(no subject)

Time Magazine article on Black Friday generally, and many stores' decision to open late Thursday evening in particular.

I particularly like this quote:

The extra Thanksgiving night hours were also added out of concern for families. “Our opening time this year reflects the feedback we have heard from our guests,” the post reads. “Many prefer to shop following their family gatherings rather than in the very early hours of the morning.”

...Because those are the ONLY TWO OPTIONS for doing Christmas shopping, clearly.

Obviously Black Friday wouldn't be such a THING if it weren't for all the genuine guilt people had about not being able to afford to get their families everything they want, and how you don't want your kid to be the only kid on the block who doesn't have that one gadget everybody has, and I don't want to act like I'm all superior because I'm in a financial position and life stage where there's nothing I need to get extreme discounts on -- I can pay full price or I can do without. That is a privileged position to be in.

But I think it is a pretty ridiculous thing when a corporation can decide it's cutting even further into the time people get to spend with their families, and pretend it's doing it FOR THE FAMILIES, when it's those same corporations who have the biggest interest in whipping up shopping-related excitement that's totally disconnected from reality and totally disconnected from whatever small happiness STUFF can bring you.

(no subject)

And now, my NaNoWriMo faces its greatest challenge: family togetherness!

I don't get the Friday after Thanksgiving off, so I couldn't fly back to North Carolina, so I was planning on having a quiet day filled with writing and perhaps a storebought pie. Instead, my sister is surprise!hosting Thanksgiving at her place, and my mom is driving up. Which is nice (pretty stressful for my sister though!), but comes with a great obligation to spend time with other people rather than getting any writing done.

Well... if I skip one day, I'll need to step it up to 1766 words a day to get to 50,000 by the end of November. Which is actually pretty doable.

Ugh, I did not realize that the little packets of "mushroom gravy" and "onion gravy" they have at the grocery store are made of beef fat. Dunno if I have time to go to the food coop and do something about gravy.