This is probably the reason God insists on separating the sheep from the goats...
"No Goat! Don't eat the Lamb of God!"
Have a Happy and Holy (but not holey) Christmas Day!
everything is different, everything is the same
2 years ago
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas! No goat!
This is probably the reason God insists on separating the sheep from the goats...
"No Goat! Don't eat the Lamb of God!"
Have a Happy and Holy (but not holey) Christmas Day!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
One Magic Christmas
For days now I have been trying to explain to my BF the absolute terribleness of a certain Christmas movie that I faithfully watched year after year as a child. But for the life of me, I haven't been able to remember the name of it!
Well, thanks to a co-worker, I have been reminded, and the memories of this movie have come flooding back. Apparently, 'One Magic Christmas' was on TV last night and ,sadly, ('sadly' with dry, sarcastic undertones), I missed it.
First of all, you need to understand that this movie was filmed in Owen Sound and Meaford. Close to home; practically in my backyard - so it was kinda a big deal. The year was 1985. As a five year old child, I have vague memories of being dragged out in the middle of the night - (understand that, to a child, any time after dark is 'the middle of the night', so it could have been 6pm for all I knew) - not to the movie theatre, but to the local high school for the screening of this hometown-proud movie.
I remember a lot of people, a dark auditorium, and a whole lot of excitement for a movie that I neither liked nor understood. I'm pretty sure everyone there was just waiting for the end scene, taken around the Christmas tree down at City Hall, in hopes of catching a glimpse of themselves on the big screen. Oh that's right! It seems that the whole town showed up to be extras in this movie! Two out of three of my co-workers who lived in Owen Sound in 1985 are there in the crowd.
For the longest time in our household, it was a Christmas duty to watch it when it came on TV. Can't say that anyone actually enjoyed it; it's sort of like watching a train wreck in slow motion - you know it's terrible, but you just can't look away. It's been a few years now since I've watched it, but it goes something like this:
Mom & Dad, who could pass for emotional-less robot actors, spend their time fighting about money, and job loss, and the crappy house they're about to lose. Meanwhile, the little boy is losing his faith in Santa and the whole Christmas Season, while the little girl is holding onto her idealistic notion of Santa saving the day with everything she's got. Santa is really her only hope for a happy Christmas.
There's a scene out on the street at night with the little girl and a Christmas Angel named Gideon. For the longest time, I thought Gideon was played by Michael Landon strung out on crack - apparently, this is false. He is, however, the scariest, grizzled and most dirty angel I've ever seen. Had it been me meeting this scary dude on the street at night, he would have sent me panicked and screaming back to my home.
Then the movie gets really good... Mom's at work at the local grocery store making less than minimum wage, Dad & kids go to town to do a few errands with the couple dollars they have. Dad leaves kids in the car while he goes to the bank. He gets shot and killed in the bank by bank robbers who run outside, steal the car, and drive it into the harbour - killing the children. Merry friggin' Christmas.
Luckily, the children are saved by Gideon, but still have to hear the news from crazy robot mom that their dad is dead and Christmas is canceled.
This obviously leads to a trip to the north pole for the little girl, through a magical snow globe, who, with Santa's help, saves the day, reminds robot mom of the true meaning of the Christmas spirit, and somehow dad comes back to life and they all live happily ever after. The end.
This movie is sooooooo terrible, that you can't help but watch it. It's sort of like watching a school Christmas production: you don't really want to be there, but you are because you feel obligated to encourage the children.
So by all means, watch it! It'll be the worst 88 minutes of your Christmas season!
Fun Fact: Mary Steenburgen, who plays the robotic mom in this film, also plays the (slightly less robotic) mom in the Christmas movie 'Elf' with Will Ferrell. She is also married to Ted Danson, which might explain why she still gets movie rolls.
Well, thanks to a co-worker, I have been reminded, and the memories of this movie have come flooding back. Apparently, 'One Magic Christmas' was on TV last night and ,sadly, ('sadly' with dry, sarcastic undertones), I missed it.
