Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

Has it really been a week since I last posted?!

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:58:32 GMT

First. Cute overload of the day, or week, or month, or until the next time I squeal out loud at an image on my screen: Linked Tails (photo of three harvest mice siblings perched on a branch, holding tails the way humans hold hands)

Second. Re: Feeling ... not so much left out as pushed out of Valentine's Day (it's the only holiday I can think of that puts people in a second class based on relationship status, and for those of us who have been historically and culturally discouraged from thinking about having relationships, well... yeah. And being the sort who doesn't like feeling left out and bitter, I spent yesterday trying to think of a positive alternative way to frame it -- or a new one (my old fall back of it bringing a shot of bright color into the grey depths of winter doesn't work as well in Virginia as it did in New York).

This is what I came up with: For the Romans, it was a fertility fest celebrating the founding of Rome, and the suckling of Romulus and Remus by the she-wolf... According to the Christian story (aiui) Saint Valentine became associated with lovers because at one point, married men were exempt from the army, so the Saint would perform marriages as an act of civil disobedience. So I propose that we singletons of that bent use the day to celebrate conscientious objection and other "loving" acts of social change... (hey, "pinko" is already a color associated with it!)

Third. Working on a YouTube video of my "harvest" poem... which is why I haven't been talking here much (which is why I was researching mice to draw).

Fourth. Still need to schedule an inspection of my central heating/AC

Fifth. Need to schedule repairs to the van (may be the transmission). :-/

Sixth. After 30 or so years, This Old House is finally doing a series on wheelchair-accessible design. My feelings, they are mixed. On the one hand: yay! On the other hand, it's still being framed as "Something we should do for our elderly family members." (And again, disability = elderly, rather than disability = everybody). Also, it's a two-storey house and the downstairs is being converted into a self-contained, one-storey, living space with the upstairs being renovated for future live-in help if needed... And once again, I'm thinking that that would probably have been the better option for me to adapt my New York home instead of moving down here...

Seventh: OMG! Asteroids! Meteorite! Eek!

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A recitation of this poem was on one of my favorite Christmas albums, as a teen:

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 01:55:34 GMT

( In Memoriam (Ring out, Wild Bells) by Alfred Lord Tennyson )

And the other day (Yesterday? or was it the day before?) I got the idea in my head to write my own poem, following these sentiments-- but from a Humanist/Agnostic/Atheist perspective, instead of a Christian one.

Something about how, although, strictly speaking, picking one day as the New Year is arbitrary-- there's really little difference between one minute and the next, even if we give those minutes, days, years, different names.

But-- But -- BUT -- the very act of collectively, as a society, to agree to let go of the past and take a deep breath full of hope-- this is still and always be, a moment and an action of profound Grace. And, like anarchy, it has little meaning done alone, but a great deal of meaning when done as a society.

I don't think I will complete this poem before midnight, my time (little more than three hours from now). But maybe I'll complete it before the passing of Orthodox Christmas...

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Holiday Flash-fiction (extremely rough draft)

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 01:20:47 GMT

It had been ages since I'd truly written flash-fiction (though I used to write a-story-in-a-day fairly regularly when I was a teen), and then, at around 4 pm, Christmas afternoon, I got the idea for a "drabble" I could slip into gordon_r_d's inbox; 100 words would take an hour, tops (right, if you include all the edit and polish?). And it kept growing, and growing, and growing... And eventually, I realized I was creeping dangerously close to the 10,000 character limit (and over five hours later). But in the end, I succeeded in writing a complete story in more-or-less one sitting (don't worry--I took breaks for biological needs).

I also realized, as I was finding a way to resolve it, that, at least when it comes to "What the Holidays [trademark] mean to me..." that it was damned autobiographical. So, with gordon_r_d's kind permission, I present to you:

( Crinkleminkle's crushmess... crunchmuss... SOMETHING-yacallit )

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My musical "Winter Holiday/New Year's" Card for my circles of friends

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 04:56:24 GMT

I haven't gotten around to writing a new holiday song, yet... but I did, just now, finish making a video of a song I wrote a while back, and recently tweaked.

Yes, I know that for the southern half of the planet New Year comes in the summer. I'm a northerner, and I originally wrote this as a Secret Santa present for another northerner back in '06. My antipodean friends are welcome to change those lines around to suit the circs.

Anyway, the image at 2:55 is of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm listening to a story from Dorothea Viehmann -- who was the actual source for a great many of the stories in their collection, and incidentally, the woman Wilhelm would eventually marry (he's the one leaning forward in his seat, hanging on her every word). ...I love the chickens wandering in and out... Anyway, I included that illustration specifically because this December is the 200th anniversary of the first edition of their first volume of "Children's and Household Tales," and figured they deserved a tip of the hat.

