New Year: Project 365: Day 1

My Project 365 goal this year is to practice getting correct exposure and color in-camera.  Fair warning, all photos will be SOOC and not edited at all...I have a feeling it won't all be pretty.  But I hope to get better at this, gaining time in post process and saving the editing for capturing certain photo styles desired by individual clients.

Day 1: A Christmas ornament my parents have had since before I was even around.  Or somewhere around there.  There is something incredibly comforting about your parents' Christmas tree, right?

This has been one of the best Christmases ever.  We are taking our time celebrating and will even be celebrating past Epiphany (January 6) this year.  I have a feeling Monday, January 10 is going to hit like a ton of bricks, but I'm trying to enjoy it until then. 

Along the same lines, I recently postulated to my husband a really super-simple solution to what seems to be a growing dilemma about "Christmas" and who seems to own the word/holiday/season.  Some Christians resent the commercializing and secularizing of our second most important holiday of the year.  And then the commercializ-ers and seculariz-ers resent mention of the word "Jesus" when trying to celebrate their holiday dedicated to Peace, Love, and Joy.  For the sake of brevity, I'm leaving out those who celebrate other holidays which just so happen to also coincide with the winter solstice; "Happy Chanukah", "Happy Kwanzaa", "Merry (or whatever) Saturnalia" don't really have any other connotations, unlike the seemingly innocent "Merry Christmas". 

So here's my solution: Everyone who wants to "keep Christ in Christmas" just needs to give the word away.  There's no getting it back, and frankly, the trees, the santas, the lights, the gifts, the reindeer, the hustle and bustle and energy...are really fun and will always be associated with "Christmas".  And now instead, when wishing to refer to the holiday based on Luke 2:1-20 we need merely to wish each other a "Blessed Nativity".  There ya go--two holidays in one and think how much less confusing for the children ;-)

The Evil Overpopulator Strikes Again

I know it's been a long, long while since I've been visited by the blogging muse, but I'm going to go ahead and jump in today because I saw this and I want to applaud the sentiment. I don't really need to say a lot more because she says exactly what I think. I have heard that it is selfish to have more than three children, more than two children, more than one child, any children. For one thing, that makes me laugh--environmental impact aside--really? Selfish?! Somehow I doubt the people saying these things to me have ever tried to run a family and household full of children. Not trying to play the martyr here, but selfish is not the word that comes to mind.

In our family we try our best to be good stewards of the resources we are blessed with. In the interest of full disclosure, I fully admit that our carbon footprints aren't usually the number one aspect I take into consideration when making day-to-day decisions...usually it's the financial aspect. A blessing in disguise is that when you don't have a lot of financial resources, the environmental and financial aspects of decision making tend to intersect. I'm nearly positive that our one-vehicle, small house, strictly second-hand-shopping, gardening, ridiculously frugal "large" family of nearly six probably has a much smaller carbon footprint than your average American upper-middle-class family of four (population replacement level).

The best thing about being an environment-preserving parent of a "large" family, though, is that I can teach these things to my children. The way we live is something I try to pass on to them in order to have four future families being good stewards of the Earth.

Do I sound defensive? Maybe I am a bit, but I don't mean to be. It's not that I honestly don't care what other people do, because I do hope that others make good environmental decisions. But I say live and let live. While you'd never hear me chastising another for making a different choice, there are many who chastise overpopulation as the biggest drain on the world's resources, and that is what I'm trying to defend against.

The Story of Stuff

Long but worth it. It is required watching for me at least once a month. I forget easily.

Because You Know I Just *Had* To

Say something, that is. Remember this post? Remember how I postulated that emotionalism is maybe not the best way to go about solving The Great American Rift?

Just look what happens when emotionalism rules the person. Now, I am hearing a lot of people say, so what? So what if he's gone; that just means he is no longer able to kill babies. That the man who has committed this "murder of a murderer" should now be a hero for advancing the prolife cause. Well, HELLO people, murder is not an act of life, it is an act of death. And not only does it not help people to see the atrocity of late-term elective abortions, it furthers the supposition that anyone associated with a word in which this killer associates himself has little regard for any person in a state of life beyond birth.

I cannot imagine the pain that Mr. Tiller's wife had to feel, seeing him lie dying on a church floor. This family has lost a husband, a father, a son. I sit and wonder about someone deeming my own life not worth living because of my "sins". No matter what his life entailed, his is still a life gone before its time. No one deserves an end like this, be it a 67-year-old abortionist, a 27-week-old-fetus, or even a worldwide terrorist. No one.

