Wednesday, October 17, 2012

On Random Things and Admin Stuff

A non-specific post today. 

I've reached my personal limit insofar as Marvel-related images on tumblr and downloaded tumblr savior to keep them away from my dashboard. I've nothing against those who enjoy the Avengers or anything - I mean, I know it's funny and action-packed and interesting and all that. It's just for me, it makes me uncomfortable, and enough of those pictures of Tom Hiddleston and I begin to find it upsetting. 

I mean... it's just.... like, you wouldn't get Jesus and say he's an alien and shove him into a comic book with Spiderman. (I know there are probably a few weird Jesus comics around but I don't think they're the sort of thing that gets made into a movie by a giant studio.) I fall short of being offended most of the time, but I'm just so tired of it. I feel like in all the Hiddleston bullshit, the Gods are being lost and forgotten.

Not by us, of course. And maybe the Gods are happy just to hear Their names spoken. But when someone says "Thor" there's a whole bunch of people who think "blond guy in the Avengers" and never more than that. There are people who, when you talk of Oðinn's Brother, will correct you and say "actually he's his adopted son" and you're all wtf.

Like I say, I've just reached my limit today. And I've taken steps to avoid this sort of thing in the future, so all is well.

It was windy today. Like super fucking windy, like gusts at 120km/hr windy. It was awesome. I could feel the walls move when I was leaning up against them, and the roof rattled like it was about to lift off. Despite that it's well and truly late spring; the tuis have moved on, the blossoms are falling off the trees, and everything green is greener. At the same time, everyone on various social websites is going nuts about the leaves falling off the trees and their upcoming Hallowe'en. 

I love skulls and shit any time of the year, so it still makes me smile, even if it feels weird to see so many people celebrating it at this time of year. There's always the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror stuff, which is so much a part of my childhood whenever it comes on TV.

It's like Nightmare Before Christmas. That movie is like home to me, in some ways. I always come back to that. Whenever I see a particular scene... but anyway. That's neither here nor there.

I've been neglecting you lately, Dear Readers. I don't really know why. I haven't felt inspired to write about anything much. I've been feeling a bit anxious, too, but I've been stuffing myself with herbal helpers and I seem to be doing better. I tell you, Internet, I'll take depression over anxiety any day of the week. (I say that now, of course. It's easy to say that when you're Doin' Fine.)

But I'll make the effort to be around more, even if I don't have much to say. I've got an email address set up for this blog and I hardly ever check it, which is just silly, and unfair to anyone who has sent me an email.

On more of an admin-related note, I'm thinking of monetising this blog. There are a few of you, you see. I really appreciate that fact, by the way. Sometime last month when I wasn't paying attention we crossed 10,000 pageviews, which was incredibly exciting.  I keep thinking that even if 90% of you use adblocker (which I use myself, and fully recommend as an add-on) I could still make a bit of money here and there. Which would be nice. Because I'm poor. It's something I'm mulling over, but I'm unsure how the whole system works. At any rate, don't be too surprised if at some point ads appear on Hagstone. In the meantime if you like my writing and want to express as much through the medium of cold hard cash, you can do so via the tip jar over on the right or go through my affiliate links to the Book Depository next time you're in the mood to buy a book. I don't get much from 'em but every little bit, you know? Anyway, I know some people don't like ads, so I thought I'd let you all know I was considering it, and if I do end up sticking some ads up here, and you're not into that, there's always adblocker. It's a great program and I don't begrudge you using it in the slightest.

And, off-topic entirely, I notice there is some sort of election going on in the United States of America. I bet you're all sick of it by now, so I will just congratulate those of you who are now old enough to vote. It's always good fun watching the elections on the telly here. Bit of a farce, what? but still so exciting on election day.

Peace, lovelies! Later this week I'll write a bit about NaNoWriMo and I'll answer any emails I might have received.

2 comments:

  1. Is it sad to say I was sick of all the political crap when I only saw the first signs of it? If they used their ads to tell people how they would make the country better instead of just bashing the other candidate(s) then I wouldn't have such a problem with it. Instead they make people going hunting for what they stand for and what they want to do and most people are too lazy to put the effort into looking into them and just pick someone because they slung the most mud.

    And I have to say I would love to see the day when we get a 3rd party president. Too many people think that they can only pick Obama or Romney.

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    1. The trouble is, where the US is now, you sort of can only pick Obama or Romney. You can cast your vote for one of the other guys but you're not really "picking" them because they don't stand a snowball's chance in hell in actually winning, so really you're using your vote to make a statement.

      Which is fine but it's not a statement anyone will hear or that anyone much cares about, and in effect that's one less vote going towards preventing the guy who dislike more from getting into office. That might not mean much, depending on how cynical you are about the whole political system. I'd still be worried enough to cast my vote for the perceived lesser of two evils, but I can understand why many people wouldn't be.

      I don't know. Massive reform is needed, particularly regarding lobbying and the money involved in politics. Bernie Sanders 2016.

      As an outsider, American politics is very much a distant thing. It's entertaining, and I can go and look at it when I want to and pretty much ignore it the rest of the time. So I enjoy the Daily Show's snarks and I check the Twitter comments on the debates and the Beeb's various tongue-in-cheek updates on the whole election deal. It's such an international spectacle; while I'll pay attention to election results in other countries (chiefly Australia, the UK and other European nations - I was thrilled when France elected Hollande) I generally won't follow the elections themselves. But everyone follows the US ones. Someone on twitter, I forget who, mentioned that the US elections are to Canadians what Honey Boo Boo is to Americans.

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