The Book of Daniel Vol. 2

12/22
1. Are you easily offended or upset by things other people post online?
Not generally.  But I tend to avoid the more charged sections of the internet.

2. How much does the order in which the Friday Five questions are presented here matter to you?
Not at all.

3. Have you ever made an effort to be inclusive, only to have someone complain that you were not being inclusive enough?
No, I don't think I've run into that.

4. Are you having a happy holiday season?
Reasonably.  It'll certainly end up being better than last year's.

5. Which holidays do you observe or celebrate?
Secular X-mas, with recognition to Festivus.


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12/15
1. What tradition makes the holidays for you?
Given the option, I would gladly have A Christmas Story on a loop the entire day.

2. Have you ever gone caroling door to door?
I don't *think* so.  I did do caroling with a Sunday school group in my very-young church-going days, but I don't think it was door-to-door, just in the park or something.

3. What holiday tradition would you happily see the back of?
Xmas stuff showing up in stores and in public before Thanksgiving (or, at this point, before *Halloween*).  

4. Have you ever spent Christmas way from your home and family?
No, fortunately.

5. Did you put milk and cookies out for Santa?
I don't go for milk on its own, and the cookies (which I really shouldn't have at this point) wouldn't make it to the time Santa arrives.

Just some thoughts on some of the books I've recently completed.

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
This is the first-hand account of Heyerdahl's 1947 raft voyage from Peru to Polynesia, with the goal of proving that these Pacific islands could have been colonized by those traveling westward from the South American mainland.  Those conclusions are generally rejected today, but the voyage is an interesting chapter in the history of 20th century anthropology, and as a read it makes for a good seafaring adventure story.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
One of those famous novels that I generally understood the references to, but never actually got around to reading.  The writing style is characteristic of its time, and the goal of playing on the reader's emotions is obvious.  But overall I think it worked well as a character study of the quiet teacher whose own career is somewhat unremarkable, but becomes distinguished by his dedication to the education and improvement of others, and finds his own form of happiness along the way.  As a sometimes-adjunct professor, I'd be lying if I said that it didn't hit home just a little bit.  It's a quick read to check off the list and overall I'd recommend it.

Before Shadowgate by F.X. Nine & Ellen Miles
This was one of the Worlds of Power books based on third-party NES games, which were all outlined by Seth Godin (aka "F.X. Nine") and written by another author, in this case Ellen Miles.  Most of the Worlds of Power books were essentially strategy guides in story form, just adapting how the player would move through the game, but this one for Shadowgate (itself originally part of the "MacVenture" series for Macintosh computers) is unique in that it's actually meant to be a prequel story to the game.  That certainly makes it more memorable than most of them, and the quality of the writing is a step up from, say, the Mega Man 2 book (perhaps the most famous of the Worlds of Power series, which was also written by Miles).  However, it also doesn't *really* tie into the game itself all that much, outside of the wizard Lakmir appearing, and even gets the name of the villain wrong (calling him "the Warlock King" when, throughout the game, he's referred to as "the Warlock Lord").  It's ultimately just kind of a generic YA fantasy adventure story that moves a little too fast - virtually every short chapter is punctuated with an encounter with another generic fantasy creature, most of which also appear nowhere in the game, with an audience-surrogate main character in a kid who becomes so powerful so quickly that he can't possibly lose.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage
The "evil kid" concept has plenty of precedent in books, movies and TV - The Exorcist, The Omen, The Bad Seed, The Good Son, Children of the Corn, Children of the Damned, Beware! Children at Play, the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life," and on and on - but this did a pretty good job of taking that general concept and placing it in a present-day 2020s setting.  It teased but then pulled back from having a supernatural element, and I think was better for it; that angle was more than adequately covered in some of the aforementioned predecessors.  A lot of people on Goodreads seemed to be down on the ending, but I think it was fine - you didn't really think this would end happily, did you?!  Overall a fast, solid read that should keep you entertained, but may not stick with you like, say, The Exorcist.

The Crimson Cage by John Lees, Alex Cormack & Ashley Cormack
A graphic novel that dares to ask the question, "what if Macbeth, but wrestling?"  Set in the early '80s, this follows Chuck Frenzy, a regional wrestler who is willing to go to any increasingly-terrible length to become the World Champion, but his desire to be on top will ultimately lead to his downfall.  The story follows the Macbeth framework, which works quite well transposed into the territorial wrestling world of the early 1980s, and features characters that, while fictional, will certainly be familiar to both fans of Shakespeare and longtime wrestling aficionados - Van Emerald, the World Champion for whose title Frenzy lusts after and who fills the Duncan role, is an obvious Ric Flair surrogate, for instance; Sharlene Frenzy, Chuck's wife/valet who is in the Lady Macbeth role, takes on a Sherri Martel-like appearance halfway through as they become more corrupted, and Emmet Crowe, the Macduff role, dresses like Cowboy Bob Orton did back then.  I won't spoil the ending too much, but the way the prophecy is resolved - that going into his steel cage match against Crowe, Frenzy will not lose his title in the ring as long as the roof on the cage stands - is pretty clever.  This features detailed, gritty and often gory artwork that fits the theme (the '80s territories could be bloody, after all, and Shakespeare could be bloodier).  I quite enjoyed it.

