To-Do List For Summer
Current mood: aroused
Category: Life

Well, finals are almost over for me, so that means one thing: Summer's Coming!

I've got a 3 1/2 month break from school, and I've decided to write up a To-Do List for Summer.

I made one last year and I managed to complete 10 out of the 11 points on the list. The one I didn't get to was watching DVDs I hadn't watched yet (there's at least 1 I still haven't gotten to!)

Here's what I want to do this summer:

1) Watch the following DVDs I haven't gotten to yet: Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie Film For Trailers, American Dad Vol 2.
2) See the folllowing movies: Iron Man, Dark Night, Wall-E. Those are definites.
3) Finish reading "The Time Machine Did It"
4) Buy & Read "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" (at least the first book)
5) Team Trip to White Castle! Yes, we must invade as a group once again!
6) Team Trip to a Buffet! Want to do this again.
7) Go back to NYC. I still want to do the NBC Studio Tour, and to see a taping of Conan before he moves to LA.
8) Go to an Amusement Park. I want to go back to Great Adventure at least once this year, damnit!
9) Hang out with my friends & frat bros. This will hopefull happen, preferrably in s 5 & 6.
10) Blog some more. Oh, yes, I have a few things planned. I've got one planned about Brawl, one on the Museum of Natural History expedition I went on last week, and, of course, the other 4 parts of my "Top 50 Animated Villains" list.

Here's hoping I complete all of them this time!

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10 Things I Learned From Jim Gaffigan
Current mood: drunk
Category: Life

10. Manatees have the same physique as a retired football player.
9. The sentiment of Indiana is "We’re gonna move!"
8. Elton John is a good mommy.
7. If a white guy gets angry, people call him a dick.
6. If you meet someone’s Mom, don’t hug them and say "Oh yeahhh..." and if their Dad’s short, don’t try to pick him up.
5. Pale people can shoot lasers out of their nipples.
4. And it’s possible to get paler.
3. People seem to comment on everything you say in a low whisper.
2. You can have a Hot Pocket for Breakfast, a Hot Pocket for Lunch, and be dead by dinner.
1. Putting bacon bits in a salad only creates a game of "Find the Bacon in The Lettuce."

Inspired by my co-worker Tim who sent a similar list called "10 Thing I Learned From Mitch Hedberg."

Currently playing : Super Smash Bros. Brawl Release date: 09 March, 2008

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Random Blogging Stuff
Current mood: annoyed
Category: Blogging

For those not currently in the know, I've recently set up a "legitimate" blogging acount at Blogger.

It can be found here: galileo908.blogspot.com. It's mostly like the blog here...except that I blog a little more often there than here.

So to not neglect this blog, I'll post two of the other blogs I've already posted there this week.

1) Stuff That Happened Today (3/4)

Well, some very interesting things happened today in the world of Useful Information.

First of all in Politics: John McCain clinched the Republican Nominee for Pres., and as of writing that blog, Hillary won Ohio, while the Jury is still out in Texas.

2nd: Brett Favre finally retired from football. My friend Tim absolutely loves Frank Caliendo's impression of John Madden talking about Brett Farb. One of these guys are obviously a bit dissappointed.

"I mean, Brett Farb is the greatest, you could cut off both Brett Farb's arms and both Brett Farb's legs and he'd still be the best torso in football. You could find a way to clone Brett Farb, make enough clones for a football team, and have themplay a team made up of clones of Brett Farb. I mean, the universe just might explode."

Finally, in Geek News, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax, passed away.

I am *rolls dice* deeply saddened by this loss.

2) Words I Find Funny

As some of you might you, I'm an amateur comedian of sorts, and I try to find humor in all facets of my life.

For some random nonsense, to try to find humor at its core, here are some words that I think are funny:

Booze
Board
Monkey
Weasel
Ferret
Chick
Monkey
Chicken
Steak
Ball
Larry
Intercourse
Muffin
Poland

Expect Part 2 of The Greatest Animated Villains of All Time to be posted soon...but with school and all, don't expect it until after St. Patty's Day.

Currently playing : Super Smash Bros. Brawl Release date: 09 March, 2008

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The 50 Greatest Animated Villains of All Time (Part 1)
Current mood: confident
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

It took about 7 months in the making, but I'm finally ready to post my list of the 50 Greatest Animated Villains of All Time!

This is a list that has been seen far and few on the internets, mostly because of the challenge that lies within: There are so many greats, so many crappy ones, with several genres and companies to boot. You usually find "Best ___ Villains" like Disney, Looney Tunes, Comic Book Villains, 80s, 90s, etc.

There's also the problem of how many to include. It's notoriously difficult to limit the list to such a low number, like 10. One of my recent favorite websites ListuUniverse.com recently attempted a Top 10 Cartoon Villains List, and failed miserably. Seriously, 1 was Shredder?! Sure, he's an awesome villain (spoiler, he made this list), but I wouldn't put him at 1 (spoiler 2: He's not 1)

I thought 50 was a good number. Enough spots for everyone, but not too many. Why the wait since I formally announced it in June?

