First daylog ever. Just some ramblings.
A. Finally got to actually look over that polisci test I got back Friday.
I'd forgotten: under the question 'How does a bill become a law', I wrote out the entire schoolhouse rock song, 'I'm Just a Bill'. I got full points and a smiley face. And here I thought he didn't have a sense of humor. Too bad none of the other corresponding questions had a song to go with them.
B.
Somebody seen him hangin' around
At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town.
He looked into her eyes when she stopped him to ask
If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask.
Somebody said, from the bible he quote.
There was dust on the man in the long black coat.
Joan Osborne's cover of Bob Dylan's 'Man in the Long Black Coat'. Holy hell, this is a big step up from 'What if God was One of Us' (seriously, the concept was interesting, but dammit if the lyrics didn't sound like they were written by a third grader). There's some really cool imagery in there. Being the remorseless scavenger I am, I have it on repeat and am trying to figure out how to use it. There's a story in there –hell, there's fifty different stories in there, but I'm trying to pick them out. It's like, there's a bunch of threads someone laid out in one big pile, but just the act of picking out one string moves and tangles the others. There may be fifty potential stories in there, but I'll be lucky if I can manage to get one whole one out intact.
The song itself brings to mind the Terry Pratchett quote, "And it was all very symbolic, though nobody could tell of what." (I think it was a Tiffany Aching book, but don't hold me to it).
Why the hell do I think Mysterious Strangers ™ in long coats lurking around are so cool? It's just a fun concept*, they could be anything. Is it Kalfu (or any of his mythological counterparts) lurking around at a crossroad waiting to make a deal? Is it a time traveler looking around, finding himself in unfamiliar territory, but reassured with the certainty that he knows what's going to happen next? Is it someone part of some Ancient Conspiracy ™ waiting for something important to happen? A badass wizard detective? Something else altogether?
It's like play dough for the brain: you can play with it. Mix it around, mash it up, and turn it into something. It may not be something worth keeping –it may be utter crap, in fact, but the very act of making that hunk of crap was worthwhile in and of itself.
. . .
Gosh, that sounds bad. But the point remains valid. It's not just the mysterious-guy-in-a-coat trope I'm talking about wither. All ideas are like that. Any little thing in the real world can be twisted up and turned into something fun.
So yeah, tangent. Huh. Well, this whole damned daylog business is just one large tangent, isn't it?
C. Woo! I got to level one today! I can finally start voting on all the writeups I like. Watch out, all y'all, I intend to use up every single one of my votes, possibly on writups that have been around since I was in the fourth grade.
Seriously, this was the entire reason I joined the site: I wanted to tell the Custodian how much I liked the New York Magician stories (I found them through the TvTropes page). Actually, come to think of it, I don't think I ever did tell him. Ah well. I'll go vote on them once the vote count-thingumy loads up.
D. I love BBC radio now. Thank you, random internet person who directed me to their reading of H.G. Well's mindfuck, 'A Door in the Wall'. Of course, it's no longer available. >.<" I wish I knew how the hell the site worked. Are we allowed to download those or buy them off the site or what? I want that reading, dammit!
E. Well, that's all I can think of at the moment. Um. Goodbye, daylog?
Preacher was talkin', there's a sermon he gave,
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved.
"You cannot depend on it to be your guide,
When it's you who must keep it satisfied."
It ain't easy to swallow, it sticks in the throat,
She gave her heart to the man in the long black coat.**
*In stories, I mean. It's fun to play with in stories. In real life they usually fall under the categories of:
- (Fairly common, especially in the twenty-something crowd) Matrix enthusiast/ person who wants to look cool.
- (More rarely) Person who is actually cold.
- (Almost certainly) Pervert who may or may not be wearing anything beneath the coat.
** Of course, reading that verse now after making that Dresden Files comment, I can now only see the two as a weird, old west alternate dimension versions of Harry and Murphy. Dammit.
EDIT Nov. 15, 1pm: I just realized how funny it was that I found this song after writing 'Man at the crossroads'.