Christmas Candy

I'm usually a cheapskate when it comes to buying candy. I have fairly good discipline in not buying it, unless I can get a good deal on it. I'm cheap!

But at Christmas, when you're putting it on the table for guests, it's nice to splurge. And buy the stuff that I wouldn't ordinarily buy, the premo stuff, like, Ghirardelli -- I had to go get a piece just to know how to spell it.

It's beautiful stuff. The various Hershey Kisses, which I also will not buy through the rest of the year. One, I don't like having to unwrap the little things just to have a tiny piece of chocolate. I prefer the bigger, more economical gigantic candy bars they put out.

I didn't get any of the hard, traditional candy yet this year. One year I got some and froze it and was eating it in July. Even then, though, it got sticky when it thawed out.

I had some cherry chocolates yesterday. It's nice to have a few of them at Christmas. Then I can't find them the rest of the year.

Of course none of it's good for you ... but it's Christmas!

We used to leave cherry chocolates out for Santa when I was a kid. And I don't remember him ever leaving any behind. So if they're good enough for Santa ... they're good enough for me!

Milknog

I had some "milknog" today, I believe for the first time ever. I don't remember hearing about it before, so it might be a new development in the conjuring up of different drinks for the consumer market.

But it's good, being nothing more than a mixture of milk and eggnog, probably half of one and half of the other. So it's milky with an eggnog taste to it.

I also had some straight eggnog, a great drink of the season. Why it's restricted to the Christmas season, I don't know, since it seems like it'd be delicious anytime. But who am I to question tradition?

It seems like I didn't drink eggnog until maybe in the last 10 years sometime. For whatever reason. I guess I figured I wouldn't like it. Maybe it's been in the last 15 years. The exact dates escape me.

It turned out that eggnog was also delicious. Although sometimes it seems to go straight to my head. I haven't had that happen this year, but last year I remember feeling dizzy, slightly overwhelmed by it. Like it was too rich for my sensibilities at the time.

I Found My Gigabeat

In cleaning my room I found down beside my bed on a dusty and generally unseen shelf, the bottom of a bookshelf, my old Gigabeat, from the S series. This was (is) an MP3 player from a few years ago.

It's amazing how fast everything moves, that this would go from a great item to a piece of crap just like that. Within three or four years.

The truth turned out to be it was a piece of crap all along. One of the typical criticisms of the Gigabeat was that it periodically erased everything on it. That was a shocker when it first happened, and it never got better with subsequent experiences.

I was just searching around and it looks like, maybe, they might still sell some variation of the thing. Or maybe the ads are just old and not removed from the internet. They ought to hook up a Gigabeat to the internet. I'm sure it would gladly remove all the files!

We had two of these, three for a while. But I only had the third because the place I bought it from accidentally sent me two instead of one. Real competent. Then they wanted it back. I delayed for a while but they actually called me on the phone, I believe, yes they did, so I mailed it back. Too bad I didn't send them all back, or, better yet, not have ordered the crap in the first place.

I remember one time, I hadn't had it for long, I was playing volleyball and it fell out of my pocket and got all scratched up in the sand. Plus I had to dig a few pieces of sand out of the controls. That's a drag ... because the scratches never went away. So that's another thing. It was terribly scratchable.

The power cord was still with it. I thought about plugging it in and charging it up and maybe seeing if I could use it for a portable, tiny hard drive (it had 60 gig!) for my laptop computer. But I don't really have any big reason to do so, of course, because the laptop has plenty of storage space. And, to tell the truth, I wouldn't trust a Gigabeat as a scratch pad.

After having my iPod Touch for the last couple years, the Gigabeat feels big and clunky. I really thought the name Gigabeat was a cool one at the time, but now it's just a word that means undependable and failure to me. I wouldn't buy anything made by Toshiba, they did such a bad job with this thing.

Wow, looking at the ad, they have an iPod Touch now with 64 GB, the newest model as of this writing. Mine, like I said above, is a couple years old, and it is only 16 GB. So I really have to pick and choose what I'm going to put on it. But it doesn't make too much difference. I put stuff on, I take it off. It gives me something more to do with my time, to keep shifting things around. It's like living in a small apartment. But 64 GB, that'd be a mansion.

I Cleaned My Bedroom Today

It's one of those things, once in a while it needs to be done.

I thought (hoped) it might take an hour or two tops, but it took a lot longer. Nasty process, to clean!

There's all the little crap that accumulates, enough to fill a couple garbage sacks. Plus the dust. Oh, the dust! Where does all the dust come from? It's coating the place.

I got it done but it's definitely no fun to do.

I keep thinking I'll keep it clean but it never works out that way.

