One Guess What I'm Doing Right Now . . . .

"I'm All Lit Up . . . Like A . . . Christmas Treeeeeeeeeee!"




Happy Damn New Year.

~~JD~~

Oh, THOSE Christmas Cards!

Another minor change for the 'blog: I've changed the sizing on the pictures slightly so that the pictures posted in the 'blog are larger; and if you want to see a larger version you can click on the photo itself. Try it on the photo below now; it's really quite spectacular.


Got a few more Christmas cards today, and was happy to hear from out old neighbors in several places, as well as my Aunt Mary Jayne & Uncle Mike. Ariane and Julian heard from my mom as well; and that small pile of Christmas Cards has become quite large, indeed.

So Ariane walks up to me with two boxes, the first one of which looks like this:




"What's this?, she asks? (In our house "What's this?" is code for "Why LOOK; I've found something obvious one or both of us has forgotten to take care of, my love!)

I replied, "Uhmmmmmm . . . our Christmas Cards."

"We have Christmas Cards?"

"Well, yeah -- looks like I forgot." This is something pretty unusual for me. I LOVE Christmas cards, and really enjoy the whole process of sending them out. Forgetting is a pretty big deal.

I have no idea what happened. Maybe I had a stroke and nobody noticed.

So the picture above was to be one of our Christmas Cards this year (and is sure to be next year, now that I've found them). It's the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio all decorated up for the Christmas season -- just gorgeously beautiful, really breathtaking in person. The one below is uniquely Texas; longhorn cattle and bluebonnets (the state flower that cover the state in springtime):





And perhaps the inspiration for the "vandalism" of Howie the Cow mentioned below in the previous post? Hmmmmmmm?????

~~JD~~

'Blog Miscellany and Vandalizing Santa Cow

A couple of brief things here. Two things on the 'blog, and a Christmas Cow.

First, I've re-enabled the Comments Section at the ends of each post. I originally turned these off a few months ago when the autobots discovered my blog and started leaving Spam Comments.

Fortunately, E-blogger (my site host) has developed a Word Verification protocol to defeat these Spam-bots. What it means for you is that when you choose to post a comment, you'll have to read the weird-looking word and type it into the box in able to post comments. A fair trade, I think.

Finally, I had some recognition for my little blog of some note that I want to share (or crow about; take your pick.) One of the 'blogs I list under the heading of "The News, As I See It Daily" is Brian Mulroney's Blog The Radio Equalizer. I've been a big fan of radio ever since my Grandma Glynn gave me an AM table radio for Christmas 1967. I used to listen to all the Chicago Radio Greats: Wally Phillips and Roy Leonard on WGN, Newsradio 78, WJJD, WIND -- I even discovered Rock-and-Roll on the great WLS at 890 on the dial. I remember drifting off to sleep many a year listening to WBBM Newsradio.

So you see why I have links to both Robert Feder'sChicago Sun-Times column on Chicago Radio as well as The Radio Equalizer. Radio's pretty much in my blood, if not my very DNA.

Anyway, about two nights ago I was scrolling down his list of favorite blogs to find Michelle Malkin's website (finally decided to link her on my own site; check it out on the left-hand side) when lo and behold; what to my wondering eye should appear but . . . Apocryphal EVIDENCE!!! -- my own little blog!. When I re-checked the next night, I'd been upgraded to a ~~Busy!~~ listing as well -- meaning Brian's reading my 'blog as I'm reading his.

Wow. I'm mildly famous, sort of.

Follow the links above or RIGHT HERE to confirm my delusional fantasies for yourself. I'm about 1/3rd of the way down on the right, under the listing Crank It Up To "11" -- way down past the ads.

How cool is that???



Finally, from the sublime to the absurd, the Vidette-Times back in my hometown of Valparaiso Indiana are reporting that Howie the Steer; the signpost and mascot for Kelsey's Steak House, was "vandalized" Christmas Eve.

