NoelSH {A Blog By Noel Herron

I fear that some atheists might feel that, since they reject certain beliefs, that they must reject any of its byproducts. Even in their own culture, Christmas being the most obvious. I might be wrong, but I see no issue with atheists (of which I am one) saying “Merry Christmas”. It seems that over the years Christmas has shifted a little from its original “praise Christ” origins. Nowadays , Christmas seems to be more about the feeling than the meaning.

I know that even before I became an atheist that the religious meaning of the holiday was secondary. I primarily participated in the event to show my gratification and love for the important people around me. When ever my parents would ask me why we were celebrating Christmas I would have to amuse them (and Jesus, because I didn’t want to go to hell) with the boilerplate “To praise the birth of Christ”.

I know that that was the reason why the holiday had been invented, but honestly I really only cared about the presents. It wasn’t until my mid-teens that I began to give gifts, and began to appreciate to pleasure of giving. So I never really had the time to recognize the holiday for what it really was, because only a few years later I became an atheists. And here I am today still enjoying Christmas, and giving gifts.

I suppose that the biggest objection to my view from other atheists that don’t think we should celebrate Christmas is, “Do you really need one day out of the year to tell someone you love them?” And I would say no. In fact, I give gifts arbitrarily when I have the money. The choice to participate in gift giving on Christmas is because of the mood generated during that time of year. For the most part, people appear happier, and the colors, lights, smells, combinations of hot and cold, pin trees, and the like, appeal to me.

Another complaint about an atheist celebrating Christmas is the obvious one, “What are you doing celebrating the birth of Christ?” Which I’ve already answered, you can take the Christ out of Christmas because there’s plenty more to participate in.

This entry was originally about the attached picture, so I think it’s time to talk about it. This was originally a bumper sticker sold on Bill O’reilly’s store, stating “We say Merry Christmas.” At first, I found the sticker charming and a little rebellious, in a cool way. Then I made this spoof - if you will. After thinking about it, I actually found the sticker to be a little arrogant. No one has ever said that you shouldn’t, or can’t say Merry Christmas. There is a difference between greeting your neighbor with it, and insisting that it be used in school or government. People don’t want to feel disenfranchised, and some might want to uphold their constitution. The First Amendment only matters if we enforce it, lets not just talk the talk, shall we.

Its been a long and complicated couple of weeks. Its been a bitch trying to get into the mood to do my homework. And, when I’m not doing homework, all I do is worry about it. Its been like pulling teeth to get what was left of last weeks homework done.

I’ve already told you about that paper I had to write for philosophy about hermeneutics. Well, after sitting down to write, I looked at my notes, and I recalled my teachers lecture, and said to my self “I don’t know the first dammed thing about hermeneutics.” It was bizarre to think that I had completely blanked on everything that he had said on the subject. So, I just had to bullshit my way through it.

I actually didn’t go to school today. (This would have been a philosophy day.) Still, my sleep schedule is topsy-turvy, I want to sleep around ten, which would only have given me four hours of sleep before I would have to get ready to go. When I woke up I know that wasn’t going to happen. This will be my first time missing philosophy, I’m not too worried about it, because I can still read the chapters in the textbook and write the paper.

Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things and get my work done more swiftly. That way I can stop boring you will this nonsense.

It sucks that whenever I’m not doing homework, I worry about homework! I don’t have to have it done. So why am I worrying about it? Geez, I’ve never been able to take it easy. I got a paper on Hermeneutics, in philosophy, and a few activities in English. It’s tough when you’re in a doing-just-enough-to-get-by mode when you should work on you term paper, and you should work on you English paper, when all your worried about is you have to..

