X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

11/19/2006: My Major Award, Part 2.

Before I begin, I’d like to point you to a blog entry I wrote in 2004, since it’s eerily similar to how this one will play out. As was the case when I wrote that entry, I was supposed to spend all day writing a new Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade review today, but became interrupted with visions of big money prizes and yuletide cheer. Yes, the local church was once again having its holiday fair.

I’ve written about this fair before, thought I can’t remember if I did at any real length. The church isn’t as “local” as it used to be considering that I’ve moved, but ever since I was a wee little grade schooler, very few of these annual fairs have slipped by without my patronage. During my youth, it was more or less a social event. All of the neighborhood kids would spent the day and evening there, experimenting with cigarettes and cursewords and horseplay and other assorted things that in retrospect probably shouldn’t have been experimented with in or near our local parish.

Undoubtedly, I’m the only one from the old crew who still finds his way to these church fairs, and obviously, this is a point of shame and I give everyone full permission to kick me in the stomach. I can’t help it. From the cheap knockoff toys (I once bought a Ninja Turtle figure there on a paperthin blistercard that named him “Ronatello”) to the Christmas music that blares over the loudspeakers, to all the old lady volunteers who string the things together, these fairs have become as much a part of my holiday season as getting at least three Christmas cards from relatives I swear I don’t have.

Anyway, the fair was its usual self. Same table full of toys, same table full of various homemade goods, same table full of live goldfish in plastic bags. The had a big White Elephant room in case anyone wanted to buy old, used, sleeveless record albums, and like every other one of these church fairs in history, there was a big counter full of the most eclectic cupcakes imaginable, for a quarter a pop.

But, like I said when I wrote about the fair in 2004, the real reason everyone comes here is for the RAFFLES. Half of the church space is allocated to table after table of baskets stuffed with prizes. After buying long strands of single tickets from the lady with the can, you browse the aisles, choose your desired prize, drop a ticket or two into its associated ticket bag and hope for the best.

There are a few catches. The best prizes — things like portable DVD players and iPods — call for more expensive “red” tickets. Then there’s “green” tickets, for a number of gigantic baskets full of God knows what, put together by local schools. Then there’s “yellow” tickets. Ah, yellow tickets. Say you like that basket full of DVDs. Say it’s under the yellow ticket umbrella. You can’t just play for that one basket. With yellow ticket prizes, the associated bags correspond with three or four different prize baskets. You could win the basket full of DVDs, yes, but you could also win something like I got in 2004: A basket stuffed with plastic coffee mugs and a book by Bill Cosby.

I’m not going to tell you what we spent. I will tell you that we spent way too much. I didn’t count the total amount of tickets for the various prize categories that we went through, but writing my name and phone number on the back of each proved a long and arduous enough journey to give my writin’ hand a cramp so hardcore that I think it may warrant a hospital stay come tomorrow. We played, we stayed, we played some more, and then we went home.

I’ve been at this game long enough to know the drill. By 9 or 9:30, one way or another, I’d know for sure if I’d won or lost. If I received no calls by then, life sucked. Seated with my hand firmly clenched around the phone, I ate fingernails and air, pleading with deities I usually curse, and for what? Well, the box of board games looked nice, but I really wanted the big wicker basket full of high-end liquor. I’d almost given up all hope, but at around a a quarter after nine, the phone rang. This year, we won not one basket, but two!

And…it happened again. There were roughly 75 different prizes, and we got the worst two. What the fuck?

First up was a basket full of art stuff, and admittedly, it’s one of the ones we wanted. Granted, it wasn’t one of the ones we really wanted, but it was one of the smaller prizes we spent some tickets on, just to cover our bases and increase our chances. But good God. We’re still not entirely sure if this stuff was new or not. For one, everything was balls out generic, unless “Water Colour” is a brand name I haven’t yet been introduced to. Second, everything was mashed to bits. There’s this box full of what was once 24 pastel sticks and is now 240 pastel crumbs. The topper was a membership card to some art center, “worth 75 bucks.” We weren’t particularly interested in art classes, but hey, “worth 75 bucks.” Turns out the “membership” only means that we’re now proud members of the facility’s e-newsletter, and we can get 10% off at the art supply store next to it. Nevermind the fact that I don’t even paint…this just sucked.

And then, the big finale. A tiny basket with two candles, bath salts and a gift card for a facial at some spa 40 minutes away. WAH WAH WAH WAH.

I don’t understand it. I studied each and every basket in the church, and I swear, this basket WAS NOT THERE. Perhaps it was just too small and insignificant to catch, but I doubt it. Running theory is that I really won a television, and some religious shit switched the names backstage so he could watch 7th Heaven reruns in style. I DON’T EVEN HAVE A BATHTUB GOD DAMN IT.

I would gladly take the bath salts off your hands…and I think the candles are purdy

In retrospect, the candles, and the mini painting canvas that came with the art set weren’t so bad, but when you’re battling for 300 bucks worth of top shelf booze, portable DVD players and trips to Florida, man, candles and canvasesessess can expletive my expletive.

You’re going to bathe your action figures in the sink with bath beads and pretend like it’s a toy hot tub. Don’t even pretend you’re not going to. The idea’s already been planted.

You could always artfully sandwich the oil pastel crumbs between two pieces of wax paper, get out the ol’ iron, and make “stained glass” pictures. Whee!

I won a raffle at an education conference I went to a couple of weekends ago. I got a pocket chart with time cards. Thanks guys, thanks alot. I knew I should have went with the bathroom passes.

And for the Mr. T lover in all of us, I proudly present more from the greatest man to ever walk the earth

Now you know what happens when you don’t wear clothes or, alternately, wear your own.

I think that’s why I rarely enter raffles. I usually lose everything anyway. This reminds me- I’d really like to go to a craft show this year. Hmmm.

Yes! I found an SNT before heading off to bed! Whoot! I LOVE when you post these kinds of things, Matt- your church fairs and local Halloween haunts- I grew up in a SMALL town and so it’s nice to see these kinds of things from XE as well as urban stuff like seeing wrestlers and Mr. Peanut in Times Square. XE: The best of both worlds.

Had a quiet Saturday night- watched some poker,hockey and TNA wrestling…I swear sometimes that I am the worst girl in the universe! I do NOT like a lot of the things girls ’should’ like, and LOVE a lot of boy stuff.

I am artistic but I would honestly take the spa kit. But I would regift the bath stuff and keep the scented candles ha.

