Well, I dropped the ball on the journal thing. It's not that there aren't a lot of really fantastic legitimate real-world goings-on in my life right now! It's that I also collapsed a bit under the holiday retail joy and not being able to finish anything out of a mountain of drawings and site pages. (I'll explain later, but archives will be eating really good in 2023.) And anyway, it's Christmas! It's a time to vibe, and I got a neat controller, so I just hunted for more RetroAchievements.

So here's my penance. I'll break this up into a few smaller posts and post them daily, each focusing on something else. We'll pick up normal journal activity in 2023. Lemme show you some cool things I got for Christmas.

So firstly, Savannah sent us all gift boxes! They each contained Canadian snacks and a goofy memey generic Christmas card she then doodled our respective sonas in. All of the things in it so far (including an Aero bar and a Mr. Big, plus real Canadian maple syrup that I haven't had a chance to pour on anything yet) have been excellent. I will buy a box of each of these when I actually go to Canada someday soonish.

(It's fantastic seeing everyone else's card as well. Still love the idea of personalizing garbage Hallmark cards.)

My Caby sent me a big Amazon box as well (and I did in return), with some colored pencils that slap and a big gigantic book about silent film that I am intensely curious about reading. It's by Kevin Brownlow, one of the big silent film historians and the guy who produced the big infamous borderline-uncirculated Hollywood miniseries for Thames in the 80s. This thing feels substantial, and it's a gift I both wasn't expecting and I'm actually into! Pays to have people who know what ya like...

(Not pictured: the cute lil notes she wrote on em <///<)

As far as Christmas itself goes, eh, my folks try their best. I got some cool music I asked for (including Minecraft Volume Beta, music discs my beloved), but the really nice thing was this SNES Classic controller. Because of the amount of knockoffs of these online, I made sure to send a link to an auction with a legit part number and everything in the title so I got the real thing. I now have both the NES and SNES Classic controllers to use with my Raphnet adapter that's been trucking since it became the new meta in 2018.

(I think I've had Atari 2600 controllers with longer cables.)

I gotta hand it to Nintendo for both of those controllers, they feel very authentic, like they just gutted old controllers and put the Wii controller circuitry in them. They have good weight, the SNES one especially, the textures on them feel legit, and the buttons click like crazy, in an old used controller way. Love it. My Classic Controller (the one for the Wii) is also an excellent, comfortable controller I've used for years, but I like to use these other ones when I'm playing NES/GB and SNES/DS games respectively for a bit more authenticity and also just something different.

I bought a few things for myself this Christmas, the big one being a finally working AOL PhotoCam Plus with a battery door that stays closed. This thing will be such a treat to bring to Wales. I suppose I oughta see if I can't track down the cable and software necessary to transfer stuff off the camera properly, so I don't have to rely on the only semi-working PhotoRec. (Not that it's PhotoRec's fault, granted.) And yes, this means I have three of this camera now, one not working, the Pretec, and this one.

Oh, and I'm loading up on 3DS eShop money before that closes down. You can still add funds through a linked Nintendo account. I almost got locked out, but turns out I had my Network ID saved in my LastPass vault, so I was able to get in still. Will let ya know in the new year if I find any gems!