Holiday Cheer?

Christmas time is the most wonderful time of the year. Isn't that a song or something? Christmas time is great, not only because of all the COOL presents you get, but of being with family, enjoying time off, eating large meals, relaxing, getting away from a routine, no homework, traveling, time off from school, and whatever else can be added to the list (there's a lot!) Time with family has got to be the best part. Between school, sports, and homework, there really isn't much time that I can be with family (I'm going to assume here it's the same way for you, reader.) Sure the presents are cool, and nothing feels quite like admiring an iPod Touch, but nothing can compare to being with your family.
BUT - Here's something for you to chew on. Have you ever played the game Would You Rather? It can bring up some weird ideas - here's an example.

Would you rather...

1. lose your keys three days in a row
2. have your dog eat your birthday cake

This "Would you rather" is kind of off-subject, but it shows what the game is like. One person questions the other about which unpleasant choice they would make, faced with the situation. Here's my question, and I think the answer tells a lot about people and their values.

Would you rather...

1. loose all your Christmas presents from this year but get to see all your friends and family
2. keep your presents but spend the holiday alone

What's more important to you? Is it the time spent with friends and family, or the material things we all received for this holiday. Has Christmas turned into a time of "get more stuff," or have we not forgotten the true "Christmas spirit?" I heard somewhere that December 26th is going to turn into something like Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. How can people really be thankful on Thanksgiving when all they're thinking about is the great deals they're going to get the next day? Will Christmas turn into just another reason for the department stores to have sales? Will businesses decide that they're just losing too much money by closing on Christmas day and make unfortunate employees work on the holiday itself? These are the things we (as humans) have to start thinking about or our society will turn something so much less than humans are capable of. We will turn into a people who is so financially driven that stores can't even take one day off, out of 365? Will Christmas turn into a time of nothing more than getting "stuff?" Or will we be able to step back and think, "What is it that is happening here? Isn't there something more important than stuff we'll never see again when we leave this earth?" Think about what your priorities have been this holiday season, and change them if they need to be changed. One person may not be able to change the world with a single stroke, but one person cannot change anything if they don't start by changing themselves.

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!

I have this book that is a giant collection of random stories, interesting facts and anything else that can be fit on a page or two. One of the best pages I've found is one with a collection of great bumper stickers. Here are my favorites:

• 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name
• I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe
• Remember: half the people you know are below average
• Plan to be spontaneous
• Always try to be modest, and be proud of it!
• If you can read this, I've lost my trailer
• When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane
• If we quit voting, will they all go away?
• It is as bad as they say, and they are out to get you!
• You! Out of the gene pool!
• Earth is the insane asylum of the universe
• A committee's just a mob without the passion
• TV is gooder than books
• Come to the dark side: we have cookies

I always like a good laugh and these gave it to me!

Christmas time!

This post will be something I'm going to start as a really short one, but add onto it as time goes by and I have more to say! Here's something I wrote a while ago but I never published.



A While Ago:
Christmas music - it's great, but do they have to start playing it the day after Halloween? The department stores are playing it for your "enjoyment," and some radio stations have started playing "Christmas music" too. I continue to be amazed at what people can pass off as good music. One lame song I heard consisted of the computer enhanced repeated phrase "Everybody's comin' home for the holidays," about 100 times with a cheesy pop beat in the background.

December 7th:
Everything is starting to look like Christmas again in Appleton. With a couple more layers of snow and temperatures in the single digits the city seems to be hunkering down for another frigid season! The Packers lost again today - it was a good game but I'm glad I wasn't there! I think it's hovering at about 8 or 9 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill making it feel like zero today...brrr...

Turkey Time!

Today was a great Thanksgiving at the Albrechts.  It started out with a morning at the Appleton YMCA with my dad, where we played racquetball and used some of the other equipment there.  I've been kind of restless without the daily basketball practices, so the physical exercise felt good.  I don't know if my dad would use quite the same words though :-)

Then, after a potato soup snack that my mom made, we headed off to Oshkosh to my family.  The meal wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving meal, but the meat was excellent.  It was rolled out with prosciutto ham, some sort of lettuce/spinach, and cheese in between the layers.  Then is must have been baked/melted through before serving because it was all together somehow.  Not to mention the chilled basil sauce that goes along with it at the end.  Ohhh...I'm shivering again just thinking about it - and I'm still pretty full!  

Anyway, it was a day to remember, and it made me realize that we all have a lot to be thankful for.  

Presidential Election '08

It's such a dangerous thing to talk about politics in public, as it seems to stir a rather bold emotion in so many people. Everybody has an opinion on how things should work in Washington, and nobody I know really seems ready shift sides in any way no matter how small. Anyway, I will try my best.


I have to say that I was surprised at what a blow-out it was. I thought that McCain would at least have a fighting chance, but when you look at the final numbers, it's pretty pathetic. At the same time though, I wonder who is really breathing a sigh of relief right now. Obama faces an enormously challenging presidency, while McCain, although he has to be so disappointed that after all the time and effort he put into his campaign, he's done.


People have said to look around now, because in 50 years, maybe even less, people will be asking me, "What was it like when the first African-American became President of the United States?" Whether we like it or not, we're all witnessing monumental history right now. How will it change our lives? Will Obama be able to pull us out of the deepest hole America has faced in a long time? Only time will tell...

