I know I've been doing this too much. Too high a percentage of my typing is related to various web languages.

I have come to this conclusion within the last 5 minutes.

Seems I was typing up a support ticket for one of our sites, and came to the word mysql (GAH! I did it again!) 'myself', and instead typed 'mysql'.

while($this-> !isset(extract(ly) bothersome yet)) {if($it == "getting worse"){echo "i\'m not sure what to" do()}}.

~PS

Today *we* had Thanksgiving.

Yes, I know Thanksgiving was yesterday.

Since Sheri had to work yesterday, we postponed our festivities to today. Sheri made some great food and we spend the evening decorating the Igloo for the Christmas season. It's pretty early still, but I really like the lights and Sheri likes anything and everything related to Christmas - hence, we did it.

So anyway, yeah. Good day. I put up some pictures in the gallery of some of the decorations at the request of Sheri's mom - but you all can enjoy them as well.

And, just for good measure, here's a by-no-means-comprehensive list of some things I'm thankful for. In no particular order.

-Friends and Family (particularly Sheri ;))
-My awesome job
-Music
-Humor
-Our house
-Soda and tasty food
-Dungeons & Dragons and other games
-The internet and Apple computers
-Decorative lights

Probably lots of other stuff...

~PS

Snail-mail spam in unmarked envelopes. Dubious to be sure.

Beware your inbox.

I mean mailbox.

~PS

Discontentment is a natural state of the human existance. I suppose you could say that this trait can motivate people to improve their lives...or merely give people some reason to complain. Point is, no matter how good life is, most people don't continually think about how lucky they are. Particularly in this country with respect to global averages for 'quality of living'. There's always something more we want out of life, even if what we have is pretty extravagant.

I think a lot of people are at mostly satisfied with their positions though. We all complain about things in our lives from time to time, but if such things were completely unacceptable, we'd probably be doing something more about it than we do.

I don't really have a problem with any of this - but, as an outlook, it has (at least) one major drawback: Whenever something happens that makes things worse, we quickly go from complaining to outright anger or depression - even if the 'worse' isn't as bad as it's been before.

Think about the number of times you get upset by something that, in a previous time, wouldn't upset you nearly so much. For example, since I've started playing golf again, I've reached a point where I get frustrated with the mediocre shots I have - even though just weeks before (when I hadn't played in years), I would have been somewhat satisfied with them.

So what it comes down to is expectations, or what you feel you 'deserve' or 'should' be doing/getting/being/etc.

It's probably a good idea to ask yourself, 'Self, is it really as bad as it seems?'

~PS

So I just went out to pick up my paycheck. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I was flagged down by a guy asking if I'd give him a ride. We talked for a minute and I kinda thought about how, being a christian, i probably ought to show love and compassion to the world around me - so i told him to get in.

He was very apologetic about the whole thing and continued to assure me he was not 'bad people'. Turns out he had come into town with a friend of his, gotten drunk and seperated and didn't have a ride home. I could still smell a little on him, but he seemed to be mostly in his right mind.

We were driving out toward 11e, where he said he lived, when he tried to convince me to stop somewhere to get him 'something to take home' - in the way of alcohol. I told him very plainly that I wasn't ok with that. Despite a few additional efforts to convince me otherwise, I told him I'd take him where he wanted to go - either to his house, or somewhere else, but I was only making one stop and then I was heading out. Ultimately, he had me drop him at a hardees. He thanked me for the help and we went our seperate ways.

So as I drove home, I thought 'well, that was unusual'. I also thought about whether I'd handled the whole thing 'correctly'.

When I got home I discovered the Jehovah's Witnesses had stopped by and left a tract outside our door. Seems I was destined to have a random encounter today pretty much no matter what.

~PS

We went out to Erwin last night to have Thanksgiving dinner with our church. It was tasty. Our church is fortunate to have our own caterer/chef who is willing to prepare such meals for us.

As we generally do, there was a short 'program' that accompanied the feasting. Predictably, it was mostly people talking about things they were thankful for; though at the end Sheri sang a hymn for everyone.

