Christmas is Coming ...........

[Super Nova]

I'll have one of those in any colour.

[mellie]

Christmas Spirit...

A friend of mine was at his local toy-barn buying gifts for his children for Xmas, when he noticed a small boy (aged about six) standing at the store counter with a small plastic doll counting his money, all of which was in coin.

My friend realising the little boy was distressed asked if he needed a hand with counting his money.
Then when he asked him why he was buying a doll, the little boy advised it was for his sister,and that she was with god now and that his mummy would be with god soon too.(perhaps she is sick or something, unsure about this part of it).

My friend then reached into his wallet and added a few more dollars to the boys handful of coin and said, "lets count it again."

Turns out this kid was the surviving child of a fatal car and truck accident that happened some months back in rural NSW, out Dubbo way.




________________________________________

And to this I will just add, my friend doesn't have a religious bone in his body.
For me, this is what Christmas is about, and you don't have to be a 'believer' to celebrate it.

[mantra]

I started my shopping yesterday, but was surprised at how empty the shops were. The shopping centre was dead and the car parks a quarter full. This time last year - you'd have to drive around for half an hour to find a park. Most items were already marked down which indicates that store owners are desperate.

I'll finish it off over the next few days, and maybe business will have picked up a little, but comparing this year to previous years I would think that many people will be having a very bleak Xmas.

[mellie]

I started my shopping yesterday, but was surprised at how empty the shops were. The shopping centre was dead and the car parks a quarter full. This time last year - you'd have to drive around for half an hour to find a park. Most items were already marked down which indicates that store owners are desperate.

I'll finish it off over the next few days, and maybe business will have picked up a little, but comparing this year to previous years I would think that many people will be having a very bleak Xmas.

It's eerily quiet for this time of year, I must admit.

With the exception of Centrelink (Now understaffed and called Human Services) which has elderly, pregnant and people with disabilities sitting down in lines (some on the ground) lining up out the doors and into the street.

A Gillard government thought it would be a neat trick to combine the two departments "Medicare and Centrelink" though didn't think it necessary to provide centres with more staff.

I spoke to a staff member yesterday, (I had to register my newborn child for Medicare) and she advised that staff are going off on stress leave, are being threatened and abused by the disgruntled public, this and even spat on.
If this isn't bad enough, people are falling asleep waiting to speak with Centrelink/human services staff on the phone, and their website cant handle the traffic so is advising people to try again later.

I had been trying to register for online access for a week, and to no avail. Hence I had to go in.

So, in short....

Shops are empty, dole queues are long.... what else did we expect from a Labor government?

Did we really think that Fair Work Australia would bring about positive change?

Now the more disgruntled, insecure and over-worked people become in their work-places, the more likely they are to join a union,(out of desperation) ...and just in time for the next federal election too.

Their union members magazines are absolutely spewing with anti-coalition hate propaganda.


Oh, and by the way...
Merry Xmas!!

[mellie]

Dear animals...

http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/previ ... 2/graphic1


Hugs Mel

[Neferti]

Thanks Mel.

I've been subscribing to the Jacquie Lawson site for years. For $14.95 pa I can send cards for all events to all my epals. Worth checking out. Beautiful cards for all occasions.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/

[Neferti]

I started my shopping yesterday, but was surprised at how empty the shops were. The shopping centre was dead and the car parks a quarter full. This time last year - you'd have to drive around for half an hour to find a park. Most items were already marked down which indicates that store owners are desperate.

I'll finish it off over the next few days, and maybe business will have picked up a little, but comparing this year to previous years I would think that many people will be having a very bleak Xmas.

I finished my shopping early, however, I have been to the Mall on Monday, Tuesday and again this morning for bibs and bobs. It definitely doesn't seem as frantic as it usually is at this time of year. Myers was almost empty when I wandered through but the schools here break up tomorrow and I never, ever go to the Mall on the weekend, so it could be bedlam then. Mind you, I haven't spent any less and none on the plastic! Even Woollies on Tuesday was reasonably quiet. Only one person in front of me at the checkout and I bought "all" the Christmas stuff (except fresh food).

[AiA in Atlanta]

Was at Atlanta's most upscale shopping mall yesterday and was surprised by the number of sales going on and that the stores weren't that crowded.

[Super Nova]

Merry Christmas.... ho ho ho

That is if we survive today. 3 hours to go before the end of the world.

Just to re-enforce the magical myth of christmas I offer this oldie.

Does Santa exist

As a result of an overwhelming lack of requests, and with research help from that renown scientific journal - I am pleased to present the annual scientific inquiry into Santa Claus.

1)No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2)There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

3)Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.

This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man- made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4)The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds.

Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5)353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft's re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second.

Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be valorised within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity.

A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

Mmmm... but remember kids, when you stop believing in Santa is when you start getting clothes for Christmas...

[Super Nova]

Always hated this doll.


Barbie's letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Listen you fat little troll, I've been helping you out every year, playing at being the perfect Christmas present, wearing skimpy bathing
suits in frigid weather, and drowning in fake tea from too many tea parties. I hate to break it to you Santa, but it is DEFINITELY pay back
time!!

There had better be some changes around here this Christmas, or I'm gonna call for a nationwide meltdown (and trust me, you don't want to be around to smell it!) So, here's my holiday wish list for this year, Santa.

1. A nice, comfy pair of sweat pants and a frumpy, oversized sweatshirt. I'm sick of looking like a hooker. How much smaller are
these bathing suits gonna get? Do you have any idea what it feels like to have nylon and velcro up your butt?

2. Real underwear that can be pulled on and off. Preferably white. What bonehead at Mattel decided to be cheap and mold imitation underwear to my skin? It looks like cellulite!!!

3. A REAL man....maybe G.I.Joe. Hell, I'd take Tickle-Me-Elmo over that wimped out excuse for a boy-toy Ken. And what's with the earring
anyway? If I'm going to have to suffer with him, for christ's sakes, make us anatomically correct.

4. Arms that actually bend so I can push the aforementioned Ken-wimp away once he is anatomically correct.

5. Breast reduction surgery. I don't care whose arm you have to twist, just do it!!

6. A jog-bra. To wear until I get the surgery.

7. A new career. Pet doctor and school teacher just don't cut it. How about a systems analyst? Or better yet, a public relations senior account exec!!

8. A new, more 90's persona. Maybe a "PMS Barbie", complete with a miniature container of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and a bag of chips; "Animal Rights Barbie", with my very own paint gun, fitted with fake fur coat, bottle of spray blood and handcuffs; or "Stop
Smoking Barbie", sporting a Nicotrol patch and equipped with several packs of gum.

9. No more McDonald's endorsements. The grease is wrecking my vinyl.

10. mattel stock options. It's been 37 years-I think I deserve it!

Okay Santa, that's it. considering my valuable contribution to society, I don't think these requests are out of line. If you disagree, then you can find yourself a new bitch for next Christmas. It's that simple.

Yours truly,
Barbie