How Are You Spending Your Christmas Vacation?

Embedded Geek asks: "Instead of just spending Christmas break (or slowdown if you don't actually get time off) fixing up your house/car/server, are there any neat activities or events in your neck of the woods that you've been putting off? A museum exhibit? A cool new restaurant? An attraction in your hometown you usually only see with out of town relatives? Share your ideas with your fellow Slashdot readers! I, for one, plan to check out Barsoom to Blade Runner: Science Fiction in Southern California in my hometown."

Comments

Doh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading slashdot, of course...

I wish I had a life...

You mean besides posting here?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a whole lot, apparently.

First post, this late?

[LostCluster]

Apparently posting on /. isn't on anybody's list of activities... this post seems to be falling on deaf ears.

Besides, who on the east coast can go anywhere with all of this snow?

Re:First post, this late?

[lewp]

Snow? What snow :)? Suckers...

Just kidding. I hate cold in general, but I wouldn't have minded a white Christmas.

My family did most of the big Christmas stuff (opening most of the presents, getting together with relatives, spreading holiday cheer until we're exhausted) last night like we always do. Christmas Day is reserved for spending time with the immediate family and relaxing.

We've been switching back and forth between The Godfather and A Christmas Story marathons for most of the day and cooking pies and a giant turkey which we'll soon begin digging into. Truly one of the best days of the year.

Hope everyone else is enjoying themselves in a similar manner, regardless of their reasons for celebration.

Re:First post, this late?

[DarkKnightRadick]

I've been busy on IRC pointing out to everyone that Christmas is a fascist holiday hijacked by the Christians from the pagan's celebration of Saturnalia so they (the Christians) wouldn't get gacked in ancient Rome.

The article I pulled this from is here

For those not interested in visiting the site, here's the relevent text:

"The Bible says nothing about the calendar date of the Nativity, but does refer to historical personages and events, such as the reign of King Herod. Modern historical research suggests that Herod may have died sometime between 4 BC and 1 BC by our present calendar. The Magi are said to have visited Herod just before he died, and presumably the birth of Christ and appearance of the Star came sometime before that.

And it is very doubtful that Jesus was born in late December. For one thing, the Biblical passage in St. Luke, "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night," indicates that spring is the likely season; that was when the shepherds in Judea were tending the newborn lambs.

In ancient times, Dec. 25 was the date of the lavish Roman festival of Saturnalia. It was a time when gifts were exchanged; homes, streets and buildings were decorated; people came home for the holidays and everybody was in a happy, party mood. It has been said that early Christians chose the date of the Saturnalia in order to avoid attention and thus escape persecution.

When the Roman emperor Constantine officially adopted Christianity in the 4th century, the date of Christmas remained Dec. 25."

So Happy Saturnalia to everyone everywhere!

(And yes, I AM Pagan myself)

Re:First post, this late?

[JWSmythe]

Go searching the net on the topic. There's a whole lot that they've stolen to make Christmas as we know it.. I spent a couple slow days researching it to answer the question of "Do you believe in Christmas" to my friends and coworkers..

The most basic root of Christmas is the Winter Solstice (roughly Dec 21), which almost any culture would assign a celebration. It's the shortest day of the year, and the beginning of days starting to grow longer.

Christanity stole lots of holidays, simply to help conversion. It wasn't necessarly to hide from being noticed, but to basically show they could celebrate, so you're loosing nothing by becoming Christian and believing in their "one true God".

From what I've read, Saturnalia is the celebration of the death and rebirth of Saturn. He was slowly dying through the winter, but this is his resurrection, and the days become longer.

Of course, I'm not 1000+ years old, so I don't know all the roots. I simply wasn't there (and I doubt any other /. readers were either).

But, even the Jehovias Witnesses acknowledge that Christmas is a stolen holiday from Pagan roots.. I can't say they have a lot right, but they got that one right. :)

I'm not Christian, and I can't categorically say "Pagan", but generally Pagan beliefs have a stronger basis in reality than Christian. Shall we go into a deep religious discussion? I think it'd be us vs. the Christians..

Why didn't the Romans do a better job, and feed them all to the lions? hehe

BTW, I "celebrate" Christmas.. Well, I celebrate the Winter Solstice. But since everyone else is giving away free booze, food, and gifts, I'll show up to their parties. :)

Re:First post, this late?

[DarkKnightRadick]

Hey, partying, getting boozed up, and giving away gifts was part of how Saturnalia was celebrated back then, so why not! Just say you're celebrating Christmas while the little voice in the back of your head that knows better snickers away! *L*

As for a lot more being stolen from the Pagans for whatever reasons, it's NOT that hard to believe, honestly.

Thanks for the nice, informative response, don't get many of those lately. :-)

Re:First post, this late?

[eam]

How can a holiday be stolen?

Re:First post, this late?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't have minded a white Christmas

I have a white christmas every year. Don't feel bad though, there's always skin bleaching.

Re:First post, this late?

[JWSmythe]

In this case, virtually every religion has a celebration at or around the winter solstice.. So Christanity sees that people celebrate it. If you wish to assimiliate them, you have to keep their celebations. It makes things easier to get people to convert, if they don't believe they're loosing anything..

Say you were Mr. Pagan, and you had a great party every year.. The Christians want you to convert. But every winter your Pagan buddies are partying their asses off, wouldn't you want to be with them? It may even be enough to make you say "I don't really believe in your god any more..." yada, yada, yada..

I'm no theology expert, so I can't go too far into it, but it's well documented. Just go hunting for information...

I'm not asking anyone to just drop their beliefs, but blind faith is just asking for trouble. This great "Christian" holiday is a great example of how the Christian church has put a spin on their religion to wash over others.. Only a few people now will wish you a happy Winter Solstice (I'm one of them)..

Re:First post, this late?

[JWSmythe]

I've been doing a lot of that lately. Most of my friends have flown home to family and friends. They're still wishing "Merry Christmas" when parental ears are listening, and wishing me happy holidays when they aren't.. Funny how a bunch of 30 year olds still are afraid to be open with their elders. :)

I'm trying to be more informative with my responses lately on here.. Too many people just posting stupid messages. :)

FP

[Anonymous Coward]

Two stories posted at the same time, I thought I was on total fark until I noticed the gay white on green writing!

Ekrout sucks, and so does Anonymous Coword!

Im having christmas cheer rather then listen to yet another M$ is evil flamewar.

Family/Friends

[Karamchand]

How about spending a bit spare time with your family and/or friends? I guess it could be quite nice and it won't do much harm either! :-)

Re:Family/Friends

[Tablizer]

How about spending a bit spare time with your family and/or friends?

But my very request to Santa was to be able to troll around on slashdot without being bothered by family/friends!

Re:Family/Friends

[rmohr02]

My family's here, but all my good friends are back at college. And most didn't take their computers home (they're without their computer for three whole weeks), so I don't see them online.

Re:Family/Friends

[Joe Enduser]

Where is that, [-1, not acquainted with my family] when you need it?

Anyway, these days I'm into installing my new hard drive's boot sector of its Win2k partition, as I initialised it while it was on hdb and win2k did not see the use of going through the hassle. By hand, that is (dd+hexedit).

after all the Linux documentation that I went through, this MS stuff is hilarious. It starts with this disclaimer, that to repair the boot sector, it is "best to use commercial software....In some cases, however, detailed knowledge of the boot sector can come in handy"

Re:Family/Friends

[Anonymous Coward]

Not everyone has family and/or friends worth spending time with. I know that time spent with my family causes nothing but harm. So, respectfully, please fuck off with your family/friends bullshit.

Re:Family/Friends

[Anonymous Coward]

That's wonderful. However, contrary to popular, angsty belief, the majority of families do not suck. I have sympathy for those whose family members really are just asses, but 90% of the time, when one family member moans about how their family is awful, it's their own damn fault. It's usually not a bad family; those bitching and moaning are just so anti-social that they can't be bothered to look up for their computers for 5 minutes to actually spend time with it.

So please, fuck off with your "waah, families suck" bullshit. The majority of the time, dysfunctional families are a product of all involved, including fucknuts like you.

Re:Family/Friends

[Anonymous Coward]

So you're saying that anyone not part of your "majority" should fuck off? Minorities have a right to express their views too.

Re:Family/Friends

[Anonymous Coward]

I wanted to so much. Everyone has finally made peace with each and we actually act like a Real Family for the first time in years. But I have the GAWDDAMN FLU. For all of you old geeks, GET THE FLU SHOT! If I had I would not have spend Christmas Eve alone totally sick of looking into CRTS at home. And running to the toilet.

I hope the whole world had a better Christmas than this. God Bless.

Re:Family/Friends

[Anonymous Coward]

>>
So please, fuck off with your "waah, families suck" bullshit. The majority of the time, dysfunctional families are a product of all involved, including fucknuts like you.

Yeah you're probably right I guess it was my fault after all that both of my parents were alcoholics, nothing better than a fistfight under the christmastree, blue eyes for everyone.

Go back to your picture book family and feel proud. Ass.

Re:Family/Friends

[Neon Spiral Injector]

There's the computer post.

I'm working on my car. Or at least the throttle body. Damn brass screws won't budge. Soaked them in so much PB Blaster that my head is killing me now. I'll just drill to buggers out I guess.

I'm removing the secondary throttle plates, which were there just to keep you off the throttle when the engine is cold, and for the automatic transmission kick down. I'm smart enough to not floor it when it is cold, and there's not going to be an auto in the car when it is done. So off with their heads.

I don't plan on restoring the functionality of this throttle body ever, as I'm filling the holes where the rod that holds the plates in place is with JB Weld, so not like I'll need the screws in one piece.

So who's working on their house? :)

Happy holidays to all.

Re:Family/Friends

[Kiwi]

And most didn't take their computers home

Oh, the joys of having a laptop. My compter is right here, in front of me.

- Sam

Planning...

[JPhule]

...My Robert Burns dinner.

Seriously, do you know how much preperation it takes when none of your guests will eat a true haggis?

Re:Planning...

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you still wearing that ridiculous plaid skirt, you low-life limey bastard? Oh sorry -- you low-life *Scottish* bastard.

Get a clue. You bonnie prince bit the big one to the redcoats. Now you're a province. Deal with it and move on.

Re:Planning...