Well, for one, compiling the list itself proved to be a nerve-wracking problem. First there was who would make the list, why they were worthy, and what order to put them in. There were certainly a few last-minute changes. Also, for a while my Trial copy of Word expired and was not able to get it back up and running until September. As for the gap between then & now…let's say school and life got in the way.

It's time I finally got this list started! I've decided to split the whole list into 5 parts, with 10 villains in each part. Each villain was chosen by my own personal criteria, such as iconicness, impact on the show/movie he/she represented, impact on pop culture, or just being all-round evil and badass. But I must admit a small bias. As a child of the 90s, there are many late 80s/Early 90s villains represented, but I think I've managed to get great villains from all eras.

50: The Evil Monkey in Chris's Closet – Family Guy

Voiced by: Mike Henry.

We start the list off with the Evil Monkey from Family Guy. During the show's pre-revival days, The Evil Monkey was this random, mysterious character that freaked the hell out of Chris simply by pointing his finger at him, then running away.

In due time, especially in the post-revival episodes, we have seen more of the Evil Monkey, especially an origin story on how he became evil. If the cutaway is true, the Evil Monkey was a normal, talking businessmonkey who had walked in on his wife having an affair (the fact that other monkey wore a diaper must have been equally as scarring), and he suddenly reverts to his now Evil, Finger-pointing state.

Some have said that the Evil Monkey has become less Evil due to finding religion, but I must admit that he might be more frightening with the image of him standing at your closet pointing "The Watchtower" at you.

49: Richard Nixon's Head – Futurama

Voiced By: Billy West

While Futurama has had some great villains, I'd say that Richard Nixon's Head deserves his due as a great villain. First of all, it's Nixon, which should alone place him on a list like this one. He decides to run for President for a 3^rd time in the Year 3000 when he buys Bender's pawned body, and actually manages to win by a single vote when he gains some kind of giant Mecha body.

Aided by his supposed Vice President, The Headless Body of Spiro T. Agnew, Nixon's various crimes include Winning a 3^rd Term (and suspected of having more terms as he is still President as of "Bender's Big Score" set in 3007), planning to eradicate all of the World's Robots,  declaring various pointless wars, allegedly breaking into the Watergate, creating awards such as the Polluting Medal of Pollution and the Dirty Double Cross, losing Earth to the Scammers due to falling from a dumb E-mail scam in "Bender's Big Score," and threatening to "go into people's houses at night and wrecking up the place."

48: Gossamer – Looney Tunes

Voiced By: Mel Blanc

Creeping into Classic Villain territory, we come to Gossamer, the Red/Orange monster from Looney Tunes. Fortunately for you fine reader(s), he's not the only Looney Tunes villain making this list. He's one of the most popular of the truly minor LT characters, appearing in only 3 theatrical shorts, and he wasn't even named Gossamer until his 3rd cartoon.

Existing as a villainous monster in high-tops to scare Bugs Bunny and Duck Dodgers, I'd say he's pretty memorable due to the fact that he can be pretty creepy just by standing there. He's the perfect specimen to be seen chasing you in some abandoned haunted castle, and if he's not threatening to rip you apart with his unmanicured claws, he's killing you with an allergy attack with all of his hair.

I like his shoes. Apparently he & Marvin The Martian shop at the same store.

47: The Woodland Critters – South Park

Voiced By: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, others

A fairly recent entry to the list, their original claim to fame was their lone appearance in the episode "Woodland Critter Christmas," which began as a nice Christmas Story, and, as we all know South Park, degenerates into something much grimmer and darker than we could've imagined. They may look cute and cuddly, but they're evil Satan Worshippers who have Blood Orgies and plot to give birth to the Anti-Christ.

They almost win...until it's revealed that it was all a story concocted by Cartman. What cemented "Greatest Villain" status was their appearance during the recent Imaginationland Trilogy. Not only do they become the de facto leaders of the Evil Imaginary Characters, they manage to freak out Jason Voorhees due to their very conception. They also successfully kill Strawberry Shortcake, poke out her eye, infect themselves with AIDs, and then pee in her eye socket.

Damn.

46: Mojo Jojo – Powerpuff Girls

Voiced By: Roger L. Jackson

At 46, we have Mojo Jojo, the arch-nemesis of the Powerpuff Girls.

Well all know that monkeys can be evil, as evidenced by 50, but this one here seems to be much more evil. For one thing, he's a green monkey with an enormous brain and a textbook Villain outfit due to being exposed to the same Chemical X that accidentally created the Powerpuff Girls.

Exploits include the usual bank robbing, attempting to destroy Townsville, the world, etc with various guns and giant Mecha Robots, accidentally creating the Powerpuff Girls, turning all of Townsville citizens into dogs (twice), living in an observatory on top of a volcano, and mutating every monkey in the local zoo and have them attack Townsville.

You can totally imagine this guy existing, and kicking some major ass. You know you'd love it if he lived with you, and he was constantly pissed off and wanted fights so that every day when you came home, you had to fight him. I think that's awesome in itself. I'm pretty sure the show did a few episodes centered around this subject.

45: The Monarch – The Venture Bros.

