1496: Thinking Ahead
 

"You’re trying to piss him off! Are you not trying to piss – what are you trying to do?!"

A lot of stores do have people line up, but then people just push and shove and line jump, and then that's when everyone pushes forward and fools get trampled. If there are only 100 50" flat screen televisions on sale for 9.99 then three hundred people aren't going to quietly line up outside to get one. I say let the fools trample each other.

Glad the show is back! A whole week without shows sucks.:(

So glad I am a VIP member - downloaded a bunch of older shows during your short hiatus -- rediscovered the last one with Myq and Michah and laughed and laughed my ass off. Michah's impersonation of Keith was so funny, I nearly crashed my car laughing so hard!!!

Off to listen to this show.

Ah, so Cat is 25, this makes more sense for her to get her masters.

My birthday is in January, about 3 weeks after Christmas and I agree about getting shafted.

Of course growing up, my parents would make a big deal of my birthday, but as I've gotten older, I've gotten a lot of items for both Christmas and my birthday in one. Or I'll get a big ticket item, like a camera for Christmas and an accessory, like a camera case for my birthday.

Every year I make a list for my family with ideas of what to get me and it's a combined Christmas and Birthday list. One year my mom even went and brought out my birthday presents that she had already wrapped and hidden on Christmas morning when she realized I had a good 10 presents less than my siblings to open that year (we take turns opening, so I had been sitting there awkwardly, i was a teenager at the time).

Asking for an expensive "big" gift for my birthday was always met with "but you got this big item for Christmas just 2 weeks ago" where as my siblings were months away from Christmas so no one could remember what they had gotten and throw it back in their face.

Often times, a birthday activity was given as a Christmas gift. When I was in middle school my parents got me tickets to the Backstreet boys concert for my sister, a friend, my mom and I as a Christmas gift. The concert was my birthday party. If I had been born in May and the concert was in June, the concert would have been my birthday party and would have been given as a birthday present, not a Christmas present. I didn't receive any other birthday gifts that year (besides one from my friend) because the concert and a t-shirt from the show were my present.

It's similar with friends. Lots of friends would forget during grade school, as my birthday usually fell on the first day back to school from a long winter break. In college I would usually celebrate later as the first day of the new semester isn't the best time to go out partying when people are working out their classes, getting their books, etc. and gearing up for a new semester.

I don't have the worst birthday though. I do think it's worse to be born a few days before Christmas, or on Christmas day. Those people usually celebrate their half birthdays or they get totally screwed.

This is a hard poll to answer!

I want to feel for you, Keith. I get that you wanted to save up money for the trip and yada yada yada..but Keith..it's her birthday! We say the thought counts, and it does, but the actions (or lack of) counts as well.

About holiday birthdays..My birthday is six days before Christmas so it never really feels like Christmas since I end up buying everyone that bought me something for "Kimsmas" a present too. Mehh..

Christmas Eve birthday here. The worst thing as a kid was never being able to have birthday parties, because everyone is with their family. Once we had a "half birthday" party in the summer. That was my only one. Otherwise my immediate family always gets me a separate birthday present.

My birthday was yesterday strangely enough. I was happy with a phone call from my siblings, a funny voice-mail of my mom singing happy birthday, and a plate of brownies from a friend. My birthday's never been a big deal for me, seems like thats a dude thing.

While I think Keith was "right" in the sense that Cat overreacted with her emotions, I do see Chemda's point and can understand everything she's saying. In fact, I have to thank Chemda because she made me reconsider some of my points of view on the situation.

Even though I'm gay, I've run into this situation more than once, usually on birthdays, so it's not necessarily a "girl" thing, though I still think of it as a strongly emotional reaction that never made sense to me. I guess because I think more like Keith would, I don't think it'd be a huge deal if I didn't get a card or whatever on my birthday.

Pepper spray is included on the Scoville scale. The highest grade is four times hotter on the scale than a habanero pepper, and almost twice as hot as the ghost chili pepper.

Scoville scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I want to see one of these idiot talking heads on Fox offer themselves up to be pepper sprayed to show everyone just how tame of a food item it is. A few of them have been dumb enough to get tased, and one blowhard radio host even submitted himself to waterboarding:

Mancow Waterboarded, Admits It's Torture | NBC Chicago

*As a sidenote, I love that the word "blastemy," has officially replaced the word "blasphemy" on this show. Makes me lol every time.

