I'm Working On The Railroad, I Dig Away The Time

Man, I forgot about this. The following pictures are of a Lionel train layout that I built in my room in high school. I set this up a couple years at Christmas, and it was kind of an engineering feat as it was only about 4' by 6', but got a decent run in by having much of the track run under my bed at the time. 

Looking back, I managed to cram a decent amount into this little layout. The town, some operating accessories, two separate loops of track and two sidings; I think I did alright.

The unfortunate part is that these are the only pictures of it I managed to save. Somewhere there's some video and supposedly some pictures my grandfather took but I have no idea where to find that. 

Speaking of which, my grandfather was actually pretty impressed by how I designed the thing. It was built with extensions on either side that folded up on hinges to make it easy to put away. 

There's also no going back and setting it up, either. My room is no more; my mom converted it to a craft workshop sometime after I moved into my grandparents' place. And I've been setting up the big layout my grandfather and I used to when I was a kid. I think I featured that in at least one post here on the blorg. 

Little Toy Trains, Little Toy Tracks

Merry Christmas, yinz guys.

There's Digital Snow On The Frozen Pianos

Merry Christmas, everybody.

Born A King On Bethlehem's Plain, Gold I Bring To Crown Him Again

Merry Christmas, yinz guys.

Sleep In Heavenly Peace

Merry Christmas, everybody.

Silent Night, Holy Night

Gary Knapp

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone. 

Welcome To My Christmas Song, I'd Like To Thank You For The Year

Like I did last year, I'm going to post my Christmas list here so that a) some of you have an idea of what to get me and b) so that the rest can point and laugh.

Albums:
Thickfreakness - The Black Keys
Rubber Factory - The Black Keys
Tempest - Bob Dylan
Up From Below - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes
Psychedelic Pill - Neil Young

Books:
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

Clothes:
Like, some more underwear? Since mine is wearing out?
Maybe a pair or two of long johns, now that it's friggin' cold?
A new pair of Chuck Taylors might be a good idea. Preferably in a different color, like maybe green.
This shirt. (XL)

Well, He Looked At Me And I Damn Near Died

I'm not going to the bar this week. I feel like that would be too tragic.

Not as in dying-in-a-ball-of-flame tragic, but rather the circumstance of hanging out at the bar by myself over the week before Christmas. (I feel like 'pathetic' would be the more technically appropriate word to describe the situation; but screw that, I want to use 'tragic' anyway.) What kind of schmuck would do something like that?

*raises hand*

Yeah.

Last year I popped down to Jack's, on the South Side, the week before Christmas. There was quite a crowd for a Wednesday evening, and said crowd was having quite a good time, dancing and making (appropriately enough) merry, etc. I had planned to come down for one of my typical acts of jukebox terrorism, but I wasn't at all prepared for this. The bouncer must have known what I was going to do, as he cautioned me not to mess up the mood as I approached the jukebox. I had no idea what the hell to play, so I put something danceable by Blondie on, finished my beer, and booked it.

That said, anytime from the 26th to the 30th is fair game. We'll see.

Tell Santa Claus To Bring Me A Rock'N'Roll Guitar

Okay, I'm posting this both for my family's convenience and for your perusal. I'm too lazy to actually put together a separate Christmas list, so enjoy.

Movies:

• The Gods Must Be Crazy

Music:

• Wrecking Ball - Bruce Springsteen*
• Clockwork Angels - Rush*
• Dandelion Gum - Black Moth Super Rainbow
• Chulahoma: The Songs Of Junior Kimbrough - The Black Keys*
• Parrot Flies - Algernon Cadwallader
• Give You The Ghost - Polica*
• Up From Below - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes*
• Psychedelic Pill - Neil Young
• Port Of Morrow - The Shins*

*Vinyl release strongly preferred.

Lego Trains:

• 7938 Passenger Train
• 3677 Red Cargo Train

Shirts:

• Mount Rockmore Size: 2XL
• Demidog Size: XL
• Marten's TEH Shirt Size: XL
• Burnout Size: XL
• Stand Back I'm Going To Try Science Size: XL
• Pixel Skull Ringer Size: 2XL

Books:

Softcover is ok with me.

• Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government - Yaron Brook & Don Watkins
• Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy - Thomas Sowell* 
• Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy) - Milton Friedman* 
• Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration - John Locke 
• Stuff Hipsters Hate: A Field Guide to the Passionate Opinions of the Indifferent - Brenna Ehrlich & Andrea Bartz 
• The Hipster Handbook - Robert Lanham

*Other titles by this author are acceptable.