An oxymoron, you say? Definitely.

Today is Curmudgeon Day, the most important and least meaningful holiday here in our household. All of my time is recorded as Out Of Office and I do whatever I choose to do, whether that be programming, playing games, sleeping, or posting on this blog.

Here is what I have written about this holiday over the past two years:

• Happy Curmudgeon Day [2005]
• Curmudgeon Day [2004]

Traditionally, one aspect of Curmudgeon Day is deliberately not leaving the house for any reason. Alas, this year that cannot be observed religiously, but of course, that is exactly in keeping with the spirit of the day. Our Thanksgiving celebration ended with board games and lasted beyond midnight, passing from one major holiday into the next, and I had… no… chose to drive a friend home. We are also expecting a check at our post office box, and receiving money, rather than spending it, is also an honorable pursuit on this day.

Whatever you choose to do on this holiday Friday, please enjoy yourself. Play a game for me.

We have another celebration to end a “happy” week.

Today is Curmudgeon Day, one of my favorite holidays. Although it has not, as of yet, been recognized as a state, national, or international holiday, it has been a tradition around here since well into the last millennium. I first wrote publicly about Curmudgeon Day a year ago, and here is the definition from that previous entry:

Curmudgeon Day is to be celebrated by never leaving the house, a practice which I faithfully observe every year. This is a day that many Americans have off from work as part of a four day weekend, and it is hyped by the media as the official start of the Christmas shopping season (despite the encroachment of Christmas promotions into October or September). This results in a shopping frenzy, making this the largest day of the year for retail sales. I am willing to bet it is also ranked high on the list of most dangerous days to be on the road, and simple observation informs my conclusion that it is the day that the most braindead walk (and drive) the Earth.

Online research has shown that retailers are trying to usurp the Curmudgeon Day celebrations by referring to the day as Black Friday, or sometimes Green Friday. In response, another pretender has attempted to make it into a day of protest against consumerism as Buy Nothing Day, which usually, but does not always, coincide with Curmudgeon Day.

The theme for Curmudgeon Day is relaxation. I am officially “Out Of Office” for the complete 24 hours, and I do whatever I want to do. Often, that means working on a pet project for which I could not normally justify the time, or just playing games that I enjoy. So far today, I have actually been working on the same exciting project that I have been developing all week (and before that), by choice.

I do not have to work on that (or any) project today. That is the point.

Enjoy!

The day after Thanksgiving Day (here in the United States) is recognized in our household as Curmudgeon Day, a holiday I devised many years ago.

Curmudgeon Day is to be celebrated by never leaving the house, a practice which I faithfully observe every year. This is a day that many Americans have off from work as part of a four day weekend, and it is hyped by the media as the official start of the Christmas shopping season (despite the encroachment of Christmas promotions into October or September). This results in a shopping frenzy, making this the largest day of the year for retail sales. I am willing to bet it is also ranked high on the list of most dangerous days to be on the road, and simple observation informs my conclusion that it is the day that the most braindead walk (and drive) the Earth.

The massive commerce on this day makes it the most important day for retail games. When I worked in the retail game industry, it was almost inevitable that final deadlines would be based on having boxes on the shelves by the day after Thanksgiving. In the PC world, with lead times for packaging and CD pressing, this generally means a deadline for a final master set at October 1st, with a “drop dead” date of October 15th. I have even worked on a game that had this deadline in consecutive years! I understand that console games have a much longer lead time, while games published on the Internet, obviously, have relatively little lead time.

In my opinion, the industry is a little too trained on this schedule, and recent release schedules indicate that, although there is still a focus on the Christmas selling season, there is a little more variety in release dates. This helps relieve the issues of production scheduling, which used to be a problem with CD pressing, and having loads of brand new titles competing for finite cash, both for marketing and from the consumer. Big releases in slower times of the year could allow for more press coverage and less immediate competition.

The one Good Thing about this schedule is that it does help to greatly reduce the likelihood of “crunch time” during a busy holiday season.