The one thing that I won that was significant was about 3-4 years ago, when the game first came out, I won the xbox copy of Simpsons Hit and Run! It was tight, and I throughly beat it. This was right before christmas so it was like a personal christmas present. I got for Christmas a season of the simpsons on dvd so I would either watch the simpsons until I was tired of that and I moved onto the simpsons video game or the other way around. I don’t play video games anymore, except for the occasional round of pacman, breakout, or any other random flash game online I get stuck on. I just think it’s a huge waste of effort, time, and money. Sorry you guys!

Anyway, I loved the article. Hopefully you can squeeze out the parade article before thanksgiving Matt. But if you don’t, whatever.

I would have been happy with the art stuff, but I would have murdered someone over winning bath stuff. Then again, with Christmas so close, I would have probably refitted the bath salts as a gift for my mom or something.

Ok, I have some raffle stories! Every December when I was young, my mom’s friend’s deaf son’s special high school had this christmas party that we went to. There were raffles. But like Matt, I went for all the awesome stuff, but ended up with the crap shit. One year, ‘97 I believe, I won 2 different Beanie Babies, which were JUST getting popular at the time. And then the addiction began. And peaked. And ended. Then went to my mom. Then ended again.

My college’s SGA (Student Government) runs raffles at their meeting. 9 times out of 10, someone on the f’ing senate wins!! Everyone in the peanut gallery feels like it’s rigged! Of course it’s a college, so of course the prizes suck, but it’s the principle of the damn thing! We want it to be that “we” win!!

Just got back from one of those Horror Fest movies. The movie was “Grave Dancers” and it was pretty awesome. Was at least better than most of the Lions Gate shit they put out or Saw IX: Saw in Space.

Hey Matt, do people give you funny looks when you take pictures of their cupcakes and then walk away? Do you talk to them first or wait until they turn away and then snap it and run? I’m really curious as to how awkward that process is, esp. considering how unimpressed some people look like the Mystery Peanut vendor.

Ah, the good ol’ Catholic Holiday arts and craft fair. I think i remember buying my first Christmas present to give at one of those. I bought a money clip and a stress ball for my dad and was so stoked that I made a monitary exchange I think he got his gifts later that afternoon.
Anyway, I just have one word Matt…regift!

this is a bit off topic but i am writing this comment with my cell phone and i’ve never done that before. i’m really amazed by this thing. the keyboaafrd ius a litytytle too smajkll thoughhhd

I just perused eBay and I didn’t see any “In Hand” Wiis yet. I’ll give it another 30 minutes. Did anyone see the Million dollar PS3? Dr. Evil would be proud.

You know…. something came up a few SNTs ago and I’ve been trying to keep quiet about it, but I just can’t hide my horrible, horrible sin anymore. I’m so ashamed.

I’ve seen 4 and I think some of 6 but I don’t remember because I fell asleep.

I’m not going to chastize you Mystie, I like the prequels better than the originals

oh matt…i feel your pain. two years ago my mom dragged me to what’s called a “card party” at the local high school, where you sit a table, play uno, get food and enter raffles for a shitload of stuff. i decided to go with the high-end baskets, hoping for either the “dago dream basket” (my name for it, not their’s…it’s ok, i am a dago) which had 8 kinds of pasta, a bunch of sauces, a bottle of wine and some upper class parm cheese or the “movie night basket,” with 10 dvds, lots of theater-sized candy and other good stuff. well, they announced the winners while everyone was still there and the night was almost over and everyone in the damn place had won something…except me. i kept threatening to blow the place up if i left empty-handed, and just when i thought it was hopeless…THEY CALLED MY NAME!!! HOOOORAY!!! i ran up to claim my prize…which ended up being “the grandparent’s basket”…filled with generic coloring books, the shittiest crayons imaginable, an already watched copy of “the santa clause 2″ and a bunch of random used crap that i guess was supposed to “entertain” grandkids when they came to visit.

Eddie: I have to admit…the taking pictures thing has gotten tougher, or at least more awkward, as I’ve gotten older. On the other hand, I’ve been doing it for so long that I know every trick in the book. My most-used being the old, “damn, I think our digital camera is broken” gag, where I take pictures of my desired target under the guise of trying to see if my camera works right. Amazingly, few seem to catch on, even though I’d seemingly decided to check my camera’s output in department stores and the like.

Mystie: That’s a shame, because you’d probably like Ep V the best. And you’d certainly love The Ewok Adventure.

As for the Wii, my friend casually IMs today with “hey, Wii has been in stock on Amazon for the past few minutes.” Gone by the time I went there, and I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out some way to make this all his fault.

Liquor at a church? NOT the kind of church I grew up in. But the prize I would totally want.
This is the last snt before the christmas “season”. This time next week thanksgiving will be out of our heads. And we will be reading about toys’ dramatic adventures. I was at Legoland today and saw the lego advent calender thing. I almost bought it, but it would stay in the same place for about 3 seconds before my son would decide it was best meant as a bath tub toy.
I have a suggestion for a survey: What is your favorite and/or weirdest thanksgiving food that is traditional in your family?

Hahahaha that’s hardly better than Cosbyology, but it’s at least an improvement. Only just barely though. I’m sorry to laugh at your misfortune, but I’m crying over here. Fucking bath salts.
They remind me though, anyone tried those crazy Zizzlingers toys? You drop the envelope in water, and after lots of bubbling and fizzing, you’re the proud owner of two or three tiny representations of tertiary Pirates of the Caribbean characters. A neat gimmick.
Thanks a lot, kb

(from the last thread).
Who wants to hear a “squee’s an idiot” story? Okay: I bought a PSP recently for the main purpose of having wireless mobile X-E on the go, but everytime I tried to load the site I got these crazy server errors. This went on and on, I even went back to the store and exchanged the thing because I couldn’t figure out the problem, but it was still happening and I was getting really upset. Finally, my buddy, who had spent (wasted) a ton of time troubleshooting the issue, realized what the problem was. Instead of using a hypen for “x-entertainment”, I had been using a goddamn tilde. A TILDE.
Cinemax has been playing all six Star Wars ad nauseum lately. Finally got to see the blue ghost Hayden bit I’d so dreaded. Wasn’t as bad as I’d been afraid of.

I’d be totally happy about the bath stuff, but then, I’m female, and we have a bathtub.

Hey, the art basket has one of those painting palettes you always see painters use in cartoons. Now all you need is a beret, smock, goatee, and say “Aw haw haw!” alot.

Matt, I’m so glad you shared your secret ‘cos I’d been wondering that for a while.

*I* use the old “dialing my cell phone trick” because I’m too chicken to use an actual camera and instead use the one on my cell phone. It works pretty well, but today I actually got caught. I was at Gordman’s and saw this UGLY dog purse and just had to snag a picture of it because my friends and I have this ongoing “let’s see who can find the weirdest/funniest/ugliest/awesomest thing” contest. I forgot to mute my phone before taking the picture and the sales girl heard the little “shutter” sound. She told me to delete it and I told her I needed proof that it was the ugliest purse I’d ever seen. She told me to delete it or she’d call the manager, so I deleted it (thankfully I’d snapped two more before she caught me so I still have proof! Woo!)

