Watch Out... the Holidays are coming ... thanks to Coke...

Didn't you know I was a Princess when you married me?

No. You wore jeans and bib overalls and talked about philosophy and didn't like to clean sinks.

That should have been a big clue. Princesses don't like to clean sinks.

And road trips. You were always up for hopping in the car and going somewhere.

Still am. A road Princess.

A Hoodlum Princess. A Hobo Princess.  A Rogue Princess.

This is one of my favorite Christmas Songs... So Sing A Long With the Pet Shop Boys

Christmas carol that reminds us to look past the commercialism and the unrealistic expectations to the most important part of the holiday-

the love of those around you.

It might not be a Hallmark Holiday in your life, but that's ok.

Only the business people want you to have a picture perfect holiday with lots of money spent and gifts piled high under the tree with Uncle Fred in a good mood that will change as soon as he opens his bottle of Christmas Cheer.

So in the hassle and the chaos of the season,

take a tip from the Pet Shop Boys and enjoy the "glow at Christmas because I'll be with you".

Remember, you can't buy love or acceptance with the perfect gift or meal.

You can't buy someone who cares about how you feel.

Those are all free gifts.

Love is a gift you can share with others... so find someone to share your love with and watch it grow.

May the true feeling of love flood your heart this season...

May you find enough love in your heart that it overflows.....

(And may you enjoy a song in English from me for a change!)

Merry Christmas!

It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas

by

The Pet Shop Boys

(The live version)

Christmas is not all it's cracked up to be
Families fighting around a plastic tree
Nothing on the TV that you'd want to see
And it's hardly ever snowing
The way it's meant to be
Like in White Christmas year after year
Bing Crosby, Bing Crosby,
Are you listening to me?

It doesn't often snow at Christmas
the way it's meant to do
But I'll still have a glow at Christmas
because I'll be with you

The Christmas message was long ago lost
Now it's all about shopping and how much things cost
It's meant to be goodwill as well as synthetic fun
and what is this year's festive number one

It doesn't often snow at Christmas
the way it's meant to do
But I'll still have a glow at Christmas
because I'll be with you

Currently Listening The Edge of Christmas By Various Artists It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas

 (Another Elvis Story… A Repost from December 29th, 2006)

 “You say that to shock people,” the love of my life offers. I offer him more cheese and crackers and drink the last of his Sam Adams Winter Lager. It’s bitter and I make a face.

“Maybe,” I agree, “but it’s true.”

I hadn’t been teaching in an urban school long before I changed my December curriculum. No one cared what I taught my special ed. Kindergartners as long as they quit running naked in the halls and didn’t leave puddles of pee on the newly waxed floors. When Christmastime came at my new school, I approached the Principal about taking the kids to the mall to see Santa. He was dubious, but made arrangements for a school bus. I told the kids we were going to see Santa, but Elvis didn’t believe.

“No see Santa,” he insisted, but I ignored him- a mistake I tried never to make again.

The gentle white Santa sat on his throne, in all his splendor, and called for my class to come see him. Milton went first. Tears rolled down his cheeks in fear, and he wouldn’t let the old man touch him. Inching away, he knocked over a fake reindeer and a small tree. Comforted with a candy cane, he sucked on it without removing the plastic.

While I was trying to get Dalton to spit out the fake snow he was cramming into his mouth with both hands, Elvis strutted up to the waiting Santa. Six years old, street-smart and wise, he had something to say, and no adult was stopping him.

“How come you no come my house?” Elvis shouted. “You no like me? I’se good boy!” Good for Elvis is a relative term- meaning in the last five minutes he hadn’t cussed me out in Spanish or stolen something from the classroom.

Santa lost his smile and he stuttered. I’m not sure, but I suspect they didn’t cover how to deal with Elvis in Santa school. Elvis put his hands on his hips and shook a tiny finger in Santa’s direction. “You no come my street. I no like you!”

