So what did you guys get?

[Great Rumbler]

For Christmas that is.

Here's my take:

-Battalion Wars
-Geist
-Meteos
-Advance Wars DS
-Norelco electric shaver
-M [Criterion Collection]
-Le Samourai [Criterion Collection]
-Ikiru [Criterion Collection]
-Cromartie High School volume 4
-Star Wars Trilogy Box Set
-Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
-The Third Policeman
-Knife of Dreams
-The Best of H.P. Lovecraft
-A bunch of chocolate
-Pizza Hut gift card

[EdenMaster]

I'm (admittedly) hard to buy for since I just buy what I want when it comes out :D. I do keep myself in check for the month or so before Christmas to give the people buying for me a fighting chance, but still.

Well, that being said, I got:

Seinfeld Seasons 5 & 6 on DVD
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Civilization IV (well, a friend went half on it :D)
Late Show with David Letterman Sweatshirt
A new bathrobe
Whole buncha other clothes
I, too, recieved a small countries share of chocolate :D

That's...really it. Seriously, I have most everything I want or need, so even with such a short list I'm happy. Besides, I still have yet to see my grandparents, as well as my brother and sister-in-law. So, I may be amending my list after I do :)

[Weltall]

$200 cash and a 41-0 Steelers victory.

I please easily.

[lazyfatbum]

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (NINTENDO MENTAL MASTURBATION)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mario Kart DS (MY EMBLEM IS A PENIS)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Animal Crossing: Wild World (PEARS)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Giant t-shirt made of virgin lamb (humans)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Beautiful Perfume in a fu-fu hollywood bottle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
virgin pants of giant humans (plaid!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EARINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1999 VOLVO S70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
G4 Powermac!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (in the mail)
****fucking cool sandwich maker****
BOOK OF CURSE
LARGE CASE OF MAKE-UP AND LUBRICANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
100 OF YOUR AMERICAN DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 dressy shirts THAT MAKE MY SEX EXPLODE ON YOU!!!!!
BATH SET FOR WASHING (MAJOR HINT FROM FAMILY)
OJ SIMPSON GLOVES AND SOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU GERMANIC/DRUID WINTER SOLSTICE FESTIVALS AND YOUR ODD AFFILIATION TO ROMAN CATHOLIC IDEALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[A Black Falcon]

-Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

-Star Wars Ep.3 DVD (widescreen)

-Knife of Dreams

-Other books (Phillip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, 'The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln', and a humor/history book written in 1950)

-a new keyboard (since i destroyed mine with water in august and was borrowing one) and some decent headphones (much nicer than the cheap ones that keep breaking that I've been using for years...)

-A San Diego Padres t-shirt (since a family member was in San Diego this summer...)

-$70

I'll get another item or two in a few days when we go to our cousins'.

[Dark Jaguar]

Responding to lazy's Kart Emblem I present to you:

<img src="http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/051115.gif">

[lazyfatbum]

Everything needs a penis.

Except girls.

Or robots.

Okay, maybe robots.

[Great Rumbler]

All in all a good Christmas.

[The Former DMiller]

My haul:

Mario Kart DS
Halo 2
Resident Evil 4 (GameCube version, of course)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
A Christmas Story DVD
A new digital camera

Tomorrow I shall have:
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Seinfeld Season 5-6 DVDs

[EdenMaster]

lazy and DMiller! We ned your friend codes! Post them in the Mario Kart Race scheduling area, then we can have some races!

Same with Animal Crossing!

BATH SET FOR WASHING (MAJOR HINT FROM FAMILY)

[The Former DMiller]

I posted mine. I only played one online math today and my connection crapped out in the middle of the first race. I was getting killed anyway and I could tell the guy had played a lot since he had an ungodly amount of wins. I would have raced using the rivals option, but it didn't seem like there were too many people on when I wanted to play tonight. I'll post my Animal Crossing code when I get the game tomorrow.