I Haven't Been Reading Like I Should

There for a while I was a voracious reader. I read a few books in my spare time, marching right along.

The big problem -- if that's what I want to call it -- is that I got a new computer. And the novelty hasn't worn off yet. So I'm spending lots of time on it, more time than I should.

I started a book a few weeks ago, and I got pretty far in it, but since I got the new computer, I've just been letting the book go. But one of these days, maybe very soon, I'll get back to it.

It's funny how something can sideline me. I'm so gung ho to do something, like reading, as I was there for a while. But then a new toy comes into my life, I'm suddenly gung ho for it. Still, I want to finish that book. There's virtue in getting something done that you started.

Could Grunting Be A Better Language?

Mankind has been talking for hundreds of years, and all that time we've been at each other's throats.

It's so easy to say the wrong thing, to just blurt it out and not be able to take it back, then to accompany it with dismissive body language, we're naturally in trouble.

Could grunting be a better way to communicate? It usually gets its point across, and when it doesn't, it's ambiguous enough that no one knows your intentions so they're OK with it.

Grunting has served the animal world well. You hardly ever hear of any conflicts between animals. Of course they hunt prey, some are predators and some are prey. But that doesn't have anything to do with miscommunication problems. They're just hungry.

Both in effectiveness (even with ambiguity you can convey some powerful thoughts) and efficiency (if you can do pitches you've got the language down), grunting is a better language. Let me qualify that with a "perhaps" it is. Or just grunt, "uhhh," and let you figure it out.

Grunting has helped the animal world maintain their balance, their equilibrium. They haven't advanced like we have, but look at the advantages, they have that balance.

They sleep outside in the winter, I know. Which we don't want to do, but that's another topic.

UPDATE: An understanding student says, "It's not so much what he says, but how he says it."

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The idea for this posting was found in an old notebook in my desk.

My Dog Gets Cold Feet

I don't think I've ever seen anything like this.

I'm walking my dog and she suddenly appears to get cold feet and can't walk. She's lifting her legs and just hobbling there. So I run over and pick her up and carry her in the house.

I wonder if this comes with age, because I don't remember it from years ago. It's weird.

It's equally weird, unfortunate, that her nature is such that she can't just go to the bathroom. She has to walk around, sniffing everywhere, etc., like dogs do. But I have a human mind. So I know the clock's ticking ... if you don't go pretty soon, your feet are going to get cold and that will be it.

Use your opportunities now. Don't delay. Go while your feet are still warm!

Norton Goes Frantic On Cue

When I first got this computer a couple weeks ago, it had a very temporary Norton subscription, that would expire in a month or so. It came with a 15 month subscription but I still had to type that in and hadn't done so yet.

In that time, Norton was going crazy, popping up several times an hour with one notification or another. It was going so crazy I had to turn it off for a while just to get things done.

Then I typed in the 15 month subscription number and I've barely heard from them since.

Leading me to believe they have it set to go frantic when your subscription is about to expire, so you'll be sure to know you definitely need it. I want it, don't get me wrong. But I want it to do its job in the background and not keep me updated with its every move.

Like it's doing now, now that I have a 15 month subscription ahead of me.

I Cleaned Up A Room

Woo hoo, I just cleaned up a room. A reading room type of place that became a place of the worst clutter and squalor.

I've been sitting in the midst of that filth, stacked up stuff, stuff tipped over and sliding all over the floor, bemoaning it.

This morning I was sitting there and had to abandon it all, it was so depressing. Then I returned and sat there, stewing in the misery.

I mean it was bad.

But now, I've got it all straightened out, shelves dusted. Everything's pretty much in order. The only disaster now is inside the closet.

I came across some notes that one of my Grandmas sent me in the '60s, so that was nice to sit and read. I read one and half. Slowly, sentimentally.

It's easier to do things slower and with more meaning in a clean room.

It's nice to be able to go in that room now and not feel automatically 10 times worse.

Christmas Shopping Is Finished

It's a good feeling to be done for another year. It's kind of like getting done with your income tax forms in April, the feeling that it's done for a whole 'nother year.

I finished up today, getting a few stocking stuffers for a loved one. Others of the family, we ordered their stuff online and everything came, the last things today.

One of the postmen came over after hours to tell me that a package belonging to me had fallen down behind some stuff and he wanted to make sure I got it today. That was great. He'd already had a busy day, but to think that he took the time to do that for me, it touched me. What a nice gesture.

The benefit of him doing that meant that the very last presents purchased were in place. They could be wrapped and put under the tree.

It's quite a holiday. Too bad we didn't settle on a $5 gift exchange. It's a lot more lavish than that. I'll pay for it in January.

Like Bob Cratchit, we're making rather merry!