[grumwsmith]

Due to the fact that came from an AC, I can't make you a foe :(. Anyway, what's ridiculous about a length of tartan wrapped around the body? Seems nothin much to me..

Also, Scotland isn't a province. It's a fully fledged country with it's own parlaiment and will probably in the next 5 years become a fully independent country.

Frankly, you've read too much into the bullshit about that Scotland that passes through the media. Try going to Scotland sometime, meeting some of the people, you might even want to try going to a Burns Supper!

skiing

[Anonymous Coward]

i'm on the east coast....
i got up here to vermont monday, and am staying untill new year's eve day skiing... mmmm...... snow....

Well

[DigitalOxygen]

I am working on a few guitar effects projects, working on my soldering skills. Reading slashdot. I was an occasional reader a while ago, trying to get serious again. Saw my cousin today, he is responsible for http://www.digilutionary.net. A cool sight, not updated in a while, but he is a brilliant guy. Working on my dads buisness computers. Damn windoze 98 and a corrupt registry. Busy.

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

working on my soldering skills.

God bless you, sir. Be sure to kill some Iraqis for me.

Free Christmas Present (Sc0re:5, Offtopic)

[Anonymous Coward]

This article(From science and computers, a new face of Jesus) on CNN website shows the face of Jesus re-created by scientists. "The Jesus plastered on the cover of this month's Popular Mechanics has a broad peasant's face, dark olive skin, short curly hair and a prominent nose. He would have been 5-foot-1-inch tall and weighed 110 pounds, if the magazine is to be believed...". Wow !!! Truth finally comes out...

Like Peter in the movie Office Space...

[Masa]

"I would relax, I would sit on my ass all day, I would do nothing."

And I'm doing that right now...

Re:Like Peter in the movie Office Space...

[rmohr02]

Hey Peter, man, check out channel nine!

Re:Like Peter in the movie Office Space...

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't that chick look like Ann?

Re:Like Peter in the movie Office Space...

[EvilBudMan]

--Can't think anything insightful or funny.--

Me neither.

I got a good bonus considering the economy, not much time off. Trying to move as well. Used bonus to pay off most debt. The rest went to Wally World to help the loved ones with things they need. I do not personally believe in Christmas, but do believe in charity given in the right sort of way to be able to do good in the long run.

I get bored sitting too long. Gonna try a hobbie.

Re:Like Peter in the movie Office Space...

[markcic]

"I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man."

My Christmas.

[CFBMoo1]

Have imeadiate family but it's bleah for christmas. So my biggest thing is trying to stay connected to this server on Neverwinter Nights as a dwarf wearing a tuxedo. Ahh the Dryads love a sharp dressed Dwarven Fighter! :)

The Fort Worth Modern

[CharlesV]

Fort Worth's new Modern Art Museum opened up on the 14th, and I'm going to do my darndest to make it over there. The only bad thing I've heard about it: the architecture is so well designed it overshadows the massively awesome collection they have.

I'm spending it

[llamalicious]

Alone.

Recently divorced, living by myself. Snow cancelled my trip to my parents today, and I just don't feel like moving.

Now, so I can live vicariously though others, how about some folks who've have a better Christmas?

Re:I'm spending it

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a hooker, you deserve it.

Re:I'm spending it

[llamalicious]

Excellent. A Christmas hooker, thanks, but I'll pass. :8

Reminds me of the dude with the sig:
Karma: Excellent (Hookers would be happy to screw you for cash)

Re:I'm spending it

[Anonymous Coward]

My ex screwed me for cash, only was not truthful about it.

Re:I'm spending it

[Tablizer]

Recently divorced, living by myself. Snow cancelled my trip to my parents today, and I just don't feel like moving.

Well, that explains the divorce :-P

Re:I'm spending it

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't you rather hear about folks who had a WORSE christmas so you feel better about yourself?

Re:I'm spending it

[Anonymous Coward]

Recovering from the stomach flu, trying to entertain the family, and continuing the job search... :(

Re:I'm spending it

[Anonymous Coward]

I just took a long shit. The first half of it was a solid piece the size of a small boy. But lo and behold, the 2nd half was an ass sputtering, methane injected, free for all that covered the sides of the bowl like a thick coating of mud. Ahhh. That was one sweet Chrismas shit my friend.

Re:I'm spending it

[Anonymous Coward]

Things could be worse. You could be married (to her)... :p

Re:I'm spending it

[chialea]

Read the David Sedaris book Holidays on Ice. It, like all of his work, is hilarious, and includes a story about a Christmas hooker. (he might have called her the Christmas Whore instead, I don't remember) Also includes Santaland Diaries, which is incredibly funny.

Also comes in "book on CD", where he reads his own stuff, also well worth it (one of the things that holiday money is going for!)

Lea

Re:I'm spending it

[GreggBert]

A little "ho, ho, ho" for your Christmas spirits...

Workin'

[The Turd Report]

Just another day on the securtiy/abuse desk.

hmmm...

[CySurflex]

At first read I thought to myself "Science Fiction Museum? I'm there". but after further consideration I realized that it's going to get a physical slashdotting now, with hoards of geeks lining up outside tomorow morning. oh well, back to the playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the XBOX.

whistle while you work

[at10u8]

The long nights with the kids in bed and no need to rise early are just perfect for rewriting the text of an Internet-Draft that will become an RFC that registers a new top-level MIME media type.

Well...

[Squidgee]

Watching it rain, posting on /., burning my retnas out on Zelda: A Link To The Past (Four Sqords), Metroid Fusion and Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. I'm also going to catch LOTR: The Two Towers.

Ah, vacations are good.

Re:well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Geez man how'd you do that. Video cards are easy.

Cheap cases do have sharp metal though, I cut myself on some girl's $8 computer installing a new CD drive. My case is polished steel, so no cuts there!

Re:well...

[Phybersyk0]

hmmm.. seems to me that...
"YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!!!"

From the upcoming 2003 remake of A Christmas Story:

"You can't a new video card, you'll cut your fingers off, then how will you type?!

Re:well...

[MightyTribble]

OK, that's a tale you *have* to share! :-)

In and out in three hours...did pretty good for a minor wounding over Xmas. Must have been quiet at the hospital. :)

Me, I spent Xmas by myself (well, the wife was upstairs sleeping off her nightshift at the hospital...), got a computer to set up RH8 on, a new ReplayTV to play with, and an all-day Thunderbirds marathon on TechTV. Not so bad.

Nothing wrong with relaxing

[Joey7F]

For christmas this year our family spent the money we would have on gifts for ourselves and bought toys for poor kids in an innercity school.

This perfect to do when there are no little ones in the family (our youngest is 18) and there is nothing like seeing little kids get wide-eyed over a toy.

--Joey

Re:Nothing wrong with relaxing

[Issue9mm]

My wife and I did something similar. Not really wanting anything ourselves, we bought our new daughter (now one year old) all the toys that we thought she could want/would enjoy, and then spent what we would have spent on each other on the Salvation Army's "Adopt-an-angel" program.

I adopted a 2 year old girl named Kayla, which was actually quite a bit of fun. It was like shopping for a slightly older daughter of mine.

As for my actual vacation, as I type this it's from my cube at work. Unfortunately, the company I work at has volunteer workers working in mills around the country, and they simply must be supported should they crash.

* sigh *

-9mm-

Re:Nothing wrong with relaxing

[Jucius Maximus]

On the way back from seeing The Two Towers, my brother and I stopped at the local grocery store and emptied and emptied an entire shelf of pasta, splitting the cost. (We just picked the packing boxes right up off of the shelf.)

Of course all that pasta went into the donation bin for the food bank. Yes, spreading the joy is an essential part of the season, and oh so easy!

Re:Nothing wrong with relaxing

[GigsVT]

So you were the dick that bought all the pasta! Thanks for spreading the joy asshole, I had to drive all the way across town to get pasta!

my list

[Maskirovka]

Winning a film festival.

Building my own slashsite.

CCNP certification.

Finding a girlfriend.

Sleep.

Ripping my parents' CD collection while I'm home.

Build a fireworks factory out of legos to save money next July 4th.

Christmas shopping for next year.

Skiing!

Re:my list

[GrandCow]

I think that if CCNP certification and building a slashsite are higher up on your list than finding a girlfriend, you are probably going to be single for a looooooooooooooooong time ;)

Re:my list

[Maskirovka]

I think that if CCNP certification and building a slashsite are higher up on your list than finding a girlfriend, you are probably going to be single for a looooooooooooooooong time ;)

Don't chicks dig slash and cisco certified hardware?

Re:my list

[Anonymous Coward]

im afraid he was right, you are probably going to be single for a looooooooooooooooong time ;)

Re:my list

[rmohr02]

Don't chicks dig slash and cisco certified hardware?

Well, chicks dig unix.

Re:my list

[lactose99]

You know, most women today are totally shallow anyhow. The last three or four times I've gone clubbing lately (admittedly, these are mysteriously superficial clubs to begin with), the conversation always seems to start the same way:

me- "Hi, can I buy you a drink?"
her- "I don't know, can you?" *wink*

...one drink later...

her- "So, what operating system do you use?"

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I play the truth card ("you know, FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD, I'm into the group thing") and have been laid more times than I can count in the last month alone.

Chicks dig unix.

Re:my list

[chialea]

Chicks also dig people who don't have perpetual chair-prints on their asses. Funny that :)

I'm a geek myself, certainly, but I like to do other things too, and I know I'm not alone in that, or wanting to share that with my friends -- and my signifigant other had better be one of em.

Speaking of which, I'd better go back to drooling over a new lens, new board game, new pots, and new hip!

Lea

Re:my list

[dacetone]

I dig both ;) My boyfriend is a CCNA, and I love it. There's nothing better than quizzing obscure Cisco router commands for a goood night.

This combined with kinetic generators...

[Anonymous Coward]

... wrapped around my right wrist an I can power a city for 30 seconds to several minutes depending on the quality of the photo gallery.

Re:This combined with kinetic generators...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think we get more power with a boring picture gallery. So don't expect to enjoy yourself.

Snow a problem?

[Fulkkari]

Poor fellow. You say snow is a problem? Here in Finland snow is the last problem you start to think of while running all the time away time from those damn polar bears. ;)

Gotta do some sports ;-)

[danimrich]

I'm going skiing.