[Paco]

My family and I aren't very big on giving gifts. Since my brother and I are grown we all just go out and shop together, buying stuff for each other. If we can't find what we want then we just resort to giving cash or gift cards.

Anyway, here's what I picked out...
Anne Rice's 'Servant of the Bones', Hardcover
Elizabeth Kostova's 'The Historian', Hardcover
Ratchet & Clank Up Your Arsenal
Harry Potter 2006 Calendar
Burnt Orange Throw (it's really big and so soft!)
Leather Top Skechers
The Nightmare Before Christmas Special Edition, on DVD
A long sleeve shirt
I couldn't find the Kameo Soundtrack or the Kswiss shoes that I wanted so I got some cash to buy them when I do [find them].

It was a good christmas.:)

[Geno]

The Beatles - Abbey Road
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour (currently listening to it)
The Beatles - Revolver
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles - Let It Be
John Lennon - Imagine
A leatherbound anthology of The Iliad and The Odyssey
A leatherbound anthology of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The Simpsons - The Complete Seventh Season
Family Guy Volume Three
Virtual Springfield for PC
A Simpsons collage puzzle
$50 (used it to buy a bigger CD binder, a Led Zeppelin shirt, a cookie from the Cookie Co., and some catfood)
Simba & Nala magnetic kissing plusheis (What?! They're cute!)
Some new gloves
Some goodie bags from the people at work

Not a bad Christmas overall. I give it a 9/10. 2001 and 2002 were still the best Christmases, with 2004 following close behind. 1999 was also good... damn, I can't remember every Christmas... but I do remember 1993 kicking ass. (I got my Super NES then.) By the same account, 1998 ruled because I got my N64 that year.

[The Former DMiller]

Never shop the day after Christmas. Not only am I apparently blacklisted at Best Buy for returning too many things, but I couldn't find Animal Crossing anywhere after spending hours looking around for it. The long lines, traffic, and generally pushy people didn't make the day much better. Luckily I have a new episode of Arrested Development to look forward too and I did get the Seinfeld DVDs.

[Dark Jaguar]

And I got that GCN Fire Emblem, that epic game of EPIC called Shadow of the Collosus, a certain Wild World, Trace Memory, (and don't ask to play them, because my mom has effectively confiscated both, I had this feeling if she ever had a chance to play Animal Crossing she'd become an addict...). I also got Civilization IV, Pirates! (Live the Life!) and some other stuff.

Also, I destroyed the partition record of my hard drive attempting to return the space I allocated to a Linux partition to my Windows XP partition (so I could actually install my new PC games). My computer froze up in the middle of the procedure for reasons I'm not entirely sure of (I'll figure that out in a bit, I hope) and that forced me to reset. And, as I feared, the only part that remained usable on my hard drive was the boot sector. So, I got the chance to pick which OS I wanted to not find.

It's alright though. I actually managed to restore my partition table to the way it was before. Now, I did manage to format my linux partition before the lockup, so that's gone, but at least I'm typing at you once again and all my data is safe (backups are for those that actually have that capability, though I think pretty soon I may invest in something of the sort, there may be something I'm just not able to repair on my own in the future...). The next step is to once again try to assign the now completely empty space on the HD to my partition so I can once again have full use of the drive under Windows.

Oh and, keep in mind I had no problem just ditching Linux because I didn't really have anything there I care about. Just some lost shortcuts in Mozilla... It was a nice experiment anyway. I suppose I'll eventually put Linux back on in the future when I get another hard drive.

[Darunia]

Christmas is that magical time of year when the great Santa Goron climbs into his golden sleigh, and travels to all corners of Hyrule, dispersing presents and gifts to all loyal subjects to the one, true Goron emperor.

This year, the main things were my new digital camera and my MP3 player... the latter surely being the marvel of the modern era.

[EdenMaster]

Am I the only one who finds a little irony in the fact that Darunia, who is very much an atheist, celebrates the birth of Christ?

I'm just curious. Show of hands.

[Dark Jaguar]

I don't think that's what he was celebrating. More like, X-Mas.

