What is currently on your mind?

[Tuur]

That you can sing Amazing Grace to the tune of Gilligan's Island, and visa versa.

 

[Brad D.]

I was thinking that I'm usually very sensitive to motion, but the earth is orbiting the sun at 67,000 MPH and the earth is rotating 1000 MPH and I don't feel a thing.

I was also thinking the age you are really only reflects how many times you have ridden the earth around the sun.

And then I was thinking of Peace. Just Peace. How the world could use a bit more of that.

 

[Paidiske]

Definitely in countdown mode now. Two and a bit hours to the carols service, and then three more services after that, and then I get to collapse sometime tomorrow afternoon...

 

[public hermit]

Definitely in countdown mode now. Two and a bit hours to the carols service, and then three more services after that, and then I get to collapse sometime tomorrow afternoon...

God bless you for your service, Paidiske. I hope you have a blessed Christmas when you're done.

 

[Chesterton]

I was also thinking the age you are really only reflects how many times you have ridden the earth around the sun.

That's true. Age is just a social construct.

 

[Chesterton]

Plus then there's pilots, conductors and engineers. Nobody knows what any of them do. Jets are flown by computers, and conductors just wave a little wand around in front of a bunch of musicians who don't seem to be paying any attention to them. And train engineers - why are they called engineers? They don't build bridges or anything. That must be a easy job. I guarantee you if I drive my car to the grocery store two miles away I probably make more decisions and do more stuff than an engineer does on a 3,000 mile trip across the country. Trains don't even have steering wheels or subwoofers.

 

[Tuur]

That's true. Age is just a social construct.

My joints beg to differ.

 

[timothyu]

Just thinking what a difference in mindset there must be and how it affects emotion, when one considers how an analogue clock gives a person a sense of where they stand in the bigger picture as compared to being only an insignificant split second in digital time.

 

[timothyu]

Does Santa strip down to boxers and t shirt in the hotter climates Christmas Eve?

 

[Paidiske]

So, we have this weird cognitive dissonance about Christmas. It's peak summer, it's hot as heck, but we sing songs about snow, Santa wears his traditional garb, cards and decorations reference winter greenery and so on, and a "proper" Christmas meal is straight out of the English midwinter (hot roast meats, hot pudding, the works). Basically, despite the occasional naff "Australian" carol, we haven't enculturated to the local climate at all (see also: Easter bunnies with eggs in autumn, and Hallowe'en spookiness in spring).

I think there are a couple of reasons, but the dominance of American and English media is part of it. (Which is why a couple of the Aussies here gently protested the holiday styling on here, because once again it fails to notice that half the world is, in fact, not in winter at all...)

 

[timothyu]

Mmmm.. pudding

 

[Tuur]

Hoping everyone has / has had a joyous Christmas.
Hoping that we've made it through the worst of the unseasonably cold.
Observing the difference in Christmas now that the family has grown.

 

[Tuur]

So, we have this weird cognitive dissonance about Christmas. It's peak summer, it's hot as heck, but we sing songs about snow, Santa wears his traditional garb, cards and decorations reference winter greenery and so on, and a "proper" Christmas meal is straight out of the English midwinter (hot roast meats, hot pudding, the works). Basically, despite the occasional naff "Australian" carol, we haven't enculturated to the local climate at all (see also: Easter bunnies with eggs in autumn, and Hallowe'en spookiness in spring).

I think there are a couple of reasons, but the dominance of American and English media is part of it. (Which is why a couple of the Aussies here gently protested the holiday styling on here, because once again it fails to notice that half the world is, in fact, not in winter at all...)

The ironic thing is that in most of the US, a stereotypical snowy Christmas isn't going to happen. I've never seen one. Temperatures locally range from colder than what's making the news now up to short sleeve shirts and turning on the air conditioner. No snow men. Deer are what we hunt. Christmas dinner is that old US standby, the pot luck dinner. Barbecue isn't unusual here.

