I just looked up info on the next book in the Dresden Files series (http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/skin-game-15).
I suspect it will be fine (there are some ways in which it could be pretty awesome, actually), but the premise sounds vaguely like it came out of a tabletop game...

Two things Frozen:
First, I went to Tyrone, GA over the weekend to visit family. The local schools were closed Monday and Tuesday because of the cold. It was mid twenties and gorgeous out both days. In fairness, it was single-digits overnight, and that can cause problems if you're not prepared for it - and there's not really much cause for them to do that prep there...

Second, we saw "Frozen" while we were down there. I agree with siderea's estimation of the movie.. I think I liked it more than her, but it definitely suffered from too many different ideas going on in a way that seemed to interfere with it having a continuous emotional narrative. It was good. I really enjoyed it. It feels like there was a spectacular movie buried in there, but they piled extra random stuff in to make it mushy. It's nice to see Disney getting pulled away from their love-mythology.

Related to Frozen: I bought the soundtrack. In addition to the version from the movie, there's a pop-single version of "Let it Go" by Demi Lovato. I haven't heard her before but I was very disappointed. How do you manage to take the line "...a kingdom of isolation/and it looks like I'm the queen..." and sing it completely emotionally flat and empty? Bah! Pop-divas today.
Also, you kids get off my lawn.

Is there anything happening next weekend? I remember there being a LARP or something, but when I look at the schedule, everything is the following weekend...
Maybe there's an SCA event I'm forgetting?

I had a good time with my family last weekend. Sad I missed the play up here, though.

I have just finished re-reading "Cold Days", and I have a question.

Early in the book, when Dresden is talking to Santa Claus, there is indication that Santa Claus was something/someone else before. Near the end of the book, there is this bit that is clearly supposed to hint at who/what that was:

And for the briefest fraction of a second, the shadows falling from the tower and cottage in the gathering morning behind us seemed to flow together. The eye he winked with vanished behind a stripe of shadow and what looked like a wide scar. His face seemed leaner, and for that instant I saw Vadderung's wolfish features lurking inside Kringle's.

"He" in this passage is Santa Claus. Vadderung is Odin.

So ... who would have a family resemblance to Odin and an eye-scar, enjoy battle, and could plausibly re-tool themselves as Santa Claus? There are hints earlier of him having facility with manipulating time. My Norse mythology is not so awesome, and comes up blank. Anyone have any ideas?

Since Caitlin's party, I have been intending to write down a "this is what happened with my mother" reference -- the actual things that happened with her health as well as my reactions to them and my emotional journey since and some of my thoughts about how it has affected my life and blah blah blah. (summary : she died of cancer when I was 19. I did not cope gracefully)

But I fail at the actual writing. I've had time, but when I sit down to write, I veer away and do other things like play civ or write meta posts about how I'm failing to write. Which means that while it's been a long time for me and I really have internalized the whole thing so it's just who I am, and not something that hurts in the present -- I've been spending the last week and a half rummaging through the memories and emotions of a time when it *did* hurt.

Which kind of sucks. I mean even if it's just the way things are, there's still a lot of sad associated with it, and sad isn't really awesome fun. I either need to stop avoiding and write, or decide that I'm not ready to yet and try again in 5-10 years. Or maybe just have a long rambly conversation with someone about it. But I think I'm done thinking about it on a daily basis.

I had a great time at fencing practice today. The car ride home, not so much. But I am reminded that I might be the only person in the world for whom Terminator 2 is a seriously traumatic movie.

I started trying to run again. That's my goal this summer. I started on Thursday, so today was my second run. We'll see if I can keep it up. Todays run ended in a pretty spirally light show indicating that I'd probably didn't want to push any harder.

I'm not sure if my hamstring or my overall cardiovascular health (or lack thereof) will be the limiting factor. So far, they both seem to be getting tired at about the same rate -- but I'm guessing my hamstring will recover slower. I think Monday will be fine - we'll see how next Thursday is when I try to increase the run/walk ratio...

I don't often have to wait in line very long to vote, and today was no exception in that regard. But today, not only did I have no waiting whatsoever - there was no one else there voting at all. The half-dozen volunteers who run the place were there as usual, but nobody else. It was kind of surreal.

In a discussion on the philosophy of Bullshit (no, really), I see this commentary:

Frankfurt asks us to consider an anecdote told about Ludwig Wittgenstein wherein the great philosopher phones a friend named Fania Pascal who's just had her tonsils removed. How are you, Wittgenstein asks. Like a dog that's been run over, Pascal answers. Wittgenstein then replies testily, "You don't know what a dog that has been run over feels like." In effect, Frankfurt argues, Wittgenstein is suggesting that Pascal is spouting bullshit. (A more reasonable person, Frankfurt concedes, would reach the charitable conclusion that Wittgenstein's friend is merely expressing herself through the use of allusive or at worst hyperbolic language.) Wittgenstein's grumpy outburst seems so absurd that very possibly the real bullshit here is the anecdote itself.


Except from everything I've read, Wittgenstein really does seem like that kind of grumpy bastard. :-)

Physical Therapy is going well. This weekend I switched from biking to running. Or, really, walking interspersed with 30 second bits of running, since after about 30 seconds my hamstring is pretty much overwhelmed. But it's much stronger today than yesterday, so that's encouraging. My PT goal is to be able to fight at Endgame next weekend. It's looking like it will be close. I think this evening there will be some shadow-sparring. And if that goes well, I might try to drum up some actual sparring tomorrow evening.

It gave me three or four more days of uncertainty, but my leg now seems to be healing well. I can go for short walks and I can walk up a single flight of stairs normally now. This week I will start with stretching and seeing what I can do at the gym and maybe trying to do some light yoga.