And speaking of the aforementioned contest, I am the long-standing queen of it because of the picture you’ll see upon clicking my name below… My friends and I were fucking around at Wal-Mart and saw a guy in a Snoopy costume being escorted around the store by his own body guard. We found out it was a frat prank because “Snoopy” got arrested and it was in the paper the next day.

Matt and broomstickjockey: That’s pretty much how I take pictures too. I either pretend I’m adjusting my camera, trying to get it to work, or put a camera strap around my neck and tilt the camera upwards. With my camera phone, I hold it up quickly and take the shot. Most of the time, I’m only taking photos of cool things I see at the store or outside, but even if people are just in the vicinity of the shot, they get suspicious. If I want to take a photo of people (with permission), you kind of have to do it secretly too or they’ll start posing unnaturally.

Also, I’m very familiar with crappy raffle gifts. Erasers don’t equal a free tv. They never will.

And speaking of the aforementioned contest, I am the long-standing queen of it because of the picture you’ll see upon clicking my name belowâ€¦ My friends and I were fucking around at Wal-Mart and saw a guy in a Snoopy costume being escorted around the store by his own body guard. We found out it was a frat prank because “Snoopy” got arrested and it was in the paper the next day.

That wasn’t my frat, broomstickjockey. 1) Our pledging ended last week. 2) We did this at a Hooters 3) The guy dressed up in a Tigger costume 4) He got in, like I said last SNT. 5) If the date on your pic is true, it MIGHT have been my frat, but that’s waaaay too early for our pledge process!

The Shining was on tonight. I’m such a chicken I couldn’t get past the first opening of Room 237. Dumb kid!

Generic art supplies, much like pencils bought from dollar stores, usually suck. Erasers break apart (pink erasers should not exist). Crayons fail to leave a mark. Paints fail to mix properly, leaving a crap brown colour.

I lived in small towns, too, when I was a kid, and live in one now. I like the people in them a lot better.

Besides, those cupcakes may be ugly, but you *know* they have 500% more flavor than the oversugared crapcakes you buy in grocery stores!

All this talk about surreptitiously taking snaps for websites is quite interesting. I’d always assumed that Matt was some superbold Dude who just clicked away regardless of the consequences. I always feel a bit stupid taking pictures of supermarket shelves or Starbucks muffin displays in case people think a) I’m casing the joint or b) they think I’m really nuts. It kinda gets hard to disguise what your doing if you need the flash too.

broomstickjockey: I dislike even asking strangers, but when I do, I tell them what I’m doing and assure them that the photos are just for educational purposes (which is true for me cause I took/am taking photography classes). When you don’t want people to think, “Who’s this weirdo?”, just to go to large public places with lots of people. That way, if you’re taking a picture of people (or something next to them), they’ll be unsure what you’re taking a picture of since there’s so many things around them.

It’s a lot of work just to get an interesting picture, but there’s not many ways around it.

Some of you may remember from a few blogs ago that I recently went to the USA with my parents (their first time in the country!) and we went to a TARGET for the first time in our lives! We were there for hours, and I took some pics…I took a pic of the Jones Soda Holiday Pack to show it to my friends! (I don’t think we will be getting those here in Canada, at least not where I live). I snapped it really quick and it blurred, but at least I didn’t get hassled by any scary American security guards- I SAW the guard at Target- he was insanely huge and had black tattoos all over his neck. Crazy. What a great day that was…:)

Not terrible but certainly a downer. I think the Cosby basket is still the best because it was totally ecclectic. At least these had a theme. (Hey, I know I’m stretching but you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shite).

My 2004 post (still sportin’ the -789 on the Manimal tag) was pretty harsh on the Coz but I stand by it. *shocked*

This is in reference to yesterdays discussion of Black Friday. If Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving then what is the day after Christmas when all the Christmas crap is half off and everyone returns their gifts?
I remeber being 6 or 7 and getting a remote controlled Ferrari from RadioShak one Christmas. Turns out you can only drive it on lanolium or wooden surfaces. Didn’t know that at the time so like any kid I took it outside and it broke within the first half hour. This was a terrible blow being it was the number one gift as I remeber so the next day we went to the mall to return it to F#%*n Radioshit and it was a mad house. The only thing that sticks out is the girl behind the register lecturing me for playing with the car outside and she will give me a new car but she had better not see me back here again with a broken ferrari. It was insult to injury. I left there and I think I had an episode in the parking lot or something.
Well, the truth of the matter is our house had all carpet. The car could only be driven on wood or lanolium. So we had a small area in the kitchen with lanolium and I was able to play with it there. The only catch is it had a bad turn radius and no reverse so it would go straight and then you would have to pick it up and point it another direction.
The point of all this is don’t go to the mall the day after Christmas and if you do you may catch attitude from some bitch in Radioshak.

Picture-taking strategies:
1. Act “artsy,” and pretend you’re an artist. A lot of people like having their random crap turned into “art.”
2. Stick a friend into the picture, people will still hate you but they’ll be more tolerant. And then chop them out, later.

Bill, the day after Christmas is Boxing Day. I don’t know if it has an official department store name.

Boxing Day? As in boxing up all the worthless crap your ancient relatives gave you to take it all back and exchange it for one good thing? I like it. I like it a lot.

All you people and your website pictures. If you get caught do you ever just admit that you have a website, and you are going to make fun of the cupcakes/mystery peanuts/angry old guy/etc? Then you could take pictures of people’s annoyed or angry reactions!

I can’t recall ever winning anything. Well, I won a TV at the after-prom party, but I didn’t go to prom that year (total loser in high school). So one of the jocks got my TV, because you had to be present to win. I hope that bastard felt guilty every time he watched it.

So yesterday was pretty shitty. I had a flat tire & didn’t know it, because I’ve never had low-profile tires before. It totally didn’t look flat. I must have driven on it for a while, because I had to replace it. $370 later I still only had two new tires. Add to that I had to go to work to make up my shift from Thursday because my stupid computer locked me out and our stupid IT department isn’t there on backshifts. Also, I broke my MP3 player and got a speeding ticket.

There’s a bright side to all this. I got a shit-ton of work done. I kind of wanted a new MP3 player anyway, one of those fancy Creative media players (NOT iPod- they suck). And I might get out of the ticket on a technicality- the cop didn’t make me sign it, and he got the time wrong by an hour. I have a credit card receipt that puts me miles from the scene of the crime at almost the exact time he wrote on the ticket.

