True meaning of Christmas?

Over on another forum, this one guy said he was an Atheist and hated Christmas and spending time with his asshole family.  While I couldn't really say anything about his family, that's a complicated issue, I don't get the idea that being an Atheist automatically meant you can't get into Christmas or you would "hate" Christmas.  How many Christmas specials were less about the idea of Jesus Christ and his birth and more about the general idea of being kid and generous, being with family and loved ones, and spreading kindness to everyone you meet?  After all, you have the entire rest of the year to be an asshole or act like yourself, but I really do think we need at least this one time of year to just put all that negative energy aside and focus on what's good in life.  "Peace on Earth, good will toward man (and woman)" and all that stuff, am I right?

Not to mention, Christmas wasn't even originally about Jesus anyway, it was originally a hedonistic celebration of the Winter Solstices, in which the Christians used to celebrate the birth of Christ in order to convert more people at once.

So really, Christmas can be whatever you want it to be, you can make it about the family and friends, you can make it about Jesus, you can make it about Winter, you can even make it about the huge economic boost that comes with buying all sorts of stuff.  That, I believe, is the true beauty of Christmas.  But, like many aspects of American culture, most people have that "it's my way or the highway" mentality, as you can tell by all this "War on Christmas" BS that's been going around.  Honestly, I think the most important thing to keep in mind during Christmas, regardless of how you celebrate it, is to just be kind, generous, and pass on those good feelings.  Being selfish and saying "Christmas MUST be this way" is pretty much the exact opposite of what I feel Christmas should be about, and it doesn't get us anywhere either, since there will BE no middle ground for some of these people.

So, with that in mind, however you celebrate this holiday season, I wish you the merriest and the best, for you and you're loved ones.  Have fun and enjoy.

In Defense of Derpy, Bronies, and My Little Pony

For those of you who don't know, I am a Brony; in other words, I am a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  I could make a number of blog posts about that show, and why I like it.  Hell, I'm probably thinking about doing mini-reviews of each episode sometime soon, when I get the time.  But for now, I want to talk about something specific about the show.

For some context, here's a brief, "Cliffnotes" version of what went down: there's a character in the show, a Pegasus pony with a gray coat, gold eyes, blonde mane and tail, with Bubbles for her "Cutie Mark".  She gained wide-spread recognition in the show for having cross-eyes in the very first appearance in the first episode of the series.  Since then, the people making the show took note of how popular among the fandom she was, and in subsequent episodes, was featured more prominently, particularly during season 2, where the team making the show made it a point to give this character, who the fandom affectionately called "Derpy Hooves", specific scenes for the fans to pick up on.  This all culminated in the episode "The Last Roundup", wherein she was given her very first speaking role, and was actually called "Derpy" within the show.  The fandom rejoiced at this...  until the episode was taken down on iTunes, and eventually, the scene was edited, so that Derpy had a less goofy-sounding voice, her eyes were slightly fixed, and any references to the name "Derpy" were completely removed.  Apparently, a small group of people took offense to this character, probably one they had not noticed until she was thrust into the spotlight like this, thinking she was something of a stereotype of how retarded people acted.  Now, I could easily talk about how this argument doesn't make sense, and I feel the only reason people were offended is because they, themselves, think this is how retarded people acted, but no, what I want to talk about is the backlash from the actual fans of the show in regards of this, and how Hasbro and The Hub (the TV channel in which this show airs) responded.

My new blog

So hi, my name's Matt.  I've been on the Internet for a good long while, now...  Going to different forums, posting my opinions, etc.  After showing my posts to a couple of my co-workers, they suggested I start a blog.  Honestly, I've been thinking about starting my own vlog on YouTube.  I do have a lot of things I want to say and stuff, but I don't have a camera or a microphone.  As for a blog, I didn't think I would, but as I find myself posting longer posts, with huge walls of text, I found myself thinking, you know, maybe I should start a blog, just to post stuff I'm thinking about...

So yeah, here it is, my own blog.  I have no idea what I'm doing or how blogspot even works.  Labels, permalinks, posting videos, I have no clue how all of this works!  Hopefully, I'll learn the ropes as time goes on, but I hope there will be people to help me out along the way.  Here's hoping everything goes smoothly, and you enjoy what I have to say.