Merry Christmahannuhkwaanzakah!

I won't get into the silly debate between saying "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays". It's a ridiculous fight, and the two sides are both right and both wrong. Changing the lyrics to Jesus-centric Christmas carols for kids to sing at their Christmas pageants- wait I'm sorry- Holiday Singing Showcases, is moronic and lame. And stringing up lights and decorating a tree with ornaments makes it a Christmas Tree, not a Holiday Tree.

However, boycotting stores that say "Happy Holidays" in an effort to not exclude their many varied Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist, Bahai, and "other" patrons, is *just* as ridiculous. The people that do this claim that Christians, which probably make up a whopping 80% of this country's population, are under attack and stores that do not use the word "Christmas" are taking advantage of the season.

What I can't wrap my mind around is the fact that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, NOT the giving and receiving of gifts. Admit it, Christmas has gotten very commercialized over the past few decades. So it seems slightly hypocritical to me when I hear Christians complain about certain stores using the phrase "Happy Holidays" and then speak of spending their money, on a multitude of gifts thus perpetuating the commercialization of an extremely important holiday, elsewhere. I feel like they've missed the point entirely and are fighting the wrong battle.

So in conclusion to this, and in reaction to that, I shall continue to just keep wishing people a very "Merry Christmahannuhkwaanzakah!"

I hope everyone has an immensely enjoyable weekend!

--Cbake

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. I'm now 24. One year closer to 30. Almost a quarter of my life has passed by, and that's assuming I live to be 100. No need to get depressed, though. I plan on living forever! Forever... forever... forever... forever... forever... forever...

I'm getting a tiny bit sick, so I spent most of my birthday lying on the couch watching an X-Files marathon on the SciFi Channel. It was glorious. For dinner I went to Ruth's Chris steakhouse with my mother, brother Nick, and girlfriend Jennifer. I went home fat and happy and quite close to bursting too. Thank god the waiter didn't offer me a waifer-thin after-dinner mint.

I made out very well in the birthday present department. So well, in fact, that I almost felt guilty because I had received everything I asked for.

Jennifer got me an excellent 5 megapixel digital camera from Kodak (my first digital camera, and it's an awesome one).

My mom got me some charcoal pencils and a pad of paper for charcoal drawings. Now I can pretend to be artistic again.

She also got me The Simpsons Season 7 DVD collection, as well as a used copy of The Ultimate Toy Box (containing Toy Story 1 and 2, and a 3rd bonus disc). My copy went missing a year ago, and this collection has been out of print for a long time. Very impressed and thankful she was able to find a copy

My brother, Nick, gave me five CDs full of his entire music collection, straight from his computer, as well as a CD of family videos he had taken with his digital camera over the years.

...Which leads to...

...The gift from my father, mother, and step-mom Paisley. They all chipped in and got me the 60 gig black IPod Video. Can you believe it? My mom was adament that I open it up (so she could see what an IPod looked like, she claimed), and when I opened the package, which was factory sealed, I was surprised to see the proective sticker on the IPod's screen had the sentence, printed in three different languages, "Don't Steal Music".

I then turned the IPod over, and underneath the protective seal on the back I was even more surprised to find an engraving. I looked closer and saw it had the words "Happy Birthday Christopher. December 21, 2005" cut into the IPod's metal backing.

I was amazed. It was the last thing I expected since the package was factory sealed. Nick said it was laser-cut and made some reference to the website, alluding to a special holiday deal perhaps. Either way, it was a great joy to find, and now my IPod matches my watch, which was my 18th birthday present, also with an engraving on the clasp (12-21-99, Love Mom & Dad).

So now I'm giddy and have a new IPod to play with. This will help on those long trips in which I always bring close to 20 DVDs with me. Now I can just upload them onto my IPod and plug them into any tv with an AV outlet (my present also came with the IPod Universal Dock and special AV cables).

In the end, even though I'm one year older (And booooy does 24 sound *old*. No offense to you 25'ers out there), I'm very thankful for my family and friends. And a special thank you goes out to all 15 or 16 of you that sent me Happy Birthday wishes on Facebook. Thanks for showing that you care!

--Cbake

"All I want for Christmas..."

Crimony. It's December 16th, and I still haven't come up with a Christmas list yet. And oh yeah, I turn 24 on wednesday too. Eeeiiiyaaahhhhhuhhhuhuhu (disgusted Sideshow Bob sound). One year closer to 30, that's all it is anymore.

But to stay on topic, it's getting dangerously close to gift-receiving season for me, and without some sort of... numbered column of things that I... desire, like some kind of... list of wishes... how on earth will anyone know what to get me?

Never fear, The-Baker's-Dozen-Blog-Column-of-Things-I-Want is here! Jeez, there's gotta be a more economical title for this thing.

IPODS
1. 60 gig Video IPod. Why not?

DVDs
For starters, how about every DVD of mine that went missing last year?
1. The Usual Suspects
2. Leon: The Professional
3. The Nightmare Before Christmas
4. Sleepy Hollow
5. The Big Lebowski
6. Fist of Legend
7. Meet the Feebles
8. The Green Mile
9. Magnolia
10. Scream Trilogy Box Set
11. Toy Story: Ultimate Toy Box set
12. Akira Kurosawa collection: Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Sanjuro
13. Rashomon
14. E.T.
15. Conan the Barbarian
16. Dogma
17. ...
18. ...

