The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.
–“The Cat and the Moon” by William Butler Yeats
Welcome to August, everybody! And happy birthday to MuseBlog, which is now 11 years old.
Happy Birthday, MB!
MB’s a tween now that the tweens of old are in their twenties.
MB is now the same age as I was when I first joined. (Also, in 4 years, I will officially have been on MB for half my life.)
Algebra problem!
*shudders from Middle School flashbacks*
I am just barely shy of half my life. This is my 7828th day of life and the 3772nd day since I first posted on MuseBlog.
Employing algebra as Robert proposed, I will have been on MuseBlog for exactly half my life in another 284 days, or on May 15th, 2017. Scarily, I’m actually going to remember that date quite well, as it’s the day after I graduate from college.
Yikes, that includes me now.
Happy belated birthday!
May our pies fly straight and true.
Happy Birthday to one and all!
Happy birthday, MuseBlog! Many happy returns of the day! HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY! (That says, “A Very Happy Birthday with love from Piggy”.)
I do have to jump in to say that has been probably my favorite Milne passage for a very long time. You have brightened my morning.
“Pooh looked on admiringly.”
Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to write a long thing like that, you know.
Happy birthday, MB! (You share a birthday with Switzerland, by the way.)
That’s because we are also polite, neat, rich, pacifistic, and good with technology.
Don’t forget chocolate!
Once Bertrand Piccard joins our quest for World Domination, we shall be truly unstoppable!
Oh, on that note, Team Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard for TIME People of the Year 2016.
Robert said that I should be a consultant for video games, and at water break today, I did have an idea…
People are talking about different franchises that could be adapted to the “PokémonGo” game model, but I think that either with a franchise or as an original game, a natural form for such a follow-on game to take would be a game based around interacting with ghosts. After all, the whole point is that with the game, your screen reveals characters that would be invisible to your naked eyes, so why not give an in-game explanation for why the screen is needed? They’ve invisible because they’re ghosts, but this magic/high-tech device will render them visible!
What would be really cool (albeit require the game to be rolled out very slowly, if not have a seperate game for each city) would be for the game to incorporate 3-D renderings of historical buildings based on old photographs and artwork so that your phone would also show the “ghost” of how certain parts of the street you were on looked in the past.
Where I live, the shops downtown are a popular Pokemon hotspot, and one of the pokestops there is the Joggling Board. The Joggling Board was this old bench that they used to have sitting out on the sidewalk with a plaque telling of its historical significance. It was a long, springy board stretched between two ends, and you could bounce up and down on it as you sat. Kids loved it. However, due to the fact it was getting sat on 24/7, the board was moved so it could be better preserved.
The Joggling Board was still on whatever map Niantic used to generate pokestops. So in essence, it’s almost a ghost pokestop.
I really like the idea of a virtual-reality game where you can walk around a city and see its past. Seems like game developers would have to work closely with individual cities’ historical societies to create accurate and engaging maps.
Each game would definitely have to be produced with the help of a local historical society. In a straight Pokémon-style game and not just an educational experience/tour, the historians would also help determine what kind of ghosts players would encounter and how characters might interact with them. There might be certain ghosts would would need you to go out and find something (a randomly-spawning something, to prevent crowding) in order to help them achieve unfinished business and so on.
Oh, and of course the overarching franchise name could be “Ghosts of (City)” e.g. “Ghosts of Boston”, “Ghosts of Athens”, etc.
It’s going to be really interesting to see if a second ARG can take off. People have been trying to do these for a long time (there was an article in Muse AGES ago) and I can’t tell if Pokemon is going to make people interested in doing another one.
Oh yes, that was a fun article, and remembering it makes me realize that I’ve STILL never gone geocaching even though I’ve wanted to since I was 8…
If we start using ARG to mean Augumented Reality Game, I wonder that we will have to call Alternative Reality Games, though…
WHAT. I wonder WHAT. It feels like I can’t make a post on MB anymore without making a typo.
Oh, I think it absolutely will. Niantic is making so much money off of this one that there will be a gazillion people jumping on board trying to make the next big thing. At least one of those will have to be good.
I got a ticket to New York Comic-Con!
Ooh, have fun!
I want to go as Velma from Scooby-Doo, but I need to find an orange turtleneck and a red pleated skirt (longer than the one she wears in the cartoon because I don’t like wearing short skirts, probably one a little past knee length.) I have a red-and-orange shoulder bag that I can carry my phone, wallet, and keys in at the convention.
Speaking of the moon, it was new last night and is waxing toward full on August 18.
Happy Birthday James Hetfield!Anyone else read/reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?
Such a weird little script.
I had so much fun reading it and it was mostly a weird fever dream and I am going to slot it into “entertaining and absurd and absolutely not canon” alongside, like, AVPM in my brain so that I can continue to like it.
So, do you guys recommend reading it?
I’m not particularly rigid on canon (“Dumbledore’s Army and the Year of Darkness”, though a fanfiction, is solidly in my headcanon) but have mainly heard so far that it’s weird.