I thought the debate between Keith and Chemda was really good. Especially from Chemda, who brought up things that people don't always think about in depth when it comes to these situations. I'm usually a fan of the "don't make it a huge deal" thought process, but I've come to learn that birthdays are a big deal to a lot of people. And I act accordingly. You don't break up with someone over it if something like that goes wrong once (that's ridiculous), but it's entirely reasonable to have a discussion to be better informed for the future. It's more about what exactly the other person wants than what you would want.

And yeah, people always get shafted if their birthdays around the holidays. My parents are born on Christmas Eve and right before New Year's, and they both get combined presents and parties all the time. It's easier for people to hit multiple birds with one stone. They didn't celebrate Christmas much when they were younger though. It's more of a big deal over here in North America.

My birthday is on the 27th of November, and it was always decent. My parents always made sure to make me feel special and separate.

My daughters have birthdays at the end of January, and it wasn't until them that I realized how fucking hard this is, financially. The birthday party alone runs a few hundred dollars. Then more for goodie bags, food, cake, etc.

This will lessen as they get older, but now.. It becomes a choice of what to do, party or lots of presents. But I've also got twins, so everything is double at the same damn time. Thankfully I can combine games, systems, movies... But other stuff? Although they may suffer in comparison to some kids, they at least stay consistent with each other.

As for me, my birthday is pretty much negligible. We replaced our TV and spent a few hundred extra, so that became my present. That's generally how it goes.

As for the present for Cat, fuck dude, go spend $50 and get her a nice piece of jewelry. I got some nice stuff for my wife at wal-Mart, of all places, and it's actually very nice, and cost all of $60. It doesn't cost much to simply get her something to show you care. If she isn't okay with an honest and daring gesture, then that's on her.

Simply put though, we buy too much shit for people. Christmas and birthday presents go above and beyond. I'm spoiled and entitled now, and I wish I hadn't gotten everything I wanted. It's sickening. I know that I give my kids too much, but I don't give them near as much as some people do. No $500 iPads. No 40 Presents. Their main presents for Christmas are 2 stupid fijits and the skylanders game. The other stuff, games and shit, nothing stupid in comparison.

In the coming years, I plan on reducing it further. I refuse to have them turn out like I did.

In summary, go buy her something. She deserves it, putting up with your shit ;)

i feel more for cat's side but i loved the sweetness in keith's voice while he was explaining.

so much true love in it.

I agree about the commercialism, but I must say...it's much easier and less stressful if you (I mean everyone) just go with the flow and don't get too worked up about presents. Have agreements with people about how much you'll all spend on each other. Obviously this is easier said than done and completely depends on your relationship to the people you're buying presents for, but it alleviates the stress most of the time. And it helps a TON if you start instilling this to kids when they're young. It's not necessarily too late, but once they get used to large gifts, they'll start to expect it.

A birthday has no actual physical significance when compared to, say, a span of time. I guess people just think it's their "special day" and feel entitled.

Wonderin
 

Why does Handa gasp so much when keith says a simple thing.

Keith: Oh, da wever itz niiiice.
Handa: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhh
Keith: Yeas, shits awesome.

And can you guys bring Jonef Odonnel back? He's funny and crazy but I was surprised hes so old. I tought he was about 20 yrs old. Maybe he should just tell peole that.

I'm totally on Keith's side. It's not like he forgot about her birthday. It's not like he blew her off. I have no sympathy for the kind of people Chemda was explaining. Maybe it's just my personality, but whatever.

I am also kind of amused because the gift probably wouldn't have gotten to Cat, what with the address mistake, and then what would have happened with that? What if Keith had sent a gift but then it got lost in the mail? Would it be such a big deal also? So that might be interesting.

I don't give a fuck about my birthday. But I was listening to this on the commute home and had time to think about this. It would be cool if my sig other would throw a surprise birthday party for me once a year on a random important person's birthday. Like I come home, and it's a surprise party for Simeon D Poisson's birthday, that would be really awesome.

(Obviously not a deal breaker for me, but probably a deal breaker for anybody who reads this.)

