Puck’s Blog

Saturday night Mel & I went to the Stream Christmas party. Well, they couldn’t call it that, but that’s what it was. Stream is one of those companies that’s big enough that it has to do everything in its power to not offend people that work there because they might sue. So if you’re Wiccan or Athiest or whatever and they start talking about Christmas in any kind of official manner you’ll be a dick and claim that it is creating an uncomfortable working environment.

Look, I’m an athiest, but it’s a damned word, ok? It’s like a shortcut everyone uses for “winter-time reason for partying”. Whether it’s Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, Decemberween, or just excuse-to-get-drunk-with-coworkers it really doesn’t matter. Nobody’s trying to bring up Jesus, so we could all just settle down.

Anyway, the party was about what you’d expect from a staff function. The people were varied from the professional (in suit and ties) to the radical (a full-on glued up mowhawk) to the slovenly (multiple bad mullet wearers in illl-fitting out-of-fashion clothing). Entertainment was Trevor McDonald, an old friend of mine. He used to run the club “Earthquake Annies” and I was the guy he came to for computer help all the time. He performs mostly classic rock playing his guitar with drums and other backing-tracks running off a computer and Katrien DeGroot singing backup vocals. For what it is, it’s quite good and fit well with the evening.

Dinner was so in-keeping with a staff party that I probably could’ve loaded my plate blindfolded. Buns, butter pats in individual containers, salads (dressing in nearby containers and Caesar), broccoli/cauliflower/carrots mix, mashed potatoes, pasta, salmon and of course, roast beef. Nothing surprising and certainly nothing with any spice to it. Some day I’d like to go to one of these and see some curry or thai food with a “Spicy!” warning in front of it as well as the usual.

We ate, we talked with a few people (Tony was there of course) and left around midnight. It’s hard to say I enjoyed myself. It certainly wasn’t a bad night, but there weren’t really any high points either.

In other words, a standard staff Xmas party.