HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Here at Incoming BYTES  we wish everyone the best for the holiday season. We hope you had a wonderful, peaceful Christmas holiday, and for  2011, we wish you a safe, very Happy and prosperous New Year! 

Here comes 2011.  Some view the new year in fear and trepidation, others with open arms, accepting their lot in life whatever it may be.   How about you?   What are your dreams?   What do you want to happen, what can you expect to happen, and  what shall we individually learn from those events?   Will we endeavor to be  more faithful to God,  become more intelligent, and actually use the brains we are each given?   Shall we abandon the norm of acceptance of all we are handed,  to rebel seriously,  --and without hesitation, try to change things for the better?  What are you going to MAKE happen?    Casual observation suggests that society may, in apathy, continue to ignore what is substantially important in life.   
I must admit it is more fun to watch television and “be entertained” rather than think about difficult subjects. It is easier to watch “Jeopardy” than it is to actually think and plan quantum change in our own lives.
 Perhaps we should watch less television, and thereby kill two birds with one stone, make the mind more active and lessen the amount of brainwashing that comes our way at the same time.  Make no mistake about it, just as one example, we are conditioned and brainwashed to become perfect shoppers, as Black Friday and Christmas prove annually.
  Must we  as a society continue to accept the commercial  wishes of the powerful, malignant and greedy, and the curious political burden of undemocratic democracy that is  cast upon us?
  Are we being desensitized and trained to “accept” corrupt, unsatisfactory political solutions and gargantuan 'big money'  environmental disasters?  Are we being rapidly  prepared for “third world” conditions of poverty even as the international rich grow ever richer?    Is universal, one-world  government at hand?  Do you fear the future?   People kept in a state of fear are easier to control.  

I believe we should not only have high expectations, but question what those expectations should be.  Let us not be told what our expectations should be, but decide for ourselves.   It is not wrong to dream of better.  Is it not wrong to expect better in real life. It is not wrong to expect good health care,  fairness, justice, political honesty,  a healthy environment, a good life and ultimately, personal happiness. 
 
From the 365.242199  days of civilization  we survived in  2010, hopefully we  have gained a modicum of  knowledge, learned from the  collective human experience, cobbled together some new  ideas, and perhaps rediscovered  some pearls of wisdom from the past, --but perhaps we should also take a serious look at what we really accomplished to date?   Have we met all of our  goals, inspired  dreams  in others and encouraged thought?
 Perhaps we have planted  a few innocuous, strange  seeds ourselves  that may  grow unnoticed at our feet or in the minds of others. Perhaps others will think because of something you said, or an idea you offered.   I hope so.   Will our western society become responsible,  more reflective and reactive to make necessary changes to  provide betterment, --in fact assure  life for all human beings on the face of the earth? 
 The question is, what have we done collectively and as individuals to ensure that we continue to exist,  and what can we do in 2011  to change things for the better?
 
 Shall we make a list of “New Year’s Resolutions”  only to abandon them, as usual,  within a few weeks, or even days? It is  trendy to make a list and chuck it every year, but is it more appropriate to write a “bucket list” of lifetime objectives  and  really stick to them?   We shall see. 

Happy New Year!   

p.s.  Please do not drink and drive! 

