The Annual Bun a Fiyah pan Christmus Chredd

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i dont even get this thread. what's wrong with pagan rituals? they are the funnest of all. it's the heathenry that makes them good.

nuttinn wrang widd pagan rituals. itt christianitee cooptinn pagan religion traditions ann holiday ann past itt aff as fe dem varsian aff religion mii ave issue widd. wii bunn out hyprocisee

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The annual jerk off

ar yuh tryinn fe mekk joke dat santa onlee cum wance a ear

soo yuh seyinn dat dem advertise christmas like dem advertise porn, intarestinn analogee. dat y so manee peeps feel unsatisfied aftah christmas cum ann gawn. peeps use spendinn fe satisfy dem needs. dat y so manee peeps a spend wey dem doan ave cah dem fallawinn da crowd widd negativity ann cyaan tink fe demselves.

imagine den advertiser teachinn yuths fe jerk awf, mii mean implussivelee spend, at a early age

imagine afta spendinn ann gittinn new tings aftah christmas manee peeps ar unhappy wen dem gitt da bill

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5 ways to beat the psychology of overspending



By Anya Kamenetz, Tribune Content Agency The Savings Game

8:30 a.m. CDT, September 30, 2013
A recent study reported in Scientific American showed a complex relationship between economic behavior, emotions and childhood experiences. When people who had grown up when money was tight were reminded about the recent recession, they were more likely to make short-term, impulsive spending decisions, to ignore wise investments and to choose luxury goods.

Unfortunately, there seems to be something about the stress of economic deprivation that triggers less than optimal spending habits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded that in 2005, the most recent year available, over 40 percent of U.S. households were spending beyond their means, and there's reason to believe that behavior has continued throughout the recession, as median income has fallen between 2007 and 2010.

Luckily, though, you can draw on behavioral economics and psychology research to help you curb overspending every day. Here are five steps you can take.

1) Check your head before you shop.

The most fundamental way to avoid overspending is to apply some self-awareness to the reasons you are shopping.

A 2001 Northwestern study showed that people who felt in control of their lives and powerful made more utilitarian shopping decisions based on quality and performance; people who felt powerless were more prone to conspicuous consumption. Don't go shopping when you feel down about something at work or after a fight with your spouse.

2) Delay "dream purchases" by advertising them publicly.

I always tell my husband that my Pinterest boards have saved us thousands of dollars. When I'm browsing online and see the cutest toy for our daughter or a new lamp for the living room, I "pin" the picture up on the online "board" instead of actually making the purchase. (You can do the same thing by cutting real pictures out of catalogues and putting them in a collage.) Later on, after some time has passed, the object may have lost its luster, or I decide to change it for something better. Sometimes the item even goes on sale. This "advertising" strategy takes advantage of a well-known tendency for the mind to equate expressing intentions with taking action -- by "pinning" that couch, I satisfy some part of my brain as if I've actually bought it.

3) Ration the small stuff.

Many people are prudent when it comes to big-ticket items where they have the time and energy to invest in comparison shopping and budgeting, but all that falls apart when it comes to the little items like buying magazines. That's exactly why stores call them "impulse buys" and put them in the checkout lines at the supermarket.

In one study, self-rationing, or placing arbitrary limits on small purchases, like "two a week," or "only with cash, no credit cards," or "only on Fridays," helped consumers make better decisions and beat impulse buying.

4) Make "exceptional" spending part of your everyday budget.

People are more likely to overspend in situations that seem out of the ordinary, like birthday gifts, a car repair or a favorite concert ticket. But these situations add up and are actually pretty frequent, so it's better to have a designated fund for special occasions, according to a 2012 study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

5) Limit your use of plastic.

Credit cards, gift cards and even debit cards are made for overspending, because the pain of paying is delayed and the transaction therefore seems less "real." Research indicates that some retailers see a 40 percent increase in each purchase when they start accepting credit cards.

The simplest way to tackle this problem is to leave your credit cards at home, or limit them strictly to categories like gas, and use cash for everyday purchases.

(Anya Kamenetz' latest book is "DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education." She welcomes your questions at [email protected])

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-201307301630--tms--savingsgctnzy-a20130730-20130730,0,1910346.story

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12 Tips for “Psychological Selling”



People make decisions emotionally. They decide based on a feeling, need, or emotion, not though a logical thought process. That’s why intangible benefits are the keys to persuasion. When you’re writing, you should ask yourself, “What is the emotional hot button here?”


