We taught computers to dream

My current computer is going on 7 years old, and it’s time to upgrade. The last one went 11 years (not counting the succession of power supplies I burned through because of cat hair), which was way too long. This one has been decent in most respects, except it could use more storage and the GPU is quite old, and at this point I can get a CPU with a lot more power to it.

So pretty soon I plan to upgrade, and I decided to crowdfund it. Thanks to the incredible generosity of a number of users on my platform, the campaign hit the goal in 12 hours—which turned out to be more than fortunate, because it not only means I can afford a better system than I’d planned, but I can get a proper chair and save my back further trauma. I’ve been really blessed, and I’m grateful. And I’m not even going for a top-of-the-line machine for hardcore gaming, but it should be able to do a lot more in that arena than I can now.

I’m starting to really look forward to the new system, because there’s a lot I’ll be able to do on it that I currently can’t. But one of the big things I want to do with it is run machine learning algorithms, especially generative art. This brings me to the actual topic of this post.

A huge misconception about so-called AI models right now is that, well, they think. They don’t. I mentioned in a previous post that nothing being done right now would ever have a chance of becoming sentient, because it has no independent continuous feedback loop. But I never got to a big thing that all current AI models currently have in common: they don’t validate their answers for whether they make sense.

In generative art, this is better known as the hand problem, and it’s so poorly understood by laymen that there are swaths of idiotic videos about it. The napkin-sketch explanation of the problem is that image-generating AIs produce weird results for human hands. My “favorite” video explaining this is from Vox, who can always be counted on for a dumb take. (In one video they acknowledge that movies and TV have terrible sound mixing, but the “solution” is for us to suck it up. Never change, Vox.) In this instance they mention one of the primary ways to solve the hand problem is just to expose AIs to more training data, since they haven’t been trained on nearly enough images.

This is, unsurprisingly, completely wrong. But to be fair to Vox, they’re not the only people saying that. There’s this weird pervasive idea out there that you can just brute-force any problem AI has with more training data.

An analagous problem is the way ChatGPT will make up sources when you ask it to do research, or give you answers to math problems that Calvin and Hobbes would laugh off. Or how if you ask it to write a story, it will completely lose track of characters and plot because it has no internal sense of consistency.

Which is exactly what happens when humans dream.

In our dreams, everything we experience is fluid. Characters swap in and out, settings change, whatever thread of a story there might be can be completely dropped in favor of a new thread. Even our identity can change. All of this varies by person of course, and speaking from my own experience the degree of all this flux varies night to night. But it’s why we often have so much trouble explaining the dreams to ourselves later: so little of their content holds up to the light of day. It’s because the parts of our brains responsible for managing things like logic and consistency are mostly dormant; we’re operating more or less on pure association.

The hand problem, you see, isn’t that Stable Diffusion and Midjourney haven’t seen enough hands. That might be part of it, but if you focus more of their training on hands, they’ll start “overfitting” by hyper-fixating on hands. But here’s a paraphrase of a prompt I gave to Craiyon, which was based on a mini version of Dall-E:

Cozy roadside medieval inn, exterior. A large shady oak tree stands next to the inn. A sleeping dragon is curled up around the tree. It is a pleasant summer day.

Craiyon completely choked on this. It understood the idea of a dragon and a tree and an inn and a nice day, but it blended them together in completely unpredictable ways. Some of the images had a tree growing out of the inn, or the tree was the inn and had a big door in it. The dragon and the tree were often merged, and could have more than one head. It was a mess.

The hand problem is not a hand problem; it’s a composition problem. When a human artist creates their work, they generally start with a rough understanding of what will go in the scene and where. Their training includes not only aspects of color and light and texture—which generative AI excels at intuiting, although again in a very dreamlike way—but also things like anatomy. A human artist knows how fingers work, and most of them will tell you hands are some of the hardest things to draw. It’s little surprise, then, that generative art AIs struggle on the same thing. These models don’t have any of the internal processes telling them how fingers wrap around the handle of an umbrella or how a marathon runner’s stride looks. They don’t have anything telling them: “No, the tree goes next to the inn, and the dragon is around the tree.” This is also why so many models struggled with a prompt like “A horse riding an astronaut.”

I can’t be the only person to have realized this, so I’m certain AI researchers are on the case. The next logical evolution of AI art is to have another “lobe” that matches the prompt to a composition and matches the composition to an image. The question is, how will this work when we’ve changed a two-body problem into a three-body problem? Will it be simple to get all these parts of the AI to talk to one another, or will it be a brand new level of challenge requiring a breakthrough? My gut says the former, and I hope that’s true.

An even bigger question is: Can lobes be trained separately from other aspects of the AI, so they’re essentially plug-ins? Because if they can be, that’s important to the future of models like ChatGPT. For instance, for math questions it could recognize a math question, call up a math processing model, and get a proper answer. For writing, it could use plugins trained on story structure, character archetypes and emotions, and especially logistics: knowing where Alice and Bob are at all times, and that it takes X amount of time to get from one place to another. Actually writing is gonna be a tough nut to crack.

And when it comes to computer code… yeah, I’m not worried. If you ask ChatGPT to write code with the least bit of complexity, it barfs all over itself. It’ll give you code, but that code will not work. It might get you in the ballpark, but the danger is it could give you something that’s flawed in a subtle way even seasoned programmers can’t easily spot. Like you wouldn’t want this puppy drafting designs for a house, or an airplane; it can give you a very rough starting point only, but a pro really needs to do the rest.

AI art will be the first domino to fall in this next wave of innovation, I think, because the composition problem is relatively easy to understand. How the training data will be arranged, I really have no idea, but it should at least be possible to quantify concepts like “A is next to B” and work forward from there.

But the reason I got on this topic is because it occurred to me the other day how funny it is, and actually kind of beautifully poetic, that we taught computers to dream. We did it without even meaning to. The whole purpose of these models is to have a dream that we seeded for them, and share the results with us. Despite the current limitations and all possible future ramifications, I think that’s kinda cool.

Fair Report 2023

I went into the Fair on Wednesday. I had planned to wait a little after opening day, but the weather was going to be nice and after that the rest of the week was trash, so I decided to go for it. (I’m glad I did. Today’s weather was hideous.)

