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It’s Caturday. It’s Christmas Eve. I’m flying home from Vegas today. Here are some Christmas cat pictures.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
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Merry Feline Christmas #Caturday
I Bought Myself a Christmas Gift #Christmas #holiday
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Okay, not really. How can it be a gift if the receiver paid for it? Because I’m both, it’s just me buying shit.
But here it is!
It’s an overpriced tumbler (duh!) with ancient Egyptian imagery. As a mythology nut, I love imagery from ancient cultures, and this is some of the good stuff.
Doesn’t mean I can read it.
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Yet Another Random Memory: But This One Is (Perversely) Christmasy #Christmas @1capplegate @DavidFaustino @deadtome
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Last month, the final season of the remarkably good Dead to Me was released on Netflix. I loved that show. The entire time I was watching Christina Applegate act her ass off, I was thinking, “This is Kelly Bundy?!?!”I honestly had no idea she could act like that, and she absolutely nailed it. The rest of the cast nailed it as well, and the writing was superb. It’s literally one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Seriously. Watch it. (Okay. YMMV.)
Returning to the Bundy family, for all you young-uns out there, Christina Applegate received her big break on a show that ran from 1987 to 1997 called Married with Children (“MwC“). The show centered on the Bundy family. If you look up “dysfunctional family” in the dictionary, you’ll find their family portrait.
So, today (12/15), I saw the following post hit my stream.
Feo’s reply — in particular, soulmates being a fantasy — made me think about a scene from MwC. The two-part episode was a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life. In the end, the guardian angel (played by the late Sam Kinnison) lamented that he had failed the patriarch, Al, by not only failing to show him how terrible his family would be without him, but actually showing him how much happier they’d be if he had died. In typical MwC fashion, the show turned that around on the viewer by having Al declare that he wanted to live anyway. The angel couldn’t believe it. Has asked why, and Al replied with something along the lines of, “They made me miserable. I don’t want them being happy.”
And that’s when the line is delivered. Al wants to make sure that he’s back in the real world, so he asks his son, Bud, “What’s more important: Love or money?”
Bud replies, “Money. You can always rent love.”
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
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In case the tweet is ever deleted, here’s a screenshot.
An RPG Christmas? #Christmas #holiday #RPG #TTRPG
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My office building management company has decorated for the holidays. Among the decorations are a Christmas Tree and wreath. He’s a close up of the wreat.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? I hope so. I soooooo want to steal that ornament and make a d[whatever] out of it.
Who says theft isn’t part of the Christmas spirit?
Everyone.
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All Movies Are Christmas Movies (Apparently) *sigh* @aprilajoyr #Christmas #movie
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I always like to say that art is in the eye of the beholder. . .
. . . but even that should have limits.
Is First Blood a Christmas movie? There’s a damn Christmas tree in it.
I think it’s getting out of hand. It seems like every movie could be considered a Christmas movie because 1) there’s bound to be a guy with a beard in it, and 2) there’s bound to be a tree somewhere in there.
Hell. The Lord of the Rings trilogy had trees with beards, so they qualify, huh?
And I guess The Guardian (1990) also qualifies because it’s about a tree and its fae inhabitant.
And what the hell, why isn’t this a Christmas movie?
No, this is really about nerds not knowing when to quit when it comes to humor. The joke is played out and using it for all movies dilutes its humor as to Die Hard. As Kirk told Uhura, “Too much of anything, lieutenant, even love isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
Leave the joke for Die Hard, or it won’t be a joke anymore.
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Follow April Ajoy @aprilajoyr
In case the tweet is deleted, here’s the screenshot.
Some Gods to Get Me Through My Vegas Trip #MythologyMonday #MythologyMonandæg #luck #skill #Ebisu #Daikokuten #Lugh
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Today, I fly to Las Vegas for my annual blackjack trip, only this time there will be some major disruptions. I usually go on Columbus Day week, and last year I went in September. This week it was delayed to the Christmas build up week because I had some friends going there. I figured it was about time I do something other than blackjack when I’m there. For example, I’ve always said I was going to see Penn & Teller‘s show at the Rio but never did. Well, I already have tickets for the Friday night show, so that’s finally going to happen (sans Teller, who’s recovering from health issues).
Nevertheless, I’ll still be playing some blackjack. I’m getting there a day before they are so that I’ll have at least one day to game. Overall, I’ll make sure I have two full days to gamble, so it can’t hurt to ask for help from the gods. The luck gods? No, I don’t need them. Blackjack is more a game of skill. I’ve practiced at a local casino over the course of three Sundays and Thanksgiving Day since October 9th. I’ve brought in just over $4,000 in winnings, having started with $800 or less each of those days. (I don’t mind mentioning this because I will be reporting these winnings to the IRS.) At this point, I’ve sharpened my system to so fine a point that it’s like taking candy from babies, only I have no moral qualms with taking this candy from casinos.
That $4,000 pays for my airfare, Penn & Teller, and the resort fee as well as bankrolls my play. As for food, that’s covered through my gambling comps. I’ll be eating at steakhouses all week and won’t have to pay for anything but the tips.
So, with that in mind, here’s a video of Ebisu, the god of luck through hard work . . . sort of. He’s really just a luck god and master fisherman from Japanese mythology, but in Deities & Demigods for 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons, he was characterized as the god of “luck through hard work.” Considering how rough a childhood Ebisu had, and considering that I’m an RPG nerd, I’m going with that.
But I don’t like fish, so here’s another one. This is a video about Daikokuten, the Japanese god of wealth.