First of all, you need to understand that this movie was filmed in Owen Sound and Meaford. Close to home; practically in my backyard - so it was kinda a big deal. The year was 1985. As a five year old child, I have vague memories of being dragged out in the middle of the night - (understand that, to a child, any time after dark is 'the middle of the night', so it could have been 6pm for all I knew) - not to the movie theatre, but to the local high school for the screening of this hometown-proud movie.I remember a lot of people, a dark auditorium, and a whole lot of excitement for a movie that I neither liked nor understood. I'm pretty sure everyone there was just waiting for the end scene, taken around the Christmas tree down at City Hall, in hopes of catching a glimpse of themselves on the big screen. Oh that's right! It seems that the whole town showed up to be extras in this movie! Two out of three of my co-workers who lived in Owen Sound in 1985 are there in the crowd.
For the longest time in our household, it was a Christmas duty to watch it when it came on TV. Can't say that anyone actually enjoyed it; it's sort of like watching a train wreck in slow motion - you know it's terrible, but you just can't look away. It's been a few years now since I've watched it, but it goes something like this:
Mom & Dad, who could pass for emotional-less robot actors, spend their time fighting about money, and job loss, and the crappy house they're about to lose. Meanwhile, the little boy is losing his faith in Santa and the whole Christmas Season, while the little girl is holding onto her idealistic notion of Santa saving the day with everything she's got. Santa is really her only hope for a happy Christmas.
There's a scene out on the street at night with the little girl and a Christmas Angel named Gideon. For the longest time, I thought Gideon was played by Michael Landon strung out on crack - apparently, this is false. He is, however, the scariest, grizzled and most dirty angel I've ever seen. Had it been me meeting this scary dude on the street at night, he would have sent me panicked and screaming back to my home.
Then the movie gets really good... Mom's at work at the local grocery store making less than minimum wage, Dad & kids go to town to do a few errands with the couple dollars they have. Dad leaves kids in the car while he goes to the bank. He gets shot and killed in the bank by bank robbers who run outside, steal the car, and drive it into the harbour - killing the children. Merry friggin' Christmas.
Luckily, the children are saved by Gideon, but still have to hear the news from crazy robot mom that their dad is dead and Christmas is canceled.
This obviously leads to a trip to the north pole for the little girl, through a magical snow globe, who, with Santa's help, saves the day, reminds robot mom of the true meaning of the Christmas spirit, and somehow dad comes back to life and they all live happily ever after. The end.
This movie is sooooooo terrible, that you can't help but watch it. It's sort of like watching a school Christmas production: you don't really want to be there, but you are because you feel obligated to encourage the children.
So by all means, watch it! It'll be the worst 88 minutes of your Christmas season!
Fun Fact: Mary Steenburgen, who plays the robotic mom in this film, also plays the (slightly less robotic) mom in the Christmas movie 'Elf' with Will Ferrell. She is also married to Ted Danson, which might explain why she still gets movie rolls.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Speedy Recovery
So I just learned this morning that the husband of a very dear friend of mine was in a car accident yesterday, with a train.
From what I have gleaned from facebook, it sounds like he'll be alright and might even be home for Christmas.
Here's hoping; Speedy recovery, Mike!
From what I have gleaned from facebook, it sounds like he'll be alright and might even be home for Christmas.
Here's hoping; Speedy recovery, Mike!
Man airlifted to hospital after vehicle collides with train near New Hamburg
Robert Wilson/Record...
PERTH COUNTY – A Petersburg man has been airlifted to hospital after his car collided with a train on a farm west of New Hamburg.
The crash happened at around 9:15 a.m. on the laneway of a dairy farm that intersects with the train line, Perth County OPP said.
The single locomotive was headed east at around the permitted speed when it collided with a car driven by a man in his 30s, police said.
The man had to be freed from the vehicle by Perth East firefighters, police said. He was taken by helicopter to London Health Sciences Centre with non-life threatening injuries.
Police said the man was a worker at the farm. There are no barriers or lights at the crossing because it’s on private property, but signs are posted, police said.
OPP officers are still investigating to determine the cause of the crash.
The crash happened at around 9:15 a.m. on the laneway of a dairy farm that intersects with the train line, Perth County OPP said.
The single locomotive was headed east at around the permitted speed when it collided with a car driven by a man in his 30s, police said.
The man had to be freed from the vehicle by Perth East firefighters, police said. He was taken by helicopter to London Health Sciences Centre with non-life threatening injuries.
Police said the man was a worker at the farm. There are no barriers or lights at the crossing because it’s on private property, but signs are posted, police said.
