"Lovely intro. Very tasteful."

Yes, I post this every year.

As a special end-of-year bonus, an amalgamated list of MST3K Musical Moments available via YouTube. Hours of procrastination await!

Dear Annual Gift Man*

As mentioned many times previously here, I just don’t “do” the holiday season.

This year has been a little bit better because beginning when the clock changed back to Standard Time in November, I started using a light therapy box every morning for 30 minutes. I feel a little silly sitting in front of the light, but I drink coffee and read. It’s kind of a forced relaxation before work, which is not a bad thing. The light therapy seems to be working, as I find that I don’t want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head the second I get home from work. Even with the week of hell I just experienced, I haven’t bottomed out as I usually do this time in December.

As I tweeted earlier this week, “I've found I'm not so utterly miserable about the holiday season as usual, just vaguely indifferent.”

And I’ll take “indifferent” over “miserable” most of the time.

So, even though I don’t really celebrate the Xmas season, I still have a wishlist. Hey, blame it on all those gift guides on the net and in print.

Disclaimer: Yes, world peace, health care reform, homes for all the kitties and puppies in shelters, I want all that, blah, blah, blah. Just let me be narcissistic and self-centered on my blog (Ooo! Like a product-grubbing mommyblogger!), which is a rarity ‘round these parts. Let me have some fun, damnit!

• A taco truck for Old City. Sure, there’s Honest Tom’s, but the closest they come is Broad & Lombard.
• Submissions for the Syndicate Product: Meta-Comics Issue! Please!
• To see American Idiot while Billie Joe Armstrong is playing St. Jimmy.
• The perfect one-strap messenger-style bag. (After searching for many years, I do not think this exists.)
• A snow-free winter. Damnit, I helped shovel 70 inches of snow last winter and I do not want to do it again.
• A dumpling truck for Philadelphia, like the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck in NYC.
• A few uninterrupted weeks to do nothing but read. How about from December 20 to March 20?
• To attend some of the following small press events in 2011, and even stay overnight when applicable (anyone have a couch?): MoCCA Fest, Stumptown Comics Fest, Toronto Comics Arts Festival, SPX, New England Webcomics Weekend, Chicago Zine Fest, Philadelphia Alternative Comic Con, Alternative Press Expo, MICE Boston, SPACE Columbus, and STAPLE Austin. (Assuming they all happen again.)
• To attend the following big comic events in 2011: SDCC (if they ever figure out how to sell tickets), Wondercon (maybe!), NYCC (likely).
• To attend any of these aforementioned events on someone else’s dime, and then report on them.
• A post office box full of zines published during 2011: The Revenge of Print project.
• For the cat to stop licking himself so much. He’s already “barbered” his belly nearly naked, and I really don’t want to start him on Prozac.

* A reference to The Simpsons episode 8.15 “Homer’s Phobia”, where Homer and Bart are saved by John Waters’ creepy Japanese Santa robot called “Annual Gift Man”.

"...for heaven's sake it's really loud with the Shop-Vac on..."

This. Is. Awesome. A wonderful melange of kinetic text, familiar logos, and animation, all combining to form a truly not-so-cheerful song about suburban malaise. (And if you don't know who Jonathan Coulton is, educate yourself.)