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Blog - December 2003 |
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This page stores my blog entries from December 2003. The entries are dated December 4, December 10, December 17, December 19, December 22, December 24, December 29, and December 31.
Illumination of Life / Movie Anticipations / Miniclip and Elf Bowling / Mired in Leaves Thursday, December 4, 2003 While in middle and high school, I proclaimed myself to be the rarest kid on the planet. I don't remember all the points I brought in as evidence, but I do remember two of them. One was that both of my parents were together. I think nearly half of my peers in grade and middle school had parents who divorced. The other was being an only child (BOC), with almost all of my friends having siblings. I always knew I was special/different because of this, but I did not know what effect this would have on me as an individual. Usually, I'll either hear praises for things that I have while BOC, and I'll see things they have with siblings that I didn't. They usually like the fact that I have time to myself where no sibling will bother me. I tended to see how they actually had a sibling to befriend. What I never conceived and what people with siblings (PWS) might overlook is the benefit they had from growing up with a sibling. It seems as if siblings have some sort of growing method of relations involving teasing, poking fun, and highlighting rather embarrassing things (penis jokes and the like). Apparently they'll tease each other about such stuff and have very little privacy along with it. Come high school, these things won't be a big deal to them. I, on the other hand, never had the same experiences and saw the things they did or joked about as being threatening or hurtful. These things ranged from the ever-popular "pants-ing your friend in front of girls" game to verbal harrassment. Twice in my life I had someone try to pants me, and neither succeeded. The first time was in 6th grade. I'm not sure how or why it started, but the individual who tried it on me received a right hook to the head as a response. Modesty held strong for me back then, and I certainly didn't like what was going on. What I found funny about that instance is that the guy got pissed off at me for it. Of course, I never understood such rituals or whatnot. I think such juvenile (used in a sense of age-range in this case) antics would probably help people take things less personally. I know I've had people say things towards me that I took very personally. Most of those times I got the impression that I shouldn't be taking it personally. I don't know if sibling banter and fights help to build a metaphorical callus for such things, but I feel that it does. As an only child, I learned to be respectful and not talk to others like that. I'm sure my parents had a better stranglehold on such things, trying to keep me in line. Of course, other things, like parental supervision, certainly help when it comes to all of this. I certainly don't believe that sibling fights and name-calling is the only thing affecting how one takes things. I'd imagine that most of my readers probably think this all sounds very bizarre. Think of it this way: this is how bizarre a lot of it seems to me. I know the conversation I had with my friend contained a lot more than what I wrote, and I'm sure I added a bit from what input I gave as well. The realization of what was really going on and its significance made a major difference in how I perceive events in my life. Literally, it felt like a ten-ton weight had been lifted from my shoulders. At the very least, it explains a bit as to why I never got along as well with some people at certain times. We'll see how much of a difference it makes in the long-run. ***** Movies I'm looking forward to seeing in the future:
I've heard some good things about The Missing, starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. That one might make it to my eyes someday, too. ***** Somehow, I got clued in on a page called Miniclip. That site has many small, but rather cool, games one can play. I had been addicted to a game called Smashing, which is basically a version of Breakout. A cool game, but, since I beat all 50 levels, there's nothing left for me to accomplish with it. True to the season, you can download the Elf Bowling games from my Humor page. Recently, I found that they are also available from NStorm, who I thought was not in existence anymore. From there, you can download all the games I have on my site plus many more. They have Elf Bowling III and Super Elf Bowling available for download. One game they don't appear to have anymore is Good Willie Hunting, which is available at the aforementioned Humor page. Current personal high score on Elf Bowling: 205. Try to beat that! Without cheating, that is. <grins> Current personal high score on Super Elf Bowling: 237. ***** Something unique to me about living in the City of Sacramento is the luxury of dumping our lawn clippings on the side of the street for the city pick up. We never had something like this when we lived in the county. The city workers come along with a rear-load garbage truck and a crab-claw vehicle that scoops up the yard debris and shoves it into the garbage truck. The crab-claw vehicle looks like someone took a small bulldozer and attached a metal crab claw to the front. It works really well. Normally, we have weekly visits from the crab-claw and the garbage truck on Tuesdays. This leaves plenty of time for the streets to be clear so that we can put our garbage and recycling cans out. However, when the leaves start falling, the workers' ability to clear the streets seems to shrink significantly. Sacramento ranks as one of the top cities in terms of number of trees in the region, and the leaf piles in front of the houses shows clear evidence of that. It wouldn't be uncommon to see piles the size of a midsize car (or larger!). With several hundred residences in the area, that creates a much larger load than the city workers normally face. As of 5:30pm Thursday, December 4, they still have not cleared the streets in my area. I'm sure they have done so in other areas, since they probably start somewhere else and work their way up to my position.
