Christopher Walken Christmas Letters and Holiday Sentiments

This is truly great. The other letters are good, but this one is my favorite.

I don't know that I ever wrote a letter to someone famous. I have vague memories of writing the hostages that came home in the early 80s (it might even have been 1980). The only reason I remember that is that I got to help deliver the letters from our class. I wrote William Goldman to request the two page "reunion scene" from The Princess Bride. That was a clever bit of trickery. I suspect famous people get some truly interesting letters.

And the Christmas holiday weekend begins. The girls are currently at Defcon 2, itching to up the stakes. We're letting them watch The Santa Clause at the moment. While not my favorite Christmas movie, they enjoy it and it has its moments. There are certainly worse choices. I admit a certain loyalty to It's a Wonderful Life. I don't have to watch it every year, but I do have some small amount of affection for it. A Christmas Story also helps ring in the Christmas season. Although ever since that 24 hour marathon a few years ago I haven't felt a burning desire to watch it again... Holiday movies are strange creatures. They subsist almost entirely on emotional manipulation and nostalgia, and yet they certainly help define who we are. And what's a little emotional blackmail between friends anyway. ^_^ Actually holiday movies can provide a nice bit of catharsis and remind us of the things that make life worth living. But then, most of the fine arts can do that - music, art, literature, film. It's amazing how they can bind themselves to little pieces of our lives and forevermore remind us of those things regardless of time or distance.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and can spend some time with those you hold dear.

Biting humor

Played through Munchkin Bites tonight. A worthy addition to the Munchkin series. If you're unfamiliar with the Munchkin games they're card based games that, to an extent, emulate a role-playing game. You try to get your character to level ten by defeating monsters and picking up treasure. You also do your best to prevent the other players from accomplishing the same tasks. You can work together, stab each other in the back, go it alone - it's up to you. The cards are all humorous parodies of whatever genre the particular Munchkin game is focusing on: the original Munchkin takes on fantasy games, Star Munchkin goes after sci-fi films/tv shows, Munchkin Fu tackles the kung fu world and Munchkin Bites parodies horror films. The game is all about humor and getting the other player before they get you. So if you tend to take gaming too seriously, you should probably stay away as several of the cards will reduce you to tears if you're not careful. A game tends to start off nicely enough as the other players are more than willing to help in an effort to boost their own chances at gaining levels, but once people get closer to the magical 10th level the vicious cards come out and it's all about taking everybody else down.

Switching gears, we watched House last night (the new medical show on Fox, not the great cheesy horror flick from the 80s). It was quite nice. House himself reminds me of Perry from Scrubs with a little less restraint. I plan on checking it out again.

Survival of the least annoying

First, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is due out July 16th, so that's good news.

Today my wife and I went through the girls' room and culled some of the accumulated clutter in preparation for Christmas. We try to do this every so often in order to prevent death by assorted odds and ends. It's pretty amazing how much stuff two little girls can horde away. Well, amazing or terrifying, your call... This morning was trial by garbage bag. Based on highly tuned parent gut reaction we scoured their room and the life of each stuffed animal, each piece of dress up clothing hung in the balance. It was quite satsisfying. Unfortunately, we really only managed to bring the level of kipple (thanks PK Dick for such a wonderful word) back to normal. We really should have strived for less than normal in anticipation of Christmas, but we'll re-calibrate once the presents are opened and we know where we stand. Oddest thing found this morning - a receipt. I don't recall what it was for. And I certainly have no idea why McKenna thought it was necessary to hold on to it.

A couple more days to go this week and then it's a nice four day weekend. Actually, I'm just trying to make it through tomorrow and then the rest of the week will be pretty easy. At least tomorrow night is game night. That will help kick things off right. We have recently acquired Munchkin Bites and Hoity Toity. Expect reviews in the not too distant future. The Munchkin series is well loved around here. Between the letter 'r' and I we have managed to gather all the variations. They're quite fun and each new installment tends to tweak things just enough to emphasize a certain aspect of gameplay. That and the cards are hilarious. Munchkin Bites tackles the horror genre, so I suspect I'm in for a treat.

