I survived Thanksgiving!!! It was touch and go there for a while, things existed in a very precarious state during various moments throughout the day, but all in all, I am whole, even if not unscathed. One down, one more to go....However, it was a beautiful day, and my family and I were up near Lake Gaston. (There were even hills!!!! I love North Carolina, truly, but the area we live in just looks like it has been leveled out with a wood-planer. If it weren't for the trees it would be, "Look, honey! Guests! Hurry, clean the house; they'll be here in three days!" Anyway...) So, true to form, I took my camera and ran. (Well, maybe not "ran;" I'd just eaten two platefuls of food and two helpings of dessert, so it was more like "mosey and hope no one sees you before your exit strategy can be effectively cut off...") The fresh, crisp, not to mention dead silent air was very refreshing, and my "equilibrium" (definition: mental stability) was soon (somewhat) restored. (I began the day at a deficit, so this was as much as I could feasibly ask for.)
Everyone is probably sick of photos of random things like trees, leaves, old rusty falling apart junk, and the...well, junk...I usually take photos of, but hey, my blog, right? Anyway, here are a few from my time on the front-lines. As you can see, I took my life in my own hands...

The house in the reflection is my uncle's. If Emily Dickinson lived in a house with a view like this, I can see why she never went out in public for the last years of her life. (And yes, I do know she was agoraphobic and never really left her room, and so my comparison doesn't really hold up...but, again, my blog...I can be as inaccurate as I want. It is a bit too late to worry about making myself sound ignorant, so...)

I came across the next one on my (prolonged) walk. I just thought it was so interesting looking, with the perfectly defined shadow of the smaller leaf on the larger one.

And this was just too wonderful a color combination to simply walk by....My favorite is the last, though. We stopped at a gas station just outside Greenville, and I saw it in the field behind the station, begging to be photographed.

So, that was my Thanksgiving, such as it was....Hope everyone else had a wonderful one, with lots of fun, love, and good food!

So, the holidays are upon us; during this time of year I am inevitably plunged into the depths of a disconcerting state of ambivalence for about two months. I love some aspects of the seasonal transition: the crisp air, the way the sky seems such a clear blue at times that it could shatter like a fragile piece of china, the profound silence that settles over things, making it seem as if you are standing in the middle of a vast expanse of your own, completely alone (I know that sounds horrendous to some, but I love it), wrapping up warm and spending a few hours with a book, the anticipation of giving someone a gift you know they'll love, I love all of that...Yet, there is always the bitter to contrast the sweet. For me, the bitter gall is having to face the relatives eeeevery year, and explain, yet again, that no, I am not dating anyone, and that yes, I am still in school, and no, I won't be teaching...I need a sandwich board.... Now, I know their intentions are good (well, generally speaking), and so I try to bear it as gracefully as possible. But, we all know that grace does not hold a prominent place in my vocabulary, either physically or socially speaking. Therefore, I generally end up locating any stray children I can spot and begging to be allowed to join them. Last year was actually quite entertaining; I spent an hour and a half at the family Christmas "thing" spinning a plastic bottle cap on a wood floor with five spell-bound children. You just can't beat that. Anyway...memory lane is currently under construction, so we'll have to take a detour... Rather than arriving empty-handed, with nothing but a well-rehearsed set of "under-the-radar" sarcasms, I have decided to come prepared. Instead of reciting my scripted part to blank stares and the occasional "Uhh-huuhhh" that tells you that you will be answering these same questions entirely too soon, I have a set of explanatory clips to display...The first explains why I am not dating. (Now, everyone keep in mind that this is entirely for fun, don't take it seriously. Seriously...) I have just never been adept at the "group thing." Therefore, my "strike-up-a-conversation" skills are as underdeveloped as my coordination skills...This proves a hindrance. That is why Paris, a character from the show "The Gilmore Girls" is sooooo my hero. This is a clip of Paris at a "speed-dating" session at Yale. My favorite part is "I'm a drama major..." "ding-ding-ding!!!" (Nothing against drama majors; I can't get through a conversation without some random movie quote coming up...Just as far as personalities go, mine is the complete antithesis of everything represented by drama as a subject for study...)


