Tag: Christmas

a chocolate countdown

Did you survive the shopping madness that is Black Friday? I did, so you get more ramblings. Speaking of that, since large TVs are rather affordable now, I was hoping for some great deals on groceries instead, but didn’t find anything really discounted. (I suppose that means I’m officially an adult now, if I’m thinking more about grocery prices than getting a bigger TV on Black Friday.)

Now we’re into the busiest time of the year, but I’ll still make time to share some funny pictures related to Christmas.

I see these every year for Advent / Christmas, but a chocolate-a-day countdown seems like it would be good for a number of other events. What do you think?

Is this a fail? Or genius? Or some points for making a good attempt? Some might say it’s tacky, but is it still better than no car decoration?
This was also listed as a Christmas decorating fail. Granted, monkey flinging poop isn’t exactly holiday-themed, but it is funny.
Again, this was listed as a fail. It’s not Christmas, but it’s neat. If there was a “Star Trek Saves Christmas” episode, it probably did fail by being really cheesy. Seems like a lot of older shows had episodes like that.
It’s log!!!

For the log reference:

Bonus reference: When Phineas and Ferb became toy designers, they created Perry The Inaction Figure, which doesn’t do much. That’s the genius of it, because it can be anything to a kid with an imagination. (Think of how a box of random Lego blocks can be anything, but now so many Legos are kits. You can still build other things with a kit, but people are more likely to build what is on the box. Likewise with other toys — a generic action figure can be anything. But I digress…) After their day of being toy designers, they moved on. The Har D Har Toy Company tried to design another product with a similar ethos, coming up with Brick, which reminded me of Log.

What is figgy pudding?

There are quite a few Christmas carols with unusual lyrics, which many people seem to ignore because it’s tradition to sing them. One of them is “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”, where in later verses, singers demand hearers to “bring me some figgy pudding” and then exclaim, “We won’t go until we get some”. I’m not sure how I’d react to carolers on my front porch demanding me to feed them some obscure food. (I recommend watching the Phineas & Ferb Christmas special, where the wanna-be evil scientist Heinz Doofenshmirtz finds himself in that exact situation. It’s funny.)

I can’t recall ever eating figgy pudding, nor do I know much about it, so I looked it up. There’s more to the story than you probably care about, so here’s a summary:

1) It’s not pudding, and it may not even include figs.
2) Sometimes it includes meat. Or a hard animal fat called suet.
3) Sometimes it is served ON FIRE!
4) It has more in common with a fruitcake than pudding.
5) One historic recipe used 13 ingredients to represent Jesus Christ and the 12 disciples. It included a sprig of holly on top to symbolize the crown of thorns.
6) When people sang that they wanted some and wouldn’t leave, it was likely poor people having fun at the doorsteps of the wealthy. Sometimes wealthy families did hand out money or treats to carolers (although demanding it still seems weird).
7) It sometimes contains alcohol, and can remain edible for a year without refrigeration.
8) It was mentioned in the 1843 book “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens: “Mrs. Cratchit entered — flushed, but smiling proudly — with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quarter of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.” (Do any of the movies show this scene with it on fire?)
9) Ingredients can include figs, plums, raisins, currants, oranges, cherries, cranberries, citrus zest and juice, along with notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice.
10) It dates back to the 14th century. Initially it was a meal of subsistence, not a dessert. It was made of meat, root vegetables, and dried fruit, stuffed into a sheep stomach and boiled for hours if not days. So basically a pottage, but boiled until firm. It was held together by the flour and dried fruit.

The recipe has changed a lot over the years. Initially it was made with whatever ingredients you had available (which was much less then).

So when you sing, “Bring me some figgy pudding… we won’t go until we get some”, now you know. Personally, I’ll pass. Maybe we need a modernized version of that verse… A modern take could be hot chocolate. If carolers are going to demand some food or beverage in exchange for singing carols outside someone’s house in the cold, hot chocolate makes sense.

decorative Wi-Fi access points

I have a business idea that someone needs to run with. This is not one that I plan to pursue, because my plate is full (running over, even), so I’m putting it out here for someone to take. Please do, because I would buy this.

