This is not my blog.

Last night I went bowling at Galaxy Lanes for the first time since I got my new bowling shoes for Christmas. People have been telling me that having your own shoes adds 10 pins onto your score ... well, they may be right based upon last night's performance. I averaged a 167 in my first three games.


Then I averaged a 158 in my second three games including a nasty one where I had 5 splits and still managed to get a 146 (and I converted one of those splits with an awesome shot that I somehow made where I hit both pins with the same ball).


So that makes a 162 average for the whole set of games and I'm pretty damn happy about that! The next Trio League starts next Thursday and last night's performance was better than I ever did in the last league session. So I'm looking very forward to it!

Labels: bowling

I was browsing through the games section at Books-A-Million the other day and came across this cool little Lego thingy.


How cool is that! Apparently it's part of their new architecture series and I think that it's a pretty neat idea. I loved playing with Legos when I was a kid and this gives some adults an excuse to keep playing with them. I would get one but I already have enough junk and knickknacks lying around as it is. But what a cool idea!

Labels: misc

Hey ho ... it's a new  year and I'm getting around to resolving ... but haven't finished yet. I have decided that I'm done with being overweight and plan to shed the 40 or so pounds that I've picked up since leaving Ohio ... or starting to leave. I just need to work out my plan for doing that ... though I can already hear Inca P shouting from Akron "just do it!" So I will be ... soon ... promise. There are just a few things that I need to do first in terms of organizing myself for it ... one of those is waiting for the iPod Shuffle that I ordered with some Christmas money (more on that later) and waiting for a chapped area on my right elbow to heal (I don't know what I did to it but it's all bloody and messy).

Anyway, New Year's Eve was a blast ... namely because I ended up working because my court was the only court that was open on Thursday ... and we were crammed full in a fairly busy day. But it wasn't too bad and I got out by 5pm to meet my parents for dinner before they attended my band concert. We played for Charleston's New Year's Eve celebration that they call "Good Night". When I lived in Akron, OH we did this and it was called "First Night" there and was so much better run than this. In Akron everything is kept within walking distance and it's clear that there is something going on. When I got to the Civic Center I wasn't even sure that they were open and we weren't even the first act. After parking my car the two parking lot attendants asked me what was going on because they had no idea. Despite this we managed to have a decent sized audience and most of the band made it to play for about 45 minutes and my parents and some other friends and family who came said that they loved it.

I went on to my sister's where we played games and had pizza. One game, in particular, that I've been playing is called Quiddler and it's a Scrabble-style game. In fact, Lisa and I should do a write-up for our Scrabble Club blog on this. I first played it at my last Scrabble tournament in our after hours time (because a group of competitive Scrabble players is always looking for something else to do related to words ... usually anagraming). Quiddler sort of fits the bill as it's a card game with letters similar to the ones found in Scrabble with point values and such. The goal each round is to find a play, through discarding and drawing, that will play all your letters in one or more words. Play goes through 8 levels with an extra card to play with each level. It's a fun game and one that I managed to win the very first time that I played it (to my surprise as I was against some really good Scrabble players). I have been beaten in this game by both my mom and dad and once by my sister since introducing them to this game which they like A LOT. There is a similar but different game called Scrabble Slam that Hasbro makes ... but I don't like it very well.

Of course, the next day was about watching both of my WVU teams get beaten in sports. WVU lost the Gator Bowl after showing up strong and then just losing steam. They also lost their big basketball game as well. I would say more about it here but I don't really feel like it. I watched some other college football Friday ... something I'm not usually prone to doing ... and had a decent time of it.

Saturday was the big game night though. My Scrabble friends Lisa and Corey invited me over to try some games. I ended up teaching them Quiddler and Cribbage and they taught me this awesome board game called The Settlers of Catan which totally rocked (it reminded me of Civilization on a kitchen table). I have included wikipedia links to them here because I'm not going to try to describe them ... too hard. But we had a very fun time playing these games. I brought over a box of wine from Target and some Yuengling Black and Tan Lager. Lisa and Corey fed me this awesome pasta that they had made and we got down to the games. I won the first two games when we played Quiddler ... but I was not that far ahead of Corey who was just kicking butt all night. Corey gets tired of Lisa beating up on him when they play at home and he seldom makes it to club but he seemed to really like Quiddler's format and he did incredibly well! Both games were about 10 point games and he loved that Lisa came in third. Then we played The Settlers of Catan twice with Lisa winning the first time and me winning the second time. We finished up with 3-Hand Cribbage which Corey won both times having grasped the nerdy card combinations pretty quickly (though if he can play The Settlers of Catan he can certainly play Cribbage). Cribbage is one of the oldest card games in the world but it's still a very fun and challenging game.


