on the best gift ever

The best Christmas gift I ever gave was a video game called Godzilla : Destroy All Monsters - Melee. I gave it to my nephews Ryer and Landon for their Nintendo GameCube. It seems like a lifetime ago but I'd have to guess it was when they were eight and five years old.

Ohmygod they loved that game.

And how could they not? Even as a guy in his thirties I could see the throaty charm of controlling a vintage, out-sized monster in an utterly destructible cityscape. This is a old-school rampage. This is a some kind of Japanese-nerd version of Götterdämmerung. This is better than ultra-violence Alex imagining his part in the good book (in the novel, I seem to remember the sequence escalating to the point of him slicing open the entire world with a knife).

I mean, there's a monster who's actually named Destoroyah. He is King Kong's ultimate foe!

Of course, Ryer and Landon -- being mentalists of the first order even at that age -- became hopelessly enmeshed and fascinated and obsessed with this game, to the point where their parents routinely had to take it out of circulation, and then use it as a regular part of the carrot-and-stick routine.

And what did I get in return for my most awesome of gifts? Some slanderous artwork ...

... if you look in the top right corner of the bulletin board, you'll see a drawing with the inscription (partly cropped -- sorry), Der Darryl, you probably suck at King Kong.

Another Christmas miracle!

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In other news, C has decided to take on a new publishing venture, this one for our long-running (and very accomplished) writing group. Who has two thumbs and does graphic design work for free? This guy! Just kidding, it'll actually be a fun project for a change.

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And lastly, today's word is surprise.