Pumpkin Seeds: Gonzalez's Twelve Edition

1. The difference between sanity and insanity is whether or not you do what the voices tell you.

2. If you know you're a sore loser, it's best not to answer the phone for an hour or so after your team loses the game you talked so much trash about.

3. Don't tell my wife but, I don't really hate Christmas. Beyond the obligatory, consumerist aspect of it - which I do despise - I actually like shopping for people I want to get gifts. The feeling of finding that perfect gift for someone makes the overall stress worth it.

4. In particular, the Incredibles pajamas we got Isaac and India are the coolest thing this side of my own Batman pjs!

5. Of course, receiving is almost as good as giving, so hit my wish list and buy me something as a thanks for entertaining you!

6. Thanks to one of my reviews on Comic Book Commentary, I'm being added to an indie publisher's comp list! Also, over on the Newsarama forums, I've gone back and forth a couple of times with John Romita, Jr. regarding the upcoming Black Panther relaunch that he's drawing, with Reginald Hudlin writing. My plan to break into comics by the end of 2006 is underway.

7. Among the more rational things I'll do when we win the lottery, I plan to go crazy on eBay buying comic books to expand my collection, and open a store that encourages actually reading them over collecting them. Of course, I'll sell fair trade coffee, too.

8. Speaking of Fair Trade, pick one person you were going to buy something for on Amazon or at Target, and go here and get them something instead. You'll feel better for it.

9. Salomé's recently been hooked on this Saturday morning block of Indian TV shows on cable, and as of this weekend, so am I. On their Entertainment Tonight knockoff, they previewed this movie, Musafir, that looked like a bizarre combination of Tarantino and Chicago, with hard-core violent action mixed with Bollywood-style musical numbers. It's apparently based on Oliver Stone's U-Turn. I want to see it.

10. One interesting side effect of reading Chango's Fire is that it's rekindled my interest in religion. Spirituality, actually. Sometimes I feel like I swung too far to the opposite extreme after walking away from the Jehovah's Witnesses and that there's been a hole there ever since. Everyone needs something to believe in, to pray to, for lack of a better term. I bought a San Antonio candle a couple of weeks ago - Salomé suggested picking whichever one spoke to me - and from some quick research, it seems that he's the equivalent of Eleggua (the trickster) in Santeria, one of the first Orishas new...worshippers (?) receive. Have to look into it some more.

11. A few months back, I was discussing religion with a friend of mine, an irregularly-practicing Jew, and she asked me about the kids and how we were going to handle religion, if at all. The idea of having some sort of moral foundation and a system of values - not in the Christian Right kind of way, but in the practical sense - and where does that come from if not from religion. Tricky stuff.

12. 18.5 days until the end of 2004. Are you ready?