well, thanks to some cash left over from renewing my temps, I got myself a copy of the latest veggie tale christmas dvd. Really like it though I do not recommend it for anyone who wants a serious telling of the story of Saint Nicolas. It has a great message though and it is very cute. It is almost christmas so all I need to do is wait for christmas eve so that I can track Santa via google earth. I wish they would offer the tracker file sooner so I could just turn on google earth and track him but I lost the original file and they will not offer it any sooner then the 24th. Oh well, it is still fun to watch Santa even though I am too old for him to visit me anymore. I still try to behave for the sake of doing so. Happy Holidays to anyone reading.

thanks to a giftcard that I got as an early christmas present and luck, I now can enjoy veggie tales again. I still find it stupid that Dad gave away his collection without checking to see if any of us wanted any first but it can't be helped. With my giftcard, I got 2 of the dvds (An Easter Carol and The star of Christmas) and one of the cds (A very veggie christmas). I also got lucky and found a videotape of The Toy who Saved Christmas at my local dollar tree. Seriously, that has become my favorite store since you can find some amazing stuff there. I would have preferred a dvd since we have only one working vcr at our house but, at a buck, I will gladly take a videotape over not having the movie at all.

well, I finally decorated my door for christmas and I like it alot. My family love to comment on how "cluttered" it is though. What can I say? I had alot of personal christmas ornaments that I used to put onto my room's mini tree which broke last year that I wanted to use and my bare door struck me as the perfect place. Oh well, the house is now completely decorated and I am dealing with mom starting her christmas baking. I love her christmas cookies which is both good and bad. Good because it means I enjoy the smell of them baking in the house. Bad because I am still on my diet and can't eat as much as I want. Mom keeps talking about putting up some decorations outside but the windstorms have been really nasty lately and I don't want to lose the few outdoor decorations we have. I know we will need to put them up eventually but I am not in a rush. I am also amusing my family by alternating between my christmas music playlist and a cd of Hanukkah music I borrowed. I am not Jewish but I love the music created for Hanukkah (not in vast supply but very well-made). I also recently bought a small set of wooden dreidels in hopes that they would spin better then my cheapo plastic ones from the drugstore (I am a sucker for tops). The irony is that although the wooden dreidels are nicer then the plastic one, the plastic dreidel is better balanced and spins longer then the top-heavy wood ones. Oh well, they still look nice and I only paid $3 for them. Considering I had great difficulty finding dreidels last year anywhere (prices and shipping costs for them are obscene.), I find that situation hilarious. Oh well, I still love the holidays despite some of the stresses that come with the time.

Happy holidays to anyone reading this.

We have a new tree which we have decorated. I also set up the nativity set and some of the other decorations for Christmas. I haven't removed the halloween stuff from my door though and won't until I decide what Christmasy stuff to put in its place. I hate bare doors. I also need to put up some lights and garland around the house but I haven't gotten around to it due to lack of energy. Finals being next week doesn't help much. At least the house is beginning to look christmasy and I have some nice things to enjoy on the side. I strongly recommend gingerbread tea if you are a tea drinker, it is perfect for this time of year.

well, thanksgiving is only a couple days away now. It is going to be strange to be having Greek for dinner instead of turkey but I look forward to it. Other then gyros, I have never had anything Greek before so I look forward to seeing how it is like. I have no idea how Christmas is going to be like with our limited budget but mom seems determined to make this christmas special despite the money limits. I really hope we can find a nice tree on sale on black friday, mom is insistant that our current tree is "too small" and wants to get a bigger one. I have to admit that I enjoy large trees as well but I am not crazy about their prices. It will be nice to have a tree big enough to hold all our ornaments for a change though. Last Christmas's tree was rather crowded and that was with just half of the decorations we have collected over the years. I will try not to think of our electric bill during december. Otherwise, the amount of lights mom will want to use will drive me mad!

I am glad that mom is so into Christmas this year, last year she was so depressed that we only had a decorated house and Christmas tree because my sisters and I did most of it ourselves. It wasn't as great last year though because mom would help normally help with lights. She is just fantastic with light while I go crazy trying to deal with all the lights involved. I mostly deal with ornaments, garland, and the nativity set personally with assistance with my sisters. Sam is a fantastic decorations advisor! Any rate, I can't help but be in a Christmas mood despite Thanksgiving being the next holiday thanks to commericals and the radio playing my favorite Christmas songs. I also found last year's new Mannheim Steamroller Christmas cd for a steal. So much for my normal habit of not emotionally skipping holidays!

At any rate, things are going along well in my classes. I am still keeping up with the work and know my final exam schedule. This semester passed so fast! I also have my schedule set up for Spring term which makes things nice. Didn't get into all the classes I wanted to due to class requirements but I managed to get into 2 of them at least. We will see how I will do with spring classes.

