The light of the full moon may be blocked by the clouds, but the tides are undeterred.
— Me
Another time, another place, another book
This essay made me think about the experience of returning to a book I’ve read and loved.
Sometimes, in a moment of grace, I glimpse the me-of-another-time that read and loved the work enough to want to return to it again someday.
Sometimes, it’s a rediscovery, and I wonder how I ever could have forgotten it.
Sometimes, it’s a disappointment; sometimes, I have a greater appreciation that the ‘me’ of today brings to it.
It’s been said that you can’t step in the same river twice. Equally true, that you can’t read the same book twice. But you can still appreciate the view, even if it’s not exactly the same, and be glad you made the journey.
99.3%
The moon won’t be completely full for another day, but it’s 99.3% full now, which is close enough for most werewolves.
Modern wishes
Modern wishes aren’t what they used to be. These days, it’s “Have a wonderful day!” or “Enjoy that cake!” Used to be, wishes and gifts involved big and dangerous things like turning stones into bread or making everything you touch turn into gold.
Admittedly, those seldom went well.
John Henry and the steam hammer. This time, John Henry wins.
The occasional egregious typo aside, it’s been a good week since I turned off Autocorrect on the iPad. It seems Autocorrect has a higher rate of faulty autocorrections than I do of typos.
Sorry, MacBook Air…
I checked out the current generation of MacBook Airs yesterday. I have an older (pre-butterfly keyboard) Air. Airs are cheap (for Apple) right now.
I could type quickly and accurately on it, but I really didn’t care for the shallow key travel, so I think I’m going to pass for now
Apple has been faulted for prioritizing thinness and style over function and reliability. For the price they command, I expect better than a keyboard that doesn’t feel much different than typing on the virtual keyboard on my iPad.
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/03/27/apple-apologizes-about-third-gen-keyboard-issues/
Beauty and the Beast, and changing writing styles
As a writer, I read a variety of material, and recently read a compilation of various versions of Beauty and the Beast. I found the following passage interesting, mainly because its style is so different than writing today:
She was not alarmed at the sentiments with which you might inspire her, and persuaded that her virtue was sufficient to guarantee her against the snares of love, she attributed her sensations to a simple curiosity to ascertain if there were still upon the earth men capable of loving virtue unembellished by exterior ornaments, which render it more brilliant and respectable to vulgar souls than its own intrinsic merit, and frequently, by their fatal attractions, obtain the reputation of virtue for the most abominable vices.
– Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (Translated by James Robinson Planché)
That’s… one sentence.
(n-1) won’t fit
- Go to freezer, remove ingredient for dinner
- Wonder why (n-1) things won’t fit back into the freezer where n things fit to start with.
I may never have to buy food again. I take things out of the freezer, and it never gets any emptier. The downside of that: I take out some things and ask myself, what did that used to be?
Fire dogs
Missed a fire call because the cats knocked the pager’s power supply brick from the wall.
I only heard the NEXT one because I was outside walking the dog and I heard the siren.
This is why you see fire dogs and not fire cats.
Candy for the soul
If you spend enough time reading or writing, you find a voice, but you also find certain tastes. You find certain writers who when they write, it makes your own brain voice like a tuning fork, and you just resonate with them. And when that happens, reading those writers … becomes a source of unbelievable joy. It’s like eating candy for the soul.
— David Foster Wallace