As often happens, I have managed to overwhelm myself with too much work, too many distractions, and too many projects to find time for this blog. My apologies to anyone concerned.
Thanksgiving went very well this year. I was honestly surprised and uplifted by how well everyone got along, and by how it all worked out with as few glitches as possible. I have to say I enjoyed spending some extra time with my family. I haven’t been able to see my grandparents that much this year, or my aunts and uncles. And of course it was nice to eat some home cooked food for a change that wasn’t my own.
I’m looking forward to Christmas as well. I think this may turn out to be the most strapped for cash Christmas I’ve ever known though. Not just for myself but for family and friends too. I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t said they’ll be cutting back this year. No one’s got the money to spend like they used to. And that’s probably a good thing actually, because Christmas has been way too commercialized over the last few years anyway. But I do wish I’d be able to do a little more than I know I’ll be able to. All of that aside though, I am definitely enjoying the Christmas lights going up and all the other decorations and songs and such. I’ve been working on a Christmas around the world teaching unit which has really got me in the Christmas mood as well. It’s quite fascinating learning all the different ways people celebrate Christmas.
This will be the second Christmas without my grandma. I miss her terribly. I was in a store just the other day and saw something I couldn’t help but think she might have liked for Christmas. It was one of those immediate thoughts. Afterward, I couldn’t help but feel a little down. I’d give anything to spend another Christmas with her.
Moving on.
I wish I could say I was pleased with the election results this year, but I was not. To be perfectly blunt, I was completely dumbfounded that Obama won, and that he won by as much as he did. Hindsight speaks volumes though, and I can see many areas in which Romney cut his own throat. However, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to say I still thought he was the lesser of the two evils. I was going to get into all of the mountain’s worth of facts to prove this, but I’ve said enough in at least three former posts already, which is sufficient enough. I really can’t help but believe we Republicans just picked the wrong horse. Even though Newt Gingrich had some demons from his past, I really think had he been our candidate, I’d be writing right now about President-elect Gingrich. Whereas Romney couldn’t say anything without putting his own foot in his mouth, Gingrich really is one of the best communicators for conservatism I believe there’s ever been. He’d have fought harder and made the better argument, something Romney proved he just couldn’t do.
I am pleased to say that the newest James Bond movie, Skyfall, turned out to be so phenomenally good. It has to be within the top five of the series. Daniel Craig literally brought to the screen Ian Fleming’s Bond from the books. He did a fantastic job. Judy Dench gave her best performance as M. Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, and Naomie Harris were great as well. Let me not forget Javier Bardem though. For crying out loud, he was excellent as the villain, Silva. I would rank him within the top three villains of the whole Bond series. It was a villain completely out of his mind for revenge, a real physical threat, manipulative, and one that you can actually feel sorry for. And the story itself was amazing, having borrowed a few plots from Fleming that hadn’t been used before.
So… that’s about it for this post. I know. It’s completely useless, but oh well. I hope everyone’s doing well. :)
2 comments:
I thought Romney weemed like the safest candidate. I thought the majority was already against Obama and we'd win if we didn't drive voters away, and Romney was least likely to do that. There's no way to be sure, but you may be right that a Gingrich-style campaign would have been more effective than Romney's cautious one.
That's what I thought was honestly a weakness of Romney, even though I thought he was way better than Obama--he was the safe candidate. The problem is that he played it too safe at times and allowed Obama to define him early on as a rich, elitist, who cares more about the top of business than the average person. And I honestly think he did drive away voters (more than I ever thought possible) by making some of the comments he did: not interested in helping the poor, illegal immigrants could self-deport, 47% of people are lazy and consider themselves victims, etc.. All of these comments reinforced the images Obama tried to paint of him. And, sadly, I think it worked. Obama was going to try this no matter who we put forward though. But I think Gingrich would have done a much better job explaining our positions and would have fought harder. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. :)
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