I also dug out my dreidel and currently use it as idle entertainment while waiting for stuff to load on my computer. Sam still doesn't get why I like messing with it so much but I can't help it. It is fun to spin and I don't risk hitting things like I do when I use my snowman-shaped ball-and-cup game. It is funny really, 5 or 6 years ago, I wouldn't bother with such toys except on Christmas and Easter but now I am such a sucker for them. Maybe it is a way for me to reconnect with the pleasant parts of my childhood. Or maybe I have just aquired a stronger appreciation for novelities, I have no clue which. I just know that mom tells me that I am easier to please now at holidays then I used to because she can find the cutest things at stores and I eat them up. I have always loves snowglobes though which I still collect. I can't wait to see if I get anymore this year; thanks to dollar tree and walgreens people can get them for me for cheap. I can't say exactly while I love them so much. I just know that looking at them and idly shaking them to make them snow always makes me smile. When I was younger, I would ask more for the ones with built in musicboxes because of how beautiful the music was. I don't like most of the modern ones though since they are cheapo microchips now instead of the old mechanical ones and cost so much.

Any rate, I have posted alot so I think I will conclude this post now.

not much has been happening. Been mostly working on homework and dealing with the normal bombardment of Christmas commericals while trying to have interest in Thanksgiving. I do have plans for that day so at least that helps. Still find myself watching some of the "odder" christmas stuff just because I feel like it. Doesn't help that there aren't many thanksgiving cartoons that I like around. Got a cute plush turkey dressed as a pumpkin though to spice up my desk. Fighting the urge to decorate my desk with nightmare before Christmas stuff since I promised my mom that I would give her a break from the movie. (She felt that I went overboard watching it during Halloween, figures.) My door stands out from the rest of the house though since I never took off the Halloween decorations on it. I figured that if Steph could have her Christmas countdown up year round then I could have some cool halloween stuff up. I will likely put it down around Christmas so I can decorate it along with the rest of the house but I can see myself putting a Jack Skellington back onto it after the holidays are over. That is just my way and no one is surprised since it is my door.

well, the party was a ton of fun. I got to be a dj and got everything working great. My sister Steph got bored midway through the party but we managed to distract her with some games. Might need to plan some more activities for her if we have another party. Otherwise, I am feeling the same way I feel ever year after Halloween: happy that it happened and sad that it is over.

finally have the house semi decorated for the party (still have some work to do but first there has to be some cleaning). Also been finding the cafes at Lccc a good place to go between classes since their sandwiches are lowfat, cheap, and in decent variaty. Not a real meal by any means but it works out great since I am rarely hungry in the morning and I don't want to break my diet.

We can tell I have been sick. It took until last night for me to finally pick out a costume for the halloween party we are having. It should be interesting since I am going to be a hippy (dad would have killed me if I had been one before) and i got the funky jewelry and stuff. Just need to either paint up an old shirt or find a cheap tie dye that fits since I got some beat up jeans that will work great for it plus a tie die bandana. Was originally going to be a pirate but couldn't find anything that I wanted to wear or use and the idea of being a hippy sounded cool when I was at the costume shop the other day. I wish Halloween U.S.A had a store year round instead of having a shop only in October. They do have a website but it just isn't the same was wandering around the cool layout of the stores. Target and Walmart don't even come close to it, I will say that flat out!

Ghost hunters still hasn't stated what place they are thinking of going for Halloween so they might not be having the special. I hope that isn't the case because I love watching those shows. I mean I will busy with the party since I am in charge of the music. Got to love winamp and its playlist features.

I have to admit that I have been sick for a while. The reason I am admitting this is because I am getting better and now almost feel normal. I still cough occasionally and suffer from dry throat sometimes but I am not wheezing whenever I walk to class and can breath deeply again. It is strange the appriecation we get for things we normally take for granted when we lose them.

Greetings to anyone from LCCC's Internet Research Tools class that is viewing this blog. I have some information about myself to the right but I can provide more here. I hope you have fun with the widgets I have put up. I personally am a widget freak so that tends to be mostly what I add to it.

I am crazy about Nightmare Before Christmas as you can see by how often I have posted about it and the widget below. I am also nuts about dogs and fantasy beings such as dragons and wizards.

It is getting closer to Halloween and I have been keeping up with my favorite show ghost hunters. They haven't stated what place they are planning to investigate this Halloween but I hope it is as haunted as the last two places. I still am waiting for Nightmare before Christmas 3D to come out on dvd or blu ray but so far no luck. The closest I have got is Coraline which is wicked awesome in its own right. My family doesn't get why I adore 3D versions of stop motion films but they just add a depth nothing else does and increases the detail of the characters which is pure eye-candy to me.

Oh well, maybe Disney will eventually give in. At least I have Coraline, the TNBC 3D trailers, and some "old school" style nightmare before christmas 3D pictures to help me deal with my craving.

The images can be found at
http://www.joelfletcher.com/3d-nightmare.html

Be warned, you need the old red and blue glasses or similar to see these at their best.

I have been not very active lately as this blog can tell so I figured I would add some feeds to a couple blogs I follow. I posted feeds on the bottom of the page for anyone interested.