People justify decisions with facts. Example: a man sees an advertisement with a photo of a sports car and instantly falls in love. However, he can’t bring himself to buy the car based on a feeling, so he reads the copy for technical details about the powerful engine, safety features, and low maintenance. He wants the car because it makes him feel good. But he buys it only when he can justify the purchase rationally.

People are egocentric. The word “egocentric” means centered around the ego or self. We all see the world in terms of how it relates to us personally. So when your copy asks someone to do something, it must also answer the unspoken question, “What’s in it for me?” On a deeper level, the question might be “How does this give me feelings of personal worth?”


People look for value. Value is not a fixed number. Value is relative to what you’re selling, what others charge, what the prospect is used to paying, how badly the prospect wants it, and how the prospect perceives the difference between your offer and others. You must demonstrate a value that seems to be equal to or greater than the asking price. The greater the value relative to the price, the more likely people are to buy.


People think in terms of people. The human brain is not a computer, calculator, or information processor. Scientists have shown that its primary function is to deal with social interactions. Remember how some mathematical questions in high school were stated as real-life situations? They were always easier to understand and solve than abstract problems. Your copy, therefore, should feature people through names, personal pronouns, quotes, testimonials, stories, photos of satisfied customers, etc.


You can’t force people to do anything. When people buy, it’s not because you wield some magical power over them. You can urge. You can push. You can entice. But ultimately, people do what they want to do. This means your job is to show how what you’re offering meets your prospect’s needs.


People love to buy. Some say people don’t like to be “sold.” Not true. People love to be sold. They love to discover wonderful new products and experiences. What people don’t love is to be cheated or tricked. Therefore, it can be helpful to change your analogy of the marketing process. Instead of “selling” to people, try to “help” them. Sell good products, make appealing offers, and treat people fairly. That’s a surefire formula for success.

People are naturally suspicious. It’s true that there’s a sucker born every minute, but most people are moderately skeptical of any offer. They seek to avoid risk. You can never predict the level of suspicion any particular person has, so it’s usually best to back up all claims with evidence, such as testimonials, survey results, authoritative endorsements, test results, and scientific data.


People are always looking for something. Love. Wealth. Glory. Comfort. Safety. People are naturally dissatisfied and spend their lives searching for intangibles. At its simplest, writing good copy is a matter of showing people how a particular product, service, or cause fulfills one or more of their needs.



People buy “direct” because of convenience and exclusivity. If people could easily find the things you offer at a nearby store, that’s probably where many would buy them. So if they are not buying from you directly for sheer convenience, they’re doing it because they can’t find the item elsewhere (or just don’t know where to look). That’s why it’s wise to emphasize the convenience and exclusivity of what you wish to sell.

People like to see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, or smell it before they buy it. Some people never buy online because they can’t examine the merchandise. Some items, such as books and CDs, are tangible and familiar enough to sell easily online because there is little doubt about the physical quality. Other items, such as clothing or food, may be a harder sell — at least until people have a satisfactory buying experience — because quality may be variable. Think about how people buy things in stores and ask yourself if there is some element of that sensory experience that is missing from your sales message.


Most people follow the crowd. Most of us are imitators. We look to others for guidance, especially when we are uncertain about something. We ask, “What do others think about this? What do others feel? What do others do?” Then we act accordingly. This is why testimonials and case histories are so influential.

http://www.copyblogger.com/psychological-selling/

[blugiant]

itt sadd dat peeps justeefii likkle yuths spendinn dem sweetee money fe buy present. dem even send da likkle yuths to church ann tell da likkle yuths fe use dem sweetee money fe chuch donation. shamefull ann dissgracefull sintinn. maddar seyinn nuttinn wrang iff dem yuths spend dem money fe buy dem present cah itt show oww much dem yuths luv dem. in addar wurds, maddars teachinn dem yuths dat mommy luv cum widd a price ann dat dem yuth sweetee money. dat nuh rite

iff yuh luv jesus go to church christmas nite ann increased da church coffers. imagine dem poor peeps woo givinn money dem need to da church fe git blessinn, guiltinn poor beeps. da sad ting iss da poor peeps nuh ask wat da church do fe deserve dem hard earned. church gitt wey widd usinn jesus name ann da day imm allegedlee barn fe gitt peeps money.

