Christmas, Christmas Time at Last
Zomg I'm home. Two weeks is a long vacation. Just long enough to have time for everything we wanted to do, and but short enough that no one in our family hated each other by the end. We got to spend a lot of time with my niece and nephews, go to the Henry Ford Museum, and drove to Chicago to see Wicked (which was as awesome as advertised). We also got to eat at all our favorite restaurants that they don't have in this half of the US. Christmas was great and New Years was really fun too. Unfortunately, thought I did bring my own camera, it's sort of had a charging problem lately. Pictures of me in front of the EcTo 1 and the Batmobile will be stolen from relatives eventually.

I got some really awesome stuff for Christmas this year. For those of you who got me something, consider the following your Thanks You note. What follows is a chronicle of the awesome stuff I got:

My oldest brother and his family got everyone a Christmas ornament as a memento of the trip. I got a cookie shaped like a K which is really cute. My first nostalgic Christmas ornament! I'm sure it'll look awesome on my tree next year. My other brother got me a complete set of Japanese Cherry Blossom products from Bath and Body Works. I've actually always liked that line but didn't own any of it. Serendipitous! I will surely smell awesome for weeks. Ted and Dantzel made Jill and me fudge, which I just remembered I still have more of in the fridge! Yay!

This was a good year for media stuff that I seem to enjoy talking too much about, so I'm just going to pseudo-review the rest of my presents. With links! This list consists of items that I am very excited about receiving, but some of which are grossly under appreciated by everyone else. I'm talking about you Jill!

Ace Attorney Official Casebook Vol. 1: The Phoenix Wright Files - Oh Phoenix Wright. Though your games have come and gone, your story is just too much fun to forget. The casebook is a compilation of different manga authors who were invited to contribute a chapter. Each story is stand-alone, and they vary greatly in their artwork and story. Some took a more serious tone, others were ridiculous to the point of absurdity, but all of it was great fun. I very much enjoyed the book and am looking forward to collecting Vol. 2: The Miles Edgeworth Files next February.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1 - My sister has this book, and at mentioning it would be fun to own she got me my own copy. Having never read Sherlock Holmes before, I'm certainly glad to have it. Holmes is actually a much more bizzare character than he's given credit for, and a much more brilliant one too (and he's already given quite a bit of credit for both). These stories are really great and I'm having a lot of fun reading them. As a side note, the first novella of the book surprised me by having an unintentionally hi-larious reference to the Mormons, who are apparently into all sorts of secret combinations, force those around them to join, and then kill those who don't. They also murder people so they can steal their wives. Obviously. BUT. That's not really related to me getting this for Christmas. The book is a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it. (Arthur Conan Doyle later apologized to the Mormons for making stuff up about them for the sake of intruigue).

The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits - It's the Chipmunks. Singing the Beatle's Hits. WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE? This collection originally came out on record in the 60's, and we used to own a copy when I was a kid (geez, that sentence makes me sound like I'm 40). A few months ago I was at home and we rented the new Chipmunks movies, and during the end credits they showed this and several other album covers, and I shouted "We totally used to own that!" I found out they'd released it on CD and asked for it for Christmas, and my loving mother tracked a copy down for me.

Favorite Tracks: All of them. Here's A Hard Days Night.

Layton Kyouju to Fushigi na Machi Original Soundtrack - I liked the simple soundtrack of this game enough to try and track it down on the internet, only to find that it didn't exist. I found a few low quality tracks, probably ripped from the game. My brother apparently did an internet search at just the right moment and found that this CD was coming out in Japan on Christmas Eve, and loved me enough to import a copy for me. The CD contains longer, slightly less repeaty versions of the songs, and even a few new arrangements.

Favorite Tracks: Professor Layton's Theme, and also the rest of the songs too.

Speed Race Japan ~Mach Go Go Go Tribute~ - Ben also ordered this Speed Racer CD, which contains various remixed and tribute tracks to both the Japanese and English versions of this show. It's aaaawesome.

Favorite Tracks: Speed Racer (Takkyu's Demon On the Wheel Mix), Speed Racer A Cappella (Best I can do for links are the audio samples found here).

Child's Play CD 2008 - I bought this one for myself this year. To be more precise, I gave $10 to the Child's Play charity and got this CD in return. I mostly wanted to donate, but the CD is more awesome than I should have gotten for the price and has a lot of really great stuff. Freezepop and Jonathan Coulton show up, along with MC Frontalot, The OneUps, Michael "Piano Squall" Gluck, Beefy, and The Grammar Club. I wish I could find more clips of this one to share since it's so varied and so good, but really, it's only $10 and the charity collects year round. You should just get it. Think of it as a sample cd into the world of Nerdcore music.

Favorite Tracks: Pop Music is Not a Crime, Terra, Still Alive (feat. Felicia Day), Game Store Girl, Korobeiniki (Tetris Game A), The Lint Song, Onett.