Today's Randomnimity
*) Spring started officially on March 21st, and I've heard a few robins sing, but it's hard to take it seriously when the trees are still bare and the grass is still brown - I want see some green, demmit!
*) I know it's all a matter of taste, but I'm continually amazed that so many people like the things they do, things that I find most dreadful, almost as if ugliness is the all-encompassing aesthetic of the post-modern age, I mean, am I just some kind of cultural snob for still loving beauty - or am I the only one who does?
*) I thought both the first season of the American 'Shameless' and the most recent season of 'Californication' were written, cast and acted brilliantly, but I'm giving the slight edge to Californication, cause even though William Macy makes a great Frank Ghallagher, David Duchovny plays Hank Moody to even-more-brilliant perfection.
*) It's strange, but when I go back and read things I wrote a half-dozen years ago, it's like I'm reading the words of another person - it's not that I've forgotten any of it, cause I even remember how I felt at the time, and it's not that I've moved past all that, either, cause it was real to me then and it's still just as real today, even more so, but it's different, cause I was in the role-of-a-lifetime, and that only got more amazing with time, not that I was ever acting, indeed, I never had to, the part was written for me, I was he, and he was me - anyway, in my mind's eye I am still the hero, or long to be - so yeah, the point? I think it's that I want more than anything to be the hero and not the chump - indeed
*) The contents of King Tut's tomb are in town at the Science Museum till early September and I'm thinking of going to see the exhibit, though I'm not sure why - I suppose there's something a bit pleasantly-voyeuristic about looking at other people's stuff, especially really, really old stuff, just fascinating to me
*) Daughter number one AE turned twelve today, and this evening I told her that I'm taking her to a Jonathan Coulton concert at the Guthrie later this month as one of her presents - she also got a JC tee-shirt to wear to the show - it'll be her first concert, and JC's her favorite artist, so I think she'll really like it, even if it *will* be with dear old dad
*) Facebook can be an amazing tool for staying or getting back in touch with people, indeed, my friends' list contains the names of a couple dozen family members (siblings, in-laws, cousins) two high-school roommates, three college roommates, several dozen friends from both high school and college, a former really-serious girlfriend, and several women I once had wicked crushes on at various points in my life, yet I interact with virtually none of them, and certainly not with those who have been my peers, in fact, most of my time on Facebook is spent swapping emails/chat with one of my dear teenage nieces and with some people whom I've met-but-never-actually-met over the years on online forums, who've since migrated to Facebook - anyway, I got to thinking about how many hundreds or thousands of people have come and gone through my life, and how many of them I miss deeply, yet even including those on my Facebook friends' list, I never virtually no contact with any of them - maybe it's that I was never that important to them, or maybe I didn't make them that important to me, cause even though I can make friends with fairly easily, I've always been kind of clueless as to how to cultivate them - I've always been a bit of a loner who is eternally conflicted for wanting to sequester myself from the rest of the race, and yet desperate to connect, no matter how foolish that sounds - but see, except for a rare occasion, I've been like that all my life, and whilst I might be able to sand off the rough edges, I'm unlikely to be much different as I move through my middle-age, and maybe if I could find some way to accept all that with a bit more grace, I'd have an easier time of it all, instead of chafing under the harness as I do - but then again, I could be wrong
*) Eight year-old daughter number two LK is teaching herself to play piano on the Clavinova, though she's not entirely going it alone, as her maternal grandfather is giving her some lessons, and she takes music at school, and does choir at her mother's church - but a lot of it really is her figuring out how to play - she can read simple notation, and seems endlessly intrigued with sorting out how to make the sounds she hears in her head, and continually amazes me with her talent, both vocal and performance
*) I read online that there's a new translation of the Bible out from the US Conference of Bishops, in which archaic words and phrases are being ditched for more contemporary ones, with 'spoils of war' or some such thing used in place of 'booty,' cause apparently too many of the young set doesn't know their ass from their spoils of war - but in light of that, I keep thinking maybe they are not going far enough, and maybe 'you shall have no other gods before me' could be more fully understood if rendered 'you shall have no NASCAR' and 'you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor' could be better put as simply 'you shall not twitter' - I'm just saying
*) I think George Bernard Shaw was right, you know - youth *is* wasted on the young.