Why I Love Thanksgiving More Than Other Holidays

There are so many people who trash Thanksgiving for various reason.  Some attribute it to the taking of land from the Native Americans, while others post things like this.  Anyway, I love Thanksgiving more than other holidays because of a few F-Words.

1.  Food.  Of course this tops my list because I love to eat.  I love to mix my mashed potatoes with butter and gravy along with my buttery and salty corn.  I love brown sugar and butter mixed with yams to make sweet potatoes (slow and low simmer style).  I love homemade rolls with more butter.  Maybe it's the B-Word, BUTTER.  Turkey is okay too, but it's not really about the turkey.  Later, I love the pumpkin pie and a second round of all the fixings.  And maybe even later, I'll have a third round of the fixings.  And don't get me started on the leftovers on Friday.

2.  Family.  I actually do love my family.  The annoying ones are fun to watch and silently judge.  I'm such an ass, it doesn't bother me when they demand their way.  The loved ones I get to be with and enjoy.  The funny ones make me laugh and laugh along with my humor.  I just love family.

3.  Football.  There's always a game or two on Thanksgiving (or three this year).  What's great about the role football plays is how it prevents awkward silences.  It keeps things moving throughout the day.  Whether it's that time after the family sports competition or between meals or desserts, there's always a game on somewhere to break-up those times where we all run out of things to share with our family.

4.  Freedom.  This F-Word is a stretch, but it stands for the freedom in Thanksgiving to just enjoy the day without the stresses tradition brings in other holidays, where gift giving is required and expected.  Thanksgiving beats Christmas out in my holidays ranking list because I don't have to work on gift ideas for everyone I'm going to see.  The freedom to just enjoy the day and the people and the nourishment is what I love about Thanksgiving.

So here's my point:  ENJOY THANKSGIVING.  Be thankful for food, family, football, and freedom.  What more can we all be thankful for than these things.  What a great holiday.  What a great time of the year.

(For my Christian friends worried I'm not thankful for God's provision and in love with Christmas because we can celebrate Christ...settle down ya zealots.  The Father and Faith are also F-Words.)

My YouTube History...Because I Don't Have Time To Blog 3 (Vacation Tweets Edition)

I was on vacation this last week and I got through a log of reading from the blogs I follow.  I also saw a lot of funny videos, I thought I'd share.  Here we go with another installment of "My YouTube History".

Didn't know about this side of Brian. "Brian Williams interview on David Letterman" http://t.co/wlTQNNNEFC via @youtube
— Jimmy the Gun (@jimmythegun) July 17, 2014

Exclusive "Weird Al" Yankovic Music Video: FOIL (Parody of "Royals" by Lorde) http://t.co/vgIFClEjsN via @youtube
— Jimmy the Gun (@jimmythegun) July 16, 2014

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Word Crimes http://t.co/0xb7l3fkHU via @youtube
— Jimmy the Gun (@jimmythegun) July 15, 2014

"Heaven" by @depechemode using Garage Band for iOS. http://t.co/2YzATxJqxs
— Jimmy the Gun (@jimmythegun) July 14, 2014

No, not really. "Leaked Star Wars Episode VII Filmset Footage! http://t.co/jZc0rYNtBe via @youtube"
— Jimmy the Gun (@jimmythegun) July 11, 2014

Toy Wars http://t.co/NQzJnnuRwM via @youtube
— Jimmy the Gun (@jimmythegun) July 8, 2014

Amazing. Haha. "How To Make A Hit Pop Song http://t.co/vaKPD88KZV via @youtube"
— Jimmy the Gun (@jimmythegun) June 28, 2014

Cello Wars...cheesy but good (VIDEO)

This is Cello Wars.

Yes, it's cheesy.  But I think I'm more entertained by this guys ability to incorporate multiple parts of John Williams music from across the franchise.

The Star Wars That I Used To Know (VIDEO)

This is really funny for us Original Star Wars fans.  It's Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" redone to complain about how lame George Lucas is for making Episodes 1-3 in the way he did.


If you haven't seen Gotye's original, here it is:

Happy 35th Birthday Star Wars (VIDEO)

Today, Star Wars turns 35 years old.  I wanted to take this opportunity to show the original trailer.


Now, I also wanted to remind everyone who says they grew up with Star Wars, and specifically those who recall seeing it in the theater, that you have to be at least 35 years old to say that...and probably more like 40 years old to say you actually remember the theater experience.  That doesn't mean you are less of a fan; you might even be a bigger fan because you choose to lie about seeing a move that came out before you were born or had the memory capacity to recall seeing it in the theater.  Anyway, this trailer makes it look so much darker and mysterious than it is.  Too bad the guy who put that trailer together didn't make Episodes 1-3.

These Kids Can Play...and the Millennium Falcon

These are some talented kids.  You know what I got out of this video?  There is a huge Millennium Falcon in the background.

Kinect Star Wars...Yeah, I Need An XBOX Now (VIDEO)

So it may be time for me to get an XBOX.  Wait and you'll see why.

Thanks @shirleyface.

Star Trek Is Better Than Star Wars...Says William Shatner

Star Trek is better than Star Wars.  Captain Kirk explains why.

He actually makes some really good points and I tend to agree.  It is a superior franchise, with better stories, told with more drama, better writing, and believable situations...well believable for the future.  The science in Star Trek is better.