So we had about 6 hours or so of gaming and hanging out. It was loads of fun and I'm now in love with Settlers of Catan after discovering that there is an online version of it as well as an iPhone app. I don't know when I'll have much time to play it though but I've run through some games here and there. That's some great German engineering there I guess. Lisa said that they would definitely like to have me over to play again some time. She said that they got that as a gift for their wedding but can seldom find a third person to play with them (as it would be awfully boring with two people). Which brings me to my last point that Lisa and Corey are awesome people and I count myself as very fortunate to have them as my friends. I got them to play in my band with me and they have been kind enough to put up with me and Corey lets Lisa and me be best Scrabble buds (she was even my roommate at Nationals this past year ... something that I still have to blog about).

So that's the news. Still alive and will have more to report later. Happy New Year!

Labels: misc

Wow, I take a few days off and my hit count goes into the toilet. Well, I suppose that's to be expected. I've been busy this weekend doing interesting things that I'll be blogging about this week when I get to it. For now here is an awesome interview that blogging friend Bill Gardner did of my blogging friend Sharon Lyn Stackpole who reads and comments here (and plays Scrabble with me online). Sharon's an interesting lady and I had the pleasure of meeting her at one of her shows here last year at the Purple Moon. So please help two of my friends out by reading Bill's interview with Sharon.

10 Questions With Sharon Lyn Stackpole

Labels: arts

I had a good day today. I felt like I really helped people today both in court and in my life. In court I ended up filling in for two other attorneys who were sick and consequently had my first felony case to work on today. Then I did some misdemeanor work and my usual mental health court stuff. All the cases went very well, in a rare event, all of my clients got what they wanted today ... even the very last one which was a hospital hearing ... much to my surprise. That's all I'll say. Just that it was a good day and I look forward to tomorrow.

Tomorrow we have our New Year's Eve performance with my Kanawha Valley Community Band. We play at the Civic Center Little Theater at 7pm and then I go to visit my sister for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. This weekend I need to get some bowling in. I haven't even used my new shoes yet!

When I was in Jr. High School I was denied entry to the National Jr. Honor Society in my first year of eligibility. Upon an investigation of the reason my parents were told that I was too much of an introvert and tended to be a loner. Nobody who knows me now would ever say those words about me. The question that I sometimes ask myself is whether I'm still that kid but now with an amazing set of defense mechanisms to compensate or if I never was that kid in the first place (I made it into the NJHS the next year). This was the thought that occurred to me when I watched the new film Up In The Air starring George Clooney and directed by the same guy who brought us Juno and Thank You For Smoking. I haven't thought about that for a long time until I saw the solitude of George Clooney's character in this adaptation of a much different novel which was transformed from a lackluster and shallow plot into a masterpiece on the screen. The part was played so well that it left me exploring many parts of myself ... as I expected it would when I saw the trailer for the film. The trailer has Clooney asking how much your life weighs as he asks the audience to quantify their belongings as if packing them into a backpack. He then asks them to compare that to their relationships "the heaviest components in your life". The point of this is that Clooney's life fits into a carry-on suitcase as he spends 300+ days a year flying for his job ... which is to fire people. In fact, he describes those times when he is "home" as agony because he considers his home to be up in the air and in the terminals he visits.

Now the first thought that crossed my mind when I heard this ... and saw it ...was that Clooney is living the life of a Buddhist monk. Buddhist teachings are always about attachments and how it is our attachments that cause us suffering and impede our happiness. Attachments are usually described as things and material possessions but I've also heard them described as people. Thus, in that sense, Clooney's character fits the bill to a "T" as he has no attachments. He is estranged from his family and even though he's constantly surrounded by people he is quite alone. But he seems comfortable alone ... or is he? He is on a mission to achieve an impossibly high number of frequent flier miles and that seems to drive his lifestyle ... yet he also seems to enjoy it until a series of events shakes him and causes him to reconsider those things that he has always "known" about himself. This is what, I think, makes the business of being a Buddhist monk something that most will never do because it's an inherently selfish thing ... yet there is wisdom to the idea of limiting attachments to things.

Watching Clooney so artfully portray this role gave me a lot to think about. For one, Clooney comes to realize that his isolation is both a boon and a burden. He's spent so much of his life being isolated that he has forgotten what it feels like to have the "burden" of friends and relationships. Therein lies the tragedy of the film ... along with some other things. The concept is dazzling to watch as it unfolds and I think that it gives people much to reflect upon ... even those who would say that it's a depressing film (because at the very least it should make you appreciate what you have).