Here's a link to the Wikisource page that has the illustration and text of the article that went with it: http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCder_Grimm_bei_der_M%C3%A4rchenerz%C3%A4hlerin

Also: Achievement unlocked! I managed to get the closed captioning track done right in the first try. \o/ (It really is a lot easier if you don't bother counting the fractions of seconds).

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Twoot! Happy New B'ak'tun 13.0.0.0.0!

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:44:22 GMT

*Twoot!* Happy New B'ak'tun 13.0.0.0.0!

Yup! It's the Mayan version of the New Millennium!

And yes, that's all it was ever going to be -- even in ancient Mayan mythology.

Let's hope the next 394.26 years is better than the last 394.26 years...

Be good to each other, people!

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Io, Saturnalia! (Yay, Saturnalia) -- today would've been Day 3 out of 7

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:32:38 GMT

As I said, in a recent, circle-locked post, Saturnalia is my favorite of the Publicly-celebrated Winter Bash festivals (or would be, if it were still publicly celebrated). So much so, I made a new icon to celebrate, just now :-)

I first learned about the holiday in high school Latin Class, and, one year, a combined Latin Class party (all the Latin students from fifth to twelfth grade -- 11-18 year-olds) was the one time in my life I got to actually celebrate it in an organized way.

This is what I learned way back in my personal Days of Yore:

Once upon a time, after Saturn was deposed from his kingship of the Gods, he came to Earth, and taught humans all about agriculture: how to plow the earth (pointing out how the wild boars did it, with their tusks... and it was based on that inspiration that humans figured out the plough).

During his reign on Earth, before civilization got too advanced, there were no social classes, and everyone lived as equals, and no one did any more work than was necessary (and since there was a God of Fertility on premises, very little work was needed to get things to grow). This was the Golden Age of Man, and there was peace, and no wars, etc. And then, as people acquired more wealth, they started to stratify into social classes, and develop slavery, and start coveting other clans' lands, and so forth, and they, too, banished Saturn, and began to worship Jove as the supreme god.

But for a week, around the winter solstice, Saturn was welcomed back to the world, and, to make him feel at home, we humans are asked to try our best to act like we did during the Golden Age, when social class is forgotten, and masters serve their slaves at dinner, and people spend more time playing than working, and official government bureaucracy stuff is put on hold... Basically:

"Grandpa is coming to stay for a week! Can we at least try to be extra nice to each other, to make him feel at home?"

Of course, it's make-believe. The slaves are not really free... and everything goes back to normal on the 24th, so even when they're given the "liberty" of voicing criticism of their masters, it can only go so far.

And yet, there's an acknowledged value in "acting as if" -- just to practice exercising those thought muscles.

In my high school Latin party, that one year, it started with the Seniors (or at least those who'd been studying Latin for the full seven years) reenacted the liberation of Saturn from bondage: one played the role of the God, himself, in a long yellow, robe/toga, and wearing a fake cotton wool beard. He came in wearing paper chain-and-shackles, which the the student acting as priest tore asunder. Then, "Saturn" gave a speech in Latin all about the values of human equality and peace, and freedom. And then, he went around and handed out (what would have been, in "Roman times") little cakes that were shaped like the god Saturn (only, those being unavailable, our Latin teacher went out and bought a couple dozen Santa-shaped, red-sugar-dusted, butter cookies from a local bakery).

Then, since we were excused from our other afternoon classes, we shared a meal of Italian food, and honey-glazed cakes for dessert, while each of the different aged students put on short skit parodies of Roman mythology.

Then, right before we left to get on our buses home, we sang Christmas carols in Latin.
---
Anyway, it's always kind of baffled me why Saturnalia, out of all the old Holy Days, is the one that has become the most demonized as Teh Evol by the Christian Evangelical types, while Lupercalia, was allowed to survive, be sanitized and prettified (That is: transformed into Valentine's Day), and pushed onto schoolchildren as a series of mandatory class activities (though my aide, who has been working for a young school boy at nursery school, kindergarten, and now first grade, tells me that Valentine's Day is no longer pushed in school... which I think is a healthy trend).

( Valentine's Day origins (content warning: discussion of animal sacrifice and D/s sex) )

So, on Monday and Tuesday, I was browsing through YouTube to see if I could find anyone reading excerpts from Martial's (Roman Poet) Saturnalia Epigrams (little comic verses about -- or sometimes in the voice of -- different Saturnalia presents). Sadly, I could not. I did, however, come across many Christian Evangelical videos espousing their hatred of the holiday, and by extension, all the jolly, fun, parts of Christmas.

