After YEARS of living in this apartment, tonight, for the first time, the dog noticed there are people in the building next door. It just blew her away. She barked for ten minutes: "Hey! Get outta town! There's a guy over there! You guys gotta see this!"

Now she's sitting up in front of the window watching it like a television. For some reason this is just the funniest thing I've ever seen. What's next? Will she notice the TV? Figure out what f-o-o-d spells?

( Also, the rpg thing. )

Happy birthday pippinsqueak and caminx!!!!

I'm having one of those VERY LITTLE SLEEP weeks, with odd things popping up all over lj that suck me in more than this one. I was going to say nothing at all about the recent kerfuffle, but of course I do have one thing to say about my original point, which has to do with a concept, not a particular person.

( It's just a thing I get focused on... )

Btw, I seem to have slipped into some alternate universe where everybody loves Ronald Reagan and is incredibly affected by his death. Can anybody explain this to me?

Oh, and thirdly, every time I see commercials for The Stepford Wives I wonder what the point of updating this movie is. In the Times review it explains it's been turned into a farce but, um, why? The original movie wasn't perfect but it actually had a story to tell and something to explore. It walked the line of comic and horror really well, which is why it’s endured. It was definitely a product of its time. This movie just seems like one of those empty things where they take a lot of good actors and pair them with a well-known movie title and make an empty movie. It just seems like the original movie knew what story it was telling and what it was saying (Ira Levin certainly did), and this one just as the concept of these actors + that movie that has a great concept in it that has therefore become an expression everyone knows (Calling someone a Stepford-something) with no real reason to exist beyond that. Like it’s funny to think of these female movie stars being Stepford wives, and funny to think of these male movie stars as the husbands, but that’s enough to do a remake that I can see. It's an SNL skit padded out to two hours.

I am totally behind on my flist, and it was really interesting to read today and see some posts about people making first-time real life connections and other posts about fandom and whether or not it's like real life. My own quick RL update is that last night I went to my very first Seder, which was really fun, thanks in large part to the company. It was an all-inclusive night, since we had a Seder while listening to hymns from 'O Brother Where Art Thou,' before Druid Card readings. For me the night will always be summed up with the line "Sister Magpie ate Gefilte fish?? And I missed it?" said in with a shocked expression.

Yes, SM traditionally has a very limited number of foods she eats and very few figure into the story of Exodus. (And I still do, thanks.) Today I am exhausted (why does the subway always take so long from Brooklyn at night?) but it was so worth it.

So then there's this fandom thing, and people feeling bad. Is it like real life or not? ( My answer is: both. )

lj is being completely evil about this entry. Hopefully this one will work....

reenka brought up something really interesting recently (which is not unusual for reenka) that made me start thinking about being disliked. We were talking about how awful it is when people make characters perfect in fanfic and felt characters weren't real unless they were able to be hated. They don't have to be hated all the time, but you have to be able to imagine that somebody hates them somewhere. What's sometimes even funnier is when you know the author is basing the character on their view of wonderful and you end up hating them as well as their characters.

It made me think about how so many people spend their lives trying so hard to believe everyone loves them and it's just impossible. A few years ago--I think it was the Internet that did it--I suddenly realized that if you didn't rub up against somebody the wrong way at least some of the time you probably didn't exist. I'm not talking about being obnoxious to get attention--I've never bought those people who claim they're "honest" when they're really cruel etc. But if you've got a pov and a personality and you express it, no matter how gently, at some point you're probably going to bother someone. Even if you don't express it you'll probably creep people out because who's that person smiling vacantly in the corner? She's annoying. We hate her!

When you realize this it's kind of freeing. You can concentrate more on reachable goals. Like, you can't make everyone like you but you can be the kind of person you think people should like and that will appeal to somebody out there. I remember reading somewhere once that "we become that which we admire" and that's totally true. Even if you don't become as exceptional as your idol you'll pick up something. And whatever you're aspiring to and becoming will really annoy somebody who's aspiring to become something else. Now you're a player in life. Or something. Does that make sense? I don't know. This is something you can't help think about on the 'net because of the way personalities are always knocking against each other.