He stomped off the staging area, grabbed a handful of candy canes from the Elf, and kicked over the remaining fake reindeer. Joan liberated most of the candy canes, but Santa didn’t want them back, and we hurriedly rushed the rest of the class through the experience.

It was then that I quit asking children what they wanted for Christmas or what Santa would bring them. There were whole neighborhoods in my city that Santa didn’t go down and it seemed cruel to taunt them with dreams that wouldn’t come true.

I began to focus on the role of family and friends during the holidays and the beauty of the lights. I taught my kids the story of Chanukah and Elvis acted out the lead of Judas Maccabee with relish. We learned about Kwanzaa and the meaning behind each candle. We pretended to light the candles for Diwali and float them down the river. We talked about the angels singing to the shepherds. And once in a while, we colored pictures of Santa and his skin tone varied, depending on what color crayons were left after Dalton chewed his favorite ones.

Every year, as a family, we picked out one student not in my class and bought the one toy they wanted for Christmas. One year it was the worst kid in the school. Franklin had been teasing my class merciless at lunch, on the bus, and in the schoolyard. Nothing made him cease his evil actions.

“That’s the kid we should buy for this year,” my ten-year-old son observed after I ranted about his behavior at dinner- again. Taken back by his suggestion, I resisted. I’d rather put snakes in Franklin’s bed than buy him the toy of his dreams.

“He’s just acting out because he needs attention,” my kid continued, giving me the same advice I’d given him about his own bully.

I stopped Franklin in the hall the next day.

“I dina do nuttin!” he protested.

“What do you want for Christmas, Franklin?”

He stared at me. “We don’t have no money for Christmas,” he replied, like I was the stupid one. “Not like Santa’s comin or nuttin.”

“If you could have any toy, what would it be?”

A bit of the belligerent look in his eyes faded as he described the remote control car he wanted. It wasn’t the huge, brand name car my own son and his friends had requested, but a small car that ran on double AA’s. I nodded and walked away.

The last day of school before Christmas break, it was snowing and Franklin had skipped school. I watched the snow piling on the cars and in the street. It was going to be slick driving until the sand trucks started, and there were streets in the city that hadn’t been plowed since the last major snow.

Joan stayed behind to clean up the glitter, Kool-aid, bits of chewed wrapping paper, and smears of frosting as while I drove to Franklin’s house. No one was home. The snow was falling thicker and it was sticking. The sidewalks were empty. Even the drug dealers on the corners were inside drinking hot cocoa. It was just me and the state workers who left early for their warm homes in the suburbs on the city streets. Occasionally I'd see a city bus, but they had few passengers. The slush was slick and growing deeper. The car in front of me did a donut just missing the streetlight.  Night was coming, and I had my own kid at home wanting to tell me about his day. I drove all over the city, praying for a miracle.

I looked at the present next to me. It was the nicest remote control car that Radio Shack sold; with a year of batteries attached. Wrapped in our best paper with a huge bow, it took up the whole passenger seat. But it looked like Franklin wasn’t getting a present this year either. "That'll teach you to skip school," I muttered, ready to give up.

A snowplow, the first I'd seen, threw a mountain of slushy brown snow on my car. My wipers couldn't clear it. I pulled over, got out the brush, and started removing the muck from the front of the car.

I heard my name and looked up.

“Need help?” Franklin offered. Snow covered his shoulders and he looked cold in his thin, three sizes too small, winter coat.  I should have bought him a coat too, I thought.

“How come you cut school today?” I asked, always a teacher first.

He shrugged and brushed the snow off my hood with his coat sleeve. “Gonna get in trouble n suspended if I went, so I's started my vacation early.”

 I opened the passenger door and took out the present. I thrust it at him. “Merry Christmas!”

He glared at me suspiciously, not reaching for it. I thrust the package at him again. “For you.”

He crossed his arms. “I ain’t takin' it. I ain’t no charity case.”

“Fine,” I said shortly and not in the best holiday spirits. “I’ve been looking for you for two hours, and I’m tired.” I set the package in the snow and shut the passenger door. “See you in January.”