I can’t really find a bright side to the flat tire. The car only has 6,000 miles on it, so new tires weren’t exactly in the budget.

I remember back in the day when I was younger when I went these church fund raising scams.

I always would go for the shit that people did not want. I would win shit, but at least I was winning shit. I occasionally got lucky and won decent prizes. Like when I was about ten years old and hit the liqour basket prize.

Other than that great occasion on which my parents stole my liquor prize–eventually I think I made up for it–and one other occasion where I somehow traded a prize for one containing those dinosaur grow sponge things I always won shit. I was young and dumb so I did not care. Even shit I could not use. Winning stuff is fun. And I was not paying for the tickets.

I also won a lot of pies one year. Winning pie is never a bad thing. Especially when it is like 7 pies.

I don’t think I’d want seven pies. I’d get sick of pie. It would end in a pie fight for sure.

But what if those 7 pies were the key to unlocking unlimited power when they were all together, and that the 7 were all different flavors, like apple, cherry, pumpkin, and pepperoni? But those pies are scattered around the world and you gotta stop Bowser from eating/getting the pies together to get this power? And you’d have to go through grass world, and desert world, ice world, maybe one of them is a giant world…

broomstickjockey-
that’s kind of messed up i don’t think they are allowed to kick you out over something like that. in fact if you had gotten really indignant with the girl you probably could have gotten her reprimanded by her boss.

Before Christmas my old hometown would hold the Ducks Unlimited Banquet for members of DU. Tickets are really expensive but a guy I was dating took me one year to eat their prime rib and listen to their drivel about DUs goals and whatever for the huntin year. They always have a raffle afterwards where you can win all sorts of stuff from guns to clothes to camping equipment to artwork and even a truck. I bought a bunch of tickets trying to get something (even if it was a crappy DU tshirt) and at the endof the night I was the only person that did not win anything at all. They felt sorry for me and gave me one of the table decorations to take home (a hollowed out duck decoy made as a “planter” with some faux foliage stuffed in its back). Lame but better than nothing. blegh. I hate raffles and they hate me. Waffles on the other hand…

Ahh, that’s better. Snagged me a prelit 6 1/2 foot proper Christmas Tree at Wal-Mart. Now set up in the living room, awaiting decorations. Bing’s on the stereo downstairs, and the music’s astarted. Can you feel it? The giant, stalking Christmassy goodness, lurking behind the corner? Hope you’re ready for whats on the other end of that tryptophan coma on Turkey Day. Cause ya know who is gonna be in your face when you wake up? THE CLAUS.

Gosh, what a disappointment. Here, I’ve been passing time at work reading this x-entertainment thingie and enjoying myself heartily for some time now and the first opportunity I take to comment (about the value of being a “1st poster”???), some oddity jumps all over me for asking the supposedly dumb question. What a funny place this is. Not that I would let any sycophantic hangers-on deter me from reading stuff that makes me giggle or anything. Honestly.

Must we dance the same dance over and over again?
First post, last post, whatever.
Everybody play nice; after all, it’s Christmas time(sorta).

As for Boxing Day, I think that’s more of a Canadian/British thing. It’s never publicized in the states.

“You could win the basket full of DVDs, yes, but you could also win something like I got in 2004: A basket stuffed with plastic coffee mugs and a book by Bill Cosby.”

Ahahahahaha! That’s the prize that I’d jokingly say I would want, would end up getting, and then would be kind of pissed about ending up with when my friend got a tv.

I actually attended a church bazaar in a town about twenty minutes from me by bike a few weeks ago. In addition to the usual raffles (which I did not participate in - I didn’t have the money to blow on 500 tickets) and weird cupcakes, there were two sections of nothing but books, books, and more books donated by the people of the parish.

Some mother with kids in their mid-late 20s must have just unloaded her closet. I picked up mint-condition copies of an animated Pac-Man picture book, one of the McDonald’s “An American Tail” books, a vintage Disney Winnie The Pooh picture book, and a He-Man book on record comic, complete with mint-condition 33 1/2 record with a story on each side. I picked up two Beanie Babies (squirrel and chipmunk, in honor of my fuzzy “neighbors” who live in the park next door) for 2 bucks each. Frankly, all of that topped anything in the raffle baskets.

As for Matt’s raffle stuff, maybe he could use the candles for air fresheners and some of the art stuff for the occasional crafts he does for the site. Everything else, give it away or regift it for Christmas.

Dr. Acula: Yeah, I just don’t say anything. I guess if someone stopped me and said, “Hey, I don’t want you using my picture!” then I wouldn’t, but then I don’t take many pictures of people anyway. Mostly just weird stuff.

danny: Maybe she was afraid I was trying to steal their ugly dog purse idea? But I didn’t want to run the risk of getting kicked out of the store and not being allowed to come back so I didn’t argue (too much).

The only thing I’ve ever won *ever* was a Richard Petty autographed STP 43 go-kart from FunderWheels. It was awesome.

Biggest rule of thumb around here is not to dump on other posters, whether they be the fairly innoculous “first!” posters or new people trying to carve out hip personas or regulars who get cranky or whatever.
It’s only now sunk in that we’re having a Macy’s review, and by extension, that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right there.
Off to check Wikipedia to find out the deal with Boxing Day once and for all.

What?!? I thought EVERYBODY called Dec. 26th Boxing Day! That’s the day of the huge ‘Boxing Day Sales’ at the mall- one of the best shopping days of the year! It’s the day the whole world goes shopping…or so I thought! Huh.

Oh humbug. I’d challenge anyone to find any forum that’s as generally friendly and welcoming. I didn’t intend for my comment to be pointed at Amanda, if that needs clarifying. Just trying to play to both sides of the room there. I try to be welcoming to newbies, it’s disappointing that someone would experience the opposite

Amanda, if you’ve read the blog long you’ve seen it’s a friendly place and things have just gone pear-shaped here through nobodies fault. I hope you’ll stick around.

Thanks for the olive branch, squee4242. Though that any (nonconfrontational) comment I’ve left lately hasn’t been visable has led me to concur that I’m blocked somehow. Whether or not this comment even appears is a crapshoot. Whatever. I come here to catch up on toys I forgot I had, not socialize. Thanks, nonetheless.

Amanda, perhaps in the future if you don’t want to be deleted you won’t make remarks about Matt’s balls.

hahah that comment did get deleted. But everyone that read it the comment will be burned into our minds forever.

Okay, I deleted that last string. Could be wrong, but a new poster managing to create a ruckuss within minutes usually spells trolling.

