A geeky wish list

Apparently it has been already a year since we indulged ourselves in the obligated annual gift-exchanging and family-visiting activities that are bound to be executed in late December and early January. Time flies when you're having fun, right? A holly-jolly-post is my first gift to all of you, so sit back and enjoy. Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Christmas

Yey! It's that time of the year again. Outside, the morning's snowstorm created a silky smooth carpet of icy crystals, covering the entire street with a bright and shining glow by reflecting the street lights. Inside, Irving Berlin's White Christmas is silently filling the dining room where your favorite relatives have been invited over for a warm, preferably turkey-based, meal. In the corner of the dining room is a large and rigorously decorated evergreen surrounded by paper-wrapped boxes in various dimensions.

As described above, Christmas is a wonderful evening in great company with an atmosphere that is almost nearing perfection. In reality, it's nothing like that. At least not to me. In fact, the modern celebration of Christmas reaches about the same level of hypocrisy than 4th century Christian leaders who tried to convert pagans by promising them they could still celebrate Saturnalia while being Christian. Since this week of pagan lawlessness in favor of the Roman god Saturn had no link with Christianity whatsoever, Christian leaders decided that the last day of Saturnalia (December 25th), should be Jesus' birth. How's that on a scale of thruth? Today, people often (ab)use Christmas to invite relatives they rarely see or they can barely stand. On top of that, they unnaturally curve their facial muscles upwards and, obviously forced by some massive cultural delusion, hand them carefully selected presents to prove their love and friendship. Heck, this reminds me a bit of valentine, but don't get me started on that one.

Still not convinced? A little bit of reading might help you see the fact that Christmas isn't that great a holiday, unless of course you're a anarchist pagan with a knack for feasting and human sacrifice.

Gift-exchanging

First of all, pay close attention to what one of my favorite TV-show characters has to say on the subject of gift-exchanging, since this is more or less the way I feel about it, albeit less neurotic.

Since my annual efforts of convincing friends and relatives seem to have failed once again (damn their stubbornness), I will most certainly be dragged along to some of these compulsory festivities. For all of you that accepted an invitation to one of the feasts that I will also be attending, haven't figured out what to get me as a present but feel obliged to get one nonetheless, here is my personal wish list.

The wish list

• A binary watch
  Available from ThinkGeek (picture)
• Hard drives
  Apparently, my hard-drive-filling rate is higher than my hard-drive-acquiring rate.
• Whisky
  Any (Scottish or Irish) single malt will do, although I prefer Highland, Lowland and Islay.
• Books
  Robin Hobb's Tawny Man Trilogy or Soldier Son Trilogy, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time or any compilation of H.P. Lovecraft's stories.
• DVD's
  Preferably The Big Bang Theory (Season 1) or The Matrix Trilogy.
• Any musical instrument
• A Professor's Cube (5x5)
  Since I already own the 2x2, 3x3 and 4x4
• Beer
  Preferably Belgian and dark.

My best wishes

The above list should be more than sufficient for all of you and should include gifts in various price-ranges. Please note that I will not grade your level of friendship based on the price of the gift. I'm more than happy with any of the above.

Merry Christmas, happy new year, live long and prosper and, in case you're wondering, I'm not your father.