After I got home from work, I was hanging out with Anya (my cat) and saw that watery sun from the window of our guest room. Also known as "Anya's room," because that's where the old girl spends a lot of her time. Sleeping, looking out the window, yowling at her humans to come pet her, she's gotten rather demanding in her old age.
But we love her, so we do her bidding.
She's 19, old for a kitty, but still pretty spry. She get's all the attention now, back in the day she had to share the limelight with her sister, Sasha. Well, she got to sit in Sasha's shadow most of the time. Now, she's "living her best life" as my daughter, The Nuke, likes to say.
Obviously I'm taking a break from the war, it's been a long week, forty hours at the paying gig, a good ten hours on top of that with the writing. But as long as all y'all¹ are entertained by it, I'll keep going.
Speaking of entertainment, what say you lot about the whole House of Dragons versus Rings of Power series? I've been watching both, each has its excellent moments, each tends to drag quite a bit in some spots. Rather wish they had had Peter Jackson doing the Rings. He did a great job with LOTR and The Hobbit. Speaking of which, I've re-watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy and also The Hobbit trilogy in the last month.
I will confess, I didn't care for The Hobbit all that much when I watched it in the theater. I mean come on, three movies (long ones at that) to cover what was, as I recall, a rather short book. (And for those of you wondering, yes, I've read all the books, multiple times, well, except for The Silmarillion which was a hard slog.) The second time through I enjoyed The Hobbit movies much more than the first time. Not sure why, but there it is.
So I'm sending September off without much fanfare, it was a good month, but it's over. Too much construction around the abode for me to really enjoy the month, but that's winding down.
As is my bank account!
Which is why I will soldier on at the paying gig for another year, in order to keep myself in the style to which I've become accustomed.
Or something.
Be seeing you.
Schönes Wochenende!²
¹ Is that the correct usage? Remember I'm a Yankee by birth and didn't have many assignments in the South, three to be precise - two in San Antonio, Lackland AFB, and one in Biloxi. Keesler AFB, all three of short duration. Add up the time spent in those places and it was less than a year. I spent a LOT of time in Asia and Europe, where they don't speak Southern.
² Have a nice weekend (German) - You just had to know I'd throw some German in there, dintcha?
Your writing is the first blog I check each day. Love the story writing thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteI second that Stephen. It is enjoyable. The others comments are also agreeable.
DeleteFranknbean
Thanks Stephen!
DeleteThanks Franknbean!
DeleteGood to see that Sasha is still commanding the attention of her hoomans. Entertained by your writing Sarge? That's an understatement, it's "Must-Read Blogging" to butcher that legacy networks advertising.
ReplyDeleteArgh, advertising, we hates it Precious, we hates it.
Delete(Sasha passed, she lives on in our hearts, Anya remains with us in person, and in our hearts as well.)
Sarge, being a 5th generation Native Texan, I've never been accused of speaking English correctly, Arabic, German or Mandarin either for that matter. But, from my perspective, I'd say "Y,all" covers the entire readership. "All Y'all" might be a trigger to expose you as one of "them folks who ain't from 'round here".
ReplyDeleteJust as with the earlier chapters, enjoying the Russian front portion of the tale.
Cletus
I'll stick with y'all then. (In both meanings of that sentence.)
DeleteSarge,
ReplyDeleteAll y'all is correct when addressing the entirety of a group. Y'all is correct when addressing a small group or a portion thereof. However, there are exceptions to both of those guidelines. As there are of most everything Southern (or alternatively Southeren).
As to the blog, I enjoy your writing style and stories. However, I do like to save them up so it reads more like a book, so I don't comment on them much. So...Keep up the good work.
And my neighbor, Cletus, could be right also.
DeleteJuvat, my blurb is just an opinion. Guess I should have said that being born a Texan, English (American) is my 2nd language. So, I'll defer to you folks who are better grounded in the language.
