What’s on your mind?

[Apple fanboy]

Spoiler

I can't imagine such a niggardly attitude towards Christmas! Though many of the Christmas pop songs are overplayed the traditional songs and carols are all good


It was on a local radio station in the car, didn't pay attention to what it was if they said...

Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Including me.

 

[Falhófnir]

Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Including me.

You don't have to celebrate it to not be grumpy about it ?

 

[Apple fanboy]

You don't have to celebrate it to not be grumpy about it ?

If you lost a daughter at Christmas you’d probably hate it too!

 

[decafjava]

If you lost a daughter at Christmas you’d probably hate it too!

Or a parent - well my father soon after Xmas in my case.

Edit: Don't hate it but am a bit blasé - no problem with others doing what they want.

 

[Falhófnir]

If you lost a daughter at Christmas you’d probably hate it too!

Then why even reply to my original comment about Christmas songs when you could quite happily have scrolled past and ignored it? I mean I'm sorry for your loss of course, but kinda feels like you're just looking for a bit of a scrap here, so I'll move on.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Or a parent - well my father soon after Xmas in my case.

Edit: Don't hate it but am a bit blasé - no problem with others doing what they want.

I’d just rather it was January.
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Then why even reply to my original comment about Christmas songs when you could quite happily have scrolled past and ignored it? I mean I'm sorry for your loss of course, but kinda feels like you're just looking for a bit of a scrap here, so I'll move on.

I thought it was a reasonable comment. I just hate that everyone assumes you celebrate Christmas. It’s not like you can avoid it or opt out however much you try. Trust me I try a lot!
But the radio, TV, shops, work etc don’t seam to offer the opt out option.

I’ll just go crawl into a cave until January.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

With me working from another location (for about a month, self inflicted), I wonder if my team of 6, at my usual location will simply run riot, and do what they bloody want...

Why should they?

If they are interested in doing the job properly, are reasonably well paid (rather than exploited) and feel respected in their work, why should they "run riot and do what they bloody well want"?

Are you a micro manager, or someone who gives subordinates some slack and/or autonomy over their work?

 

[D.T.]

With me working from another location (for about a month, self inflicted), I wonder if my team of 6, at my usual location will simply run riot, and do what they bloody want...

I know I would!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Or a parent - well my father soon after Xmas in my case.

Edit: Don't hate it but am a bit blasé - no problem with others doing what they want.

During childhood - which was a different time and when there was quite a lot of magic to Christmas, I quite liked the Yuletide season - but since my teens, I have always disliked Christmas, as well. I don't much care for winter - the cold, the dark which I particularly detest, the wet - and I have long loathed the fact that adhering too faithfully to seasonal traditions can mean a period of intense - and stressful - work for women.

More recently, my mother passed away just before Christmas last year, which will add a whole new dimension to facing this Christmas. Last Christmas Day, between preparing the dinner (a chicken casserole - I had too much on my mind planning the details of the viewing and funeral to trouble myself with the difficult, demanding and unforgiving meal that is traditionally served at Christmas), I actually spent of lot of Christmas Day penning the eulogy to my mother, which I delivered at her funeral.

Moreover, state & healthcare support systems had been removed for a few Christmases during the previous decade, a time when she was deteriorating, sometimes dramatically, (people working in such fields also need their Christmas breaks, after all), during a few of the Christmases while she was ill (until she became completely dependant when such support was restored to us over the Yuletide break from 2016) which meant that coping with my mother's increasing care needs over Christmas in those years (2012-2015) was an absolute nightmare.

Nevertheless, while I am with @decafjava in wishing good luck to those who like it - especially families with children - and while the intense commercialisation of the season does little for me, I see @Apple fanboy's point that - for a variety of reasons - not everyone celebrates (or is in a position to celebrate, or to want to celebrate) Christmas.

Whenever I was deployed abroad, I usually chose to work through Christmas and allow colleagues home; New Year was fine for me, if that option existed, while, on the other hand, Easter leave - a feast I love - was and is absolutely non-negotiable.

 

[LizKat]

i just realised this visit to the game store was twenty years ago...

Hah! I too have discovered that time doesn't just fly: it accelerates during the process... ?

 

[LizKat]

Sorry but you are wrong. When it comes to Christmas music you really need to just hit skip or change the channel on the radio. Roll on January.

Depends on the particular music, for me anyway. My tolerance for typical commercial radio fare of the holiday season is pretty low. That all begins to sound like elevator music to me within a week after Thanksgiving. But as time rolls closer to the twelve days of Christmas, I still do fish out playlists I've made in the past with things like Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, and George Winston's December.

Part of it is that I am in fact a big fan of winter once the days grow longer after the solstice... love winter light on snow, and how the clear air after a snowfall carries the slightest sound across a valley in the mountains. From way up on the ridge behind me I can hear a whitetail deer tapping its hoof through the icy little crust atop the snow when it's looking for grass underneath in early winter.

 

[circatee]

Not to digress from the thread. I allow my employees to develop and grow.

However, this particular group I have only been leading for 7 months. Prior to me, they were doing what they wanted, when they wanted (for YEARS!). So, here I am, keeping things rather taut. A little difficult for them to grasp still...

Why should they?

If they are interested in doing the job properly, are reasonably well paid (rather than exploited) and feel respected in their work, why should they "run riot and do what they bloody well want"?

Are you a micro manager, or someone who gives subordinates some slack and/or autonomy over their work?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Not to digress from the thread. I allow my employees to develop and grow.

However, this particular group I have only been leading for 7 months. Prior to me, they were doing what they wanted, when they wanted (for YEARS!). So, here I am, keeping things rather taut. A little difficult for them to grasp still...

