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Yesterday, walking between home and my bank, I saw a homeless lady camped on the sidewalk-street lawn strip of one of the little hotels down the street. I recognized her; when I was at school four/five years ago (that long already?!), she'd come into the north campus foodzone sometimes on cold days and sit down in the section where they had a big fire going. She'd sit at a table with several chairs, and hold long, spirited debates with her invisible friends, objecting peremptorily if anyone tried to borrow one of the "empty" chairs.

I had last seen her over near the Rite-Aid, about a year ago. Yesterday I found myself caught in an odd mixture of happiness that she wasn't dead, nostalgia for the warm fire of the north campus center, but mostly sadness that she was still in such condition, muttering to herself as I passed by. Shortly after I got home, it started raining. I wonder if she has an umbrella.

ok, since I did mention it (in order to intentionally push myself), in case anyone actually is hoping for something newyorkish today, go look at regulus, which I'm not going to list on the right side here until I'm at least done with New York. And I am most definitely not done with New York. But there are a very few pictures to look at, despite precious little narration as yet. More later.

there's also a bit of China over there. Despite being the earliest, it also has far the most work to be done, so it will be the last finished. But there's a small bit to see for now, even more than New York has at the moment.

I haven't even ever played this game, I'm just aware of its existence, but it still amuses me that according to Susan, it is now listed in a book. Perhaps it will grow out of control into a big nationwide fad one day. cool!

I once in a while wonder if meeting celebrities at booksignings and knowing about things and people through work and the bro is the closest I'm ever going to get to some sort of famous Inner Circle. "yeah, my cousin's father-in-law's friend's fiancee knew this guy who always used to eavesdrop on the Algonquin Round Table."

and the reply my left brain always gives to that sort of whine is, how about i get off my tushie and WRITE SOMETHING ALREADY.

i'm working on the new york travel journal. maybe i'll show some tomorrow, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

not perfect, of course. didn't expect that. My chief wish is that they could have shown more light and color in the elf-lands - the poignancy of their part of the story is that while the One Ring was lost, they could use their elf-rings to preserve in their realms the beauty and light that was in the world in the beginning of days, before the coming of evil. But since those rings are tied to it also, their power will be destroyed if it is destroyed, and their realms will fade as the rest of the world has slowly faded over the long ages of time.

also Bree is supposed to be a slightly friendlier place, with a sizable hobbit population.

but. there are so many good things. music. actors. art design. details. after some time to process, and multiple viewings, I am certain that I quite LOVE THIS MOVIE. and i am happy that so many other people do too, both readers and non-readers.

merry christmas! and a pippin new year!

11:30 pm: [a large smile, with a tear running down one cheek]

19 December 2001: ...

7:45 am: bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce

-ing off the walls

figuratively of course

...year until The Two Towers.

Though from the strength of the early reviews it's looking very very good (95% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes after 20 reviews! how often does that happen?), it won't be perfect. But it will be better than Bakshi's 1978 version, where among other things they turned Sam into a blithering fool. According to this review, there are a few unfortunate jokes thrown in, but at least Pippin is supposed to be a "Fool of a Took!", in the early going.

only THREE DAYS

for eager Kings under the sky

for the uninitiated out there, it's really

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

I was going to give you a few more details on what exactly that means, but I think I'll wait and see how the movie does it.

office holiday party today. tis the season for huge cans of multi-flavored popcorn and cinnabons in edible baskets.

lifting my eyes (or ears) to the rest of the world, we find others not so possessed of holiday spirits. Irrelevant? I wish Labour would walk out already and make Ariel Sharon irrelevant, and right quick.

[five days to go!]

I have been further notified by a Berkeleyite that the only reason they temporarily banned the fire truck flags was because the fire department, immediately after 9/11, only owned "really freaking huge" flags, because they were not in the habit of putting flags on fire trucks. and they temporarily banned those flags from being put on the trucks until they could order some smaller ones, for fear that (this being Berkeley) some person(s) might obstruct a fire truck in protest if it were flying a very large flag.

all right, fine. I guess it is city hall's job to worry about all possibilities, and in Berkeley I suspect there is an especially wide range of same. please redirect the remnants of my rant to the theoretical person(s). darn the media for not giving details (and me for neglecting to research). but i still can't help thinking it was a bit silly.

