Seeping Matter

It is sad to admit that, more and more, I’m starting to approach the holiday season with feelings that are a mixture of anticipation, joy, dread, irritation, and frustration.
The anticipation and joy come from having time with family and remembering the birth, life, and atonement of Jesus Christ. It is certainly helpful to make a special effort every year to be more focused on remembering His coming, and to look forward to when he comes again.

The other feelings come from the fact that people are forgetting why we have Christmas in the first place.

First, the commercialism of Christmas has gotten out of control. We’ve gotten to the point that it doesn’t matter what we get for Christmas as long as we get more of it than someone else. I have family that insist on buying me a gift of a certain price point even when I tell them that I don’t need anything. What is the point of spending the money? I create a budget and budget for Christmas all year long, and then when the time comes to buy, I feel that I must spend the entire budget even if it is on junk that the recipient won’t really want.
This is one part of this season that I’m starting to dread – the complete waste of money. Money spent on things that will become the recipient’s trash before summertime comes around. It has become a season where people save all year so they can come before the big businesses and trade their money in for junk. What is wrong with us?

I am starting to despise the calculated messages in the media that are trying to cause us to forget why we have these holidays in the first place. These messages are even being taught to children. They tell us not to forget the reason for the season, at which point they inform us that the reason for the season is to be with friends and family, or to be kinder to our fellow men, or to marvel in the wonder of lights and decorations. They pitch the “hustle & bustle” of the holidays as exciting and fun, not irritating. I’ve even heard some of these messages suggest that the reason for the season is to receive gifts!
The reason for this season is entirely religious. I don’t care whether you are Christian or not. If you believe in Thor the thunder god, and celebrate him on August 10 (or whatever), just because I don’t believe in Thor doesn’t change the reason why you might celebrate on August 10. The reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It does not matter whether you believe in him or not. It is a flat-out lie to suggest that the reason for Christmas is anything else, no matter how ennobling.

I’m frustrated because I want this to be a religious occasion. I’m upset that I worry about how many gifts a person is giving me, and that I have to give them the same number of gifts back, and for a similar monetary amount, even if the gifts are junk. It feels like it isn’t enough to give for the sake of giving. It feels like if I’m not giving my significant other a diamond ring or a new car I’m under-gifting. I hate that I feel like I work all year long to blow money on junk at the end of the year. And for what? Just so recipients can feel that I care – but not because of what I gave, but because of how much I gave and how much I spent.

I don’t know what to do about this exactly, but I don’t like it, and I feel justified in not liking it. I may do something drastic next year – like cut my Christmas budget.

I suppose most middle-class neighborhoods across the country are like mine, where every Christmas season the ladies in the neighborhood spend several hours stressing out about what type of goodies they are going to take around to their neighborhood friends, and trying to outdo each other with the cutest story to accompany their treats.
My wife had already decided to give cookies to everyone, and was trying to figure out what story to put with the cookies. I suggested the following story. I think it is a pretty good one.

The Christmas Cookie Who Did Not Believe In Santa Claus
Once upon a time, there was a batch of Christmas cookies. One of the Christmas cookies did not believe in Santa Claus. No matter what the other cookies said, this cookie still did not believe in Santa Claus.
“I don’t believe in Santa Claus,” the cookie said.
“How can you not believe in Santa Claus? Don’t you know that if you don’t believe in Santa Claus, he won’t bring you any presents?” the others replied.
“I don’t care. There is no such thing as Santa Claus.”
“Well, who is it that brings the presents on Christmas Eve?”
“Nobody. There is no way that Santa can bring presents to every house in the same time zone at 12:00 midnight.”
“Well, who is it that flies around delivering presents?”
“Nobody. There is no such thing as flying reindeer, and even if there were, eight reindeer could not possibly tow a sleigh that was big enough to hold all the toys for every boy and girl in the entire world.”
“Well, then how do all those presents get into people’s homes?”
“Who knows? But most people don’t even have a chimney. How could he get into the homes? And how is it that he is never arrested for B&E?”
“So you really don’t believe in Santa Claus?”
“Nope.”
“But you are a Christmas cookie!”
“Doesn’t matter. There is no such thing as Santa Claus.”
And this cookie held stubbornly to his belief clear up until Christmas Eve. That night, the children carefully took all of the other Christmas cookies out and put them on a plate, leaving him behind. Later that night, Santa Claus came and ate all the other cookies.

The End.

Here’s a picture of me on my motorcycle. My bike is a 1998 Kawasaki KX 250. I picked this bike up for under $1500 and then spent another $500-$600 fixing it up. So yeah, it isn’t new or anything, but considering what I spent it is a pretty awesome bike, if I do say so myself.

This picture was taken at a local track. This track is a fairly easy track, with nice big berms and easy jumps. No whoops anywhere on this track. Hey, I’m not a professional racer or anything. I just want to go ride and have fun. This track is plenty challenging for me.

I haven’t ridden my bike for a few months now. Last time I went riding, we went to a different track than the one in the picture. This track is a lot more difficult, with whoops, rhythm sections, and double jumps.

It was bad timing cause I’d just come home from the US Open of Supercross in Las Vegas the weekend before. I’d spent all this time watching guys, even little kids, jumping these double jumps like it was nothing. I was thinking, “These little 8-year-old kids can do these doubles on a 50cc – I should be able to do this on my 250 no problem!”

Well, I’ll admit it – they are much better riders than I am. After clipping the front tire on the top of the second jump, I almost rode it out before I lost control and went over the top of the berm. All I really know is that I landed really hard on the back of my left shoulder, and when I got up I had a huge bump on my collarbone where there shouldn’t be one (see above). I now have a metal plate on my collarbone. Hey, sometimes it hurts to be a half bad boy.

Oh, and by the way, if you ever break your collarbone and the doctor says they can’t do anything about it, don’t believe it. That’s what my doctor said also. Then I referred myself to an orthopedic surgeon who told me they do this all the time. If I had listened to my first doctor I would have been crippled in my shoulder for life. No kidding.

It was easy to dismiss the Toronto Supercross, but after watching the Vancouver Supercross, I’m starting to wonder what is going on with Chad Reed. It isn’t reasonable to expect a win every race, but I must admit I was pretty surprised to see him so finishing so far off the pace of Stewart and RC.

I don’t think Chad cares too much about the World Supercross GP; I expect he’s using these two rounds as warmup rounds to get the kinks worked out of the new bike and to learn to ride the 450 in Supercross. Last year it took him six races to get a win. Hopefully he’ll be ready for Anaheim 1 on January 7.

On my way to work today I realized I had severely torn my black leather jacket. This is not good at all.

A leather jacket is a key element of the half bad boy. If I don’t have a leather jacket, will my wife still find me attractive? Will I be able to successfully convey that critical amount of badness? I may have to stop shaving so often in order to compensate.

I am actually bummed about this. A few years ago I made a suggestion for a new initiative to my employer that turned into Novell Forge. It was key in my employer’s attempt to reinvent itself as an open-source software company, which reinvention was worth about a 50% increase in our market cap, or about $1B. And to compensate me for my key role in this major change, they gave me a leather jacket.

Admittedly, I think my employer got the better end of the deal, but I do love that jacket so it really is quite a bummer that it is now suffering from a pretty substantial tear.

I might actually be forced to go out and buy my own jacket.