And So This Is Chrisgiving...wait, what?!

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon here and bitch a bit about all the Christmas stuff being dragged out before Thanksgiving. This is nothing more than a shallow, transparent marketing ploy, much like tomorrow's Black Friday nonsense, that seeks to capitalize on the American public's easily manipulated nature. I'll admit it seems to be working brilliantly, so I'm tempted to say more power to them. I mean if people are dumb enough to let the retailers dictate their lives who am I to complain? But I realized as I heard my first radio ad to the tune of Jingle Bells yesterday that I hate, Hate, HATE advertisements set to Christmas song tunes, and when they start playing that shit a week before Thanksgiving, well it just pisses me off.

However, this is not supposed to be a rant. Instead I'd like to say that I am thankful for so much in my life. No, things are not where I'd like them to be, but I have wonderful friends, a great job that at least pays the bills, a roof over my head, and the most amazingly amazing little baby daughter any man could wish for. My family loves me, and I them, my students at least pretend to like me ( ;-) ) and my cats adore me. I have a turkey breast in the Crock Pot, and two pies in the fridge, and this:



I'm out of beer, but I have a bottle of mead, and the Dolphins are playing in two hours. I have a wildly successful podcast, and my car still runs even after driving the equivalent of a trip to the moon with her. I have two phasers, a communicator, and a tricorder, and I know how to use them all. So all in all life is pretty damned good. Thank you to all of you who still come around my cobweb festooned corner of the interwebs, and I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving...even if you're not in the US since we could all use a bit more gratefulness in our lives.

Hugs to all,
Marius