As the photo above shows, one of the customers crafted a giant-steer-sized Santa Hat for Howie and stuck it on his head overnight. Howie is quite beloved in Valpo; the mayor of Valparaiso, my fellow classmate at Valpo High School Jon Costas, once (according to the TIMES "wrote a song in Howie's honor. Costas sang the tune at a Board of Zoning meeting, and at Saturday's move, after riding in on Howie's back.

You can read about that little adventure Right Here in the Northwest Indiana Times as well.

~~JD~~

Afterglow

This -- right here, right now -- is my very favorite time of the year.

I'm sitting here on the couch, watching my brand-new copy of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Last year it was a different movie I'd received for Christmas; and the year before, a different on than that. It's early evening, and the tree is all lit up.

(And if I wasn't working night shift in a few hours, I might well be lit up myself right now.)

There are ornaments on that tree I've had for years, and ornaments I've seen all my life. A Christmas Tree is like a time capsule you open once a year -- the things on it rarely change and remain forever evergreen, you should pardon the pun. There's the first real ornament I ever bought; a ceramic tabby cat wearing a bowtie and green vest, that I bought at Macy's in Augusta Georgia in 1984. There's the craft ornaments (rabbits, bears, and wooden toys) Ariane and I made from the arts-and-crafts section of Wal-Mart in Waynesville Missouri our first Christmas in the States in 1990. There's the rabbit in the calico dress atop the tree we bought at the Popcorn Festival in Valparaiso Indiana in 1992 when Julian was just a baby. (We had to buy it -- he locked onto that bunny with his 23-month-old death grip that toddlers get when they see something they want.) There's the pixie ornament my grandmother (Nana) had on her tree from sometime in the 40's or 50's that I inherited when she died a few years ago; as well as the ceramic handmade bells Nana made herself that tinkle gently as a cat brushes by them.

I swear, had she had more money than Bill Gates -- if I'd gotten this ornament alone I'd be just as happy.

The tree is lit; the balcony is ablaze with lights; the rush and anticipation of pre-Christmas has given way to the satisfaction of a well-enjoyed holiday. That perfect time between Christmas and New year's -- nothing to be done right now but enjoy the glow of after-Christmas lights.

The Christmas Afterglow, if you will.

Joy to the world, indeed.

I wish everyone could see the grin on my face right now -- you'd understand.

~~JD~~

Confessions of a Mad Diabetic, Part II

Man, I just can't eat like I used to. And believe me, I surely used to.

I noticed early on in this process that eating too many sweets will give me a really strong head buzz and rush, so of course I've been modifying my diet in accordance with ADA (American Diabetic Association) guidelines -- more veggies and lean meats; less breads, peas, corn, and carbohydrates. Carefully, carefully with the sugars and fruits.

But the volume I can eat has decreased markedly as well; quantity as well as quality. As recently as last Christmas we put on our traditional Christmas Eve feast of chicken wings, roast beef, garlic bread, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, etc, etc . . . this year we were stuffed with just the garlic bread and wings. The chips, dips, peppermint ice cream, and shrimp scampi are all still in the refrigerator unopened (until tonight!)

Starting last night I'm working three midnight shifts in a row to fill in for our vacationing regular night shift nurse. These are the first night shifts I've worked regularly since becoming diabetic, and present some unusual problems. For Instance: After 8 months of trial, error, and accomodation to my new metabolism, I've managed to get my blood sugar under pretty good control (roughly 100-130 every morning.) That's primarily because I eat a certain controlled amount of food at three regular meals a day, and take my medicine twice a day.

So what happens when your nights become days and days become nights?

For starters, I wake up at 1pm after 3 hours of sleep shaking and doubled over in cramps. You guessed it -- took my medication before bed but forgot to eat. Had to make lunch, which took two hours out of my sleep cycle to do before I could sleep. Then when I woke up at 6pm, my blood sugar was sky-high.

