I find that it takes a tremendous physical and mental effort, after I've finished a particularly good piece of fiction (whether a movie, a novel, a comic, or a well-written game), to get myself grounded in reality again.
Money becomes a dangerous thing to allow me any access to - I'll wander shops on a whim looking for knick-knacks to augment my fantasy-self. Today, for instance, I pin-balled for a while around the campus mall, looking for comfortable-looking school shirts in interesting styles with the Florida State logo as inconspicuous as I could possibly find it. This, I realize, may not sound strange in and of itself. It is only after I tell you that I was only doing it because our school colors happen to be the same as Gryffindor's house colors that the depth of my dementia becomes apparent. And my little shopping excursion came only after I had offered a friend of mine a large, burlap sack full of gold and adorable orphaned children if she would knit me a quidditch team sweater to wear in the fall.
Thankfully, I escaped without making any rash purchases. Owing in no small part, by the way, to the fact that A.) I already own an FSU Garnet & Gold Rugby shirt, and B.) there wasn't really anything better up on the racks.
It gets far worse, though. I have been known to spend days afterward evaluating my life and everything in it using a fantasy world as my metre-stick. My friendships' and relationships' imperfections are enlarged to show texture. It becomes difficult to maintain anything resembling normality because I become obsessed with the idea that normality isn't good enough for me; that there's something better someplace. And the decision to give up and wait for those better somethings is one that I've come too close to making on far too many occasions.
Still. On the bright side, my friend agreed to the terms of the sweater. Does anybody know how difficult it is to legally adopt orphaned children in the state of Florida? Should I just pick up a few doomed strays from the local shelter, instead?
******
Ladies and gentlemen, I have links for you.
The first of these I picked up from the boards here at SG. Current Events, under "Spooky Sounds of Saturn," I think.
The main page with information relating to the story is here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07966.html
The good part, however, is the .wav file that accompanies it. It is a recording from the Cassini spacecraft approaching Saturn, of the radio emissions emanating from the poles of the planet. It is the music of the cosmos, cats and kittens. And it is here: http://www.nasa.gov/123163main_cas-skr1-112203.wav
My imagination is doing cartwheels. For reasons I cannot rightly pinpoint, it reminded me of the short story Kaleidoscope, by Ray Bradbury, in which a handful of doomed astronauts are cast adrift in outer space. It is terrifying and lonely and beautiful, and I love it.
Next is a bit of a silly thing... it's a livejournal entry that includes a synopsis of, and snippets from, a comic in artist Rob Liefeld's style in which Jesus hops down from the cross to do battle with..... ZEUS. And the rest of the Olympians get it in the tuchus as well, just so's there's no misunderstanding: you don't Eff with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh Noes.
Anyway, that link is here: http://www.livejournal.com/community/scans_daily/727946.html
I urge you all, please, to do the right thing. Enjoy it.
Meantime, I will see you all later. It is a thousand goddamn degrees, both outside and in, and I hear that old apartment pool a-callin' mah name.
Money becomes a dangerous thing to allow me any access to - I'll wander shops on a whim looking for knick-knacks to augment my fantasy-self. Today, for instance, I pin-balled for a while around the campus mall, looking for comfortable-looking school shirts in interesting styles with the Florida State logo as inconspicuous as I could possibly find it. This, I realize, may not sound strange in and of itself. It is only after I tell you that I was only doing it because our school colors happen to be the same as Gryffindor's house colors that the depth of my dementia becomes apparent. And my little shopping excursion came only after I had offered a friend of mine a large, burlap sack full of gold and adorable orphaned children if she would knit me a quidditch team sweater to wear in the fall.
Thankfully, I escaped without making any rash purchases. Owing in no small part, by the way, to the fact that A.) I already own an FSU Garnet & Gold Rugby shirt, and B.) there wasn't really anything better up on the racks.
It gets far worse, though. I have been known to spend days afterward evaluating my life and everything in it using a fantasy world as my metre-stick. My friendships' and relationships' imperfections are enlarged to show texture. It becomes difficult to maintain anything resembling normality because I become obsessed with the idea that normality isn't good enough for me; that there's something better someplace. And the decision to give up and wait for those better somethings is one that I've come too close to making on far too many occasions.
Still. On the bright side, my friend agreed to the terms of the sweater. Does anybody know how difficult it is to legally adopt orphaned children in the state of Florida? Should I just pick up a few doomed strays from the local shelter, instead?
******
Ladies and gentlemen, I have links for you.
The first of these I picked up from the boards here at SG. Current Events, under "Spooky Sounds of Saturn," I think.
The main page with information relating to the story is here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia07966.html
The good part, however, is the .wav file that accompanies it. It is a recording from the Cassini spacecraft approaching Saturn, of the radio emissions emanating from the poles of the planet. It is the music of the cosmos, cats and kittens. And it is here: http://www.nasa.gov/123163main_cas-skr1-112203.wav
My imagination is doing cartwheels. For reasons I cannot rightly pinpoint, it reminded me of the short story Kaleidoscope, by Ray Bradbury, in which a handful of doomed astronauts are cast adrift in outer space. It is terrifying and lonely and beautiful, and I love it.
Next is a bit of a silly thing... it's a livejournal entry that includes a synopsis of, and snippets from, a comic in artist Rob Liefeld's style in which Jesus hops down from the cross to do battle with..... ZEUS. And the rest of the Olympians get it in the tuchus as well, just so's there's no misunderstanding: you don't Eff with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh Noes.
Anyway, that link is here: http://www.livejournal.com/community/scans_daily/727946.html
I urge you all, please, to do the right thing. Enjoy it.
Meantime, I will see you all later. It is a thousand goddamn degrees, both outside and in, and I hear that old apartment pool a-callin' mah name.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
dexie:
Did you finish the harry potter book? Ive been dying to talk to someone about it eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
theshinobi:
The comic reminds me of God of War. Damn good game.