Years ago, I used to mock people who used LOL in online conversation. It always looked trite to me, as if anyone would really “laugh out loud” at every slightly amusing thing they see on the internet.
(I’m sure some do.)
But I’ve mellowed over time and now use it myself exactly as it was intended: a shorthand way of saying, “You made a funny.”
I still reserve this glare for people who use LOL as punctuation, though:
I mean, at least it didn’t snow.
Speaking of snow, while I still generally dislike the accursed white stuff (yes, I hate fun1Fine, when it first starts falling, it’s pretty and all that, but then comes the slipping and sliding and the slush and why is that patch of snow yellow?), this animated GIF always instills a wonderful sense of calm and quiet:
Going forward, I am pondering a few things for December, writing-wise. I kind of want to do a more focused blog, but I’m still unsure if I have enough to focus on to make it worthwhile (and what of the bazillion platforms I would use for it, though I’m leaning toward Pika). I am organizing some of the fiction I’ve posted here previously, making it easier to read and, hopefully, enjoy!
UPDATE: Someone has indeed managed to set off fireworks. Persistence! I also remembered that stores will be playing Christmas music non-stop for nearly two months, starting tomorrow. This makes me wish Halloween lasted longer.
And good luck trying to set off fireworks in New Westminster tonight, with the ongoing deluge of rain.
Also, here’s a neighbour who is into the spirit (or bones) of the holiday:
Lee paints realistic scenes, typically urban structures in odd settings, such as a tenement building in the middle of a grassy field, or even weirder than that. I love the style and the absurd juxtapositions.
Website: https://leemadgwick.co.uk/
Mastodon: https://mastodonapp.uk/@leemadgwick
An example:
Disclaimer: I don’t really believe what I’m about to say below, but it feels like such a plausible explanation that I want to believe it.
The idea of alternate or parallel dimensions is one that has been mined extensively in fiction and has just enough scientific validity to give such stories a patina of believability, even if most don’t really think there’s some version of the world where Nazis won WWII or hyper-intelligent cats displaced humans.
What makes me entertain the notion–even as a mere thought experiment–that I should actually be two parallel dimensions over and not this one?
Logic.
I know humans are emotional and we are often very bad at keeping a handle on our emotions (look at what men with control over weapons do), but we are still very much capable of engaging in logical, rational thought. And yet, it feels to me as if more people now are abandoning logic for emotion or just…nothing. And they either don’t see this, or they don’t care. It drives me batty.
I could list examples I’ve encountered, both trivial and otherwise, but they all point to the same thing: Why is this happening? Why does it often feel like I’m the only “sane” person in any given group? And the idea that I somehow slipped from my reality into another one that is close, but not quite the same, just feels so right.
Maybe I’m too fussy, maybe I expect too much. Maybe I’ve seen too many TV shows or movies where giant-brained aliens are so much smarter and clever than us.
Intellectually, I know the idea that I’m in the wrong universe is far-fetched and a way to derive comfort from a world I seem ill-suited for at the moment. I’ll do my best to hold onto logical and rational thought and hope others will do the same.
But if I wake up tomorrow and have a goatee, pay for things in moonbucks and others around me behave logically, I won’t complain1.
And it didn’t even rain today. The transition between summer and fall always hits me like no other season change. It feels like I go from heading out as early as possible for a run to avoid the heat to having to think about wearing layers within days. Everything is lush and green and the weather is warm, then just a few weeks later, we have The Rains, temperatures drop into the teens during the days and single digits at night…which begins around 6:30, instead of a more civilized 9:20.
Oh well. I’ll just look at my photos of blue skies and remember summer will come around again.
Just not soon enough, dang it.
Here’s a shot from July 28th:
It always feels weird to say this while I’m still going outside wearing shorts and t-shirts.
Still, you can sense the imminent collision of Halloween and Christmas items and related bric-a-brac coming to store shelves so very soon.
Also, I never saw the movie 18 Candles, and apparently it has not aged well at all.
I, on the other hand, have aged reasonably well.
A curious side effect of abandoning all major social media platforms is none of my internet pals remembered my birthday, because normally Facebook just slaps a reminder in front of them. A small price to pay to be free of FB and its ilk.
Today will be like most Fridays–a run and then tacos for dinner. Which is better than tacos and the runs after. :drum:
Also, a final note: I have not been posting much lately because the site has suddenly gotten super-slow and crashy. Dreamhost support gave me some tips but basically said it’s on me to fix, though they did note that a lot more bots are scraping my site. Thanks, AI!
Also, I lied, here’s the real final note. I did a search on a cake with too many candles on it. There were many results, but I kind of like this one for the heroic attempt and the obvious compression artifacts, like it was made in 1997.
2. The pool at Hume Park with no one in it on a gorgeous, warm summer day, because it’s now closed for the season but hasn’t been drained yet:
Or what happens when you get more carbon into the atmosphere than the Earth can handle, as outlined in this Guardian article, in which it describes periods of volcano activity so intense they wipe out most life on the planet and turned it into a noxious, lifeless hell for pretty much everything. Fun stuff!
I like the following quote. Lips = Large Igneous Provinces, which is a cute, understated way of describing periods of extreme volcanic activity that move massive amounts of lava below and then onto the Earth’s surface:
Lips are the Earth’s way of rudely reminding us that our thin rocky surface, and the gossamer glaze of green goo that coats it, sits atop a roiling, utterly indifferent planetary drama.
Anyway, just something different from the stories about Trump’s health (tip to readers in the future: It ain’t lookin’ good!)
