MERRY CHRISTMAS! I had some stuff on my mind that provoked me to make a post on my blog. I also reasoned that this wouldn't be much of a blog if I didn't make a Christmas post...cuz thats like what people do...is say HEY IT'S CHRISTMAS!!! So where shall we begin, Christmas or other stuff? I think we should start with Christmas.

Today is December 25, 2005, the day that for a reason I can't precisley remember we celebrate the birth of Christ. Whether the date is correct or not is irrelevant, it is the fact that we are celebrating something very important.Although it is interesting that Christmas turned into the biggest holiday of the year rather than Easter[...]. Anyway, point is there is more to Christmas than the presents, you hear this every year so I'll try to avoid jibber jabbering at you. Both of my grandmothers came to town for Christmas and we woke up bright and early to find that Santa was very good to us this year. I didn't tell my family but I think it has something to do with that bargain I made with him last year concerning the cookiees and milk. At the top of the charts are my brother, myself, and my sister who received respectivley a laptop, an ipod, and a digital camera. I am thoroughly enjoying my new iPOD and already got all of my music onto it and will be downloading Lost episodes onto it momentarily. I also got a commentary on C.S. Lewis' writing, something I appreciate very much especially considering that I have been reading and plan on reading alot of C.S. Lewis recently. It is called "Beyond the Shadowland, Heaven and Hell." Around one p.m. we ate lunch and since then I have just been laying around reading, listening to music and working on the book(s) me and my brother are writing.

And on to the things that actually compelled me to post and give what I feel some substance to this post. First and foremost there is the ever constant and most bothersome question of my destiny concerning relations with the opposite sex. I could rant but I already have, you can go back and read my previous post titled "Frusturation" to get in on that action. Secondly is another matter which has already been addressed in a post and that is my current mood, it seems like I may be a fickle person and it may seem superficial to post about my mood but I assure you the last thing I want is to be this person that says "aww man this sux" or "hurrah great day guys!!". If I ever appear to be leaning towards a superficial joy which does not compare to that of my previous post or am being really negative or something let me know. In all honesty I can say my mood is not as good as it was a few days ago. I feel spited that right as I began to become a much more active person (I started jogging and playing alot more Ultimate Frisbee) my back decided to reawaken old injuries. I am trying to keep up the good spirit and hopefully I can start using the bike machine at the gym since that is less impact on my joints than running. So there is my "mood" for the moment, I would like to think of it as an update on my state of mind. I am happy but trying to overcome some pain. And as to the other things which provoked me to post I have mentioned them in this post. And those are C.S. Lewis writings and the book me and my brother are writing. Right now I am reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Lewis has some great things to say and has a very good way of saying them. If you haven't read any of his works I HIGHLY encourage you to go read some of them. I would suggest Chronicles of Narnia those being his most popular but ironically I haven't read those yet, they are on the long list of "books to read". The book me and my brother are writing is a fantasy novel/series. We plan on incorporating some Christian symbolism but were not really sure how everything is going to unwind at the moment. Anyway, I would like to quote a portion of Mere Christianity that really hit home. The context is that Lewis is talking about chastity, sexual morality and the like, which is a hot topic especially in today's culture.

"We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity - like perfect charity - will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity(or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection." - C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity

I would also like to post the first segment of me and my brother's work which will probably be our proglogue or something. The genre, as you will catch on is fantasy. Here is the link, thanks to Wilfried for the webspace so I didn't have to type it all out.(Ignore the color set and bracket thing at the beginning, and I needed the webspace because for some reason my blog won't let me copy/paste.)

Peace out dudes, happy holidays.

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the prescence of fate is strength undefeatable." - Hellen Keller