Easter: Also Pagan in Origin

Unfortunately I'm at work so I won't go into intense detail about the history of Easter or other Christian holidays that have their origins in pagan festivals/holidays. Also, as a disclaimer, I'd like to say that I'm not religious. But I was raised in the Christian church and I love history, so I like to study this stuff.

Ooh, and "Pagan" is not synonymous with "Satanic". Please stop listening to the zealots who tell you that if it's not "of God", then it must be of Satan.

Anyway, Easter. Easter gets its name from the Germanic goddess Eostre (also Eastre or Ôstarâ). During an old Scandinavian (Germanic? Same thing?) festival the heralding of spring by Eostre was celebrated. Not going to go into the particulars of the festivities, but it was believed that every year spring was brought by Eostre and that she must be kept happy in orer to ensure that she would return.

The celebrations were held on and around the vernal equinox (March 21st). Today in Western Christianity Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Eastern Christians link Easter more closely to the Jewish feast of Passover (Biblical history places Jesus' crucifiction and resurrection during Passover) and so place its date according to the observation of Passover.

While much of the history surrounding Eostre and her feast(s) are not written in stone, it is generally accepted that her animal was the hare and that she also was linked to the egg. Eggs in many culture represent fertility or new birth (both also ideas connected to spring). The hare and egg symbolism was carried over to the Christian anniversary and remain so today. Some Christians have adopted the egg and changed its meaning to represent the tomb Christ was buried in or to symbolize the rolling away of the rock at the tomb's entrance.

Just a skim. My friend is pressuring me to go to lunch with her now so I can't get into too much detail.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned | Screenshots!

In 2008, Rockstar was in danger of being no more or worse: sold into the hands of a someone other than Take Two, its parent company. Take Two had some financial issues and for most of 2008 was pretty close to being the subject of a hostile takeover by EA (insert "ugh" here). Microsoft saw an opportunity to steal even more gamers from the Playstation camp (I'll admit I jumped ship) and struck a deal with the Rockstar guys: they would grant Rockstar a $50 million loan to help them make the most expensive game ever ($100 million) if the next GTA installation included two downloadeable expansions exclusive to Xbox 360. The Grand Theft Auto series got its fame on the PS2 but money talks. The deal was made and Rockstar/Take Two got the money needed to keep their place as the gods of console violence for the new millenium.

The first episode is here...well...almost. It'll be available to download via Xbox Live on February 17th and I'll be ready to send it through my broadband connection and into my box on the 18th (I'm teaching myself patience). No word on pricing or file size yet. But do I care? No. I'm setting myself up with an Xbox Live membership (finally...), a hard drive, and some HDMI cables in preparation. You'll be playing as Johnny Klebitz, a member of The Lost biker gang from GTA IV. To continue random acts of violence on innocent bystanders--I mean for more new missions with purpose and no casualties you need an Xbox 360, Grand Theft Auto IV, and an Xbox Live membership.

One issue: I haven't been able to decently handle a chopper in any GTA game during a chase. But how am I gonna look as a biker gangster in a two seater coupe?

Killer Instinct

OUR New President

I'm so excited about the upcoming presidency I can hardly contain myself! We have been so wrong for so long about so much! While it's obvious that America is not 100% ready to treat a Black man as an equal, what happened at the polls yesterday and last week has given me a sense of relief and hope that I haven't had since I was a child, ignorant to the bigotry and hate that still exists in our nation. No matter how many minorities showed up to vote, we could NOT have done this without White voters. That's first. So please don't look at this as a victory over White people. Look at this as a victory over hatred, ignorance, and passivity.

I woke up this morning and saw a little bit of CNN's coverage of people across the world celebrating our choice of leadership. What an impact our nation has on the lives of so many around the world! People who have never even visited this country! Our economy fails and people all across the globe go hungry. We go to war and the most powerful nations across the world will risk the lives of their own sons and daughters to fight by our side for our cause. Even if we have wasted their lives for nothing. Our charitable contributions dwindle and millions go without. It is so easy to be seen as a negative figure in the eyes of the world. Too easy. So this makes me so proud right now that we can shine as a positive example for those who still endure injustices due to hatred and misunderstanding. Even if it turns out to be temporary. A Black man will be the leader of the free world!