Murphy Lee raps and ... wait ... is that Nelly?!? / What Moves Pam / I Don't Get It III: Peanuts Wednesday, December 10, 2003 Collaboration seems to be the big thing in the rap/R&B industry. I enjoy hearing the occasional cameo of someone within a person's album (e.g. Ken Casey on the Street Dogs' album). Recently, it seems that every rap/R&B song is a collaboration, rather than by the group alone. Tracks by Chingy with Snoop Dogg and Ludacris, Missy Elliot with various people, and Murphy Lee's kick-butt "Wat Da Hook Gon Be" with Nelly and someone else all are on the airwaves these days. Heck, according to Tower's web site, Murphy Lee's album has guest rappers on every track. I can certainly see the attraction to have multiple artists on a track, since the combination of different (yet complimentary) vocal styles and influences can generate songs with more sonic depth and texture than without. On the other hand, it seems misleading to call, for example, Murphy Lee's album his, since it's really him with various friends. ***** My time this weekend went towards helping Pam move into her side of a duplex. We had everything moved in by about 3:45pm or so. The only things missing are her sofa and chair, which have to be delivered near the end of this week. Some highlights of the endeavor:
I'm going to prepare to cook dinner for her this Friday. The menu, what will be my official house-warming meal, consists of spaghetti with turkey meatballs, a salad, and some bread. The turkey meatballs are made of ground turkey, either Worchestershire sauce or soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and grated carrot. The turkey and carrot get mixed together, and you mix the remaining ingredients and add some of it to the meat mixture. Then, you make balls out of the meat and stick them in a frying pan, pouring the remaining liquid mix over it. They come out very good, though I'm sure I don't remember all the ingredients. ***** This current incarnation of "I Don't Get It" would seem like an un-American commentary to many in the United States. It's about Peanuts. Not the goober-peas of Jimmy Carter fame, but of Charlie Brown. Lucy. Linus. Woodstock. Snoopy. Peppermint Patty. Marcie. Why? I have to ask myself this in reference to the popularity of the Charles Schultz creation. The cartoon specials are all rather disjointed and aimless. The comic strips are sometimes, but rather infrequently, cute or humorous. Otherwise, it's just kind of there. What am I missing from this? I understand Snoopy and the attraction to him. Snoopy has a great imagination when pretending to be the WWI Flying Ace or when trying to write rather horrible stories. He has a doghouse that he can not only sleep on top of it but store a ridiculous amount of stuff inside it. His hockey matches against Woodstock on the frozen birdbath are classic, too. What can be interesting and fun about Charlie Brown and the others? Woodstock provides companionship to Snoopy, so he's saved with that. Linus becomes the philosophical individual who sucks his thumb and carries his blanket around. I could see this as a note that a person can hold much more wisdom than their age seems to dictate. I suppose Peppermint Patty and Marcie would represent the different ways girls show their youthful affection for boys. It's not how they should show it but how the aggressive girls and shy girls, respectively, show it. At least, to me, both individuals seem to have a strong affection for "Charles." Outside of that, Peppermint Patty represents the sporty girl, illustrating that being a girl interested in sports is a good thing. Marcie represents the intelligent girls, showing that one should feel proud for doing well in school. I know that, in the past, girls tend to show a sharp drop in their mathematics grades when in middle school and high school. I'm sure there are other positive ways to see what good each character brings into the equation. I guess, for me, the write-ups tend to not focus on the humor. Maybe it's more for social commentary. Maybe it's a model for others. Maybe I'm blowing hot air. I can't remember what Charles Schultz said about drawing these cartoons. If humor was the intent, then, to me, it fails. Maybe it's just not my humor, or maybe I need to have kids in order to truly appreciate it. If it's something else, then maybe I'm expecting something from it (humor) that wasn't the intent. Maybe I need to read it differently with different expectations. My half-though-out and -researched ideas of the relevance of the characters is probably a sign of this.