Family

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Traveling tonight (instead of yesterday) with my wife and kid halfway to where we are going to end up tomorrow. I am going to visit my family in the Knoxville area. I intend maybe Saturday or Sunday to go see Dollywood in Pidgeon Forge. Really nice time you can have there. The total drive is only 6 hours, but I am going to take my time getting there. I will probably be there earlier then if I waited to leave tomorrow. I have a laptop and GPS in tow (no DC to AC convertor so no laptop on way down, maybe on way up). Also have PDA and digicam. Have a Merry Christmas! (wishing Happy Holidays is just SO not like me....I want to profess who's birthday I am celebrating....sorry if offend the vocal minority.)

Re:Family

[CaptainMunchies]

I want to profess who's birthday I am celebrating ... Santa's? :)

Re:Family

[Anonymous Coward]

no
now take another guess whos birthday is celebrated on christmas

Re:Family

[agrounds]

My in-laws live in Maryville, so I've had lots of time in that area to check shit out while avoiding the homefront. While there, check out Gatlinburg just across the Smokies. It's a hell of a tourist trap, but the restaraunts are awesome. There is a killer little road that'll take you there from Chapman highway on the Sevierville (Knoxville) side through the State Park so it has no traffic and is very picturesque. Also, in Pigeon Forge the strip is in full-swing. There's about a million ways to spend money on the family all on one half-mile stretch of road. I vastly prefer the strip to Gatlinburg for sheer entertainment value. For example, you've got killer burgers (Bellaire Grill) right next to the three-story go-cart track right next to the bungee-jumping.. I even dig the car museum they have right next to the Ripley's (tourist trap, beware).. Just thought you might want to know.. After going to both Dollywood, and hanging on the strip, Dollywood got the boot (pun intended, as I loathe country music). Trust me on this.

Re:Family

[Anonymous Coward]

But why celebrate now if he seems to have been born around summertime a couple of years before or after what we now call year 0? :-) (I'm being half-serious here!)

This is how /. should be...

[Squidgee]

Just a community of geeks, communicating, and being happy. And odd little stories like this getting posted.

I rather like what Christmas has done to /.; maybe it will continue. I can only hope =)

Re:This is how /. should be...

[agrounds]

Just a community of geeks, communicating, and being happy. And odd little stories like this getting posted.

I rather like what Christmas has done to /.; maybe it will continue. I can only hope =)
--
RMS is a fucking asshole. [slashdot.org]

Oh yes, I can feel the love all the way here in Houston! :)

Re:This is how /. should be...

[Squidgee]

How did I know that was coming? Well, here, is my sig more tuned to my happy feelings now? =p

Christmas...

[Anonymous Coward]

How about someone realizes the TRUE meaning of Christmas sometime... Everyone must decide who Jesus is, even if subconciously. If you believe Jesus is Lord, then start acting upon it. Christmas is touted as a time of spending oodles of money on traditions, when noone seems to realize what is really behind Christmas. If you are just ignoring the entire point of Jesus, then read into it - there are plenty of resources available. Just remember that it could change your destiny forever. I am sick, myself, of all these postings about the untrue meanings of Christmas.

My Plans

[limekiller4]

I am spending this Annual Gift Exchange holiday coding as usual. And happy about it, too.

Quality Time

[DougJohnson]

Projecting Slashdot onto the wall and spending time with my Family reading slashdot

Ask them if they can figure out what the acronyms mean!
Ask grandma if she knows who Jack Velenti is, and if so, did they ever have an affair? (seriously, I think if we all do this we may dig up some dirt)
Fun for the whole family!

And don't forget to check out Think Geek to see what you didn't get for X-Mas!

Re:Quality Time

[Squidgee]

Actually, nearly everything I got for Christmas came from ThinkGeek or EB.com. =D

Can't speak for him, though.

Re:Quality Time

[Sunda666]

oh my god, I hope you are not reading it at -1 with your family...

cheers and merry xmas

Absolutely nothing.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a covetous Jew and therefore do not celebrate Christmas.

Re:Absolutely nothing.

[Anonymous Coward]

We killed him!!!!!

hi there

[mhr003]

i would not spend much on my vacation although a nice trip to silicone valley would not harm me one bit kner kner kenr kner kenr kner kner kner kner

Yay /.

[Zanek]

I wasnt going to be doing anything until I saw the XP linux link on /.
I'm downloading it now to work on it !!

Going to run...

[craenor]

Down to San Antonio this weekend and meet some online friends from EQ. We're going to gather and Dave & Buster's to start and end up who knows where.

Toy Assembly For The Boy

[agrounds]

I'm spending my -day- off assembling toys that have been purchased or 'delivered by Santa' for my son. Mr phillips-head, Mr Duracell, and Mr Band-Aid are treating me poorly as I discover new and even more ingenious ways to bind toys that are in no way assembled to the cardboard boxes they came in. The joys of Christmas are truly without number. Twist-ties and styrofoam bricks provide a nice seat for me while I curse with reckless abandon the SOB who figured that GI Joe vehicles should practically be through-bolted to their respective boxes. Soon, I will get the portable propane torch and ignite the remaining boxes with the goodies still in them. The boy gets what survives the inferno. I like to think of this as Christmas Darwinism. Amusingly, of the many and expensive toys he received from various family, he is most taken with the $15 helicopter so far.

Re:Toy Assembly For The Boy

[Issue9mm]

Bought my one-year old every leapfrog toy age appropriate. Bought her a xylophone, riding toys, a complete play kitchen, dolls, stuffed animals, books, and a plethora of other gifts that were just so cool I had to buy them (even if we did go $250 over our original budget estimate). What's she playing with? The $2 pretend phone one of my cousing picked up at Walmart onsale.

I'm not complaining. The general idea was to buy enough stuff so that at least something would keep her interest... but if I'd only known how easy (and cheaply) I could have gotten off...

-9mm-

Re:Toy Assembly For The Boy

[VAXman]

You got the day off? Lucky bastard!

Brain Dead

[chimpo13]

My girlfriend and I just watched Bad Taste. I haven't seen it in about 13 years, and it's as funny as I remembered.

I'll try to figure out a roadtrip to go to Fullerton for the science fiction exhibit. I've been planning on getting a huge back tattoo of art deco type sci-fi. Some sort of Alex Raymond/Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon type thing. If anyone has ideas email them to me gorn at nokill dot com. A friend of mine is a great tattoer and she said she'd do it for free. No one sees my back anyway.

After Fullerton I'll try to get to Vegas to see the Guggenheim motorcycle exhibit before it closes.

In an hour off to Davis to eat, drink and open Xmas presents at my sister's house.

Usually, I spend Xmas eve at a bar or drinking booze in a cheap hotel. This year was different.

The meter maids are out today. Man, they're worthless. A ticket on Xmas.

Making Gnutella Better!

[smd4985]

Ok fine, I have spent a good deal of the day with my family.

They are watching a movie now though, so instead of that I'm on my parents new computer (P4 1.6 for only $400, wow!) editing a proposal that I recently submitted for review on the GDF.

I'm also answering personal e-mails and surfing the good old web.

Merry Christmas Slashdot!!

well...

[radiashun]

after opening all of my gifts i go to throw my new video card into my computer. 3 hours later i leave the hospital with 6 stitches from my case-o-death :-(

My Christmas Holiday

[sickboy_macosX]

I am with my Fiance's parents in Idaho Falls, Idaho. We have been up here since last night, when we went to chinese food. Tonight we are going to see a movie, and then tomrrow I am going to see LOTR II Towers Again. So far no alcohol. where as @ thanksgiving I had some wine. I will prolly work on Hogwash and upload the new Apple 802.11b enabled version. Thats my christmas, now howbout yours!

Geocaching

[Snowgen]

There's some new geocaches in my area that I'm hoping to check out. The lack of tree cover reduces signal loss on the GPSR, and the winter weather kills off much of the undergrowth.

I always needed a "reason" to buy a GPS receiver... this hobby provided me with it!

Geek toys and outdoor activity! What a great combo!

Re:Geocaching

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a GPS receiver last year. It's quite an odd gift for a geek. Consider this:

It's receiving signals from up to 12 spacecraft simultaneously, and is doing all sorts of interesting math to give you amazingly precise location data. This is gold for geeks.

On the other hand, you have to leave the house to get it to do anything interesting. Unless, of course, you really want to know exactly where you live.

What a dilemma...

Re:Geocaching

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell yes! There's some in New Zealand that I am meaning to check out, perhaps up in Northland.

I'm spending the time like everyone here...

[Swaffs]

... reading Slashdot.

Work.

[KGB Kenny]

I get to work... I'm on Loran Watch in Petaluma CA for the USCG... Same as last year, I get to spend Christmas Morning making sure navigation in Alaska is up and functioning properly...

ET3 William Kenny
USCG

Try out a new distro

[GraZZ]

I'm trying out Gentoo Linux. Oh yeah, and catching up on my drinking. I figure that after a few brews Linux is more challenging... :)

Re:Try out a new distro

[Anonymous Coward]

There's nothing better than programming when you are drunk or stoned. You can commonly manage to figure how to do things in twenty lines of code that you normally could have done in three.

debian-unstable libc troubles

[Anonymous Coward]

I spent christmas day playing quake and then repairing some libc problems from debian unstable. Then I went and wasted time posting stupid comments on slashdot and then I probably either went to sleep or played more quake.

What I'm doing

[ruszka]

Assembling my son's toys. Repeatedly being called downstairs to help my father set up his new computer. Install OpenBSD. *ponders* Read through my C++ and C# books without interruptions (yea right) Hmm.. Go see my boyfriend! Eat his mother's awesome macaroni bake. Complete the space flight in Civ3. Oh and look for a job! In this crap town, that'll be difficult. Yay for holidays! :>

ughhh

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got some 24 hour super flu thingy. Yay. Norwalk Virus I think it's called. Anyway, there was an outbreak here and so my whole family got it.

where have all the code freaks gone? :)

[Kunta Kinte]

I've been reading slashdot, coding ( OS calender project ), coding ( PHP website for work ), and coding ( Discussion board website as a pet project )

I don't think this is healthy, yesterday I had to stop because I kept seeing spots. Honest.

It's fun though, do this every christmas break.

Re:where have all the code freaks gone? :)

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope you haven't been spelling it "calender" the entire time.

Re:where have all the code freaks gone? :)

[Kunta Kinte]

I hope you haven't been spelling it "calender" the entire time.

