December 10, 2013

On rock and rolling around Sol

(Recommended playlist for this log; Spotify)

If I'm to believe that our calendar is more or less accurate (which is not, but it's been a pain in the ass to astronomers of the past centuries), today marks the end of another trip around our yellow star since I was born. First of all, that's a hell of a trip.

I have a strange attitude towards it. It is, of course, a matter of celebration, but the point is not to celebrate the arrival, because nothing short of my death would have prevented it from happening. Simply being here today has been the result of care from myself and others. What, then, is the matter of celebration?

Life? The first thing that comes to mind is the "L'Chaim" song in Fiddler on the roof. "To life, to life, l'Chaim!" is a call to celebrate that good things happen even when life seems otherwise shitty. In their case, the marriage of a daughter and in mine, compared to some of my peers, is the fact that I have a steady job, enough money to not have debts (and even regular nights out), I'm reasonably healthy and my worst vice is having more books than I can actually read and more games than I can actually play. Right now, without the clouds of depression, I can see that my life is pretty good and there are things to be grateful for.

However, gratefulness is something that one (I) should practice every day, not just once every turn around the Sun; and it's not really the reason to celebrate (although that was a big project of mine two years ago and it was a success). The question remains: Why celebrate? What are we/am I celebrating? Why once every year?

I tend to look at it not only in the terms of traditional celebration and the gifts and hugs I'll receive; but the other way around. Birthdays are arbitrarily good days to reflect on what I've done so far. What have I done with this gift that will never come again? Birthdays are a day to celebrate the gifts one has given to the world, however big or small they may be. Birthdays are days to reflect on one's effect on others, to think about the past as a teacher and to learn from it.

This past year I've come short of many of my goals. My "25 years of gaming wisdom" project was due last year and it's still unfinished. I won NaNoWriMo but with a great cost to my emotional health. Another project, "One year of gratefulness" is still waiting to be transcribed. Many other short stories sit finished on my hard drive, waiting to be edited and probably published, even if it's on the internet. I read less than I wanted, had to drop out of singing lessons and most nights I feel like I should do more with my life. It's fair to say it hasn't been the best year.

However, I'm not dead. These and many other "failures" have failed to kill me and today's a good day to see them as an anti-library of sorts. In a way, they are the promise of having more to do, room to expand inside myself, ideas to acquire and ponder, languages to learn, religions and customs to discover, understand and maybe even adopt. Today is a good day to see what more can I do for myself and others.

Thank you.

Post-script: Acceptable gifts are hugs, postcards or letters (yeah, "snail" mail is still totally a thing), thoughtful and inspirational articles on the internet, or even a thoughtful and sincere /msg from you. Kindle books would alse be nice but are not necessary, see above.

Additionally, I'm doing a small project today and I'd like your help. All you have to do is to send me a song that a) is on Spotify and b) makes you feel calm and helps you daydream. If you want to help, /msg me with the artist and song name. Thank you!

Even before finding this awesome site, I have always been interested in writing. I took an interest in writing since elementary school, and had never lost that interest. Of course, I had to learn how to read, write, and speak two languages at once, plus a third later on, but that did not hinder my interest. English has always fascinated me. At its elementary level, it is a very easy language to learn, contrary to what many would say. Once you get further, however, skill becomes a necessity if one desires to express oneself elegantly and gracefully. Russian, on the other hand, requires skill at both elementary levels and higher.

So there I was, a new member of E2, and the entire keyboard in front of me. What to write? Theology was a topic of choice, of course. But I also remembered a childhood interest that never really left me: sci-fi. I had created an entire universe in my early teens, but that world had come and gone, and I basically had to start from scrap. I began to write some sci-fi on E2.

One day (today), it hit me. This audience, the audience of E2, is just a valid readership as any other. The difference is that I do not get paid for having my material read. A true writer, though, writes for the joy of writing, and if in that joy he/she gets paid, good for them! I, too, strive towards that goal. Let's get back to the point. Since becoming a member of E2, I have been developing a sci-fi universe, and just today have decided to call it the Star Kingdom. I know it sounds very unoriginal, but the name is purposeful. This, along with technical, historical, and other types of information will be brought to light on this site, which I consider to be the home of Star Kingdom. I consider this to be a proud home. I've already written several nodes based on this universe, the titles of which I will not disclose to avoid any "nodevertising," and I thought it necessary to start an index node where I will show all my nodes pertaining to this universe. This node will be continuously updated, of course.  

I think this is a fine and excellent audience for such a fictional universe. This is not to say that I am bestowing grace to allow E2ers to read my work, but that my work will be graced to be read by intelligent and talented people. Whether this "Star Kingdom" project will ever be on the shelves of bookstores, I do not know. What I do know, however, is that I look forward to having you read it here, because I wouldn't share it first anywhere else.

Blessings.