So I finally got my holiday cards sent out yesterday -- obviously they will be New Year's Day cards, since they probably won't arrive by anyone's religious (or not) December holidays of choice. They may not even arrive by then, and I'm almost sure the package I sent won't, but ah well.

What struck me most about this year's holiday sending of cardboard cheer was how mechanical it felt. The first year I really sent Christmas to others, I made a whole big production out of it. It may not seem intuitive given my general dislike of holidays (Halloween being the obvious exception) and growing distaste for religious affairs, but I really do like Christmas. While people pay lip service to Jesus Christ and the virgin birth and all that manger crap, Christmas is really about Santa Claus and buying toys and sending presents to others to spread cheer and show your appreciation for them. And unless you're a totally stingy bastard who never receives presents from anyone and/or completely despises toys -- which I am not, at least with respect to the receipt of presents and the hatred of toys -- it's hard not to derive some warmth from that!

So my first year with some "disposable" income -- and aided by the free shipping and low price guarantees of DeepDiscountDVD (now DeepDiscount.com) -- I sent out a ton of presents. Almost everyone with whom I'd engaged in extended e-mail/blog communication got a DVD. I think I averaged something like $8 per DVD and sent out over $200 worth of stuff. And it wasn't like I chose the DVDs at random, either -- I spent quite a bit of time poring over the lists of discounted DVDs in order to select titles that, based on blog posts, photos, offhand comments, and so forth, the recipients might find interesting, amusing, or both. (more...)

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Isn't he cute?

I'm taking a break from the political crap, but there's some psuedo-political stuff on Scary-Crayon: a review of the Barack Obama action figure and a screencap comic that mocks Sarah Palin's pregnancy decisions. Enjoy!

Remember that post from the other day with the unknown food item? Well, it's time to reveal its true identity:

DOLLAR STORE STUFFING!!! Well, dollar store stuffing mix, mixed with frozen vegetables (last time okra and mashed up Brussels sprouts; here with stir fry vegetables), flax seeds (fiber supplements = win), and occasionally other stuff like fake crabmeat, cheese, and/or mayonnaise. Once all this stuff is in the bowl together, I usually add a generous portion of oil, some water, mix the stuff up well, and then nuke it in the microwave for upwards of fifteen minutes or so -- basically until most of the mixture is cooked out of it and I'm left with a semi-spongy but mostly crunchy sort of casserole. It's pretty good! And as long as they keep selling stuffing mix at the dollar store, it'll probably be a staple of my diet for quite some time... or at least until I finish the two bags of stuffing mix currently in the cupboard.

I've also become quite fond of fake crabmeat and cream cheese sandwiches lately. I got the idea from Boston sushi rolls, which I quite like, but somehow these sandwiches manage to be even more palatable. I'll have to start using light or fat-free cream cheese to make them, though, so that I can even start claiming that they're healthy and low in calories. 😉

Other random photos: a shot of the cups from which I usually drink and one of the figures currently decorating my desk. I've had the Foot Tech Ninja and Donatello since December, and Skeletor has been here for a few years (and if you can see Cubone behind him, he's been here even longer), but I took this photo primarily to showcase Emma Frost -- a new addition courtesy of the delightful Mickey! She'll make it down to the basement and get a proper photo shoot in a few days -- I tend to keep new figures in my room for a bit before relocating them to the subterranean studio -- but for now I'm very much enjoying having her upstairs and placing her in various poses and whatnot. Not pictured is the Transformer Landmine on my bed. I keep new Transformers in my room to fiddle with as well -- they tend to stay until I get another Transformer to replace them. Landmine has been up here for a couple of weeks, though I imagine the turnaround period will be much shorter whenever those new Animated toys hit. 🙂

And I had a very strange set of dreams during today's nap. One of them involved alligators entering via some hidden entrance and attacking me in the living room, which prompted me to contact the Justice League of America for help. Just before I woke up, Batman was on his way and Firestorm was creating an anti-alligator enclosure to keep everyone safe until he arrived. Yep.

My hands must be secreting some sort of anti-Batdude chemical. First my new Movie Masters Batman snapped in half at the waist this weekend (luckily I was able to return him), and then I managed to snap off Batzarro's arm during today's photo extended shoot. The fit of the arm is tight enough that I can still wedge it back into position and have it stay (the extreme tightness of the joint requires some pretty forceful motion to turn the arm to begin with, which is likely how I managed to break it off), but I'm still not too pleased about that. 🙁

Anyway, here are the figures I picked up this weekend and some of the ones that arrived in a box today. Click on the thumbnails to see larger pics!

I've actually had Edward Scissorhands around here a while -- my sister gave him to me for Christmas several years ago -- but I didn't take him out of his package until last Friday. Although he's not superarticulated (though he gets a fairly high joint count because all of his scissorfingers move individually), he's still pretty cool. The Scarecrow, however, is completely new to the collection. I actually considering ordering him on eBay a few weeks ago -- I was thinking of using him in my Legion of Doom, although this Scarecrow is the Marvel version -- but dropped that idea when I happened upon a legitimate DC Scarecrow on clearance. Still, I thought it was pretty amazing that I happened upon this figure for $3.97 at KB Toys this weekend, since he's pretty much been out of retail circulation since 2006. (He must have been hidden away in the back room, since I've been to that KB before and never come across the toy.) It almost felt like this Scarecrow was destined to come home with me... and so he did. (more...)