And then it occurred to me (the proverbial light bulb, or considering the context, Saturnalia candle): Lupercalia may have been filled with sex and violence, while Saturnalia at least gave lip service to peace, equality, and freedom. But Lupercalia was turned into lovey-dovey day, and Saturnalia became equated with evil because it :::Drum Roll::: CELEBRATES ANARCHY!!!!

(Noooo-oooo-ooo-ooo!)

Now, a note on the shadow / dark side of the ancient worship of Saturn: it was acknowledged, in the ancient Roman myths, that while he ruled over the Earth, Saturn did demand human sacrifice as part of his cult, and to be presented with the heads of his victims as offerings. Over the course of several centuries of observing Saturnalia, contemporary Romans came up with varying ways to acknowledge this practice without actually performing it, including making offerings of masks of human faces or offering and burning candles shaped like people. For modern folks who want to observe Saturnalia, may I suggest offering the heads off a few of your gingerbread people? Just a thought.

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Another Holiday/Christmas video (from one of my YouTube subscriptions)

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:01:16 GMT

A wee bit more sincere/sentimental than the last one:

I gotta say: I prefer this cover to the Pogues' original... Less... snarly?

( Lyrics )

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Oh, lookee! It's a "Holidays" post, with a bouncy, catchy, Santa Claus song

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:01:48 GMT

Another clip from Old School Electric Company, this time, showing the influence of adult sketch comedy, like The Carol Burnett Show:

And really, I think: If this had been first released through some other (aka commercial) venue, rather than PBS children's programming, it would have been as popular a novelty song as "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas," or "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus." For one thing, it tells the truth about Christmas that's rarely acknowledged in kids' music, especially.

I also really like the ending (how much do you want to bet he was hoping for a shot of bourbon?).

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As I start typing this, it's 59 minutes 'till the fireworks go Boom.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:54:29 GMT

(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...

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Um. I seem to be playing Elf.

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:49:27 GMT

So, a year and a half ago, I got the idea of making a "Group Hug Snuggly" -- a physical stuffed animal to grab hold of and hug whenever I feel the urge to type *hugs* in reply to someone online, and also to grab and hold whenever someone sent that reply to me.

As an added boost of snuggly magic, it will have, slipped inside the stuffing, little tokens-- each one representing / dedicated to one of those friends (back in the day, they raised their [virtual] hands and asked to be included*).

The thing is, I always wanted to make an original design teddy -- either a "monster" teddy or an "alien" teddy. So I didn't want to use any of the sewing patterns available for download online.

And mathematical / geometrical thinking is one of my weakest intelligences, so translating the 3-D shape I imagine in my head into flat shapes I can cut out of paper has been making me flail for a total of 77 weeks.

Late last night, I realized I had paper towels, scissors and glue, so that I could experiment and see what sorts of flat shapes turn into what sort of round shapes. That's what helped me figure out how the whole thing works.

And now? I'm making it up on the fly. The main thing is: I figured out how to make sure critical seams match up. Anyway, I might actually have all the fabric pieces cut out and glued together by the time I go to sleep (I use temporary white glue instead of straight pins -- and then, stitch over it). And my next project may be a "how-to," because I can't be the only one who loves hands-on, but blanks at the figuring-out.

I don't celebrate Christmas. But spending the day before making a childhood symbol by hand seems oddly appropriate.

*It's not too late if you want in...

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Happy Halloween! To celebrate, I posted one of my favorite ghost stories to "Plato's Nightmare..."

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:33:01 GMT

"Sammle's Ghost" -- A Tale for Halloween

It's not particularly gory (in the literal sense) or violent. But it does mention a lot of snails and slugs and bats, and things. And it's basically a dialog between a ghost and a giant (rather bureaucratic) Great Worm. So, if worms and things (or bureaucrats) disgust you, you may not want to read...

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More Mother Goose

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:17:49 GMT

Writing up my old idea for a Mother Goose Costume, yesterday, prompted me to realize that I need a Mother Goose Journal icon (I'm thinking of using this image, which appears to be 19th C., and shows up everywhere via a Google search, but I can't find an attribution. Do any of you know, or dare to venture a guess?). And that brought up new information about the character that makes me feel quite chuffed and vindicated. So!