On top of all of that, I can’t manage to have any fun. The AAA batteries in my Harmony remote died, and I didn’t have any replacements. I am able to change some settings on my system, but in some cases I am dependent on the remote. So, I decided to play the Wii, so I unplug the PS2, then plug-in the Wii. Then I leech the batteries out of my mouse (because I don’t have an extra set) and put them in the Wiimote. Then I turn the Wii on. I am confused as to why the console is on, yet there is no curser. Then an image pops into my head, an image that in context of the dilemma at hand, sent me into a souring rage of cat hatred. I rushed to the console and garbed the wire to the light bar, with my finger I trace the wire, only a few inches out do I discover that THE GOD DAMED CAT ATE THE FUCKING WIRE! All well, easy to fix I guess, but I’m not happy about having to consider that a $250 toy could be defrocked as it was by the piss-ant felines that litter my house! Its been a terrible evening…

I usually make the effort to complete my residual homework on Friday. But considering its 12:33 I guess I’m screwed. That’s OK though, I don’t have that much to do, and one day isn’t very distinguishable from another. It’s just nice to finish it as soon as possible so you can have the whole weekend to your-self. But I just didn’t feel like doing it. Especially considering that I woke up at six in the evening. (Never mind what I said yesterday about still managing to get up early.) I’m still OK because I plan on going to bed at around four, then getting up at nine. It will be more of a nap really.

I have to start Christmas shopping early. I’m a big fan of Lewis Black, so I’m feeling a little stupid that I have become the subject of his joke when he makes fun of people progressively starting their Christmas shopping earlier and earlier. However, those people do it because they enjoy it; I’m doing it early because I am virtually broke, and I have to make sure that my shopping is done before my money manages to disappear.

OK, so English wasn’t as bad as I had suspected. I knew I didn’t have to meet the page quota for the paper, so it wasn’t like I was going to lose points because of the little that I wrote. I did get lucky when I found out that I had forgotten to do a two paragraph analysis of the novel we’ve been reading, but the teacher said that she would collect it next week. Whew, if I had gone in there that day and had to turn in that assignment, and new that I was going to lose more points, I would have been pissed.

As usual, we had to peer-review each others paper. As a change of pace, the teacher picked who would review our papers. So instead of getting stuck working with the literate that sits next to me I got some one who could form coherent sentences.

I find myself unable to sleep at night. It’s not for the usual reasons. I just don’t feel like spending the night sleeping. I like the night, it’s quiet, you get to be alone, it’s cool, there’s no glaring sun. It reeks havoc on my daily obligations though. However, I’m managing to still get up early, so I don’t really miss anything.

Now that this week is over, I can stop and asses my work, what I have to do, when I have to do it. And, I have plenty of time to finish that English paper. Now all I have to do is figure out when the hell I’m going to do this Philosophy term paper.

Whoa, I’ve been really depressed lately. I think it’s just because school is getting a little overwhelming. I had to take a day off from English because I couldn’t bare to embarrass myself with one of the assignments that the teacher gave. The assignment involved the teacher giving us an option of five-or-six sentence fragments; then we had to pick one and turn it into a whole story. Now that’s a bit much to ask. I’m not a story teller, and neither were the four people I had to work with. We got no were, except for the one retard in the class that wouldn’t stop spouting mindless dribble. The worst part was that we had to present this to the rest of the class. I get palpitations, and anxiety really bad at time, and I didn’t know what would have happened if I went up to the front of the class and had to tell the peace of shit story that we had to make up.

So I didn’t go, but I made it the day after that. They said it was really embracing because their story didn’t make sense because I part was missing. I didn’t write anything anyway so it didn’t make much difference. I’m sorry that I had to leave them hanging, but I couldn’t bare it.

The worst part is that I missed a due date for a first draft that I had to turn in. So I’m losing point. On top of that there was a quiz which I didn’t expect, but I probably did no worse than a “C.” That was a crappy day. And now I have to finish a second draft with no time. It’s due TODAY (I’m writing this on Wednesday). All I have is an outline and a few sentences. The first draft which I did due (but can’t turn in) is worthless because she said that we could pick out topics, but then she assigns the topics, so I have to write it from scratch. The topic is on the media: representation, censorship, lifestyles. I’m picking representation, mainly on how television news has degraded over the years as it tries to represent us.

It’s very frustrating. I try to take a break and I’m in a more worse position than before. I can’t sleep when I’m like this. I dread lying in bed stressing myself out about what I have to do tomorrow. Also, because I know that when I do fall asleep I wont want to wake up, or get out of bed; so that waists my day. It’s a vicious cycle. And thus here I am, its 4:30 in the morning, class is a 5:30 at night, and I’ve barely begun that paper. I should go to bed, but I don’t want to, I’ll just lie there thinking, dwelling; and then when I should get up I’ll just lie there for a few more precious hours.