So, that takes care of the opening question... For the "Are you going to teach?" that is posed when they hear "History" I have this clip. This clip explains why it would be better for the high-school aged children if I don't teach. Some have the gift, some of us don't...

(My favorite? "Frankly, the stupid is easier. I can scare the stupid out of you, but the lazy runs deep." Come on, you have to admit it's funny...)

This clip explains why it would be better for me not to teach. Let's just say I made it as far as doing the required observations at a local high-school and this clip came to mind....



So, "ta-da!" There is my explanation for everything. (Again, I have to reassert this disclaimer: Don't take this too seriously; reference the quote from 11/17/08, by Oscar Wilde.)

So, right about now I should really be working on term papers (yes, plural-paperssss. "Should," of course, being the operative word. I feel kind of like Jack Nicholson at the end of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by the end of the semester. The inmates have taken over the asylum and Nurse Ratched finally succeeded in getting that lobotomy....) But, there is a bright spot of hope in the midst of this deluge of misery. (It isn't really that bad, but what is life if you can't use a little hyperbole every now and then?) There are others like me....this could potentially go any number of directions, horrifying and cataclysmic, or 'there is safety in numbers.' As the saying goes, "Everyone is insane except me and thee...and sometimes I worry about thee." And then...I remembered this...This, in a nutshell, is my college experience. The massive control panel with innumerable identical choices reminds me of trying to navigate at the beginning of the semester...finding the right classes, the right time to get everything worked out with your work schedule, etc. When the one being evaluated so confidently places his finger on one switch and throws that look of triumph as if to say, "Ha! This is it! I know what I'm doing!" The complete lack of expression on the evaluator's face...it all seems so familiar. I am currently in the throes of trying to graduate next semester, so I am at the point when they suddenly reveal to you all of the things you "should have done your first semester..." All the while, I am sifting through my bag, vainly attempting to find my ever-handy brown paper bag to breathe into. (You learn to deal with these hyperventilation-inducing moments because the argument "If I had only known ..." has been worn to the bone and has yet to receive any sympathy...You eventually catch on and come prepared.) Then, as there is no indication of discouragement or encouragement, the poor thing vainly points to numerous other random switches, with no hope of any direction being provided...Again, that sounds very familiar... You can see his confidence visibly deflate. Finally, his utter frustration at the futility of his efforts overwhelming him, he slams his head into the control panel, running over every switch...If you know you're most likely going to go down, go down in a blaze of glory, with style...Then, miraculously, there is salvation...He succeeds!!! He is nearly there, when he releases the switch too soon... Yet again, how familiar...You think you have finally, inadvertently done something right...then...you still screw it up. So, Pixar has succinctly summed up the last four years of my life...I hope you enjoy it more than I have...

I know it has been a mere three (? who knows; "not very many" there, we'll make it simple) days since my last post. I doubt anyone has even read it as of yet; if I hadn't written it, I probably wouldn't have read it myself. In fact, the only thing I've read, thought, or mulled over for the past...however long...is British history to 1688. To be more specific, the fall of Anne Boleyn, the political and personal events that culminated in the unfortunate separation of head and shoulders. And yet, no matter how much I read, how many different reasons are given for this rather unpleasant episode, the fact still remains that she was beheaded. It may just be an unintellectual and/or naive view of things to take, but it does seem to me that the "whys" and "wherefores" are rather superfluous. She had her head lopped off, I mean, seriously, does it really matter why? I don't think it would have given her any comfort to know that historians are still debating the exact reasons for her downfall. Personally, I wouldn't care. "Okay, wonderful, you know why I'm in the Tower of London. But, regardless of the reasons, I'm in the Tower of London. Now, if you had a file, or a blueprint, then you might actually be useful..." I suppose it is like Mark Twain once said, "Things ne'er do go smoothly in weddings, suicides, or courtships."

