(for the December posting meme- degrees )

I'm actually skipping to this one, mainly because it would be well into January before I got to it otherwise and that just feels wrong, so I'm doing it now before I forget. :P Also, this one's going to be link-heavy. Fair warning.

Favorite Christmas traditions!
The thing about this question is that there isn't a lot that's survived childhood. After my grandparents died when I was a teenager, everything basically fell apart and there's really nothing that's done consistently as a family anymore. Plus I worked Christmas every year for nearly ten years, unless I just happened to have the day off normally anyway... so basically what I'm left with are a bunch of personal things that I'm not sure I'd call "traditions," but we'll go with it for the sake of the question:

⛄ (the one thing that I -have- retained) HAM DINNER! :D I usually just buy a package of ham steaks, though last year I cooked a half of a boneless ham with pineapple and cloves. I probably won't do that again, it's WAY too much for just me. It was delicious, but I was eating ham till I was sick of it. XD But yeah, ham with pineapple slices, mashed potatoes, broccoli, rolls, and maybe pecan pie if I can find it. Done.

⛄ As far as gift exchange, things usually go like this: Kelly and I will go out for a nice dinner or something in lieu of gifts, not ON Christmas but sometime after, usually. Also sometime after Christmas, Stef and I give each other gift cards and proceed to go shopping, though these days the gift cards tend to be via Amazon (after this Christmas, I should have enough to almost pay for a basic Kindle without the special offers. :D)- so we go to Walmart or Barnes and Noble or wherever else we might need, and go to lunch and generally just spend time.

⛄ Christmas required reading: The 12 Steps of Christmas (note: Original, not fanfic- also NSFW!) and Toys in Boyland (note: Hikago fic, NSFW)

⛄ I pull out one of two trees, depending on how lazy I'm feeling. One is a two foot thing that's completely made of white wires and lights (think like this, except not as tall because it doesn't have all that "trunk", and not as pretty because I can't shape a tree for shit and it always looks lopsided XD), and I have decorations and a star for it and everything. If I don't have the energy to deal with that, I have a little plastic tree that plugs into my usb and changes colors that's basically this except it doesn't light up quite as high on the tree. It's cute. :D I would actually prefer a fiber optic one, but it was what was available at the time- and considering that it probably would've gotten crushed by now, it's just as well. XD

⛄ Christmas music! Now... thanks to working in retail for so long, I've heard most Christmas music enough for about five lifetimes, but there's some of it I can still stand. The versions of Silent Night by Enya and Boys II Men. Anything Chipmunk. At Christmas by Hanson is a longtime favorite (IT'S PRETTY, DON'T JUDGE ME), and I love Christmas Eve Sarajevo by Trans Siberian Orchestra (even though it makes me tear up if I think about it for too long) and We Three Kings by Kamelot. There are others, but those are the essentials for more "traditional" music. 

Many of my favorites, however, fall under the heading of parody, and the number one on this list is Ho Ho Fucking Ho by Kevin Bloody Wilson (obviously NSFW XD). Other favorites in this vein mostly come from Bob Rivers and include The 12 Pains of Christmas, The Chimney Song, The Twisted Chipmunk Song (not really SFW either- and yeah, I know, the video is dumb, but it's the only one I found that didn't have sound issues), and the best follow-up to that song ever: Chipmunks Roasting On An Open Fire. :P

⛄ Christmas movies! I don't really have a "set" tradition here, but typically I'll watch at least one Christmas movie during the season. It's usually something like Charlie Brown, Frosty, The Santa Clause, Muppet's Christmas Carol, The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph, that sort of thing. Between stuff I've bought and stuff I've downloaded, I actually have a TON of Christmas themed movies. One of my favorites too that I actually found again semi-recently is a little short Disney did in the 50's called "Pluto's Christmas Tree."

And that's about all I can think of, though I think this entry is already quite long enough anyway. :P

☁ First things first- late, I know, but...



Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Merry Yule, Happy birth of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whatever floats your boat. :D

☁ Scott, my immediate supervisor at work, always gets us chocolate for Christmas- one of those assorted mixes that you actually only eat a couple out of, but that's not the point- so Mary and I decided to get him something this year. It's only fair, after all, and he's had a rough year. I'm sure he's glad to see 2011 go- both of his parents passed (separately) AND he's getting a divorce. Anyway. We made him a card and gave him a $25 Barnes and Noble card, since we know he loves to read. I thought he was going to cry. ;~; It was pretty cool though, have to say. I love giving presents. :D

