My Undead Christmas Playlist

NOTE: This post is NSFW - Not Safe For my Wife. She doesn't often read this, but in case she does: Hi honey! I love you. Please don't read any further.



Okay, everyone else. Let me tell you about Christmas music and video games, and how the two go together in awesome ways.

I am an unabashed fan of the Christmas season. Well, I suppose you should say the secular "Christmas" season, but still: I really love it. I love the food: Christmas baking and the eggnog and the hot buttered rum (I really like the hot buttered rum). I love going to Christmas and New Year's parties and seeing people you might only see once a year but still it's good to re-build those connections. I love the lights and the tree and the giving presents to everyone. But most importantly: I really like the songs. And there are some pretty awful songs out there, and there are some pretty awful versions of good songs. But I definitely have my favourites, and I play them a lot. (Only in December, though: I hate hearing "Jingle Bells" in November as much as the next guy.)

Last year my buddy loaned me a copy of Dead Rising for my xBox 360. I am not very good at shooter games, and I'm not the biggest fan of zombie anything, but I liked it quite a bit. I wasn't very good at it, but I liked it. And I when I was playing it last October, I realized: "In this game you're trapped in a mall killing zombies. And you can play whatever music you want through the Media Library. What if...I made a Christmas carol playlist, and it was like I was trapped in a mall during shopping season?" I may not necessarily be the brightest bulb on the tree, but I have my moments. The idea of chopping into a zombie with an axe while Bing Crosby crooned about a White Christmas was something I immediately latched on to. I made a playlist that had some of my favourite songs on it, with the condition that I liked them enough to be played over and over again - just like they do in real malls - and that they were either upbeat or hilariously out of place. I only came up with about a dozen songs because I don't own that many Christmas albums, and I added a few more as I found them on the internet or borrowed them from friends.

I didn't end up playing the game much last December - mostly because I had other games on my mind - but this year I decided to give it another shot, and hopefully I'll be able to finish it and finally give it back to him. So for your amusement and elucidation, I present to you my zombie-killing Christmas carol playlist, or as I like to call it: Red Christmas.

1. Bing Crosby - Jingle Bells
2. Jackson 5 - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
3. Burl Ives - Rudolph
4. Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad
5. Bing Crosby - Here Comes Santa Claus
6. John Denver & The Muppets - Little Saint Nick
7. Burl Ives - Holly Jolly Christmas
8. Vince Guaraldi Trio - Skating
9. Boney M - Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord
10. Bing Crosby - White Christmas
11. Funk Brothers - Winter Wonderland
12. Prince - Another Lonely Christmas
13. Burl Ives - Silver & Gold
14. The Supremes - My Favourite Things
15. Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby
16. Bing Crosby - Sleigh Ride

So that's my list. I've tried it out again this afternoon and it is still a lot of fun. If you have any suggestions for fun and quirky Christmas songs that I can add to my playlist, please let me know. Until then, I'll get back to trying to keep myself alive. Not an easy thing to do when you're surrounded by undead shoppers and have heard "Winter Wonderland" for the fiftieth time.

EA Sports Active: Come Along On With Me On My Sweaty Journey

As those of you who know me in real life know - and those of you who don't could probably guess - I am very overweight. Lately, though, I have been losing weight. A little at a time, generally a pound a week. Most of it has been due to my purchase and use of Wii Fit (and the update, Wii Fit Plus). That system had been useful for about half a year, but I eventually got a little disappointed with it, because as much fun as the Wii Fit (and Wii Fit Plus) are, they weren't exactly time-efficient. I generally spent 40 minutes doing 30 minutes worth of low-impact, low-intensity exercises, and while they were sometimes fun, I didn't really feel like I was doing my best.


I do not look anything like this guy. Except for the facts that I am white and am always sitting on a big blue ball.

