Fill your hearts with Christmas cheer, 'cause Santa Claus comes tonight

[vovat]

It's only half an hour until Christmas. It's nowhere near as exciting as it was when I was a kid, but I guess that's kind of the way it goes. They even mentioned on a History Channel special I was watching last night that Christmas is mostly for kids these days. It's the same way for Halloween and Easter, really. What holidays are there for adults?

I watched the Rankin-Bass version of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus today. While people are always complaining about how audiovisual adaptations are different from their source books, I kind of think one reason why this isn't one of the more popular holiday specials is that it's too close to the book, and it isn't one of L. Frank Baum's more exciting narratives.

Also, bethje's habit of forcing me to watch crappy movies continued this past weekend, when we saw Christmas with the Kranks on TV. This looked terrible from the commercials, but I have to say that it wasn't actually that bad. No, it was WORSE. Why? Because not only did it have all the stupidity shown in the previews, but also continuity errors of the sort you wouldn't typically expect from a live-action Hollywood film. In one scene, Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis go to a tanning salon, but they're not tan at all in the next scene or the rest of the movie (even though Jamie Lee mentions Allen's tan later on). Later, for no apparent reason, Allen gets Botox, resulting in a hilarious (read: painfully dumb) scene where his face is so immobile that he can't eat. As you've probably guessed, it's apparently worn off totally when he see him next, even though I think it's supposed to be less than a day later. Beth is also threatening to make me watch The Santa Clause. They really need to throw Tim Allen in jail again. His mass murder of holiday cinema is much worse than selling cocaine.

And this isn't related at all, I had a dream last night, I was playing an RPG that I think was supposed to be Dragon Warrior II, and I kept not encountering any random monsters on my way to the first boss, so he kept killing my Level 1 characters pretty much immediately. I was also apparently remembering an earlier dream in which DW2 included an elephant statue, and wondering when I would find that. DW2 was always the hardest of those early DW games for me, so maybe that's why it's the go-to Difficult RPG for my subconscious.


Here's the Christmas tree at my house.






I think this will be the cover for my Christmas album. {g}



Cracker



Anderson (Notice the raccoon tail?)



I wish cats would face the camera when you wanted them to.



And finally, a few pictures of my room.










Merry Christmas, everybody! (It's still three minutes away by my clock, but it'll probably take me that long to post this.)

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I love cat tails like that! Is he a Maine Coon Cat?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Most likely, although probably not a purebred. He and Cracker are actually from the same farmers' market, albeit several years apart.

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

You guys have one of those HUGE trees. My mom wanted one (an artificial) when we lived in a huge house but good thing we didn't get it or it would be in storage now.

>>I love cat tails like that! Is he a Maine Coon Cat?<<

I read this as "I love cats who talk like that! Is he a maine coon cat?"

My friend has a maine coon mix and she apparently talks all the time.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think I'd ever get a tree that size on my own. If it weren't for the way the second floor is set up, it wouldn't even fit in here.

I don't know that Anderson is particularly talkative under normal circumstances, but if I look down at him from upstairs, he always meows up at me.

[amyawesome.livejournal.com]

what holidays are there for adults?
valentines day and steak and blowjob day, of course. Oh and St Patrick's Day. Booze and sex = awesome!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

steak and blowjob day

Is that the day after the Great American Meat-Out? :P

Since I'm not a big fan of beer, corned beef, or potatoes, I can't say I'm all that thrilled with St. Paddy's Day. I do like the color green, though. {g}

[amyawesome.livejournal.com]

That is all you need. ;)

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

They even mentioned on a History Channel special I was watching last night that Christmas is mostly for kids these days. It's the same way for Halloween and Easter, really. What holidays are there for adults?


It's like society's idea that fantasy stories/fairy tales/etc are just for kids. It's further testimony to the sad dying breaths of Myth in our times! Some day I really will write a rant on that subject.

Incidentally, I had a dream about playing an RPG the same night you did. Weird.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It's like society's idea that fantasy stories/fairy tales/etc are just for kids.

