A Christmas shopping story

This was sent to me last year and I liked it at the time so I am sharing it with you (after some slight edits):

A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable and hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids.

She was feeling what so many people feel during the holiday season time of the year. Overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, making sure we don't forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card.

Finally the elevator doors opened and there was already a crowd in the car. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed she couldn't take it anymore and stated, "Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot."

From the back of the car everyone heard a quiet calm voice respond, "Don't worry, we already crucified him."

The rest of the trip down the elevator was silent.

The moral of the story is that we should all keep the origin of Christmas in our thoughts and let that guide us in this season. Though Christmas has ballooned into a grander spectacle over time, it should still be for who started it.

Restaurant Review: Zoe Italian

Zoe Italian is located in downtown Fort Worth and features fine and unique Italian food. The atmophere is rather unique and it alluded that I might expect to pay a lot for dinner. However, I was pleased to see that the prices were not any more expensive than I would expect from Olive Garden. The pre-meal bread was pretty good, and it came with oil and another sauce for dipping, but five small slices of bread were all the server gave our table-of-three. One complaint is that the service was quite slow. I think that the restaurant expects its evening patrons to be interested in a social and leisurely dining experience, but I wanted to, and am used to, more quickly-paced meals. Lasagna is the dish by which I rate italian restaurants, and Zoe did not disappoint. Its lasagna was somewhat unique among what I have had and it was pretty good. The ravioli flourentine was good too, and probably especially pleasing to non-meat-eaters. So, overall, the food was unique and good enough that I intend to return.

I think I'll get my own domain when I graduate

Right now SMU gives me an e-mail address, which I use as my primary e-mail account right now. However, when I graduate, I think I'll lose that account. Also, they provide me with webspace, which I also expect to lose. I could go back to using Yahoo for my e-mail and Geocities or someone for my webspace, but I think I'll just get my own domain. After having a POP3 e-mail account and a site without advertisements, I don't really want to go back to having ads all over my page. Domains aren't really that expensive and it would be nice to have my own personalized e-mail address and domain name. Why not? Sure, it would cost a little more than what I pay now (nothing), but at that point in my life I don't think the cost will make much difference. Until then, I'll try to come up with some domain names. A lot of the good ones are already taken, but I'm sure I can find something I'll be happy with. I'm looking forward to being the web master of my domain.

Borderline errors in Borderline

Lesley and I played a card game last night called Borderline in which each card has a region on it (usually a state) and players try to get rid of their cards by taking turns to place their card on top of a card whose region borders theirs. Each card has a map on the back of that highlights the states/country/water that borders the region on the card.

Interestingly, and falsely, I believe, their cards highlighed New Mexico on the Utah card, claiming that the two states bordered, and likewise indicated that Colorado bordered Arizona. Technically, those states don't border, right? Their four corners meet at one point, but none of the states borders its diagonal. I thought that a game like Borderline would not make a mistake in one of the most important aspects of the game. If I were playing for money and I said that Colorado didn't border Arizona and then the card said it did, I'd be pretty upset.

My birthday is next Tuesday

I'm turning 21. For those of you who are inclined to get something for me on my birthday, the easiest thing for you to do would probably be to refer to the list of CDs I want.

Cowboys vs. Seahawks: Review

That was an entertaining game.

I almost turned off the TV when the Cowboys were way ahead. Then, when Shaun Alexander put the Seahawks ahead by 10 points with less than three minutes to go, I almost gave up. Sure, I knew a comeback was possible, but I didn't think that this Cowboys team would do it.

That touchdown reception by Keyshawn Johnson with 1:45 remaining in the game was right to be called a touchdown. Al Michaels and John Madden were saying that it shouldn't have been a touchdown, but Keyshawn Johnson was knocked out of the endzone by the defender, he would have come down in bounds if he hadn't been hit, and the amount of impact that the defender had on him is questionable enough that the official has to make a subjective call.