OPP officers are still investigating to determine the cause of the crash.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Pot of Gold
Watch The 22 Minutes Christmas Special. It's fun stuff.
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=1697189656
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Imaginary Eating
So Peter Pan was right afterall!
Want to pig out on popcorn or devour a deep fried drumstick? Just imagine doing so in your mind and the desire will dissipate, a study released Thursday by the journal Science says.
“We found basically that repeatedly imagining the consumption of a food reduces the subsequent actual consumption of that food,” says Casey Morewedge, the lead study author.
“Imagining its consumption reduces one’s appetite for it,” says Morewedge, a psychologist at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.
One obvious ramification of the research is that people may be able to develop personalized diets right in their brains, Morewedge says.
“We think it can help them reduce the desire to consume, to eat less of the bad foods that they crave…and make healthier food choices,” he says.
Morewedge says the process is psychologically driven and doesn’t alter the hormonal feedback mechanisms of physical hunger.
Instead, it seems to “habituate” psychological cravings for food, a process that decreases the mental responsiveness to any given stimulus.
“It’s like a bright light coming out of a dark room, it will seem less bright after you’ve been exposed to it a while,” Morewedge says.
What wasn’t shown was whether this habituation, in the case of a food, required exposure to its actual smell, taste or texture, or if it could be driven by pure psychological processes.
“This is the first research to show that you can find habituation to food in the absence of exposure to it,” Morewedge says.
But the psychological process must key on images of eating.
Take the case of a chocolate bar, Morewedge says.
“If you just think about the chocolate bar and what it looks like and how it tastes and where you would eat it, that should increase your cravings for it,” he says.
“But if we perform the mental imagery that would accompany its actual consumption, it appears that this kind of imagined consumption can decrease our desire for the food we imagine eating.”
And this imaginary diet has a cumulative effect, he says, with appetites decreasing proportionately to the amount you gorge in your head, the multiple part study showed.
In one part, study participants – college students who believed they were engaged in a size perception trial – were asked to perform computer tasks that included eating different numbers of M&M’s candy.
When presented afterwards with an actual bowl of M&M’s, those who had imagined eating more consumed significantly less of the melt-in-your-mouth treats than those who had eaten less or none.
But the suppression of cravings is specific to the food that’s imaginarily consumed, Morewedge says.
For example, where a similar experiment run with computer cheese cube images suppressed appetites for real cheddar, it did nothing to cut consumption of M&M’s, he says.
Morewedge says the simple, try-this-at-home technique may also prove effective for smoking and alcohol consumption.
~The Toronto Star
Just thinking of eating can help keep the pounds off
Feasting on food in your head will calm your cravings for it, new research has determined.Want to pig out on popcorn or devour a deep fried drumstick? Just imagine doing so in your mind and the desire will dissipate, a study released Thursday by the journal Science says.
“We found basically that repeatedly imagining the consumption of a food reduces the subsequent actual consumption of that food,” says Casey Morewedge, the lead study author.
“Imagining its consumption reduces one’s appetite for it,” says Morewedge, a psychologist at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University.
One obvious ramification of the research is that people may be able to develop personalized diets right in their brains, Morewedge says.
“We think it can help them reduce the desire to consume, to eat less of the bad foods that they crave…and make healthier food choices,” he says.
Morewedge says the process is psychologically driven and doesn’t alter the hormonal feedback mechanisms of physical hunger.
Instead, it seems to “habituate” psychological cravings for food, a process that decreases the mental responsiveness to any given stimulus.
“It’s like a bright light coming out of a dark room, it will seem less bright after you’ve been exposed to it a while,” Morewedge says.
What wasn’t shown was whether this habituation, in the case of a food, required exposure to its actual smell, taste or texture, or if it could be driven by pure psychological processes.
“This is the first research to show that you can find habituation to food in the absence of exposure to it,” Morewedge says.
But the psychological process must key on images of eating.
Take the case of a chocolate bar, Morewedge says.
“If you just think about the chocolate bar and what it looks like and how it tastes and where you would eat it, that should increase your cravings for it,” he says.
“But if we perform the mental imagery that would accompany its actual consumption, it appears that this kind of imagined consumption can decrease our desire for the food we imagine eating.”
And this imaginary diet has a cumulative effect, he says, with appetites decreasing proportionately to the amount you gorge in your head, the multiple part study showed.
