Author: zenzalei

Into birds, music, nature, science, hockey, movies, fitness, books, chocolate, wine, and spooky things.

Holidailies 2022!

Holidailies! Already!

What a year it has been. Lots of twists and turns, a return to the office (hybrid this time), a few cancelled plans and trips, and suddenly it’s December. No offense, 2022, but I’m ready for 2023.

Inigo is hanging in there, a senior bird at the ripe old age of 21. We’re at the point where every day is a gift, but I choose to celebrate his life while he’s here, rather than spend any precious time with him thinking about the time when he won’t be.

That look gets me every time.

But let’s get to Holidailies, shall we? Today my random prompt was “Why did you start blogging/writing online?”

I started writing online because I could. In fact, it was 20 years ago this month when I first discovered that you could write stuff on the Internet. I had participated in NaNoWriMo in 2002, and someone on one of the forums asked if anyone there had a diary on Diaryland. I clicked the link, and here we are. I’m not even going to tell you the name of the diary because I later moved it to WordPress as a .com and completely forgot to pay for the domain, and now that domain is a Japanese porno site, no joke.

But here’s my Internet birth certificate:

Along the way I’ve met so many fascinating people, and some have become great friends “in real life,” as we used to say.

And now, to try to post this. WordPress isn’t agreeing with me. Or my browser. Or something. Back to the Classic Editor I go, because I have tried multiple times to use the Block Editor and just no.

 

Blood Moon

I posted this a few years ago. I wish I had kept the original post so I could credit the photographer. The information in the meta of the original photo. I believe it was someone on Unsplash with a Russian last name.

Does anyone remember the hoopla six years ago over the blood moon prophecy? The world was supposed to end in late September of 2014, at the end of the fourth and final eclipse in a series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses separated by six lunar months each. Some evangelical Christians were all set to pack it in.

So much for that.

By the way, I write my haiku rather short, in a syllabic pattern of 3-5-3. I remember reading somewhere that English is too detailed and descriptive to carry the true spirit of the 5-7-5 pattern. Haiku is supposed to be spare, but English verbs have too many tenses to be spare. It’s almost like the suffix “ing” is a cheat to use up a syllable, yet because the way English is structured and the way English provides context, it’s so descriptive that there is no room for interpretation with respect to time: An action was happening, is happening, or will be happening. I think the 3-5-3 is more challenging, and therefore more fun, to write, anyway.