The Mystery Person replies –

David:

I didn’t mean the crystalline reference to be a clue to my identity. I meant it only to assure you that really I once knew you. Here is something more definite:

You told me you once took so many hits of acid that the entire world turned into crystals. Everything you looked at took a crystalline form: trees, houses, people.

There was probably more…but that’s all I remember…my memory is clouded as well.

Our conversation itself was the thought of the day? Not quite what I intended, but I’ll work with it. I’m game as well.

Elaboration will be delayed a few days. I need to carefully study your blog. It appears a lot has changed over the years.

Something at least semi-profound is coming…

-MP

The world turning crystalline while on acid happened. (Or seemed to. Nothing really happens on acid.) And I’ve no doubt that I knew you, MP, back in the day. I tend to take people at their word. Someone says h/s/it knew me? Innocent until proven guilty. (Or maybe that should be vice versa)

Part of the fascination of this, MP, is that (I suspect) both of us are trying to figure out what the other is thinking. Since I don’t know who you are I’m looking for clues in everything you say, even if no clue is intended. You (perhaps) are thinking of what you can say to play the game without having the game end too soon.

I get a clue as to how clearly I’m communicating. “Granite” was the thought for the day yesterday. Heh.

Please, read the blog. I’m not sure how good it is for showing how I’ve changed. I generally write to amuse (and vent) rather than inform. And how much I will seem to have changed will depend on how you knew me. I readily admit to being a different person with different people. If you come back with something profound, great! If not, come back anyway. One can never have too many friends.

I’m a lousy correspondent. That’s one big change over the years. Having Aged Mother around isn’t improving that. But if you knew me then you probably knew some of the people I still know. I can put you back in contact with some of them if you’re interested.

Thought for the day: Sleeping bag.

On Monday morning I found this message in my email:

Ingersoll, I know you’re busy, but aren’t you responding to email?

It’s been over a decade since we’ve talked…

Yeah…I know…I haven’t signed this. I’m not playing with you. Just thought it would be kind of fun for you to try and figure out who I am…

Well, thinks I, if this is spam it’s a little more clever and complicated than the usual nonsense I get. So I replied:

Hello Mysterious Person –

Given the volume of spam that I get, a lot of odd emails get missed.

So, you’re someone I knew ten years ago? I’ll need more clues than your address if you want me to guess who you are.

Curious,

David

Monday afternoon I got this back:

Oh the spam thing…that didn’t even dawn on me…sorry. I guess you would get a lot of junk mail.

So that you know I’m not some freak just messing with you, I guess I should tell you something that only someone who knew you would know:

In a moment of introspection and clarity, you once saw the entire world in crystalline form.

Maybe that’s too vague…maybe you’ve blogged that. If it’s too weak, I will try to come up with something else.

I know you’re at a disadvantage. However, this is as much for your amusement as mine. Consider it an experiment. Can you determine the identity of someone just by their words?

Factors working in the favor of mystery:

a. You knew a LOT of people ten to fifteen years ago.

b. I have been worn by the years — changed profoundly.

Factors working in the favor of discovery:

a. Well…anything explained here would give it away.

Clues would be too easy. Let us consider this an extension of your blog. Give me your thought for the day and I will elaborate on it.

Are you game?

(Oh, and if you can’t figure out who I am, I will eventually tell you. You have my word. My word is good, but you’ll just have to take my word on that.)

I didn’t get a chance to reply yesterday. And for the life of me, that clue doesn’t help. I saw the world in crystalline form? Which time? Which drug? Or could that reference be to The Forum? Or perhaps the occasional epiphany, unasked for but so appreciated? Or perhaps this is reference to some odd conversation we had that I no longer remember.

He/she/it is right. Ten to fifteen years ago I did know a lot of people. I usually do. I like people. One of the things that I miss about working in retail is the interaction with strangers on a daily basis.

Well, I’m game. My thought for the day to be expanded upon –

Granite.

Waiting For The Trade

Been watching the first season of Angel on DVD. I’d been thinking that I liked Angel better than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the series that Angel spun off of. Not because it’s a better series necessarily. Angel tends to be less focused than Buffy, with semi major characters wandering in and out, storylines that vanish and such. It’s just that as a central character Angel is easier to deal with than Buffy.

I finally figured out why in I Will Remember You, the episode in which Angel becomes mortal again during one of Buffy’s visits to LA. He and Buffy fall asleep together and Buffy says that this is what she’s dreamed of – being a normal girl falling asleep in the arms of her normal boyfriend.