☁ Needless to say, I worked for Christmas, but it wasn't TOO bad overall. I'd stayed up WAY too late reading a longfic though, so I was working on like... three hours sleep. Whoops. ^_^;;; I crashed when I got home, but I need to go back to bed soon to avoid a repeat performance. Woke up, microwaved some Christmas dinner I'd gotten previously (ham steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and I made some rolls the night before.). There's even still a whole plate full for tomorrow, plus a slice of pecan pie that I decided was in my best interest to not eat. :D As far as other holiday plans go, I will meet up with Stef at some point and we will exchange gift cards. I also got her a mini pillow pet in the bumblebee version. (Her nickname in junior high was Bee, so it's a little inside joke thing. Plus, how freaking cute is this thing, seriously? I'm half considering getting a different animal for myself. SO ADORABLE.). Kelly and I are planning on doing a "sister day" sometime soon, which is in lieu of presents, depending on when we can coordinate our schedules. I'm not sure what we're doing exactly, aside from  DEFINITELY seeing the new Sherlock Holmes movie, but eh. :P

☁ Speaking of fic, I've been reminded of a holiday bunny that I keep avoiding. Someone should probably tell me to not write it. XD

☁ Mario nails- HOW COOL IS THAT? :D :D :D

Okay, I just got hit with "ZOMG NEED SLEEP NAO", so I'm going to call it a night. Later, all! \o

1. Haven't posted in a while, but work is killing me. Seriously. I haven't gotten out anywhere close to on time the last three days, and yesterday I didn't leave until 12:30. That's TWO AND A HALF HOURS late. Yeeeeeah. Oh, and then I had the Assistant Manager (who is a complete moron) lecturing me IN FRONT OF A CUSTOMER yesterday about how I needed to be ringing while I was helping people with their picture stuff. It's like... you seriously want me to just walk away from people constantly to ring? It's less than a fucking week before Christmas. As it was, I had a woman bitch at me for a good five minutes today because we're out of the 5x7 greeting card envelopes, so she got the 6x8 ones. I'm not even kidding. Look, it's two inches, and you get the damn envelopes for free anyway. Take them and run. God. And this idiot assistant thinks I have nothing better to do than to sit at the register and ring all day? Fuck.

IS CHRISTMAS OVER YET?

2. Holiday cards went out Wednesday, so those should be to people soon if they're not already. Except Fei, because I sent them super duper late this year and she may or may not get it on time. Sadness. Also I got Ai's and Shan's cards, thanks you guys! <3

3. I've decided that I'm going to try to watch as many movies off of the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" list. I know I'll get bored with it quickly, but maybe I can at least knock off some of those movies that people always gape at me for when they discover I've never seen them *cough*GoneWiththeWind*cough*. So we'll see. I actually watched two yesterday- there are some in Youtube's movie section, and the first two on the list are about ten minutes each.

A Trip to the Moon- Cracky and kind of amusing because of that. It actually has effects too, even if they're cheesy as hell. A little bit too long, though, I was definitely getting bored by the end.
The Great Train Robbery- Most random music EVER. It seriously made no sense with what was going on. Also I thought that there were two robbers instead of four for the longest time because they're all dressed the same and you can't see anyone's faces. Boo.

Overall, nothing particularly memorable. I think the coolest thing is that they're from 1902 and 1903, respectively, and they're on YOUTUBE. Movies that are over 100 years old, and I can sit on my laptop and watch them on the INTERNET. Just. Wow. I spent a good portion of The Great Train Robbery trying to wrap my brain around that. XD

At the moment, though, I'm mostly trying to finally finish off The L Word. I saw the first two seasons originally and that was it, so...yeah. I started all over because it's been too long, and I'm in the middle of season two. Not bad for starting this a few days ago. ^_^

4. Just something interesting: I took a little quiz called "What tattoo describes your personality". I got "Koi fish- You have a lot of courage, the ability to attain high goals, and overcoming life's difficulties. So don't let anyone hold you back."

...huh.

☁ Reminder- Holiday Card Post HERE~!

☁ Worked for Thanksgiving, so nothing particularly special. They did bring in Boston Market though, so we had turkey and potatoes and gravy. Mmmmmmm. It was delicious. Totally worth working for, seriously.

I saw my Aunt Linda for a few minutes before I left for work... she loves my hair, apparently, and she went "look at how skinny you're getting!" XD She's a liar, I'm nowhere even close to skinny, but I guess I'll take the compliment. :P

☁ Speaking of work, it's kicking my ass again. Scott's father died, so I ended up going in on Wednesday... another six day work week, hooray! -_- Plus there was Thanksgiving and Black Friday and today was absolute HELL. Let's just say that the morning shift did nothing and we were left with all of their work plus our own. UGH. We totally busted our asses. I would so call in tomorrow if I thought I could get away with it. I'm just EXHAUSTED. Is Christmas over yet?

