Walked through Costco this afternoon, and the Christmas decorations are already in the aisles. It's still August. Hot damn.
Okay, so here's the new rule: The only people who are allowed to buy me anything this Christmas are Alex and Fiona. That's it.
It's not that I don't want anything--there are plenty of things I'd like to have. I just don't want anything for Christmas. Not anything from my wishlist, not "just somethig small", and not a charitable donation in my name. Just nothing. Please.
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It's been one of those weeks.
Lol, Christmas rant. I was a bit evil and locked your last one in my RSS reader. I'll need to check the rules to see if rules are allowed to be in bold :)
The thing is, it's not that I hate Christmas: I hate the ravenous consumerfest that Christmas has become. Buying presents is a matter of obligation, and having four months of the year concentrated on one big-bang event sucks all the spontaneity and pleasure out of the simple act of giving and receiving a gift.
I can't unilaterally decide that I'm not giving anyone presents this year. (Or rather, I could, but then people would have a genuine reason to complain that I was being a "Scrooge". Oh how I hate that term.) But I feel that asking people to not give me anything is perfectly within my rights.
Maybe I shouldn't be so angry and vitriolic about it, but I'm sorry--seeing Christmas decorations in the shops before summer is over is just plain wrong.
Note that the Christmas ban does not extend to Martin's birthday - unless people get excessive about it this year. At which point I fully expect him to add birthday presents into the ban.
Note as well that I'm fully behind Martin in this, and won't be giving out any hints of things "he'd really like anyway". If you're overwhelmed with the desire to give him something, give it to him some other time, outwith the Christmas blast radius.
Last of all, note that I am not nearly so mature and austere as Martin, and am quite happy to receive thoughtful gifts at Christmastime.
I need to agree, it's not the time yet.
At the other hand, it's great marketing.
By starting the hyve now, people will start buying stuff from now till the last day before Christmas.
I guess all shop-a-holics will love it, and all normal people hate it.
Friendly Greetings,
Martijn
Hi There,
Corneilius here, a not-for-profit singer/songwriter, dj and activist.
The hyped-up commercialised pavlovian drooling over this seasons 'must haves' for children, teens, adults, elders and dogs, cats, fish and snakes makes me wanna hurl the entire contents of all my semi-digested christmas dinners over the nearest ecclesiastcally sub-minded sub-person. EUUUUUUUURRRGGGH!!
So I wrote a few songs, in the form of an 'AA' (double sided) Electronic FREE Christmas Single, which I hope you will enjoy.
The first side is "I can't stand Shopping", and the second side is "Christ! What a mess this World is in!"...... both are sing along songs with an allusion in one to another great ode, "Imagine"..... there's no christmas ........ i am pretty sure The Good Lord Jesus looks upon this festive idiocy with the same regard he has for The Cross upon which he was so brutally crucified!
You can find them both at http://www.myspace.com/40976166 , where you can listen to them or download them.
If, perchance you do enjoy them, perhaps I might enjoin you to spread the word, pass them on, share them with your good friends or even mention them in your web site.
Thank you for taking the time to read this unsolicited email, and if I have caused you any offence, be assured that none is intended. I am a gentle soul.
Kindest regards
Corneilius
www.corneilius.net
Legends of the Sun Pig is Martin Sutherland's little corner of the web. Scotsman in the Netherlands. Parent, husband, infovore, gamer, geek. I also make great stew.
I'm on Twitter, Pinboard, Flickr, Last.fm, but not Facebook and only very rarely Google+.
Professionally, I'm a web and mobile web product developer and consultant. You can hire me through my company Aleona.
Dad
Mmmm, bit of a rant week.