This should go on twitter, but whatevs:
R’s flight down here looks to be snowed in, so the happy reunion that was scheduled for tonight looks like it will be tomorrow instead. Sigh.

I thought this was the kind of thing global warming was supposed to be fixing.

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It is late, past 1:30 am. But I’m awake despite being tired, despite “knowing better.” I’m standing at my window, feeling the icy wind even from within the shelter of my home, watching dark shapes move across my back yard.

There are four, perhaps five, deer milling about and then settling to the ground. I only see them because the light dusting of snow betrays them. They are big ladies, and surely know what they are doing to have gotten so. I wonder, Is this rare, or would I often find them were I to but look?

And then I ponder if it is much the same with so many other things in this life. Are we beset by rare opportunities or are things always there, waiting for us, if we but look?

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an odd christmas, to say the least. a rainy day in frankenmuth, MI. it’s just me, dad, and sadie at grandpa’s house, as a broken femur earlier in the fall has got him staying at an old folks’ home. the home is not as depressing as i feared it would be. i’ve had

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That is all.

Seriously, I just like telling people. Mainly because no one I know watched it when it was on. but we are all approaching the demographic at an alarming speed.

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When I first got a Mac, I stumbled across a program that strings up Christmas lights all around the outside of your desktop. And for the last 4 or 5 years, I’ve turned on the program at Christmas-time to help with the spirit of the season.

This year is no different. So if you too want to rock some Christmas lights: MacLamps is it. I haven’t tried it in Snow Leopard, but hopefully it has no issues. (Actually, I’m running v1.2, not even the newest 2.0. Shows what I know.)

I didn’t grow up in a house with tons of lights up, but there is certainly something comforting to me about them; maybe it’s the short days that the lights help combat in my head.

As a bonus:
I just found another program called “Sno” that drops snowflakes on your desktop (in case you want something less tacky.) The link to download it seems dead/down, so I’m mirroring the file here, as I found a copy from a messageboard circa 2002. So here that is: linky for Sno.

And now my desktop makes me look like the crazy cat woman that you work with. I’m not quite as into Christmas as perhaps the combination of these two programs might imply. Ah well.

Tis the season.

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OK, I couldn’t leave well enough alone.

In digging up the stuff from yesterday, I love the fact that Wikipedia cites “homoromance” as a theme for the Hardy Boy books in the main description.* (Emphasis mine; the other points are also pretty funny.)

Critics have offered many explanations for the characters’ longevity, suggesting variously that the Hardy Boys embody simple wish-fulfillment, American ideals of masculinity, American ideals of white masculinity, a paradoxically powerful but inept father, homoromance, and the possibility of the triumph of good over evil.

There were 190 books in the original series, but these all went through a bunch of revisions as they got updated over the years.

My favorite five:

1. While the Clock Ticket (number 11)
2. The Secret of the Old Mill (number 3)

OK, I couldn’t come up with 5 that I actually recall. How about the top 10 stupidest titles instead? (These are all real titles.)

1. Warehouse Rumble
   This is how you convince me that the series isn’t homoerotic? All I can think of is the Pit Fighter videogame:
   
2. Panic on Gull Island
   Really? Gull Island? Panic? This sounds like the poor man’s version of “The Birds.” Of course, there is the very real chance that that’s exactly what it is.
3. Attack of the Video Villians
   “You know what kids today love? Video games!”
   “Great! I want the draft on my desk by Monday!”
4. Three-Ring Terror
   High school emo at its best. The Hardy Boys solve the case of the missing Trapper Keeper.
5. The Billion Dollar Ransom
   Really? A billion dollars? And the Hardy Boys are on the case? This all sounds entirely reasonable and realistic.
6. Rock n Roll Renegades
   Guest starring Rage Against the Machine. Because if there is one other thing kids love (you know, other than video games), it’s Rock n Roll.
7. Trouble In Warp Space
   This either takes place in an amusement park or on a space ship. Either way, it sounds like the recipe for some crappy fiction.
8. Farming Fear
   This one sounds so stupid I can’t even make a joke about it.
9. The Baseball Card Conspiracy
   Encyclopedia Brown called. He wants his mystery back.
10. Danger in the Fourth Dimension
    You know, as opposed to all the other Hardy Boys cases that didn’t involve the element of time.

* When I wrote for the Pillory in college, I wrote a whole faux Hardy Boys story that was nothing but a homoromance. I’ll post it soon.

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Guess what I just learned? That the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew have ended as book series. The Hardy Boys in 2005, Nancy Drew in 2003. I’m sure this isn’t rocking your world, but I’m surprised it wasn’t bigger news. (For crying outloud, the Hardy Boys have been around since 1927, Nancy Drew since 1930).

From Wikipedia:

The original Hardy Boys Mystery Stories series ended in 2005. A new series, Undercover Brothers, was launched the same year, featuring updated versions of the characters who narrate their adventures in the first person.

Undercover Brothers? Are you kidding me? That movie came out in 2002. They have renamed the Hardy Boys series after the crappy Eddie Griffen movie. At least the new title of the Nancy Drew books is “Girl Detective” which at least isn’t ripped off from something you want no association with.

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