So it's time to end the long, unscheduled hiatus from my postings, or at least that's the plan. Knowing me, I'm not too sure how much I will be posting, but my heart is at least in the rest place. Since it has been so long, I do have some ground to cover, so let's get started...
First off I would like to note that it is 9:30 AM, and I've been up about 12 hours at this point. It's all a part of my attempt to get back to normal sleeping hours, and what better way to do that then screw them up even more! It seems I haven't been able to get to bed before 7 AM the last week, and all other efforts of righting this have failed, so I have resorted to just looping the sleep clock. So last night (8.30 in the morning technically) I went to bed and slept in till 9 PM (last night), and now I plan to try and stay up until 9PM tonight, and thus get back to normal-er hours of sleep. Wish me luck, because I might need it seeing as how I orderd a ton of Chinese food and it's starting to tire me out (I'm sure I'll get a second wind soon).
And on the Chinese note I'd like to register a complaint. Now I love fortune cookies, and I like ordering lots of take-out because they then tend to give you lots of them. But I hate it when you get a saying rather than a fortune, much like the cookie I got last night. "Ideas are like children: there are none so wonderful as your own." Nice sentiment, but wrong idea. Fortune cookies are supposed to have fortunes in them. The only prophecy that could possibly be taken from that is that someday I'll have children (or possibly that someday I'll have ideas?), and even granting that as a prophecy is stretching it.
But I digress, so lets get back on topic...Christmas! Yes that lovely time of year. NOTE: Many of the following ideas come from NFL.com's Tuesday Morning Quarterback, who has a lovely weekly column that you can catch (not surprisingly) every Tuesday on NFL.com (and I do reccommend it). But anyway, going through another holiday season has gotten me thinking. On my way back and forth from Cortland to Dryden I pass this sign, which for the last month has read "Jesus is the reason for the season," and I've decided that that's both true and outdated. Maybe this did all start with the idea of Christ being born around this time, so he is the reason, but, for better or worse, he's no longer the point. Christmas is now about trees and decorations and a jolly fat man in red who gives us all gifts (assuming you're not Jewish or something). The whole Jesus thing just seems tacked on at this point, so I support TMQ in his suggestion that we move the birth of Jesus to a different time, and remake Christmas into a purely consumerist holiday. We can still keep the trees and decorations and fat man, but we just lose some of the religious aspects, which means we can now include everyone, even the Jews! And that would help add to the whole Christmas cheer idea of bringing everyone together (I mean how can we claim to bring everyone together at the holidays when it excludes so many?). Now I know some people are gonna complain about moving Jesus's birthday, but come on, it's not an exact date. I may not be fully up on my Bible study, but I don't remember an exact day being mentioned in there. Plus, if the guy can die at a different time every year (and I'm not just talking days here, I'm talking dates that are months apart) then I think we can play around with his birth a little too. And the last concern, who gets the Christmas name? I say keep that one with Jesus (Christ = Christmas), and then just use the nice abreviation of Xmas for the new consumer holiday. I mean true spenders can't be bothered to write the whole thing out anyway.
And with that capitalist idea we move onto the next topic, my future. Now as many of you know (or should know) I've transfered to Cortland (a while ago), and since they didn't have Japanese (alas), I was left without my language fix. However, they do offer Chinese, and I've been taking that, and plan to put it to good use come Fall, when (if all things continue as planned) I spend a semester in Beijing (that's in China for the geographically challenged). As of right now it's looking almost certain, but come March I will know for sure. And hey, if all goes really well maybe I'll even find a career while I'm over there, cause I still have no clue what I'm gonna do after graduation yet. If anyone out there does have any other ideas for a graduate with a degree in Mathematics let me know, cause I haven't quite figured it out yet. Hopefully some time abroad will help straighten that out for me.
As for other quick points:
-I still live in Dryden (quite possibly through the Summer even), and visitors are always welcome and encouraged (if anyone wants to venture on out)
-I'm still single (yet another reason to flee the country, whole new set of women to work with)
-I'm still working on my undergraduate degree (it will be technically done after this semester, officially done after the China trip)
-My water still smells (sometimes like rotten eggs, sometimes like regular eggs)
-I still have a foam couch (perfect for dating, now if I could only get a real date to bring back here...) and I don't know if I will ever part with it
-I finally made it to the city and this time around I actually got to see the city, not just drive through it (thanks to Dan and Katie for giving me a place to crash, and thanks for the fantastic weekend as well)
-And last, and least, I with the new year upon us I have resolved to find a real resolution for the next new year, any suggestions?