I Ain't Into That

As someone who grew up without really having any friends, has fantasized about space travel, and enjoys discussing minutiae in video games and cartoons, you could say that I'm a stereotypical nerd in many ways. I think my recent post about continuity in animated Dr. Seuss features proves that. But, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, two major nerdy pursuits that I've never gotten into are role-playing games (of the non-video variety, that is) and comic books. I probably WOULD have gotten into the former if I'd had friends, since I've always had weak spots for both fantasy and games in general. But I never managed to meet up with people with whom I could roll dice with unusual numbers of sides, so it was a geeky pursuit that was denied me. As for comics, I have nothing against them, and again I think they're something I easily COULD have gotten into. I mean, I like some things inspired by comics. The X-Men cartoon that was on about fifteen years ago was pretty cool, and while I doubt it follows the comic exactly, I'm guessing it's much closer than the movie was. At least, I HOPE it is, because I much prefer Rogue as a sassy Southern belle who can fly and Cyclops as...well, someone with an actual personality. I never saw the second or third X-Men films, and I'm not sure whether it would be worth it to do so. I'm getting off the track, though, aren't I? The one odd thing I do find about comics (and not just the superhero kind, but pretty much everything drawn in comic format) is how so many words are in boldface. I assume it's done for emphasis, but publishers of books with regular text rarely seem to think that's necessary, and comics have the added benefit of showing the characters' faces and situations.

I guess this is sort of turning into a thread about things toward which I have generally positive feelings, but never really got very deeply into, isn't it? I'm also pretty cool with Star Trek, but I haven't watched a whole lot of it. I've seen a few episodes here and there of most of the series, as well as several of the movies (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8, if I remember correctly). So I can tell a Vulcan from a Ferengi, but I'm pretty far away from considering myself a fan. You could probably also add Pokémon, since I liked the Game Boy game (which I played some time after the franchise's popularity had started wearing down) but hardly ever watched the cartoon and didn't collect the toys. Speaking of the cartoon, I can't say I've ever gotten into anime, or even had generally positive feelings toward it. Maybe I just haven't watched the right things, though; I mean, I'd hate for people to judge all American cartoons based on, say, just about any relatively recent cartoon the Disney Channel shows. Unfortunately, when I think of Japanese animation, I can't help but think of people making bizarrely drawn faces whenever they get even remotely surprised or upset. That, and women with hair the color of various Kool-Aid flavors and double-Z-cup breasts. Maybe I'm missing out.

Holiday in VoVatia

I just set up an interview at a library on Tuesday. It's for a part-time position, but that's better than nothing, right? Actually, it's possible that my current temp job will last longer than originally planned, but I don't know this for sure.

I kind of wish people would leave more detailed messages on voice mail, instead of just "call me back." I guess it's largely my anxiety, because I like to be able to plan out what I'm going to say, and I can't do that when I don't really know what they want to talk about. Besides, it makes it difficult when I call back and get an answering machine, because there really isn't much to say other than, "I'm returning your call."

I got an invitation for a holiday party at work today, but I'm not going. I will, however, share the playlist for my own holiday mix, as I promised in an earlier post. (Actually, I think I just said "maybe," rather than promising, but let's not get bogged down in details.)

1. Father Christmas - The Kinks
2. Step Into Christmas - Elton John
3. Christmas In Dimension X - James Kochalka Superstar
4. Christmas In Hollis - Run DMC
5. Christmas Dragnet (Yulenet) - Stan Freberg
6. O Little Town Of Bethlehem - Young Fresh Fellows
7. Merry Christmas Emily - Cracker
8. Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues
9. A Christmas Carol - Tom Lehrer
10. The Twelve Gifts Of Christmas - Allan Sherman
11. Feast Of Lights - They Might Be Giants
12. The Chanukah Song - Adam Sandler
13. (I'm Spending) Hanukkah In Santa Monica - Tom Lehrer
14. Santa's Beard - TMBG
15. The Night Santa Went Crazy - "Weird Al" Yankovic
16. Christmas Letter Home - Laura Cantrell
17. Thanks For Christmas - XTC
18. Chocobo Happy Christmas
19. Super Mario's Sleigh Ride OC Remix
20. Sleighride To Heck - James Kochalka Superstar
21. You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch - Thurl Ravenscroft
22. Merry Christmas - The Ramones
23. Santa And The Satellite - Buchanan & Goodman


Although I'm not sure I'll actually burn this to a CD, I still wanted to keep it under 80 minutes so that it would be the right length for a CD. That meant cutting out a few things, including:

Green Chri$tma$ - Stan Freberg
Christmas At Ground Zero - Weird Al
Merry Christmas - Wesley Willis
Carol Of The Bells - Trans-Siberian Orchestra with Metallica
Jingle Bells - Singing Dogs

If anyone wants a copy of the entire mix (either through the mail or electronic transfer) or some of the individual songs, let me know. I'd put them all up for download, but since no one ever seems interested in downloading anything I put up, I don't think I'll bother. Besides, I'm sure a lot of you already have these songs. In fact, some of them were taken directly from mixes that bethje, zimbra1006, and revme had made in earlier years. I'm also probably going to come up with a Best of 2007 mix, although pickings are slimmer than for the past two years. So let me know if you're interested in either of those two.