Every once and a while, I would type the name of the album into Amazon’s search. Back in November of 2008, I got a hit. Lonely Is An Eyesore was FINALLY available as an MP3 download. It was an album that I obsessed over the first year out of high school (1987-1988). The videos were shown on MTV’s 120 Minutes EVERY Sunday night. They didn’t play these songs at The Ritz. They were too far from the dance and gothic beat that they played at The Ritz. I didn’t care. All the songs were SO COOL!

I bought the album from Sound Off, a record store on 700 East and 2100 South. It was rare that they carried anything that cool there, so I ordered it from them and awaited their call when it finally came in. I played the record ONCE to record it onto cassette tape. Over twenty years later, I emptied a box and found the album in there, just a beautiful as it was years ago.

The title of the album, Lonely Is An Eyesore, is a line from a song on the album by Throwing Muses.

Each song had a video and you can see them all on YouTube. Here is a playlist, showing them all in the order that the songs appeared on the album.

It’s funny when one album can personify one time in my life so perfectly, but Lonely Is An Eyesore was one of those albums.

I’ve been unpacking more boxes and I found this book, Rock Video Superstars. As you can see, I bought it for two bucks in a discount rack back then.

You can’t tell from the photo, but this book is HUGE. It’s 11″ X 17″ and spiral bound. It has been in a box for over twenty years because it just doesn’t fit on any bookcase shelf. I unpacked an entire box of books in awkward sizes. They are lining the top of my bookshelves now.

Even as a kid, I knew that it was a strange book. That’s why I bought it back in 1984, because it was a funny and brief book that tried to describe videos. Take the description of “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson, for example:

Michael is wandering through an imaginary city, troubled by the rumors that swirl around him and shadowed by a trench-coated stranger, who represents a prying press and public. No matter how hard the stranger tries to trap Michael, he can’t be dragged down. For example, when the stranger tried to grab Michael and the Polaroid camera goes off, not only does Michael disappear from the scene but even the camera can’t capture him; only the stranger is in the resulting photograph.

The sidewalk panels light up as Michael’s feet touch them, and his dance moves are so sudden, so unpredictable that it looks like director Barron would have like him to try to stay on a single square so the man working the lights would have a fighting chance to keep up.

I had seen the Michael Jackson videos on Solid Gold, but for a kid without MTV, this book was a godsend, telling me about videos that I couldn’t see. I remember reading the description for the video for “Karma Chameleon” and wishing that I could watch it on MTV. Years later, when I finally DID see the video, it wasn’t nearly as good as my imagination had made it out to be. Based on the description and the lone picture, it was an epic. In the end, it was just a music video.

You can see all the pages of the book here:

• Rock Video Superstars – a set on Flickr

Sometimes the camera just can’t capture my most joyful moments. The other day, Maggie was playing with Elvis’ toy mouse. The sunlight was streaming in the faux stained glass window in our living room and bouncing off the carpeted stairs leading up to the bedrooms. Maggie jumped and rolled and tossed the mouse with glee that is rare considering her shy personality.

When I noticed her playing, I pressed pause on the TiVo, which disrupted her play. Just knowing that I was watching her play was enough to stop the festivities. It was as if she was some sort of sub-atomic particle refusing to both play and be observed at the same time. There was no way I would be able to film her. She wouldn’t even let me watch her.

Elvis peeked around the furniture trying to catch a glimpse of her playing with his discarded toy, but she noticed him. Sid pretended not to watch her play by lying his head down on the carpet, but kept an uneasy eye on her the entire time. With an audience of three, it was too much for her bashful nature and she abandoned the mouse on the third stair next to the scratching post.

The total time she played with the mouse was maybe twenty seconds before the three of us stopped our respective activities and watched her in amazement. Twenty seconds of pure and unadulterated joy washed over us and we drank it in as much as we were allowed. No time for cameras. Not even enough time for Elvis to retaliate. Just a beautiful outburst of bouncingly playful happiness that was impossible to capture on film. I thought to myself, “I’ll just have to remember this.”

Just a note wishing all of you the happiest of new years. May 2010 be productive and profitable for us all.

I usually don’t like to list my New Year’s Resolutions here because I feel like I’m in a constant state of goal-setting, but I thought I’d give it a try this year. My goals for 2010 are (as always) probably a little too ambitious:

• Get Merriton finished and sent to a printer so people can buy hard copies or read them on ebook readers.

• Never let Steampunk Stories go dark each week.

• Pay down our debt.

• Lose 40 pounds or more so that I’m healthy and strong.