The Back-story:
One of my very first presents, ever, was The Mother Goose Treasury, illustrated by Raymond Briggs (of The Snowman fame), with the collection of rhymes taken from the research of Iona and Peter Opie. It was given to me for my second Christmas -- three weeks before I turned 3 years old. And I still have it (The end papers are covered with my beginning attempts to write my name and the number 3 [everywhere but the bookplate pasted to the inside front cover... heh])

This is the first rhyme/ballad/story in the tome -- taking up almost six pages ('cause every verse needs an illustration).

( Mother Goose and the Golden Egg (As I learned it) -- cut for length ) [footnote below]

For the 2000 Holiday/New Year season I wrote and illustrated a novella/chapter book based on this witchy version of M. Goose, and tied her in with Christmas, the Winter Solstice, and Santa Claus. My premise was that the laying of the golden egg was an annual event at the winter solstice, and inside the golden shell was magic that M. Goose shared with Santa, so his reindeer could fly in time for Christmas Eve. I finished it up in the nick of time, had a dozen copies printed and bound by Kinkos, and slipped it into my neighbors' mailboxes as a Surprise!present. Not one adult even acknowledged my efforts... one kid did, though, so I know it was read by at least one of them.

Well, according to Wikipedia, that story was first created as a Christmas/New Year's Pantomime by Thomas Dibdin for the 1806-'07 Yule season -- 17 years before "A Visit From St. Nicholas." And she's even witchier in that original story -- raising storms and summoning ghosts, and I'd really, really, like to see that play, now!

So I was hitting close to a well-established tradition when I imagined her as primarily a Winter Celebration character. Can I sing "I told you so!" now?

[Footnote]: A slightly different (and to my mind, less poetic and more clunky) version is reproduced here: Mother Goose and Her Son Jack, with the additional information that it was first published (and perhaps written by) T. Batchelor in 1815 (but it's completely missing the "odd fish," so imnsho, it's not nearly as good -- and, as a warning: that Web page has an annoying and goofy-looking animated .gif).

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Now I remember why I was talking to myself about Halloween costumes!

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:21:57 GMT

(And now I'll share what I said to myself)

The first-cuppa-coffee chat started rolling, because just the evening before, spiralsheep sent me this link to a BBC story about a pterosaur fossil fragment that turns out to be from the largest toothed pterosaur ever (yet discovered): http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15150591

And that reminded me of a podcast I listened to this past summer about pterosaurs and their mobility in the air and on the ground (here: To Err is Human. To Rawr is Dinosaur) where the visiting experts point out that the only way a human could get even close to walking like a pterosaur is to use crutches.

And as I was toodling around the next morning, I glimpsed my crutches propped up in the corner, and was instantly tickled by the thought that, within my circle of friends, I alone could pull off the most accurate pterosaur costume, and make it look the least cheesy.

And that triggered the perennial self-debate about why should crutches or wheelchair be even a consideration in deciding on a costume? Why can't you just dress up as a character that happens to use a wheelchair or crutches?

And this is the answer I told myself:

It's not so much an issue with crutches. But a wheelchair user is surrounded on three sides by a cookie-cutter machine (especially if it's motorized). So the only clear view anyone would have of your costume is face-to-face. And how often does that view come up when you're at a party (or convention, or out trick-or-treating)?

If you're going to put an effort into making a costume in the first place, you want to be noticed and appreciated from all sides. And that means covering your chair. Not out of shame, but using what you've got: a rigid scaffolding with a motor and wheels -- in short: turning yourself into a one-person parade float. :-D

( Here are some ideas I've come up with in the past, but have never gotten around to doing: )

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5 reasons to be cheerful about October / Autumn (A reminder for myself)

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:42:13 GMT

One: The cats are now in a mood to snuggle in my lap, rather than just sit in my general vicinity (and I'm now wearing long sleeves, so Beatrice [Trixie] can do kneading-paws without performing acupuncture).

Two: "Honey Crisp" apples are in season, and in my grocery store (they are sweet, and crisp -- and juicy enough you can almost slurp them like a peach).

Three: Barley is also in my grocery store ("Pearled" -- aka refined -- barley; still, refined barley has as much fiber as brown rice). So I could get some without resorting to buying it off the Internet.

Four: The sun rises later, so it better matches my practically-vampiric sleep schedule.

Five: Halloween's coming. I have no idea why this makes me cheerful; I haven't actually celebrated it in many, many years. And I deliberately avoid participating in giving out candy to trick-or-treaters (because the logistics of hurrying to the door every time the bell rings is a nightmare of stress, especially when you have no backup). But today, while having my breakfast coffee, I discovered I was talking aloud to myself about "How to think up Halloween costumes that work with crutches and wheelchairs." So there must be something about Halloween that makes me happy. Oh, wait. Maybe it's because it's the one and only holiday where it's socially acceptable to celebrate growling and UN-cutesy things.