For the first time in years, I was able to walk around the Fair. This is a milestone, since I’ve been renting scooters for it until now. In 2019 I was freshly felled by a series of gout flares that were only barely improving. 2020 was of course 2020, and since then my gout was still doing really poorly. Last year I got on a higher dose of allopurinol that finally, finally turned things in the right direction, but I was still in a bad enough way I couldn’t conceive of not renting a scooter. Last year that actually kept me from viewing the art exhibit, because the elevator in that building was broken.

So, the big questions: Was it fun? And did the vendor situation improve since last year?

Yes, and no.

I said last year that the Fair was about 70% back to where it was in 2019, which was still very “thin” because the expansion a couple years earlier had created a ton of wide-open space whereas the Fair used to be packed with booths and tents. I’m disappointed to report that it isn’t better. Even within the buildings (except for the Center of Progress), there’s too darn much free space. The Fair could accommodate three times as many vendors as it has now.

Good gads the expansion was a mistake. Not surprising; it’s been horribly mismanaged for more than a decade. The Fair used to be more cramped but there was stuff going on at every turn. I’d like to hope it can get there again, at least if the economy ever improves, but the last few years before the pandemic really hurt it and since then it’s been struggling hard. The boneheaded decision to expand it to 18 days in 2020, which got postponed to 2021 and later rescinded, was even worse.

As an example of this, there used to be a “flea market” tent next to Restaurant Row every year with a bunch of smaller vendors in it: mainly T-shirts and other apparel, crafts from various corners of the world, sunglasses, and little gadgets. I haven’t seen it since 2019. But in the ’90s when the Fair was under intelligent management and jumping, there were multiple clones of this tent with slightly different flavors. Vendors of collectible cards and sports memorabilia were not uncommon then. Now, not so much. In the ’90s every possible corner of the Fair was stuffed with vendors. Now even relatively small nooks like the Pan African Village are decimated; that actually lost a couple of vendors since last year, especially one who carried interesting stone carvings.

So the Fair badly needs someone in charge who knows what they’re doing, and will aggressively court both new vendors as well as old vendors who were burned by earlier shenanigans. I state this as fact, not opinion, because it’s just a plain fact. Some of this has been blamed on changes to the labor market following the pandemic, and I can respect that argument and admit that it probably plays a serious role in all of this. But still… the Fair needs a lot more vendors. Our paper of record says we had 200 food vendors and 380 total vendors before 2020; we’re at 114 food vendors this year, up from 103 last year.

I still enjoyed myself a lot and will be going back in. There’s more to see, and I’d like to get a taste for the Fair in the evening instead of the morning.

Food I enjoyed on my first day: Steak tips and mushrooms from Pickel Barrel Sirloin Tips (the price has gone way up), Dippin’ Dots, fried mac & cheese bites from the Tikki Turtle which was oddly the cheapest thing I got there, and a waffle with strawberries in the Dairy building. The place that sold fried mashed potatoes appears to not be back, and regrettably I haven’t seen them since 2018. I still need to hit up Fried Specialties for their deep-fried cheese curds, and at least one of their many dessert options. (Fried pumpkin pie is excellent, but it’s also incredibly rich.)

I was hoping to see pumpkin custard in the Dairy building but that stand now just has ordinary ice cream flavors I can find anywhere. I resisted the temptation to visit the bulk candy tent, where I always used to come out loaded for bear for football season; even though I’m getting back into watching football this year, I’m still trying to lose weight and the last thing I need is a giant bag of candy. Which also reminds me that those wonderful filled fruit rope candies aren’t around, but that’s just as well.

Just as last year, there was a retro gaming shingle set up in the Horticulture building. This year they have several devices to choose from, but one of them that looked the nicest had a Game Boy form factor and a nice big, bright screen. I did some research and discovered it’s a clone of the Powkiddy RGB20s. The RGB20s is running a Rockchip 3326 which is outdated now, and tends to go for $80 to $100, which isn’t a great deal for the old hardware but it also seems to be somewhat well liked. (Although on Amazon a lot of people complain theirs stop charging after a bit, but it isn’t clear those aren’t knock-offs.) So I thought: Well, if they have a deal on these at the Fair, maybe it’s worth it. Then I found out they’re going for $200. For an off-brand. The mind boggles.

I was hoping to see the art place that does the photographic triptychs in the Hort this year, but they’re not back yet. A pity. Several art places I’d seen in past years weren’t there, which again wasn’t much of a surprise but their absence was noted. You used to be able to see a ton of T-shirt vendors, as well as places selling all kinds of signs and license plate holders and stuff. These are great impulse purchases, the kinds of things you wouldn’t go out of your way to find on Amazon or Etsy, but I saw very few vendors of that sort.

One of the things I’m looking forward to seeing again is the Pampered Chef booth, which moved from the Art & Home building to the Hort. I want to spend more time drooling over gadgets and such and picking out something special I’ll actually use this fall. But the downside of them moving to the Hort is that there’s basically nothing on the ground floor of the Art & Home building this year. That used to have all sorts of stuff with a special emphasis on culinary.

I have yet to go over to the Midway and check out what might be there. Are the mini donuts still there? I must know. A lot of Restaurant Row and the area up by the Indian Village I haven’t seen, nor the street at the very front fence of the Fair. I walked as far as the Expo Center where they had a big animatronic dinosaur exhibit, but not past that.

Overall my first visit was limited to 3 hours. It was about my stamina for walking, after which I started to have some hip pain. But my feet held out, and that was a wonderful thing.

A lot of updates

I’ve been away from the blog way too long, so it’s time to rectify that. Sorry about that. Life has a way of getting in the way.

The main thing that kept me away was that I’ve been physically in a bad place. Around the beginning of March I somehow tweaked my neck, which led into what I thought was a bad shoulder injury but turned out just to be more spinal crap. I’ve been through physical therapy for that, and although I still get spasms in my shoulders that cause problems it’s nowhere near as bad as it was. But while it was bad, it was bad. Like interfering with sleep for three weeks bad. The lower back and sciatica stuff is also still there, and now I’m working through that in physical therapy. The jury’s still out on where that’s going.

So that kept me a lot from doing much more for a while than just working. Writing fell very much by the wayside, and I’m only just getting back to that properly. I also very much want to get Gray Area published, for which I’ll need a cover, and I’m strongly considering AI options for at least getting me to the point of a cover concept. But that depends on getting a new computer—more on that in a bit.

My wife completed her chemotherapy, but afterward she realized she’d taken more of a beatdown to her stamina than she had expected, and she decided to take a leave of absence from work while getting her radiation treatments, and for about a month afterward to heal up. Thankfully, that all went well, and she’s back to work now having had a chance to rest up. Her hair is growing back in, although not quite to a length yet where she can do much with it so she’s stuck wearing wigs, which are very hot.

