What do you call it?

"The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously." -Henry Kissinger

What do you call that time right after Christmas and right before New Years? It includes my birthday, but it should really have a name. Maybe I'll just continue to call it the holidays.


Here is a quote I read that made me start to shift towards Edwards, though I'm still in the Hillary and Obama camp. I wonder what I would vote if I had to vote today. Would my vote change if it were for president instead of the democratic nominee. Do I pick who I feel is best or who has the best chance of winning? How does one determine who is best?

It is rare to have John Edwards go straight after Barack Obama. Here's the key excerpt of his speech:
Why on earth would we expect the corporate powers and their lobbyists -- who make billions by selling out the middle-class -- to just give up just because we ask nicely? Nobody who takes their money and defends the broken system is going to bring change. And, unfortunately, nobody who thinks we can just sit down and talk them into compromise is going to bring change either.Compromise and conciliation is the academic theory of change. It just doesn't work in the real world. Fighting for conviction is the historic reality of change.

When I got back to Austin on the 27th we had a small birthday gathering at Oscar's house with close friends. It was nice and we didn't do too much because it was a work night. The next day we had a surprise party for Oscar that went very well downtown. There was the dealing with a towed car but nevertheless a good night. Maybe I should stop talking all my shit about what great parking spaces I get.

I was thinking about people remembering my birthday and what it truly means. It doesn't bother me when friend forget because it happens and I forget a lot of people's birthdays, but you wonder who actually remembered yet still didn't contact you. I probably shouldn't have to many external tests of how much people care.

Since I was back in town for New Year's, Cynthia came down to Austin to visit. I wish I could of been a better host, but most of my plans involve drinking. We hung out and went to a comedy show. We saw Joe Rogan just a day after his UFC night, so he was sick and getting over a cold, but still very good. I was very impressed with the guy and had a great time. Sam was in town to pick up his girlfriend, but I didn't get to hang out because Cynthia got in too late. I hope they had a good time at J's. I saw the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks. I loved them growing up, so it was worth watching. Cynthia left on New Year's Eve to celebrate with other friends.

I have to highlight watching the Patriots finish their perfect regular season. I am hoping for them to get to the superbowl and lose to the Cowboys there.

Assholes of 2007 by Bill Maher - a fun year end cap off.

The topic of delaying the inevitable has continued to be on my mind. Is it better to embrace the inevitable on your own terms or to just let things play out as they may? It is the type of decision you want to make with the most amount of information and the less you have the harder it is.

no one can tell me what I know exists can not exist

28 Years Old

"It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow." - Ralph Ellison

Today is my birthday! I bucked tradition and made a last minute decision to return to Austin for my birthday to celebrate. Today is Oscar's birthday too.

I'll be quick. Went to the Valley for Christmas. Christmas eve was lonely due to most of my family being gone. Celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday on the 26th.

I also had to deal with the reality that my grandfather is going to die soon and see the emotional and physical impact on my grandmother.

It is not just in the movies

Atonement

"I love you. I'll wait for you. Come back. Come back to me." - Cecilia Tallis in Atonement

I finished the book Atonement today. I am now ready to watch the movie and have much anticipation in doing so. I’m glad that I didn’t have the end ruined for me, but don’t yet know how I feel about it. I feel like something must have gone over my head or that something was lost in listening to the book rather than reading it. I wasn't as emotionally moved as I felt I should be. I even made sure to get the unabridged version so that I would be able to fully grasp the story. I enjoyed it I did, but for the obvious reasons of the story of Robbie and Cecelia. Then again, I feel there could have been more about the time they actually got to spend with each other. This I thought was supposed to be a tale of love, a tale of two characters who are brought apart by horrible circumstances, yet I feel that you don't get to see if their love from away is similar to the few times they get to spend together. Also, I didn't like the way Cecilia and Robbie's death was handled - it was was too short, more like "I got you - they didn't live happily ever after - they both died never saw each other again." I understood that their deaths were all too real and like any real tragedy would make lousy fiction—and it would as in my case not fulfill the reader's expectations. It is great writing, don’t get me wrong and did keep my attention the whole time. Not to mention that the book itself is supposed to be representative of Briony's penning of that very story within the book itself. Here is the part that I am hoping the movie clears up for me. I didn't think Lola was as bad as she was described, but I never truly understood her character and I don't understand why she would marry Paul Marshall (I didn’t understand her motivation behind that), Oh and why Briony seemed to dislike her so much in the end. Maybe the movie or further reflection will change my opinion. That is it for book club Marty.

Thursday feels like a normal work day and another day in the life of Marty type of experience. I have to remind myself that I'm going home for at least a week and I'll need to make preparations. From washing my clothes, to picking what I'm taking down, to figuring out how I'm going to transport my pets down, and other loose ends. Sometimes the future does sneak up on you. I think I'll wait until I'm home to wash my truck and put in the much needed windshield wiper fuild the blinking light has been begging me for for weeks.

For lunch I decided to go to the mall, mainly because I won't have the opportunity to go when we change offices. I wish I had my watch on me because I need a new battery and the mall is the only place I can get one. I ate in the food court and then looked for a bookstore. I'm probably late in noticing that bookstores have almost all completely left malls. Either you go to a big Barnes and Noble or a small used bookstore, but the medium sized mall versions I haven't seen in years. That is probably Amazon has been my new bookstore. I miss lunches where I sit with friends and just chat about tv or random topics, getting my mind away from my daily tasks.

