West Coast Seasons Greetings

Greetings Hammer bloggers! This is the first of a few blogposts from the province of British Columbia. Yep, that's right, I'm on the western coast of Canada. And although that makes absolutely no difference in my blog posting, I'm still attempting to make a big deal out of it.

Anyway, since we're midway through December and just about a week from the big day, I figure I'd make an effort to talk about certain "annoyances" of the holiday season. And yes, I will finish up what I had intended to write about in my previous post.

HOLIDAY HELL
Believe it or not, it's surprisingly difficult to write something sentimental and also unique in a christmas card.

I mean if you think about it, you always have to say, "Merry Christmas" in there somewhere. And not many other things other than those two words, quickly followed by "Happy New Year" can go in place of them. I my question I'm attempting to pose is: Do people even really read what or are even conscious about what's written in Christmas cards? To me it looks like this tradition is just a transformation of the typical "store greeter". Whenever you walk into the store that has a "greeter" at the entrance, they always plaster on that fake-Barbie-doll-smile and ask how you're doing, like they really want to know how you're actually feeling in life. And it's done so often that it just becomes an involuntary action that is devoid of any conscious thought.

So yeah, if you received a christmas card from me, I really tried to write something different than you would normally get from your typical generic christmas card. That and the fact that I actually made them myself this year. So on that note, anyone that I didn't have their address, or didn't receive their address in time for me to mail them one, here it is now!



I think I had mentioned at some point to a large number of people as to why I really dislike North American holiday customs. If I didn't...well...just take a look at the following picture.



This is by far one of the prime examples to why I have such a large dislike for North American holiday customs. Can you say, "OVER BLOWN"? It's one thing to be in the spirit of the holiday. It's an entirely different planet if your house is still visible from the earth's upper atmosphere. It's insane. You've got some serious issues if airplane can use your house as a landing marker. And that isn't even the worst of it. This house had previously put up an 8-foot tall larger than life-sized inflatable snowglobe. But due to a recent city power outtage, I guess he decided it wasn't worth the trouble of maintaining it. Go figure, eh?

CRAPPY CHILDHOOD
I think that in present times, it has been the most difficult for kids to actually experience a childhood than ever before.

I remember the days when going to the library was a nearly a daily ritual. When playing with action figures and toys still kept up until I was 12 years old. And regularly enjoyed watching cartoons even up to this day. Now what do today's kids do? Other than kindergarten, most kids will rarely make a visit to the library, nor will dream of their parents bringing home that action figure that they've been dying to have...and what about cartoons? Let's just say that 'The Cartoon Network' is quite possibly the biggest childhood killer in society. They don't show coherent cartoons that make any sense...or do they even have any dialogue that's simple enough for kids to understand.

What ever happened to Looney Tune cartoons? You know the ones that don't even require any spoken dialogue to make sense of them. Nowadays, kids are just more obsessed with the latest cell phone or iPod...or both! They care more about wearing designer label clothing than their own family's income.

And what's worse is that the industry has given up on them too. I mean, when was the last time that you saw commercials on TV advertising kids' cereal with their lovable/annoying animal mascots(ie. Froot Loops, Trix, Cap'n Crunch)...or kids' candy (ie. Fruit Roll Ups, Keebler Elves Cookies)...or kids' toys (ie. Barbie, GI Joe, etc). ARGH. It really really disappoints me. Kids are just growing up too fast for their own good.

I know I could go on forever with this topic, but I'm not willing to spend the rest of my evening here.

But just to make a point, I've compiled a list of kids breakfast cereal mascots in a neat little image below.



If I'm right about how there aren't any kid cereal commercials anymore, then you probably won't know all the mascots, let alone the cereal. But if you do manage to name all the mascots (and by that I mean each individual characters' names) AND each cereal title, then kuedos to you...you must've watched a helluva lot of TV when you were a kid, like I did.

And don't be a dork and cheat with wikipedia! I didn't...hopefully you won't need to either!

That's all for now. Back again next week.