DeleteJuvat the 1st - That was my thinking, but then again I've seen it both ways. (As to your reading habits, I knew that, and respect it.)
DeleteJuvat the 2nd - That's right, Cletus is in your neck of the woods.
DeleteCletus - Any idea how it's used in the rest of the South?
DeleteI've always heard the 'y'all' like juvat explained it. But, well, it's Southern so there are depths of meanings that can only be applied under the regional usages of Southern, which there are at least 12 regions, and said regions don't match up with state boundaries, so, well, as long as you don't get a "Bless your heart" as a response back, you're A-Okay. ('Bless your heart' or any variation of that phrase is Southern for 'You just copulated up soooo bad that you are dead to me' or somethings even worse. When uttered by anyone old enough to look like an apple doll, you just might as well self-slab yourself, or move to New York City (which, come to think of it, is about the same thing.))
DeleteHahaha! Got it!
DeleteAlso, any time a phrase starts with "Sweet Baby Jesus", this is another indication that things are very, very wrong and a "whoppin'" as my Granny would have said, is about to occur.
DeleteThat one I knew.
DeleteSarge, have relatives in Mississippi and done livestock business in Georgia but don't recall ever hearing "All" and "Y'all" together to reference a group. Now, I'm not saying that in a fit of frustration a mother may not address her children with "Bless All Y'alls Hearts" and then follow up with some additional physical activity on their butts. As you can tell I agree with Beans.
DeleteCletus sent the comment about Mississippi, Georgia and a mother addressing her children.
DeleteHe just forgot to say who was posting the comment.
Cletus
I think I'll stick with speaking Yankee, Southern is too hard.
DeleteAh, good to know.
DeleteSo glad to hear Anya is doing well.
ReplyDeleteI have not watched either, but to be fair, I have never watched a full episode of Game of Thrones ( I think I saw 30 minutes once), more out of obstinacy of refusing to go along with what "everyone else" was doing rather than any particular gripe on the series. I am also one of five living individuals that has never seen "Titanic" for the same reason.
Jackson did a great job on Lord of The Rings. I was not surprised they also turned The Hobbit into a trilogy, but I am not sure what I was: after all, movies are about making money, and three movies makes more money than two (which it could have been). That said, I thought he overall did a good job with The Hobbit: The dwarves got a lot more play time than almost any other movie in general and some of the actors they had for them (Thorin, for example, and Dwalin and Balin were gems) were amazing. I am never happy about "inventing" characters like they did in The Hobbit (or even when they "spruced up" Arwen), but am willing to accept some for the sake of the whole.
All of that said, I have not seen The Rings of Power yet. I have read several reviews, and I fear that for me, a relative Tolkien purist (I own and have read The Silmarillion several times), I would only just sit there and grumble about "canon".
I did like the dwarves in The Hobbit. I heard that Christopher Tolkien grumbles about the same, yet I read recently that J.R.R. Tolkien never intended the orcs to be "ruined elves," rather they were "ruined men." Which makes more sense to my brain, then again I just sit back and let myself be entertained. As to canon, I recognize only one.
DeleteI seem to recall that Gandalf said that orcs were Sauron's version of humans. Or so my recollection says so. There weren't Dark Elves in Tolkein's work as far as I also can remember.
DeleteIt's been so long since I've read the books that I couldn't say with any certainty. Personally, if it's entertaining, I'll watch it, if it isn't, I turn it off. So far The Rings of Power is entertaining. Would I skip doing something else just to watch it? No. It's simply "okay."
DeleteThe Simarillion (Tolkien's creation myth of Middle Earth and the history of the First Age) states that the some Quenya (elves) that did not go to Valinor when called were ensnared by Melkor (Morgoth, of whom Sauron was but a servant) "...were put into prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves, of whom afterwards they were the bitterest of foes". Tolkien may have revised his thinking, but it never made it into his published books. One of the underlying ideas is that elves could not be turned to Morgoth and evil, only literally subverted into something else. Humans were much more willing to serve evil - both in The First Age and in real life.
