Websnark

Comment from: Doc posted at December 26, 2005 8:41 AM

Well if we are being allowed to sound off randomly: My (wonderful, incredible, delicious) girlfriend and my brother went in together to get me a beautiful new 19 inches of 4ms LCD glory. My video card died it's final, long delayed detah on the 24th.
I go back to work on the 10th, a decent tech store doesn't open before the 3rd or 4th.
That aside I am in fact wonderfully deleriously happy, not least because this is the longest my honey and I have got to spend in each others company in months.
Happy holidays all.

Comment from: Canuck-Errant posted at December 26, 2005 10:30 AM

Well, at least you folk are having a better Christmas than I.

Comment from: Robert Hutchinson posted at December 26, 2005 12:29 PM

So, please take this opportunity to sound off!

Um ... 1, 2?

Comment from: matthewabel posted at December 26, 2005 12:46 PM

I sound off with a Boxing Day Spectacular Comic. Y'know, on my homepage. I dare you to read it without a sly smile to yourself.

Comment from: Sonictail~ posted at December 26, 2005 1:05 PM

A esky full of coke and beer, a loungeroom full of mates, a pile of japanese food and a copy of we A esky full of coke and beer, a loungeroom full of mates, a pile of japanese food and a copy of we A esky full of coke and beer, a loungeroom full of mates, a pile of japanese food and a copy of we A esky full of coke and beer, a loungeroom full of mates, a pile of japanese food and a copy of we

Boxing day is so much better than christmas ;)

Comment from: kirabug posted at December 26, 2005 1:23 PM

Catching up on the Blank Label Podcasts while working on a new character. Dog's asleep next to me. Thinking of eating doughnuts.

Comment from: lucastds posted at December 26, 2005 2:12 PM

I'm taking a break from my comic for a few weeks. I hope I don't lose all my readers! (I do have a scheduled return-date... but even so!)

Comment from: Bequita posted at December 26, 2005 2:39 PM

Just got back from shopping, all the sweaters in Texas have gone on clearance sale, now that winter is officially over. *eyeroll*

I'm considering playing WoW or taking a nap or eating cookies. Hmm... I can eat cookies and play WoW at the same time, so they win. Sorry nap.

Comment from: Adrean posted at December 26, 2005 2:49 PM

It's Emilia Pinball, SuperTux, and comicking for me. That plus internet research on what exactly Boxing Day is...

Comment from: Adrean posted at December 26, 2005 2:53 PM

"As mentioned previously, equals exchanged gifts on Christmas Day or before, but lessers (be they tradespeople, employees, servants, serfs, or the generic "poor") received their "boxes" on the day after. It is to be noted that the social superiors did not receive anything back from those they played Lord Bountiful to: a gift in return would have been seen as a presumptuous act of laying claim to equality, the very thing Boxing Day was an entrenched bastion against. Boxing Day was, after all, about preserving class lines."

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.asp

Interesting...

Comment from: Plaid Phantom posted at December 26, 2005 6:40 PM

Well if that's what Boxing Day is, then I'm waitin' on my presents from a certain Burns fellow.

Comment from: quiller posted at December 26, 2005 7:42 PM

Montgomery Burns?

Comment from: Jin Wicked posted at December 26, 2005 9:04 PM

I went to the post office and bank today only to find that they were both closed. Fortunately I didn't feel quite so stupid, as there were a lot of other confused people there as well.

Otherwise I have been trying to put away the Xmas tree and catch up on all the work I missed last week. At least I finally replied to all my email.

The fun never stops at my place.

Comment from: Wednesday White posted at December 26, 2005 10:27 PM

TARGET DISC MODE REPRESENT Y'ALL.

Comment from: Adrean posted at December 26, 2005 11:15 PM

*brain boggles from trying to decipher Wednesday's message*

I think you broke it.

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at December 26, 2005 11:29 PM

Boxing Day fanfiction cartoon.

Comment from: larksilver posted at December 26, 2005 11:46 PM

Just got back from shopping, all the sweaters in Texas have gone on clearance sale, now that winter is officially over. *eyeroll*

You'd think that retailers would learn, some century, that for most of Texas, winter doesn't really get a good grip 'til January. Heck, it's supposed to get up to 80 tomorrow. Eighty

Next week, though? It'll actually get icy, and stay cold and wet for the next two months. Two miserable months. And then, we'll have 6 weeks of alternating gorgeous weather and rainfall. Then, by mid-April at the latest, it'll be 80 degrees again. /sigh

Comment from: SFaulken posted at December 26, 2005 11:47 PM

TARGET DISC MODE REPRESENT Y'ALL.