I would recommend reading it as long as you’re willing for it to be super wacky. Remembering it’s a play and designed to be an exciting theater experience helps too, I think. It made my good friend who is very, very invested in the series (but reads a LOT of HP fic) really angry and upset, but I am also invested in the series and approached it with different expectations and really enjoyed just like, the opportunity to go back into the wizarding world for a little while and get some closure on some character interactions and laugh at some pretty ridiculous plot twists and goofy lines.
Late response: It’s as off-the-wall as you’ve been told, and personally I was disappointed with it. It’s like fanfiction that’s not good but so entertainingly strange that you can’t look away. I’m not sorry I read it, and there’s definitely some spectacularly goofy things in it that I enjoy knowing about (you’re ruining Voldemort day!!!)—so I’d recommend reading it but with low expectations. (But I’m not big on DAYD either, so ymmv.)
Having enjoyed AVPM, Methods of Rationality, and the Harry Potter series as a whole, and having read many plays and enjoyed them, I read the whole thing but was left kind of confused and ultimately disappointed. I thought it read like weird fanfiction, as others have mentioned. The characters didn’t feel like themselves. Glad I read it but glad I didn’t buy it.
ooh, slightly off-topic question—I’ve somehow got this far without watching AVPM. I know people love it, but if I didn’t see it at the time is it worth seeking out now?
Huh, I didn’t realize that anyone else watched StarKid. I don’t, but my sister and a lot of her friends do, so I actually know most of the songs from their shows. I have seen certain clips and scenes and thought that they were funny, but she never really lets me watch it with her, so I just never have. Also, even with my limited knowledge, I would say that the answer to your question is a definite yes.
I remember really liking it, though it has been a while since I’ve seen it. It’s also an artifact, in a way, as Darren Criss (who played Harry Potter in it as a college student) is now pretty famous and actually on Broadway.
Sorry for the incessant posting — I just looked it up and realized that I actually jumped on the AVPM bandwagon pretty early. It was posted in June 2009 and the sequel was released June 2010. I remember the sequel coming out; I must have discovered it summer of 2009, after freshman year of high school. How time flies… that was 7 years ago.
Yeah! And I saw AJ Holmes in the Book Of Mormon (also on Broadway)!
I was also on the early AVPM bandwagon—early July 2009, I think. I remember watching the whole thing twice in a row and then drawing some fanart. That was back when the cast still accepted friend requests from fans and everything.
I definitely recommend it! The only person I know who didn’t like it much isn’t a huge Harry Potter fan and was bothered by the poor audio quality in parts. But I enjoyed it a ton. You can always watch the first part and see if it appeals to you.
I read the plot summary and was rather disappointed. Honestly, I’ve read so much better fanfic that it’s just… well I’m going to ignore it, that’s all.
I just ran into Vendaval in the New York subway!
Any news?
Nah, we were only on the same train for a few stops and I spent at least half of that time reeling from how entirely unexpected it was. It was nice to see him, though!
I fear I am once again on a constant downward spiral of devout trekkieness. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to pull out of it this time.
Eh, Luna seems to be holding up fine so it can’t be bad for you!
Luna is currently on her third day of THE Star Trek 50th anniversary convention. Where she has already spent over a thousand dollars just on airfare and hotel alone. She may not be the best example.
(Photo with George takei today. And with levar Barton. And Brent spiner. And nana visitor. And terry Farrell. And autographs from Michael dorn, gates McFadden, Brent spiner, levar burton, nana visitor, terry Farrell. And that’s just today’s…….
B’etor tried to eat my tribble (an actual tribble. No euphemism intended) and Martok snuggled up into my hair for my Klingon trio photo
*Sends waves of jealousy*
Technically, envy.
But I’m still glad you’re having a great time! Don’t mean to sound bitter!
There are advantages to living in America.
There were a lot of foreigners. Kiwis. Aussies. Scottish. English. Chinese. German. Mexican. Canadian.
Wishing I had a clone, TARDIS, or time turner at the moment. In line for Walter koenig’s photo, but also need to be in line for Scott bakulas, as well as getting George takeis autograph
And my feet are in so much pain from standing in my starfleet boots that have no padding. Just walking to the bathroom from my bed in the hotel room this Am was painful. Walking back to my hotel last night was agony
And I already managed to put a home in my nylons just below hem level of my starfleet TOS uniform, so that’s gonna look lovely in today’s photos. Meh
Technically missed my autographs with takei, but one of his people happened to come out, heard te sob story of myself and one other and takei was still in there and agreed to sign. He was very gracious though we didnt really get to have any conversation.
First two concerts done in Hong Kong, off to Beijing tomorrow morning for the next stop of our tour!
Congratulations, Selenium! Have fun!
Well can’t say I’m impressed with marina sirtis. She may not have meant it as such but she was quite insulting. Got an autograph and she was like oh look at your hair. Turn around. Oh you need a trim. Just saying you need a trim. You can do it yourself if you don’t want to use a hairdresser, just make sure your scissors are sharp. But you need a trim. It’s still beautiful though.
I’m sorry. Screw. You. You female dog
Come on, Luna! In one brief interaction, (1) a Hollywood actress gave you free advice about your hair, and (2) you got counseled by Counselor Troi. How many people have had either of those experiences?
Counselor Troi was a terrible counselor and all around obnoxious character. And her “advice” was unwanted, unasked for, and rude. And not worth the $40 I spent to get her unsolicited criticism.