Funny.

Spelling changes depending on my mood.

so it's like this

[Jacer]

christmas night is spent with family, the day after i have to run back home, to college (apartment life not dorm) because i work tomorrow, but with the two weeks i have off, i'm working on the network, i just moved out of the dorms in with two of my friends, and i'm setting up the network now that i have enough floor space to set more than my work station, got to get mail, web, ftp, and nis (nis box also does vpn, and routing/nat) all up before sunday night... i opened a new dell inspirion 8200 this morning that was a plus

Holiday Time Wasters

[E-Rock-23]

'Round here, I've taken to convincing my parents to sit down and watch "The Fellowship of the Ring" (which they're finally doing as I type this). The rest of the time, I'm sitting around, watching TV and chatting online. Nothing different from any other day, really. And the rest of the time will most likely be spent with my nose in my new Crichton novel, "Prey."

For New Years, my band (Tempered Edge, website coming soon) will be playing a party at my Fire Hall, which should be fun. My first time on stage in over 2 years, a place I've missed since my days with my roommate's band in Pittsburgh...

Spending the day banging Halle Berry.

[Anonymous Coward]

It works.

Re:Spending the day banging Halle Berry.

[Anonymous Coward]

Her head is too small for her body. I don't think she is all that. I mean, I'd fuck her stupid, but she doesn't turn my crank.

xmas day

[Anonymous Coward]

I live down here in the virgin islands. we spent most of the day at the beach. spearfishing and drinking champagne on the beach ain't a bad way to go. We did not have a regular tree. I took a small palm tree from the backyard and spruced it up inside...
ohhh yeah and /. of course now that I am home...
merry xmas from paradise to all those who had to shuffle snow today!!
--jboss

Re:xmas day

[Anonymous Coward]

One shovels snow. It must be nice living in paradise.

Harry Potter

[notestein]

Oddly enough, after watching two Harry Potter books, my wife decided to buy the set last Friday. I'm about a third of the way through the forth one now.

When's the fifth one coming out? ;)

And having seen LOTRTT first show opening night, I plan on seeing it once more this week. Maybe twice.

Re:Harry Potter

[Anonymous Coward]

Watching two Harry Potter books? Were you afraid they'd run away?

Re:Harry Potter

[Anonymous Coward]

I too wish to know when the fifth is coming out. I read all four books in less than a week, and now there's an empty hole in my soul. Must have more Harry Potter!

Cambodia MotoCross

[N8F8]

I travelling to Cambodia to spend two weeks travelling abound the country on a dirtbike. Ho-ho-ho!

Lakers vs. Kings

[Anonymous Coward]

Gonna watch the Lakers embarrass themselves again. I think being the prior champs makes other teams work harder against them than "normal teams", wearing them down. Thus they are still good, just not good enough to handle the extra load-of-fame.

Ripped my toenail off, so not doing much.

[klevin]

Well, I don't celebrate Christmas, and I'm unemployed at the moment, so this really isn't any different than the past several weeks (other than the grocery store being closed). Even if neither of the first two were true, I just ripped my left big-toe nail off while moving furnature this morning, so I'm not doing much of anything besides enjoying the blissfull glow of endorphines.

The best way to celebrate the holidays..

[Anonymous Coward]

.. is by furiously masturbating.

no internet for me

[Rubbersoul]

For my time off of work I vow not to go on the Internet ... o crap ...

I got laid off

[Anonymous Coward]

you insensitive clod!

Here in lovely, exciting Topeka KS...

[Anonymous Coward]

We have an exhibit which consists of some of the treasures
the Russian Czars have. Its going on until March I believe.
I plan on going on January. I missed it the last time, but figure
might as well go there this time.

Ha

[Anonymous Coward]

Having sex with my girl, like you all would be doing if you could!

Re:Ha

[Anonymous Coward]

No she didn't.

Waiting for the power to come back on...

[starling]

2:38 left on the laptop battery and then I'll be offline for Christmas.

Where's the beef!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay I simply cannot believe that no one has mentioned shoving large quantities of food into one's pie hole. You guys need to get yer priorities straight. ;-)

I'm only posting as an AC because I'm too lazy to fill out web forms :-)

Winter, finally, so..

[jlrowe]

Now that winter is finally here and my outside activities finally done or curtailed (we have just gotten 6 inches of snow or so), I can get back to computers. At home that is.

Oh, as sys admin/tech support/everything I get plenty at work and have 5 computers set up at home.

But now I have the chance finally to take an older PC, jack the RAM and HD up on it, and install RH 8 which I downloaded awhile back. I'd put the latest beta on instead, but it just came out and I probably won't be able to dl it at work till the every quits hitting the mirrors so hard.

It will be a good chance to replace my older RH 6.2 machine (firewall/DNS/DHCP) on a 486/55 16MB with a 350 Pentium II and set up things like USB, CD Writer, and a lot of user type programs I had never gotten the chance to do.

In other words, this time off will be a learning experience. Can't be anything wrong with *that*!!!

Vacation?

[dacetone]

I worked the day before yesterday, yesterday, I'm at work right now, and I'm working tomorrow, and the day after that...some vacation! Of course, everyone could give me a mini-vacation and quit calling :-D

Christmas Vacation?

[Monkelectric]

We're all unemployed remember? ... tech crash ... :D

Re:Christmas Vacation?

[rmohr02]

So you have an extra long, unpaid vacation.

Re:Christmas Vacation?

[Misch]

Remember, it's not 'I got laid off', it's 'I got time off to get laid.'

Happy holidays!

hmm... this post will make my signature look even more funny in context...

Re:Christmas Vacation?

[nomadic]

Yep, nothing impresses the ladies more than not having a job.

Working

[Sean Clifford]

I'm coding, actually. Telecommuting. I have a major project overdue. :P

But it's coming along nicely; one advantage to working on the holidays - no interruptions.

looking for work, fighting the snow

[tolldog]

I spent yesterday with the parents (which may become my new home base while I am looking for work).
Looked online at job postings on CG/Animation web sites last night then watched LOTR.

I spent this morning helping the parents shovel the lane and then treated myself to some time in the hot tub. Jumped out once to make a snow angel. That was really cold. Now I am looking again for work.

I can't wait for HR departments to come back from break. Being layed off two weeks before Christmas makes it difficult to find work right away. Places are posting jobs but they aren't ready to get back to you until after the holidays.

Oh... and i was going to go to the grandparents with my family... but the snow got in the way.

-Tim

BLue Elephant is calling..

[Badanov]

I have to get a postgresql server running, so my timem off is somewhat truncated.

Learning more Linux software, and upgrading

[saskboy]

I'm living the dream. Learning if my hardware is compatible with my disto of choice, and reading my favourite forums on the Internet.

I'm only on /. at the moment because my family won't be here for another hour or so.

christmas activities?

[Anonymous Coward]

well, since the first thing I did this wonderfull christmas mornging was hit a patch of ice and hit the rail on the side of the road, I'm going to sit at home all day and enjoy my new christmas present (a new home-built computer)
Merry X-Mas to all, and to all a SAFE christmas! (or whichever holiday you celebrate)

Starcraft

[Sabbath.sCm]

I've been playing Starcraft Brood War a lot, on Battle.net.

Wine...GOOD!

[mikefoley]

Just hanging out this Christmas. Had a blast with my 5 month old watching his new Wiggles tape. Used my new apple peeler which is just totally cool. (cores, peels, slices!)

Now, I'm watching CNN and drinking some REALLY nice wine and reading Slashdot while my incredibly awesome wife is in her office, surfing the net and xfering her radio show to MP3.

Here's to a safe and happy New Year where I finally find a job! (unemployed since Aug 01)

Oh yea, it's snowing like crazy outside here in Act(i)on, MA., 25 miles west of Boston. Expecting 12-18"!!! May actually start up the snowmobiles tomorrow!!!

I'm the luckiest guy in the world. We've got our health, I've got a GREAT wife and a wonderful kid.

Re:Wine...GOOD!

[saskboy]

Now I've seen everything.

A /.er with a wife and kid.

I can die a happy man.

Merry Christmas

Re:Wine...GOOD!

[Anonymous Coward]

you must be really drunk.

KS, NE, TX, and NoVA

[Anonymous Coward]

I dropped out of the regular life for a bit and hit the road.

I skipped off the DC metro Friday afternoon and did a twenty-four hour drive to Manhattan, Kansas. An old college buddy is there, we went to a little "secret santa" party and I got toasty. Hung out with him and his wife. Her birthday was the next day, so we hit a Japaneese BBQ in Topeka.

Next step was off to see the fam in good old Nebraska. I am staying with my younger sister in her new apartment which is nice. I did the fam chat thing with everyone.

I had planned on heading to Texas and visitng a friend but damn semis on the turnpike ruined that... If I catch bastard that ran me off the road and jacked up my alignment, I'll have his head on a pike poll.

The magick question is what is next. It seems that everyone that I used to know has skipped town or been sucked into some boring life. Go figure, I've been gone seven years now. I guess if nothing else happens I will just skip town. You have to love Omaha, Nebraska. Oh so exciting...

On the plus side, I stopped by Barrymore's in Lincoln which has to be one of the best unknown, secret college bars in the region.

Or better yet

[Anonymous Coward]

finding people who are having a worse christmas and cheering them up.

Working 15 hour days.

[dav]

There's code to be written. Life in a startup (yes there are some still around)... I'll be coding all day and into the night tonight, like the last two weeks and the next few days (I will take a few days off around New Year's Eve).

Re:Working 15 hour days.

[ebh]

I work at a startup too, which has consumed approximately 90/168ths of all my weeks for the last eleven months.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day they would have to have pried from my cold, dead fingers.

My wife and son and I actually had a very nice Christmas. The kid made out like a bandit this year, which gave us all plenty to do for most of the day. Then a few friends who, like us, had their plans cancelled because of the snowstorm, brought the food they had made for their get-togethers over to our house, added it to ours, and we all had a pretty decent feast.

Preping for a router swap

[silas_moeckel]

What else is xmas for but a great time to change out a router (or a server if thats what floats your boat) Morning of the 26th is a rather low net traffic day for some people. The week after xmas is also a good time to play with you local IT shop as most people are slow or just not there.