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It's that time of year, again:

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:05:55 GMT

"Saint Paddy's Day" and the "Celebration of 'traditional Irish culture'":*
(BTW, I love Celtic music, but I hate the Muzakization of it, especially as has been happening during PBS pledge drives, in recent years)

*I.E. the romanticization of other people's poverty.

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More Monster Musings

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:29:27 GMT

First, here's the monster I started to draw, yesterday, in honor of MONSTER DAY (February 16th), 2011 (I only finished it a few minutes ago -- it, um, kept getting hairier and hairier >_>):

Second, thinking about the origin of the word "Monster" (from the Latin for 'omen' or 'sign,' specifically, an omen that the gods are about to wreak vengence for humanity's sin), and how that can still have meaning for me, as an atheist:

Omens, like life, can spring forth without a scheming architect scribbling away behind the scenes (Creationism is Intelligent Design; Evolution is Intelligent Improv.*). An organism born with a radically unexpected body form could very well be a sign that Something Big is Changing deep within the system, and soon, we will feel that Big Change.

Humans: a) Don't like Big Change, and b) take everything personally, and assume anything we don't like is a punishment. So.

Third, thinking about how this "holiday" (it may be on its way, but it hasn't yet reached self-sustaining meme power) can fit into my own year, and my own experience of the seasons:

If I understand monsters to be embodiments of big change, or signs that big change is coming, then maybe this can be my "Hooray! Winter is over holiday!"

Y/Y?

*Say "yes" to everything, just keep going, and see what happens.

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It's MONSTER DAY!!

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:15:19 GMT

I'm a jenny¹-come-lately on this, thanks to my out-of-sync sleep cycle, and the day is almost over in my time zone, and definitely over in many other zones around the world. But I wanted to advertise my support of this, in preparation for next year.

*Nods purposefully*

I learned about this through xjenavivix who is passing on the word from djinni, who explains the day, its purpose and preparation here, as a sort of antidote to the shmaltz of Valentine's Day (aiui).

Since "monster" has a particular meaning to me, I am rolling the idea of "monster day" over in my mind, as I would roll a strange fruit around in my mouth, testing out the taste of it, and trying to figure out where and how it would fit into my own seasonal dance of celebrations. This will take some time. So I am declaring this to be "Monster Week" in this space right now.

In the meantime, have some "monster art" that I've created over a relatively recent, but unspecified, span of time:

( Three more behind this cut, including a frog-bat one and a snail-gryphon one, in case any of those are ick-triggering for folks )

Those last three, I drew while my notions about monsters were still in their subconscious form; I'm currently working on a new one, which I might post tomorrow, along with (maybe) some follow-up thoughts on my recent post about monsters and disability (no promises, especially on that last, though)

¹A female jack-ass; a "mare" donkey -- also called a "jennet."

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The Universe is Awesome, and we're a part of it (Why I love being part of Doctor Who Fandom)!

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:43:16 GMT

So, yesterday, I got into a discussion with vilakins in kerravonsen's reaction post to the recent Doctor Who Christmas Special, especially the line: "Christmas is always in winter."

ORLY?! asked all those Who fans who watched the Christmas Special after a Summertime Christmas celebration, for reals, right here on Earth. And vilikins and I launched into a long, tangential, conversation about what sort of planetary factors go into what sorts of festivals the intelligent beings might celebrate, and what happens when you superimpose histories and politics on top of that.

And what about planets without any axial tilt?

And that's the reason I love the show, and the fans it attracts. The very premise and the format of the show prompts these sorts of questions, and gets all sort of juicy conversations going. My brain feeds on Juicy Conversations (and chocolate).

And late last night, that discussion reawakened a set of memories in my brain about two very real, nonfiction exoplanets that have been discovered just within the five years, both orbiting the same red dwarf star 20.5 lightyears from us: Gliese 581c and Gliese 581g (two wikipedia articles).

Both planets appear to be Earth-like, and to have conditions suitable to sustain the presence of liquid water and thick atmospheres that would moderate the extreme variations in the planets' surface temperatures. Therefore, these planets are more likely then not to support the presence of life as we'd recognize it.

Both planets are probably also without much, if any axial tilt. And both (like our own moon) are very likely tidally locked, so that the length of a day equals the length of a year. So: yeah -- right in our own galatic backyard, two planets that have both a "north" and a "south" but also planets where "north and south" probably wouldn't mean much, culturally speaking, if any cultures live there (but "Light, Dark and In-Between" would).