I’m sure you’ll get $40 worth of mileage out of that story. But I agree that B’etor sounds like better company.
Well. I have succumbed to the dreaded “convention crud”. Yippee.
How did I have to fly to Paris to learn that there’s a Jacques Cousteau biopic going to be released in the fall and it has posters and everything?
Pet peeves: the idea that it’s wrong to read and publish work that an author asked to be unpublished/destroyed. This time it’s people being het up about the new Kafka materials being released. Kafka is dead! He’s dead. It’s fine. I’m an ~artist myself so I know I should be able to understand, but also I can’t bring myself to care all that much what people do with my materials after I’m gone? Maybe I’m just more of a critic than an artist. I like reading unpublished letters and drafts and diaries, I think they’re a tremendous boon to scholars, the Author is Dead. And also the author is literally dead, please relax.
I understand your pov, but at the same time, it does seem rather intrusive to publish something that author didn’t want published. Even if they are dead. Does our right to privacy go away after we die? Just to satisfy the curiosity of others? What if an author/artist created x, but didn’t want it published posthumously because they didn’t want to be remembered that way? There’s also a pretty clear distinction between something like drafts and something the author explicitly didn’t want to be made public. Considering Kafka’s depression, it feels like overstepping some kind of boundary.
I mean, I kind of am skeptical of the idea that the right to privacy lasts after death! I understand that there’s multiple points of view on that, but I think that it’s a right that belongs pretty firmly to the living and, you know, we can’t really control how people remember us anyway. In this case too I think it’s important to remember that the man who made the decision was K’s lifelong best friend, who was motivated less by satisfying people’s curiosity and more by “I think my friend’s a genius and his work is too good to destroy.” Which I think you have to admit is at least a somewhat sympathetic motive.
We can’t control how people think of us when we’re alive either, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be hella pissed if someone (for example) shared pictures of me that I wanted to be kept private online. I don’t believe that I’ll be around to notice after I die, but I’d still dislike people reading my journal.
I can empathize with his best friend’s decision without considering it morally ‘right’. Like Kokonilly, I do think a person’s last wishes should be honored. Yes, his writing is celebrated now- but he couldn’t know it would be received in a positive way. The whole ‘poor mental health’ could have had severe backlash on his family’s reputation- it’s still a huge stigma/hardly talked about today. The criticism of burocracy also criticizes government, which would throw a wrench in his family’s social climbing attempts. And as a Jewish family in the climate of the time, I really think they wouldn’t have wanted that.
Vergil, whom Tennyson called “wielder of the stateliest measure / ever moulded by the lips of man”, wanted his Aeneid to be burned because he was unable to finish it before his death. Augustus ordered the executors of his will to ignore that request and publish the poem without any posthumous editing. That poem is now one of the most important and influential creations in all of human history. Was Augustus wrong to disregard the embarrassment of its author? Was Vergil wronged by it, or disrespected, or insulted? Who “owned” the writings after their author died? It’s an interesting question.
The Aeneid is an especially interesting case because—as you say—it’s been so massively influential. If the Aeneid‘s burned, wither Paradise Lost? And Dante’s potentially unrecognizable. And whatever you think of Augustus’ decision it’s a lot harder to opt out of engaging with Vergil than it is to opt out of engaging with Kafka. In my field reading (at least some of) the Aeneid is a non-negotiable, and that’s even more true for classicists, historians of the period, et cetera.
:/
I’m not going to vacuum up someone’s ashes, nor am I going to step on people’s graves. Even if the people in the urns or underground wouldn’t mind. I would also definitely not violate someone’s last will and testament. I mean, for pity’s sake, the least you can do is not do the very thing they thought was important enough to specify should not be done after their death. There is definitely something to be said for respecting the dead.
Did I mention that my university school of music’s clarinet choir had been invited to perform at the International Clarinet Association’s annual Clarinet Festival this summer in Kansas? Because that happened last week.
I not only had the opportunity to go this summer, but I got to perform at the ICA Clarinet Fest. In an ensemble, not solo, but still.
What.
Life is good, and the Kokonspiracy’s grip on the classical music world tightens.
Today I saw Pericles the Seychelles tortoise at the Jardin des Plantes. Pericles was born in 1913 and came to the menagerie in 1923 with another tortoise, Kiki, who was already about 60 years old.
When Kiki and Pericles arrived in Paris, the writers and artists of the Lost Generation lived only a few Metro stops north, in the northern part of the Latin Quarter. When they had lived there for 17 years, the Nazis invaded Paris. In other cities in Europe, people are zoo animals to survive the food shortages of the war, but Paris and the Jardin des Plantes menagerie were luckier and they were still there when the city was liberated.
They were still there in the 1950s when the French nation was being rebuild and the Beat Generation came to Paris. They were still there when jet airplanes began to fly overhead and immigrants from the former colonies began to move to Paris and visit the Jardin des Plantes.
When Kiki was nearing 90 and Pericles was pushing 40, Charles de Gaulle became president of France. When he had been born, Kiki was in his 20s and Pericles was negative 13. They were still at the menagerie when countries–including their own– began to launch satellites into space, and when people followed them, when distant cousins of theirs were sent around the moon by the Russians, and when humans followed in that, too.
