'Who do I know in England?' 'Who DON'T you know in England?' by Kara
Friday, December 2, 2005 at 6:50 AM

It's a Shoujo Kakumei Utena joke. (Yeah, yeah, I like that show. It was one of my early ventures into anime - that and Death and Rebirth - I was not a clever girl.) Just do a search for Nanami and cowbell on Google if you don't get it. If you do get it ... well, you can do the search anyway, but it's not necessary.

It's December, and the Christmas stuff is happening. I'm not nearly done with buying/making the presents, but i'm not stressing over it. I'm actually planning things out so I can actually take care of them at my leisure. It's a little confusing not being at the family's house anymore, though - I'm gonna have to buy one of those dinky little three-foot trees to make myself feel festive.

One thing I never do, though, is buy people gift certificates unless I really can't help it. One year, I got nothing but gift certificates - almost literally nothing but - and I decided I didn't want to do that to anything else. I mean, there's something nice about knowing that someone took the time to think about what you like, then went out and searched it out or made it. Even if I know people might like them - well, that means there's a good chance that everyone else is giving them one, and I'd like them to have a proper surprise to unwrap.

However, I do bring it upon myself, because I have this sort of ingrained guilt complex where I consider writing Christmas lists to be a bit on the overly optimistic side. Even though my family has said 'Please, for the love of God, give us a list because we don't know anything about these crazy books/DVDs/trinkets you like.' I try to get over it if I'm actually asked, but Syrian guilt is not easy to get over.

Oh, yes, poll results:

So, Black Friday and first big week of the season. Braving it?

FIRST: Are you crazy? - 28%

TIE: I've locked my door - 22%

TIE: No choice - I work retail - 22%

THIRD: Yup! - 9%

I'm done shopping! - 2%

OTHER: Being out in it for other reasons, baking cookies, something about slave labour, two opposing commentaries on the state of Japan at Christmas, a confession that someone has no idea what it is, and some lame excuse that they're Canadian.

RIGHT ANSWER: Klaatu Verata Niktu!