The following movies are at Riverview this week or weekend and I would like to see them and would like you to be my date ($2-3 and they put real butter on their popcorn):
Where the Wild Things Are, Hurt Locker, Fantastic Mr. Fox, A Serious Man, Zombieland, Whip It (indifferent bout this one).

Other expensive movies I would like to see and would like you to be my date for ($15 if we go to the new, awesome theater with beer):
An Education, Up In the Air, The Road (after I finish re-reading it), New Moon (OMG J/K!!!!). Others?

Anyone? One on one Chuchita time is hard to come by lately!

Marketing executives can spot a sucker like from a mile away this time of year. Everything I obsess about year-round is suddenly advertised and highlighted like crazy right now as everyone tries (and fails) to make resolutions for the new year. I am not your typical resolutioner; I live for this shit year-round because I am incredibly goal-oriented, and I will meet those goals at all costs.

So here is what is being marketed effectively to me right now: handy and attractive organizing tools, organic produce and fake meat, earth-friendly and yummy-smelling cleaning supplies, fitness apparel and guaranteed-to-squeeze-you-into-your-thin-jeans DVDs and exercise systems, low-calorie snack alternatives, books, multi-vitamins and miracle pills.

I think I should join the resolutioners and try to not be a sucker for once.

(i wish you and your loved ones health and happiness in the new year!)

Tags: new year
Current Mood: cheerful

on Chivalry, and the definition of.  I'll put the first bit here, but then direct to the Decurion's blog at Blogspot.  For a good idea of where he's coming from, you should also read the precursor to this essay, on Killing and Just War.  When he's in the mood to write, he's really quite good, although months will go without a peep, sadly.

So, to whet your appetite, here's an introduction to his essay: 

There are two traditional approaches to writing about chivalry. One is to start with a laundry list of virtues, perhaps with a caveat that no two writers agree on which virtues make the cut and which do not, and then to provide definitions for these virtues, varying from the banal to the highly idiosyncratic. The major objection I have to this is that it tends to be unbalanced. Whether consciously or not, these are ranked in importance, and differing emphasis is placed on each virtue.

This leads to self-defeating arguments like the SCA's perennial 'how important is prowess?' debate--self-defeating because to take any  one virtue and consider it alone is removing the context of these other virtues, and hence to loose sight of "chivalry" in favor of "courtesy" or "prowess" or whatever virtue is under discussion. Context, it seems to me, matters at least as much if not more than any one virtue. To take any virtue, no matter how noble, to an extreme, is mentally unhealthy. To discard or dismiss as "not really important" any virtue is to render the debate no longer about chivalry, but about a code of ethics that has chivalric elements.

The other is a historical overview, beginning, perhaps, with an etymology of the word "chivalry". The starting point of these arguments tends to be Raymond Llull or one of the other 13th or 14th century writers, or perhaps Le Morte d'Arthur, or whatever. Again, I feel this lacks context. To answer "what is chivalry", you have to start more than a bit further back.So this, I propose, is the outline.

The role of the warrior in society, pre-chivalric concepts, roots of chivalry, development after the fall from supremacy of aristocratic shock  cavalry, and then and only then, the components thereof and modern objections to chivalry.  There is little new here, and if I stop to  acknowledge every single source for what I'm about to write, the essay would comprise mostly footnotes. Further, it is necessarily imprecise. There are exceptions to nearly every single statement I make. I generalize in order to make a point.

Who really doesn't care about seeing Avatar?

Just a shot to show you my hair squee, made for me by the ever lovely Amalia.  Also, this gives you an idea of my hair color.  It's been red before, but never when it's been quite this long.

Poll #1503630 Do blondes have more fun?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 57

I have almost-waist-length blonde hair. Should I dye it red?

If you're wondering, this color red: http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/loral-couleur-experte-hair-color--cherry-cordial-bright-auburn

May you have a wonderful day with family and friends and may all your dreams come true in the New Year.

Christ is born!  Glorify Him!

It has gone to its new home and was well received.  :-)

Go Elfish me!

I am ded from the kyoooooootness of the icon.  Ded, I say.