Pre-Christmas Random Observations

• Merry Christmas to the rare readers of this blog.  Christmas in China is better in the sense that it doesn't overwhelm one.  However, the forlorn feelings that the holiday gives one are still as intense as they would be if one were in the West.
• I was adding on Trains, Cars, and Routes to my Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS as those who like this sort of thing call it) on my last weekend before Christmas.  It was all to make Tony happy.  Now, Tony can choose from jet-engine trains and boats to run on all the routes.
• I saw a report somewhere on the Internet that atheists are doing ads depicting happy atheist families.  Wonderful!  I thought.  The atheists are trying to tell us they are really like Mormons.
• Confucius say "He who farts in church, sits in pew."  Will some people find that joke offensive?  I find it a cute play on words myself.
• I hate stop-and-chats (that is term I picked up from Curb Your Enthusiasm).  I am so used to just listening to my podcasts and thinking my irate thoughts, that running in somebody throws me off my routine.
• What to do if students give one-word answers.  I make a sentence for them that they need to respond to with a full sentence.  e.g. Do you have a girlfriend?  If they say just "no!", I will then suggest that they have two or three girlfriends.  To which they will often respond, in a full sentence, that they don't have a girlfriend.
• Having to put on a Santa Claus costume, I take on an intense hating for Santa Claus.  The Birth of Jesus story would make for more interesting costumes, I think.
• What to do Christmas Day?  My wife Jenny wants to go for a nice meal at some restaurant.  I prefer to stay home but then Jenny would have to do some cooking, and I don't want to burden her.  But the thought of getting out of the house and taking a bus downtown is a burden as well.  I like the idea of Tony and I playing with the train set and the compter trains on Christmas Day.
• The school will take us to a hotel on the evening of December 23 for a Christmas Dinner.  Jenny and Tony won't be accompanying me, so I will be free, but I will surely have to deal with questions asking about their absence.