Saluting Our Veterans

First of all, hats off to all our service people, past, present, and future, including my friend Jen Waters, who is in the Navy.

Started today with some more classic theatrical shorts devoted to the Armed Services and wartime. (And those of you who are offended by my saluting our fighting men with cartoons...well, you're in the wrong place.) Finished the remaining war-related Looney Tunes shorts. Bugs Bunny eats a super-charged carrot and becomes Super Rabbit. He flies out to Texas to stop a nasty cowboy (with Yosemite Sam's voice) from clearing out all rabbits! But when the going gets tough, Bugs changes into the uniform of a real hero...an Army officer. Daffy has far less interest in joining the services in Draftee Daffy, as he tries to escape that pesky little man from the Draft Board. Bugs trades super-heroics for a different kind of fantasy when he tangles with a plane-sabotaging gremlin in Falling Hare.

I started the Donald Duck in the Army series before I headed out. I always watch Disney's famous cartoons revolving around Donald's wartime misadventures on Armed Services-related holidays. Brash, noisy Donald was the perfect character for 40s audiences, who liked their comedy in-your-face, according to Leonard Maltin. My favorite is The Vanishing Private. Donald gets a little too into camoflage when he uses a new invisibility paint on a cannon, and then on himself. Sergent Pete nearly ends up going crazy trying to catch "the little man that you can't see."

My first errand of the day was running to the Acme to pick up my paycheck. Though the manager at the customer service desk said it had been busy, it didn't look too bad at that point. I next made brief stops at America's Best to order contacts and Fashion Bug for a quick look at their khakis (I need work pants that fit).

Went back to the Acme to do my grocery shopping. It still wasn't that busy. The lines seemed fine. I needed to restock after last week's baking and take advantage of some sales. I ended up with Hershey's Special Dark Chips (good sale), packs of fish, a pack of skinless chicken thighs and a pack of chicken tenders (40% off all Perdue chicken), brown sugar, regular white sugar, whole brown eggs, liquid egg whites, and frozen green peas (to replace what I used in the curried cauliflower last week).

After I got home, I enjoyed a delicious lunch of leftover shrimp and spinach and apple salad while finishing the Donald Duck cartoons. When they ended, I went back out for a stroll to the bank and CVS.

Yes, I know the bank was closed today. I used the ATM machine to deposit my paycheck. After I left there, I headed to CVS. I wanted dish washing liquid and mouth wash, but they were out of the sale items. I ended up cruising the Christmas decorations aisle instead. I love the Peanuts characters in nativity costumes. Snoopy the Sheep is so cute.

It had been cold and windy all day long, probably no more than the lower 50s. It was sunny when I was at the Acme, but clouds appeared as I headed to CVS. The clouds just made everything colder. I decided I'd be better off at home.

When I got in, I ran several more shorts and a Bowery Boys movie while making Cranberry-Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins. Warners and Disney weren't the only studios who made theatrical shorts that revolved around war. Walter Lantz at Universal did one for Woody Woodpecker that spoofed the strict rationing of gasoline in the US, Ration Bored. He had better luck with non-character wartime shorts. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B depicts an African-American jazz trumpeter's introduction to the Army and how he gets his outfit going with his swinging reveille. In Pigeon Patrol, a country bumpkin who was rejected for wartime carrier pigeon duty still manages to get an important message across, kick the Axis in the rear, and impress his girl back home.

The Pink Panther found himself in the Vietnam War in G.I Pink, his only full war-themed cartoon. Pink proceeds to make a mess of this man's Army. Between misplaced land mines and cranky canine mascots, his commanding officer just wishes he'd get drafted by the Navy instead!

The Bowery Boys made four Armed Services-related movies between 1951 and 1953. I ran two today. They join the Army after thinking New York's being invaded in Bowery Battalion and find themselves protecting their friend Louie Dumbrowski from spies after plays for a hydrogen ray. And they're hardly saying Let's Go, Navy! when they hit the open seas to find the sailors who stole their money for a Bowery charity!

Between Bowery Boys movies, I looked up all of the local colleges to take a look at their non-credit online courses. I narrowed it down to Stockton College near Atlantic City (where I got my undergraduate degree from) and Temple/Camden County Community College (who use the same company for their online non-credit courses).

I'll ask for information about the medical billing as back-up, but I'm not really interested. No offense to real medical billing workers and transcriptionists, but it doesn't sound like thrilling work. I want to do something creative and interesting that actually uses some of my college learning. Stockton has courses in writing for websites and freelance writing. Temple/Camden County have web design and multimedia design courses that are expensive, but might be useful for what I have in mind.

I'd like to have my own at-home company writing for local publications and helping small businesses in the area design and compose newsletters, announcements, flyers, brochures, and memos. I'd also like to take some creative writing workshops and classes and try to revive that part of me, too. I haven't been able to do any writing beyond the fanfiction Lauren and I do together in ages. I just haven't had any ideas, nor have I been able to make myself sit down to write.