My boy, Julius Jones, had more than 100 yards in the first half and totaled 198 yards rushing. In three weeks, Julius Jones has effectively dismissed all the critics that said the Cowboys should've refused Buffalo's trade and drafted Stephen Jackson instead, though Jones could still work on his pass receiving.

Vinny Testaverde padded his stats with two more interceptions.

John Madden said in the third quarter when the Cowboys were up by 12, "You know who's going to be quiet right now? The people who wanted Drew Henson." Wrong. I still want Drew Henson, I don't care if the Cowboys can still mathematically make the playoffs, the point is that they won't, and if they do, they'll lose in the first round. If Drew doesn't start this year, next year the season will start, Vinny Testaverde will still be 41 years old, and the Cowboys will still not know whether Drew Henson can be a starter in the NFL. Then they'll have to spend the entire preseason and possibly the regular season trying to figure it out. Put Drew Henson in now.

But, that was a nice win, the best win of the season, and looking at the Cowboys' remaining schedule, they have a realistic chance of winning 3 out of the last 4 games.

keywords that get you here

Sometimes people search for something on Google (GOOG) and end up at my site. For example, most new visitors enter the site through my odd facts page after searching for "odd facts".

However, there are a few other search terms that I've seen that are more disturbing. For example, a couple times I've seen people referred to a Troby column when searching for the term "horny kids". I don't know what to make of that, nor do I know what to make of Google's referral of someone searching for "help i'm fat and i want to die" to another Troby column (which was listed as Google's 10th search result).

what a pretentious ass

I found an essay that I wrote while in high school as National Merit Semifinalist and I found it interesting. I know I was purposefully writing differently than usual so as to set my essay apart from the thousands of other competing essays. I was reminded of Irate Savant. My favorite line is, "As for honors, being a national merit scholarship semifinalist with a mere 16,000 others in the country is a distinguished attainment in my callow mortality." This is the rough draft, I don't think I have the final version.

This is the prompt:

In your own words, describe your personal characteristics, accomplishments, primary interests, plans, and goals. What sets you apart? Your essay of about 500 words should be typed on this form or computer printed and affixed with nonglare tape.

The essay:

Standing above all other aspects of an individual’s worth is character, and standing above that of my peers is my character. To be honest is foremost, to be respectful, to be considerate, and to be tolerant, are all to have good character. I treat others as I would want to be treated.

Personally I am opinionated, but rather than being extreme – not that I’m indecisive – most of the time I am pretty moderate and find myself able to penetrate both sides of an argument. After character, what one has accomplished determines a person’s worth. Being young, I haven’t accomplished as much as I hope to in life, but I am proud of the fact that I have learned a foreign language – Spanish is becoming increasingly omnipresent in these United States – and although I am not quite fluent, I hope to become fluent to enable to communicate with more people in my environment. Also, I have memorized the preamble to the U.S. Constitution – something that no high school graduate or freedom-loving American should neglect – for it enumerates the objectives of this nation’s framework. I have a personal web page of my own and have since 1997 and I created and updated the first web page for Southwest High School starting in my freshman year and ending my senior year. As for honors, being a national merit scholarship semifinalist with a mere 16,000 others in the country is a distinguished attainment in my callow mortality. Although being at the top of my class is a select group, never before have I been part such an elite 16,000 in the nation.

Personally, I don’t have one specific passion, but I employ myself in two of the most important things to find interest in - politics and current events - as both affect me in my every day life more than other forms of entertainment. As a member of a representative democracy, I keep up with current events and I have transmitted tenets to my representatives. Sports, although a more inconsequential subject of interest, visually entertain me. I also spend a lot of my time listening to my music collection, comprising rock music and a good helping of classical.

My plans for the future are simple: After graduating high school at the top of my class, I plan to attend college to facilitate my acquisition of a career. Currently my decision about how I want to make a living is pending. After school I intend to get married and have a family. I also propose to keep my goals in life, which I have few of, but they are: To leave the world in a better state then when I came into it and to live a happy life, while maintaining my morals and religion.

