Tag Archives: holiday

Curmudgeon Day 2012

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I Stayed Home and Did What I Wanted.

Curmudgeon DayI have been writing about Curmudgeon Day for the last 8 years, which posts you can find in the Curmudgeon Day category.  The holiday itself is much older (predating the pretenders), but it has taken on additional significance this year.  This Thanksgiving was the first time one of our guests had to leave early to go into work at a retail outlet, for a midnight opening, under the implied threat of dismissal, making this particular practice a form of quasi-slavery, which must become unprofitable.

Now, I encourage you to join the cause by visiting and liking the Curmudgeon Day page on Facebook.  If you are so inclined, please also post there about your non-shopping activities; I have already done so.

“We now return to our regularly scheduled program.”

Happy Halloween 2012!

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Enjoy Hallowe’en, Samhain, All Hallows’ Even, and Day of the Dead.

The above card images are from the Halloween Card Set, available for all of our Solitaire games [*] as a free download of the Holiday Card Set Pack.

[* Disclaimer: An exclusion applies for games purchased through the Mac App Store, which forbids the installation of new card sets from this download.  These card sets can be installed for MAS games, but the process is convoluted.]

Happy New Year 2012!

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Best wishes from all of us here at Digital Gamecraft.

 

The upcoming year corresponds to the Chinese Year of the Dragon, which should make it ideal for productivity, growth, and success.  Less mystically, 2012 is going to be our year of connection, as we continue to build our online presence and social network, both professionally and personally.

At the turn of the year, it is traditional to look forward into the future, and we will doing this in the coming days, as well as honestly assessing our performance over the past 12 months.  Expect some more significant activity on this blog in the coming days.  In the meantime…

Happy New Year!

 

Curmudgeon Day 2011

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Stay Home and Do What You Want.

Today is Curmudgeon Day, a holiday which is traditionally celebrated by not going anywhere (especially avoiding the shopping frenzy and the idiots who fuel it) and enjoying activities that make you happy.  For a reasonably complete definition and history of Curmudgeon Day (for you Wikipedia editors), see the Curmudgeon Day category of this blog.

Warning: There can be consequences to not participating in Curmudgeon Day, such as people being injured at Walmarts around the country.  (I remain safe and warm at home, and never go to Walmart.)

Think about the things you enjoy doing, those activities that you would do if you had a little more time.  If you have the luxury of not having to work serving the braindead on this day, stay home and do those things.  Spend time with family, play a game you have not had time to open, work on a creative project you want to accomplish, or just relax.  Take the day, or even the whole holiday weekend, to remember what makes you happy.

For my part, I slept in, then watched Formula 1 practice from Brazil, and now I am writing this blog post before programming a project I have not been able to find time for recently.  Even doing what I love for a living, I still have lots of other things to do on this one day for doing strictly what I want.

Occupy Home!

A Personal History of Thanksgiving

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I come by my love of Thanksgiving honestly.

In 1621, the settlers of Plymouth Plantation held what is widely regarded as the First Thanksgiving, under the second Governor of Plymouth Colony, William Bradford.

In 1624, William Bradford had a second son, his first to be born in the new world, also named William Bradford.

In 1651, William Bradford (the younger) had a son, Thomas Bradford.

In 1693, Thomas Bradford and his wife, Anne, had a daughter, Jerusha Bradford.

In 1716, Jerusha Bradford married Hezekah Newcomb.
In 1717, Jerusha Newcomb gave birth to a son, Silas Newcomb.

In 1752, Silas Newcomb and his wife, Submit, had a son, Paul Newcomb.

In 1776, Paul Newcomb and his wife, Martha, had a son, Silas Newcomb.

In 1806, Silas Newcomb (the younger) and his wife, Betsy, had a daughter, Eliza Newcomb.

In 1832, Eliza Newcomb married Jerry Williams Pierce.
In 1844, Eliza Pierce gave birth to a son, Jerry Williams Pierce (II).

In 1872, Jerry Williams Pierce and his wife, Polly, had a daughter, Minnie Sophia Pierce, born here in Michigan (as was every person mentioned hereafter).

In 1899, Minnie Sophia Pierce married Jesse George Wilson.
In 1902, Minnie Wilson gave birth to my grandmother, Mildred Leona Wilson, who compiled all of the information herein prior to the existence of the internet.

In 1926, Mildred Leona Wilson married Manley Russell Seelhoff (my grandfather).
In 1941, Mildred Seelhoff gave birth to Gerald Norman Seelhoff, my father.

