The 5 things I’m grateful for:
· The safe return of my brother and sister-in-law
from the zone in Asia getting stricken with typhoons currently
· Another birthday for my Dad
· That the last Monday of the year is Christmas,
making the year end at least with one less dreadful form of Monday. An added bonus is that New Year's Day is on Monday, and I'll start the year off with one less bad one.
· Taking time to visit with an old friend from my
past
· Finding sleep, and shaking off a long, bad,
stretch of insomnia, even though I’m still waking up at ridiculously early
hours.
The 5 gifts I gave myself:
· To the kid/history geek in me, a game console
with two games: Wolfenstein II, The New Colossus, and Call of Duty, WWII. Deck the Halls with shooting Nazis, Fa La La
La La . . . La La La . . . Blam! I’m
trying not to let this become some addiction. This was bought back during a
Black Friday sale. I’m still a fumbling newbie. I promised myself to make more
moments for fun this coming year, so I’m loosening up a little and granting
myself this little indulgence. For the anthropologically curious side of me, I
have Civilization VI lined up (whenever it becomes reasonably discounted) in PC
format. If I indeed have a limit as to how smart I’ll really be, then I at
least must find some way to apply my current intellect for some sort of
interactive entertainment. I’ve had too many bitter lessons lately as to how
short and fragile life really is. Too much reading is boring me (and probably
making me boring). Television, as it is now, is doing nothing but rotting my
mind, given all the horrid news to watch and the banality of the influx of
“reality TV”. As much as I’d like to divert myself and be more engaged with
getting into playing some good old-fashioned traditional board/analogue/parlour
games (cards, backgammon, darts, billiards, Scrabble®, etc.) the reality is that I
have no readily available company for them in my free time. This is the next
best thing.
· To the history/science geek in me, a discounted
offer for a DNA test (Ancestry.com). Why? Because genetics are cool, that's why. If I’m not going to have some sort of
spawn or clone of me being left on this earth after I’m gone, I’d like to at
least know how far back, and from which regions my particular genome came from,
and what it is comprised of whilst I’m alive. I reason and conclude that
collecting my DNA and doing a simple test like this for the sake of uncovering
my heritage is far less costly than perpetuating those genes by siring a child. Maybe I'll find out through the results that I wasn't fit enough to beget one to begin with. However, it might spark stupid ideas of how I can use these kits to replicate
those significant other people who I totally want to have cloned (a possible
next sequel of Bladerunner happening,
or something).
· To the travel geek in me, my passport
application.
· To the booze connoisseur geek in me, my
traditional bottle of Scotch for year’s end.
· The couple hours taken to reunite with someone
from my past after long lapse amounting to decades, and seeing that she’s doing
OK. That satisfied all the geeks in me.
The 5 Favourite foods of this Christmas (presently having and anticipating):
·
Butter tarts
·
Oysters
·
The Swedish meatballs and rice pudding I had on
Christmas eve*
·
Rullepolse* (from the largely Icelandic
community of Wynyard)
·
Stuffing and gravy
Concerns and condolences (thankfully, a shorter list):
· As I come here to celebrate the birthday of my
own Dad along with Christmas, I learned of the passing of the father of one of
my Union siblings just before the holidays. This person has brought me nothing
but fun and cheerfulness since the time we’ve been acquainted, and it’s not
fair that someone like her gets to endure this now. Thinking of you HJ.
· The passing of the wife of my sister-in-law’s
brother, again, something that doesn’t make the season better for them.
Thoughts and prayers for them.
· My dog seems to be stricken with a new health
problem, hopefully it can be rectified without too much stress to her or
myself.
*-This stuff is traditionally fare served at a Scandinavian
table around Christmas, and seems to be stuff we as a family are adopting and
enjoying. Perhaps another reason for me to question our true heritage and to do
the DNA test.