Inflating my XBOX live record

[1nsane0ne]

All the people I've talked to in retail around here have been amazed at all the XBOX's being sold w/ XBOX Live this Christmas. So I'll be busy playing a bunch of kids who got XBOX live and NFL 2k3 for christmas and inflating my record (currently in the top 60 in the world, was 38 but took a week off) to reach the top! And of course watching football and the best of Sportscenter about 30 times. Oh yeah and lots of reading.

I'm stuck at work...

[domenic v1.0]

...so what vacation are all of you talking about? I'm behind 12-inch concrete walls, no windows, and a bunch of screensavers flickering away because everyone who left for their holiday off rushed off and forgot to turn their computers off....jeez. Hmmm...Now what's for lunch? Vending Machine raid!

Sex

[handy_vandal]

Having sex, of course.

Re:Sex

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucky Bastard (TM)
.
.
.

:-/

Re:Sex

[Anonymous Coward]

Sex! Your not a regular are you?* :)

* most slashdot readers do not get that pleasure

write a love letter

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm writing a poem and a love letter to my dream girl. She's intelligent, loves LOTR, is net-savvy and cute. I love you Christina!!!!

Coding

[spacefight]

As usual, coding rules. After finished a beta of a website in PHP with the nifty smarty template (wow, paid job) did some ugly perl hacking just for fun. Well, no hacking tomorrow as it's the second christmas day but I'll take my Debian GNU/Linux Thinkpad for the car journey :)

Re:Coding

[Beatlebum]

Fucking loser.

X-mas break

[orange]

Visited my gran earlier today - then went and had lunch with family - spent some time in my cousin's new pool. Girlfriend and myself just packed the diving gear and tomorrow we hit Umkomaas to dive Aliwal Shoal, one of the best dive sites in the world. Gonna basically blow Friday off work, and do the stuff I need to on Monday. Can't wait to see the sharkies and taste that compressed air in the lungs at 30 meters :) Love the Summer here in South Africa.

Two weeks off, and..

[ptbarnett]

1. Build a Windows XP desktop for my father out of assorted spare parts and a Shuttle SV25. I'm getting tired of trying to figure out what is wrong with his old Win98 system, so this one is set up with Cygwin and VNC for remote administration.

2. Build a new Gentoo Linux server to replace my aged RedHat Linux server.

3. Fix a friend's computer after it crashed in the middle of installing SP1 for WinXP. It wouldn't reboot, and Sony's lame "system recovery" disk is actually a "system initializion" disk (losing all the files). I used tomsrtbt to boot the laptop and cpio/rsh all files to Linux server mentioned above. Then, recovered the laptop with a real Windows XP CD-ROM. Didn't need the backup, after all.

4. Deliver computer (above) to my father and fix the telephone wiring in his house so that DSL works a bit better (I hope).

5. Re-cable a couple of hard drives and use the Promise Raid controller on the Asus A7V333 in my Win2K desktop.

6. Clean house, as I've been out of town for three weeks and a friend is visiting New Year's Eve.

Not much of a vacation, I suppose -- except that I'm actually at home and not in a hotel. That's a vacation for me.

My Christmas

[Anonymous Coward]

I spent my Christmas POSTING TO SLASHDOT with my family

Family day

[jht]

My in-laws are in town to visit my wife, myself, and mainly the new (7 month-old) baby. They're staying at a nearby hotel - came in Sunday afternoon and they're leaving Friday.

Today, we picked them up around 11 and went to brunch at the big hotel here in town. Dressed nice, took pictures. We've spent the afternoon relaxing, opening gifts (mostly for the baby - we really don't need anything ourselves), and playing with the little guy. In about 15 minutes, we're going out for a nice, traditional Chinese food dinner.

And then, afterwards, we'll drop them off at the hotel, come home, and hope that next year is the year that the whole world finally stops treating each other so crappy. Even though babies tend to generate optimism, I'm not holding out much hope on that one, unfortunately.

It'll be back to work tomorrow, with a decent amount of stuff to do before year-end.

damn it!

[SigmundK]

i was going to date this girl, but then she fled the city. me bad with dates? not at all...

checking out an abandoned missile silo

[Anonymous Coward]

subciety.org

How I am spending my Christmas Break

[malice95]

Unemployed.. sigh

Still searching for my daughter

[GregAllen]

I'm still searching for my missing daughter -- she was abducted over 8 months ago. I was on America's Most Wanted in November, but she still hasn't been found.

Please help to give a geek dad the only thing he wants for Christmas -- Sabrina back at home. Please mod this up, and please visit FindSabrina.org. Please tell your friends to look at her picture to see if they've seen her.

This Christmas has really sucked for me and my family.
(Sorry about the repeat -- that's my .sig)

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[zogger]

--man that is so sad. sorry. I certainly hope you can find her again. geez. Prayers go with you.

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[Anonymous Coward]

i hope there is a hell just so you can go there for that

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[Anonymous Coward]

i wonder how much it costs to print those images and a little text on milk cartons?

maybe AMW can help?

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[Anonymous Coward]

You are one sick man. Posting that comment on Christmas (I don't care what religion/lack-of-religion you are). I must agree with the other poster who replied to your message. Please keep these destructive and evil thoughts to yourself. The rest of us, and especially the parent to which you replied, do not need to see this kind of crap.

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[mildness]

Good luck to you friend.

I was almost in a similar situation when my physco Ex's lawyer and the Judge double teamed me and tried to trick me into unsupervised visitation. Ex had long history of physical abuse of daughter and injuring herself of which they were both aware.

The legal system is NOT a Justice System. Certainly not for the male in a divorce or custody dispute.

I will include you and Sabrina in my prayers.

Bill

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[Tovaris]

Seek professional help!

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[jeeryg_flashaccess]

Here is the link to the Americas Most Wanted profile.

http://www.americasmostwanted.com/s ite/thisweek/L/LlorensDara/llorensindex.html

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh my God. That is incredibly cruel. Have a heart... it's Christmas.

*sigh*...

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[Anonymous Coward]

My daughter was murdered 14 years ago, and my Christmases still suck. Before I read the above post I thought I had endured the worst thing that could happen to someone, now I realize I haven't. At least I learned right away. Take care, and check out the Compassionate Friends.

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[obsol33t]

This is terrible. I'm sorry, but the most I can do is to look at these pictures. These two images are burned in my brain and if I ever see anyone that looks like either of them I will let it be known as soon as physically possible. Try to live your life as best you can under your current circumstances.

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[obsol33t]

Now that I think about it, I have a few friends in college that are from the Dallas area. When I get back (~Jan. 6) I'll show them the site and encourage them to email it to friends and family. It sounds bad, but I can relate much more easily to anyone who is on the same level as me as far as interest in /. goes.

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[Anonymous Coward]

I pass a kidney stone once a month.

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh how I look forward to the day your ass is ripped open by some big fucking nigger next time you are in the slammer

Re:Still searching for my daughter

[isorox]

In many types of abduction, yes. In these types of cases (insane mother), I'd wager my front teeth that she's still alive and well.

19C3

[Anonymous Coward]

19C3 would be great...

heh!

[edox.]

None has time for slashdotin on wednesdays!!
Everyones busy freakin!
#let me find some busy too [got kids wot else u need *a sexy wife!ah];)
hukp!! hukp!!

As any other "holiday"

[Anonymous Coward]

i do not celebrate christmas. it's just a few extra days off from work, which is nice.

i do not need a special time to give presents to the people i love, nor do i need a month to be nice to people. i try to be nice to people all year round.

people do not think about their traditions anymore.
if they did, maybe they'd stop it.

The Beach of course....

[pennsol]

Here at 17.4 deg.N.lat (St. Croix USVI) the typical thing to do is go to the beach or sailing, I did the latter.. :P MERRY X-MAS everybody...

Slashdot Unpublishes or Y2K Bug?

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, who stole the Microsoft story that was posted after this one. I did a refresh of the front page and now it's gone!

Doing Christmas stuff of course!

[PotatoHead]

Spending time with the kids and family. Trying like hell not to spend any significant time on /. but not doing well at the moment.

Hope all of you find yourselves well and with family having good times.

OT: (Sort of)

Ever wonder about the subtle change in language happening to discussion about these times? I noticed that the headline for this thread has the word Christmas in it. Usually Christmas is associated with a Christmas tree. Most of the media has been referring to this as a 'Holiday Tree' (probably because they are afraid of offending someone.)

To me this is wrong, and should get a little more discussion than it has currently.

Anyone out there seeing the same sort of thing?

please explain

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this funny? (I've seen office space and I don't get it.)

Re:please explain

[Billly Gates]

Channel 9 had a bra commercial with a woman messaging her breasts. It was his annoying nieghbor yelling through the walls.

Re:please explain

[rmohr02]

I thought it was something about a pap test.

Building a trebuchet

[ALoverOfPeace]

I've always been fascinated with siege engines, mainly due to an obsession with Age of Empires and War Craft. I'm starting small with these directions but if it goes well I should be in the hospital soon.

The Matrix Reloaded????

[D iz a n k Meister]

Heh, that would be cool. Humans enslaved and forced to,. . .uh. . ., wear kinetic generators around their wrist.

Working too

[Lokni]

I, unfortunately am working too. But for 1.5x overtime pay, on top of the 8 hours regular holiday pay, I am not complaining one little bit.

Farscape of course.

[rusty spoon]

Farscape season 1 on DVD. Okay, so my head if pounding and for the first time I have escaped *to* the computer to avoid watching ny more Farscape bu I'll be back tomorrow ;-)

You insensitive clod...

[The Pi-Guy]

I'm not your religion. Neither is everyone else in the world. Didn't see anything like this for Chanukkah, and I'll bet we won't see it for Kwanzaa.

</flame>

Re:You insensitive clod...

[Anonymous Coward]

Do some research. Chanukkah is NOT a major Judaic holiday, and Kwanzaa is a modern invention. Both are played up to make people feel better and not left out around this time. Quit whining, and leave us and our holiday the fuck alone.

Doing what I wanted to do for a long time

[Anonymous Coward]

I am glad you asked about thing I've been putting off for a long time. Here is one. I'm going to piss from my balcony. The streets are deserted, so there is little chance anyone will see me. I am curious whether I will actually hear the piss making contact with the ground - I live on the 3rd floor.

Christmas Vacation ongoing...

[questforme]

Christmas Vacation for me is only a smaller part of my currently ongoing "vacation" that started in September by being laid off...

