Oll Raigth!

I've realized two things recently, and the second is more fun than the first:

1. My whole complicated relationship with Christmas? It's not really some high and mighty deal against consumerism or mindless waste or whatever (although those are bad too). It's really just because Christmas is complicated, and I don't want more complications in my life. Receiving presents is nice, but it doesn't make up for the difficult process of buying presents, so I'd rather do neither. Similarly, a nice gemutlich Christmas atmosphere is nice, but it's not worth the struggle to decorate for Christmas (and own so many more things), so I would not like to do that.

Which is not to say it's not worth it to go all out to do hard things. Quite the contrary; it is SO worth it to go all out to do hard things, even if it's only because they are hard! I just want to do them on my own terms: I'll create a nice atmosphere in my house, but it's for a flaming wine party or a dinner with friends, and mostly achieved through food and drink. If someone else wants to decorate, that's great, but that's their task. In this sense, I'd put in the effort to do something cool, but I'd enjoy it, instead of being forced into it by custom. Christmas rolls around and I am forced into someone else's idea of a task.

So, no worries, I'll play along in the presents-buying game a little bit. Still, simplicity simplicity simplicity! That is what I would like for Christmas.

2. This is a most genius thing: Prisencolinen sinainciusol. Yeah it's worth your four minutes. I'm not even sure whether it's funny or terrifying! But any way you slice it, it's undoubtedly the single best song with one chord, constant 4-square beats, and a structure of "verse chant verse chant harmonica-solo". A+!

EDIT: oh geez, I forgot to even mention WHY this was so great: it's fake-English gibberish. This Italian guy wrote this song, not in English, but to sound like English.