X-mas

I don't know exactly what Sinterklaas is but it sounds good kiddy fun, but then Christmas means different things to different people.

 

It's the one day in the year where people smile at each other and wish you a Merry Christmas, now i know it's all false but who cares it's the one day in the year where life seems worth living. Today i've been wished a merry christmas by Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus so it even brings people closer together even if it's only for a day or two thats the sort of christmas spirit we need to keep going.

 

while i don't care for christmas, and really want nothing to do with it... it's important to my folks, and it's important to my 6 year old nephew (my brother and my sister-in-law also wouldn't care much about it if it weren't for their son)

so every year, i still go visit my folks, buy them a bottle of booze, help cook some good food, and visit for the day, and get my nephew a bunch of useless toys that he loves... i ask for nothing, as i'd prefer to not personally celebrate it beyond that extent, though usually i'll end up leaving with a case of good beer or something

point is, while i don't care about it, i care aboutmy family, and we get along really well (well, immediate family, there's some family that i don't exactly talk to anymore) and since it's important to them i think it's more than reasonable for me to shut up about it and just enjoy the day with them, they're fully aware of my views and respect them, but they want to see me, and i love seeing the look on my nephews face when he opens his presents

 

when i was younger my family celebrated chanukah and christmas (my dad being jewish and all) so we not only had 8 days of gifts but christmas day also... Looking back, it was total excess, but i guess my family wanted me and my sister to know our heritage or something... This year the family decided we're only buying gifts for my nephews, so the commercialism torch is being passed on to them exclusively this year...

 

That's the beauty of Christmas in a nutshell.

 

Haha anyone else listen to the entire Vandals album - Oi to the world?

 

Basically it's Saint Nick (i.e. Sint Nickolaas, Sinterklaas), arriving a few weeks before the 5th of December on a steam boat from Spain (yes Spain, not the North Pole and yes a steam boat) bringing gifts for all the kids on this boat. He's helped by Zwarte Piet (literally 'Black Pete'), who contrary to popular belief outside Holland is not a 'negro slave', but a white dude gotten black from all the soot he gathered climbing through chimney's every night delivering small gifts and candy in kids' shoes (certain other countries substitute Zwarte Piet with Krampus, a demon only Sinterklaas could control). Anyway, 5th of December comes, called 'Pakjesavond' ('packagenight' literally) and it's Sinterklaas' b-day, so he gives loads of presents to all the kids.
So ever since the day Sinterklaas arrives kids lie expectantly in bed, waiting to hear the hooves of his white horse Amerigo on the roof and sounds through the chimney. And if you don't have a chimney Piet'll find an open window or something, anyway he WILL get in to give you gifts

 

So you basically have Christmas a few weeks before the rest of us then.

 

Without the Jesus-overtones, yes. And it lasts for a week or two at least before the actual 'event' on the 5th of December.

 

True Anarchism is Anti-Church and Anti-Religion, there is no place for sentimentality in a Revolution. The Church works hand in hand with the State to keep the People Oppressed. This doesn't mean that there is no tolerance of Religious beliefs among the People, It just means that all Political Power and Financial Solvency will be Rested from the Church and Hierarchy's will be desolved. Religious Tolerance equals Respect for the individuals to choose their own beliefs. History has taught us that Religious Intolerance has the power to kill a revolution dead in its tracks so there has to be a new way of thinking about how to diplomatically deal with The Peoples rights to choose for themselves without allowing the traditional Power of the Church to re-emerge.

 

Brilliant, a couple of weeks party in a country where you can smoke Cannabis without fear of arrest.

 

Technically it isn't legal here... the cops condone it. If you have more than 10 grams you're fucked. Just a few weeks ago a coffeeshop was raided and all the weed and hashish was taken, supposedly something to do with drugs-tourism...

 

I knew it was tolerated rather than legalised, and i'm surprised it has'nt been outlawed yet.

 

Oh, they're working on that...

 

More than ten grams???????
You're fucked if you have a dimebacg here!! (half gram)

 

Folk/Rock/Punk Singer Vic Chesnutt commited suicide in Athens on Christmas Day. He had been in a Depression since learning of a lawsuit by a local Hospital in the amount of $70,000
after he could not keep up payments on his meager earnings as a musician. Vic was wheelchair bound since a 1983 Accident left him partially paralyzed, and he owed the hospital for a recent surgery. He had been touring with his new band which included Guy Piccioto ex-Fugazi and 3 members of Godspeed You Black Emperor who all happen to be Canadian and could not comprehend how American's handle their canibalistic health care system.

 

i hate christmas. people just go back to treating others like shit the day after its over.

 

The EU's a wonderful animal

 

bump, if for no other reason then that dreadful time of year is encroaching on us again...