Black Friday

Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the US. I don't really celebrate the holiday (as I consider it and Columbus Day, as practically celebrating the killing of millions of Native Americans)but I do celebrate food...everyday. So I hope everyone was able to eat and fill up on things good and tasty. I also hope everyone is enjoying and not going crazy today. If you are out buying gifts for those you love it makes no sense to hurt people someone else loves. Speaking of "love" this song has been in my head for a few days so I thought I'd share :"Love Mode"

Clazziquai project, Pe'z and M-flo are all pretty good bands. I suggest you check them out if you never heard of them before.
My recommendation is;
Instant Pig & Color Your Soul for Clazziquai
Astromantic, Beat Space Nine, and Cosmicolor for M-flo
I haven't heard any full Pe'z CDs to recommend one.

七夕 / I'm in love

It's 7/7 today, otherwise known as Tanabata. This "7th night" holiday is celebrated in Japan and several other countries in Asia. It's essentially connected to the movement of the stars and a romance story that I'll write a quick overview of here:
Basically a lowly cow-herder and an celestial princess meet and fall in love. As seems apt to happen with young lovers they neglected their duties once they found themselves enthralled with each other. The princess happened to also be the weaver of heaven's clothes and gods are apparently neither fans of wearing old clothes, nor of cows running around heaven. The lovers were punished, sent to opposite ends of heaven and allowed to meet each other once a year. I think there is a great lesson in fatherly love here that demands his daughter to work 364 days and then get a one day break to meet your love but the story is actually about the lovers.
So why am I mentioning this holiday? Simply because I have found myself loving someone too recently. Now I don't use the word loosely. Of all the women I liked I haven't told any of them "I love you", this including those women I believe I may have actually "loved". The word is too powerful to just throw around, so I have only said it to family members. However I will gladly tell the world about my new love, in fact I can't stop talking about her!
She's the brightest light in this dark world. With those curious eyes that seem to say they have seen so much yet want to see even more, she' the absolute cutest baby ever. I don't even find most babies cute but she is. Definitely. The best foster baby cousin a guy can have!
Okay, so yes, technically she's family. But still... she's a darling, and I only met her on the 4th of July so... I'm not the only one who has become entranced by her either. Wait! speaking of which what happened to her little brother? I think we all neglected him as we vied for her attention. Guess he'll have to work on his cute factor or something.

Barbarians

Recently I have rekindled my love of history. Of course this has only reminded me that history can be pretty subjective. For instance there are a lot of groups who have been considered barbarians. Yet in hindsight barbarians were really any group who had different views than you. Which based on current American history books means people different than Romans. However many of these barbarians had their own developed culture, laws and religions. The biggest evidence of them matching the perceived view of a barbarian is that most had no writing system of their own, however considering that most were nomadic there is always the chance that writing systems have just not survived.
Thinking about it in a new light settlers of the Americas would be considered barbarians. In both cases people migrated to a land where others lived and conquering them due to goals such as gaining wealth, being persecuted, or just to start a new life. And in both cases settlers learned from The biggest difference I see is that Native American nations were not united and did not direct the new groups to attack each other as Rome had.

My kanji/word for the New Year

発達
Growth

Lucky Charms and Columbus Day

So it's Columbus day. I don't personally celebrate Columbus day. It's not because there were people on America before the Spanish came although that does play a part in it. It's not because the Africans were the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean to America although that also plays a part in it. It's mostly because he used the name of god in his actions when all he was doing was plundering people and resources. I know a lot of people have done this in history like with the Crusades and even Hitler however it will never become right or acceptable in my eyes. However it's always nice to get a day off right!

I must applaud Lucky Charms cereal. No they are not my favorite however I recently got a box(it was on sale) and it tasted how I remember it. I've noticed as I've gotten older that many foods don't taste how I remember it from early childhood. surprisingly most of these foods are pre-packed preserved foods. They have changed while I was growing! I know some things are just me getting older and developing my taste buds as they change but some stuff has certainly changed too.Trix and Fruit Loops added sugar or sweetener. In fact the last time I had Trix it was too sweet to enjoy. But with the Lucky Charms the grain pieces and marshmallows tasted just like I thought they would. I can usually over eat with cereal anyway but I had even more than I usually do today just from that connection with my younger years.

This is the first day a blood transfusion was documented from 1667 with the blood of a sheep going into a 15 year old boy who bled from fever.

Now as for holidays: This the Republic of Malawi 's Freedom Day,
the final day of Vestalia,
The commemoration of Willams Adams who shipwrecked in Japan and the book Shogun by Clavell was loosely based on.
Flag Day in Denmark.
And Elder Abuse Awareness day.

Today is the seventh day of the Vestalia which rakes place from June 7th to 15th. Vestalia was a holiday celebrated in ancient Rome. I find it interesting because it's for the god Vesta, who was the god of the hearth. Not only did homes have a hearth where they honored donating food to her before and after every meal her but there was also a city hearth which wasn't allowed to go out. Also when making a new city they took coals from the main city were taken to the new city's hearth. Yet despite all this evidence of her being an important god she is one
mysterious ones without any stories about her.

Also some interesting news in China. A new law allows parents to name their children with either or both of their family names instead of former laws restricting it to one name. The reason was there are so many people there are confusions with names.