• Have a twenty year anniversary party with Michael celebrating our marriage together.

• Go to Disneyland again sometime this year and see the fireworks over the castle (pictured here) again.

May this and much more happen this year, and a wish that all of your New Year’s Resolutions come true as well.

• NewYears Party with my family. Good times! (@ off the grid) #

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This is an absolutely brilliant video from the TED conference by Dan Ariely. It is nearly 17 minutes long, but it is SO interesting!

Dan Ariely was burned over 70% of his body and the nurses insisted that pulling off the bandages quickly was the best way to treat him. They were wrong.

When Dan realized that we have many irrational things in our lives, he started looking at cheating, in particular, the Enron stock market fiasco. What he found was revolutionary.

His intuition about cheating was also very wrong. Rather than being affected by the amount you can benefit or the risk of being caught, it turns out that cheating is MUCH more complicated than we ever thought.

Here are the crib notes from the video:

• A lot of people cheat, but they only cheat by a little bit.
• When we remind people of their morality (either with the Ten Commandments or Honor Codes), they cheat less.
• When we get a larger distance from cheating (i.e. stealing a pencil VS. stealing a dime from petty cash), people cheat more.
• When we see cheating around us, particularly if it is done by someone in our immediate social group, we cheat more.

Because stocks and mortgage backed securities are so removed from money and “everyone” is doing it, it is very easy for financial disasters like Enron and the most recent banking crisis to happen.

Here is the best quote from the video:

It is very hard to believe that your intuition is wrong. We have very strong intuitions about all kinds of things, but unless we start testing those intuitions, we’re not going to do better. Just think how everything would be better if we just start doing more systematic experimentation of our intuitions.

The best seventeen minutes you’ll spend today will be watching this video from TED. Take the time to hear Dan Ariely out.

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• One of the creators of Bejeweled talks about puzzles. http://tinyurl.com/yjzkuvb #
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• On the bus. Delicious warmth! #

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The snow wasn’t so bad in South Jordan, but the closer we get to Salt Lake, the worse the snow gets. I’m sure I’ll be wishing for the car when the bus drops me off, but for now, I’m happy to let someone else drive.

Update 9:06 am: For the record, I DIDN’T wish for my car once I got off the bus. The roads are so bad in the city that cars were slipping all over the place! The walk to BetaLoft was cold, but barely any further than my parking place would have been. Public Transportation For The Win!!!

Now that Christmas is over, I need to change the greeting on my front door. Here is what I put up:

I don’t care for scrapbooking since I do all of that memory stuff digitally, but I do like playing with GIMP and making pretty things. This is about as ambitious as I get, though.

Feel free to download this and put it on your own door if you want!

This happened before my parents got divorced, so I was younger than ten years old. I grew up Jehovah’s Witness from the time I was four years old, so Christmas wasn’t a holiday that we celebrated. I had no memories of those few Christmas holidays that we did celebrate and even my last birthday party (held in secret so my father wouldn’t find out), was fading.

My mom, Stacey and I were at a party on Christmas Eve. A friend from my mom’s work was throwing the party and Mom wanted to drop by quickly to say hi to her. We were only going to stay a moment. I remember being worried that we might get “demonized” if we went to a Christmas party, but my mom said it was okay. We weren’t participating in it, so we would be safe.

We walked into the friend’s house from the cold and the noise knocked us over. There were tons of kids there, playing loudly. My mom said we were only going in for a minute, so don’t bother taking off your coat. Grownups always forget how long it takes to talk to somebody, however. I remember standing in the warm room with my coat on waiting for them to finish talking.

How come grownups can talk SO MUCH?!

It’s like they LIKE talking. I contemplated the idea that talking might not be as boring to grownups as it was to me when the mayhem started.

While I was sweltering in my winter coat next to the heat of a wood stove, the kids had all arranged themselves on the floor of the living room. Each child had a present in front of them. An adult counted down and all the kids immediately started ripping open their respective packages. Paper was flying with noisy disrespect for the beautiful wrapping. I watched in awe as the kids went from present to present, opening in a frenzy. They didn’t even stop to play with each toy. They just opened and opened and opened.

I felt like I was going to throw up.

You might think that I felt left out. All these children were opening gifts and I didn’t have anything. There are many times in my life that I felt left out because I was a Jehovah’s Witness, but this wasn’t one of those times.

I was disgusted (and probably a little overheated from the wood stove and my winter coat).