“Wait,” he called as I started to drive away.

I waited. He picked up the package, and approached the car. He nodded his appreciation, and I accepted it silently. He kicked at the snow and tried to speak. The streetlights came on, and the wind kicked up, blowing the snow around him like snow angels dancing.

“Wanna ride home?” I offered. My kid would wait. He wouldn't want me to leave this kid to walk home carrying a big package. He'd be a target with it- if he even made it home safe.

I pulled up in front of Franklin's dark house. The snow covered the taped windows and gang tags. No outdoor Christmas lights glittered in the darkness bringing light to the dark street. Even most of the streetlights were broken.

“Thanks for the ride,” he said as he opened the car door.

“No problem, Franklin. Merry Christmas!”

“You shouldn’t be in this neighborhood at night,” Franklin said. “Lemme run this in and watch you leave.”

I smiled. I knew this neighborhood well, and the ones who owned it knew my car by sight. I was probably safer here than he was, but I let him protect his honor while he watched me drive down the street. 

“Santa doesn’t visit poor kids,” I tell people, meaning only people visit poor kids. Maybe I do say it to shock them. Mostly I say it because it’s true, and people seem to forget it. We are the lights of the season, not the bright bulbs on the outside of the house.

The Ritual First Christmas Sing A Long Remains This One By

Fountains of Wayne...

Enjoy... Sing A Long! I Am!

I Want An Alien For Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O7MgALP5FE

By Fountains of Wayne

This year for Christmas
There’s something I’d really like
So if you’re up there somewhere Santa
Please don’t bring me another bike

I don’t need any ugly sweaters
And I don’t play much basketball
But there’s something kinda special
That I want most of all...

I want an alien for Christmas
Bring me an alien this year
I want a little green guy
About three feet high
With seventeen eyes
Who knows how to fly
I want an alien for Christmas this year

 

He can live in the bath tub
So don’t worry about a thing
And I’ll take him out for walks
When it gets nicer in the spring

   
I’ll always keep him company
He’ll never be alone
And we can hang around the house all day
And watch the Twilight Zone

I want an alien for Christmas
Bring me an alien this year
I want a little green guy

About three feet high
With seventeen eyes
Who knows how to fly
I want an alien for Christmas this year

I want an alien for Christmas
Bring me an alien this year

I want a little green guy
About three feet high
With seventeen eyes
Who knows how to fly
I want an alien for Christmas this year
I want an alien for Christmas this year

Makes me homesick for the land of Aliens where it's cold and snowy now... ABQ, I miss you!

(But if We come home in Jan or Feb- please be warm and sunny!!!)

Currently Listening I Want An Alien For Christmas By Fountains Of Wayne

 My Annual Totally Unreasonable

But If I Don’t Put It Here No One Can Find It

Christmas/Birthday List

I'm incredibly hard to buy for- because even if you know me,

you don't know what I've acquired until you make lists...

so every year I post my wish list here and every year my family shakes their head and buys me what they want to buy me-

which may or may not include something off this list...

but it helps me remember exactly what I'm looking for when I have extra spending $$-

which doesn't happen often since I'm still not working...

First… the Media, of course

Music

1.       Rain CD’s and DVD’s- Rainism, Road for Rain

 

2.       Shinhwa 10- the Soul DVD version and while you’re buying Shinhwa, I don’t have #9 either…

 

3.       Both Brian and Hwanhee had new solo albums out.

Brian’s is to be released on the 12^th and it’s the one I want most,

tho the cuts I’ve seen off Hwanhee’s have been great.

Still think they are better together, but I don’t have a say in things like that.

 

4.       Lee Hom Wang’s new Concert Tour DVD- 2008 Sony Ericsson MUSIC-MAN World Tour (Hong Kong Version)

 

5.       Jay’s Dragon Rider 2 DVD Set (Hong Kong Version)- 20 musical film shorts based on his last two releases-

directed by Jay and a glimpse into a fantasy world-

What’s not to like???? Yeah- this should be #1, I suspect!