☁ I ended up spending a small fortune for the Black Friday sales... I really need to learn to stay the hell off of Amazon that week. Most of what I got was DVD's and various Wii things. Went a little nuts, but I didn't get more than half of what I had originally tabbed as a possibility, so I'm taking that as a plus. Before sales tax, it was about $180, but considering the amount of stuff I actually purchased? That's awesome. Also it really wasn't that much worse than last year.

Also hopped over to Threadless since they were apparently having a sale. They didn't have one of the shirts that I -really- wanted (this one), but I did get two cute ones (this and this). Including shipping that was $24, which definitely isn't bad at all either. XL in the men's- we'll see how that goes. If they're a little small that's okay, because hopefully I'll shrink into them at some point.

So overall I'm pretty happy, even though I apparently am a tool and forgot a few things. Oh well. I have some stuff bookmarked that I will hopefully remember the next time I go to order something from Amazon. Which probably won't be until after Christmas anyway.

☁ Haagen-Dazs' "dulce de leche" flavor is my new favorite thing. SO GOOD. Thank god they come in little tiny versions.

☁ I'm seriously considering getting a mattress in a box. God. Yes, I'm that desperate for a new mattress, but the other factor is that this way the delivery is then not going to be a huge production. Hopefully. And getting it set up is really easy, according to reviews. This is... probably another "after Christmas" thing. I probably would've gotten it with my Amazon order, but it was actually on the Walmart site and not on Amazon like I'd thought it was. Whoops. No wonder I couldn't find it. XDDD

☁ More and more TSA stories, some pretty horrifying like actual insertion through clothes, fondling through clothes, sexual harassment, the fact that menstrual pads are apparently a threat to security... the truly bad thing about this is that someone is going to have to sue, or TSA is going to have to try to arrest someone for refusal, and it's going to have to go to the courts. That's how our system works. The government pulls something stupid and then the Supreme Court has to say "Uh, no, you can't do that." But it has to GET to the Supreme Court first. That's the really fucked up part about this, is that something really bad is going to have to happen in order for this to stop... and even then, it's not immediate. It could take YEARS unless TSA gets their heads out of their asses first.

.............I think we all know the chances of THAT one happening.

☁ People are nuts: Guy hacks his mother to death with a sword and then says he was just killing the demon inside of her- warning, the story's pretty graphic. The guy sounds schizophrenic as hell, in which case you have to wonder how no one saw this coming. In this other one, a woman tries to cut in line and then threatens to shoot people when she's understandably called on it.

Man, it's enough to make you want to lock yourself in your house. XD

☀I can't believe it's December and there's NO SNOW. We had a little the other day, but nothing stuck. This is completely unheard of where I live. Hello, Global Warming. On the upside.... well, there's no snow. On the downside... with there being no snow and also in general being unseasonably warm (still not, yanno, warm, but warmer than it usually is this time of year), it just... doesn't feel like Christmas. D:

☀Did I ever tell you guys that I caved and got Sims 3? Well... I caved and got Sims 3. XD Some things I like, some things I don't. I'm working on a few different things at the moment with that... it's sort of eaten my brain, as Sims tend to do. Oh! Biggest thing I like about this one- I can actually DO OTHER THINGS while simming. With 2, the loading screens took so long after I came back from checking on AIM or firefox or anything that I just wouldn't switch, it wasn't worth it. There's still a slight delay on 3, but it's pretty much insignificant. I -LOVE- that.

☀There is actually a bunny for fifthmus . O_o I'd have to check, but I think that might be record early. XD It needs developing, and it's certainly not TEH BEST BUNNY EVAR, but it's something at least, and that's better than showing up empty handed. ^_^;;;

☀Continuing the Hikago rewatch, slowly but surely. It's slow going mostly because I'm taking screencaps of... well, a lot. And a lot of times I have to go back and go through stuff slowly to get a particular frame, and... guh. It generally takes about an hour and a half to go through each episode. But! When I'm done with this I'll have screencaps for pretty much anything I want ever, which is pretty cool. At some point I should probably make bases of them and post them for everyone... not all at once, of course, because there's a ton. Maybe 5-10 episodes at a time?

☀Downloaded Liquid Story Binder, just to see. I'm.... so confused. D: This really makes me wish I had a Mac, just for Scrivener (which looks completely awesome). Honestly? I will probably never use this. I would much rather have everything in one document where I can actually FIND it as opposed to ten thousand different files and I can't figure out where anything is. Although maybe that's just me, and maybe I just don't understand this program yet. It's just that at this point, it seems more frustrating than useful. I'm going to try to use this for the fifthmus fic, though, and we'll see.