I’ve yet to have any luck finding Wii. Still think my friend was lying about them being on Amazon for SEVERAL MINUTES yesterday morning. Best are all of the handy “real time Wii tracking” sites that give me up-to-minute info that every retailer besides eBay is perpetually out of stock.

So, I decided today that putting up the tree AND decorating it on Thanksgiving night would take too many hours of effort on a day that is best kept as lazy as possible. I figured we’d put the tree - the 7.5 ft artificial tree that has to be assembled branch-by-branch - up today, and decorate it on Thanksgiving.

Now, we’ve used this tree for at least four consecutive years, and I really don’t remember it ever taking four hours to put together before. But this time, EVERYTHING went wrong. I put in the C and D rows at the top before realizing there was supposed to be a B row, so I had to pull out those two rows, stick the B row in, and do C and D over. Then on row F or G or something, I tried for five minutes to get a branch in (in the front, so there was no skipping) and couldn’t. Turns out a dirt dobber had somehow, uh, dobbed dirt in the hole. I ended up taking a HAMMER AND NAIL to get dirt out of the hole so the branch would go in. I’ve been working on this since 8:00; it is now 11:15. The tree is still not finished.

There’s a PS3 on eBay for 10 million now. But my favorite are the lots with both a PS3 and a Wii.

How warped is my mind that 15,000 sounds reasonable? I mean c’mon, its a PS3 AND a Wii.

How old is this tree? All the ones I’ve seen in the last 10 years come in three or four sections with branches that swing down. Seriously, I feel really sorry for you having to put individual branches in like that. That sucks!

I bought my tree at Hobby Lobby today. It’s my first Christmas out of college, and I actually have enough space in my apartment for a REAL Christmas tree (well, Real as in “life-size,” not REAL as in “Will make occupants of apartment sick”

Anyway, I got it out of the box tonight to make sure the lights work, but I haven’t assembled it yet..that will have to wait until Next Friday….

I know a lot of the really high eBay auctions are bid on by vigilantes who hate the idea of consoles being snatched up only to make an eBay profit.

Personally, I’m willing to forgive a 100-150 dollar eBay markup. I’d say that’s a fair “extra” to pay if you just don’t want to go through the hubabubbub of finding one in stores. Specially if you’re a parent and that’s all your kid wants for Christmas. I’d rather pay the extra dough and avoid bumrushing every store in town for two months.

The Wii intrigues me enough to want, but I’m going to wait until I find it in stores. The excitement of leaving a store with a console in a big plastic bag is something I don’t want to be robbed of. (Unless, of course, Amazon gets ‘em in stock at retail…I ain’t no fool.)

Is it sacreligious to buy a blue Christmas tree? ‘Cos I’m really wantin’ one.

I agree Matt. Nothing is better than finding something in-store. If I had really wanted to, I could have had a PS3, but reason got the best of me. My dad snagged a 64 for me the christmas they came out, and I love him to death for it, but it was buggy and crapped out on me. I bought another one the next christmas myself. But that was a 100 bucks. I couldn’t bear to do that with a console that’s 600. And sending it in for repairs is just insult to injury.

So, I’ll have my christmas sometime next year. Then I get to walk out of a store with a PS3, a HDTV, and Final Fantasy XIII. I can wait. I’ve got nothing but time.

Mystie- I can do you one better on Star Wars: I never saw the first 3, and fell asleep during “Episode One” in the theater on opening day. My boyfriend was so excited, and the movie premiered on his birthday, so I couldn’t say no. But the only showing he could get tickets to was at *8AM*. I was asleep in under 15 minutes, and didn’t wake up until the movie was almost over. He was really disappointed with it and told me I didn’t miss much.

It sucks you don’t have a bathtub, Matt. I loooove taking an hour or two on a winter night and just soaking in the tub reading until I turn all pruney. Lush makes the best bath bombs, but they’re wicked expensive.

Any-crap, I too am fiending for a Wii I can call home. The Sunday paper was littered with department store ads taunting you with the idea you can ideally waste your time driving there and actually snagging one of your own. And the nunchuck controller isn’t even included! For shame!

At least it has the sports game package so when you go for broke buying the damn thing, you don’t have to shell out more cash for something to consume the 10 hours you’re ready to dedicate.

Cameron T.: The tree is only about four years old. It came from Walmart. ‘Nuff said.

Jazzy-I feel ya. My tree was a gift from my grandmother- I think it is the first artificial tree in existence- it is the same fake tree she used at her house for 30 years and now she goes to my aunt’s house for Xmas and doesn’t use it. SO, I inherited a pathetic Charlie-Brown-ish, skinny, green mop handle with holes drilled for the individual branches I must place in each hole myself. It’s terrible-but it was FREE! I have been using it for 3 years now.

I always swore that I would not get a fake tree but every year that 80+ bucks spent on that LOWE’S Fraser Fir makes me feel like I am fighting a losing battle. However, just like the war on drugs, it may not be winnable but it is still a fight worth fighting.

I love real trees, too, but the mess, sap, and making everyone in my house sick from allergies doesn’t love me….Get a Fake tree….They look pretty damn good now, and some are pre-lit so you don’t have to mess with the lights (which is the only part about decorating the tree I DON’T like…)

broomstickjockey - there’s nothing wrong with a blue christmas tree! i bought an old silver aluminum tree from the 1950’s for $5 and put it up every year. i found it in the basement of an antique store…and had no idea they’re actually worth a lot more money than that! but, anyways, my point is no matter what color your tree is, it still upholds the rights of christmas…as long as there’s lots of presents underneath it

My sister and I are currently going through our annual live-tree-vs.-fake-tree debate. I’m all for the real tree, as the new house has 9 foot ceilings and the 5-and-a-half foot $20 special from Family Dollar is just going to look ghetto as f*ck in the living room. I mean, sure, I live in a ghetto, but goddamn it, I didn’t just spend the past weekend painting the freakin’ living room and dining room and fixing the crown molding and balustrades for some shitty ass Charlie Brown motherf*cker to sit there looking like a goddamned midget. But on the other hand, I don’t know how my cats will react to a live tree as we’ve never had one. Maybe I’ll build a two-tiered platform, top for gifts and bottom for village and trainset. Or maybe I’ll just say to hell with it all and drink too much. Let my sister do it. It’s her bloody idea.

Christmas Tree: Real one. Had a fake one for many years when I was a kid. My mom thought it was a fire hazard to have a real one. Not anymore. They’re worth burning down the house for.