People From My Past / Helmet Case Update Wednesday, December 17, 2003 It's interesting how people in one's life seem to appear out of nowhere where you least expected to see them. Or, sometimes it'll be exactly where you'd expect them, except you didn't realize that it would actually happen. A couple of things recently fell in these categories. The first story is something new, and the second something similar that happened a couple of years ago. -.-.-.- I had been a club officer for the CSUS Ballroom Dance Club for over two years. During that time, I saw a lot of people come and go as officers. Some were officers only in theory and not practice, but we did have a few who were full-heartedly participating and helping out. One of them spent a year with us and did her best to get things going. Her first experience with the club was many years ago during a semester dance, and she wanted to recreate that great experience she had. Sadly, a medical condition caused her to be away from the club, and the semester dance never came to fruition. I heard nothing back from her outside of an e-mail explaining what happened to her. I didn't see her again ... until this past Wednesday. To my surprise, she briefly attended the End-of-Semester dance at CSUS. I didn't speak to her, choosing to stay with Pam and rest from a stressful week. It was still good to see her up and around enjoying herself like she deserves. -.-.-.- While reflecting on my past and, specifically, my early years at Merryhill Country School, I remember very few instances that really stick out in my mind. One of those instances occurred either during a sunny day in the winter months or early in the spring. I might have been in fifth grade, actually; it's a bit hazy for my memory. The Eastern Preparatory School (EPS) basketball team played some other school's team on the big basketball court on Merryhill's campus (EPS was across the street and didn't have a nice court like ours). I remember the main attraction of the game being this really tall yet athletic player. He was a rather thin African-American guy and played very well. I think he was the only guy in the whole school who could dunk without much effort, and these baskets were nearly NBA-regulation height. Unlike many really tall middle-schoolers, he was fast when running up and down the court. Once I got to EPS myself, the star center left for high school. We had other centers on the team, but nobody stuck out in my mind. I had been recruited during both years there, with me bowing out in frustration in 7th grade and sitting as a reserve in 8th (when we had a much more talented guy on the team; probably the best since the former star center). During the draft a couple of years ago, the Sacramento Kings picked up a tall, African-American center in one of the later rounds. At first, I didn't even begin to think it was the same person, since they initially referred to him as Michael Stewart. As soon as they started calling him "Yogi", I knew for certain it was the same one. I was disappointed when the Kings couldn't hang onto him for future considerations, but I was happy to recently see that he's with the Cleveland Cavaliers (err, actually traded to the Celtics recently, I believe). With 4 blocks in his 12 minutes of play this past Thursday, it certainly showed me that he's still one of the best. ***** After a long break, I got a chance to work with my grandfather towards the eventual completion of my cases for my samurai helmets. We've hit a snag that will slow things down a bit. During our last get-together, we glued three boards together to form what will be the base for one case. When I gathered my stuff together for today's work, I found that this base warped over the past few weeks. That's not good for a base when I need it to be flat. So, it's currently sitting under a couple of boards and about 65 lbs. of metal weights evenly spread out. Hopefully, over time, it'll flatten out on its own. If not, then I'll have to give it a little water to allow it to expand and flatten out in that manner. Today's work focused on the posts. Both cases will have four posts, but the front and back posts are different. The front posts have a rectangular section cut out of it for the plexiglas to sit in. In effect the post will cover the corner of the plexiglas. We found that it would be best to cut this using a table saw, and we had no problems doing so. We had a little confusion at first due to an odd cut, but it worked out ok. The odd cut on the first length of wood led to our realization that we could use the first cut as part of the top pieces. The top of each case will have three 1.5" x 1" sections glued together into a U shape. A groove will run along the inside of this U-shaped piece, allowing a piece of plexiglas to slide into the top and cover things on top. So, until we realized that this groove was cut to the correct depth we needed for the front posts, we made the pieces for the top. The front and back posts both required removing the rectangular section of wood, but the rear posts required a bit more work. Our second cut, which would remove the unneeded wood, needed to be cut a little deeper so that it'll leave a slight groove for the upright plexiglas to rest in. Also, we will have a piece of thin wood (I think it's a compressed fiber or something) that will cover the back. We carefully cut a small notch into the back posts for this piece to set in. The last thing we accomplished involved using a router to round off the corners of the posts. At first, I had in mind to round off all the possible corners to each post, but I now believe it'd look best with only the absolute corners (the corners of the post that form the corners of the case) rounded off. This would leave a squared-off look for inside where the plexiglas would be (when you view it from the front). I think the rounding would get confusing and not look quite as good if all corners were rounded. All of this would be a lot easier to explain with pictures. Hopefully, once I get these cases put together and in the final form, I'll take some nice pictures to flop up here. Our next get-together to work on this might not be until next year.
