Category: general

According to Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN Money,

A gift, ideally, says, “I thought about you. I considered your likes and dislikes, your needs and wants, your dreams and desires, and found you this token of my esteem that I hope will delight you.”

A gift card says, “There! Checked you off my list.”

[…]

It’s official. Shame is dead.

Heaven forbid that givers use their own judgment and spend a little time picking out small items that might give the recipients pleasure. Just give us the cash and get out of the way.

[…]

It’s also not that I don’t understand the practical aspects of the gift card. I do. I just can’t help mourning the passing of a lovely tradition, one that helped us focus on each other and had the potential to bring us closer.

[…]

Sure, the old way included plenty of opportunities for misfires — for the tie shaped like a fish, the sweater that’s six sizes too big, the dolls from the aunt who could never figure out that her teen-age niece no longer played with Barbies. But those experiences taught us the fine art of tact and diplomacy, of expressing gratitude to people who tried to make us happy, however bizarre the actual result.

It also drove home the point, as few things do nowadays, that special occasions are about people — not about getting more stuff or increasing our net worth.

That last bit there really struck me. “Special occasions are about people — not about getting more stuff or increasing our net worth.”

I had a conversation with Brooke yesterday about gifts. I said something about missing having an mp3 player, and she said I should put one on my wish list.

“Hmm, now which one to put on there?” I said, which meant “I need to do some research to pick the right mp3 player.” Brooke suggested I put several different ones on the list, in different price ranges, so if someone wanted to buy one they’d have a selection.

Me (5:27:01 PM): hmm, but what if I get more than one mp3 player?
Me (5:27:03 PM): hahahaha :P
Me (5:29:07 PM): I know, I’ll make a Wish List called “In My Dreams”
Me (5:29:08 PM): XD
Brooke (5:31:08 PM): why not?
Brooke (5:31:33 PM): why not blog about what you’re doing, or wanting to accomplish with so many mp3 players on your list?
Me (5:34:09 PM): nobody can afford to buy me an mp3 player
Me (5:34:23 PM): I’m giving COOKIES as presents this year :>
Me (5:35:08 PM): I expect presents $20 or less
Me (5:35:42 PM): except a couple of people who wanted to give us stuff we lost in the fire, I don’t know what they’re spending
Brooke (5:35:50 PM): you have parents and in laws, you have family and friends.
Me (5:36:01 PM): and none of them is going to spend over $20
Me (5:36:13 PM): I guess they could pool their money, but the likeliness of that happening is low.

What is that, exactly? I got all defensive and self-piteous. Then I realized what I was doing:

Me (5:38:13 PM): I have quasi-advertised my wish list before, but I think going too deeply into “this is exactly what I want and expect” is tacky
Me (5:38:23 PM): people are free to look at my lists and buy me whatever they want to
Me (5:38:25 PM): or nothing at all
Me (5:38:37 PM): I don’t want to do a huge mp3 player analysis and get my hopes up
Me (5:40:03 PM): I’m not saying you’re wrong or anything, just that I Think Different(ly) and I tend to have to manage my greed
Brooke (5:40:37 PM): oh, I gotcha..
Brooke (5:40:48 PM): wow, I hadn’t thought of it as “greed” before..
Me (5:41:14 PM): that’s pretty much how I look at all my wants.
Brooke (5:41:22 PM): I’m usually pretty YEY! about ANY gift, no matter what it is, because I appreciate them all :-) I’m not saying you don’t, I’d just never thought about it that way, before
Me (5:41:24 PM): it’s my way of trying to keep myself from being too selfish.
Me (5:42:19 PM): if I get too excited about something I want, and start to think that someone will buy it for me, and then I’m disappointed, I can actually be resentful, which sucks
Me (5:42:51 PM): right now in my life I’m trying to just be happy that anyone would get me anything.
Me (5:42:56 PM): which is hard for me, because I suck!

Not long after that, I felt really uncomfortable, so I changed the subject.

This all harkens back to the Guilt post, and my feelings about receiving gifts in general. I’m 27 years old, but I still haven’t stopped thinking of Christmas as a time to get lots of cool stuff I want, despite my efforts. And it seems like I’m always a little disappointed, especially when I compare my situation to that of some of my friends, who get cool presents all the time.

Is this gift-envy?

