Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[cromag]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Just selling down to watch "Guardians of the Galaxy" with my son.

Saw that in a theater with my kids. It was a lot of fun.

Enjoy!

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by cromag

Saw that in a theater with my kids. It was a lot of fun.

Enjoy!

I did, thanks. Really good fun as a film with pretty much no low points. It's not exactly an intellectual feast, but if you want an entertaining couple of hours I recommend it.

[WT Sharpe]

I saw an interesting film yesterday: Woman in the Moon. It's been described as the first serious science-fiction film. Who knew that in 1929 a silent film would describe a rocket carrying people to the moon as having three stages? It was directed by Fritz Lang of Metropolis fame and was a very enjoyable tale, although at 3 hours and 20 minutes it was a bit on the long side.

[badgoodDeb]

Just watched "Into the Woods" in the theatre, with a bunch of family. I'm a multiple times watcher of the stage version (in fact, I have the DVD of the PBS version, with Bernadette Peters in the lead). I enjoyed the movie version equally well. It was quite well done! That isn't always the case, when they turn a beloved musical into a movie. I was glad to see this so well converted.

[Stitchawl]

I'm sitting here wondering why... Why do people celebrate on New Year's Eve?
It's an arbitrary date set for convenience sake, at least in the West. It happens every year, so it's not like it's something out of the ordinary. Celebrating being alive another year? That's what birthdays are for. Giving thanks? That's what Thanksgiving is for.

I can understand celebrating on the Solstice, as that really IS a turning point for those whose beliefs tend towards more earthly things. People go out and drink themselves sick in an effort to enjoy something that isn't really anything special. More people commit suicide after it than any other time of the year because they didn't 'feel the spirit' of the event, and never stop to question why they should feel something.

No doubt getting together with friends is fun, which is why we do it many times during the year, often without it being a 'special day.' So what is it about New Years that make's people go so crazy? Who first started the celebration on New Year's Eve. In Japan people celebrate New Years Day by going to the temples to pray for more money, or to pass school exams. In Thailand, just like the US, people drink themselves silly, then drive their cars into lamp posts and pedestrians. Heck of a holiday...


Stitchawl

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I'm sitting here wondering why... Why do people celebrate on New Year's Eve?
It's an arbitrary date set for convenience sake, at least in the West.

Why not celebrate?

A year is the period the Earth takes to make one full rotation around the Sun. The date the New Year occurs is arbitrary - you have to start measuring somewhere, and the one chosen works as well as any other.

I have the same feel about celebrating New Years that I have about birthdays. The Earth has completed another circuit around the Sun. I'm not dead. I'm not in hospital. I'm not in jail. I got away with it for another year. I don't party, but I do acknowledge the fact.

In NYC, the mass lunacy expresses itself as gathering in Times Square to watch a complex light ball drop, and camera coverage from up high shows a sea of people in an exercise in closest packing. A few years back, someone had provided 6' long white balloons to celebrants, and overhead shots showed what looked like an enormous mass of waving cilia. All I could think seeing it was "the rotifer that ate Manhattan!"

I pass on that. I'm quite content to watch it on TV at home, say "Happy New Year" when the ball drops, and go to bed.

The party will happen later, when some friends hold their annual Twelfth Night party. Lots of food, drink, and convivial company. The first year they did so was the first year she moved in with him and they started life as a couple. Her Labrador Retriever, Scooter, became part of the family, joining his existing cats. He commented after the fact that Scooter had gotten more than enough attention from people, and he hadn't realized that was possible. The dog was apparently in a semi-comatose alpha trance for the better part of three days afterward.

(Scooter is elderly now and declining. He'll be far more subdued, and quite content to be a furry throw-rug people can rest their shoeless feet on. Happiness is being in physical contact with whatever parts of human anatomy they make convenient.)
______
Dennis

[orlok]

I'm not a fan of the New Year celebrations - always find it a bit of an anti-climax - but isn't it at least about the only celebration that is universally recognised, and that everyone globally celebrates together? I know the Chinese New Year is later, and other cultures have differing new year dates, but they still all tip a nod to New Year on 1 January. Isn't that something to celebrate?

[cromag]

We "celebrate" at home, too. Which is especially important to me since my kids are 20 and 22, and I'd worry about them. Our daughter will have a couple friends over, as usual, so there's a few more parents who'll have (a little) less to worry about. We'll watch the ball drop on TV, they'll stay up to all hours watching old movies, I have non-alcoholic "sparkling" grape juice and cider ...

It's the rest of the year I worry about.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by orlok

I'm not a fan of the New Year celebrations - always find it a bit of an anti-climax - but isn't it at least about the only celebration that is universally recognised, and that everyone globally celebrates together? I know the Chinese New Year is later, and other cultures have differing new year dates, but they still all tip a nod to New Year on 1 January. Isn't that something to celebrate?

I guess that's what's got me wondering... We find it anti-climatic because it's artificially generated, like the 'holidays' pushed by greeting card companies.

But as you say, there is always something to celebrate. The Thais actually celebrate THREE different New Years, and all three with drunken revelry. The Thais do love to party!

When I was young and living in the US, I always watched the ball drop in Times Square at someone's house with a group of friends, listening to Guy Lombardo, and wondering why people chose to freeze while standing around Times Square packed together like sardines. At midnight we'd pop balloons, throw streamers, kiss everyone, then stand around with a somewhat quizzical expression on our faces, no one daring to ask 'why...'

Once Guy Lombardo passed away, the event lost all its meaning to me. Childhood lost, I guess. Anyway, with the mass of drunk drivers on the roads, traveling has become more dangerous than a war zone, and I've been hearing a huge increase in the ambulance traffic outside since yesterday. It seem like last night there was nothing BUT on the street, and that's a day BEFORE!


Stitchawl

[Rumpelteazer]

I'm hoping today will be a quiet day in the store.

Yesterday I was supposed to work only half a day, until 2PM, so that I could get some things done I hadn't been able to do in the last couple of weeks. I can remember checking the time when a supplier left just after 1PM yesterday and when I checked the time next it was almost 4PM. So I worked the last couple of hours, too.

Today I was supposed to work all day, but it's been agreed I'll work until 2pm. That way I can still go by the bank, take a shower and have a nap before the family friend arrives to celebrate New Year's Eve with us.

Also, I still need to get a set of earplugs. The students next door used to have a New Year's Eve (after) party that lasted until 4 or 5AM. The last two years they didn't, but I know it will be tempting fate if I don't get earplugs.

[Stitchawl]

Watching the fire balloons rising over the city, and waiting for dinner to finish cooking. The New Year's Eve fireworks should begin in another hour or so, and we have a front row seat right out our window.

Happy New Year, one and all!

Stitchawl

[Johns1NOnly]

wanting to read on my kindle DX but can't get the back on the one i just replaced the battery in. Other one decided to go WTF with my next button and previous button while in a book ( opening the font opinions, putting the rotation feature on, deciding i want to for random letter and numbers instead going to the next page) Restarted multiple times and fully charged it.

[Rumpelteazer]

Listening to the fireworks. Up until last year people were allowed to set off their fireworks from 10am on the 31st until 2am on the 1st. This year it has shortened from 6pm until 2am.

For the most part it seemed to have worked. Normally during the day you hear a lot of bangs, mostly set off by young boys.

Although it isn't 6pm yet (15mins to go) I can hear that it's starting up now.

[cromag]

My daughter's making dinner for us. I'm watching. And smiling.

[trichobezoar]

It's late afternoon on New Year's Eve and I find myself watching The Holographic Universe Part 1 and sipping on licorice tea... My, times have changed! lol