Two bits of business

1. Since no one has come up with a correct explanation yet, I'm issuing an official challenge. A photo I posted Saturday depicts a city street at dusk with traffic lights and so on, but also a couple of unexplained phenomena: strange lights in the sky, and pale mist coiling through most of the frame. Is it a ghost? UFOs? I admit that mist made the hair stand up on my neck for a moment until I realize what I had photographed. But there is a natural explanation. Can anyone guess? Hint: the lights and mist are two separate, unrelated phenomena. I'll dedicate a photo to the first person to offer the correct answer or the closest guess.

2. I have a number of knitters on my friends list, so I'm posting a link Danny djjo's journal entry with photos of the three bears he knitted and felted as Christmas gifts for me, Marian and Brenna.

And the winner is....

( drum roll, please )

Mark your calendars: January 27 is LiveJournal Rabbit Hole Day

This idea comes from crisper via avad. It sounds mad and wonderful:

A few months ago, I had a dream in which LiveJournal and everyone on it went completely nuts for a day. The entire world had turned upside-down and inside-out and nobody was their normal self anymore. And it was such a good read, that I think it should happen for real.

January 27th is the birthday of Lewis Carrol, author of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. Alice fell down a rabbit hole into a place where everything had changed and none of the rules could be counted on to apply anymore. I say, let's do the same: January 27th, 2005 should be the First Annual LiveJournal Rabbit Hole Day. When you post on that Thursday, instead of the normal daily life and work and news and politics, write about the strange new world you have found yourself in for the day, with its strange new life and work and news and politics. Are your pets talking back at you now? Has your child suddenly grown to full adulthood? Does everyone at work think you're someone else now? Did Bush step down from the White House to become a pro-circuit tap-dancer? Did Zoroastrian missionaries show up on your doorstep with literature in 3-D? Have you been placed under house arrest by bizarre insectoid women wielding clubs made of lunchmeat?

Let's have a day where nobody's life makes sense anymore, where any random LJ you click on will bring you some strange new tale. Let's all fall down the Rabbit Hole for 24 hours and see what's there. It will be beautiful.

Lewis Carroll is one of my favourite inspirations. Thanks, crisper, for the idea. Spread the word, everybody.

Smiling

Silliness this morning. For willowing, who asked for a smile. Besides, I've been looking for an excuse to photograph my new morning coffee mug which I bought at Fair November when ghostsandrobots visited.

~~~~~~~~~~

I've been told I have "smiling eyes." In particular, by a couple of ex boyfriends. I couldn't lay a finger on it, but knew what they meant. Occasionally I see it in the faces of strangers, and it draws us together across a crowded room.

djjo has eyes that smile. With eyes like these, you don't actually have to be smiling for someone to know. He looked at me that way the evening we met. When it was time for me to retire to their guest room he offered company, and I smiled at him.

These nights apart we smile down the phone line. You can hear it in someone's voice. Marketers are told to smile when they're pushing a product.

When the electronic woman comes on the line to tell you you're on hold (as if you didn't know), and that your time is valuable (no, actually they forget to mention that), you can hear her smiling. Smiles can be phony. I've met people who were all charm, and underneath they would stalk you with a knife. I've met others who were charming and underneath they were genuinely sweet and beautiful.

Smiles won't solve the problems of the world. They won't turn us all good. But they make a difference when we think about it. We have to take time and consider how we treat one another. Courtesy is good. Sure, it can have a hidden agenda, but you have to credit people for trying.

You can take anything good and turn it to manipulate others. Some people use frowns to make us think they're bad, dangerous, cool, butch. I have a daughter who dresses in black and wears a spiked wrist band to intimidate people, but when you get to know her, she's warm on the inside. Threats can be a sham, too.

I get my eyes from both my parents. It's a combination of Swiss-German good manners and Irish-Canadian congeniality. The lines go back a long way in Ontario, but the roots are still the same. My eyes arise from generations of Waffles, all smiling at one another and sometimes turning the knife in the back. They liked to cut off their problems rather than getting along. So you sever your feet then traipse through the muddy cornfields, but find yourself eventually alone on a hill. Then you smile at the sky. You can't turn your face away from the wind and the sun, always your companions.

Sometimes we have the courage to walk back and say, "I'm sorry." Or not in words; maybe we find another way, by cooking or hugging.

Smiling only with our eyes. It's in the crinkling lines at the corners. Pale blue must squint to keep out radiance of sun, brightness of love, the conflagration of human passion. The way our hands gesture stories, you would think we were warding off evil spirits. Really we're all loners who hardly fit into the social order of this ape tribe, the politics of everyday life.

We just squint and hope you like us, and if you don't, we'll only cry on the inside.

My D&D character

While the alignment quiz made intuitive sense (I came out as Lawful Good), this result appeals to me more:

( Read more... )