Ah, bullet points. You’re a writer’s best friend. Can’t come up with a coherent column? Use bullet points! Then you can put together a collection of thoughts with no joining thread whatsoever. All you need is a stream of consciousness and halfway decent ideas and you’re set.

Hell, Bill Simmons has made a career out of this. So I don’t think I can take too much flack for dipping into the well once — after all, I’m knee-deep in Skyrim now, and those who have played know what a time sink that can be. So without further ado, here’s a whole bunch of holiday-themed bullets in the last post before the big day…

• We’re now less than a week away from Christmas, which is mind-boggling to me (even though we’ve talked about it on the show for almost a month). I generally do my Christmas shopping pretty late in the process, so this is crunch time. As this is being posted, I’m probably out buying a million things as we speak. Hopefully the roads aren’t too snowy.
• This is the first time in three or four years now that I’ve had some time off for the holidays, which is fantastic. I really can’t complain about five days off. Sure, the carefree early college days of getting four weeks were nice and all, but that has to end sometime. Unless I become a teacher. Hmm.
• Actually, work was worse than that. For the last two years, I’ve had to work on Christmas Day, and here’s the ultimate kicker: Because Dec. 25 was a Saturday last year, the poor suckers who got stuck working on the biggest holiday of the year didn’t even get time and a half for their trouble, because the holiday was the 24th. That’s right, kids: Not only is Christmas ruined, but you’ll get your usual payment and like it. I’m glad I’m not a poor sucker this year.
• I probably love holiday music more than most folks, but there’s a limit. KEZ, the radio station down in Phoenix, has been doing 24/7 holiday music after Thanksgiving for a long time now, and for the most part that’s a good thing. But listen for a couple hours, and you start to hear repeats. And more repeats. Look, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is a classic, but I don’t need to hear Brenda Lee every hour on the hour, thanks.
• You’ll also hear holiday stations playing “Linus and Lucy” from Peanuts this time of year. Of course, that song has nothing to do with Christmas, but whatever I guess. I mean, it’s a great tune, but why not “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” from the ending or something?

One final note: We mentioned it on the last episode, but there will be no updates on At the Buzzer from Dec. 26-30. Consider it a holiday break. However, we’ll be right back when the calendar turns to 2012, with some new content to boot. Stay tuned for more updates — they’ll be posted on Thursday along with the new episode.