No, I can keep these, really. The title is actually just a way to tie together two things I felt like blogging.

Resolution #1: Stop neglecting the yoga. I’ve fallen behind these past couple of weeks, what with holiday stuff. I just ran through a workout and found some rather unpleasant surprises waiting for me… My spine must’ve decided flexibility was no longer required. I had to revert to the “easy” back stretch, and even that was a bit of a strain. Back at square one there.

Forturnately, though, I’ve retained some flexibility in other areas (I can still go down to my calves on the Triangle stretch, for instance). And I think it’s done some good in general. I noticed yesterday that my little pooch of a tummy, which persisted even after the weight loss, had gone down some. It’s not flat or anything, but it’s not sticking out so much.

Resolution #2: Don’t get drunk on New Year’s. I’m tired of drunk. I don’t do it that often, but when I do I find it difficult to stop drinking once I’m there. I’m always ashamed of my utter lack of self-control the next morning, not to mention hung over of course. I do usually manage not to do anything too embarrassing, as far as I can tell, but still. Over it. New Year’s Eve is the perfect excuse to drink a lot–well, this year I’m not going to. Or if I do it will be over the course of the entire evening, so that I never get more than buzzed.

Hopefully, of course, this will extend to my life in general. Well, and even more hopefully, sometime this year it will absolutely have to, no excuses, no exceptions. We’ll see about that last part. As for the first part, that’s my intention, but I’m kind of just taking each occasion as it comes.

Other things I’d like to do this year include improving my memory skills, to include more variety in the meals we make at home, to keep non-public areas of the house cleaner (I’m looking at you, master bath), to try to improve my dietary intake (including more whole grains and fresh stuff)… I’m sure there are other things too, but I can’t think of them. The point is, I’m not making resolutions about these because I think it’s just setting myself up for failure. I’ll try to work on them (if I can figure out how to work on memory in the first place), and hope that things get better from there.

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It comes up through the earth
It comes right through my feet
Down through my head and out my fingers
It bounces off the back wall
Sent out like a letter from you

There’s a woman who is offering a spirit like wine
And a man in a suit who’s trying to sell you God
Close your eyes, bow your head, sing without a sound
You can take off your shoes, you’re on holy ground

–Carrie Newcomer, “Holy Ground”

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So somehow over the past FIVE YEARS I’ve managed to not hear/see Courtney Love’s speech about Napster and the RIAA. (Thank you AppleGeeks for the link.) I just finally read it today and it made me sort of think about my attitude toward digital music in general. Yeah, I know, overdone topic. And I hope I don’t come off sounding like one of those dumb “you wouldn’t steal a purse, don’t steal music” commercials here.

Anyway. Said attitude has changed somewhat. I used to wander around on Kazaa with no worries whatsoever. Now I wouldn’t think of it. Tim and I always said that if there were someplace we could legally buy digital music by the song, we’d do so–and once we realized it existed, we’ve done just that. Heck, we buy entire albums. Hell, we don’t even buy physical CDs anymore, come to think of it. It’s all digital. And probably 99% of it is entirely legal, and on top of that it’s not breaking our bank to buy it. Our major recorded music sources are our iPods anyway, so it only makes sense.

Now there are exceptions. For one thing, we haven’t gone through and weeded out the illegal songs from our collection. Some of them we’ve gone on to buy legally, yes, but some of them are just kind of hanging around still. For another, occasionally I run up against a song that I can’t reasonably be expected to purchase in any form that would actually give any money to the artist. Evanescence’s Origin CD is a good example here. To the best of my knowledge, it’s not available new anymore, and only ever was in a limited geographical area centered on Little Rock. Could I buy it on eBay? Yes. Would Evanescence ever see a penny of my purchase price, even without the RIAA’s interference? No–it’s a secondhand copy. I therefore don’t feel too bad about having MP3s from this CD in my collection. But in general, I’m all in favor of paying the artist if possible now.

Why? I mean, I was one of those people rolling their eyes at Lars Ulrich. Remember the “Christian Rock Hard” episode of South Park, in which Stan, Kenny and Kyle feel sorry for Britney Spears because she had to downgrade her private jet? Yeah, I still think that’s hilarious. When you get right down to it, though… Well, two things really. The first is Love’s point about how much a musician really makes off of a record.