And now I'm really missing that two hours of sleep at 10pm as I get ready for work.

It's amazing how much one little thing can upset your life. Lose that precious ability to regulate your blood sugar, and watch those dominoes come tumbling down.

~~JD~~

A Merry Christmas, Indeed

Squeaked this one in by the skin of my teeth,didn't I?

One of my favorite Christmas gifts was from my son Julian, who got me a tropical print scrub top (which I'm currently wearing at work as I type this) which features Curious George surfing the islands -- soon to be worn to a Convention near you!


And it looks like this.

The kicker is that my son's nickname has been the "little monkey" for years -- which he detests, usually. This was sly payback for years of good-natured torture; as well as a GREAT shirt, knowing my love for loud tropical prints (which some of my friends have encouraged far too much.)

My lovely and gracious wife actually did a spit-take with her coffee halfway across the living room when she saw it

/~~~~~~~~~~~~~/~~/~~/~~~~~~~~~~~~~/

I got him back today, though. My back's been bothering me for a week or two now, and the apartment complex has a heated Jacuzzi, so I trotted out and soaked in the Jacuzzi for a half-hour before bed tonight.

I though Julian was going to have a stroke when he saw me dripping in his doorway. "You went SWIMMING, Dad?!?!?!!!

Heh-heh-heh. Good one. Also something I can't do in northwest Indiana, where the temperature as I write this is . . . . a lovely 32 degrees F 9versus 60 here, with a high today of 82.

Gotta love South Texas.

~~JD~~

Merry Christmas to All, And To All a Good Night . . . .

Great Christmas, Great Christmas. Ariane, Julian, and I had a nice night snacking away on buffalo wings, garlic bread, and various munchies with a very nice bottle of Merlot to wash it down. Opened present at midnight, and everyone got exactly what they wanted. (We had deliberately limited our purchases to one or two per person and not too extravagant -- so we had to get quality rather than quantity.) Filled the stockings with chocolates and little knick-nacky things, so it was quite memorable all in all.

Woke up this morning about quarter to ten, which is unusually late for me -- and very pleasant. Spent the day talking with Ariane's relatives in Belgium where the family had gathered. We're expecting another visit from Oriane this summer, who is 14 now and getting that teenage girl groove on -- so it should be fun. Didn't hear from my side of the family this year -- mainly because I'm almost always the one making the calls, and I thought I'd wait to see if anyone called me for a change. (Well, theory confirmed -- so much for that experiment.)

In our newest tradition (about 5 years old so far) we went to see a movie Christmas afternoon, and we went to see Ariane's pick Munich by Steven Spielberg. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but came away from the movie glad I'd seen it. Spielberg's point of view really doesn't come out until the very last shot of the file, when you see the Mossad agent walking away from his job and the camera focuses on . . . . .


. . . . The World Trade Center. Meaning, if you don't take care of a problem now, it'll come back to haunt you. Even the lovely and gracious Miss Mommy came out of the movie feeling very hawkish on terrorism.

The movie moved surprisingly quickly for an almost 3-hour flick -- faster than any in recent memory. Don't know if I'll buy this one, but I suspect we will; and may even see it twice -- it was that good. The movie may be a career-maker for Eric Bana, most recently known for the title role in last summer's The Incredible Hulk; and the last five minutes may put you off sex for a month. (You'll understand when you see it.)

And the weather? Well, I've got the porch doors open and the cats are all out on the balcony in beautiful 58 degree weather -- down from a high of 82 lovely degrees today. And gasoline hit $1.96 today -- down 3 cents from just yesterday.

Life is truly good; far better than I deserve.

~~JD~~

God of the Illogical

I've been following the "War on Christmas" thing very closely this year, in no small part due to John Gibson's wonderful book The War On Christmas. Plus Fox News has been giving it a lot of play to support the book as well.