 

6.       I’d like some new Golf-Mike, any Film, and something by Num Sornham or Mos

if you feel like searching for Thai pop artists,

and I’m not asking for anything Japanese pop music wise because it’s so expensive. Big Big sigh!

Yesasia.com remains the best place to order music from….

 

Dramas

The List here is long because I’ve not been buying them… but I’d be happy with any one of these!

 

1.       Black and White with Vic Zhu

 

2.       Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber- a Jin Yong remake with Ady An ( you might not be able to find this with English subs yet… I’ll look)

 

3.       Wayward Kenting w/Eddie Peng

 

4.       Easy Fortune, Happy Life w/Blue Lan

 

5.       The Eagle Shooting Heroes w/Ariel Lin and Hu Ge

 

6.       The Concerto w/ Lee Wei and Eddie Peng- if you could find this with subs, I’d be insanely happy!

In fact- anything you find with Lee Wei (Toast Boy’s Kiss 1 and 2, My Lucky Star,  The Legend of Speed- the drama not the movie,

The Kid From Heaven, Say Yes, Enterprise- that’d be a big win bc it has Lee Wei AND Van Ness!!! And it’s old!)

 

Walawala.net is the best place to buy dramas. You can sort by those w/English subtitles.

Get the one with the best subs or we’ll be laughing/crying/moaning for days…

 

Miscellaneous Other Things

 

1.       Sound for the first floor that plays burned CD’s

2.       Bookshelves for the basement for my manga and art supplies and everything else still in a box

3.       An over the door ironing board for the bedroom

4.       Paint for the living room- white chocolate cream

5.       A good Vegetarian cookbook

6.       Electric Fireplace for Upstairs

7.       A Glider for the Front Porch- a heavy one that takes three thieves all night to lug away

8.       And… I can’t think of much else.  Actually, I don’t really need anything on this list. The media makes my day, but I don’t have to have it…

I'm quite content.

I have a family that's loving and the baby's healthy.

I have a (mostly) warm house.

I have friends that spoil me in all kinds of ways.

I live a fairly drama free life- except for that which I put on paper.

I have the important things.

Everything else is just fluff...

well... except for the Jay Chou DVD... that might be considered essential!

So... what's on your unreasonable Christmas list this year????

I'm having a bit of a doubt gremlin attack here as I edit one of my books for entry into a Young Adult Contest. It's for a well established YA publishing company and the prize is a published book- with royalties, advances, etc. It can't be any longer than 224 pages double spaced with nothing smaller than a 10pt font. It should give a word count instead of a page count because you can mess with the margins, font type, etc and squeeze a lot more words into 224 pages. I'm determined to keep reasonable margins and a 11 pt font because I want them to have an easy read but that meant that I had to reduce a 300+ page book down. Since it interweaves four character's stories into one, I lost most of a love story for one character when I reduced the page count. The problem is that it made that one character nearly non-existent in the book.

Yesterday, we relooked at the margins and reduced them slightly but still well within the normal range and I cheated- I added back in bits of his story whenever there was a lot of blank space on the last page of the chapter (I can do that as long as it doesn't interfer with story flow because each of the four characters get their own heading when it's their story I'm telling). 213 pages later- most of his love story is back in. Whew!

But I'm worried about the age range now. This company focuses on the 12 to 18 year old reader and wants a contemporary story for them. I'm not sure my tale fits the 12- 15 year old reader since I tend to write for a slightly older audience. It deals with some tough issues- child abuse, cutting, isolation, and anger problems. It has a love scene, lots of fight scenes, and a good share of violence. Thinking in terms of a movie, it'd probably have to fight for a PG-13 rating. So do I take out the love scene (I've already cut one out completely)? The problem is that the emotions from the remaining love scene drive the ending. It's tastefully done and barely there- as far as explicitness, I mean. There are consequences for all actions in my tale- not preachy ones, but quiet, natural ones, so I think they are okay for the younger reader. It is a story of hope, healing, and friendship at the end. 