New Virus Reception: Backdoor.Trojan / Deceased Grandfather, Mice, and Dining Room make for one Weird Dream / Carpenter Bees / Rid of Another Universe: MSCL order Complete! / Plan For Next Two Weeks Friday, December 19, 2003
***** I had the weirdest dream a couple of nights ago. I remember very little, but it all seems rather strange. For the most part, the dream took place at dinner with most of my family. My late grandfather sat at the heat of the table, but I believe he was dead. It's kind of weird, since I thought one only had a dead relative around for meals during a wake. This was no wake. Mice seemed to be a prevalent theme. They would come in large groups whenever they appeared. A large group would scurry along the ground. On a different occasion, my mom came out of the laundry room holding a large ball of mice. Maybe 20 or more mice were in the ball. Once she realized what she really had, she screamed and dropped all of them. My cat, sitting up on a ledge somewhere (possibly on top of the old closets from my old house), had a mouse on her back, too. She just sat there with the mouse, never bothering it. The strangest part didn't come until the end. I guess something happened to the family dog or something and a young girl at the table (Sister? Cousin?) got very upset at my (allegedly dead in this dream) late grandfather. While yelling at him, I somehow end up seeing that we're actually on a set of a show or something. I guess someone called "cut", because my (allegedly dead in this dream) late grandfather appears to start crying. Then, he goes to a rather large mail slot right behind him and tries to shove himself through it. It was right after that when I woke up. I have yet to spend much time to try to interpret it in any fashion. ***** In our backyard, we have a hive of carpenter bees. These huge black bees buzz from flower to flower just like any other bee. They don't act vicious or anything like that. These truly majestic creatures just mind their own business while I tend to mine. Recently, while refilling the bird feeder, I looked around the ground for seed that I dropped, only to see four large bees. One was black, so I immediately identified all of them as carpenter bees (the others were a very light brown color). At first, I thought they were dead, given they weren't moving on their own accord. Today, while getting ready to clear out the drain holes in the wall along the patio, I dripped some water on one, only to see it start crawling away. I moved the black one further underneath the porous patio cover, though I doubt that'll help it with the current storm gushing itself all over us. Apparently, these bees will die off every year or so, though this is the first time I saw them out of their hive during this process. ***** My wait is over! Just this past Wednesday, I picked up my package from my grandparents. They received it Monday. After nearly 15 months, I finally received the last of my order for the Special Edition My So-Called Life DVD set. My wait pales in comparison to those who pre-ordered in February 2002 or so. I had received the 5-DVD set of all 19 episodes about a year ago. The special edition lunch box and extras DVD still had to be shipped, so we waited. After many notes on its progress and reconfiguration (the DVD lacks an interview that was initially promised), I finally received these items. Also, I received a Certificate of Authenticity, which should have been sent to the first 2500 recipients. However, it does not say which numbered set I received. None of the certificates give its actual number in the series. I'm just happy to have my stuff. Once I understood just how bad things seemed with the delivery of my goods, it was too late for me to seek a refund. I held onto faith that I would eventually receive it. Despite the $130+ I spent on this, I'm just glad to be done with it. ***** My weekend may be a bit of a slow one, depending on how things go. The potential engagements are:
Beyond this weekend, I should be very busy:
Pam-fried Chicken: A Day and Night With Pam / I'm Dreaming of a Wet Christmas / Humbug to Reginald Owen Monday, December 22, 2003 Pam and I had a nice weekend together. Actually, it was just Saturday, but we spent a lot of that day and night together. We started out at her place, where she showed me her sofa and chair. She bought these for $25 from some college kids down in Stockton and had them re-upholstered. The company delivered them last Thursday, and they look really nice! They started out with a green-ish upholstery with some sort of fancy, old-fashioned design to it with curls and such. The "after" version uses a soft brown upholstery. Pam showed me how the sofa folds out into a bed, and it works rather well. I have a feeling that it's not really big enough for two people, since the ends slope off towards the floor. Still, the bed works well for whenever Pam has visitors. From there, we paid a visit to Pam's parents. We hopped over to her parents' side of the duplex, with Pam handing something to her parents and me giving Pam's parents a fruitcake. I baked some fruitcake on Thursday from a recipe I got from an old California Grange cookbook. It called for four cups of walnuts, an 8-oz. jar of maraschino cherries, and a pound of dates. I made two smaller fruitcakes, with one going to her parents. The fruitcake came out very well, and her parents enjoyed it. After visiting Pam's parents, we shoved off for the little bit of shopping we needed to do for the night. We headed off to Tower to get a gift card for this gift collection for Wednesday. Once we finished there, Pam and I poked around in Beverages & More for a bottle of wine (ended up with a bottle of 2001 Weston Estates White Merlot and some cracker fish for a snack) and headed to Blockbuster to rent a couple of movies for the night (X2 and The Ring). With fish crackers in hand, Pam and I dropped off our purchases and headed out to see some Christmas light displays. We found one display near her house and visited that, eventually heading off towards the Arden/Watt area. One display allegedly was on Los Molinos Ave., but we didn't see anything after a couple of passes. In doubling back to head out, we found that the homeowner didn't turn the lights on; they must have been out for the day. From that point, we headed back out of that neighborhood and worked our way towards Breckenwood. I think this house had the single best display for a house that we saw that night. The house had light strings shaped into snowflakes (a kit, probably) on bushes and on the roof. An outline of a present showed up on a bush on the front near the door. The front window lit up with a slowly rotating Christmas tree. The white (probably artificial) tree had assorted ornaments and red trimmings on it. On either side of the tree, the homeowners had rather large dolls of Santa and Mrs. Claus. It was certainly one of the best displays for a single house. But, the best neighborhood had yet to come. Our last stop (before heading all the way back home) took us to the 53rd and S Streets area. This realm proved tricky to find. Fortunately, being there a few days ago helped a bit, along with the string of cars all going in that direction. This neighborhood easily won the Best Neighborhood award for our night out. The streets had sidewalks that were set in a bit from the road with some grass on both sides of it. Along the sidewalks, the neighbors all put up these light-up arches. Nearly all the houses had assorted lighting methods and designs, thoroughly lighting up the night. Once we got back home, Pam started dinner. Her menu for the night consisted of Pam-fried (pan-fried) chicken, sweet potato, and a greens/orange salad. The aforementioned white merlot graciously added well to the night's feast, with ice cream as the topper at the end. We eventually sipped on some coffee (Pam) and hot chocolate (me) near the end of the night. While eating dinner, we watched X2 and The Ring. Pam and I both enjoyed both movies, though Pam found The Ring a little too frightening with all the lovely imagery. At least The Ring didn't have a cut scene of "Kid Throwing Up after Bomfing" like X2 did, and we saw that right in the middle of dinner. Yum! I rather liked X2. I cannot, however, draw any comparisons between it and its predecessor, X-Men. As for X2, I liked how it presented a fluid storyline, keeping previous events relevant to the plot. The Ring certainly had its scary segments, and it utilized it beautifully by doing what should make things the scariest: bringing in not-too-scary elements in when least expected and for a very, very short time. To me, that allowed my mind to think more about it, making it a rather scary experience. However, I thought the end was rather weak. Not only did it seem anti-climatic, but the "solution" presented by the main character actually had nothing to do with her surviving the experience. At the moment, Pam and I will both try to re-charge ourselves for Christmas festivities starting on the 24th. ***** The funny thing about living in Sacramento is that the "traditional" vision of Christmas simply does not apply. Almost all songs, pictures, and post cards show snow. It basically never, ever snows in Sacramento. If the nighttime temperature ever gets below freezing, it's a significant story on the news. The best