What I take away from all this:

Doods!! I mean Dooooods!!! We've only started our search for exoplanets fifteen years ago, and just four years in, we already found a planet that looks comfortable. And just three years after that, we find another one in the same system.

And our sample size is really small: just 420 out of the billions of stars in our galaxy. And we only picked those because they're close to us, and relatively easy for us to observe.

As Stephen Vogt, et alia (the authors of the paper in which discovery of Gliese 581g was announced) put it:

(Quote)
This detection, coupled with statistics of the incompleteness of present-day precision RV surveys for volume-limited samples of stars in the immediate solar neighborhood suggests that eta_Earth could well be on the order of a few tens of percent.
(unquote)

Dooods!!!eleventy!!!one!!

Eleventy!

(squee)

And also: If, in our own solar system, if Mars also fostered life at some point in our planets' mutual history (even if it no longer does), than maybe two life-supporting planets per star system is also relatively common.

What sort of implications would that have in science fiction stories?

An interview with Steve Vogt, about the (unconfirmed, yet) discovery of planet "Gliese 581g" on YouTube (in September of this year)

His conclusion: "Learn to wrap your mind around the incredibleness of the Universe, and it will make you happy if you do that."

All together now (with the hand motions & dance, if you want):

"Intellect and Romance over brute force and cynicism!"

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My Holiday-Solstice-Yule-Inspired E-card, for anyone who'd like to accept it from me.

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:27:39 GMT

As I said the other day, I'm a Born-Again Atheist who believes in "Santa Claus"*

In my own imagination, this figure is the personification of Father Nature in the form of a Wind Spirit.

And that's what I've tried to draw, here:

And since I'm getting ready to divest myself of LiveJournal, I decided to take this oportunity to start a flick'r account. My account name there is "Capriuni_Still," because I needed to create a new Yahoo account years ago for reasons I can't remember, now...

Anyway, happy-happy Yule (third day after the Solstice, nine days before 2011, and if you don't celebrate any of that, a "Very happy Thursday" [/Pooh and Piglet]).

*Though, personally, I prefer the name "Belsnickle" because it's descriptive without the religious honorific (and because it's silly-sounding). From the German for "Furry Nicholas"

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It's after midnight, midwinter, here, and so, I spam you with more of my favorite carols

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 05:50:06 GMT

(Yes -- "More." I suppose "Zat You, Santa Claus?" is not properly a carol, in most peoples' eyes, but it is to me [but "Santa Claus is coming to town" is sacreligious ;P])

I'm so happy I found this song on YouTube. I admit, I get teary-eyed whenever I hear it, and lumpy-throated, too. Because it spells out what I think of as the "reason for the season": Forgiving old wrongs and grudges, and creating a little bit of Peace on Earth, and thus, doing your best to start the new year off right.

According to the folks at Mudcat, the lyrics for this tune date back to somewhere around 1620. And the music is from about a century later.

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Things I thought on waking up this morning--I'll try to remember 5 things; I'm sure I had 5 thoughts

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:41:47 GMT

(Not necessarily in the order I thought them, just in the order that I'm remembering them).

How odd it is (is it odd?) that I've become a Born Again, Spiritual Atheist, and yet, still believe in "Santa Claus," "Jolly Old Nick," "Chimney John," "Pelsnickel" (or whatever you choose to name him).
1. This probably makes me an opposite of most Christianly-raised adults, who want kids to grow out of belief in Santa at some point, while still keeping their faith in God.
2. The thing is, "The Solstice Gift-Giver (of whatever name)" is a personification of Nature, and of Generosity on the mortal plane, in the Here-and-Now. And in my personal ethics schema, it's the Here-and-Now that is the most important. And being a personification is just as powerful as being tangibly "real." So maybe that's why.
3. Also, "Santa" is one of those Otherworld / Realm of the Dead figures who makes housecalls (unlike the ghosts and ghoulies of Halloween, who wait for you to venture out), and he brings you gifts / presents from his Otherworld Realm, which is an infusion of magic and creativity into our here-and-now lives, and maybe that's why Santa is extra magical, and losing belief in him strikes many as extra-sad.
4. BUT -- I still cringe at the thought that Belief = Good. You don't have to believe in God, or Santa, or the Sandman, or anything else, to have a strong, ethical character.
I wish those relatives who send me Christmas cards, each year, would include their email addresses. The Internet is the bestest, most accessible way for me to stay in touch with the world.
Cake gingerbread is the Bestest thing in the whole world, especially this time of year. And I want some. I'm really grateful that I have no food allergies.
I like to watch How-to / Crafting Vids; Many focus on small, homemade gifts. Many are all about creatively wrapping up foods / candies as appreciation gifts for teachers / service providers, et alia. But this strikes me as risky, because so many people do have food allergies, and you may not know about them. If I had kids in school, or had more contact with the outside world, and needed to come up with a long list of people to give small gifts to, at the end of the year, I think I'd choose to do something like artsy refrigerator magnets, attached to post-it notepads -- something useful. Or maybe make a bunch small desk calenders. Something like that. Food makes wonderful gifts, but I'd only give them to family or friends, so I'd know if anything was off limits.
My Doctor Who, Mary-Sueish daydreams (yes, I have them -- doesn't every DW fan, at some point, daydream of being a companion?) are less about the adventures on far-away planets, then they are about the day I return to Earth, and reestablish my relationships with friends, and how to deal with folding in all the experiences I've lived through back into my Earthly life. I got stuck in such a daydream, yesterday, and couldn't get out of it.