Target Disc Mode is da bomb.
You poor poor non-mac users.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 26, 2005 11:51 PM

Next week, though? It'll actually get icy, and stay cold and wet for the next two months. Two miserable months. And then, we'll have 6 weeks of alternating gorgeous weather and rainfall. Then, by mid-April at the latest, it'll be 80 degrees again. /sigh

I drove home in a whiteout. It made the road frictionless.

I consider this a light winter.

In my hometown, where Weds and I have tentative plans to go visit next week, they're in the midst of a snowstorm. They're expected to get 30 inches tonight.

It will continue to snow tomorrow.

"Cold and wet." Jesu...

Comment from: William_G posted at December 27, 2005 12:45 AM

It'll start warming up around February here. By the end of March the trees will be budding, and April will see a full glorious bloom.

However, the summer will be wet, over 32 degrees every day, and humid like a gym sock.

Ehn, beats snow any day. Filthy white stuff!

Comment from: miyaa posted at December 27, 2005 6:03 AM

Here I am stuck at my parent's house for the holidays barged by my family on why I haven't had a job yet and why haven't I lost any weight and how I'll never amount to anything successful until I lose like 100 pounds to go from 250 to 80 or something like that. They don't care how difficult all of this is and they blame me for their stress because I'm not exactly a model of health (and I'm not as successful as my younger brother). That's pretty much what "Boxing Day" means to me.

Now, having ranted about what being home for the holidays means these days, I'd like to add that my parent's complaints aren't bad. Yes, I need to lose weight, and yes, I need to find a job or something like that. It's just that they don't know any other way of being happy. What they really wanted for Christmas is a brand-new me in the way that they would like to see me (whether they admit it or not, so far they just say it's just "being parents" that make them worry over me so much. They make pessimists seem cheerful.) or whatever they are they misible about. They keep telling me to "grow up" and "be realistic" and I shake my head wondering how simplistic do they think my solutions to my problems are to them?

Sorry about dumping my personal life on to here, but this is one of the very few websites that works for a dial-up connection. I don't think it's even a 28k dial-up modem. I love my parents, really I do. I wish they weren't so perfectionist and critical with me even when I know they are right about what I need to improve on.

Comment from: SFaulken posted at December 27, 2005 6:10 AM

miyaa:

If it makes you feel any better, I catch much the same attitude from my parents, just about different topics (most notably the fact that I'm 30 years old, and still single, but I digress)

Wish I had an easy answer for you, I know I don't deal with it in the best of ways, primarily just avoiding most contact with them......

Comment from: miyaa posted at December 27, 2005 6:23 AM

Way ahead of you on the 30 and still single point. In fact, they've asked many times if I was gay. It's just that I think they see in me the last chance for them to have any grandchildren. My younger brother isn't looking and my sister won't have any children (my sister is so short five year olds are taller than her).

Maybe I should just tell them I like being single and not looking for a girlfriend. Makes me more popular around the ladies that way.

Comment from: SFaulken posted at December 27, 2005 6:59 AM

miyaa:

Heh, well at least I have that on you, my younger brother has already produced offspring, although that doesn't seem to satisfy my mother.....

Comment from: Merus posted at December 27, 2005 7:00 AM

It was 30 degrees today. Celsius. That means it was quite hot.

I got to ride in a helicopter, too. Even better, I got to [i]commute[/i] in a helicopter, which makes one feel like a classy, classy man.

Also, holy crap I completely forgot about the Christmas Doctor Who. Good thing Paul remembered it, good work, Paul.

Comment from: miyaa posted at December 27, 2005 8:06 AM

Christmas Doctor Who? Does that mean Santa Claus is a Timelord? (That would explain a few things.)

Comment from: GregC posted at December 27, 2005 8:53 AM

Four words: Firefly boxed DVD set.
Later, ya'll.

Comment from: Bequita posted at December 27, 2005 8:59 AM

I drove home in a whiteout. It made the road frictionless.

I consider this a light winter.

In my hometown, where Weds and I have tentative plans to go visit next week, they're in the midst of a snowstorm. They're expected to get 30 inches tonight.

It will continue to snow tomorrow.

"Cold and wet." Jesu...

