Archive for the ‘New Year’ tag
A Festive Guest Post – The Crispness of Christmas
When Andrew asked me if I fancied writing a festive guest post for his ‘12 days of Christmas’ (or is it ‘Crispness’?) series, I went back and re-read the first entry, to try and get down with the spirit of the thing. You know, extrapolate ideas, see if there was anything I could copy, make sure I didn’t re-use his jokes, that sort of thing.
I came away thinking a couple of deep thoughts. Firstly, “Why is that lettuce wearing a woolly hat? Didn’t he steal that from me?” Second, “I think Christmas probably gets a bit too much crap for being aggressively consumerist, doesn’t it?”
Don’t get me wrong, shopkeepers have far too towering an erection for festivity. If I wanted to buy Christmas lights in July, I’d expect society to section me, not encourage it. And I dread to think about the carbon footprint of some houses’ decorations. I hope they had the decency to assemble their own power station in the back garden.
Having said that: It’s nice, isn’t it? It’s happy in a really over the top way. It might be garish, but this is a garish season. The people who use only the most tasteful of wrapping paper and discrete fairy lights are few and far between. And even if you are those people, it’s hardly fair to deny others their Christmas. No-one is forcing you to look at it. (Unless you live across the road, I suppose.)
It’s easy to get down on the festive season for being tacky and somehow undeserving of time, when we think that time is better spent on side projects and escaping to Glorious Freedom. But if we don’t go out and have some fun occasionally, we will be boring, tired and just plain obsessed. Christmas is a gleeful combination of tacky entertainment and deeper meaning, why not embrace it for a few days a year?
I should probably be less enthusiastic about the bright-red, fur-trimmed dark side of Christmas, as I have my very own achingly cool cynic’s lifestyle blog and I can feel my credibility leaking away.
But to hell with it. It’s Christmas time, and that means time off questing for the almighty higher goal, for at least a few days. The New Year will be here soon enough, bringing hours to reflect upon the year gone by, plan for the future and get thoroughly drunk. But for now, let’s embrace buying stuff.
Remember: They would not sell life-size reindeer replicas made of elastic bands if there was not an audience for them. This is what the people want. We will not change the nature of Christmas celebrations by moaning about it.
Nick Bryan of Feeding the Black Dog and Behatted fame is a writer of all things humourous, snarky, educational and amusing. A frequent guest of the Free World, this is the second time he’s been kind enough to write an article for the site. I’d recommend you head over to Nick’s blog for a daily dose of the real world.
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The Sixth Day of Christmas – Research & Development
You haven’t forgotten that you’re your own little company have you? How’s your Research and Development department ticking along? Have you managed a break through this year? Why not?
There’s been plenty written lately about the past year, reflecting on personal events, milestones and goals achieved. Soon enough we’ll be into New Years resolutions. You can pick from your standard range: get fit, quit smoking, save more money, be nicer to people etc. Why not resolve to do something that can benefit you in the long term and open up your eyes to a world of possibility?
I’m talking about learning something new: experimenting with additional income streams, setting yourself up as a small business, anything that’ll help you get out of the rat race!
You’ve spent more time figuring out which bank would give you 3.75% pa on your $5,000 term deposit than you have even thinking about getting out of the rat race! (By the by, making your money work for you this way would net you a whopping $187 profit for the year before tax)
I’ll cut to the chase, you can get your tax rate down to the low 10 – 15%, increase your net worth & asset base, get involved in the stock market, have a look at an eBay store… the list goes on!
If you went to college or university you’ve spent anywhere from $20,000 upwards on a qualification that’s going to tie you to a job until you retire, but you might turn your nose up at a stock market seminar that’s charging $1,000? Think about it.
The Sixth Day of Christmas is going to be short and sweet; if you haven’t already you should kick your Research and Development department into gear in ‘10.
Make your New Year’s resolution count for 2010, maybe turn off your TV and learn about drop shipping a product online? (Turning your TV off will give you an extra week and a half of time to lead your own free world)
What’s your resolution? Leave a comment below, follow me on twitter, sign-up for the RSS feed or join the facebook group? If you’ve got something to say that’ll help us all lead our own free world contribute and write an article for the site!
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