Is this greed?

Is this me wanting stuff I haven’t earned…again?

Am I just feeling like this because I lost everything, or is this how I always feel?

Bah. I make myself sick.

[Update 4:37 pm:] I am shamed!

I had the neatest dream this morning. I was Eilonwy from The Prydain Chronicles, except I was an adult and had become a very powerful magic user. I was living in a huge, beautiful castle, but I had foreseen that someone was coming to assassinate me.

My aide and I started working on a powerful potion to use in a spell that would drive the enemy away or defeat him, but there were two ingredients missing that we had to find. Time was running out, and we began to make preparations to leave the castle in search of the ingredients.

We weren’t quite ready yet when I suddenly met the assassin on a grand flight of stairs. He was tall, with black hair and either a mask or a beard, and he was wearing red and black robes. There were two others with him, similarly dressed. He started to say something to me, but before he could even finish I knew his purpose, and I took off and flew–literally–over his head and out the huge window beyond the stairs, accompanied by my aide and what little we had packed so far.

Then we were on the run.

We kept moving through the forest as fast as we could, but when night fell we took shelter in what (supposedly) used to be Taran’s home. (Taran is the protagonist of the Prydain Chronicles, and Eilonwy’s love interest. Sort of.) There was an older man there, a tough-looking farmer, who made us dinner and took care of us. I believe at this point there were other people in our party, but I’m not sure who they were. I learned from Taran’s mentor/father/whoever that Taran had married another peasant and settled down somewhere, and I was a little upset. (Simultaneously, I broke the fourth wall and thought, “What a great twist! I need to write this down!”)

We lingered as long as we dared, then headed on our way. I believed that I would be able to sense when the enemy was nearing, as he would certainly be using magic to find us, but the only thing that drove us on was my own sense of nervousness. One of my companions suggested we stop somewhere else–I think it was my old home, but Eilonwy used to live in a tower, and the place seemed to be a modest peasant home in the dream. At any rate, I refused, because the enemy would know to look there.

After a long time of scrambling through forest, we came out into a beachfront city. A modern beachfront city. There was a huge concrete bridge ahead of us, and an old man was joking, “People keep asking me how to get onto the bridge! You have to go towards the water!” (It wasn’t funny in the dream, either, but he sure seemed to think it was.)

I led my companions onto a bus that went to the river, planning on catching a boat downstream. I reasoned that if we didn’t use any more magic in our escape, the enemy would have trouble pinpointing our location. (By the way, it never occurred to me that it might be odd in the modern world for a woman with long flowing hair and white robes and magical talismans and her similarly mystical-looking companions to take public transportation. I don’t think it was even an issue.) My aide mentioned that when we used magic, we put off a sort of magic molecule (there was really cool term for it in the dream, but I forget what it was), and I told her I was aware of that and had been plucking the molecules out of the air as we went along.

So sure was I that I’d covered our tracks nicely that it was rather surprising when the enemy suddenly appeared, rocketing through the air towards the bus!

I don’t know what happened after that. It felt kind of like how I feel when I suddenly reach a point in writing a story where I have no idea how I got there or what to do next. That’s probably why the dream ended.

Still, wasn’t it awesome?

Scientists have speculated that global warming might cause an ocean current called the Atlantic Conveyor to slow, bringing less life-giving warm surface water to Northern Europe.

According to the theory, rising air temperatures cause ice caps to melt, making the water less salty and therefore less dense so it can’t sink and flow back south.

For the first time, there is possible evidence of this phenomenon.

While measurements in 1981 and 1992 had shown little change, those in 1998 and 2004 had shown a major shift, with less of the warming Gulf Stream getting up to Greenland and less of the cold, deep returning current coming back.

Scientists are of course stressing that this is not conclusive, and further observations need to be made.

What if this is happening, though? How much of Northern Europe will become uninhabitable? Will weather around the world be affected? Where will people go to flee the cold?

‘Cause I have, like, 100 invitations. Drop me a line at my gmail account (cosleia) and I’ll hook you up.

Fortune has an interesting piece about the growth of the anime industry in the US. I found the depiction of fansubbers hilariously idealistic (there are quite a few who fit that description, but then there are quite a few who really really don’t), but ultimately I think the article makes some good points. I hope the author’s main message, that those who create/import entertainment should pay attention to their fans, will catch on in the industry.