Yeah, there seems to be a sizeable portion of the population that thinks an interest in children's media is a sign of immaturity. It's probably a sign of insecurity in their own maturity, sort of like how there are straight guys who are too insecure in their heterosexuality to do anything that might possibly be viewed as gay. Why is our society so insecure, anyway?

I do think that adults enjoying fantasy, and perhaps children's literature as well, is less frowned upon now than it was a few years ago, what with Harry Potter and all. It goes in cycles, I guess.

Incidentally, I had a dream about playing an RPG the same night you did.

That's cool. Sometimes when I wake up, I wish that a video game I'd been playing in a dream had been real. They probably wouldn't be quite as good in reality, though. Dreams have a tendency of making people react strongly to things that normally wouldn't be that significant.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

It's probably a sign of insecurity in their own maturity

Yeah, kind of common among kids... different things at the Museum, like the Mister Rogers' exhibit-- the little kids love it of course, but when they hit like, seven or eight, it's suddenly like, "oh, Mister Rogers, not going anywhere near that".... but then of course once they hit, I don't know, sixteen or eighteen or even older sometimes, suddenly people are like "Wow, Mister Rogers' real sneakers! Wow, the puppets! Wow I LOVED Picture Picture! Wow that's so cool!" I don't know, it's like they hit an age where it's suddenly nostalgia and that makes it okay again? But then of course there's other things and other people who can never get past that maturity insecurity.

It's like all those people on the discworld community who refuse to read the Tiffany Aching books on basis of them being YA. Dorks.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

It's like all those people on the discworld community who refuse to read the Tiffany Aching books on basis of them being YA.

Oh, I neglected to add to this statement that I think a lot of those people are actually teenagers, at that.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it often seems like teenagers are the most likely to dismiss and avoid children's media. Psychologically speaking, I guess it's part of their desire to escape from childhood, or something like that. Once you're firmly established in adulthood, you can accept stuff intended for kids as cool without worrying so much about being seen as childish yourself. Still, some people never grow out of the teenage mentality, and are likely to mock others for enjoying children's books and the like. It's typically easier for an adult to take such mockery in stride than it is for an adolescent, though. So there are several factors at work here. Perhaps another one is that there are forces at work in the children's media industries that really do think everything For Kids should be dumbed-down and totally distasteful to anyone above the age of five. I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who pass on Harry Potter or Tiffany Aching because they fear they'll be like some of the inane children's "literature" that's constantly being cranked out by hacks who think they know what kids like. (Not that I know what kids like either, but I'm not pretending I do. And I do think most kids frown on things that insult their intelligence, as do adults, really.)

My edition of the Chronicles of Narnia (all in one volume) includes an essay by Lewis that contains the quote, "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." I think this sums the whole issue up nicely.

As for the YA Discworld books, I think the main difference between those and the adult ones is that the YA books come off as somewhat more serious and philosophical, which might not be what you'd expect. Maybe I'm wrong in this analysis, though. Regardless, they're still Discworld books, and I think avoiding them is missing out on part of the series.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

My edition of the Chronicles of Narnia (all in one volume) includes an essay by Lewis that contains the quote, "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." I think this sums the whole issue up nicely.

Which is cool because one of my favorite quotes from the Narnia series is "It is the stupidest children who are most childish and the stupidest grownups who are most grown-up." (which is from The Silver Chair, which ISN'T one of my favorite books, but the quote is perfect).

We got this book on child mental-and-emotional development for Christmas, which is basically showing parents the things going on in the developing mind and how to deal with them in ways that help the child grow rather than, you know, give them Issues; and there were things about how a child dealing with such-and-such an issue who doesn't learn to deal with it properly grows up into an adult who could act like SO... and when you look at all those things, and suddenly start looking at adults you know, you're like, Whoa, you have no idea how immature you ARE, other adult who pretends to be grown-up! That was a totally toddler-like response! And of course, those are the adults who take themselves OH so seriously....