[Peasie]

ar yuh tryinn fe mekk joke dat santa onlee cum wance a ear

soo yuh seyinn dat dem advertise christmas like dem advertise porn, intarestinn analogee. dat y so manee peeps feel unsatisfied aftah christmas cum ann gawn. peeps use spendinn fe satisfy dem needs. dat y so manee peeps a spend wey dem doan ave cah dem fallawinn da crowd widd negativity ann cyaan tink fe demselves.

imagine den advertiser teachinn yuths fe jerk awf, mii mean implussivelee spend, at a early age

imagine afta spendinn ann gittinn new tings aftah christmas manee peeps ar unhappy wen dem gitt da bill

I have no idea what you mean, Blu, but happy happy to you

[blugiant]

I have no idea what you mean, Blu, but happy happy to you

annual jerk awf = santa cum wance a ear

rudolph rednose = redlite districts

cartoon fe sell cigarette by slylee targittinn yuths = cartoon fe sell christmas slylee targittinn

analogee sintinns

juss taught yuh was comparinn porn to da overcommericalieszations aff christmas ann oww dem usinn psychologee fe sell boat aff dem

intarestinn ann compell argument butt mii tink mii misinterpret yuh jolly camment

y was rudolph nose red didd imm skii fe fly

[blugiant]

i dont even get this thread. what's wrong with pagan rituals? they are the funnest of all. it's the heathenry that makes them good.

so yuh juss like shaggy dat y yuh doan miss church cah itt better dan soap oprea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJv2bcT1X4E

[Emperah]

1535651_256005721223303_1598253557_n.jpg

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wan aff mii favarate christmas song

The Night Santa Went Crazy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTGlUMvbhSw

[jah_yout]

i dont even get this thread. what's wrong with pagan rituals? they are the funnest of all. it's the heathenry that makes them good.

merry christmas to all my babylonia/roman peeps

[blugiant]

merry christmas to all my babylonia/roman peeps

santa neva cum too da ghettoo again

affii bunn more fiyah pon dat oyinbo creation

[blugiant]

What’s Wrong with Christmas Consumerism


I’ve seen this commercial a number of times this holiday season and it bothers me more and more every time:

http://blog.acton.org/archives/2090-whats-wrong-with-christmas-consumerism.html

But what precisely is wrong with this ad, and the spirit that animates it?

Rev. Billy might say that the problem lies with the gifts themselves. While he might be satisfied if the gifts came from places such as “the shelves of mom and pop stores, farmers markets, artisans and on Craigslist,” he certainly wouldn’t approve of gifts from a “big box” store like Best Buy.

But I don’t think the problem is with the gifts per se. I think it’s with the “givers.”

Speaking of material goods, Augustine writes, “Sin gains entrance through these and similar good things when we turn to them with immoderate desire, since they are the lowest kind of goods and we thereby turn away from the better and higher: from you yourself, O Lord our God, and your truth and your law.” Material goods, just like any other created reality, can be an occasion for sin and idolatry.

So if that is the problem, with our immoderate desires, what is the solution? Reordered desires. Rightly valuing material goods and gifts as penultimate and limited created goods.

What might change in this commercial if we applied these solutions? How would the commercial look different? Rev. Billy might have the family give handmade gifts or secondhand items, or perhaps forego material gifts altogether and take a family walk. These things all have their own value.

But there are good things at Best Buy and other stores, too. That’s what makes it so important to be discerning about how we use good gifts, and that’s what makes Rev. Billy’s message so problematic.

An Augustinian solution to the problem in that Best Buy ad would be something more like this: the family would bring some gifts to Grandma to share with her, and the family would all spend time together enjoying each others’ company and the material goods associated with the holiday. The focus wouldn’t be exclusively on the gifts themselves (as it is in the commercial’s current form), but neither would such a view denigrate the objective, albeit limited, good of material gift-giving.

What’s wrong with Christmas consumerism? It isn’t the fact of consumption itself. It’s in the disordered and immoderate desires for earthly goods when compared with the truly and ultimately important spiritual goods.