I might start saying my birthday is a day in summer rather than my actual birthday.

Mine is in February. I hate fucking winter and shitty stuff always happens on or really close to my birthday.

I like that my birthday is around Thanksgiving, every year I get a little preferential treatment during the family holiday. If my b-day was in, say June, no family member is going to travel any long distance just for my day, but they will for Thanksgiving.

I could see getting the shaft if your b-day was around Christmas, but only if your family typically spent alot on gifts anyway. We stop getting birthday gifts around 13, and have never thrown a birthday party that cost more then the price of some food.

Or do the regal thing and have an official birthday. Our madge has her birthday on April 21 but also has an official birthday. As this may vary by country, well, you can see where this is going ...

My birthday is Jan 14, and I always felt like I got a little shafted in the birthday department, but whether that is because of the timing, or the cheapness of my grandmother, I do not know. But in LA you can always have an outdoor birthday, so most of my parties were in the park.

I'm trying to have a regular relationship with my birthday as an adult, but there are still a lot of weird feelings I have about it. I was always made to feel that my birthday was really difficult and annoying for everyone involved, and as a teenager, I didn't want to inconvenience anybody by making them go out of their way for me, but I deeply wanted someone to honor my birthday, so I would end up not telling anybody it was my birthday and then being sad the whole day about how nobody got me anything or even wished me happy birthday.

Eventually, I tried to arrange some badly put together, last minute parties that no one could attend, usually because it was so last minute, or so close to Christmas, and I would be even more heartbroken because instead of my friends not knowing, they knew and didn't have the time or interest in my birthday.

Now I put more planning in birthdays, and I have more realistic expectations of birthday celebrations, and I'm more interested in celebrating myself first, instead of being celebrated by others. I had to get over the fact that my birthdays in childhood were just a microcosm of my life at that time, which is that no one wanted to deal with me, and I was overwhelmingly seen as a burden. As an adult, birthdays would bring back that feeling, but I couldn't get swallowed by it, I had to make my own birthday memories, even if it was painful to even acknowledge that it was my birthday.

I used to get caught up about Valentines Day, Christmas, Birthdays, Anniversaries...what a mistake. Who cares if that one day is not celebrated the way you're told by others that you're supposed to.

My husband is not romantic in the traditional way. He doesn't go overboard and buy me gifts. If I don't write important dates on the calendar, he doesn't remember them. But you know what, he gets up at 6am to shovel all the snow in the middle of winter so I don't have to. THAT is romance. He is an amazing father, he tells me he loves me at least once a day. THAT is romance.

We barely exchange gifts anymore. It isn't because we dont care and aren't thinking, it is because I find it rediculous to spend money on something I don't need. I'd much rather get a surprise where he buys a necklace for me on a whim because he saw me eye it. Or that he makes me pancakes and serves me in bed. Neither of our feelings are hurt.

And we also don't spend a ton of money on our kids at Christmas. They are little, they can handle one new toy and be over the moon. I don't get how commercialized all of this is.

To each their own, but I think if Keith has been sending her little things and being romantic in little ways, that is more than enough. Missing a birthday present but remembering the day is just fine.

My sister's ex's birthday was Christmas Day and they moved their Christmas celebrations to the 26th and the 25th was HIS DAY. And family had to celebrate both. I find that fairly rediculous.

Valentine's Day is a big pile of horse shit. As is Christmas, Easter, Thanks giving and Mother's/Father's Day.

But birthdays...you don't fuck up birthdays.

I forgot my own birthday this year...it is just another day. I treat myself when I want, not reserve it for just one day. And I surprise my husband with trips or a night out on a random day rather than our anniversary. But this attitude may be a part of being a wedding photographer because you really don't have the luxury of taking a day off. I've shot weddings on my kids' birthdays on my own anniversary, etc.

I honestly think it is just a day...though I absolutely understand that people want to feel special...but does it HAVE to be on that specific day?

It becomes a question of what is your personal jesus I guess.

I guess...and I can understand why people really want a day where they can do/have whatever they want, but I really don't think most people are like Chemda that skip down the street when it is their birthday. I think society has told them that their guy HAS to do these things or he doesn't love you.

I agree with Chemda's view of knowing what someone is expecting and make sure you're ok with that before you move on in the relationship.