Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@FullbringIchigo Thank you. It will not be forgotten (until tomorrow)

@Cpt_Price If it's something against the rules well then, you will get your answer. And I don't think you would be happy with the results.

Hate working weekends =| .
On my way home. Might get a Pizza on the way, then kick back & watch the X Factor final + I'm a Celebrity... .
Going to get the Switch out for some Zelda fun.

Who you got @themcnoisy ?
Kevin FTW!

@Tasuki @Cpt_Price

@Fight_Teza_Fight haha only just in from work, its Rak Su FTW!

Sometimes comes to mind round here

Jobsworth
noun
BRITISH informal
An official who upholds petty rules even at the expense of humanity or common sense.

@Cpt_Price I also said to keep the rules in mind and not to discuss anything against the rules. And just because you have been here 3 years doesn't meant you get some kind of special privilege.

so somehow a chit chat thread got off topic so lets try and get it back under control before it goes of the rails completely

so anyone started putting up their Christmas decorations yet as for me i normally put them up the week before xmas week, working in retail you tend to be inundated with xmas stuff for ages so i like to keep my home a little more none christmasy for a while, if that makes sense

@FullbringIchigo Did the Christmas decorations with my daughters and wife yesterday. I used to love Christmas but since having kids and work ramping up every December I have started to dread it. However, I managed to slap a smile on and it is fun seeing Christmas through their eyes rather than that of someone who wants to throttle Mariah Carey for that song.

Also, note to self, the kids are old enough to understand the lyrics to Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo song from South Park so that had to come off the playlist this year!!

@FullbringIchigo I used to work in the media as a graphic designer for newspapers. We started our Christmas in July as we had to put out ads to encourage businesses to consider placing their Christmas ads with us. From September onwards, we often had a number of businesses wanting some 'Christmas' based ads - mostly it was booking your Christmas Party venue or Christmas meals. It started with the Kids going back to school. It wasn't prolific but there was still a few a week but by mid October/early November, Christmas was the theme for most adverts.

In recent years, Christmas Ads on TV seem to be arriving later in the year. Halloween seems to have grown too in recent years so we see more Halloween ads. The barrage of Christmas Ads have been replaced by Halloween ads instead. When I was growing up and well into adulthood, it seemed that Christmas ads were prolific long before Halloween - mostly Kids toys. I am sure that the rules changed and Christmas ads have been pushed back and kids toy adverts are not so prolific now - at least not as early as September.

I lost interest in Christmas years ago and a lot of that had to do with working in the newspaper trade. My Birthday is in October and I remember being fed up with Christmas before my Birthday - having to draw Christmas trees, puddings, crackers etc and snowmen in a 'festive' scene for Christmas adverts, designing our Christmas title (usually just the name of the papers we published with 'snow' settled on the letters with Christmas items incorporated and/or festive scene behind the letters), designing advertising 'spreads' with 'holes' to drop ads into - this had to be designed in August/September for our sales reps to show Advertisers and sell those spaces - these would run in all our publications from late October up until Christmas etc etc. So by the time my Birthday arrived, I had already been designing and working on Christmas related stuff for months. No wonder I was fed up with it.

Now, I don't bother at all with Christmas. I don't have any decorations to put up, no more tree lights to untangle and find/buy spare bulbs, etc. Obviously I do have presents to buy for the kids (not that they are kids anymore) but that's all I will bother with. I usually have a bar of chocolate a day so no point buying an overpriced (for the amount of Chocolate you get) Advent calendar. This year, I have already had my Christmas present from myself - its also a late Birthday present too (Project Scorpio). The best thing about Christmas in my opinion is Mince Pies and Brandy Butter/cream!!

Christmas is awesome, because (most) people go into holiday mode and work slows down and I can relax a bit and people tend to be a bit more respectful of your availability through the Christmas/New Year period. It's about the only time of year I feel I can properly switch off and chill out. I'll be blowing a hundred quid or so in M&S on crazy beers, weird festive spreads and posh crisps on the 20th then attaching myself to the sofa for as long as possible.

@KratosMD Thats such a good idea I might just do that myself! I usually make a playlist of the cheesy xmas songs cos I'm a sucker for them It's weird, I've seen so much written here about advent calender's but in Ireland, there really not that big of a thing as far as I know. As for decorations, it's strictly the 8th of December in my house

@kyleforrester87 Fully agree both with the switching off period and with the M&S/Couch plan, roll on three weeks!

@Hego yeah boi - some sloe gin is gunna be on the menu for sure!

@KratosMD Good thinking, I'll also be stealing that idea. Nothing says Christmas like the Christmas NiGHTS soundtrack

@KratosMD Trails Club Represent! Cheers for sharing I'll definitely check it out If I remember correctly, Dark Souls/Bloodbourne have some good winter themed tracks, a bit dark but cool nonetheless @kyleforrester87 I'm more of a cider/whiskey man myself, give me some cold Orchard Thieves cider followed by a Jameson and Ginger Ale and I'm a happy man

I haven't put up Christmas decorations in years, mainly cause I just don't have the time. My idea of decorating for Christmas is getting a small tree for my table and putting a few decorations on it. I can't really get a regular size Christmas tree because my cats will try to climb it and as a result tip the dang thing over.

Stones Ginger Wine and The Pogues for me.

So I decide to do a playthrough of Chrono Trigger last night, it's amazing how well this game holds up still.

@Tasuki yeah it's a brilliant game, one of Squares best i think although being a UK resident we didn't get it until the DS port was released but even so it's brilliant and really does stand up to the test of time (pun intended)