So, in February, I got an EA Sports Active Kit, and started one of their 30 Day Challenges, which is a series of exercises designed to ease you into the "personal training" program and introduce you to the exercises. But about 12 exercises in, I began to tear the resistance band, and every time I exercised with it, I kept tearing it a little more. I couldn't keep going with the exercises, so I couldn’t complete my challenge.

...and then it took me a month before I got another resistance band from a medical supply store. Why so long? Because I am a lazy, LAZY procrastinator. But I started a new 30 Day Challenge today, and I have to tell you: it was a LOT rougher than I had thought it would be. I think it has a little bit to do with the fact that this band has a little more tensile strength than the one that came with the kit, but a lot more to do with the fact that I have been inactive lately. I’m starting again, though, and I hope I have enough motivation to get me through. I am also keeping my difficulty at “Easy,” at least for this go-around, because I want to make sure I go through every exercise, and don’t get tempted to skip a day. I can always try again on a harder difficulty in the future, right?

So. Thirty days. Twenty exercises. One man. Can it be done? We will see, my friends. We will see.

(Also: I am back from my Uncle's funeral service in Montreal. I will talk about that later.)

What's Up Wednesday - May 14, 2008

My life is just a cavalcade of stuff. Here are three examples of the most notworthy things that have come into my life this week.

The Video Game: I upgraded the computer's memory and video card with some of my income tax rebate, and since I had quite a bit left over from my alloted budget, I picked up a copy of Civilization IV: The Gold Edition as icing on the computery cake. I love the Civilization series of games; I started with II, and when III came out it was just such a giant leap forward I was in shock. I wasn't expecting that kind of shock again, though. But I really should have. Seriously: Civilization IV is one of my favourite video games ever, which puts it in a very small list with the likes of EarthBound, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Tetris. It is a joy to play; it doesn't come with a manual so you basically have to figure it out as you go along, something that I find both frustrating and exciting. There are so many different aspects of the game, I don't think I'll explore all of them for at least a year. Plus, there's an expansion I'm itching to try. But I'll wait for this experience to sink in first. If you haven't already played it, people, get Civ 4. You'll be glad you did.

The Book: While reading up on the Summer and Fall movie slates, I came across a brief summary of a movie called Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It was billed as "High Fidelity for the iPod Generation" and is going to star Michael Cera, which piqued my interest, so I tracked down the book to give it a whirl. It's a young-adult book, which made me a little nervous, but I've read YA books before and enjoyed them just fine. This one, though, I didn't. The plot was kind of lame, full of teenage problems I couldn't identify with and probably couldn't have fourteen years ago either. And the fact that it was co-written gave me another headache; while I liked the style of Norah's chapters (written by Rachel Cohn), I really disliked Nick's (written by David Levithan), so much so that I came to dread the last page of Norah's chapters. Overall, I would NOT recommend it, but maybe if you're an emo-loving teenager or early-twenty-something, it will speak to you.

The Real Life: I went to see the soccer match between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the LA Galaxy yesterday, along with about 37,000 other people. Unlike most of those people, though, I did NOT go to see David Beckham. Which wasn't too bad, actually. After a gong-show-like first five minutes (the Galaxy's goalie was laughably inept), it all settled down for a good match. We mocked the crowd who cheered every time Beckham went close to the ball ("Oh my god, a famous person is touching the ball!" "Posh Spice's wife is going in for a free kick!"), and had a good time. Until the 75 minute mark, when Beckham went off the field and people started leaving the stadium in droves. It made me a little upset, but then again, I went to the soccer match to see the soccer match. I must have been crazy.

What's Up Wednesday - April 17, 2008

Another week where I'm a day late, but I was hanging out with my brother and his ladyfriend yesterday, something I don't get to do very often, so I hope you'll forgive me. What did we do, you ask? Well, we had delicious chilli and caught up on each others' lives. But we did one more thing...