Most houses have Wi-Fi now, and to get good coverage throughout the house you often need either an extender or a mesh network. (I just switched mine to an Amazon Eero mesh network.) The “problem” with all the solutions I’ve seen is that the hardware devices don’t look interesting. They’re plain and utilitarian. That’s not bad, per se, but it could be much better. I don’t care to see them around the house, although it’s not that big a deal to me. However, I’m married, so the WAF does need to be considered. (WAF = Wife Approval Factor.) My wife cares about the house being “presentable” and decorated. (Granted, I do too, but she does even more, so I often defer to her preferences, which seems to be common among men.)

So here’s the idea that improves the situation. Make Wi-Fi hardware points where you can snap decorative outer shells on them, which feature a pleasing design. By doing this, you can cater to multiple markets with the same base product. Here’s some ideas to help get you started:

  • fake plants — This may have the highest general WAF, so it definitely should be an option.
  • book-related — There are a lot of people who enjoy reading, or at least want to enjoy it if they had more free time. This could be a bookshelf insert like the one pictured, which is a street from the Harry Potter universe. You could also make bookends like the Argonath statues that came with the first deluxe DVD set of The Lord of the Rings. (I want that one, and my wife would probably tolerate it outside my home office.) Another idea is the Dr. Who TARDIS phonebooth.
  • movie-related — There are many options here, from figures to vehicles to buildings to logos. Of course there would be licensing to deal with, but a well-made Batman figure and/or the Batmobile would be worth it. Transformers figures (G1 style, preferably) would be awesome, too. (The WAF score sinks considerably with this one, but there’s a large audience of single guys who can decorate how they want. And Transformers figures definitely counted as decoration when I lived in the bachelor pad with college roommates.)
  • decorative frames with pithy inspiring quotes — People already buy this kind of thing. You could make it a frame with changeable inserts, so you could sell packs of more quotes. You might could even include a cheap subscription with new inserts arriving each month that match the season.
  • holiday decorations — You know if there was a way to make your Wi-Fi point look like a Christmas tree or an ornament instead of a chunk of boring plastic, people would buy this. These would sell like hotcakes during the Christmas shopping season (which gets longer every year). These could also have lights on them, since you already have power there.

I could go on, but you get the idea. There are MANY possibilities here for selling more, because if they all fit the same base units, people could buy multiple decorative pieces to change it out throughout the year. And when a new version of Wi-Fi comes out, make the base unit into the same shape so customers can use their current extensions. This encourages brand loyalty.

Hopefully this goes without saying, but make the actual hardware be quality. People will be paying more for this, so there will be expectations that it works well. If it looks impressive and works better than average, people will talk about it, which is free advertising.

To any entrepreneur willing to jump on this, the idea is free. If you’d be willing to send me a copy for review, I’d be glad to check it out. Have your people contact my people.

enjoying holiday feasts

We’re in the holiday season now, with Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching. And typically there are family reunions and parties during this time where people eat a lot of food. And there will undoubtedly be “news” reporting linking this with obesity. So let me say this again: holiday meals don’t cause obesity.

While this blog has a lot of randomness and made-up content, that is absolutely true and supported by research. Follow the link to read more and find my source.

The TL;DR version: The average weight gain for the entire holiday season is just 0.8 pounds. Less than one pound! So while at these feasts of celebration and fellowship, enjoy the food. During that meal, don’t worry about calories and fat grams — just enjoy the time. Resume your healthy eating at other meals.

Perhaps I should add a disclaimer that I’m not a doctor nor a dietician. Although I do know a lot about eating… 🙂 I also try to eat healthy and responsibly most of the time. It just irks me when “news” people try to make people feel so bad they can’t enjoy a celebratory feast with family and friends.