we can hope for over here is dark and cloudy, which we might actually have. I'm afraid the only precipitation we'll get is rain, assuming it times itself correctly. ***** Watching "A Christmas Carol" has nearly become a tradition for my family. Our hands-down favorite version is the Alistair Sim version from the 1950's. Alistair Sim proved to be the best, most enjoyable interpretation of Ebeneezer Scrooge than in any other version I've seen. Sim portrays Scrooge with a sincere flavor of disgust and hatred for Christmas, eventually melting his cold facade and realizing how great a time of year it really is. For some unspeakable reason, whatever it is, nobody is carrying this version on TV. Unfortunately, one would be stuck with the rather awful Reginald Owen version twice in as many weeks. I had my first taste of the Reginald Owen version, and Owen just comes off as being awfully stiff and bland. Fortunately, we have the Alistair Sim version on VHS and should become an eventual purchase on DVD whenever I get the full motivation to do so. Still, the populace should not have to put up with second-rate versions of this Dickens' classic. And, no, Bill Murray simply doesn't help.
Happy Progressions for the Holidays / Where's Santa? Check NORAD! / Weird Dream Bit / My So-Called Life Thoughts / Merry Christmas! Wednesday, December 24, 2003 Some notes that Christmas will be good for more people than expected: ***** NORAD has their annual watch for Santa going on. It takes a few clicks, but you'll eventually end up with a radar screen that tracks Santa's move across the globe. ***** I had another weird dream last night. I remember nearly nothing about it other than that the Sacramento Bee had, for some reason, stopped publishing the Scene section. For those of you who don't know, the paper's Scene section contains things like the Comics, horoscopes, and advice columns. Yet another dream to decode at some point. ***** "Do we have to keep talking about religion? It's Christmas."
I felt the need to watch some more My So-Called Life today, and it happened to be the Christmas episode. I found the above quote rather humorous for its irony. It's funny how I'll watch some shows and never want to see re-runs. Then, there's the occasional show that I enjoy seeing the episodes again anyway. My So-Called Life is certainly one of those shows. It had the perfect timing of showing up just before the beginning of my senior year at Jesuit and becoming a part of my life at a very difficult turning point. The characters spoke to me, and I could relate to all of them in some way or another. Very few shows have that effect on me, with M*A*S*H being one of the only other shows that fits that description. My So-Called Life also feels like a preservation of how things were when I was in high school. It's hard for me to describe, whether it's how people dressed, the attitudes, or whatever else it might be. The charachers and the show just connect with me. ***** As it gets later, the more excited I get for the following week. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Christmas Weekend / Mad Dogs and Daves Out in the Mid-Day Storm / Richard Simmons, Eat Your Heart Out: Dave Exercises Again! Monday, December 29, 2003
Pam, her parents, and I walked to her Aunt's house. Once we got near the front door, I could sense the immense amount of conversations taking place by the sheer volume of the collective group. The rather nice-sized house had a large amount of people in it. Seating for all simply did not exist unless you utilized the floor, and getting around proved to be a minor obstacle course. It was wonderful. The energy level in that room caught me a little off-guard, not knowing to whom I should turn my attention. Around that time was when things started. Pam had been volunteered to play piano for the singing of Christmas carols. Once she found out she had been volunteered and had time to practice a little, we sang to our hearts' content. I had heard that Pam's family would sing Christmas carols in Armenian, but only a single verse of one song was sung in Armenian. I felt rather bad that I didn't know the same second verse of "Silent Night" in Spanish, but if they ever need a rendition of "La Bamba", I'm ready. After we sang the Christmas carols, her family handed out some presents to the younger kids in the crowd (well, assuming you consider "17" to be either "younger" or "kid"). I guess certain family members only see each other on this annual event. Then, all of us presented, one by one, what we brought for the gift collection for the gift drive for the Sacramento Children's Receiving Home. At one point, one of Pam's Aunts had