I think this means that I wish my life had a reset button... (and that I could meet up with friends, and get/give hugs) :-/

I almost didn't include the first item on this list, for being atheist-centric, because I know many on my reading-friends list are Believing Christians. But I went ahead with it, because I intend it merely as a statement of my own beliefs, and in no way a criticism of anyone else's.

Also, it give me context for this vid -- "Zat you, Santa Claus?" by Louis Armstrong. And I was in the mood to share some music, and a vid:

It takes a while to load, even with my broadband, but if you can watch it, it's worth it. :-)

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Sings Five (random) things!

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 18:36:24 GMT

Yesterday, was the UN International Day of Disabled Persons. I did not have spirit to post anything on it, but today, I came across this great essay in the LJ Comm "No_Pity" by dwgism (reproduced below the cut, because some people on my access list have computers that can't handle LJ's inflicted advertising):

( Vulnerable? )
I just realized, last night, that only one of my neighbors in my cul-de-sac has any Christmas lights up -- one bright green bunch of lights in one upstairs window. I honestly can't remember what last year's displays were like, but two years ago, every window and bush, it seemed was outlined and sparkly before the leftover Thanksgiving turkey was in the fridge.

When I made the realization, I got a little down.
- Of course, I haven't put up any lights since Christmas, '05; I was keeping them up until my dad came down for my birthday visit, so I could share them with him, and he could help take them down. Of course, he never came down for that visit again, because just before he was planning to, he fell, broke his leg, and discovered he had lung cancer.
  
  It's not that I miss the decorations. I miss having someone else to share them with. Putting them up for just me seems a bit pointless.
At the Art Garden after-gathering, Irene O'Garden asked me if I was still active in the neo-Pagan community, and that's when I tried to explain how I shifted from polythesism to agnosticism bordering on atheism. And she urged me to write it down-- really! I've written about various aspects of that process a few times, here in my journal. But I might try polishing up a single coherent version, here, over the winter.
A discussion of "How to approach Santa" in a friend's journal, yesterday, reminded me of a pet peeve my mother had about the Santa Culture: The "Be good, or Santa won't bring you anything!" threat.

I remember we were in a hospital waiting room (it was actually just a couple of benches in a wide, brick-walled hospital hallway-- kinda dark), and there was a mother and a kid of about seven across from us (I think I was about ten, iirc). And the kid was whining and crying and on the verge of a temper tantrum, and the mother said: "If you're not good, Santa won't bring you anything!"

And Mother said, aside to me: "Santa is the spirit of love, and generosity! Love doesn't stop just because you misbehave!"

My mom was the coolest.

(Plus, there's the implication that poor children are bad, or [as explicitely stated in the film version of The Polar Express] suffering from insufficient "Belief"). :::Shudder:::

I want to bring back the late 18th- early 19th Century tradition of bands of wild "Santas" harrassing the wealthy until they give money, toys, and treats to be handed out to the poorest kids in town: Comfort the Afflicted, and Afflict the Comfortable!
I've started over on my monster story. I drew a watercolor pencil portrait of my main character, and today, I'll do hand-written/drawn wordwebs for my characters. Doing Internet research, yesterday, I discovered, that nearly every part of the process, there are still individual people putting their hands and eyes on the plush toys. So now I'm wondering if I should alter my origin story which relied on computerized machines malfuntioning...

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On this Day of American Epicurian Delights, quotes from Epicurus (or philosphers in his school):

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:59:06 GMT

From the Vatican Sayings:

Saying number 19: "He has become an old man on the day on which he forgot his past blessings."

Saying number 35: "Don't spoil what you have by desiring what you don't have; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for."