☀There was an update to the Mario firefox theme that I loved.... I hate the update. Urgh. But the old one won't work with the most recent upgrade of FF that I just downloaded this afternoon. *glowers* Guess I need to find a new theme. *grumpy grumbling* The good news, however, is that with the upgrade firefox doesn't seem to be continually eating my tabs whenever the window gets closed. So far. This is a good thing and helps Ver to not go nuts.

*EDIT* Actually, there's a really cool Christmas one that I just installed. It's whiter in parts than I like generally, but it's neat so I'll live with it. Here, I will even screencap it for you all because I'm a dork like that. <3 (It's called Tinseltown for anybody that might be interested, btw)

I always do, and I promised I would again, so here it is- the reminder post. If you want a holiday card, go here and follow the instructions. Please do not put any personal information on THIS post unless you want everyone to see it, this one isn't screened. ^_^;;; Yes, you still need to sign up even if you did one last year (for multiple reasons).

If you don't feel comfortable giving me your info on LJ, you're perfectly free to e-mail it to me instead (I'm at verloren1983 [at] hotmail [dot] com, because I'm creative like that. :P). Your best bet there is to put "holiday cards" or something in the subject line so I don't automatically delete it. XD Or if you're not comfortable with it at all, I can work something out on the computer. ^_^

1. Internet is back as of yesterday, though I didn't get to do much with it yesterday, with the whole "family time" thing and all. Ugh. I'm still keeping the hiatus up on Squarewarts for a little while longer, though, because I'm still trying to download programs and stuff and that slows down my computer quite a bit, so... yeah. But I seem to be back for now. Till my computer inevitably fucks up again. ^_^;;;

2. Erin changed her mind, again, and so we did Christmas yesterday. I got a cool new digital camera (random, but still cool) and the stuff to go with it. I'm going to have some fun playing with that. :P

Dealing with my family is just... exhausting. Ugh. No wonder I hide out in my room all the time. Especially when I'm still feeling down from the SAD and the PMS and everything else going on. -_-

3. The other day I got my first non-fanfic bunny in a really, really long time. <3! I mean... god. I just checked the writing journal. I haven't written anything original since Nov. 25th, 2006. Fucking 2006. O_o Probably because anime ate my brain a little bit... <_< Though I can't even say this is particularly original either, the idea has definitely been done, but whatever. It's something! :D Now I just have to do some character building here. Names would be good for a start. ^_^;;;

4. Organizing my email inbox. Ugh. But it needs to be done, I've got four pages of saved email in there. >_< ..............ahh, much better. ^_^

Ehehe, this has been sitting here for over an hour, think it's time to post it and start getting ready for work. I clearly have nothing else to say anyway. ^_^;;;

1. Sivu- Got your card in the mail yesterday, thank you! <3

2. Got some presents wrapped. Not as many as I would've liked, since Kelly came home earlier than I thought she was going to (by two hours, even ^_^;;; )... but still, it's something. Even if I still suck epically at wrapping. One of these days, I'm seriously going to go through with my threat to just throw everything in a big gift bag and go "Here." XD

3. Mini-round of blind_go ~! Signups are here, in case anyone who's interested hasn't seen them. ......aaaaaand I just realized that the deadline for fic is New Years. O_o Awww, fuck.

4. Finished rewatching Fruits Basket with Kelly. One of these days, I'm going to sit down and watch that in Japanese. I've only ever seen it in the dub. Not for a while, though, being that I just saw it again. ^_^;;;

I've also started watching Antique Bakery. It's.............. odd. That's really all I have to say about it right now.

5. Need to try and actually get some stuff done tomorrow. Cleaning, and more wrapping, and laundry, and so on. *siiiiiiiiiigh* Dun wanna.

1. I am apparently a bitch for not being clairvoyant. Pssh. Whatever, mom. How am I supposed to hear you from across the parking lot, or see you, when I think you're in your room and therefore aren't expecting you outside in the slightest? Why would I look? Don't assume I saw you and ignored you, because I didn't. I know how much you think I like to get yelled at, but I really don't. >_<

2. Christmas sucks and needs to be over. Like, ages ago.

3. No power at work on Friday. At all. We ended up closing the store at 5pm, actually, because by then it was dark and cold and it was a safety issue. We'd lost power around 7am that morning and I was told it didn't come back on till midnight. Suuuuuuck. I mean, kinda cool since I got to go home early, but I didn't need to lose the hours either. At least they have to pay me for four hours since I was there, so I'm not losing as much as I would've otherwise.

Oh, and when I made that voice post saying we'd lost power? It didn't come back on for another eight hours or so. Needless to say, I just went to bed. ^_^;;;

4. Also suck? Co-workers. Three cases in point:

( Basically, sometimes I really hate my coworkers... )

So it's been fun.... not so much. I really, really need to be working on my fifthmus  fic. Which is not started yet. Shiiiiiiiiit. Thank god it's only 500 words this time.