The Video Game: We played Rock Band. I'm a Guitar Hero fan, and I'm not too shabby if I might say so myself. And while I still like the GH series, it pales in comparison to Rock Band. The singing's the weakest link, as far as I've found. I don't know enough of the songs, and I like to play around with the tune, which makes me a fairly average player. So I suppose that's my failing, not the game's. The drums are REALLY fun, though, and while I've barely scratched the surface of Medium, I can see them getting ridiculous later on. I've been invited back another day to play for a longer time, and I have plans. Ooooh, I have plans...

The Movie: I picked up Akira last week, not expecting to enjoy it very much. I watched about ten minutes of it at an Anime Festival about ten years ago, and walked out. That one convention has tainted my view of anime (and, to a lesser extent, manga) for years. But after watching Akira all the way through, I have to say: it is much, MUCH better than the ten minutes I caught out of context. Certainly not for everyone, but if you can handle mild psychedelia and graphic cartoon gore, then I'd recommend Akira. Then again, I'm probably recommending it to a readership that is very likely to have already seen it.

The Drink: Monday I tried Rickard's White Ale for the first time. I have to say, it's not terrible, but it's not that great either. It kind of reminds me of Hoegaarden beer, just more expensive. I wouldn't buy it again, but I wouldn't turn it down if it was offered to me. Actually, I probably would unless if it was the only beer in the house. Ah well, it's not a complete loss. I got a variety pack when it was on sale, of Rickard's Red, White, and Honey Brown: I like their Honey Brown (not as much as Sleeman’s, but it'll do in a pinch), and the Red is decent (and good for poached eggs and beer bread). So, you know what they say about two out of three. Anyhow, I needed some beer for...

The TV Show: The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. Yes, I'm rekindling my love for Hockey Night In Canada. Specifically, the Habs/Bruins games (I missed the team falling apart this evening, thankfully), but I've also seen some of the Senators/Penguins series and snippets of a few others. I'm not really keen on some of the new personnel or technical developments at the CBC, but there's good hockey being played right now and I'm loving it.

The Real Life: Kow had a massive recording session on the weekend, which seemed to go on forever, but we got a few things accomplished and took another big chunk out of the things to do. Just...three or four more of those kinds of sessions and we’ll be done. Ugh. Three or four. I know we’re further along in the process than we’ve ever been, but right now it feels like this will never end.

What's Up Wednesday - March 19, 2008

Amidst the preparation for crazy choral jazziness, I have had some time to ingest a few choice items of pop culture, most of them great, some of them just okay. Can you figure out which is which?

The DVD: I cannot think of anything bad to say about The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This movie is enchanting: the music, the colours, the beautiful beautiful actors, the gorgeous fluid shots. A French musical from the 60s that puts makes the Hollywood musicals from the era look like they were slapped together with sawdust and plywood, and that goes for the actors as well as the sets. I wanted to watch it again immediately after it was over, but unfortunately I couldn't. But I am keeping it out a few more days to watch over the long weekend. Astounding.

The Album: I love Horace Andy's work with Massive Attack, so I decided to check out one of his better-reviewed albums, Dance Hall Style. It's a really good album, but I don't know enough about reggae to say much more than that. Andy's got a great and distinctive voice that adds a lot of great colours the lyrics, and the tunes are slow, groovy, and perfect as background music or for when you need a bit of spring in your step.

The Comics: Re-reading some of my old stuff in a nearly-impossible attempt at culling the heard. Some were surprisingly as good as I remembered (Warlock & The Infinity Watch), some were first-reads of things that I'd picked up over the past few years (Suicide Squad, which is amazing), and some were just awful (the 1993 Metal Men miniseries; I love the Metal Men but this series is TERRIBLE). A mixed bag, and there are SO many more to get through. I'm going to have to lay off the superheroes, though: start in on my stash of Ape Entertainment books and see what they're all about.

The Video Game: Noah's Ark is a great little break-creator for studying. I liked the free version you can play through PopCap's site, but the official expanded edition is even better. I'm Noah's Wife right now!