I’ll probably manage to punch something out. It’s only a second draft, so it doesn’t need to meet the pager quota (three pages). If I can manage to just turn something in then I’ll have plenty of time to do it right. We’ll see…

On Thursday, July 9, 2008 The United States Congress ratified the 14th Amendment, which stated that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” It would take another hundred years, during the Civil Rights Movement, before the US would recognize all African-Americas as true equals. And now, over the course of 140 years, we have owned up to our words and elected an African-American to the highest position in this country. This marks a shining date for America, were we can show that we have circumvented our lowly hatred and intolerance. I, and everyone reading this is a witness to an inextricable peace of history, and I, for one, couldn’t be more proud. I couldn’t be more proud for myself for being a part of this point in history, but also to the African-American community which for whom discrimination is a part of their recent history, and they who have fought long and hard for their rights, have now reached a vindicating level of equality. May my, and everyone else president, President Obama, bring on an era of hope, and prosperity.

In a tweet I said that The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Quantum of Solace would suck. I don’t like being that shallow, but in 140 characters what am I supposed to do? I have a pretty good knack for (pre)judging movies, however my opinion tends to be ambiguous, but nonetheless accurate. For example, when I said that “Transformers” will have some exciting, possibly even impressive, but underwhelming and shallow. I was right, but, my prediction didn’t tell you much. I have a similar opinion on these two movies, both almost just as broad in specific elements, but, I think, accurate in aesthetics to a yet to be specified degree.
The Day the Earth Stood Still looks like another disappointing remake. It won’t be as bad as The War of The Worlds (but that’s the easy part). It will probably be another case of someone wanting to make good sci-fi movie but knows that the sci-fi crowd is too small, so they have to put extra mumbo jumbo into it to make it more interesting to a broader audience. It will seem overly dramatic, and that will be a turn off for most sci-fi fans. There might be some pretty visuals, but they will be more artsy than fantastic, or science fictional. Gort will be unimpressive, except, perhaps, when he’s destroying the world (if he indeed tries). The most impacting part of the entire movie will probably be when Klatoo hast to tell Jennifer Connelly (the lead female actress) “Klaatu barada nikto,” and the consequential scene were she delivers the iconic line to Gort. When the movie comes out on DVD I’ll probably buy it, and it will only be good for vegging, but disappointing once we start asking what it’s value is to the sci-fi community.

Quantum of Solace will be as disappointing as the last James Bond movie in the same ways. The main character will have no resemblance to the archetypical James Bond. Instead we will get an emotionally supersede (in the bad way) assassin with a motivation only to get revenge on enemies from the last movie. The mood will be completely different than a traditional Bond film. The sex, the drinking, the Casanova, the humor, the charm, and the gadgets will all be virtually nonexistent.

I cannot stress how much I understand that these are just prognostications, and first impressions. When I go to see both these movies (which I guaranty you I will) I’ll do it with an opened mind. I tell you these thoughts because I have a tendency to be right at them. If I’m right, congratulations to me. If I’m wrong, even 40% wrong, I’ll eat my words. So don’t fret if you are offended by my premature burning of these films. I hope to be impressed.

Go Eat Some Candy. And Call Liberty!

So, to condense the last couple of days. I went down to the comic shop in San Bernardino, because its subsidiary, in Victorville, went out of business. For a little extra cash, I turned in my spare change into a Coin Star at my local Starter Brothers, (and saw the cutest, most adorable girl in front of me in the line). Then I went to the comic store. When I got there it was closed, but there was a sign that said “Be back in 10 minutes,” so I waited. When the guy came back (it looked like he went to buy lunch) he was very terse. I was hoping to have some one to talk to about comics, because I don’t know anyone else who likes comics, and I also had a lot of questions. The guy didn’t seem like talking so I just bought what I came for, and left. If the guy had seemed a little more friendly, I would have talked to him, and probably bought more from him. (His business didn’t look like it was doing very well.)

In the end, the day was good. I got all the issues that I missed of Secret Invasion. As I said if the guy seemed more like talking I would have asked him what issues I should read to start Iron Man. It was pretty cool that I was able to turn in only 6 months worth of change and buy three comic book. It seems like comic books are the only things that haven’t become too expensive. They’re pleasantly worth it, as it were.