T w e n t y S i d e d

Be sure to mark your calendars for… Hm.

That would be pretty stupid, wouldn’t it? You take the 2016 calendar down, write “Twenty Sided Stream” in the very last box, and then throw it in the garbage. You hang the 2017 in its place, but it doesn’t become relevant until the day after this event. I suppose you can use the box for January 1st: “Twenty Sided Stream will be yesterday”. Or something like that. It doesn’t matter.

But if you’re the sort of person who needs to remind themselves about how they plan to spend the celebration of the New Year in 3 days, than maybe you need more help than a calendar has to offer.

Whatever. I’ve gotten sidetracked. The point is, we’re doing the thing we always do every year, which is playing videogames. Josh is going to play some stuff. We’re going to hang out and make fun of the game, of him, of his choice in games, and of how he plays them.

What games? Good question. Josh promises it will be “a medley”. I know Overwatch is on the list, but that’s not going to last the entire night. Right now I’m campaigning for Grand Theft Auto V. I dunno. Nominate your choices in the comments. Or maybe don’t. Josh has a contrarian streak and will probably avoid anything that seems popular. You might think you could outwit him with reverse psychology and nominate what you don’t want him to play, but he’s clever and will simply play the requested game, which means you still end up with a game you don’t want except now it’s your own fault.

We’ll see. The event will start at 10PM on the east coast.

Of which continent?

Guess.

Or I suppose you could cheat and consult the following timer:

The stream will go until the games run out of fun, or Josh runs out of booze. It will appear on the Spoiler Warning stream at the appointed time. I hope you’ll be there.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Between the time I moved out of my parent’s house and the time I got married, I spent a few years living alone. The holidays are strange when you’re alone. You don’t want to decorate, because it feels like you’re decorating for yourself. You could cook a meal, but you’re just cooking for yourself, and you already do that every night. What else are you going to do? Sing Christmas carols to yourself? Maybe buy yourself a present? Get hammered on eggnog and watch Die HardOn Christmas Eve I watched Die Hard with my son. It was his first time seeing it. He seemed to like it well enough, although I don’t think it will be the Christmas Classic for his generation that it was for mine. by yourself?

Actually I guess that last one kind of works.

Aside from the religion and consumerism, this time of year is about family and friendship. That’s a good thing to celebrate. But if you’re alone, then the holiday can make you feel even more alone. It feels like everyone else is eating awesome food, swapping presents, singing carols, and watching kitschy Christmas movies together while you sit in your non-decorated place eating non-holiday food. Everyone else is doing something you aren’t and if you try to do anything festive on your own it end up feeling sad and forced, like Kevin McCallister making a fake party in Home Alone. Except unlike Kevin, not even evil Joe Pesci wants to visit you.

So to all my friends and family who live alone: I’m thinking of you. Hope you enjoy yourself, however you decide to spend the day.

To everyone who isn’t alone: What are you doing here? It’s Christmas. Stop reading my blog and go do holiday stuff. You can read this when you roll into work on Tuesday morning feeling hungover and tired.

Merry Christmas.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.