Voiced By: Chris McCulloch

Next on the list is the archnemesis of the Venture Family, The Monarch. At face value, he seems to be a show's obligatory lame villain due to the fact that he's themed after the Monarch Butterfly (his origin story didn't even help his cause to begin with). But as the show progressed, he became this incredible badass of a villain.

He's been in jail, managed to break out, commands an army of butterfly-themed minions, and just looking & acting incredibly psycho. Plus, his girlfriend is the manly-sounding Dr. Girlfriend (now Dr. Wife I assume), as well the fact that it's never explained exactly why The Monarch hates Dr. Venture so much.

44: Stewie Griffin – Family Guy

Voiced By: Seth MacFarlane

For this next entry is Stewie Griffin, the evil closeted baby from Family Guy. I'm well aware that he's seemed to have softened up in the past few seasons, but when he's evil…he's evil.

It's been said that he was evil from the start, plotting world domination while in the womb while simultaneously planting a bomb that will detonate on Lois's 50^th Birthday (presumed to be menopause). An overly violent loan shark, celebrity murderer, President of The World, tying up a bully when playing "Roman Polanski's House," introducing Yoko to Lennon, inspiring OJ to kill, controlling Chris to buy weapons, plotting to eradicate broccoli, arson against his cheating ex-pretend wife, traveling in time to ruin his future, carjacking, running a pyramid scheme, talking like Rex Harrison, and being Darth Vader are among his many evilish deeds.

43: The Mooninites – Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Voiced by: Matt Maiellaro (Ignignokt), Dave Willis (Err)

They're the Mooninites from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Ignignokt & Err. While the ATHF has some awesome villains (the Plutonians, MC Pee Pants, Dr. Weird & Steve, The Cybernetic Ghost), I think these guys are their greatest villains. 2-D, pot smoking thieves, they harken back to the Atari days of gaming, with their main weapons being powerful, slow-moving lasers, as well as their threats to spank nerds with moon rocks. One of their greatest villainy feats were organizing most of the villains on the show (save for the Plutonians and a few one-shots) into one super-villain group to unsuccessfully destroy the Aqua Teen once and for all.

In the real world, they're mostly responsible for that bomb scare in Boston last year promoting the ATHF Movie. That pretty much gets them a nod, aside from their other "evil" deeds.

42: Mr. Mxyzptlk - Superman

Voiced By: Gilbert Gottfried (DCAU Version)

Our first foray into comic book villainy is the trickster villain Mr. Mxyzptlk, hailing from the 5th Dimension. Depending on which medium or Age you've seen Superman in, there's a version of Mxy, mostly to serve as a real pain in the ass for the Man of Steel.

Even though he doesn't have "evil" intentions, he's an antagonist, messes with Superman's world for absolutely no other reason for the fact that he's bored with his own dimension and uses his other worldly powers to screw things up. Hell, he's capable of switching the DC-verse with the Marvel one, but those kinds of specials only come 17 times a year.

Pictured above (on the right) is my favorite incarnation from Superman: The Animated Series

41: Soundwave – Transformers

Voiced By: Frank Welker

We end our first list with one of the more bad-assed retro villains out there, Soundwave from Transformers.

Back during the Classic G1 days, Soundwave was the 2^nd-in-Command of the Decepticons, and showed it with his bulky build and his robotic voice. Just looking at him screamed awesomeness, even while looking through the Nostalgia-Colored Glasses that the people who were born from 1978-1988 wear. He was also the Master of Stealth…in 1980s standards.

Two reasons why this guy isn't ranked higher:

1) His alt mode is a tape deck. As in Cassettes, which also transform into smaller robots. While supporting-role humans of both 1984 and present day are dumb-as-rock filler characters, they would both distinguish a Tape Deck being out of the ordinary and wondering why it's just sitting there in the desert.

"eBay!" Says the dumb human while carrying it back to the Autobot's hideout.

The Transformers people have tried bringing Soundwave back for more recent series, but, since this is the iPod age, a music player wouldn't have worked (damn you, Michael Bay!). A few different robots with the Soundwave name appeared, but they just aren't the same awesome Decepticon we all remember.

2) Due to Megatron dying in the movie and being reformatted into Galvatron, along with a few new Minions, Soundwave was basically pushed into the background for newer toys faces like Scourge and Cyclonus. I hear he currently releases Party Mix Tapes through Time-Life infomercials.

And that concludes Part 1 of (hopefully) a 5-Part series. In short…this was much harder than I thought it was going to be, no wonder why no one does this.

Currently playing : Super Smash Bros. Brawl Release date: 09 March, 2008

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First post of 2008!
Current mood: aroused
Category: Life

It's my

It's my first post of 2008…27 days into it! Damn, where the hell was I? This time last year I had, like, 4 blogs by now! Let's just say that I had been partying for the last 3 weeks…and that College started up again.

I tried writing my now-trying-to-be-annual Year In Review 2007 blog three different times, with 2 times giving up due to lack of interest in doing so, and one time getting 3/4 of the way until myspace ate all my work somehow.