I am most proud of our decision not because he is a Black man. But because he is an AMERICAN. We CHOSE an American. He RAN as an American. I thank him SO MUCH for not running as a BLACK American. Even if he won it would have taken so much away from the victory. I can't explain why. Perhaps it's because I feel that it's more important for voters to elect a Black man as one of us; as opposed to electing him to "give a darkie a chance". More important for us to trust a man to lead us into the next few years, regardless of his skin color, rather than pretend to trust him BECAUSE of his skin color. I want this moment to be historical, but not sensational. I want it to be seen as progressive, but not as a blind leap. I want it to represent change, but not revolution. I may be asking too much.

I want black people to see Barack Hussein Obama not as our savior, but as proof that we had already been saved.

I Have Already Seen Enough Enough History to Last a Lifetime

I was 10 days old when the Challenger shuttle exploded.

I was 15 years old when September 11th changed our nation forever.

I watched a woman run for Democratic Presidential Nominee. And be taken seriously.


And now we've elected a Black man president.


Oh my God. We did it.

Grey's Anatomy 10/23/08

Did anyone see Grey's last night? It was pretty good. Not harrowing and hair-pull inducing like the premiere, but a good Grey's episode. To really get heart rates going they should've focused less on Grey and Derek and more on the piggy back surgery potentially failing. The way it almost came apart was just not dramatic enough. Last season I kind of fell off because it wasn't holding my interest anymore and I think that's because they strayed away from a lot of the sardonic humor that made the show interesting for me. I feel like it was more focused on drama b/w Grey and Derek, Bambi and Callie, etc etc. At least that's what it felt like to me.

Last night's episode reminded me of why I love the show with of one scene: the one where the residents are eating lunch and they've got the interns all lined up in front of them while they pick and choose which ones they want and which ones to give to Bambi (I cannot think of his name to save my life right now). Basically, Christina is taking notes and they are talking within earshot of these interns about them without censorship. Grey's sister is like "we're right here, we can hear you" and of course they ignore her and keep deliberating. Yang even yells at an awkward, doe-eyed intern just for putting his tray down when his arms start to get tired, in the vein of the old comedically anal Christina Yang instead of the more recent grindingly anal Christina Yang. The scene was evocative of the old ironic humor that put Grey's where it was a couple of seasons ago (i.e. before the writer's strike): an Emmy award-winning comedy cum drama at the top of America's network television lineups. It's the kind of scene that is worthy of its own YouTube or Hulu submission with 6-figure hits and a 5-star rating and it's been a while since Grey's had one of those I'm sure.

While it wasn't perfect—Grey and Derek still had some meaningless disagreement taking up 10-15 minutes of air time in all. Izzy still wasn't funny and hasn't been for a while now (isn't Katherine Heigl a comedy actress? Helloooooo?). Callie and the ugly heart surgeon are still having a go at this lesbian thing that's failing horribly as an attempt to keep viewers, and Karev….sigh….the bad boy image is looking a bit….forced. Hell, even the scene I loved could've done without Grey Jr.'s input (no need to have her point out the irony in the scene. We get it)--*ahem* while it wasn't perfect, I watched and will tune in again next week. Until then, Heroes and premium cable series will have all my attention.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Albums!!!!

So…lately I'm finding it hard to please myself. As far music tastes go that is. I've been noticing more and more that I don't buy/download full albums except for rare occasions. And even that is just so I can pick and choose the songs I want to put them on my iPod and then I never ever listen to that album again. I buy most of my music a la carte; a track here, a track there--all different artists, and more importantly, all different types of genres. I have no idea how to build coherent playlists out of the hodgepodge of tracks in my iTunes library.

I remember reading years ago when iTunes became popular that this is how music was going to be consumed in the very near future and I'm experiencing it first hand. This is probably the very reason why music sales are down the past few years not piracy! Back in the day the only singles you could buy a la carte were officially released. So you had to cart around a whole CD or (God forbid) cassette (what's that?!) with just one song on it; maybe a few remixes on the B side. Now every track is available for consumption as its own little piece of that artist's catalogue, if you want it, it's yours. I actually find it hard to justify the old model of putting out a 10-15 track album every few years when faced with the new ways music is being consumed. Look at Billboard: on the singles-plotting charts platinum diamonds and gold circles decorate way more singles than do their full-length counterparts on the album charts. Ringtones, singles….we don't need no stinkin' albums!