You know, I love the Christmas season as much as the next person with a Christian background. The sounds and smells of Christmas, the generosity and good will that is more evident at this time of year, and the thoughts of love and peace and spending time with your family.
What I don't like about Christmas? The terrible, awful, no good 'Holiday' ads on TV and radio. And this year, a new trend* is having people (or animated icons) badly singing a bad Christmas carol with all the words changed to shill their wares. They completely ignore the spiritual meaning of Christmas, unless it really is all about Santa and boosting the economy.
As I write, there's an Overstock.com ad to the tune of Jingle Bells on TV. Another ubiquitous one is the new store called "HM" or something which is SOOooooooo bad, to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas, and then there's that Honda dealership with all the employees singing Fa-la-la-la-laaa.
a) Most of these ads have people intentionally singing off key and/or just plain bad. It's actually a little painful.
b) Changing the words of a carol to sell your products is just... really not right. Also sorta lame because it is SO overdone. I can't wait to see the ad featuring "Amazing Grace"as Amazing Chase Manhattan VISA™ ...
c) These ads play every five minutes. The same ads. Over and over. ARGH! Stop stop stop, you're making me crazy!
All of this is not only making me crazy, but it is impeding my ability to get into the Christmas Spirit. And I've only got a few more days!
OH well. Thank goodness there's a total lunar eclipse tonight. I'll have to stay up for that.
Happy Winter Solstice, y'all!
*or maybe I'm just noticing it more thanks to the awful Quizno's cat commercial earlier in the year - actually made me boycott Quizno's until they stopped playing it. I guess they thought it was cute. Note to Quizno's: IT'S NOT CUTE!!!! IT'S HORRIBLE!!!
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Positive Picketing
So the other day I'm walking to the Juice Joint to pick up lunch and I noticed a protest going on down the street from my office.
It wasn't so much the shouts of the people walking in a well-organized picket line that caught my attention as much as the giant inflated RAT in the back of the pick-up truck! I had never seen anything like it, so I had to take a picture and post it on Facebook. (One of my FB friends illuminated me: apparently this is a "union rat" ... ohhhhhh)
ANyway - I started thinking. (OUCH!)
Why is it that people only seem to make a big noise about negative things, like unfair pay? Or protesting against something they don't believe is good and right, like the anti-gay protesters. Why is it always so negative and ugly?
And then I remembered a video a friend of mine had sent me a few days back, about people in Germany or somewhere giving away free hugs. (On further reasearch, there's apparently a whole movement about free hugs... Go check out the Free Hugs Campaign.) I loved the concept - it's positive and reminds people that there is good will and kindness out there in the world, and most importantly, we're not all alone.
As I walked back from JJ, I decided to walk on the same side of the street as the protest and check it out a little more. I was interested in how much fun the participants were having. Yes, it was a protest, and they were angry about how they were being treated, but ... they were having fun! They were chanting and singing and dancing and it was a joint effort. They had water and shade for people to sit and rest if they got hot and tired (98* in the sun), they had a leader shouting out the chants, and they switched off that role so no one got tired out.
And I wondered...
What if we had positive picket lines? What would happen if a bunch of people got together and set up a picket line to publicize something they LIKED? Can you imagine a big line of happy, dancing, chanting people walking around in a circle ... say in Lafayette Park across from the White House, saying "We like Obama!" Or maybe in front of the Verizon Center saying "Let's go CAPS!" Or maybe something more lowkey like giving away free hugs in front of the Vietnam Memorial. Wouldn't it be great?
I don't know. There is just too much negativity out there, so I just wish we had more "acceptable" ways of celebrating the positives in life. Or maybe I've just got stars in my eyes.
I'm gonna figure this out...
It wasn't so much the shouts of the people walking in a well-organized picket line that caught my attention as much as the giant inflated RAT in the back of the pick-up truck! I had never seen anything like it, so I had to take a picture and post it on Facebook. (One of my FB friends illuminated me: apparently this is a "union rat" ... ohhhhhh)ANyway - I started thinking. (OUCH!)
Why is it that people only seem to make a big noise about negative things, like unfair pay? Or protesting against something they don't believe is good and right, like the anti-gay protesters. Why is it always so negative and ugly?
And then I remembered a video a friend of mine had sent me a few days back, about people in Germany or somewhere giving away free hugs. (On further reasearch, there's apparently a whole movement about free hugs... Go check out the Free Hugs Campaign.) I loved the concept - it's positive and reminds people that there is good will and kindness out there in the world, and most importantly, we're not all alone.
As I walked back from JJ, I decided to walk on the same side of the street as the protest and check it out a little more. I was interested in how much fun the participants were having. Yes, it was a protest, and they were angry about how they were being treated, but ... they were having fun! They were chanting and singing and dancing and it was a joint effort. They had water and shade for people to sit and rest if they got hot and tired (98* in the sun), they had a leader shouting out the chants, and they switched off that role so no one got tired out.
And I wondered...
What if we had positive picket lines? What would happen if a bunch of people got together and set up a picket line to publicize something they LIKED? Can you imagine a big line of happy, dancing, chanting people walking around in a circle ... say in Lafayette Park across from the White House, saying "We like Obama!" Or maybe in front of the Verizon Center saying "Let's go CAPS!" Or maybe something more lowkey like giving away free hugs in front of the Vietnam Memorial. Wouldn't it be great?
I don't know. There is just too much negativity out there, so I just wish we had more "acceptable" ways of celebrating the positives in life. Or maybe I've just got stars in my eyes.
I'm gonna figure this out...