Kathy (who was in charge of this) had asked me to talk about something I was thankful for. I was trying to think of something that wasn't overly obvious or cheesy (I think made some comment to Sheri about being thankful for Cheese-Its). Ultimately, I decided I had way too much to be thankful for - to the point I almost feel guilty for having it. In the end, however, I decided that what I was most thankful for was my friends and family. I am very fortunate to have the relationships I do.

Thanksgiving proper isn't for another couple of weeks however. Sheri has to work, so we can't travel anywhere to be with family, and it seems many of our friends would be out of town.

We have also discovered while at the grocery store that the poultry industry doesn't want us to have a small, two-person turkey for thanksgiving. We managed to find a 5lb turkey (which is pretty small), but I'm unlikely to eat 2.5lbs of bird, even on thanksgiving. Looks like we'll have turkey for a while after...

So anyway, with those potential leftovers in mind, I would like to say that if any of you are going to be stuck in the area this holiday, feel free to come help us eat some of the turkey and various other tasties we will probably have. :)

~PS

...and largely BS.

This is a redundancy of a post I just made in the Humanity forum, but i don't mind the repeat - and I think its appropriate for my blog. Feel free to comment here, but if you wish to begin a dialogue or debate, please reply in the Forum.

Since our wonderful state of TN just passed this amendment by some ungodly margin (something like 75%), i guess all the propaganda paid off.

I would also like to point out that i am *only* writing this to solidify my own thoughts on the matter.

Over the last few weeks I have heard nothing from the media but about how not passing this amendment would "weaken marriage" and how it is our constitutional duty to "protect marriage".

In addition, I have also heard several preachers and people from local churches over the course of that time encouraging people to get out an vote on this issue - with an implied "christian duty" to see this amendment passed.

Of the 1.2 million people in the state who voted in favor of it - i wonder how many of them actually stopped to look through the media at the actual issue being addressed.

The FMA does NOT strengthen or otherwise protect marriage. From everything I've read about the amendment, it only mentions conventional, heterosexual marriage in defining what marriage should not be. In other words, it takes absolutely NOTHING away from this 'normal' marriage, it only denies the same rights we enjoy to people with other preferences. The idea that the FMA "strengthens marriage" is nothing but a catch phrase meant to impress upon heterosexual married people (a substantial part of the voting community) that they need to somehow protect themselves. It is complete BS. Saying that the legalization of homosexual marriage would weaken heterosexual marriage is like saying allowing african-american people to vote weakens democracy.

The FMA is NOT a morality issue. I suspect that a substantial portion of those voting for the FMA in this area of the Bible Belt are doing so because they believe homosexuality is "wrong". Aside from the problems of trying to legislate morality (see Constantine, et al), this amendment really has nothing to do with such opinions. Making homosexual marriage illegal is not going to in any way hinder homosexuality, nor is it going to convince homosexuals wanting to be in a stable, legally-recognized relationship to somehow 'become' heterosexual (insert tangent on how many christians seem to think this is something a homosexual can 'decide' to do) that they might do so; it is merely denying legal rights to people who happen to live differently.

See a trend?

The FMA is a civil rights issue. The FMA does NOTHING but deny legal rights to people who happen to have a certain preference. It is only the second amendment ever proposed that actually takes rights away from the people instead of granting them. The first was the Prohibition. We saw how well that went over.

This amendment is discrimination. It is contrary to the principles of liberty this country was founded upon. It is xenophobic. It is unconstitutional. It is unchristian.

Damn. I almost sounded patriotic there.

~PS

Well, yesterday evening was both more interesting than it could have been and less.

Because this is our first year in this house, we had no idea if we'd get any trick-or-treaters or not. Due to a certain incident last year wherein we were caught completely unawares, we decided to stock up on candy just to be safe - which we began snacking on rather early in the evening.

Ginger and Tony also came over for a bit, and we played a game of Munchkin Bites - which was the most halloween-related game we could come up with.

We only had one trick-or-treater, and she was solicited. Mike & Steph brought katie over (dressed as supergirl) to our place for a couple hours. She spent that time working off some of her sugar high by running around aimlessly and playing with us.

All in all, the night was lots of fun.

~PS