Meaning of "blog"

Have you ever wondered where the word "blog" came from? Did some guy in his basement make it up, or does it come from some Latin root? I was curious and here's what I found:

definition from Webster's:

to author an online diary or chronology of thoughts

• I also found out that unfortunately, the word "blog" has no real interesting meaning, it's only a shortened version of "Web log".
• but...the word "blog" was officially recognized as a word in 1994

Usage:

• I am currently doing something called blogging
• someone who blogs is called a blogger
• tomorrow, I can say that I blogged yesterday
• this thing you are reading right now is called a blog (thank you Captain Obvious!)
• the world of blogging can be referred to as the blogosphere!! (this is kind of ironic because I just finished my atmosphere unit in science class) :-)

I also found this kind of curious thought:

Joe Bloggs (c.1969) was British slang for "any hypothetical person"

My blog (like most others) is called a Personal Blog, which is different from any of the following:

• a Corporate Blog (a blog made by a company to inform potential buyers)
• a Question Blog (a blog that answers questions - kind of like a Dear Abby column only online)
• A Media Blog (a blog that mainly consists of website links, music, or anything else that isn't just a written post)
• A Device Blog (not really sure about this one but I think it's a kind of blog that is written from a cell phone or other mobile device)
• a Genre Blog (a blog written about only a certain topic - can be only about a certain trip somebody took, only about music, only about politics etc.)

Get this - some people actually use their blogs to get money by using it for advertising!! Talk about cheap!!

One last thing - blogging is good for you!! Scientists have proven (with samples) that blogging has physiological benefits as well as it being a good stress-reliever. It (supposedly) boosts memory and sleep, as well as it temporarily upping your immune system, and it makes recovery time from moderate to serious injury go faster. Not to mention - the more you write, the better you will get!!

here is a site for that topic: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-healthy-type&sc=rss

So keep blogging on your blogs all you bloggers of the blogosphere!! It's good for you!!

If we all quit voting, will the politicians just go away?

A great quote, I think. Don't you just hate how all the presidential candidates seem to be able to do on their ads is trash the other guy? If you listen to their TV commercials especially, they always tell what is wrong about their opponent, and often, they neglect to inform the listener what they are going to do. It turns out, that as a voter you would have to pick from the "lesser of two evils." I think the whole campaign would run smoother and wouldn't be as annoying to people if the candidates only talked about what they were going to do. Tell about their campaign plan for health care or the Iraq War. It would just give the whole election a more honest feel. When they slam the other guy, they often twist the facts, and only give a part of a quote or the first half of statistic.

cold weather

Why are we having cold weather already? I mean, yes, it's fall, and I'm not really complaining about the temperatures (yet!), but with the forecast for SNOW...
I really can't imagine shoveling snow off your lawn so that you can rake some leaves. What would the leaf-picker-upper vehicles do? Would they still try and just get a bunch of snow in the mix? I would think the snow would make it too heavy. We were supposed to get some showers today, but we ended up not (thank you!!). With temperatures only around the 40's and 50's it makes you wonder what the weathermen were thinking actually!
Anyway, I was outside today trying to get our leaves under control, just in case we do get a layer of white tomorrow. I hope we don't though! October is too early!

Funny picture

This one was just too good to pass up...

The Official 18 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

Here is an email that someone sent me, so no I didn't make these all up. I think they are all really funny though, so feel free to try some out!!

18 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity:
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See if They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do something, Ask If They Want Fries With That.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It 'In.'
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
6. Finish All Your sentences with, 'In Accordance With The Prophecy.'
7. Don't use any punctuation
8. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
9. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat with a serious face.
10. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go.'
11. Sing Along At The Opera.
12. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme.
13. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.
14. Five Days In Advance , Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.
15. Have Your Coworkers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.
16. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'
17. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!'
18. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'


p.s. And Yes, I Do Realize That The First Letter Of Every Word Is Capitalized, I Think It Was Just A Copy And Paste Glitch.

p.s.s. my personal favorite is #5!!!!!!

Spread the word!!

Ok people reading this blog...spread the word!! If you have a blog, I want to know about it so I can put it on my "Other Awesome Blogs" list! If you have a blog, leave a comment on this post telling me all that stuff! The more blogs the better!!

Packers

I can't believe what happened to the Packers vs. the Falcons!! First of all, my family has Time Warner, so we had to listen to most of the game on the radio. Talk about frustrating!! Then, when we finally got to watch the last 10 minutes or so, on my grandparent's Dish TV, they screw up! Come on linemen!! I mean, these guys get how many million a year?!?! You'd think they could do a little better job. At least Rodgers did well for being kind of injured. His arm strength wasn't up to par, but he got the job done. Who didn't get the job done was Mike McCarthy...

VP debate

Did anybody else watch part of the VP debate? I saw about half of it, but I thought that they both did pretty well. Niether totally messed up, and both stood their ground pretty well when attacked by the other. I saw online somewhere that the only way Biden would have a chace at winning the debate would be if he treated Palin like she was a man. I thought he did pretty well, without having to do that.
Overall, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't much of a debate. The two people didn't clash very much on the topics. What do you think? Was it a good debate? Did you find yourself waiting for the next question or were you just sitting there daydreaming? Who do you think "won" the debate? Do you even think that the VP's have a good shot at making or breaking their canidates chances?

OSU vs. USC game

Man, how bout that OSU vs. USC game huh?! Tressel needs to do something different, because every time that the Bucks go out of the Big Ten and visit big football schools, they come out strong but the game goes down the tubes before long. True, Chris Wells wasn't in the game, but still it was pretty pathetic. Then, they have to play all these wimpy schools, like Youngstown St., and Ohio University (which is maybe a little bigger but still...). Oh well, it's not the end of the world, but going from being ranked 2nd all the way down to 14th has gotta be pretty disheartening for the players. Especially when Oregon State pulls off an upset like they did against USC.