Enough of my self-pitying whining, though. Now that we are officially in the second week of November, I feel justified in thinking about Christmas. I started playing Christmas music a month ago (my Dad just shakes his head as he walks by). One of the great things about Christmas is that no one cares how puerilely you behave (within reason), if it is in the spirit of the season, and can be categorized as a "tradition." Our traditions seem to revolve around *surprise* movies. There are many classic Christmas moments. What would Christmas be without "I triple dog-dare you!", a cold flag pole, and a playground full of children, waiting with bated breath for the challenge to work its magic?
One I always liked to watch at Christmas was an animated version of Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant." Wilde had his issues, bless his heart, but you have to admit that he wrote wonderfully. (It is interesting to note that he fell in love with a woman and was completely devastated when she turned around and married Bram Stoker (author of Dracula). Personally, I don't think it says much for her, that she took up with those who led lives of such complete dissipation, and then married someone who could write so prolifically about a Transylvanian count who was infamous for his cruelty, even if said author did turn him into a fictional character. Like I said, doesn't say much for her, does it? Anyway...)
All that aside, Wilde's "The Selfish Giant" is a beautiful children's story that isn't just for children. If you have never heard it, you should look up a copy and read it, it will be worth your while. It is about a giant who owned a beautiful garden at the top of the hill above a small town. The giant had been away, living by the sea for years, and so the children of the town had become accustomed to playing in his garden. One day, the giant suddenly returns and throws them all from the garden, building a wall to keep "trespassers" out, leaving the children wandering forsaken out in the cold, windy streets. It is always a heart-wrenching thing to me, when the narrator tells how the children would wander around outside the giant's wall and say to each other, "How happy we were there!" So, the giant gets his wish, he is left alone, no one passes his gates, not even fall, who laments his selfishness and therefore does not offer her bounty and beauty to his garden. The spring refuses to come, for it misses the children. Winter, frost, and the cold North wind come to live in the giant's garden, for it is their ideal. All day long the wind howls, winter spreads her mantle, and frost breathes on all living things. One day, the giant hears something he can't place. He opens his window and sees a bird, swaying on a barren branch and chirping cheerfully. The giant becomes excited, wondering how the bird has come to be there when he spies a corner of the garden which has bloomed. Rushing downstairs, he sees that a small aperture has opened in his wall, through which the children have come in. The giant sees his error and begins to tumble the wall he so selfishly constructed to his own detriment. The garden becomes a beautiful abundance of blooms and children's laughter. As they see the giant's approach, they become frightened and run away, and the garden once more withdraws itself. I won't give anymore away, but the clip is an abbreviated version, so I thought I would explain a little more of what led up to the ending. I just always think of this one at Christmas, because of what it ends up being about.



The next one is funny (at least to me). "Carol of the Bells" has always been one of my family's Christmas favorites, and so Heather and I used to love watching this one when we were young, and it seems to be one of those things that, if it strikes you funny once, it is just always going to be funny. I just think it is hilarious, when you listen to the "announcer" at the beginning, that he says that he "has a hunch" that it is going to be a wonderful performance. I know, I know, I'm a dork; but hey, it is still funny.



The next one needs neither introduction nor explanation, but I will say this: they cut a small hole in the flagpole and created a vacuum inside. Without telling the child actor what they had done, they waited for him to lean into the flagpole and then switched on the suction. In other words, the reaction you see on film is authentic, he isn't acting at all. Poor kid, they'd never get away with it nowadays. But sometimes you just have to take one for the team, don't you? (I always have an uncomfortable, sneaking suspicion, every time I watch this, though, that I am looking at my own (hypothetical) children in the form of the short, scrawny, sarcastic know-it-all in the striped cap who orchestrates the whole fiasco. (Or success, whichever viewpoint you choose to see it from, I suppose).)



