There’s so much to prepare for
As October sadly comes to an end, and daylight savings time in the U.S. with it, we have to look to the future and be prepared for the next two very busy months. But we have our most favorite holiday (after Jontober, that is)—Halloween. This is when you get to dress up as your favorite character and go beg for treats. This year most of the cities in the U.S. have put a ban on clown suits, which, I am told, often include large yellow wigs.
Nvidia almost closed the door on the AIB roll-out for the year, but rumor has it AMD stuck their foot in and said, Hold on, we have one more. That’s in preparation for all the AAA games that just came out plus the others that will be out soon. In time for the holiday season. So we have to prepare for installing a new AIB, maybe getting a new computer to plug it into, and the new games. Wow, major pocketbook hit, on top of the other expenses at this time of year.
There will also be five or six VR conferences to attend.
Then we will have the elections in the U.S. The world is trying to figure out how to prepare for that. We’ve heard Canada, Mexico, and Netherlands are closing their immigration offices for a month starting November 6 … and France and Germany thought they had immigration problems.
If we survive that, then we have the annual eat-and-watch football season, where U.S. citizens have contests to see how many belt sizes they can increase, promising to go to the gym next, no really, I mean it this time. And then all hell breaks loose when the retailers (those brick-and-mortar companies you may have heard about) throw open their doors and incite riots and mayhem by declaring everything marked down because it’s Black Friday. Shoppers tear apart boxes, each other’s clothes, and bully their way to cash registers so they can unload and go back for more.
Things are giant then for a few weeks while people try to get their new graphics boards working, or their new 4K 65-inch TV to work. Everyone will be yelling at Alexa and Siri and other AI-based voice recognition toys, while IoT lights, fans, and alarm systems are randomly turned on and off.
About mid-December, in the U.S., folks start preparing for the Christmas holidays. Making lists of who they will invite to parties, nailing lights up on their roofs and around windows, and shopping for trees. Office parties are planned, and other parties are also secretly planned. 
Then it comes—presents are distributed, everyone gets a new graphics board and a curved monitor, and maybe a new controller. Laptops and Chromebooks are found under trees, and there are more gift cards than people in some countries.
Barely has the excitement had time to wear off, the hangover to pass, and the mess to be cleaned up when it’s time to plan the New Year’s party. And at the Peddie household, the annual (I promise not to show those pictures) re-gifting party. If you don’t know what that is, just be at our house on the 28th and bring a terrible gift you got.
So we have a lot to get ready for in these next few weeks, too much, in fact. It’s going to be damn tough getting any work done.