(I previously discussed the US anime industry here.)

I’m unhappy that I find this paragraph amusing:

Hurricane-stricken New Orleans is largely destroyed and abandoned, but city officials said on Tuesday it will soon have universal wireless Internet service.

It’s written to sound ridiculous! Damn you, Reuters!

As you may recall, I met former mayoral candidate Helen Blocker-Adams a few months ago and thought she was very cool. She came in third in the election; the two leaders, Deke Copenhaver and interim mayor Willie Mays, are having a runoff next week. Blocker-Adams ended up endorsing Copenhaver, which I thought made sense given that their campaigns and platforms were similar.

However, there seems to be quite a bit of backlash over her endorsement of the white candidate! From the Augusta Chronicle (reg. required):

There have been the people who look the other way when she walks into a room. Some roll their eyes when they encounter her. But being called a traitor to her race is what has caught the former mayoral candidate most by surprise.

[…]

But, she said, her campaign was never about race.

“I won’t say that I’m surprised, probably disappointed that you got a group of people of color, people who look like me, who are not broad-minded enough to think that why does race have to be a factor in everything,” she said. “That’s not how I was brought up.”

The recipient of her endorsement, Mr. Copenhaver, said he is aware of the flak Mrs. Blocker-Adams is catching, and he, too, is disappointed.

“I would tell you that I’m more disappointed than surprised,” said Mr. Copenhaver, a political newcomer like Mrs. Blocker-Adams, who received 25 percent of the votes Nov. 8. “And I think Helen is a courageous woman for endorsing me, but the time I’ve spent out there throughout the community, I think the vast majority of people – that’s not black people or white people, it’s just the people of this community – are really ready to move past the racial politics that we’ve seen in the past.”

Are they?

Another bit of criticism that stings Mrs. Blocker-Adams is the belief by some that The Augusta Chronicle endorsed her to split the black vote and ensure that Mr. Mays wouldn’t win outright, thereby allowing one of the two white candidates, Mr. Copenhaver or former Augusta Commissioner Tommy Boyles, to be part of a runoff.

“Whether there’s a conspiracy on why the endorsement was for me versus someone else, I really honestly, sincerely believe that The Chronicle was sincere in why they endorsed Helen Blocker-Adams,” she said, pointing out that she announced her intentions to run for mayor May 19, a couple of months before Mr. Mays declared.

Michael Ryan, the newspaper’s editorial page editor, said The Chronicle had no hidden agenda in endorsing Mrs. Blocker-Adams.

“It’s a sad statement about race relations – and the grip that the race hustlers have on some people in Augusta – when The Chronicle can’t endorse a black female for mayor without there being some perceived underlying motive,” he said. “That’s the height of both cynicism and racism. Not to mention the fact that it sells Mrs. Blocker-Adams short to suggest that we’ve got to have some motive other than her qualifications in order to endorse her. Plus, we felt strongly that she had the most potential among all the candidates to unite Augusta across racial lines.”

I would have liked to have seen Blocker-Adams in office, but I think Copenhaver is a good choice, too. (Of course, right now I live in Columbia County, so I can’t vote in that election anyway.)

(Side note: Isn’t it cute that Blocker-Adams and Copenhaver both said they weren’t surprised, but disappointed? Do you think they got together to plan their reactions beforehand? ;>)

Here’s a site with some great gifts for those in need. Where else will you find products such as “PLANT A QUARTER ACRE SWAMP”, “CLEAR 10 SQUARE METRES OF MINEFIELD” or “ESTABLISH A BEEKEEPING CO-OPERATIVE”? A lot of these are highly affordable.

I found this site via BoingBoing, which linked to Good Gifts’ “Swords into Ploughshares” products:

Peace is paying dividends in Sierra Leone. The same civil war that depleted the country of tools and work is now providing ample raw material for recovery: weapons. Enterprising blacksmiths and metal workers convert them into farm implements so that a Kalashnikov becomes hoes and axe heads and a rocket launcher transforms into pickaxes, sickles and even school bells.

You can buy them a Kalashnikov, a rocket launcher, a small armored vehicle, or a tank. (The picture on that page is great!)

