What annoyed you today?

[loveclose]

Vatican officials claiming the Sistine Chapel is too crowded and are therefore concerned that the chapel will suffer due to excessive noise pollution.  Solution - restrict the number of people allowed in and possibly charge exhorbitant amount of money to allow entrance.  Rip off dot com.......

[skellum]

WAMT........... Trick or Treat  Every year we get kids at the door with parents in the background smiling at there little wonders who for me are a pain in the arse. I always try to tell the parents that we are British and Halloween is a American tradition which has nothing to do with us but they never listen, Probably the parents think we are part of America. Does anyone know that tomorrow is All Saints Day ?. I bet not.
I know you may seem to think I am going over the top with this but I do hate Americanisms, ...Not Americans in general.  Anyway rant over.

When we start celebrating ' Thanks Giving ' I'll know all is lost of our own traditions.   I'm off for a Pint..

[Matthew]

Halloween is yet another Pagan belief copied and altered by the Church. Originally, Halloween, or Hallows' Eve was a marked date in the calender when it was believed the two worlds of the living and the dead merged into each other. The Church, however, couldn't accept a celebration of "all dead souls", so "tweeked it" to celebrate all "blessed souls" and so "Hallows' Eve" was change to "All Saints"

Out of this ancient tradition comes one of our most famous icons of the "holiday": the Jack-o-lantern or pumpkin. Originating from Irish folkfore, the Jack-o-lantern was used as a light for the lost soul of Jack, a notorious trickster, stuck between worlds. Jack is said to have tricked the devil into the trunk of a tree and by carving an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, he trapped the devil there. His pranks denied him access to Heaven, and having angered the devil also to Hell, so Jack was a lost soul, trapped between worlds. As a consolation, the devil gave him a sole ember to light his way through the darkness between worlds. Originally, Jack-o-Lanterns were carved from turnips.

So you see, Halloween is supposed to celebrate dead souls.....not Superman....witches....ghost, ghouls and eat sweets............

That's what annoys me.......commercialisation and lost meanings......

[skellum]

That's what annoys me.......commercialisation and lost meanings......

I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject ..   but I think you will agree your last statement as above shouts " Americanisms ".

[spinner]

That's what annoys me.......commercialisation and lost meanings......

I bow to your superior knowledge on the subject ..   but I think you will agree your last statement as above shouts " Americanisms ".

That's odd, I grew up under the impression from my Glaswegian mother, that Halloween was indeed a Brit observance that the colonies had imported.

[ABERS]

"Originally, Jack-o-Lanterns were carved from turnips."

That'll be swedes as the're known in southern climes I expect?

[Hinfrance]

I don't think you've gone quite far enough back with your description Matt. Halloween and All Saints Day are both corruptions of the pagan gaelic or Wiccan festival of Samhain. And that too has roots that go back to the druids.  The festival was both to celebrate the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, and to celebrate the memory of the departed.

For my part I think any excuse for a party, so I'm in with the sweets and pumpkin soup brigade I also like to add a smidgen of spiced wine to the mix.

[michaelb104]

Installed Windows 8 - what a pile of pants   

I'm considering checking out Mac's 

[Oldboy]

Installed Windows 8 - what a pile of pants   

I'm considering checking out Mac's 

Big mistake. 

Check out the timeline of Windows. Windows 3.1 great, Windows 95 not so good. Windows 98 fantastic but Windows 2000 a load of rubbish. Windows XP fantastic but Windows Vista rubbish. Windows 7 fantastic but Windows 8 rubbish. Should have waited for Windows 9! 

[Hinfrance]

You got XP and Vista around the wrong way. XP was the worst operating system I have ever used, flakey and utterly unreliable.

Windows 8 is a total rework - go to How to Geek to find out how it works.

That said I am sticking to Vista and 7 for the time being.

[Oldboy]

You got XP and Vista around the wrong way. XP was the worst operating system I have ever used, flakey and utterly unreliable.

[Matthew]

I don't think you've gone quite far enough back with your description Matt. Halloween and All Saints Day are both corruptions of the pagan gaelic or Wiccan festival of Samhain. And that too has roots that go back to the druids.  The festival was both to celebrate the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, and to celebrate the memory of the departed.

For my part I think any excuse for a party, so I'm in with the sweets and pumpkin soup brigade I also like to add a smidgen of spiced wine to the mix.

Cheers, Hinfrance, my history is a bit rusty.....I like the sound of the spiced wine however  . Yeah ABERS turnips/swedes been living up here too long 

I just dont like all the hype around it, I never even celebrated it when I was a kid. Just didn't interest me I suppose.

My soapbox, however, has been put away until next year.......

[spinner]

Installed Windows 8 - what a pile of pants   

I'm considering checking out Mac's 

That's been my position since I checked out the pre release version. If you're going to drastically change the system to make it almost unrecognizable to most people, then they might as well change to Mac. I think they've shot themselves in the foot here.

[loveclose]

I speak from ignorance here, cos I haven't looked at Win 8 much.  Is it designed to be more 'tablet' in style with touch screen tech??  If so, then Microsofft is in trouble, or its the death of the pic.  One or t'other??

[Matthew]

Agreed, a mate of mine is an IT technician and he showed us the first release pictures of Windows 8. When I saw the "desktop", the first thing I said was it reminds me of a tablet/i-pad/x-box layout.

It looks positively awful, I won't be upgrading to that and I echo Spinner that this is a big ol' round in the foot .....

Think I'll be Mac bound in the future.....