You're welcome.

First of, my bad, good call Pete. Newt was just on my mind because I read a good article in Newsweek the other day about him, and low and behold I actually agreed with something he said. Secondly, CHRISTMAS STARTS WITH CHRIST people!!! Which basically points out the fact that the secularization of our society forces us to reinvent what once were "religious holidays" and give them new meanings that we can actually relate to. And ofcourse since our new churches are skyscrapers and our new god is $, consumer exchange seems to be an ideal fit. Pete's right, it's just a reflection of our society. You can dog christmas all you want but it's really no different than any other day of the year just more pronounced. Love it or hate it, I guess it's true that Christmas does indeed "bring out the best (consumer) in everyone."
P.S. Thank you Christina for your religious sensativity

i love Christmas. i never went hardcore shopping, and i don't really intend to. i like the lights, the tree decorating, holiday cooking and the traditional songs, and to top it all off, the family gettogethers. i'm getting damned sick of the commercials, though. i don't think that many of us have families who go that crazy for Christmas, anyway. yeah, lots of people don't come anywhere near what i'd call "celebrating" it, but i do, damnit, and i like the Christmas i get to have.
....and speaking of Rush, did anyone catch all the mothers calling him in giving him a good talking to and telling him not to say testicles on the air? funniest thing i've heard in a longlong time :)

im tired. i think i worked 11 hours or something today. im stupid. Zach, Rush is the oxycontin guy, not Newt. Christmas sucks. Capitlalism doesn't. Materialism has ruined Christmas, not capitalism. Important distinction. Capitalism is a blank slate. It creates whatever kind of society the people want. Christmas sucks because people are selfish, short-sighted, and materialistic. Not because the eevil capitalist opressors have "ruined" it. They have only ruined it in that they do our bidding. "We" wanted it ruined. Most of "us" like it ruined.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARI!!! Sorry I'm a little late but i just got home from bellingham and all of david's crazy college buddies. I got to play Mariocart in some random guys room surrounded by people I didn't know, it wasn't awkward at all. College is crazy that way.

Holiday seems not to be going by very fast. I am scared because i haven't done my applications at all and i really need to. I have a room that is all torn up because my mom insisted on painting and ripping the wallpaper off when i was here so i could clean. Hey i bet you can't guess what color i chose for my room! ( :

...Oh Drew when are you going to wake up and look around you. Christmas has been hella comercialized. You have to admit that, weather or not you like the holiday. Christmas is not a bad idea, it has just become a bad event. The stress and money flinging that it involves i just not worth it to give people things they don't even need. Plus the gift doesen't mean as much as it could because people just feel obligated this time of year to give things. A lot of the time the gifts are not even well thought out. A gift because you want to give it is something special but a gift that you feel like you have to give is painfull. This is the difference between theory and practice. Happy Hanukah everyone!

I most strenously protest, Ari. I love Christmas, it was Adam and Pete who were knocking it when I last left Knox. Just because of capitalism, Adam and Pete said they were goign to boycott the holiday! BLAH! I love Christmas and I love Captialism. I am the e-vile Drewcifer BWHAHA! Merry Christmas everybody.

hmmmmm.... i feel torn. if we go to Ari's grandma's, there will be woods & beach. if we go to Iowa city, there will be Rachel and ice skating. and if we go to Adam's, there will be Adam's mom's cooking! ahh, what to do, what to do?
also, i am reading four books (two business, two pleasure), knitting a scarf, being a chauffeur, running errands, babysitting, listening to Rush, looking at grad schools (in Hawai'i, ahhhh!), trying to relearn some French, keeping track of Satan, and drinking astounding amounts of hot chocolate, cider, and tea. and going to random things like volleyball tournaments and Harvard speakers about Confucian Humanism. and making blueberry muffins.
is break going very quickly for anyone else?

So... I've started working at the Daily Journal here, and I already have 6 articles assigned to me, and two of them are underway. I'm doing a feature on cold weather workers, and I interviewed some of the bellringing people for the salvation army and they were cool. If everybody acted like those volunteers during the holidays, then maybe Christmas to live up to the hype of being a great holiday. Otherwise, it's a lousy, greedy, and insanely ridiculous excuse to indulge in material excess, suffering stress and exhaustion for one day of it for that matter.... I'm talking about most shoppers obviously. I don't think I'm a Grinch, I'm just honest. I don't want to destroy the jolly part of Christmas, just everything else. In other news..... I have another song written, but I need a mic to record with since I left mine in Galesburg. oh and RETURN OF THE KING!

oh yeah, i should explain myself, hehe. matt is my boyfriend (not a knoxian). i'd guess that my new year's plans are probably the least appealing to most people, because the party would actually be hosted at his house and such, but it's available to those interested in hanging out in Iowa City for a couple days. i'll be there!

let me also say that i really dislike having to get myself up every morning for a 9-to-5 job. i appreciate the nice people who are willing to give me a short-term job, i just end up every evening with drained energy and no real drive to do anything creative with myself. blah. ah well, it's a much less holiday-oriented job (working with selling and buying back textbooks is a much better seasonal bookstore job than being a cashier at b&n in december).

everyone please be safe with the wintery-ness! and don't get the flu!

You're supposed to say Merry Christmas as the event draws nearer and nearer, Zach. But I am trying to gaul Pete and Adam on there boycott of the great holiday. I wasn't saying how things should be on juries, I was merely telling how things are. Just so no one sizes me up for a racist label. Of course we're occupying Iraq, that's what happens when you take over a country. However, we are going to establish a free government there not a colony. I don't care if a hundered has been hacks like Gingrich crawl out from their political graves and say otherwise, we are not setting up a colony there. I like your idea about a raubot wall, Ari. Guess what you guys? My Dad got a play station 2! How cool is that? I have been passing the time by playing awesome games like Manhunt and Devil May Cry. I can't wait to rent The Simpsons Road Rage Game WOOHOO!

Hey what do you know, every 10 years or so Newt makes a good point. Maybe getting all that oxycotin out of his system helped.

Trip to PA postponed due to PILES AND PILES OF SNOW!!! Lots of late-night sledding for me. Unfortunately no skiing because i am and idiot and i left my skies under my bed at Knox. ~~~~bangs head on desk~~~~~~~~
And a word up to Newt Gingrich for coming out against Bush's current policies in Iraq. He said we are acting too much like an occupying power over there. Did not see that one coming.

Excuse my French but that is FUCKED UP!
I mean come on, who wants mayo on there sandwhich, that's just plain sick.

proof that the Texans are crazy: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=9&u=/nm/20031205/od_nm/hamburger_dc