Bits And Bobs

Song of the Day: Smokey Mountain Lullabye by Tommy Emmanuel

I got two new books today. "The Necromancer" and "The Great Gatsby." The Necromancer is the fourth in a series, the third of which I finished a few hours ago. It left on SUCH a cliffhanger that raised more questions than it answered (one of those awesome endings that leaves you going, "BUT THEN...IS THAT...ARE THEY...SO THEY WEREN'T...BUT HE...SO WAS IT ALL...OHMYGODDDDDD). But I was good and made myself start "The Great Gatsby" so I'll know what John is talking about when the Nerdfighter Blurbing Book Club reconvenes. I don't know when I'm supposed to have finished it.

I don't like it when people say 12-bar blues is overused. It's used so much because it's really fucking pleasant to hear. It works, and the human ear loves it. So that's my two cents on the matter.

I got my tickets for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. So now it's like it's a real thing. And it's going to happen. I don't know if this or the final book caused more freakouts. I think with the book there was all the suspense and wondering what was going to happen and not knowing how it was going to end, and being afraid for the end itself. But there was still this feeling like, "It's not over, there are still movies coming out. There are still things happening, still a future." We had the films to rely on, and the fandom was able to lean on that whether it needed it or not. And now the final film is going to come out. We're going to have to stand on our own two feet and see how long we stay upright. I don't have any doubts that it will keep going. But it's going to feel different. There's going to be a sense of "Now what?" that we haven't had to deal with before, not to this extent. Although there is all this Pottermore business. But with or without whatever that ends up being, I think we'll be okay. Things like this don't just get snuffed out in a day. We've put too much into it to let it go that quickly.

I found some of my old journals (all with the first 20 pages or so filled in, then empty after that). I entertained myself reading through them, remembering how odd Little Emma was, how smart she seemed to think herself. But she wasn't smart. For one thing, she besmirched the pages of a perfectly good Harry Potter journal with sentence after sentence about her stupid 11-year-old crushes. Sigh. Although to be fair, she had to go through that particular one to begin developing her present-day views on the matter. But she didn't have to go and put it in the Potter one.

Finally have my next two tattoos solidified! Actually I've had one for a while, the other finally clunked into place pretty recently. For the time being they're the only ones I want. I'd like to get something Potter-related at some point, but I don't know what or where. I don't get ink that doesn't mean anything to me. I follow a tattoo blog on Tumblr and it astounds me what some people will get on their bodies. "I got this unicorn puking a rainbow just because I felt like it and I absolutely love it!" Sure honey, I'm sure your future employer will love it too. Note: I thoroughly disapprove of people denying employment because of visible tattoos. If they must, I think there should be certain guidelines about subject matter or whatever (example: no swastikas). But...some people just don't seem to get that tattoos will be on your body FOREVER. I get that it's self-expression and it's art and I fully support people being free to do whatever they want with/to/on their bodies, but a little forethought wouldn't kill anyone. Personally, I wait until I have an idea fully formulated and solid, and then I sit on that idea for a while before I get it. I figure if I'm still excited about it after that then I won't mind having it on my body permanently. And if I have a visible work of art on my skin, people are going to ask about it; I can tell anyone exactly why I have the ink I have now and exactly why I'll have my future ones. I can't imagine saying, "Oh, I just...thought it was cute." Okay, that's why you get a cheap dress, not a tattoo. Some people get tattoos that are art for the sake of art, without any personal symbolism behind the design, and I understand that, too. Because you still love the design on a personal level, you still chose that particular piece for a reason. I don't know. I try not to judge people on their own personal decisions about what they do with their bodies and how they express themselves. But that guy at Folklife whose face was literally covered in random dollar signs and shit; what's he going to do?

I have a pretty little leather-bound book where I keep thoughts. Sometimes they're sad, sometimes they're one line of a song I can't write, sometimes they're just the prettiest little thoughts. It's funny because a majority of them are aimed at someone, and going back and reading them I know exactly who each one is for even though they are all just addressed to "you." It's got a cool little latch on the front. I won't show it to anyone. Some of the thoughts are very private, others not so much. But I need one place, just one, where I can put those thoughts and not have to censor them based on who I think might see them. After I die, I don't care who sees it. I'll have nothing to hide then. But nobody will know who any of them are about anyway. They can only guess. Or they can toss the book into the incinerator with me and just know I loved them, and have that be enough.

I'm excited to move because I'll get to reorganize my bookshelf. The base shelf of mine is broken; I don't know if I'll fix it or get a new one. The rest of it works quite nicely. And the family we bought it from at a garage sale apparently had a daughter who was kind enough to cover the sides with Little Mermaid stickers.

I just got distracted looking through my senior yearbook. Just the parts where people signed, not the actual pictures. It's funny how things get repeated (one major example being mentions of my "infectious" laugh...I think they meant "obnoxious"). Also how many people sign your yearbook telling you how great you are. I don't know how much of that stems from the fear that they'll never see you again.

One of my dearest friends is moving into his dorms tomorrow, since he's doing summer term at college. He graduated freaking yesterday and left early this morning. That means that despite being a year younger, he will actually be in college before me -_- Whatever, I'll still be able to drink first. Not that that matters since he goes to BYU =p

Man. The thought of everything I still have to do makes me so tired. I hate money.

Oof. No unifying train of thought this time around. I guess I just had thoughts that needed getting out. Well I've given myself a midnight curfew so I'm off.

Walk on the water - everyone drowns / My mama told me - I'm lost and I'm found / Walk like an angel - take off your shoes / Special occasion - scary and true. -Walk On Water, David Byrne