Meryl K. Evans: Leftovers

We have a lot to learn about depression, including me. Well written, NJ Meryl.

It's praise your fave senior citizen week, no only does Jordan scores 40 in big win, but also Indy is coming back. <grin>

Dave mentions Jim was laid off the day before his son was born. I am sorry to hear that. I have a sister who found out one year ago on her only nephew's birthday that she has liver cancer. Then, three months after that ON her birthday, she got laid off. Yeah, crappy economy.

Veel üks Radio tutvustus Meryl 'ilt "kes ei ole Userlandi palgal"... Ehh :-)

Wow! I'm listed in another language. I believe it's from Estonia based on Webopedia's Country and Domain Extensions list. Cool!

I attempted to get a picture of the first snow here in Texas, but it was not sticking. Instead, I turned it into a Mirror Project.

Robyn, thanks for sharing a marvelous quote from Samuel Clemens that puts my previous post to shame.

“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. To-day, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient short comings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time. However, go in, community. New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion. ”

— Mark Twain, Territorial Enterprise, January 1868

New Year resolutions - they're getting old. Why the attitude? Because if you really want to change something you'll start today instead of making it a NY resolution.

I guess my brain is still on holiday mode. It just doesn't want to guide my typing fingers to write something thought-provoking.

Last day of oh-one or aught-one. Man, that's one thing I miss about the 1900s... it was so much easier to '88, '94, etc. Now, we're stuck in the ohs.

Ah, it'll get better when we reach 2010 and then we can say, "I remember back in the '10s (or teens), when I walked five miles to the grocery in the snow..." Wow, one more year, and it'll have been 100 years since my grandmother was born. Alas, she passed in '97 at the ripe age of 94.

I must be a big-time girl geek. I've spent both holiday weekends working on my Web site and computer stuff. Funny thing is... I'm happy doing it... except when I am stepping on bugs or testing. Duh, I know, who likes to do that?

Vote tp help pick a new animal for Barnum's Animal Crackers. It was tough deciding between the penguin and the koala. I chose the one that lives in the colder climate. [link from BlahBlahBlog]

Cam discussed religiously and politically correctness in a post dated December 27. I understand the situation and struggle with the same thing. I've met people who preferred to be called "Black" as opposed to "African-American" because they don't have any recent ancestors from Africa.

My grandparents hailed from Latvia and Poland. Yet, no one calls me "European-American." So, why should people whose parents or grandparents be called "African-American?" It makes sense to me. However, I'm still afraid to use the word, "Black" when referring to friends. I don't know if they'll be offended or think less of me because I refer to them that way. When I say, "refer," I'm talking about pointing them out or something along those lines. Just like I would admit that I'm Jewish.

When I send out cards in December, I make an effort to find boxed cards (who has time to buy individual cards for everyone?) that are not Christmas-focused. Instead, I focus on peace, happy holidays, season's greetings, and so on and so forth. I never know what people celebrate anymore and I try to respect everyone's differences. When I do know what my friends celebrate, then I write in specific holiday wishes.

It's sad. I don't want our cultural diversity to go away. It's true that America is a melting pot, but it should not mean that we all become one culture. I love learning about my friends' cultures and religions. When they ask me, I'll share mine. All I ask is that people don't move the discussion towards "you're wrong and we're right." It's about understanding, learning, and respecting.

We're all pretty much on the same page when it comes to the new year, so I wish you a happy and peaceful new year.