After the divorce, when we were able to have our own Christmas celebrations, our gift unwrapping was very different from that night. No matter how excited I got by all of my presents, I never let myself get into that frenzied mayhem of present unwrapping, partially out of disgust for what I saw that Christmas Eve, but mostly out of gratitude for all of those Christmases I missed.

• I just got a score of 373K on Bejeweled Blitz. My work here is done. #

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If this Christmas season has been a little much for you, here’s a Christmas song to cheer you up.

The Night Santa Went Crazy by Weird Al Yankovic

If that wasn’t good enough for you, how about this one?

Christmas At Ground Zero by Weird Al Yankovic

I love Christmas songs that are just a little different. I’ve been listening to Christmas at Ground Zero every year for about twenty years now. It’s a classic to me.

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I know this billboard is trying to teach parents about the dangers of underage drinking, but DAMN doesn’t that look like a fun new drinking game?!

Where can I get a human-sized Elizabethan collar?!!

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I love this costume made by Twin Roses Designs:

This prototype is actually for sale and you can buy it here:

• Women’s Clothing for Sale from Twin Roses Designs!

After a Steampunk Halloween, I am almost tempted to have a Steampunk Christmas!

My old friend Jere is going to law school in New York right now, so he was there for the huge snow storm that hit the East coast this week. This is my absolute favorite photo from his collection:

Click on it to see it full size. It’s just gorgeous!

You can see all the photos here:

• Snowpocalypse photos | Blind Prophecy

Here’s a fun thing from the Internet Archive: Internet Archive: Free Download: Busy Christmas

It’s fun to see the way Christmas was viewed in the past. The idea of waiting until Christmas Eve until they get the tree is surprising to me. My family always put up the tree on Thanksgiving. Of course, ours was an artificial tree, so it wouldn’t get all dry and fire hazardy over the month.

It was hard for me to watch the whole episode because Ozzy keeps getting Christmas obligations piled on him. I’m the kind of raunchy grump who would scare away too much responsibilities or just say no outright, so it was hard for me to watch Ozzy be such a push-over.

I love this little commercial for CBS from 1966.

My stomach turned when I saw the forest man with the saw approach the tree. Such a wonderful short!

Via: vintage_ads: Merry Christmas from CBS 1966

The wonderful three frames blog is celebrating Christmas with three-frame tidbits from a wide array of movies. This one, from White Christmas, is my favorite.

I love the look on Danny Kaye‘s face. So adorable! This three frame tidbit is taken from this Minstrel Number, which isn’t very Christmasy at all, despite the lovely costumes. Scroll to the 3:22 mark to see the three frames moment.

I’ve had a crush on Danny Kaye since he was on The Muppet Show and sang the song, Inch Worm.

He’s MUCH cuter in White Christmas…

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I have written a recap of the truth and fiction from my story, Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer. You can read it here:

• Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer: The Truth and Fiction – Steampunk Stories

Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer was born in the Denver Museum of Art. Last September, Mike, Stacey, Dan and I all visited Denver. While the three of them attended the iPhone Developers Conference, I toured the museums of Denver. I took in the exhibits alone, which is a surprising treat that I’m not accustomed to. I was able to stay as long or as little as I wanted at each showing. If they had been with me, I would have been rushed past the small odometer hiding in the back display cabinet and this story would have never been written.

I haven’t written another entry for Steampunk Stories, but I have a great one in mind, so I better get crackin’!

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I love this little gift box papercraft from Blackpio:

I printed it on an 8 1/2″ X 11″ piece of normal paper, which makes a small box, which is only three inches high. It really should be printed on cardstock so the handle is sturdy enough to handle the act of closing the box. I’m sure this would be a great box if it were printed on a larger piece of paper, but my printer only prints on 8 1/2″ X 11″.

So, I altered the pattern provided by Blackpio so that it could be printed on two sheets of paper and put together. Here’s what it looks like when it’s assembled.

You can download the altered pattern here:

• 2010 Calendar Gift Box White Page 1
• 2010 Calendar Gift Box White Page 2
• 2010 Calendar Gift Box Red Page 1
• 2010 Calendar Gift Box Red Page 2

This box is big enough to fit the lollipops that Mike and I make every year, so I think this is what we’ll use for our neighbor gifts this year!

Via: Blackpio 2010 Calendar Box Papercraft | Papercraft Paradise | PaperCrafts | Paper Models | Card Models

Jenny Bauman had a house built in Daybreak. It is the same design as the house Mike and I live in, so it feels like a video of OUR house being built.

Our House Being Built from Jenny Bauman on Vimeo.

Our house is the brown color the house was before the painting, so for a bit, it REALLY feels like our house.

