Weird holiday post

Went to the big Christmas bash last night. I'm just in town for a few days, and so I caught up with a lot of the old friends and mostly we discussed how the past year went. Consensus seems to be that it was a rough year. "06 sucked" is what a lot of them said. There are reasons for this, which I won't go into. I respect my friends' privacy.

Holidays don't affect me one way or the other, positively or negatively. I'm mostly indifferent to them. But I always read about all kind of bad things happening during this time. People are already desperate I know -- and the market makes them feel even more desperate than they really are -- and it seems that the holiday season just pushes some folks over the edge. I think maybe part of it is the insanely cheerful tone of omnipresent Christmas music, the fake emphasis on themes of brotherhood and caring (in a ridiculously competitive society), not to mention the crass consumerism. With all of these things in your face, it's hard not to feel cynical or even hostile. At least *I* can sympathize with this tendency, but maybe that's just me. :)