Israel

Here we are in the Holiday season with it's music and all. Almost every time The First Noel is sung you will hear the name Israel pronounceable Is-RYE-El. I have heard it pronounced the way everyone says it in real life, but not very often. Why do you think this is?

Now, you can't unhear it!




Yeah, I didn't know Crash Test Dummies did this either!

Merry Christmas

An observation: This season I've heard WAY MORE people wish me a Merry Christmas than a Happy Holidays. Sometimes I'll thank the person for the Merry Christmas instead of the Happy Holidays. Usually if I say Merry Christmas to them, they'd return it with a hint of 'oh, it's OK to say it with this guy' in the inflection- or that could be my imagination, just wishing the thought there. Perhaps it's my appearance for some reason that prompts people to use the term I'd prefer over the politically correct one the ACLU would have you use.

By CookevilleTimes.com

Story Published: Dec 8, 2010 at 10:21 PM CST

Story Updated: Dec 8, 2010 at 10:21 PM CST 

School superintendents across the state were reminded by the ACLU this week that holiday celebrations focusing primarily on one religious holiday amount to an unconstitutional endorsement of  religion. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) letter, addressed to 137 public shool leaders across the state, stated that it was responding to a number of complaints from families about school party activites this Christmas season. 

Hedy Weinburg, ACLU executive director in Tennessee, cited several U.S. Supreme Court decisions about the matter.  

But several area citizens, like Jim Brown, think that such admonitions are misguided and potentially dangerous.  Brown commented on the news, saying "We are a Christian nation.  Let's act like it."  and said that he hopes that the teachers and administration will celebrate the Christmas season.   

Said one area teacher (name withheld), "I respect people of different faiths, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to eliminate my own from my work and and my classroom.   I can enjoy Christmas as Christmas without worrying that I'm going to offend someone.   My money still says that I trust in God.   Are they going to stop me from using that, too?" 

The letter was sent from the ACLU to the top administrators across the state.  What those administrators do with the information is yet to be seen. 

Some co-workers and I were joking about it. We said we should show the love of Christ to people who wish us a Happy Holidays with this return- Piss off! It's 'Merry Christmas'!

I really don't know where we sit with that one this year as I've pretty much cut myself off of political talk radio and the like. I'm hoping it's a backlash of the political correct pushing this type of thing too far down America's throats. Whatever the reason, it's nice to hear it more often than not.

It Never Seems To End

I caught something the very night of my last post. I thought and was expecting to throw up, but never did. Instead my throat became extremely sore and I was very chilled. This lasted through Friday and Saturday and is still going strong today. Saturday we did go to a clinic to get swabbed for strep-throat. Turns out that is not what I have and that would've been the thing to have to get a remedy. Whatever I have has to run its painful painful course. They said probably just over a week. If it goes for longer, I'd need to go back and get tested for mono.

At least everyone else is feeling well. Jack did throw up again last night. Not sure why, but he's acting fine today. Cara is going crazy from just being in the house for so long and battling Leesha's devious ways of finding attention. She continues to antagonize Jack. Its getting rare that he allows her to hold him. Sometimes he gets mad if she even comes near him. It's all her own doing, though. From day 1 she was in his face too much. No amount of warning from Cara and I could give her a clue. Now its Jack's screams that seem to actually give her pause. Sometimes they don't even do that.

With all of this literal down time I've been reading and watching old shows. Finally finished Edgar Rice Burroughs' 2nd book in the John Carter of Mars series - Gods of Mars.

I've also been watching old '80s episodes of Doctor Who when the Doctor was played by Peter Davidson. Davidson is a very dorky awkward Doctor. Not at all doing the right thing at the right time. He seems more flawed than most of the other Doctors I've seen. I never understood why he wore a celery on his lapel. Perhaps that will be revealed. I must keep watching...

As I watched these episodes some big Doctor Who news broke...

The official 11th Doctor. Here is a link to the article and a discussion board about it.

So all the things we cancelled on this week...