asked if I worked there, which I didn't. I think she got that impression because I nodded while they described what the place was. Assuming it's the place I'm thinking of on Auburn Boulevard near Watt Avenue, I'm fairly familiar with the place. Besides donating a bunch of magazines and stuffed animals before moving nearly five years ago, I almost volunteered there. From what I can remember, it's a place where abused, neglected, or otherwise mal-treated or such children are sent before being adopted out. I think orphaned kids are sent there, too, though I'm not sure about troubled or in-trouble kids. It's a rather depressing place, but the kids need it very much. The unveiling of gifts for the gift drive slowly ended, leading to everyone going back to their previous conversations,
eating and drinking the rest of the night away. I found some joy in drinking sherry, and I loved the kahlua
cake, biscotti, and "Holiday Spirits" (a mixture of crushed Oreos, corn syrup, and kahlua, rolled into
small balls and coated with powdered sugar). Our family Christmas dinner featured the usual fare: a nice turkey, stuffing/dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, salad, pickles, cheeses, and olives. We had pumpkin and mincemeat pies, complete with whipped topping and brandy (we used to have brandy sauce, but the cost didn't seem worth it when one can have straight brandy). My grandmother made bourbon balls, which I truly love. I could have eaten the whole plate myself, but fortunately Pam was there to help me with that "chore." My grandparents liked Pam very much, so she no longer has to worry about that now. This Christmas surprised a lot of us, presents-wise. I surprised Pam's parents with a fruitcake on a weekend
a week or two ago. Pam surprised my grandparents and parents with pumpkin bread. To top it off, my
grandparents surprised Pam with an assortment of teas. She'll certainly love those! After puttering around Tuesday Morning, a discount store, we headed back to my house for dinner with my parents. We indulged in pasta with homemade pesto, chicken sausage, Bella Bru sourdough french bread, and a salad. I showed Pam the rather cool cookbook my parents have, which, through a quoting of the movie The Last Boy Scout, led us to watch the aforementioned movie. Surprisingly, Pam enjoyed it, finding it a guy's movie but good nevertheless. On Wednesday, I'll recount our New Year's Eve plans for this year. ***** Members of my family have this interesting tendency to get caught up in things very quickly. A person will start something, see something else that needs to be done, and that person will then do that other thing until it's done. This can go on for three or four different things in succession, sometimes not finishing one or more of the previous chores. Today, it's been raining and very windy. Several times we had some significant rain. Allegedly, the winds have grown to gusts of up to 50 MPH at one of the local airports, though the winds reached 25-30 MPH in the rest of the city. A nice day to stay inside and relax, right? Well, my genetics spoke otherwise. While I sat on the loveseat, I saw a rather large branch fall from one of the trees in the front. It fell across the driveway and blocked some of it when it settled. When the winds seemed to calm a bit, I headed out to clear that out of the way so my parents could drive in. Well, I saw all the other branches and cleared them, putting them on the Volkswagon-Bug-length leaf pile that was already about two feet high and almost three feet wide. The amount of water flowing towards the street drains nearly filled the whole gutter. When I noticed that some of the street drains had clumps of leaves blocking the water, I hurried over to clear those. Then, after sweeping some leaves out of the gutter, I realized just how cold and wet I had become while wearing my windbreaker over a t-shirt and a pair of knit shorts. Needless to say, I hauled myself back inside. In such freezing weather (around 46 degrees, not including wind chill), I wouldn't normally wear so little. Actually, I would, but not in weather like this. Before heading outside, I prepared myself for exercising. What I wore outside is what I would wear when doing so, hence why the unusual garb. I did the branch-gathering at the right time, since the city crews came along and picked up all the leaves. One branch/limb I left on the lawn to be cut up when the current storm pattern blows over. This thing easily measures two yards in length. I'm certain I'd have to cut it up before putting it out for the collection. It surprised me when I pulled it off my neighbor's yard, since one thick branch on it had sunk