Happy Winter Solstice!!!

Today was the official beginning of Winter, as we entered the Winter Solstice. Now I know everyone celebrates x-mas, hannukah & kwanzaa but if we look deep into our history books, the Winter Solstice was the original holiday during this time of year. Sure, some think that the overzealous religions of our world stole this holiday from the "pagans" (read: indigenous people who were here long before Christianity demonized them) & put it to their own use but it's deeper than that. If you look up "the true meaning of xmas" in the dictionary, you'd see 2 things: 1) a picture of Jimmy Stewart from It's a Wonderful Life & 2) an excerpt from any early civilization's Winter Solstice celebrations.

It's no secret that many early civilizations were very advanced in the area of astronomy; just as it's no coincidence that these civilization's calendars, if still in use today, would be FAR more accurate than our, current Gregorian calendar (can you say Leap Year, 2hr. offsets every yr, etc?). Why? Simply because they were one with the stars, sun & moon. Their lives were intimately tied to the seasons & the cycle of harvest. Countless civilizations built their greatest landmarks to align with the solstices: everyone knows about Stonehenge, the Pyramids in Egypt, etc. but there are so many more I can't even begin to list them all (there's even one here in the U.S.- in New Mexico). The solstices were a time to celebrate fertility, family & the benevolence/generosity of the Sun in their daily lives, as well as to pray for a blessed harvest in the following cycle. Sure sounds a lot like what xmas, kwanzaa & hannukah are "supposed" to stand for these days.

Like Levar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, "but you don't have to take my word for it." "Take a look, it's in a book..."

Chivas Campeones!!!

Chivas de Guadalajara se impuso al Toluca en la Bombonera (Estadio Nemesio Diaz) 2-1!!! Buenisimo partido con tremendos goles de Marioni, "Masa" Rodriguez y del Bofo Bautista (el gol de la diferencia). Asi le pone mono a un torneo estupendo donde vio al Chiverio pelear el repechaje despues de terminar en decimo lugar en la tabla general.

Aplausos a todos los de Chivas, especialmente a Oswaldo Sanchez- superestrella en la porteria- quien nunca habia sido campeon en Mexico hasta hoy. Ojala se quede con nuestro Rabano Sagrado.

Verbum Dei 32; LaSalle 10

Verb crowned themselves Southern Section champs tonite w/the drubbing of a red-hot LaSalle team that was coming in on an 8-game winning streak!!!!

Abuelita

So I've been doing some cleaning & going through old docs/papers I don't need (dang, shredding stuff feels so good!) & came across a poem I wrote about my grandma & my 1st trip back to Mexico a while back. Enjoy it while I try & translate this to spanish & see if still rhymes (yes, it's cheesy, I know):

GRANDMA


I miss my grandma,
I really do.
I need my grandma,
As I'm sure you do too.

I miss her love,
her stories and dedication.
I miss her tears of joy,
her caring ways and always giving gratification.

She is not far,
for she is still around.
But it was a trying experience,
for this wonderful woman to be found.

I finally had the money,
so I had to go.
Especially if it meant,
traveling to the heart of Mexico.

Ten glorious days I spent in the motherland,
place of my birth.
So the expenses I can assure you,
it was well worth.

Family galore,
I never knew I had so many.
But the most important of all,
is my sweetie of a granny.

(M. H. Morales; written 2/10/97)

3-8

So I've lost 38 lbs. since the beginning of March. A couple of you have asked me how I've done it so I decided to just post it here:

1) eliminated fried foods
2) reduced the portions of red meat that I eat
3) increased vegetables/fruits in my daily regimen
4) eliminated just 100 calories a day (just started doing this 2wks ago) which = 2 tortillas daily
5) stayed positive

What led to the change? I saw 2 pix of myself about a year ago & was like "wow, why didn't my friends tell me?!!!" As you can see, exercise isn't on that list. It's because I really haven't exercised but I figure once I get into a good workout/lifting routine, that's how I'll lose the 15-20 lbs. I'd still like to shed. While the pictures were the catalyst, I did it mostly to change bad habits & get into healthy routines. I'll stress that I've always looked @ the mirror & liked myself- maybe i wasn't content or satisfied but I never looked at myself w/disdain. I've always said that it's that FIRST step that's the toughest but once you get past that, there's no turning back.

Buncha whinos...

So, yea, I went to go watch the 'SC game w/a bunch of college buddies & friends. UCLA played a helluva game & ran their gameplan to perfection as coach Carroll got outcoached by coach Dorrell. They deserved the hard-fought win.

But this post is about college coaches & presidents around the nation whining their way into BCS games. We all remember Cal getting screwed out of the Rose Bowl a couple years back as the Texas coach was whining at any media member he could find & they got in. This year, it was the Florida president AND coach (urban meyer) doing the whining to the media & they got into the BCS championship game vs. Ohio State. We look down on this behavior on a national level because this isn't what our kids should be getting taught (you can argue parents "give in" all the time, exemplified by the temper tantum-throwing kid in the market getting the ice cream he so wanted after all, etc). But c'mon, these are freaking grown men whining about why they should be "picked" by the voters. The NBA enacted a no-whining rule this year, I wish the NCAA would do the same. You can't have it both ways- chastising kids for their temper tantrums while adults on national tv are doing the same.

It's like a commercial I saw on tv this week geared at parents: you can't just tell your kids to eat healthy & exercise, you have to DO & lead by example 'cuz kids won't emulate what you tell 'em but they will emulate what they see. It's no wonder so much of our youth is growing up spoiled, all they see on tv is national figureheads whining about things & then getting what they want. Some nice lesson we're learning from leaders at our institutions of higher education...