... Well, I'm sure there were more, but that's all I can recall off the top of my head.

Ok ok, let's stop dwelling on the past and focus on the future. As for newer DVDs, the list is as follows:

1. The Simpsons Season 7 box set
2. Sin City: Extended and Uncut
3. ...
4. ... Uhhh, crap. This is much harder to do this year without having the internet for research. And don't anyone point out the irony that I, in fact, have to be on the internet to even compose this post bemoaning my lack of access to it.

MUSIC CDs

Soundtracks (original scores)
1. King Kong by James Newton Howard
2. The Village by James Newton Howard
3. The Corpse Bride by Danny Elfman
4. ... I know there's more.

Musicians
1. AIR- Walkie Talkie
2. AIR- that other one with the other title...
3. Someone else that's cool

MISCELLANEOUS
1. Cool books
2. or gift certificates for cool books
3. art supplies to I can get back into being artistic
- charcoal for drawings
- water colors and maybe a book on how to get better with them
4. an Apple Ibook laptop? Maybe I should wait until the new year when they start making them with Intel Inside...

*This is the all powerful DAD, Cbake had to leave and I had to figure out how to format his list and add to the blog...who says you can't teach old geezers a new trick?

Cbake will return soon....good night son!

"There is a war coming. Are you sure you're on the right side?"

--X-Men

X-Men 3 has happened. The teaser trailer hit this week, and it's chock-full of goodies, including our first look at Kelsey Grammar as The Beast, possibly the only actor who has the right voice and acting chops to give Beast the gravitas he needs to be believable. Also in the trailer is a peek at Ben Foster as Angel, the return of Jean Grey as the Dark Phoenix, Vinnie Jones (from "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels") as the Juggernaut, Pyro, Iceman, and Colossus throwing Wolverine into battle, claws out, a maneuver known to comic book geeks as the Fastball Special (something they go nuts over, and I admit it is quite badass).

From the looks of it, the war that Magneto has alluded to in the past two films has begun. Magneto has grown his army, the Brotherhood of Mutants, and they're going to do their part in fighting back against the oppressive homo sapiens that fear and hate them. Of course, the X-Men will be there to fight back and defend those that despise them because, well, that's just the right thing to do.

I have reservations about the film, however. The director of the first two, Bryan Singer, left the project to make the new "Superman Returns" film, and Fox, in a fit of vengeful fury, decided to rush X-Men 3 into production just to spite him and to prove they could make a good X-Men film without him (and they hope to have it compete with Supes next summer).

Unfortunately, the script was rushed, and the rumor is that it pales in comparison to the first two movies (it was written by Simon Kinsberg, known for "Charlies Angels 2: Full Throttle", "XXX2: State of the Union", and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", a mediocre movie saved by it's cast and backboned by a script I think even I could have written). Also, the director is Brett Ratner, someone who somehow got famous enough for making "Rush Hour" that studios can now say "A Brett Ratner Film" in his previews, as if his name is going to sell the film. Sorry guys, but he's not Spielberg, and many consider him to be a hack.

That said, the teaser has some very cool imagery, so I'm hoping for the best. I hear the subtitle for this one is called "X3: Last Stand", and it sounds like Fox is planning for this to be a closure to the X-Men trilogy (they will do stand-alone Wolverine and Magneto films in the future, however). Because this is the "last" one, there's always a chance some major characters may meet their demise... War is Hell, they say.

Here it is folks. Enjoy!

--Cbake

Much like the first moon landing, a milestone in human history...

I forgot to mention that it has officially been over a year since I started this blog. My first post, created out of boredom, unemployment, and a post-graduation depression was published on November 17, 2004. For those of you who've stuck with me from the beginning, through musings on early marriage, revenge on wife-beaters, and the great Demon Rat Wars of 2004- I thank you. I hope to entertain in the future with better writing, more pictures, and a committment to actually writing what I said I would, be it movie reviews or family anecdotes. Also, much like David, I plan to post some of the stories I wrote for my creative writing classes in college. He just beat me to the punch.

Thanks again for reading, and here's to a bright and better future.

--Cbake

"But why is the rum gone?"

--Pirates of the Carribean

Who wasn't a fan of "Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl"? Who didn't dig Johnny Depp's crazed Keith Richards' impression that was the memorable Jack Sparrow? Who did not think Keira Knightley was the most beautiful woman on earth after seeing her in this movie?

I mean, what's not to like about the film? It's got a great lead actor, a beautiful and equally talented leading lady, great effects, and freakin' pirates, not to mention PIRATE GHOSTS!*

*Or is it Ghost Pirates? Korn? Anyone?

The great combination of action, comedy, and fantasy really made it a winner, and well, I'm looking forward to seeing the sequels, the first of which is set to come out this summer. Here's the preview.

And while this looks more fantasy oriented than the first (Davey Jones is a squid-like pirate spirit with a crab claw for an arm, and his crew seems to be made of other half sea-animal/half humans), it still looks like it has kickass swashbuckling scenes and wonderful production design. And Keira looks more beautiful than ever in that corset.

--Cbake