Kiki and Pericles were joined in the 1980s by two other turtles, Platine and Lecata, of the same species. This was certainly of more interest to them then the development of the Internet or the revolutions occurring in Eastern Europe. (Pericles himself predated communism in Russia by 4 years.)
Kiki died in 2009 at the estimated age of 146. He was taxidermied and is on display in the nearby Museum of Natural History. Pericles, Platine, and Lecata are still on display in the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes.
In 1874, when Kiki would have been 11, Charles Darwin wrote a letter to the British colonial governor of the Seychelles, warning that the giant tortoises were endangered by timber harvesting on their islands. At the time, their numbers were estimated to be in the hundreds to low thousands. Today, 150,000 tortoises are estimated to live on the turtles’ ancestral island of Aldabra, and they are instead threatened by their own overpopulation. To provide backup populations, they have been introduced on other islands in the same archipelago.
If Pericles lives to be as old as Kiki is estimated to have been, in addition to everything he has seen already, he will be able to add the history of Paris from now until the year 2059.
Shout-out to any MBers in Evanston, Illinois! I’m there/here for a few hours. I know RoseQuartz goes to Northwestern; anyone else?
Guess where I am!! And more importantly, who I am WITH!!!
Jadestone,
Well, I know you’re not with me, though this used-book store is certainly big enough to conceal you.
Alas, we are not in distance of Evanston, although I HAVE traversed back to the Midwest for a very special event! And with me so far are Dodec, Fiddler, POSOC, Glassboro, aaaaand the SOON-TO-BE BRIDE OF THE HOUR, EBETH! En route are a few more special friends as well!
Wow! I might have guessed part of that list, but not the whole assemblage! Congratulations to Ebeth! When is the big hour?
Tomorrow afternoon/evening! Julia, Sweet Melpomene, and I will be bridesmaiding. Lizzie and Oxlin are also on their way for the event!
Please send photos when you can. Everyone who isn’t there will want to see this historic event.
Greetings, Beedle! How is life?
HELLO I AM ALSO HERE can confirm all of these people are here and real and exist and I love them.
Can actually not confirm ebeth’s existence YET.
YES HELLO it took me too long to remember your blog name haha. Amazingly Beedle and POSOC are the only two here I haven’t met in person before! This whole thing is very exciting
Do I count nine MBers, or ten?
Eleven, counting Ebeth!
I hadn’t met Mel, fortune cell, glassboro, posoc, or beedle and I’ve yet to meet Ebeth! (And she’s the bride!)
I arrived today! We all went for a dip in the hotel pool. Beedle and posoc are my roomies!! It is great! Cannot confirm ebeths existence yet though.
Can now confirm Ebeth’s existence. Also, she’s married!
What a flamablamablous ensemble!
Wow, how exciting! Congratulations, Ebeth! I can’t wait to see pictures!
Wow congrats to Ebeth! Sounds awesome.
Living in California’s climate has spoiled me. I knew, intellectually, that humidity existed, but I had never experienced it before. My first thought on leaving the Columbus airport was “oh god why is the air sticking to my face.”
Wedding was great though!
Never go to Athens in the summer.
Wait, there are places where it’s *not* humid?? Now I want to go to California- even more than I already wanted to go. Source: it’s summer in NC and my car’s air conditioning is broken half the time.
I wish I was somewhere non-humid, too. I want to get into going for walks again to stay in shape, but the air is so heavy…
Yeah, within the US, the non-coastal west is in general a lot less humid than the east coast.
http://media.web.britannica.com/eb-media/01/53801-004-B16FA0D5.gif
Honestly, the (inland) Southern California numbers seem high to me even on that map. We have no water to make humidity.
a now utah desert-rat will confirm x_x only humid when it’s actively raining pretty much
Colorado on west isn’t humid.
I’m in Rhode Island right now and feeling the same way. Of course, it IS humid on the west coast, it’s just also always cold enough that the humidity becomes fog. And rain. And hail. But when it isn’t any of those things, it’s really nice!
Recent Brown alum here summoned by the mention of Rhode Island, my tiny sort-of-home
Ooh, tell me about Brown! My sister will be a senior in high school this year and is looking at a lot of colleges (obviously). We’re actually going to be looking around a few colleges here in the area this week – I think Wesleyan and Conn. But she actually really likes a lot of the work that some Brown graduates have done, and it would probably be up at the top of the list if she had a pretty good chance of getting in. Although she is going for the IB diploma and lives on the Oregon coast, so that’s something.
Honestly I adored it and was really heartbroken to graduate. My only real caveat is that you have to be relatively confident in seeking out the advice and help you need, because the advising system is pretty hit-or-miss when it comes to the folks they assign. I had some super stressful experiences trying to, for instance, get a thesis advisor who actually had time for me—but after much turmoil, the one I found was stellar.
