Happy (American) Independence Day!

Whether you're at the beach or elsewhere, may your BBQs be fun and delicious AND your skies free of these.

Obviously, I'm not dead...just been very, VERY BUSY lately. While I'm still having fun with my commercial-less game DVD project, I am very, VERY close to something that will revolutionize this blog...thanks to something I won from here and which arrived yesterday. Just have a couple of things I need to play around with and work out. But hopefully, my big plan will make its debut either this weekend or next week. Again, stay tuned...

Current Music: "Oye Como Va" by Eliane Elias

Happy Mama's Day!

A Happy Mother's Day to all moms, moms-to-be, grandmothers, and grandmothers-to-be in the Caniac Nation and beyond!

And who better to celebrate Mother's Day with than the mother of mamas herself...Mama!







Current Music: "There's No Other Way" by Blur

P.S. I apologize for the lack of posts the last couple of days...my computer has died. *sighs* In the process of getting a new one...but in the meantime, I'm using my laptop PC, normally used for trips and such.

April 6th-7th, 2007 - Canes vs. Thrashers and Panthers: Random Musings and Observations

- I am quite glad that the crowd vs. the Panthers was A WHOLE LOT BETTER than it was vs. the Thrashers...was starting to get a bit worried that all that "Fan Appreciation Weekend" hype was all for naught.

- Speaking of Fan Appreciation Weekend...you'd love to think that FSN South would have finally had different RBC Center concourse shots of the Caniac Nation for such an event. As awful of me as it sounds, I couldn't help but LMAO everytime John Forslund said "And here is a wonderful shot of the Caniac Nation in attendance tonight!", and it would be the same freakin' shots of the mother and her three children wearing Canes goalie helmet masks OR the stand/kiosk selling sausages. Maybe it's just me, but I swear that CanesVision was a WHOLE LOT BETTER at having more variety with their concourse/arena shots up through last season.

- Things were getting hairy on the front of shutting up Olli Jokinen/Captain Peachfuzz's piehole. But the Canes got 'er done, ending a drab season in quite a bright manner. How appropriate given that it was Easter eve!

- That said...Happy Easter!! May you get plenty of chocolate and sunshine*!! Whoo-hoo!! :D

Oh, and let's not forget bunnies...lots and lots and lots of them. Afterall, what is Bunny Day without bunnies?

Current Music: "Got To Be Real" by Cheryl Lynn

* - Downright lucky to have sunshine today here in beautiful downtown VA/WV. It's been snowing here a good chunk of this weekend! o_O

Edit as of 9:50 PM: And as the holiday winds down...a little something for those of you who aren't chocolate aficionados.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May the luck of the Irish be with you lads and laddies, the Canes, the Heels, your Bracketvilles, and/or regarding how many Irish Car Bombs you can down. ;)

Current Music: "Damn Noisy Kids" - Chrono Trigger Iron Mix Remix

Happy Christmas!

First things, first...as promised at the beginning of the month, the pictures of both my family and I's trees, both decorated by me, myself, and I.

Got to kick off my festivities through watching an "encore presentation" (original presentation being two weeks ago in my home's "Great Room", a combination of the kitchen and living room) of Gremlins with commentary from the cast AND the deleted scenes with even more cast commentary. This turned out to be even more of a hoot that I imagined it to be...

- Zach Galligan is my new favorite guilty pleasure actor...actually, I don't think I really had a favorite guilty pleasure actor before that statement. But yes, I couldn't help but love Zach, his geekiness, and his comments throughout the picture.

And the fact that in Gremlins, he looked like a young Hartford-era Ronnie Francis, except for the clefted chin, certainly didn't hurt either. ;D

- What made Gremlins' cast commentary different from the rare other cast commentaries to which I've listened is the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 quality it had in parts. Galligan's comments *really* added to that feel. Come to think of it, Galligan and Joe Dante (the director) were the only ones *really* getting into doing the commentary. Coming in second place was Howie Mandel (the voice of Gizmo and a few gremlins), who, along with Galligan, was not afraid to make fun of certain aspects of Gremlins AND the commentary itself. Third place was Phoebe Cates...and that was only made possible thanks to Galligan, who had to constantly jog Cates' memory AND vocal chords. Last place was Dick Miller, whose presence in the commentary really baffled me...yeah, he was/is a good actor and all, but it was not like he had a super-huge part other than his character mentioning that he believed in gremlins.

- I was not the least bit surprised that Dante said his most favorite part of the movie was the one that drags the most...where Cates' character explains to Galligan's character why she hates Christmas. It can't be a Dante movie without some sort of sucky part...even with Steven Spielberg's supervision.

- Whenever Howie Mandel used his Gizmo voice...I kept thinking more of Bobby from Bobby's World than Gizmo. And that's not helped by the fact that Howie admitted to using the same voice for Gizmo, Bobby, and imitating children during his stand-up comedy act.