So I've been trying to imagine the best way to respond to an atheist who debates the logic of it all (and lets be frank -- all atheists at some point or another will inevitably begin to debate the logic of there being a God or His actions.) Oddly enough, I can't even begin to frame that debate.

Broad Overview of God's Interactions with Humanity: God creates Man (an intelligent being with Free Will) as a "companion" to interact with. Man complains he's lonely, so God creates a "woman" to be Man's companion.

Okay, so far so good -- right?

Unfortunately, the humans rebel against God by doing the only thing they're forbidden to do -- eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Q: "So Why would God forbid humans to do anything if he loved them?" A: "Because Free Will is worth nothing if choice isn't involved.")

The entire resto of the Old Testament is the story of how God gave mankind rules to live by; Mankind screws up the rules; and God charges in to the rescue again by forgiveness of their sins. Cases in Point: (1) The Flood, (2) Deliverance from Egypt, (3) Conquering Canaan, (4) The Prophets, (5) Babylonian Captivity, etc., etc.

And that's just the BROAD strokes -- In the life of King David alone there's a TON of examples -- enough to fill this blog to capacity and crash the server, had I enough time and inclination to type my fingers to the bone today.

Fortunately for you, I don't.

So after mankind completely screws up Paradise in Eden, God makes the ultimate sacrifice -- literally -- for mankind. He comes down to earth -- physically -- and dies trying to rescue us all.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Luke 2: 8-14.

I'm sorry -- there is Absolutely No Logic to this event. To come to earth? To experience Pain? To be rejected by the very people who profess to love and revere you? To die a lonely, embarrassing, lingering painful death on a cross?

No-Logic-Whatsoever.


Really, it's all about keeping promises. Promises like "I will never forsake you." It's about trust -- it's about never losing Hope -- and most importantly . . .

It's about Love.

If you don't understand the logic of Love, there's no having a discussion with you about it.


Merry Christmas, everybody.

~~JD~~

Important Differences Between WordPerfect and MS Word that I've Discovered the past two Weeks . . .

Just some brief observations I've gleaned whilst programming my Merge Project into MS Word the past few days. I'm much more conversant with Corel's Wordperfect. I've been using Wordperfect since before Corel bought the Utah-based company about 10 years ago and folded it into their programming line -- since about Wordperfect 3.1, many, many iterations ago. So everything I'm learning about Word on the fly is a new revelation, which I'm contrasting with my knowledge of Wordperfect. And since I own the latest versions of both programs (Wordperfect 12 and Word 2003), I'm fairly well conversant with the latest features of both programs -- To Wit;

1.) Wordperfect allows you to reset margins and page orientation at any point in the document -- Word does not. If I want a multi-page document that has the odd pages Portrait formatted and the even pages Landscape format, you can do it in Wordperfect by resetting the Page Setup every page. In Word, you select the page orientation one time and it never changes -- unless you change it for ALL the pages in the document. Same with the margins, as Wordperfect allows you to change margins as often as you want.

2.) Word is much more simple and accurate to use a Scanner with. I suspect it's because of the above -- I've scanned similar documents into both WordPerfect and Word, and the results in Wordperfect are not only slow but usually result in so many bizarre variations or margin formats that they're almost unusable. I usually end up cutting and pasting the (badly mangled) text into a new sheet with clean margins, where I can start cleaning up the text errors.

Word, on the other hand, has NEVER given me a text error -- probably because the processor wasn't overloaded trying to figure out the bizarre margins.

3.) Word only allows importing pictures with simple re-sizing; WordPerfect allows multiple picture edit functions. In fact, the picture edit functions are so multi-faceted that they can frequently overwhelm the processor and slow the program to the point of standstill unless you have the latest version of whatever Pentium chip Intel's marketing now. Word forgoes the editing functions for simple re-sizing, which is plenty for most folks. The only time I needed the complex picture editing functions was when I did my Thesis five years ago -- and it was maddening waiting for the processor to catch up to what I'd just done.