The September evening, the Friday after that Tuesday, when I went to place my candle in front of the federal building on Wilshire, and stood with the people for a while, we saw one of our local fire trucks returning to base. Their station is right up Veteran from the intersection where we were standing. At the green light they sped on through with a VROOM, and everybody cheered, because they were firefighters, and also because from atop the truck there floated and rippled a really freaking huge flag.

[six days! six days to go!]

ok, it has been pointed out to me that government entities have to be more careful about speech issues and not endorsing any one group, re nativity scenes for example. Which I had forgotten and is a good point; I'd been thinking in terms of the individual firemen. firepersons. See, I always forget something, especially when in a ranting mood late in the evening.

Still, I don't see how flags on fire trucks present any problem to this (neither did my correspondent, and enough people must have thought this way also, for the ban to have been "brief"). It's the flag of our country, for crying out loud. Every government building already flies one. It's not a religion, or at least it shouldn't be. Heh. Maybe that was the rationale they used originally. Anyway, I'm not going to adjust the entry below; that would be a little too ironic for my taste.

I suppose what I really meant underneath the previous entry was aimed more generally. Don't like what you think someone is saying by flying or waving a flag? (And be careful what you assume about people, these days.) It's supposed to be a symbol of all of us. You can help keep this true if you fly one yourself, own it; it stands for you too. The whole point of this country is that it is what we make of it.

one week! now i can start counting by days!

yes. so. we all knew what today was.

NPR noted on its way to another tidbit that the city of Berkeley had "briefly" banned its fire trucks from flying big flags. WTF?! I can't help thinking the ban must have been "brief" due to being completely ignored.

See, this is one reason I have to think of myself as "moderate" or "independent" (or "idiosyncratic"). yo people, o ye so-called liberals: free speech! remember that free speech thing? the movement of same name? sproul plaza bazaar of wackiness? means YOU LET THE PEOPLE TALK WHO DISAGREE WITH YOU. and then you talk back (not scream, not earsplitting whistle, but TALK), and they talk back (with words not sticks nor stones), and everyone has barrels of fun, and somehow we all muddle through in the end. this is how it is _supposed_ to work. When people forget, that's time to remind them, not to throw it out yourself.

Anyway, what the hell is wrong with big flags on fire trucks? They're so beautiful, especially if the truck is making good speed. Big flags just ripple so well. Sad and beautiful at the same time, for you know that fire trucks never flew big flags outside parades until. and you remember for whom the flag flies.

I find it amazing that the numbers have dropped so far towards 3,000, considering how many people were in the vicinities.

Back in octoberish I ruminated on what we'd end up calling it. We seem to be settling in on "September 11" or "9/11". Not "the incidents of ..." or "the attacks on ...," though "the terrorist attacks" is a phrase also high in the running as yet. Just the date. That feels right.

oh. forgot. heard on radio yesterday: [would have been] Walt Disney's 100th birthday. Happy 'day Walt, wherever you are. Good job.

two weeks to go, and tickets are BOUGHT! Movie crew, check your email.

but why aren't they playing it at the Village? Or the CHINESE?! what the hell?

ah well, plenty of theaters in the sea of Greater Los Angeles.

see, earlier today i was all set to go into a rant about the whole deadending... bad wordchoice. the vicious circle pending in palestine, but by the time i get home i can't write straight. i need to not spend my mornings frittering away time on less urgent but fun things such as geneaology; i need to establish a slice of morning as write time.

psst. you know those burger king goblets? they're actually pretty cool. and they're not plastic, they're glass. makes a nice tinging sound when tapped with a fingernail. not bad for two bucks. and you don't have to put the light-up part in the bottom if you don't want to.

heehhh.

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