DeleteThe Uruk Hai of the War of the Ring were Sauron's additional "improvement" efforts; there are hints that orcs were bred with humans for a stronger orc with less of the limitations of orcs (such as size and aversion of sunlight). Tolkien said that Trolls were the same sort thing, bred in mockery of the Ents.
That's jives with my memory. But wasn't The Silmarillion compiled by Tolkien's son, posthumously? That may be what the article implied.
DeleteSarge, you are correct that it was in fact published 4 years after Tolkien's death in 1977. His son Christopher reviewed the notes (in some cases going back to 1917!); "I set myself therefore to work out a single text, selecting and arranging in such a way as seemed to me to produce the most coherent and internally self consistent narrative" (Forward, The Silmarillion). So in a way it was his son's attempt to synthesize the work of his father based on the notes and probably what he understood from how his father's published works were written.
DeleteOne of the interesting things about Tolkien (if one is into such things) are the books his son published of his notes and earlier stories. It is terribly interesting to me to see how Tolkien's understanding of characters and plot changed over the years.
(Another interesting note: Christopher Tolkien was helped by Guy Gavriel Kay in writing The Simarillion. Kay became a very good author in his own right.)
Just did a quick search on Amazon for The Silmarillion (my own copy being lost a long time ago, perhaps when Númenor fell) and there are a number of things which Tolkien wrote which I was unfamiliar with. Might be time to go shopping for books!
DeleteKay's writings look most interesting.
The Youngest has now put traced the history of the Elves and made it a book mark in my copy - I may need to see if I can find an old hardbook version for her (they still occasionally become available).
DeleteI have not read Kay in a while, but his early works - The Fionavar Tapestry (Trilogy) and Tigana were very good.
Thanks TB, I'm always looking for good books, good music, good food, good wine, good beer, and good company.
DeleteI think all yall would be the entire world. Yall can be one, two, or more. Cletus seems to be learn-ed Texican, so I will defer to himself. But, the way I heered it, I done tole you. Happy October, yall!
ReplyDeleteSTxAR
What, the entire world doesn't read my scribblings? Oh wait, they don't, otherwise peace and harmony would reign throughout the galaxy.
Delete🙄
Don't have a dog in either the y'all fight or the streaming video one. We did watch a couple of episodes of the quirky and entertaining Canadian show "Corner Gas" on DVD. Highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteWir wunschen Ihnen auch einen Shones Wochenende. Sorry no umlauts on my keyboard.
Boat Guy
Cool, I can actually watch the 1st season of that via Amazon FreeVee (free with ads, argh).
DeleteI have most of the alt-codes for the German letters memorized. I wonder why ...
Danke!
Your blog is my first stop each day. Entertaining, informative, and interesting comments. I recently lost my 19 year old gray and white bi-color cat Jazz(aka "6 pounds of fury"). Glad you still have Anya. Cats just grow on one. I'll be sending you an email soon about my last few days at Seymour Johnson AFB visiting my grandson the crew chief. Good news for him. :-)
ReplyDeleteCondolences on the loss of Jazz, they do grow on one. I think I can't live without cats around, did it when I was younger but didn't care for it. After having them around since 1993, I won't go back to a cat-free environment, if I can help it.
DeleteLook forward to the e-mail!
I was late to Game Of Thrones but it was a good story (once I got into it), I've been watching The House of Dragons & the story has been good. Haven't watched the Rings.
ReplyDeleteYour war serial is high on my list of things to look for every morning!
Have a good weekend!
I picked up the first book in GoT at the airport one day, thought it looked interesting. Yup, they roped me in. Still mad that Martin hasn't written the 6th and 7th books. But HBO may have already ruined it for me. (Nope, did not like the last season at all. Well, I did like Arya offing the Ice King dude, that was awesome.)
