At the closing of the year...

Happy New Year...

I'm ringing in the new year in San Antonio (I head back to Lauderdale tomorrow), watching the fireworks go off behind the Tower of the Americas in downtown SA and in the cold weather (I believe it's around 45...).


This is a time to be together
And the truth is somewhere here
Within our love of people
At the closing of the year

What chain reaction, what cause and effect, makes you turn around, makes you try to explain

I was reading news from Mumbai this week, and was reminded of the recent renaming of places in India. Mumbai, previously known as Bombay, was renamed in the mid-90s to the more localized dialectical name, in much the same fashion that Constantinople's name was changed to Istanbul. (And a note: I really would've liked to use "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" for today's subject, but alas used it in June 2006.... Instead I'll just have to live with linking to a Tiny Toons video of Istanbul...)

Anyways, the name Bombay is no longer the city's official name--now left only to the realm of Bewitched's "Calling Dr. Bombay..."--and it's not the only well-known city in the country to experience a recent name change. Gone also is Madras (now Chennai), Bangalore is now more a reference to a city in Maine (the India city is Bengaluru), and Calcutta (Kolkata--at least it's similar).

They've even gone to the extent of renaming a Victorian train station from its original name of Victoria Terminus to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Now, the city renaming seems alright... this train station, which was built by the British in a very British style, seems a bit bizarre to me...

If you knew that you would be alone,
Knowing right, being wrong,
Would you change?

I'll have a blue Christmas without you...

Merry Christmas!

This year's festivities have been a wee bit strange for me, though nice. Almost all my friends have gone home for the weekend/week, to exotic places like Costa Rica, Albuquerque, Pennsylvania and Ohio (yes, exotic, no?). And while this is basically the same thing that happened last year (I stayed, others went), I felt much more alone this year.

But in any case, yesterday I put up my tree (upper left), wrapped and mailed some gifts, and then later on in the day headed out to see Enchanted.

The strangeness continued through today, when I woke up my sister when I called her at 12:30 p.m. (it was 9:30 in California where she lives). This is strange, because typically she's up at the crack-of-dawn on Christmas morning, to open her presents... she even work me up last year. But after a good 20 minute chat, I believe I woke her enough so that she got up. I followed this with a trip this afternoon to my boss's house for Christmas dinner, which went well. All-in-all, not so terrible.

Now I just need to get ready to head back to work tomorrow... (and then start preparing to head to San Antonio on Friday--I'm going home for New Year's instead of Christmas this year ;)

Decorations of red, on a green Christmas tree
Won't be the same dear, if you're not here with me

Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Ah, the winter solstice is upon us (it's actually today), making today the shortest day of the year.

And marking the end of my week activities, yesterday morning I hung out at the bus stop sign at right for about 20 minutes (I walked a wee bit quicker to the stop that I thought I would) to catch bus 55 to work. The ride over wasn't too bad: I got a chapter in Middlesex read, and scored a seat before it got crowded (and it was crowded by the time I got off about 30 minutes later).

About an hour or so into work, and after shelling out $900 to pay for a new Transmission Harness, I got my car back. The good news is that it is working mostly normally again (and I don't need to get another car right away); the bad news: the pesky chiming when the driver's side door is open is back.

Oh well... just need to get my Christmas shopping done, now... and enjoy the 4-day weekend, even if all the days are short.

And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time

So I cynically, cynically say, the world is that way, surprise, suprise, suprise...

Well, I have survived my social week, but my car may have not.

I went to start my car at lunch on Monday, and it wouldn't: turning the ignition just lead to a rapid clicking. So I called a mechanic, had the car towed to their shop, and they set about working on it. By the end of the day, the car had a new starter, and another problem...

As I was picking up the car, the mechanic asked if I'd noticed a problem with the car shifting into gear. I told him I didn't think so, based off his description. I then got into the car and proceeded to drive to the pool. Almost from the start of that drive I noticed that my '97 Saturn SL1 had not been behaving normally. The car felt like it was starting in second gear, and consequently had no off-the-line acceleration (which here in FtL with the way one misses every light is not only highly noticeable, but it also makes trying to turn across streets problematic).

So on Tuesday, I took the car back into the shop to have this new problem looked at. After inspecting it yesterday, the cause wasn't tracked down (other than the electrical system had a notice that the car wasn't shifting properly into gear) so the mechanic schlepped my car to an electrical shop to be looked at and I hopped on a bus 55 to get home (the bus ride was kind of nice--I even got some reading in).

As I didn't hear anything from the mechanic today, I'm guessing that my car is still sitting at the electrical shop (oh the fun). Hopefully, the problem isn't the transmission, as the mechanic mentioned that he thought it could be that... and that therefor I should buy a new car (which I can't tell if he's trying to be helpful, or if he's just telling me to get a new car in a more and more noticeable area trend to just buy new items when a minor thing happens to them...). But at some point soon, I'll find out. Oh fun: I guess my car replacement plans are being bumped up a few months. And thankfully, I was able to bum a car off a friend who headed out of town today (thanks V ;).


And other than the car, it's been rather cold here at night, getting down into the 50s. Which is particularly cold when one is getting out of the pool, at night...

Crazy I know, places I go
Make me feel so tired
I can see how people look down
I'm on the outside
Here's, where the story ends

Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad...

