On aging and other things

Now that I turned 21 I'm pretty much legal to drink everywhere in the world except for some parts in India while I've pretty much been legal to do so for 3 years now. I could remember when I was 17 and hoping one day that the legal age limit would be lowered but when I approach 30 I have a feeling I'll still be carded anyway.

How do I feel? Well still the same, not any taller, weight constantly shifting, nothing amazing happened the moment I woke up, just another ordinary day. Just one more year older.

There are others like me who have birthdays around this time of the year and I personally can't speak for everyone (and I have no idea who comes here to read whatever babbling I put down). Personally there are hits and misses to having birthdays around a holiday:

• You can have your party on the same day you were born whereas if it's during the school year on a weekday you pretty have to schedule it for the weekend. The downside to this is your guests may not come because their family is visiting or they are visiting family and pretty much like the rest of the school kids the best idea is to schedule the party on another day. I had one of my first birthday parties at school because my mom wasn't sure who would come and kindergarten classes were pretty small.
• Mainly applies for those around Christmas (or on): double the presents from family and close friends. The downside is like Christmas it only comes once a year and it's at the end of the calendar year so when you're a kid it's pretty much a long wait (almost forever) but as one gets older time goes by so fast.
• Age limits: it's more of a miss (and sucks even more for those born on the 31st) as you have to be a certain age before you can legally purchase alcohol, smokes, lottery tickets or go to places that say <insert age> + only. While your best buddies are already going to places that have these restrictions you're still waiting for that day you can join them (unless somehow you've been using fake I.D.'s without getting caught or asking someone older to get things for you)

When I was young I couldn't wait to get older so I could do all the things the adults or older kids were doing but once reaching that certain age you kind of get told that you're too old to do something. How I see this: getting older may allow you to access pretty awesome things but gives you a certain time frame on how to act and to behave.

That's all for now.

Holiday Stuff

Yes I said holiday and not Christmas. I'm not sure who is still sensitive to saying of "Happy Holiday" and "Seasons Greetings" versus "Merry/Happy Christmas" (depends of what English speaking country you come from) and possibly writing down the holiday as Xmas or saying it as "eks-mas" versus the whole word but it's not something to fuss about whether one is religious or not.

a little look at some of these words:

First: holiday. The word originally means "holy day" as in a day to celebrate religious festivities and nowadays it also applies to taking time of to either rest or when people are given some time off from school or work.

Christmas I believe is "Christ's mass" with the Old English suffix -mas meaning "a holy, sacred day"

Xmas is a shortening of Christmas and I can't remember where I've heard this but there's this idea of taking the "Christ" out of "Christ"mas with some people. First of all this is useful when one doesn't have a lost of space to write out Christmas and with texting messages to one another takes less time to punch in those letters. Secondly don't think of X as being said as X in English. You have Χριστός (Christos) in Greek and Христос (Xristos) in Cyrillic. Think of the X as coming from those (the X in Cyrillic makes a "kh" sound more or less) so if anyone really cares about this wrap your minds around this idea.


As for saying Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas: Happy Holidays speaks out to everyone while Merry Christmas seems to speak to a few. It's a personal choice whether to say one or the other (or whatever greeting one chooses) so don't take too much offence if you're religious and someone says Happy Holiday instead of Merry Christmas (same goes for a non-religious person when someone greets Merry Christmas or whatever).


Anyways so whatever you do around this time of the year stay safe and Merry/Happy <insert holiday here>


because I'm to lazy:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/holiday
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Christmas
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Xmas

edited on December 23, 2010

"December" songs

Taking a break from my studies (which I've been on for a long time) and felt like posting something.


December. The twelfth month in the Gregorian calendar even though the root here "decem" means 10 in Latin. December also happens to be a host to a number of festivals and holidays (which one can look through here) the major one being Christmas.


I haven't been listening to the radio much since most of my music listening time is devoted to youtube or an internet radio station but once it's a month away radio stations pump out the Christmas music (mostly the easy listening and top 40 stations) and so do the shopping malls. Some people like Christmas music, some are sick of it, personally if it's not the same song repeated 3 times a day no matter what version of the song is played. If Christmas songs aren't your thing, how about some songs with "December" in the title? From the ones I can think of from the top of my head, they have nothing to do with Christmas.


"Once Upon A December" from "Anastasia", an animated movie detailing what if Anastasia Romanova survived. December was when the events that the character Anya recalls from her memories as she suffers from amnesia.




"My December" by Linkin Park. From my viewpoint it's dealing with the loss of someone (whether he or she died or walked out of your life). I guess there could be some undertones of the holiday season thing since Christmas is one of those times of the year where families and loved ones get together ("And I give it all away/Just to have/Somewhere to go to/Give it all away/To have someone/To come home to"). Also to point out that December 21 (or is it 22?) when the shortest amount of daylight is present so I guess that could also set the tone for this song. Josh Groban has done a cover of this song for one of his concerts.

"December" by Collective Soul. I have no idea what to think of this song other that it carries the title "December" and there's no mentioning winter or Christmas stuff.

"December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" by Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons. Guy falls for a girl whom he saw back in December of 1963 is how I see it, but this page says something else

These are what I can think of from the top of my head. Pretty sure there are more December songs out there than these ones.