It's Not December Yet?

All five days of the break I've heard Christmas this and Christmas that. That's why I'm celebrating Hannukah this year. While the Pace family puts up decorations in the front yard and sets up the Christmas tree, I will be lighting a menorah or whatever I need to do to celebrate Hannukah (I will learn the true meaning of Hannukah in the coming weeks so as to celebrate it properly). I'm serious about this, too. Christianity came from Judaism, so I have respect for all my-God-worshipping holidays.

Today at Super Lube some old guy walked in the waiting room where my family and I were sitting decked out in camo. Immediately I thought, "Oh no." However, I found it pretty amusing. Everyone discussed local hunting and the guy kept using words like "yankee." Hurray white trash!

Arrrrrrrr

Political Activism

So today at church the topic of the sermon was marriage. It is the first of three weeks of covering topics with political consequences that we normally try to avoid out loud because society has taught us to keep our beliefs to ourselves, for the most part. The three main threats to marriage are divorce, cohabitation, and same-sex marriage.

For the first one, 49% of American marriages end in it. That is half. Both the adults and the childrens who are affected by a divorce are worse off.

For the second, there was a key point with blanks. Move ______ or make a _______. I knew the first one was "out," but I figured the second one was "baby." It was actually "commitment."

On same-sex marriages, they played a video of street interviews of people on the gay-marriage amendment in California. Most of the people said it should be allowed since it is their lives and we have no right to keep them from marrying. So then the question was that if two men could marry, should three men be allowed to? They all said no. Same for marrying relatives. I just thought it was really funny the double standard we have going there.

I got my mom to buy a "Yes on Amendment 2" sign to put in our front yard, even if we're not supposed to. I'm starting to think the passage of this simple amendment stating only that marriage is defined as between one man and one woman (doesn't take away domestic partnership benefits, so calm down) is the most important thing to be voted on November 4.

Then when I was walking to the car after lunch, I noticed a group of about ten people standing around the back of a van led by some old guy with really long hair, and I saw at least one sign. I knew it was for Obama because no hippie-looking old dude would ever vote for McCain. Whatever they were doing was cool with me, anyway. Except then I saw the guy's shirt. It was a giant picture of Obama. That's just a bit too creepy for me.

I got to play Rock Band 2 yesterday. Awesome! I also want to host a Rock Band party thing, but I don't know when or if I will actually go through with it this time...

Tampa Bay's Epic Fail

The Red Sox had only seven outs left to work with.

Tampa Bay were sweeping the Red Sox. The Rays were on the edge of sweeping Boston at Fenway Park. In fact, it wasn't sweeping. It was destruction. The Rays won by eight runs in back-to-back games all the way up north in Massachusetts. If the Rays won this, they were off to the World Series.

And they should've been. They kept piling on runs. In the sixth inning, the broadcasters mentioned that Boston had not been shut out at Fenway in the postseason since 1918 in the World Series against the Cubs, which was, ironically, still the last year they won it all until 2004. It was 7-0. To score seven runs in a single inning would mean every person on the team would bat at least once. There was no way the team could pull through, 2 outs already in the bottom of the seventh and utterly demoralized.

Two men somehow get on base after this and Dustin Pedroia is up. RBI single. At least it won't be a shutout. And nobody likes running up the score.

David Ortiz comes up to bat with men on first and third. He is having a horrible slump, with only one hit in the ALCS in five games now. Where was the Big Papi we thought we knew, the one who hit game-changing home runs when the Sox were down and out against all - wait, there he is. Three run-homer to right. Maybe there is hope. It's only 7-4 now.

Tampa Bay goes down without much resistance. Bay gets walked on four straight balls, but not intentionally. J.D. Drew hits a homer to right. It's 7-6!

Two outs, and Boston still needs to at least score a run now or in the bottom of the ninth. Better now. Kotsay hits a double. Speedy. I keep saying all Coco Crisp has to do is single to right. Just single to right. Full count. Foul ball. Foul ball. Foul ball. Foul ball. Foul ball. Single to right. Kotsay scores. It is 7-7.

Rays get men on first and second with only one out in the top of the ninth. Carlos Pena, the scariest guy in their lineup, is up. They show his clip of his game-winning 14th inning home run against Boston last month over the Green Monster. And he... grounds to second. Double play!

No pressure, guys. Wait, that doesn't mean give up! Two outs, so it's all down to Youk or we will have to endure extra innings. Looks like Coco's at bat again, with a full count and several fouls. And he grounds to third. Darn. He looks like he will be just short on beating the throw to first. And, what do you know... The first baseman misses? He tips the ball into the bleachers. Youk gets to second on an error. Certainly Tampa won't let this be the reason they lose. They intentionally walk Bay. Men on second and first. J.D. Drew is back up. Three straight balls. I don't think I could handle having to deal with bases loaded at this point in the game. Then a strike. 3-1. It still favors the batter.

He hits it. It's not gone, but it's got distance. And over the rightfielder it goes, and everyone knows it's over. Just for good measure, the ball bounces in front of the notoriously short rightfield wall and goes over. Ground-rule double with a man on second means a run scores. 8-7.

Turns out they only needed six.

Ruining It for the Rest of Us

I really hate it when people that aren't good at a subject don't even make the slightest effort in it. There are people that have difficulties but study and do the homework, and there are people like me who, not meaning to toot my own horn, are just academically gifted and can dominate (or at least pass) tests even without doing the homework.

In APUSH, there are people simply not doing the study guides or looking at the book before a quiz and getting appalling grades on the test. When you know you don't the subject and do nothing about it, then you're bringing the rest of us down. Ms. Thomas is scolding our class for this kind of thing, and I fear she is going to assign notes or something like that on every chapter from the book to make sure we are reading (instead of just making our study guides due earlier) for a grade. I would if I were teaching APUSH. But I'm a student, and I sure as heck don't want to have to do that.

I also hate how the stock market is ruining it for the rest of us. If I was born three, maybe even two, years earlier, I would have gotten off to college just before the bottoming out that began last month (and had been leading up to that for some months before that). Now, suddenly, I have a whole lot of other things to worry about. In fact, we all pretty much do, which makes it tougher. I know scholarships mean that much more, which is why I really need to have a repeat performance of last year on the PSAT on Wednesday. And I still need to take the SAT sometime soon so I will have my results in time to dual enroll in calculus at FSU. And I need a job for money to buy a car and insurance and then start saving for the rough future. I've heard it could take more than a decade for the economy to fully recover. A decade ago, I was in first grade. I was short and small and didn't have glasses and could one day be anything I wanted. Now I have to think serious and practical. I would've still had to do some of those even if Americans weren't so stupid, but it's even more important now.

I hear "Barracuda" by Heart on the radio all the time now. I probably like Heart and Sarah Palin more than the average guy, but you're starting to make the song get annoying.

Top 50 Songs

I believe you can tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to. This is my list of my top 50 most listened to songs on iTunes, which is coincidentally exactly how many could fit in the window.


(The picture would not fit in this at a readable size so I uploaded it to Imageshack. URL is below.)


http://img401.imageshack.us/my.php?image=top50onitunesli1.jpg

Flashing Lights and Sirens

Friday night, well, actually, early Saturday morning, about a half an hour after midnight I heard a wreck from the road next to those apartments that connects to Thomasville. The flashing lights and sirens from the police kept me up for a while after I came back inside. Coming home from school earlier that afternoon, I saw the scene of a wreck on Kerry Forest, too.

Please stop wrecking, people.