[lazyfatbum]

You're kidding right?

1.) Christ was not born in december

2.) The entire holiday is made up and is not mentioned anywhere in any bible

3.) It is however a direct translation of druid and germanic winter solstice festivals and of course the roman festival in which all shops are closed and all slaves are freed for a week

4.) Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus, Christianity, the Bible, Hebrew teachings, Judaism or God. Nothing as in - it is a completely fabricated holiday built from the ashes of several other holidays that all have to do with celebrating the new year and the hight of winter from all over the world and the worship of nature's cycle (trees)

5.) WTF does an illuminated, decorated pine tree and the story of an elf delivering presents to children, have ANYTHING to do with Christianity!? (other than bribing children)

The birth of Jesus and Christmas are two totally different things. In other countries 'Christmas' is celebrated in the traditional sense where family gets together, they all go to church and spend the day singing songs and reading the bible, then return home and have a huge dinner. No presents, no trees, no strings of lights around the house, none of that. Christmas is a celebration of family and friends, to get together and share presents and make a big deal. Put up a tree, hang ornaments that have been in possession of the family for generations, share stories and eat and drink foods that you only eat and drink on this particular day, it is a massive nation wide celebration that we do simply because we grew up doing it. It has ***NOTHING*** to do with ***ANYTHING*** other than it simply being fun to do.

You can pretend to celebrate the birth of Jesus, that's fine. But you might as well do it on the actual day in a way that wouldn't piss him off. This is the guy who went ballistic in a church because people were making money off of traditions. I wonder how he'd feel about Christmas.

Kid: *rolls out list* AND I WANT A BARBIE, AND A RADIO CONTROL CAR, AND I WANT CHOCOLATE, AND I WANT AND I WANT, I WANT, I NEED, I NEED, GIMME MORE, GIVE GIVE GIVE, ME ME ME, MONEY MONEY MONEY GARNISH ME WITH FALSE TEACHINGS OF AFFECTION WITH VANITY AND MATERIAL POSSESSIONS

God: *cries*

[lazyfatbum]

btw grumbler if you need help in Battalion Wars get on MSN, I have S ranks on all the levels save for 2 of them. The whole game is based on the idea of getting s-ranks (dont try to blow through the game!) and it quickly becomes impossible to do without alot of pre-planning.

the manual doesn't mention this (I think) but when you point your cursor on to say, a hillside, and press Y, your selected team member will run over there and either kill the enemy and run back to you or, if no enemies are there yet, they'll stick around in sentry mode. This point and place method is essential for s-rank tactics.

The other thing to get a hold of quickly is the idea of letting your men go do their own thing. You'll want to micro-manage the hell out of them but since the game is very rock-paper-scissors if you send the right vet or vehicle for the job they'll get it done without your help. Always send in vehicles for flame vets and keep your vets far away, 2 or more rocket vets have more firepower than a small tank and a group of rocket vets will dispatch enemy vehicles faster than a tank could. Oh and always, always keep moving! If you're attacked from above, ONLY put your anti-air vets on sentry and let them take it down, keep the rest of the group moving! Dammit... I rented Battalion Wars for like 2 months and never bought it, I need that game.

[Great Rumbler]

Despite being hardcore Christians my family doesn't really celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ. Noone knows when he was really born, so December 25 is just a day that some people came up with and decided that that would be the day to celebrate his birth. It'd be better to celebrate his birth [and death] everyday, instead of just one day out of the year.

[Dark Jaguar]

Just to defend it, though what you say is pretty much right, sure it's made up, but that's pretty much what a holiday is anyway. From what I gather, Christians, at least the more intelligent ones, see it as simply the day they have chosen to celebrate Jesus' birth, fully acknowledging that it was essentially a hijacking of a previous holiday. However, it is pretty thouroughly hijacked at this point and for a lot of people that is the point of it, even if it doesn't actually occur on the day it is meant to celebrate. I mean, the name alone comes from "Christ's Mass", being a church event that was meant to take attention away from the evils of the decedant holiday.