Time for a Last Minute Christmas Reality Check

Christmas Shopping in Blister               photo by wlk photography

Bah, Humbug !    I have to run to the mall for some last-minute gifts.  With only a few days left before the big day,  procrastinators beware.    It really  is time to scurry around for those precious  gifts, so  hurry, beat the Dec. 24th   rush, listen to the nice Christmas music, and do that last minute shopping. Get the perfect gift.  Spend that money.
  Perhaps there really are some  lost opportunities not available  to you again until next year,  like those you missed on Black Friday, which, conveniently, is another artificial and  manufactured  retail trap for the gullible.
When you do  get to the mall, find a parking spot  and shop frantically,  are you being encouraged to panic and buy without thinking?  Are you  being taken advantage of by retailers using the psychology of Christmas and encouraged to spend more money than you can really afford  as we are increasingly encouraged to do  every year?
The “last minute rush” and panic is built upon guilt.  The Christmas season is pushed upon us  just after Hallowe’en, and retailers everywhere delight in pushing our buttons.  The psychology of Christmas sales.  A two-month shopping spree, the retailing game is  at it’s best and coincidentally, the most profitable. Don’t think, just spend.   Did your brother give you a better gift than you gave him last year?  Did you forget your cousin completely, so have to make up for it this year?   Did you  spend more on your son than on your daughter?   How about your sister?  Was  there an element of favoritism involved and the guilt that  lasted all year has to be “fixed” with that perfect gift this year? How about dear old Mom? Nothing is too good for Mom, everybody knows that.  
Did you change your mind at the last minute and decide “those” gifts were not expensive enough, and were not “meaningful enough"  so you need more?     Did your best friend buy you something extravagant and you have to make up for it this year?  Do you have to sell your soul for the lavish gift of your dreams for your significant other? Will it finally be a “perfect Christmas “ if you can only  spend enough?  
Are you running out of time? Buy this, grab that, and quickly....I can run  the credit card up and worry about it in January. Stop.
 Maybe it IS  time for a reality check.  
Let us slow down, breathe deeply and recognize that today’s Christmas retailing business is structured and  built only for commercial  profit.  Retailing  has virtually  nothing to do with promoting peace and goodwill or             “ helping you”.  Retailers are not  showing you  the real meaning of Christmas with  “warm and fuzzy” tear-jerking home-coming promotions  so common at this time of year. “The perfect gift solves everything” according to the retailer.  As long as it is expensive enough.
  “Merry Christmas, Mom”, as the returning,  surprised, and obviously  lonely  mother sees how beautiful the “perfect commercial products” from XYZ   have  made her home look.  Someone that has not bothered to visit all year  has showed up,  done the work and spent money they probably needed for their child’s clothing,  but so what?   It is the  retail glitz that counts. The warm and fuzzy moment.   Is that any better?  No.
 It plays upon the psychology of Christmas and the minds of the guilty.  Unfair practice?  Yes,  but retailing knows no bounds.
 In more relaxed times, Christmas had meaning.  There were small, individual hand-made presents, arts and carefully  crafted  items that were specially made for the delighted  individual to whom  they would be presented .  Perhaps they were made even  months prior to the big event. Only if one failed to be thoughtful,  constructive, and well organized would one have to dash to the market in chagrin at the last minute  to find something, anything, to “fill the gap” for the “missing”  present.  Buying a “store-made” gift was the exception, not the command performance  it is today.  “Home-made” gifts are shown to be  less glitzy than “bought” ones are, and promoted to be deemed of lesser value.
Lesser value? “Folk art”, hand-made gifts and objects  from 60 to 100 years old or older may  command prices in the tens of thousands of dollars today.   Compare that to a cheap ‘similar gift” made in Japan or China. No such comparison will be available 60 years from now, since the cheap import would have been long discarded as trash. 

The best price of the year is deep-discounted by desperate retailers trying to top off annual sales and maximize profit, -- not to do you any favours. How can a product be worth  $ 99.50 all year,  and then suddenly be a “once in a lifetime opportunity ” at $19.95 just because “Christmas” came along?  A little bit of skepticism is in order.   
The fact is, that gift you have the sudden urge to buy  was probably manufactured  in China for mere pennies, and the real cost of it may have been your job, or that of your neighbour. Think for yourselves.
It is Christmas, sure, there may only be a few days of retailer “magic”   left, but that really is enough  time to think for yourself.   Your smarter better half may even  love you even more when you show her the zero balance on your credit card come  January.    
I’m off to the mall.  Gotta get that perfect present.  I  could have made something nice instead. Why didn’t I think of this four months ago?

Bah, Humbug!