So, without further adieu, instead of wasting my whole night writing & researching my blog and suppressed memories, here is my Abridged Review of 2007:

(In mostly Chronological Order)

-My KB Toys store closed in January, making me focus completely on the CVS job.

-Got a new Kitten on Super Bowl Sunday!

-Bears lost the Super Bowl

-Frat Bro DJ got sick around the same time and was in the hospital for 3 months, very terrible

-Turned 19!

-Went on a Quest to find a Shamrock Shake: Unsuccessful

-During Lent, I did a quest on eating the Fish Sandwich at every local fast food chain: Successful (Also: remind me to never do it again)

-New Pledge Class came into my DPO Frat…I didn't get a "Little Brother" that semester for some reason

-Got a girlfriend in April following some really unlikely circumstance. Sam & I are still together 9 months later!

-Created an 11-Point To-Do List For Summer. I completed 8 of those points in May alone.

-Went to NYC 3 times over the course of the year. You can simply scroll down to see exactly what I managed to complete.

-Went to 6 Flags in May…in short: awesome time, that's the best time to go.

-Started a Facebook, sadly lived up to the addiction by somewhat neglecting the myspace page

-Saw SEVERAL movies over the summer, including the much-awaited Transformers and the Simpsons Movie…both very awesome.

-Ratatouille: Awesome

-Spider-man & Pirates 3: Slightly Awesome

-Shrek 3: Not Awesome

-[llama]

-[llama]

-[duck]

-For some reason, blogged the premiere of High School Musical 2 in Real-Time.

-Sadly neglected the blog, mostly due to busyness and lack of motivation

-Found the Shamrock Shake reincarnated as the Chocolate-Flavored Minty Mudbath Shake…might have been the chocolate, might have been the mint, or both…but I didn't like it.

-Holidays came and went

-STILL haven't finished watching all the DVDs I got for Christmas

That's about it. All in all, a good year.

And to make sure that you, the blog-reader, don't feel gypped by that, I'll get to another point I've been wanting to make that's more to my level.

And that is what might be one of the most anticipated Nintendo Games, Ever: Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii.

Hell, I don't have a Wii yet…but that's because I promised myself that I would hold out on it until the game came out. It's been roughly 1 1/2 years since Wii's launch, and Brawl finally has a definite release date for March 9 (quite the difference from what was originally supposed to be a Launch title back in '06)

And with this game focusing on the different Playable Characters, fans, nerds, and geeks alike have all been speculating what the final Roster will be. Fortunately, we in the U.S. will have to wait for long, as the Japanese release is slated for Next Thursday, and we'll certainly know everything then.

For those of you forgot some details from the previous game, Melee, had a total roster of 25 Characters, not counting the dual characters of The Ice Climbers and Zelda/Shiek counting as single characters.

Currently, Brawl on the other hand, currently has a confirmed starting roster of 21 Characters, with Solid Snake & Sonic confirmed as hidden characters as well as unconfirmed appearances by Luigi, Jigglypuff, Ness (Earthbound), and Lucario (a 4^th generation Pokemon). Counting Shiek, Zero Suit Samus, and the 3 Pokemon of the Pokemon Trainer (Squirtle, Ivysaur, Charizard) as their own separate characters, the starting roster becomes at least 25. And not counting the Hidden Chracters, which we know nothing about save for Sonic, Snake, as well as Luigi, Jigglypuff, and possibly Ness and Lucario…The total roster is rumored to be at least 40. That's a hell of a lot.

This bring me to my topic: The Fan Speculated Characters. If one has ventured to IGN, or even been into its message board for the past…year, fan speculation has been fierce and steady, with some ridiculous choices like Master Chief from Halo, various Final Fantasy characters, as well as several characters that have only appeared in one game that no one but that one nerd has ever heard of.

That's just stupid. It'll never happen and these theories only exist in these nerd fantasies, or like actual nerds, somewhere in the bottom of a garbage can covered up by various paper towels and tissues to destroy such evidence.

Before I digress yet again, This is my list of 5 Potential Smash Bros Characters That Probably Won't Happen. Unlike several fantasies, these are plausible and would be welcome additions, but they will probably not show up this time around. Maybe next time.

-Ridley (Metroid series)

This is the main villain from the Donkey Kong Country series, he basically looks like this, but his appearance has changed slightly with each passing game. With the addition of Diddy Kong as a playable character, many in the fan community have assumed that K. Rool should follow.

While unlike Ridley, I do believe that this guy's possible for playability, but I also believe that he'll be a Boss character. He's slightly bigger than DK himself, probably at Bowser height, and his speculation for moves would have to be creative, as I really can't think of many except for throwing his crown and doing mega punches/slams. The Smash Bros guys are more creative than I am.

-Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Now this character is a favorite of mine, and at this point we're heading to 50/50 Territory. This means that I believe that an appearance by this guy warrants an even division of "Possible" and "WTF Are You Thinking?!"

For a brief history of this character, Geno is actually the body itself, its very soul is actually a Star Spirit from the Star Road who had inhabited a doll and became human-sized to help out Mario's quest, and fought with a variety of energy beam attacks. And this bastard hasn't been in a major role since.