4.) Word allows easy and simple import of MS Excel documents as cut-and-paste into Word. Wordperfect also has some or most of this function with Corel's Quattro, it's not nearly as easy or neat in execution.

5.) Imported Quattro documents can be edited easily in WordPerfect documents. In fact, all (if not most) Quattro functions are available even if the document has been cut and pasted into Wordperfect. However, Excel documents imported into Word have very limited editing capability -- mostly just re-sizing capabilities and pasting text in. This is some kind of Microsoft thing -- as I've pasted Excel documents into Wordperfect before and couldn't edit them worth a damn.

6.) WordPerfect is easily the cost-beater here by far. This one makes no sense to me; you'd think the program with the most function (WordPerfect) would cost more, but the opposite is true. WordPerfect is about $25.00 per copy cheaper than Word; and is easily only half the cost when you buy it bundled into your new computer purchase; which means lots of businesses buy it for their staffs. Yet Word is the program most people know, because it's given free to libraries, schools, univerities, and other educational and public service institutions.

So which do I prefer? Well, for standard run-of-the-mill word processing MS Word is substantially easier to use, and the word processor of choice at my work. But for big jobs, WordPerfect can't be beat in a pinch for price, utility, and function.

Just have a lot of time to do it in, or a big honkin' processor.

~~JD~~

Joy to The World; The BOB is Come!

Haven't received many Christmas cards this year, but I got a good one yesterdaMy old friend and mentor, Bob Sauber, has accepted a position with the Medina Children's home in Medina Texas -- about an hour north of San Antonio (which in Texas means "right-next-door", really.)

WOOOOOOO--HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I first met Bob when I was working at Shults-Lewis Children's Home just south of Valparaiso Indiana when he was a counselor there and I was one of the Childcare Workers in their experimental Intensive Treatment Program (a locked unti for runaways and emotional problems.) We did some pretty good work there, I thought, but a lack of support from the current (and former) administration shut the place down after less than a year.

Bob and I get along great -- mostly because we're both certified loons, viewing life and people generally from way, 'waaaaayyyyyy outside the box. Bob was the one who encouraged me to go back to school to get my bachelor's in Psychology, and has greatly influenced my worldview in the discipline (if "discipline" is actually a word you can mention in the same sentence with "Bob Sauber" in it as well.)

Should be fun. Hell, it should be a riot. Bob wrote at the bottom of the note "you can run, but you can't hide."

Terriffic. I've got a minor celebrity stalker. (Heh).

~~JD~~

Experiment Day Four; ~or~ Let's Just Say "Merry Christmas" and Get It Over With Already

Or are we allowed to say that here in America?

Just in case you were wondering, here's how you say "Merry Christmas" in a buncha different languages:


