It’s just a book for Fancy’s sake!
I really hate articles like this one.
Dumping a guy because of what he reads? He reads too many levels above or below you? WOW! Do people like this really exist? I mean like, really? And are they trying to make teaspoons look like the Mariana Trench in comparison to their shallowness? I mean words like shallow, vapid and pretentious hardly come close to defining how I feel about people like this. I need new words like vaximnif and jergovia to express the depth and breadth of my feelings towards these vaximinfing and jergovian kefinflaps!
It really makes me want to print this out so I can slap people up side the head when they complain about trying to find a good man. One of the examples had what sounded like a good guy, but he liked Atlas Shrugged and had to go. I will grant I found to be a pretty shitty book, but that’s just me and I won’t reject someone else just for liking it. If you are judging a person by one book, then you’re a pretty sad example of humanity anyway. Hell I like lots of books that don’t reflect me as a person. If someone decided not to hang out with me because I have a copy of From Hell (actually, someone else has my copy *glare* but that’s okay) I would consider myself luck to have gotten away from such a psycho at an early stage.
If I had to worry about my potential girlfriends reading or watching the things I do, then I would NEVER get laid at all! So few people can go from Jack Higgins to Stephen Hawking to Chaucer to Robert B. Parker to Shakespeare to James Burke to Alan Moore to Sun Tzu to Rex Stout to Terry Pratchett and then to David Sedaris without missing at least one or two beats. Few people are interested in all the writers I’m interested in. That is called life! It’s also okay! You don’t have to read everything I do, I don’t expect that. I also have no interest in Mercedes Lackey or Anne McCaffrey or even Spider Robinson which is something of a minor sin but I don’t care*. And YET! Syd still likes to hang out with me. If I had to worry that my reading was going to be seen to be above her level, or below her level, we’d never get anything done. To be perfectly honest, I prefer people who read different things than I do, because it means they can come to the table with a new and interesting perspective.
*I picked three authors off the top of my head. Syd reads most scf-fi/fantasy books you put in front of her so I could come up with 20 authors if I wanted to.
So long as a person has something interesting to say, I don’t care about what they read. People can read garbage and think high thoughts, and people and read great works but still come out idiots. Reading material isn’t as important as these people seem to think, because it also requires that they absorbed, understood and processed what they read. And besides, can’t a book just be a fun read? You know, fun? That thing you used to have before you started treating entertainment like a competition? I hardly pick up Farewell my Lovely when I want to read an improving book, filled as it is with refers and casual racism, but it’s still a fun thing to read. Can’t anyone just read for enjoyment? Bring into the mix my dyslexia and ADD along with the problems I’ve had with glasses and you will find that actually I don’t really read that many books. I tend to listen to audio books because I generally have an easier time with them. That might seem lazy, but I’ve still got the books in my head so I’m not really all that worried about it.
I read a story some months ago about people worrying about their lovers watching the movies they got from Netflix without them. They called it something like Netflix infidelity or something like that. It made me feel the same way. I mean really, if that’s the one big problem in your relationship, then you don’t have problems. And here I am wondering why people keep calling Generation X a bunch of vapid, stupid, shallow, vaximnif and jergovia twat brained kefinflaps.
If I had to wait until both Syd and Holly were both ready to watch something when I wanted to watch it, I would never see another movie as long as I live. Just getting one of them to sit and watch something with me is something of an accomplishment, because we’re three busy people who all like to do our own things. Also, their not always interested in watching westerns or gangster movies with me. And as for watching some dead boring classic of Swedish cinema, forget it! I’ve got to see things on my own because people aren’t always interested in what I’m interested in.
While I’m on movies, I’ve noticed that when it comes to movies people are more willing to let things slide. Not having ever even heard of Yojimbo just means that I now have a perfect opportunity show it to someone for the first time. Movie people just seem to think you should watch everything at least once, without any real meter for how good or bad the movie might be. I’m probably imprinting my own views here because I hold great recognized classics and cheap crap that’s entertaining as hell up at the same level.
Greg Dean of Real Life has been going through a story line like this all week in fact, and some friends of mine have been doing it as well. I still say he needs to watch The African Queen, because I mean… c’mon! He’s pushing 30 and hasn’t seen it? Then again, to be fair, she also needs to watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, cause… like… what the hell? How do these people get to the age they’re at not having seen the Indy movies? It’s so sad that their parents just didn’t raise either of them right! Probably wasted a lot of movie watching time on things like church and family. Pfffttt! Like that’s gonna get you anywhere!
I seem to have strayed somewhat from my point, but to put it in a nut shell, sex is more fun than logic. One cannot prove this, but it IS just like Mount Everest is and Alma Cogan isn’t.
Goodnight!
Advice
Some days I give bad, bad advice.
Some days it’s not a mistake.
Some days I’m pretty sure bad advice will turn out to be good in the end.
Some days, you’ve got to tell people things that will make them move forward, one way or another.
Some other days, I’m just an imp on your shoulder. The one in red.
Your job? Decide for yourself what would be best.
New Product
I would like to warn you against a new product. A&W has made a new thing, which they call an A&W Float. The idea is that you get all the rootbeer and ice cream of a rootbeer float in a single bottle. The problem is, that it’s more cream than you think. This isn’t the amount of ice cream that inevitably remains in the cup after you eat the ice cream, this is all the ice cream you’d get… melted. This made it a shade below disgusting. I don’t know if it’s because we tried it warm, or something else, but it wasn’t a taste I’d like to try again.
Calvin
There is an old Calvin and Hobbs cartoon* where Calvin has a very bad day. It’s a sunday strip so there are lots of panels for him to have a bad day in. It’s nothing major, no deaths or anything, just a lot of little things that slowly crush him. At the end of the day his mother kisses him on the forehead and says something like “Sleep well, tomorrow is another big day” and the last panel is him sitting in the dark with a tiny *sigh* hanging over his head and a worried look on his simply, but perfectly drawn face.
I do know that feeling a bit.
Particularly when I feel like I’ve been the only one awake for about a month or so (really about 3 hours now, but it feels longer sometimes) all depending on where I am in my 25 to 31 hour day cycle. I get between 2 and 3 hours a day with Hol and Syd if I’m lucky. Then Hol goes to bed and a Syd plays her game or something and then she goes to bed and then I’m all alone again until I finally go to sleep myself.
There is then another day like that to look forward to.
*Yeah, like Watterson has been pumping out new ones lately. I mean C&H have only been retired for 2 years longer than they were active at this point.
Two Things
I find William Moulton Marston (the man who created Wonder Woman) more interesting than his famous character. Click that link and see if you can guess why.
…
Yes, that’s right, it’s because he also invented the Lie Detector.
Oh and there was something about his personal life that some might find interesting, but I don’t like to go into private details.
Also, some study claims sex takes 3 to 13 minutes, which is gibberish, let me tell you.
See what I did there? Linked the two stories with the idea of lies.
