Monday, December 28, 2020

Maniac

My son is very into Legos. He probably gets that from his older brother, who is also a Lego lover. You could say they both embody this commercial from my youth:

They are both Legomaniacs. The older one has much more skill putting things together, and he should since he's twelve years older, but the younger one is doing his best to close that age gap.

At first, he used to get simple Lego sets, but still often needed help putting them together. Recently, we've been getting him much more difficult sets, though, and he's getting better and constructing them.

He got a big Guardians of the Galaxy spaceship last Christmas.

And managed to put it together all by himself.

But then we got him a bunch of Chinese knock-off Legos for his birthday last year, and the instructions were so bad that he needed a lot of help.

This Christmas, though, he got a bunch of Legos, both legit ones and the knock-offs. He didn't ask for a single bit of help though. He plugged his way through all of them all by himself, and several of them were very complicated, and had garbage instructions. Here's what he made. First, the Harry Potter Lego set with Grawp the giant.

That one is an actual Lego set, and their instructions are always pretty good, so he can breeze through those.

He also did this Lego boat with the scuba divers.

Again, legit Legos, so much easier.

He also got an Avengers Quinjet, a much bigger and more complicated project, and on top of that, a Chinese knock-off with poor instructions. He worked on it all day on Christmas Day, though, and put it together nicely.

Last of all came his new addition to the Harry Potter castles that he got on his birthday. This one is the clock tower. It also was a Chinese knock-off. The instructions were bad, and he even came upon several pieces that were missing. He simply ran upstairs, located a similar piece in his Lego stash, and replaced it with that. It wasn't long before he was done.

Now he's got it added beside his other castle pieces, and he's got quite a setup.

Every year, Lego makes another addition to the Hogwarts castle, so we may have to see if we can get the new piece for his birthday...although, considering that the knock-offs come via slow boat past China it may be more likely that he gets it for Easter.

Anyhow, I'm really impressed with how well he does with them. Hopefully, all  this building is programming his mind in ways that will really help him to secure a good job when he grows up. If nothing else, he can be one of those Lego designers some day...unfortunately, he'll probably be a nerdy toy collector like his dad as well.

Friday, December 25, 2020

Feeling Seen

Kids have a hard time giving gifts to their parents. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but my guess is that they just don't have the life experience to put themselves in someone else's place and figure out what it is that they actually want. So there's the old joke about getting your dad a tie or a pair of socks for every Christmas, birthday, and Father's Day.

This year, however, that didn't happen to me. Maybe it's because my kids are getting old enough to get outside their own head now. But I actually think it's just my oldest daughter. She's a real sweetheart, but beyond that she's really organized. A few years ago, she got tired of how hard it was to get presents for me and her mom, so she made a list on her phone that she could add to any time she heard me or her mom express interest in something, or complain that we needed something that we didn't have.

I've been thinking about getting a collection of flags from all the states and countries our family members have lived in. Apparently, I've talked about it enough that the kids knew just what to get me for my presents:



Books and flags for Christmas. That's a pretty happy day for me.

It's nice when somebody thinks of me enough to get me something that will make me really happy. Maybe I ought to start a similar list to keep for when I need to buy a present.

I only wish I'd lived in more places so that I could collect more flags...hmm...maybe I should get city flags too?

Thursday, December 24, 2020

A Calculating Cat

I had to work tonight, and couldn’t be home for Christmas Eve dinner. The cat immediately took over my place at the table.

I think it was her plan all along. She was probably behind my schedule in the first place. That darn cat!

The Christmas Pez

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

The Many Faces Of Christmas Eve On The Dunesteef

The last Christmas story has finally arrived on the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine. Story number six is Rish Outfield's "The Many Faces of Christmas Eve" and it is a joint episode of the Dunesteef and the Rish Outcast. It's our last Christmas gift to you all. Hope you enjoy it.

(EDIT: Now that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).

Krampus Karol

Don't forget who's coming to visit if you're naughty.

A Stark Winter

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Dancing On Sunshine

Two Oh Two Oh?

This commercial was legendary.

Love it.

Anklecast 43: Taking A Left Turn

Six Christmas stories over on the Dunesteef just wasn't enough, so I decided that I would give y'all one more. It's a story I wrote earlier this year about James, a guy whose Christmas plans get ruined, so he volunteers to work someone's shift at his job to give them a chance at having a merry Christmas. He thinks he knows how his night will end, but someone has a different idea, and it's going to take a left turn before the night is through.

Watch the video or listen to the audio above. Or to download the audio of the podcast, right click here, and save the file to your hard drive.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Reiterating Christmas on the Dunesteef

Okay, story number five everybody! This time it's mine. Follow the link over and listen to my story "Reiterating Christmas". Hope you enjoy it! 

(EDIT: Now that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Ellipses II

To go along with my last post, when I was editing Marshal's story for the podcast, I exported it, and listened to it on my phone to check for any issues. Then I noticed that the file's name, "Sci-fi Christmas Episode" had been shortened to a name that Rish would particularly appreciate.


Ellipses

I had to get a new phone recently, because of a stupid move I pulled involving a swimming pool. While getting all the apps loaded onto the new phone, I came across this app in the app store. 

Should I get it? And what will I get if I do?

Friday, December 11, 2020

Beefalope Hunt on the Dunesteef Christmas extravaganza

Void Munashii is a good man, Charlie Brown, and he submitted a Christmas tale for our Dunesteef Christmas extravaganza. Why not give "The Beefalope Hunt" a listen? You'll thank yourself if you do.
 
(EDIT: Now that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).

Sunday, December 6, 2020

Sci-fi Christmas on the Dunesteef Christmas Extravaganza

Hey, y'all, the marathon continues. We're thirteen miles in now, though. Today we posted

Marshal Latham's story, "A Sci-fi Christmas" over on the Dunesteef. Check it out and love it.

(EDIT: Now that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Reindeer Games

Someone left this cake at work. It’s been sitting there for hours and nobody has eaten it. I suppose they don’t want to be the one to ruin such a cute cake.

“I would sooner destroy a stained glass window than an artist such as yourself!"

 


UPDATE:

Some soulless monster came and cut its face out while no one was looking. 

“I felt like destroying something beautiful.”

 

(And, no, I wasn’t the soulless monster...at least not this time).