Here’s what you get if you give a Good Gift:

As well as a warm glow, you will get a silver-coloured keepsake card (to send or keep) bearing a light-hearted description of the gift. If you are buying for a more sombre occasion let us know and we’ll send a more appropriate card.

This organization sounds pretty neat.

I remembered today that I used to own The Giving Tree. It’s another Shel Silverstein, but instead of a collection of poems, it’s a story. I used to read it every time I went to Grandma’s house. One year, shortly before I moved away from Kentucky, my uncle Steve gave me my very own copy.

Even when I was a child, I knew the book was about motherhood.

Did you know that uzumaki means “vortex”?

And there are some famous whirlpools called Naruto.

So it seems pretty obvious that Uzumaki Naruto was meant for the rasengan, eh?

I won’t name names, but somebody‘s been pretty darn happy lately, and we curmudgeons simply won’t stand for it!

Fortunately, an answer to this dilemma lies in science.

The powerful emotions that bowl over new lovers are triggered by a molecule known as nerve growth factor (NGF), according to Pavia University researchers.

The Italian scientists found far higher levels of NGF in the blood of 58 people who had recently fallen madly in love than in that of a group of singles and people in long-term relationships.

But after a year with the same lover, the quantity of the ‘love molecule’ in their blood had fallen to the same level as that of the other groups.

Thank goodness!

;)

I’ve noticed in my life that I’m the type to get irritated with situations. Rather than saying “Isn’t this great?” or even “I’m comfortable,” I seem to just get dissatisfied. On the one hand, not being content with the status quo implies that I might be successful at something someday, but a question I’ve been asking myself recently is: will I ever be happy if all I do is constantly think about how things could be better?

The Sydney Morning Herald has a piece entitled “Behind the Masks“, featuring two geisha from a geisha house in Tokyo and discussing the modern life of geisha. (Via Japundit.)

In practice, the arts of the geisha tradition – the dances, the music of the banjo-like shamisen, the shrill singing, the light-hearted games, the serving of food and drink, the way of the kimono and the complex manners – are done as a devotion to Japanese-ness that is nigh on a religious rite.

In Japan geisha are regarded as keepers of important cultural rituals, not as elaborately tricked-up bar girls.

“The practice is hard and very exhausting,” says Noriye, smoothing her kimono as she lowers herself into kneeling position on the hard matting. As her guests succumb to numbness and rearrange their limbs into more comfortable positions, Noriye holds still.

I found this particularly interesting:

Noriye’s hope is that Memoirs of a Geisha, the movie that is having its world premiere in Tokyo on Tuesday, will inspire international interest and respect. Foreigners, who she sees now about twice a month, might be more inclined to engage a geisha because of it, she thinks. “I’ve heard that the geisha of Kyoto are not happy at all with the movie,” she says shaking her head at the lost opportunity to promote one of the most recognisably Japanese of icons.

According to the article, the geisha business is slowing down. While the Kyoto geisha seem unhappy with the book/movie–due to the controversy? the revelation of their secrets?–the Tokyo geisha apparently believe they’re good for business.

I just read an interesting piece in the Appalachian News-Express about Kentucky’s identity.

From across the country they come, Civil War buffs drawn by a towering monument that marks the birthplace of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Many of the same people who ride the elevator up the 351-foot-tall spire at Fairview also will visit a quaint one-room log home about 100 miles away near Hodgenville, a replica of the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born.

Having supplied native sons as presidents and soldiers to both the Union and Confederacy, Kentucky remains very much a state divided, wrestling with its regional identity perhaps more than any other.

It all comes back to the Civil War, when Kentucky was a slave state that didn’t secede and was officially neutral. The symbols of that straddling are all around, with 72 Confederate memorials in Kentucky and just two to Union soldiers. And to this day, whether people consider themselves Southerners or not depends on whom you ask.

I knew Lincoln was born in Kentucky, but I didn’t realize Jefferson Davis was, too. Kinda funny.

Where are you from, and do you consider yourself Northerner or Southerner?

I always thought of myself as a mix. My dad seemed like a Southerner to me, and my mom a Northerner, so I just figured I got the good qualities of both. ;>

I happened to see these on some random girl’s MySpace profile (by the way, here’s my MySpace), and I thought, hey, let me try that! So, I did:

They need more options for glasses.