(I have to add a similar story of my own. Well, not mine, but my Dad's. When he was a fairly young (but old enough to know better) child, he had been outdoors, playing, when he decided he needed a drink of water. When he went to the freezer to get ice for his glass, he realized there was no ice. So, the next logical thing, he decides, is to lick the metal lever that operates the ice-maker, as it is covered in a thin layer of ice itself...Yeah...'nough said.)

I also had to put in a list of some of my favorite Christmas music. Yes, it does have a lot of the same songs, but they are all different versions, so hopefully there will be something for everyone. I included "Sabbath Prayer" from "Fiddler on the Roof" because I remember the first time I ever watched it as a child, was during the winter, close to Christmas. Plus, it seems as if many of the most poignant moments of the movie occur during the winter; when the second eldest daughter is leaving, as they sit on the train platform, or when the youngest daughter marries the Russian soldier, or the very end, when the Jews are being expelled. I go through multiple boxes of Kleenex watching that movie.

Exciting news!!!! They have made what appears to be a very good film version of "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas." I have put in a link to the movie trailer (hopefully it works). If it looks depressing, I have to admit that, yes, in a way (okay, alright, in a number of ways), it is. BUT... before you dismiss it entirely, just take a look. It is a wonderful work that has innumerable points of inestimable worth. It is ultimately about humanity. Not necessarily humanity in noun form, as in, the human race itself, but humanity in the sense of what makes us human. The book is about what we do with this knowledge, for it is a form of knowledge. It illustrates how it can be taken and twisted, tortured into an unrecognizable, hideous derivative of what it was meant to be, but also, how, in the same circumstances which breed these monstrous echoes of what we were designed to become, there is hope. There is always a chance to learn compassion, to feel empathy, to show mercy. It is what we decide to become, not what we are told to become that matters. It makes you think heavily on just how far your own depth of character runs, how you view the people on the other side of fences, whatever fences there may be for us. Are those fences self-constructed? Does it matter which side of the fence you view the world from? How do our actions and decisions resound in the lives of those around us? How can you judge someone, when there is no way of understanding motives, circumstances, history, etc.? (See the quote, in my quote section, from "A Tale of Two Cities.") What makes us human, and how far are we from forfeiting that humanity? Would we forfeit that humanity? We all say we wouldn't, but one never knows what one will do in unforeseeable circumstances. Anyway, enough of the heavy, brain-picking stuff. To lighten things up a bit, I also posted the link for a clip I have to watch every once in a while when I'm getting a bit too stressed or irritable (or grinding my nose in depressing, unanswerable questions, which, as you can see is unfortunately my wont occasionally). I don't know if it will really be funny to anyone else, but it is just too funny to me. It isn't what happens, really, but the newscasters' reactions. Be sure you have the sound on, to be able to fully appreciate it.


http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi751566873/

I absolutely cannot believe I forgot to add this little Oliver Twist. Seriously, look at the kid, he would be a perfect Oliver Twist. He could possibly scrape by as David Copperfield...but he just "is" Oliver Twist; you can just picture him being taken under the wing of the "Artful Dodger," being tutored by Fagin, the forlorn orphan (kind of redundant, are there any orphans who aren't forlorn?) who has an amazing capacity to create a profound sense of pathos, can't you? (Okay, I can see now that I seriously need to read something besides C.S. Lewis and Charles Dickens.....) Either way, isn't he just the cutest? Not cuter than Curtis, of course, but at least as cute. He looks like his puppy just ran away, or he dropped his candy in the sand, or, you know, something really, truly tragic like that...These other ones were cute, too. For some reason they make me think of the "Lost Boys" in "Peter Pan," or Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Ben Rogers, and Joe Harper in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." (See, I do read something besides Lewis and Dickens!) I don't think there has ever been a set of happier children. They got to sleep outside, cook over an open fire, go without bathing for...long enough. The simple pleasures in life....

After taking this one, I had "Little Drummer Boy" stuck in my head all day. It was a loooooooong afternoon. "It's a Christmas classic!", you argue. Yes, I understand, but, in its own way, "It's a Small World," is a classic in its own right. See, I've got that stuck on replay in your head now, don't I? It's not fun, is it? That's what I thought. Well, to get rid of it, just hum "Little Drummer Boy," that ought to cure it.