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. As a native Son of the South, your useage for the pronoun "y'all" is within linguistic tolerances. However, if you might enlighten on the use of "youse" and/or "youse guys", it might be useful.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind the question, what did they have you doing at Keesler? I was there for Comm Engineer School, probably the best overall comm education one could have. Still use bits of it after 40+ years. The Local Conditions in-briefing on Hurricane Camille was horrific, stuck with me all these years.
Heh, "within linguistic tolerances," I really like that. The whole "youse" and "youse guys" thing I always thought was a Philly thing (maybe John in Philly could enlighten us there) as the first time I ever heard it was from a kid from Philly on Okinawa. But I've since heard it from NYC types and norther New Jersey types as well.
DeleteAccording to Wiktionary (not sure how reliable that is) -
Yous(e) as a plural is found mainly in (Northern) England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, northern Nova Scotia, parts of Ontario in Canada and parts of the northeastern United States (especially areas like Boston where there was historically Irish immigration) and in Mexican-American communities in the southwest. It also occurs in Scouse.
FWIW, I believe Scouse is spoken in Liverpool and the Merseyside area of England.
Crusty Old TV Tech here. Yep, "Scouse" refers to those raised in the vicinity of Liverpool. Some think it derives from a Scandahoovian dish called "Labskaus", a sort of stew et by Vikings and (later) Liverpudlian seafarers. See "Till Death Us Do Part", the epithet hurled at his son-in-law by Alf Garnett, said BBC series being the inspiration for "All In The Family".
DeleteThe native tongue of The Beatles.
DeleteIf you like, Peter Jackson, go see the movie "they shall not grow old ". It was to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of world war 1 and what he did with that ancient film was nothing short of amazing
ReplyDeleteFrom actually hiring lip readers to give these old soldiers a voice for the first time in 100 years to actually hiring the people to give them their authentic accents from their Hometowns.
It was the most amazing restoration I've ever seen
Yes, I watched it, brilliant work.
DeleteHuge dittos to above. Masterful historical documentary, it was. As for the other fictional/science fiction stuff, they just ain't my bag, so I'll have none of it. But, for y'all who like it, hope you enjoy it.
DeleteJohn Blackshoe
👍
DeleteAh, Tolkein's work. Which is based on Scandinavian saga themes. So, well, yes, I have a deep hatred for anyone POCing it up. There were swarthy folk in the 'Tolkeinverse' as they were the Corsairs. And dark-skinned folk, those were the Southrons. All the 'good' people, elves and humans and hobbits, were white peoples. Why? Because Scandinavian sagas were about white people.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that whole color swapping thing bothers me. When I read Red Orm's Saga ("The Longships", a rather excellent book) it is a world full of Western (and some Eastern) Europeans, with a few others thrown in. I do not expect, if they ever make a movie based on the book, to see a crew of spectrums of color. Just stop.
And if someone wants to read about POC doing heroic things, well, let them find a writer to write such things. But don't 'whitewash' evil characters to make them 'good.' Like the new movie about the female 'king' in Africa. A nation of slavers and cannibals. Not a lot of nice things one can say about that.
Yup, that sums it up pretty well.
DeleteI was concerned that I wouldn't enjoy the new Rings series after reading a couple reviews (started watching after 2 eps aired), but was glad they were wrong. I read only the two main books only once, saw LOTR trilogy multiple times, Hobbit(1-3) only once, but enjoyed them all. However, I'm easily amused and entertained, so I'm not all that critical. Although I have to roll my eyes at them making Galadriel into some fierce warrior.
ReplyDeleteYes, they have twisted things a bit, but it's still entertaining, most of the time.
DeleteI am beginning to feel sort of naked. I have not read nor seen any of the things you speak of. I guess I am really really old. I am older now since we had the party yesterday. My biggest problem was that Ian joined the party early and was very rude! I do like a good Alinsky or HG Wells on occasion.
ReplyDeleteFrom all the things I've seen, Ian was not very nice.
DeleteAnd Happy Birthday Quad-D!