I remember when I was a kid and I'd be really excited about the winter and holidays. I remember loving to go outside in the late afternoon before dinner and jump around in the huge snow banks as darkness fell. I would pretend I was an astronaut on the moon or some other strange planet.
I loved frosting cookies with my mom and decorating the tree and house in preparation of Santa arriving on X-Mas eve to bring me my Kenner Star Wars Death Star Tower, or my G.I. Joe Action Team Headquarters or my Atari 2600. I loved staying up late on New Years Eve to see the ball drop (insert your own puberty joke here______________.)
Outside of the material crap that X-Mas provided (Did I forget to mention the Six Million Dollar Man action figure or the Lone Ranger action figure or the Big Jim action figure I got several X-Mas' past?) there really was a sort of mysterious magic about the holidays. There was an energy that you could almost taste. Perhaps it was the two weeks off we got when school went into it's winter vacation period? Or maybe it was all the toys and treats that we were smothered with during the season.
One thing that I really loved on X-Mas eve, outside ot the presents, was that my family was all together on one evening. Mom, Dad, Sis, Grandma and Grandpa. We'd drink eggnog and chow down on cookies and open presents together.
X-Mas has certainly changed since childhood. Grandma and Grandpa are long gone. Mom and Dad are divorced. That enchanting, white planet that I used to romp around on is now nothing but dirty slush I have to shovel up and avoid slipping on. The air is bitter, cold feeling I don't remember having to deal with during childhood. Or maybe I just didn't care. Who knows. I don't see myself getting the Star Wars G.I. Joe Action Death Tower I got when I was a child this year.
Instead, I get to deal with cognitively challenged drivers who go 20 mph under the speed limit when there's an inch of snow, obnoxious yuppie shoppers and an economy that expects us to spend-spend-spend when none of us have anything to spend in the first place thanks a bunch to greedy CEOs of Fortune 500 companies that can STILL afford to get their spoiled brats animatronic dinosaurs for X-Mas.
Plop on top of all that the comfort and joy that has "blessed" us over the last couple of weeks. We've been hit with two huge snow falls this winter, the death of Forrey J. Ackerman AND Bettie Page, I've learned that two close friends of our family have cancer (one isn't going to make it and one caught it early enough) and you get a full tilt crapolla holiday season.
Here's hoping that some of you actually get to rediscover that magic of the season, and those of us that can't can at least tolerate the holidays.
On to more nicer subjects....
I've been renting TV shows I've missed like a mad man. I finished off Torchwood season 2 (goodbye Tosh and Owen. You shall be missed!), went though season 2 of Dexter (Goodbye Doakes. You were a D*&#$@ B!@%. You will not be missed.). And will start Pushing Daisies this weekend. Down the pike I have all of the original 1980's BBC shows of Robin Hood to check out. I loved that show when they would show it on public TV in the late '80's and early '90's. We'll see if it still holds up in my appreciation of it today.
I'm really rockin' through Fallout 3. This is a deep, dense, dark game that I really love so far. I do have a few complaints about it and can't say it is up to quite the standards of Morrowind or Oblivion (it's predecessors from the same production company). But it is till one of the best games I've ever played! Please check it out for your totally imearsive, open world, post apocalyptic, video game, role playing extravaganza! Once I've done pretty much all you can do in the game, I'll give a full review of it. Highlight for spoiler....
My understanding is, that you don't want to really go full force through the game with only the main quest. Start the main quest when you begin the game, then go out and explore the world, do a lot of the sub-quests and once you've found everything in the world, then go and complete the main quest. Otherwise you're going to miss out on an awful lot the first time around!
What am I listening to right this very second as I type this? Well, I'm going a bit old school and listening to Social Distortion, "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell" It's hard to believe that this was released 16 years ago. It stands up to today's standards as a great Rock 'N' Roll album! Don't tell me that you can't listen to "When She Begins" without rockin' out just a little bit.
Okay, I'm gunna check out the first season of Pushing Daisies. Hope it doesn't suck as much as this holiday season.
Bah friggin' Humbug, mutha trucka's!
Goodnight sweet Betty, we'll miss you dearly.
Zangz.
Gnomecast 200 – Why We Do This
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https://polygamero.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/GC_200_Whywedothis_final.mp3
Join us for our 200th episode of the Gnomecast, as we talk about why we do
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17 hours ago
Amen, brotha...I couldn't have said it better myself.
ReplyDelete-Mr. Salty