Tag Archives: Christmas

Zune Fail, Comment Win & Holiday Creep

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Kelson
  • Weird: Zunes all over the world froze up at the same time overnight. #
  • Comment win: “like she was going to rip his arm off and beat his spleen to death with it. Not him; just his spleen” #
  • Just a quick store run – yeah along with everyone else in town. #
  • More holiday creep! I still need to mail Xmas gifts to people I missed! It’s still 2008! #

Valentine's Day Display

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Carol of the Bells, ATM Design

Posted on December 23, 2008 by Kelson

Some more observations while Christmas shopping:

  • I like “Carol of the Bells” as an instrumental piece. Sung with lyrics? Not so much. It feels tacked on. #
  • Clever UI design on ATM: w/ fast cash, it won’t give you the cash until after you take your card. Usually I grab it fast, so I never noticed #

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Mall Crush

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Kelson

Must remember: just because the mall is the CLOSEST place to grab lunch doesn’t make it the BEST place, esp. 3 days before Christmas. #

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Christmas Shopping

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Kelson
  • Need to sleep. Found myself typing “Satan Claus” by mistake. #
  • Symptom of car culture: I almost feel like I have to justify crossing the street on foot to go to another store instead of moving the car. #
  • Sun Halo. All you have to do is look up once in a while. #

Halo and Light Posts Empty Shelves For Sale. No Linens, No Things.

  • Linens & Things: Nothing left to sell but the shelves… #
  • Almost. Walked around a corner and they do have SOME stuff left #
  • Virgin Megastore is closing too, but they’ve still got lots of stuff. Incl 5000 copies of Serial Mom. #
  • Replica toys: I get the nostalgia factor, but at the same time it’s a weird idea. #
  • Going out of business sales seen today: 4. Mervyns, Linens&Things,Virgin,Steve&Barry’s. #
  • And the more stores I look at, the more “What You Own” competes in my head for the ubiquitous Christmas music. #
  • Amazon’s wishlist needs a generic option. Like “I want an 8GB Micro-SD card” rather than “I want THIS Micro-SD card specifically!” #

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Even Santas Have it Tough

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Kelson

Countrywide Ho Loans

Presumably this institution is designed to serve the needs of Santa Clauses who subsist on Ho-Hos. :D

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Shopping Observations

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Kelson
  • Can we get a moratorium on covers of “Last Christmas?” Actually, can we get one on the original too? #
  • Funny how easy it is to spot a cover by Darryl K. Sweet. It makes me want to mash up Xanth, WOT, and every other fantasy series he’s covered #
  • I can’t see giving someone Countdown to Final Crisis as a gift. Maybe a gag gift? #
  • Someone EXPANDED The Red Balloon into a full-length film???? #
  • Nothing says Christmas like 50s xmas song played on a mall stage by a guy with a ukulele. Now he’s singing Over the Rainbow. ???? #

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Christmas Songs

Posted on December 19, 2008 by Kelson

I like hearing so many different kinds of music at Christmas time. Except when they play the same songs over and over and over and over and #

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Santa Hats & Translation, G1 Roam, VH & Expelled

Posted on December 3, 2008 by Kelson
  • Saw a bunch of Santa hats lying alongside the entire length of the 55 South to 405 South ramp – and it’s a long bridge. Maybe a box came open? #
  • Got tech support question in Spanish for wrong company. Replied in bad Spanish with link. Checked against Google Translate. Google has a better vocabulary than I do. :-( #

Links of the day:

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Holiday Seasons: Then and Now

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Kelson

When I was a kid, I remember the last few months of the year broke down like this:

  • Back to School in early-to-mid September
  • Halloween for the second half of October
  • Thanksgiving for the second half of November
  • Christmas in December
  • New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

These days it seems more like this:

  • Back to school in August (July, really — as soon as the Independence Day merchandise goes on clearance.)
  • Some weird mix of Oktoberfest, Halloween, and Thanksgiving as “Autumn” or “Harvest” or some such thing covering all of September and October, resolving into Halloween specifically for the last week.
  • Christmas from November through December, with a short break for Thanksgiving
  • New Year’s

Everything’s crept earlier.  There aren’t any breaks between seasons.  And Christmas has swallowed up Thanksgiving as if it were merely an appetizer for the main meal.

Seriously… can’t we let Halloween be Halloween? And let Thanksgiving be Thanksgiving? And let Christmas be something special instead of taking up 1/6 of the year?

When Christmas starts showing up before Thanksgiving — never mind before Halloween! — I always find myself thinking of the story about the little girl who wished it would be Christmas Every Day, and found out why that wasn’t so appealing after all.

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Clarify and Classify

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Kelson
  • If only the super high-tech jet fighters had identified, clarified & classified, they’d have seen the attack for what it really was. #
  • Good grief. “Traditional marriage” didn’t go away when gays were let into the club. It doesn’t need a discriminatory law to “restore” it. #
  • South Coast Plaza has Christmas decorations up ALREADY. Halloween doesn’t exist, I guess. Or Thanksgiving. #

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