As you can see, I descend directly from the founder of our American Thanksgiving, as documented in his journal, Of Plimoth Plantation.  For this, I am also thankful.

Welcome to 2011!

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Happy New Year!

Even though the New Year is ultimately an arbitrary construct, it is nevertheless customary to take the opportunity to reflect on the past year and plan for the next one.  More practically, of course, there are certain business related items (especially concerning taxes) that need to be handled in a certain calendar year, so getting those tasks completed before the end of the year is important.

In our case, we officially take two weeks off around the holidays, especially since very little work tends to get done anyway, other businesses are often running with skeleton crews (or closed entirely), and most of us would rather focus on family during this time, anyway.  However, we still have things to get completed by year end, so leading up to the break, we have a major project meeting (before two weeks without any) and determine which items have to be finished before the break, or during it in the worst case.  Last year (i.e., a couple weeks ago) we were able to determine that certain “capital improvements” were better deferred until 2011, so this year will begin with some disruptions targeted toward better efficiency in the near future.

For my personal task management, I added to the list all of my recurring items (some of which include general categories, such as ‘development’ or ‘marketing’) and methodically eliminated each item by assuring that everything necessary was finished before taking my break.  Alas, one particular (and important) item on my task list actually became two separate items with 2010 deadlines, so my break only encompassed hours, rather than days, of last year.

As the new year begins, on this first business day, I repeated the same process of starting my task list with all of my recurring items (plus deferred tasks), except this time I review each one to make certain that the foundational aspects are handled and to consider any procedural changes for the upcoming year (including delegating or completely eliminating a task).  I am still officially on a break for another week, so I am (personally) using that time to prepare my work environment physically, organizationally, and mentally, for substantially increased development efficiency when I return.

Of course, these are just the tasks that are performed to pursue our ultimate goals.  We also have planned and established a set of goals for 2011, which these tasks are designed to serve, but that will be the subject of my next post.

End Of Year Wind-Down

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Digital Gamecraft wraps up business for 2010.

As the holidays arrive at the end of the year, and the beginning of the next, Digital Gamecraft and SophSoft, Incorporated traditionally take off the two weeks that encompass this period of time.  Since Christmas and New Years Day both fall on Saturdays, we were confronted with a decision to either work right up until Christmas Eve, taking off the entire first week of 2011, or to adjourn (and return) a week earlier.  Armed with an incorrect assumption (about federal holidays in the US), the PTB decided on the former, so we depart tomorrow [Friday, December 24] and return to work (officially) on January 10, 2011.  It actually worked out well because we were not yet ready to wrap up business last week.  (In truth, our beta testers will still be seeing activity from me, personally, throughout the official shut down, and our Director of Operations has to come in to run payroll.)

Anyway, despite the absence of most federal employees in observation of Christmas (a day early), we will still be in the office tomorrow; however, there is no reason to lament.  The morning will be dedicated to light work and final preparations for the end of the year, and then the afternoon will be devoted to our holiday party, in which we and our families will gather ’round and play board and card games (away from computers), enjoying various snacks and drinks, along with ample holiday spirit.  (This is a tradition unabashedly borrowed from one at Spectrum HoloByte, enhanced somewhat in our own ways, and minus a visit from Santa Claus, at least this year.)  Of course, the easy workload on Friday means more work for me on Thursday, so…

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

[from A Visit from St. Nicholas, by Clement Clark Moore (of course)]

Curmudgeon Day 2010

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Curmudgeon Day: It is now official!

Now this blog/site is recognized by no less an authority than Google as being the primary source of information about the holiday non-celebration that is Curmudgeon Day.

For those new to this phenomenon, Curmudgeon Day is recognized (not necessarily celebrated) by staying home all day, spending no money (in general), and participating in whatever activity makes one happy, or at least relaxed and contented.  I recommend reading the annual Curmudgeon Day posts from the past several years.

[Editor’s note:  True to the spirit of the day, this post was not edited until much later.]

On this particular Curmudgeon Day, with my status set to Out of Office all day, I actually spent my entire day off of the development computers.  After sleeping in, I did spend a little bit of time in the office (physically), tidying up and removing some excess “stuff” that had been placed here immediately prior to the arrival of our Thanksgiving Day visitors.  I then spent time watching some classic movies, including Dial M for Murder and Strangers on a Train, as well as generally putting the TiVo on a diet and fitness regimen.  (The same cannot be said for me, as I indulged on the food left over from the prior day’s feast.)

I did actually do some research and design for an upcoming game title, and I also contemplated some productivity improvements in conjunction with a weekend “reboot” of my task list.  That, however, is a subject for a future post…