Short week

So, the week of Christmas has arrived. And there are only a handful of days left in the year. Normally I enjoy this time of year - it's a mixture of the quiet that winter seems to bring, the excitement that the holidays bring and the contemplation that the end of the year inspires. Unfortunately there are a few things going on that are keeping me from enjoying the season to it's fullest. Oh well. Once I make it past Wednesday this week things should begin to calm down. For at least a little bit.

Actually, this should be a pretty good Christmas. The girls are at the age where they really get into it and one of the presents under the tree this year is quite nice. So hopefully I can manage to put the other stuff behind me and focus on family and friends and fun. Of course, my wife still hasn't figured out what she's getting me for Christmas, so there are a few opportunties for some good natured teasing as well. That always helps. ^_^

And alas, I believe today was the day they were announcing the winners of the Metroid Prime Haiku contest and I failed to receive that e-mail or phone call letting me know that I'd won the grand prize. How inconsiderate of them. I fail to acknowledge the possibility that someone else created a finer haiku. I'm sure the computer in charge of the random drawing was biased in some way...

Santa Graeme

Santa Graeme
Originally uploaded by dkun.

Need to get this up before I forget. This was almost the Christmas card we sent out. If I'd had a bit more time and an unlimited supply of ink I would have.

My mother and wife went out shopping one afternoon and came back with this outfit. Terribly shameful I must admit. They wasted absolutely no time in getting it on him and taking pictures for future blackmail purposes. My folks had a picture they wanted to try and use as a Christmas card so I dummied one up for them real fast. When I snagged the photo from them and some of the others that were ours, I realized I had to make a card for us as well. The idea of a gangster Santa just appealed to me for some reason...

The funny thing is that it's such an accidental shot. Of course, those always end up being the best. All I have to say is that Santa is ready to bust some heads if you're on his "naughty" list!

Humor continued

And here is the actual Bulwer-Lytton contest winners.

Humor for a Friday

Lyttle Lytton contest winners. Just go read them, they're great.

That kind of day

Well, the contractor finished fixing the holes in the wall from the water leak. Now we're just trying to breathe as the fumes are pretty terrible. But the house is once again whole. So that counts for something. And it was finished in time for Christmas.

Mixing paint fumes and sinus medicine isn't really all that good an idea.

I really need to locate a spare 4 hours or so to watch the extended Return of the King... I may attempt to do that tomorrow - I've managed to snag another 3 day weekend. This could have turned into quite the party weekend. Tonight was the company Christmas party, tomorrow is the church party and Friday we're getting together with a good friend. We skipped the work party due to the newborn. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I tend to prefer smaller get togethers with people I know.

My wife has made friends with the librarian responsible for the graphic novel section. This is a good thing. We've put in a few suggestions for things the library really can't do without. Hopefully they will make their way to the shelves. Apparently she's also a fan of the Gamecube. It's good to see Nintendo's little box of joy gaining more favor. I probably should have linked to this yesterday, but I didn't. It's an alright little piece about the 'cube.

Well, I'm starting to see blue bunny rabbits so I better go operate some heavy machinery.

fuzzy logic

Cold medication is taking over my brain so don't go expecting any pearls of wisdom. I'm glad the year is drawing to a close. I would say, that for the most part, it's been a pretty good one. But it's time to move on. Things will certainly prove to be interesting around here for the next few weeks, I'm just glad that I've got the holidays to get away from it all for a bit. This will be the first year that we don't have extended family celebrating the holidays with us. Would be the perfect opportunity to start some family traditions of our own, but I really haven't put much thought into that. I'm sure that there are some traditions my family had for the Christmas season, but the only one that I can remember with any ease is putting the tree up the day after Thanksgiving.

I would start pointing you to other places of interest now (in fact, I'm sure I had a few I meant to mention) but my current mental state really isn't going to allow that. I should just curl up with the new extended edition of Return of the King and visit Middle Earth for a bit.

800 lb. Gorilla

EA has apparently secured a deal with the NFL to monopolize the football videogame industry. <sigh> You really have to wonder what they're thinking. They already own most of that market due to the popularity of Madden. I guess Sega's recent price cut on their sports games made them feel pretty threatened. It was certainly a bold move on their part (and a sensible one - nobody should be paying standard game prices for a sports game that is really just an updated roster of the teams). Although rumor had it they were going to raise the prices again in a year or two. What really ought to happen is that sports games should go the way of the MMORPG - you buy the game once and then pay a yearly fee to have the updated content. Plus the online factor ensures that there's always a decent opponent. You could probably work out some pretty interesting things with regards to trades and draft picks as well. So there you go. Million dollar idea. Just remember to give me credit when you rip it off.