Yes, yes, silly Texans...
I grew up in Missouri, so I'm familiar with the snow and ice. Yes, winters can be much worse than what we get here in Texas. But there is something profoundly misery-inducing in the cold wet stickiness of a Houston winter, something that's missing from a snowy winter. Snow, at least, can be pretty, whereas mud seldom is.

Their silliness is my gain though - I just bought five sweaters (two cashmere!) for the cost of one full price. I won't have to go sweater shopping again for another five years!

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 27, 2005 9:19 AM

You think Texans get bad about that, you should see south Floridians.

My favorite story about this was during my sophmore year in college. I've just finished with my fall semester finals, and I'm going to visit my dad in New Jersey for winter break. But first, I call my mom in Broward County, Florida (between Miami-Dade and West Palm Beach - Ft. Lauderdale is the county seat). This happens around 8:30-9 in the evening.

My mom brings up the topic of weather. She said that I'd actually like the weather at the moment, as it was cold enough that she actually pulled out a sweater. At the time, it was snowing out, and I was wearing short sleeves. My immediate response was, "Mom, you're in South freaking Florida. You don't get cold. You don't even get cool. Go turn on the Weather Channel and tell me what the current temperature is. Not the high; the current."

She does so, and then picks the phone back up. "It's 70 degrees."

My immediate response was a bombastic, "That's not cold! That's room temperature!"

As a coda, I'd like to note that December is just about the coldest time of the year down there - January doesn't get any colder, that's for sure.

Comment from: Wednesday White posted at December 27, 2005 10:40 AM

Adrean:*brain boggles from trying to decipher Wednesday's message*

I think you broke it.

Basic Mac systems maintenance stuff.

I'll post about it later, I think.

Comment from: larksilver posted at December 27, 2005 10:50 AM

I've been in the snow, when I lived in North Carolina. It's gorgeous, for a while, at least. Still, I wouldn't want to drive in it. No, wait: I wouldn't drive in it, unless it were life-threatening. I'm too chicken for that.

The cold and wet down here, while not so severe, certainly, as the yick you've got up there in the Northern States, is somehow just plain depressing. For one thing, snow gives back the radiant light in a way that rain doesn't, making the difference between that magical holiday glow and a dark, gloomy drizzle.

For another, while trudging through snow is a wet experience, there's nothing quite as much of a shock as stepping off your bus into water up to your knee. Icy cold water, mind you. And you're talking about people for whom 70 is "cool," and 100 degrees is "a warm summer day."

And since, of course, this is Texas and winter is officially "over" in December, it's impossible to find good gear in January, when you actually need it. Or space heaters, or electric blankets. By the end of January, though, the early swimsuits start showing up.

One thing seems certain to me: seems that we all agree that, for the most part, no matter where you live, winter sucks. Can we all get behind that?

Comment from: larksilver posted at December 27, 2005 10:57 AM

Oh - and as for parents?

I already did the grandbaby thing. My mother seemingly cannot decide which way to nag me; either "now you guys need to be careful, you don't have the income for another baby right now" or "I sure would like it if you could make a blue-eyed baby girl ... you're my last hope." Apparently, a blue-eyed grandson wasn't on her wish list, although she clearly adores the little shit. oy.

She gave me vitamins, and a weight loss book for Christmas. She, who is about 50 pounds heavier than I. arrrrrrrgh.

I feel your pain.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 27, 2005 11:07 AM

Given the way my mom nags me about producing grandchildren (when she lives over 2000 miles away, and she already has one who lives in the same state as she does), I'm actually pondering not telling my mom about when I do finally have a child for as long as I can. Or I could always start with vasectomy jokes and see whether she or I gets uncomfortable first.

Comment from: Adrean posted at December 27, 2005 11:15 AM

Wednesday -- ohh yes. I have three macs here. But I still don't get it. *knucklehead me* :D

larksilver -- I grew up in the Piedmont Triad. That icy white stuff isn't snow, it doesn't even show up on a regular basis. We had to move to Minnesota to get the real thing. :)

Can't help it, I like snow. It's beautiful. Give me warm clothes and I'll be out there...

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at December 27, 2005 11:45 AM

Can't help it, I like snow. It's beautiful. Give me warm clothes and I'll be out there...

Oh, no, snow is beautiful only if you don't have to go out in it.

Comment from: William_G posted at December 27, 2005 12:31 PM

or shovel it

Comment from: kirabug posted at December 27, 2005 12:33 PM

On parents, well, I've started nagging back.

"When are you going to get that free hearing aid the government's giving you? When the neighbors are singing along with the radio?"

