Things I’m less happy about:

1. I still have no money.
2. I didn’t get a book review posted today. I’m lame.
3. Spike pig is starting to show his age. He’s five years old, which is heading towards elderly for a guinea pig. *sadface*

Overall, there are still quite a lot of reasons for me to be happy today.

[edit] One more reason to be happy: Charlieissocoollike is doing this right now! That’s so awesome! I’m so completely jealous happy for him and excited to see his contributions![/edit]

Things I love about British Christmas:

Christmas crackers. Little thingies that pop and there is stuff inside. They’re pretty fun and I’m not even freaked out by the popping noise anymore.

Royal Institute Christmas specials. They do a week of science shows for kids, but they’re usually pretty fun and interesting.

Doctor Who. There’s usually a Christmas episode. It is usually awesome.

Extra days off. There’s Christmas, then there’s Boxing Day and the last place I worked made me take the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s off. And you get January 1st and 2nd off in Scotland.

No one has a big yard, so no one puts up obscene amounts of lights. Therefore, no one notices or cares when I refuse to hang lights on my house.

The outdoor temp is not too bad. I grew up in northern Minnesota, so I’m always into a December where the snot does not freeze inside my nose. But it’s still cold and snowy enough to feel like winter.

Things I hate about British Christmas:

Christmas music. They never seem to listen to any remotely traditional Christmas songs. It’s just the same 4 pop songs over and over again, and they’re all obnoxious. Christmas should be more Harry Connick Jr. and a LOT less Wham!.

Brussels sprouts. Who decided that the vegetable that everyone hates is “festive”? I don’t even hate brussels sprouts, but they are nowhere near tasty enough to deserve to be served for Christmas.

Stilton. They include this blue cheese in every cheeseboard. I mostly love British cheese. But I cannot stomach stilton. It tastes like really powerful moist sweatsock. Only worse. I’d rather eat earwax.

They don’t have hot apple cider here. They don’t have eggnog either, but I’ve never been a huge fan anyway.

My family and friends are not here. I miss my parents and my grandpa and my cousins and my brother and his wife and kids.

First of all, the government of the UK is being stupid. Someone has proposed a law where if someone is accused of illegal file-sharing (accused, not tried and convicted, just accused) their whole household could have their internet access cut off. Without a trial. Which means that file-sharers who get caught will hack into their neighbors’ wi-fi and innocent people will be cut off from the internet. All without a trial. There is a petition to stop this idiotic crap from happening. If you are a UK resident, or a UK citizen living overseas, please go and sign the petition.

I have no interest in reading or watching anything Twilight related. It bores me. It is just another stupid romance novel, but with more bestiality and necrophilia. When I see pretty jewelry on Etsy I sometimes thing, “Oh that’s nice,” but when I see it labeled as “Bella’s” thingy or “Edward’s” something, I surf elsewhere and refuse to buy it on the basis that someone might mistake me for one of those Twilight people. So I loved this comic.

Also, my niece and nephew are awesome. Exhibit A. Exhibit B.

Julia Nunes has a silly new video. It is entirely worth watching.

That’s all.

“He was like Elvis. He started out a talented musician and ended up a mutated freakish caricature of himself.”

“I don’t think I could stand another 20 years of watching bits fall off of him anyway.”

“They won’t need to embalm him. He’s mostly plastic already.”

“If they bury him, he’ll never decay. That’s what future civilizations will think humans looked like.”

“They can’t cremate him. Can you imagine the fumes? It would be like burning a tractor tire.”

“It’s a bit like when my grandma died. She was gone from dementia years before she actually died, so when she finally went, we didn’t really mourn because the person we loved was gone long before she died. It’s the same with him. We lost Michael Jackson, the musician, years ago. Now it’s just the passing of the demented shell that was left behind.”

“Elvis, ‘The King’, died at an early age. Now the ‘King of Pop’ died at an early age. Someone should warn Prince and Queen Latifah.”

Are we rude and insensitive? Yes we are. Tasteless? Certainly.

In reality, it sucks for his family and friends. They’ve lost someone who matters in their life, and that always hurts. At the same time, the world doesn’t get to stop and the tv schedules and radio play don’t change when a non-famous person dies. When a celebrity dies, the family has the whole world crowding around to offer encouragement and comfort. When a regular guy dies, most people never hear about it, and the family is told, “Deepest condolences. You have 3 days of bereavement leave and then you’ll have to dip into your vacation time.”

In the last year I’ve lost my husband’s best friend, David, (You think MJ was young at 50? David was 39.) a lifelong friend of the family, Don, and my grandfather’s girlfriend, Jeannie. Plus two hamsters and a guinea pig. I prefer to save up my grief and sympathy for the people who really matter to me, not for a has-been singer I’ve never met.

You can download a pdf of my ukulele chord chart here.  You know, if you’re a ukulele playing type person.  It isn’t comprehensive by any means, and I make no guarantees that it is perfect.  But it does seem like a handy thing to have. 

(In case you aren’t familiar with this type of chart, there are two chord formations given for each chord, and the numbers are the frets to finger for each string, in GCEA order.)

To all beginning uke players, enjoy!  Let me know if you find any errors or if you know any other chords I’ve missed.

Alana

http://girlalive.com/ukechords.pdf

I did something stupid at work and screwed stuff up and had to re-do about an hour’s worth of work, along with making a bunch of work for one of the data managers.  Made me feel like a stupid piece of crap, but I think I got it all fixed.

I’ve been obviously a bit depressed.  I’m getting a bit better.  I’ve been looking at maybe going to Napier University next year to get a Master’s degree.  I’m tired of being the loser of the family.  All my old friends have advanced degrees and real careers, and I’m a data entry clerk, earning just above fast food money.

One of the few web sites that mostly works on my tiny computer is YouTube.  So I’ve been there a lot.  I mentioned my new obsession with Weezer a few weeks ago, and that led me to this video, which is awesome cause it has both Weezer and the Muppets:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4mDIpYHxWY 

Okay, so that’s 100% awesome, with the Weezer and the Muppets and everything.  But then I started following links on the side and wandering around in general, and came upon this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6NHPrYcJpo

It is a girl called Julia Nunes, and she’s awesome.  I almost like her version better than Weezer.  Almost.  I encourage you to go to her YouTube account and check out some of the other songs.  I especially like her version of Mr. Brightside by The Killers.  I tried to buy her album, but paypal does not like my tiny computer.  

I like Julia Nunes so much I even took my ukulele out and fixed the tuning heads and got it all tuned and playable.  Of course, I still can’t play the thing.  I think my fingers are too fat for a tiny guitar.

Alana