Santa the Seasonal Anti-Christ

Anti: a prefix that has now come to mean "against" (antisocial means someone who is against socialising).
Anti: a prefix that originally meant "in place of".
Anti-Christ: someone who comes "in place of Christ".

At Christmas time, there is one name on everyone's lips. Santa Claus. It's pretty certain that any parent, child or elf that you speak to in the month of December will have the image of the big bloke in a red suit in their mind, and his name on their lips.

It's a pity that people are concentrating so hard on Santa, because this usually means that they've totally missed the point of Christmas. Believe it or not, Christmas is about Jesus Christ. Fancy that.

So if every Christmas season, everyone is thinking about Santa Claus instead of Jesus Christ, we can quite safely and accurately say that "Santa is the Seasonal Anti-Christ".

Happy Birthdays

During my time at home yesterday (thanks to my poor eating habits over the weekend) I chanced upon a segment of Bert Newton's program.

One of Bert's regulars (no, it wasn't Moira) was running viewers through their horoscopes. As I lay there listening to the predictions, the question inevitably crosses all of our thoughts ran through my mind. "What if this is true?"

Well, the only conclusion I could draw from that assertion is this: I have at least 5 birthdays a year. How else can anyone explain the fact that 5 of the descriptions suited me so well?

Let me leave you with an excerpt of wise words from Weird Al Yankovic's song "That's your Horoscope for Today":
"Now you may find it inconceivable or at the very least a bit unlikely
that the relative position of the planets and the stars could
have a special deep significance or meaning that exclusively applies to only you,
but let me give you my assurance that these forecasts and predictions
are all based on solid, scientific, documented evidence, so you would have
to be some kind of moron not to realize that every single one of them is absolutely true."

Writer's Block

Summertime

"Summertime,
and the weather is easy.
Fish are jumpin'
and the cotton is high..."

Ah, the soulful strains of Gershwin. As summer rolls in for another year (though technically this is the second summer of 2004 seeing that it was still summer in January and February - hey, I can spell February!) we see not just scorching weather, but a plethora of other indications that this is indeed the holiday season.

The concept of daylight-saving is (in this humble worker's opinion) one of the best ideas to be conceived. Think about it. Displacing time to allow us to utilise the daylight in a more efficient manner? Pure genius! It means that when I get home from work, I have an extra hour of sunlight. And what a great benefit that will be for me - to toughen up my skin a little so that doesn't get burnt to a crisp while I'm out at Cowra.

When you combine the pre-Christmas anticipation with the actual Christmas celebrations, New Years parties and summer festivals (not to mention all the sales), that gives us a good couple of months of relaxation. I think that things like the Sydney Festival which runs in the city over January is a great idea - a combination of stuff and free stuff, that can be enjoyed in the warmth and extended sunlight of summer. Also on offer are a wide range of outdoor concerts and other activities, which make use of the probable dry weather.

Summer is also the traditional holidays for students. And if you are a worker like me, you'll know that this time is precious, because it means a lot more room for you on the public transport. And a lot more peace and quiet too.

All in all, I gotta say that I love summer, especially with all those things that go along with it. Maybe it's something that I can only get in Australia, or maybe just Sydney. I guess it's something to enjoy while we have it.