Day 9: Two Cartoons to bring Christmas Cheer...

...to young and old, far and near.  Oh no....I'm speaking in rhyme!!!!  But seriously folks, its simply not Christmas until one has watched Dr. Suess' How the Grinch Stole Christmas...the original cartoon anyway.  Oh, I have nothing against Ron Howard's live-action version (in fact, it will probably make it into this film roundup before day 25 is through) but the first Grinch cartoon is so classic and such a part of so many holiday traditions that it simply must be mentioned first.  Plus, after the day I had today...I really could use something short to watch. 

It all began last night after I got done watching Black Christmas.  I put a disc of Stargate: SG1 into the player to watch (I got the 1st season from the library) and suddenly the player decides that it cannot play the disc.  I'm not shocked, as the library discs usually look like they've been used as coasters.  So I switched it out for the next disc...still nothing.  Then I switched it with something that I had just watched with it.  The horror suddenly dawned on me...none of my discs would play in the DVD player.  I turned it off.  I unplugged it.  I tried it all again, still nothing.  I waited till this morning before work...nothing.  I tried again after school, nothing.  The DVD player...had either malfunctioned or died.  So I started switching it out with a portable DVD player that I use for trips.  I hooked it up to my audio reciever to the best of my ability and....nothing.  Shit.  So I pulled everything out and went at the problem again.  30 minutes later, and several cords undone, I managed to get picture out of the portable...but not sound.  Fuck.  So I started playing with the cords more (mind you, this is not something you should do if you don't know your receiver controls backwards and forwards) and still nothing.  It had been an hour since I had started working and I was really royally pissed.  I decided to turn on the Wii next and due to my futzing with the cords...no picture from the Wii.  GREAT!  Now I had DVD with no sound, and Wii with no picture.  I uttered a phrase not unlike this one "fuckbadgerbasketcasebitchpig!" (and no, I'm not imitating the great Julie Powell...I really do curse like Regan from The Exorcist sometimes), stopped myself from throwing it all out in the garbage and went to go cool down.  Several hours and four episodes of Star Trek: Voyager later, I went back to the reciever and found my mistakes easily and fixed them.  I now had the Wii back to normal and sound from the DVD...though the sound is still only coming from one speaker it seems.  Oh, did I mention I gave my dad a real hard time too?  I called him to talk about it, and was very grouchy and brash with him.  It kinda forced him to admit that he got me a PS3 for Xmas and none of these tech problems would matter after that...and so I had to admit that I already knew and thus completely ruined his big Xmas surprise for me.  I felt doubly guilty after that.  I'd get coal for Christmas if Santa still visited.

So you can see why I'd need something as short and sweet as The Grinch to get me to bed in a decent mood.  Those of you who are in the mood for great old Christmas cartoons should also check out another favorite of mine that I watched on Saturday...The Bernstein Bears Christmas Tree.  Its a funny and sweet little romp through bear country, following Papa, Sister, and Brother Bear as they search for the perfect Christmas tree and in the process learn to think about others during the holidays.  Two nostalgic thumbs up from this movie lover!



Comments

Awwwhh .. Dad told me about your temper tantrum ... I don't think he thought you ruined Christmas! I guess this means that I could have gotten you PS3 things for Christmas at Mom's ... oh well! I guess you will just have to see what I got you!

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