So while the Best Buy ad runs afoul of virtue by over-emphasizing material goods, Rev. Billy goes to the opposite extreme by not valuing them enough. As Augustine also wrote, “He who uses temporal goods ill, however, shall lose them, and shall not receive eternal goods either.” This would include not appreciating the material benefits God bestows on us.

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Reverend Billy preaches the gospel of the church of stop-shopping

http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Reverend-Billy-preaches-the-gospel-of-the-church-2550280.php

The holiday shopping frenzy is upon us, but before you race to the mall to claim your new PlayStation 3, iPod or giant flat-panel TV, you might want to heed the words of the Rev. Billy, a.k.a. performance artist Bill Talen.

Talen, 47, a longtime Bay Area actor and playwright who moved to New York in the early 1990s, has since become a well-known street performer in Manhattan as the Rev. Billy, an over-the-top, fire-and-brimstone preacher with a platinum blond pompadour and clerical collar who rails against the ills of consumerism and warns of a coming "shopocalypse" if humans fail to change to their materialistic ways. He and the members of the Stop Shopping Choir, a group of 40 red-robed singers who accompany him on trips to Wal-Mart, Starbucks and other temples of consumerism where he attempts to spread his message, whether people want to hear it or not, are featured in a new documentary film called "What Would Jesus Buy?" Produced by Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me"), the movie follows the group on a cross-country anti-shopping crusade.

Talen, who lives with his wife and collaborator, Savitri Durkee, in Brooklyn, spoke with me last week about the origins of the Rev. Billy, what Christians think of his act, and whether he's just preaching to the converted.

How long have you been doing the Rev. Billy character?

It's been 10 years since it really hit its stride.

What gave you the idea in the first place?

At the time I started doing it, New York City was sort of hushed. There was a way in which the public space was filling with sirens and the screaming brakes of mafia garbage trucks (laughs), but things were very depoliticized. Rudy Giuliani was overrunning things, and his police were highly militarized. I lived near Times Square and they were arresting practically anybody that didn't have a credit card. I'm not exaggerating ... They were turning Time Square into a super mall -- like a suburban mall, except vertical in its shape.

They had to privatize the sidewalks and streets, and get anybody who would ruin a sale, get them out of the picture. That included all of the interesting people and the less powerful -- the vendors and the small shops and the unhurried, profane conversations on the stoop. In other words, a healthy neighborhood became illegal at that time. And so I decided to defend my neighborhood. And when enough people joined me, we started singing together. And it became the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir.

Needless to say, you were unable to stop the progression of commercialization in Times Square. What makes you think you can convince people to resist the holiday shopping impulse?

People around the world are sending us their confessions and pledges to change. A lot of people are realizing that we just have too much stuff. Our closets are bulging from last year's Christmas, and we can't remember what it was all for. I think the climate crisis has a lot to do with it. People are connecting consequences to their shopping. And so they are making gifts, and they're finding gifts on the shelves of mom and pop stores, farmers markets, artisans and on Craigslist.

In "What Would Jesus Buy?" you make the point that people are conditioned to associate material goods with love. It's as if we believe that we're more worthy if we have more things. What can you really do about that?

If you bring the gift-giving back home -- and you don't have to buy a gift to give a gift -- then you readjust back to a kind of non-commodified love. That love may take the form of time, caresses, storytelling. Then life becomes a lot more complex and a lot more fun than if you're just going out and getting your average, vacuum-packed product from a shelf and giving it to somebody.

You've called for a "slow gift movement." What is that all about?

So often, we've discovered that the reason why people end up in what they know is a "mall from hell" is because we're in a hurry. I say "we" because I'm a sinner, too. We are all sinners in this church. We're thinking, "I've got to knock off 30 gifts here. Boom! Boom! Boom! Go up and down the aisle -- well, that'll be good for Sam! That will be good for Beth! Okay, good! Boom! Boom!" That's what we have to stop doing.

The greatest creature of all, the Earth, the life systems of which we are a part, is telling us we have to stop doing this. It's a matter of survival. We are shopping ourselves to death.

Your character, the Rev. Billy, is a parody of an evangelical preacher, the kind you might see on Sunday morning television shows. Has that put you at odds with Christians who see your act -- maybe some of the very same people you are trying to reach?