Also this spring we went through some tragedy. Jack wasn’t doing well and had a weird lump on his face, which also started manifesting as an apparent eye irritation. We took him to the vet and it was thought that he had either a bad infection or possibly a tumor, but an infection seemed more likely. He was unable to open his mouth very far, which messed with his eating. Unfortunately after trying to treat his eye for a couple of weeks and after he got a bunch of antibiotics, it turned out it really was a tumor after all. Cancer had taken over a part of his face and jaw which was interfering with opening his mouth, and it was pretty aggressive. We had no choice but to put him down. He made it to 17, which was a good long run, but it’s still pretty sad. I knew him from the time he was just a tail sticking out of his mother.

Right after that, we had a huge scare with Puff. Her teeth had gotten to the point where it seemed like the best thing for her was a dental cleaning, and also her hyperthyroidism had gotten worse so she was losing weight and needed to get her medication twice as often. The cleaning went horribly, because not only did they have to extract about half her teeth but the pain medication they gave her put her off her food for several days and also made her insanely paranoid and afraid of us. (Jack was put off his food and acted super weird for a few days by the same medication. Maybe steer clear of Zorbium for your cats.) We were worried we were going to lose Puff, but after the meds wore off she started to come around, and a week later she was totally normal again.

I’ve had a few cooking things I wanted to share here and there, but of course when you’ve gone so long between updates there’s a feeling like the next one has to be a big catch-up like this post. Which is probably a dumb hangup that’s kept me from getting back into the swing of things, but… oh well. My big success stories in the kitchen have been air fryer steak tips, which are not only super easy to make but remind me a lot of the steak tips I get at the Fair, and Kool-Aid pie.

I’m finally nearing the end of the tunnel with a long series of mini-projects at work, and that means it’s time to get a new computer. My next big project is really going to need some updates, and I want to have a graphics card that isn’t ancient. A new GPU will also mean I can work with some of the inaptly named AI models that have been released for home use, so I can play around with those without being beholden to anyone. Not that after my wife being out of work for three months that it’s a great time to buy a computer, but my current machine is nearing 7 years old and quite a few parts of it need a face lift. The big downside and the part that worries me the most is that I’m gonna have to do all sorts of prep work for the new system to carry configurations over, and the setup work will be an absolute nightmare.

So now we’re headed into August, with the Fair coming up, and it’s kinda looking like that’ll be happening right in the middle of other changes like the computer thing. Hopefully I can continue to improve physically in the coming weeks. I’m also strongly considering not renting a scooter for my Fair visits this year, which is huge for me since a year ago at this time my gout was still in bad shape.

The gout situation is still pretty decent. I do have arthritis in my feet, but at least things have largely settled down and I’m able to eat normal stuff in moderation. I do, however, miss hanging out on the Gout subreddit where I could learn from and help other people like myself. (Reddit’s implosion this June pushed me off the platform, so I only post there anymore for a weekly obligation to a certain sub.)

Oh, and the Christmas tree lights worked pretty decently but they did need a few rounds of touch-ups. I’m gonna have to re-marker them this year. I’m okay with that.

The next post will be a lot sooner. In fact I’d like to get back to this more regularly. We’ll have to see how that goes.

Air fryer pretzel bites (win)

Following up on my last post, I decided to put the 1/4 portion of pizza dough still in my fridge to good use today. (I have 1/2 the original dough in the freezer.) Today I used it to make pretzel bites.

So for starters, I put probably about a quart of water into my glass batter bowl, and started it nuking, which in my puny microwave took about 3 minutes to get hot but not boiling. I cut up the 1/4 portion of pizza dough into a dozen pieces a little less than an inch across—which I knew would puff up a bit bigger when cooking. Once the microwave was finished I started the air fryer preheating at 380° without the insert in the basket. (I can’t run my microwave and air fryer at the same time.) At that point I added 1/4 cup of making soda to the water and stirred to dissolve, and then dipped in my dough pieces, let them sit in the water for 30 seconds or so while making sure they got fully covered, and removed them to a plate with parchment paper.

By this time my air fryer was ready, so I did the pretzel bites in two batches of six, because my air fryer is very small, and used a parchment paper liner for the basket. Each batch took five minutes, and I reused the liner for batch #2. The second batch wanted to stick to the original parchment paper because it had sat there uncooked for a while, but it wasn’t too bad and it came out with no significant differences from the first.

This was a pretty successful experiment, and yielded a bounty of soft pretzel bites that browned up nicely, at least on one side; the bottoms didn’t get too brown, but I wasn’t too concerned about that. I nuked a couple tablespoons of butter when the second batch was done—which surprisingly turned out to be too much—and brushed it over the pretzel bites, then sprinkled on some pretzel salt.

So, lesson learned: 1/4 batch of store-bought pizza dough (from a bag) yields about a dozen pretzel bites that come together in a pretty reasonable time. I didn’t try to get fancy and fill them or anything, although that’s probably doable, but after my complete failure to seal those calzones with the same dough I wasn’t about to go that route.

Air fryer calzones (fail)

Well, the holidays are over and I’m back to work. Of course my tree is still up.

I haven’t been able to get back to writing for a bit because I’ve been playing catch-up this past week at work and I haven’t been in the right head space. I plan to get back to it soon, but right now it’s tough.

But today at lunch I tried an experiment, and the main reason for this post is to tell you about it and how it went. In three words: air fryer calzones.

Having looked up recipes online, it appeared that making calzones in the air fryer would be a cinch, apart from the annoying part which is rolling out the pizza dough thin enough. The reason I thought to look up recipes in the first place was because air fryers can provide that nice intense dry heat that would mimic hotter temperatures in an oven.

So I got some pizza dough from Wegmans—the kind they sell in a bag—and some ricotta, and after mixing the ricotta with some grated mozzarella and a tiny bit of Parmesan, I went ahead and rolled out a couple of circles of dough (using about 1/8 of the dough ball each), aiming for about 5″ across and 1/8″ thick. The rolling was much easier said than done, and I’m not sure at all I got the dough thin enough. Nevertheless I did my best, added filling, and sealed the calzones. One of the calzones didn’t seal well and looked like it was gonna be trouble, but I went forward anyway. I tried 400° in the air fryer for about 5 minutes to start, after first preheating it at the same temp for several minutes.