The Real-Life: I've already talked about ChoralFest, and between that and work it's hard to get some time in for studying, but I'm getting through it. I just finished up re-reading an article about male-to-female transsexual voice therapy and surgical options; I don't know if that'll be on the test but it was fascinating! If it does come up on the test I'll have all the answers.

What's Up Wednesday - February 20, 2008

The Movie: Took Jago out to see There Will Be Blood for his birthday. He's probably the biggest P.T. Anderson fan that I know, so I figured that it would be a good present for him, and that we wouldn't have that many people we could have taken to see it anyhow, as most of our friends don't really like him. But we took Diego and the three of us sat through all two and a half hours of it, and my GOD is it good. Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing, pulling off both sliminess and genuine emotion, and wrapping it up in about fifteen tons of charisma. The story's unexpected and really powerful, and while it sure doesn't feel like your "typical P.T. Anderson movie" (much different than when I think of Boogie Nights or Magnolia), I can see how he would be interested in this kind of project. Really really good; I don't think it's going to beat No Country For Old Men at the Oscars on Sunday, but it might have a chance.

The DVD: I rented a few this past week, but I'm going to give the nod to Gone Baby Gone. I knew I would have to watch it because it's based on a Denis Lehane novel and I do like his books (and I liked Mystic River too). I was a little put off by the fact that it was directed by Ben Affleck, but he actually did a fairly good job. He made a perfectly good movie, with competent shots and he didn't let any obvious style get in the way of the story, but sometimes I felt that there could have been more exposition, as some things were even more confusing and unexplained than they needed to be. Casey Affleck was good, and Amy Smart (the other reason I watched it) was AMAZING. So, definitely worth a rental, particularly if you like a smart little mystery.

The TV Show: I got The Peach Whose Line Is It Anyway? The Complete Seasons One and Two as a random gift, and we've been working our way through it. It's...really uneven. Some episodes are brilliant, some are painful, and some are both at once. But it's good to see how the original series started, and there are some really nice scenes. We're most of the way through Season One, and while it was okay, I hope that Season Two picks up the quality a bit.

The Video Game: I've been playing our home version of Zuma a lot the past few weeks, but last Saturday night in a fit of insomnia, I finally finished the damn thing. Even though I finished the adventure level, I still like playing the other levels. Just a fun time-waster, and the last level's a DOOZY!

The Job: I'm slowly gearing up to be working another part-time job, just eight to ten additional hours a week. Still working with kids with ASD, and still doing research instead of clinical work, but it's a fun grind interacting with the kids. And I'm meeting a few families I used to work with five and six years ago, so it's really interesting to catch up with them. Plus, the extra income will be useful.

The Real Life: My grandmother's birthday was Valentine's day and I gave her a call to give her best wishes. For the first two minutes, she thought I was my dad. "I thought things were strange," she said when I cleared it all up. "Your dad doesn't sing that well!"

What's Up Wednesday - February 6, 2008

A short segment this week, as my evening has been full of other chores and tasks and I have very little time to hammer this out.

The Book: Picked up The Commitments, which is a short read that I'm trying to stretch out into short spurts of reading because I'm liking it so much. I've seen the movie, but the book's a different enough experience that I'm not reminded of the film too often, and I like how Roddy Doyle "writes the music", as it were. Really creative, and just a fun romp about the rise and fall of The Hardest Working Band In Show Business.

The DVD: Out of all the movies I saw last week, the most important one was Tod Browning's Freaks. I was expecting a tasteless, exploitative movie, and I actually got one with a little bit of heart and creativity. Plus, you know, a tight-knit band of sideshow performers. The story's a little melodramatic: a trapeeze artist tries to seduce a rich midget away from his fiancée so that she and her strongman boyfriend can collect on the money. Yeah, it's weird, but it's really good.

