Cyber Monday?

[mellicious]

I felt like crap for most of the day today. I don't think I slept too well last night, which tends to happen after holidays - although I'm not as bad about staying up late as I used to be. I tend to go to bed by 1am or so even when I don't have to work, where I used to stay up til 2 or 3 routinely. I've gotten where I wake up early even when I go to bed late, so I get tired earlier. A bit earlier, anyway.

Did you know that today is known - in the holiday marketing business, anyway - as Cyber Monday? I think the term "cyber" conjures up something different than this for a lot of us, but in this case it means that people go back to work on the Monday after Thanksgiving and place a lot of online orders from the (theoretically faster) computer at their workplace. I guess this explains all those Free Shipping! e-mails I've gotten from various companies today. (Including Macy's - Today Only!!!) I've been thinking the last few years that you could measure the relative strength of the economy by how many companies are offering free shipping, and there's a lot of that this year. Last year I can't think of anybody other than LLBean who was doing it. (And I guess you'd have to say that it works, I bought a whole bunch of stuff from LLBean last year.)

They keep talking about the "soft" economy, but the thing is, I don't know anybody who's really been hit by the housing crunch that badly - or if they are, they're not saying much about it, at least. We are spending somewhat less on gifts this year, but the reasons are different - between the new computer and the trip to Vegas, I figure I've gotten my gifts already. Rob's still getting his usual pile of movies. And we'll have to order something or other for my in-laws and my dad at some point soon. The fact is, with my mother and grandparents all gone, I don't have that many people left to buy gifts for. I always get a gift card for my teenage nephew, and I don't ever buy my little cousins gifts at all - they've always seemed to get plenty anyway. Maybe I should start buying all the kids something small.

And that leads me to Matthew Yglesias, who thinks people should buy stamps as Christmas gifts. Now, I don't really think very many people would appreciate stamps as gifts- read the comments for evidence of that - but as it happens, I know somebody who would. And he is totally getting stamps for Christmas.

I forgot to say yesterday that I ended up paying attention to Wings of Desire in the end - I'm not really surprised, I did expect to like it, after all. I actually got off the computer and sat and watched, by the end, which is hard to get me to do these days. But lord, I could watch Bruno Ganz's face all day. (What idiot of a Hollywood producer thought that Nick Cage could come close to matching that? He has those sad hangdog eyes, yes, but it's not at all the same thing. But then, we already know how that worked out.)

If you're at all interested, you've probably heard about A&M's new coach already, but it's Mike Sherman, an assistant coach for the Texans who has worked a couple of stints as an assistant coach at A&M before. I started hearing on the local stations yesterday that it might be him, but this seems to have happened really, really fast. I was expecting them to go for somebody a little higher-profile, myself. On the other hand, they tried high-profile with Franchione and it didn't work out so well, so maybe they're trying a different tack.

I talk a lot about "I got an e-mail from so-and-so" - see Macy's, above. The fact is, I am sort of addicted to mailing list e-mail. Once in a while I decide that it's just ridiculous - this is usually on a day like today when I haven't checked it for a bit and the volume is out of hand - and I unsubscribe to some of the stuff I haven't been reading. I tend to come up with reasons why I can't unsubscribe to this one and that one. (I thought to talk about this because I was reading e-mail about the Longhorns and Aggies which came from the Austin American-Statesman.)

Also, I guess everybody but me knew about "Cyber Monday" - at least, I got at least half a dozen e-mails that called it that. Did that term just get spread around this year all of a sudden, or was it around before and I just missed it?


Plus -

You Are Christmas

More than most people, you are able to find magic in life's small moments. Traditions mean a lot to you, and you tend to be quite nostalgic. You are a giving, kind person who really understands the true meaning of holidays. You inspire others to be as altruistic and caring as you are. What makes you celebrate: Tradition and a generous spirit At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The storyteller. You like to recount memories with everyone. On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Give a gift to everyone you know

What Holiday Are You?

Hmm, some of that sounds true enough - I'm a crappy storyteller, though.

Comments

[ms-hooligan.livejournal.com]

I remember an old Garrison Keillor column (I think for Harper's) where he suggested giving people gifts like stamps and undershirts. I loved the undershirt idea and gave all the male relatives undershirts and beer that Christmas. And then last year I gave a lot of relatives those photo stamps, with photos of my brother's and sister's kids on them, but that was a less practical thing -- I know my grandmother never used the ones I gave her, she thought they were too pretty.

[mellificent.livejournal.com]

I don't know too many people who even wear undershirts nowadays, but yeah, I do know what you mean. Some people don't use many stamps anymore, either - but it's my mother's boyfriend Art I'm thinking of, and I think he still uses both! I usually buy him a Wal-Mart gift certificate, but that's boring and I'd rather stay out of Wal-Mart as much as possible, anyway. I buy stamps online all the time so that'd be easy for me. (Hmm, I wonder if I bought him some of those "Forever Stamps" if he'd make a snide remark about his age?)

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Wings of Desire sounds like it is going to be a horribly tedious movie, at least to my mind, but I have the same problem - I put it on while intending to only give it part of my brain (i.e. work on the computer at the same time, etc etc) and by the end I'm giving it my undivided attention.

[mellificent.livejournal.com]

I can't say I'd call it a problem - more like a feat! You and I both are hard people to pry away from our computers.

[nonelvis]

"Cyber Monday" has been around as a marketing term for several years. Wikipedia credits its origin to shop.org in 2005 -- I can believe shop.org coined it, but I am almost positive I remember hearing the term back when I worked for the e-commerce software company, and I left there in 2004.

It might be one of those things where you were familiar with the term only if you were in online marketing, and it's only now spreading to the general population.

[mellificent.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that seems to be what's happening, it's something that's just hit the public consciousness. I have been collecting links today and I'm pretty sure there's going to be more on this in the entry I do tonight!