Today, I was once again reminded of how wrong it seems for a French-Canadian chanteuse to have covered Feliz Navidad... (it should be left to José Feliciano to sing)

But Mother Goose & Grimm had a gnostic gnome visit earlier this week, so that helps... :)


Feliz Navidad
Prospero año y felicidad

Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...

This is turning into my social week, leaving not much time for posting...

Last Saturday I spent helping out at a meet, and then followed it by going to see The Golden Compass and then went out to celebrate a friend of mine getting her visa. Sunday was spent watching The Polar Express and visiting IKEA.

Monday was fairly normal. Tuesday night I was at the Broward County Sports Hall of Fame induction dinner, where June Kraser was inducted. Last night I followed practice with dinner with some Masters friends. Tonight I did some last minute shopping for my staff Christmas party tomorrow. And then Saturday and Sunday nights I'm at events...

I guess it's the holiday time, although except for tomorrow night's fête, nothing's really directly relates to the holidays; it's just more coincidental. And all this social activity keeps my mind off the fact that I got bumped off all my committees for USA Swimming, that one of my co-workers resigned on Tuesday, that another co-worker's mother-in-law died last week, and that my Dad had cataract surgery last week... (although that bit does remind me that I should call and check on him). Oh, and then there's the step-dad's birthday that was this week, as well... and maybe I'll get to see Blade Runner this weekend in the theater...

Closing time, time for you to go out
To the places you will be from...

This is the rhythm of my life

A copy of the text of an email response (with my original email below it) below:
[note: I changed the name and mailing address below; if you can't figure it out]

Subject: RE: Your application has been validated -- Link to payment
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 08:11:18 -0500
From: "ParkingOnline"
To: "Fred E. Flintstone"

What address would like to have the card sent to.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fred E. Flintstone
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 1:20 PM
> To: ParkingOnline
> Subject: Re: Your application has been validated -- Link to payment
>
>
> I've heard that the permits are sent so that they require a
> signature upon delivery. Is there a way mine can be mailed
> to my work address so that some will be available to sign
> for it?
>
> My work address is:
> Fred Flintstone
> Slate Rock & Gravel
> 1234 NE Bedrock Ave, Lot 7
> Fort Lauderdale, FL 33333
>
> If someone could let me know, it would be appreciated. Thanks.
>
> -Fred

Now, should one missing "-one" (to make "someone") really have confused them? As a bonus, the follow-up email said they were mailing the card to the address on my application... which means the whole thing got ignored. Ah, fun.

This is the rhythm of the night, the night, oh yeah
The rhythm of the night
This is the rhythm of my life, my life, oh yeah
The rhythm of my life

You gotta keep 'em seperated...

This is not sent for discussion. If you agree, forward it. If you don't, delete it. I don't need to know one way or the other. Since I forwarded it, you know how I feel.

That was the preface to a forwarded email that I received earlier this week. Nice, no? Got me off to a great start...

The email, itself, referenced a (supposed) poll conducted by a U.S. t.v. network that reported 86% of responders said that the words "In God We Trust" and "God" should be kept in the Pledge of Allegiance, and 14% "against". Now this I found interesting, first and foremost because the words "In God We Trust" are not in the Pledge; and also because the phrase "under God" was actually added to the Pledge 60 years after its creation, and it's been around for 115 years or so (i.e. so less than half of its history)...

From this, the email then re-iterated that you should send it on if I agreed, or if I disagreed I should just delete it; and then jumped to the 86% of Americans believing in God. How the "responders" changed to "Americans" and from being ok with those words in the Pledge into believing in God, I don't quite follow. But that's where it went.

The email's discussion concludes with "Why is the world catering to 14%?" (followed by an "Amen").

Now, after expanding from "responders" to "Americans", it's now gone out to the whole world: really interesting--as if the poll percentages would remain the same independent of who actually responded to the survey--never mind questioning the accuracy of the original survey.

Topping it all off, is the repeated comments to delete the email if you disagree, and do nothing else. Don't protest the fact that 14% does matter, or that the US isn't the world, or tolerance/acceptance of others, or even, hey, I think you left a word out here... course that would would take the suppressiveness out of the email (which would be bad).

So, I deleted the email... but not until after I responded to the sender, but it was just before I finished crafting this post.

Hey man, you disrespecting me? (take him out)
You gotta keep 'em separated
Hey man, you talkin' back to me? (take him out)
You gotta keep 'em separated
Hey they don't pay no mind

Si voy a perderte ya...

Saturday night was big on me losing things. I lost the 2 remaining school records that I had at UT (in the 1000 and 1650 frees) in Austin, and in Atlanta I lost my status as "defending National Champion" in the 1650...

Of course I've held the latter since 1990 mostly due to a technicality: this is the first time since 1990 that there has been a yards U.S. Nationals (the applicable spring meet has been meters since then).

And as for the former (the school records), I've figured since last March they would probably be bettered this year. They both almost fell last year, and it was only due to a fluke of an illness that they weren't.

So, all-in-all, not terribly surprising... though still kinda sucky. I guess I'll just have to take solace in the fact that this year's winner at Nationals went around 25 seconds faster than what I went way back when... (if that's comforting?). Oh, and all of this happened between sessions of a leadership seminar for CCCAN ("say-say-can" is the Central American and Caribbean swimming confederation...).

Si voy a perderte ya
Que sea por vez final
Si voy a perderte ya
Es para siempre... ¿Entiendes?