Happy New Year's Eve people! I'll be spending mine in reflection since I've got some big decisions to make in the very near future. I ran into a friend of mine and his wife yesterday -- he's the guru of this site among other things -- while spending a Borders gift card and told him of my tentative plans after I finish this degree in the Spring. It was the first time I've told anyone outside the inner circle and it feels like that means I must be serious. Scary business...but I'm so ready for a change I can taste it. Noj says that I was semi-successful here -- "You did okay but you didn't do great," he says --- but I didn't really succeed. Not to my liking anyway. So I should take the lessons and use them to succeed somewhere else. It's daunting but I suppose I'm up to the challenge. It'll be nice to see some different faces on a daily basis that's for damn sure.
And I digress - before I sink myself into a hole. Ahem.
Anyway, happy New Year. Be safe and count your blessings and for the love of Pete, quit bitching about everything, will ya? You don't have it so bad... (yeah, so I'm talking to myself. It's my prerogative.)
And here's a good song from Timbaland's Shock Value -- one of my favorite albums of the year -- that should be good for the festivities tonight. One of my dance teachers came up with some kickin' choreography to this song so I can vouch for its imminent danceability.
Dammit. Sometimes I wish it wasn't just a pure fact of life that those who exhibit blind allegiance are more willing to fight using brutality and rage than those who exhibit insight and compromise. I know it's logically inconsistent for those who love wisdom to behave like animals. It is just one of those mysteries of life I will never get used to...
The History Channel had this little piece on the other night called "In Search of Christmas" or something like that and this one woman made an interesting statement about why Christianity took hold after the death of Jesus and ended up becoming influential in nearly every aspect of human endeavor -- art, literature, music, etc. Christians attribute this to the divine providence of the passion. Of course this happened, they say, when God came to Earth. But non-Christians may have a harder time understanding the hoopla and I think what this woman said speaks to why the influence of this backwoods preacher from the backwater of a Roman province moved humanity like it did. She said it was a shining time in humanity, when someone spoke of forgiveness and seeing the divine in the most downtrodden and reviled; when the ideas of brotherhood and friendship were honored and when someone willingly gave everything they had -- indeed, the only thing they really had to give -- as a testament to these ideas. She said that this does not happen everyday.
That's pretty much the understatement of the century.
So I send out this last clip to everyone. It is the movie I watch every Christmas Eve and I never fail to get that hopeful feeling again after watching it which I think, above all the other great lessons this season has to teach us, is the most amazing because of its sheer utilitarianism. Clarence, we all want to live again.
Really working hard on that having a good Christmas thing. Having a huge family can be both incredibly satisfying and can make you feel really, really loved. It can also make you feel the, um, opposite of those things. And sometimes both -- simultaneously. It's all very confusing and you'd think I'd be used to it by now. You'd think.
Anyway, this one goes out to the MPA kids who, against all logic and reason, actually like me and stay in touch. Can't wait to visit you, hear all about your new jobs, see you in class, etc., etc. I think this clip is so, so sweet and romantic...Is that weird?
For today's Christmas clip, only two days left --- wooohooo! --- I send Linus out to my good friend who, with her husband, just brought another little one into the world. Can't wait to meet her. And I did look for a clip from As the World Turns where Conner had something denim on and was maybe singing a Christmas carol or something. Apparently no one else caught the wonder that was denim on that show. Just goes to show how observant and awesome we were. Visions of fruit soup dance in my head every year because of you kid...
This one goes out to my parents who always came through with the official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time. Also, because if you ever say "Sons of b****es, Bumpuses!" around my dad, he'll laugh.
For the second awesome Holiday clip, I send out this little gem from my youth dedicated to all my siblings and my niece and nephews, one of whom, the redhead, looked exactly like the heat miser when he was about two... (I love you David!) Embedding is still weird with YouTube so here's the link again.
By the way, these are the original mini-me's...and whoever came up with these stop-action animation hijinxs was in a serious altered state if you catch my meaning...but they were fantastic nonetheless.
Since I'm a total movie buff (what exactly is a buff?...what a weird word...that just occurred to me) I thought I'd count down the days with my favorite Christmas movie scenes using YouTube and my memory. I'm working on feeling really good this Christmas because I like to give the people who try to bring you down a reason to keep trying. It's important to have a goal, even if you should be slapped repeatedly for spreading misery in such a potentially hopeful time of the year. Ahem.
But here's the first. This one's dedicated to the college friends who watched this one over and over again with me when we didn't have cable tv in the dorm. It actually almost always makes me cry... I'm having troubling embedding this clip so I'll just give you the link. Here's Bill Murray from Scrooged discovering the miracle...
I saw the movie I Am Legend yesterday. I was told that it was not an easy movie to watch and that I might experience a little sleeplessness. I did but it was totally worth it. It's a fantastic metaphor for the light and dark in life personified by the very few on the side of light (literally, they can go out in the day and must have human interaction. Ironically, for Will Smith's character, there's none to be found) and the enormous amount on the side of the dark (again, literally, they're vampire-like and are in mortal peril when exposed to UV light).
