Christmas is near. I hope no one turns the TV on until the 26th, or beyond - the 3rd of January is the better choice.
But before I point to something cute for this Christmas, I want to say something I know you have all been waiting for!
On the night of December 21st, another power supply died.
Yay! Hooray! Hooray! Hoopla!
Christmas is each year less meaningful. In fact, should something absolutely wonderful not had happened a few minutes ago, I would have posted what I was writing before, which had zero zero to do with Christmas. It was not good at all, and I am glad I lost the mood to finish writing it.
One of the prettiest things I remember from my childhood (Oh no, he's going to talk about his childhood!) is the Christmas special episode of Snoopy. I am not sure if it is called Snoopy anywhere but here - the world knows it as Peanuts. But on the very old VHS tape where I have it, the label says "Snoopy's Christmas", in Portuguese, so it is Snoopy for me.
Knowledge of that is necessary to understand why tears were brougth to my eyes when I came across the Christmas strip for 1999 in Sluggy Freelance. (And why it just happened again.)
And just to keep it for posterity, here is a card I made to those friends I know share a taste for Blode, from rathergood.com. I infringed the copyrights all by myself just to wish them a Merry Christmas!
Those who did not get wishes of Merry Christmas from me, please understand that it was merely because I hate doing so by phone, e-mail, ICQ, et al. I like doing it personally, and by card (wheter physical or eletronic, and I strongly favor cards I make myself somehow). Given I only had time to create one card, no one who did not fit in the Blode fellowship received it. Apologies, maybe next year.
But, as I was saying up there, Christmas is less meaningful each year. All I am looking forward to in the next few hours is the food. And the third episode of Lord of the Rings, which will premiere on December 25th here in the Uncivilized Lands. At least it is not dubbed... But really, why premiere so long after the rest of the world, and on December 25th, no less? Why not add an avant-premiere on December 24th, 10h30 PM, just the cherry on top. And, in the name of all gods, may they not decide to include "a 15 minutes break to go to the bathroom and buy popcorn" in the middle of some important scene, as they did with the two Extended versions they were awarded the gift to show. Whoever says such a break is a good thing certainly prefers fullscreen movies, dubbed, with commercial breaks. Done pouring some hate into this post. I had to, it is a Vineyards post!
Nothing else to say, I will go with the cliché. Merry Christmas.
Posted by Etienne at December 24, 2003 09:33 PM