The Video Game: Our friend Lisa brought over her copy of Cooking Mama (danger! YouTube link!) for the Wii and The Peach just LOVES it. I've played it, and it's cute: you get to make scrambled eggs, or pan-fried lobster, or creme brulée, by moving the Wiimote around to stir, chop, crack eggs, broil, fry, and what have you. I like playing it, but I like watching The Peach play more. She's just nuts about it.

The Real-Life: I've been going to a few schools doing testing on some kids for my research project at work, and I have to tell you: as boring as it is doing the same assessment over and over again, four or five times a day, I really like kids. I mean, I knew that I liked kids, but the best part of my workday is cracking jokes with them or playing games. Sometimes they're laughing at me, sometimes I'm trying my best not to laugh at them, but however you look at it: I'm a sucker for an earnest, good-natured kid. Not enough to kick-start my fatherly yearnings, mind you, but enough to kick-start my uncle-y ones.

What's Up Wednesday - January 30, 2008

It's later in the day but it's still Wednesday. What's been on my radar this week? Glad you asked.

The Book: I tried but failed to get through The Cold War: A History by Martin Walker before I had to return it to the library today. It's a really dense read, but still somehow readable thanks to the straightforward prose. It's my first foray into the history of the Cold War, a subject I find really fascinating but something I never learned about enough in school. So I'm going to take it out again and try to finish it. After all, I lived through the end without understanding what was going on; I'd like to revisit it knowing a little more about life.

The DVD: I caught Dog Day Afternoon for the first time this weekend. Oh wow, it's so good. High-tension drama with a real emotional core, as Al Pacino tries to deal with a bank hold-up gone wrong. Yeah, Pacino screams a lot, but in this movie it's absolutely necessary at times. And the supporting cast is amazing, John Cazale and Christ Sarandon in particular. Director Sidney Lumet really grounds you in the scenes while allowing the actors to do amazing work. Much better than I was expecting, and I was expecting pretty good things.

The TV Show: I caught the first episode of The Border, which is a show about The Canadian Immigration and Customs Security Squad. The trailers make it look really slick and it's certainly a novel idea. I was really intrigued by the storytelling possibilities, but I found the first episode fell really flat: the dialogue was clunky and stilted at many times throughout the show, and there was WAY too much hand-held camera work. I know that "shaky-cam" has become shorthand for "cop show", but it's often not necessary, and in The Border, it was really distracting. I'm willing to give it another shot, as the next few episodes have a lot more potential (dealing with Canadian-American relations), but I have much lower expectations.

The Video Game: After the fiasco that was Harvey Birdman, I decided to go old-school and download Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Wii Virtual Console. I played through the first level last night with The Peach watching, hoping that she'd get interested in it. As it was, she just got more depressed about not being able to play her Game Boy games, and went online to look for an A.C. adaptor. So, mission half-accomplished. The game's still great, but the display's a little wonky: there's a line of pixels on either side of the screen that don't match the rest of the background. It's a picky complaint, I know, but it's also really annoying. Still: Super Mario Equals Super Fun!

The Food: Avocados. Seriously, if you told eight-year old me that I would eventually love avocadoes, I would have thought you were an idiot. But this weekend I've made guacamole and a delicious avocado-shrimp salad, and had sliced avocados on a BLT. Avocados: I've come around on them. Add them to the list of "foods you hate when you're a kid but like when you're an adult", along with brussels sprouts and dark chocolate.

The Real-Life: It's been UNBEARABLY cold here! Minus 43 degrees overnight at times, which for you Americans, is almost exactly the same in Farenheit as Celcius. It was so cold that my car refused to start after Kow practice on Monday night, which blocked Jago's car and thus necessetated his taking a bus to work the next day. I finally got it out thanks to the help of a few of my friends, which is a lucky thing because the A.M.A. was so backed up in the city that they had a more than 24-hour wait time for non-emergencies, and a 12-hour wait time for actual emergencies. It was a little warmer today, but still really cold, and it's a good time to stick around inside and keep warm. Which you kind of have to do when you're waiting a day for a tow truck.

That's my week in three or four nutshells. How's everyone else doing?

