Since I blogged about the ugliness on the Big Brother TV show in Britain, I should link to Bryan Appleyard’s comments on it and related matters. He’s right, and I almost feel sucked into the shallowness he criticizes. “This is, remember, only an unusually mindless TV show about nothing.”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
New meme for 2007
Which of these two statements do you believe to be either true or closer to the truth?
1.
a. The best things in life are free.
b. If money can’t buy happiness, then maybe I don’t need to be happy.
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
2.
a. Perception is reality.
b. Reality is what you trips you when you’re walking through the dark.
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
3.
a. When I fall in love, it will be forever.
b. Hello. I love you. Will you tell me your name?
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
4.
a. The glass is half full.
b. The glass is half empty.
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
5.
a. Life is too short to drink the house wine.
b. The small garden of a free gardener was all my need and due.
c. Both of these statements are equally true.
Worst post ever. Don’t even look at this.
This is appalling. I should just face my failure and give up on blogging now.
I’ve reached the bottom. The absolute sludge-in-the-Worcestershire-bottle of blogdom. I’m going to do a post about my health.
I’m sorry. So very sorry. I’ll try to do better in the future.
First of all, I probably won’t be posting on Monday. Nothing serious. I’ve agreed to participate in a long-term medical study, and it involves undergoing a certain test which I won’t specify, because you may be one of those who (like me) eat at the keyboard. But it involves being sedated, and I may not be up to posting.
If I do post, you’ll know it went better than I expected.
I also saw my doctor today, on an unrelated matter (getting a prescription changed for insurance purposes, if you have to know).
It’s always dangerous to see a doctor, needless to say. 90% of all people who die of lingering diseases have seen a doctor recently.
It’s especially dangerous to see a new doctor. I had to change horses because my previous Galen, a man who believed in doing as little as possible as long as the patient wasn’t actually in debilitating pain, has retired. The new fellow is more energetic, brimming with fresh ideas for improving my life.
He thinks I ought to be sleep tested, to see if I need one of those C-PAP machines.
I’ve lived in fear of those devices for most of my adult life. In my mind, C-PAPs are for old, fat men.
The fact that I am in fact an old, fat man is of no comfort to me. (Thank you so much for bringing it up.)
On the other hand, the doctor speaks seductive words about improved mood, lower cholesterol and a reduction in acid reflux.
I think I see a face mask and a plastic tube in my future. I’ll keep you posted.
No need to thank me.
Worst post ever. Don't even look at this.
This is appalling. I should just face my failure and give up on blogging now.
I’ve reached the bottom. The absolute sludge-in-the-Worcestershire-bottle of blogdom. I’m going to do a post about my health.
I’m sorry. So very sorry. I’ll try to do better in the future.
First of all, I probably won’t be posting on Monday. Nothing serious. I’ve agreed to participate in a long-term medical study, and it involves undergoing a certain test which I won’t specify, because you may be one of those who (like me) eat at the keyboard. But it involves being sedated, and I may not be up to posting.
If I do post, you’ll know it went better than I expected.
I also saw my doctor today, on an unrelated matter (getting a prescription changed for insurance purposes, if you have to know).
It’s always dangerous to see a doctor, needless to say. 90% of all people who die of lingering diseases have seen a doctor recently.
It’s especially dangerous to see a new doctor. I had to change horses because my previous Galen, a man who believed in doing as little as possible as long as the patient wasn’t actually in debilitating pain, has retired. The new fellow is more energetic, brimming with fresh ideas for improving my life.
He thinks I ought to be sleep tested, to see if I need one of those C-PAP machines.
I’ve lived in fear of those devices for most of my adult life. In my mind, C-PAPs are for old, fat men.
The fact that I am in fact an old, fat man is of no comfort to me. (Thank you so much for bringing it up.)
On the other hand, the doctor speaks seductive words about improved mood, lower cholesterol and a reduction in acid reflux.
I think I see a face mask and a plastic tube in my future. I’ll keep you posted.
No need to thank me.
Thoughts from a mule-headed protagonist
How am I today? Better, I think. A little better.
For one thing, the long-awaited third volume of The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis finally arrived. Each volume has been longer than one before, and this one tallies in at 1,810 pages, including the index. It’s going on the shelf for now, but the next time I’m laid up with a multiple fracture of the leg, I’ll have my reading material ready.