Otherwise, I loved the classes, I loved the people, I loved the environment/culture (I got so much *less* stressed out about schoolwork and grades in college and so much happier about what I was studying, it was amazing), I love campus, I love the Brown Band (my home at school). Food is decent enough, gets a little repetitive in the main dining hall but you have some options (I went off meal plan junior year but kept eating at some of the non-buffet eateries because I liked them). Freshman dorms are getting overhauled and are mostly pretty nice; I had good luck with housing every year and got pretty solid dorms every year and lived off-campus senior year, as a lot of folks do. Most classes are very good. What is your sister interested in studying? I concentrated (majored) in anthropology and took a bunch of classes in history, French, music (ensembles), and CLPS (cognitive/linguistic/psych sciences) and dabbled in CS, visual art, classics, American studies, physics, English, and public health. A lot of my friends were STEM majors but I have a few close friends in other humanities departments as well.
Like any school, Brown isn’t perfect, but I grew so much in four years both academically and as a person and I credit a lot of that to the experiences I was having there.
If you have any specific questions please don’t hesitate to ask! Brown owns my entire heart and I love talking about it.
I think that she’s interested in sociology, psychology, and journalism. For the IB diploma she’s writing an essay about Islamophobia and anti-semitism and how they affect our modern perceptions of religion or something like that, and she likes that topic. She’s also mentioned being interested in… is it called immersive journalism? Where someone puts themself into the situation and writes about the experience.
Cool! She should check out the English department. There’s a nonfiction writing program within it that a good friend of mine (my freshman year roommate!) majored in. Her honors thesis was partially poetically written nonfiction about the history of writing and scribes and partially personal narrative on why that subject is meaningful to her. I know someone else wrote one about the experience of women at Planned Parenthood, and someone else wrote one about whales and social justice… lots of cool stuff.
Awesome! Have fun!
Congrats Ebeth!
Wow this is so exciting!! Can’t wait to see pictures, and congratulations Ebeth
Congratulations, Ebeth!! I can’t wait to see pictures!
Also wow that’s so many MBers in one place!!!
YES HELLO I AM AN OLD MARRIED WOMAN
i am so so glad all these flamablamablous musers were able to make it to my wedding! i know i’m not on the blog much any more but everyone here has been such a huge part of my life and I’m sorry I couldn’t invite the entire blog to come hang out with me. we will need to do many, many more kokons in the future! pics incoming as soon as I get them (we managed to get Official Photographer pics, one with musers+SOs and one with just musers) but I can tell you everyone looked amazing and I had a ton of fun
Wow, Ebeth! Congrats on your special day!
Congratulations, Ebeth!!
Congratulations, One True Ebeth! This is the beginning of a new era for humanity.
Wow this is amazing! Congratulations and I hope you have a happy future with your spouse!!
A thousand congratulations; I wish both you all the best!
I’m sorry I’m a little late, but, many congratulations! Best wishes to you and your spouse!
!!!!
Ebeth, congratulations!! This is so amazing and I’m so happy for you.
Dad took me for a haircut because I hadn’t had one in the past two months when I was away. I said I wanted an Audrey Hepburn look and both he and the stylist really liked the idea.
You know, if I’d been able to visit Turkey this summer and I’d bought some cheese in Greece and taken it with me, I could have been Kai eating kaseri in Kayseri.
Next time!
Hello from the Mackinac Bridge, MB!
Guys, I got a real person job today!!!!!
Congrats! What is it?
An entry-level job at a publishing company! They publish fiction and narrative nonfiction and it’s all really nice stuff—a short list but the books are generally very well-reviewed and sell well. The job’s in NYC, but the company is actually originally from my NC town and still has a lot of staff there, so it has a connection to home. I am extremely excited. I’ve been in Boston for internships this summer but my sublet is up at the end of the month, and I was starting to get really nervous about the future again.
How exciting!
Speaking as someone also becoming acquainted with Real Life (congrats to you btw!), the “getting really nervous about the future” thing is kind of a constant cloud throughout all of high school and college, and then… when it “ends”… it’s super weird. Like, for our entire lives up until this point, there has always been some kind of deadline, right? End of the school year. Beginning of the next. Graduation, applications, start dates.
But now there isn’t a clearly-defined “next step” (say what you want about the stereotypical high school-college-job pipeline, it’s at least a standard framework). Now it’s just uncertainty and you can literally do whatever you want (I never felt this way before). I come home from work and walk to the library to do jigsaw puzzles and play Pokemon Go because I can. I had bubble tea and tater tots for dinner today because I could. I dropped way too much money on a John Cleese/Eric Idle thing in SF in November because I could.
It’s scary! I feel like there was always an upcoming “first”, but now I have to kind of make my own. I’m looking forward to my first international business trip, my first furniture purchase (I don’t have any furniture yet, long story)/IKEA assembly, my first paycheck (heh).
This kind of got rambly. Not really sure what my point is. Growing up is weird.
You’re right, it’s absolutely terrifying. I’ve always really liked known quantities and sort of hated beginnings and ends—middles are where it’s at—so I sort of liked that pipeline. Not knowing what was happing after college? That was terrifying. Getting a job was a huge relief. Now… it’s exciting and terrifying at the same time, I guess! I can do whatever I want! I can have bubble tea and tater tots for dinner and now I am actually thinking of doing that because it sounds excellent!
I say! Congratulations. old friut!
Wooo! Awesome!
Congratulations, Tesseract!!
