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December 04, 2007
tree, school, history
We went out on Saturday and got our first Christmas tree for the condo! We got a great deal on it, and it looks perfect. All the lights are up, and I'll post some pictures later on.
Our big econ presentation is coming up on Thursday. We're putting the finishing touches on it today. Then I've got one more paper due and a final exam, and the semester is over. Between school stuff and trying to wrap up our Q4 software release at work, the next few weeks are going to be busy.
I need to plan better around this time of year next year...I always want to hibernate between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it's fairly difficult to do that when you're really busy.
Speaking of Christmas, I found this to be a very interesting article. I hate it when people complain about "how bad things have gotten" because I think we tend to look at the past with rose-colored glasses...I call it "We didn't start the fire syndrome," from the Billy Joel song. No matter how bad things seem like they are today, if you really compare the statistics and look at the reality, the truth is that every era has had its share of problems. Seems like there's a lot of teen violence? Guess what? Teen violence is actually down in recent years. War, killing and disease? Yeah, but a lot less than there used to be. That doesn't mean to ignore problems, but it does mean to not blame all the evils of the world on "progress."
So, that article talks about Christmas, and how it's always been materialistic and commercial...and about the origins of Christmas as a pagan holiday, etc. etc. If anything, things are today about the same as they've always been...maybe even a little better.
Posted by Mark at December 4, 2007 01:07 PM
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