Er...duh..um...

And one more word to describe this:

Wow...

Good for him that there's no such thing as negative publicity, right?

How The Pro-Life Cause Could Be Helped

Uh-oh, there she goes proselytizing again! Feel free to skip this one if you just can't stand it, or me. Although if you can't stand me...why are you even reading my blog?

Anyhoo. So we were watching this documentary the other day about the politicizing of abortion. And there was this scene where this lady was protesting outside a clinic, talking in a super high-pitched voice, pretending to speak for the unborn children of the women walking into the clinic. "Hi Mommy, I can't wait to meet you. Mommy, what are you doing? Mommy, why are you doing this to me? Mommy, please, I want to see your face. Mommy, NOOOO!"


Ugh. My stomach just about dropped to my knees. It was so horrendous I wanted to puke. I wanted to be there and ask that lady, "Just what good do you think that's going to do?" Does she think that by trying to sound like the baby it will change anything for that woman? I don't think so. In fact, I think that that scene is why people have such low opinions of some "pro-lifers". (see footnote 1) I wanted to yell at the screen for her to stop making us look like uneducated, intolerant fanatics! It honestly drives me crazy.

So here's my idea on how to help the pro-life cause. People seriously need to try to remain unemotional about the whole thing. I know it's hard, when you take in the enormity and the magnanimous reality of the whole thing. I know. It's hard for me to not get emotional about it as well. But I really think that we would all be better served to just stay with the basic scientific facts and go from there. You can't dispute facts, and remaining unemotional will definitely lead to more civil discussion.

If that's the desired end, anyway. For me, I don't think the issue is going anywhere until civil discourse ends up changing people's hearts and minds. On the other hand, if imparting guilt is the only desired effect, then by all means lets all go protest in high-pitched squeaky voices.

1 - When speaking of a group of people, I'll always put "pro-lifers" and "pro-choicers" in quotes. Because I don't think that a lot of "pro-lifers" are actually pro-ALL-life, they're actually just anti-abortion. And by the same token I think that using the phrase "pro-choicers" just masks pro-abortion with a prettier phrase. Semantics are everything, people.

Because You All Wanted To Know...

...just what are the most pressing issues facing our country today, in my opinion?

Breaking it Down

1. The chick with the bazillions of kids. Everyone is in an uproar because she had octuplets when she already had six kids and was on assistance and now all the taxpayers have to pay for all these little punks.

To Which I Say: I think you're missing the point. Who really cares if taxpayer money is going to help raise these kids? They're here already--what do you want them to do, end up homeless or starving? A child is always a GOOD thing, although the means it was created by and the situation it happens to be born into may not be ideal or even acceptable. If it has to be taken care of, then it has to, by whatever means necessary.

But whatever, I am going to be seriously unpopular here and seem all prudish, but I think the real tragedy here is that she decided to bring them all into the world without the support of a father. There is no way one lady can take care of 14 children on her own, which makes me feel bad for the kids. That, and I don't like the idea of in vitro fertilization in the first place. Opens up a whole 'nother can of worms which leads to scenarios such as this. And worse.

2. Is it really fair that Chuck Wicks gets to be partnered with Julianne Hough on the next season of DWTS?

To Which I Say: No, it is not fair! They are going to have an unfair advantage over the rest of the contestants, and seriously, who thought this was a good idea? Sheesh.

3. Was Pam really telling the truth to Michael about the letter he stole from Holly's computer?

To Which I Say: I'm not sure. I hope she was, because I want to see more of Holly and Michael! That A.J. dude looks SO not her type anyway.

4. The economic stimulus package: Good thing? Bad thing?

To Which I Say: I really don't freaking care. I guess Democrats are going to think it's a good thing and Republicans are going to think it's a bad thing. Being an Independent Socialist Libertarian, myself, I have a tiny inkling that maybe this isn't the best idea at this juncture in our country's history, but on the other hand? If it means I don't have to pay back that huge-o first-time-homebuyer credit we got that was supposed to act as a 15-year loan...I'm all for it!


And now to the most pressing issue facing our nation today...


5. Are all the members of the Oceanic Six going to make it back to the island on time? Is Mrs. Hawking Daniel's mother? Are Sawyer and Juliet having a thing? Is Miles Dr. Candle's son? Is Aaron really Jacob? Is Richard really from Ancient Egypt?

To Which I Say: Yes to all!



Hm, all that and I don't even have television.

So what are your ideas on these important issues?