ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas 2009 Schedule

The schedule has finally been made available… Just ONE DAY before it starts. =/ I’m sure they’ll be padding the days with tons of those lame direct-to-video/cable Christmas movies, so be sure to check out www.ABCFamily.com for a more detailed rundown, but here are the highlights:

12/01
THE YEAR WITHOUT SANTA CLAUS
SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE

12/02
PIXAR SHORT FILMS (a 2 hour collection featuring tons of Pixar’s shorts)

12/03
THE POLAR EXPRESS

12/04
FROSTY’S WINTER WONDERLAND
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (Okay, SERIOUSLY, how is Harry Potter a Christmas movie/event ?!)

12/05
MICKEY’S ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS
RICHIE RICH’S CHRISTMAS WISH
THE DOG WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
HOME ALONE 3

12/06
MICKEY’S TWICE UPON A CHRISTMAS
A DENNIS THE MENACE CHRISTMAS
NAUGHTY OR NICE
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

12/07
‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
CRANBERRY CHRISTMAS
UNACCOMPANIED MINORS
JACK FROST (Rankin Bass)

Louie the Lightning Bug had a Christmas special!

Well, it’s not really a Christmas special but a Christmas PSA. Death By Electrocution never takes a holiday and thankfully Louie the Lightning Bug is here to remind of us that.

I’ve had the original Louie the Lightning Bug PSA seared into my brain since I was a kid but I’ve never seen this one before until just recently. Or at least I don’t remember ever seeing it. I’m sure it ran nonstop during Saturday morning cartoons in December in the ’80s. Perhaps during those commercial breaks in which it aired I was always too busy in the kitchen filling up my bowl with Christmas Crunch.

Happy Thanksgiving (Turkey Handprint BONUS)

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope all is well. I had to work all day, but at least I was able to relax this evening with a roast (I’m not a turkey fan), coffee and pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, I did it all alone but that’s the price you pay when you’re in retail and you want to not work Christmas.

Anyway, I couldn’t think of anything cool to do for a post today (or perhaps I’m just lazy), so I did a simple timeless craft: the handprint turkey!

Yeah, I went old school. Elementary school to be exact. Haven’t done one of these in about 20 years but it’s a fun as ever. And at least I finally got some use out of this professional color pencils set I got for Christmas from my cousins 10 years ago or so (thus proving my theory that if you hold onto something long enough, eventually you will need it).

What do you think? I haven’t decided if he’s a punk rock turkey or a clown turkey.

My Pal 2 can do it all.

Back when I did those robot posts (Volume I and Volume II, respectively), My Pal 2 was the one robot on my mind but for the life of me I could not remember his name. I searched tons of toy robots sites hoping a picture or name would point me in the right direction, but I came up empty handed. Not that it would have mattered, because My Pal 2 is an early ’90s too, but still it was a toy robot that I’ve always remembered. By chance, I came across this commercial and now I’m sharing it on the blog.

He looks exactly as how I remembered him and I remember this commercial as well. I can’t remember if I actually asked for a My Pal 2. I’m thinking he came out in 1992 and by that point it was getting to be a little embarrassing to play with so many toys. Especially a very kiddie-oriented robot. Nevertheless, once I got the toy for Christmas, I had fun with him. Despite all of the hype in the commercial of the multitude of tasks he could perform with you and for you, if you did it once, you did it a thousand times. Not a whole lot of replay value here (though the ball throwing was pretty cool and so was tickling). Perhaps if he was designed more like a giant robot action figure, keeping all the other electronic features, I would’ve gotten more use out of him.

By the way, has anyone ever heard of the original My Pal? I’m assuming there was an original. While we’re on the subject, there were a lot of ’80s toy robots that got the “II” or “2″ distinction where I never even knew of the supposed originals!

Cool shot man!

PS3 is awesome.

Yes, I know that may not not exactly be news to most people, but to me it is because I just bought my PlayStation 3 two weeks ago. I’m out of the Wii Dark Ages and into modern gaming. Look, I have no qualms with the Wii. The Virtual Console is great and there’s been lots of fun games for the system, but sometimes I want to kill someone, I want to hear cursing, I want to see blood and I want a dear near cinematic experience. Can’t get on 99.3% of Nintendo Wii games (though I do appreciate the efforts of MadWorld and No More Heroes).

I’ve been monitoring PS3/Xbox 360 games from afar since the systems arrived, so my list of games I want is quite large because I’m so far behind. Luckily, by this point, many of those games are fairly cheap. Here’s what I’ve picked up since getting the system:

Army of Two – Fantastic game featuring a pair of mercenaries (an army of two, if you will). I haven’t played it much, but I really like it and all the weapons upgrades you can do. It’s really more to play with a friend, but so far, I’m having no problems giving the orders and letting my computer partner follow through on them. Can’t wait to try it online.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – One of the first PS3 games released, so I was able to pick it up cheap. It’s full of gorgeous scenery, great voice acting and a truly cinematic feel. As for gameplay, basically, this is an updated take on Tomb Raider… but only 100x better. As much as I like getting into gunfights with the pirates, it’s the running/jumping/climbing portions of the game that I enjoy best. The sequel just came out, but I need to get through this one first.

Batman: Arkham Asylum - One of the main reasons I had an interest in the PS3. This is another beautiful game and it’s great to have Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles from the ’90s Batman: The Animated Series show. Too bad they didn’t get the rest of the cast in on this game. Surprisingly creepy at times, but always fun. The game makes great use of “those wonderful toys” that Batman has. One of the best games I’ve played in years and definitely the best superhero game. They need to fast track a sequel!

Grand Theft Auto IV – I’ve played this game the least but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy it, I’ve just gotten really wrapped up in Uncharted and Batman. Yes, it’s cool to see GTA done this beautifully, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that it is just an upgraded GTA III. IGN.com gave it a 10 (something they rarely do) and while I wouldn’t go that far, it’s still a really good game. Hopefully GTA 5 will give us a return to San Andreas or even Vice City (or maybe even a new town) because Liberty City is kinda boring to look at even on the PS3.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/GTAIV_Logo.jpg