Matt, I think you better give up on these church raffles…you seem to do better when you go to those junky stores or weird local carnivals. Let the people who REALLY want those bath salts have a go at it (because you know there’s some boob out there who’s disappointed they didn’t win the basket you got)

That basket of spa products looks like just about every gift I ever got for Christmas from our old office (we were a small office, so we all exchanged gifts.) I hate that stuff, but being female I always get a ton of it. It’s the “I don’t really know anything about you, but you’re a woman” gift. In fact, I once had a female friend ask my husband what scent of Bath & Body Works I wanted for my birthday. He tried to tell her that I’d probably like something else and she said, “Don’t be silly. Every woman likes Bath & Body Works.” [grumble]

Wii is the first console release that I’ve been excited about since…gee, I guess ever. But, the practical side of me is holding out on this one. I never buy first-gen consoles because I feel like I’m paying a lot of money to be a tester. I let them work out all the bugs first (and for there to be cheaper, second-hand titles at the used games store.) Plus, we have so many consoles around here it’s not like we need it. Still, I want it SO bad. I guess I have a different point of view about the eBay thing than Matt. I picture people who really want the Wii standing in line and getting turned away because the store ran out, only to go on eBay and find out that half the people that bought them didn’t even really want them, but you can have theirs for twice what it’s worth. They’re playing on the feelings of desperate parents who just want to give their kids the best Christmas ever and who will (for better or worse) spend obscene amounts of money to make that happen. That’s the way free enterprise works, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.

On a final note, I can’t imagine not having a real tree. I love the smell and the fact that my tree looks different every year. Of course, we have a great lot in this city that always sells pretty trees for about $30. If I was spending $80 a year, I might start thinking plastic too.

Having owned every home system nintendo churned out (except the blindness inducing vurtual boy) I guess you could say I was something of a major nintendo loyalist. However, because of the fact that I’d been burned by the lack of good games (not that there are no good games, there are, there just arn’t that many)on the gamecube, I decided to jump ship and get an xbox-360. However, I still have the new zelda pre-ordered for the gamecube. I hear very good things about Twilight Princess so far! Anyone have it or planning on getting it?

Matt, you may be interested to know that I got a Wii at the Nintendo World store in Times Square this morning. No preorder or nuthin’. If you hurry…

I don’t care that BOB FM started playing Christmas music 24/7 this past weekend, or all the Kmart ads have altered holiday music, or even if Ol’ St. Nick himself comes into the gallery today, it is not Xmas season yet until the BC Clark jingle is played on the OKC stations! Silver Bells all you want, but I’m eating turkey and laughing at Pilgrims this week. Now pass me some popcorn and toast. who wants jellybeans?

Just an FYI: Voltron is on Adult Swim’s fix. Pretty awesome to relive at work.

Other than that, it’s so slack at the office due to the Thanksgiving break hanging over our heads.

i just wanna say your gifts are better than what i “won” at our company’s white elephant/giftswap/whateverthefyou wanna call it gift exchange. I call it Pirate Christmas: because just when you think you’re scott free with something cool like one of those cool ass wine bottle opener, someone jumps up and nabs it from you. but OH! you can’t do backsies….so I get boned with…drumroll…..a University of Texas 2006 ornament, with full schedule on back! YAY! Except: I didn’t go to UoT; don’t like UofT; don’t own a tree. So yeah, I’ll take pastel crumbles over a shitty shit shit $3 ornament.
Then again, I brought the crappy candle I “won” at a previous P.C. the night before as my gift. Even it got looted more times than my POS ornament.

Hey guys, I’ve been trying to figure out what this toy is for years, anyone have a clue?

Oooh… poll question! If X-E had a raffle, what would be some of the prizes? Which ones would you put your tickets towards?

Mystie
here’s my list of what could be included:
rancid rusty can of Hi-C
half eaten jar of Nads
years’ past advent characters
ralph mask
stained sweatshirt
pepsi clear

Ya, I waited in line outside my local Target in Delaware with two of my friends and we all got ourselves a wii. I’ve never gotten any systems at launch before but i LOVE LOVE LOVE Zelda so i had to have it (especially after waiting for 2 years) anyway we hopped in line at 11pm cuz there was already 80 people standing there, and didn’t get em till 9am. My knuckles were turnign black from how cold it was outside, but it was totally worth it

ended up there were 210 Wiis for sale though D:

I absolutely HEARTED watching all those amateurs sleeping out for systems this past week. I routinely sleep out for concert tickets (it’s the only way to get the ultra-good first-ten-rows fan club tickets for some bands) so I have it down to a science. There is a whole system to sleeping out that people can’t even imagine exists. Like the importance of milk crates and why you should never take your boots off. The whole trick in in the timing of putting on layers and keeping your body out of contact with cold concrete because it just sucks the warmth right out of you. I laughed my ass off at the guys who were out there with a even a decent folding chair. Suckas! I have a freakin’ fold out I bust out for these things!

The last time I ever stood in line for something like that is when the Star Wars Attack of the Clones went on sale at midnight on some day in April back in 2002. I’m afraid I may be getting back in line this coming Friday and I truly dread it. My wife has to work and she wants me to go get a digital camera for her father. Man, I hope they put that shit on the store website Thanksgiving night like they sometimes do.

The best things I’ve won was $50 at a post-prom party and some WWE tickets when I got Sunny’s autograph.

I watched “Bill Cosby: Himself” on HBO yesterday. He’s pretty funny when he does his concerts. Also watched the latest Comic Relief.

I’ve also never seen the original Star Wars Trilogy in full. Just bits and pieces. But I have sat through the WMD called the Holiday Special. Oh boy.

What? Tonight? It’s not supposed to be on tonight! There’s nothing on Thursday now. What will we decorate the tree to? Deal or no Deal? I think not! What excuse will we have to leave my Mom’s house early? Television specials noone else wanted to watch were my last hope. Cripes.

Big bottle of Giant Ape Juice.
Booklet of Matt’s “tell me a story” thread.
“Worst Witch” on Beta.
Box of 3PO’s cereal.

Are those Snailiens, Tommy? I have one like that in the ashtray of my car. It’s been in every car I’ve ever owned. I guess it’s good luck, or I’m just lazy about throwing it out.

Holy shit [b]K [/b], I am forever endebted to you. That’s it. And further more, I can’t believe I used “alien” and “looks kinda like a snail” in the same post without just guessing Snalien.

I remember when our church had a “jail”, and you could pay something like 5 tickets to put someone “in jail”, and then some other sucker had to pay an equal or greater amount to get them out. Those in jail always seemed pathetic, but in retrospect, they probably thought we were the pathetic ones… and from the inside looking out, we probably were.

My favorite prize-getting event was always the cake-walk, where you played musical chairs until the winner got a cake.

My least favorite was definitely the car smash. Here’s a dollar to let me swing a sledge-hammer 3 times at someone’s shitty, donated Monte Carlo. By the time I got there, I usually couldn’t make the car look any worse than someone before me (or probably dozens of people) already had. “Here’s a sledge hammer for you to try and re-break the window. Don’t get any glass in your eyes!”

