Despite any implications of my absence, it has been a pretty good Xmas for me. Got to spend a few hours with my elder son and received a couple of presents i very much liked - a food dehydrator and a set of professional lock pics.
Already making up a separate shopping list for the dehydrator - first up is prepping a veggie mix for soups. Then comes the jerky. Hopefully i can get some nice venison to work with. And i do a mean sweet/hot teriyaki/sriracha jerk for lesser tasting meats.
But this time of year does tend to promote withdrawal from the outer world, reinforced by the snowy weather. We're all very much alike, but very different as well, much as that goes against our society's either/or limits on thinking. (I shake my head at the inherent tragic stupidity every time i see a scene where the hero recoils vehemently at the thought of being any way like the villain. How fragile is their sense of self?)
So, anyway - While we're normally here finding some common interests in my odd digging through comics and culture, let's go the other direction today. I thought i'd ramble on a few things that make my life likely very different from yours. Perhaps, in some ways, unimaginably so.
Let's get the biggest out of the way right up front - i neither own nor use a phone. I don't believe i've handled one in this decade. After absorbing the social and connective implications, think about how often the only contact option given is by phone and you'll get a glimmer of how much that reinforces hermit isolation. It took months to acquire internet service simply because they're all geared towards people who already have phone and/or internet. Most of the walk-in offices have shuttered, and no mailing addresses are provided.
I have neither television nor radio, and the only clock is the one on the stove for timing food preparation.
Of course, i do have computer and internet, and it can tell me the time when i really want to know.
I have no vehicle, having relied on foot and public transportation since before the turn of the century. That worked quite well until the nerve damage in the feet made walking so much more interesting. These days i mostly do my Duke Ellington routine, but never no lament.
My feet suffer the indignity of shoes for about 8-12 hours per month.
I go out to eat food perhaps 2-4 times per year. (This includes fast food joints, pubs, roach coaches, greasy spoons, etc.,; not just "going out" to fancy restaurants or the like)
I typically go days without seeing another human being - frequently weeks without greater contact than a nod or passing greeting.
Here's a very simple truth about being a hermit - you better like yourself. That's with whom you're spending the most time. Fortunately, knowing oneself was an important aspect of early life lessons for me (See Babylon 5 for the importance of knowing this before asking what you want) so i get along pretty well with me. But, i can be frustrating company when the artwork output has been hobbled as it has in recent months by ongoing technical issues with the computers.. That creative energy that can't get out turns inward instead.
So now i find myself indulging in silly things like playing with clothing textures for my Skyrim game or planning out an Emmanuelle In Tamriel screen cap blog as outlets for that energy.
No - seriously...
Fresh off the boat from Cyrodiil-
...with her first view of the Great Arch, upon which Solitude, the capital city of Skyrim, was built...
A closer look at our heroine-
Think of the Adventures Into The Woods incarnation of Emmanuelle...
...fallen into a darker fantasy world; one torn by dragons, civil war, and slavery.
Now if i can just get Ron Jeremy to reprise his Crocs-wearing Merlin for that Men In Black hip hop musical number.
Again, seriously...
I, um... may have rambled again.
Sorry about that.
Already making up a separate shopping list for the dehydrator - first up is prepping a veggie mix for soups. Then comes the jerky. Hopefully i can get some nice venison to work with. And i do a mean sweet/hot teriyaki/sriracha jerk for lesser tasting meats.
But this time of year does tend to promote withdrawal from the outer world, reinforced by the snowy weather. We're all very much alike, but very different as well, much as that goes against our society's either/or limits on thinking. (I shake my head at the inherent tragic stupidity every time i see a scene where the hero recoils vehemently at the thought of being any way like the villain. How fragile is their sense of self?)
So, anyway - While we're normally here finding some common interests in my odd digging through comics and culture, let's go the other direction today. I thought i'd ramble on a few things that make my life likely very different from yours. Perhaps, in some ways, unimaginably so.
Let's get the biggest out of the way right up front - i neither own nor use a phone. I don't believe i've handled one in this decade. After absorbing the social and connective implications, think about how often the only contact option given is by phone and you'll get a glimmer of how much that reinforces hermit isolation. It took months to acquire internet service simply because they're all geared towards people who already have phone and/or internet. Most of the walk-in offices have shuttered, and no mailing addresses are provided.
I have neither television nor radio, and the only clock is the one on the stove for timing food preparation.
Of course, i do have computer and internet, and it can tell me the time when i really want to know.
I have no vehicle, having relied on foot and public transportation since before the turn of the century. That worked quite well until the nerve damage in the feet made walking so much more interesting. These days i mostly do my Duke Ellington routine, but never no lament.
My feet suffer the indignity of shoes for about 8-12 hours per month.
I go out to eat food perhaps 2-4 times per year. (This includes fast food joints, pubs, roach coaches, greasy spoons, etc.,; not just "going out" to fancy restaurants or the like)
I typically go days without seeing another human being - frequently weeks without greater contact than a nod or passing greeting.
Here's a very simple truth about being a hermit - you better like yourself. That's with whom you're spending the most time. Fortunately, knowing oneself was an important aspect of early life lessons for me (See Babylon 5 for the importance of knowing this before asking what you want) so i get along pretty well with me. But, i can be frustrating company when the artwork output has been hobbled as it has in recent months by ongoing technical issues with the computers.. That creative energy that can't get out turns inward instead.
So now i find myself indulging in silly things like playing with clothing textures for my Skyrim game or planning out an Emmanuelle In Tamriel screen cap blog as outlets for that energy.
No - seriously...
Fresh off the boat from Cyrodiil-
...with her first view of the Great Arch, upon which Solitude, the capital city of Skyrim, was built...
A closer look at our heroine-
Think of the Adventures Into The Woods incarnation of Emmanuelle...
...fallen into a darker fantasy world; one torn by dragons, civil war, and slavery.
Now if i can just get Ron Jeremy to reprise his Crocs-wearing Merlin for that Men In Black hip hop musical number.
Again, seriously...
I, um... may have rambled again.
Sorry about that.
Pics from Skyrim (this morning) and Adventures Into The Woods (2012)