On a lark I signed up for the NYC Midnight microfiction challenge, which went live today.  I think I got fairly lucky with the draw of prompts - "horror" for Genre," "pressing a button" for Action and "love" for Word.  I already have what I think is a good idea in mind; just have to write it and see if I can get it in in under 250 words.  I'd like to think that I stand a decent chance in the contest, but there are around 4,500 entrants and I'm sure that includes plenty of legit talent, and most of my writing to date has been nonfiction, so who knows.  I think it'll be fun anyway.

Maybe I'll post the end result here after the contest, although if I do I might make it friends-only in case I actually decide to do something with the piece down the line.  

The above slogan seen on a vacant billboard.

No, you can’t scroll past it, but you can drive past it at 55mph.

I think the one being scrolled idly past probably has a better chance of registering.

 Also as mentioned in my "comeback" post (one before the last), I have two cats now, a 200% increase from my previous amount of cats.

They came to me at the end of my own previous life, last December.  Both from a person who no longer had adequate space for them, along with their two other cats that these two didn't get along with.

They're very much a study in opposites, and while they coexist they don't always fully get along with each other, but they're both extremely lovey towards me.  I also kept the names they came with.

Adrian is about seven now.  A former stray, who left the streets with a tipped ear, a once-broken tail and a very nervous disposition.  She's gray with white trim, including a white triangle on her face with a gray chin and black nose, and is on the chunky side as (as the vet told me) often happens to strays that become housecats.  She could best be described as a furry potato, though occasionally I do succeed in getting her to play a little, or catch her batting a toy that's been left out around.  She generally doesn't want Tabby getting into her space.

Tabby, about three, is, as the name suggests, a gray/brown tabby, with white tuxedo markings and a white streak down her left back leg.  She looks like a perfectly-formed storybook cat, but in miniature - according to the vet she weighs 8 pounds, but I question that, as she's tiny for a fully-grown cat and there's nothing to her.  Despite her size she has a seemingly endless supply of energy and can be quite an agent of chaos; very talky (though her meows sound like squeaks, and her purring is usually too soft to hear).  She's very much the extrovert of the duo, which Adrian doesn't always appreciate.

Getting them was initially meant to be a group effort, but I unexpectedly ended up a "single parent" to them soon after they came home.  But having them helped me through tough times earlier this year, and now I can't imagine life without them.

It's been awhile since I've posted in this journal, and much has changed.

As of December of last year, I have two cats.

Also as of December, I have to sleep attached to a piece of luggage.

As of about New Years, I'm no longer engaged.

As of August I've been back to teaching, at least for the present semester.

Also as of August, I've begun a campaign to become healthier in all ways, the physical component of which so far has me down 40 pounds as of this writing.

As of September I'm now 40 years old.

It's been a strange year to be sure, but I think - and hope - that I'm currently poised to leave 2023 better than I came into it.  I hope to use this journal more going forward, both for general personal thoughts as well as whatever random stupid stuff I come up with.

Stay tuned - this book isn't closed yet.

I mostly have unsettling dreams these days, but last night’s was at least notable for providing an interesting twist on the “glass delusion.”   in this dream, my body was made of ice cream, and I had to stay cold or else I would melt.    

You know the whole theory about how the entire universe is a simulation?  What if that were an explanation for supernatural events - ghost sightings and hauntings, UFOs, etc.?  Like, those are glitches in the system; assets from other time periods or locations accidentally being loaded in the wrong time or place?

Pleasant dreams.

(I do hope to do a lengthier life update soon.)

 There are few things worse, I think, than trying to sleep in a hot room with a broken air conditioner.

Despite not having been in school for ten years, if we're going with grad school - or twenty, if we're going with high school - and having had five years on the other side of the classroom since then - I still often have school-related stress dreams.  General themes often include not knowing or forgetting part of my class schedule, not knowing my way around the school (which is often an amalgamation of high school and college) and not having enough credits to graduate.  None of which were things I've ever really experienced.

A particularly vivid example last night had me having no choice but to drop a math course (which I really did do in my first two years, repeatedly), leaving me one class short of being able to graduate (it was never really that dire).  I also at various points was unsure of what days I was supposed to go to which classes, went to one class that had the wrong teacher in it, went to one that turned out to be a repeat of my 9th grade math class (which was indeed a nightmare), and went to another (which, for some reason, was a class on the history of the Smashing Pumpkins) had such a bad teacher I decided to skip it.

You'd think these would fade with time, but for some reason they only seem to get worse.