Am I Missing Something?

So there's a lot of outrage about some people wanting to build a mosque near where the World Trade Center used to be. Why?

I get that Islamic extremists were responsible for the attack that killed so many innocent people, but Islamic extremists are a minority within the Muslim community. Or, at least, I'd like to think they are. From what I've heard, it sounds like the guy in charge of the mosque that's being built there is a moderate Muslim. You know, the kind you'd encourage all Muslims to be like.

Would there be this kind of outrage if someone wanted to build a church next to an abortion clinic that had been bombed by some nutjob who decided to kill people at an abortion clinic to prove that life is precious? Using the logic surrounding the WTC mosque hullabaloo, all Christians want to bomb abortion clinics. Since I'm a Christian and have no desire to bomb anything, I know that to be untrue.

A February Prayer

So, God, about that winter home in Key West . . .

Oh What A Feeling!...Of Unintended Acceleration

It's quite possible that I'm enjoying the current Toyota recall a bit too much. Really though, it's hard not to. Ever since Toyota killed off the MR2 and Supra, they have only built bland vehicles. Driving them is as much fun as clipping your toenails. A few years ago I would have said that all their cars have bland styling (which I suppose is still true of the Lexus brand), but that's no longer true. Now most of the Toyota- and Scion-branded cars are fugly. That's not exactly an improvement though.

Knowing that, it's hard for me to imagine how they overtook GM (who decided to take a few decades off from building quality cars) as the largest automaker in the world. Then I remembered that I'm not at all part of the target demographic for Toyota. Toyota owners simply want a car that, once they've bought it, they never have to think about. All Toyota has to do to maintain their position in the automotive world is to continue to build cars with bullet-proof reliability. That's it. Just one thing.

If you're that big of a corporation and you only have to continue to do one thing to be successful, how do you screw it up? That's why I'm enjoying watching Toyota get raked over the coals for this. They've let quality slip over the past handful of years, and now their reaping the benefits of that. Ah, I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning!

Fa La La La La, La La, Whoopty-Do!

I just got done doing a bit of Christmas shopping, but it wasn't as fun as it should have been. I definitely enjoyed the small crowds on a weekday afternoon, but I wasn't shopping for anything for Teri. I was getting a lot of the rest of the shopping done, but not being able to get anything for my wife for our first Christmas together kind of sucked.

I will be getting her something, but my (foolish?) optimism that I might get a job offer before Christmas compels me to take a wait-and-see attitude in case I can spend the full amount I would have already spent if I had a job and we weren't being so careful with money.

It will be very nice to spend Christmas relaxing with Teri and enjoying our time together, but I can't feel like there's a bit of a tarnish on my jingle bells this year because of the financial uncertainty.

Much like the theme of the Bears' current season...maybe next year.

Facebook Is Ruining My Blog

You may have noticed that it's been quite some time since I've posted anything to my blog. I blame Facebook for that. Why is Facebook involved in such dastardly deeds? It's just easier.

See, I've had ideas for blog posts a few times over the past 6 months, but because I've been busy with other things, it was just a lot faster to distill them down into status updates for Facebook rather than full-fledged blog posts. Yeah, this isn't the most exciting post ever, but now you know I haven't completely forgotten about my blog.

Also, since I'm sure she'll see this at some point, here's a picture of Sparky for Lucy to look at and squeal with delight.

A Longer Post Than I Thought It'd Be

I've been meaning to write a blog post all week about what a sham Valentine's Day is and why it doesn't deserve recognition. The problem with that is Roland Martin has already written an article that says it better than I can. Maybe that's why he's a professional writer.

The real problem with Valentine's Day this year is that it falls on a Saturday. It seems like it's been too long since Teri and I have had a date night where we went out for dinner and then to a movie or some other fun activity (and completely ignored wedding planning activities, family, friends, and any other obligation/responsibility that doesn't fall into one of those categories).

In theory, this Saturday would work for that. However, this Saturday being VD rules that out. I suppose it also doesn't help that I don't have any money to be spending on a proper date night right now anyway. Nor does it help that many outdoor activities are out at this time of the year because of the weather.

What was my point again?

Happy Festivus!!

Yes, this time of year is the magical time known as "The Logjam of Holidays"! Alright, so I just now made that term up, but there are quite a few of them. There are real holidays like Christmas and New Year's and fake holidays like Festivus, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. We even had our Holiday Lunch at work last week where I won the amazingly opulent prize of a box of a dozen candy canes (much different than Teri's guess of a TV when I told her I had won a prize).

Today is my last day of coming to work in 2008 (and I actually did get a little bit of work done too...bonus), and the preparations for Christmas are nearly done. Once I get the Christmas travel out of the way tomorrow, I'll be ready to celebrate Santa's birthday in style, which seems to be how you celebrate Christmas from the decorations I've seen in the stores.

The downside to Christmas this year is that Teri couldn't get vacation time to come to Illinois with me, so we'll be apart for 5 days while I'm there. The upside is that I have a fiancee to come back to in Ohio. (She's a pretty amazing fiancee too.) One of the fun things I have to look forward to doing with Teri when I get back is going to the zoo for wildlights for free. We tried going earlier in the month, but the line was too long for us to get in with enough time to actually see stuff. When Teri e-mailed the zoo about this, they said they'd send a pass for free parking and free admission tickets.

Oh yeah, Lucy has requested more pictures of Sparky and Aunt Teri, so here are some I stole from Teri's myspace page. Enjoy, Lucy.