Afrikaans: Gesëende Kersfees
Afrikander: Een Plesierige Kerfees
African/ Eritrean/ Tigrinja: Rehus-Beal-Ledeats
Albanian:Gezur Krislinjden
Arabic: Milad Majid
Argentine: Feliz Navidad
Armenian: Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand
Azeri: Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
Bahasa Malaysia: Selamat Hari Natal
Basque: Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!
Bengali: Shuvo Naba Barsha
Bohemian: Vesele Vanoce
Brazilian: Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo
Breton: Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian: Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Catalan: Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou!
Chile: Feliz Navidad
Chinese: (Cantonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
Chinese: (Mandarin) Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
(Catonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun
Choctaw: Yukpa, Nitak Hollo Chito
Columbia: Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo
Cornish: Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth
Corsian: Pace e salute
Crazanian: Rot Yikji Dol La Roo
Cree: Mitho Makosi Kesikansi
Croatian: Sretan Bozic
Czech: Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish: Glædelig Jul
Duri: Christmas-e- Shoma Mobarak
Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
or Zalig Kerstfeast
English: Merry Christmas
Eskimo: (inupik) Jutdlime pivdluarit ukiortame pivdluaritlo!
Esperanto: Gajan Kristnaskon
Estonian: Ruumsaid juulup|hi
Faeroese: Gledhilig jol og eydnurikt nyggjar!
Farsi: Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad
Finnish: Hyvaa joulua
Flemish: Zalig Kerstfeest en Gelukkig nieuw jaar
French: Joyeux Noel
Frisian: Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!
Galician: Bo Nada
Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr! German: Froehliche Weihnachten
Greek: Kala Christouyenna!
Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!
Hawaiian: Mele Kalikimaka
Hebrew: Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova
Hindi: Shub Naya Baras
Hausa: Barka da Kirsimatikuma Barka da Sabuwar Shekara!
Hawaian: Mele Kalikimaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou!
Hungarian: Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket
Icelandic: Gledileg Jol
Indonesian: Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi: Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah
Irish: Nollaig Shona Dhuit, or Nodlaig mhaith chugnat
Iroquois: Ojenyunyat Sungwiyadeson honungradon nagwutut. Ojenyunyat osrasay.
Italian: Buone Feste Natalizie
Japanese: Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto
Jiberish: Mithag Crithagsigathmithags
Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latin: Natale hilare et Annum Faustum!
Latvian: Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu!
Lausitzian:Wjesole hody a strowe nowe leto
Lettish: Priecigus Ziemassvetkus
Lithuanian: Linksmu Kaledu
Low Saxon: Heughliche Winachten un 'n moi Nijaar
Macedonian: Sreken Bozhik
Maltese: IL-Milied It-tajjeb
Manx: Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa
Maori: Meri Kirihimete
Marathi: Shub Naya Varsh
Navajo: Merry Keshmish
Norwegian: God Jul, or Gledelig Jul
Occitan: Pulit nadal e bona annado
Papiamento: Bon Pasco
Papua New Guinea: Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu
Pennsylvania German: En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr!
Peru: Feliz Navidad y un Venturoso Año Nuevo
Philipines: Maligayan Pasko!
Polish: Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie
Portuguese:Feliz Natal
Pushto: Christmas Aao Ne-way Kaal Mo Mobarak Sha
Rapa-Nui (Easter Island): Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-Henua
Rhetian: Bellas festas da nadal e bun onn
Romanche: (sursilvan dialect): Legreivlas fiastas da Nadal e bien niev onn!
Rumanian: Sarbatori vesele
Russian: Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom
Sami: Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Sardinian: Bonu nadale e prosperu annu nou
Serbian: Hristos se rodi
Slovakian: Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoce
Sami: Buorrit Juovllat
Samoan: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Scots Gaelic: Nollaig chridheil huibh
Serb-Croatian: Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina
Serbian: Hristos se rodi. Singhalese: Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak: Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovene: Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto
Spanish: Feliz Navidad
Swedish: God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År
Tagalog: Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon
Tami: Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
Trukeese: (Micronesian) Neekiriisimas annim oo iyer seefe feyiyeech!
Thai: Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish: Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian: Srozhdestvom Kristovym
Urdu: Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese: Chung Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh: Nadolig Llawen
Yugoslavian: Cestitamo Bozic
Yoruba: E ku odun, e ku iye'dun!


(I have no idea what "Yoruba" language is, myself. I'll just take it on faith that THIS WEBSITE HERE knows what it's talking about.)


Yet in America today it's almost blasphemy to wish people a "Merry Christmas" or even to show any kind of religious connotation related to Christmas. School and government officials live in fear of being sujed by some whack-job who is "offended" (god forbid!) by mention of the Almighty or the birth of his Son. Retailers emulate the schools and local governments, again to avoid "offending" someone.

Yet the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that celebrating Christmas in schoold is not only legal but permissable. Why all the fear?

The answer to this is found in the book The War On Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought by Fox News Anchor John Gibson. It's a thourough by avid read -- keeping me enthralled all through the book. I'm about halfway through the book but the story is essentially the same with every example Gibson gives. Nutjob threatens school board/government/etc with ACLU lawsuit and false "facts" about what is permissable -- ergo, the school board/government/etc folds to avoid threatened lawsuit.