I was looking through the journals I had from ages 8-11 and was reminded of how terrible I used to be at spelling. One entry in particular that stood out was:
“1/21/02 [I had originally written “20”, but a “1” is drawn through the “0”]
Things to do Today:
1) get a book on colneing [cloning] to read.
2) cleam [clean] my room.
3) go to library
4) Read calvin and hobiss [Hobbes]
5) Do a crapht [craft]”
I’m a little impressed that you had spelled ‘craft’ with a PH. I hadn’t even grasped the concept of PH making an F sound until I was about twelve years old.
While reading from the same journal with my friend Hannah today, I discovered that I had made two “prophetic” spelling mistakes– spelling “bubble” as “buble” and “brownies” as “bronies”.
(Other highlights include “normalcie”, “goast”, “wehn’t”, “Jhon”, “Aztectc”, “Gorge” in place of “George”, and, although I posted about these before, “Tutencomon”, “Martinians”, and “fly’n saucer”.)
“Wehn’t” is amazing.
Ehn’t it?
I used to write “Gorge” for “George” every time. And “goast” is really good—it’s like the ghost of some toast!
What was really embarrassing is that I wrote several stories where many of the characters were “goasts”, so it showed up over and over again spelled like that in the story.
I’d give you points for consistency. Roast, toast, boast, goast — what could be more logical?
My coworker (the other programmer at my job) just got laid off. Which means that soon, I will be the only programmer. This scares me.
Is there a thread on this blog that is for talking about somewhat sensitive subjects? Like if somebody has a question about things like politics or sexuality or relationships? I have a question that fits into this category.
Catwings, the newly created “Hot Topics, v. 2016” sounds like what you need. You have to be logged in to see it.
What if I have a personal question about myself?
There’s also Romance and Relationships, if your question falls into that category.
It’s more about sexuality.
Judging by these answers, I’m assuming there isn’t a thread like the one I’m looking for. Why don’t I just post the question here? It really isn’t worth all the trouble.
Only logged-in registered MBers can read R&R and HT threads, whereas Random Threads are visible to anyone who happens by. But if you don’t mind that, fire away.
I think that overlaps a lot with R&R. (More than a handful of MBers have come out of the closet on those threads…) Or, well, the Random Thread is random.
All I’m wondering if there’s a name for a sexuality for somebody who can be attracted to both genders, but not sexually. Like a cross between Bisexual and Asexual.
That’s just how I feel and I was wondering if there was a name for it.
*Both genders as in male and female. I’m aware of transgender folks, but I just have no personal interest in them for a relationship.
Biromantic might be what you’re thinking of. I used to identify as biromantic before I realized I was bisexual. Romantic orientation is basically just being attracted to someone but without the sexual part.
Aha, thank you.
Hummingbird’s right. Ens experience is likely pretty common. There’s no need to figure out who you are going to be forever, but it’s good to be comfortable with who you are now.
(I feel compelled to point out that “transgender” and “male” or “female” are not mutually exclusive categories.)
I know that assuming that your own Christian denomination’s traditions are the same in other denominations is a very common mistake for writers to make, so in the interest of accuracy, can I ask a question of any Catholic MBers?
Would it be normal for a Catholic girl named Valérie to have an icon/image of St. Valerie in her bedrooom? I know that having your name day icon in your room is something many Eastern Orthodox kids do, but that icons are not as widespread in the Catholic Church in general.
I think that’s very plausible, especially if she was named after the Saint or if she was devout about her faith.
Yeah, I’d say that would be fairly normal for a churchgoing Catholic. I have a statue of my namesake saint in my room somewhere.
Would it be more likely to be a statue or a painting? I know the Orthodox icons my brothers and I have in our rooms are painted on wood.
Or a medallion?
Not a Catholic, but a wooden icon sounds plausible to me—I definitely know Catholics who display icons. (Heck, I’m Protestant and I display an icon of the Holy Family, given to me by a Catholic friend.)
I saw Robert today! It was fun. Alas, there was no pie. We discussed his “novel plans” now that he’s retired. At first I thought he meant novel as in new. But it turns out that he meant novel as in a written story! He’s just toying with the ideas for now, though, since first he’s focusing on honing his napping skills.
Ooooh, good luck with your novel, Robert!
And good luck with your napping, too!
Thank you, Piggy! I get expert coaching from my two cats.
Here’s a selfie to mark the occasion:
As Rosanne noted, there was no pie, but I did have some very nice berry cake:
Here’s a particularly sweet picture of Rosanne. Don’t we look Mostly Harmless? We can’t stop smiling when we’re together.
Mwahahahahahahahaha!
Actually, we talked about Ebeth’s wedding. Of which we still haven’t received any stories or pictures, by the way.
Fiddler’s partner and I made bad puns for a solid half hour on the way to the ceremony, alienating everyone around us.
My personal story begins the day before the wedding. The way things worked out, it made sense for me to hang out in Cleveland for a few days, so I was staying at a friend’s apartment while she was out of town (which was weird in itself – we were in a quartet and I had sold most of my stuff to her before I moved, so I was staying in my old apartment building, sleeping in my old bed, looking at my old dresser etc with pictures of my quartet on the wall. Weird sort of deja vu). Fortune cell’s partner, melpomene, and beedle were driving down from NY state, so they came and picked me up. I did have a moment where I was like “I am about to get into a car with a bunch of strangers from the internet” (though I’d met mel before) but they were lovely, the drive was fine, beedle brought snacks.