All of my life I have tried to be the best that I can be, which I believe to be reflected in my integrity, which I hope will help me to accomplish more than I have and to allow me to fulfill my plans and goals.

Denied Firefox at work

I'm tired of using Internet Explorer at work, so since I'm not supposed to install software on my computer by myself, I figured, why not ask the help desk to install Firefox for me? The first guy I talked to was like, "What? Firefox? Is that spelled like it sounds?" and he passed my request onto the guy in charge of software installation. That guy said that IE is the standard and asked me to explain why I needed Firefox. I told him that it wasn't crucial for me to get Firefox, but that it would make my job a lot easier by eliminating IE's instability and blocking popups. His short reply was as follows, "Sorry. IE is the standard. The ticket will be closed."

Getting Firefox at work isn't a big deal at all, I expected to be denied, but I was upset that he simply dismissed my request because IE is the "standard", what the hell does that mean? Maybe the guy thought Firefox was some kind of IE-knockoff spyware or something and didn't know that Firefox is actually a legitimate browser that is in almost every way better than IE. The answer that IE is the "standard" isn't a good enough answer for me. I'd be okay if he answered, "IE is the standard, and there are security questions about permitting usage of another browser on the network" or said something to explain his decision. It's not a big deal at all, but I just wish he would have given me a better answer than the cop-out he gave me.

Restrictions by authority figures like this one are ones that are hard to follow. I think it's hard for a lot of people to follow rules that they don't understand. When I was a kid, my parents would tell me to do something and I'd ask why and they would say, "Because I said so" or some crap like that. I think I respect authority, but I am more reluctant to follow rules without understanding their reasoning. I think that's one reason why I don't think I could ever be in the military, I just couldn't follow commands unconditionally. I think that if authority figures explained the reasons for their rules, people would be much more inclined to happily follow them, in almost all cases.

Torture is now Legit

From Andrew Sullivan:

Evidence procured by torture is now sufficient to detain "enemy combatants" at Gitmo. Prisoners "have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court." Slowly, we are beginning to piece together what the Bush administration has set up - with little public debate. The government can detain prisoners without naming them, it can use methods that are "inhumane," it can use evidence procured by torture, and anyone the government deems an "enemy combatant" is beyond the recourse of constitutional protection. Some of this might be defensible, although I doubt whether I'd agree. But the lack of candor, the absence of real debate (neither Gitmo nor Abu Ghraib came up in any of the presidential debates), and the vagueness of many of the rules are surely worrying in the extreme.

Chad Hutchinson Watch

Chad Hutchinson was 18/30 for 213 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no interceptions in the Bears' surprising victory over the Vikings. His season quarterback rating is an impressive 115.0

In other news, the Cowboys play tonight and Vinny Testaverde is expected to add to his season total of 14 interceptions.

Movie Review: Platoon

I haven't seen a lot of war movies, so I can't compare this film to its contemporaries like The Deer Hunter or Apocalypse Now, but I must say that this is a very good movie and one of the best movies I have ever seen. The movie portrays the camaraderie, the heroism, the gore, the politics, the brutality, and the inhumanity of war very well. It is ceaselessly realistic and brutal, and it manages to respresent the essence of the Vietnam War (or at least what I imagine it to be) in two hours. Since I haven't seen a lot of war movies, I don't know how well-founded my recommendation of this movie is, but regardless, this movie definitely stands out and I believe that everyone should see this movie (or another one like it) at some time.

Rating: 9/10

Another background

I'm running out of good photographs, but I found one that I liked that you might want for a background, an old warehouse north of downtown Fort Worth (1600 x 1200).

Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

This is just another one of those movies with a complicated plot, basically non-stop action and violence, and a few hot chicks. If you like those kind of movies, you might like this one, but it's pretty unremarkable.

Rating: 3/10