His possibly moveset can be very diverse, mostly focusing on projectiles. Geno Beam, Geno Whirl, and his Star Gun are all major possibilities for special moves, while his Geno Boost would be a creative idea for his Up+B move. Hell, I've theorized that his Final Smash could be the Geno Flash, Geno Blast or even the Geno Whirl itself which has been known to deal 9,999 damage in the original RPG. Can I just say that the very idea of this character would be kickass? I thought so.

Only problem? That little deal about Square-Enix owning most of the rights to the game, especially to Geno, but  Nintendo & Square seem to have reconciled in recent years and that a reintroduction to this classic game may come back, and adding Geno would certainly be a good start.

-Banjo (Banjo-Kazooie games)

The only thing stopping this guy from making a Brawl appearance is the fact that Microsoft made Rare their bitch 5 or so years ago. I forgot how long its been. Banjo (and Kazooie) are the stars of Banjo-Kazooie, and its sequel Banjo-Tooie, both for N64.

Banjo and his birdie companion Kazooie would've made one hell of a tandem character. Banjo was all the physical moves, all the close combat fighting would've been him. Many of the special moves would be provided by Kazooie, and there's basically no limit of combos or ideas for moves. The egg projectiles would have to be the regular B move, something like Beak Barge move, the Beak Bayonet or something akin to Banjo swinging around Kazooie for the Smash B move, Up B move involving flight, and the Down B being the Bill Drill.

For Final Smash, this could range for anything, we could do the Beak Bomb, we could have Invincibility with the Gold Feathers, hell, we could've had Breegull Blaster, the F'ing Sniper mode!

But nope…damn you Microsoft.

And now the Final Not Gonna Happen Character (this time anyway):

-Mega Man

Like it's gonna happen this time. You never know about a future game with this guy, but he certainly deserves his due. Appearing on the NES, SNES, and the various Game Boy incarnations (Mega Man 64? What Mega Man 64?), he can definitely join the ranks, but being owned by Capcom…he's not Brawling for a

while.

Oh sure, we could configure his moveset. Blasters, able to steal other player's powers, using Rush somehow, but there's no reason to do it. He's just not gonna be in this game. Hell, it's even been confirmed that Mega Man will NOT be in it. The end.

Well, that's it for me, but be sure to tune in next week when we find out the real Final Roster and I'll comment on it!

Currently playing : Super Smash Bros. Brawl Release date: 09 March, 2008

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Merry Christmas 2007!
Current mood: Merry
Category: Merry Life

I hope everyone's having a Merry Christmas today! It's almost over and I thought the gifts that were on my list were not gonna come, as my mom ordered them off Amazon and got en email saying they wouldn't arrive til the 26th!

Fortunately, an Xmas Miracle ocurred and an Amazon box came yesterday!

Well...let's see what I got this year!

(It was the 2-pack, but I couldn't find a pic of them together)

(from Diaz. Go figure.)

(From Steve)

These were my favorite gifts this year:

..> ..>(From Sam)

There were also some other gifts with pics that I can't retirieve on the Net:

-A $25 Best Buy Gift Card (CVS Secret Santa gift)
-A White Castle Gift card from Steve
-An Orange Hoodie from Sam's Parents
-Assorted candy & money

-And most of all, a 12-pack of custom Jones Soda Bottles with me & Steve's picture on them from Sam, where she had written some nice stuff about us. I love it.

Well...that's it. For now. Merry _______, Everyone!

Currently watching : Futurama - Bender’s Big Score Release date: 27 November, 2007

8:50 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Christmas Traditions!
Current mood: Holly Jolly
Category: Holly Jolly Life

Well, Christmas is almost upon us, and I apologize for the lack of Christmas-themed blogs…and blogs themselves in general. Life, tiredness, lack of chutzpah, etc.

If you weren't around last year, here are the Christmas-Related Blogs I posted:

-Elements for Rankin-Bass Specials

-Favorite Christmas Specials

-Other Christmas Stuff

-My Gifts from Christmas '06

And Gifts I wanted For Christmas, But Never Got…just scroll down.

But tonight, I wanted to share with you all the various traditions that I observe in my life around Christmas time!

-Christmas Specials

Yes, from Charlie Brown, to Garfield, to The Grinch, to "How _____ Saved Christmas" and the 5,000 interpretations of A Christmas Carol, Muppet or Non-Muppet involvement alike. But most of all, I'm into the Rankin-Bass Specials. All of them…even the crappy ones no one's ever heard of. I believe I've proven this point before in the previous blogs that I linked above. ABC Family usually shows a Marathon of them on Christmas Eve that I always watch, and this year didn't disappoint…almost.

You see, they didn't just keep the specials just for Christmas Eve, ABC Family ran them constantly throughout December! But on Xmas Eve itself…it just ran 6 Specials from 11-6pm…only 2 of them worth watching (Year Without A Santa Claus & Santa Claus is Comin' To Town were the ones that closed out the "marathon") to make way for double Showings of "The Polar Express"…which they ran about 500 times already this month.  Its not even that good! And badly animated to boot!