We got to Columbus, checked into the hotel, met POSOC at the elevators (and he looks at mel and me and goes “You’re shorter than I expected” – he’s very very tall). Beedle and I went to get dinner at this sushi place that was nearby, and then we came back and hung out in one of the rooms – I think dodec’s – with dodec + partner, fiddler + partner, oxlin got in a little later, POSOC was around – and watched Katie Ledecky destroy her race. After that, jade got back from rehearsal dinner and we went and played in the hotel pool for a while. I’d met most of the people before but it was really fun to see everyone again and meet the ones I hadn’t.
Next day (wedding day!) we congregated at breakfast and then ended up hanging out in I think fortune cell’s room for a while – people were painting nails and then that turned into a lot of random pillow fights – jade hordes pillows like the dragon she is. We all got to admire fortune cell’s skills at ironing, too – it’s kind of impressive. Beedle brought snacks. We ended up ordering pizza for lunch, then scattered to get ready for the wedding.
The wedding was fun, good ratio of ceremony to party (in other words, short ceremony, long party). Ebeth’s brother is a composer and wrote a piece for her to walk down the aisle to, which was super sweet. She looked great, the guy she was marrying looked great, fortune cell and mel and jade who were all bridesmaiding looked great, all of the rest of us also looked great. The wedding and reception were in the same building, which happened to be between like three pokestops, and there were lures active the entire time – pretty sure 75% of the guests were playing pokemon go.
After the ceremony there was cocktail/appetizer time and then dinner. The dinner was really good – I got the salmon which turned out to be on a bed of polenta and mashed potatoes, dressed with pickled julienned veggies of some kind or another, and I was seated at what I think must have been the musician table – it was a girl who played viola, one of the groom’s relatives, and then fiddler + partner, fortune cell’s partner (who did audio production), and then glassboro (who runs sound at various things) + partner. Three guesses as to which table started playing the wine glasses (fiddler’s partner got the most projection).
After dinner, there were gluten-free cupcakes and dancing and board games. I mostly sat and chatted with people on the couches in front of a cabinet that had been owned by queen elizabeth II in her new york apartment, and then later on ended up in a game of catan with jade and beedle. Went back to the hotel, and then people said goodbye the next morning at breakfast and went their separate ways.
I had a really good time hanging out with everyone – the only downside of it being a wedding was that we didn’t get to spend as much time with ebeth! We got a couple pictures taken by the Official Wedding Photographer – one of the musers and partners, and then one with just the musers (average height in musers-only was a good six inches shorter than musers with partners, we’re all short except POSOC, I don’t know why). It’s kind of funny – you can kind of sense that we’re an internet based group since all of us are constantly checking our phones and half the time we’d have one conversation running aurally and a separate one over the internet. All in all, 10/10 would meet up again
My journey begins the Thursday before the Saturday wedding.
Our plane was scheduled to leave NYC at 2pm and arrive at 4pm. We boarded the plane just fine, then for some reason they did a manual roll call of everyone on the plane (?), then we sat on the plane in NYC, and at around 4pm they announced that we’d have to go back to the gate.(??) At 5:30pm (???) when we finally disembarked the plane (still in NYC), they announced the flight was canceled and all planes in NYC were grounded. When I called the airline, they told me that my partner and I were automatically rebooked on a flight to DC at 5pm Friday, with a connection to arrive in Ohio for the wedding about 20 hours before the wedding actually began. They told me that we could fly standby on a direct flight Thursday evening, but after waiting in several different lines, that flight refused to take any more standby passengers.
After so long in the airport, I had completely lost faith in American Airlines as a whole, and rated the chance that we’d arrive in time for the wedding if we tried to take the plane flights they’d scheduled for us as nearly none. But I am not one to be easily deterred (to put it lightly), and I wouldn’t miss Ebeth’s wedding for the world. So I bought two Greyhound bus tickets from New York to Ohio, and we went directly from the airport to the bus station at 8:30pm to make our first bus, which left at 10pm. (For the record, the first leg of the flights Friday evening did end up also being canceled.)
After spending all night on a bus traversing Pennsylvania (it’s mostly empty near the interstate), we reached the transfer station and our second bus on time, and arrived in Ebeth’s city, a mere 24 hours after leaving our apartment for the airport.
Needless to say, we spent most of Friday sleeping.
The wedding Saturday was lovely, Ebeth was radiant and the ceremony was blissfully short – and the board games at the reception were very fun. My partner also appreciated the first fancy occasion she’d been able to wear a dress for, and she also looked beautiful – which was nice to see after I’d spent so long worrying about what to wear.
On Sunday afternoon we went to the art museum walking distance from Ebeth’s apartment (it was really nice, but near to closing time by the time we arrived there), and then on Monday flew home (thankfully our flight home took off, which I was amazed actually happened, much less on time).
Admirable perseverance and resourcefulness!
