Gaudete! Christus est Natus!

This is me,

wishing everyone a very

Merry Christmas!

(my dogs do too)

Random Thoughts From MI

Discovery landed safely, and in Florida. This is good news. Had I bothered blogging much, I would have followed the whole mission a lot better, but it was important. Read about it over at NASA.

Harry Potter fans: go to J. K . Rowling's website, and play with the secret door. It's open again.

I accidentally wandered into a thrift store a few days ago (it was an accident; I wasn't paying attention, meant to go to the dollar store next to it, and didn't realize where I'd headed until I saw all the clothes) and, once I found myself there, was unable to convince myself not to go in. Despite not planning on buying anything. Despite having only twenty minutes to run through the dollar store and pick out whatever I needed. Well, naturally, the only section I made it to in the thrift store is the one I least needed anything from (not entirely true, I probably need anything from either men's or children's even less) - the formal dresses. Not because I needed one; I'm very happy with what I have for my next formal occasion. It's simply become a strange habit of mine, to always look. And I found something. A nice something. A fancy dark blue dress with some sort of pattern on the fabric and just a little bit of black lace, very old looking (my mom says Civil War era style, though I'm sure the dress is something someone made more recently and designed to look old.. handmade, if I can be any judge of sewing - which I'm not - and also for the lack of tags). It has an extremely large skirt and looks like it ought to have a hoop in it, which I could handle making, but it works without one too. It was $3.50. And it fits perfectly. Now all I need is a ball to wear it to... or someone to write me a part in a nice play set in a previous time period.

I was attempting to buy a bottle or two of wine for my dad from the one winery I've ever been to - San Sebastian Winery, in Saint Augustine, FL. I liked what I tasted there two years ago, and not having had much experience with specific and memorable types of wine since, thought it would be a good place to go to order something special. Naturally, this was before I realized that MI's odd laws make it so that I can't buy wine outside of the state (online anyway). Lacking time to drive to FL, I started researching MI wineries. I didn't find anything particularly noteworthy, but I did come across one with an interesting policy - they had NO minimum age for participating in a wine tour, but required one be of legal drinking age to enter the website.

Backpacking Made Easy

Or easier, anyway. They're developing a backpack for public use that uses bungee cords to make the weight of the bag easier to carry. The main weight of the bag is not attached directly to the frame, so that much of the up and down movement while walking; you're only carrying the bag forward, not also up and down.

I wish I could get my hands on one of these to try (and how do I go about getting myself paid for a real review I wonder?); of course, I also wish I could find anyone to go backpacking with me these days. And do so without the usual complications of being old and decrepit.

I Believe in Santa

I watched The Polar Express tonight. It isn't something I normally would have turned on - but someone brought up the theological implications of what the movie's saying about belief and reality, so I had to turn it on and see for myself.

The claim I was given before watching was, if I remember correctly (and I might not, in which case, I apologize), that the movie seemed to say that a thing was real because you believed in it. There would, as far as I'm concerned, definitely be something wrong with this message.

However I have to respectfully disagree (if, again, I am correctly remembering the thought) that this is what the movie says. Santa and everything accompanying him exist before the boy finally says that he believes; before he is able to see Santa or hear the sleigh bells. The things of the north pole are all around him, yet his disbelief - his lack of faith - separates him from the reality of Santa. Once he believes, and for as long afterward as he does believe, he is able to hear the sleigh bells, to recognize/hear something that is very much real despite the disbelief of others. It seems to me to be a very sound theological basis. What is real is there whether you believe it is or not.

Granted, I don't know what to make of the one boy who never experienced Christmas until he got on the Polar Express. He did seem to believe before, but had become discouraged as Santa - what, ignored him? - and then his being on the train made his house suddenly decorated. Was he being tested? Did he have to believe anyway before he would be rewarded for his enduring faith with a tree and a present? I suppose in a certain level it fits in, you know, enduring through suffering even when God (right, Santa, the movie was Santa) feels distant and his presence isn't so obvious, but... again. Why? I got a theology degree so that I could sit around and over-analyze children's movies.. I don't think the people making the movie actually intended to include so much meaning here. Or maybe they did. Either way I'm confused as to why it was included.*

Oh, and the style of animation bothers me, but this style always has. It's a nice enough movie otherwise. You know, for someone not trying to over-analyze it. Possibly also for someone with kids to watch it with instead of a sleeping dog. Or maybe that's just me.

*This was a book first, if I recall. If this was in the book, then I'm more confused about why the author included it. Let's give credit where it's due.

I Really Have Been Posting.

I have. But they all eventually annoyed me, and I cut them up and served them with gravy for lunch one day, and they no longer exist.

To interupt this cycle of slaughter and feasting I bring you a picture of something even better tasting.

I think it's some sort of rite of passage; making Christmas candies away from home for the first time. Look, Ma! I made chocolate - I'm finally grown up! And if that's the case, I really don't mind. I had no idea being grown up meant getting to eat so much chocolate. But, of course, you can't just waste whatever's left in the bowl at the end.

And then there's the part where you head home for Christmas, as I did two days ago, and start the whole process over so that there are Christmas candies available at home as well.

By the way, did you know that it costs more to get your shoes shined in Detroit than in Chicago?

I read an unfortunately badly written book by Andre Norton on the way home. It had a decent plot, but the telling of it was distracting and the ending was somewhat confused. It had a name, but I've forgotten it for the moment, and looking would involve walking all the way across the house. To be fair, I've liked everything else I read by her (OK, so that's only been three books, but I've read the Gryphon trilogy multiple times).

As much as this is clearly headed in some great and profound direction, I must leave off here - but you may expect many more posts over the next week or two as I have few other things to do while sitting at home. It's simply a matter of many less people.. particularly of my age or much younger.