A blind date ... sort of

[Woil]

I'm intending of spending some time this week seeing a movie (at the theatre) blindfolded with that special someone. Makes for a rememberable experience.

Fullerton California

[Anonymous Coward]

Fullerton California, where they line the streets with fiberglass sheep, painted in outrageous costumes. I'm not making this up!

How I spent Winter Break (aka Xmas Break)

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't been home in 4 months, I went away to University, pursuing a dual degree in Applied Math and Computer Science. Being a little low on cash, I've been spending my days doing freelance programming in hopes to pay off tuition, purhcase a computer, etc.
I'll end with a good old plug: Need C/Java/PHP/Perl Programming? Web Applications?... Contact me at 2nb3@qlink.queensu.ca or ICQ: 3417925. Happy holidays to all, and to all another great year in computing.

(Checkout my expired domain search engine script at http://datacracker.com/expireddomain/)

The night before....a poem

[Anonymous Coward]

'Twas the night before Goatse, when all through the house
Not a penis was stirring, not even with mouth;
The Giver was hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Goatse soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of anal-sex danced in their heads;
And Katz in his 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a fuck in the sack.
When up in my anus there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see Katz start to splatter.
Away to the bathroom I flew like a flash,
Tore open my anus and looked at the gash.

The moon in the glass had a vibrant red glow
Gave the lustre of sunset to my nutsack below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer!

With a little old driver, so lively and quickse,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Goatse.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, TACO! now, JAMIE! now, MICHEAL and TIMMY!
On, CHRISD! on HEMOS! on, PUDGEY and CLIFFY!
To the top of the ass! fronts to the the wall!
Now pound away! pound away! pound away all!"

As faggots that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with a hetero, mount the next guy,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of sex-toys, and Goatse pics too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The moaning and pawing of each little poof.
As I drew in my ass, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Goatse came with a bound.

He was dressed as a furry, from his head to his feet,
And his clothes were all tarnished with urine and shit;
A bundle of sex-toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a hooker just flapping his sack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His ass cheeks like roses, his cock like a cherry!
His cute little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his scrotum as white as the snow;

The stump of a blunt he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and was a bit smelly,
He shook, when he wanked like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him beat off himself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings with smelly big turds,
He layed a big log right under my nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like a fucking great missile.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"HAPPY GOATSE TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"

Lego, the Next Generation

[TechnoInfidel]

I^H My son (7yo) received Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention Kit 2.0 today. It's time to better the odds on that nature or nurture crap, and work on the boy's inner geek.

His sister is only four, so I'll have to give her another year or so, even if she can type barbie.com

Here's a tip

[Anonymous Coward]

1 year olds are easily amused.

But I guess you know that by now :)

LFS

[Cloud K]

Well, given the fact that there's only so long you can spend messing around with your gifts (a sonic toothbrush and a USB-IDE bridge) I've been setting up a Linux From Scratch (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org) on a corner of the hard drive. Good fun, very interesting and kinda educational :) Unusual way to spend most of xmas day, but it's great to have the time! The only drawback is that I'm now waiting (about 90 minutes and counting) for KDE to compile!

Who ME?

[Xemoka]

Oh, it looks like /. gave me the gift of moderation points today :D yipee for me on christmas TOO!.. looks like i'll be spending these around /. today. so i can't spend 'em here... it's worth the post :D

IN SOVIET RUSSIA

[Anonymous Coward]

your vacation time spends YOU!!

h0w isp3nt mY CHr1stmAs v4c4ti0n

[ackthpt]

The following: (prepare to be bored)

Saw Star Trek: Nem3sis, which is pretty darn cool for a Star Trek movie, even cooler considering it's Next Gen cast. (Hey, even Wil Wheaton got a cameo.)

Finishing installations, patches, hardware tweaks on my home-built PC (Asus A7V8X, AMD 2600/333, 256Meg PC3500 DDR, etc.) and it still resets quite often.

When not doing the above, playing around with Scorched3D, which is a blast if I can ever get more than a few rounds without a reset.

~20 mile mountain bike ride in Wilder Ranch, west of Santa Cruz, in the mud, on Sunday, weather was perfect, mud was sloppy and fun, couldn't have been a better ride.

Saw Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, which utterly rocks, I'll be seeing it again

Called family back in Michigan (I live in CA) on Christmas Eve, found my nephew is going into tee-shirt silk-screening business, may have a few orders for him.

Woke up this morning (Christmas Day) with a splitting headache, ate half pot of oatmeal, ate half a chocolate orange and read a few more chapters of Rama.

Going out to see Gangs of New Your, shortly

Back to the grind tomorrow and friday then 5 more days off.

Or EVEN better yet

[Anonymous Coward]

finding people who are having a worse Xmas and putting them out of their misery :D

Working!

[RoufTop]

As a lonely Jew on Christmas, I've chosen to exchange today for future vacations. It's nice to be at a place where I can work the Christian holidays and take off Rosh Hashanah instead. The office is empty, so I can listen to all the classical south indian music I want without offending my coworkers. Now if only there were a few more open restaurants in the area I'd be all set.
- rouftop
And working alone, you know, is nice for, umm, catching up on slashdot... (Steve, if you read this, I really am working!)

Hoom, hoom!

[jasno]

Enjoying my severance pay and catching up on house work. I WAS throwing together another lfs system, but my PII finally bit the dust and I lack the $$$ to replace it.

Anyone looking for an Embedded Linux guy in San Diego?

Beleive it or not I am Programming

[Apoptosis66]

I am working on a new J2EE framework. I am trying to combine DbForms with features of BC4J. Does anyone have any frameworks they really really like, and why? Apoptosis

Getting some coding done

[CousinBob]

My girlfriend is visiting her family in MA, so I'm stuck with my parents. That gives me some time to get a bit of coding done, but it would still be better with her around.

Anybody else spending their days off with Verilog and Xilinx, or am I the only one around who thinks that relaxing with FPGA coding isn't the worst thing to do?

Børge

This is a good one: Aim to please, shoot to kill

alone on my sofa watching movies

[sirshannon]

Back to the Future II & III
The Graduate
The Sixth Sense
10
You Only Live Twice
Tony Hawk's Summer 2001 Gigantic Skateboard Tour
some random episodes of Seinfeld, the Simpsons, and The Family Guy

My room mate is gone, visiting his family, my family (20+ of us, anyway) will be gathering Saturday, so I'm enjoying the time alone, phone turned off; beer, coffee and food keeping me company. :)

Well, nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

I`m spending it at home with my parents. As the festvities have been prolonged, I have eaten much. I have seen a great deal of phoshpor, but I do not feel ashamed at that. The Family is well, there is much reproduction, but they seem to have a feeling there is something missing. That could be my father who is stuck in the North Sea due to a hurricane. I like hurricanes, but not when people get stuck in them.

Googlewhacking!

[Borderline_ADD]

Two of my brothers and our families just spent an hour googlewhacking! Fun for the whole family, plus you get to see your name in lights!

Snowing and snowing and snowing here....

[EnlightenmentFan]

...after a peaceful Christmas morning with our whole family opening gifts. Nobody got anything huge this year--but everybody got some fun stuff. Then by 11 a.m. everyone was totally, instantly starved, so we put the world's fastest-ever Xmas meal on the table. Vegetarian stuff is really quick, just the shopping and planning and pre-cooking took time. (I'm not vegetarian, btw, but everyone else in the family is, so what the heck.)

One of our neighbors lives alone, so I took her over a big slab of eggnog cheesecake. It turns out the two friends who were supposed to drive over to have Christmas dinner with her had flaked out, scared by the snow. If I hadn't shown up with the cheesecake, she wouldn't have seen a single person today. I could see her table all set up for three people, two of whom would now not show up. She is about eighty, and I bet she worked at least as hard as I did getting ready for the big day.

My Christmas resolution is to spend some time getting to know this neighbor better. Also watch the extended DVD set of LOTR I got, and maybe go see Two Towers again.

Re:Snowing and snowing and snowing here....

[p1asm0n]

Its snowing up a storm here as well in the Big Apple. Spent the better half of the day with a bunch of friends who flew in from Rome yesterday morning. Is this the first white Christmas in NYC since 1969? I think so.

Anyway once we all stuffed ourselves again with a 6 course meal with smuggled foods from the motherland..we sipped up an ocean of espresso and headed out on a serene walk through smile filled homely neighborhoods in Bayridge,Brooklyn...Im partically tickled by the weight of the snow and the way its clinging to vertical surfaces.

Happy Holidays to all from Brooklyn!!

Answer...

[Anonymous Coward]

In a brothel in a third world country, trying not to get taxed for text messaging. :)

nope.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was going to spend xmas with my family like I have every year. With a recent death in the family, it would have been welcomed.

But I was called away on a work emergency and now I'm stuck in my den going on hour #19 of an engineering problem. First time I have missed christmas with my family in my 28 years.

28 days later

[Anonymous Coward]

Went and took photos of empty streets (and the city, for the most part) afforded by the holiday.

There aren't that many times that a city like London (or any major metropolis) comes to a relative standstill - one might as well take advantage of the opportunity.

Ok, so I'm an art-geek. And single! :-)

Happy Holidays!

Missing option...

[ShecoDu]

I have no vacations, you insensitive clod!

.. huh? not a poll? oh sorry.

Oh! Them again!

[SolitaryMan]

To see on Christmas those faces I've been looking at the whole year?? No thanks!

As usual

[yelligsc]

As usual I am spending the holiday mildly despressed.

Girlfriend broke up with me, and Im stuck at home half looking forward to going to school and half dreading it.

Happy Holidays!

Scott.

Deleting mails

[aiwi]

Had more than 2000 on sent items, but had to check one by one whether they had important info or not. I played the violin again after a year of hard work. Went to the airport (20 blocks from home/office a nice walk) to relive feelings I had when I was young. Just watch the planes, and the river (this is BUE Jorge Newbery Airport) An ex-girlfriend of mine was killed in the most macabre circumstances (blood all over the place and thrown out of a builiding window, police says it's suicide notwithstanding) so I think a lot, in quite a melancholic, mysterious tone. I guess one should try to do great things, in this life, yes definetly.

My Xmas plans...

[Anonymous Coward]

smoking crack and worshipping Satan!@#$

I had surgery.