My story begins in Colorado, where I’m at graduate school. (Though at the time I was being an intern at an art museum there). I went to my internship for the morning because it is easier to get to the airport from there rather than my house. I spent the morning being excited. I got on my plane, a bit worried about whether it would be on time because Dodec’s saga had happened already and I couldn’t make it if my flight were cancelled (Wedding was on Saturday, my flight was on Friday). But my flight was totally fine!
I was going to be picked up at the airport by Fortune cell’s partner when he picked up Fortune Cell, but then her flight was delayed quite a bit and it ended up being more expedient to take a bus.
POSOC met me in the lobby of the hotel and the first thing I said to him was “You’re tall” (Sorry POSOC). It was really good to meet him! I dropped my stuff off in the room POSOC, Beedle, and I were sharing and we went down to Midnight Fiddler’s room I think. Or maybe Dodec’s. We hung out in a variety of rooms over the course of the weekend. Anyway, everyone was hanging out and watching Olympics swimming which inspired us to do our own swimming which was quite fun.
Then bedtime. Then we all met at the hotel breakfast room and took over three tables (sorry other guests!) Most people had arrived by then so it was a Full Crowd (though Ebeth was elsewhere with family). (That’s when we counted everyone for you, Robert). After breakfast most people went to paint nails in Fortune Cell’s room, but I decided to explore Ohio a bit and wandered around finding a bakery and many interesting old houses, and a river. (Yaaay river Colorado barely has any rivers it is too dry here for my Midwestern self. I also enjoyed experiencing Ohio’s humidity although POSOC won’t agree there…)
I got back to the hotel and joined the nail painting party which, by then, had morphed into a general getting ready, pizza, and crosswords party. (Fortune Cell and her partner are Really Good at crosswords).
After that we all split up to actually get into Wedding Attire and then met in the lobby to go to the Wedding! As we arrived, Ebeth, her groom, and the bridal party were being herded around for photos but they insisted on going inside right at that moment through the main entrence as it was sprinkling. THis was a good choice as IMMEDIATELY after Ebeth got inside it poured. Also that was mine and Beedle’s first time seeing Ebeth in person, which was cool, though we didn’t get to chat or anything given that she had to go get ready for the ceremony!
The Ceremony: was nice and short! I did like that Ebeth’s brother wrote a piece. Then we went to have snacks, then we went to have dinner. At one point Beedle and I snuck out and took photos in front of the fancy place the wedding was at.
Then there was a party! Ebeth and her new husband are Smart and provided both board games and dancing. I only wish I’d gotten more time to hang out with musers! It was hard to get to know the musers I hadn’t met before in just one day. I’d love to see everyone again!
We did get to sneak out and take those Official Photos others have mentioned – hopefully they’ll be ready soon! I didn’t actually get to play a board game with anyone, though I watched Midnight Fiddler’s partner and Glassboro have a rivalry – they were fun to watch! I did end up dragging POSOC to the dance floor and dancing with Midnight Fiddler as well. When Midnight Fiddler and I were dancing, we met Ebeth’s aunt! Ebeth’s aunt was great.
All in all, a successful night.
I’ll say!
I hate it when I go swimming at the beach and then I walk around in my swimsuit and the next day my thighs are chaffed from the friction and dried salt and it hurts to walk normally.
I really want to visit a National Park for the Parks Service centennial this year, but I think the nearest one is in Maine. There are certainly NPS-administered lands in New York like the wildlife refuge I visited a week ago with J., but all of the focus around the centennial seems to be about THE National Parks and I feel like a bad citizen for not being able to visit those.
In Japan for the final country of our tour! Visited a hot spring (onsen) today with our host family in this city, which was very relaxing. We have three concerts left, and here’s hoping none of them are cancelled as there’s a big typhoon approaching Tokyo in the next few days.
I saw my room for this year– it’s in a really nice apartment complex, the kitchen is pretty big and has a lot of stuff, and there’s a balcony with an awesome view. But there were no single-in-studios left, so both my roommate and I will be sleeping in the same room and keep all our stuff on opposite sides of it and all of the other complications of not having your own bedroom that I swore I was done with after freshman year in undergrad. I haven’t met her yet, though, so hopefully we’ll get along well and it will go smoothly.
Has anyone here visited the House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, New Mexico? I’ve just spent a very pleasant afternoon there and recommend it highly. The less you know about it before you go, the better.
I never have, but I’ve been slowly collecting things to see in the Four Corners while I’m here, so I will add that to my list!
And sometime I’ll sit down and give my own wedding Kokon update as well.
Please do! The sooner the better.
I’m in Albuquerque for the rest of the week and would be happy to hear from any MBers in the neighborhood.
Well if you swing up towards Moab (or Denver, this weekend), give me a shout!
Each is a six-plus-hour drive from here, so unlikely. But there would be beautiful scenery on the way.
You clearly haven’t been out west for too long–after a year and a half, 6 hours seems like a reasonable overnight, and anything under 3.5 a day trip! The desert messes up your sense of proportions, I tell ya. But hope you are enjoying New Mexico!! I keep meaning to get down there sometime but knowing that it’s even hotter than where I am delays me. Perhaps in the fall.
Though–I highly reccomend southeast Utah to anyone traveling, I’m constantly amazed at how beautiful the are around Arches and Canyonlands national parks is even after being here a year.
Let me know if you end up near Denver!