What a bizarre Christmas today has been.

It started last night, as the PS3 charity auction I spent three weeks setting up finally drew to a close. The winner: some guy Dinesh Dave, who at the last second drops in a $25 bid that would wind up cheating our charity out of $1,600; Dinesh refused to pay, and drama ensued as I posted the scumbag’s email address so people could make their feelings known about cheating charities on Christmas. Some agreed and felt a bit vindicated by my posting his address… and some didn’t. But the simple fact is what Dinesh did was absolutely deplorable, and he’s lucky all I did was post something as ephemeral as his email address. I told him over email if he or someone else pays the $1,600, I’ll gladly remove his address from our site — looks like he’ll get another shot.
So then I get to bed and start reading a few feeds — just to learn James Brown has died just a few minutes prior. I was stunned into a state of near-insomnia.

This morning I opened mom’s presents, one of which is possibly the most bizarre and heartfelt I’ve probably ever gotten (sorry, it’s personal — but nothing too interesting, so don’t worry). I then spent half the day helping set up the new iPod nano I got for her. It was only medium-difficult getting over the mom + tech factor, thanks to the somewhat convoluted but certainly passable iPod + iTunes combo.

But the golden bit came from her perusing my music library, finding tracks she wanted to snag for her new player. What’s one to think when their Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura-listening ultra-conservative mom requests you load up AC/DC, The Clash, Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie, The Ramones, The Smiths, and the like on their iPod?

Time to go bake a Christmas-eve Tofurkey.

P.S. -Mr. Littlejeans is also cat of the day today. Merry Christmas, Mr. Littlejeans.