Happy Non-denominational Winter Holiday!

Although we should be careful throwing that word "winter" around. It might be discriminatory against Australian-Americans who enjoy summer in their homeland this time of year.

Anyway, I was thinking the other day. Not for long, but it did happen. There are a lot of free music download options available despite the record companies best efforts to get rid of them. However, a lot of the free services are filled with spyware, viruses (virii?), etc... that make it difficult to actually download free music. I bet it's the record companies themselves filling those sites and services with all sorts of malware in an effort to steer people away from it. Just a thought. Remember, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

I have a Christmas song stuck in my head, it goes "Christmas! Christmas! A wonderful Christmas time!" I wish I knew more of the words.

You know what bugs me about work meetings? You can't change the channel. If someone is blathering away about synergy, you're stuck listening to it. There's not even a mute button for these people.

I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory last night. The new one with Johnny Dep (sp?). I have to say it was pretty entertaining. The visuals were outstanding, and the songs were creepy, yet catchy. The whole thing was pretty ridiculous, but it embraced it's ridiculousness and worked well. The one drawback is that it didn't contain the song "Oompa Loompa oompa dee do" or something like that. If you are looking for something colorful and mindless, check it out.

Has anyone ever given you a gift that was so thoughtful, that the gift you were about to give them looked like poo in comparison? Wendy did that to me recently. She gave me a present early and said to open it right then. So I did, and it was scrapbook with pictures of us, the cats, family, etc... There were also writings and stickers and it showed our last year together. It was really nice, and I was touched by it. So then she says "What did you get me" So she opens hers later and it's a jewelry box. I mean it's a nice enough gift, but after what she made, it pales in comparison. My only hope is that the present she's getting in Michigan knocks her socks off. We'll see.

So boring...

I am absolutely addicted to fantasy football. Just recently Yahoo! added a feature where one can view their past results going back to the year 2000, and possibly earlier. I thought that was great. It showed every league I'd ever been in, and where I finished. There are also trophies for first, second, and third place finishes. I have 4 first place trophies and 2 third place trophies. No second place for me.

Anyway.

So today I ate the piece of steak I had left over from the other night. I brought it home from the restaurant as I couldn't finish it. It was pretty good. I ate it cold, and I ate it with my hands. After that I ate some candy. I had a cherry Hershey kiss. It was chocolate covered cherry. That was also good. Then I had a rolo. I enjoyed the rolo and then looked through the bowl for more of them. I found three more. I ate one, then for the final two I ate them both at the same time. The rolo looks like a truncated cone, so I took the larger diameter side and placed it against the other rolo's larger diameter side. Then I ate that. My jaw became tired while chewing that. To wash this feast down I had a Sprite. Out of a can. You know what? That was good too.

I'm hungry now though. So... yeah. That's what I've been doing.

Happy Holidays

Earlier this week I was rushing around trying to get some Christmas shopping done. I was stressed out and not thinking very fondly of the Christmas season right then. It was dark, cold, and wet in the parking lot as I was loading my car up with gifts that I felt obligated to buy. I noticed that I was missing a receipt that I might need later. So mumbling under my breath, I retraced my steps to the mall entrance.

As I was searching the wet pavement for the lost receipt, I heard a quiet sobbing. The crying was coming from a poorly dressed boy of about 12 years old. He was short and thin. He had no coat. He was just wearing a ragged flannel shirt to protect him from the cold night's chill.

Oddly enough, he was holding a hundred dollar bill in his hand.

Thinking that he had gotten lost from his parents, I asked him what was wrong.

He told me his sad story. He said that he came from a large family. He had three brothers and four sisters. His father had died when he was nine years old. His mother was poorly educated and worked two full time jobs. She made very little to support her large family.

Nevertheless, she had managed to skimp and save two hundred dollars to buy her children Christmas presents. The young boy had been dropped off, by his mother, on the way to her second job. He was to use the money to buy presents for all his siblings and save just enough to take the bus home.

He had not even entered the mall, when an older boy grabbed one of the hundred dollar bills and disappeared into the night.

"Why didn't you scream for help?" I asked.

The boy said, "I did."

"And nobody came to help you?" I queried.

The boy stared at the sidewalk and sadly shook his head.

"How loud did you scream?" I inquired.

The soft-spoken boy looked up and meekly whispered, "Help me!"

I realized that absolutely no one could have heard that poor boy cry for help. So I grabbed his other hundred and ran to my car.

Nice day, huh?

So I've stopped smoking. I gotta tell you, it kind of sucks. I mean besides the whole craving business, smoking gave me something to do. I blew up a little at Wendy when we got out of the car and were walking to the restaurant. I said "Is this all we do? Just walk!? What kind of crap is that?" I needed something else to do, my arms were going crazy. I don't know what to do with them.I thought about taking up coin flipping, but what am I? Two-face? Come on, I can't go through life looking like a Batman villain. So I don't know. We'll see how this plays out. It's weird to hear "No thanks, I don't smoke" come out of my mouth. Oh and I am also concerned about how to make non-smoking friends. I'm not sure how to do it. With smoking there is a common bond. "Got a light?", "Can I bum a smoke?" all conversation starters. What do you say to a non smoker standing next to you? "Nice day, huh?" Who wants to hear that? Not me, not this week. Then I'd know what to do with my arms, I'd punch them in the face.

Oh yeah

I'm an idiot.