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Putting the X back into Xmas

( #Cybermonday, #Xmas)

Black Friday is over. The masses turned out in record numbers to snag cheap, off-brand televisions, video games, and whatever the new Tickle Me Elmo is for this year. People crammed into stores on Thursday night and of course, there were incidents. It is easy to jump all over a few people acting like animals, because even though we all want deals, we don’t want to be this:

These events eventually lead to the discussion of how bad consumerism is and how the CHRIST should be put back into CHRISTmas (I cannot count how many times I have seen this on facebook in the last three days). The history lesson that I am about to break out (again) is not going for a whole “anti-Christianity” soap box moment, I am just trying to make you feel better about buying that flat panel. If there was a Jesus, most scholars (even Christian ones) do not think he was born in December. So if Jesus’ birthday is not on December 25th, then what are we celebrating?

The easy answer is: whatever the hell you want.

Many cultures throughout history had year-end festivals. Most were focused on the winter solstice and the fact that the days would be longer and brighter again. In fact, most historians believe that the Romans, while accepting Christianity, grafted their pagan celebrations and stories into Christian constructs to help ease the assimilation.

Looking at modern times and with our current shitty economy in mind, the whole “black friday” craze is a corrective market action to ensure (mostly retail) stores and business would become profitable for the year. I came across an article a few weeks ago (that I cannot find) that reported most retailers would not like to go to such extreme measures at year end to bring in customers, but consumers are conditioned to shop at the last minute. This is a “chicken and the egg” conversation, but the bottom line is that people are conditioned to shop during Black Friday and the last few weeks of the year; as a result, the stores save some of their best deals until that time.

I am by no means advocating overly-materialistic lifestyle, but I can say with no doubt that people like to get together at the end of the year and give each other gifts and have nice meals. If you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa… it does not matter. All of these “holidays” were pumped up and over promoted for the last 100 years because retailers want you in the stores buying stuff. Knowing all this, I say don’t fight it.

Leverage the sales, the marketing, the time off from work to spend time with the people you love. If the economy has you in a pinch, don’t stress out about it, talk it out and find a better way to spend the pennies you have doing something memorable (it still puts money into the economy and your credit won’t be going nuclear). I like calling the holiday season Xmas because “X” in math is a variable that stands for anything you need it to. For me X = an excuse to have friends and family over for dinner, exchange small gifts, and a nice way to spend a few days off from work.

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DME: MacMurray Vineyards

( @zanelamprey, #MacMurray )

Drinking Made Easy has posted another article. This one is about my trip to MacMurray vineyard in California. Check it out:

A Visit to MacMurray Vineyard

Also since the good people at Kress made this article possible, if you are in South Jersey, stop by today and during the holidays to get a nice bottle of wine by good people. You know they are good, I married into their family 😉

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Occupy A Proper Plan

( #Occupy, #SuperCommittee)

For the last month or so I have been watching the Occupy movement in major cities waiting for it to turn bad. At first, I thought it would last a few days and was hesitantly supportive. It is about time Americans got angry at the state of this country (30 years too late if you ask me). The days turned into weeks and the movement was turning into a late night punch-line. A few weeks ago my wife asked me what I thought about the whole situation and I said “it is going to turn ugly.” She gave me and odd look and asked why…

Why? Because the people in the streets do not have a plan of action. They don’t even have the same goal. Going in front of businesses and protesting is not going to accomplish anything. Congratulations! You scared a few stock brokers and they had their sushi delivered…now what? Across the country people are protesting at the doors of corporations. These are the same people who are complaining about not having jobs… that does not make any sense. As the lack of focus and clarity expands, people are getting frustrated and making trouble.

Not big trouble. Little things like throwing feces and being generally disgruntled, but that was enough. The police have been waiting for an opening because they are getting tired of baby-sitting. The city governments also want these people gone ASAP because they are driving up costs. So where did it all go wrong?

The Occupy movement should not have started in New York, it should have started and ended in Washington. People are angry? Stake out congress. Yesterday’s “super-committee” failure should have been the final nail in the coffin. This goes far beyond Democrat vs. Republican, this is about a group of over-privileged, under-educated morons that have bankrupt this country. We let the devils in during Nixon’s reign and never got them out.

Screaming about the lack of jobs? Why aren’t we adjusting our trade regulations to make more domestic products? There should be a 5 year scale back strategy to make more products in America (that would cover the training needed to get plant workers properly educated). Congress will not support trade regulations because our Chinese overlords would be quite pissed.

What about a congressional study about the jobs we are outsourcing overseas? The claim is that we don’t have the right people domestically to do the jobs… for the moment let us assume that is true. The action item should then be to figure out where we are weak and develop high school level courses to train our kids how to do those jobs. Offer tax breaks to companies willing to open domestically and hire these kids (I don’t think you need a college education to work in a call center).