[OS24Ever]

I had a tonsilectomy and a Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty. I was lucky, today I got some mashed potatoes for dinner.

Whee. Codene is a fun drug. It makes you so dizzy and tired you can't even sit in front of a computer for very long.

Christmas vacation?

[Anonymous Squonk]

Working in Japan, December 24th and 25th were workdays just like any other, just like the 26th is now...

Guess where I am at this very moment...

[Anonymous Coward]

...a work slaving away.

People who take christmas off lack work ethic.

Watching the snow come down ...

[MKalus]

... and as I don't have to be anywhere, with anyone, I didn't do much else but play Splinter Cell, went for an hours run in the new snow and for some reason convinced myself to the fact that an hour on the bike trainer with Coach troy and the spinerval tapes would be fun....

Or: A day like any other.

Building a MAME Cabinet

[zoid.com]

I jsut got the las peice of the puzzle I need to start on my control panel for my MAME cabinet. With a few days off I'm going to start the project. I will post the progress on my website.

Christmas, Chez Philman

[crazyphilman]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm planning on a blissful week of doing "NOTHING". I'm going to fart around on my Playstation II, and on my brand, spanking new XBox, and open up a can of whoop ass.

I may drink a little too. But so far that's just a rumor. And we just got done having a stuffed Christmas Goose! Wonderful, delicious, yum.

If only my slightly deranged (it's cute when they go mad), oversexed ex girlfriend were here, I could have a truly lovely time. I'd have to hide the knives, of course, but I'm used to that.

Merry Christmas, everyone! And, a happy New Years, too!

Your page

[Pseudonymus Bosch]

Have you thought about changing the URL that you show in Slashdot from UTexas to FindSabrina? That would give much more visibility to the page.

A noble gift but a better idea

[metalhed77]

is to donate to your local food bank. Your dollar will go a lot farther since they usually get extra cheap prices on food. I still applaud your efforts, you are an inspiration

Having Surgery!!

[jeffroe]

Woohoo! Ok, so it isn't that glorious, but I've been trying to get my broken collar bone to heal for about 4 months now and opted to go in and get it plated. So last Friday before the holiday I went under the knife since I've got 2 weeks to heal during the Christmas break. Fortunately, I didn't get any christmas presents today that required both hands to operate.

Merry Christmas!

Learning to Program C (finally)

[jgkastra]

I've postponed learning C for years. Now that I have a better work ethic, time, and motivation I can actually finish those books I bought.

I also plan to volunteer at an AIDS shelter.

Working...

[jhughes]

Working in the NOC. Gotta raise money before they lay us off :(

(and a plug to help the one slashdotter find his kid in case you didn't read the website:
http://findsabrina.org/
)

Playing

[X-Nc]

I don't get a vacation but I'm taking a few days off this week. What am I doing?

Beyblades, with my 6 year old son. I got a few comments from other parents asking why a 40 year old would be playing with them but, well, why not? They are great toys and I get to play with my son. What could be better?

Recommend gifts for those who got Xmas $$$?

[EnlightenmentFan]

I would like to recommend some fun presents--anybody else want to join in?

• Voice changer from Discovery Toys, about $16. The best is to get everybody to laugh into it--you don't know "bwa-ha-ha" till you've heard this. I can hardly wait to use it on a telemarketer. "Yes, I would like to discuss your low mortgage rates. There is a bridge in Brooklyn I want to purchase, yet local banks are strangely reluctant to help me--puny humans!!!"
• The extended DVD set of LOTR. Can't wait to watch every minute.
• Not high-tech but a perfect computer companion--a bird feeder to hang outside the study window, just to remind me that life does exist outside.

Capitalism is the Reason for the Season

[demozthenes]

Currently, I'm trying to figure out if the Gap cashes their gift certificates...I've got about $150 worth of gift cards to the store, and I refuse to wear sweatshop-assembled clothing, nor do I properly fit into any women's sizes there. I'm still in high school, so I stayed home while aunts and uncles and cousins all came by to visit. Every year, I get the holiday blues. It's just some sort of empty feeling. Christmas is a nice opportunity for me to see my family and relatives, and have an immense dinner with them all, but the gifting aspect of the day just ruins the fun. It's stressful wondering if you got a decent present for somebody, and I always feel guilty returning things that people bought for me. Bah. I'm blowing this pity party, there's leftover stuffing in the fridge. :)

*VACATION*?

[dacarr]

What is this "vacation" people speak of?

The closest i get to one is going to Mitsuwa in Los Angeles to pick up this next year's Studio Ghibli calendar.

Who got a vacation?

[nurb432]

One day out of office, and being on call, really isnt much of a vacation...

Merry unChristmas

[Anonymous Coward]

....for all those of you who know that Jesus really wasn't born anywhere near December 25th.

working on the FreeBSD kernel

[Anonymous Coward]

Greatest fun in the world!

Today...

[antdude]

I went to hang out with relatives and then went to see LOTR:TTT movie at a good movie theater. It was an OK movie. I liked the first one better.

Just like everyone else...

[sienem]

I'll be spending my time on my music! I'll be cracking open those half-finished Cakewalk projects and turning them into songs. You know, the ones named "idea1, idea2, idea3, ... ideaj" where j=the number of homework assignments last semester that required musical procrastination. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

No /.

[Uniball]

SHIT!
We have exams here in egypt!!

Your post has reached Canada

[tyrani]

I've printed a picture and I'll be keeping my eyes open while I wonder around Toronto.

I've also posted a link to a couple of Canada based fourms in the hopes that other people will do the same for you.

I feel very bad that you could not spend Christmas with your daughter. From what I've read on the site that you created and on the sites that you linked to, it sure sounds like you'll see her again. Hopefully you can take what little solace lies in that.

Re:Your post has reached Canada

[Anonymous Coward]

...I'll be keeping my eyes open while I wonder around Torronto

Go back to sleep in your assisted-living hostpital, you draft-dodging old man.

Vacation

[Anonymous Coward]

I am spending vacation:

1) Spending the time refactoring some of my best coding achievements....before I publish them this year at the Sun ONE conference.

2) Pondering Linux's future with an Aroma Therapy candle I got from my relatives who said:

XXXX, you don't drink, you don't smoke, you never had sex, and your 37. Aren't you taking that near death experience you had when you where 9 a little too seriously? I mean everyone dies.
(They don't usually come back though......)

Are you sure "God" told you a secret? Perhaps it was just a neuron that misfired. Why won't you tell us what it is?
(Because its a question, and the answer is the secret....still looking for the answer...)

Light a candle, try and lighten up, we are concerned.

OK?

Hopefully this year I will lighten up...

just a bit. :-)

-Hack

The worse holiday season I've had yet.......

[scoobywan]

To explain this takes explaining the year I've had. First, my wife and I seperated, then my wife started talking about not letting me see my daughter, my son's step father is trying to keep me from him, my grandmother had a heart attack and various other complications this past year, due to the fact my mother needed help watching my grandma I had to quit my job and move back to help out. So, how am I spending my holiday season, alone, depressed, and halfway down a bottle of rum. Out of all of my "friends" in the world, not a one even called or wrote. I'm just hoping next year is better. And hoping everyone else has a better time than I have.

Happy Holidays everyone

Well...

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

Had family over, watched some movies, had some conversation, opened some presents. Now I'm relaxing.

Too bad I can't play Gamecube because I bought the girlfriend Animal Crossing. Whoops.

So now I'm reading and posting on Slashdot.

I got a slinky and new pajamas. Jealous?

Learning Russian

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm attempting to learn russian. I got the alphabet down and I'm atleast under the impression that I can read many words aloud. I already speak german pretty well, so my attempt to learn russian may be a bit easier going than for others.

My day celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday...

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't eat for 24hours and I just had a great feast in Jesus Christ's honor. Jesus has another birthday coming up soon; everyone knows it as Easter. I can't wait to pray some more! I chose not to participate in Christmas how everyone else does. I just read my Bible, Pray, and feast on Jesus Christ's birthday.

Re:My day celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday...

[Anonymous Coward]

I too didn't eat for 24 hours at Christmas. This year I didn't buy any presents, didn't get any presents, and I did eat a big meal but it was because I was hungry. I had 2 pina coladas with it. Fuck commercialism and fuck religion too. If there is a God he has it in for me.

Re:My day celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday...

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus was not born on December 25th. This is an arbitrary date chosen by a pope to coincide with pagan rituals. See here

I applaud you

[renehollan]

This Christmas would have been dismal. I was out of work since October (well, I knew since September, and traded severance for dismisal for immigration reasons), except I got a job Dec. 24.

Money is still tight, but for the past month or so, I had been ignoring the Salvation Army guy with the kettle outside the local Target store, and on Dec. 24, I slipped US$20 into the kettle.

O.K. So I always wanted to be able to afford to slip a $100 bill in there, but I figured this was a reasonable compromise between my family's welfare, and that of those less fortunate than us -- umemployment sends that message home pretty hard.

As for our plans, we are packing and planning a move. Sure, the $20 is a drop in a bucket, but I figure better that than nothing. Perhaps someday, I will be able to donate more, I had already donated a car to charity this year, before I lost the job.

Some will think me generous, others cheap. Frankly, I don't care -- I do not give for the sake of others' opinions. I do what I can, given my nature.

programming

[Gallamine]

I'm spending my break rewriting my website using PHP and a PostgreSQL database. I got about %95 done this summer but couldn't finish the last bit all semester. School stinks. It's way over-rated. I find programming relaxing and stimulating.

A Holiday Tradition

[Vandil X]

It's become a tradition of mine for the past 12 years to always play thru a new/favorite console/PC RPG from start to finish during "Christmas week".

This year, I've decided to mix it up, playing Dragon Warrior II (the GBC remake version --the save battery in my old NES cart is long dead) on my GBA and doing a few missions in Anarchy Online.

Not much but a lot

[Anthony]

So far. Christmas lunch at Mother-in-Law's next door. Played "Apples to Apples" with my teenagers. Played Cooperative Quake - "Hipnotic" expansion with son. Or rather I followed the carnage he left behind and still manged to get killed in all sort of creative ways. Went through all the papers that have piled up other past year. Sent off 8 forms/bills as a result! Still got a few US magazine subs to send off as well.

