another sam chan: the student blogger

So you’ve probably noticed that I’ve disappeared for the most of this month (or you haven’t, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading this). This month started off with a barrage of finals, including a period where I didn’t sleep for four days. If you bothered to hunt me down on twitter, it was that period that I was there both day and night. And then after that, I went and has laser eye surgury done so I was told to stay away from anything with light rays. I lasted about 4 hours before I turned on the TV. Regardless, I am still recovering slowly right now but I just had to drop by and wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This will most likely be my last post this year so I just want to thank everybody that’s dropped by here and I promise not to disappear like this again anytime soon! I have a few things up my sleeve in the upcoming year so it should be interesting.

I also have a little treat for all you viewers with a special Christmas edition video blog: The One with Zero. The story goes that this year for Secret Santa with Elfster, my friends and I decided we would have to create something along with getting a present. I’ve decided to embarrass myself share it with my faithful readers here as well so enjoy and have a safe, warm, and cozy holiday!

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One of the most brutal consumer habits of the Christmas holidays is buying presents. Even if I don’t talk about lineups at the mall, it is still a major headache for most. Whoever said it was easier to give than receive probably never bought a Christmas present for Aunt Lily. Spend over 35, and you’ve wasted too much hard earned money; spend less than 30 and you’re officially the cheap nephew. Moreover, who do you buy presents for? Could you get away with just a card? Do you get a gift for Bill, even though the jerk hasn’t called in 6 months? What about Nancy? No wait, Nancy didn’t get you a birthday present. It’s not that you’re being insincere, just that it’s financially impossible to get everybody you remember a present. And personally as a student, holiday shopping time usually coincides with finals time and we have twenty-four hours a day just like everybody else. So I’m a big fan of Secret Santa.

With Secret Santa, you only need to get one gift per exchange and it creates the perfect alibi for not getting Drew that Ninja Turtles Backpack he’s been whining about since April – you didn’t draw him. What I’ve discovered this year (via google) is Elfster, an online Secret Santa management system. It’s great for running SS’s (wow!) if you have friends from abroad as it does the draw electronically and it even lets you ask anonymous questions to anybody on the list. One of my favourite features on there is that you can make sure that the Mister doesn’t get the Missus. You can preset so that Mr. Bing doesn’t get Mrs. Bing in the draw. It even syncs with Facebook, although the sync has a few bugs to work out. Elfster is also on Twitter so if any question arises, @elfster is the place to go.

If you’re not down with Secret Santa, you can always just donate the money you were going to spend on their present – I’ve never heard anybody complain about that either. And anybody who complains about donations shouldn’t receive a present anyways. Of course charity work because you were too lazy to go Christmas shopping isn’t the best of reasons, but hey – a donation’s a donation.

Speaking of gifts, congratulations to Jono, Aira, and Kabren who have successfully sold me their college major. I will be emailing or twittering you (if I haven’t already) to find out which case you want and where to ship it to.

Phew, and this was supposed to be a short post. Back to the books!

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Maybe it is because I am of the male gender, but cards have always confused me. I’m not talking about trading cards, because those things I’ve always understood, but greeting cards, birthday cards, get well cards, Christmas, Hanukkah or whatever floats your boat around December cards. There are two types of cards that are given to me. Those who give me generic cards with their John Hancock at the bottom and those who care about me enough to give me a personalized message wishing me general wellness. (is wellness even a word? Oh my, look how these cards have gotten to me). Regardless of the message though, it is a friendly gesture given by those to care enough to go out to Hallmark or the Dollar Store to buy me a card, open it up, write my name spelt correctly, sign their own name, and slap it in an envelope to give to me. For this, I oughta be grateful. But what in the world am I supposed to do with it?

I’ve seen many houses where they like to put cards all over their furniture, on the wall, on top of their tv, in their bedroom – heck my own family does that. However, I cannot make sense of the fact that I have Christmas cards chock full of dust (because we all know I haven’t read it since December 25th of the previous year) sitting on my counter in June. Who brags about the get well cards they got when they were bedridden for 3 months due to a spout of mono back in the summer of 2003? We don’t. I’ve never discussed this with anyone but there is an unsaid custom for us to throw away cards after a certain amount of time. Well, apparently nobody passed the memo to me because I still have a huge birthday card from my pre-hormone days that’s inhabited more than a few spiders sitting behind my closet.

I cannot bear to throw cards away because they are what they are – a nice gesture. And what of those who nicely decorated my envelopes? The extra curvy S, the fancy colors and random pictures in orange, I mean the least I could do is keep them.

For all those who have been thinking in their heads what a self-centered prick I am, here’s where I try to win you back. I actually feel so bad that I refuse to throw away the cards I receive. Yes, I even keep the envelopes. So what do I do with them? I shove them in random places, such as books, shoe boxes, 3 pack dvds, sock drawers, etc. But the lack of space has added to poor ventilation in my room and will eventually lead to an unexplained death so I have decided on this outcome:

I see there are many holidays coming up such as Thanksgiving, Halloween, my Birthday, and Christmas (yes in that order). Instead of giving me a card, I resolve that we try and solve global warming a little instead by planting a tree in my backyard each time you feel impelled either by my friendship or rugged good looks. If I ever become so popular that I run out of room(I’m not holding my breath), I’ll go and ask the kind sir next door if I can use his backyard; I don’t think he minds. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, because I definitely do, it’s because I still have your card from 2 years ago and am still appreciating that.

on a side note, my girlfriend doesn’t find cards a dilemma at all and absolutely adores them actually, so please don’t mistake my confusion with hers and continue to send her cards a plenty.

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