When I was a kid, Christmas was never really a big deal for me. What got my blood pumping came about a month early, when all the presents would be wrapped and hidden somewhere. I was on the prowl, hunting them down carefully lifting the Scotch tape, sliding off the paper and playing with them.

Nothing stopped me. Once, when I knew that behind a locked closet door was a brand-spanking new Nintendo game system, after unsuccessfully picking the lock, I just took the door off the hinges, hooked up the system and played it every day, putting the door and everything else back before anyone came home. Subsequently, when Christmas morning came, I had to look surprised at the gift even though I’d managed to win Super Mario Bros. several times over already. I was a horrid child.

Now, as a reasonably maladjusted adult, the cherished tradition of taking any real joy or excitement out of special-day-surprises continues on. Today is the final release date of Ubuntu 6.10 (or in my case, Kubuntu), otherwise known as Edgy Eft. This is the adult equivalent of the Nintendo for me. This is shit I drool over—a brand new release of my preferred Linux distribution for me to tear apart and go ape-shit on. Yesterday was also the final release of Firefox 2.0, my current browser of choice. Yet another thing to get giddy over.

I should be sitting here in a cooling puddle of urine, my face frozen in an aching rictus of a permanent grin. At this point my voice should be rasped and sore from several hours of repetitively uttering, “Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude“. But, here I am, non-plussed with a lukewarm mug of morning coffee and a nicotine patch riding shotgun on my bicep.

I’ve gone from underoo-wearing, Ninja gift-raider to Alpha tester. I’ve had Edgy Eft on my desktop computer for over a month now. Last week, I finally upgraded my laptop to RC1 because I figured that at that point, things were stable enough. Edgy is nothing new. I’ve had Firefox 2.0 for over three months, making me almost tired of it.

Nerd-xmas is canceled as I sit under the geek-tree, trying to look excited.

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