Solonor's Inkwell

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I like to grog the nog, but I prefers me some liquified chocolatey goodness. No marshmallows (unless they’re those little baby ones like in Swiss Miss Instant Cocoa).
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? What kind of preverted Santa leaves presents without the fun of 3 miles of wrapping paper and 10 lbs of tape on each package?
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Either one, as long as they’re not blinking.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Only for hanging offenses. Otherwise, it’s totally jail time.
5. When do you put up your decorations? If we’re on our game, we do it Thanksgiving weekend (otherwise it’s down to the wire)…and they stay up until Valentine’s Day! Currently, the tree has a chicken, a rat, a dragon and a Fraggle on it, but that’s it.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? You people eat something other than dessert during Christmas? Sickos.
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: Waking up in the middle of the night and while everyone was asleep seeing the presents under the tree and looking out the window at the moonlight on the snow to see if there were any sleigh tracks.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth? Wait! Don’t tell me! He’s Jewish?
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? NEVER!!
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? I don’t. My daughter does.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Having not seen any in quite a while, I would have to say that it would be nice for a change.
12. Can you ice skate? I used to be able to…it’s been a while…
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? This could get into a whole long thing about favorite toys from childhood, but the first thing that popped into my head was my Steve Austin Six Million Dollar Man van and accessories.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with family (can’t improve on Don’s answer).
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pumpkin pie!
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Ok, we’ve got a weird one…
On Christmas Eve as a kid, we always took a drive to see the Christmas lights on the houses. We continued that tradition with our kids, but once we got active in our church a few years ago, we found ourselves spending the early evening in the service. By the time we got out, we hadn’t had supper and nothing was open for restaurants. So, we stopped at 7-11 and loaded up on junk food.

Now, this has become our Christmas Eve tradition!!

I’m totally serious! If we tried to have a nice meal instead of our convenience store junk food binge on Christmas Eve, we would (and have) had a serious revolt on our hands.
17. What tops your tree? An angel, usually
18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? Giving, for sure. My dad always played Santa at the tree, handing out presents one-at-a-time, while everyone looked to see what each person got. I have that role in our family now, and it would be (and has been) another revolt if the order of things is suggested to be changed.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Sleigh Ride by the Boston Pops (with whip crack!)
20. Candy Canes!? Meh. They’re ok.
21. What is your wish for Christmas? Safety… for our troops abroad… for my family… for my friends. (again, thanks Don)

[ via Don ]

Oh my freaking hell I love this show!

Anywho, along with watching the darn thing, I’ve also learned that the official mini graphic novels on the NBC site are more than just a cute extra. They actually fill in plot lines. So, if you’re like me (and, sadly, some of you are), you need to read those. (Besides, they’re supposed to keep making them each Monday even while the show is on hiatus until *wah* January 22.)

Another cool thing with the show is the bazillion-and-a-half theories it spawns about why things are happening (like Hiro’s time-travel bit…can he change the past? did he change the past? but what about the photo? and everyone’s memories?). Well, I found that you can get hints about answers (if not the answers themselves) if you read the weekly chat with the Heroes writers at Comic Book Resources. The archives are at the bottom of this week’s article to which I linked.

I love this answer from the November 27 session (before we knew about Christopher Eccleston coming on as an invisible man):

Now, considering Peter Petrelli wrestled with Sylar in “Homecoming,” didn’t he absorb some of Sylar’s abilities? Wouldn’t that give him some clues as to the full range of Sylar’s capabilities? And can you clue us in when Peter will better learn the extent of his powers?

That logic seems pretty sound to us – and who’s to say he didn’t absorb some of that power already (either Sylar’s a terrible shot, or Peter had some other help in fending off those flying locker doors.) As for a clue – Peter will meet someone in January who will help him understand the extent of his abilities. Who, you ask? Exactly.

I’ve seen this LibraryThing before. It’s where you sign up to catalog your books. Then, if you ask, it will give you suggestions of books from other folks’ collections that you might like, too. For example, if I plug in Jeff Shaara’s The Glorious Cause, I get Shaara’s Rise to Rebellion and Angel in the Whirlwind by Benson Bobrick, among others.

Well, what if I don’t want to be suggested at? Who’s going to give me a list of the books I don’t want to read?

Turns out, it’s one-stop shopping! They have an un-suggester, too!

For the same book, my un-suggestions include Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, and Do androids dream of electric sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

Gah! Now, I gotta go figure out why!

Found out more info on Christopher Eccleston’s upcoming character. This is from the 9thwonders site:

Claude, an invisible man played by British actor Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who), appears January 22. “He’s been living with his invisibility for many years and has come to grips with it, so he’ll give us a different view into this hero world,” [Heroes creator Tim] Kring explains. “He’s big, imposing and charismatic, and will become a mentor to Peter – albeit a tough, reluctant and stern one. He’ll help Peter learn to use and control his powers.”

I can’t wait!

And isn’t it totally awesome that his name will be Claude… I assume in homage to Claude Rains, the original invisible man.

Here’s a nifty little map that shows Hate Groups by State.

SCORE: Florida – 50, Maine – 0

I also noticed that the other states with zero were North Dakota, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Mexico and Hawaii. Apparently, hate groups don’t like cold weather. Or island paradises. Or New Mexicans.

[ via SEB ]