-HESS Trucks

Yes, my one constant Xmas gift is the annual HESS Truck provided by my Grandmother. This year, however, it seems that HESS is running out of ideas. Unlike previousy ears of sticking motorcycles and/or Helicopters on a Flatbed, HESS made a completely new Monster Truck...With Motorcycles.

I have every Truck since 1988 or so…and most of them are still in their boxes. I can't wait til they become collector's Items…I mean more expensive ones.

-NORAD Santa Tracker

I'm one of those Agnostic Santa Believers, meaning there is a possibility that Santa may or may not exist. If there is a contest for Best Government Organization, I'd nominate NORAD for the honor.

Besides keeping our defenses safe in the air and for and against hackers, Every December 24^th, the NORAD website keeps a "Santa Tracker" which posts videos of Santa sightings all over Earth. The last 2 years, however, they've mostly kept the same videos, but putting different audio of different NORAD workers repeating the same damn message. But this year is the first time all of the vids are on Youtube!

But I don't give a damn. It's magical! And…I can't believe NORAD doesn't have a more sophisticated Computer Animation program…

While on the subject of Santa…

-Santa on the Fire Truck

This cheesy tradition dates back to my childhood. Every year around the first or second Saturday of December, the local Fire Department patrols around town with a Santa on the truck waving to all the little girls and boys in their houses. I realized that each Fire Department on Long Island does this and not just mine, and they do it at different days and times (he visited Bayport last Tuesday at around 9 at night). The truck usually blares Christmas music and has his "helpers" knock on doors of houses with open curtains to give out candy canes to the people forced to witness this event. This year was funny, as while the Santa Truck came, it blared a badly-sounding rendition of "Winter Wonderland" as it sped away into the daylight. The Santa, as well as some fire fighters, were ducking their heads under the power lines in order to save Christmas from being ruined…again.

This remind me of a joke of a comedian friend of mine, my Frat Brother Brian. He had this set that ask the question: "What if the Santa Truck had to respond to a call?" You would bet that the little kids would be traumatized, and that the coal that would be given for their naughtiness of committing Arson would do nothing to extinguish the fire.

And finally, we come to my last tradition:

-Advent Calendars

Throughout the last few years, I actually have 2 different Advent Calendars that I follow.

The first one is an Advent Calendar Adventure that is run by Matt of X-Entertainment.com fame. It started in 2002 of him taking pictures of the various gifts that come out of the Playmobil Advent Calendar (and in recent years, the LEGO one too) to comment on how awful the gifts were. In the years that followed, these advent calendars took on a life of their own, and these random riffing pics became epic adventures, involving not just the Playmobil and LEGO characters, but Star Wars LEGO Characters, a female Playmobil Chracter named after obscure Brat Pack member Mare Winningham, 2 Utroms (Krang-like creatures from the new Ninja Turtles cartoon) that have inhabited the bodies of the 2004 Playmobil Santa & Mrs. Claus figures, an annoying talking Snowman, a man wearing a Tiger costume, and even James Lipton! This year's calendar has been for the most part, Epic. It involved 2 Playmobil Bunnies and the Burnt 2006 Playmobil Santa attempting to kill the Heroic characters by summoning their demon god Leviathan…only to have it backfire on them and to reveal a guy in a Giant Bunny Costume taking the Head Villain to Hell, which all played with an ongoing month-long conspiracy of a site that was hidden in the December 23rd box of the calendar.You have to really read every Advent Calendar Entry to every Advent Calendar to really get what's going on. If you manage to do so…it's pretty awesome.

The other advent calendar kind of works like an actual one. There's this stuffed Santa with 24 different slots on his belly, and what my mom does is fill all 24 slots with Scratch-off Lotto Tickets (or in this year's case, 25 tickets). And on Christmas Day, I scratch off all of them, hoping to make some quick cash. There have been years where I didn't win anything, but I've been lucky for the past few years, averaging $15-20!

And that's all for me tonight, Merry Christmas Everyone!

Currently watching : Opus N’ Bill in a Wish for Wings That Work Release date: 06 November, 2007

6:15 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

All I Want For Christmas...
Current mood: cold
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Well, the Christmas Season is upon us yet again, and I'm happy to announce a few things:

1) School's ending basically next week, so I'll have more time to blog!

2) I actually have some goddamn Christmas Cheer this year. I'm actually looking forward to Christmas.

On a subject of Christmas that I haven't covered yet, we come to the almighty Children's Bible known as the Sears Wish Book Catalog. Yes, for those of you who don't remember or too young, Retail stores such as Sears and J.C. Penney's had catalogues that would come out in mid-November called Wish Books. Well, they still do release these books, but they no longer come in the mail, are called Wish Books, nor are as kickass.

For one thing, these catalogs had EVERYTHING known to man, especially stuff that you'd never find in an actual Sears, like the Toys & Games sections. Also, at its peak in the mid-80s, early-90s, these books were in excess of 500 pages (the 1985 Sears book clocks in at 532 pages ). And yes, these catalogues date back to Sears early days since before 1894. A catalog from that year only had 322 pages.