Things did not go well, although they didn’t go nearly as badly as I was worried about either. The main bright spot was that the pizza dough did form a nice hard crust on the outside, at least on the tops. I was planning to flip the calzones and cook them a little longer, but that didn’t happen because they couldn’t be flipped. Neither calzone stayed sealed, but they mostly didn’t leak cheese all over the air fryer basket. The biggest issue by far was not the poor seal, but the fact that the pizza dough puffed up like crazy in the fryer. I effectively ended up with big puffy cheese tacos where the crust was a bit less done in the center. They were perfectly edible, but not at all what I’d intended. And somehow, even though I used a lot of mozzarella it wasn’t quite enough.

So this requires a rethink. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my cheese filling—because I made enough for at least four calzones of that size, if not five or six—but the dough clearly won’t work for that purpose. This makes me sad. I’ll use the rest of the dough for pretzel bites or something. The next time I want to try air fryer calzones, I’m going to need to work with a thin-crust pizza dough.

Holiday megasale 2022

Today’s post is a quick one to let you all know that the annual r/Fantasy holiday megasale (covering fantasy and sci-fi) is here again, where you can get a ton of books either free or for under a buck for today and tomorrow, December 26-27. Every author involved including myself has pledged a donation to St. Jude’s of at least a penny per book sold or given away in this sale, which can add up to quite a lot.

All of my current books are free for the duration of the sale, and will remain so through the 30th. As with last year I’m extending my pledge to cover that span. But for a lot of other good authors you don’t have that long to wait, so go check out the sale and throw some books onto your TBR list to support a great cause.

Big plans under a big time crunch

As of just midweek, I’m finally on the mend, but it comes way too late and messed up a lot of our holiday plans. (Specifically, I mean the bronchitis that followed up getting sick is finally improving now that I’m on some medication to help. I woke up Wednesday feeling like a person for the first time all month.) In particular this has thrown a monkey wrench into the time we spend with my wife’s parents. I’ve also been so beaten down physically for so long that I don’t think I even dare go to a New Year’s Eve party. Last year we low-keyed it at home and I think we’ll do the same again.

Where I’ve found it’s really been bad for me, though, is making it hard to get any pre-Christmas stuff done. So I have to set aside a good chunk of tomorrow (the 23rd) just to make a number of preparations including early wrapping.

Those problems aside, the fact that Christmas falls on a Sunday this year is fortuitous for my traditional after-Christmas stuff because basically the entire week between holidays is weekdays. For the first time in a few years, I’m gonna watch all the Lord of the Rings films. I’m also gonna get some Lego backlog out of the way and finally tear into the 10305 castle which I’ve been dying to do. And of course I’m gonna go back to making my special after-Christmas sandwich, which used to be a cube steak but is now a burger, now that my gout is doing a lot better over the past few months. A big part of these plans requires having the discipline to be up a little earlier than I’m used to anymore, but it’s worth it.

The only thing that appears to be a bust is that I had hoped to lead into the Lord of the Rings movies with a fan edit of the Hobbit films. The M4 Book Edit is highly praised as a recut of the three Hobbit movies into one cohesive whole that follows the book much better, and I wanted to watch it this year. But because I’ve been sick, the task of burning the images to Blu-ray had to wait, and I discovered at this late date that my writer is apparently not happy with the dual-layer Verbatim discs. Single-layer, no problem, but that doesn’t help me here. (In fact, I’m not even certain this player will write dual-layer DVDs because I haven’t tried. But it isn’t as if I have a DVD image of the films.)

So… that part kinda sucks. It looks like if I want to do this I’m gonna have to do a risky reflash of my Blu-ray writer’s firmware and see if that fixes the problem. Time-wise I just don’t see that happening.

And maybe that’s for the best, anyway. Trying to plan out four days worth of watching films—when I have only four to play with to begin with, because my wife has Monday off—doesn’t sound all that feasible. I might be biting off more than I can chew, especially after being sick and with so many other grandiose plans to do after-Christmas extra right this year.

Of course another thing happening after Christmas is the big holiday megasale on r/Fantasy, again being organized by Bryce O’Connor and benefiting St. Jude. Again all of my books (sadly, still just the four) will be free from December 26th through the 30th, and I’ll be donating to St. Jude for each book given away, as will all the other authors involved. Lots of books will be free or under a buck, and it’s for a good cause, so load up that Kindle (or Kindle app) and use those Amazon gift cards.

Then at the end of it all, New Year’s Eve, and as I mentioned above I don’t have it in me to go out this year. I’m gonna aim for another quiet night with my wife watching the Twilight Zone marathon and snacking. Gotta say these last three years have been complete dumpster fires, and I don’t see an end in sight. You have to try to stay positive about these things, but sheesh. But we’ll make the most of the holiday and keep it fun and try not to worry about what horrible events are yet to come, and maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Instacart must die

I’m sick right now. The CDC would greatly prefer I not go out shopping, even if I felt up to it, and I don’t want to expose more people to germs either. Unfortunately, the only way Wegmans can deliver groceries is through Instacart. So last night, I set up an Instacart account and placed an order.

That is, I tried to. My order was instantly canceled and the account locked, no reason given. Instacart’s front-line support is useless and they keep directing me to fill out a form for their Trust & Safety team, the only ones who can unlock my brand-new perfectly valid account. Fine, but that form requires pictures not only of my payment card but of my photo ID. Yes, they say I can redact certain info, but that isn’t the point.

I’m not sharing my photo ID just to buy groceries. If I were buying alcohol, sure. But literally no other company has put me through this. I’m not opening a bank account; I’m ordering groceries.

I’ve been through multiple rounds of customer service hell on this and I’m getting absolutely nowhere. I’m baffled how this company could have gotten so big with such crappy procedures in place. This is the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced, and I once owned an HP computer.

It’s not supposed to be this hard.

Also I discovered the r/Instacart subreddit might be the most toxic on the entirety of Reddit. I wish I were joking. I did get one person who meant to be helpful, so I don’t lump them in with the rest, but the others were a bunch of clownholes.

Sharpie lights: a week in

This past week has been a complete mess. I originally wanted to put up my Christmas tree on Black Friday, but the time was getting too tight and I figured it made more sense to block out time Monday to do that, getting some of that day’s work out of the way early on Sunday. But Sunday night, I developed persistent chest congestion that interfered badly with my sleep. In spite of that I still followed through with my plan to put up the Christmas tree with my new lights, and got it done. My breathing did not improve, and to make a long story short I’m now on my third bout with the virus—only unlike the first two, this one packed a punch.

