The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

'Twas a movie made most excellent. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a great, epic - moving - film. It was just the type of movie that you go see on Christmas Day. It had a little bit of everything; just enough for everyone. It's an interesting thing to think about: what would life be like if you lived it backward - starting out old as a baby and aging back to a newborn at death. One of the top three movies of the year, in my opinion.

All Kinds of Happy

And so then I check my email and Santa had sent me a gift card from Amazon.

I'm not forgotten on Christmas morning by the big guy.

Santa made my day. Quite literally turned it all around.

(Thank you)

Christmas Day 2008

This is the latest I can remember ever sleeping in on Christmas Day. There may have been a day when I was a baby that I didn't wake up early - but I doubt it. I woke up just a bit before 9 AM.

No stockings. No presents. No family. :( Christmas has changed for me.

So, I'm off to my grandma's for some of those things I missed. It's then The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and maybe another movie after that. Later I'll come home and watch my last war movie (The Very Long Engagement) and just chill out.

The Twenty-Fourth Day of Christmas: Eve

I shouldn't be allowed to spend so much time at home with nothing to do.

I still haven't done any of my cleaning - that's boring.

I did manage to find some more neat-o applications for my iPod Touch. I also found some sheet music online, so now I can attempt to play it on my piano app.

I went comic book shopping - new comic day.

I watched the final episode of Band of Brothers - I have managed to keep up with my 13 Days of War.

I'm going to eat a late lunch and then head over to my grandma's for supper and church at 9:30.

Depending on how tired I am when I get home I'll either watch Home Alone (my favorite Christmas movie) tonight or tomorrow morning.

It's been a Christmas Eve - mostly normal, and mostly enjoyable.

Catching Up On Fables

I was 5 collections behind on the comic series Fables. I'm sort of upset with myself for letting such a great series fall by the wayside. I read the entire 8th volume, Fables: Wolves, tonight and was reminded how great the series is. I have the other four collections sitting on my end table ready to read, and I'll get to them over the next couple of days.

I wanted to get all caught up for two reasons: 1.) It's a great series, and it will be a pleasure to read such a big chunk of it in such a short period of time, and 2.) I have the oversized, hardcover of the James Jean covers for the first 75 issues that I'm dying to spend some time with.

For as much as I want to cut back on my excessive comic spending, I read a series like this, or find a new artist (Guillem March) who simply blows me away, and I find myself dragging my heels.

The Twenty-Third Day of Christmas: Thundercats

Check out this AMAZING - but fake - trailer for a Thundercats movie. If only someone would make this a real movie...

It is so cool what you can find on the web.

The Twenty-Second Day of Christmas: The ELE

So Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog ended not at all how I expected.

It was, however, still amazing.

I have a feeling that I'll be listening to the songs non-stop for quite some time. "My Eyes" has to be my favorite song, but "My Freeze Ray" is pretty good, too.

So yeah, I didn't do much today. It's vacation and I didn't feel like cleaning. I almost didn't even go out to the mailbox today, but I'm glad I did, otherwise I'd have left my Horrible DVD sitting out there in the cold.

Now, I just need to work on my application to the Evil League of Evil...

The Twenty-First Day of Christmas: Pie

I finally did it; I made my apple pie from scratch.

I had been talking about baking a homemade - crust and all - pie for quite some time. It turned out to be just as long an endeavor as I had anticipated. (Sweet monkeys, cooking takes time and leaves quite a mess.)

The pie is currently cooking away in my oven (I just took the foil off from around the edge of the crust). It will be done in time to take to Christmas with my mom this afternoon. I hope it is at least edible, but I'm not making any promises. I followed the recipe, but...

The Twentieth Day of Christmas: Cold Labor

I went to my uncle Jeff's house today to help split wood. I did this last winter and really enjoyed it. Today was no different. Sure, it's cold - today it started out around 28 degrees and ended up dropping to 8 by the time I left. The wind picked up and it was cold. But, I loved it.

There's just something about working hard when the conditions are so miserable that makes it feel like much more of an accomplishment. I wouldn't want to do it every day - probably why I don't live in the country - but for a day, I can't think of a better way to spend my time. I just enjoy helping out.

