Epiphany About "Gone With The Wind" -- yeah, a year later. Sue me.
Got into a big argument with my cable company yesterday about their refusal to come fix my reception until I ran some diagnostic on my TV, a diagnostic which would involve me calling them after hours. Last time I did so, I waited on hold for 15 minutes before I got a person, so I wasn't excited about this prospect. I went off to lostshaman in righteous indignation about how dare my cable company accuse that the problem was with my TV set and not their service when we had this very same problem a year ago! It was a problem out at the pole then, and I was sure it was now. Well... as it turns out, the actual cable wasn't fully screwed into the TV set. Ian fixed the problem last night immediately upon walking over to the TV to check it out. We've been suffering terrible reception for five weeks. Whoops. At least "Heroes" was clear!
I can sum up my reaction to last night's "Heroes" double episode in one non-spoiling word: "Wha...??" Yeah. Pretty much.
Ian has a late night at school on Mondays, so I chilled out with an evening to myself and worked on this week's English essay a bit. It's a rhetorical analysis of some dialog in The Odyssey, no biggie. I got the bare bones on paper, and I'll flesh it out throughout the week. It's due Friday. I feel like I'm "back in the groove" with school again this semester after a hard time going back in the spring, and it feels good!
We might have a house guest visiting soon and I'm VERY EXCITED about that prospect! More details later as plans firm up. I think today is the projected deadline for nailing things down. In addition to excellent company, it's now looking like we may go to Fogo de Chao (spelling?) while our guest is here and there we will DRINK DEEPLY AT THE MEAT FOUNTAIN, oh yes!
Weight loss? The hell you say! Yeah, yeah, mom, in a minute....
Yesterday Ian had Photo Day at the Guildhall. They took his individual photo and team photos, and I think a class photo of his cohort. That was largely his whole day. Guildhall study is getting weird, exciting, all sorts of things! They're practicing interview skills, and finalizing their portfolio pieces for distribution in about two weeks...
...meanwhile, I told peepslayer yesterday that the problem with being an atheist is that I have no one's hands into which to place my fate during times of uncertainty! Often I hear Christian friends say that they just have to let go and put their lives in God's hands and see what happens. Well, I kinda feel like Ian and I are in a similar state of - pardon the expression - limbo until the job search is resolved. I remember when I used to run Wildlands events and I'd stress out and freak out with frenetic errands in the week before and event. Then, suddenly, sometime Thursday night or Friday morning of the event, I'd find my Happy Place and relax and ride things out. That's where I am now with the impending move, great life change, ya know, all that. Just gotta ride this wave out and see where it takes us. "I'll worry about that tomorrow."
Oh! Speaking of which, have I mentioned that I had a recent epiphany regarding Gone With the Wind? All the Southern characters in that book make a big deal of not getting where the Yankees get this idea that they mistreat the slaves. In particular, they criticize Uncle Tom's Cabin as being complete fiction with no basis in reality. The characters go on and on about how the slaves are considered part of the family, and loved and cared for in their own way, and so forth. It makes a compellingly confusing argument, makes them seem very sympathetic. It struck me out of the blue the other day that Scarlett O'Hara treats her own family like garbage! She's an awful mother. I mean, she's really an awful person altogether, but let's specifically focus on what a neglectful mother she is at best, and she's outright mentally and physically abusive at worst (although with a nod to different standards of care for her time). Mitchell goes out of her way to point out that Scarlett's oldest son is outright afraid of his mother. Further, when Scarlett owns a lumber mill and hires prisoners, a class of people who are but "slaves" in a different capacity, she gets into a number of arguments about giving the mill foreman (overseer) "a free hand" in dealing with them. This is how Scarlett O'Hara treats people put in her care. The character no doubt thinks that she, and everyone around her, treat the slaves as well as family is treated, but ya know, in her household, that ain't sayin' much! Mellie and Ashley Wilkes are far kinder souls, and when (wimpy) Ashley Wilkes declares that he'd have set all the slaves on the family plantation free had he inherited and been given the chance, I don't doubt that he might have done just that. I think what Mitchell is really saying is that slavers are people, and people are a mixed bag of morality. Just like one might make a similar argument in the modern day that cops are people, and some cops are knights, and some cops are jerks, you can't make a generalization about them. Maybe Mitchell was saying the same thing about slavers. The abolitionists and Yankees, including Harriet Beecher Stowe made the argument that "slavers are jerks" plenty well that she didn't need to beleaguer that point. It had been covered amply. I think she wanted to show the other side, but show also that it's human nature to misperceive the self, think one thing, and act in an entirely contrary manner. (Which makes me giggle in pursuit of my very favorite hobby, mixing metaphors, as I think what might have happened in "Galaxy Quest" had the Termites discovered the "historical documents" that followed Scarlett O'Hara rather than the NSEA Protector! She'd have given Saris a run for his money, that's for sure!)
