We gave in this year and got a pre-lit Christmas tree. The only thing is that we had to get one with white lights as opposed to color, but it does enhance the ornaments. We've got about half our ornaments and it looks pretty nice so far.

So if you're part of any Facebook events with me lately, you might be wondering who the heck Ted McGinley is and why I keep posting pictures of him. Ted is the patron saint of Jumping the Shark. Jumping the shark is the defining moment when an established show changes in a significant manner in an attempt to stay fresh that ironically is seen as its peak and from then on it's all downhill. The reason this random, show-killing actor came to mind this weekend was because we saw him in a Christmas movie. Christmas movies are a funny thing. They're like the opposite of indie movies, and I think actors do them when they've received to much street cred and respect for their own good. One such film also brought me the image of Peter Falk in drag.

Rounding out my bow collection in Monster Hunter by upgrading my elemental ones. Hello, Abominable Bow, Blue Kut-Ku Stave, Hunter's Power Bow III, and Sonic Bow III.

( This picture of people who died/were resurrected from Wizard Universe amused me way too much. )

Also, thanks for the input to people who've been commenting lately. I do read them, but I don't know why I never responded.

It's kind of pathetic that a canceled Saturday night gaming night really puts a damper on my weekend. Then again, lowering to new depths of loneliness seems to be the norm post-college.

Got a new hammer in Monster Hunter Freedom 2 Onslaught. I can wipe out some of the less threatening G-Ranked monsters like Yian-Kut Ku and dumbassBasarios in as little as five minutes.

I am quite amused that their are jewelry commercials that play Bittersweet Symphony in the background. They don't use the lyrics... I wonder why:

'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
where all the veins meet yeah

Unlocked my first item in Orochi Warriors: Legend of the White Horse for Zhang Liao. Here I was thinking it was going to be Guan Yu's autograph. Who knew that a third century Chinese general loves Polish Children's films from the 1980s. Great Scott who doesn't love Christopher Lloyd though?

I realize it's kind of late for this, but for all my NaNoWriMo writers now you can get some ideas with this: TV Pitch Generator. You know, they fight crime. If you get a particularly good pitch, tell me. Maybe there can be some Photoshopping.

*Sigh* This is why I'm too weird for girls.

( It's been a while since we checked in on Cyborg Hannity )

On Phenomenon tonight, The Lady in Red was able to read one of Hugh Hefner's girlfriend Kendra's mind*. She asked her to think of someone missing from her life, and eventually that name manifested on her body. It turns out Kendra picked her missing--all together now--father. I'm not a magician but I could tell you that a young woman dating Hugh Hefner has to have serious daddy issues.

Jon... Joel... please come back. The world needs you.

Finally, on a slightly more Chris related note, I'm a G-Rank Monster Hunter! In my first G Rank Rathian fight, I earned the last Rathian Plate I needed to build Dragon Bow Earth. Behold the might of my ordinary looking bow.

_{*This footnote doesn't exist to refute the existence of telepathy. This footnote exists to refute the existence of Kendra's mind.}

So I was sitting at work having just accomplished a moderately big project, when I went on Google News since I don't use anything "personal" while at work (Myspace, Facebook, sometimes LJ but I rove from page to page and never log in). There's the usual... George W. Bush in U.S. news, Vladmir Putin in the World news., and in Science and Technology a Monster Hunter logo, naturally. Wait what!? That's it; I'm finally starting to have delusions. No, that looks pretty real. Holy crap, who says they never cover good things in the news!?

So yeah, the real story was that women love Nintendo Wiis, but Google's newsfinder must've just picked up any sort of Wii story it could find.

Sometimes I post links in order to showcase them and not just offer background about what I'm talking about. See? It's 30 Years of Really Stupid D&D Monsters, creators of such things as the owlbear and the duckbunny.

Ever have a story about people you don't really know haunt you all day? I had that happen to me all day. I really miss being at college where people were less Springer-ish as a whole.

