RINGing in the Holiday Season

I know that traditionally I use the weeks after Halloween to bemoan the coming holiday season here in my blog. It's just the way people seem to go mad and turn their D-Bag meters onto full tilt during the season that really gets to me. Just try and go to one store or mall and not have some jerk-wit not do something rude or just plain stupid to you.

In any case, I'd like to start the holiday season off on a good note and tell you of a yearly tradition I've started with myself that helps me get through the holidays.

It all started in the winter of 2001. A upstart New Zealand filmmaker named Peter Jackson released upon the world a gift of geek greatness. It was the first of the film trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" fantasy stories called "The Fellowship of the Ring". It was followed up with "The Two Towers" in 2002 and "The Return of the King" in 2003 both being released right around the holiday season.

These spectacles brought back the feel of epic filmmaking that hadn't been seen since movies being made by the likes of Cecil B. Demille had graced the silver screen.

A few years later the movies were released on DVD in their basic form. I decided to hold out. I waited for the uber-awesome 4 disc directors cut, extended editions of each of the films and I'm very glad I did as they play a part in my new holiday tradition.

Within the weekends between Thanksgiving and X-Mas, I'll sit down with a bowl of chili, a couple of beers, some sodas, chips and dips in front of my TV set and watch one of the movies all the way through. Then I'll go through the documentaries that are included in each set. This usually takes an entire afternoon. But it is so wonderful. I'm not out in the cold trying to shop with the god-awfulness of the throngs of greedy yuppie culture knocking each other over to grab the newest fangled techno gift.

I'm snug and sound, warm and cozy with grub and beer and Frodo, Merry, Pipin, Gandalf, Gimli, Aaragorn and the whole Rings lot of them enjoying their adventures within Middle Earth. Not too shabby.

I suggest you all get the extended additions of the movie and take a few Saturdays in the cold of the holiday season and watch them. I'm sure they're available on Amazon or Ebay. They're well worth it.

On that note. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the rest of the holiday season

Zangz.

Zangz's Early as Heck 2010 X-Mas Wish List.

Every year my family members ask me what I want for X-Mas. Within the last few years I have gotten in the habit of putting the list up on my blog for a couple of reasons.

1. To be able to give family a concise list with linked examples so they know exactly what to get me without getting too confused.

2. To force them to actually visit and read my blog at least once a year. I need the hits.

3. A desperate need for some form of attention.

You may be asking, "Hey Zangz, why are you posting your X-mas wish list when we're barely out of the Halloween season?"

The few who read my blog know that the X-Mas season isn't really my favorite time of year for various reasons which I've blogged about in the past. And god knows that I'm already going through post Halloween DT's. But, last year my Mom and sister caught me completely off guard and demanded to know what I wanted for X-Mas a day before I planned to post my X-Mas wish list blog up (you can read about the whole sordid incident HERE). So this year I'm beating them to the punch.

I'm also making the print a little larger than usual because my mom complains that reading my blog gives her a headache due to the small type.

So, friends and family, get you pens and paper out and start jotting notes. Here we goes....

VIDEO GAMES:
Pleas note: All video games are for the Xbox 360.

Fallout: New Vegas - The quasi-sequel to Fallout 3. The first person RPG takes place in the post apocalyptic world that Fallout 3 was in. Except instead of traversing the wastelands of Washington DC, you're now exploring the semi-rebuilt tourist town of Las Vegas.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare - Not to be confused with it's predecessor, Red Dead Redemption, this add on is a game pack for the original Red Dead. In non-gamer speak: it is extra missions not included on the original game that focuses on the wild west being infected by zombies. The add on disc will not be released until late November. Make sure you get the box with the DISC in it. Not the one that offers the game as down loadable content since I don't have my system hooked up to the Internet.

Fable III - The 3rd installment of the popular Fantasy game where not only is action a part of the game-play, so is managing your own Kingdom.

CLOTHES:

Cargo Pants - A couple more pairs wouldn't hurt. Finding the right size for me is the grand mystery.