Before I digress, I, as well as the rest of my generation, as well as the older ones that gre up in the 70s and 80s, considered Wish Books to be one of the holiest books imaginable. This was well before Amazon and the internet itself where you could just click on the thing you want, and then order it by clicking again. All we had to do was search all the pages, or like most kids, skip right to the good parts with the toys, games, electronics and high-priced novelty items, and just circle the pictures of what we wanted. And if we were lucky, our parents had to call Sears up on the phone to order it. But most of the time, they just went to Toys R Us and got the stuff themselves.

And through the 20 years I've been on this Earth, obviously I've gotten a lot of gifts, even moreso since i'm an only child so my parents had more money to concentrate on gifts for one person. And out of all the gifts I had gotten, there was that tiny few ones that I had never received, and most likely never will even scouring collectible shops and flea markets. After reading Matt of X-Entertainment.com fame's article on gifts received and missed from the 1985 Sears Wishbook, I have decided to do the same.

What are my favorite gifts that I have never gotten? I shall show you.

Green DragonZord - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Yes, after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle craze died off, there was basically no boy back in the day that never had an argument about which Power Ranger was the best (Green/White for me!) and the occaisonal discussion of which of the girl Power Rangers were hotter (I was a Pink Ranger guy myself, mostly because the Yellow Ranger sometimes sported a package). Back in the day before my Transformers obsession took off, I had many a Power Ranger Christmas (aka, all the presents being centered around one central theme. Besides PR Christmas, I've also had TMNT Christmas, Nintendo Christmas, and in recent years, Transformers/DVD Christmas). And as the geek I was, I thought the show was incredibly awesome, so I had to get all the toys.

The concept behind the "Zords" were that they were the Giant Robots piloted by the Power Rangers that combined into a bigger "Megazord" that fought the Monster of The Day when it grew 1000x its size in the last 5 minutes of the episode. Sounds a bit like Voltron? It should, as Voltron basically a cartoon version of the various Super Sentai series in Japan made around the same time, which the American Version takes all its footage & concepts from.

The above toy is of the Green Dragonzord, piloted by the Green Ranger, and it was the most kickass zord of them all in the first season. It was Green. It was a Dragon. And it was a fucking Robot. You couldn't lose, and being able to combine with the 4 supporting robots of the original Megazord (Triceratops, Pteradactyl, Sabre-Tooth Tiger, and Mastodon) to make an even more kickass Megazord, while the red Robot T-Rex just stood there as it really couldn't do much on its down despite being a robot T-Rex, certainly helped its cause. For several years, I had all of the various Megazords and supporting vehicles with the exception of this one. I have no idea why, but it had somehow escaped my clutches. My cousin had it, though, and I am still jealous about it. (Yes, the very same Cousin that I mentioned a few blogs back that owned the collection of GoBots).

This brings me to mentioning its companion toy that I also didn't have:

The Dragon Dagger. It was used by the Green Ranger not only as an awesome dagger weapon, it was also a flute that was used to summon the damn Dragon bot. Once again, I had collected all of the weapons in the early PR series, except for this one. For one thing, believe I remember not knowing it existed until a kid showed up with it one day at recess, and by that time it was too late to find it.

Classics Megatron

Now we come to something a bit more...recent. This version of Megatron was released in the Classics line of Transformers in 2006. Out of all the non-recolor figures in that entire line, this is the only figure that I don't have. The problem with this is that this is the first Megatron since the original released 20+ years that transforms into a fucking gun! A futuristic Nerf Gun, but a gun nonetheless. Damn Anti-Toy Gun Laws, we can't even import the G1 Rerelease from Japan!

Because of this, the figure went from "Hard To Find, but Still Possible" to "OMFG! NONE LEFT IN THE WORLD!" status in the span of a month, and I unfortunately did not forsee this. "Why can't you just go on Amazon?" For one thing, Hasbro had moved on with this series ever since the Movie and the subsequent figures arrived, and now they fetch a high price an any Transformers buyer's market, even Amazon where the Toys section is now carried by an independant toy company instead of Toys R Us, which basically equates to "Enormous Ripoff" at a respectable site like Amazon." Also, I have most of the Megatrons that have ever been released in the U.S., save for the Galvatron recolors (not needed), the smaller "Heroes of Cybertron" line or any smaller, inferior scale figure, the Megatron from Machine Wars (KB Toys exclusive series from 10 years ago, but the figure was subsequently recolored for the Robots in Disguise line, which I own), and any variation of the Movie Version of Megatron. I need my completion status, damnit!

Garfield Cat Tales 3-DVD set

And now we move to the realm of DVDs. This set serves a purpose in which to remind us all that there was a time when Garfield was great and funny. Besides the great "Garfield & Friends" tv show, there had been 12 Animated Garfield Specials produced between 1982 to 1991, with quite a few of these specials predating the show itself. I already own the "Garfield Holiday Celebrations" DVD which has the legendary Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving specials, while this set has...the other 9. I've asked for this last Christmas, and pretty much the year before, but still didn;t get it for some reason, but I still want it.

