Happy Halloween

[drohem]

Unfortunately, in this Age of Consumerism every holiday is now commericalized to the point that the actual celebration is lost in spending. It used to be that stores didn't start their Christmas sales until after Thanksgiving, but now I see Christmas stuff out around Halloween. It's getting absoulely absurd. Don't even get me started on 'holidays' that are just blatently commerical ventures such as Valentine's Day.

[Darran]

Originally Posted by drohem

Unfortunately, in this Age of Consumerism every holiday is now commericalized to the point that the actual celebration is lost in spending. It used to be that stores didn't start their Christmas sales until after Thanksgiving, but now I see Christmas stuff out around Halloween. It's getting absoulely absurd. Don't even get me started on 'holidays' that are just blatently commerical ventures such as Valentine's Day.

In the UK 'Holidays' normally mean the trip aboard or the week away at a retreat or holiday home. Like summer holidays or winter holidays.
I think the yanks call them vacations?

The special events like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc are just called special events.


True about the hyper-commericalised nature of those events though.
On Christmas Eve at about noon the Xmas Decorations will be taken down in all the supermarkets and Easter Eggs will be advertised.

[Chaot]

Thanks all for the well wishes! Sorry to threadjack.

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

If it's any consolation, one of my best friends has a Halloween birthday and he says it sucked. Birthday parties always conflicted with Halloween parties.

True, and I'm amazed at how many people on this board either have or know people with birthdays on a major holiday.

My family has a tendency to celebrate birthdays when it's most convenient, not necessarily on the day. We're like the weather forecast, as long as we're in the general vicinity, it's good enough.

That being said, Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I would have gone out of my way to make it special for the little tike.

Aidan was born on All Hallows. I'm hoping it's a ticket into the afterlife, 'cause I know I'm not making it there by myself!

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

Hope you're feeling better... the first days after a birth are no time to be at anything less than 100%.

Thanks. I actually spoke with the nurses on the nursery floor and got some surgical masks to wear around the hall, and scrubbed my hands and face at every opportunity. I felt incredibly guilty walking around as a plague carrier.

Four days later and I just have a residual cough. My dear wife has been incredibly understanding.

Originally Posted by Rurik

How do you know he bounces? I hope the doctor didn't drop him!

They don't call me butterfingers for nothin'.

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Strangely enough, I'm probably one of a handful of people baptized on Halloween.

Good way to keep the demons out... or in... or something...

Originally Posted by Lord Twig

I mean Valentines Day can't just be all about her, it's my Birthday after all!

*shakes head* You walk a very thin line, my friend

Originally Posted by Triff

Just as well you didn't. Maybe he would grow up to be a d20 player or something equally spooky!

Stop it, you're going to give me nightmares!

Speaking of which, I've had two kids now, and plan on eight more, all to fill the ranks of the BRP multitude. Devotion to the cause, my friends, devotion to the cause.

Originally Posted by drohem

Unfortunately, in this Age of Consumerism every holiday is now commericalized to the point that the actual celebration is lost in spending.

In other news, water is wet.

To let you know where I'm coming from, I'm thinking we're all just random couplings of DNA (I had actually typed recombinant, which could be spooky). I celebrate holidays to enjoy interacting with friends. It's a social thing. Along the way we buy things. I'm not concerned about the holiday being commercialized so much as I'm upset that a lot of these manufacturer's don't pay a living wage.

*/rant*

By the way, I had a few kids say that my house was the scariest they had been to. And, even though I was sick as a dog, I'm never going to forget the fun that my daughter had walking down the street for the first halloween she could participate in!

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Chaot

Thanks all for the well wishes! Sorry to threadjack.


...and I'm amazed at how many people on this board either have or know people with birthdays on a major holiday.

Atthe risk of "unamazing" you, that is actually do to the laws of probability, and is a variation of what is know at the "Birthday Proposition" (no, I don't mean that you'll probably get propositioned on your birthday). The idea is that in a room of about two dozen people or more, two or more people will probably have the same birthday! While it seems a low probability (24 chances out of 365 days), in actuality the odds are around 50\50 because each person has 23+ other people to match up with, and each person who doesn't match up eliminates one day from the year, increasing the odds of a match for the rest.

In this case, we have several days for matchups (the major holidays), along with the total membership of this site, and everyone that those people who'se Birthdays they can recall. Mathematically speaking, it would be more amazing if we didn't have a lot of people who knew someone with a birthday on a major holiday.

Well, there goes the magic.

[Rurik]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Atthe risk of "unamazing" you, that is actually do to the laws of probability, and is a variation of what is know at the "Birthday Proposition" (no, I don't mean that you'll probably get propositioned on your birthday). The idea is that in a room of about two dozen people or more, two or more people will probably have the same birthday! While it seems a low probability (24 chances out of 365 days), in actuality the odds are around 50\50 because each person has 23+ other people to match up with, and each person who doesn't match up eliminates one day from the year, increasing the odds of a match for the rest.

In this case, we have several days for matchups (the major holidays), along with the total membership of this site, and everyone that those people who'se Birthdays they can recall. Mathematically speaking, it would be more amazing if we didn't have a lot of people who knew someone with a birthday on a major holiday.

Well, there goes the magic.

Spoil Sport.

(we need a proper rasberry Triff!)

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Rurik

Spoil Sport.

(we need a proper rasberry Triff!)

Well, it is the sort of thing that is important to casinos, engineers designing multi-stage rockets, and gamers.


It's why those "really small" percentages end up not being so small.

[Sorloc]

No, I didn't dress up this year.
It's too much work and effort - maybe when the kids both get big enough to do most of their dressing up by themselves...

Alex wanted to be a zombie. He had been trying on the scariest masks he could find. Grandparents (bless their hearts) were dead set on him being Jack Sparrow (like half or more of the other kids). We had already bought blood and face makeup, so we compromised - he would be a zombie pirate.
We had a t-shirt we were going to cut and put bloody bullet holes in, but lo and behold, the fake shirt that came with the jacket costume was a fake, and only sewn in to the front. It couldn't be taken off.
I didn't look at the grandparents as Bethany (my wife) said, "Cut It." I didn't look as I cut, but I wish I had a recording. She said her stepfather had a look on his face as if I was cutting HIM. Fake blood went in and on and around. Grandparents were mortified.
I wasn't sure the night could get any better.

Thing is, they bought a pirate costume for the boy who didn't want to be a pirate, while the other one did! Joseph made their grandparently hearts warm with his straight-as-Errol-Flynn pirate.

[Atgxtg]

Sorloc,

Good for you!

I'm glad that you let the kid dress up the way he wanted to, rather than force him to do something he didn't want to in order to please the grandparents.

The whole point of playing dressup is to be what you want to be, not what other want you to be (he will probably get enough of that if life without ruining Halloween). If he wants to be a zombie, he should be a zombie. He7ll only get a handful of chances to do stuff like that.

Way to go!!!

[Sorloc]

I couldn't have done it without the support of my darling wife.

Of course, it's true also that without my darling wife, there wouldn't be in-laws to try to inflict Disney on my children, but that's beside the point.

She took the stand, and said, "Cut It." Nice and loud, too.

I love her...