happy holidays... bah humbug

I'll join everyone else in saying that the "Happy Holidays" livejournal banner is just... ewww. It looks like it was put together by the people who do South Park - which I suppose could be a compliment in some contexts, but as something that's plastered all over the top of any page that doesn't have &style=mine on it... eeek.

"Happy Holidays" bothers me as a greeting anyway. It's so... non-specific. "I don't know anything about you to know which particular holiday you might be celebrating, but whatever - hope it's a good one!". I kinda feel that if you don't know someone well enough to know whether you should be offering greetings for Christmas, Hannukah, Solstice, or something else, you shouldn't be wishing them a happy one in the first place. Gah. Yes, I realise it arose as a thing for shop assistants to say to their customers without making an assumption about their culture or religion. That makes it even worse

Today I am feeling overwhelmed by Christmas. Apparently it's December 3rd already. While I have plenty of cards left over from last year and, at the very least, small presents for most of our friends (as I buy those when I see them), I don't currently have enough spare bandwidth to sort out presents for family or my own wishlist so people know what to get me. I'm feeling very "omg there's only 21 shopping days until Christmas!!", which isn't helped by the fact that a lot of things I want to get as presents need to be sent mail order from other countries. Eurgh. I would like to send Christmas cards to people who want them, but I'm not sure I'll get round to it this side of Christmas. Have optimistically screened all comments on this entry, just in case people want to leave me their postal addresses. Any comments that aren't addresses will get unscreened.

So tired and blah. Thank God we only have to endure another 18 days before Solstice. I need the days to start getting longer again.

links of the week, or thereabouts

This is absolutely frigging hilarious: For the love of Nano. My favourite bit is the "it's late, I've not slept in three days and I don't know any words any more" category, which is rather like my own, endearing Noun Disease, otherwise known as "Um. Thingy.". Fortunately? my Noun Disease doesn't seem to affect my writing, but perhaps that's because when I have entirely lost nouns I'm usually too fried to attempt to write anything anyway.

Also, the gayest Superman & Batman comic ever. The worm-alien bit needs to be seen to be believed.

Did I ever post the link about the Roomba here? Had it open in my browser for about 2 weeks, but, um... The whole article is hilarious, especially when the Roomba is chasing the cats. Which is most of the article, actually.

Richard is a Big Meanie.

Richard just went out wearing black PVC trousers (with lacing up the side) and a fishnet top. He is going to meet his paintballing associate Pinky.

When I expressed surprise at his attire, he "explained" that he is meeting Pinky at a friend's birthday party and needs to conform to the dress code. (Pinky works for Cyberdog).

I pointed out that I am only too happy for Richard to wear PVC trousers, and that he should, in fact, wear them all the time.

He said "What, round the house?". Apparently, wearing PVC trousers in the house is not The Done Thing.

Humph! I say to that.

Roll on 2007, when allegedly there will be a smoking ban and I will be able to go to nightclubs again (yeah, right) and ogle goffic & cyberpunk boiz in their black, silver & fluorescent-coloured skintight tops & PVC. Yum.

In the meantime... I'll jut sit here and play with my SimFreezepop. Because my actual PARTNER is too MEAN to indulge me. Huh!