It’s late Sunday night and I still feel pretty crappy from leftover gunk in my lungs. I just finished the antiviral medication this morning, and the persistent bitter taste in my mouth is mostly gone now. But I still don’t much feel like I’m gonna be very effective at work tomorrow.

Anyway, I wanted to post my results on the tree and its new Sharpie-colored lights.

My first impression, and still my feeling overall, is that I love the effect of these lights. They’re so much more colorful than before, and the assortment really gives me a happy feeling to look at. A lot of that is just pride for the work I put in.

There is of course room for improvement. The lightest blue is almost too light, so I could have stood to omit it, and one of the purples is a little close to the hot pink. The two oranges being so similar I don’t mind at all, and anyway the difference does stand out a little. The biggest problem with the color spread, though, is that I don’t have enough green. The yellow-green actually looks much closer to yellow at a distance, and there’s really no other shade of green beyond the regular green. Maybe something with a slightly teal tone would’ve been nice.

The application of the color was slightly spottier than I realized at first. I don’t know if it’s coming off of some of the lights or there was just some trouble getting good coverage in the first place, but I suspect it’s more of the latter. The dark blue, dark green, and the darker purple all show considerable streakiness and it’s possible to see gaps in the coloring. I’ve touched up a couple of them on the tree, as of just last night. Time will tell if the color is just apt to flake off, or if I screwed up with the application. But I suspect it’s the latter, as the most noticeable problems are at eye level but lower branches don’t seem to have the same trouble, suggesting maybe that’s one of the first strands I colored.

If I end up having to do touch-ups or complete recolors year after year, it isn’t the end of the world. If I have to do any complete recolors, I might try to change up the color mix.

Anyway that’s just a quick update. I hope to feel less crappy in the days ahead, but boy do I have a lot of shopping to do.

Let’s blog a parade (2022)!

For the third straight year the world is going to crap, but we have a parade to watch and darn it I’m hoping it’s gonna be a good one. Once again I’m doing the live blog thing, so keep refreshing for updates. Would this make sense as a stream? Sure, if my wife weren’t sleeping through it. So a blog it shall remain.

Okay, I am up and ready. Pumpkin muffin: check. Caffeine: Mountain Dew, baby! Yep, I’m doing this right. So let’s do this thing.

We’re starting with “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from Funny Girl. This woman has pipes and oddly does sound a little bit like Streisand. Her intensity however is freaking me out.

Heh. At the end of the song we got a shot of someone who was super surprised to be on camera. Savannah and Hoda are introducing the parade now, and here’s the list of acts. Mariah Carey, Jimmy Fallon, Dionne Warwick, Paula Abdul, I’m already falling behind, Sesame Street (ish), Big Time Rush, Mario Lopez, yep, losing track, The Lion King, Some Like It Hot (as a musical?!).

The first commercials are for Disenchanted on Disney+, Crest white strips, and the CDC. Not off to a great start, ad people. But then we got a holiday Coke commercial, and an Apple commercial for the iPhone with some really terrible music because they forgot how to do good music in their ads. Gads this music sucks. And Dolly Parton is gonna do a Christmas special on NBC. No hate on Dolly, but… yeesh.

Aww, Al Roker isn’t here. He’s recovering from something unspecified. Get well soon, Al. Ana Gasteyer is being interviewed now; I haven’t seen the show she’s in, but it’s from the same people who did Supercenter which I didn’t expect to love, so who knows? But we’re at the Tom Turkey float now, and once again we finally have someone riding on top! Mario Lopez and his daughter are not Food Network stars so that tradition is apparently over, but good for them for getting the best seat in the house.

The first musical up is the cast of the Lion King, performing “The Circle of Life”. I’d heard the costumes in this show were amazing, and they do not disappoint. The crowds are really getting into this too. It’s nice to see crowds again.

Verizon is doing a weird but inoffensive riff on Scrooge with one of the girls from SNL whose name I can’t remember, and from the voice I want to say Paul Giamatti. Then a commercial for a movie called “Something from Tiffany’s” which is apparently direct-to-Prime-Video. A super cute Barbie ad with a girl cherishing a doll, which is highly holiday-appropriate for the holidays. Hotel ad, award show no one cares about, then a show with country music.

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are offering their holiday wishes, and now we have a brief interview with Karamo, who has a talk show but I haven’t heard of him before. Are we getting back to the ’90s where everyone had a talk show? Because I can get on board with getting back to the ’90s. Now we have a number from Some Like It Hot on Broadway. The movie is an absolute classic I love to death. The song is coming off a little bland to me, although the people are having a good old time dancing up there. I honestly have no idea if this story can work as a musical, but given that it’s a comedy to the max, that needed to come out in the song. I was hoping for something more than a generic “We’re having fun” song.

Here’s a funny new Geico ad making fun of movies with bad CGI, and then more ads I’ve seen before that aren’t worth commentary. I’ve never seen one of those dumb animated Kroger ads before because Kroger isn’t in my area (thanks, Wegmans!), but here’s one for the holidays with a bad cover of an annoying song.

Mariah Carey is gonna perform live later; good luck with that, Mariah. The last time I saw her perform live was on New Year’s Eve a few years ago and it was a glorious disaster. She’s gonna do the song she’s infamous for, although I personally love it. She also has a children’s book coming out about little princess Mariah and the healing power of her voice, which sounds pretty well in line with what I’ve heard of Mariah’s personality. And now the third host of the show is having an awkward call with the Bidens that’s taking way too long and had a lot of “Can you hear me?” (Good gads, it’s 2022 and you’re talking to the White House. Get your techology right.) That call was cringetastic, like trying to check in with elderly relatives and getting a dozen tangential stories. Not a political comment, just saying that’s how it felt.

MAYHEM! I missed this guy. He’s a mouse in this one. The guys from Scrubs are doing an iPhone ad playing on the flagpole scene from A Christmas Story, and it’s fun. There’s a new Puss & Boots movie I don’t care about. Good character, but the first movie was not good. And now we’re into local commercials.

I know this third host has a name and they showed it, but I don’t remember and don’t care. She’s talking with another NBC/Peacock show guy named Jake Lacy, but I don’t know him or his show. Is this because I’m getting old or are there really no actual celebrities anymore? I know there are no movie stars anymore, but there don’t seem to be any TV stars either.

