Category: Real Life

Posted in Brain Dump, Real Life, TV, video

Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?

Posted on by The Jody

I’ve decided to finally wade into the whole “is die hard to Christmas movie” thing. I had never seen the entire movie, so friends and family arranged for a viewing party. I can now have an opinion on this topic.

Before getting to my hot take, let me state I understand these things can be subjective. Your experiences shape your perception, and a huge number of people consider it a “Christmas movie” based on those experiences. To me, the key is differentiating between a “Christmas movie” and a “Christmas tradition.”

A Christmas movie should be about Christmas. The primary plot or plot-drivers are Christmas-based, whether it’s about the traditional nativity story, Santa, celebrating the holiday(s) or the more difficult to pin down “Spirit of Christmas”.

Leonard Maltin said cannot just be set at Christmas, it has to be about the Spirit of Christmas. Others say they should be movies the whole family can watch together, which clearly this one isn’t, but we’ll leave that aside for this discussion.

Die Hard is a movie set on Christmas Eve, with all the holiday decor and music. There is a big holiday office party (which would never ever ever happen on Christmas Eve but that’s for another essay) but it’s not about Christmas. They could have set it in June and you would only need to change the reason for the office party and why John was traveling to CA. There are all kinds of Christmas visuals and references, such as the name Hans Gruber being painfully close to the name of Silent Night composer Franz Gruber. They are great, but don’t make the move about Christmas. It’s about robbery, violent killings and the need to NEVER TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!

Now, everything I just said does not negate the fact that the movie is a beloved Christmas tradition for tens of thousands of Americans. And those folks insist it is a Christmas movie. However, just because something is one of your holiday traditions doesn’t make it a Christmas movie. Countless Americans watched The Sound of Music with their families every December, thanks to the network that owned the rights. Plenty of folks still consider it a Christmas movie because of that, but obviously it’s not.

I watch Little Women every Christmas season. Because of that I think of it as a Christmas movie, but really it’s not. While a few scenes are set at Christmas, the primary plot isn’t Christmas-specific.

When we were young, my sister considered Neil Diamond’s 12 Greatest Hits a Christmas record because we would pull it out and listen to it in December. That timing imprinted on her, and one time she referred to it as a Christmas album. Clearly it’s not, but decades later we refer to it as a Christmas album to tease her. (She’ll be pleased I included this anecdote, but it’s important to illustrate my point.) While you can call anything a Christmas [thing] if that’s how you think of it, it doesn’t make it objectively true.

In conclusion, Die Hard is a Christmas tradition, but it isn’t a Christmas Movie. If it’s yours, by all means seek it out and watch it every December. Keep (or make) your holiday traditions as best you can, and watch anything that makes you happy, whenever and wherever you’d like.

Yippee-ki-yay to all, and to all a good night!

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Posted in Real Life, stuff

Worst Beverage Ever

Posted on by The Jody

There’s a recipe going around the Internet for what everyone things is a disgusting drink. You read it and your head kind of explodes a little.

So we have to make it, right? Only three ingredients!

2 Cans condensed beef broth

1 cup ginger ale

2T lemon juice

It looks like a practical joke, no? We decided to halve the recipe and I made Tom and our friend Tim try it before dinner so we could “get it out of the way.”

It was, in a word, awful. Undrinkable the way the ocean is undrinkable. that “beef” flavor is very chemical-y and the salt – holy shit so much salt.

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Cake with vanilla frosting in a tin cake pan. 3 pieces missing
Posted in Podcast, Real Life

More Weird Food on the Podcast

Posted on by The Jody

This one is too good to not share. I made a Pork and Beans Cake for my podcast, Adventures in Jodysitting. You should go listen, and then you can make your own by skipping over to Allrecipes.

I don’t want to put words in the mouths of the folks who ate it (you can hear them in the episode) but most of the people who tried it finished their pieces, and that’s praise enough for me.

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Real Life, stuff, The Internet

Animal Crossing and Me: Part 2

Posted on by The Jody

Just as I’ve felt about some neighbors everywhere I’ve ever lived, there are some Animal Crossing residents I would prefer up and move off my island.

The residents fall into one of 8 personality types, and whole groups of animals are classified as either “snooty” or “cranky”.  I am not a fan of those, and when a snooty resident tells me she’s moving my response is “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

Sometimes a resident will annoy me because I don’t like their catchphrase, or how they refer to me.  I have one resident, Cashmere, who I wanted out because we just didn’t click. Her house was decorated with grandma Laura Ingalls vibe. She seemed to me to be a little old lady, walking around with her purse and glasses on the end of her nose, giving me advice I didn’t ask for. I think what annoyed me the most is constantly telling me anyone staying inside was wasting the day. During this pandemic, when staying inside saves lives, this was unusually grating.

