Sunday, 1 November 2026

Never Too Early For Xmas Decs

Generally in our house, the Christmas decorations go up mid November but that is only because of my Husband, if i had my way i would leave them up until June and put them back up again in July although i do tend to 'accidentally' leave some out, there has been a Christmas Gonk on the side since last year which has escaped and will soon be joined by all his little cute Festive friends.
According to a BBC poll, the date most Brits drag out their tree and hang the Mistletoe is the start of December  (29%), then mid December (15%) and then 12% join me in going for mid November although a hardy 4% will be brushing away the Halloween devils and vampires and replacing it with Santa's and Snowmen today.   
Obviously there is no right or wrong day to usher in Christmas, unless you are a strict religious type who wait until Christmas Eve because before it is actually Advent and the Baby Jesus wouldn't like it...or something.
After Halloween the shops go all out and there has been Mince Pies on their shelves even before the Bonfire Night smoke has cleared but if you want to go early in your house, you have Science on your side because according to psychologists, putting them up early makes you happier as the festive lights and decor triggers a spike in feel-good hormones like dopamine and serotonin.
If you are going for a real Christmas Tree and you want to have it in rude health still on the big day then Christmas Tree retailers are suggesting the 1st December at the earliest as the Trees last around 4-6 weeks although you will be finding pine needles in your carpet until September.   
So in the Lucy household I will be sneaking out Festive things until November 14/15 and then go all out and keep being 'too busy' to take them down again until the nagging gets too much around Mid January but to be fair how could anyone deny themselves a two-month Christmas so eat that Santa shaped chocolate, buy that gingerbread spiced latte, wear that gaudy Christmas jumper and put up your Christmas tree and sing along to the Pogues wishing you a Happy Christmas you scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot.

Why Would Anyone Want A Data Centre?

Britain has always had a good NIMBY-ism going on whether it is Prisons, Power Plants, Nuclear Waste Sites or Refugee Camps, everyone agrees that they are needed but Not In My Back Yard and a huge back and forth then takes place but it seems that nobody wants a Data Centre anywhere near them which is a problem for the Government who are keen to build them as part of their  Data Centre policy.
The Americans are far ahead of us in this respect and their appears to be a huge backlash over there and even more-so for candidates campaigning right now with the Mid Terms elections coming up next week.
What the residents near these Data Centres say is that they are huge, noisy things which suck up their electricity which increases their bills and use up their water with very little benefit coming back to the Community which hosts them.
The argument is that they bring jobs to the area and benefit it financially but that's not the experience of people who already have them such as  the OpenAI’s Stargate Project in Michigan where it requires very few people, just 20 staff members who were hired as Security Guards, because it did not need staff as was just a warehouse of servers.
So apart from the long-term costs on power, water, and denying land which could be otherwise used for something useful such as housing as well as delivering minimal jobs or direct community benefit, not much going in their favour except finding more Cat Videos and Alexa harvesting your information.
Do the locals get any reduction in cost of their Internet or better Wifi or anything? Not at all so I really can't see why any community would welcome them, which any political representative will find hard to sell to their voters.