Everyone's Excited and Confused
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which for the last month has read "Jesus is the reason for the season," and I've decided that that's both true and outdated.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?
Comments
Well...being a fairly opinionated person, I feel I must share my thoughts on at least one topic - moving Christmas. There ARE some valid points to separating the Jesus aspect of Christmas from the consumerism that we have all come to know and profit from. One of the biggest drawbacks I see, however, is deciding who gets custody of Christmas Carols - Christmas or Xmas? Certainly there are some songs that are more religious than others, but then where do you draw the line? Of course, even the most secular of songs use the word ‘Christmas’, so do we re-write those songs or does Christmas get full custody of ALL the songs, leaving Xmas with no songs? But, then what if it turns out that people spend more money in the malls when Christmas songs are playing. Sales will plummet during Xmas shopping season, plunging the country into a horrific recession (or is it depression? - I wasn’t an economics major!) Either way, that would be BAD.
And, then what about Christmas cards? Since they are not inherently part of the celebration of Jesus’ birthday, I presume that Xmas will inherit this feature. My fear, then, is that most of the cards we receive at Xmas will be some variation of this: (I didn’t write it- I’m not that witty. My brother got this and passed it along) “Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2005, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is
the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance
of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.�
Yuk, I say!
The China semester sounds absolutely fabulous.... I hope it works out!
Have I exceeded the word-limit?
Posted by: Marie | January 4, 2005 2:24 PM