Anyway, Bill explains it much better.



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Star Wars The Old Republic Trailer

A trailer for the upcoming Star Wars The Old Republic game came out.  This game is going to be similar to the World of Warcraft MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), where nerds will begin living life inside this computer game, as characters from the Star Wars story line.


It might be time to return to the world of gaming.  Here's what the game play looks like.


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Star Wars Episode 1-3 Told Well...With Legos...in 2:21 mins

Better than what Lucas did.


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Stats Suck Sunday...But These Videos Don't

Stats Suck Sunday was started by someone, not me.  I just used it today as an excuse to post a bunch of fun, funny, cool, or crazy videos.  Sit back and enjoy.

Jedi Gym - Sit through this, it has a surprising ending.


The Great Fan Escape


Thriller 'a capella'


A Girl Rockin' the Guitar


Frisbee Goodness



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One Man, His Piano, and Apparently The Force

First, John Williams is amazing.  The theme song to Star Wars is a really great piece of music.  It's dramatic, powerful, memorable, and enjoyable.  Now, as a musician and a pianist, I can say that Star Wars would be impossible to play on a piano with all of the drama, power, and full sound this orchestral piece has.  Well, at least I would have said that until I saw this video:

OH. MY. GOODNESS.  This guy can play the piano, or at least the theme to Star Wars.  I actually didn't know this was possible for one person to play this well and full.  There is so much going on in this song, that I didn't think one person could pull it off, at least on a piano, all at the same time.  I guess I was wrong.

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VW's "The Force" Spoofed

Not great, but funny enough.


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VW's "The Force" Commercial With Extras

This was one of my favorite commercials from the Super Bowl, and now here is an extended version with deleted scenes and extras.


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Star Wars and VW Together

Two things I love are coming together, Star Wars and Volkswagen.


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Star Wars: The Old Republic

MMO stands for Massively-Multiplayer Online Game. Games like World of Warcraft are very popular with nerds around the world.  I recently heard about Star Wars: The Old Republic.

This is an interesting and large game.  The website for the game has classes on all sorts of aspects of the game play.  It's a little overwhelming.  Here is a trailer on the game.

I've had an idea for a while about an MMO that was based on normal life.  It would allow people to play roles in the game that they may fantasize about in real life; things like stealing cars, being a cop and chasing bad guys, owning a club, becoming mayor, etc.

Check out more about the game at http://www.swtor.com


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A Funny Follow-up to Darth Vader's Day in the News

On July 24th, Darth Vader had a big news day.  If you don't remember, check it out here first.  Here is a follow-up video to the one posted on the 24th:

Darth Vader Is In The News Today

Darth Vader apparently purchased an iPhone 4.  And while he is the dark lord, he doesn't seem to be able to get much out of Apple either.  Take a look:

Because of this, Darth got so upset he decided to rob a bank today.  See the story here.

A Pet I Could Keep

I really don't like pets.  Animals are dirt, smelly, hairy, and generally too much work.  BUT, this AT-AT could work.

Apple Does It AGAIN!!!! I Could Cuss. iPhone 4 Signal Issues.

Picture taken from CrunchGear

First of all, if you are an Apple Fanboy, don't bother commenting on this blog post unless it is to agree with me about the iPhone 4's faulty design.

Now, how does a wealthy company, whose arrogance about doing things the right way by picking and choosing the best direction for the future (i.e. HTML5), design a phone with an antenna issue like the one of the iPhone 4? If you haven't already heard via the national news sources, the web, or someone you know who has purchased the iPhone 4, there is an issue with the antenna. If you hold the phone in your left hand and cover the lower left corner of the phone, you will lose signal strength, enough to drop calls or stop a download.



Engadget's Story here.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog's (TUAW) Story here.

And then, when Apple realize the issue with it (I'm sure during the R&D phase), they designed a bumper case, pretended during the announcement of the phone the external antenna design is revolutionary , and then Steve Jobs said, "Just don't hold it that way."  The problem I have is that they obviously knew this was a defect in design before it ever came to market. The bumper case was out and leaked before the reveal, which is obviously an immediate fix for the antenna issue. Also, it's not like they were not testing the phone out in the wild (remember the Gizmodo story). This is the job of R&D. And Steve's horrible response via email is the best they were prepared with?

Don't hold the phone the way you've always held a phone? This reminds me of the kind of crap Apple produced just before they almost went completely under, flawed products they refused to think were the result of their poor work.  I'm no lawyer, but I see a class action suit hitting. And, although they can afford it and will probably end up issuing the bumper case as the fix to every purchaser, they could have avoided ALL of this bad press, the need to ship everybody cases, and a flawed design by fixing this in development.

This is causing me to do further research into other phones. I've been reading posts about the HTC EVO 4G on Sprint. I've been watching all the evolutions of the Droid phone, knowing George Lucas wouldn't mind some more of my money (he has the rights to the name "Droid"). I've been thinking of dumbing down my information overload, maybe with an old flip phone. What's Nextel doing these days?  LOL.

I did love my iPhone for a while.  But even now, with the iOS 4 update slowing my phone to a crawl, I don't know anymore.  Apple forgets about their customers after their purchases are made.  And now they hide a known issue until 1.5 million people give their hard earned money to the company.  It's crazy.