Slave I

Going back a little further in my childhood, we come to Star Wars. Back in those great years in my generation growing up in the mid-90s, Kenner decided to re-release the Star Wars figures & vehicles just before everyone's lives were tarnished by the Re-releases, and then Episode I. But the toys...Damn, they re-released all the great ones, especially the vehicles like Millennium Falcon, X-Wing, AT-ATs, AT-STs, TIE Fighters, Landspeeders, Snowspeeders, etc. I think my generation was the first to have figures of B-Wings and TIE Bombers, as I'm starting to see them on store shelves again along with all the other mainstays.

And then there was Slave I, the spaceship driven by that kickass bounty hunter Boba Fett. I don't really need to explain its awesomeness, you can see it for yourself and tell yourself "That's fucking awesome." Dear god, you have no idea how much I wanted this. The story that I have behind this is that I explicity told a friend of mine in elementary school to get this for me for my Birthday, so I would know that I'd get it and not get another Stupid, Thoughtless Gift. That's when my mom gave me this "message" that it was wrong to flat-out tell someone what present they should get you, and just suck up the surprise of getting a Stupid, Thoughtless Gift.

In the end, I think that friend ended up giving me a Stupid, Thoughtless Gift. That, and he's no longer my friend

A Metal Detector

Oh, come on, there hasn't been a time in your life where you asked yourself "Wouldn't it be awesome if I had a Metal Detector?" I sure have several times. You'd have fantasies of re-enacting that one episode of "Pete & Pete" where the dad used his Metal Detector to find what would become the Family Car buried in the sand at the beach. I'd always hope to use it to find some lost treasure in the sand, varying from Buried Treasure to Gold, to simply enough coins to spend on a soda. It doesn't really help with all those "Fantastic Buried Treasures and Where To Find Them" shows running on the Travel Channel to help your obsession either.

Just imagine, someone buried Wolverine or Collosus in the sand and forgot where they were and hired you and your metal detector to go find them. And then they'd reward you with the Pete & Pete car. Good times...

And now, the final gift from my childhood that I always wanted but never got:

Knockout

Knockout, my one burden on life. Don't recognize this game? I'm not surprised, it's one of the more obscure board games that Milton Bradley put out in the 80s, and then again in the early 90s. The game worked as such:

It worked as a variation of that game "Don't Break The Ice," where all the multicolored blocks are stacked up like so in the picture above, and then you roll a die to decide which color block you knock out of the wall with that little Electric Pouding Hammer. You lose if the wall collapses or if that big "Knockout" block falls off in any way. Sounds awesome? You know it did! And I wanted it so bad, I had specifically told my parents to get it for me the Christmas where I saw the awesome ad for it. For that entire season, I had been impatiently waiting until the 25th where I could finally play with it at last.

And on Christmas Day, guess what I open up?

A totally different game called "Wipe Out." This game is so obscure that scouring the internet comes up with absolutely no pictures of it. To describe it, it was a game where we have this big cardboard wave, and you had to get your little Surfer Dude down that wave before time runs out and a big cup of slime is released, coating everything in it and you lose.

Yeah, I was really thrilled getting this and not Knockout.  I only played this game once with a few friends, and long story short, slime got everywhere, from my clothes, to my friend's hair, to damaging the carpet which later led to its replacement about a year afterwards.

Currently watching : Garfield Cat Tales - (Garfield as Himself / Garfield Fantasies / Garfield Travel Adventures) Release date: 18 October, 2005

8:35 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

What I’m Thankful For
Current mood: drained
Category: Life

Well, Thanksgiving has come upon us once again. I apologize for not posting any blogs for a while, but school and such prevented me from not doing anything.

For those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning, I posted a blog like this last year.

Once again, I'll devote this blog to say what I'm thankful for this year, although my list of things I'm thankful for has some change from last year, but similar themes still exist.

For instance, I'm thankful for my brothers of DPO. My first full year of the frat has been good, we've had ups and downs, but we're still together and still going strong. We also had our annual Thanksgiving Eve Party last night, but it was at our usual spot at Shamrocks rather than Caramel Lounge of last year. I'll have to say that this party went a hell of a lot better, as there was more space and just as many people. I had a much better time than last year, and there were no lines to get in after going out to get air, as there was more than once exit in the place.

I'm also thankful for my friends. I have made plenty of new ones this year and they're all glad to have me in their life, as well as I am with them. This is getting a little cheesy, but oh well.

What I'm really thankful for is my girlfriend. Sam & I have been together for 7 months now and I don't regret a moment of it. I was one of those people who never believed that love existed, but then Sam & I became a couple, and I've found that love is real.

As opposed to last year, I'm thankful that I'm not working an opening shift for Black Friday tomorrow. Since KB is gone, I no longer have to be at work at 4:30 in the goddamn morning. I can sleep in now! When my manager showed my this week's schedule and I saw that I was working from 2-8 tomorrow, I literally said to her "I love you."

And once again, I'm not thankful for ABC's Scheduling of "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." They're still not playing it on Thanksgiving, but they did move its showing a day later than last year, on Tuesday as opposed to Monday. I do, however, fear the day when the special will suffer the sam