I like having four main characters in a story. It gives you more ways to look at the story and it gives the reader a choice of who to root for. I think different readers will connect with a different character's story as well. It makes for a complex tale, though, since I'm not writing in first person. All the books I read by this publishing company were in first person as well... sigh!

Am I talking myself out of sending it? I don't think so, but I might be trying to talk myself into it being ok if it doesn't win or if they don't like it... but it's a lot of work to send in something that won't be seriously considered.

I learned something very important with this book. A good editor who understands your work and is willing to be a critical voice makes your work 100X's better. A xangan here did that for this story and the end result was a much better tale. I wish I could sell this story so I could pay her for her services. They were a huge gift and I owe her. Having someone point out the questions a passage raises, the stupid mistakes (like how to score a basketball game- which I knew but forgot in the writing), and the things that didn't ring true or sound right meant that I had to relook at passages that I'd quit looking at. This is as polished as a book gets, I suspect... Thanks!!!

OT: Go see Ninja Assassin this week and move it up from 6th place! Rain deserves our support. He did an incredible job with the action sequences! And the blood is all CGI anyway....

We crammed as much as possible into the last five days and that didn't include much Christmas shopping. We're not buying much this year at all, and I'm nearly done- a few gifts for my immediate family, and that's it. Nothing big or spectacular- there doesn't seem to be a reason for it. I'll finish up my littlest nieces and nephew today (we have a ton of December b-days in my family so that complicates things.)

The one who will be president put in her order when we babysat and I thought a long time about indulging it, but to be honest, I'm more than sick of Princess stuff. It seems very self-centered and it doesn't stretch your imagination. So, for her b-day, it's the requested Polly Pockets in a zip up carrying case, and for Christmas, it's a children's digital camera. The two year old is getting her present when Ms. President gets her b-day gift because it's the Fisher Price Manger set and I want her to have it before Christmas to play with. So that means I have to get her something small to open Christmas Day (or whenever this family manages to do Christmas together!) The nephew is at the age when he wants cards and I'm tempted to get them since he's been making his own lately. Can't decide. Would rather get him something with lasting play value or something that he can use to interact with his sisters... still thinking about him.

My favorite on-line store has free shipping today, so my order from them is placed.

My parents don't want presents. I'm going to go down and go Christmas shopping with my mom one day and see if I can't buy her new pants since she's dropped from a size 18 to a 12 this year (and no one knows why! But at least she's quit losing weight and seems to be staying at her current weight for a couple of months). I'll get my dad a good book, a movie or two, and some expensive candy and he'll be happy. I don't think he really means no presents. Maybe he does... I don't know.

And... a few gifts for the kid, his wife, the baby, and the love of my life, and I'm done... seems odd to have so few people to buy for or that what they want are simple, everyday things. I like a ton of presents under the tree- brought out Christmas Eve and stacked high, but I think that is a Christmas of the past now. Everything is cash driven- no credit cards- except to pay for online purchases.

Cyber Monday feels like a waste this year....

Off to buy copy paper and to decide what 4 pages I can re-add to the finished book now...

Oh and if you're looking for a great Christmas Mystery book for a gift, buy the newest one from one of our own, doahsdeer. It's a rollicking read and you'll have a vision of the Pinelands of NJ that you'll never forget. His characters probably ate at Mastori's diner in the booth across from me last time I was there! "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Murder!"

And... if you can cope with the blood, and love good action sequences, see Ninja Assassin this week for me! We need to bring Rain's movie up from 6th place this week!

Repost from November 05... because it's still relevant in 2009 and because as we think about the first Thanksgiving, we need to remember how much we owe them besides our survival in a foreign land.

“It’s Not Your Money”

 

In a land where the Bison and other animals were once plentiful but was now barren, the Blackfoot Indians were confined by barbwire and legislation from 1883-1884. They ate the remains of their seed potatoes and waited for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to provide the food supplies they promised. By June, they were eating tree bark and watching the white man’s cattle grazing on the land they used to own before they were left to die behind fences. Almost-A-Dog cut a notch in willow stick as his people died, first the oldest and most revered, then the youngest and the most cherished. Notch after notch, and still they waited for eighteen months. By the time the BIA finally responded, there were 555 notches in the willow and the land was marked by their deaths.

