calvin snow art

Appropriate for the season, this web page has a collection of most of the Calvin & Hobbes snow-art cartoons (also see "snow art in colour" at the bottom for two more). These are among my favorites of the C&H comics. One I've yet to see online is the one where Calvin made a loop-the-loop sledding ramp. Fortunately, I have The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, so I suppose I could look it up if I really wanted to.

Speaking of which, this site has photos of actual snowmen made to imitate a few of Calvin's creations.

Lastly, unrelated to Calvin or snowmen but in the vein of "who took the time to do that?": unbelievably complex LEGO church. Insane.

the three laws

I can't really take credit for this, since it's an extension of Hanlon's Razor, but I've organized it here into three convenient steps:

Bird's Razor
(a/k/a The Three Laws of Getting Along With People)

I. Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.

II. Never attribute to stupidity that which can adequately be explained by miscommunication.

III. When in doubt, assume miscommunication.

I've found that this process helps me understand people. Often times, we become so narrowly-focused in our work -- whether it be in the office, or with a group of friends or in organizing a party -- that we only see how things affect ourselves. This leads to the first problem: attributing an offense to malice. Once outside the fray, we may calm down and realize that the offender was not actively working to spite us, but we should then be careful not to write them off as "stupid." Without further evidence of the offender's motives, we can only assume there was a misunderstanding, and even then, it is often wise not to attempt to judge who bears more guilt in causing it. I suppose a fourth rule could be added regarding the difficulty of indicating voice inflection through the written word.

When I accepted these rules, my life became much less stressful in dealing with other human beings, and frankly, it would be nice if others did the same. :)

the christmas that wasn't

At a November glance, my December didn't look too busy. But as the succeeding weeks approached, more and more activities found their way onto my calendar. The same could be said of the folks on my gift-buying agenda, so aside from lack of time to shop, I didn't have everyone's lists until just a few weeks ago. I was sort of going day to day for a while there, but fortunately we had Friday off work (as our "bonus") so I did most of my shopping then. Even on December 24th, as I was getting ready for church, it didn't really hit me that Christmas was near. Ditto after church, when I had all of my presents yet to wrap, which extended into the wee hours of 2:30.

This year presented a change in the routine in that Christmas was on a Sunday. Our church has experimented with different options in the past when this has occurred, but this time they had a full worship service just like any other Sunday, choir and all, so we went. That meant we missed out on mom's delicious Christmas breakfast, although she did make the traditional Christmas granola. It also pushed back gift exchange, dinner, and other family activities by a few hours, so all around it was a little different. I suppose that's why, even when the day was done and we were relaxing by the lit up tree, I almost felt as if Christmas never happened.

That is, until I looked at the stack of gift cards I received. And may I interject here that Target has some of the coolest gift cards EVER! I wrote about the dogs playing poker gift card previously, but for Christmas I received a candy-cane-shaped scratch & sniff Target card as well as a thick "card" that plays a tune of the Target dogs barking "Jingle Bells." Best... gift cards... ever.

I got into the gift card habit years ago as a workaround to getting clothes for Christmas: rather than having people guess what type of clothes I would like, I'd just ask for a JCPenney gift card and do my own shopping. As we all got older and there were fewer and fewer battery-operated gadgets under the tree, most of our lists included gift cards. Some people write them off as impersonal and unimaginative, but I disagree: I now have $30 to spend at Panera Bread, I get to choose what I want, and besides, what else would they do? Wrap a box of week-old bagels and cold coffee?

However, I'll admit the gift card thing is getting a bit stale. This year, I tried to dress things up by making themed gift boxes. I took one item off the person's list and then furnished a box or basket with related items. Dollar Tree was a great help in this regard. It also lets me think creatively about how to package each gift without depriving the recipient of the joy of ripping up colorful wrapping paper, which is just as much a part of Christmas as candy cane cookies and Spode dinnerware.

I'm sure New Year's Eve will come and go just as quickly, and then we can concentrate on what's truly important: how many more days of winter we have to endure before we can go up to the cottage again!

variousness

Going with the theme of my War on Christmas rant, I present this PVP cartoon.

And for the record, Happiness Is:

Thanksgiving
jack-o'-lanterns
m&m's
penguins
Thursday evening
Friday night
lime
lime green
ideas that create ideas that create ideas
autumn
beagles
candy canes
chocolate with mint
gourmet coffee with a fresh bagel

These are random things that, I think, make existence pretty cool, apropos of nothing. I keep a text file on my computer's desktop with bits and pieces of information I need to remember, and this list is one of them. When I think of another morsel of happitude, I add it to the list.

In other news, our non-refundable Broadway tickets came in the mail last week, so it's official: first weekend in March, we rock New York City. I've already requested the vacation time from work.

