I feel like I shouldn't make this journal. Not because it's going to contain anything particularly bad, but because it will oblige me, in less than a month, to post another journal to bump this one off my front page. This may prove troublesome, given my usual journal posting schedule (ie: asymptotic to never).

I'd like to start off by saying that there are material things I want. Of course, given that I have a job that drops a dump truck full of money off at my front door twice a month, it kind of takes the pressure of christmas for that "one thing I've been wishing for forever". This slight shift in perspective has allowed me to realize that, absent that particular driving urge, I really don't actually like getting things for christmas.

It's like, on the one hand if I put out a wish list of christmas gifts, it feels like an obligation more than a show of generosity when someone buys me something from the list. If I don't put out that list and someone gets me something anyway, then more likely than not I'll end up dealing with receiving a gift that I don't particularly want. Neither of these situations seems all that desirable in the grand scheme of things.

Cards and well-wishes also feel like they've passed their prime for me too. I was never very fond of cards in the first place, and being the introvert I am means I have no real urge to spend time with friends and loved ones without some other sort of purpose or direction to the gathering.

So as far as the usual seasonal traditions, my only wish is that christmas week pass by just like any other week of the year. No more or less special just for the sake of some solstice festival from ages past.

On the other hand, that's not to say there aren't things I wish for. However, these things generally don't fit in a stocking hung by the fireplace:

1: I wish for some new simple long-distance person-to-person payment system to replace paypal. Paypal doesn't like me, and I have no idea why. I throw money at the screen and nothing happens. This pretty much excludes me from doing things like bidding on commission slot auctions, or for that matter often just buying a regular slot is out of the question since the artist only takes paypal, or gives priority to people who use it.

2: Failing #1, I wish for artists to be open to taking commission payment via steam/amazon wish list purchases. Obviously that can't pay their food and rent bills, but it's at least much more reliable than trying to get paypal to cooperate.

3: On top of this all, I wish for artists to find a way to somehow clone themselves 3 or 4 times so that they can keep their queues shorter, or open new slots for longer than 30 seconds before they fill up. It's very rare that I can commit to purchasing a work on such short order (especially given the paypal thing), so more often than not I just have to let those opportunities pass me by. I don't blame or begrudge them for this, it's just the way it is.

Also I'd like world peace and a pony made out of diamonds.