There’s a new musical called A Beautiful Noise about Neil Diamond. They’re doing a medley of his songs. I’m not a big fan of Neil but no hate on the man or his talent; it’s really hard to go wrong with a Neil Diamond medley. This guy performing as him really has the right voice for the part. Although now that they’re getting into “Sweet Caroline”, it’s kinda hilarious to see the adults in the crowd singing along and cheering and the kids just kind of there.

There’s a movie called I Wanna Dance that appears to be a Whitney Houston biopic, although the star doesn’t look a thing like Whitney. Annoying pharmaceutical ad; it could be worse. Commercial for the Oculus Quest 2, and yes that’s what I’m calling it because 1) that’s its real name, and 2) I refuse to acknowledge Facebook’s rebranding.

More holiday wishes from NBC people. Wait, did they do a reboot of Night Court? That’s awful; don’t mess with the classics. Nice to see Terry Crews after that. Mario Lopez and his daughter are checking in again. She’s having a lot of fun with it. If they’re gonna be our Al Roker for this parade, I’m down with it.

Now we’ve come to the Rockettes’ performance. The music they’re dancing to is a medley of holiday classics including “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. It’s hard to imagine the training they have to go through. Well done as always.

Now what sounds like another Neil Diamond song but it was apparently the Mamas & the Papas, for a Volkswagen ad with a sheep. Kinda dumb but whatever. A Harry Potter wand remote, which always sounds cooler than it is. One of the boy bands from the ’90s is shilling for Downy; it was amusing. Six Flags is getting a head start out of the gate trying to eat Disney’s lunch in 2023 before Universal gets to the rest. And then AGT All Stars is coming up, but even though I like AGT I just don’t have the energy for a January live show.

Wait, they’re about to cut the ribbon? It isn’t even 10:00 yet. But I guess there must be a lot of parade to get through, because they’re going early. And here comes the confetti, messing up the video compression.

Marching Mizzou is our first marching band of the day. What song are they playing? Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do”, because she’s an alumnus. You know, that famous… Christmas song? I mean I was starting college when this song hit it big and I enjoy it, but boy what a weird choice for Thanksgiving. Just got a shot of the Ronald McDonald balloon.

Google Pixel 7 wants to tell us they can do great stuff with their camera. Kinda cool stuff, but the big question is: is that sort of software not available elsewhere? It’s all software. A quick Macy’s ad, and now an orange juice commercial with a guy I think might be on SNL. Puss & Boots and the Aflac duck have an ad together. Interesting art style in that one though; it isn’t the Dreamworks style. And some NBC game show with people doing something about music, with Ana Gasteyer and Jimmy Fallon. It doesn’t look great.

Who is Andy Cohen again? His face looks familiar but honestly I don’t watch any of the shows he’s in so I really have no idea. Gads he’s bringing too much crazy energy for this time of day. The next float is the Jolly Green Giant, and unfortunately he brings us a country act. Jordan Davis is performing aboard, and oh man this is really country. Ow, my allergies.

Behind that, we have the Baby Yoda balloon (I know he has a name) in the Funko Pop style. They’re playing the Mandalorian music and honestly that’s kind of exciting. I’m looking forward to season 3; this show is the only thing left of Star Wars. There’s a Fraggle Rock thing going on, and wow what a throwback. Shots of a few upcoming balloons, including SNOOPY!

Chick-fil-A has another animated commercial except this appears to be an ad for a mini-movie they did. Jason Momoa is doing a kids’ movie on Netflix called Slumberland. A local workers’ comp law firm paid way too much for ad space and way too little for their jingle. There’s a live Beach Boys show happening locally with special guest John Stamos, and as a reminder Ticketmaster is the devil. Same workers’ comp attorneys, because nobody seems to have figured out repeating a commercial in the same break is dumb.

Hoda and Savannah are talking about NFTs like NFTs aren’t a dumb concept or the oh so totally unexpected FTX crash didn’t just happen. Paula Abdul is dancing aboard the Jenny-O float and performing her song “Straight Up”. Classic song and one of my favorites, but Auto-Tune is murdering the vocals here. The lady can still dance, though.

The next balloon is from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. There’s some kind of joke with a stinky cheese but I’m out of the loop and can’t be bothered to get in the loop. Benedict College’s Marching Tiger Band of Distinction (good gads, could your name be any longer?) is doing a medley of their favorite songs. Liking the purple and gold here, although there isn’t enough of it because the band members’ uniforms are navy and white. I can’t figure out what the favorite songs were in that medley.

The Pillsbury Dough-Boy balloon is right up behind them, as always reminding us that baked goods are delicious. He paves the way for a float celebrating our indigenous tribes.

I’ve finally seen an ad for Disney’s Strange World, and considering that’s their one big animated feature for the holiday season they’ve really under-advertised it. Now another pharmaceutical ad, but not very annoying and it doesn’t have a Q in the drug name, so it’s a bonus. Promo for the Tonight Show, which I’ve kinda forgotten exists. (Sorry, Jimmy. I’m just over it.) And NBC is doing a Friday comedy show. Uh huh.

The Kilgore Rangerettes are performing in front of Macy’s, to a Prince song. The Boss Baby balloon follows them. I never saw any of the movies and have no interest in them. Apparently there’s a Netflix series or movie happening now. Don’t care. The Defines Marching Band is playing “La Fiesta del Mariachi” and is decked out in red, white, and green. Not bad, but it does feel about six months off.

The next balloon is a character called Ada from some streaming series for kids, possibly on Netflix. She’s somewhat deflated. Modern cartoon character design is really, really not good, though. After her, Dionne Warwick is performing “What the World Needs Now” on top of a dollhouse float. Yep, Dionne, we do need love, sweet love. The dollhouse is the New York Life float, for what it’s worth.

Hill’s is showing us cute videos of dogs and cats. Honestly it’s one of the best ads of the day because you can’t go wrong with that. Verizon is back, and yep, that really is Paul Giamatti. Now we have a drug ad with a Q in the name. Seriously, whose idea was it to start using Q in all the drug names, especially without a U after it? It’s not too late to start slapping people who suggest these names.

There’s a Blues Clues float or balloon. Ah, it’s a small balloon on a float. It was super stationary and they were zoomed in way too tight. The new host is doing a song and dance beside it. Like all the kids’ music these days it’s incredibly forgettable. Somehow it also changed to a completely different style multiple times as well.

