What In Tarnation?!?!?

I officially got in the Christmas spirit today. I festooned the banner above with Christmas imagery to reflect this festive mood. I kinda like it, but then again, as I said, I am officially in the Christmas spirit.

To commemorate the season, I am starting a new series called the Festival of the Carols. At least once week I will post a Christmas Carol (read: a sacred song about Christmas) to just focus me at least on what the season is about. Now for our first carol of the season, feel free to sing along:

Sing We Now of Christmas

Sing we now of Christmas,
Noel sing we here.
Sing our grateful praises
To the maid so dear.

Chorus
Sing we Noel!
The King is born, Noel!
Sing we now of Christmas.
Sing we here, Noel!

From the Eastern kingdoms
Come the wise men far.
Bearing ancient treasure,
Following yonder star.

Chorus
Sing we Noel!
The King is born, Noel!
Sing we now of Christmas.
Sing we here, Noel!

From the distant mountains,
Hear the trumpet sound.
With angelic blessings
On the silent town.

Chorus
Sing we Noel!
The King is born, Noel!
Sing we now of Christmas.
Sing we here, Noel!

Come let us surround Him
On this magic night.
Gather here around Him,
Wondrous Babe of light.

Chorus
Sing we Noel!
The King is born, Noel!
Sing we now of Christmas.
Sing we here, Noel!

Class dismissed!

“George Washington had a vision for this country. Was it three days of uninterrupted shopping?” -Jeff Melvoin, Northern Exposure

1) Do you enjoy shopping at the mall?
I enjoy shopping in the mall. Only for a limited amount of time. I generally visit the same stores, once I have been to all of those, I have pretty much lost interest. Now if there is a Apple store there, I could be there for hours.

2) What is your favorite mall food?
I guess that would depend on what mall I was at. If we are talking about food in the food court and I have the choice of The Great Steak Escape I will generally go with that. They have some really good fries and their sandwiches are yummy as well. Normally I would prefer going into a restaurant in the mall.

3) What are your three favorite “mall” stores?
Apple Store, Walden or B. Dalton Books, and I normally visit Suncoast Video or Babbages but I would never buy anything there.

4) What is your favorite mall?
Right now i like West County Mall in St. Louis (owned and operated by Westfield) because, you guessed it, there is an Apple Store. They also have a Marble Slab for some yummy ice cream.

5) Do you have one special person that you enjoy going to the mall with the most?
No, not really. Whoever is game.

Class dismissed!

I have been playing around with the template again.

Here are the changes that have been added recently:

• Breadcrumb navigations on all archive, permalink, and search pages. Need to go to the front page simply click the Home link at the top of the page.
• A myriad useless stats have been added to the sidebar. Number of posts, number of words in those posts, number of comments and number of words in the comments. Because I am sure that you were wondering.
• Much to {Flip}’s delight (I hope), the return of Speaking Out in Class to the sidebar. The five most recent comments will be displayed there.
• A new addition to the sidebar, The Popularity Contest makes its debut. Here you will find the five most commented posts. I find it interesting that most of the posts are related to design.
• Also returning to the sidebar is the Wayback Machine. Here posts from the past will be displayed here. What was I talking about one year ago? The Wayback Machine will tell you!

Enjoy the comfier WIT.

It appears that Blog Explosion is living up to its name. According to the referals:

1 Surf for traffic - BlogExplosion.com - Hits:69 41.12%
2 Surf for traffic - BlogExplosion.com - Hits: 18 10.76%

I have had two votes and two comments from that traffic. Plus I have run out of assigned credits. I guess I need to go surfing again.

Class dismissed!

I have signed up to be a part of BlogExplosion. As soon as WIT is approved, I am just waiting for things to just randomly start exploding around here. You might want to be aware of that. If you are not a member you can click the below graphic to become one. It will also show me as your referrer, which I think gets me more points.

The whole idea of this is you go look at blogs and earn points as you do. Use those points to have your blog come up in other people’s surfing for points. There is also a banner ad exchange.

I found some interesting blogs, some that might appear in the Required Reading list in the future. I also found some interesting links that I want to keep track for future use. Feel free to look in what I found.

I’m sure that you have seen the various election maps floating around the blogosphere, here are a couple more. No this does not include “Jesusland.”

What?!?!? A new meme? I always looking for one of those. Theater Thursday. You might be seeing it in the future.

I’m sure once WIT has been approved and it goes into rotation, people will be amazed by my dental poetry, as I am sure you were.

Class dismissed!

BlogIdeas prompted the following mess and Post-Thanksgiving tip.

My Toothbrush

Teeth need cleaning,
They need a polish now and then.
For white you will be seeing,
Unlike my ugly kin.*

All you need is a brush
With bristles soft and straight.
Create a white, foamy mush
And your dental bill, you will not hate.

The toothbrush can save you
from a fate worse than death,
Your breath won’t smell like poo.
Nor like a hillbilly creating meth.

My toothbrush is green
with a handle that forms to my hand.
So please don’t be mean
And use it to clean up your sand.

*My kin really aren’t ugly, the poem required this phrase.

This poem has been approved by the ADA.

So what brought about this insanity?

I didn’t want to work on any of the posts that I have in progress, but I didn’t have any other ideas. So I googled “I don’t know what to blog about.” and the BlogIdeas website came up. One of the suggestions suggested writing a poem about your toothbrush, so I did.

I know that you don’t want me to have all the fun. It is your turn! Leave your poem about your toothbrush and/or dental hygiene in the comments.

Class dismissed!

Due to a freak Windows Hibernating accident the story that I was writing has been destroyed. A recommendation for the faithful WIT readers. When the laptop you are working on say the battery is low and you need to plug it in, it isn’t kidding. You might think that you have time to save before moving to plug the laptop in, but you don’t. And in the middle of the save of your nearly completed post, when the laptop suddenly enters Hibernation mode, don’t anticipate to salvage anything… at all.

Instead of being angry about the whole thing and throwing the laptop across the room (it isn’t mine) I am choosing to be thankful that I wasn’t finished with the post… just very close to being finished. *sigh* These mind games aren’t really working…

Anyway, WIT wishes everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving, whether you are celebrating it or not.

Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NLT)

Class dismissed!

Mild mannered teacher by day, color clashing super hero by night.

Beware the Tigra Stalker!

Thanks to {Spare Change} for this time consuming diversion. Yes, you can make your own.

I may regret not taking Edna Mode’s suggestion and going sans cape. Mental note to self: Try to stay away from jet airplane engines.

Class dismissed!

Some mindless entertianment, previously played by {jen}.

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Oridnary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You’re the glue that holds everyone together.

And you?

Class dismissed!