Merry Christmas

"I am a Merry Christmas person. It's Christmas. I am going to say it. Why it might offend anyone is not on my mind. I laugh inside when people exercise God-less political correctness and try to neutralize Christmas by saying 'happy holidays.' The word 'holiday' is derived from the phrase 'holy day' so in actuality, by trying to drop God from the season actually re-affirm it. Merry Christmas, and happy holiday!" ~BGDC

Throughout the year, I celebrate holidays with my friends. I take no offense when I get a text message that says Happy Diwali, I throw colors like the best of them on Holi, I have eaten many Seder meals, I eat moon cakes at the Chinese New Year, and I put up with the absurdity that is Thanksgiving. I have enjoyed myself at your holidays, please enjoy yourself during mine. Merry Christmas.

(I screwed up, moon cakes go with the Autumn Festival, some other thing which I can't pronounce goes with the New Year Festival. Both are yummy and I enjoy them. So eat some Christmas cookies.)

Postal services.

Me: surprisingly, we received shipments from the Post Office, FedEx, and UPS today, despite the snowstorm.
Me: no DHL though.
Him: yeah, they are going out of business anyway.
Me: that's cause they don't deliver during snowstorms.
Him: sissies.

So, I dropped off four packages at the post office on Wednesday (the 17th). They were all 3-4 day mail. Not counting Wednesday and not counting Sunday which is not a business day, I calculated that they will arrive somewhere around Monday (the 22nd). Contrast that with this:

I ordered a gift for someone and received email confirmation that it left the warehouse on December 14th. Estimated arrival time is December 22nd. Keep in mind that the warehouse is not on the moon, it is in Jersey City! So it takes 3-4 business days to go from West Milford to California and Michigan, but it takes 7 business days to go from Jersey City to West Milford. I could drive there in an hour.

Then, I go to the website to track the package, and I see this:

December 14, 2008 11:17:00 AM JERSEY CITY NJ Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit.
December 20, 2008 06:55:00 AM JERSEY CITY NJ Arrival Scan

So, it took them 6 days to go from one end of Jersey City to the other? I think "they" are right, NJ is like the Twilight Zone.

Sigh, shake head, roll eyes...

How do you know he's an engineer?

His Christmas list includes 40 feet of carbon composite pipes.

wtf

The following is excerpted from an email sent to me.

"Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor and the second largest chicken producer in the U.S., has admitted that it injects its chickens with antibiotics before they hatch and then labels them as raised without antibiotics. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has told Tyson to stop using the antibiotic-free label, but the company has sued for the right to keep using it.
...
...
...
The agency told Tyson that ... it would no longer consider the antibiotic-free label "truthful and accurate." Tyson objected again, claiming that because the antibiotics are injected before the chickens hatched, the birds can truthfully be said to be "raised without antibiotics." Tyson has filed a lawsuit against the USDA, claiming that the agency had improperly changed the definition of "raised without antibiotics" to include the treatment of eggs."

Sources: http://www.naturalnews.com/024756.html Natural News November 9, 2008

So, I need opinions people. In our society, it is generally accepted that before birth, a fetus is not a baby, therefore abortion is ok. So, should Tyson be allowed to keep their label? Are they really going to say that an unhatched chicken is still a chicken but an unborn baby isn't a baby?

weird

I can drive the road between my house and work (or my house and school) on any given day and not see a single person out walking on the road. There are no sidewalks, so people just don't do it. The road is winding and just isn't safe. But today, when the thermometer reads 28 and it snowed last night, and the windchill puts things in the single digits, I happened to see FOUR people out walking their dogs. What is going on??

Another customer...

Him: I want to get this visor clip, but do you have anything better than this?
Better, as in more suited to the occasion or better, as in better quality?
Me: I can get you some catalogs that have visor clips but that rack you were just looking at is what we have here in the store.
Him: Well, I like this one, its the right size and its what I'm looking for but do you have any that are more expensive?
I would be more than happy to overcharge you for that one.
Me: Like I said, that rack is what we've got but I'll get you a catalog to look at.
Him: It doesn't even have to be a visor clip, it could just be a large medal and I'll just glue it.
You are going to spend more on something just so you can smear glue all over the back of it?

Ehh... Its his money...

Huh?

An elderly customer came in asking for help finding a Bible, and also finding books on economics and Biblical prophecy. I explained the differences in translations and also which authors were best-sellers in the "end times" category.

Upon completing the sale, the following dialogue occurred. I'm not feeling well, so my brain is still spinning 2 1/2 hours later.

Him: Can I ask you, do you go to college?
I'm not exactly in college anymore, so I inefficiently clarified.
Me: I am going to school, yes.
Him: Can I ask you the name of the school?
Me: The Institute for Therapeutic Massage.
Him: Ehh? Massage? Oh. Ok.
Me: Yes, its a vocational school.
Him: You see, if you had said something like Seton Hall, it would make sense for you to sell me these books. But you see, you don't go there and you are selling it to me anyway, out of the goodness of your heart. That's a Christian witness right there. Excellent.

Well, I'm glad that he left happy, and I'm glad that I did something Christian... but I am not quite sure what exactly I did... there's nothing Christian about going to ITM, or about telling a customer what books to buy based on how popular they are. Maybe it is because I'm not feeling too good that my mind is still reeling. What's wrong with me? I don't know, but I think its in my head somewhere:

"Dysfunction is the in-between state of 'not healthy' but also 'not sick' (i.e., experiencing disease). Unfortunately, many people experience dysfunctional states. Western medicine has a difficult time identifying and dealing with dysfunctions because these are prepathologic states and are often not apparent within current diagnostic methods. Actual pathology usually needs to exist before medical tests and diagnostic methods can detect a disease state."
~Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage

So, if you think you're sick but your body looks normal, you are dysfunctional. Excellent!