In one part, study participants – college students who believed they were engaged in a size perception trial – were asked to perform computer tasks that included eating different numbers of M&M’s candy.
When presented afterwards with an actual bowl of M&M’s, those who had imagined eating more consumed significantly less of the melt-in-your-mouth treats than those who had eaten less or none.
But the suppression of cravings is specific to the food that’s imaginarily consumed, Morewedge says.
For example, where a similar experiment run with computer cheese cube images suppressed appetites for real cheddar, it did nothing to cut consumption of M&M’s, he says.
Morewedge says the simple, try-this-at-home technique may also prove effective for smoking and alcohol consumption.
~The Toronto Star
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Toot your horn somewhere else
This morning I was almost sideswiped by someone who, a little too quickly, decided to make a left hand turn from the right hand lane. I was minding my own business in the left hand lane and suddenly had this car cut in front of me. I hit my breaks hard enough to slam everything in my trunk around, but managed to avoid disaster.
The guy trying to turn left in front of me hit his breaks, I hit my breaks, and the two cars behind us had to hit their breaks as well. Someone also hit their horn.
Was that really necessary? The horn, I mean. Really. It was blatantly obvious who was at fault, and we were all 'inconvenienced' by it - that whole coming to a complete stop must have set my drive to work back by about 5 seconds! But it didn't even cross my mind that I should also be hitting my horn.
My understanding of the car horn is that it is a safety feature required by law on all vehicles. It is there to serve as a warning of impending danger. That danger does not include "UGH! YOU just did something INCREDIBLY STUPID and inconvenienced ME and if I wasn't inside my awesome car that is SOOO much better than yours, I would PUNCH you in the FACE!!" Contrary to popular belief, the horn is not an angry button. And quite honestly, when you hit your horn out of anger, it just makes you look like an ass. In fact, the guy with the horn was exponentially more annoying than the guy who almost ran into me - and dude! What the heck were you honking about anyway?? *I* was the one who almost got hit, not you.
Do me a favour and show a little compassion for your fellow human being; the next time you go to hit your horn, take half a millisecond to ask yourself, 'is this really necessary or am I just being a tool?' Cause next time, it could be YOU I write a blog about.
The guy trying to turn left in front of me hit his breaks, I hit my breaks, and the two cars behind us had to hit their breaks as well. Someone also hit their horn.
Was that really necessary? The horn, I mean. Really. It was blatantly obvious who was at fault, and we were all 'inconvenienced' by it - that whole coming to a complete stop must have set my drive to work back by about 5 seconds! But it didn't even cross my mind that I should also be hitting my horn.
My understanding of the car horn is that it is a safety feature required by law on all vehicles. It is there to serve as a warning of impending danger. That danger does not include "UGH! YOU just did something INCREDIBLY STUPID and inconvenienced ME and if I wasn't inside my awesome car that is SOOO much better than yours, I would PUNCH you in the FACE!!" Contrary to popular belief, the horn is not an angry button. And quite honestly, when you hit your horn out of anger, it just makes you look like an ass. In fact, the guy with the horn was exponentially more annoying than the guy who almost ran into me - and dude! What the heck were you honking about anyway?? *I* was the one who almost got hit, not you.
Do me a favour and show a little compassion for your fellow human being; the next time you go to hit your horn, take half a millisecond to ask yourself, 'is this really necessary or am I just being a tool?' Cause next time, it could be YOU I write a blog about.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Dec 1 already?! ACK!
Most Advent calendars start today. I've considered writing a blog a day from now until Christmas as my Advent gift to all 7 or 8 people who read this blog, however... I'm pretty lazy, so don't hold your breath.
I've noticed that the Advent Calendar seems to be in vogue this year. Many people seem to be getting into Christmas mode with their own variation. Chocolate calendars, of course - at one time or another, haven't we all been excited about opening that little cardboard flap everyday to eat the tasteless, made in China waxy excuse for chocolate found inside? I had one once or twice as a child. I had no idea what it had to do with Christmas, but it was the most exciting 30 seconds of my day! (Topped only by looking at the toy section of the Sears Wishbook for hours on end.)