The second? It’s not honest. When I used to say, “Oh, they make plenty of money anyway,” I was looking for an excuse. I’ll own up to it. I wanted my music and I wanted it for free. I felt entitled to it; after all, here I am having to actually work for a living and all they have to do is show up and sing and make lots of money, right? But… I don’t think that justifies this. I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter whether I think they “deserve” it or not. That it doesn’t matter whether I think they need the money or not. It doesn’t matter whether I believe Courtney Love’s example or not. (Although it does ring true to my un-music-biz-educated ears.)

The point is that this is how things are done, and frankly what reason is there for me not to do them this way? “They have money and I don’t so they should give me something.” That’s not a good reason, and when speaking about a broad set of circumstances (not specific ones like Origin) I can’t come up with any reason that’s any better. It’s not even true. “The system is broken and the RIAA needs to be taught a lesson”? Yes, that’s a better reason. But I think it’s going to be more effective to work with artists like Love who want to break away from it, and especially the less-famous and more-talented artists who are really getting the shaft here, to establish a new system that works for everyone. Grabbing free music on PtP networks is not going to do that. Supporting a new way of distributing music that actually supports the artists and allows them to keep making good music, though–that has possibilities.

I’ve rambled on far too long here… So I think I’ll stop now.

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I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe it’s post-Christmas funk or something… But I just seem to be having some sort of issue lately with, you know, doing anything. I have a list of things I need to do a mile long, but I can’t seem to work up the motivation to do them. To borrow a phrase from a co-worker, my motivation right now is measured in micro-give-a-shits. I think there may be people in comas who have more drive than I do.

And it’s not just not wanting to do stuff. I do want to do things. I want to have a clean house, I want to keep up with my yoga, I want to do all kinds of things. But for the most part I just can’t seem to make myself do these things even though I do want to. Somehow I can’t even manage to sign on to talk to my friends online when I’m home and have the time. (Really, really sorry, guys. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that somehow lately all I want to do it lie on the couch with a purring kitty close at hand and veg out… Hopefully I’ll get back on again soon. Of course I know I’ve been saying that for ages… But this time I really mean it? Of course, I did before too.)

I also have the hardest time focusing. I’ve managed to push through that at work for the most part, but late in the afternoon, something shiny grabs my attention, I’m gone chasing it. I can’t remember to do some of the things I want and need to do. I can’t focus enough to adequately plan meals for Tim and I; we wound up going out last night because there wasn’t really anything in the house. I don’t even know what we’re doing tonight.

I guess I’ll just have to hang in there and see if this gets better after New Year’s. I hope so.

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I think I’ve clogged up J.C. Penny’s feedback system enough, but I did want to put some kudos out there for their customer service. Well, sort of. Oh, let me just tell you about it.

One of the things I asked for, and got, for Christmas was a J.C. Penny’s gift card. Not because I just wanted to shop at Penny’s (we don’t even have one in town anymore), but because they’re the ones who carry the “ultra-tall” jeans that fit me and I like. (St. John’s Bay, preferably low-rise boot-cut stretch.) It’s just such a pain to ask for jeans, because of the long-inseam problem (insert rant here), that I thought I’d rather ask for the gift card and get them myself.

So Christmas evening I went online to the Penny’s site. After I finally located my jeans, I happily added them to my bag and proceeded to the checkout. Unfortunately, when I got to the order summary, I discovered that the status of that particular item was listed as “Not Available” (not in stock and will not be shipped). So I used their Contact Us form to contact customer service asking whether they expected to be stocking up or what.

The reply I got was most unsatisfactory. (Here’s where the “sort-of” part comes in.) It essentially told me to call their sales number and ask those people. This kind of pissed me off. I mean, if I’d wanted to call and talk to someone, I would have done that in the first place, right? Surely the same information was available to customer service reps whether they were providing service over the phone or via e-mail, so why couldn’t they just tell me?

So I used the form again to bitch about it. Politely, of course–even if the reply I’d gotten had been supremely unhelpful, it had been polite, and I saw no reason to get all irate when the same person probably wouldn’t even handle my new complaint anyway. I got a reply very quickly that said they’d forwarded it to the appropriate department. I figured that was the end of it.