Importantly, it makes a stand on what it means to fight for the light. Alone and without hope. But still to fight.
I loved it.
Incidentally, a female friend of mine went to see it recently as well and was making fun of some girl crying behind her. Meg, I wept like a fool. and in front of the guys I work with. Hope they don't see it as a sign of weakness...
It made me think of C.S. Lewis for some reason, probably because I spent some time this weekend with people I haven't spent a great deal of time with before and he came up as a favorite writer of mine. So I'm including this quote from The Great Divorce, which may be my favorite book of his and, possibly, my favorite of any book. Which is saying something.
"The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned is that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven."
Had to finish up some freelancing pieces which is why I'm up and at the computer at this unGodly hour. But just thought I'd share the revelry -- my girl TLR graduated from our master's program this weekend so we celebrated. That's her shaking the hand of UGA's pres. -- you'll just have to trust me -- and this is what Athens looks like on a Friday night with a few shots and an hour or so of dancing. Just so ya know...
As a writer, it's pretty much in my nature to analyze. It's not a compulsion or a need. It's a tendency, some deeply embedded genetic code that dictates my brain synapses. And I mean quite literally, when there's something to analyze, I can actually feel those synapses firing. As a matter of fact, it is this tendency that forces one to write, not the other way around.
That said, I know these little online journals are really not the appropriate places to wax literary or discuss personal philosophy except as it can be boiled down into neat, pithy nuggets of funny. However, something occurred to me last night and I have to get it out or it festers and dies and then tastes like shit for years to come. So here it is:
Giving people the tools of your destruction is actually really wise. There are some people who are like rebellious kids in the drugstore -- they, the owner, their parent, everyone knows they're gonna steal that pack of gum. They look around waiting for the shot when no one's looking. And when it comes they take it, even though they like the owner, come to this drugstore all the time and have had meaningful discussion with their parents about why stealing is bad. Rebellion, just to see what the outcome will be, is in their nature. Probably the reason the world still turns really.
My point is that some kids will always steal that pack of gum and some people will always attempt to destroy others' little kingdoms and sense of safety. These things, like analysis for me, are in their nature. It is no use trying to stop the flood. The nexus of nature/nurture that fuels the wave is way too powerful.
So generally, I hand over the keys to the kingdom early, which is something my sister is always on to me about. "Why do you give people the map to your castle?"
Because these people born or trained to destroy are gonna do it anyway. It is, as I said, in their nature. If they have the map, maybe it'll facilitate the action and the band-aid gets pulled off quick and the pain isn't prolonged. Sometimes it feels like giving in to a spoiled child. "Here, just do what you gotta do. I can take it."
Either way, I'm aware of it Juli. Some innate intelligence in me has just decided it's the wise thing to do.
And because I haven't listened to it in a very long time but was some of my music of choice when I was leaving for college and therefore is associated with great change for me, here're three songs by the former Cat Stevens. Find some peace this weekend. I'll be looking, too. Maybe we'll see each other.
So my boss gave me a remote-controlled car for Christmas. I've never had one before and I can understand the enthusiasm for these things. They are pretty fun. Especially when you plot ways to scare unsuspecting coworkers. Big Blue came from China because apparently Oprah Winfrey caused housewives the country over to call for an end to war toys. My boss does not like Oprah for this. I was reminded not to lick it.
Here are the instructions for putting Big Blue together and the box it came in. It is the 2nd in the Thunder series apparently (but, according to the consumer information section of the instructions, still should not be played with while it is actually thundering...):
The other side was in English but that did not make it any easier to understand. For example, here's the first instruction for putting the batteries inside Big Blue and the remote controller:
"1. Loosen the screw by withershins direction and by phillips screwdriver, open the battery cover should according to the arrowhead 2 direction, then remove the battery cover should according to the arrowhead 3 direction. (Diagram 2)"
So awesome. I totally feel like one of the gang.
And just to prove that I have completely regressed back to childhood, here's a photo of what I did Sunday:
Happy New Year's Eve people! I'll be spending mine in reflection since I've got some big decisions to make in the very near future. I ran into a friend of mine and his wife yesterday -- he's the guru of this site among other things -- while spending a Borders gift card and told him of my tentative plans after I finish this degree in the Spring. It was the first time I've told anyone outside the inner circle and it feels like that means I must be serious. Scary business...but I'm so ready for a change I can taste it. Noj says that I was semi-successful here -- "You did okay but you didn't do great," he says --- but I didn't really succeed. Not to my liking anyway. So I should take the lessons and use them to succeed somewhere else. It's daunting but I suppose I'm up to the challenge. It'll be nice to see some different faces on a daily basis that's for damn sure.
And here's a good song from Timbaland's Shock Value -- one of my favorite albums of the year -- that should be good for the festivities tonight. One of my dance teachers came up with some kickin' choreography to this song so I can vouch for its imminent danceability.