#1: I would love to get an honorable mention by having a character named after me in one of Matt’s super-hero/ninja turtle/GI Joe comics. That would be the bom-diggity! He could die or something… I wouldn’t care. Just as long as he was there long enough for the honorable mention. Especially if Cobra Commander mentioned him.

WHAT?! Charlie Brown Thanxgiving is on Tonight?! What the hell am I gonna watch high on Tryptophan on the REAL Thanksgiving now?!

New Survey: What should I watch instead? I do have Garfield’s Thanksgiving, but I watched it on Halloween with Garfield’s Halloween Adventure!

1) My wife’s shirts (people seemed to like them judging by all the emails I got)

I just watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and for the first time in my life I was actually bothered by the fact that he’s bald. I don’t know why it never bothered me before, or why it does now, but every time I saw him I couldn’t stop thinking “why? why is he bald?“

3) Joe Agatha = Anakin. “I wanna know how to play marbles!” “Not if my wooden acting has anything to say about it!”

4) Compared To CB Thanksgiving, Peppermint Patty seems to have taken estrogen…she’s no longer interested in Marcie and goes all the way to camp just for Charlie Brown.

6) Both specials had unexplained reasons why Lucy wasn’t present with the gang.

Ok, I gave in and celebrated Christmas early…I found Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes today. Hell. Yes. I bought 5 boxes. I hope that will last me a week or two.

First off, awesome name. Second, Charles Schulz said in the comics he imagined Charlie Brown had very short, fine blond hair. All you could see of it that he could draw was the front curl. He couldn’t draw blonde short hair any other way â€“ so he’s technically not bald.

Also, the sailor hats threw me too. Liked it over all - and the bully’s name was Joe Agate (like a marble). I love that they still do old fashioned 50s stuff (summer camp, marbles, corded telephones). Man, it could really suck updated wrong. It may not be as good as the old ones, but having Melendez and the other dude on it helped.

Maybe what’s really happening here is that even though you were one of the ones who’s ticket got pulled, they let the other people who actually stayed to watch the pulling take the nicer baskets, and that means you default to the one(s) that nobody wants.

I already watched Garfield and Peanuts Thanksgiving a few days ago. Not much left for Thanksgiving specials now, and it’s taking forever to download the Rocko’s Modern Life Thanksgiving episode. I probably have it on VHS, but all my episodes are such dick quality it’s probably not worth watching.

Terror Claws
Awesome, thanks for the info, I had no idea. That makes a lot more sense than a bald third grader.

Forget a raffle, I’d be more inclined to donate money to the “Finish The Chia Plot Fund”…working together, we could all make a difference!!!

Overall, I give the new Charlie Brown a thumb up. Some of Marci’s quips were legitimately amusing. Big shoutout to INVADER NORBERT to pointing out some of the more insane elements.

I never said this special was bad. It was ok, and it DID follow Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Had they shown these on thursday, I would’ve been buzzed on the tryptophan and I would’ve said they were awesome.

Thanx, Manimal, and I agree on Marcie’s lines. Wow, there was actual humor here! “I can’t hear her, Charlie Brown, stop nibbling on my ear!” You just don’t see that coming in a Peanuts special, especially since it followed C.B.T.

it is not Xmas season yet until the BC Clark jingle is played on the OKC stations!

Yay!! Another BC Clark lover! I giggle to myself because we may be the only two people on here that know what the heck the BC Clark jingle is! When did you first learn the words? I think I was five.

Yeah. There were moments in the show where I was actually laughing. Can’t really remember the last cartoon that made me do that…though I am sure if anything it was probably Animaniacs. How can you not laugh at a character named Mr Skull Head?

Flabslapper- The Target in Delaware? The big one in the Brandywine Town Center on Concord Pike? Dude, I live in Newark but work on Concord Pike, I’m there all the time. That’s cool they had Wiis, I might get myself one in January to help hold back that post-Christmas, time-to-kill-myself urge.

Back to the auction question: I’d pay good bucks for a copy of any of Matt’s taped Thanksgiving specials, or his 1983 Saturday Morning preview with Dick Clark.

I got my Wii yesterday. It rocks. Seeing PS3 get all the hype is depressing; I hope this’ll pass.

I wouldn’t count on it. Game Informer was very kind to the majority of PS3s launch titles. Save for Genji and Gundam (a joke on any platform), they went coocoo for Cocoa Puffs over ‘em. Warms my heart, all the way to the cockles (sp?) Plus, I heard about a really nasty review of Red Steel (a 5.5!).

There’s plenty of room in the market for the current competitors. Viva La PS3 and Wii. Take that as you will

Macs rule!

Welsh Rabbit - lol, ya, basically the only thing keeping me alive right now is Zelda…and the hopes that the Mighty Max cartoon will have a DVD boxset release

i have random question about something from my childhood that none of my friends seem to remember, so i figured this would be place to ask. when i was in first grade (1989-1990 school year) i was the cock of the walk with my little mermaid locker backpack. it was a big rectangle that unzipped around the side and had a little shelf in it near the top so that it resembled a big kid’s locker. quite a few of my classmates had them back then, but NONE of current friends know what i’m talking about. was it just some crazy fantasy that i had of carrying a mini-locker around, or can anyone back me up on this one???

I can’t believe I (or anyone else) forgot to call ABC out for showing the CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS ON NOVEMBER 28th!! That’s pretty early, man. It doesn’t have to be on Christmas Eve but can we at least get a December date?

MYSTIE’S POLL QUESTION:
1. Cousin Ralph costume
2. The Sectaurs Hive
3. 2 free passes to play on the Lion’s Anus Mini-golf course
4. HULK HANDS that can take on uppity cats.
5. TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE vhs tapes

A weekend retreat at the creepy upstate house, including a 15 year old 2 litter of Pepsi and bag of Tato Skins

1. An autographed picture of Snake from that Drug PSA by the guy who played him.

5. A diorama of Knacks and Kuse beating up Waiterbot while Good Mare watches approvingly, and bad Mare is doing Santa

XE Raffle:
1) A free trip to the Worst Game Room Ever
2) An ALF cake baked by Matt
3) A Freddy or Full House board game
4) The Photog blog printed and bound together in a Trapper Keeper
5) Pepsi Holiday Spice

My mom put up the tree at my house already…except I don’t live at home anymore, so I can’t even enjoy it until Dec.23rd or so! Damn this “Being a grown up-having-a-job-not-living-at-home-anymore” thing!

Autographed photo of Ralph
The Hulk pinata.
Matt’s Blak bottle with the straight line over the “a”.
Matt’s secret stuffed mushroom recipie.