What's Up Wednesday - January 23, 2008

In a completely spur-of-the-moment decision, I’ve decided to add at least one weekly feature to increase my blogging frequency. It’s not really the end of the world if I don’t put up something life-altering every day, but getting at least one thing out a week would be good. So every Wednesday I’ll check in here and talk about some of the things that have happened to me in the previous week, in a number of categories. Categories may change, disappear and reappear without notice. And I’m going to limit myself to one thing per category, to make things simple.

“Why Wednesday?” you might ask. Well, for one thing, I like the phrase “What’s Up Wednesday”. Also, today’s Wednesday, and today’s the day I came up with this idea. I’m not very complicated.

So, what’s been up with The Doc this past week?

The Book: I've started The Fortress of Solitude audiobook. This is basically Jonathan Lethem's fictionalized autobiography, the story of a white kid growing up in a black neighborhood in New York City in the 70s, and his experiences with the children on the block and his dysfunctional parents. Jonathan Lethem's a good writer with a lot of pop culture references that you need to know a little about in order to enjoy and understand the book; luckily, he and I like the same Marvel comics and jazz albums, so I get it. And David Aaron Baker reads the story rather well, giving each character a distinct voice. I approve, although it's not for everyone.

The Movies: Starting to get obsessed with the Oscars list. I've seen two of the five Best Picture nominees, and I definitely want to get out to the cinema and see as many of the rest of the nominees as I can. Time to break out my spreadsheet!

The Comic: I started reading Heartbreak Soup, the first collection of Gilbert Hernandez' Love and Rockets stories. It's really good. The cartoony style reminds me a little of The Yellow Kid, and the sparse style works even though there are lots of characters. Just finished the first chapter; it's dense but worth the read.

The DVD/TV Show: Finished up Dead Like Me, Season 1. I started watching this almost a year ago, but then got out of the habit; not that it was bad, but I stopped watching it with Ninja & Jago and so it fell by the wayside. But both seasons were available fore $15 each this Boxing Day, so I picked them up and started watching again. I really like Dead Like Me: the stories aren't always even (hard to strike a balance between the family and the reapers), but the stories are quirky and clever, which hooks me every time. Plus, the actors are great, Mandy Patinkin and Jasmine Guy in particular. Great stuff, looking forward to Season 2.

The Album: Another Boxing Day purchase, So Jealous by Tegan and Sara. I didn't really care for their first albums, but So Jealous has them dipping into pop and a little heavier rock. There are a lot of catchy hooks, and I really dig their close harmonies. Probably listened to the whole album 4 times last week alone.

The Video Game: Jago lent me Harvey Birdman for the Wii. he told me it was kind of fun, but too short. I've made it through 2 of the 5 levels in just under an hour and fifteen minutes, and so far it's just like I'm helping make a few sub-par episodes of Harvey Birdman. It's mildly entertaining, but...yeah. Not as funny as it should be, really. Also: no Stephen Colbert, which is another strike against it. I just hope that when they make a Space Ghost: Coast To Coast video game - and if they don't should - it's better than this.

The Job: Now that I've technically graduated, I was looking for another part-time job to fill up my schedule and my bank account. I just signed a contract to be a research assistant for a Ph.D. student, doing some assessments here and there, which not only pays rather well but solidifies one of my special talents (I'm one of a very few people in the city who know how to do one particular assessment). Plus, she mentioned that there might be another casual position she could try and secure for me doing, yes, that same assessment. So even though I haven't applied for any clinical jobs, it looks like this research/assessment thing's going to work out nicely for me for the next little while.

The Real-Life: The Peach and I realized over breakfast on Sunday that we had been married exactly six months, which was a bit of a shock to us. We sat there in stunned silence and then grinned at each other. Then, we finished up our breakfast and went shopping for pants. Ah, the life of the married guy.

So that's it. Anything new and/or exciting happen to you? Let me know. I'm interested. No really. I care about YOU.