Wow, I can’t believe christmas is less than a week away. When you’re a kid, as soon as December hits, you’re all about anticipation. You make those goofy construction paper ring thingies to count down the days. Advent calendars and whatnot. I’m twenty-four now and I find christmas sneaking up on me out of nowhere. How did that shit happen?

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season. I myself have been a little frustrated with christmas for the last few years, as you may recall me mentioning last year. We had it easy as children, let me tell you. Santa Claus brings presents from the north pole, and suddenly we have a lot of new crap to play with. It was magical.

And then you grow up and you realize that traditional christmas between adults isn’t quite the same thing. The magic doesn’t seem to be there anymore, and it can actually become stress-inducing if you let it. People get wrapped up in money, the pressure of holiday shopping, the pressure of entertaining, cooking, hosting a party, traveling somewhere for a party, getting dressed up, etc etc.

It can be really easy to forget about the things that really matter, like family and friends. The world moves fast, nowadays. Most of us are constantly on the go, constantly busy with school or work. Our lives throughout the year are stressful and busy. We should try and remember that the holiday season, if at no other time over the course of the year, should be a time to slow down for a minute and appreciate what we have. Even if the holidays don’t hold religious importance to you, as they don’t to me, they can still be a time for togetherness.

Try not to let the other stuff get you down, ok?

Those Xbox 360 skins I told you about are now available. I put one of them on my 360 and they look great. I think at this point it’s a moot point to do skins for the Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube, as they are at the end of their lifecycle with their replacements here or right around the corner. But I will definitely be doing some console skins for the PS3 and the Revolution.

Besides, the skinnable surfaces on the original Xbox, and the Gamecube make creating a decent design a logistical nightmare. Thankfully all of the next-gen systems are built to stand upright, with simple designs and broad, flat surfaces on either sides to put some cool artwork on.

I will think about doing a PSP skin at some point though.

Also, the 2006 Winter-een-mas shirts are doing very, very well, and I’m happy to see that so many people are excited for Winter-een-mas next month. As I’ve mentioned, I’m going to tackle preparation for that in the days following christmas.

Well, it’s Monday the 19th, and the release date for Dead or Alive 4 is still holding at Wednesday the 21st. Could it be? Is it really coming this time? Or will they pull a switcheroo at the last moment? Only time will tell.