Personally, it puts me in touch with something that I've noticed about myself lately. I've been feeling that I've been isolating myself over the last year and I don't quite know what to do about it. I've always felt a strong desire to connect with people and require it as I don't like being alone all that much. I used to never do certain things in solitude like eat at a restaurant, go to a movie, or go to a social place (like bowling) because I didn't want to look sad. Now I do those things out of necessity (I do love movies) or convenience and I wonder about that. This Christmas I had a very nice time but I couldn't help feeling a little like I was existing outside of myself and observing someone else's Christmas much in the way that one of my Uncles has always done since I was little. He has led a solitary life since his divorce in my childhood and I wonder if the same will be true of me. Lately I've felt caught between worlds. On one hand I've been feeling my tendency to distance myself from attachments because there is wisdom in simplification ... yet I don't want to detach from people because I feel that they are what make life worth living ... it's our human interactions that make life interesting to me.

Yet there are those true loners who honestly enjoy being alone and prefer it. I'm not one of those but I have wondered lately what makes them tick. It's not something that I want to learn too well but I also see a certain strength in those true loners to be themselves without worrying what others think. I can't imagine being that disconnected from people and the thought is very disconcerting to me. I define so much of who I am by my friends, activities, and in shared moments rather than in the things that I do when I'm alone and maybe that's my greatest weakness. I've always been one to get down in the dumps after a great social activity because I feel so alive at those times. Yet lately I've found myself being more disconnected at such events and it worries me. I wonder if part of this could be the effect that my job is having on me as well since so much of what I do now is assessing people and trying to figure them out. This job thing is another way that I connected with Clooney in this movie as he travels all over the country seeing people at their worst (while firing them). Part of Clooney's skillset is getting into the heads of these people and anticipating how to respond to them when they do or say the unexpected. I can completely relate to that.

Something else that I've done recently is to re-watch all the old Karate Kid movies. It's interesting watching the relationship form between Daniel and his Master and to watch how Daniel's youthful impulsiveness and anger continually derails him while Mr. Miyagi is the rock of plaintive calmness and wisdom. That's a lesson that I totally missed as a kid who was full of ideas to conquer the world and make it fair. The concept of "settling" comes up in this film too. I wonder if wisdom is the settlement we make for reckless impulsivity? I just know that the older that I get the more I seek wisdom and stability ... and perhaps that is found in a solitary life after all. I suppose that time will tell. In the mean time ... see this movie ... it's excellent ... even if you're not a neurotic obsessive like me!

Labels: buddhism, reviews, stories

There has been some discussion lately about the end of the decade. The discussion has been "when does the decade end"? This may seem like a simple question but there is actually some debate about this. We are accustomed to seeing decades go from x0 to x9 because we refer to the decade by that second to the last number. But then there is the argument that the calendar didn't start (theoretically) with year "0" meaning that the first decade was years 1 through 10. Of course, the problem with that, from my perspective, is that there was no year "1" either since the modern calendar was invented in 1582 by Papal decree. One of my favorite podcasters, Grammar Girl, points out that the writers of the Chicago Manual of Style and Garner's Modern American Usage have not come down on a side yet but she points out that people will understand your writing more if you consider 0 to be the start of the decade.

Beyond that I've seen at least one discussion about what we are to call the new year coming up this week. Some say it should be called "twenty ten" just like we said "nineteen ten" while others will probably insist on using the cumbersome "two thousand ten". I prefer saying "twenty ten". Further, what are we to call this past decade? We are accustomed to saying the 70's, 80's, and 90's. What will this be? Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty, suggests three options: "the aughts", "the oughts", and "the naughts." Personally, I'd prefer something more badass ... how about "the awesome"?

For Christmas I got two things. First my USBC (United States Bowling Congress) membership card finally came in the mail. Jerry had told me that it would be coming soon and it did. This goes well with the new bowling shoes that I received from my parents for Christmas. Jerry helped them to order them for me ... he's really helped my game a lot and so I can't say enough good things about Galaxy Lanes (and he'll be signing me up for another league soon). The bowling shoes should help with my game in a few ways, first I should have a smoother approach to the release where the rental shoes sometimes would trip me up and these should fit better as well. Second, I won't have to rent shoes every time that I want to bowl ... hey $2 a time adds up. I haven't used them yet but should be able to get to the lanes soon to give them a try!

Labels: bowling

I had another very nice Christmas with my family. I spent Christmas Eve with my sister and her family and woke up with them for Christmas and then we packed up and visited the parents for the rest of our Christmas. It was very nice. I received some very thoughtful gifts. My sister helped contribute toward my next Scrabble tournament in Charlotte (the Eastern Regional Championship in Feb.), I got some cds and dvds, some sci-fi ornaments, and some other cool stuff like my own pair of bowling shoes! It was very nice and then I had the good fortune to get sick the next day with a good 24 hour stomach virus. It seemed to pass though.

Labels: xmas

All right y'all. Accordin' to NBC we're all a buncha rednex so here is my redne'k Christmas card ... WV style.

