Archive for December 2008

Do I Have To Do This? Oh, I Do? Hmph. Fine. Happy New Year, Internet. There, You Happy?

In Occasions on 31 December 2008 tagged blah, new years, sparklers with no comments

I was prepared to write something cute – whimsical even – to end the year. As unmistakably peppy as those vibrant, deafening rallies we used to have at my old school (even though I found the sheer mass of cheerleaders in the room to be almost suffocating). Staring at the empty screen, it took me [...]

Another Reason I Love My Brother.

In Kin on 26 December 2008 tagged brother, Kin, three kings with 3 comments

 
Me: “Alex…?”
Alex: “Yeah?”
Me: “This is the drawing you made in school, right? The one about the Three Kings? In the Christian Bible? Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar?”
Alex raises his eyebrows. I fail to see where you’re going with this.
Alex: “Yes…”
Me: “So why are they all black? As in dark-skinned? Aren’t Melchior and Caspar white or something?”
Alex: [...]

Gimme Hope, Jo'anna.

In Brain Functions on 11 December 2008 with 1 comment

The latest, just in: my father has been fired.
The phrasing he used, actually, was a bit more forgiving: “I’ve been given an un-renewable contract”.
Oh, Dad. You and your soft, politically-correct speech.
We were in the car, my mother at the wheel. Our Oldies station was playing (Gimme hope, Jo’anna, gimme hope). She was tapping the dashboard, [...]

I Hate Christmas.

In Cognition on 3 December 2008 with 2 comments

Christmas – the dismal ghost of yet another December thirty-first is creeping closer and closer, like some maniacal, red-faced behemoth. It stinks of greed, copper, and dead pine trees rotting by the curb. Its scream is already ringing in my ears by October, the sound of jingles, plastic bubble wrap and sheer falsity.
Because spending your last pay [...]

Because Everyone Has Days When Their Mood Very Closely Resembles A Nuclear Mushroom Cloud.

In Brain Functions on 1 December 2008 with 1 comment

…and then I began to think, maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world, a world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans. And that led me to wonder, if reality differs from person to person, can we speak of reality singular, or shouldn’t we really be talking about [...]