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Fattitude
My sister has started writing a blog about her battle(s) with her weight and how she is winning the battle. It's most interesting to me because I followed her into a lot of those battles! When I was in High School, I felt I was WAAaaaay overweight - and looking back, I realize that I was NOT overweight, I was just athletic and had big boobs! Probably the fact that my brother decided to "protect" me from all of his guy friends by hanging the nickname "Ugly" on me didn't help much either, but that's a story for another time. The thing is, my senior year, I decided to stop "dieting" and working out (I did shot put, track, and swim team)... and I lost 25 lbs in about two weeks.
As I said in the comments on my sister's blog: For me, my weight battle is not so much about winning, it's more about being happy with who I am. So, I am beginning to embrace my "fattitude" and realize that my weight and my general appearance really DO have a lot to do with my attitude and how I'm feeling. Heck, if I don't love me, why should anyone else? Right? (Thank Phred for therapy! hahaha)
I learned a loooooong time ago that if I ever try to ban something from my diet, I crave it almost obsessively. No more chocolate! I WANT HERSHEY'S!!! No more red meat! ARE YOU FRICKING KIDDING ME??? No more broccoli! Hey, that stuff is good for you! I'll eat as much as I want, so there... No more sex! *sigh*
Instead of eliminating the "bad" stuff from my diet, I've been able to reduce the amount of it I eat. For example: I would be a great vegetarian... except for that burger thing. I loooooooove burgers! Cheeseburgers! My favorite is with crispy bacon and blue cheese crumbles... oh YUM! My doctor would probably call that "heart attack on a plate" and she'd be right. I used to eat burgers a couple of times a week, because Nanny's makes AWESOME burgers - and burgers have made a sort of culinary renaissance lately so there are numerous "fancy" burger joints around. I started out telling myself I could only have one burger a week, and then eventually switched to one a month. The thing is, I realized recently that there have been months when I have more than one burger (such as this one), but then... there are also several months when I don't have a burger at all. All it has really done is help me be more aware of what I am eating. Instead of ALWAYS getting the burger, I'll think about how many I've had in the last few weeks. I've also started getting a salad with my burger instead of fries. Not really a big thing because I'm not really a big French Fries fan. They're all right, but give me a good salad with black olives and ranch dressing and I'm a goner! (Yeah, "healthy" salad... but better than fries!) The good thing? My cholesterol has gone down from "just over the border" to "just under the border". And I feel better.
The other thing I've done is start exercising again. DC recently opened a gorgeous, FREE 50-meter pool near my house, and I've got a gym in the basement of my building. With the weather (hopefully) turning nice, I hope to start running again... especially since I'm signed up to do the Army Ten Miler again in October! Swimming is still my favorite exercise, even though you have to wear a bathing suit. It just feels so good! I told a friend once that swimming just makes me feel long and lean. I'm 5'2" and well, not lean, but swimming makes me feel um... long and lean! What's not to like? :-)
Hmmmmm- I think I've been babbling. But that's a good thing, right? At least I'm writing, and I'm thinking, and I'm alive. Life is good. Sure beats the alternative!
OK - one last thing, name the movie:
Just remember: No matter where you go, there you are!
As I said in the comments on my sister's blog: For me, my weight battle is not so much about winning, it's more about being happy with who I am. So, I am beginning to embrace my "fattitude" and realize that my weight and my general appearance really DO have a lot to do with my attitude and how I'm feeling. Heck, if I don't love me, why should anyone else? Right? (Thank Phred for therapy! hahaha)
I learned a loooooong time ago that if I ever try to ban something from my diet, I crave it almost obsessively. No more chocolate! I WANT HERSHEY'S!!! No more red meat! ARE YOU FRICKING KIDDING ME??? No more broccoli! Hey, that stuff is good for you! I'll eat as much as I want, so there... No more sex! *sigh*
Instead of eliminating the "bad" stuff from my diet, I've been able to reduce the amount of it I eat. For example: I would be a great vegetarian... except for that burger thing. I loooooooove burgers! Cheeseburgers! My favorite is with crispy bacon and blue cheese crumbles... oh YUM! My doctor would probably call that "heart attack on a plate" and she'd be right. I used to eat burgers a couple of times a week, because Nanny's makes AWESOME burgers - and burgers have made a sort of culinary renaissance lately so there are numerous "fancy" burger joints around. I started out telling myself I could only have one burger a week, and then eventually switched to one a month. The thing is, I realized recently that there have been months when I have more than one burger (such as this one), but then... there are also several months when I don't have a burger at all. All it has really done is help me be more aware of what I am eating. Instead of ALWAYS getting the burger, I'll think about how many I've had in the last few weeks. I've also started getting a salad with my burger instead of fries. Not really a big thing because I'm not really a big French Fries fan. They're all right, but give me a good salad with black olives and ranch dressing and I'm a goner! (Yeah, "healthy" salad... but better than fries!) The good thing? My cholesterol has gone down from "just over the border" to "just under the border". And I feel better.
The other thing I've done is start exercising again. DC recently opened a gorgeous, FREE 50-meter pool near my house, and I've got a gym in the basement of my building. With the weather (hopefully) turning nice, I hope to start running again... especially since I'm signed up to do the Army Ten Miler again in October! Swimming is still my favorite exercise, even though you have to wear a bathing suit. It just feels so good! I told a friend once that swimming just makes me feel long and lean. I'm 5'2" and well, not lean, but swimming makes me feel um... long and lean! What's not to like? :-)
Hmmmmm- I think I've been babbling. But that's a good thing, right? At least I'm writing, and I'm thinking, and I'm alive. Life is good. Sure beats the alternative!
OK - one last thing, name the movie:
Just remember: No matter where you go, there you are!
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