The Big Apple Circus stars are marching up to Macy’s now, and a new dumb concept balloon that’s a one-eyed heart with stick-figure limbs. It’s apparently from Bad Bunny, who I seriously hope isn’t performing because I still remember his incoherent mumbling from the last time I saw him in the parade.

But now we have the Sesame Street theme playing, so here they come. Big Bird’s new voice is still terrible, but thankfully they didn’t feature it too much. The Chase balloon from Paw Patrol is after that. The hosts are telling us the Paw Patrol movie last summer was a massive success. Was it? Legit question. The NYPD marching band is performing Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life”, supposedly, but it doesn’t sound like that at all so I’m thinking the hosts got that wrong.

Sorry, Hellmann’s, you’ll never convince me mayo is edible. Taylor Swift is doing Capital One ads. Not-Jake from State Farm has a not-funny ad.

Ballet Hispánico Dance is doing a number next to the float for that new Slumberland movie. There’s a balloon of Ryan from Ryan’s World. No idea what that is. Vandegrift High School’ is ‘s marching band is doing the 1812 Overture in front of Macy’s now. Always a crowd pleaser.

The Lego Group has a float up next with a “turkey dragon” character. Fitz and the Tantrums are aboard, performing a song called “Moneymaker”. I’ve probably changed the channel on this a number of times but never actually heard it. It’s not as horrible as I was afraid it would be. And behind them, the Goku balloon.

Spammers just tried to call. Screw you, spammers.

Jessica Chastain is talking with Uncle Matt from Fraggle Rock. Not sure what they’re doing with Fraggle Rock, but is it really Fraggle Rock without Madame Trash Heap?

PepsiCo and Frito-Lay have animated snowmen throwing a party. It’s cute. Another drug ad, and surprisingly this is another one without a Q; but it does have a V in it, so that’s still honorable mention. Wait, the new Puss & Boots movie is called “The Last Wish”? Did I read that right? That’s a Witcher book. I’ve played through the Witcher 3 and watched the Netflix show; they do things that shouldn’t be in a kids’ movie. So probably not the same, but funny to think about.

A cheer group I missed the name of just performed “Party in the USA” in front of Macy’s. Yet another cheer group is behind them on a float, with the reigning Miss America, Emma Broyles. And the balloon following that is a cartoon dog called Bluey from Disney.

The float behind Bluey is Olay celebrating women in STEM, and on the float is Australian singer Betty Who. That was my question too. The music is mixed weird so I can’t really hear the lyrics that well, but this is a proper pop song so I’m cool with it. Gonna have to look that one up later.

The Queer Big Apple Corps is the next marching band up. Not sure what song they’re doing. I like the flags which have a very different take on the rainbow flag. Kinder’s float is up next, but you’ll never convince me hazelnuts belong in chocolate. Suck it, literally all of Europe. Big Time Rush is aboard, having reunited to sing some of their classics. The only thing I really know about Big Time Rush is that they existed. Not hating their music though.

Comcast, you still suck. Go away. George Clooney, even if I drank coffee I wouldn’t care about your pretentious ads. Quick Macy’s ad, award show no one cares about, expensive health insurance but this time for an expensive Medicare plan. Regional furniture store, local real estate guy, and an HVAC company that got 5 seconds. Ads must be expensive in this slot.

Disney’s float celebrating their new ship, the Wish, is the next attraction in the parade, and unlike Disney itself is still seaworthy. They’re doing a bit of a song medley that includes “A Whole New World” and “When You Wish Upon a Star”. Gads I wish we had ’90s Disney back. So does Disney.

Clovis North Educational Center’s marching band is doing “California Dreamin'”, which at least has a connection to winter so I’ll allow it. Really liking the colors of this color guard.

Are you ready, kids? I can’t hear you! Whooooo has a balloon in the Macy’s parade?

Kalahari Resorts has a float with an elephant riding a wave. Unfortunately they have Sean Paul aboard, and I say this with complete honesty and all the love I can muster: I’d rather be listening to country. The twangiest, inbrediest country possible. Words cannot express my hatred of Sean Paul. At least the kids sliding down the slide beside the elephant are having a good time.

Right behind that there’s a Baby Shark float, playing the Baby Shark song, and it’s a welcome relief from Sean Paul. Yes I said that. Ziggy Marley is aboard that float, and he interrupts Baby Shark to sing his own song which has the advantage of being blessedly forgettable.

Yep, the Puss & Boots movie is indeed called “The Last Wish”. Okay, then. The movie also has the same oil-painting style as that Aflac ad, which wasn’t clear at first. Interesting. Then an ad for a drug company for dealing with breast cancer, and I think I’ve had quite enough of thinking about breast cancer this year, thanks. Seriously, I’d put up with Sean Paul to cure cancer.

Sinclair Oil has their dinosaur balloon with a baby on his back, and giant baby dinos erupting from eggs. South Dakota State University has their marching band performing “Birdland”, which is another not-Christmas song. And behind them, I’m told the longest float in the history of the parade is the Louisiana float reminding us Mardi Gras is coming up. But they’re not doing Mardi Gras things because this is a family parade. On top of the float, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue are performing. No vocals, but this music is straight fire. They look like they’re having a great time.

Smokey the misspelled Bear’s balloon says only you can prevent forest fires. The float behind him is a bake shop with country singer Blanco Brown. The song he’s doing is unfortunately super-country, but it sounds like a super-country version of the Casper Slide.

Nissan, sales are not “events”. I don’t care that your ad is cute. Stop calling them events. Spectrum has its annoying guy-doing-a-Steve-Jobs-without-a-turtleneck-bit commercial. This is embarrassingly bad and the ad company who put it together should be shipped off to Qatar.

The bowling pins and balls bring us back from commercial, and remind me Al Roker isn’t here. I miss Al. Toys ‘R’ Us has a float to remind us they exist again, but only as a pop-up inside of Macy’s. Jordin Sparks is singing aboard, and the song has a nice pop-funk thing going on. Liking it. But the guys next to the float holding carboard keytars look dumb.

Ram trucks get their plug in, and now we have a Fox Sports float with a soccer player. They’re talking about the World Cup like FIFA isn’t a criminal organization or holding it in a nation that practices literal slavery isn’t a travesty. Seriously, screw FIFA.

Ronald McDonald’s balloon and the big red shoe car behind him are a nice palate cleanser. I could really go for a bacon egg & cheese biscuit.

