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December 2005

In Greensboro

Went up to Greensboro today to see my parents, rummage through assorted Christmas decorations, grab old photos for a holiday project I’m working on, and have dinner with my friend Jeff who I disturbingly hadn’t seen in more than a year. It was a good day, except when my mom got all freaked out thinking she’d lost her box of old and sentimentally important ornaments…

And boy, did I have fun at the grand opening of the new Staples this morning. There were tons of freebies and dirt cheap stuff and I also got my mom’s Christmas present at a 40% discount…

I rarely ever heard about grand openings in San Francisco, and even if I did hear about them, they were usually so mobbed that non-masochists like myself wouldn’t bother attending. Here, on the other hand, I’ve been to three in the past week (a Lowes Foods and a Compare Supermarket in addition to the aforementioned Staples) and it’s been pretty danged cool…

I think I’m becoming a 1950s housewife, and it both frightens and excites me. When I start contemplating a career in Tupperware, I hope someone will please have the presence of mind to kill me…

Only a week until I get my hubby back, a concept much more exciting than Tupperware…

The Mall

Sigh…

If only this color palette and lighting scheme were still available in the average mall developer’s design kit, Christmas shopping would be such a pleasure…

Media Play

The problem with a going out of business sale at Media Play is that even with a 20% discount, everything is still more expensive than it is at Best Buy. This, of course, is probably why they’re going out of business. Of course, every time I’ve walked into a Media Play store in the past year or two, it’s pretty much looked like it was already going out of business anyway…

What really baffles me, though, is that Media Play’s corporate siblings Sam Goody and Suncoast manage to live on. I don’t really understand how they or FYE (formerly Camelot) fit into the retail music/video scene anymore. As I recall, the last time I remember hearing someone saying they were headed to Sam Goody, it was so they could pick up that new Pablo Cruise 8-track…

Apparently, though, there are people who actually PREFER paying more for stuff at outdated mall stores with no selection to speak of. But wait. They’re going to REMODEL all the Sam Goody stores. That should fix everything. Yup…

The Cousin

Interesting thing, this here internet gizmo: I just heard from a cousin I hadn’t talked to in over twenty-five years because she happened to wander into this site accidentally. I believe the cousin in question is second from the right. I’m the handsome diapered fellow in the middle…

Bed now. Only four more very cold nights before the nuzzling and snuggling recommence…

Ten Years Ago

I bought my first computer ten years ago today. It was a Mac (what other kind is there?) and it came with a 100MHz processor, a whopping 16MB of RAM (which I later updated to the maximum of 64MB) and a massive 1GB hard drive. With a 15″ monitor, I think it cost about three thousand bucks…

A month later, Planet SOMA made its debut. But more about that anniversary later…

Iran So Far Away

Any and all opinions on the idea of a Jewish state in Palenstine aside, why do people seem so shocked and surprised when confronted with the fact that there’s a psycho running Iran. It’s not like this is anything new. I have trouble remembering a time when there WASN’T a psycho running Iran…

Red and Green

Since (a) the big day is only ten days away, and (b) Charlotte had its first ice storm of the year today, I decided it was time to put up the holiday colors…

Stupid Christian Tricks

Driving down Monroe Road today, I came across this woman in a big-ass SUV (surprise!) who was driving like an utter maniac. She was repeatedly tailgating people at 60 – 65 MPH (in a 45 MPH zone), cutting people off left and right, and generally causing chaos wherever she went…

I happened to pull up behind her at a stoplight and I noticed her two bumper stickers: one a Bush-Cheney sticker and one reading “engage your faith” or some such nonsense, with this URL at the bottom…

What I wanted to ask her was if it was her “faith” that was causing her to drive so recklessly and put so many people’s lives and well-being at risk. Maybe she figured that by knocking off a few, she’d allow them to see God a little sooner and would thus be doing them a great favor…

But I bet if you asked her, she’d claim to be fiercely pro-life. As is the case with so many fundamentalists, her actions don’t quite mesh with her lofty beliefs…

Ah, life in the Bible Belt:

If someone greets me with “Feliz Navidad” or anything else other than “Merry Christmas” this season, I will kindly answer them with “Merry Christmas.” I truly believe to say anything else would offend Christ.

Sherry Jarrell

Of COURSE Jesus would be offended. English was, after all, God’s official language, even before anyone was speaking it here on Earth. That’s why the Bible was originally written in English. Old English, specifically. And that’s why he only understands your prayers if you say “thou” and “thine” instead of “you” and “yours”…

 

Inconsistency

It’s been suggested that since I’m not a believer, I might want to steer clear of theology. But I’m not a hippie granola either, and I always felt comfortable pointing out THEIR inconsistencies when I was in SF. Now that I’m here in the land of the scary fundamentalists, it’s only natural I should pursue the most logical and available local targets…

Besides, I’m better acquainted with the Bible than a large proportion of the so-called “faithful” anyway, having actually READ it and all…