 

[public hermit]

So, we have this weird cognitive dissonance about Christmas. It's peak summer, it's hot as heck, but we sing songs about snow, Santa wears his traditional garb, cards and decorations reference winter greenery and so on, and a "proper" Christmas meal is straight out of the English midwinter (hot roast meats, hot pudding, the works). Basically, despite the occasional naff "Australian" carol, we haven't enculturated to the local climate at all (see also: Easter bunnies with eggs in autumn, and Hallowe'en spookiness in spring).

I think there are a couple of reasons, but the dominance of American and English media is part of it. (Which is why a couple of the Aussies here gently protested the holiday styling on here, because once again it fails to notice that half the world is, in fact, not in winter at all...)

I didn't realize this was the case. That's must be really odd.

I can sort of relate. Growing up in Texas, all the snow images were like some magical place far away lol. We had relatives up north (Michigan) and would go visit for Christmas and I would be so excited because snow! Not once was there snow when we went! This was in the early 80s. I don't know what was up with the weather then, but it was terribly disappointing.

 

[durangodawood]

Living at 7000 feet elev in the Rockies theres snow here, but just a thin veneer that makes me anxious about next years wildfire season.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Brad D.]

So, we have this weird cognitive dissonance about Christmas. It's peak summer, it's hot as heck, but we sing songs about snow, Santa wears his traditional garb, cards and decorations reference winter greenery and so on, and a "proper" Christmas meal is straight out of the English midwinter (hot roast meats, hot pudding, the works). Basically, despite the occasional naff "Australian" carol, we haven't enculturated to the local climate at all (see also: Easter bunnies with eggs in autumn, and Hallowe'en spookiness in spring).

I think there are a couple of reasons, but the dominance of American and English media is part of it. (Which is why a couple of the Aussies here gently protested the holiday styling on here, because once again it fails to notice that half the world is, in fact, not in winter at all...)

Temperature is above freezing today. First time in awhile. The recent storm brought 18 inches of snow and temperatures dropped to near 30 below zero, so please any heat from down there you could package up and send up here would be much appreciated, I will in turn send you some cold and snow Perhaps a Steve Irwin type is in order for you guys pulling some outback version of a sleigh with a team of kangaroos. Wouldn't be any less ridiculous would it?

 

[Paidiske]

I didn't realize this was the case. That's must be really odd.

It's part of the fact that mainstream Australia hasn't moved very far from its English cultural heritage at all. And, like I say, foreign (American) media dominance.

It's even slightly odder for me because my cultural background isn't English, and so I'm sort of twice-removed from it all. (My mother, after one or two attempts, flatly refused to cook "English food" at Christmas time). The first time I ate Christmas pudding at Christmas was when I was old enough to spend Christmas day with a boyfriend's family; and I've never learned to like it!

 

[YahuahSaves]

Temperature is above freezing today. First time in awhile. The recent storm brought 18 inches of snow and temperatures dropped to near 30 below zero, so please any heat from down there you could package up and send up here would be much appreciated, I will in turn send you some cold and snow Perhaps a Steve Irwin type is in order for you guys pulling some outback version of a sleigh with a team of kangaroos. Wouldn't be any less ridiculous would it?

I'll gladly give you some of my 42 degree c heat for some of that cold right now

 

[Lost Witness]

I'll gladly give you some of my 42 degree c heat for some of that cold right now

Winter has got to be my favorite season,
I'm so grateful the LORD let it snow where I live.

 

[Tuur]

It's part of the fact that mainstream Australia hasn't moved very far from its English cultural heritage at all. And, like I say, foreign (American) media dominance.

It's even slightly odder for me because my cultural background isn't English, and so I'm sort of twice-removed from it all. (My mother, after one or two attempts, flatly refused to cook "English food" at Christmas time). The first time I ate Christmas pudding at Christmas was when I was old enough to spend Christmas day with a boyfriend's family; and I've never learned to like it!

The closest we've come to a Christmas pudding is a rice pudding my father liked. The thing is, we have no idea where that came from, with both sides of his family being in the Americas for as long as four centuries (and maybe before, but that's undocumented). For all we know, it was something my father's family tried once and liked.

This fits well with the "What's on your mind?" topics, because, as we are putting away decorations, I'm thinking of a short-lived family tradition of putting up window clings. Don't remember when we stopped, then realized I haven't seen them on sale locally for years.