Overall, in addition to the Gremlins movie itself, I highly recommend the cast commentary for sci-fi/fantasy film lovers, geeks, and/or people who just want some totally different Christmas viewing. Yes, after all of that, I *do* consider Gremlins a Christmas movie. Hey, quit looking at me like that...

Speaking of DVDs/videos...here are a few fun Christmastime YouTube videos...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVhZS1-WZZc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=putnlqW2pKg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3NhDtfZmd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QSTcOHe3lE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AC3sZB-v7Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVENmQqQyx4

And some YTMNDs...

http://miamichristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://mythbusterchristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://bbnutcracker.ytmnd.com/

http://patrickswayzechristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://whatischristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://christmastimegman.ytmnd.com/

http://santaclaus.ytmnd.com/

This has got to be the most generous Christmas post I've done ever since I have gotten into blogging. That said, hope today and tomorrow are just like this post to you and your friends and loved ones! :)

Current Music: "Merry Christmas Baby" by B.B. King

Happy Festivus!

Greatest holiday that's not really a holiday EVAH.

I love it so much that it's now my "official name" for "Christmas Eve Eve". :D

BTW, no Random Musings and Observations for the games vs. the Islanders and @ the Panthers 'cause of my wanting to sit back and enjoy the holiday season. ;P

Current Music: "White Christmas" by The Flaming Lips

Christmas Time Is Here Again!!

Yes, tis the time of the year for my second most favorite holiday behind Halloween. Just like then, my (greedily huge) Amazon Wish List is VERY RIPE for picking for those of you interested in getting yours truly a gift or two. :D Also ripe for picking are my Card and Stuff Want Lists over at Dieci, my Ron Francis collection site.

Most noteworthy aspects of my celebrating the season thus far...

- My mother and I got the family Christmas tree up the earliest we've ever done the task...November 28th. Before that, the earliest we ever had the tree up was maybe two weeks before Christmas. What probably helped was that this year's tree is a brand new one, featuring lights that change back and forth between multi-color and white. It looks FANTASTIC, and even though I plan to eventually post a photo or two, I highly doubt that photos will do the tree (which, I totally decorated while my mother unloaded just about every single decoration we have...including some we have never used before!!) justice.

- My official Christmas icon for this year over at LiveJournal and at a few message boards is one featuring Link, Zelda, and Agahnim/Ganon wishing all a Merry Christmas, in honor of the fact that my big gift from my folks this year will be a Nintendo Wii. :D

- Last but certainly not least for now...my Christmas playlist, featuring nostalgic favorites and ecelectic versions of traditional tunes. New additions are in bold, additions I hope to have are in italics, AND the playlist is now separated into themes...

Click here for the playlist.

Current Music: "Step Into Christmas" by Elton John

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all throughout the Caniac Nation and beyond...just remember, you can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant, excepting Alice! :D

Current Music: "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie

Edit as of 11:12 AM: And a little holiday reading for those of you awaiting the meal's being ready AND/OR wonder why I constantly bring up Arlo Guthrie's "song" during this time of the year.

Edit as of 8:50 PM: As the holiday dies down, let us watch one of the best, if not THE best Thanksgiving episode for a show ever made.

Meeeeerow!

Wonderful, WONDERFUL birthday...obviously, my makeup for my being a feminine version of Peter Criss turned out GREAT. Dinner at Macado's was good. The only setback being their being out of Halloween '06 glasses, which really wasn't a huge deal since this year's design (a glasses wearing pumpkin) was rather cheesy looking. It's going to be hard to top last year's design, a "Nightmare Before Christmas" version of the Macado's mascot with a "slogan" saying "Life's no fun without a good scare!".

The spoils of my day...

- A ceramic wolf bookshelf decoration.

- A Hallmark Keepsake Ornament replica of the Transporter Chamber from Star Trek (The Original Series), complete with Captain Kirk, Spock, and McCoy; AND lights and sound that activate when you press a button!! It now sits behind Don Cherry and Blue on my desk... :D

- The KISS - Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child computer game...which finally arrived in the mail.

- A Beanie Baby Emperor Penguin named "Admiral". (Which my weiner dog thought was an American Kennel Club chew toy...THAT was fun to deal with during the grand return of House MD.)

- A Joan Rivers Classic Collection chain pendant with a changable charm/ornament, and ten different stones to change. Love how amulet-like it looks.

...with more to come!

- A couple of more gifts I got myself.

- And something my brother got for me off of my Amazon Wish List. From what little he's told me, it sounds like it will be something...

Current Music: "Jazzy NYC (Latin Mix)" - Street Fighter 3 Arranged Album

Edit as of 12:40 PM: Meant to mention this last night, but was so tired and wanted to get to bed soon...at the mall, near Borders, I saw a dude dressed up like a Nashville Predators hockey player!! Complete with a yellow helmet like the Preds wear!! I know the guy thought I was on drugs the way I stared in awe at him, in addition to my makeup probably freaking him out. But I couldn't help it...so, SO AWESOME to know I'm not the only "weird" hockey fan in these parts. :D

Current Music as of the edit: "American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz