My Whole Expanse I Cannot See…

So, I’ve been using this totally antiquated theme (the way a WordPress blog looks) since 2008, since Day One. On the one hand, it’s home, it’s become me. It’s so obscure, I’m probably pretty much the only person using it, I don’t think it’s even available anywhere anymore. On the other hand, it really is old. Themes are so much more lush now, cleaner, fancier layouts and what-not. Behind-the-scenes, the blog gets more sophisticated, while its public face doesn’t. Then again, there’s something to be said for consistency, it’s kind of soothing to have at least this one thing as a constant. I’m torn.

A few months ago I dropped fifty dollars on a “pro theme,” I actually saw it on Cherie Priest’s blog. I started looking for header/footer images, and at color schemes, but as I got into it, no matter what, it always looked like Cherie Priest’s blog. Sometimes it was just the skeleton of her blog, but still, it was always and would always be someone else’s blog. I’m not out to copy someone else’s look, especially another writer’s. After that failed experiment, I’m done buying “pro themes.” I mean, if some design firm sells ten thousand copies of a theme, you have ten thousand blogs that look like cousins.

I’m thinking, IF I do change my look, it’ll have to be to some obscure freebie theme, or… I’ll invest in a totally unique theme… right after I sell my unicorn farm (yes, farm, unicorns aren’t stabled, they’re more of a free-range animal).

So, after much waiting, we are now running WordPress 4.0! The update is pretty interesting, it mainly centers around making adding media to posts a much better experience. Basically, I never used to know how an embedded video or music clip would look in a post until I actually posted it. I don’t post a ton of media, but at least now, doing so will be way less annoying.

Let’s try…

Nice! It worded…

Wake Up, off of Jagged Little Pill, is one of my favorite Alanis Morissette songs, I always think of it when I’m doing something that really scares me. It helps me remember that it’s always easier not to do that scary thing, it’s easier not to risk anything, but if you don’t go and do and risk, you’ll never have anything that’s worth anything.

Anyway, this is WordPress 4.0.

Today sucked, tomorrow will suck,  and it’s my Goddamn fucking fault. I’m just stupid.

This song just came up in my mix after a really really long time. When you’re shuffling four-hundred songs that suit a melancholy mood, you get surprises.

It’s amazing how a song can take you to an exact moment, can make something that happened years ago feel like it’s happening right now.

Let Me Know by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is one of those songs…

So, two books that I’ve really been looking forward to are out today…

Acceptance: (The Southern Reach Trilogy: Book 3) by Jeff VanderMeer: I’m totally excited about Acceptance, given how spectacular Annihilation and Authority are, this third book should close out the Southern Reach Trilogy splendidly. I’ll be posting a full review soon, but just go buy it. You won’t be disappointed (if you are, you can personally come by and punch me in the face).

Maplecroft by Cherie Priest: Cherie Priest is a master of taking true places and events, twisting them around in her brain, and making them turn out totally creepy. Maplecroft should be absolutely no exception. For those unfamiliar, after Lizzie Borden was acquitted of brutally hacking up her parents with an axe, she inherited a bunch of money and bought a mansion on a hill, a mansion called, Maplecroft. Little is really known about Borden’s life in that mansion on a hill. She hoped for true happiness as a member of society’s elite, but died achieving neither. The real story is disturbing by itself, I’m excited to see what Priest spins. I’ll post a full review, but again just go buy it. Maplecroft should be a scary fun read (the face punching again applies).

I’m too something to write today.

People don’t pay much attention to turtles. They’re slow, they’re boring, they’re pointless. They’re definitely not predators, and not apparently prey either. They’re like an antique end-table; kind of of interesting to look at if you bothered to look, but you don’t, because why bother if the rest of nature is like a giant LED HD tv compared to some dusty old end-table? This, of course, is exactly what turtles want people to think. They don’t want to be noticed, and they know how to make it so. Turtles go unnoticed because they know deep, old magic, magic old as the sun and the moon, magic people have never known. They know the magic, and they cast the spells that keep their settlements unseen. Untouched. Safe. Turtles have their cities and their secrets, both of which people will never know. Well, they’re not supposed to know…

There’s one settlement, The Emerald of the North, named so because it’s lush, green as the brightest emerald any person has ever seen, yet it’s surrounded by ice-capped mountains, bitter cold lands. Winter grew around this place, it’s turtle magic that keeps it warm and fertile, and completely invisible to people. When The Emerald was founded, quite unexpectedly, the cold had not yet come.

The story around the founding of The Emerald goes that a group of turtles, just ten friends, five ladies and five fellows, decided they’d leave home and walk to The Edge of the World. They were, of course, mocked, as no such place could possibly exist. Every turtle knew that the world went on forever, forever and ever. If magic knew no end, why should the world have boundaries? This was the thought of turtles at the time. Still, these ten turtles insisted that if they just walked long enough, and far enough, they’d reach the much laughed at, Edge of the World.

So, they said their goodbyes, some called them the stupidest turtle-folk ever to be hatched, others called them whimsical adventurers, brave enough to follow their hearts. With such chatter at their backs, they walked. They walked for what felt like a century, they lost count of how many starry night-skies they slept underneath, and how many orangey sunrises they woke to, but this meant nothing. They just walked, and walked, and kept walking, determined to prove that they were whimsically brave, not stupid.

They walked, and walked, and walked a little more. I say a little, not because they did, at very long last, reach the Edge of the World, but rather, they just stopped walking.

One day, they stopped to graze on the green grass under the shade of a majestic oak tree, the largest, most magnificent oak they’d ever laid eyes on. After their lunch, which was delicious, they went for a drink from a nearby lazy stream, the slowest stream with the clearest water they’d ever seen. This stream was so clear, the turtles could plainly see, and have conversation with, the stream’s resident fish. The fish, who all spoke in unison as is the way fish speak to air-breathers, invited the turtles to say and relax, just for another night. “Stay!,” they said. “You look tired!,” they said. “Rest!,” they said. The turtles were tired, and they did want to rest, so they stayed. Just the one night, they agreed with each other. Except, it wasn’t just the one night. The turtles would wake for breakfast, the green grass under that gorgeous oak. They’d go for a drink from that crystal clear stream, walk along its bank, talk with the unfamiliar fishes. This could take half a day, maybe more. After all, turtles are turtles.

After the breakfast and the libation and the walking with the talking, the fishes always repeated the same three statements. “Stay!,” they said. “You look tired!,” they said. “Rest!,” they said. This went on in the same way for two weeks, until the turtles all realized something. They realized that they enjoyed the grass and the giant shady oak and that stream of water like glass, and talking with the now familiar fishes. They were happy there, finding the Edge of the World didn’t seem any better than staying right where they were. They walked enough. They stayed. They stayed, fell in love, built turtle homes, started turtle families. Their journey to find someplace very old ended up creating so much that was new.

So, don’t overlook the little things, the seemingly mundane. I think turtles can feel magic because they actually bother to stop to see it. You’ll probably never find The Emerald of the North, turtles are too clever for that, but maybe if you take the time to search, and stop long enough to see it, you’ll find magic too. Maybe you’ll find it, and make it your own, and keep it safe from the cold that always comes to call.

Okay, this is probably pointless to even try, but I’m a sucker for lost causes…

Many, many years ago, this company, StudioZee, made a USB IR remote for Macs, the ZephIR. It is a spectacular device, so of course, StudioZEE died and so did the ZephIR. bet365 arabic  The ZephIR software has a built-in database of user recorded remotes, it stayed active up until the AppleTV 2, but now, nothing. Anyways, enough history. I have a crazy question…

Does anybody reading actually have a ZephIR AND a recorded remote for Logitech z906 surround sound speakers? I’m having trouble recording my own.

Nothing, today.

So, I had really bad dreams last night, worse than usual, about someone. I woke up at 5 am and didn’t feel like sleeping again. I finished one Diablo book, started another. They’re fun! Still, after Diablo: Moon of the Spider, I’ll get back to more literary reading.

I did some adjusting to my story, it’s called, Contentment. I’m not posting it here because I’m going to see if I can’t get it published somewhere else. I feel like it’s at least worth trying. Of the three stories I’ve had published, they hit me hard and were written in under an hour. Contentment happened the same way, so maybe it’ll go like the others. Like I said, it’s at least worth trying.

I’m tired of me.