I know it’s silly to look for divine signs in the day’s events, but on the way to work this morning I tried to fill up with gas at The Station That Usually Has the Lowest Price. I noted that the toll seemed to have gone up from yesterday, but I was there, and they’re usually the cheapest, so I assumed everybody else had jumped too, and I tried a fill-up. But the lock on my locking gas cap was frozen, and I didn’t have any spray to loosen it, so I drove off in a huff (actually I drove off in my Tracker, but you know what I mean).
This afternoon I stopped at Another Station That Sometimes Has the Lowest Price. Not only did my gas cap open (it was a little warmer today, so it probably melted in the sun), but the price was a full dime a gallon lower than my previous stop.
This undeserved bounty pleased me inordinately. I took it (for no rational or biblical reason) as a sign that God isn’t against me. Not completely, anyway.
Perspective is important, but it’s not my strong suit. There are probably people reading this entry who face the loss of loved ones, to disease or war. What are my problems compared to theirs? I’m sure they’d gladly have a mortgage foreclosed on them if it meant the restoration of their friend or family member.
And when I think it out, my situation isn’t so awful. I got notice in time so that I can still place an ad in the February issue of the Minnesota Christian Chronicle. That means it’s possible I could have a replacement sometime next month.
In storytelling, the dynamics of plot are always the same, whether it’s a literary story about an intellectual with writer’s block (unless it’s something experimental and self-indulgent), or a thriller about international counterterrorists and nuclear devices. The point of the story is always to change somebody. And the change always comes through pain and struggle.
You never read a story where somebody gets good advice, from a friend or from a book, and decides, “Hey, that’s right! I’m going to change the way I handle my life!” and everything is resolved right there.
The change always comes through conflict and hard times. I don’t think that’s only because it makes for a more interesting story.
I think it’s because it’s the way life is for real people.
God is trying to teach me something. So He’s doing what I’d do if I were writing my life—He’s making things hard for me.
Hope it works.
Aspirations and expirations
Blast.
My nice quiet renter is moving out, due to a personal crisis. There goes my economic security, until I can find another one.
Another opportunity to put my faith in God. He’s always taken care of me before. Why should I worry?
I hate living by faith, by the way.
Phil asked if I’d care to do the following meme. I’ll try it, but he’ll probably be sorry he asked.
0) What’s your name and website URL? (optional, of course)
My name is Lars, and… you’re here.
1) What’s the most fun work you’ve ever done, and why? (two sentences max)
The job I have now. Working with books, pottering about with old Norwegian volumes, what could be better?
2) A. Name one thing you did in the past that you no longer do but wish you did? (one sentence max)
Amateur theater, which I wish I had time for nowadays.
B. Name one thing you’ve always wanted to do but keep putting it off? (one sentence max)
Getting married.
3) A. What two things would you most like to learn or be better at, and why? (two sentences max)
I’d love to play the guitar. Unfortunately, I know from experience that I have no (zero) talent for it.
B. If you could take a class/workshop/apprentice from anyone in the world living or dead, who would it be and what would you hope to learn? (two more sentences, max)
I’d like to have taken one of C. S. Lewis’ literature classes. He’d probably have chewed me up and spit me out, though.
4) A. What three words might your best friends or family use to describe you?
Lazy, depressed, self-absorbed.
B. Now list two more words you wish described you.
Happy and thoughtful.
5) What are your top three passions? (can be current or past, work, hobbies, or causes– three sentences max)
I used to be passionate about the Body of Christ, spiritual adventuring and Norway/Vikings. Now I’m too bludgeoned to get excited about much of anything, except maybe live steel, and it’s the wrong season for that.
6) Write and answer one more question that YOU would ask someone (with answer in three sentences max)
Me ask a question? No, I don’t think so.
What Is She Talking About?
“I’m not saying this is good for you,” Anderson said as she watched a stream of sizzling blobs of dough bob across a pool of organic palm fruit oil. “But it’s definitely not as bad.”
Here’s the article, but before you link what do you think Anderson is talking about?
Personally, I'm against winter
Winter again.
I know. It’s been winter for months. But our snow cover is spotty, and temperatures have been teasing the freezing point for weeks—sometimes above, sometimes below. Weather as cold as that would have seemed awful back in October, but in January it’s not so bad.
Today the bottom dropped out. And by “the bottom dropped out,” I don’t actually mean record-breaking low temperatures. I just mean the playing field has moved south to zero-to-fifteen Farenheit territory, wind chills down below zero.
