Thought I'd post a general conversation thread for folks who might not be spending time with family or friends on Christmas. What are you doing on your own for Christmas, or what are you missing out on?
"It's too early for Christmas", you may be saying, but you may also be a Scrooge and I won't abide by it. Christmas is just about 2 weeks away and I'm ready to listen to some Christmas music. So what are some of your favorites?
Also any non-Christmas December holiday music can be shared as well! I'm just not aware of any of the others having much music (unless you're into that Adam Sandler song).
edit: I put together a Spotify playlist of everything (so far as of Dec 13 @ 1pm EST) -- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7FY6Ngmo60so3xzy3xCTY5?si=729f98cd8da34283
edit 2: I've been adding songs as they trickle in. Last updated Dec 20
Now that the holiday season is nearly over, I figured it is a good time to share the gifts that we gave this year. If there is a particular reason why you gave what you did, please share!
Edit: Going to plug USPS's Operation Santa. I plan to participate next year since it seems pretty direct with the giving. Found out about it way too late this year!
It can be anything: possible/impossible, material/immaterial.
I want the Ergodox EZ programmable keyboard. In my estimations, taking into account currency exchange, shipping and import taxes, it would cost R$ 2323.2 (2323.2 Brazilian Reais) to bring one home. That's 232% of our minimum wage.
So I bought some cheap games on the PSN and a 15 dollars vertical mouse instead.
Sign-ups for the group itself will NOT close and will continue to be available on an invite-only basis.
IMPORTANT EDIT: It is more than okay to join the group even if you do NOT intend to gift games to others! Please join if you want to receive games. Gifters love to have an eager audience to gift to!
For certain events (such as Not-So-Secret Santa) gifting is necessary for those choosing to participate, but these are always optional. Membership in the group and accepting freely given gifts requires no burden of gifting on your behalf.
ALSO IMPORTANT EDIT: Not-So-Secret Santa has a buy-in of under $5 USD. Though gifters can certainly choose to gift a more expensive game if they prefer, each participant is including at least one game on their wishlist that is less than $5 USD in order to minimize the people who are priced out of participating.
With @Deimos's permission, I have started the Tildes' Steam Game Gifting Group and am beginning its first event: Not-So-Secret Santa!
In proper Tildes' fashion the group is invite-only at the moment, so if you would like to join, please reply here or PM me with a link to your Steam profile or your Steam username. I'll have to friend you to send you the invite, but you don't need to keep me on your friends' list after you've accepted it if you don't want to (I promise I won't mind!).
I envision the group being used for specific events (like Not-So-Secret Santa), random giveaways, and group-limited lotteries (using the platform Steamgifts).
We had a discussion here last year about "Baby, It's Cold Outside", and whether the lyrics to this song encourage rape. This came after a radio station pulled the song from its playlist after people complained it was too "rapey".
Well, John Legend has re-written this song "to remove the 'date-rape' lyrics". Here is the song and here are Legend's new lyrics.
What do you think? Did the song need to be re-written? Is this an improvement? Is this the "Christmas" song we need for a post-#metoo era?
Two asides:
This isn't a Christmas song. The lyrics never mention Jesus or Christmas or Santa or Yuletide or the festive season. They don't even refer to Winter! There's just one lyric saying "it's cold outside" - and, as I mentioned in my analysis of the song last year, it's not even snowing in the movie scene where this song was first used.
Here in Australia, half the country is on fire and we're breaking all-time heat records - and here I am, writing about a song which says it's cold outside.
Brussels is ridiculously beautiful in December. I feel so lucky to live here.
There's a christmas market where lots of independents sell artisanal products of all sorts. It's incredibly cool.
https://www.brussels.be/winter-wonders
There's a huge christmas tree in Grand Place which looks fantastic. There's also this weird multicolor lightshow nearby which you can walk and dance inside of (must be pretty crazy on psychedelics). Took this photo of it with the girlfriend earlier today.
It's late and I'm kind of too tired to elaborate too much on it, but god damn it's so cool here. I live like… five minutes walk from all this. I've been in love with Brussels all year ever since I moved here last january, and this is like a really nice wedding anniversary gift for me and this city.
Coming up to Christmas and gift-giving is on my mind and I wondered if you've ever been given food or a food-related gadget that you liked? I guess we can also talk about the misses too.
I like chocolate, so small amounts of nice chocolate are something that I like.
In Russia, he's called Ded Moroz. Unlike Santa, he wears blue, doesn't ride a sleigh, nor does he abuse his workers, but uses magic to deliver the presents instead. He has a granddaughter named Snegurochka, who always comes with him to kids' celebrations. Just as the new year starts, he's ready to put the presents under the fur tree.
Spouse and I have a long history of not setting too much value on the consumption festival season, aside from the obligatory (and fun) over-eating and -drinking. We usually make charitable donations in each others' names, but we're still reasonably proficient at small tokens or surprising each other occasionally. Guy got me a DVD collection with all five seasons of Letterkenny, and we're gleefully watching it together. He (well, me too) received a wee tiny capsule espresso maker, and is both happy and jittery.
So how did you do this year? Was it fun, stressful, budget-busting, social, or otherwise a pleasurable/painful process? Do you feel like you made someone happier?