Awesome deals

Via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books:

At the moment, Amazon has Firefly for $5.99 (88% off!), and Serenity for the same price (only 54% but still)

and also the HP 8-movie collection for $39.99 (49% off)

No idea how long these will last but it might be relevant to some of y'alls' interests.

SBTB is also doing a series of daily giveaways for Thanksgivukkah, and today's giveaway includes a $50 amazon giftcard nom.

December daily meme - 01

master post here, still taking prompts!

01: how soon is too soon for Christmas decorations in a) shops and b) people's houses / gardens, and do you care?

Shops: No sooner than a month before Christmas. I know that they want to sell As Much As Possible Zomg, but really the whole trend of "it's September, here, have some Christmas stuff next to the Halloween stuff" drives me batshit. And that's for having a section of Christmas stuff -- with an exception made if necessary for places that keep holiday items in stock year-round, though I don't know whether those exist.

Christmasifying stores and playing obnoxious pop carols over the sound system ought, in a proper world, never to happen; but since it does, two weeks before at the very least. And I feel so, so sorry for retail workers that have to put up with that shit during all of their working hours (and without going into a frothing rage and hacking the loudspeakers to pieces).

Houses and gardens: Depends on what. Lights along the roof edge, you can get away with a lot earlier. Actual holiday stuff? Not before December. I get a little less frothy about personal homes than about stores, but it is utterly, utterly wrong to have it up before December.

In an ideal world, of course, there would be a societally acceptable boundary between religious Christmas (celebrating the birth of Jesus, and only really relevant to Christian religions) and secular Christmas (bright lights and warm drinks and presents and eggnog -- and, at least in the Northern hemisphere, snow). A separation, even, that extends to being a completely different date. Maybe secular Christmas, which needs a different name, could be on the solstice, or could cohabitate the New Year boundary.

In which case items and decorations relating to religious Christmas, which would hopefully be less pushed upon the masses in general, would start with Advent and end with Epiphany; and items and decorations relating to secular not-Christmas could maybe get away with starting mid-November because cold, and could run through December and then ... stop.

Or maybe continue in lieu of Valentine's Day stupidities.

life with cat

Cat: Oh hey there is a plate with turkey remnants! I will go onto the Forbidden Table and partake of this feast!
Human: OFF!
Cat: But... but...
Human: *louder shout plus thwack of backscratcher against table*
Cat: Oh, FINE. *jumps off and saunters away*

Repeat a few times, because Human is particularly slow.

Finally, Human gets out the Spray Bottle Of Doom.

Cat: *sits on floor, gazing at table*
Human: Don't even think about it.
Cat: Wasn't.
Human: Do you see this? *wiggles SBOD*
Cat: I'm OFFENDED that you would even THINK that of me.
Human: *glares warningly*
Cat: *licks genitals*

Of course, a watched cat pot never misbehaves boils, so after Cat wanders off, Human sets the spray bottle on the table pointing in the direction of the turkey plate, and wanders off to resume watching of last week's Sleepy Hollow.

To the surprise of no one who has ever owned a cat, not two minutes later:

Cat: Aha! The Table is unsupervised!
Human: *hears suspicious noises and turns*
Cat: Om nom nom turkey scraps!
Human: *squirt in face*
Cat: OH HOLY FUCK WHAT WAS THAT NOOOOO *flees*
Human: *possibly giggles just a little bit*
Cat: I was done with it anyway. *licks fur furiously*

She is now sulking at me. Heee.

Duolinguo update

Spanish stats: 103 day streak (!!), 666 words (lolz)

I still can't really hold a conversation, mind you, nor do I know tenses other than simple present. But, yanno. It's still something.