Indigo Fail II: Close but no cigar.

She remembered, as every sensible person does, that you should never never shut yourself up in a wardrobe.

 C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Hello again, Indigo.  So I thought to myself, "Wait, maybe they have all of those Narnia books for sale online.  That would be cool, because really, I did like the cover art."

Unfortunately not, as it turns out, but I feel I should point out that Pauline Baynes illustrated the Narnia books rather than wrote them, although I'm sure she'd appreciate the vote of confidence if she were still alive.

I'm a bit sad that no one at Indigo has noticed that this is wrong. It's understandable to me that the people entering data into the catalogue don't necessarily need to know anything about literature, but surely there must be some kind of approval process in place - hopefully involving someone who is paying attention and cares about this sort of thing.

Or not.

- Sid

Indigo Fail I: All for one, one for all.

Hello, Indigo.  Just a quick note - if you want to tempt me into spending $42 on replacing my beloved 37 year old boxed set of Narnia books, which are sadly suffering from split spines and loose pages, you need to have all seven books for sale, not just four.

- Sid

P.S. And you can't even blame this on people buying books because of movies, because then Prince Caspian wouldn't be available, and The Horse and His Boy would.

So there.

Geekmas 2017: And to all a good night.

 

It's an interesting exercise to make a list of shopping suggestions for Christmas.  On one hand, it's just a practical thing to do.  People are often at a loss when it comes to choosing gifts for the holiday season, and being able to anonymously read a list of affordable suggestions helps to take guesswork out of the process. 

On the other hand, it closes the door on creativity:  here's the list, choose an option.  But even if someone doesn't want to buy something from the list, it points them in the right direction, just in case they were entertaining ideas involving, I don't know, sports tickets or bottles of top shelf tequila.

With those two options on the table, the most unexpected result is C, none of the above. Karli and I went to a pre-Christmas get-together at her father and stepmother's on the 23rd, and although I was grateful for the gifts I received, they were a bit generic in nature:  socks, gift cards, chocolate, a cell phone charging shelf, and so on.  Given that this was exactly the sort of situation for which I'd created my list, it was a bit of a letdown to see that nothing had made the cut.

And that's where perfect girlfriends come in.  When I unwrapped my gifts from Karli on the morning of the 25th, I was thrilled to see that she'd chosen the items from my list that I most wanted to receive:  The Handmaid's Tale, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story*, a blu-ray copy of Rogue One, and the Fallout Power Armour action figure.

And, AND, she got me a waffle maker!!!  I'd love to say it's a clever tie in with Stranger Things and Eleven's Eggo™ fetish, but really, we just like waffles.** (Thereby proving that going rogue can be just as rewarding as sticking to the wish list.)

Thank you again for everything, Karli. As always, words fail to express how happy I am that you've chosen to be with me. I'd also like to thank the people who gave me Amazon and Indigo gift cards, trust me, they'll be put to good use. And the chocolate, thanks for the chocolate!

In conclusion, I'd like to wish a merry Christmas to anyone reading this - I hope your holiday season has been as happy as mine.

- Sid

* I've been casually skimming through Sean Howe's history of Marvel, and just on the basis of looking at random pages, I'm fascinated - it's definitely next on the list when I finish what I'm currently reading. (More on reading plans in my New Year's posting.)

** And it made perfect, delicious waffles right out of the box, no teething pains or setup issues.