Via: Facebook | Daybreak Status

No wonder I have been scared of primary colors for the last twenty years…

Doesn’t the little girl on the right look like Punky Brewster?! I SO wanted to be Punky Brewster…

Ad via: 1989 ad for Vivid laundry detergent – Found in Mom’s Basement

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I love these retro 1950’s illustrations brought to modern life in this commercial:

The best part is that there are a couple of different commercials for each drawing, so by the time the helium balloon sucking rendition of Deck the Halls came around, I was laughing out loud.

Via: Schweppes uses 1950s illustrations to create a funny, new TV campaign – Found in Mom’s Basement

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I love this photo from 1903:

It was part of this full page spread from the New York Tribune: Christmas tide is come again and Santa Claus holds the centre of the stage by The Library of Congress from Flickr

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Today, the final installment of Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer has posted on Steampunk Stories.

• Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer Part 1 of 6 – Steampunk Stories: In which the current location of Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer is revealed, despite its dangerous history.

• Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer Part 2 of 6 – Steampunk Stories: Frank McDonough Jr.’s Personal Journal dated May 10, 1869: In which Frank admits the jealous nature he feels toward the northern line and its supposed transcontinental status despite the gap at the Missouri River.

• Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer Part 3 of 6 – Steampunk Stories: Frank McDonough Jr.’s Personal Journal dated May 17, 1869: In which Frank describes his new odometer and its jealous nature.

• Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer Part 4 of 6 – Steampunk Stories: Frank McDonough Jr.’s Personal Journal dated May 24, 1869: In which a threat from Fig Andrews and the bridge builders on the northern line has Frank unsettled.

• Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer Part 5 of 6 – Steampunk Stories: Frank McDonough Jr.’s Personal Journal dated May 31, 1869: In which Frank reveals the amazing abilities the odometer has given him.

• Frank McDonough Jr.’s Odometer Part 6 of 6 – Steampunk Stories: Frank McDonough Jr.’s Personal Journal dated June 7, 1869: In which Frank reveals the jealous and dangerous nature of his precious odometer.

I hope you enjoy this story. It’s different than The Dowager Moncur’s Spectacles and I love how it turned out.

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In honor of my friend, Braidwood at Authentic Threads, I’ve decided to create a Cool Christmas Playlist. Since some of the songs were recommended by her last year, she might not have much use for it, but there might be a song or two there for her.

I generally don’t like Christmas music. There are only so many times I can hear We Wish You A Merry Christmas in a month before I start to get homicidal. I love unique Christmas songs, so I’m creating the coolest Christmas playlist EVAR.

Note: I’ve tried to link to Amazon.com MP3s for any that I could. If I couldn’t find them there, I’ve linked to iTunes (with a warning). If I couldn’t find it in either places, I’ve linked to an album at Amazon. Oh, and if you buy a song, I get a commission from Amazon or Apple.

• One Christmas Catalogue by Captain Sensible
• Santa’s Beard by They Might Be Giants
• Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues
• The Night Santa Went Crazy by Weird Al Yankovic
• Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade [iTunes]
• It Feels Like Christmas by The Muppets
• Green Christmas by Barenaked Ladies
• Last Christmas by Wham!
• Do They Know It’s Christmas? by Band Aid
• Christmas In America by Melissa Etheridge
• A New York Christmas by Rob Thomas
• 2000 Miles by The Pretenders
• Christmas Is The Time To Say “I Love You” by Billy Squier
• Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy by Bing Crosby/David Bowie
• Christmas in Prison by John Prine
• Christmas At Ground Zero by Weird Al Yankovic
• Run Rudolph Run by Brian Setzer
• Just Like Christmas by Low
• 25th of December by Everything But The Girl
• Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses
• Christmas Day by Squeeze
• Another Christmas Song by Stephen Colbert [iTunes]

I have lots more in my Cool Christmas playlist, but this list is already a little daunting. Hope you like it!

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You had me at chocolate covered bacon…

The monster truck crushing a racing car was just icing on the cake!

Via: IMGUR

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If you’re thinking of decorating for Christmas, take a hint from this photo from Fail Blog:

Mike and I have actually considered decorating the house for Christmas this year, but we haven’t touched the lights yet. Maybe we should just put up the tree and call it good there. Does the whole world really need to know that we celebrate Christmas?

Via: Your Weekly Treats « Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats – I Can Has Cheezburger?

I love this video from LOLCats:

Mike and I taught Sid this trick. He doesn’t do it quite as well as this cat, however. I’ll have to see if we can get him on film.

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