Then just now, something amazing happened! I got a new reply to the original inquiry! It didn’t give me much more information–it boils down to “sorry, we don’t know, please keep checking back”–but at least it was a good, solid reply rather than another redirect, and very fast for e-mail support. It really made me feel like they’d listened and wanted their customer (i.e. me) to be happy with them as a merchant. So kudos for dealing with a problem quickly and as well as possible when it did come up.

(In the meantime, I’ve ordered a different style instead. I’m a little nervous about this one, since I can’t exactly try it on before buying, it’s a style I’ve never tried, and the inseam is 35″ instead of 36″. And a different brand–Lee instead of St. John’s Bay. But, hey, if it doesn’t work out I can always return them and try again.)

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Don’t get me wrong. I like snow. I really do. It brightens winter up (by reflecting extra light into the dull winter atmosphere) and it makes everything look so wonderfully Christmasy. And it gives everyone a great excuse to have a cup of hot cocoa (or other hot beverage of choice).

But I just wish it wouldn’t snow on the roads, sidewalks or driveways! We’ve been counting how many idjits have nearly killed themselves, others or even just their vehicles courtesy of poor driving skillz on the snow, and so far we’re up to 13 or 14 since around 5pm last night. Also, not only did I shovel the walk and driveway (well, the side we’re actually using right now) last night, but the snow drifted overnight and I had to go shovel it again at quarter of six this morning. And I’ll have to go out and finish/reshovel again/etc. when we get home too, because we’ll probably have people over tonight.

And a snowy, twisty, hilly back highway in southern Indiana so far out in the middle of nowhere that there’s no cell reception, early in the morning on a day when most sane people have said “screw it, I’ll take a personal day”, is NOT a fun place to be. At least it was Tim’s turn to drive, though.

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That’s really all I have to say on the whole “Happy Holidays” vs “Merry Christmas” thing. I’ve been hearing so much bitching about it at work, surrounded as I am by several uber-conservatives and a couple of people who will complain about anything just for the sheer bitchy fun of it. “Happy Holidays” does not exclude Christmas. Christmas is a holiday. Dude.

Personally, I don’t care whether I’m greeted with “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” or “Blessed Solstice” or “Happy Hanukkah” (which I hope I didn’t spell too wrong, and my deepest apologies if I did) of “Happy Kwanzaa” (ditto) or “Happy New Year” or “Happy Boxing Day” for crying out loud. I just think it’s such a stupid thing to get one’s undies all bunched up about, and it’s a real shame we’re all wasting so much energy being pissed off about it from either side.

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I love Christmas music, I really do. But we need to have a few rules laid down. (Tongue-in-cheek here; I know y’all know I’m not really advocating enforcing this kind of censorship.)

First and foremost, it should be made clear that not everyone needs to do a holiday album. It’s not a requirement. If an artist’s specialty is rock and/or roll, and their voices, instruments and general style are not suited to holiday songs, they should stay far, far away from holiday music. Stick to the areas where your talents actually lie.

Second, if a Christmas album is deemed necessary, artists must consider genre when selecting songs. Some popular singers can pull off heavy religious carols, especially if they either belong to groups which specialize in harmonizing or have the ability to jazz things up. However, there isn’t any way on Earth a church choir is going to pull off pop carols like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or “Jingle Bells”. The tone of a choir is just too solemn and old-fashioned for that.

Third, speaking of bells, all jingling bells must be used sparingly. If an artist insists on using them for the entire song, the bells shall be confiscated and destroyed.

Fourth, there shall no rewriting of traditional carols. It’s fine to alternate between two accepted variations, such as “worship him, God most high” vs “Earth to the Heavens replies” in the final verse of “We Three Kings”. It’s also fine to change one or two words for a nice cute effect, such as Diana Krall’s “We’ll frolic and play the Canadian way” in the second verse of “Winter Wonderland”, although this should be done sparingly and with caution. It is not fine to enact major rewrites, changing entire verses or major portions thereof to things no one’s ever heard of, such as changing “Late in time behold him come/Offspring of a virgin’s womb/Veiled in flesh, the godhead see/Hail the incarnate deity” to “In the manger born a king/While adoring angels sing/Peace on Earth, to men goodwill/Bid the trembling (unknown) be still” in the second verse of Take 6′s version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”.

Fifth, all attempts at making up new Christmas songs shall be subjected to approval by a random test audience. This audience shall be composed of people who have no interest in the song’s success or failure and must give at least an 85% approval rating before the song may be released to the public. This should spare us irritants such as “Christmas Wrapping”.

