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Today is Christmas

Today is Christmas. Yes, indeed. This is the second Christmas since I cast off religion and the second since I told anyone that I had. Almost a year later, it remains kind of a sore subject, although my parents have been good about letting me think for myself and do what I think is right. It could be much worse, and I’m glad it’s not.

But since it’s Christmastime, I’ve thought that I would expected to go to church on Christmas Eve just this one. As it turned out, I got multiple requests to go to church and make everyone else happy. I had anticipated it, and so I gave it some thought. Should I compromise my principles or make the family happy? I hardly see how tagging along in church in a semi-participatory manner compromised my principles in any way, and you don’t understand how much my family wanted me to go. So I went, and I stand by my decision to go.

I have mixed feelings about Christmas. It’s supposed to be about the birth of Jesus, but that meaning was retroactively applied to non-Christian winter solstice festivals that celebrated the births of other godlike figures. So is it appropriate for non-Christians to celebrate Christmas? I guess not, although it does seem a little odd. However, Christmas seems to be getting more and more secular because people insist on celebrating it in public, and you can really only do that on a broad scale with a secular holiday.

One of the more notable things I got for Christmas was a cell phone. I’ve never had one before, if you can believe it, so it’s kind of embarrassing even to be saying this. But yes, today I entered the mind-twistingly confusing world of cell phones. My parents had asked me if I wanted one, and I said I did because I did. I need to use a cell phone every once in a while, and I always have to borrow someone’s. Well, now I have my own — a Nokia with a Cingular plan — so I’ve been figuring out how to use it and stuff. It has some bells and whistles, but like all bells and whistles, they cost extra, so I can’t use them (not right now, at least). Still, I set up my voice mail and e-mailed a few people to let them know my number (which I’ve almost committed to memory). I think this is an important step in my “transition” to the lonely life. Might as well make the change as smooth as possible.

In other loot: I got a Florida Gators shirt, which is good because people can stop asking me just where I’m going to go to college. I also got this year’s Beatles compilation album, Love. It’s a soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name, and it features remixes and mashups of the Beatles’ songs. The songs all sound great, and it’s really interesting to hear tidbits of one song dropped perfectly into another. One moment that really got me was listening to “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”, which is pretty normal until the ending: “…and tonight, Mr. Kite is topping the — wham! — bill…” Right then comes the explosive, pounding riff from “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” coupled with Paul’s manic vocals from “Helter Skelter.” And it ends just like the original version of “I Want You”: abruptly. It cuts to the sound of wind blowing. There are many more examples. “Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing” is a fantastic example. Not all the tracks are so mashed up, though. Some, like “Help!”, are just remixes. It’s really worth hearing though because they’ve thickened the sound on a lot of the songs by doubling some of the tracks, like the piano and chorus on “Hey Jude.”

Anyway… ahem. There was a nasty string of bad weather that was supposed to come, and I guess it did, but it weakened before it got here. No tornado warnings for us this Christmas! All in all, it’s been a good Christmas, and I’m glad. Oh, I forgot to mention one thing: the past few years I’ve gotten scratch-off lottery tickets as stocking stuffers. I got a total of 6 this year, and 3 were winners. I gained $35 out of the deal. I don’t think I’ve ever won anything from a scratch-off before, so that was nice.

Stay away from Snow plows (YouTube).

Do you love Microsoft Paint? Who doesn’t? Well, I don’t, but you might be interested in trying CanvasPaint, an online re-creation of the timeless app. (Minimum requirements: Firefox 1.5, Safari 1.3, or Opera 9. Sorry, IE users. No — I really feel sorry for you.)

One year ago: “I think one of the shepherds was mugging a camera.”
Two years ago: “So, they get to the stable, have kid, etc.”
Three years ago: “There was one king, but no one was really sure if he was supposed to be King Herod or one of the three kings or just some random king who happened to be there.”