Other Thursday stuff

[yendi]

Hilary Duff has a song in which she says, "I'm living proof that the girl can rock."

That's like rain on your wedding day, y'know?

Elsewhere, I've finally gotten hooked on Kingdom of Loathing. Just what I need. Reminds me most of Upper Reaches of Apshai. Quite fun, so far. I did hit level three before running out of my turns yesterday and today.

Good news: The Mets got Mientkiewicz. Bad news: We don't get the BoSox ball in the deal. And we gave up Bladergroen, which I'm not happy about, both because he's hella talented, and because "Bladergroen" has all sorts of humor potential.

More Good News: Alton Brown is doing a Road Food Special!

TV: Still playing Tivo catch-up. But we watched Scrubs (guest-starring Colin Farrell), which, as always, was not just screamingly funny, but actually used its guest star wisely. And then we watched JLU, which had Bat Lash, El Diablo, and Jonah Hex! And Jonah even made references to his time travel adventures! Only Western character missing (of my favorites) was Cinnamon. And then the ending -- shadesong and I turned to each other and just went "Holy shit." Not spoiling it, but let's just say that I've never looked forward to an episode of JLU (or the old Justice League) more than I have with this coming Saturday's show.

And yeah, I know it's the "down the rabbit's bunghole" day or whatever. But it's also the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and of the Apollo 1 fire that killed Grissom, White, and Chafee. Sorry if I don't feel like turning my LJ into a pointlessly irreverent mess (um, more than usual, at least). Choosing July 4, which is a much more relevant date (being the publication date of the book, instead of the birthdate of the author) is, you know, a much more celebratory time, imntsfho.

Comments

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

And you don't think that some people would find silly irreverant posts on the 4th of July to be just as wrong?

Seems to me that we can find a lot of things good and bad in history for pretty much any day. Should people not go out celebrating on their birthday if it's today because of tragedies in the past? What about those born or with wedding anniversaries on the 11th of September. What about Pearl Harbour Day? Then again, should those who have things to mourn not do so on days that are deemed "good" by society?

I'm a history major, and there are so many horrid things tha have happened in the past, and I've spent time reading and studying about a lot of them. Being silly on a chosen day that happens to be the anniversary of something negative doesn't mean that I've/we've forgotten the negative things or think they're unimportant. It just means we're chosing to focus on things that are meant to help people smile and get on with living.

And yes, I do remember that you're Jewish, and that there is an additional layer in the meaning of the liberation of Auschwitz to you - but why not try at least some to think of it as a day to celebrate the liberation and the end to the horrors as well as to remember what happened and pray it doesn't happen again?

At least, that's how I see it.

[yendi]

Oh, any date has teh good and teh suck, as it were. But different people also react differently to different dates. The idea that peopl should pick one date and act a certain way, period, is what I find galling.

If other folks want to participate, that's their prerogative -- as you might have gathered, I find the idea silly from any perspective, regardless of the date. But seeing too many lemming-like folks who are not only participating, but who have been posting for weeks about the date and imploring people to be different, just like everyone else, is grating beyond belief (and the inability of some folks -- mostly tangental to my fl, thankfully -- to recognize that not participating is as much of a choice as participating is just shocking).

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I'm just doing it because it's been ages since I've written Shayara stuff, and it's a good excuse to get the "exercise".

[yendi]

*nod* There are plenty of folks like you and karlita (which is not to exclude anyone else on my FL, just using examples) who are doing some wonderfully creative things with it. And using it as the impetous for creative effort is wonderful -- I'm just concerned about the vast number of folks who have turned it into another lemming-like meme.

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - although it would seem to me that most of our year is guided by dates on which we're told to/expected to act a certain way. I don't see what makes a grass-roots effort at such a random sort of day all that different than SuperBowl Sunday, a country's birthday, religious holidays, Mardi Gras, or even the opening of a much-awaited movie. It isn't just here that people act like lemmings, and in a lot of our life we do so willingly despite knowing that we have the option to choose not to participate.

I have no illusions that all will, and no feelings that all should, participate in such a thing. I guess I just reacted to your initial post which came across (to me at least) as slamming the whole thing as inappropriate because of tragedies of the past being remembered today.

Personally, I thought the idea was fun and was looking forward to those posts from people who chose to have fun with it. My friends list is full of people who are creative thinkers at the best of times ... and it would defintely be an improvement over a friends list full of quiz results and auto-generated haiku from other lemming-intensive days.

[moonfire77.livejournal.com]

imploring people to be different, just like everyone else

I was just talking to someone about this. Everyone wants to think they're unique, but really no one (or almost no one) is.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

I'm really not one for holidays. I don't even do birthdays, for the most part. Assigning a behavior for a certain date...I'm just not much into it. I like Christmas music all year round, for example. But I saw this, and thought it was a really cool idea. And like shadesong, I need the excercise. I just kind of assumed people thought of it the way I did. I see the lemming-fear, though.