Found it! Friday

Sorry that so much of this is taken up by the price tag. But, what? Is this a hand made, hand felted purse, dedicated to Old Ones? Perhaps Our Lord Cthulhu specifically? Or is that a flower? Or a sea anemone? Oh, Salvation Army, you keep your secrets close.

Warts and All

Sometimes, you read a book or story in which one of the main characters is somebody others flock to. Visionary, charismatic, a real champion of a cause, or maybe just really fun to be around. We see it in Atlas Shrugged, with John Galt (well, when we eventually see John Galt). We see it in Stranger in a Strange Land, with Valentine Michael Smith. There is a fine line between a character who is supposed to be a strong, idealistic, individualistic leader, and a total Mary Sue (or Gary Stu, for the male version).

A Different Language

I was a reader before I was a writer.

When I was little, I loved to be read to. My grandmother got me a beautiful edition of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, perhaps because it was Kipling and because it was beautiful, but she didn't think that at that age (4? 5?) I'd have the fortitude to sit through an entire story before bedtime.

She was incorrect.

Déjà vu: When a book you're reading is a book you've read before

A lot of people are excited for the Hunger Games movie to come out. I confess, I do have an interest; I think they picked a good Katniss, and I think that the action and story flow will translate well to the screen.

However.

A few years back, 1999, a book came out in Japan and was subsequently translated to English. It was called Battle Royale, and was written by Koushun Takami. Battle Royale takes place in a fictional totalitarian state. Every year, a class of high school students is chosen to be taken to a location for "The Program", given weapons, and kill each other. There is one winner. If the students decline to kill one another, there is a time limit for nobody dying, and then they're all killed remotely and there is no winner. Pretty similar, n'est-ce pas?

You Say You Want a Resolution

Beginnings are hard. So are endings. Really, the easiest is in the middle, where we're still figuring everything out, and nothing is final.

I'm seeing a lot of end-of-year posts, and a lot of "looking to the future" posts. I've been doing quite a lot of "right now" sort of thinking and doing, perhaps learned from the Doberman. Dogs are good at that, living in the "right now" and also the "when will you feed me", though people are good at the latter as well.

So, where do we stand, right now?  All things considered, this blog is a baby blog. I've had a total of 302 visitors, which I think is pretty snazzy. Of course, the trick is getting them to come back, and follow. And read more.  And comment!

Trust

Last weekend, for Christmas, I drove to New Jersey and back to spend it with my grandparents and family.

I do a lot of thinking while driving because really, what else are you going to do? I mean, I talked to the dog some, but she just laid on the back seat, and it isn't like I could turn around to look at her, so no input there.

 (not representative of our most recent trip; she now has a harness with an attachment that a seatbelt goes through)

Memento Mori, 1

I have this necklace. It's a skull, carved out of yak bone, that I bought at a Fair Trade store. Is it from Tibet? I'm not sure; that's where I think of when I think of yaks. I wear it to work once in awhile, and once, one of my work friends looked at me and said "That is the strangest thing I've ever seen". When I got home, we had a friend over, who said "That's awesome!"