Sounds like a bunch of game magazines are getting the axe. GMR and XBN and one other one I can't recall (it's mentioned on GAF's main page if you went to check out the EA story). I like magazines. We currently only subscribe to a couple. I'm always on the lookout for something new to peruse though. I used to subscribe to a game magazine. (OPM if you're that curious) It was interesting for a while. Game journalism is a tricky thing. Reviews are odd things - they're barely more than hype - occasionally you'll find a reviewer you can trust, but it's a rare thing. Previews are really nothing but hype, and the game industry itself (while getting more interesting) certainly lacks the appeal of something like Hollywood or the political arena. So that leaves not too much more than the ads - which game magazines are chock full of as well. (Not that there are many magazines that aren't mostly ads...) There have been some interesting pieces on the state of game journalism and where it needs to head. Who knows, it might even get there some day. It's sad that more magazines are disappearing though. I suspect it's pretty hard for magazines to survive. I think the internet has hurt them slightly more than things like newspapers or books. Magazines tend to be pretty specialized, and while there's something satisfying about the physical aspect of a magazine, the net has the potential (and the reality) to be a lot more specialized than a magazine.

And we're back

Watched Spiderman 2 and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind over the weekend. Discerning readers will know which one I thought was better. For the rest of you, it wasn't the sequel. Eternal Sunshine is actually the first Kaufman film I've seen. We thought about watching Being John Malkovich but never got around to it. Eternal Sunshine is a great piece of work. Extols the "It's better to have loved and lost" line with some nice twists and a shiny sci-fi frame. There are some really nice scenes in it too. The series of scenes at the very beginning where Joel and Clementine basically relive their initial courtship is pretty great. And the scene at the end where his first memory of her is being erased is wonderfully poignant.

Spiderman offered little in the way of surprises, but was a decent sequel. Far too much time was spent on drumming into the audience how much it sucks to be Peter Parker, but the villain was enjoyable and the last third or so of the film was fun to watch. I must say that either Tobey Maguire wanted much more of his face seen in this movie or there are far too many people who now know who Spiderman is. I'm not a huge Spidey fan (that honor belongs to my wife) so I don't know if Harry Osborne knows that he's Spiderman or not, but it just seems that he was far too willing to walk around saying, "Hey! Look, it's me Spiderman!"

Ah, the weekend

Tim Burton is a unique individual. Edward Scissorhands to this day qualifies as one of my favorite fairy tales on film. There's absolutely no discussion necessary regarding the idea that Burton's films exude a certain sense of style. Apparently he's remaking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And, also without surprise, he's cast Johnny Depp in the role of Willy Wonka. The trailer is running around on the net now. I almost didn't link to it as on one level it's just horribly disturbing. On another level it suits the book perfectly. I suspect this may be a wonderful adaptation, but it will also be terribly strange. But it is children's literature, so I guess that's perfectly normal.

The War of the Worlds teaser is running around as well. You can find that one on your own. It has summer blockbuster written all over it. I suspect it will be a decent popcorn movie. And that's not really anything to be too ashamed of.

Seems there was something else I meant to call attention to, but it has wandered out of my conscious mind looking for greener pastures. So, you'll just have to wonder what it was.

Anime Thursday

So, my good friend - the letter 'r' - has been pvr-ing Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA) and Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex (GitS:SAC) recently. Great shows. Absolutely great shows. (An aside here. I'm going to be obnoxious and lazy and resort to acronyms for these shows. I'm too lazy to type the names out or copy and paste, so there...) FMA is possibly the more entertaining of the two, but only slightly and only because it's got a bit more "entertainment" in it. GitS:SAC is a touch more cerebral.

So far, we've watched the first four episodes of FMA and the first three of GitS:SAC. FMA tugs pretty hard on the heart strings. You can sense just what the main characters are going through as they search for a way to right something that went horribly wrong in their past. A cross between a morality play and a redemption tale, FMA explores pretty deep themes while managing to be funny and serious, often at the same time.