Right now I'm probably hanging out with my sister's family and will spend the whole day doing family stuff, chasing nephews, and having a good time (yes, I wrote this a few days ago). So I'll try to return tomorrow either in person or by another pre-posted post ...we'll see.

In the mean time have a great Christmas or whatever!

If you're really bored you can read all of my other Christmas related posts.

Labels: xmas

Today I completed one of my Christmas traditions of reading Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol, from start to finish in the last days before Christmas. I used to read it to help me fall asleep when I was much younger and was excited for the next day on Christmas Eve night. This year I started it on the 22nd and finished it today in spurts (it isn't a terribly long book). This year I drew some new things from it due to some recent reading and viewing. Allow me to elaborate.

Over the course of these last 20+ years I have read, listened to, or watched manifestations of this story at least 100 times if not more. I know that I've physically read this book at least once a year since I was in the 6th or 7th grade and sometimes twice in the season and with the advent of audiobooks even more so now (it was a free download from Audible.com this year with Tim Curry reading it). There have been many movie versions with my two favorites being the 1999 TNT version staring Patrick Stewart because I thought it was the most true to the original material (though my runner up would be the 1984 George C. Scott version). There have been many adaptations of  this story ranging from the comedic to the bizarre. One of my favorites is the 1988 film Scrooged staring Bill Murray and recently there was the lighthearted Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, starring WV native Jennifer Garner, that put a new twist on this story.

Then Disney decided to remake the classic which chilled me to the core because of how they like to ruin classics by cuteseying them up to appeal to a larger audience with plenty of poop and fart jokes. I was appalled and resolved not to see what was being called Disney's A Christmas Carol ... but then I relented and saw it yesterday based upon some recommendations from friends. I have to say that I was very surprised at what I saw and I can't say that I didn't enjoy it because it exceeded my expectations in a major way (and my expectations were pretty low). The trailers show some of the moments that made me cringe ... Scrooge being nasty, flying around on a rocket, or being chased around the streets of London by demon horses. But what the trailer didn't show was how dark that this film was ... delightfully and uncomfortably dark at times. Sure, there were moments tailored to get a laugh out of the kids who were in the theater (who did laugh) but there were also some very spooky moments. The moment where Scrooge is transitioning between the Ghost of Christmas Present and Christmas Yet To Come is downright gruesome and I loved it!

What Disney did was to remind me that, at it's heart, A Christmas Carol is a ghost story with moral teachings. Many of the adaptations have factored religion and Christian themes into their film, and those themes are certainly present in the source material, but the way that Disney presented the story impressed me as it hit at the larger themes of being kind, generous, and leading a meaningful life and even gave the church a little knock with a line that I don't recall hearing in the other versions. When Scrooge is needling the Ghost of Christmas Present about depriving people of their means of dining every 7th day (a veiled reference to Sunday) the Ghost remarked to Scrooge "There are some upon this earth of ours, so-called men of the cloth, who lay claim to know us, who are strange to us. Charge their doings on themselves, not us." The actual quote from Dickens is:

"Spirit," said Scrooge, after a moment's thought. "I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment."

"I!" cried the Spirit.

"You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all," said Scrooge. "Wouldn't you?"

"I!" cried the Spirit.

"You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day?" said Scrooge. "And it comes to the same thing."

"I seek!" exclaimed the Spirit.

"Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family," said Scrooge.

"There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name; who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us."

Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town.

DAMN! Bitchslap by the Ghost there. I had really never paid much attention to that passage until now and I have to wonder at Disney putting it in there. They did some other things that I found interesting as well. There were other snippets of dialog that I don't recall having heard anywhere but in the book (or audiobook) and I did find it nice that Disney kept the British English in tact rather than trying to convert things for the sake of the American audience who would consume it (including cultural references). I was a little displeased with their messing with Jacob Marley ... who has always been the most horrible of the Ghosts (and who I once played in a high school production ... part of why I like him so much) ... but this was made up for by making the other Ghosts more horrible than they usually are (and they didn't mess up Marley too much).

So back to my train of thought ... I read an essay recently in The Atheist's Guide To Christmas (courtesy of Audible.com) where the writer (and I forget who it was) spoke of A Christmas Carol not really being a Christian work. It was with this eye that I read it this year thinking back too about what I had read about the work in Stephen Nissenbaum's The Battle For Christmas that I've blogged about before. Nissenbaum has spoken of how works like A Christmas Carol and Twas The Night Before Christmas were invented by a group of men who were trying to reform Christmas from the baudy holiday that it had always been into a more plaintiff and peaceful time of year and I think that there is a lot of historical data to support that. So when I read A Christmas Carol this year I was looking for what the atheist author had mentioned: namely that the story isn't about praising Jesus (though it is implied) but is about living a good life and being aware of those others around you and how you can reduce their suffering (or not add to it overmuch). Church isn't really treated in A Christmas Carol except for in a certain negative way and while there are references to the religious nature of Christmas it tends to be in veiled terms. The story is, at it's heart, one of redemption but redemption for what purpose? It's not hell that Scrooges is trying to avoid ... he's trying to avoid death ... it's not favor from the sky god that he's trying to gain ... but it's the threat of roaming the earth with his friend Jacob Marley as a tormented spirit (which isn't a Christian concept at all).

