On Wednesday sometime, Shopko turned on its Christmas music rotation. Twenty-five of the same songs sung over and over by different people. That's not even an exaggeration. Okay, so it is. But I bet it's not off by that much.
I THINK the title of the song is "What are you doing New Year's Eve?" It goes like this, at least some renditions: "What are you doing New Year's, Newwwwwwww Yeeeeeeeeear's eeeeeeeeeeeeeve?" Yeesh.
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" There's 3 or 4 different versions they play. Only one has the original words, but they're all getting on my nerves. Gimme Shrek's version any day.
"I'll be home for Christmas"
"Happy Holidays" What is it about people that they have to make up things Santa might bring in his sleigh?
"Christmas was made for children" I have no idea who sings this, but they're really annoying. Lounge singing at its, uh, most typical.
"Winter Wonderland"
"Have yourself a merry little Christmas" "From now on our troubles will be out of sight." Yeah right.
"Santa Claus is coming to town" No he isn't.
I'm not saying everything they're playing sucks. Some of the instrumental stuff is...well, it's not great, but it's tolerable. And they throw in some pieces from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. And I don't mind listening to Elvis. But really...why not at least mix it up with the regular music? At least then you won't be hearing the same song fifteen times in one night.
When I was really young, I was afraid of him. Actually I was afraid of ANY twit dressed up in a silly costume. Now they all just annoy me.
Lots of things I don't like about Santa Claus. Firstly, and most obviously, is that modern society has placed so much value on this mythical being, on getting presents, that the real focus of Christmas is lost. True, Christmas is all about one very important gift. But unlike Santa Claus leaving presents under your tree, that gift doesn't depend on being good.
[side note: Besides, the whole Santa Claus thing reinforces the common belief that you have to be good & kill yourself doing good things for anybody to notice you. And this is especially harmful when it's God who you're trying to get the attention of, because all he really wants is for us to know him. And even after you do know him, he still doesn't expect you to make yourself better. You CAN'T make yourself better, only he can do that for you.]
The other thing that really bugs me is I don't like how society allows parents to lie to their children for possibly the first ten years of their lives to get them to be good little boys and girls, and then tell them, "Well, umm, no, there isn't REALLY a Santa Claus...umm, no, we didn't lie to you, exactly, we just...stretched the truth a little...there WAS a Saint Nick in England who gave presents to children, but he died a long time ago...oh, no, don't cry...."
Ahem. Wouldn't it be better to just tell them the truth from the start? Kids can get really messed up that way. One seemingly benign event in a person's life can profoundly affect the rest of it. And if you say you don't have crap from your past that's still bugging you & affecting the way you think/act/feel, you're either lying, or it's buried so deep you don't even know it's there anymore.
So no, I don't really go for all the Christmas movies about Santa Claus. I went to see The Santa Clause when it came out several years ago, and I left the theater feeling depressed. I can't imagine I'd enjoy its sequel any better. No, for Christmas entertainment I prefer to stick with the classics: White Christmas and the Peanuts gang.
"We're doing it for a pal in the army." "Eh, it's not good, but it's a reason."
You haven't. www.beldin.org and www.melvania.org are the same page. Darrin's too lazy to run his own site, so he's pointed his domain to my site now. The uptimes are still at the same address as before.
It occurred to me last night at work that weddings are kinda unfair. And I'm not talking about how the bride & bridesmaids have to buy their dresses while the groom & groomsmen get to rent their tuxes, although there's that aspect too. I'm talking about the fact that getting married, committing yourself to another person for the rest of your life is a very personal thing. So what do we do when people want to get married? Make a big production out of it. Turn it into a big public event (or, in my case, a small public event, but a public event nonetheless). And what do we say of people who elope? They're cowards, they're ashamed of being together, they didn't think enough of their family and friends to have them present at the most important event of their life.
Did anyone ever stop to think that maybe some of them are just introverts who don't like being at the center of everyone's attention?
So here I am back in the USA, in good ol' Wisconsin, two days after the Packers beat the Vikings in the Metrodome. It snowed yesterday morning, and surprisingly stayed all day. But that's not the purpose of this entry; the purpose of this entry is to update what the hick I'm doing now that I'm back in America.
I have a job. After filling out only TWO applications, I had ONE interview, and the next day they offered me work. Now don't get me wrong, I like Adelaide and quite enjoyed my four months there, but when a town of 13,000 people has more work prospects than a city of 1 million, there's something terribly wrong.
Darrin (beldin) and I are engaged. We're getting married in January and I'm moving back to Adelaide. So those of you who've been holding your breath for that to happen, you can breathe again. And those of you who've been harassing me about getting married over the last several years can shut up now.
The whole trip back was a pain in the butt. I got stuck with a window seat on the 14 hour flight, so I had to wait till the 2 people beside me woke up & moved before I could visit the lovely toilets in the back of the plane. And I'd had zero sleep for over 24 hours before that, so as much as I wanted to read, I couldn't because my eyes wouldn't focus on the words. So I resorted to watching movies, which were good movies as I mentioned previously, but I was way too tired to concentrate on Matrix Reloaded. And then when I got to LA, I went through immigration and had an agent who was a little uptight, but I got through, and I picked up my bags, and I went through the long line at customs, and I dropped my bags off just outside with the rest of the bags to be rechecked, and that was the last I saw of my laptop. So I've had to make copies of things and fill out paperwork and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the airline actually pays me without a hassle. Anyway. I got out of customs and walked all the way from the international terminal to terminal 1, where America West flies from to change my last ticket. And when I told them so, they pretty much said "Huh?" and sent me to terminal 2, where I'd be flying from. And I checked in there, and that was that. No hassle, no extra ticket change fee. And it was 3 hours before the flight, and I was dead tired, so I found a bench to lie down on while I waited. But I couldn't fall asleep, which is probably a good thing, otherwise I might've missed my flight. But when I was sitting in the chair waiting for them to call my row, I was very nearly nodding off. And I think I actually slept a little on the plane, which is rare for me. And when we landed in Minneapolis, it was warm. 70 degrees when I was expecting under 50.
Uh, what number was that, 3? Then the next one is 4.
Because of the events in #3, I've ordered a brand spankin' new laptop from HP. The processor is 4 times as fast, it has 4 times the memory as what the old one had when I ordered it, the CD-ROM drive is 3 times as fast, and the hard drive is over 3 times bigger, all for $1000 LESS than I paid for the Dell three years ago.
There were 3 deer in the field across the road the other day, most likely a doe with her half-grown twins.
I'm gonna miss watching Gilmore Girls & Ed every week when I move to Adelaide in January.
I'm broke. Send me money.
Okay, I'm kidding about #7. Actually only half kidding. I AM broke.