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"Who are you?!" "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past"

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 00:16:05 GMT

(Thanks to calapine for the link to BBC's First Trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, 2010)

You know, that recent Nova episode "The Secrets of Stonehenge" has got me thinking. Here's a three-sentence synopsis of the hour-long program (As I've come away from it, anyway), for those who can't watch the whole:

Stonehenge is just one half of a ritual space alongside the river Avon, a burial ground for royal families; the other half is the "Woodhenge" of Durrington Walls.
Stone, in many cultures, belongs to the realm of the ancestors, while wood belongs to the realm of the living.
On the winter solstice, the sun rises over one of the main avenues of Durrington Walls, and sets over one of the main avenues of Stonehenge (And the timing is reversed for the summer solstice, rising over Stonehenge, and setting over Woodhenge).

So the day of the winter solstice, it would seem (to me), was dedicated to starting out in "this world" and spending the day making a pilgrimage to visit the Otherworld, and bringing the blessings of the ancestors back with you.

So the "Little ghost story of Christmas" that Dickins wrote, where Ebenezer is redeemed by reconnecting to his past, and his past blessings, and then bringing that back to the future, by ensuring the survival of Tiny Tim, has far older roots than the Christian Charity that Dickens explicitely writes about in his prose.

... ... ...

I do so wish Christianity didn't have such a death grip on the Winter Gift-Giver (Also trickster and psychopomp, if you trace his roots back far enough). Makes it impossible to invoke him as a universal figure (Which is why I never bothered to do anything with my NaNo Novel of 2006-- I'm not Christian, and neither were about 3/4 of the people I wanted to give the story to, but I couldn't write a "Santa Claus Story" without making the whole thing seem like "Yay for Christianity-- the default religion!")

Sigh.

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American Independance Day afterthoughts:

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:27:55 GMT

(Actually, I was thinking these thoughts concurrently, but couldn't muster the energy to post them at the time)

Last night, I overheard the fireworks display put on by my city, and watched "A Capital Fourth" (PBS) and "The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular" (CBS) on TV. The former were loud, and the latter were pretty. And while I'm proud of my country's good points, I'm also embarrassed by our greed and arrogance.

And while I was watching my TV, with frequent shots of soldiers-in-uniform sitting in the front rows of the audience, in places of honor, as MCs and musical stars heaped praise and thanks upon them.

Yes. Not to take anything away from that... but I couldn't help but think:

When I graduated from high school in 1983, my class invited our history teacher to give the faculty address.

I don't remember his exact words, but I remember his main point.

He said that America was exceptional, not because of its inherent greatness and superiority over other nations, but because it was the first in history where people got together and deliberate invented a new form of government. And he urged us, as new graduates, to go forth and continue that tradition, and invent the future for ourselves and our compatriots.

You know -- it would be nice if we could give equal public thanks to our teachers, and philosophers, too. Every nation, even the most brutal dictatorships (especially the dictatorships) can define their national greatness by the strength and bravery of its soldiers.

But in a democracy like ours, they're not the only ones "defending our freedoms."

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Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

Has it really been a week since I last posted?!

A recitation of this poem was on one of my favorite Christmas albums, as a teen:

Holiday Flash-fiction (extremely rough draft)

My musical "Winter Holiday/New Year's" Card for my circles of friends

*Twoot!* Happy New B'ak'tun 13.0.0.0.0!

Io, Saturnalia! (Yay, Saturnalia) -- today would've been Day 3 out of 7

Another Holiday/Christmas video (from one of my YouTube subscriptions)

Oh, lookee! It's a "Holidays" post, with a bouncy, catchy, Santa Claus song

As I start typing this, it's 59 minutes 'till the fireworks go Boom.

Um. I seem to be playing Elf.

Happy Halloween! To celebrate, I posted one of my favorite ghost stories to "Plato's Nightmare..."

More Mother Goose

Now I remember why I was talking to myself about Halloween costumes!

5 reasons to be cheerful about October / Autumn (A reminder for myself)

It's that time of year, again:

More Monster Musings

It's MONSTER DAY!!

The Universe is Awesome, and we're a part of it (Why I love being part of Doctor Who Fandom)!

My Holiday-Solstice-Yule-Inspired E-card, for anyone who'd like to accept it from me.

It's after midnight, midwinter, here, and so, I spam you with more of my favorite carols

Things I thought on waking up this morning--I'll try to remember 5 things; I'm sure I had 5 thoughts

*Sings* Five (random) things!

On this Day of American Epicurian Delights, quotes from Epicurus (or philosphers in his school):

"Who are you?!" "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past"

American Independance Day afterthoughts:

Twoot! Happy New B'ak'tun 13.0.0.0.0!

Sings Five (random) things!