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Emily assisted me in writing this post. I think I may have discovered the next Harper Lee, Winner of the Nobel for Literature.

Well, I have a confession. I have fought, all my life (and apparently in vain) to prevail against the stereotypical "Southern" behaviour (or at least the less admirable facets of its composite). Alas, "Nature vs. Nurture?" Are rednecks born, or are they made? Apparently, they are born and simply compounded upon. Now, give this said Southern History major individual a camera, a beautiful fall day, and a re-enactment of the failure which still rankles inhabitants of the vast lands south of the Mason-Dixon line, and you have Frankenstein's monster, released upon the unsuspecting world. Yes, my friends, I not only "ran across," I sought out a re-enactment today. A small place, called Fort Branch, near Hamilton, has a yearly re-enactment of a battle which was waged there. Maybe it is just me, an anomaly among the 'typical' Southerner, but it does seem a bit unhealthy that there is a fascination with re-creating the Pyhrric victories of something (a civil war) which nearly every other country on the face of the earth struggles to forget and move away from. And we still lose the war...every time. Let's continually underscore that fact "welostwelostwelostwelostwelost." Just give me a paper-cut and pour lemon juice on it. It is a good thing, however, that we did lose. Can you imagine "Dueling Banjos" being the new national anthem? (I can say that because I'm southern. It's kind of a "Bless your heart...." thing.)

I have to admit, this was ridiculously fun. They had the two camps set up, furnished with tents, which housed cots covered with handmade quilts, tin utensils, camp-stools, tallow candles, etc. There was even a "calvary." Kid you not. These people take their fun very seriously. I wandered around for nearly three and a half hours, snapping like a mad-man. The most "excitement" occurred when I inadvertently made some new "friends." I was wandering around, trying to catch the re-enactors at ease, un-posed, and wandered into one area of the "Confederate" side of camp. I incorrectly assumed that everyone would be ready for wanderers such as myself, but, quite regrettably, I was wroooooong. I wandered into one camp area, and was stunned into a state of utmost alarm by the shriek "LADY IN CAMP!!!!!!" in a tone which could suitably be followed by a revolving red light and a shrill siren blaring "ah-wuhhaahh, ah-wuhhaahh." I don't know who was the most surprised, them or me ("And we have a tie!"). Apparently, I'd caught them in the midst of their morning toilet (a.k.a-"getting ready," not...well, you know...something else...). How do you gracefully get out of a situation like that? Answer: you don't. You suck it up, ask permission to snap a few shots (when they get ready), and run like a jack-rabbit. I posted a couple or three examples of the, no exaggeration, three hundred, shots I took (heaven bless digital). The child in the top, "Curtis," has been the salvation of my parents' grandchildren from my side. I like children, love them, really, but after the summer reading program ends at work each year, I am thoroughly convinced they belong behind a strong plexiglass wall. Like monkeys at the zoo. We are protected from them, and they are protected from us. It is win-win. So, in the hypothetical situation that I hypothetically have hypothetical children, they are replaced at the end of those three months by hypothetical goldfish. Twenty-five cents and you feed them once a week. However, Curtis saved my hypothetical children. Curtis was the cutest freakin' dang thing I have ever seen. I was seriously considering beginning my kidnapping career, he was that cute. Then there were the "sentries" on the bridge who demanded a password. A password, which I was informed, began with "V" and sounded like "Virginia." Imagine my shock when my first guess, "Virginia," proved to be correct. That college education is proving to be worth every penny. I have to say, I loved this one, with the back-lighting and everything. The weather was absolutely beautiful today, and the lighting was (almost) perfect. I know it sound s a bit unbalanced to get so excited over light particles, but lighting can make or break the best of shots; so, good lighting is always a blessing. Anyway, if these samples are well-received, I might post some more, but right now, it is late, and you get serious jet-lag with time travel.