What's bright plastic on the outside and hollow on the inside? The spirit of Christmas.

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A proto-friend is teaching a workshop between Solstice and Christmas. It's relatively expensive and targeted toward children. I was not surprised that there weren't a lot of takers, but she was.

Money is worth a lot less than it was when I was a kid. (I have to continually double my mental price expectations or I cannot buy anything.) But I cannot imagine my parents spending even $5/day for me to attend a workshop, let alone the $25 this would have cost in the old money. Certainly it would never ever happen in December.

My parents were annually surprised that Christmas and winter and the end of the year were all in December. I think some of the reason behind my break from my parents ne'er discussed beliefs is due to the fundamental understanding that buying presents might mean days without food if things don't come out right with the money. It certainly means putting on extra socks because heat is too expensive to use for comfort. The heat's only on to keep the pipes from freezing.

I hate this time of year. I see all the lights and decorations overlaid with memories of vicious arguments and blame and guilt and deprivation. If it looks good and plasticky on the outside, then no one will know it's all hollow on the inside.

I think we should ban Christmas entirely until people learn to be nice. Anyone who assaults someone else in order to grab a popular item should be forced to do community service weekly in a soup kitchen for a year, so they understand what it is they're supposedly celebrating. It's not about who can spend the most in electricity costs. It's not about whose child gets the most expensive toys. If putting up the tree causes a fight, don't have a tree. If you cannot afford tape and milk in the same week, then put presents inside t-shirts and let everyone have milk with Santa.

I'm really tired of everyone who claims to be Christian celebrating Christmas by living the intent of the innkeepers of Bethlehem and being proud of themselves for doing so. Christmas is supposed to be about the inside feelings, not the outside appearances.

Tell me what you want, what you really really want.

There was yet another post from [insert name of group that feels put upon] insisting that the entire world change because the previous terminology has become derogatory or pejorative.

Now, personal space, ranting allowed, etc.

But! If you complain that you don't like a common behavior, you need to, IN ALL CASES specify what the correct action/word/phrase would be.

The idea of posting in public, even if it's mostly your friends who read, is a good one if you want to give your cause more exposure. But lurkers who see your complaint aren't likely to go out of their way to look up the newest PC terminology. Plus there are a lot of people who are lacking in Google-fu and who might come up with something worse.

If you just complain about people calling disabled people "wheelchair bound" without saying you prefer "wheelchair using" then I'm likely to think you're just changing the rules without telling anyone so you can pick a fight. If the whole purpose of your complaint is to make people who are honestly trying feel bad, then I don't want to talk to you. It's not because you're visibly different from me, it's because you're being an asshole.

I'm still angry about the "people of color" business. If I say "colored people" which is grammatically correct, that's taboo. I don't like that people think they can change grammar for an entire language. But if I say "colored people" and someone mildly says, "We prefer 'people of color' because that was never on drinking fountains in the south." I might nod and obey the request in a way the screeching diatribes have not garnered a positive behavioral change on my part. Of course then there's the business where black people can call themselves n------s but anyone else doing it is wrong. If they can reclaim n------, then why not colored people?

I want to, sometimes, refer to people with those lurid visible tattoos as "colored people" because they have been colored.

I also dislike "African-American" to describe people. This is largely because in my personal sphere of influence, it is very likely to be untrue in both aspects (Caribbean, student visa) and therefore offensive. The whole point of having designated politically correct terms is that they do not cause offense inherently.

And I would like all the Chinese people I have worked with who insist on being called "Asian" to stop telling me Indian food is not Asian unless I also get to call them "ignorant". How offensive is that anyway, especially when it is done in front of a man from India?

I would like to reclaim the word "special" to mean a positive thing rarely occurring. The Special Olympics people should find another word that accurately describes people who are permanently mentally lamed; because even if it's rare, it's hardly a positive thing. I don't like to hear special tarnished with sarcasm because the Special Olympics people made it pejorative. If it's going to be a negative term anyway, they might as well take a word that's already negative instead of spoiling a good word. You just know the people in the Special Olympics are lied to and said, "You're here because you're special!" When they mean, "You're here because you're too defective to compete with regular people." I just can't see how that isn't wrong. If I tell you I want you to come with me for a "special treat", it isn't going to be the Red Cross mobile blood donation van. But why wouldn't you expect a "special treat" to suck now that the Special Olympics people have spoiled the word?

Seriously, someone should come up with a list of the accepted terminology, they should find an official sponsor... the government would be nice even. Then there can be annual changes, but anyone using the official terms with good intent cannot be blamed, shamed, guilted, or abused for doing so. And until there is a definitive source for the information, every time you find a term pejorative or abusive or even just unfortunate and start a campaign to change it, you need to specify the correction in place.

Here is mine:
I'd like introverts to stop being referred to as "loners" because the media has made that term universally a preface to describing serial killers. Introverts are people who recharge their mental engines by spending time on solitary pursuits. They are a minority in American society which places a high value on thinking by moving one's mouth and being unable to find happiness without groups of other people surrounding one's self.