Stuff to do. Plan to volunteer tomorrow cleaning a large carpet. Get CD-Burning working. Fix GLX DRI problem on my son's PC. Solve Lothlorian and Kodiak newbie quests on 3k.org:3000 - what a tragedy my char Grin is. Last incarnation spent a total of 24 hours in Lothlarian alone. I can only dream of solving Attrition! Work my way through a few chapters of HTDP. Finish reading "My Name is Legion" and a few text books with tags 1/3 the way through them. Play golf. Set goals for 2003.Hmm. I'll be happy with all that.

The Quest for Monsieur Raymond's (Lost) Tomb.

[The Cydonian]

... as for me, I'll be searching for the (presumably lost) tomb of a 17th century French traveller, Monsieur Raymond. Deccani oral history has, of course, completely Indianised "Monsieur Raymond"'s French pronounciation; the general area of his tomb's location is called 'Moosarambagh', literally, 'Moosaram's Park'. Just that, a) no one in the area quite knows where the tomb is, b) they haven't even heard of M. Raymond, c) two earlier trips to Moosarambagh have yielded only about three unpainted houses.

Not surprisingly, Google seems to have heard about it, even returned a picture, which can only mean one thing:- it's waiting for my visit.

If only I can (accurately) figure out where it is.

Re:Family/Friends & strangers

[rjamestaylor]

My wife and our two kids are hosting out-of-town people attending a Christian conference this week. One couple is from Little Rock, AK and another man (single) is from northern California. (We're in Orange County, CA and the conference is in Anaheim, CA). I have to work this week (except 12/25 and 1/1 of next week) so I cannot participate in the conference full-time myself. However, today we cooked a big lunch and invited about 12 people to join us. It was a blast.

Offering hospitality to strangers has been a real treat for us and we're glad to be able to do it this year.

Re:Family/Friends & strangers

[rjamestaylor]

that should have read: "I, my wife and our two kids . . ." (no, I didn't move to a hotel for the week!:)

Oh Boy!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is gonna be the bestest Kristmas ever. I cant wait til our good Kristian Prezident sends missiles into Iraq. Down with those to have 'weapons of mass destruction' and horay for us freedumb loving Americkans!! Kill those ugle brown people.

Sieg Heil!!

Not my holiday...

[Anonymous Coward]

Since I don't celebrate Christmas, it was just another day like any other for me, with the exception that most of my friends were out of town. Blah... 'tis the season, I suppose.

CmdrTaco, this is why anonymous posts need IPs

[Kiwi]

Slashdot editors:

Once, and for all, this is why anonymous postings need to have their IP recorded so that assholes like this can not post this kind of bullshit without fear of retribution.

How would you feel if you had a missing daughter and someone posted something like this in reply to a plea to help find her?

Go ahead, mod me down. I have karma to burn.

As to the original poster: God knows who you are, and you will pay for what you have done.

- Sam

Re:CmdrTaco, this is why anonymous posts need IPs

[Anonymous Coward]

Wake up man! Just because the original poster is an asshole it doesn't mean YOU have the right to retribution or revenge. Calm down and think about it. And if you want my IP address and personal details (for retribution) just leave me a message :-)

Moe whining than 2nd grade....

[ITWeeniesAreWorthles]

Jesus Christ, from all the jobless whining on here I'd think you're all high school dropouts who thought IT was some golden nugget. Oh wait, that's not far from the truth... Personally I'm sitting here in San Diego after I VOLUNTARILY resigned from my last job in Tampa, Florida doing FPGA design and am now working (and making kick-ass $) after a short job search after moving here with my girlfriend. Read between the lines folks - backing up harddrives and babysitting servers isn't the wave of the future. Neither is any field that has you traveling all the time, taking crap from @sshole department heads, working over major holidays, or working constant 70+ hour weeks. And 'bragging' about it like it's a badge of honor doesn't get you respect, it just makes most people laugh. Get a real education, some real experience, and THEN a real career. Sheesh, some people need their noses wiped! Some folks on here have their stuff together, but godd@mn...

Personally, I'm drinking my tenth beer as I fiddle with my Nike/Phillips psa128 MP3 player my girlfriend bought me, in addition to listening to some tunes via the Harmon Kardon AVR225 receiver and Bose speakers she bought me. I'm stuffed since my parents sent us a smoked, pre-cooked turkey for dinner and my lady made cheesecake for dessert. Tomorrow I think I'll jog around Fiesta Island then spend the rest of my 11-day, work-free vacation having sex, drinking alot, and working on my own ideas to patent and retire.

Merry Christmas, suckers!

Also coding...

[Kalzus]

Weird; I'm always a year or so behind the curve when it comes to gaming.

So, after deciding that Neverwinter Nights is highly biased towards fighting, and thus: my paladin doesn't cut it... I thought about what it takes to "adjust" a character.

Of course, this is possible from the console, but that would be the easy way :)

After digging in to find documents on format, I realized that a) someone has already done this, and b) the ITP format is actually kind-of neat, as well as being necessary to comprehend in order to alter *everything* I might want to alter on my character.

So, away I go, between meals with friends.

Thank you for sacrificing about a minute of your time to this post :P

(Incidentally, what's up with Aribeth being a dual-class cleric 17(... 17?!?)/paladin level 10 near the end of the game?)

I'm coding myself

[Kiwi]

I'm coding myself here. I am finally working on the development branch of my current open source project again after a two-month hiatus (school and finals, grrrr). It feels good to finally fix a long-standing issue.

I'm with family, but they are pretty low-key so pleanty of time to code away.

- Sam

Trying to learn something in my spare time

[Andreas Rueckert]

I'm trying to learn how a chess app works, by writing a simple chess app in Java.

You forgot something

[Anonymous Coward]

The obligatory:

4) ???
5) Profit!

Sorry, I had to...

Re:You forgot something

[Anonymous Coward]

The obligatory:

6) ???
7) Profit!

Sorry, I had to...

Re:You forgot something

[Anonymous Coward]

The obligatory:

8) ???
9) Profit!

Sorry, I had to...

Re:You forgot something

[Anonymous Coward]

The obligatory:

10) ???
11) Profit!

Sorry, I had to...

Re:You forgot something

[Anonymous Coward]

The obligatory:

12) ???
13) Profit!

Sorry, I had to...

Re:You forgot something

[Anonymous Coward]

The obligatory:

14) ???
15) Profit!

Sorry, I had to...

Re:You forgot something

[Anonymous Coward]

The obligatory: 16) ??? 17) Profit! Sorry, I had to...

Spent it with the family

[Brown Line]

I hoarded a few vacation days so I could take all of Christmas week off and spend it with the family.

We have a pretty large family - five kids. One daughter is married and visiting her in-laws in Puerto Rico; and our oldest son is stationed in Okinawa with the Marines; but the other three kids, my wife, and I have spent the week just doing fun stuff.

We live in Chicago, so there's a lot to do: the aquarium, the museum of natural history, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Art Institute; and of course, a viewing of "The Two Towers". It snowed on Christmas Eve, so I took the youngest kid sledding on what passes for a hill in this part of the world. And we've eaten lots of foods that taste great, and that I'll be dieting off months from now.

The previous posting by the man whose daughter was abducted just reminds me yet again how precious these days are, and how important it is to use them well.

go fullerton?

[ethank]

Being that I'm Jewish, but my father's birthday is the 25th, I am spending this holiday bored out of my mind in Fullerton, CA (referenced in the initial post).

I hate to be a party pooper, but I hate Christmas day. Everything is closed, so there is absolutely nothing I can go out and do. I'm stuck with the food in the house and my choices of entertainment last evening were limited to "speed" on Cinemax.

Eh.

Ethan

Come to Mood Indigo..

[hs_ramdev]

A four day fest is going on in Mumbai , India..

If any /dotter wanna come he/she(rare in India) is welcome...

btw its a good place to freak..

All are welcome..:-)

Making up 4 being unemployed 1/2 the year?

[krinsh]

I had one day off since Thanksgiving; working the first job that I was leaving on the days off from the new job I just started.

I thought we were all underpaid; overworked cube monkeys? Must've been a student asking this question because I know of very few people that had off this holiday; and even those only had a couple hours on Christmas Eve and were very likely tied to their pager Christmas Day.

oddly enough

[flyneye]

ive been trying to end this love triangle and get back with my ex.havin a hard time workin up the guts tho.i love them both so much.but this been goin on for so long everyone is hurtin.like tryin to figure out which arm to amputate.
lemme tell ya if you ever get a chance to fall in love with two women at once;DONT! get someone to kick you in the balls hard enough that you forget about it.not a merry christmas for flyneye.

Berlin - why hasn't anyone mentioned this?

[apweiler]

I'm surprised I couldn't find anything about this. OK, so it's not really Christmas anymore, but tomorrow (27th) I'm going to Berlin for the Chaos Communications Congress.
Apart from that - spent the 24th at home (Luxembourg) with parents and sister, then went to Germany to grandmother for the usual family reunion stuff. Looking forward to Berlin very much.

With a mare?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just curious to what kind of troll you realy are...

I'm on the lookout

[Anonymous Coward]

I am quad-lingual. I'll carry the photo of your daughter and that deranged woman with me wherever I go. If I find her, I would like for you to keep the money and pool it into a charity of your choice...yet it is easier to say that now then accomplish the act. Kindness is priceless and my time is worthless. I'll search as if your daughter were my own brother. Perhaps I should pray to my Father in Heaven on this subject...yes!

How to spend Xmas vacation

[astanton]

"Einstein" at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Amazing collection of artifacts and great demonstrations of the science behind his work. Well worth the time and money.

Don't feel bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

Christmas is more-so tradition than part of religion now. Take this as a warning...your religion will soon be violated by marketers. Christmas is not about bullshit Trees, Santa Clause, missile toe, egg nog, or any of those earthly paganisms. It is about Jesus Christ and take it as a warning of how easy marketers shoved Jesus out of Christmas and how many people continue participating in this fake Christmas of today. You may soon be next!

Star Wars Fan Film

[CAIMLAS]

I, for one, will be making another SW fan film. We made one last year for my kid brother's high school film class, and it was the best thing that teacher ever saw - even though she was a bitch and didn't realize it.

This year we won't have time restrictions, and it's already turning out better than last (more people, better weather, more props, more overall knowledge in production, etc). This one should definately be on TF.N.

Looking for a job...

[Anonymous Coward]

...still.