Midnight Ramblings

Well, I had a rather good day of Christmas shopping. Got just about everyone. As with every year, Mom and Dad remain...elusive.

I'd like to go into much further detail, but I can't without spilling the goods on what the bro and sis got. And, for all I know, they read this.

But, thought circumstances and events I can't explain right now, I managed to walk home with a free copy of The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King for my Game Boy Advance. I always forget how addictive video games are until I get a new one....

And I had my heart broken today, too. You've read of my obsession with getting the 2-disc deluxe edition of Batman Begins for Christmas, and how I've almost written off getting it. Well, as I was doing my shopping today, I was there in HMV in West Edmonton Mall and they had a grand total of 3 copies left on the shelf. O, I was so very tempted to buy it.

But I didn't.

I mean, for all I know, I am getting it for Chrsitmas. See, for about the past 12 years, I have gotten very good at figuring out what my presents are. I don't even have to shake the box anymore. Just one glance and I can say, 'Oh, thanks for the ________.' To counter this, my mother has gotten very good at disguising what I'm getting. How good has she gotten?

Well, last year, I didn't know she gave me Spider-Man 2 on DVD until two days AFTER Christmas. She hid it in an empty chocolates box. She even went so far as to carefully piece the factory seals back together so it looked like an unopened box of chocolates. I opened it up on Christmas morning, saw what I thought was a brand new box of chocolates, and set it aside. Two days later, I went out and blew some of my Christmas money on Spider-Man 2, and when I got home....

Mom>> What DVD did you buy?
Me>> Spider-Man 2
Mom>> What was wrong with the one I gave you?
Me>> What?
Mom>> I said, what was wrong with the Spider-Man 2 DVD I gave you?
Me>> But Mom, you didn't give me the Spider-Man 2 DVD. You gave me a box of chocolates.
Mom>> YOU HAVEN'T OPENED THAT FUCKING BOX YET???

And she stormed off in anger.

I opened up the box of chocolates, and there it was. Spider-Man 2 on DVD.

So, for all I know, I AM getting Batman Begins on DVD, and I'm just being set-up for a repeat of last year.

Ahh, Christmas paranoia.

Oh, and I took a break from Christmas shopping to see King Kong. It is very, very, very good. But not perfect. There's an inordinate amount of screen time devoted to some supporting characters without any kind of payoff, and some of the computer animation does look decidedly phony. But other than that, it's a hell of an entertaining ride. 3.5 Nibs. Full review tomorrow.