Feh. “Normal”.

That’s when it became clear. Never having wanted to be “normal” myself I find it a little hard to sympathize. Buffy spends a lot of time agonizing and complaining about being special. Her aspirations prior to discovering her Chosen One status were simple – be cute and popular. It’s not that Buffy is a bad person, she isn’t. She’s kind and enthusiastic and heroic when she needs to be. She’s also fundamentally shallow and self-centered. Without being the Slayer she’d be happy to be chase boys and gossip and shop. Basically, she’d be someone I’d have no interest in hanging out with.

Angel, on the other hand, has mostly accepted his fate. He’s a champion and, yes, it’s not fun, but that’s life. You do what you gotta do. He likes being by himself. He reads. If he let himself go he could be a really horrible person. And he used to drink a lot when he was mortal.

I can relate to that.

Of course, Buffy is a teenager and Angel is over 200 years old. If he weren’t more mature than she was he’d be pretty pathetic.

I haven’t seen the latest season of Angel. No cable. But I think I’m okay with waiting for the DVD. I like the whole no commercials thing. I look forward to a time when people start creating series just for DVD. No more having to depend on the whims of TV executives. No more demographic targeting or Nielson family jerry-rigging. There’ll still be plenty of crap but there’ll also be a greater chance for a quality series to find an audience and continue because the audience will be supporting the series directly. Film and TV that follows a book publishing model.

My shallow self-centered thought for the minute.

Ah, Margaret Cho, thank you for reminding me of a useful attitude in these days of teapot tempests and authentic doom. Actually a very Christian outlook. Heh.

Thanks to Jenn for providing the link. I’d been looking for an epiphany this morning (and yesterday and the day before and …) and there it was, waiting to be clicked. The sneaky part about most epiphanies is that I’ve usually already seen that light before. I just forgot it. Personal darkness descended and all.

‘Course it helps if them boots to the head come by way of a sense of humor.

Not a Review

We finally made it to Return of the King last night. A friend volunteered to watch Aged Mother while we had dinner and took in the show. A.M. ran her ragged. Sigh.

I don’t have much to say about the film. I don’t usually have much to say about films that worked for me. It’s been nearly twenty years since I last read the trilogy so most changes/adjustments to the story went unnoticed. Someday Nizzibet and I will sit down with all the extended versions and watch the whole story straight through.

And twenty or thirty years from now (heck probably just ten) someone is going to remake the story as a 20 hour TV miniseries. It won’t be better. But it will include Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire. And singing. Much more singing.

And sometime in 2005 or 2006, Peter Jackson and his band of Kiwis will give us their remake of King Kong. That should be fun. Certainly more fun than the 1976 version. More fun than any of the Jurassic Park movies.

It’s morning as I write this. Everyone but me is asleep. I’d be happy to grab some z’s myself but I know that two minutes after I get comfortable A.M. will wake up and need something. She’s evil that way.

Skook and I meet for a moment in the back yard. Dawn is still an hour or so away. I’m taking out the trash. He’s coming home from wherever he’s been wandering.

I don’t have much to say. Mostly because I’m so sleep deprived that I’m unable to direct a conversation. I can answer questions but Skook isn’t much for asking them.

So the meeting is short. Friendly. Then I go back to wake up Aged Mother and get her started on breakfast. Skook heads for the garage to get some sleep.

Note to Self –

Arguing with crazy people is pointless. Getting angry with crazy people is pointless. Expecting logic from crazy people is just stupid. Trying to point out the logical fallacies in a crazy person’s world view is just a waste of time.

New image posted to my Epilogue.net gallery. First one in a long while.

Giving It A Name

Alzheimer’s Disease.

Maybe it is. Maybe it ain’t. Maybe she’s diabetic. Maybe she’s just eighty-two years old.

If it is Alzheimer’s, we’ve had a doctor tell us that she’s got three to five years to live. That’s assuming that something else doesn’t kill her. Heart attack. Stroke. Pneumonia. Some weird blood disease that I haven’t heard of.

It’s easy to pick Alz because it’s a popular disease. Popular in that there’s a lot of money researching it and trying to develop cures. A new medicine is hitting the market this month that supposedly cuts down on the cognitive collapse associated with Alz. Whether or not we would be able to get it prescribed for Aged Mother would depend on whether we could get her to see a doctor. And we do need to get her to a doctor anyway. We need to have something that will keep her asleep on those nights when we’re no longer fresh enough to serve her without anger. There’s nothing available over the counter that will do that.