On snow:
We had a white Thanksgiving here in Philly - a rare event - and a rainy Christmas (much more normal). Soon we should hit the snow cycle, where it snows every seven days and melts off in between, and except for the odd January week in the 80s it'll stay like that until early March. Then we'll warm up into the rainy season until the massive Nor'Easter blizzard in late March or early April and then we'll be done.

Comment from: Kirath posted at December 27, 2005 4:19 PM

I spent most of my childhood and all of hisgh school on the Texas (And for a while Mississippi( gulf coast. I was considered something of a freak because I would wear short sleeves and shorts in 50 degree weather when everyone else was bundled into snow parkas and heavy winter gear.

Late last year I moved to Manchester, NH, and discovered many of the joys of winter. Whiteout driving? NOT FUN. Give me a severe thunderstorm to drive in any day.

It amuses me that the year I moved north, it snowed in Galveston, Texas... six inches of snow, I was told, and the entire island shut down and a state of emergency was declared. I remind you that this was the first time it had snowed there in FIFTEEN YEARS. (Maybe sixteen, my memory of the last time it had snowed is kind of fuzzy. I think I was eleven or twelve, and we got just enough snow to turn the ground white.)

People joke about Winter on the coast being about two weeks long in December or January.. then they realize it's true.

Comment from: larksilver posted at December 27, 2005 5:04 PM

'tis funny, actually (to me, anyway): my mother bought her property in Arkansas when I was sixteen, and announced that we as a family would move up there as soon as the house was built. "No way," sez I. "I'm not moving anywhere with snow more than once every decade or so."

"Oh, it never snows up there, the natives say." Sure enough, it snowed 4 times that winter. And twice the next. All of them during our trips up to work on the house.

Then, when I was planning my move to North Carolina, they said "but what about snow? You hate cold weather."

"oh, no worries," I said, blithely in denial. "They tell me it seldom snows there." Sure enough, it snowed three times the first freakin' year. Not to mention the ice storms that knocked power out for 100,000 people in a couple of counties for a week or more (except for my block, strangely enough. Thank Providence for that).

"Real snow?" You can keep it. It's only pretty in pictures, or when you have a warm dry place to watch it from. My parents have a picture of me at 2-ish, the last time Houston got enough snow to stick for more than 10 minutes. I was all bundled up, and standing in the snow, with a snowball in my hand, bawling. I hate the cold. yuuuuck.

They tell me that in about 6-10 years I should start having these hot flash things. Maybe then winter will be bearable. I doubt it. Knowing my luck, I'll be like my Aunt Margie and have cold flashes instead.

Comment from: Aerin posted at December 27, 2005 5:29 PM

We're getting July weather here, I don't understand it. It's overcast, grey, and crappy in the morning, then it burns off by about noon and gets really hot. The only difference is that it's colder at night than it usually is in the summer. God bless Southern California.

As for the family thing, I was thisclose to a nervous breakdown last winter, between the schizophrenic fragmented Christmas and the poisonous lack of things to do, which is why I stayed out here and worked over the holiday break. I do get snow, though: the past four nights, I've been out in the middle of Main Street, USA during the post-fireworks snow, trying not to get crushed and preparing to bellow "STAY TO YOUR RIGHT" at the top of my lungs as soon as it's over. Though last night, I inhaled some snow right at the beginning and spent the entire time hacking and gagging. The best thing about our "magic" snow, though? No cleanup, since it disappears as soon as it hits the ground.

I always thought it was called Boxing Day because that was when you boxed up all the gifts you'd gotten the day before, but I guess I was wrong about that.

Comment from: Bequita posted at December 27, 2005 5:44 PM

"Real snow?" You can keep it. It's only pretty in pictures, or when you have a warm dry place to watch it from. My parents have a picture of me at 2-ish, the last time Houston got enough snow to stick for more than 10 minutes. I was all bundled up, and standing in the snow, with a snowball in my hand, bawling. I hate the cold. yuuuuck.

Aww, come on, Lark, we got snow in Houston last year on Christmas Eve. Almost an inch of snow, actually, it was lovely.

Comment from: Adrean posted at December 27, 2005 5:54 PM

Wednesday: Never mind. The answer finally came to me about 12 hours later ... Do I need to turn in my machead membership card now?

To all: Living half the winter in teens and below zero temperature is much worse than the snow. At least it's warmer when it snows. :)

Comment from: Doug posted at December 27, 2005 7:57 PM

Snow. A bit of topic drift.