It is very likely that these themes are laid out in such a way to appeal to a target audience ... that is an audience who wasn't all that concerned (in 1843) with the efforts of the church to take over Christmas (which had been the pagan holiday of Yule for far longer than it had been Christmas). Lobbing a religious story at that audience wasn't going to work which is why A Christmas Carol is really a secular tale that is more humanist than religious. I don't know why this had never occurred to me over the many times and years over which I've read this book. It truly is such a part of Western culture that it often just flies below the radar in our collective conscience and the tale can be used for many things ... as evidenced by the recent film Ghosts of Girlfriends Past which isn't religious in the slightest. This is not to say that religion can't adopt the message of A Christmas Carol ... (and it happens that the largest portion of traffic to my blog this month has been for "christian version night before christmas" or some variant thereof) and that isn't to say that A Christmas Carol isn't full of religious references ... I just wonder if they are truly the subject of the story when you really break it down.

Looking further at A Christmas Carol ... the story is also one of class struggle as much as anything else. The Cratchits are not destitute ... they are middle class and live modestly mostly because Bob has all those kids to support (what is it ... 5 of them)? Yet the Ghosts of Christmas use all sorts of people who are lower and higher class than the Cratchits, nephew Fred, or humble laborers and shiphands to teach the meaning of Christmas. And what is Dicken's meaning of Christmas? It would seem to be one of charity, forbearance, and kindness as Scrooge learned from his lesson to become "as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city ... and it was said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge." Nowhere in there is church mentioned ... though it may possibly be implied as the Cratchits seemed to be church goers and Tiny Tim talks more about it than anyone else ... I'm not going to quibble over it. The message in A Christmas Carol is clearer to me than it ever has been and so when Tiny Tim says "God bless us ... every one" he doesn't say "except for our enemies" and that is okay in my book.

Labels: religion, reviews, xmas

Okay ... I was lazy again this year and didn't send out Christmas cards. Actually, I did buy some Christmas cards that I thought would suit my personality well but when the time came to send them I just didn't feel like I had a lot to report. I haven't been in the best frame of mind lately and I guess that influenced my decision ... along with never knowing who to send them to and the neurosis of trying to figure out who you will offend if you don't send them a Christmas card when you send others out ... or who will be stressed if you send them one and they didn't send one to you ... or if you get one from someone you didn't send a card to ... yadda yadda yadda.

While that is a lame excuse here is the card that I was going to send out with its message on the inside here.


So it would seem that not sending out Christmas cards for a few years results in getting very few yourself. That's okay, of course I wonder if some of my friends worry that they will offend me for sending me a Christmas card due to my non-standard beliefs. Well, one friend didn't worry about that ... she sent me the most awesome card I've ever seen.


That's right, it's not a Christmas card ... it's a Yule card from Inca Princess! Yes, that is a pentagram around Santa's neck too. In fact, check out the inside of the card.



Those little words inside the pentagram say variations of Christmas greetings in multiple languages. Remember, pentagrams are not evil ... that was the same visceral response that I had to check when I saw it (it's amazing how that was drilled into me). Here is the back of the card in case you want to check it out.


I had a few other cards and thought that this one from Sharon Lyn was very pretty and a real contrast for receiving it on the same day as Inca P's (thanks you're so sweet).


Then this one came in a few days earlier from an old old friend from college and my childhood and I thought it was very pretty as well.



I had a few at work and some others that I didn't photograph. I like getting Christmas cards which means that I need to send some early next year so that people know I'm still alive and in the mood. I saw this one at The Onion that might be a good one for my friends with a sense of humor (front, inside).

Well, I'm gonna finish reading A Christmas Carol and finish my post on it ... then I'm heading to my sister's for Christmas Eve. Have a peaceful, content, loving, reflective, and fun Christmas Eve and Christmas ... or whatever you celebrate!

Labels: xmas

Have you finished your shopping for Christmas yet? Well, you've got one more day. Why not try some of these lame Christmas gifts all you last minute shoppers!


This world is challenging enough ... so why put too much pressure on the fam?

This world is challenging enough (LOL) ... get dad that beer tie to remind him of his other family at the bar.


From the WTF department.



I can think of a few people who this would be a great gift for.

