“You’re a Mean One, Mister Grinch,” Thurl Ravenscroft, 1966
Thrul Ravenscroft (the voice of Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger for 50+ years) was not credited for singing this tune from the classic TV special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” I’ve always loved the Seuss-ian lyrics like ‘thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot-pole’ and ‘nasty wasty skunk.’
Trivia: The Grinch was the first main character in a Dr. Seuss book to be a villain as well as the first adult main character.
As I looked over my list of Christmas songs from last year, I realized that I left out quite a few good ones in my effort to highlight songs and covers that folks may not have heard of. Thus, I’ll start out this year playing catch up with some standards:
“Happy Holiday” was originally sung by Bing Crosby in the 1942 film “Holiday Inn.” “The Holiday Season” was added later to make this classic medley.
I’m usually not one for re-runs, but here’s the list of my favorite Christmas songs I compiled last year. I didn’t include the links, but that’s what The Google and the search box at the right is for. :3
#10: Where am I, now?
Another year, another San Japan! I presented two panels and took lots of cosplayer pictures!
#55 Full house!
#8/41-Hope you got your button back!
This past weekend was my first-ever My Little Pony con (bronycon?) Fiesta Equestria! By now you have probably heard about ‘Bronies,’ or adults that like the show. If not, would you like to know more?
#42-Not Pictured: FUN
There are a number of things that I don’t mind, but at the same time it’s sometimes fun to wave my metaphorical Cranky Old Man cane at the durn kids with their newfangled doohickeys and double-you-step music.
Case in point: Apple. I don’t mind them. I own a 2009 iMac and an original iPad mini. Both are quite good at what they do, and I continue to use them. Despite that, I like to thumb my nose at the ‘Apple guy’ in the office (there’s always one) and have back-and-forths with him about why I feel Microsoft is better. As if in retaliation, my original iPad mini has been slowly inching towards obsolescence with each iOS update. Recently, I was frustrated at not being able to play the neato new Fallout Shelter game for more than a few minutes without the poor thing crashing.
While the thought of getting a new iPad has crossed my mind, the thought of dropping a few hundred bucks on another one is not a pleasant one, especially since my Windows 8 tablet has proven to be quite capable, Microsoft Office notwithstanding.
Because of its creaky performance, I have been using the iPad mini as a hotspot more than anything else as of late. I would use my cell phone as a hotspot, but Cricket Wireless has internet sharing disabled on my Lumia 530. Jerks. So I send a few bucks to Verizon, turn on the iPad’s hotspot feature, set it down, and then use my Windows laptop or tablet to get things done.
Which brings me to my next point. I am, for better or for worse, married to Microsoft Windows as well as their ecosystem. Windows 8.1, Word, OneDrive and OneNote have all served me well over the years and I have no reason to stop using them.
In spite of that, I have decided to get an iPhone for my next phone. As I am not on a contract, I can make the jump whenever it pleases me, but more practical concerns such as home and vehicle maintenance take precedence. Nevertheless, whenever I am financially ready to make the jump I will be more than happy to for the following reasons:
Of course, there is some bad with the good:
I was on the fence about getting iPhone before writing this blog, but now that I’ve jotted down all the ups and downs, I’m all but certain I’m going to pull the trigger on one…eventually. $35 a month for cell service is going to be really hard to give up, though!
I purchased a Windows 8 tablet (ASUS VivoTab 8) back in January with the intention of using it as a laptop replacement. On paper, it sounded perfect:
Let’s run down the list:
And now we get to the device’s biggest problem: Microsoft Office. Because the VivoTab is capable of running the desktop version of Microsoft Office, that’s what you get. That would be pretty neat, but Office is not optimized for touch on an 8″ screen. Thus, I end up wasting time mashing its teeny icons with my sausage-fingers and fighting the interface instead of doing work. Styluses are no help either, they make me feel like I’m trying to draw on the screen with a fuzzing crayon. I bought a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard so I can get around Office more efficiently, but carrying them around and setting them up sucks some of that wonderful ‘portability’ out of the tablet.
Finally, Office 365 sucks horribly on this device. It had a terrible habit of slowing down to the point where I could see letters being placed on the screen one…at…a…time every few seconds. I would type out a full sentence and then wait for the poor thing to catch up before doing the next one because I didn’t want it to crash and potentially lose my work. I got into the habit of saving very frequently for a few frustrating weeks before removing the craptacular Office 365 and installing my copy of Office 2010. Needless to say, I have no intention of paying for Office 365 when the trial year runs out.
I really like my VivoTab 8, and if Microsoft could get around to making a version of Office that was suitable for smaller tablets, I would like it a whole lot more.
Oh wait, they already made one…it’s on my iPad mini! /facepalm
San Japan (San Antonio’s biggest anime con) and Nine-Tails (San Antonio anime store run by some cool peoples) put on a small event at Wonderland of the Americas Mall last Saturday, so here we go!
#12 – Bad wolf-dog-person thing!!
#18: Snazzy!
Unlike last year where I was accompanied by a cacophony of friends, Wild Nights 2015 was a solo affair. Work and life has been a bit stressful lately so I wanted some alone time.
#49: Oh, you wacky Amish
As I mentioned previously, I tend to carry a chip on 
my shoulder at work, which can increase or decrease in size depending on the derp that is being thrown my way by customers, coworkers, and the company I work for. I recently had an instance where working on a story during my lunch hour improved my mood and I felt happy throughout the remainder of the day.
It happened again. I got worked up into a lather one morning thanks to a coworker who couldn’t follow simple directions. I reached the point where I had to walk away from my desk because I wanted to hit something or someone. Lunch couldn’t come too soon because doggone it, I needed a break.
I returned to my desk and lunchtime soon arrived without incident. I tapped away on my tablet, looking for some mental respite from the day. I had earbuds on and was listening to music in an attempt to blot out the office noise. As is often the custom, I opened my ‘To Do’ directory and scrolled down the list of unfinished short stories, blog posts, podcast scripts, and book drafts for something to work on. I opened up the short story that I had started before. The words flew from my fingertips and I had a completed first draft by the time lunch was through. As was the case before, I felt better after the fact.
It then occurred to me that I hadn’t written any fiction in quite a few days; I had been spending them formatting “Fuzzy Words” for publication and recording and editing podcasts. I started to wonder: was I more easily upset because I hadn’t worked on any stories in a while? Have I gone from ‘I like to write’ to ‘I need to write?”
Eduardo Soliz 