A good friend of mine decided to be a Christmas blessing for me and I wanted to note that I am much appreciative. Pay it forward I will do. You hope that people can count on you just as much.

There are dates that just stick in your mind. They bring back memories from the past. Be it the 3rd, the 12th, or today. You usually don’t think about it, but when you look at the calendar you feel an unconscious reaction and have to think why. What is it about today? Then it comes back and you wish that the day might of passed going unnoticed. As time passes, you start to forget the days and have new days that you being to cherish.

And now in Sports: Report: Red Sox star's dog chews Series-winning ball

it was similar to the underlined passage in cold mountain, this time I wasn't naive enough to believe it

Sunglasses At Night

"Today, there are three kinds of people: the have's, the have-not's, and the have-not-paid-for-what-they-have's." -Earl Wilson

Wednesday I was not the model employee. I just didn't have concrete projects to work on, so the work I did do wasn't as productive as I wanted. It really showed in the hours I was able to log. I sit by a window, I think I take that for granted. I remember how at my old office in DC, a window was something people fought for. There was a lot of politics on who got those offices. I look outside and it makes me long for the holidays. It gets dark so early it feels.

I have never been great, nor even good at sending Christmas Cards to family and friends. I just don't do it. I feel like it is a real grown up thing to do, but I don't think I'm at that stage yet. It does make me feel guilty when I do receive one and I know I didn't take the time to send one out. Maybe next year...wow that sounds like my motto for everything. Is life too short for Christmas cards? I don't know, but if it was important enough I'm sure I'd be doing it.

I got a new pair of glasses a while back and sunglasses as well. I've had a lot of problems with the sunglasses. First they were too thick and I had to get different lenses, then they didn't fit and now when they do come in I won't be able to get them until after new years because I'll be out of town. Not that I need sunglasses in the winter, but this is Texas and I've gotten used to just wearing glasses. I've never had prescription sunglasses before.

I went on an advice seeking mission talking to friends trying to get feedback on my decisions. It is true, usually people don't truly want advice they just want confirmation or validation for their decisions. All the advice was similar and probably the same I'd give to myself. I got some interesting advice on my decision to get a dog, which was similar to what I had gotten before I made that decision. For me, my thought was that no matter how it turned out, I'd always take care of my dog and make sure he had a backyard. I never thought that therein lied the problem, that now I'd have to pick a place that accommodates a dog whereas I could of picked a place that didn't have a backyard that I might rather have. That aside, I'm still happy with Max, but not sure how happy he is. I can tell you this, he is better off with me than where he was previously.

I want a Palm Centro for Christmas. Unfortunately, I'm not getting people gifts this year, so I also have no means to get it for myself, but it doesn't mean I can't still want it. The way I look at it, I truly do want an Iphone. My contract doesn't expire for at least a year. So I have a year to save up and wait for the 2nd generation version and then join everyone else. Everyone who has one seems so happy with it.

I have no real big news to talk about. Here is some randomness. The MCP got 29 entries up in 4 months. You add one more and that is 30*4= 120 entries a year on average. I had 129 last year and am at about 150 for this year I think. Before that, (this being my point) I had only 48 entries for the past two years (crazy how it was the exact same number both years.) So in 4 months MCP almost matched that feat which took me a year. For 2008 I'm hoping for about 80 or so, I wrote too many this year, but there were a lot of changes going on and the writing really helped me out. I'll save my resolutions for another time though cause we all know that entry is coming soon.

Huckabee said recently, "It's so politically incorrect to say 'Merry Christmas' anymore.... It's just beyond ridiculous. You can't even say "Merry Christmas" without people getting all sensitive about it."

It is that type of self-righteous martyrism talk that really gets me heated, and the inferred hatred of the term "politically correct." (Hypos) "Oh its so 'politically incorrect' to use racist and sexist terms, look at where our society has gone to." It isn't politically correct, it is just fucking offensive to call Hispanics (or Latinos) all Mexican, or Asians all Chinese, to call women bitches. You wouldn't call those examples PC, but it only changed because it just stopped being PC to refer to Blacks in racist terms (oh and the it being wrong thing.) "Why do I have to call a cripple a 'disabled person?'" Once again, just fucking offense. Find me a PC term that isn't offense and then I'll say, well then just use that term, no harm no foul right. But just labeling something PC doesn't make it by nature an overly sensitive reaction. And on the Christmas thing, really, you can say Merry Christmas, it's not a problem, but going out of your way to include other people celebrating their own holidays as well isn't an attack on you, it's just a way of being inclusive. You don't have to do it, but don't have to make walmart do it just because it offends you that they want to include more people. I've always said Merry Christmas ON CHRISTMAS and Happy Holidays at other times, before to include New Years (cause at the time I really didn't know much about other holidays), but now I don't mind including Hanukkah, Three Kings Day (What? a day about Jesus?), Kwanzaa and the whole non-christian Santa Claus, tree, wreath stuff. My Jesus is that kick ass guy in the Bible that cared about all people, not the one some preachers try to sell you that loves America and would die for his right to carry a semi-automatic weapon. In short, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

are things different now?