When you're jonesing for bacon ...  you don't even have to cook it!


And an old favorite!

Hope you have a nice Christmas or whatever and hope you don't get any of these gifts!

Labels: weird, xmas

My job is an interesting one. I go into the court at weird hours and even hold court at the hospitals at night and on the weekends. I see people at their worst all the time but this time of year still somtimes surprises me when I see the best and worst of people who are all hopped up on what I call the "other" Christmas Spirit. Yes, I'm being cynical but I've heard lots of people this year describing their shock when someone has been rude to them while they've been out holiday shopping this winter ... and thus was born my new phrase. This really is one of the most stressful times of year and I don't know how much that people who aren't involved in my line of work realize that. I would think that most people would recognize it on some level and certainly the spate of modern Christmas movies play on this idea. I just find it more sad when working with my clients because (in some cases) if it was any other time of year they might have been able to maintain better.

This particular day always reminds me of when I was working at my old job as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney. This was a job where I worked in the Tax Division and a huge chunk of what we did was to file or process foreclosures on vacant land with many years of delinquent taxes (i.e. land that nobody was paying for that was often worthless). Sometimes we had them come through on houses too but it was usually vacant land. It was around this time some 5 years or so ago that I volunteered to do the courthouse run on the last day that the office was open before Christmas when we were running a skeleton crew. I would offer such things because I respected our support staff and the jobs that they did and sometimes it just felt good to get out of the office. So I was heading down the elevator with a huge load of pleadings and other court documents when another elevator rider asked where I was heading. I said "to the courthouse" which prompted the query of what I was taking there. Without thinking I said "foreclosures" and when I saw the look of horror on her face I found myself backpedaling and trying to explain ... sigh ... I felt like Ebenezer Scrooge nonetheless!

I've been somewhat infused with Christmas Spirit this week (not the "other" type). I've been enjoying some of my favorite Christmas movies including the classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians which is only tolerable when watching the Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) version which you can find here at an old post of mine. So one of my "Christmas" songs is "Let's have a Patrick Swayze Christmas" which comes from this episode. It's funny, people ask me what I get out of Christmas sometimes now as they struggle to understand my positions when it comes to religion, church, and such things. I admire my friends for their interest in what I believe and it speaks volumes for them when they say "Merry Whatever" or display such incidences of sensitivity. Well, I feel that I can still celebrate Christmas without feeling all churchy as my belief is that Christmas has been around, in one form or another, long before the church cozied up to it (and now some have distanced themselves again). For me it's a day for family and being thankful for what you have in your life. That's what I'll be doing at least.

That brings me to a point that has been simmering in my draft posts for a few weeks.

I've heard lots of people lately talking about "doing the right thing" in all sorts of contexts. Some people have said it in the context of court, others have said it in the context of church or the holidays, and others have said it in stranger situations ... like college football. When Coach Snyder was leading the Marshall University football team people complained incessantly about him and how he was stinking up the program and causing them to have a sucky record. When it came to the end people were saying that he needed to "do the right thing" and step down/retire. It made me question why that was "the right thing" because that would be a violation of his contract and he'd miss the chance to be bought out ... I mean he had to make a living too right?

I see this sort of thing show up in the strangest places but religion has to be the strangest for me. I listen to a lot of podcasts of different backgrounds. I've spoken of my affection for Zen Is Stupid many times but I also listen to: Audio Dharma (Buddhist); Atheists Talk (Atheist); Pursuing a Balanced Life (Christian); and The Jesus Christ Show (yes ... no kidding). This last one is a real oddity because I found it from listening to Bill Handel's podcast, Handel on the Law, because Bill said his wife listens to it ... and they're Jewish. The Jesus Christ Show puts itself out there as if it was actually Jesus, taking calls, giving advice, and just chillin'. When I first listened to it I had to get through a whole episode to realize that it wasn't parody and that the host really does know The Bible and his audience. It's a weekly show and what I find most interesting is how the Holy Host (Neil Saavedra) interacts with his callers because sometimes they call him trying to trip him up and other times they call in what seems to be complete sincerity asking him as if he was a department store Santa and has a direct line to the big man in the sky.

This idea of "doing the right thing" shows up on The Jesus Christ Show more than it does on the other podcasts of a religious nature that I listen to. I'm not sure if this is because those other shows take a different approach (i.e. more than one path) or what. Certainly Audio Dharma has had some episodes that are clearly reaching out to those who are more familiar with the structure of the Christian Church but there tends not to be "the answer" in those podcasts. So when someone calls up to ask Jesus what he thinks about something it's interesting because sometimes the caller is so caught up in their beliefs that they are like the old adage of the Zen master pouring the tea for the scholar. The Holy Host is always so very cautious with these callers in that he doesn't try to talk them out of their position but he often gives excellent advice that helps them open a new door of insight making me wonder how scripted that the show really is. Seldom do you hear Jesus say "I think" or "this is what I would do" but instead he directs the attention through others so that he can stay true to what is written in The Bible. One time a caller asked him what his belief is on evolution and Young Earth creationism and he deftly said "my co-producer thinks ..." and went on discussing it. Often it seems like the caller is asking Jesus to give them permission to forgive someone ... which he freely does.

