A break from the dead white males

Not that I need to be thinking about anything beyond the end of this semester, but my mind is particularly fractured right now. And so, even though I shouldn't be spending any time here anyways, I've been contemplating posts on a wide number of subjects:

• I saw Golden Compass this past weekend and really enjoyed it. It's been about 7 years since I read the series, so there was lots I'd forgotten. Definitely makes me want to go back and reread the books, especially since there's been such a hoo-rah over their anti-religion positioning. Perhaps it's because I approached them as already a staunch atheist, but that's not something that struck me as at all surprising.
• This time of year also has me thinking about being an atheist during the holidays. I've mostly come to terms with the celebrations that Trillian and I have chosen to share with Scooter, but I'm thinking about their significance (both general and specific to our family) throughout.
  
• As I prepare to head back to the States, I've been thinking a lot about my experience in Canada. The past few days have involved a lot of meditation on the parts that drive me nuts (dealing with the bank and Canada Post bring those thoughts on). But I've also realized that I'm intractably American and am trying to decide what I think of that.
• I've also found out that the teaching job most closely matching what I taught before will open up in the Springfield Public Schools in about 3 years. It would only be part time (though I could probably add secondary certification in an additional area) and would require me to go back for some education credits, but it is something I've been thinking about doing.
• Trillian got me a Christmas gift. Which is something we haven't done in a while. She tells me it's something small, less than $20. And so, in between pages of various histories, I've been pondering what to get her in return. Not that I'm going to reveal it here, seeing as she's a regular reader, but I think I've settled on an intangible that should go over well.

Back to some long dead writers.

•