If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Comments
^Don't all of them?
Santa as a character in... about any story, when I think of it, sounds like bit hard to pull off as serious. I mean, at least if we count warm family stories as not serious.
quite a few of the kids' relatives can't be found so they work in return for education and shelter. Some of the helpers were originally kids who were taken in by the saint as well. Nicholas' ideas of moral behaviour when it comes to the kids he adopts are essentially still 4th century ideas. Since he's basically an elf his morality is kind of Blue and Orange (elves are humanlike and mostly average human height) but that's because it's so old - fashioned.
@lrdgck: Yeah the modern day image of Santa is kind of hard to make into a serious character. But "my" version of Santa looks and acts more like the historical/legendary Nicholas of Myra. He doesn’t even live at the North Pole but in Turkey and rides a horse or drives a horse-drawn cart instead of driving a reindeer-pulled sleigh. So he's a very different take on Santa (understatement).
Happy belated birthday.
Though yeah I feel that way too as I've grown older...it's almost like, don't celebrate my birthday, that just reminds me I'm not a kid anymore.
I know that feel, yo.
Nicholas of Myra. I'm not sure if this raises fewer issues than plain ole' Santa, but this does sound like he'd work better. And I certainly approve the choice (heh heh).
Now, back to old age.
I've passed that threshold myself... you know, the one when folks call you mister and stuff. Though what most hit me recently was a person declaring oneself old while being the age of my younger bro. Not that he's that much younger. Matter of perception, you know.
You probably know that one of his legends was that after his death he took a boy kidnapped by slavers home, dragging him by the hair and flying, on his feast day. There's a whole lot of folklore attached to him, with lots of good story ideas. Up until the early 20th century in the Tyrol and Switzerland he was accompanied by Saint Lucia of Syracuse;
Saint Lucy, btw, is associated with magic, light and elves. In what I've got worked out so far she's "Mrs. Claus" and the Winter or Midwinter Queen, a ruler of the Svartalfar along with Nicholas and St. Catherine. She has her own personal guard, the Lussiferda.
Ah yes, from Sydney as I've just noticed. Plenty of 'em Aussies on the webs, seems like.
In other news, just been vote in the second round. Voting for the right-wing wacko this time. Not gonna hide I don't consider it a rational pick, but hey, told myself some time ago I'm doing it. Reasons are... stuff.
----
Update: seems like the wacko won, heh eh heh heh heh=)
^ You familiar with Farley Mowat? (Or what was his name.)
And now, a fun fact that I've just learned. Somewhere in the videos thread, there's that Russian "Mad Max" tanker rig. Apparently it belongs to a biker club. Geddit? Biker club, and they get their own war rig. It's like, all they're waiting for is a nuclear war, everything else's already in place.