I have a new rival in Monster Hunter: Tigarex. Head of a T-Rex and a four limbed dragon body with wings on the forearms. This easily is the fastest wyvern I have ever faced, and he's extremely durable. I must have shot it 300+ times, 50 of which were at 1.5x damage, with its weak element lightning arrows and still lost.

I am super psyched... *realizes he just said Psych and bursts into tears* I'm going to miss that show until January. *recovers* What I was going to say is that I'm extremely excited about Ren Faire this year if only because of all the people who are going to be together again.

Saw I Think I Love My Wife tonight. Never Trust a Trailer. The "finger-lickin" commercials made me think it was a No Exit comedy based off some of Chris Rock's more recent stand-up but it was actually quite dark and hard to tell whether it was a comedy or not. Nearly every funny scene is in the ads, and the only one that isn't is because they totally couldn't put it in an ad. Also, I found it funny that the hoebag in it was played by the woman who played Alicia Masters in the Fantastic Four movies.

Will found some stuff regarding D&D Version 4.0. I found a link for it! Sorry, couldn't resist. Eladrin just might be the new Drow. Rumors are they'll be as much a player race as much as Humans and Dwarves. Elves are going to be recast as the "archers in trees" race, and Eladrin will be the "eloquent magical" race. My favorite rumor is that multiple skills that you often took together will be streamlined into one skill. Like Hide + Move Silently --> Stealth.

Monster Hunter story of the day: I fought the Daimyo Hermitaur for the first time. It's a giant enemy crab with a triceratops skull for a shell. First, I couldn't find him for like fifteen minutes because he was in the one place I didn't think to look (Area 9). Once we begin battling it's an interesting battle: he had the advantage on flat ground plus I can get tired in the desert heat, but with a longbow, any place with cliffs is my house. The battle went back and forth for half an hour. At my low points, I had to run from battle and start cooking whatever was around to restore my stamina. With one life and less than a minute left, I won the battle.

Ever what Japan and Chris have in common? If you said panties in a vending machine, close but that's not the answer we were looking for. It's love of Monster Hunter! Well to quote OkGo, here it goes again. I picked up Monster Hunter Freedom 2 for the PSP this week, the last game I bought since... Monster Hunter Freedom. MHF2 is based on Monster Hunter Dos (seriously, it's called 'dos') and thus has several new elements, like new weapons:

• Long sword: a swifter variant of greatsword that can't block
• The hunting horn: it's like being a bard... with a sledgehammer!
• Gunlance: it's a gun... and a lance! Somehow I'm not loving this
• Longbow

Plus there's a myriad of new foes including a giant pink monkey with some poo-based attacks, giant crab monsters, and some of those massive wyverns and dragons. I just hit the beginning of the giant wyvern spree, having so far battled Yian Kut Ku, Larissa's favorite Khezu, and Gypceros. I'm not all that far from that red bastard.

Coming soon: Red King of Dragons! Chris v. Rathalos!

This seriously blows my mind.

If you haven't seen or heard much of me lately, it's because I bought myself an early Christmas present, a game called Monster Hunter. Wow, this is really my kind of game. There's so many little little details, like cooking, fishing, catching bugs for fishing, mining, etc. that only people like me want to do, elements of stealth, a variety of tools to make slaying seemingly impossible beasts easier, and swords so big your character actually has to swing it like it's bigger than the wielder. Now if only I could get some real pants in-game without sacrificing the protection of my bone greaves. Fortunately, I'm mining like there's no tomorrow and hoping that my iron age equals pants age.

Matt, you are buying this, and you and I are ruining the days of evil raptors, dragons, and Puumbas everywhere once we get to school! >=D

In the meantime, Merry Christmas everybody! I've been out two days in a row and I have three more to go. Then some time of laziness (and visiting) followed by working at the school some more.

For the second year in a row, the Christmas video was a huge hit. Plus, I got to do some editing (even if we didn't make use of most of it... long story) so it was good to see the Interactive Multimedia put to use. I'm supposed to do the morning news as Grover (my voiceover with a talking puppet) for the first day back. I'm thinking about doing the voiceover in advance and then recording myself moving the mouth and moving the head as I please, melding the voice file with the rather silent video, and producing it from there.