I really like this version of Jesus (from The Jesus Christ Show in case you're skimming this post). He doesn't judge people and seems interested in helping them to let go of things which is exactly what I like about Buddhism. This could also have to do with the fact that the Executive Producer of the show has an extensive background and training in Christian Apologetics (seriously, click the link). The idea of a rational approach to Christianity has always been more appealing to me than a hard line dogmatic one (particularly the "literal truth" variety). And it is for that reason why I like how the Holy Host helps his callers to find out how to "do the right thing". Similarly, when people ask me about whether Buddhists believe anything I tell them that they believe lots of things ... and that they are always open to new interpretations and suggestions which is what makes the difference for me. But in the end, should all of us be concerned with doing the right thing ... and shouldn't that have most to do with being good to each other? That's my thought at least.

One of my friends recently has some very interesting thoughts on this idea of "doing the right thing" so I want to finish by quoting him.

There are times when doing the right thing means following the law, or performing a task. There are other times when doing the right thing means defying the law - because justice is, in some sense, removed from the sphere of what is necessarily "allowable." At times, one must do something even greater: Ignore the rules. Recognize and rectify. Hold self out not just to the procedures of honor, but to the ideal of Honor, with a capital H. Because sometimes, two wrongs do make a right.

Now ... go forth and "open up your heart and let the Patrick Swayze Christmas in."

Merry Whatever! :-)

Labels: radio, religion, xmas

I was finishing up my Christmas preparations yesterday by getting a few giftcards and Christmas cards for the family when I saw this evidence that there is a Hallmark card for everything! Now, I've done some reflecting on this and I think that I get what they're saying. This is for that grandparent who has decided to call their grandaughters husband a "grandson" in the official printing of a Christmas card. Huh? That's a smaller niche market than the carts that I saw that were "to" pets or "from" pets (and I thought the card "from" a pet was the weirdest I would ever see when I first saw one a few years ago). Nevertheless, I did manage to get my final things sorted out so that I'm all ready for this week where I'll be spending time with my sister's family starting Christmas Eve.

Some good news for me today is that I think that I managed to get my iTunes sorted out. I got everything restored except that my applications and ringtones didn't come over ... I haven't synced my iPhone yet because I'm afraid that they'll disappear if I do. I need to do some more research first before I decide to sync and mess the whole thing up. From the looks of it though my playcounts, playlists, ratings, and other such things seem to be restored. I have a feeling that when I sync the ringtones and applications will transfer from the phone to iTunes. We'll see. What a headache! At least now I have a lot more room for my music files!

Lastly, here is something that I've been driving past lately. Call it the Griswold house but it is pretty to look at ... though it gets brighter and more elaborate each year.

Labels: weird, xmas

Well, this was an interesting weekend. I wasn't exactly snow bound but I did have a good time hanging around with my family. On the way home from work on Friday I stopped to see Avatar. I have to say that I was so very very impressed with that film. The effects were stunning and it was the best 3D movie that I've seen outside of those ones they have at Disney World. I have heard that if you're sitting too close to the screen you will get motion sickness but I usually sit in the back so that I can play with my phone and nobody will get pissed. I was so drawn into this film though that the 2 hours and 40 minutes flew by. I had been dubious about this film when I first saw the previews for it because I thought it just looked like a typical sort of action film. And reading some of the reviews that I've seen from friends on discussion boards they say things like "predictable", "nothing new", or "too much CGI". Well, I thought that it reminded me of a number of great sci-fi works and I could see the influences such as: Solaris, The Forever War, Dune, The Martian Chronicles, and some other Golden Age sci-fi sources such as Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury. As for too much CGI ... I thought that it was seamless and that it was well enough done that I didn't think too much about it. Sure, the characters could have been more interesting and it could have been more original but I was so impressed by all of the richness of the film and the total immersion of it that I don't mind those things. I very much enjoyed it and will likely see it again ... it met all my expectations and exceeded them.

