Ok, so OC Original has been keeping it real with his close-to-daily musical advent blogging. And OC Toronto has us covered with her Thumbs Up lists. Even OC Kingston has surpassed us in the holiday-blogs-to-date category. Well, we don't want to come off like a total scrooge. We're here in London, amongst our family - loving the holidays. We like the snow alright. We're into the hot chocolate. We're... relaxing.

So here it is: Proof that we love ya. Solid proof that we can do this Holiday thing. From the Halifax Headquarters of the Optimuscrime Empire, we bring you this musical offering:

So a fella's computer goes and gets itself all busted up. It's harddrive just ups and screws right off, and it seems like there's nothing he can do but take it in to the techies and pay them tonnes of scrilla to make it all better. That was our original thought here at Optimuscrime Halifax HQ. We spent roughly 5 days worrying about the dough we were readying ourselves to part with just to have our little workhorse ploughing again.

And then Catano the roommate enters the scene:

"Don't pay those suckas" he says," We can do this sh** ourselves. I'll help you."
"But I'm afraid I'll harm the little guy" We say. "I don't know how."
"F**k that, boyee." Says Catano. "I did it before for my girl. We got the internet to help us, and we gonna crack that motherf***ker open, and we gonna make it sing."
"Catano," We say, "I don't know why you talk like that, but I'm willing to try this."
And so we get out the screwdrivers, the pens and the butterknives, and we do this...

One and one half hours, fifty two (52) tiny screws, one new harddrive and a plastic case making the most horrific noises that we've ever heard, the job was done. (Honesly readers, you wouldn't believe how terrifyingly compact the insides of an iBook are!) Old Rats! (the given name of the computer) had survived the surgery, and though there were currently eleven (11) screws leftover without homes, we powered him up, and he worked like a dream. (That is to say, that he worked. Period.) And so we celebrated, by loading him up with new programs, and bestowing upon him a beautiful decorative mactack covering to make him feel like once again, somebody loves him.

Now, Our good Old Rats! didn't get out of this unscarred, mind you. No, he'll have these marks for the rest of his life, to ever remind him of his time under the butterknife. It's a small price to pay, for a new lease on life (and at half the cost) right Old Rats? We think it looks tough. Tough the way your new floral covering looks tough. Right?

And so, Optimuscrime Halifax would like to extend a warm holiday thank you to Catano the Roommate for his bravery in the face of technological malpractice. And one to Old Rats for not leaving us too soon. We've got too much ahead of us, you and we. (dang, this first-person plural is tough to keep up - even for us sovereign bloggers.)

It's been literally weeks since our last post, gentle readers. (Though, in comparison to our former month-long absences weeks seem like almost nothing.) The reasons for our absence are many-fold. And so, with Christmas upon us, and the holidays looming, and the spirit of good-will and honesty filling our beings with soft, puffy truth, we give you:

• We are busy. We have our hands in too many pots, as they say. A rock band, a Miniature Gallery, a Graphic Design company, an actual job, and these things called "friends".. they've been keeping us busy. Damn them all, but they've just made us a sweeter offer than this internet has of late.
• A sorry attempt to perform the act of holiday gift-giving in a better than half-assed manner. We've been buying/making/collecting presents slowly for the last month or more, in hopes that we may come off as less than entirely sketchy this year.
• An almost thorough sickness of all things "virtual". Messageboards. Livejournals. Online Newsgroups. Forums. They've been a near-constant source of anxiety of late. Why do we find ourselves reading blogs we know will only enrage us? Why do we participate in discussion threads that we know will result in untimely ulcers? A break seems appropriate on a semi-regular basis
• Keeping Up With The Criminals. Let's be honest with ourselves folks. When it comes to blogging, our homeboy Lukas has pretty much got it covered for quality, and quantity. Simply put: Dude makes us look bad, and we're just not sure we can compete. Best bud, he may be. But an awesome blogging-foe he also represents. Ok, maybe foe is not the right word. But when you've got keeners like Luke on your team, it's hard to feel like a real contributor.
  And finally... the one you've all been waiting for:
• Computer Woes. Yes. They've stricken us too. First the server, and now at home here in sunny cold as fucking ice Halifax, Nova Scotia. After weeks of chugging, our harddrive has finally bit the electronic dust. So while we wait patiently for our new one, which is costing us a beautifully tragic 350 bones, we're reminded of simpler days. When we drew and wrote, and conversed using paper. Paper that didn't cost us our meager fortune.
• We would also like to mention, (for a cheap sympathy shot) that with our harddrive went the better part of three weeks worth of design work for our pal Jon Epworth, and a number of other clients/friends. Three weeks since our last backup. Serves us right, we suppose.
  

So, readers - this may pose a question for us all. Will Optimuscrime Halifax return when his computer springs back from it's untimely grave? The answer to that question is a complicated one. In short - we don't know yet. Our world is a complex one, and we have, as we've said, many things on our proverbial plate. Perhaps we can find a way to regain a foothold in this so-called "internet". Maybe this "blogging" business isn't over for us yet.

Only time will tell.

And in that time, please accept our most genuine wishes of holiday cheer.
We have no special holiday mp3s, or fancy lists of awesome things. Optimuscrime already has those covered. No, what we have is a very special, very tenuous relationship with our readers. And a total lack of promises, or holiday offers. Only this: Have a good holiday. Hug your friends and family.