Alz means that her brain will shut down, a bit at a time, until there’s not enough of it left to run her body. As that happens she’ll forget – where she is, what she’s doing, who we are.

Survey Says

I found this over at Starship Tim and filed it away for one of those moments when I’d be sitting at the table waiting for the next thing to do. Seems like this is one of those moments, so –

What did you do in 2003 that you’d never done before?

Shopped for diapers. Adult diapers. We won’t get in to what that also means I did this year that I’ve never done before.

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?

Nizzibet and I get together on New Year’s Day to go over how the previous year had gone, look at what we need and want in the coming year and then make plans for how to support each other in getting those needs and wants met.

We did fairly well last year. Most of what we’re trying to accomplish has long term goals. We did our planning again on the first and are making adjustments for the coming year.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Apparently Cherie did. Which gives me a sense of how far away I am from those I consider close.

Did anyone close to you die?

Pam Chappell. Marcus Chappell. Scott Tolson.

What countries did you visit?

Nizzibet and I went up to Canada soon after we got our new car. Big ol’ exciting day trip. Got rained on.

What would you like to have in 2004 that you lacked in 2003?

Much more time with old friends. More completed creative projects. Travel.

What date from 2003 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

November 1st – Aged Mother arrived from California. The screaming starts.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Doing more illustrations this year than in the previous two.

What was your biggest failure?

Getting The Cauldron completed for launch. Getting stalled on Miracle Max.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing unusual.

What was the best thing you bought?

The car. I don’t get terribly excited about cars but having it has made our lives much easier.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

Hmm. Jaydogg kept up on dishes and cleaning even after AM moved in?

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

No one I know personally.

Where did most of your money go?

Rent. Insurance. Medicine. Food. Gas. Electric. Water. Garbage removal. Only a very tiny percentage went to anything in the arts and leisure food group.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Not one darn thing. Not that it was a bad year. I just don’t do really, really, really excited much anymore.

What song will always remind you of 2003?

I so don’t pay attention to music. Love it. Just don’t pay that much attention.

Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. Happier or sadder? Don’t remember honestly.

ii. thinner or fatter? Don’t know. I don’t think I weighed myself last year.

iii. richer or poorer? I might be richer. But it would be to such a tiny degree that I wouldn’t bother trying to measure it.

What do you wish you’d done more of?

More art, always. Spent more time with friends. Gotten more letters written.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Don’t know that there was much that I wish I’d done less of. Though there’s plenty that I wish I hadn’t had to do as much of. There is a slight distinction.

How will you be spending Christmas?

With the Nizz of course.

Did you fall in love in 2003?

Every day.

How many one-night stands?

What are those again?

What was your favorite TV program?

Firefly. Seen on DVD so that probably doesn’t count.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

My hate is pretty stable and predictable. No need to add any new objects of disgust and loathing to any already long list.

What was the best book you read?

Best? I don’t do best declarations very well. Too much relativity in my thinking.

What was your greatest musical discovery of 2003?

Pink. That was 2003 wasn’t it? And I can hardly claim to have discovered her. Or, really, paid very much attention once I did. I am so not a music person.

What did you want and get?

Some books. Too many to mention at the moment.

What did you want and not get?

See answer above. Regular art time.

What was your favorite film of 2003?

I can’t remember what came out in 2003. At the moment I’m not too sure what movies have come out in the last few months.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I had a birthday?

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Having the time and focus to make significant progess on some of the creative projects that have occupied my imagination the last few years.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2003?

Wear clean clothes. Only buy and wear clothes I like.

What kept you sane?

I’m sane?

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I doubt that any celeb occupied my thoughts long enough to grow into a full blown fancy.

What political issue stirred you the most?

Stirred? Sorry. Pretty numb. I vote. I think about the best choices to make. Otherwise fundamentally cynical. Today. The sun isn’t up yet.

Who did you miss?

See list on December 24th. And me. I missed me a lot this year.

Who was the best new person you met?

I met a few good people through the Church. Can’t say I really got out much though.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2003:

Patience and more patience. How to generate it on the spot. Again and again.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

There’s an old Pink Floyd song called, I think, “Several Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict”. Any 30 seconds out of that song would sum things up.