Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I'm not big on Christmas. Long story, holidays were bad when I was a child, blah blah blah. As a side effect of that, I really, really dislike most Christmas music. I try not to be grumpy about it, but it still bothers me deep down. There are only two songs I like: Little Drummer Boy and Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

This version of Little Drummer Boy is beautiful! I can't believe their voices.



Related question: Does anyone know how you can tell if something has been autotuned? Their voices are so perfect and beautiful, I wonder how real that is. (Edit: Apparently this group, Pentatonix, won The Sing-Off on NBC, so they're probably real.)

Gloria in excelsis Deo is such a beautiful sounding phrase, it makes me wish I knew Latin.

Added bonus! Tonight only! In Excelsis Deo is the title of an episode of West Wing. Here's a video of President Bartlet from it ranting in Latin. (Latin starts at 1:12, but it's really worth watching the whole thing.)



His character was such an intelligent president. Oh how I wish he were real.

How about realistic baby heads made of white chocolate?



They're the "exact size of an infant's head". Unfortunately I couldn't find any information on cost, but could you put a price on a gift like this?

Happy nightmares holidays!

Once upon a time there lived a girl. She slept in a lovely little cottage made of gingerbread and candy. She was always asleep. One morning she woke up, and the candy had mold on it. Her father blew her a kiss and the house fell down. She realized she was lost. She found herself walking down a crowded street, but the people were made of paper, like paper dolls. She blew everyone a kiss goodbye, and watched as they blew away.

The Sundance Channel had a marathon of My So-Called Life. (No, don't ask me what Sundance Films would have to do with that show, I don't know either.) I really enjoyed it at the time it originally aired, so I figured I'd check it out now. Amazingly, nearly 10 years later, it held up perfectly*.

Surprisingly, I think it actually works even better for me now. When I watched it the first time through, I mostly rolled my eyes at and ignored the adult characters, but this time I was just as invested in them as I was the kids.

It was really fun seeing Claire Danes in it, especially with Homeland so much in my thoughts right now. She's really not changed all that much in ten years! Her voice is exactly the same, her hair is the same style (just a different color). I really like her as an actress.

Unfortunately they only showed five eps, but that was plenty for one sitting. Even after just that handful of eps, I felt such fondness for the characters. They're all so imperfectly human -- perfectly imperfect? Wonderfully flawed and real and very, very interesting.

* The only thing that didn't hold up was the 'film' itself. The quality seemed really low, as if I were watching it on an old VHS tape. No sharp details, things were very slightly blurred, as if they were replaying it from a VCR.

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WoW news is meh. Reed the paladin hit 69 (Northrend flying, yay!). He has 10 or 11 rares in archaeology already, which is just silly. I've quested/instanced for three of those post-60 levels, so he got all those rares in six levels of archaeology. *stops before a rant can start*

Christmas! I'm ready for it RL (that was actually the one I got done first, heh), ICly, and OOCly. :D It's so hard to wait to give out gifts! Except ICly, since now Thistle is certain that Nik is going to hate his gift and will be all IDIOT >:[ at him. :D

Work is busy. I have to work through the holiday shutdown, which very much sucks, but at least I get to take the days off later. I'm in a 'down' period mentally right now, which of course is depressing (ha ha), but at least it didn't bring with it the usual inability to sleep, and for that I'm really very thankful.

Ramble, ramble. I've not posted in a few days, so I feel like I should have important stuff to write about, but nothing much has been happening so this is it.

For the longest time, The Little Drummer Boy was the only Christmas song I ever liked. Now I finally know why.

I know it's a few days after Christmas, but you must watch this safe sex Christmas music video!



NWS lyrics! If you're at work, use headphones. There's one naked (nonsexual) man seen from the back, no bits shown. A whole lot of suggestive dressed men.

Listen to the lyrics! They start about two minutes in.

*so very dead* I'm going to be singing this to myself FOREVER.