My family had moved out to California after I was born, but came back to Oklahoma every Christmas. I always heard the Jingle and saw the commercials then, and just associated it with the home state. When we came back for good in the early 80’s, it already was in my head. I have mentioned the jingle in the past, and one year, I posted a link to the Clark site for another displaced Okie. Hi, Lisa Marie! What the hey, clickify my name for the link again.

1) Honorable mention in a comic by Cobra Commander.
2) Old Kool-Aid. (Preferably Sharkelberry Fin)
3) Dr. Sbaitso giving some marital advice in article form.

Hey Matt, did I once read that you have this published in a newspaper somewhere? If so, where, and what is your going rate as a writer?

1. A box of old Transformers
2. The “magic” jar and the male doll (what was his name?) from the old E-Bay scams
3. A VHS of the Star Wars Holiday Special, one of the Ewoks movies, the Ewoks cartoons, or the Droids cartoons
4. The cut-out He-Man (or was it She-Ra?) masks that Matt reviewed while pretending to be a zombie.

A mystery peanut. I’ve offered Matt an original Fortress Maximus for one on several occasions.

It used to be awesome when i was younger! the prize boxs had snes/sega games, vhs tapes, and the white elephant stand would occassionally have some shitty board game with half the pieces which matt would probably review today, as well as older brothers collection of x-men and wrestling action figures with skuffs on them w.e.

When pokemon was in its prime, this church fair got really cool! tons of pokemon stuff!

Anyway, if your high and want cheap cupcakes, stop by St. Joseph St Thomas parish, S.I. NY 10309, its the only thing that keeps me returning.

K- - Send me an e-mail, I found a peanut online, and since I’m seriously motherfucking broke so I’ll let you partake.

Dixon, I won’t publicize that here. :) But if you’re perhaps trying to strike up a deal, e-mail me!

Manimal — Wow, 11/28? That’s mad early for Chuck’s X-Mas. On the other hand, it does lend credence to our argument that the Christmas season lasts 2 months.

I’m pretty much broke too, when you factor out my PS3 stash. But thanks for the offer Mystie. Besides it just wouldn’t be the same. Like having an autograph that I didn’t get in person.

Watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special and I have one question. When snoopy was making his version of the Thanksgiving dinner, what the hell were those multi colored things. I got the pretzle sticks, toast and popcorn. Were they really big jelly beans or artificially colored cheese puffs or what…?
I must have missed it but it’s been bugging me for some stupid reason.

Ah….should have kept that to myself. I knew it would be here somewhere. Thanks Katherine.

No problem. You and kb actually inspired me to try to pinpoint exactly when I started looking at this site… I’ve found a lot of stuff I’ve never seen, which is entertaining. I haven’t found it yet but I’m getting close. I can smell it.

I just bought Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s Greatest Hits DVD. It is by far the best $10.00 investment I have ever made. It would make a great stocking stuffer……. FOR ME TO POOP ON!!

Yeah man, the 28th. They hyped it pretty good the whole Thanksgiving special.
Maybe it is just me but I don’t care that Christmas starts on November 1st now (or Halloween night according to the local radio station that already switched to Christmas music 24/7). I guess the stores and their hype have finally beaten me down where I don’t care that it starts monstrously early now. Therefore I say let it snow, let it snow, let it snow WITH SAVINGS!

When we all get a Wii..we should post our system adresses (those numbers you use to sned stuff to other peoples consoles) we can all make a Mii parade.

I dunno if anyone said this for the raffle items, but: Bulbasaur and Ivysaur. Totally.

And I actually remember the first article I ever read on here; it was Ash vs. Skeletor battling for Pepsi Blue. Yay!

I have only been around since the Kool Aid reviews started, but I read the entire Photog blog before reading anything else. I knew I was in the right place after that thread. I love you guys!!!

what a great raffle:
The big Voltron (minus one leg for garage/yard sale likeness)
The first and second season of Small Wonder and Sledge Hammer
A cd with the theme song from A Never Ending Story in six different laguages
and the basket is full of Christmas tree tinsle and leggo pieces for future vacuming adventures.

The word “peanut” appears ten times (eleven now) on this page. I was asked to concisely describe X-E earlier today. I should’ve just said “Peanut!”

It seems that I read the site off and on during the latter half of 2001, it was Ash vs. Skeletor for Pepsi Blue that hooked me as a regular reader.

kingklash, thanks to you, I am now the proud owner of a BC Clark ringtone! (Well, the ones they had on there didn’t have the singing, so I downloaded the mp3 and made one of my own, but I still have it!) Thank you!

I’ve lived here my whole life (though, luckily, I escaped the Okie twang and instead everyone thinks I’m from Chicago) and the BC Clark is definately a HUGE part of Christmas for me. I guess that’s the trade-off for the lack of snow??

Ah BC CLARK, I too am an Okie. Growing up my parents owned and operated 2 jewlery stores, and we were taught to loathe that jingle and all it stood for. Now that they sold the family business, I sing it every year with an evil glint in my eye.

Dixon- I know the answer to one of your questions, and let’s just say I live in a pretty good state, if you get my drift. And we don’t have sales tax either. Woo!

There is a Santa Claus parade in my town this Saturday night…yep, Xmas season is now upon me.

Watched Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving on VHS last night then I read an article online from Variety with the headline “VHS, 30, dies of Loneliness”- it’s official- NO MORE VHS.

I used to have my parents’ old fake tree - aluminum with one of those lighted color wheels. Nothing says ‘festive holidays’ like a metal tree that turns red, yellow, blue and green over and over. Especially when one is a teenager in the throes of drug experimentation. I could kick myself for getting rid of it.

No more VHS?! Does that mean I have to go out soon (yesterday, maybe?) if I want to get the pile of blank tapes I’ve been saying “I need to get summa those” about for a year? Dammit!

I can’t remember exactly what article I first read. Maybe The Colonel remembers. I do remember the day he sent me the link. “Check this guy out, he’s really cool” or something to that effect. It was during the days of Liquorhead, though. And I remember when the Bulbasaur quests were NEW articles. They were what hooked me.

Here’s this guy, chronicling all this stuff from my childhood, with masterful wit, and yet for some reason, he’s the most interesting thing. Especially when he’s hunting for something I never even cared about and thought i was too old for to begin with.

It’s kinda like Kingdom Hearts. Sure you come for the Final Fantasy or the Disney, but you stay for Sora, Kairi, and Riku. Is this another “you rule, Matt!” post? I think it is. I need my lips removed from a certain part of his anatomy.

I get to leave at 1 today, and I’m getting hammered tonight, so this should be a great Thanksgiving Eve.