{"id":21399,"date":"2015-06-15T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=21399"},"modified":"2015-06-15T09:00:29","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T16:00:29","slug":"monday-roundup-of-observations-on-life-and-stuff-in-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/15\/monday-roundup-of-observations-on-life-and-stuff-in-general\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday roundup of observations on life and stuff in general"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the 800th anniversary of the signing<\/del> sealing of the Magna Carta. Good article on things we mostly don’t know<\/a> about it and why it still matters.<\/p>\n

ADDED: Here’s Bovard’s take on it<\/a>. (Never trust a king, even after you think you’ve beaten him.)<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I’m sort of getting used to having neither a functional vehicle nor functional legs. There are still moments I want to weep. Like on Friday when a mechanic told me the Xterra was all fixed, running perfectly, even got the service-engine light to go out — and I got in it, found the light back on, and had to limp back home after driving the mere half mile to town.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One more try with this mechanic today. After that, one more try with another housecall mechanic who’s been highly recommended.<\/p>\n

If that doesn’t do it, I think I’m done troubling over vehicles for now. Within a week (if the gods aren’t listening in on me as I type this) I’ll try walking to town again. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, bless neighbors and friends.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Ptooey on you, Colt<\/a>. Enjoy your well-deserved second bankruptcy in a row. (Link stolen from Joel<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Antis may hope this is a sign of that mythical loss of interest in firearms they keep fantasizing about. Anybody who’s actually interested in firearms knows it’s more like comeuppance.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I first had my brain exploded by a found collection of Arthur C. Clarke stories when I was a little kid. After that (and long before I knew what it was or what it was called), I always loved reading science fiction.<\/p>\n

Long about the late 80s, though, I lost interest. Well, not so much lost interest as started having too hard a time finding good SF books amid the metastasizing sword & sorcery market (and, though it was too early to recognize the trend, the ominous beginning of political correctness in SF).<\/p>\n

These days, I don’t even know who most of the big SF novelists are. But the name John Scalzi kept coming up. I thought it was in connection with the recent Sad Puppies 3<\/a> campaign. Maybe not. In any case, the library had no shortage of Scalzi books so I grabbed a couple.<\/p>\n

I’ve just finished Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas<\/i><\/a>, Scalzi’s comic account of what happens when a bunch of those space-opera characters who always die before the first commercial figure out what’s happening to them.<\/p>\n

And before that I read his Fuzzy Nation<\/i><\/a>, a reboot (with permission of Piper’s literary estate) of the H. Beam Piper classic Little Fuzzy<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both fun, page-turning, straightforward great reads. And fine antidotes to all the &^%$#@!ing complications I’ve been having lately!<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Redshirts<\/i> contains this passage about writer’s block: <\/p>\n

You know, I never understood writer’s block before this. You’re a writer and you suddenly can’t write because your girlfriend broke up with you? Sh*t, dude. That’s the perfect<\/i> time to write. It’s not like you’re doing anything else with your nights. Having a hard time coming up with the next scene? Have something explode. You’re done. Filled with existential ennui about your place in the universe? Get over yourself. Yes, you’re an inconsequential worm in the grand scope of history. But you’re an inconsequential worm who makes sh*t up for a living, which means that you don’t have to lift heavy boxes or ask people if they want fries with that. Grow up and get back to work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve always been able to write just fine when I have a) a deadline and b) the promise that somebody is actually going to pay<\/i> me. (Sorry to be crass, but I write for a living.) And I’ve always had burning contempt for so-called professional writers who get the vapors and dramatically leave their editors, illustrators, and clients high and dry.<\/p>\n

OTOH, when it comes to writing for Art’s Sake (e.g. no deadlines and no prospect of a check in the mail any time soon), I’m terrible. Existential angst? It’s my boon companion. I can’t write because I’m depressed. I can’t write because I’m no good. I can’t write because it’s 10:00 a.m. and that’s too late to start. I can’t write because Ava’s staring at me.<\/p>\n

I read that bit from Scalzi and had a good laugh at myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the 800th anniversary of the signing sealing of the Magna Carta. Good article on things we mostly don’t know about it and why it still matters. ADDED: Here’s Bovard’s take on it. (Never trust a king, even after you think you’ve beaten him.) —– I’m sort of getting used to having neither a functional vehicle nor functional legs. There are still moments I want to weep. Like on Friday when a mechanic told me the Xterra was all fixed, running perfectly, even got the service-engine light to go out — and I got in it, found the light<\/p>\n

Continue readingMonday roundup of observations on life and stuff in general<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12,18,19,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-and-movies","category-guns-and-gun-rights","category-mind-and-spirit","category-miscellaneous","category-rural-and-small-town-living","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}