Speaking of which, here’s our first McDonald’s ad of the parade. But please, PLEASE retire the “i’m lovin it” [sic] campaign. It’s over 20 years old and I was done with it after six months. Do you need a designated staker to take it down? I’ll grab a sledgehammer and drive that mofo into the heart. Oh, also Toys ‘R’ Us reminds us again they’re inside of Macy’s, and there’s another drug ad and an ad for the aforementioned execrable sports event. Makes the Comcast ad right after it feel downright wholesome.

The Sigma Gamma Rho Centennial Steppers are doing a routine in front of Macy’s. Fun stuff, lots of hard work going into it. Wonder Bread has a float behind them, with an artist called Cam (never heard of her) who got started writing songs for Sam Smith and others, but maybe she won’t be awful anyway. Her song has kind of a bad country lean to it, but… I don’t hate it.

Astronaut Snoopy! The parade isn’t the parade without Snoopy. The Peanuts gang really is timeless. But maybe I’m only saying that because I’m old.

The Bourbon County Marching Band is playing actual Christmas music! The colors on their uniforms really pop, too. You go, guys! They play in Papa Smurf, holding a baton like he should’ve been leading off the parade all along.

Apple, I’m gonna need a favor. Take whoever does the music for your commercials, drop them in a hole, and rehire whoever did your music 15 years ago.

A St. Jude’s ad, and it’s PLUG TIME! I’m gonna be doing the big sci-fi and fantasy holiday book sale again this year, and just like last year it’s a charity drive for St. Jude where every author in the sale is going to be donating at least 1 cent per every book they cell or give away. That happens right after Christmas on the 26th and 27th of December. Let’s raise some money for a good cause! (Forgot to mention: That will be announced on Reddit in r/Fantasy on the day of.)

The cast of Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin is performing aboard a float now, and this is a darn good cover of A-Ha’s “Take on Me” mashed up with Nena’s “99 Luftballons”. Hard to go wrong with ’80s music. And we have Stuart the Minion’s balloon right behind them.

While I was looking up how to spell Stuart (there is some disagreement) I missed the name of the next marching band. Sorry. But the Central Park Bridge float, which is one of my absolute favorites, is up now. Jimmy Fallon & the Roots are on the bridge performing a song he wrote with Dolly Parton. It’s not leaving any kind of impression on me, but it’s fine. I’m more impressed with Dolly’s songwriting credentials. Does she just crank one out every day before lunch?

Amusingly, there’s a doll named Dolly behind that float. We’re back to the Fraggle Rock stuff with Jessica Chastain, so I’m guessing she’s in something with them. They’re doing a holiday special on Apple TV+, so… well, I guess someone will see it, but that someone won’t be me.

That Puss & Boots movie is looking more and more watchable, so the ads are doing their job. Macy’s reminds us Black Friday is tomorrow, and thank goodness we’re done with sales starting on Thanksgiving itself. The way the pandemic messed up malls and shopping is unforgivable, but I do like that retail workers aren’t having to miss out on the holiday anymore.

Wait, Mariah Carey is gonna be performing her song for the end of the parade? It’s a step up from their usual bland ending music but I can’t imagine Mariah sharing the stage with Santa. Tiptoe the reindeer is back for the second year, and the walking balloon is still super cute.

The Hallmark Channel’s float is here now, with Joss Stone singing “That’s What Christmas Means to Me”. She’s doing a great job with this one.

Macy’s Great American Marching Band is performing a medley of Christmas music like they’re supposed to. But the Elf on the Shelf float is behind them to ruin the moment. Gads that character is frelling creepy. I assume the balloon is behind that. Or… not? Not. So that’s an improvement.

Lifetime’s float is the next up, with Kirk Franklin performing a song called “This Christmas”. I use the word “song” loosely because his backup singers are doing the only singing while he’s spending a full minute saying things like “Make some noise over here” and “Put your hands up”. The only thing I’ve heard him sing is the word “rejoice”. Kirk, put some song in your song.

Secret (the deodorant) is here to remind me I now have to wear deodorant pH balanced for a woman. Why? Because Mitchum changed their unscented gel to a heavily, heavily scented gel. When I become a supervillain, I’m coming for all the reformulators and there’s gonna be a reckoning.

Hoda spent way, way too much time on camera introducing the Spirit of America Dance Stars (a huge group) performing to “Run, Run, Rudolph”. Less hosts, more acts. I didn’t tune in for Hoda.

I love Balsam Hill’s float. Gloria Estefan is aboard the float. Boy did she get older. I thought she forgot to lip sync during part of the song, but I think that part was sung by her daughter. Since I understand very little Spanish a lot of this song is failing to leave an impression. I mean, even the English parts. Very forgettable. But I still love the float.

Tarpon Springs High School’s marching band has a cool 1940s style to their outfits and is very non-samey, performing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. They’re doing all kinds of stuff with gift boxes and benches and it all feels extra festive. I love it. Apparently Macy’s back-loaded all the Christmas music.

The balloon behind them is Pikachu and another Pokémon whose name I don’t know, riding aboard a sled that looks like an elongated Pokéball with two hot dogs for skis. They lead off the Macy’s singing Christmas tree, and this is always one of the best floats of the parade. They went with a more upbeat song this time, a version of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”, but as every year they make it great.

Holy crap that new Willow show is gonna be unwatchable. I’ll stick with the movie. The M&Ms commercial with Santa never gets old.

Love it or hate it, Mariah Carey’s classic is about to play. I love it, but I get why people can get sick of it. CBS must have paid a fortune to get her special mentioned on NBC. And hey, they didn’t screw up her music cue this time! (Any jokes aside, I really do love her Christmas album. And her first couple of albums are still great.) Gotta give it up for these dancers. They put a lot into it. I don’t even remember having that kind of energy.

And now, noon is upon us and Santa Claus is here! I do much prefer Mariah’s song leading him in, although the camera didn’t spend a lot of time on Santa or his sleigh.

Savannah and Hoda are leading us out with a wish for a happy Thanksgiving to all of the troops who are away from home now, and I’ll join them in the same. Thanks everyone who works the holidays to protect others, from the military to the first responders to the hospital staff. Also another get-well-soon to Al Roker, who is missed today. Another much-too-quick shot of Santa and the sleigh, and we’re out.

We get a much longer promo for the Puss & Boots movie, and the dog show is about to begin. And this is where I’m out, because we have a big meal to get ready for. Happy Thanksgiving to all!