Tonight we explain how unnatural society is. Then we rag on judgmental people, in full view of the irony. And we try and help William make friends. Won’t you? Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
If you were going to be a character in a book or movie who would it be? –Anonymous
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Wow…even educated fleas do it…
but not Giraffes apparently.
I thought “Ready Player One” was great, especially as an audiobook. (Wil Wheaton :))
I worry about the social impact of both Twilight and 50 Shades. I see both of them, not just as symptomatic of something in society, but feeding back into that same thing. What that is to me can best be summarized by my son’s summary of “Twilight”:
Edward: I will not kill you again today Bella.
Bella: I looooove you too, Edward.
Yeah, my experience with political activist groups has generally not been great as far as finding like-minded folks or collaborators. I’ve had much better success joining groups that have some kind of creative purpose (like the Briar Rose project!) 🙂
I’m a monkey too. 🙂
I’m not sure why I was reminded of this, but I was part of a Japanese New Year’s celebration a couple of weeks ago, and found out that the Shi-Shi, the animal who is usually referred to as a lion, is not really a lion (there weren’t lions in China where the “lion” dance (shi-shi mai) originated.
I liked the story of the origin of the dance/tradition. A man saw how unhappy human beings were and prayed to the gods to relieve their suffering. The gods replied that he should use the Shi-Shi to scare away the bad luck. When he asked what a Shi-Shi was, he got no reply. So he made the Shi-Shi (the mask and dance) up! 🙂
I read a book recently (“The Mindful Way Through Depression”) which made a distinction between awareness (which mindfulness is aiming at) and rumination (the kind of introspection which can actually make depression worse). I think the main distinction is that rumination is goal-oriented–what caused this feeling? how can I make this better? Those kinds of questions often lead to a self-blame cycle. Awareness (I guess) is more like, OK–this is how I’m feeling.
That was one your best closings ever.
Child of the : Huh, I tend to think of myself as a child of the 80’s since that’s when I was an actual child; rather than the decades when I was in high school or college.
Astrology: I find it interesting that when Tony said he recognizes there are things he doesn’t know; William instantly agreed. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it also seemed like William might be subtly snarking on Tony.
Liking people: William is both the most likeable and liking person I know. Personally, I hate people but like some individual persons.
Dresden Files: I just finished reading the series this week. Good times. 🙂
What character from a book would you want to be? In every book I’ve read, that I can currently recall, the characters have had “interesting” lives; where interesting means nigh unto certain death with a high probability of extreme discomfort. This makes me disinclined to desire to be one of those characters.