And it feels miserable.
Later, sometime in February, it won’t seem so bad either.
I don’t handle the cold well. I’m fairly sure I’ve told you that. When hardier souls are clapping their unmittened hands and saying, “Ah, this is good! This is bracing!” I’m trying to find another sweater, and calculating whether I can conserve more body heat by jamming my hands in my pockets or using them to cover my ears.
Cold induces physical pain in me, quickly following exposure. My ears hurt. My fingers hurt. My brother Moloch informs me (relentlessly) that it’s all psychological. It’s a failure of my character. If I had a better attitude, he says, I’d enjoy the cold as much as he does.
I’m not convinced. I think I know as much about bad attitudes as anyone, and although I spend enough time in Depressionville to qualify for resident status there, I’ve never been able to make a bad mood deliver actual, physical pain.
And where does Moloch get off talking about character, anyway? He lives in Iowa. It’s practically tropical down there.
Personally, I’m against winter
Winter again.
I know. It’s been winter for months. But our snow cover is spotty, and temperatures have been teasing the freezing point for weeks—sometimes above, sometimes below. Weather as cold as that would have seemed awful back in October, but in January it’s not so bad.
Today the bottom dropped out. And by “the bottom dropped out,” I don’t actually mean record-breaking low temperatures. I just mean the playing field has moved south to zero-to-fifteen Farenheit territory, wind chills down below zero.
And it feels miserable.
Later, sometime in February, it won’t seem so bad either.
I don’t handle the cold well. I’m fairly sure I’ve told you that. When hardier souls are clapping their unmittened hands and saying, “Ah, this is good! This is bracing!” I’m trying to find another sweater, and calculating whether I can conserve more body heat by jamming my hands in my pockets or using them to cover my ears.
Cold induces physical pain in me, quickly following exposure. My ears hurt. My fingers hurt. My brother Moloch informs me (relentlessly) that it’s all psychological. It’s a failure of my character. If I had a better attitude, he says, I’d enjoy the cold as much as he does.
I’m not convinced. I think I know as much about bad attitudes as anyone, and although I spend enough time in Depressionville to qualify for resident status there, I’ve never been able to make a bad mood deliver actual, physical pain.
And where does Moloch get off talking about character, anyway? He lives in Iowa. It’s practically tropical down there.
Sort of an Aspirations Meme
Bill on his Out of the Bloo blog copied a personal meme which basically asks the same question a few times over: what do you like to do most? He has tagged me. Now, I’m faced with a real conflict between how I think of myself and what I am. But let’s go through this:
0) What’s your name and website URL? (optional, of course)
Phil at brandywinebooks.net
1) What’s the most fun work you’ve ever done, and why? (two sentences max)
I think editing my college newspaper, though not a job, has been the most enjoyable assignment I’ve ever had. I remember feeling larger than myself, unrestrained by my hat, while walking across campus at 3:00 a.m. after finishing the week’s paper.
2) A. Name one thing you did in the past that you no longer do but wish you did? (one sentence max)
Write stories–I mean, I don’t write fiction regularly enough to say that I do it now, but that will change.
B. Name one thing you’ve always wanted to do but keep putting it off? (one sentence max)
Write stores–Ok, maybe I should choose something else: study drawing or sketching.
3) A. What two things would you most like to learn or be better at, and why? (two sentences max)
This gets at fiction writing too, but I blog instead (and complain and sometimes read). The second thing–no, it’s the first thing–I’d like to learn is loving the Lord with all of my heart, mind, and strength.
B. If you could take a class/workshop/apprentice from anyone in the world living or dead, who would it be and what would you hope to learn? (two more sentences, max)
This is a hard question, but I think I could take a chance on being Shakespeare’s apprentice. Realistically, I’d like to sit under Walter Wangerin.
4) A. What three words might your best friends or family use to describe you?
philisophical, giving, and artistic (my wife helped me with this)
B. Now list two more words you wish described you.
prolific and joyful
5) What are your top three passions? (can be current or past, work, hobbies, or causes– three sentences max)
Words and literature; honest, biblical worship for myself, family, and friends. I can’t pick a third.
6) Write and answer one more question that YOU would ask someone (with answer in three sentences max)
Name something that makes you angry? Injustice
I need to write a meme one of these days, though I doubt I could write anything better than this one on books.