing I saw her in was The Heroic Trio. She’s also been in a few Jackie Chan movies over the years.

So I’ve decided that this year I’m going to stay at home for NYE. Mostly because it feels like too much of a hassle to go out anywhere. So instead, I’m inviting all my friends to stop by as they head out to whatever party they are going to and drink some of the various alcohol I have sitting around. I’ll be home, watching movies, eating popcorn, and drinking. Just let me know beforehand if you’ll be swinging by.

There’s a certain kind of game that I tend to avoid because I can so easily just lose hours and hours playing them without blinking an eye. Unfortunately I just got one of those games recently. Harvest Moon:Friends of Mineral Town is an .. uh… farming game. You inherit a farm and have to build it up and raise animals, find a girlfriend, it’s like sim farm. Between that and Final Fantasy Advance Tactics, this little system is rocking.

For some reason this year it just isn’t as easy to do. Things are starting to look up a little bit, but some of it feels like too little too late. I’m sure that once I get down to my parent’s place things will be better. I’ll be surrounded by things of xmas, family will be there, I’ll get to see my nephew. But for now it is just run around in a mad panic and hope I can get on the road by the time I want to. Oh yeah, and I need to stop at RMV and pay off a ticket that I don’t have money to pay so my license won’t be suspended.

Thank god I can listen to David Sedaris’ Holidays on Ice while I’m going insane.

Because penguins rock. Penguin Shuffling. [via Boing Boing]

I’m trying to decide what to do for New Years Eve and coming up blank. I’m thinking I may just say anyone who wants to come by and visit is welcome to. I’ve got alcohol people can help me finish off, movies that I’ll be watching, etc. There’s a part of me that just feels very very lazy and wants to just stay home.

Via Ellen and LockerGnome, a law student looks at LotR.

“As a small token of your friendship Sauron asks this,” he said: “that you should find this thief,” such was his word, “and get from him, willing or no, a little ring, the least of rings, that once he stole. It is but a trifle that Sauron fancies, and an earnest of your good will. Find it, and three rings that the Dwarf-sires possessed of old shall be returned to you, and the realm of Moria shall be yours for ever. Find only news of the thief, whether he still lives and where, and you shall have great reward and lasting friendship from the Lord. Refuse, and things will not seem so well. Do you refuse?”
–The Fellowship of the Ring, in “The Council of Elrond”

It seems to me that’s really two, maybe three separate offers. The first seems to be unambiguously an offer for a unilateral contract (to find the supposedly piddling ring for three of the Dwarf rings of power plus the estate of Moria), to be completed by performance. Dáin wouldn’t want to bind himself to produce a ring; it’s too risky. This seems like the straight-forward reward scenario envisioned as a prototypical offer for a unilateral contract.

A few comments on material facts: You might say that Sauron should have disclosed the Balrog living in the deeps of Moria. But the Dwarves had ancient records of Moria which probably mention this, and Sauron is old enough to imagine that the Dwarves knew. It seems silly to require disclosure of a fact which, though admittedly material, is known to both parties, even though they never actually mention it to each other. The same sort of reasoning applies to the fact that the Dwarven rings are actually tainted (although Dwarves tend to resist his power a little better than men). [Letters of Marque]