Wishing everyone a joyful season and happy holidays! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I thought you might enjoy this animation I made for Christmas 2002. I edited it just now to slow it down a bit. (Flash player required.)

Last night we finally got a tree — just a little one, about 5 feet, and just the right size for the small number of decorations we have. I'll take a few photos tonight now that the camera is charged up again. At last, the living room feels merry. Just adding a string of LEDs around the window (thanks, Mom and Dad!) — and now it's actually around the window instead of dangling halfway across the wall to reach the outlet :) — made a big difference. Adding the tree with presents underneath really makes it sparkle, and makes ME smile every time I walk into the room. I managed to clean the living room quite nicely, then messed it up again wrapping presents! On the other hand, the kitchen is clean at last, with a beautiful holly-print table runner, some candles and my mother's angel chimes in the middle. My Santa mug and more candles decorate the stove. (We have a small kitchen with no window, so the stove ledge acts as a windowsill.)

Last Wednesday, the 13th, I presented my grad project, AfterTASTE: What's wrong with our food supply? It's a website about the decline of nutritional value in conventionally-grown/raised food. I'll still be adding to it when I have time. Meanwhile, I encourage you to browse the site, and please leave me some comments in the blog!

I just turned on the TV, which was left on HGTV (the Canadian version), and an American show called "I Want That!" was on. I'm dismayed. Consumer culture and cheesy shopping network style aside, some of the "nifty" new products it was showcasing are troubling.

From Beyond Robson:
"Welcome to a new wrinkle in Beyond Robson. The New Wrinkle is a daily video podcast produced right here in Vancouver, now producing weekly episodes for Beyond Robson.

"Today's episode: The sugar industry has kept the healthy herbal sweetener stevia off the market in many countries around the world."

Watch the video

Stevia has a different taste than sugar, but it tastes oh-so-good in tea. I really like sugar in my tea. I'll go without it for green tea, mint tea, and ginger-mint tea. I've reduced the amount of sugar I use by a small amount, but I feel guilty having black tea because it requires more sugar. Stevia would be a guilt-free answer! It comes in liquid and granule form, and is great with yogurt.

A lot of my time gets wasted by spammers, who have nothing better to do than to waste my time. I get email alerts from MT when I get comments, so I have to go and delete the spam ones. Then I come in here and junk and delete the ones from my main comments area, and empty the junk folder (thanks for the new feature, guys!). And I shake my head at all this stupid stuff. It's the same with emails: do you think I don't realise it's spam? What good does this do you? I guess they're just out there to annoy people.

Anyway.

I FINALLY got TypeKey authentication working. It was a simple problem at the server that they have now fixed (thanks J.E.T. and DJT), which in turn fixed my TypeKey sign-in validation issue. Yesss. So that means less of my time will be wasted, and it may save you guys a few seconds each time you comment. Speaking of which, since I hardly get any comments, I figured making TypeKey registration mandatory wouldn't do much harm. If you'd like to comment and haven't got a TypeKey account, it's free, quick, and painless and you'll enjoy using it at other blogs. There's a link at the bottom to register. Please do, then come back here and send me your thoughts!

Last but not least, I can approve commenters so your comments should appear right away. Just don't post anything that breaks copyright law, eh? :)