But if waxy chocolate isn't really your thing, well, I saw a Christmas-cookie-recipe-a-day calendar on the Toronto Star website. Oh, and the Hubble space telescope calendar for all those star gazers out there. And a really cute baby zoo animal calendar... And of course, if you've got a million dollars you don't know what to do with, you could buy one of the 5 advent calendars made by Porsche. Apparently it's filled with kitchen renovations, and gold watches, and yachts and things.
To me, Lent is a much easier season to celebrate than Advent. Preparing for the impending death of our Saviour on Good Friday is all about sacrifice and going without, being a little uncomfortable - things that good Christians are generally really good at! "I'm a good Christian because I'm suffering and I'm giving out of my suffering." It's easy to find Christian identity in that. Unfortunately, carving a Christian identity out of suffering makes the whole 'secularized', joyous, materialistic, gift receiving, Santa Claus and snowmen part of Christmas a little too much to handle sometimes. Where's the suffering in receiving gifts or singing 'Deck the Halls' for the 150th time?? How can I be a good Christian if I'm not suffering?!
It has given me cause to take a closer look this year and to realize, perhaps for the first time, that there isn't supposed to be suffering in Advent, and that's ok. Sometimes it really is ok to be Christian without suffering! Advent, after all, is the liturgical season of preparing for the coming of the Christ Child, the Messiah, our Saviour. How can we even think about suffering and sacrifice when God's ultimate game plan is about to begin? He's about to deliver to us this tiny little baby that will eventually grow up to repair the damaged relationship between God and His people. We need to prepare for that, we need to get ready for that, we need to be damn happy about that!! If not for Christ's coming at Christmas, we wouldn't be able to have any sort of personal relationship with God. By all rights it should be a festive celebration of joy and giving! So get your Advent Calendar, eat your waxy chocolate, bake those cookies, decorate the tree, buy those gifts, sing the songs! And if buying a $1,000,000 Porsche Advent Calendar is how you celebrate it, well, can I at least have a ride on your yacht?
Hallelujah!
I've noticed that the Advent Calendar seems to be in vogue this year. Many people seem to be getting into Christmas mode with their own variation. Chocolate calendars, of course - at one time or another, haven't we all been excited about opening that little cardboard flap everyday to eat the tasteless, made in China waxy excuse for chocolate found inside? I had one once or twice as a child. I had no idea what it had to do with Christmas, but it was the most exciting 30 seconds of my day! (Topped only by looking at the toy section of the Sears Wishbook for hours on end.)
But if waxy chocolate isn't really your thing, well, I saw a Christmas-cookie-recipe-a-day calendar on the Toronto Star website. Oh, and the Hubble space telescope calendar for all those star gazers out there. And a really cute baby zoo animal calendar... And of course, if you've got a million dollars you don't know what to do with, you could buy one of the 5 advent calendars made by Porsche. Apparently it's filled with kitchen renovations, and gold watches, and yachts and things.
To me, Lent is a much easier season to celebrate than Advent. Preparing for the impending death of our Saviour on Good Friday is all about sacrifice and going without, being a little uncomfortable - things that good Christians are generally really good at! "I'm a good Christian because I'm suffering and I'm giving out of my suffering." It's easy to find Christian identity in that. Unfortunately, carving a Christian identity out of suffering makes the whole 'secularized', joyous, materialistic, gift receiving, Santa Claus and snowmen part of Christmas a little too much to handle sometimes. Where's the suffering in receiving gifts or singing 'Deck the Halls' for the 150th time?? How can I be a good Christian if I'm not suffering?!
It has given me cause to take a closer look this year and to realize, perhaps for the first time, that there isn't supposed to be suffering in Advent, and that's ok. Sometimes it really is ok to be Christian without suffering! Advent, after all, is the liturgical season of preparing for the coming of the Christ Child, the Messiah, our Saviour. How can we even think about suffering and sacrifice when God's ultimate game plan is about to begin? He's about to deliver to us this tiny little baby that will eventually grow up to repair the damaged relationship between God and His people. We need to prepare for that, we need to get ready for that, we need to be damn happy about that!! If not for Christ's coming at Christmas, we wouldn't be able to have any sort of personal relationship with God. By all rights it should be a festive celebration of joy and giving! So get your Advent Calendar, eat your waxy chocolate, bake those cookies, decorate the tree, buy those gifts, sing the songs! And if buying a $1,000,000 Porsche Advent Calendar is how you celebrate it, well, can I at least have a ride on your yacht?
Hallelujah!
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