Friday, December 09, 2011

Note About Previous Post

I realized after posting that a lot of what I said sounds very anti-Christian, and you're right, in a way it definitely can be interpreted as such. However, this is not in any way intended to portray ALL Christians as the bad guys, since anyone, regardless of what they call themselves, can be cruel. It cannot be attributed to any one group. It was not my intention to present any sort of animosity.

The Great Christmas Debate (and My Unsolicited Two Cents)

Am I the only one who is horribly offended by the outrage expressed by some people who feel that Christmas is being stolen away from them? Here's the scoop. I celebrate Christmas. Not Christmas as it had originally been which is a celebration of the birth of Jesus (and other nuances that I personally don't fully understand because I'm not particularly religious), but the very commercialized thing that it has become. I like the trees, I like Santa, I like the baking, the snow and the music both secular and otherwise. I used to participate in Christmas pageants every December because I went to a Protestant elementary school (although the only difference between us and a public school was that we said the Lord's Prayer in the morning - which was not mandatory, you just had to stand as a sign of respect for the belief of others - and read Bible stories at our weekly assemblies; we had Sikh students and Jewish students and any other number of different religious representations so we were hardly picky). I'm accustomed to saying "merry Christmas" to people when I wish them well during the holiday season.

The thing is, though, not everyone celebrates Christmas. Which, quite frankly, I think is totally awesome. I like seeing the diverse way in which people spend their time and celebrate. It is well within their rights as humans to do so. Conformity shouldn't be mandatory. I would never demand that someone wish me a merry Christmas if they don't celebrate it. It's shallow and unreasonable of me to do so. Fundamentally, regardless of what you believe in, it's a matter of opinion about what you choose to celebrate. You may have your reasons to do so, but they back up opinion not fact. The people who celebrate the Solstice are just as valid as those who celebrate Hanukkah, and the same goes for the Christians who celebrate Christmas. Nobody is trying to take your Christmas away from you, you're still welcome to celebrate it. It's horribly impolite, though, to shove it down anyone else's throats. Is that not fundamentally what the fuss is about? People who celebrate Christmas feel that the people who celebrate other things are shoving it down their throats by protesting?

The way I see it is that a lot of it comes down to the who was here first debate. Since Christianity is the overwhelmingly dominant religion, it is seen as the one that people must abide by, for we live in "Christian" nation. It was what was here first, the Christian people. Actually, if we're going to go into that, if you're white and Christian, you don't belong here. Regardless of how long your family has been here, you are technically an immigrant and your religion is a transplant from another place. It was the religion and way of life that was, at times, violently forced upon the people who were here first - the indigenous population (and I apologize if I'm not using the correct terminology, it keeps changing and I'm never sure what to say). In saying that you have to keep Christmas, are you not denying other people the right to practice celebrations associated with ways of life that are far older than yours?

And if you're one of the people who says that they're welcome to celebrate it, but they're to keep it in their own homes and to themselves, I would like to be hypocritical and say that I want to put you through a window. In believing such things you are doing EXACTLY what you don't want everyone else to do - shut you away in a closet. If you don't believe in what they are doing, that's perfectly fine, but don't you dare oppose it. Nobody has any more right than anyone else. If you wish to illustrate your allegiance to a particular belief set, go for it, but everyone else should be allowed to, too. The next time you're told to wish someone a happy holidays and you want to object, can you honestly say that you would be perfectly fine participating in Hanukkah pageant (for instance) and being wished a happy Hanukkah? If so, feel free to wish someone a merry Christmas. You're allowed to. It's called religious freedom. But they're just as free to say that they don't want to participate in something that's Christmas and that they'd like some sort of representation, too. Never have I ever been wished anything but a happy holidays or merry Christmas, and I would be honoured to think that someone would think highly enough of me to wish me the best of whatever they believe in, regardless of what that may be. I see it as less them forcing their beliefs upon me, and more that they care enough about me to want me to qualify in a category that they value above all others.

That's what I think about all of this. I personally cannot represent all celebrations, religious or secular, but I welcome other people to help me. After all, isn't the point to everything to value love and togetherness, regardless of what it's called?

P.S. Yay for rants that don't make sense! If you're offended, feel free to tell me why. I love to hear people babble on in the righteous manner that I always do.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Evil Corporations = Scrooge

Sometimes blogs can be really nasty and negative, like Regretsy (I still read it though, because I enjoy sarcastic commentary). However, when those blogs try to rally their users to do something nice, apparently they aren't allowed to. Why? Because PayPal is EVIL. Here's a link to give you the gist (the Regretsy one is more detailed, but this sums it up). http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/paypal-ruins-christmas-for-over-200-kids-2011126/

People like this just make me so aaaaangry.

Friday, December 02, 2011

The Final(ish) Report

This year's NaNoWriMo was easily the most irritating of all of them. Last years was really not very great either. Much like this year, I primarily hit my word counts through Write or Die. It was one of the best decisions I've made, since I can get 2500 words plus in half an hour so I can get things done. Unfortunately, this year, even with that. I barely managed to finish. My usual schedule involved me writing right after getting up (and showering, since cleanliness is next to godliness, and everyone knows that writers want to be gods, even if only for their own worlds), buuut stuff interfered with that. There were days when I'd get up and have to get straight to working on homework or I slept in and had someone coming up to see me so I had to get straight to getting reading and didn't have time. A lot of the time, those days turned into the ones where I wouldn't write at all. I'm notorious for being the sort who plans to do stuff and then will do everything under the sun to not do it. I will become bored as hell in my attempt to procrastinate as much as possible. Actually, that's exactly what led to this post. I have an English essay that I don't feel like working on, so rather than doing it, I've decided to get around to writing this like I  said I would. The point is, NaNoWriMo was hard.

Actually, any writing is hard. Getting into the habit of writing is one of the best things anyone can do, but also one of the hardest. Part of writing is that you become so attached to the people in your head when you're in that space that you move to when you write, that it an be hard to get into it and then force the characters out of there. Part of what is needed to be a really good writer is to be able to follow where you think is best and let your characters (well, instincts) guide you, but sometimes you have to kick them in the butt. Whether or not you want to some of them will have to die, or be mean, or painfully homophobic. You have to be able to separate yourself from that, but sometimes it's hard to force yourself to do so. They're like your babies, and you don't want people to see all their faults. Instead, you want to stick them into an oversized crib and hire a nanny to make sure that the other kiddies on the playground don't start gnawing on their head or wiping boogers all over them. Really, the best thing you can do is let it go and just run with it and enjoy the entire process. I'm not at that point yet.

I am at the point, though, that I can say I've written more words in a month than many people who want to write will ever spit out in their entire life. And it's all for one book in this case, not a ton of books that I've started and stopped. I took something, moved past the planning stage (that most people get stuck on for whatever reason and never move past - my chair isn't comfy, my space isn't right, I don't have a name for my FMC's third cousin twice removed who you'll never meet but you'll hear about once in chapter seventeen) and done something. It's not something that the world will ever see in this case, at least I've done something. I have accomplished something that was fun, got a story out of my head, and reminded me that I can write. It's pretty darn awesome all around. Now it's time to move on to my next project - working on the novel that I actually like and starting the rewriting process that I've decided to start on fifty million times. This time, I want to get it done. Before that, though, there's a Christmas story that I offered to write someone. But before I can even work on that, I have an English essay to write.

Pfft. Priorities.

Cheers :)