I Hate Christmas. And am Ambivalent Towards Digg

I know it's somewhat fashionable to hate on Digg, and admittedly, it hasn't been in my RSS reader* for many years now. In case you don't believe me, I recently completed a scientific survey** via Google to prove my point.

• Digg Hate (10,700,000 results)
• Reddit Hate (6,600,000 results)
• Christmas Hate (4,230,000 results)
• Owen Hate (2,960,000 results)

As you can clearly see, Digg has a few PR problems compared to Reddit, Christmas, and yours truly. Anyhow, if you need another reason to hate Digg, and waste time in the process, this HTML5 canvas based game may be for you, courtesy of Jacob Seidelin @ Nihilogic (play now!).

Controlling "a small flock of social media heroes", you bravely navigate them away from the onslaught of evil forces (played unwittingly by the steady stream of Dugg stories). I quickly found out I suck at this game, but perhaps you'll fare better against the crushing waves of Digg.

What has Christmas done to you!

Good question, but someone really needs to tell the shopping malls that Christmas displays in November are wrong on so many levels. Also, for you Christmas enthusiasts, my heart is not made of pure bile and evil, I still giggle like a school(girl|boy) on Christmas morning if my street is covered in a shimmering blanket of virgin snow.

Of course these past winter seasons in Vancouver haven't exactly been reminiscent of my childhood years, when it seemed a thick blanket of joyous fun would cover the city every year.

Which tangentially brings me to Christmas in Australia, which is an incredibly jarring experience for a Canadian (albeit south west coast one) boy. Commercials blaring about the thrill of Christmas on a 40 degree beach just doesn't seem... well... Christmas.

Anyhow, if you have money to burn, or perhaps want to have that smug feeling about being less materialistic than someone else, there are a number of options that may interest you:

UGM has released their 2008 Christmas Catalogue, and Kiva is a great way to invest that $25 you have sitting around in change (and best yet, you can play on Kiva well beyond Christmas!).

* Vienna, if you must know
** margin of error: +/- 99.9%