itself about five inches into the ground. I don't know with what force that thing hit the ground, but if I had a scale for the limb, I could figure it out. <grins> ***** Today, I did something I hadn't been able to do in about two months: exercise. Before November, I exercised consistently on a Nordic Track for 30 minutes a day, three days a week. I don't know if I made any progress towards keeping my weight in check or losing any weight, but I felt good about myself for sticking to a regimen over a long period of time. Ever since my job hunt fiasco with an "advertising agency", my right knee had been unreliable and was rather painful when walking. Well, I made my decision and started to exercise again today. Given I had been off most exercise, I was happy to complete 20 minutes on the Nordic Track. I didn't feel the least bit winded near the end, though I could feel the effects of not being on it for so long. Knowing I couldn't make it any longer than 20 minutes, I stopped. The best thing from this session is that I experienced no pain whatsoever in my knee.
New Year's Eve & Day Festivities / Thoughts Considering No Grades in School / In and Out List for 2004 / Thoughts on New Year's Resolutions Wednesday, December 31, 2003 In a couple of hours, I'll be heading off to Pam's for our New Year's Eve celebration. On tap for tonight and tomorrow:
It should be a great night. Pam got tickets for the Kings' game on Sunday, but I'll be busy with my mom's birthday that day. Thankfully, there are many, many other Kings games out there (with hope of Metallica tickets, if she's lucky). ***** While exercising today, for some reason I started to think about how schools could be improved towards emphasizing personal achievement rather than aiming for high grades. The idea in my head looked for an improvement that would discourage cheating, since such actions only work towards raising one's grade, rather than actually learning and internalizing the particular knowledge studied. "Cheating" means actions like reading off another person's paper, bringing in illegal notes, or any other action that would give people an unfair advantage over another (which would not necessarily include using programs on calculators). A couple of minutes pass, and I start thinking, "what if they eliminated grades all together in the classroom?" I wouldn't eliminate grades completely, since teachers and schools need something to use to compare students and have a gauge on their progress. Under this system, though, grades would not be given to the students in class, but they would be available through a parent-teacher conference. In theory, teachers would be able to focus completely on a student's current ability and would work with that student towards a higher mastery. Grades themselves would not be a distraction and would not be used between students to compare one another's "intelligence." Teachers can give students insight as to what they need to improve and pointers on how they can achieve that. If this theory would work in an ideal sense, the students would gradually work out of pride rather than a grade-reward system currently in place. Naturally, I wouldn't expect such a thing to ever materialize or even work. Nearly no ideal situation ever works out as desired, and assorted consequences will always pop up that one would need to fix. ***** Congratulations! You're about to enjoy the privilege of seeing the first What's In and What's Out in 2004 list by yours truly. Those of us at Neurotic Burrito Enterprises worked hard in the last couple of hours to compile this list. Due to the sudden inclusion of this to the regular element of the blog, we decided to keep this list short and sweet:
I certainly don't expect to be right. If these things can persuade people to be their best, then hopefully I can help influence someone out there. Not that I expect it, but it'd be nice. ***** The time of the year has come for people to make New Year's resolutions. Just the sound of "resolutions"
probably sends shivers down one's spine. The pressure to come up with something and hope to stick to it tends
to be too much for most. This is especially true since nearly all New Year's resolutions are never fulfilled.
While I'm in a theorizing mood, I wondered, recently, why New Year's resolutions never stick. It's possible many people aren't very serious about resolutions or make unreasonable ones. I'd think that
many people know that whatever they pledge will not stick or last long. Others might get a little too enthusiastic
and make pledges that they don't have the time, energy, or actual interest to achieve. |
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