Rants

Today I decided to clean up some of the Desktop clutter that has been accumulating for the past couple of months. Out went links to blogs I read, pictures I saved there temporarily until I uploaded them and such. I found a Winamp playlist from my too late to submit for October CD Mix of the Month, entitled Scary Music. I couldn’t just toss it out because it was such a good idea. The music was still stored in a directory on the C: drive in a temporary location. So that is what I spent the afternoon working on, a Halloween themed music CD. Yesterday I wasn’t sure what day it was, but today I was not sure what holiday I was celebrating….
01 – Danny Elfman – This Is Halloween
02 – John Carpenter – Halloween Main Theme
03 – John Carpenter – Halloween II Laurie’s Theme
04 – Sheb Wooley – Purple People Eater
05 – David Seville – Witch Doctor
06 – Misfits – Monster Mash
07 – Rob Zombie – The Munsters Theme
08 – Vic Mizzy – The Addams Family
09 – Ray Parker Jr – Ghostbusters
10 – Oingo Boingo – Dead Man’s Party
11 – Fred Schneider & The Shake Society – Monster In My Pants
12 – Mike Oldfield – Exorcist Theme
13 – Bernard Herrmann – Psycho
14 – Harry Manfredini – Friday The 13th
15 – Lalo Schifrin – Amityville Horror Theme
16 – John Carpenter – The Fog
17 – Don Davis – House On Haunted Hill
18 – Danny Elfman – Into The Woods
19 – Christopher Walken – The Raven

The calendar says Monday, but I’m not really sure what day it is. It was the first day back after 2 days off so it seemed like a Monday. For some unknown reason, paychecks were distributed today which made it seem like a Thursday. But we have the next 2 days off from work so it seems like it should be Friday. I’m sitting in front of the PC blogging so it could be any day….

This year’s icicle lights. My wife and I walked around our neighborhood and must have seen 4 of these beauties. I’ve seen them in various stores and they only go for around $40. Hard to resist something like that for so cheap and apparently a lot of people felt the same way. When I first saw one, I thought that would look really cool in the corner of my cubical. But didn’t get one because it would have taken up too much room and the fan would probably be annoying after awhile. Still, it would have been a perfect statement on what Christmas has morphed into these days – something bright, loud and over the top.

We put the modified Plan A into action this morning. We went back out to our local mall and shopped for stuff we wanted and brought it home. I’ll wrap the stuff for her and she’ll wrap my stuff. We’ll act all surprised on Christmas morning, “Oh, it’s just what I wanted. How did you know?”

I bought a couple of long sleeve polo shirts for winter wear at Sears. The original price was $36, they were on a rack with a big tag that said, 40% OFF. At the register they were taking an additional 10% off for an Early Bird Special, so the shirts cost me around nineteen and a half bucks. What are they really worth, probably just that, a sawbuck. What did Sears pay for them in the first place, probably $10….and they wanted $36.

My wife and I have been married for 26 years and for the first 24 years it has been just us for Christmas. Because we don’t have kids we developed our own little tradition for Christmas, every year we would set aside a certain amount of money and the last Saturday before Christmas we would go to the mall and shop, for ourselves. We would wander the stores together and buy stuff. There would not be anything to “open up” on Christmas morning, but that was just fine by us.

But for the last 2 Christmases since Donna’s mom has been living with us we have had to go shopping for stuff to wrap for each other. We now go to the mall with lists and enter in the middle and then go our separate ways meeting back up at a predetermined time and place.

I think next year we will go back to a modified Plan A, we shop together for ourselves and then when we get home wrap them up to put under the tree….

The latest Rolling Stone came in the mail today. It was all shrink wrapped in plastic. Probably to protect the shiny silver bordered cover of this “Special Double Issue.” I don’t know what makes it special, except for perhaps that photo of Bill Wyman without his shirt on. I don’t know what makes it a double issue, because in thickness it is about the same or maybe even thinner than the last issue. Oh, I see why now, Ozzy is on the cover twice! Once by himself and another with his TV family….

Most Nissans. Most. The commercial then shows plenty of pictures of ugly Frontier pick-ups, lame duck Maximas and not-so-trendy-anymore Xterras. Missing from the list I’m sure is the new 350Z and the hot Altima. How many knuckleheads will go down to their Nissan dealer thinking he’ll get that deal on a Z and end up seduced and buying something he really doesn’t want? Sadly, probably enough that makes it worth their effort to concoct the campaign. Sigh.