Once you get past the blood-thirsty ice queen, the murderous uncle, and the fact that a little girl gets lured too easilyt into the lair of a shirtless fawn-Narnia seems like a really nice place.

For one thing: talking animals
For two things: Castles-cool ones
For three things:Aslan
For four things: If you're human-you're basically king
For five things: No pesky internet classes

Right now I should be working on a massive project for my internet communications class (the biggest regret of my schedule). We're supposed to be designing an entire website. It could be fun-right? Wrong! We have to deal with the boring, hard stuff called HTML. HTML-hypertext markup language-is one persnickety old wench that doesn't work right if you forget a semicolon out of 1,000 lines of code. The fact that so much code goes into the simplest website makes my brain angry. Angry because humans seem to make everything so stinkin complex. Let's take medical/anatomy terms.

For example: "The major neuroendocrine control centre of malacostracans is the X-organ–sinus-gland complex, which lies in the eyestalk or in an equivalent part of the head in which the eyes are sessile."

Who comes up with stuff: robots? Nancy Pelosi? Lex Luthor?

Why can't you just name stuff short names, like: the foop, the zoob, the yaak, the nama, the Gooop. That would make the world a whole lot easier to understand. Life is short-we don't need long terms.

Back to Narnia and its lack of the internet (and modern technology)-yes, technology was supposed to make our lives easier (and yes I know without the internet and technology I would not be typing this right now), but it just gives us a chance to be busier. Now that we can see the world wide web on our cell phones-big corporations that use employees as fine cutlery to grab their food (money), can now keep feeding whenever they feel like and keep those utensils a workin'.

We love to be busy-and our bosses expect us to love it so much-we buy a pull-out mattress for our office. Sure-you have a nice window view of the city, but that doesn't come in handy when you're trying to get a nice sleep.

Narnia looks so pristine, so untouched, so peaceful. I can imagine myself relaxing in the castle tower having a deep theological discussion with a burmese python-actually, I hate pythons, perhaps my st. bernard Sweet Pea.

Which is why I want to be a writer. It is an occupation that can be done from anywhere: home, plane, train, river side, in a boat, in a mote, wearing a coat. By the shore, at the store, standing in an open door. Eating apples, drinking snapple, listening to old women cackle. Okay, maybe I'm getting out of hand-but a writer's life looks simplistic-no cubicles, no cruel upper management, no board meetings-just you, a piece of paper and your creativity.

And a castle in Narnia would be the perfect place for a masterpiece.

This weekend, as every Harding student and alumnus (what a wierd word for a graduate) knows, was Homecoming. It was a happy scene of parents mingling with students on the sidewalks, high school-ers oggling the campus and football players getting ready for the best audience turn-out of the year (people won't leave after half-time, woo-hoo!). Oh, yeah, and it was also Halloween. So the students who are...more inclined in letting their more...expressive...sides show were using the holiday as another excuse to break out their sparkly capes, wear Death Eater-like hoods, and paint their faces like Tim Burton characters (although usually they don't really need an excuse-they were just able to blend in better with the little kids that dressed up like pirates). But the best part of the weekend, besides my wonderful Aunt and Uncle taking me out to dinner three days in a row!, was the homecoming musical-which was Scrooge (Christmas Carol with songs).

I would have to say that the Christmas Carol is one of those great holiday tales that never gets old, kinda like A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life and any of those clay-mation old school films. I mean Scrooge has everything-romance, heart-break, suspence, horror, excitment, danceing, time-traveling,a quick peak into the after-life, a moral undermeaning of redemption and good Christmas spirit, with an unusually happy little boy with a limp leg that gets dished the corniest line in the play. What more could you want?

And boy, I didn't think first coming here, but Harding does know how to put on a show.

My favorite part in the Scrooge epic is the final ghost that comes to visit Scrooge when the clock strikes three. The ghost is silent, creepy, and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end whenever he decides to pop out of nowhere. Not only does he take Scrooge and the audience to the grave of poor Timy Tim, but also to Scrooge's grave and later to Hell it-self. However, I think even the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come pales (no pun intended) in comparrison to Jacob Marley, who was played by my old speech teacher Mr. Ritchie. Marley taunts Scrooge a bit, rattling his chains, moving a few objects, moaning through the air and making Scrooge's door-knocker do funny tricks. Then he appears, covered in chains and tries to engage in some friendly small talk about life, death, and taxes.

Oh, and he warns Scrooge about three ghosts that will come to show him the errors of his way.

Whoever came up with the idea of having Scrooge haunted by three ghosts and being scared into redemption must of have been one of those hellfire and brimstone kind of preachers-the ones that had their index finger firmly planted in a point and wore the constant expression of extreme constipation. But, I guess sometimes we need a finger jabbed our way and someone to yell at us to get our attention.

All in all, Scrooge becomes a nice guy and likes Christmas and we never know if Tiny Tim really dies or not.

Even though the Christmas Carol is a fictional-God does love to work in threes-He is a Trinity, which makes Him so much more interesting.

Hm. Just some thoughts running through my head.