A Small Victory

everything and nothing

I had another one of those nights where my dreams exhausted me. I woke up tired and groggy and unwilling to get out of bed. I had to lay there for a while and separate my dream life from my real life. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between the two, especially when the dream keeps coming back to me in flashes and I have to think hard on whether that flash was an actual memory or part of a dream.

Anyhow.

I was watching the news last night, a local station, and they were doing a piece on Christmas toys. They touched on the "Dirty Dozen" toys, toys cited for their promotion of violence. Among the toys were several action figures taken from video games. Video games that have "M" ratings. I think most people buying Gundam and Metal Gear Solid toys are older people who collect action figures rather than play with them. Which is all besides the point here because, not two minutes later, the station ran a piece on the comeback of G.I. Joe. The newscaster raved about the figure and its accessories. He interviewed parents in toy stores, and beamed when the parents held up the G.I. Joe toys they were purchasing, spouting of words like "patriotism" and "pride." Little kids held their figures aloft, and mommy and daddy beamed at how their kids were identifying with the soldiers.

In my book, there's not much difference between Snake and G.I. Joe. You mean to tell me it's ok to promote violence as long as that violence is a war to defend your country? That Rock-em Sock-em robots should be banned but Joe should be under every kids tree? I'm getting the message here that the violence of war is not really viewed as violence at all, but as an act of patriotism.

Random musings:

Got my secret santa yesterday and already bought her a present! I can't wait to see who my secret santa is.

Also got this week's Blogger Insider email. My partner is the very interesting Karla of red hair and freckles. I'll be composing my questions to her today.

For days I have been meaning to tell you to go over to Ian's site and check out the mp3's of his band, The Hills Have Eyes. This is not a garage band. These are seasoned professional musicians who kick all kinds of ass.

Meet Adam, the newest addition to the sidebar, who I found through my comments. He is invisible when turned sideways. Beat that.

Shel has something special up his sleeve today for his blogaversary. It's not up as of this hour, so I can't blog about it yet, but I will. It's going to be something very good-hearted that I want you all to take part in, so please go check his site later. Thanks.

I suppose I can't procrastinate on getting this day started any longer. I have no desire to deal with people today. I am cranky, tired, crampy and bloated. My hair will not behave, my pants will not feel comfortable, my head will not stop pounding and I have to have lunch today with a bunch of squawking chickens. I'm either going to appear here tonight, ranting about the horrendous day I had, or I will be in jail for commiting murder by stoning several women to death with hardened sugar cookies. Have a nice day, ok?