Although, I could do without the tiny wood shavings that seem to always blow into my eyes. They still feel a little rough, like there's grit in them. I'll blink it out I'm sure.

Oh, and I'm exhausted. We worked outside from sunup to sunset. I might try reading a bit, but I bet I just crash.

The Nineteenth Day of Christmas: Wrapping

Work ended up closing today due to what I suppose are icy conditions outside, but not before I'd already showered and dressed at 5 AM. No big deal, really. It gave me time to finish up a project I was working on, watch this week's episode of Top Chef, and wrap some Christmas presents.

I'd been putting off the wrapping until I had some free time (i.e. vacation). So, I popped in the score to Twilight (some Carter Burwell always makes me think of snow - probably because I first really noticed his work in the movie Fargo) and am now in the process of wrapping.

I'll wrap until it's time to brave the ice and get a hair cut and catch a matinee of Yes Man.

The Eighteenth Day of Christmas: Stories

Today was the day to pull out my Christmas stories. Last year I started my collection with It Ate Billy on Christmas by Roman Dirge. Here's the back cover blurb:

"It would have been a Christmas like any other for little Lumi and her horrible, terrible, obnoxious, awful bully of a brother Billy. But then a funny little monster appeared and ate Billy right up! Lumi knows it's not really a good thing to let a monster eat your brother, but she can't help but notice that things are, in fact, much nicer now that he's gone. Now that things are looking up a little in her world, Lumi has to decide what to do with her new little monster friend, and - more importantly - what she's going to feed him..."

Sounds Christmasy, don't it?

This year I added The Lump of Coal by Lemony Snicket. It's a cute little strange story about a lump of coal and miracles. From the back and inside cover flaps:

"Miracles can happen, even to those who are small, flammable, and dressed all in black. This is a story about a lump of coal who can think, talk, and move itself around. Is there a more charming holiday tale to behold? Probably, but Lemony Snicket has not written one."

Don't get too concerned about me. I still love me the classic stories like Charlie Brown, the Grinch, and Rudolph, but we need some new blood every once and awhile.

The Seventeenth Day of Christmas: Splurge

I just couldn't pass up this amazingly slick looking, over-sized art book at the comic book shop today. In its sleek black slipcase, with a gold foil Rocketeer etched on the front, it was simply too irresistible.

The Life & Art of Dave Stevens: Brush With Passion features over a hundred pages of art and stories. I don't know if even have a single comic drawn by Stevens, but his style - a puply, 50's pin-up girl blend - has surely influenced many of my favorite comic artists today. I know I loved the Rocketeer movie that came out in the early 90's, and this is my chance to see where that all came from.

I love art books, and interviews with artists. I'll never be as good - or even an eighth as good - but I love seeing sketches and reading about inspirations and influences. It makes me feel creative. And that's a wonderful feeling.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to include a picture of The Rocketeer....

The Sixteenth Day of Christmas: Dr. Horrible

I am so glad I stumbled upon this wonderful little piece of news today: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog comes to DVD, exclusively through Amazon.com, this Friday.

I started watching this 3 part web musical this summer. As (bad) luck would have it, the thing started the same time as RAGBRAI, and I was only able to catch the first two - wonderful - parts. I've been waiting for the DVD release since I first heard mention of the musical. It is written by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly - television series in my top five of all-time.

Needless to say, I've already order the CD, and pre-ordered the DVD. I simply can't wait. ORDER TODAY!

(There's even a sing-along commentary track to the musical...how genius, and awesome, and totally worth the price - $9.99 - of the DVD.)

The Fifteenth Day of Christmas: My Nuts

It was the coldest day we've had since last winter.

...now, I'm not normally one that wears a jacket - just never have been....

And today I paid for it. I froze on the short walk from the parking lot into work. With windchills 10 below, I should have known better. A dude's gotta be careful just wearing khakis - he's likely to freeze his nuts off on a day like today.

Late for Atonement

I may be late to the party, but Atonement is a fantastic film.

It is tragic, brutal, and beautiful. There are very few perfect films out there...but this is one of them for me. Everything about it was great: the music, the costumes, the locations, the acting, but especially the impressively staged Steadicam one-shot sequence of the desolation and destruction at the Dunkirk evacuation during WWII.

Just...perfect.