www.andrewmackay.net:

We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and a mystery.

- H. G. Wells

We’re moving. My posts might not be the usual stellar quality you’ve come to expect… or maybe you won’t even notice. For today, enjoy this comic that I resonated pretty well with:

As I walked slowly through the house this morning, trying hard not to make a floorboard creak, hoping that the boy would stay asleep so that the wife could go back to sleep and I could have my morning quiet, I saw the dusky dawn begin to break through the corner of the window. It is a reminder of the grace that pours down on us all — sinner and saint — undeserved.

So, the Maple Leafs are still far less than a 50% win team. In fact, around the league, teams are excitedly anticipating the next time they get to play us… you know, another shot at setting single-game team scoring record, a guaranteed win… I mean, how is this bad for anyone but us?

This year, the NHL has seen what feels like an upsurge in hard “clean” hits that have resulted in serious injuries. I’ve heard different theories, from “It’s part of the game, suck it up” to “if we hadn’t enforced rules about fighting so seriously, this wouldn’t be happening” to “All right kids, do we have that cued up? All right… so kids, watch this. I hate to show this again, but let me tell you kids, you can’t skate into a corner with your heads down like this. That’s not how you play the game… keep your heads up.”

Part of it really is related to the basic physics of the games: put people on skates, tell them that the faster they move the better, and watch the bumper car bash that results. Part of it probably is people forgetting fundamentals like “Keep your heads up kids.” I’m not sure if there’s actually anything else the league can do unless they tell people to slow down. Or, you know, not hit people when they aren’t ready in the middle of open ice. That might work, but it would detract from the competitive effect of body checks.

I’m not sure that there’s an easy answer, but I will admit that I’m totally over watching guys get wheeled off the ice on stretchers. The game needs to change. Someone (probably someone who makes more money than I do and makes it for dealing with hockey) needs to come up with a plan.

I’m always a little bit afraid when I start writing something in a very set genre. I recently got to read a friend’s Zombie story. My first thought was “Wow, that’s brave. There’s so much established zombie lore” (can you call it zombie lore if you’re not that into zombies?) “and he went for it anyway.”

The same fear? reticence? I’m not sure… makes me hesitate before I think about messing around with time travel, space travel, or little people running candy factories. I find myself worried that I’ll transgress the genre establishment and they’ll come after me. I’ll wake up with a scary looking writer hovering over my bed saying, “You messed up faster than life travel. I’m afraid I’ll have to take your pinkie fingers.”

I guess this is where it comes back to being widely-read… if I’ve read enough, researched enough, done my due diligence, I’ll probably get to keep my pinkie fingers.

Maybe this is a part of the challenge of writing speculative fiction. Maybe I should write thrillers instead. When it doubt, blow it up, right?

I realized something that’s probably really obvious the other day. The difference between writers and people who talk about aspiring to write? People who talk about aspiring to write let their laziness get in the way of actually writing.

At least, that’s my problem.

I’m pretty sure that anonymizing is not a real word. That’s why I used it… don’t try to stop me!

I’m some-what concerned for my child… he’s going to grow up in a world where friendship is indicated not by time spent with a person, but by clicking a button on one of several websites.

Increasingly, people can gain entrance to our lives without having to meet us. Just find us on facebook, click “add as friend” and if we agree, whatever we’ve put on the internet about our lives becomes available for them.

While there might be some tacit advantage as far as transparency goes, it’s really a false transparency — only what we want online (or can’t keep our friends from putting online) goes online.

All this to say, I think there’s some danger to the level of interaction we can establish with people without having met them. Your friends are not necessarily the people who post comments on that totally hilarious youtube video you put up on facebook… your friends are the people who invest time in your life… for real. That might be reflected on facebook, but more often it is probably not.

Who doesn’t want to be great at something? I, of course, already am great at most things, but I’m sure you all want to be like me. (That was a joke. I hate how often I have to say those words. Maybe I’m not so great at humor.)

In a recent post at Zen Habits, this was the vintro:

Very often you’ll see blog posts or books teaching you to “master” a skill in only 10 days, or 3 days … in fact, it used to be 30 days but the time frame to master something seems to be shrinking rapidly.

I’ve even seen tutorials claiming to teach a skill in just a few hours. Pretty soon we’ll be demanding to know how to do something in seconds.

Instant mastery of skills and knowledge! Hey presto!

Unfortunately, the reality is something a little less magical.

You can read the rest of the post about how hard it is to develop greatness and the reality of how to develop it over here.

They say that time waits for no man. I have to admit that I feel that more some days than others. 70 or so years to accomplish on earth whatever you will accomplish on earth. That is either depressing (and I submit to you that it should be, if you’re wasting your days) or motivating.

Today, I choose to find it motivating. Let’s roll.

That’s mostly a joke. Pretty much they are. My Saturdays in the fall are exactly made up for weaklings. I wake up, do a little around the house, try to write, and then watch a bunch of big, strong men hit each other for 4 hours in the background while I do whatever my weekend requires me to do.

Pretty weak, I guess. But, then, I assure you, I would be out there playing if they’d have me. I mean, I’m still fairly young. I could do it. Play me coach, I’m good!

It does leave one wondering… if this is what so many of us spend our time on (as we get fatter, sitting in our easy chairs, eating chips and dip… (Rebecca, put dip on the list), drinking carbonated (or fermented) beverages), imagine if we did all get out and play. Maybe I need to look into that. I remember glorious Sundays in college, playing football in the mud, getting hit by Luke, who was faster and stronger than most of the rest of us. Those were good days. Those were weekends that weren’t for weaklings.