Lugh, the Irish god of skill and law (among other things).
Hey, a divine lawyer? How can I not get behind that?
As for the rest of this week, I’ll be busy, so my posts will be filled with limited content.
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Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, LLC, who neither contributed to, nor endorsed, the contents of this post. (Okay, jackasses?)
Hippocrates #science #medicine #philosophy #history #Hippocrates @WrongHands1
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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I’m pointing out that we all know the Hippocratic oath. But did you know . . . ?
That’s right. He’s just a damn hippo-box hybrid. This calls the entire medical profession into question. Okay, boys! It’s back to bloodletting and leaches! Now go buy Wrong Hands a coffee.
Everyone takes Hippocrates so damn seriously.
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Upgrade! #Vacation #Vegas #gambling #gamble #Caturday
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I’m headed to Vegas on Monday. This will be my first time staying at Mandalay Bay. It’s my preferred gambling spot, but for the past decade or so, I’ve stayed at either the Luxor or the Excalibur. I’ve always enjoyed a ton of success at the Excalibur tables, so I’ll probably make a stop there as well.
Since Columbus Day weekend of this year, I’ve visited a local casino four times to practice my blackjack and have won (after tips, gas, etc.) $3,375. This means that my entire trip has already been financed by gambling winnings even if I lose $2,000 or so (which I won’t; I expect more of the same success). So, for only the second time in my life, I decided to upgrade to first class (for my return trip).
Why? First, it cost only $399 to upgrade, keeping me well within “the trip is already paid for” budget. (I probably paid too much for my coach ticket, so most of the additional expense has already been paid.) Second, the plane is a #Boeing 777-200. This means that first class has “lie flat” seating. This is important b/c my plane leaves at 11:45 pm PT and lands at 7 am ET. Sleeping on a plane will never have been so easy for me. Perfection will be if there’s a socket to plug in my C-PAP. If not, that’s as much the other passengers’ problem as it is my own. 🙂
Oh, and I almost forgot.
Caturday shall not be denied!!!
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Another Random Memory #sport #ski @KillingtonMtn
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Here’s another random memory that popped into my head. I’ve been skiing once. Way back in the 1990s, my cousin and I went up to Killington, Vermont. The word on the street was that Killington was the best skiing on the East Coast, though it didn’t compare to anything out west. How could it? I have no idea whether that’s true, but that’s what we heard, so we went up there. Mike had been skiing before, so after one run down the bunny slope, he told me, “You’re never going to learn unless you push yourself, so go to the next slope up right now.”
So, I moved over to the next most difficult slope, while Mike went to the harder ones. So, here’s the thing. I didn’t have a ton of disposable income, and I had never been skiing, so I just went in jeans, a University of Maryland sweatshirt, and a winter coat. I went down the slope and had a few spills but was none the worse for wear (other than it seeming a little colder). I did, however, get the sneaking suspicion that people were staring at me. I chalked it up to a paranoid fit and got back on the ski lift to make another run.
On my way up, I looked down and noticed that my jeans had split wide open around the crotch. This explained the staring as well as how chilly it suddenly got.
But wait! There’s more!
This was the 90s. Bill Clinton had declared on national TV that he was a briefs man, which caused sales of boxers to plummet. Moreover, society was becoming less conservative on the little things that didn’t really matter, so, well, the bottom line is that I was wearing bright red briefs. I might as well have had a neon sign on my head, but while everyone thought nothing of staring, no one bothered to mention it to me.
I was on the lift, so there was no turning back, so before I got to the top, I tied my jacket around my waist to cover the tear and skied down the slope. By then, I was getting the hang of it, but I had only one more pair of jeans, and I wasn’t going to risk them, nor was I going to pay for overpriced skiing outfits at the lodge. Mike caught up to me on a break and tried to get me to reconsider, but that was the end of my skiing. Possibly forever.
I’m an indoor kid (inside joke).
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Follow Killington Resort @KillingtonMtn
Random Memory: The “Bionic” Shows #TV #science #engineering #bionic @mslindsaywagner
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I had a random memory pop in my head last week. During the early part of its run, my favorite show was the Six Million Dollar Man (1973-1978). Lee Majors played the titular Steve Austin. I also loved its spinoff, The Bionic Woman (1976-1978). The origin of the latter was a sad and frustrating one. The bionics screwed with Jaime Sommers’s body and seemingly killed her. The premise of the show was that she was somehow saved but lost all memory of her romantic relationship with Steve Austin.
Like most of society, I lost interest in the shows as I grew up, but when they announced an upcoming made-for-TV movie bringing back the characters, I was moderately intrigued. It was a huge part of my childhood that wasn’t that far removed from (what was then) the present day. I don’t remember watching the first one, The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1987), but I do remember seeing the second one, Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989) with an unknown Sandra Bullock playing the next generation of bionic human.
What stood out in my memory of that show was that Jaime Sommers’s memories had returned, and at the end of the second movie, she interrupted his proposal of marriage to propose to him. Even though I remember not liking the movie, I remember being happy with the resolution. Why? I don’t know. They’re make-believe characters, and they’re not part of a series I was currently watching, so their relationship meant nothing the second the final credits rolled. But humans are weird like that, and their failure to connect even upon her resurrection for the Bionic Woman was disappointing.
There was a third movie, Bionic Ever After?, but I’m sure I never saw it. By 1994, I had more important things to do.
As of this writing, Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner are still going strong at 83 and 73 years old respectively.
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Play What You Want 