On the other hand GitS:SAC is more action with occasional humor. Based in pieces on the original Shirow manga and the film, it actually manages to walk the line paying homage to both. I was surprised at just how well some of the stories felt like they came from Shirow's manga series while the slightly more philosophical nature of the movie is there in the background peeking out at you every so often. It still deals with the themes of humanity and technology while keeping the action/political thriller trappings.

There's certainly a lot of room for growth in both series and I look forward to seeing where they go.

Yellowstone

yellowstone tree
Originally uploaded by dkun.

This is the photo set I've begun for the Yellowstone trip we took last winter.

Yellowstone is such a stark, beautiful place in the winter. It's also just about impossible to get into and out of (especially when you decide to travel on the days the two worst storms of the year occur...).

I remember when my wife mentioned that we were going up to Yellowstone with her family (her folks and her sister's family), I wasn't initially all that thrilled. I had my own suspicions about what the trip would be like (and the travelling part was frighteningly accurate) but I also had some ideas about what the park itself would be like (which, fortunately, were also accurate). But, there wasn't really all that much that I could do about it. I knew we were going, so it was just a matter of getting there. At the time, we just had our trusty little Saturn, so driving up was an experience. I think I should just leave it at that. There were moments when we were certainly lucky we made it in one piece. As mentioned, one of the worst storms we had had up to that point decided to take place the day we drove up.

But West Yellowstone and the park were certainly worth the trouble it took. My wife had decided to do the snowmobile tour and I opted for the snow cat tour. The snow cat tour was great. My in-laws and I took that trip and we got pretty lucky - there were only two other people on the same tour. They try and pack you in those things like sardines, but the rest of the people that were supposed to be in the group never showed. So we had a great guide in one of the better vehicles with just the right number of people.

One of the things the guide said still sticks with me. I asked him if he liked Yellowstone better in the summer or the winter. He replied, "Winter. There's nothing convenient about Yellowstone in the winter. The people that come to the park want to be there." It's really true. There is absolutely nothing convenient about Yellowstone in the winter. But it is definitely worth the trip.

Random Monday

This is a pretty cool recursive flash animation.

Oddly enough that flash animation pretty well encapsulates my day. The same thing over and over. Contractor failed to show and also failed to call to explain lack of showing; that seems to be par for the course. Work is, well, work. And the kids are refusing to go to bed. I think I may have to call Santa and have a little chat about the Christmas presents the kids are allowed to get. Pity we don't have a coal stove. I foresee a large amount of it in their futures...

At any rate, I meant to post a few things about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (yes the older one), but that will have to wait for another day. Instead, contemplate this little tidbit: Tales of Symphonia is an interesting take on the action RPG. The plot, so far, is hitting all the right clichés notes. The battle system is certainly interesting, a cross between a hack and slash and a typical RPG turn based affair. And the trappings (graphics, sound, etc.) range from quite nice (the visuals) to the workable (the voice acting/music).

National Treasure

Made it to National Treasure today. Fun movie. Nice action piece. Certainly worth an afternoon. It's nice to see that Hollywood hasn't completely forgotten how to make an adventure movie. And for a change this one was more brain than braun. I'm trying to remember if there was any blood at all in this one. A couple corpses, but other than that, it was all about solving riddles and actually thinking about things. Truly an activity that we should encourage Hollywood to celebrate more. So go see it for that reason alone.

Aside from the fact that it is a long weekend for me, it's felt like a long weekend. And not entirely in the, oh goody, I have three days off sort of sense. I'm being forced out of my comfort zone and I'm rather cranky about it...

We finally heard from the contractor and on Monday we should be entering the (hopefully) last phase of the whole leaking pipe debacle.

Lists

This is the place to hit to keep up with 2004. I need to stay away or my Christmas list will grow exponentially. I already made the mistake of noticing that there's a Wong Kar-wai DVD collection out...

Oh the humanities...

Romeo and Juliet? I think not. My eyes! They burn! It hurts us... (Stolen from the Bookslut blog)

I, Palindrome, I

Good ol' Weird Al.

Use the Helmet, Luke

Darth Vader Voice Changer Helmet. Let that sink in for a moment. Then read Chatchi's review of the product. I think that's all that needs to be said...

This was stolen shamelessly from Tea for One