I can feel the silliness coming on..

this is probably not news to most people and has probably been going on for a week, weeks, more than week by now? but I have "literally" not been outside this flat since, forever, like, when I got back from Israel.. well not exactly but I haven't been anywhere to civilization during opening hours for anything that isn't a bar for.. some time, and if I have I haven't been paying attention but anyway I went out today to a supermarket to do the usual getting stuff one needs for one's abode, and yep.. it's started...

oh I saw chocolate santas.. christmas, that's what I'm talking about.. they're starting the stuff for that already.

One last desperate attempt to be good..

Well.. currently Santa's flying over South East Asia, according to my sources.. so I'm gonna assume list is done and checked twice, so at this point, there's not much I can do.. if I'm on the naughty list, I'm staying there.

Fortunately I've been good this year. As usual.

So.. this is Christmas, as the overplayed and otherwise annoying enough song goes.. what have we done? Oh the usual, nothing too interesting. Gonna spend the next few days preparing for guests, eating ,drinking and hanging out with guests, hopefully in a merry fashion.. oh and presents. Yeah, there's already some under the tree.. (actually under where the tree goes, we been putting it in the spare room for most of the time so Cooley doesn't chew on it) but yeah..

Not much else to say. It's Christmas, hope everyone has an awesome one.

Don't drink too much :)

The real meaning of xmas.

It's been a while since I've heard someone bemoan to me that the "real meaning" of Christmas has been lost. I do come across it online though, and was recently invited to join the cause to "keep the Christ in Christmas" on a social networking site. I politely declined.

It reminded me of those people, back when I lived in a more Christian country than this one, who assumed I would agree with them that the focus on non Jesus elements was wrong for Christmas. I always found it annoying, though I never said anything.

I know that those people meant well, and were on the whole good people, not usually the type to push their religious ways on people, but nevertheless, they were wrong. They weren't wrong that Jesus is the meaning of Christmas for them and for people who think like them. What they were wrong about, is assuming that it's that way (or should be) for anyone else.

Yes, it's (in English anyway) named after Christ, and has a Christian history, that is after they took the festival from the Pagans and altered it to suit them, but now it's a Western cultural tradition, which is still Christian for some people, but not at all for others.

I grew up in a family which celebrated Christmas, though we were never religious. I grew up with the trees and presents and Santa Claus, the food, the family... and that's what it is about. That's all it is about. Since I've grown up, I still celebrate Christmas, though I've become an official atheist, because I like it. Some atheists see it as a Christian holiday and don't celebrate it which is all fine.. I can see a lot more reasons to not like Christmas than just the religious one, I'm a sucker though, I like all that festive jazz.. I'm quite suited to a bit of sparkly tree and Santa worship.. much more than I am to worshiping the baby Jesus.

Ironic of course, that in this adopted, not very Christian country of mine, it's the baby Jesus who gives children presents. Traditionally there isn't a Santa Claus, and his new presence is none too welcome by some of the local folk, which I got to overhear from many passer's by last year during my stint as Santa's photographer. I can understand it, he is to some, the symbol of creeping American culture, Coca Cola, the worst excesses of xmas materialism.. but.. I still like the jolly fella. And the trees and the sparkly shit and the (these days very modest) pressies.

And it's another excuse to booze it up. Perhaps that's what I like about it most of all :)

Merry Christmas all, have a happy one.

It's off to work I go.

It's been an exciting couple of days. I had a birthday on Thursday. I really didn't need another one, I've had enough of those already, but it came all the same. I had a relatively relaxing day, mostly stayed in and only got a little drunk, but it was fun.

Yesterday I got a new camera. This is extremely exciting. It's got a big zoom and everything, and it's got a memory card that fits like.. 1 million photos so I can snap and snap and snap and snap and not worry about it. I'm gonna have fun with this.

So, in about half an hour I'm off to meet Santa and friends, to get ready for the new job, which is "photographer". Sounds very swanky, but it's very simple, the camera's sitting there on a tripod and I just have to snap. Nevertheless I'm nervous, I'm naturally quite incompetent and manage to screw up the simplest of things, so I'm glad I'm going a bit early to go through the whole thing again. I had a sort of training on Wednesday where a guy came in and babbled out quickly how to use the printer and camera to about 8 people, and I'm not sure I picked up so much.

It's the first day, so hopefully it will be really, really, really, really slow. That will give me time to get used to the whole point and shoot and fiddle with the functions to print and then print again, all while being presentable and nice to people, I really need that time.

Damn... gotta go soon. Back in the evening.

Bring it on, already.

I need sleep. I just couldn't sleep last night and got woken up about yet another fixit related affair. This time I had to get up and run to another flat, that I don't live in to let them in, because the dude who lives in it wouldn't answer the phone. I didn't have time to wash my hair so it's greasy.

I'm going to be busy in December. I got a job photographing Santa Claus, who will be coming to town this year, for the first time, at least that is, for the whole of the month. So I'll be standing there in a Santa hat trying to get kids to stop screaming while their photos are taken. Should be a laugh, I'm doing it every day from the 1st until the 23rd except for the days I have off, for various reasons. Should be a laugh.

I'm gonna be in a film again. Actually I was going to be in 2, but the first film student who called me about a film changed the film she was going to be doing later on. Oh well. I was actually wanted for 3, but the 3rd person who called me was filming on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, which clashed with the first film I was called for, the one I'm not doing now, and with the job I'm doing, which all the films actually clash with, but I got the ok to get the days off for the first two, but figured it was pushing it for the 3rd one, especially seeing as it was for the first few days of Santa's inaugural Prague appearance. So I'm just in one. It's ok, I shan't be greedy this time. I don't know what the film is about though because the guy hasn't emailed me the script yet.

The next few days of November I have training for my photography job, the usual classes, a script to read (if I ever get it), and a birthday to get through, so I suppose I should get that sleep soon. Getting busy soon.