I just found out a few days ago that my employer is giving us Friday, December 23 off with pay as our "bonus." I actually couldn't care less about working on Christmas Eve, let alone the 23rd; it's the day after any given holiday that I like having off work. Especially with Christmas, we have our own family traditions that make it a busy day, so it's nice not having to go to bed early. As it turns out, because Christmas is on Sunday, we have the 26th off as our paid holiday, so that's handy.

Another bit of randomness: I love my car. It's a silver 2005 Honda Civic, and I'm impressed with how well it handles on the snowy roads we've had lately (I'm told this is thanks to the front-wheel drive). The Thunderbird, my previous car, was horrid on snow, even with sand bags in the trunk. It's also much easier to park, on account of its smaller size. I'm averaging 31 miles per gallon, and once it was even up to 35 (a few days of mostly highway driving with cruise control). The T-bird usually hovered around 18-20 mpg. And I'll put in a plug here for Pat Wehrenberg, who was my friendly sales associate at Jack Matia Honda in Elyria.

Speaking of cars and gas, check out Gas Price Watch. On the left side, option #2, you can type in a ZIP code and check the gas prices in the area. Unfortunately, it relies on user contributions, so it's not always up to date, but it's better than nothing. Another option is Gas Buddy, or for a shortcut to their Cleveland area site, use clevelandgasprices.com (select the city on the left side).

soapboxing again

I guess since conservative Christians have successfully usurped what used to be the Republican Party, they've gotten bored and felt the need to extend their Wide Net o' Sin. This time, it's not just that wacky ol' American Family Association revving up their indignity pens. This time, we're treated to the somber tones of Bill O'Reilly and others of his ilk, spreading the notion that liberals -- not society as a whole, mind you, but those evil libruls -- are actively waging a "War on Christmas" by using the word "holiday" in places where one might have previously used "Christmas."

Apparently, the battle began last year, or so it would seem, to hear Mr. O'Reilly speak it. Christians both conservative and liberal have, for years, expressed their dismay at the commercialization of Christmas. Doesn't anyone know what Christmas is all about? asked Charlie Brown in 1965.

Somewhere along the way, someone realized that there was not one, but two! days of celebration in December for many Americans, and they're barely a week apart: the 25th and 31st. Combine that with Hanukkah, and we have reason to use the phrase "Happy Holidays" when speaking to the American public as a whole. Again, this is not something newly contrived by The P.C. Police™ in 2005.

But what gets me is that, while the target of ire remains the good ol' retail industry, this time around it comes with a delicious twist. They don't want Christ out of the retail blitz; no no, they want him right there, front and center. "In God We Trust" with each dollar we spend -- literally, since it's printed right there to remind us that God approves of our purchasing giant inflatable Grinches, presumably to symbolize the swelling of Christ's love this time of the year, even in green-tinted cartoon characters.

Tongues are lashing and wallets are boycotting, as stores urge employees to say "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" rather than "Merry Christmas." On the surface, these phrases may appear to be simple generalized expressions that apply to a broader customer base. But not so! say the critics -- it's actually a thinly veiled plot to... *drum roll please* ..."take the Christ out of Christmas!!"

Ah yes, that old chestnut is trotted out annually, but this year to the tune of comic irony, at least in my mind. Here we Christians have been saying for years that Christmas is too commercial; that our American traditions have their origins in pagan solstice festivals and Ancient Roman Saturnalia; that "Jesus is the reason for the season" (although the reason for the season being in winter rather than spring, when Christ as actually born, is rarely mentioned). But now our more conservative brothers and sisters of faith want this gaudy, merchandized spectacle tied to Christ's birth, as if people look to Sears for spiritual enlightenment. Target is for saving, not for being saved. Christ is not a commodity, nor was he born in a bright red suit, although I'll grant his eyes may have twinkled and his dimples may indeed have been merry.

Don't get me wrong; I celebrate Secular American Christmas (or as I call it, Belated St. Nicholas Day) just like most Americans, but in my mind, it is a separate set of traditions that just happen to take place on the same day as Christmas. I don't call a Christmas tree a "holiday tree" or any such nonsense, but I also don't pretend that it points toward Heaven and symbolizes everlasting life, or that house lights represent The Light™, or that red and white candy canes symbolize His Blood™ and purity and are J-shaped for "Jesus."

Christ was not born at Wal*Mart; let's keep it that way.

new theme

As you can see, I've ditched the autumn colors in favor of a winter theme now. This time I just copied someone else's free template though, rather than modifying the old one. If you're using a web browser other than Internet Explorer, you also get treated to the semi-transparent backgrounds (IE doesn't display PNG graphics properly).