Actually, this could be an interesting discussion on a different (i.e. new) thread.

 

[D.T.]

Not to digress from the thread.

Well, it's 'What's on your mind' so I'd say that's pretty much open for anything - is this situation on your mind? Post away!

 

[SandboxGeneral]

Players only love you when they’re playin’

 

[circatee]

Ghosting seems to be a term that 'people' have started to use, lately.
With the above in mind, someone sent me a message stating that they no longer need assistance from me, for anything. I have not responded to said message; and won't.

But, now I am of the mindset to simply 'ghost' the person. Might seem petty per se', but, I refuse to waste my energy (help, guidance, etcetera), on that person...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Ghosting seems to be a term that 'people' have started to use, lately.
With the above in mind, someone sent me a message stating that they no longer need assistance from me, for anything. I have not responded to said message; and won't.

But, now I am of the mindset to simply 'ghost' the person. Might seem petty per se', but, I refuse to waste my energy (help, guidance, etcetera), on that person...

Is this - er - relationship - professional or personal?

If personal, that is your own business, and the decision to 'ghost' may well be entirely justified.

However, if professional, - especially if the other person reports to you - then, "ghosting" them may not be the most appropriate response.

 

[Clix Pix]

Depends on the particular music, for me anyway. My tolerance for typical commercial radio fare of the holiday season is pretty low. That all begins to sound like elevator music to me within a week after Thanksgiving. But as time rolls closer to the twelve days of Christmas, I still do fish out playlists I've made in the past with things like Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, and George Winston's December.

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Part of it is that I am in fact a big fan of winter once the days grow longer after the solstice... love winter light on snow, and how the clear air after a snowfall carries the slightest sound across a valley in the mountains. From way up on the ridge behind me I can hear a whitetail deer tapping its hoof through the icy little crust atop the snow when it's looking for grass underneath in early winter.

Thanks for the reminder of this wonderful album! I remember hearing it and loving it. I have several of his other albums, too, including "Autumn" and "Summer" as well as "Winter Into Spring," and I know that "December" is around here somewhere! As it happened, earlier today I was doing some much-needed sorting in the room where I keep my CDs and having already seen this post I made a point of looking for this album in my collection, and darned if I could find it. ?? Checked the separate area for Christmas albums on CD, and nope, not there either. Grrrr.....! Could be that I may have only had it on tape and not CD, I don't really recall now, but at any rate rather than waste any more time I simply jumped into iTunes -- er, "Music," -- and have now added it to my iTunes library so now I've absolutely got it for sure! Probably the CD will turn up one day unexpectedly in a weird place.....but that's OK....

 

[Gutwrench]

Another bad development for men. Now they grow wild on the beach. ?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/12/penis-fish-fat-inkeeper-worms-california-beach

 

[ArnoldWilder]

I want to go home. 16 hour shift today is not fun.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Glad it’s Friday. Work done for the week.
Now I can (no doubt) do different work at home!

 

[D.T.]

Another bad development for men. Now they grow wild on the beach. ?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/12/penis-fish-fat-inkeeper-worms-california-beach

Reminds me of this song ...

 

[D.T.]

My work is just beginning ... because it never ends
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So much Amazon delivery the last two days: UPS, Amazon Logistics, USPS! I think everything is accounted for except for one item (a specialty anime iPhone case for the little G, on it's way, umm, Pony Express, from Cali ...)
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BEER FRIDGE IGNITION! TEARS SHED! BEER ON STANDBY!

 

[circatee]

Rather frustrating when you want something for someone, MORE than they want it for themselves.
And, to add, they said they wanted it, they said they were working towards it.

Speechless...

 

[LizKat]

So much Amazon delivery the last two days: UPS, Amazon Logistics, USPS! I think everything is accounted for except for one item (a specialty anime iPhone case for the little G, on it's way, umm, Pony Express, from Cali ...)

It certainly is different now having online ordering options to deal with holiday gift selections rather than having to lug them home. Back before that was on the menu, I remember one Christmas season in the mid 80s when the brokerage firm I was consulting at decided to do some horrible legacy system conversion before the New Year, and had us all working double shifts to make it happen as the calendar crept towards "just one day of Christmas shopping left!!!!".

Right so on December 23 that year I took a three hour lunch break without permission, and a train uptown to midtown and cashed a check for $500 and shopped my brains out. Of course I had to lug it all back downtown again since no time to take it uptown to where I lived. Still I was thrilled when I got back to work to discover the boss had been invited out to some three-martini affair and wasn't even back yet himself.

But... around 9pm after I had decided to get on home with my loot so I could wrap the stuff, and had been lucky enough to nail a taxi to keep things fairly simple, I kicked off my shoes, had a cuppa coffee and then headed to the storage cupboard in my hallway for the holiday wrapping papers and ribbons.

Uh-oh. Yeah. There was some pink and blue stuff left over from a baby shower... and about 16" of bright green metallic paper that I had used most of the original lot of to put around the base of a Christmas tree one year... And I had less than 30" of tape to close up wraps for like 20 gifts.

So that year everyone got really nice little gifts from me that ended up wrapped in the fine print parts of the Wall Street Journal, the closing prices pages... with "Seasons Greetings" gummed stickers in lieu of taped closures, and red yarn doubled up and used in lieu of ribbon, with floppy bows. I think no one remembers the gifts any more but they found the wrappings hilarious enough that they still get mentioned when we're trading stories at family reunions.

Needless to say I became a big fan of online shopping. I still like to buy little things at local shops and try to make a few handsewn items as well, but I cover the bases first with stuff that Amazon and UPS or FedEx bring to the back deck well before Advent every year.