Sharknado; The North Pole: In the third installment of the movie series, a sharknado hits the North Pole, and sharks start snacking on elf appetizers. That is until Santa and his flying reindeer go into action. Santa has a chainsaw and Prancer has sharpened his antlers. It’s a gore fest galore, but red is a Christmas color right? And who cares if tornados don’t occur at the North Pole? When has science actually stopped SyFy in making a program?

Game of Thrones Christmas Special: Lots of people die. Winter is still coming.

We Wish You a Cthulu Christmas: Oops. Someone has replaced the hymnals at Midnight Mass and instead of singing “Silent Night,” the choir summoned the Old Ones! It’s going to be a primeval Christmas!

A WB Crossover Christmas: Arrow and the Flash against Captain Cold! Once they defeat the evil doer, they use the cold gun to bring a white Christmas to Central City. All is merry and bright until Arrow puts a shaft through Rudolph after mistaking him for a laser-nosed meta-human.

The semester’s grading is finally done. Hermes was so helpful.

and the kitten gets treats.

I’ve been to sick to be clever so here are some more pics of the kitten.

Want to do Christmas shopping but don’t want to face Black Friday crowds? You’ve come to the right place. Order some good books (mine) or stories (mine too!).

The publisher of my short story collection is having a sale. Check it out. Of course, it is also available as an ebook on Amazon worldwide.

I have a humorous fantasy short story, “The Year That Had a Santa Claus,” up on Amazon. Just 99 cents! Cheaper than most cards! Send some to friends! If you don’t have a kindle, contact me and I can send you a pdf and arrange payment through PayPal.

This has been a good year for me. There were times when I didn’t think so, but as it nears the end, I realize that it really was a pretty great year. I had a chapbook published as well as my first short story collection. I had great students in my classes. I get the opportunity to teach in London again this winter.

I’m also thankful for all my friends and family, here and abroad. I have two new “host grandkids” this year. I will get to go visit them soon. I got to go on a trip to Comic Con with a good friend, the first trip we’ve taken in years. I lost one of my cats but I now have an adorable kitten.

I’d also like to thank all of the people who have stopped by this blog from all over the world. A special thanks to all my viewers in Brazil!

Oh, yeah, I’m thankful that in two weeks, all grades will be in and I get to start my sabbatical. For those celebrating, have a great holiday. For those not, just have a great day and great weekend!

Ed didn’t hesitate when the salesmen told him they had a new growth formula for the turkeys. In just a few weeks, he watched his birds grow to enormous proportions. Big breasts, thick drumsticks. This was going to be a good Thanksgiving, he had thought.

They didn’t tell him about the side effects. The increased intelligence. The aggressive behavior.

Now, the turkeys held him down and had shredded his clothes with their feet, leaving him naked and well, plucked in the yard. He looked at the big tom and the huge pile of bread and vegetables thee turkeys had collected.

This was not going to be a good Thanksgiving.

This is Spidy. I may change his name to Hermes though. I adopted him on Sunday.

So, throughout November, in keeping with the American holiday of Thanksgiving at the end of the month, I am going to sporadically post things that I am thankful for, in terms of pop culture.

The first one: Thankful that the Nicholas Cage Superman was never made.

If you’ve never heard about this, you can find out about it here.

Having seen both Ghost Rider films, (Yeah, I know. Don’t judge.) I can say that I am thankful that Cage never got his hands on Superman. Despite the actor’s love of the character, I think it would have ruined it for me forever. I’m not a big Superman anyway, but please. Why did anyone ever think this was going to be a good idea? I certainly have my issues with Man of Steel, but it was at least watchable and whatever you think of Henry Cavill’s acting skills, he at least looks the part.

Anyway, stay tuned for more “Nerd Thankfulness” posts this month.