The War on Christmas

... is being won via porn.

I read an article the other day that made the argument that Christmas gifts should be limited to those 12 and under. I'd say maybe 18 and under, but the point was valid. Everyone seems to find it a hassle to go and spend money and time on something we already know the other party really doesn't want. Exchanging cash isn't a great idea either. Better to tell each other to save the money and go buy something for themselves instead.

The other side is that there is some emotional attachment with going through the entire process. It seems to validate relationships I guess.

John and I, with the exception of Christmas eve at his dad's house, are skipping Christmas this year. Neither one of us are really up to it. Hopefully next year we'll be in a better situation.

/update

Matt Yglesias makes a good point;

The problem with presents is that you’re never going to do a better job of satisfying the gift-recipient’s preferences than she could do herself. But preference sets aren’t fixed. If someone had handed me $10, I never would have spent it buying the Cults album, for the simple reason that I hadn’t heard of the band. When it was given to me, I immediately checked it out and loved it. When you step outside the circle of things you know for sure your gift-getter likes, you risk creating a massive deadweight loss. (You give her a ticket to Las Vegas, without knowing that she hates gambling.) But with the greater risk comes a greater potential reward. You may introduce the recipient to something marvelous she would otherwise have never encountered.

I've used the TDA forums (for those that know what that is) to find things worth having that I wouldn't have found on my own. It's just getting slower and slower there. I'm a terrible facebooker, and I don't think I have any gamers on my friends list anyway, so it's not that helpful.

My guess is that as people get older, they have fewer friends, and thus less exposure to current culture. One of our goals when we both get healthy again is to socialize more. I haven't even been to a gay bar since.. um.. 2009 or something like that I think.

By the way.. every hetero should have a gay friend and go to a gay bar on occasion. They're a lot of fun. I took my nephew to one when I lived in Phoenix, and it was great.. particularly because he had such a great sense of humor. He was a bit upset that he wasn't getting hit on though.

/update 2

Riley hates it when Chaquitas Maximus vacuums the house. He's under my desk, between my feet. Not the bravest dog in the world, but certainly the sweetest.

The letting his hair grow out thing isn't going all that well. With a traditional Wheaten groom, you hardly see their eyes at all. The cut has very short hair on the top of his head but the long tuft of hair coming from just above his eye brows hanging over his eyes and snout. It's called a "fall"... I guess because it falls over his face.

He used to have longer hair at the top of his head, and shorter around his face so his eyes were very visible. I don't think we have any pictures of how it looks now.. so I'll take some and post the old versus new style. The fall hasn't completely grown out yet though. I don't think the groomer knows how to style it properly even after giving her a picture of another dog with the traditional cut.

I should learn to speak Spanish..