Gibson's book is a godsend to the local school boards/governments/etc in that he details just what is and is not permissable in celebrating holidays. It makes buffoons of the Nutjobs who have brought these lawsuits by quoting interviews with them, and is a wonderful resource to anyone who wants to fight these nutjobs when they raise their ugly heads in whiny, mealy-mouthed protest.

And I promise you will be astonished with some of the crap they've gotten away with. There's actually a town here in Texas where it's not even permissable to wear the colors Red or Green at Christmastime.

Yeesh!

Highly Recommended. Click on the book to buy it at Amazon.com.

~~JD~~

The Experiment Continues . . . Day Three!

Been thinking about Christmas a lot lately. Today at noon is the Halfway point to Christmas in December; 12 pm on December 12th.

Makes me all tingly thinking about it. I just love it!

I've been listening a lot to a couple of Christmas albums at work. A new favorite I bought last year is Christmas with the Rat Pack, which features some great favorites from Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior, and (of course) The Chairman of The Board himself. These guys are so obviously having a blast with this music it's just infectious; it's hard not to grin your head off whilst listening to it. Just Magic, baby -- just magic!

My other favorite is an old, old favorite -- the ever-popular Elvis Christmas Album, available in Wal-Marts and Target stores everywhere. Again, it's a case of Elvis and the Jordan-aires having an absolute blast with the material and being able to feel it in the music. I found this in my local Wal-Mart five or ten years ago for $5.00, and would've paid $50.00 for it. A monster favorite.

Finally, the one everyone -- and I **do** mean Everyone -- recognizes and smiles at -- is A Charlie Brown Christmas. I've heard all kinds of cuts from this album, including the "Dance Music" from the party scene and the famous "Linus & Lucy" theme you hear in every Peanuts Special. Vince Guaraldi really got into this music, and very much enjoyed making this album, and it shows.

Ariane's singing Elvis' "Blue Christmas" in the bedroom as i write this. That's mu cue . . . . !

~~JD~~

Writing Experiment, Day Two -- or, My own little personal Advent Calendar of sorts.

That Elvis and his wacky Christmas cards just crack me up! What ARE those things under the tree? Dolls? Monkeys in snowsuits? What?

Went to church today at Oak Hills; they're going to be open for business on Christmas Day with their regular hours and services for a Sunday. Max pointed out during the announcements that the San Antonio Express-News got the times wrong in their article about "Mega-churches" closing on Christmas, and corrected them. This kind of makes me wonder if the thing is something of a tempest in a teapot. It's no secret that newspapers and media organizations pick and run each others stories, and I can tell you from personal experience that they not only don't get their facts right sometimes -- they very frequently screw up the details and mangle the facts, espousing the first opinion they hear over what the truth of the matter may be.

So I wonder if this business of "Mega-churches" closing on Sunday Christmas has any truth to it at all. I saw in the Vidette-Times (and you can CLICK HERE to read that story as well) that Liberty Bible Church will be open for business on Christmas as well; only cancelling their 8:00am services to accomodate the choir members.

Seems reasonable, and probably not much of a story. Sounds a lot better if there's some silly-ass manufactured controversy to it, don't ya think?

This reminds me of a guy I knew who lived on my floor when I attented Indiana University. He was a journalism major, and I asked him why.

"Girls," he replied.

"Girls?," I asked?

"Yeah, man! The best babes are journalism majors -- and not a brain in the bunch."

"Let me get this straight," I asked. "You're going to the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism -- one of the best and most exclusive journalism schools in the country -- because the girls are beautiful and dumb?"

"And Easy -- journalism chicks will fall for just about any line, y'know."

I was thunderstruck. "You're kidding, right?"

"Naw, man!," he replied. "most people get into journalism because the pay's good, the chicks are easy, and it's not very hard to write stories all day."