That would create a situation were young Americans can make a modest living without going to college. This opens the colleges back up to the people who should be there and stops it from being a 4 year, $100,000 baby sitting service. In case you are missing the point of this paragraph: NOT EVERYONE SHOULD GO TO COLLEGE (the system is broken, you are being robbed). Employers need to stop looking down at trade schools and start supporting and investing in them.

The protesters need to focus on the people who are the most venerable to this form of feedback… the politicians. Washington should be the target, the hotels that the congressmen sleep at during the week should be the targets. Let the swine known that Americans are on to them and it is going to stop. They need to know that their bullshit super-committees, weak spending cuts, and complete inability to develop a strategy is going to cost them their golden tickets and parachutes.

Go home protesters, get your shit together, regroup, and buy bus tickets to Washington.

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Book Review: Neal Stephenson’s Reamde

( #Reamde, #NealStephenson )

I finally finished the book that would not end yesterday. It has taken me almost 2 months to read Reamde (although I have read other books during this period too), but I got it done. What is the book about? I think this was Stephenson’s attempt to tell an epic fantasy story but in the real world. It is an interesting and creative idea, I am just not sure if that was the intent.

Reamde is part action thriller, detective story, and fantasy tale. The general idea is that a guy (Richard) creates an online game that can be used to traffic real money globally. The game is huge, almost everybody plays it (essentially it is World of Warcraft, but more popular). Richard’s niece ends up getting kidnapped through a series of semi-ridiculous plot turns (I can forgive this in the vein of North by Northwest). The kidnapped niece is basically re-kidnapped by another group of bad guys and then British and US intelligence agencies get involved.

The book features as massive cast of characters that all converge at the end of the book. I suppose my main issue with the story is the sheer amount of characters, many of them were unnecessary and it seems Stephenson doesn’t know what to do with them in the end. There are several that essentially get dropped around the 60-70% mark of the book without another mention. Reamde spends alot of energy getting all of the characters to the same place for the climax. Even with the time spent, it feels completely artificial. Having gotten to the end, I think the book would have been better served killing off some of the characters before we got to that point.

I get the impression the Stephenson was trying to go for a reversal of themes. The story revolves around an epic online game, but the real world becomes much more exciting. I am taking a guess that Stephenson plotted the book out like a video game. You have the main story and the side quests. Minor characters that serve a function and need little backstory. It is a clever idea and if executed better, the book would have been outstanding.

I give Neal Stephenson (and his publishers) kudos for keeping this ONE BOOK. No trilogy, no cliffhangers. It is a complete tale, in fact it is a supersized story. I am glad I could finish this book without having to purchase more and I feel like I earned a gamer trophy getting through it.

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Movie Review: DVD Catch-up

( #MovieReviews, #TGIF )

On a recent trip to California, I watched a ton of movies on the plane and in the airport. Here is a quick rundown of movies you may have missed and might be interested in seeing.

Bridesmaids

Much has been made about this movie being a raunchy girl comedy. It is. It is a good, raunchy, girl comedy. It has one classic scene that people will probably talk about for years to come. Kristen Wiig did a great job and it is totally worth watching (Wilson-Philips cameo aside).

Horrible Bosses

The first of two Jason Bateman movies I am reviewing. Basically this movie is loaded with people I enjoy watching, but the plot is obviously not rooted in reality. The movie starts off funny with the lead’s bosses doing various things to make life horrible for our heroes. Then we end up in the ghetto looking for a hitman and the movie goes to shit (literally with dental floss…). Jennifer Aniston was pretty damn funny as the sexually inappropriate boss.

The Change-Up

The other Jason Bateman movie I came across. This one also stars Ryan Reynolds and Leslie Mann. This movie has LOTS of naked women and poop jokes. The best parts of the movie are Bateman (as Reynolds) interacting with his fake kids. The movie has typical “challenges” and there are absolutely no plot turns that will surprise you (outside of poop).

Bad Teacher

This movie was hilarious. Cameron Diaz redeems herself after a horrible string of movies. Good mix of school humor, drug humor, and sex humor. I had very low expectations going into this and I was pleasantly surprised.

Take Me Home Tonight

A Topher Grace movie that plays homage to 80’s movies. It involves a house party, a hot girl, a crazy fat friend, and cocaine. Typical speech about “what I learned from this night” at the end. Another movie that has a cast full of people that I like. It wasn’t a great flick, but I didn’t mind watching it on the plane.

Super 8

I feel like this movie went under everyone’s radar (including mine). Super 8 is about a small town that plays host to an alien and a bunch of kids that figure it out. It is a more mature E.T. – the military are the bad guys, the alien is a little scary, some people actually die, so maybe not a movie for small children, but it a good one to watch for the PG-13 crowd.

So that is my movie catch-up, I never usually watch that many movies because I can’t sit still at home, but when stuck in airports with delays, there are worse ways to spend time. I hope my recommendations save you some time and hopefully you enjoy the movies.