Home Archive by category "holidays"

Category: holidays

Parked In: A Yom Kippur Story

, , 5

I wrote this way back in October, but never got around to polishing it and posting it until now. Finally I found time and motivation to post! I hope you all enjoy this story; even now, I am still uncovering all its hidden meanings. This year’s Yom Kippur was interesting.  After school, I went straight to dinner, and then to services.  Specifically, we (my mother and I) were interested in Kol Nidre, a beautiful piece of music that is part of the evening service erev Yom Kippur. The service started at 16:45, and I had what was basically a tech…

Read more

Technobabbles Strips for a Day

, , , 0

You might notice something different about this site for the next 24 hours or so if you’re a regular reader. The page looks different, doesn’t it? I’ll explain why right now. See, I have a feed subscription to someone named Dustin Diaz, who runs his own blog. He started CSS Naked Day in 2006, and had another one last year with over 1,600 participants. This year, April 9th is the date, and I’m participating as well. CSS Naked Day shows off how much CSS has changed Web design. Sites that use standards-compliant and semantic markup will be perfectly functional without…

Read more

My Take on April Fools’ Day

, , , 3

So the last couple days have been full of lots of jokes and pranks, at least in the technology world. Google pulled several, including , and a slew of other sites posted their own jokes. Notice that I didn’t pull any pranks of my own. The reasoning for that is twofold. First, I didn’t really have any good ideas. Second, the whole boatload of other pranks out there requires that some bloggers stick to their usual routine. You see, I view April Fools’ Day as just another day. There is a bit of annoyance when people make jokes that aren’t…

Read more

Holiday Gift Cards

, , 0

OK it’s the end of the year when all good friends need to use up previous gift cards before they expire. Huh! What a joke. What a scam. Your friends pay good money to buy you a nice gift, say $100, from somewhere that they think you’ll enjoy the merchandise. You take your time to think carefully about how or when to spend it. Finally you have it. But alas, the fine print on the reverse of the card says it’s only good for one year. Last Christmas to this Christmas. Oops! Minus one gift from last year. The merchant…

Read more

Amusing Holiday Greeting

, 1

Steve Bass published an interesting, amusing holiday greeting in his latest column, sent in by a reader: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition…

Read more

Whole Foods Makes Amazing Decision

, , 0

Well, it wasn’t the whole chain, just one store, but it really makes one wonder what the world would be like if all companies (hey, just start with the airlines) had the same attitude. West Hartford, CT: A Whole Foods Market store’s computers go down during a systems upgrade. Rather than make customers wait until they’re fixed, everyone going through the checkout lines gets their groceries for free. An estimated $4,000 worth of merchandise was given away before the glitch was repaired. You can read more of the story at Courant.com (though it does have a small, completely-unrelated section at…

Read more

Macy’s Parade: Entertainment or Disguised Advertising?

, , 1

I’m not going to write on this (I have other things that need doing), but I do want to point out a few things I noticed about the Macy’s Parade yesterday morning. First off, did anyone else notice that, at least on NBC, the commercials were synchronized with the balloons and floats that were going by? I mean! Examples: the Barbie float went by, with the singer happily (?) belting out a song from the new Barbie movie, and then the next commercial break, we get treated to a promotional ad for the DVD and Blu-ray release. The Snoopy balloon…

Read more

And So It Begins… Thoughts on "The Holidays"

, , 1

Once again, the day of first snowfall has beset this Northern state. Outside my window, I can see flakes falling and beginning to cover the grass outside. It’s the time of year for the Macy’s Parade; the time for Christmas carols; and the time of ringing bells outside department stores. It’s the holiday season. The most wonderful time of the year. Aw, who am I kidding? I’m not that sappy. Strike all that text up there; it’s not me. The holiday season is not the “most wonderful time of the year” to me. There’s so much marketing, commercialization, and downright…

Read more

Hallowe’en Bah Humbug

, , 0

Hallowe’en (yes, it has an apostrophe; get over it) is one of my least favorite holidays. Personally, I find it serves no real purpose other than to sell costumes, candy, and (sometimes) cards. Oh, and don’t forget all the decorations. I’m glad to see Blogger hasn’t modified their logo in any way for Hallowe’en, though the Google search engine, Technorati, and FriendFeed (to name a few; the last one’s a private beta right now) all have Hallowe’en-themed modifications in place right now, to my dismay. So what’s the big deal with this Hallowe’en holiday, anyway? Where did it come from,…

Read more