pedestrian saga

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; Some blunders and absurdities crept in; Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Thank you, Emerson for this advice; I needed to hear it! And thanks of course to Anu over at AWAD who collects and shares such incredible words.

Ah, Tuesdays. The Onion publishes a new edition in the afternoon, and I indulge in un-pc satire that cracks me up and makes me feel alive! Calling all fans of the trilogy of trilogies who need a good laugh - come read this hilarious pseudo-academic/scientific crunching of LOTR, Star Wars, and The Matrix. As a self-loathing American liberal, I particularly enjoy the English(?) jabs at Americans, but this is good on so many other levels - "Jackson’s insulting portrayal of women…" Thanks to The Force.net and TORN for sharing the link.

Thanks to my sister Emily for this link! It’s Dave Barry condensing The Two Towers script to newspaper column size, similar to what Bob has recently threatened to do with The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Hmm…"Weasel Feet" and "Combat Alfalfa" are ok names for a band, but I’ve heard better ideas.

Hi! Nice write up on the Canyon Swing. It’s great to see those pics again. You should think about getting a LiveJournal. It’s free and you don’t need an invite code anymore. One of the nice parts is that you get comments directly on each entry instead of in a general guestbook. Make sure you check out my recent entries for some hilariously bad subtitles from the Vietnamese DVD.

This morning I brought our neighbor Luna along on the walk, something I offered to do while Luna’s folks vacation in Roma for 10 days (lucky ducks!) Luna is as active as Gordon but about twice as large and she has a penchant for eating refuse, especially used Kleenexes (a habit that our dog will likely pick up before the end). Walking the two of them together is a difficult dance, great exercise, but I just can’t let my mind wander as much as usual. When we got home, I invited Luna in for a biscuit and she gleefully capsized Gordon’s toy box, while he looked on indignantly. There was also some pretty intense smack-down wrestling on the sofa before Luna graciously took her leave.

This simple quote featured with A Word A Day a few months back really moved me to melancholy:

People change and forget to tell each other. -Lillian Hellman, playwright (1905-1984)

I thought of all the incremental changes that happen to a person in daily experience, adding up over time to big shifts in interests and tastes, beliefs and guiding principles. Many of the people I care for live far away from my daily life and much time passes between our reunions; I hope to keep them closer to me by sharing this journal and maybe even to meet some new folks along these information highways.

Wow, it’s really as bad as they said it was! Bob and I found ourselves not very amused 20 minutes into this Pinocchio and could watch no more. I’m continuing to struggle through it on my own out of a strange sense of duty to Benigni and the Italian language track. So far it’s managed to be boring, ugly, and annoying at once! And sad, really. Maybe if I re-read the original book, I’ll feel better.

Saturday I was reunited with the most intense Lord of the Rings fans in my family for a long-distance game of Trivial Pursuit (book version). I was invited to participate via speaker phone and paired with cousin Andrew whose LOTR trivia instincts are strong and his reflexes quick. He identified Cirdan the Shipwright before the question was even finished! I confused the color of the banners of Dol Amroth (white swans, but on a blue background - Doh!), but overall we finished an honorable second place. The technology wasn’t perfect - when we had to pick the name of the Widow who looks after Gaffer Gamgee I couldn’t distinguish the initial consonants of the choices for the name R-umble! But it was very flattering to be included across great distance in such lovely company. Good job James and Mum for coming back to take the game! and thanks to Mary and Steve for paying the phone bill!