Infinite Amounts of Analysis
October 31, 2011 in Blogs
Happy Halloween.
The back of my mind tells me that I ought also to say happy birthday to Eric Ashley, although I’m not completely certain which day is his birthday or why I think that. He has contributed more articles to the archives here, but we will return to those. Halloween has left me exhausted. I distributed one hundred forty-four cans of soda and then turned people away. A dozen root beer vanished first, but I had two dozen root beer; a dozen grape were gone before the second dozen of the root beer vanished, both of those outcomes surprising me, and the dozen orange was next. After that it took a while to finish another dozen, but we went through a dozen lemon-lime, a dozen cola, a dozen citrus, a dozen ginger ale, another dozen lemon-lime, a dozen diet lemon-lime, another dozen cola, and finally a dozen diet cola. I write this so that I can remember next year to get more soda, and particularly more grape, orange, and root beer, as they were more popular than I anticipated. In fact, we were so popular I could hear kids around the block shouting about where is the soda guy, so if no one is giving away cheap soda in your neighborhood I recommend it as a treat they remember.
I have since fallen asleep, and hope to be back there again soon, so I’m going to attempt to make this short. (Too late.)
Today’s temporal anomalies article at The Examiner, Source Code part 5: first divergence, uncovers an interesting aspect of the divergent dimension aspect of the film: when Colter Stevens creates that first new universe, he creates another Colter Stevens who will create an identical first new universe plus additional slightly different new universes, and thus there is an expanding number of new universes blossoming toward infinity.
Getting back to Eric, he has given two new contributions. The first, Practise Bits: City, is probably hard science fiction but feels like science fantasy with its alien landscape and creatures (although the back of my mind–there it is again–says I wondered whether a world with gravity that low could maintain a breathable atmosphere). The other, Practise Bits: Searcher, gives first explorations of an alien world by an arriving interdimensional traveler.
I have one more thing I must do before I return to bed–that which was once the Romans list and then the Corinthians list has since become the Galatians, Ephesians, and now Philippians study, and I owe them tonight’s post.
–M. J. Young
JohnA1nut said on October 31, 2011
Any particular reason why you give out cans of soda?
Passing out candy made me feel old. When I was young enough to be trick-or-treating, I remember thinking about how old I would be in the year 2000. Most of these kids were born after 2000.
Tadeusz said on November 1, 2011
Thank you, Mark. Day before Halloween is how I remember my birthday.
That is a lot of soda. We live so far out in the woods that no one would come to our front door, almost certainly. In any case, we went to the church festival, and the kids did bouncies, and I kicked a soccer ball.
They were boiling corn in a big cauldron right on top of a campfire,a nd then dunking the corn in a pot of butter. The youngest adored his.
This is the first year the boys made their own costumes from this and that of costume bits. We had a wizard and a magician.
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As to City, yes, hard SF. And its on an asteroid with a roof….which is something useful for me to make clear, although it could wait for #2.
M. J. Young said on November 1, 2011
John–when my kids were growing up, there was a man down the street who gave out cans of soda for Halloween. Oddly, Mr. Creagger was the father of a guy who played lead guitar and sang briefly in my band TerraNova in the mid 80′s, but we met the two separately. The soda was a very good idea from the kids’ perspective, because they had bags of candy and nothing with which to wash it down. It also struck me that you could (then) buy cheap soda for eight to ten cents a can, and candy bars of any size a kid would actually appreciate cost at least a quarter. Prices have gone up, but they’ve gone up on everything, so even though my soda now costs about twenty cents a can, I’m probably still paying less per kid than people who give decent-sized candy bars, and the kids get excited at getting something to drink.
Kyler reported to me earlier today that there’s someone in his neighborhood who gives out juice boxes, which is another interesting idea in the same vein. I didn’t think to price Hugs or other small juice containers; but since everyone gets excited about the off-brand soda, I’ll probably stick with it.
–M. J. Young
JohnA1nut said on November 1, 2011
What’s the difference between a wizard and a magician?
There was a girl I saw dressed in a white sheet with garbage (empty bottles, candy wrappers, etc) stapled to it. She said she was dressed as White Trash. I think that was the most original costume I saw.
Some kids asked me what I was dressed as. (Jeans and a sweat shirt) I said “I’m dressed as a paranoid psychotic. They look like everyone else” Little did they know it was true.
M. J. Young said on November 3, 2011
Yes, and little did they know that Wednesday Adams used that same line to explain her costume as a serial killer.
Wizards have pointy hats and flowing robes, usually in dark colors with bright designs. Magicians wear suit coats and top hats from which rabbits emerge on command.
–M. J. Young
JohnA1nut said on November 3, 2011
But I did. That’s what inspired it. Good movie trivia knowledge there.
JohnA1nut said on November 4, 2011
And I’m pretty sure it’s spelled Addams.
M. J. Young said on November 6, 2011
Yes, you are correct. My error; it’s been a few years, and I’ve known a few Adams and a few Adamses in that time.
–M. J. Young