Of course that doesn't mean it can't be celebrated in a secular manner at all. It's just a little awkward to be using that name.

I suppose it could be called the "Starlight Celebration" or "Winter Veil". But seriously lazy, both you and I know if anyone pulls that the "war on Christmas" will take a violent turn as this is seen by some as a "final blow".

Looks like GR posted while I was typing: It wasn't really up and decided. From the history I've read, it was originally a holiday celebrating the stuff lazy was talking about. It was decided not at random but because, at the time, Christians sort of had to "sneak in" a celebration like this. Essentially, Christmas USED to be Hannakah (I have NO idea how that's spelled.... sorry...).

[Fittisize]

What I got:

-Cash: The Legend
-Ottawa Senators hoodie
-Shoes
-Revenge of the Sith
-New monitor (19'' LCD)

[EdenMaster]

...I simply meant...you know, nevermind :D. This place is filled with theologians.

[lazyfatbum]

DJ/ I dont care what it's called. You could call it ass rape day or call it Jesus Was Born on This Day.... Day, and it still has nothing to do with any currently practiced religion.

Wasn't it the scriptures of John who said that Jesus was born in the summer one year before his youngest sister?

[Dark Jaguar]

Sure it does, the day is the day a lot of Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. That's something to do with it. That there is no real significance beyond convenience at an earlier date is pretty much irrelevent...

I mean, let's say I picked a random day to celebrate the birth of Terra Branford. Let's say it caught on. To say that day has nothing to do with Final Fantasy is ignoring that there is ONE thing that links them, the fact that a massive number of people celebrate a character of the game's birth on that day. Simply put, a holiday only has meaning BECAUSE humans assign meaning to that day. Now, the reasons can be frivilous as much as they want, and if the reasons are based in a lie, you can call them on it, but it'll still have meaning, even if that meaning is essentially "lie day" if you wish.

By the way, WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?!

http://www.xineph.com/

[lazyfatbum]

Yes, but we're talking about religious significance of which there is none applied to Christmas other than the false ideal.

And I have no idea what that is. But I moved it and I found a skull and skull's are cool.

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah, the day isn't significant in and of itself.

I found the word "anima".

[EdenMaster]

[Dark Jaguar]

It took a while for that image to load, but the second I saw your name and realized what I previously typed I already knew exactly what it would be.

[Geno]

Never shop the day after Christmas.

I, too, learned that the hard way. Because of all my new CDs, I needed a bigger CD binder, so I went to the mall to get one. It was hard enough to find a parking space. Hell, I didn't care how far from the entrance I had to park, I just wanted somewhere to park! I eventually found a place and had to squirm my way through the mall to get a CD case... and a Led Zeppelin shirt, which I am currently wearing. :D

[Dark Jaguar]

How exactly does a Lead Zeppelin work anyway?

[Geno]

It doesn't. "This gig is going down like a lead zeppelin."

[lazyfatbum]

I heard the Romans built their zeppelins out of lead.

[EdenMaster]

It took a while for that image to load, but the second I saw your name and realized what I previously typed I already knew exactly what it would be.

I'm getting predictable, am I?

:D

[Weltall]

It doesn't. "This gig is going down like a lead zeppelin."

So saith Keith Moon, the greatest human being ever to wield drum sticks.

[etoven]

My Hawl:

1. $550 cash
   
2. A Laptop
   
3. Cloths
   
4. Bed Conferter
   
5. The end of the Holiday season at Walmart
   

5 => My Favoriate Gift

[EdenMaster]

1. $550 cash
   
2. A Laptop

Someone certainly must have a good boy this year!

