Christmas Sympathy Post

Happy almost-not-Christmas-anymore everybody! Today wasn't entirely busy: had a good dinner, went to visit some relatives, and did some reorganizing in my living space. I'm sure you're all dying to hear about my gift haul, so here it is, with added comments:

Comfy new winter gloves! - My old standbys are torn to shit, so I got some new ones. They aren't as thick, but I can actually GRIP things with them, and they are all soft and warm. I am very happy.

Contra 4 - Well, it's Contra. This is one of the few times you can enjoy a game that repeatedly kicks your ass on the first level, as it's just simple shoot the shit out of things. With the Spread Gun, no less.

Wii Classic Controller - I want only so I can test out all 4 control schemes in Smash Bros. Brawl, but it's good for playing Bonk's Adventure, too.

Sandman: Brief Lives - Oh, I'm so close to completing the entire series. Just three (or four. I can't remember the exact number, and I don't feel like looking it up right now) more trades to go. Then they will release the omnibus, which will cost half of what I and other people for all of the books separately.

Filing Cabinet Dividers - Actually, the little thing that the dividers came in has been the most useful, as it now houses all my Quills.

The Best of Bowie - I've been on a Bowie fix since my friend bought a bunch of vinyls and gave me the torrent for Low (which is awesome, BTW). This is starter-level DB, but its good to get some of these great songs in one place if I ever need to redownload my music.

Socks - Everyone loves socks!

Gift Certificates - Really not the most thoughtful gift, but I don't expect the relatives I have very little contact with to know my personal needs and desires, so it's perfectly fine.

i-Cy - I saved the best for last. What is i-Cy? This is i-Cy:



As you can see, it is a vaguely penguin-shaped device (that also bears a not-so-surprising resemblance to an eMac's 'soup' mouse). It's purpose is to either listen to music you play or hook up to your music playing device (which it uses to play the music itself, which is pretty cool) while simultaneously shuffling about and squawking to the beat, with little light patterns appearing on its chest. If I'm going to get something to play my iPod music out loud, isn't so much better to get a something that happens to be a dancing penguin robot thing? It even has mood swings, displaying different light patterns when not grooving to tunes, depending on how much sound you 'feed' it. What a bizarre concept that is...a life form that eats sound. And is a penguin.

And now that me is over, I'll garble about some Christmas TV I skimmed past:

I don't think not-TBS was having a Christmas Story marathon, which is surely a sign of the apocalypse. It was on CBC, and probably a billion other channels, though, so eh.

Aw, Christopher the Christmas Tree, an inane children's cartoon that has become somewhat of an in-joke in my friend circle. Mostly because one of my friends defends it for no discernible reason, while another makes fun of that goddamned owl.

This one was different: PBS was airing an animated special based on Charles Dickens' Cricket on the Hearth. I wasn't exactly paying attention, as I was throwing away notes, but I did note some things about it, namely that nobody seemed to care that the titular cricket was wearing a suit, and that three gangster animals were shot by a ship captain. That's totally hardcore.

This may be the first year that I haven't even sped past the old Rankin/Bass standbys. Not even The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, which is a very bizarre affair (featuring the only time you'll ever see fairies take out dragons and ogres in battle, and this is a Christmas movie), but one that shows up frequently nonetheless. To be fair, I personally felt that Christmas creeped on me, and I had barely any time to get festive. I don't think I know what my festive mood is like, so maybe I'm just being stupid.

But anyway, tomorrow I'll partake in the mindless consumer riot called Boxing Day, but not by camping at 4 AM to get a TV, but rather by casually using my gift certificates to get lots of stuff for barely anything. I mean, I have i-Cy, why would I need anything like a cheap widescreen TV? Bah.