Merry fuggin' Christmas.

I'm a day early, but I figure I'll be too bust running around doing Christmasy things to post anything tomorrow to update here. Not that I update here on a regular basis anyway, but it's good for an excuse.

My big finale for the Christmas articles was to be SANTA WITH MUSCLES, which I was going to hold off a day on, but I decided to forgo one other article and just try to relax for a minute. It's been busybusybusy, and as much as I love the whole anticipation of Christmas thing, I'm kinda glad it's almost over. My weekdays have been taken by my regular job and trying to get stuff watched for the site, and my weekends stuffed with my holiday job and trying to get all my shopping and parties taken care of. Today, I'm stuck at work for a half day, but starting at around 1 PM today, I'll be in full zoning mode for the next 48 hours. Whee.

The SANTA WITH MUSCLES article also didn't work out exactly as I hoped, thanks to stupid technology. My initial idea was to grab a whole bunch of screen captures from the movie and do a little more commentary on them, but the system I use to videocap is DOA. Last month, I had to Frankenstein a new computer because my motherboard was fried, and as a result, it looks like the chipset I am running now is incompatible with my video capture card. And unfortunately, finding screen grabs from this movie on the Internet was a lost cause. The great WrestleCrap.com had its SWM article up over the last couple of weeks, but took it down too early for me to steal its images. Unfortunately, the ol' Internet archive and Google's cache would only provide the text of their article. I did find one other site that had a bunch of pics from the movie, but they were all password protected (all I got to see were thumbnails less than 100 pixels wide.) I could have joined the site to view them for seven bucks, but I had a problem with that for two reasons: One, I already spent ten bucks obtaining a copy of the godawful movie and wasn't about to spend any more; and Two, it was a creepy "Young Starlet Appreciation" site and that kind of shit just weirds me out, plus I don't want my name going into some FBI file because I joined a pay site that had pictures of young actresses on it.

So Anyway, have a Merry one, and I'll hopefully be back on track for normalcy in the next couple weeks.

- posted by Noel @ 8:03 AM

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I've been urged by numerous people that I need to update the old Blogola, so here I am. It's been so long since I have that the web page that I use to update has fallen out of my browser cache. So although I really don't have anything interesting to say, I'll post anyway.

I've been in full holiday mode (read: busybusybusy) what with working two jobs (well, three actually, but two of them overlap timewise) and worrying about getting presents bought and wrapped and all that nonsense. I'm almost ready for Christmas, and I still have at least two or three holiday-themed articles for the site to post in the next week or so, as well as a non-holiday review. Big thanks to Justin and Terry for their contributions over the last couple weeks. It helps flesh out the site when I can't find time to do it myself. Justin's holiday-themed articles are particularly amusing, so go read his BUNDYFUL LIFE and BAD SANTA reviews if you haven't already. And also, make sure you check out the newest Bootleg Toys article, which contains some fun with Spider-man phones. They just appear to be relaxing in this picture, probably beat after a long day of posing.

Again, not much else going on. Next year should yield some positive changes for the site, so make sure you stick around.

- posted by Noel @ 10:31 AM

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Yeah, I know, there's a couple of non-Christmas articles up right now. There's still several more to come, but it's nice to pop up a review for a new release every now and then. Well, that and strange reviews of obscure Zombie flicks. Anyway, since we're just about two and a half weeks away from Christmas day, I thought I'd show you the festive tree that adorns my apartment. Click on any image to see a full-sized version.

Here's a full shot of the tree in all its glory. Now, I've never been one to do a lot of decorating in my apartment in the last few years, because I live by myself. My girlfriend tends to spend more time at my place than hers nowadays, so I we decided to put her tree up. So yeah, most of this actually belongs to her. So if there were any doubt that she was the coolest girlfriend ever, then the decorations here should seal the deal. Originally, the topper was supposed to be Glinda the Good Witch from THE WIZARD OF OZ, but she weighed a little too much to hold up on this flimsy artificial tree. You can still see Glinda on the table to the right.

Here's a close-up of the top portion of the tree. Yes, that is Optimus Prime on top of the tree. Since Glinda was wobbling too much, we searched for an alternative. I had this plastic version of the Medicom Metalforce Optimus Prime that I got real cheap on eBay and decided to put him up there, and there he stayed. You can also see Grover, one of th mice from Cinderella, and Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 among other ornaments.

Here's another shot of the front-and-center portion of the tree, where you can better see the Star Wars ornament collection displayed proudly. Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda are all visible now. You can also see some other ornaments, including Smurfette, Max from The Grinch, and other assorted characters.

Here's a shot from the side, where we can see Cliffjumper from The Transformers hanging proudly. That's actually one of the keychains you can find fairly easily, with an ornament hook replacing the keychain portion. Works pretty well, huh? Anyway, it's one of my contributions to the tree. Also visible are several more Wizard of Oz ornaments and some Smurfs as well. Oh, and check it out on the bottom right...it's Darth Maul! Unfortunately, having a cat can be a detriment to having a tree with ornaments on it, because she has managed to dishevel the decorations quite a bit.

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Here's a better shot of the Wizard of Oz contingent. Notice that Glinda is blocking that bastard Jar Jar Binks.

Last shot, from the right side, where Monsters Inc's Sulley hangs out (literally!) and Miss Gulch has her head hidden by artificial branches. You can also see Luke Skywalker and Anakin's fighter from Episode One.

Yeah, so that's our Christmas tree. Nothing too exciting, but I figured it was worth a look, and gave me an excuse to update the ol' Bloggy Blog. Look for more holiday stuff in the near future, and be sure to let us know if you have any suggestions.

- posted by Noel @ 8:11 AM

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Okay, okay. I'll update it.

You know, it's not often I have dreams that are even remotely lucid, and last night was no exception. But I do remember that the dreams I was having last night were pretty wacky. Okay, first off, Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves were roommates in some weird contemporary house. Johnny was cool and collected, but Keanu was flipping out because he was jealous of Mr. Depp. He seemed to assume that Johnny was after his wife, who was not actually Charlize Theron, but was played by her. That's kind of funny, though, considering that Theron has played both of the actors' wives in different movies.

Then, there was a second part of that same dream or possibly an entirely different dream that took place in that same house. This time, I was living there, and I was keeping Metallica as pets. No, really. They all stayed in a huge pet carrier and slept in a bathtub and pooped in a litter box. So anyway, there was this fat nerdy kid who was going on all the talk shows saying that he was going to kidnap Metallica, and everyone chalked him up as a loon. One day, I heard a crash coming from the bathroom, and found my pet Metallicas missing. I think my alarm went off then.

With that out of the way, let me give you a site update of sorts. I'm going full steam into this Christmas thing, and while I won't spoil too much, let's just say I'm trying to make it a very Muppety Christmas. I'm still trying to procure certain yuletide gems to review between now and Santa day, so I don't want to say anything for sure yet, but there should be a good bit of holiday fun this year.

Also, if you ever wanted to be able to take MCFTR on the go, you'll have an opportunity soon. I'm currently editing a collection of articles from the site to be compiled into a book, which will be available for purchase from the Store link on your left soon. It's only a surface scan of the whole site, but it'll be a nice coffee table piece if nothing else.

Please excuse our mess while we make some changes to the site. The hard relaunch may not happen on January 1st as I had initially predicted, but you should notice some major changes to the look and feel of the site in the near future.

- posted by Noel @ 2:18 PM

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