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

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

[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

[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

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!

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! :)

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

[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...

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.

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

[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

[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

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

[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.

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

[Sunda666]

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

cheers and merry xmas

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

[VAXman]

You got the day off? Lucky bastard!

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! :)

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 :-(

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

[Swaffs]

... reading Slashdot.

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! :>

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? :)

[Kunta Kinte]

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

Funny.

Spelling changes depending on my mood.

Cambodia MotoCross

[N8F8]

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

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.

no internet for me

[Rubbersoul]

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

Waiting for the power to come back on...

[starling]

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

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*!!!

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...

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

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.

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.

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: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.

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.

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.

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...

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?

Re:please explain

[rmohr02]

I thought it was something about a pap test.

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?

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.

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...

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.

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.

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/
)

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.

*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...

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.

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?

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.

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. :)

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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. :)