I think of that guy a lot lately.

~~JD~~

An Experiment it Shall Be!

I was thinking about the nature of 'blogging. Sometimes I blog once a day; sometimes once a week, or once a month. The urge to blog seems to come and go in cycles. However, if I ever want to do some serious writing, it seems like I need to develop serious writing habits -- like writing a little every day.

So, as annoying as it may seem, I'm going to try writing something every day. I'm in awe of folks like Matt Drudge (The Drudge Report) or Brian Maloney (of the Radio Equalizer) who write literal pages and pages every day.

Just takes discipline, I suppose -- so here goes:

It's a gorgeous 68 degrees in beautiful South Texas today. We've got the balcony doors open and the Christmas lights on. That magnificent "silky" feel to the air here is very present today, so I did my errands riding around with the windows open. It felt great.

We put up our tree and did the Christmas decorating last weekend. I love looking at our little tree, filled with so many memories. The tree itself we bought for $30.00 (a 7-footer!) at the Valparaiso IN Menards the winter of 2001. That was right after the bankruptcy of the business, and we barely had enough cash for a real tree. On a wild hunch I found this one at Menards for less than the cost of a real tree -- a little Christmas miracle of our own.

We have lots of handmade ornaments; from the stuff Julian has made in school over the years (he's always a bit mortified when we put up the paper chain he made in kindergarten) to the things Ariane & I made from Wal-Mart crafts our first Christmas together. Then there's the ceramic cat with poseable limbs I bought in Augusta GA in 1984; the ornaments I inherited from my grandmother when she died that I've loved all my life; the Santa with his pack of toys and dangling skates one of my students gave me in Missouri in 1992. Topping the tree is a bunny in a granny dress we bought at the Valpo Popcorn Festival in 1991 because it reminded me of my Aunt Marilyn, who we loved and desperately miss.

TONS of memories -- all of them good. I just love this time of year.

~~~JD~~~

YEE-HAW!!! -- IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME, PARDNER!!!

Okay; It's officially Christmas Season here at Casa Largo when I start posting weird pictures like this. Apparently it's one of Elvis' actual Christmas cards from when he was alive, sent to Fan Club members or something like that.

You gotta admire the guy's chutzpah. He certainly lived life on the edge.

Speaking of the Edge, the new Narnia movie is coming out this Friday. I have yet to see anything like a bad review of this wonder. I'm sooooooo very ready to see this, I may bust. Can't wait, just can't wait. Looks to be a great movie there.

Speaking of which, if you get a chance to swing by the Video Rental Store or see it on Pay-per-View, you really need to see a vastly overlooked movie from this past summer called Secondhand Lions. Haley Joel Osment seems a bit odd at that in-between age (between cute child star and actual adult actor), but any movie with Micheal Caine **AND** Robert Duvall in it bears watching, at least once.

The plot is this: Osment's mom (the lovely and engaging Kyra Sedgwick) is a cheap fllozy looking for a place to dump teeenaged-son Osment while she runs off for the summer with slick boyfirend of the moment. She dumps him on her two crazy bachelor uncles (Duvall and Caine) whom everyone thinks are bank robbers, because they're loaded, money-wise. Osment also meets his cousins and Aunt/Uncle who are trying to steal the money, just to keep it interesting.

Caine and Duvall are at theiur peak as the curmodgeonly unlces who spend incredible amounts of money on incredily ridiculous things, but never seem to work out the way they planned. (They buy a plane but don't know how to fly -- so they teach themselves, much to Osment's terror. They buy a lion just to shoot it, but Osment keeps it as a pet, much to the cousin's and boyfriend's terror.)

The end of the movie is a startling vindication of the uncles, which I won't ruin for you -- you just have to see how the uncles eventually end. It makes me burst out laughing every time I see it -- I'm grinning like a chimpanzee thinking about it now.

Highest Recommendation -- go, rent this already. You'll thank me for it.

~~JD~~