Hang Steady 2018!
Jan. 1st, 2018 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse It's several hours into 2018 and it's going pretty well so far!! After ringing in the New Year, Mason and I stayed up until 3 am binge watching Haikyu! There may have been tears. Such a good show. Now I have to wait on my hands until the next season airs... or, take the plunge and read the manga. I'm only a little nervous about joining another on-going fandom, due to how badly Bleach burned me. I would feel so much better if Haikyu! wasn't a Weekly Shounen Jump product. I don't trust WSJ to treat its properties very well or to have the editorial spine to tell a popular mangaka that their ENDING IS TOO STUPID TO LIVE. Lookin' at you, whoever edited Kubo-sensei and Kishimoto-sensei.
I ended 2017 arguing with people who are Wrong on the Internet (tm). Honestly, it wasn't bothersome that they were "wrong," because we were talking about the new Star Wars film, and I actually ADORE intelligent people who have serious, thoughtful criticisms of the things I love. I was raised Unitarian Universalist, debate is my RELIGION. Bring it!
But, in this case, it was bothersome because this person's strategy for arguing their point was, when they were failing to win, call people "gas lighters" and suggest that if they didn't get a 100% agreement on a point they would say people were being dismissive of them. (See, how, if I agree with you, you actually win and I lose and that's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.)
What's particularly sad about this, is that this is someone I know in Real Life (tm), a former student of mine, whom I previously respected a great deal. I got nothing for people who can't stand and fight, however. I mean, if you just want to shrug and say, "Meh, it didn't work for me." I'm fine with that. Lots of my friends fall in that category, but coming to my feed and INSISTING that I agree that it sucks? Fight me. I mean, I presume that's why you came, right?
Before you ask, no, I didn't unfriend this person. I don't unfriend people for having a strident opinion or even for being kind of a dick about it. It's a do onto others thing for me, because OMG can I be a dick about my fannish opinions. :-) In fact, I think that if my fan clan had a coat of arms, its motto would be: FIGHT ME (in all caps). Let's be honest, I adore a good debate. (New caveat: so long as it is actually a debate.) Anyone of you who has ever seen me on a panel knows this to be a Truth of my life.
But, so that's how I rang out the year. Then I stayed up too late consuming amazing anime, and this morning we took down the tree and all the decorations. The house always looks so sad and empty after the tree is gone, so we are consoling ourselves with mimosas (faux-mosa for Mason) and a nice chicken roast for dinner.
We did our traditional pagan ritual of putting silver (dimes are our metaphorical substitute) outside our house and bringing it in on the morning of the New Year. The idea is supposed to be to encourage silver (both as a monetary thing, but also general prosperity) to flow into the house. We keep the dimes in a hidden cache in the heart of our home. We've been collecting dimes from each year that we've done this (I found a 2017 dime last minute!), so we probably have twenty or thirty cents or so built up over the years.
Meanwhile, our cat has become an Internet junkie:
He will now come up to Shawn when she's reading on her Kindle and paw at it, hoping for his mouse game. Alas, it's only on the iPads, but of course we run get it for him when he does that. He has us well trained.
I ended 2017 arguing with people who are Wrong on the Internet (tm). Honestly, it wasn't bothersome that they were "wrong," because we were talking about the new Star Wars film, and I actually ADORE intelligent people who have serious, thoughtful criticisms of the things I love. I was raised Unitarian Universalist, debate is my RELIGION. Bring it!
But, in this case, it was bothersome because this person's strategy for arguing their point was, when they were failing to win, call people "gas lighters" and suggest that if they didn't get a 100% agreement on a point they would say people were being dismissive of them. (See, how, if I agree with you, you actually win and I lose and that's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.)
What's particularly sad about this, is that this is someone I know in Real Life (tm), a former student of mine, whom I previously respected a great deal. I got nothing for people who can't stand and fight, however. I mean, if you just want to shrug and say, "Meh, it didn't work for me." I'm fine with that. Lots of my friends fall in that category, but coming to my feed and INSISTING that I agree that it sucks? Fight me. I mean, I presume that's why you came, right?
Before you ask, no, I didn't unfriend this person. I don't unfriend people for having a strident opinion or even for being kind of a dick about it. It's a do onto others thing for me, because OMG can I be a dick about my fannish opinions. :-) In fact, I think that if my fan clan had a coat of arms, its motto would be: FIGHT ME (in all caps). Let's be honest, I adore a good debate. (New caveat: so long as it is actually a debate.) Anyone of you who has ever seen me on a panel knows this to be a Truth of my life.
But, so that's how I rang out the year. Then I stayed up too late consuming amazing anime, and this morning we took down the tree and all the decorations. The house always looks so sad and empty after the tree is gone, so we are consoling ourselves with mimosas (faux-mosa for Mason) and a nice chicken roast for dinner.
We did our traditional pagan ritual of putting silver (dimes are our metaphorical substitute) outside our house and bringing it in on the morning of the New Year. The idea is supposed to be to encourage silver (both as a monetary thing, but also general prosperity) to flow into the house. We keep the dimes in a hidden cache in the heart of our home. We've been collecting dimes from each year that we've done this (I found a 2017 dime last minute!), so we probably have twenty or thirty cents or so built up over the years.
Meanwhile, our cat has become an Internet junkie:
He will now come up to Shawn when she's reading on her Kindle and paw at it, hoping for his mouse game. Alas, it's only on the iPads, but of course we run get it for him when he does that. He has us well trained.