Merry Christmas!

Me and the girls

Inside is cozy

Look at this sweet little angel!

outside is frightful

It's snowy here and quite lovely. Here's a picture from the campus where I work. Not that I like, see it through a window or anything. But when I go to lunch, there it is.

One day I was walking on campus and saw
a bunch of people looking up into a tree.
There was a hawk up there.

EATING A SQUIRREL!

W00t Pawn: Call of Duty Black Ops

Husband is now playing Call of Duty, Black Ops. M has already played some other Call of Duty game and, to tell the truth, I can't tell the difference. You play this army guy and he goes to some place like a snowy land which even I can tell is the same landscape and house from the other version only snowy, or Havana, which, I'll admit, looks kind of nice, if you take out all the army guys and the flaming buses and whatnot. Frequently I wish I could have a nice character, say, a lovely lady on a bicycle with a baguette or a dog in a basket, and ride around some of these locations without all the shooting and nonsense.
In this Black Ops, as far as I can tell, M gets killed approximately every 30 seconds, but apparently (he explains) that is not unusual. He said there's a "kill to death ratio" and 1-1 is "not bad" and 2-1 is "very good." Frankly, I find it rather disturbing in these games where you get killed and then get "spawned" right away again. Should there not be lasting consequences? I think it would be better if you get killed, then, you just have to sit out the rest of the game, contemplating the futility of war.

You can play "co-operative" against zombies, but M didn't like that mode. He prefers playing with and against for-realsie people (this is called "multi-player.") Between games you can hear the teenagers talking to each other, only, unlike Blur, you can actually make out what they're saying. I could listen to those damn kids all day.

M was quite excited about this featured called "Theatre" where you can re-watch (can you imagine?!?) the fight and therefore improve your technique, sort of like how on Friday Night Lights? They re-watch the football games. We watched a tiny bit of the theatre and discovered that M's character looks a lot like Saddam Hussein. He didn't know what he looks like because it's a "first person shooter." (Do you see how I know all this lingo?!?!)

M informs me that he'll continue playing this games for weeks if not months and that it's "a compelling experience." I rate this game Largely Unbearable.

Christmas music

Blogger friend and cousin-by-marriage KHM posted this lovely little Christmas meme on her blog - here are my answers - hope you play too!

1. All-time favorite traditional and serious Christmas song?
I am quite fond of O Holy Night, like KHM. I think I might like that one for listening, but I can't sing it so well (anymore). To sing myself, I have to go with What Child Is This?

2. That one song that says, unequivocally, that the holidays have arrived?


3. Favorite Contemporary Carol and/or favorite contemporary cover of a traditional holiday tune?
I am quite fond of that Barenaked Ladies God Rest Ye Marry Gentlemen, and I love Tracy Chapman's O Holy Night, but I honestly think I'd pick Mariah Carey's Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Damn it, that crazy lady can sing!

4. Carol that most reminds you of your holidays as a younger person?I don't actually like this song because I think it's really boring, but Silent Night reminds me of sitting around the church basement what felt like at least three times a week while my mom (and later I) went to choir practice at Christmas time.


5. Favorite version of "Baby, it's Cold Outside"
That song kind of creeps me out because I recently decided it's about date rape and now I feel all oogy when I hear it. It's like one lyric away from Rohypnol, I'm telling you. However, I did hear a version on Glee with Kurt and his guy that I rather enjoyed. A wink is required on the part of the soprano to make it less creepy.

6. Finally, Your all time favorite disc--aka, if you could have only one holiday music disc, what would it be?
Oh my! So many good ones... Honestly, that Mariah Carey christmas album is VERY good. Also, every home should have a copy of the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas. But... my choice is the John Denver/Muppets A Christmas Together CD. Just great!

W00t Pwn: Blur

Husband played Blur for about two weeks. It's a racing game where you either play the game or you can play other for-realsie people online. Or, you can play with your wife, which, a few times, we actually did! I've tried to play racing games before and they're usually really hard to drive and you spend the whole time just trying to turn the damn car around after you drive into the wall or whatever. But, Blur cars were actually pretty easy to steer and when we played I could even finish the race and one time I even came in next-to-last! (W00t!)

One of the lamest things about Blur is that if you play it online, all these dummies have headsets and you can hear their garbled talking and it's really annoying. M had to turn them off one-by-one and it's like, What are they saying? I felt the need to examine their secret, sub-culture language, but all I could make out was the occasional "Dude".

You get to choose your own car although some of the options are really stoopid like a Ford Focus? It would be really cool if you could choose a Hello Kitty car or something like that.

So, there's like these special powers that you drive over and then you can do various things like get a speed boost or shoot missiles or make like a protective shield around your car and stuff. Also, you kind of need to look in your rear-view in case someone's shooting a missile at you, but I think it's really hard to look at anything except my own vehicle as it hurtles down the "San Francisco" loop. Husband is good at looking at that stuff though. I found this game Not Unbearable, although the downsides are the lame chatter from other gamers and the tracks are really repetitive. M says it was "slightly addictive and slightly bland, which is a little bit of a conundrum. Ultimately forgettable."

And that's my first video game review! I expect to be highlighted on Slashdot soon.

I announce a new feature!

Gentle Readers, it is with great pleasure that I announce a new blog feature: Reviews of Moi's Husband's Video Games.* Husband was greatly encouraged to write his own reviews, which I think are brilliant, but after 2 years and less than a dozen entries, I think we can safely assume he's not invested in the project. And yet! There seems to be a general cry: What video games is M playing and how does K feel about them? Does she, for example, think they're sexist or silly? Very often: YES!

Last night we watched The Road, despite my protestations that I wanted nothing to do with that bullshit book (you see, I don't blindly admire any old book that happens to win the Pulitzer Prize). Warnings that it would not have a happy ending and was mostly about "feelings" and "emotions" were ignored - he insisted on watching it because supposedly it inspired Fall Out 3. Or something. Ultimately, he was unable to draw a connection between Fall Out 3 and The Road. However there did seem to be an amazing correlation between our boredom and The Road.

Coming soon: I review BLUR!


*need to think of a better title...

couldn't you just die?