 

It’s an old story, and it’s one that formed the young girl-child whose family told her the story of her ancestors when they visited Ghost Ridge. She continues the fight for her tribe’s existence today with the same government that has no remorse for their actions of the past.

 

The problem started with the Dawes Act in 1887. There was “an Indian Problem” back then, and the solution was easy- out of sight, out of mind. If you gave them a plot of land and told them to farm it, then you could manage to make everyone happy (except the Indians, and they didn’t count). So they divided the reservation land into plots (giving families 160 acres and single adults 80 acres) and sold the remaining land to the white settlers who wanted it (about 2/3’s of the land was sold without the Tribe’s approval). However, the Indians didn’t get a 160 acre plot of land- they got a 50 acre plot here and another 50 acre plot fifty miles away, making farming the land impossible.

 

Well, since the Indians weren’t using the land, those “in charge” decided that they were responsible for putting the land to good use. They “rented” out the land, promising the rent funds would go to the Indians. The Indian Trust started losing land almost immediately after the Dawes Act became a law and everyone got rich- except the Indians. Some years they got a check, some years they didn’t, and they never got an accounting of the use of their land from the federal government. Sometimes, the land was taken away under false pretenses (after they found oil on it or needed the timber), and if the Indians complained, they were told the accounting was too complicated for them to understand (as if they were stupid).

 

Elouise Cobell asked to see her account when she was 18 and they told her you needed a degree in accounting to understand it, so she got a degree in accounting. Her fight with the Department of Interiors was just beginning. She has been fighting them since then, using their own tactics and legal system.

 

Her class action lawsuit Cobell v Norton is suing the government for the billons of dollars they are supposed to be holding in Trust for her people. This isn’t about reparation for all the wrong doings. This is about a legal accounting of what is rightfully the tribe’s that has been in the care (Trust) of the Federal government.

 

Therein lays the nasty web of lies and half-truths. You see, the Trust only keeps records for six years, and then they shred them (according to court testimony), and they claim that the problem is that all the descendents of the original Blackfoot tribes are so multiple that it makes the average check about eight cents, and besides, they don’t have the money. They never had the money, they claim, and the Federal government, while spending millions to defend themselves against this lawsuit, doesn’t have the money. So who has the Blackfoot tribe’s money? The BIA officials since 1887? The tenants who make tons of money and live in nice houses and drive new trucks while their landlords starve and live in hovels without heat? The Indian employees of BIA who were rewarded for not making waves? The Federal government who treated the trust account like a private piggy bank and the payments like a gift instead of a debt?

 

It’s 2005 and the Department of Internal Affairs is still acting like there is a “problem with the Indians” and continues to act shamefully toward the tribal members. The judge hearing the case recently ruled that “The entire record of this case tells the dreary story of Interior’s degenerate tenure as Trustee-Delegate for the Indian Trust… a story shot through with bureaucratic blunders, flubs, goofs and foul-ups, and peppered with scandals, deception, dirty tricks and out right villainy, the end of which is nowhere in sight.”  Still the Federal government stalls and delays instead of attempting to make things right, and in the meantime, the people are caught in the middle.

 

But the girl-child is now a powerful woman, educated in the ways of the white man, retaining her cultural identity. Elouise Cobell has been given the designation of Warrior by her tribe, a rare honor for a woman, as she continues her relentless fight against those who persist in harming her people.

---

This is one of my entries that is googled frequently. It's still relevant!

Currently Listening Sacred Spirit: Chants and Dances of the Native Americans By The Fearsome Brave see related

Opens today in theaters near you...

Rain's newest American release...

I get to play with the baby today so I won't see it on opening day,

but I will see it this weekend...

Lemme know what you think.

I saw clips of him training for this and it looked great...

Serious post below this...