[A Black Falcon]

The lines at LL Bean were like half an hour long the day after christmas... at least... so we didn't get anything. :)

[nickdaddyg]

$200 cash
Kenneth Cole Reaction fragrance
a nice picture frame
a nice Arizona State throw blanket
chocolate

[Geno]

I only got $50 cash for Christmas. Well, I also got a Christmas bonus, which should help me save for my trip to England. Yeah, I plan to go to England in the summer. Just before New Year's Eve, I managed to get myself a new lady friend, but her mom's job is requiring the family to relocate to England, lest she loses her job. They're moving in February. It sucks ass. But we're going to make it work anyway! No ocean can hinder the dedication of some fool in love!

Other than that, I'd say I'm having a fairly good year so far.

[Dark Jaguar]

Interesting, and that comic in your siggy? Well, now that I think about it Earthbound does resemble South Park...

...

Blue power! Blue power!

[Geno]

It does? Well, I suppose if you cover the ground in snow, it's kinda similar... They're both small towns. ('Course, I use a mix of Onett and Twoson backgrounds, and occasionally throw in something from Final Fantasy VI.)

[A Black Falcon]

I'm not sure, but I might have surpassed even myself in game buying volume over the past few weeks... I've spent $180+ on videogames, and plan on spending at least $15 more tomorrow... yeah...

-GC - Fire Emblem (the one thing here that was a gift...), Baten Kaitos, Defender.
-SNES - BlaZeon, Tiny Toons Wacky Sports Challenge, plan on getting EDF and Smartball.
and a PSOne... and eight games... Wipeout, Strikers 1945 (well it's actually Strikers 1945 II, but they call it "Strikers 1945" because the first one didn't come out on consoles here), King of Fighters '99, Tekken 3, Warhawk, Persona 2, Alundra 2, and Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey. (I almost got a Genesis, but didn't, and got a PSOne instead...)

... should I also get Tube Sliders for GC? I want it... I know the reviews aren't great, but it's a futuristic racing game, and I like most all of them... or maybe Custom Robo? Wario World? I'm not sure... :) (some others I've seen and considred for PSX include Tenchu 1, Blaster Master, Darkstalkers 3... other stuff that either seemed too expensive or not good enough ($25-30 for Vagrant Story? $30 for Metal Slug X? $40 for Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo? $30 for Fear Effect 2? No.)...)

Anyway, I got shooters for three consoles... :) An interesting study in contrasts, comparing Blazeon to Strikers 1945 (slow pace, classic-style 16-bit shooter to a modern arcade fastpaced blaster), or Warhawk to Defender (early 3d shooter to a new 3d shooter)... all four games are quite good, though. And supposedly EDF is better than Blazeon... :) ... well, Blazeon seems to have mediocre reviews, but I think it's quite good... slow, with long pauses where you just fly forward with nothing happening? Yes. But the music's good, so I don't mind... really hard? Yes. Restart at beginning of very long level when you get game over? Yup. But even so, it's a great game... unique, with the ability to take over some of the enemy giant robots (in lieu of powerups for the main ship)... and both enemy ships and the giant robots you take over lose guns as you shoot them -- so get hit once with a robot and then it has less firepower... (they can take 2 or 3 hits, while your ship of course can only take 1) but yes, it does get frusterating to get to the boss of a very long, multipart level, (levels 4 through 8 of Strikers have 'restart level at death', and thus are insanely hard, but at least that game has short levels so it doesn't take that long...) only to die and have to start from scratch... eh, but you expect that kind of thing from these games. Games like this are a big part of why I got a SNES... :)

[Geno]

I actually didn't buy any new video games in 2005. I bought one old video game and that was it. 2006 will be different though. There are at least two games I'm anticipating this year: Kingdom Hearts II and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And although it's not a game, I'm also anticipating Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the movie sequal to my favorite game of all time. 2006 is gonna RAKAW!

[A Black Falcon]

I got EDF and Smartball and, burning the last of the paper money in my wallet, Wario Ware GC...

[Dark Jaguar]

I mean they are both drawn intentionally badly.

[Geno]

I mean they are both drawn intentionally badly.

Oh, I see... yeah, no argument there. They both have a "simple" style to them since they're both intended to be as non-serious as possible.

[Dark Jaguar]

And also Pokey is a jerk.