So I had some fun this weekend. Saturday I had a little film festival with Mom and Dad. I showed Dad Inglourious Basterds and 300 and he loved both and I also got The Proposal which is something that Mom liked ... it was very funny. I was afraid that Dad wouldn't like Inglorious Basterds for several reasons and I had debated showing it to him since I first saw it in the theater ... twice. I'm a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino for lots of reasons ... his love of films, how he incorporates slews of references into his films, his amazing dialog, and how he delays violence and builds suspense. All of these things were present in Inglorious Basterds in several very long scenes (something that Dad noticed as this was his first Tarantino film). I think that dad was hooked after the first long scene where we first meet Hans Landa and Shoshanna but I think that, of all the long scenes, the best one was in the tavern where we first meet Bridget von Hammersmark. The thing that impressed me most about this film ... and the first thing that I worried that wouldn't like ... was the extensive use of foreign languages in this film with long sections being in French, German, and Italian punctuated with English from those characters who spoke English. The second thing that I worried that dad wouldn't like was the ending because of how it completely rooted the film as fiction but, to my surprise, dad liked it citing how so many of those films are frustrating when the bad guys get away. But he certainly caught the many references to the WWII films that he and I watched together as I was growing up.

Dad loved 300 too and even mom sort of liked that (she was in and out when we were watching Basterds). After the movies dad challenged me to some SCRABBLE which I haven't played much lately in person. So I busted out my new scrabble board that I got at the National Scrabble Championship this year (something that I still need to blog about) and my tiles from the NSC too. I drew absolute shit in my first game and only did slightly better in the second game (but I didn't bingo in either game). In the first game dad beat me by 11 points and it came down to the end where I couldn't quite get rid of my letters. In that first game I drew 6 of the 4 Us. Yes, that's right, I traded 3 times to get rid of Us and crap and managed to keep drawing them back and I got only 2 power tiles (an "S" and the "X") near the end. I can't believe that game was as close as it was but the next game ... where the tile distribution was much more even ... I only managed to win by 1 point. Dad played very well in both games and he has certainly learned from how I play. I haven't been studying my words lately so I need to get back to doing that because I'm starting to lose what I did learn (of course, I was only getting into some of the 4s when I stopped). I have another big Scrabble Tournament coming up in February that I need to get ready for.

So the rest of my weekend was spent watching Instant Plays on Netflix ... one of those was The Big Chill which I remember seeing when it was first in the theater with my parents (when I was 9). I hadn't seen it since then and I have to say that where I got nothing out of it the first time I got a lot more out of it as a 30 something guy (the target audience of the film). It really makes you think about your life and where you're going ... but I kept getting distracted by how young the well-known actors are like William Hurt and Tom Berenger. But the other thing that I kept having to work with was that I screwed up my iTunes while trying to migrate it from the 80gb hard drive where I had it to a 500gb hard drive (because I was running out of room). Well, I moved the files over manually and then learned that I should have done it another way. So I migrated them the right way but then I had two copies of everything. I deleted it all and tried to start over and then learned that it doesn't work that way. So now I'm trying to figure out how to restore my iTunes library without those annoying "!" things telling  me that iTunes can't find my music. It's really pissing me off and I don't know if I'll be able to restore it or not. So please email me with any ideas that you may have.

Well, that's all I can think of. Nothing interesting is happening here.

Labels: reviews, scrabble

The other day I just got that song "You're the Best Around" stuck in my head ... as in the one from the 1984 film The Karate Kid ... one of my favorites growing up. I was dropping it as a reference in an online gaming forum but it made me want to watch the film ... so what to do? I didn't want to go by the video store and forgot to do it anyway ... but wait... I have a Netflix account that I haven't used since April ... so I logged in and found that I could watch it right from my computer. So I have now found another use for my MacBook and it looks and sounds great to watch it while I work on my PC doing blogging or whatever! And it really was a great movie too. I first watched this before I had studied any martial arts but the message is so great even if it is tied up in 80's movie cliches where the heroes are humble and the bad guys are royal assholes.



Now that I've gone through the journey of studying several martial arts I understand the message so much more than I did then ... but it's still the same. The method by which Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel is so similar to what my Shihan in Ohio taught us and it applies to other things too including the gradual way that Jerry has been teaching me about bowling. I miss my martial arts and was talking about my study with one of my fellow bowlers last week who has studied a lot of mixed martial arts. Maybe that can be a goal for the new year to find a Kung Fu or some other Chinese martial arts class. They seem harder to find than the Okinawa or Japanese schools of training.

I've been enjoying watching a lot of movies recently from Blockbuster instead of Netflix. In fact, I had to gather up my 3 dvds that have been laying around since April to send them back and I cleaned up my queue in the process and saw that there were a lot of "on demand" movies ... I'll certainly have to use this service more often because there are just so many things that Blockbuster doesn't have. Though the last time that I was in Blockbuster I was chatting with the woman behind the counter who said that she gets 5 free rentals a week as part of her employment. She looked in the computer and saw that she had rented 995 movies since she had worked just at that store alone! Wow was all I could say to that and I said that reminded me of Molly Shannon in Superstar LOL.

Labels: reviews