Sixth, it shall be understood that the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “My Favourite Things” has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. It does not mention Christmas, nor was it featured in a Christmas movie–in fact, I believe Christmas doesn’t actually put in an appearance in The Sound of Music. So stop putting it on your holiday albums, people. It’s a nice enough song, but it’s like a game of “Which One Doesn’t Belong”.

Finally, all Christmas albums must include at least one song or carol to which the entire consumer public does not already know the words backward and forward. Candidates include, but are not limited to, “Christmas Waltz”, “The Holly and the Ivy”, “Coventry Carol”, “Pat-a-Pan”, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, and alternate-language versions of old favourites like “Silent Night”, “O Come All Ye Faithful”, and “O Christmas Tree”. This will prevent stagnation in the rotation of Christmas songs we hear every year. When we run out of obscure carols, see rule #5.

If we can get everyone to follow these seven simple rules, I think the public Christmas music experience will be greatly improved. Thank you.

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OK, well, That Time of the Year is upon us. Here we go with the first weekend of Christmas events…

Tonight: Dinner at Olive Garden with Mike, Sara B, Russ and Jen. And Jess and Benwa if they show up, but none of us is counting on it. Then back to the house for gift exchange, hot cocoa (Ghirardelli, with mini marshmallows or marshmallow creme and maybe some Kahlua), and baked chocolate donuts. If we find a donut cutter between now and then, that is. We’ve already searched the west side; now I have to go out to the east side while Tim’s at hapkido…

Tomorrow: Office party! Buffet including such things as lobster newberg and filet mignon, open bar, optional gift exchange. Possible holiday bonuses. This year I think we’re even having a dance floor. A good time will likely be had by all.

Sunday: Late lunch consisting mainly of soup and sandwiches at Ma-maw’s, followed by gift exchange. Tim is baking homemade soft pretzles–maybe half cinnamon-sugar and half regular salted. There are a growing number of cute children at this one. Last time I saw her, Livvy looked almost just like Lucy from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The most recent picture (sent in the family’s Christmas card) shows she’s grown again, though–but she’s still as cute as ever and looking more and more like her mother every day.

Next weekend, round 2: Grandma and Grandpa’s, Tim’s Mom, my parents, and the big reunion with Tim’s family. Followed, I hope, by a relaxing day off of work.

And then the following weekend is New Year’s weekend, and I don’t know for sure what we’re doing then. The biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig reunion on Mom’s side is on New Year’s Day. At noon. I don’t know if we’ll go to that; I fully expect that Tim will just be waking up at noon on New Year’s Day, and depending on how things go I may well be hung over a little still. It seems a poor choice of times, if I may say so… But this thing is always on the Sunday after Christmas, and this year that just so happens to be New Year’s Day.

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IMDb Link

Tim and I do not normally go to movies on opening weekend, but in this case as with Harry Potter, we had friends who were really jazzed about it, and we wanted to see the movie at some point anyway–so we went. I should begin by saying that it’s been forever and a day since I’ve read the book, so for the most part my memory is fuzzy on that score. Therefore, I can’t really say (for the most part) how the movie does as an adaptation of the book.

That said, my opinion of this movie is very, very high. I loved it. It was everything I had been hoping it would be. That’s something I don’t get to say very often, I think. It was captivating, visually gorgeous, intriguing, enthralling, well-acted–all that on a PG rating. (Let Hollywood take note.) And the few sequences I did remember relatively clearly seemed to be adapted almost action-for-word from the book. It has been a long time, though, so I may be wrong.

One thing I think bears mentioning specifically is, actually, the rating. Sort of. I’ve heard this billed as “LotR you can take your five-year-old to!” That’s sort of accurate, in a way. It’s a pretty “all-ages” film… And specifically, there’s a lot of implied violence, but even in the heat of battle and the height of sacrifice there is no gore. It’s a clean show. The bloodiest it gets is a cut over Peter’s eyebrow, a bruise on Edmund’s cheek. That sort of thing. There are all kinds of implications, but nothing actually shown. That gets a tiny bit distracting, but in the end I think I kind of like it. It’s unrealistic, of course, but not in a horrendously obtrusive way. And it’s nice to have a change from the blood-and-guts thing once in a while.

Go see it! Go see it!

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