• Holiday Celebration with Mom and Dad at Greg and Mandy's
• Small Group Social with Parents
• New Years Day with Trelevens
• Work on Friday
• Gaming on Saturday
• Church on Sunday

Christmas

Yesterday was Christmas and we spent the afternoon at Cara's folks house. We had a nice quiet time there. Opened a few gifts, had a nice big dinner, installed a universal remote. It was also the usual- getting on Leesha's case to leave Jack alone, finish eating, eat with her mouth closed, not speak with her mouth full, enjoying Jack's ever-increasing vocabulary, etc. Leesha got a couple of gifts, but they were two things that she was very very excited about getting.

One was a Webkin dragon. She had been asking for this particular Webkin for a long time, long enough ago that she probably forgot about it. This was also kind of cool, because the dragon is no longer available anywhere other than places like Ebay (which is exactly where we got it).

Webkins are a fantastic marketing ploy, plush animals that include a code that you plug into a webpage and you can navigate your newly purchased animal through an online community featuring games and chats and all sorts of things like that.

Grandma and Grandpa gave her an MP3 player that she really wanted. An amazingly cheap little thing that didn't seem to work creating much drama this morning. Leesha is now with her dad and reports that she got it to work. That's good.

Tonight we finish the Doctor Who Christmas Special. We started it last night but put the 2nd half on hold because we were both fading.

Day off

Time to get over this cold. Did laundry, posted some comics on eBay and caught up with some other stuff. Listened to a lot of Bowie, read OOTS.

In the mail, today, we got a package from Willis West (Greg's household). It's a DVD presentation of photos from Christmas. Greg produced this complete with a Star Wars text crawl + John William's music and photo montage with music including Chuck Mangione. What a great gift. Thank you, my brother.

Our house was full of relatives celebrating Leesha's and David's birthdays. We had Delane and Ron, Rubin and Donna, David and Darlene, and Cara, Leesha and me all for dinner in our living room. It was a very nice time. I gave Leesha her Gameboy. She was thrilled to get it.
It was a nice time. However, my cold peaked around this time and I was struggling to maintain the energy to be social.

Tomorrow, Rob is DMing a new game.

Gameboys, Playstations and RPGs

A few days after Christmas vacation ended my buddy, Dequan, from the elementary school route lost his Gameboy. It seemed like another kid on the bus, Carry, stole it. Dequan always is getting in trouble. He seems like he is starved for attention and how he goes about getting attention puts him on opposing sides with most people. So he's always getting in fights or pissing people off.

Today I put some pressure on Carry about the Gameboy. Carry brought it on the bus for some reason. I told him it seemed very much like he had Dequan's Gameboy and that if it was Dequans, that he ought to give it back to avoid serious problems. He claimed he got it at GameStop, but in the end he did give the Gameboy to Dequan (which yields his guilt). I had him stay on the bus after everyone got off to tell him I thought he made the right choice. He still stuck to his story that he just bought the Gameboy, but wanted to give it to Dequan anyways.

Carry looks just like the kid from Christmas Story

On my activity route (activity routes are for kids who stay after school for whatever reason) there is a boy named Victor who has made it clear since I started on the route that he doesn't like me. Tonight, I think I won him over. It started by me asking if he had a Playstation or an XBox. He has a Playstation II. Asked him what was his favorite game. Star Wars.
Well.
All I had to do was set the hook.
All the way home we talked about it. He even moved from mid-bus to right behind my seat. Thank you, Mr. Lucas.

I got a Christmas gift from Cara's folks. Well, they asked what I wanted and bought it for me. Anyway, I added to my growing Eberron book collection with Sharn: City of Towers book which came with an Eberron soundtrack. I guess where ever Darlene bought it had to order it and she got it today. These books are very high quality. Thank you Sorleys. (note* this book is different than the novel I posted about on the 21st. It is about the same place, however this book is a resource about Sharn, the other book - just City of Towers, is a novel that takes place there)

Last day of work for the week, tomorrow for we have Friday off!

KSTP Christmas Party

tonight Cara and I are staying at the Hilton and Towers in downtoan Minneapolis for the KSTP Chirstmas party! (she's not feeling good)