There ya go.
Now I'm off to a MARATHON of work today as "the alarm has gone off" and I've decided to haul some serious ass on getting work done around here today. This may have something to do with having COKE FOR BREAKFAST.
Trace
I can sum up my reaction to last night's "Heroes" double episode in one non-spoiling word: "Wha...??" Yeah. Pretty much.
Ian has a late night at school on Mondays, so I chilled out with an evening to myself and worked on this week's English essay a bit. It's a rhetorical analysis of some dialog in The Odyssey, no biggie. I got the bare bones on paper, and I'll flesh it out throughout the week. It's due Friday. I feel like I'm "back in the groove" with school again this semester after a hard time going back in the spring, and it feels good!
We might have a house guest visiting soon and I'm VERY EXCITED about that prospect! More details later as plans firm up. I think today is the projected deadline for nailing things down. In addition to excellent company, it's now looking like we may go to Fogo de Chao (spelling?) while our guest is here and there we will DRINK DEEPLY AT THE MEAT FOUNTAIN, oh yes!
Weight loss? The hell you say! Yeah, yeah, mom, in a minute....
Yesterday Ian had Photo Day at the Guildhall. They took his individual photo and team photos, and I think a class photo of his cohort. That was largely his whole day. Guildhall study is getting weird, exciting, all sorts of things! They're practicing interview skills, and finalizing their portfolio pieces for distribution in about two weeks...
...meanwhile, I told peepslayer yesterday that the problem with being an atheist is that I have no one's hands into which to place my fate during times of uncertainty! Often I hear Christian friends say that they just have to let go and put their lives in God's hands and see what happens. Well, I kinda feel like Ian and I are in a similar state of - pardon the expression - limbo until the job search is resolved. I remember when I used to run Wildlands events and I'd stress out and freak out with frenetic errands in the week before and event. Then, suddenly, sometime Thursday night or Friday morning of the event, I'd find my Happy Place and relax and ride things out. That's where I am now with the impending move, great life change, ya know, all that. Just gotta ride this wave out and see where it takes us. "I'll worry about that tomorrow."
Oh! Speaking of which, have I mentioned that I had a recent epiphany regarding Gone With the Wind? All the Southern characters in that book make a big deal of not getting where the Yankees get this idea that they mistreat the slaves. In particular, they criticize Uncle Tom's Cabin as being complete fiction with no basis in reality. The characters go on and on about how the slaves are considered part of the family, and loved and cared for in their own way, and so forth. It makes a compellingly confusing argument, makes them seem very sympathetic. It struck me out of the blue the other day that Scarlett O'Hara treats her own family like garbage! She's an awful mother. I mean, she's really an awful person altogether, but let's specifically focus on what a neglectful mother she is at best, and she's outright mentally and physically abusive at worst (although with a nod to different standards of care for her time). Mitchell goes out of her way to point out that Scarlett's oldest son is outright afraid of his mother. Further, when Scarlett owns a lumber mill and hires prisoners, a class of people who are but "slaves" in a different capacity, she gets into a number of arguments about giving the mill foreman (overseer) "a free hand" in dealing with them. This is how Scarlett O'Hara treats people put in her care. The character no doubt thinks that she, and everyone around her, treat the slaves as well as family is treated, but ya know, in her household, that ain't sayin' much! Mellie and Ashley Wilkes are far kinder souls, and when (wimpy) Ashley Wilkes declares that he'd have set all the slaves on the family plantation free had he inherited and been given the chance, I don't doubt that he might have done just that. I think what Mitchell is really saying is that slavers are people, and people are a mixed bag of morality. Just like one might make a similar argument in the modern day that cops are people, and some cops are knights, and some cops are jerks, you can't make a generalization about them. Maybe Mitchell was saying the same thing about slavers. The abolitionists and Yankees, including Harriet Beecher Stowe made the argument that "slavers are jerks" plenty well that she didn't need to beleaguer that point. It had been covered amply. I think she wanted to show the other side, but show also that it's human nature to misperceive the self, think one thing, and act in an entirely contrary manner. (Which makes me giggle in pursuit of my very favorite hobby, mixing metaphors, as I think what might have happened in "Galaxy Quest" had the Termites discovered the "historical documents" that followed Scarlett O'Hara rather than the NSEA Protector! She'd have given Saris a run for his money, that's for sure!)
There ya go.
Now I'm off to a MARATHON of work today as "the alarm has gone off" and I've decided to haul some serious ass on getting work done around here today. This may have something to do with having COKE FOR BREAKFAST.
Trace