Oddly enough, evangelicals are major supporters of this film, and major supporters of our church. It would be easy for them to say, "Wait a minute! You're a hypocrite! You put goop in your hair! You aren't really ordained," but it turns out that so many people understand that the thing we call the "shopocalypse" is so real that they are reaching out to us. They are reaching past their fear.

Does that surprise you?

I was surprised at first. It's not like I always thought that Christians would be a part of this thing. Of course, we have Christians in our choir, and we have Sufis and Jews and Catholics and Buddhists. A lot of us are preacher's kids, "PKs" as they are called, and children of PKs. We like to think we are ecumenical and hope that we are not offending anybody so much that they don't get our message.

You grew up in a Christian family. What was Christmas like in your house?

I remember some wonderful Christmases. It was a beautiful thing for a while. But I left the Christian church at a very young age, and that shifted my feelings about Christmas, certainly.

How so?

Now I think of what happens in late December as a time when darkness recedes and light expands, and the promise of spring is the promise of change. I like what Rev. (Jim) Wallis says at the end of our film: "Christmas was supposed to be the arrival of one who would set us straight. Shake things up!"

Do you consider yourself a religious or spiritual person now?

I've just kind of moved beyond calling myself labels. I think a part of resisting consumerism and giving people the example of resisting consumerism is to stop imitating products. That's why we don't get any money from foundations. Are we political? Are we religious? Are we artistic? Those are three labels that would come to us from the foundation world. Well, the political foundations think we are clowns. And the artistic foundations think we are political. And the religious foundations think we are atheists. So the thing that makes us powerful to people is also the thing that makes it hard to define.

How do you make a living? Guerrilla theater doesn't seem like it would pay much.

Savitri and I live fairly modest lives. We lecture at festivals and conferences and universities. Our paydays are enough to pay the rent. We have a two-bedroom apartment and drive an '89 Saab that's getting a little rough around the edges. All the hood ornaments have fallen off.

Are you actively performing as the Rev. Billy in theaters or are you mainly doing him out in the street?

We have concert performances and then we are out on the streets. Our pattern is to tour for three weeks and then come back home. This Saturday I'm blessing 600 Santa Clauses -- the Santacon -- in Times Square. We were wondering, should we have a Santa mosh pit? Should we just let them toss and roll around? But, you know, they get drunk. They are drunk Santas, and we just thought they would probably drop me. So we pulled back from the idea.

You've done a lot of demonstrations in big box stores, including faux exorcisms of cash registers.

One reason we go into the big boxes to exorcise the cash registers is simply that the big boxes destroy our main streets. They destroy the economy of our neighborhoods with their slave labor prices. But they simulate public space inside the big box. So we say: No! If you are going to do that, if you are going to kill our Main Street but reconstitute our Main Street inside your stores, well, we are going to go in there, and we are going to still have our First Amendment rights. Arrest us if you must!

How many times have you been arrested?

About 40 or 50 times.

What was the best Christmas gift you have ever received?

I got a wonderful gift one year from Savitri. She took me on the subway to Coney Island, and we walked along -- not a white sand, but a white snow beach. These old Russian guys were playing chess in the freezing cold with their bare fingers on the chess pieces. The whole scene had a beautiful, spare beauty about it, and we could just be alone.

What was the worst gift you ever got?

I was with a friend in Manhattan, and he got really drunk -- this is many years ago. I remember I just had to baby-sit him all Christmas because I thought he was going to die, or something awful was going to happen. We ended up in Bellevue, as I recall.

Any Christmas wishes you'd like to send out this year?

Yes. I would just like to ask a blessing on these readers: May the wacky impresario that created this mysterious thing called life help us find a way to give each other the gift that shouldn't cost anything. It's the gift we need so badly right now -- the gift of peace!

"What Would Jesus Buy?" starring Bill Talen, is currently playing at the Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco and the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley. For more information about Rev. Billy, visit www.revbilly.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Reverend-Billy-preaches-the-gospel-of-the-church-2550280.php

[blugiant]

likkle yuths dem spend awl dem sweetee money

awl da poor yuths woo cood natt afford fe buy aneeting

awl da poor woo goinn to bed hungry

awl dem xxploited wurkas woo wukk tidday cah sum bizz were open

santa neva cum to da ghetto

merry christmas to awl ann to awl a good nite