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capri0mni(I'm typing this with a cat firmly anchored in the crook of my right arm. There is no dislodging her)
57 minutes.
I've had this vague thought that I should write something New Yearsy today. But to tell the truth, I've been drawing a blank.
55 minutes.
Things I've been thinking about instead:
1) Douglas Adams and Richard Dawkins. They were sort of a pair when it came to speaking about their atheism -- I think Dawkins invited Adams to read from HHttG at one of his lectures, iirc. So I've kind of been puzzling through why Dawkins makes me clench my jaw after reading through three successive paragraphs, and Adams fills me with warm fuzzies. And I think I've figured it out: As a writer of speculative, humorous, fiction, Adams recognized that even if a story were untrue it still has worth, even if it's a religious story.
2) I'm really liking the way the series Chuck is winding up its final season. The Intersect, the hi-tech pseudo-scientific, quasi-magical plot device which has driven everything in the previous four seasons has been completely written out (saying how would be spoilers), but the story continues without it, based on the characters (who'd of thunk it?), and what they've learned and how they've changed because of the Intersect. Even though it's not there, now.
Really. Characters who are written as people who can be interesting even without the hook that got the show made in the first place. Wow.
I'm going to keep my eye out for this writing team, to see what they come up with in the future. Because that? is something every genre of series TV needs.
38 minutes.
3) My monster bear. That's what I've been working on this weekend. I'm working from the smallest, fiddly pieces up to the large central torso. So far, I have the snout, ears, and one arm sewn. The arm is... a lot skinnier, turned right side out, than I thought it would be. The main body is a "bright" maroon (not bright, bright, but vivid, and more red then blue) and for the highlight color (inside the mouth, the inner ears and inner arms) is gold-ish (recycled sweatpants that I first bought for my second attempt at my freshman year of college ... 25 years ago?) So my bear will be a mix of new and old. I hope the body won't turn out as proportionally skinny as the arms did -- or at least, that one arm.
27 minutes
4) 2011 was a mixed bag. Emotionally, I think I was just sadder than my normal average. But I did some / am doing some nifty stuff (Plato's Nightmare / Aesop's Dream, my Zazzle store)
5) There is a New Year's Carol (which was considered nostalgic and old fashioned in 1647) with this as a second verse:
And now, with new years gifts, each friend
Unto each other they do send;
God grant we may our lives amend
And that the truth may appear.
Now like the snake cast off your skin
Of evil thoughts and wicked sin,
And to amend this new year begin
God send us a merry new year.
(To the tune of Greensleeves)
I wish New Year's was the Big, Gift-Giving Holiday, instead of Christmas. Because it's a (mostly) secular day; even cultures with different Official New Year days (Chinese, Jewish, Persian, etc.) recognize the Common Era calender, for business, if nothing else. So it's got the energy of a global cultural push behind it. And people could exchange gifts without wondering what holiday name to tack in front of it, and worry if they're using the wrong one.
And that global energy is one reason why the New Year (9 minutes) is a bigger, more emotional holiday for me, personally. But, because of all the local emphasis on December 25, nearly every one else around me is burned out just when I'm starting to want to sing.
(I guess this turned into a New Yearsy post after all.)
6-something minutes...
57 minutes.
I've had this vague thought that I should write something New Yearsy today. But to tell the truth, I've been drawing a blank.
55 minutes.
Things I've been thinking about instead:
1) Douglas Adams and Richard Dawkins. They were sort of a pair when it came to speaking about their atheism -- I think Dawkins invited Adams to read from HHttG at one of his lectures, iirc. So I've kind of been puzzling through why Dawkins makes me clench my jaw after reading through three successive paragraphs, and Adams fills me with warm fuzzies. And I think I've figured it out: As a writer of speculative, humorous, fiction, Adams recognized that even if a story were untrue it still has worth, even if it's a religious story.
2) I'm really liking the way the series Chuck is winding up its final season. The Intersect, the hi-tech pseudo-scientific, quasi-magical plot device which has driven everything in the previous four seasons has been completely written out (saying how would be spoilers), but the story continues without it, based on the characters (who'd of thunk it?), and what they've learned and how they've changed because of the Intersect. Even though it's not there, now.
Really. Characters who are written as people who can be interesting even without the hook that got the show made in the first place. Wow.
I'm going to keep my eye out for this writing team, to see what they come up with in the future. Because that? is something every genre of series TV needs.
38 minutes.
3) My monster bear. That's what I've been working on this weekend. I'm working from the smallest, fiddly pieces up to the large central torso. So far, I have the snout, ears, and one arm sewn. The arm is... a lot skinnier, turned right side out, than I thought it would be. The main body is a "bright" maroon (not bright, bright, but vivid, and more red then blue) and for the highlight color (inside the mouth, the inner ears and inner arms) is gold-ish (recycled sweatpants that I first bought for my second attempt at my freshman year of college ... 25 years ago?) So my bear will be a mix of new and old. I hope the body won't turn out as proportionally skinny as the arms did -- or at least, that one arm.
27 minutes
4) 2011 was a mixed bag. Emotionally, I think I was just sadder than my normal average. But I did some / am doing some nifty stuff (Plato's Nightmare / Aesop's Dream, my Zazzle store)
5) There is a New Year's Carol (which was considered nostalgic and old fashioned in 1647) with this as a second verse:
And now, with new years gifts, each friend
Unto each other they do send;
God grant we may our lives amend
And that the truth may appear.
Now like the snake cast off your skin
Of evil thoughts and wicked sin,
And to amend this new year begin
God send us a merry new year.
(To the tune of Greensleeves)
I wish New Year's was the Big, Gift-Giving Holiday, instead of Christmas. Because it's a (mostly) secular day; even cultures with different Official New Year days (Chinese, Jewish, Persian, etc.) recognize the Common Era calender, for business, if nothing else. So it's got the energy of a global cultural push behind it. And people could exchange gifts without wondering what holiday name to tack in front of it, and worry if they're using the wrong one.
And that global energy is one reason why the New Year (9 minutes) is a bigger, more emotional holiday for me, personally. But, because of all the local emphasis on December 25, nearly every one else around me is burned out just when I'm starting to want to sing.
(I guess this turned into a New Yearsy post after all.)
6-something minutes...
no subject
Date: 2012-01-01 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-01 04:30 pm (UTC)(Hey, I get excited when a car's odometer rolls over to a round number, too; rollovers are fun. And so is rolling down grassy hills, and Ferris Wheels, and somersaults, and cartwheels, and merry-go-rounds, and ... )
Seriously, though (as serious as I ever get, anyway, which, being born under the sign of the Goat is "not very") what makes a day or a ritual powerful is not the day itself, but what humans are prompted to do together. And a large contingent of people simultaneously resolving to be optimistic, at least a little bit, is as important as any memorial of war or power, or the setting of national boundaries.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-02 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-02 04:32 am (UTC)That's another part of why New Year's Day gets treated as an afterthought, in our 'Merkin culture... the leftover.