Leather Winter Gloves - The ones I have are falling apart

OTHER:

Cologne - I haven't had a decent cologne in years. In fact the one I have is the "organic" one that my sister, Dizzy Lizzy, sold when she worked at Bath and Bodyworks. It's time for a change. I wouldn't know what type to get, though.

Surprise me - Do you think you know something you'd like me to have, but isn't on the list. Go a head. Knock yourselves out.

That's it. That's all there is for me. That's the list.

I gotta get my ass in gear since I just found out 30 seconds ago that I'm meeting some friends in Madison within the next couple of hours.

See ya.

Zangz.

Bobby the Bully.

There's been a lot of hubbub in the media lately regarding bullying. A few young people have taken their own lives as a result of being bullied recently and now the media has jumped on the subject.

Even Hollywood stars are speaking out against bullying. There are news specials on the subject and students around the country are starting anti-bullying task forces at their schools.

I just have one question regarding all of this. WHERE THE FRELL WHERE ALL THESE ANTIBULLYING SENTIMENTS WHEN I WAS IN GRADE SCHOOL????

Seriously! From 3rd to 7th grade there wasn't a day that went by where I wasn't teased unmercifully or given a good smacking around by classmates. Both teachers and parents could have cared less back then. They were of a generation where a good beating would "build character".

Back in the day being a geek wasn't as counter culture cool as it is today. Back then being a kid who collected action figures rather than following professional sports teams wasn't exactly the cool thing to do. It got me into boatloads of trouble.

There was this one kid in my class who made it his main point in life to make sure I was miserable whenever he was in my presence. We'll call him "Bobby" in this post.

Bobby was a young, typical good looking, freckle faced, popular kid who all the teachers and students loved. He was good at athletics and was always the star player out on the blacktop. He also came from a, not rich, but financially comfortable family.

I started at the new school in the 3rd grade and Bobby, already being a fixture at the new school, took an instant dislike to me. I was gawky, had crazy curly hair, big goofy glasses and set of buck teeth that not only stuck out of my face, but had big gaps between them (I was a thumb sucker when I was a wee lad). On top of that, my Mom would always go way out of her way to dress me in the silliest looking outfits that usually included flood pants. I was cruising for a bruising the minute I first walked through that front door of that school.

I think I was starting to be pushed around within the first week. Bobby made sure that everyone else in the class disliked me and would follow suit in his abusive treatment of me.

The bullying lasted 3 years solid and had me at a point of severe depression and fear. I would wake up in the mornings wondering what was the purpose of waking up. I was only 10 years old for crssakes! I didn't understand the concept of suicidal tendencies.

On a daily basis I would have to calculate every move I made and everything I would say to avoid my classmates ridicule. Because no matter what I did, it was met with disdain. Even my best friend at the school would join in with the teasing and pummeling. It was pretty frackin' harsh.

A few short days before I entered the 7th grade and what was to be yet another year of torture from Bobby and his followers, we got the news that Bobby was hit by a car and died. No frack. The big assed beast known as karma came and reared her ugly assed head in a way that could only be described as the ultimate God Smack.

In the days and weeks that followed I didn't feel vindicated, I was far more blown away by the fact that someone my age could leave us in a split second. It wasn't until later in life that I felt a slight satisfaction in what all went down. But, now, as an adult, I feel for his family, but at the same time I wonder what 7th grade would have been like with him there. Would I have survived it?

Things got better in the years after. I was far less teased in grade school and in high school, though still an outcast, I found a good group of friends that I'm still close with.

So it's not just young gay people who are targets of bullying. There are plenty of us heterosexuals who are, or where, outcasts and targets and probably have an inkling of knowledge of what it's like to be different and not fit in.

It saddens me that people feel the need to end their lives at such a young age due to bullies. It got better for me. It can for them also. Unfortunately it's all about patience. Something the youth of today don't have.

And as for the bullies of the world, Karma is a big assed beeotch! A chance meeting with the front end of an automobile could be the cure to bullying.

Zangz.