As most people that live in areas that regularly get snow (Northeast coast, for me), I went from a kid loving the white stuff to an adult that dreaded and loathed it, with some in-between time spent learning that shovelling snow is perhaps one of the more futile tasks ever invented (you know it's going to melt eventually anyway).

I think the main difference is in snow days. As a kid, it means you get out of school and got to play. As an adult, it means your paycheck is going to be light and you would be shovelling the damned stuff or you'd be shovelling the damned stuff anyway and then commuting to work through it.

Some years back, in the middle of that year's January, I flew out of New York's Kennedy Airport. It was 20 F at midday, and under a foot-plus of snow. I arrived some time later in Los Angeles where it was 72 F in the early evening, with not a speck of snow in sight. I discovered the folks in SoCal know how to handle snow in the best fashion I can think of. They keep it atop distant mountains, looking scenic and pretty, and far away from my driveway.

I've never looked back.

Comment from: quiller posted at December 27, 2005 9:13 PM

Well for boxing day I finally made good on my original intention for the holiday season and gave a donation to 4 of my favorite webcomics, and bought books from 3 others (one of which was buying the 3 Girl Genius collections I hadn't yet gotten). So actually, I spent more money on webcomics than my family this Christmas, but if I'm buying it with Xmas money I can consider the books at least their gifts to me. Sadly for me, many of the books I wanted to get, like Dungeon Crawling Fools, were out of stock, but I suppose that means the webcomics did good, so that's all for the best.

Comment from: SFaulken posted at December 27, 2005 9:13 PM

Well, on the hot topic of Snow.....

I grew up in a part of Montana that *averages* like 160 inches of snowfall a year.

I love the stuff, the more the better. I have three pairs of skiis, two snowboards, a set of snowshoes, a snowmobile, *and* winter camping gear.

Hell, I'd be in hog heaven if I could find a place where there was good snow 9 months a year.

Summer? meh. y'all can keep it.

Comment from: miyaa posted at December 27, 2005 11:13 PM

Ah, snow...

The best kinds of snows are the lake-effect snows. What is lake-effect snow? It's when wind blows over a large body of water. Since in most cases, water retains heat a lot better than air, the air will be colder than the water. The air mixes with the surface of the water, and the difference in temperatures and moisture content produces a very heavy amounts of light, puffy snow. 10 - 20 inches of the stuff per episode.

I absolutely hate snow, personally. It's just a reminder that it's really cold outside, and I hate cold weather.

As an interesting aside, global warming theory has this interesting paradox: if the temperature of the Earth is increasing, you'll end up with more of a bipolar weather: more intense summers, and longer and colder winters with more rain and snow in both seasons. But, if somehow the temperature is decreasing on average, this might be a sign for a return of the ice age. (As Weebl would say, "Damn you wee mammoth!")

Comment from: larksilver posted at December 28, 2005 12:57 PM

Bequita: Sorry, I missed last Christmas Eve. I was with family in Louisiana, and had forgotten (if I ever heard of it) that Houston got snow.

From what I understand, areas that don't snow all the time tend to be more adversely affected than areas that get many feet per year. For one thing, Houstonians don't exactly keep snow tires in their garages, or have a neighborhood snow plow.

Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at December 28, 2005 6:39 PM

From what I understand, areas that don't snow all the time tend to be more adversely affected than areas that get many feet per year.

One of the reasons we moved from Chicago to Louisville in 1992 was my wife's aversion to snow. In January 1993 there was a blizzard in Louisville. Seventeen or eighteen inches. The town shut down for almost a week and I was frozen out of my car till I broke in. I will say this, I believe in safety glass. I hit it with a hammer one or two dozen times before it broke, and then I walked around with a shard in my shoe for a day without noticing. But right across the river in Indiana they had the streets clear in a day ... because Indiana has snowplows.

Comment from: larksilver posted at December 29, 2005 1:41 AM

Exactly!

Whereas Houstonians, we know from flooding. And hurricanes. Gal from Indiana in my office experienced her first hurricane evacuation this fall, and was terrified, and somewhat appalled at my rather blase' attitude.

Same gal has of late been sporting these cute little suede boots. She takes the Monorail to work every day; I don't think those boots will make the winter. One rainy morning in the Downtown streets, and the right puddle at the wrong time, and that'll be all she wrote. She thinks I'm crazy when I suggest something more in a galosh for to/from work. "But my feet will be cold!" heh.

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