7 Quick Takes Vol. 25

Merry Christmas to all from Conversion Diary!

1.   So, I learned something about myself over past couple weeks: I’m really, really bad at fasting. I’ve been trying to do it on Fridays, but the trouble is that it makes me lethargic, irritable, and prone to overindulgence after it’s over. So far the attempts have been “eat nothing for set period” and “eat only specific things.” Neither has worked out too well. Now, obviously I’m not going to ‘give up’ fasting (hmmm…fast from a fast…). I suppose I just need to practice a little more. Still, I thought it was kind of interesting.

2.       This week I did something rare for me and wrote a couple short (very short) stories. My stories tend to either be too short to be worth bothering about or too long to fit in the short-story format. For these, however, I decided just to run with it. One is a quick piece set in the ‘Gods and Monsters’ universe, which needs a good deal more work before it can be shown, and the other is a slightly-Lovecraftian horror story, which I’m much more satisfied with. One or both might be posted for viewing sometime in the future, but I didn’t think they were very ‘Christmasy.’

3.       I was planning on doing a post on the Duck Dynasty controversy that exploded this week. I had it all written and was letting it sit so that I could review it with a clear head and take out anything too nasty, when I found that two of my favorite bloggers – Matt Walsh and Larry Correia – had already dealt with it. Posting on a subject that those two have lit into is a little like kicking something that’s already been mauled by a cougar and a grizzly: it’s not just pointless, you actually feel kinda bad about it (language warning on both of them if you decide to follow the links). Their basic conclusion is “A&E are idiots.”  

All I can really add to the topic is my deep amusement at the GLAAD writer’s comment that Robertson’s words “Fly in the face of what true Christians believe.” Robertson was quoting the Bible!  

That, and the author of the original article in question is a real tool. Seriously; go read it and you’ll find the contempt for Christianity, Conservatism, and the Robertsons themselves just oozing between the lines.  

4.       I’m very behind on my Christmas shopping and card sending, but I am not going to panic. I am not going to panic. I am not going to panic…

5.       You know what’s a good sign? When you review the next chapter of your book before publishing it online and then find yourself getting sucked into your own story months after you wrote it. I definitely see a lot that could be fixed or improved, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed re-visiting Chronicles of Hendricks. Ordinarily, rereading my own work is a purely painful experience, so I’m taking this as a sign that I’m improving as a writer.

6.       So, I saw The Desolation of Smaug, and I’m working on a review. I really, really hate to say this, but it wasn’t very good. It was the first of Jackson’s Middle-Earth films that have to give an negative assessment of. There’s very little Bilbo, there much too much new crap that doesn’t fit, I’m sick to death of badass hot-warrior-chicks, and the climactic action sequence (original to the film) is so stupid and pointless that it makes the sauropod stampede in King Kong look restrained and dignified.

On the plus side, Smaug himself – as voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch – is all-but perfect. But alas, neither he nor the still-excellent Martin Freeman as Bilbo can save the movie, since they’re just not in it enough. At least the first film, bloated though it was, knew to keep Bilbo front and center.   

7.       This has been the week of weeks regarding stupid things happening at work; our always-touchy new printer surpassed itself by frying some of its hardware, which took three days to fix and we still don’t know how it happened. An unfortunate mix-up regarding a meeting with two ‘Todds’ and my not reading the email closely enough resulted in a working lunch that was a sandwich short. I’ve discovered a pair of keys in my desk that don’t appear to correspond with anything in the building. A mix-up on those keys and the building master key led to a long, uncomfortable conversation with a coworker that seemed to be nothing more than “we should really label these,” but kept looping back in on itself for no apparent reason that I could discover. Finally (and this might require a little explanation), yesterday (two days before break) I processed an ‘urgent’ purchase order, which then had a follow-up request to charge it to one of the vendor’s other locations. This very same vendor had put in a request months ago to charge to a specific location, which (after a good deal of wrangling with the people who handle that) we did. Now they’re asking this one to be charged to their old location. I died a little inside when I read that request and had to remind them that this is not at all feasible when half the company is already on vacation.

I’m wondering whether God is telling me that it’s about time to get serious about moving on?

Vive Christus Rex!