One night I noticed she was in her house, so I went in.  In AC, when a resident in in their house crafting something, they offer you a copy of the recipe so you can make it too. When first I went in I thought, “What kind of item could someone like grandma Cashmere possibly be crafting?”

What I should probably mention for context is that at some point since I started playing, I decided to dedicate one room of my home as a toilet room. Not a bathroom (though it is) but a room full of toilets. At the time I went into Cashmere’s house, I had 7 toilets including a standing toilet, a urinal and a litter box.

Imagine my utter surprise when Cashmere told me she was crafting a gold toilet, and would I like the recipe? A solid gold toilet, the Trump Tower-esque potty of my dreams, a thing I knew existed but didn’t possess.  I had completely misjudged Cashmere, and weirdly (because it’s just a video game) I was embarrassed by it.  That is how Cashmere helped me add a rare toilet to my toilet room, and I suddenly had newfound respect for her.

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Ignore the bed in the corner. My house lost ratings points because it didn’t have a bed so I decided this was the perfect spot for it.

Later that night, after all my friends had stopped by to get their own copies of the recipe, I went back into Cashmere’s house to see if she was still crafting. While I stood there she went over to her record player and started to sing along with the music that was playing, something I don’t think I had ever seen before. It was so lovely and sweet that I realized if Cashmere ever tells me she’s thinking of leaving, I’m going to tell her to stay.

Please, everyone, enjoy my new friend Cashmere.

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Posted in Real Life, stuff, The Internet

Animal Crossing and Me, Part 1

Posted on by The Jody

I have been playing Animal Crossing since  it was first available for the GameCube in 2002. I still have the memory card with my saved game on it, and Animal Crossing (along with Ty the Tasmanian Tiger) is the reason I still have my GameCube.

I have owned every version – Wild World (Nintendo DS), City Folk (Wii) and New Leaf, for which I had to buy a 3DS.  I got my Switch early on and just kept waiting for news of a new Animal Crossing.

My experience playing this version of Animal Crossing is fairly different – not because of changes (and improvements) to the game’s structure/design, which has happened with every release to date, but because online play has changed it completely from my previous experiences, which were very solitary single-player games. Sure, with the 3DS my son and his friend could visit my island, but that only happened when we were all in the same place. The other versions were mostly just me doing chores, paying off my mortgage and running errands for my neighbors. Yes, Bob, I can get you an orange but you are LITERALLY standing under an orange tree. Just reach up and pick one!

What is different about New Horizons? I no longer play the game by myself. A group of fellow JocoCruise-ers created an Animal Crossing FaceBook group and now very day we all check in, and post if there are things of interest happening on our islands. Typical info shared is the going rate for turnips, or the limited purchase item at Nooks. We let each other know when our gates are open for visitors.  I now have dozens of AC friends from my cruise (who I may or may not have ever met on the boat) who I can visit or have visit me.  You need a specific fossil to finish your collection? Just post to the group and someone either stop by to drop it off, or they will mail one to you. Sets and tasks that would have taken me months or years to complete in previous versions of the game are near completion because of the wild volume of co-op play happening in the game. 

While I do worry this new way of playing will burn me out faster than any other version of Animal Crossing because we’ll start to lack specific goals, what I don’t think I’ll burn out on is the community we created. In my case, I am a member of the JocoCruise/AC community, and also a community  of fans of the My Brother, My Brother and Me (MBMBaM) podcast. And other folks belong to other similar communities all over the world. People are throwing weddings, birthday parties and graduations, all online, all simulated in Animal Crossing. The “Graduation Together” TV special shown on all four broadcast networks featured Kumail Nanjiami’s giving an Animal Crossing graduation address.

Even if you can’t afford or choose to not purchase the online option required to play with other humans, you still have 10 animal friends living in your village. Some may be crankier than others, but every single one of them is delighted to talk to you. Even the crankiest residents randomly compliment you, or provide positive and uplifting messages. For anyone who might have a hard time connecting with other people in real life, especially now that we are all forced into a type of solitary confinement,  there is always a resident in the game who is happy to know you, who will mail you letters and gifts, and who will stand with you on the beach while you make wishes on shooting stars.  

Even the most jaded among us needs friends like that right now, and Animal Crossing provides them. 

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