Should I leave it there or lug it out West?

Mmm, I can't wait to get my hands on the newest Sparks album! All signs point to it being released on the 7th of March. Huzzah!

If I start a commotion...

Aaah, you know you're feeling down when you suddenly promote a song called "Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)?" from 3 stars to 5 stars.

I hate the idea of only updating this blog while I'm sad... But then, I was pretty joyous for my last few entries, so that's ok.

In unrelated news, today I learnt the word Limerence. I quite like it. The word, that is, not so much the condition.

Also, Tropfest was fun. I love rain.
Mmm... Rain...

Thinking about the same thing three days later.

Cheese and Shallot is better than both of them though.

Saucy News!

If ever faced with the choice between a French Mustard and Shallot sandwich, or a Tartar Sauce and Shallot sandwich... I recommend the latter!

In the top of the greenest tree.

Today's topic of blogamification is Valentine's Day!

In the past, my attitude has been the typical, cynical, "It's a manufactured, commercial holiday that only serves to make people feel bad" one, that still seems to be all the rage. (Warning: That article gets really boring, really quickly.) This was probably proliferated in no small part by those annoying High School rose delivery things, that I think annoyed me with their publicity, or something (I never got a rose. I hate you all!)

However, this year I decided to try on a new attitude to Valentine's Day, and gave "positive" a shot.

The angle I was taking was this: Other major, strongly observed Days that we have are things like Christmas, Easter, days that celebrate religious events that most of us no longer believe in, or, depending on how you look at it, mark agricultural events that no longer have any direct relevance to most of our lives. Valentine's Day, at least, is a celebration of something more universal, more fundamental to human nature and "the human condition."

Now certainly love is not always a happy thing... Plenty of the time it can be an awfully depressing, worrying thing, as almost any quick delve into literature or pop culture will testify. But then, we observe days like ANZAC day, that certainly aren't celebrating happy events, and if War deserves a day to mark it, I certainly think that Love deserves one too. So divorced from all its conventions and customs, Valentine's Day certainly looks, to me, like a good idea.

Of course, this in-principle approval of the theme of the day doesn't solve the real problems people have with it. Like the complaint that it's an overcommercialised, manufactured day. Well, not watching much commercial TV or going to many shopping malls, I don't have the overexposure problem, so I won't comment on that, but as I see it the big complaint is that the day is set up and publicised so as to create an obligation on lovers to spend cash satisfying an artificially created desire for tokens of love. This is bad, because we're all being exploited and all that.

Well... This may be overly idealistic of me, but I'd tend to think if this bothers anyone they should be able to just say "Well screw that, I'll celebrate the day in my own, cheap, anti-corporate way," perhaps with more simple, less materialistic, or more homemade signs of love. I suppose this ignores that fact that some people might have this expectation of flowers or chocolates, that can't be satisfied except by buying into the commercial aspects of the day... But, well, this isn't a problem that I personally have to deal with right now, so nyah! My point is just that, even if the day was created and promoted by commercial interests is no reason not to, as good little postmodernists, take it over for our own purposes and celebrate it in our own way.

The other, I think better argument is just that it can make people, mainly single people, very depressed and lonely. I don't think I have a really good answer to this... I suppose I just think... Well, unless you really don't give a rats about love, in which case the day shouldn't worry you too much any way, then love, or the lack thereof, probably is a pretty important issue in your mind, and... Well, I suppose I'm just saying it's not something that should be totally ignored, denied, or forcibly ejected from your consciousness. Even if you have to spend the day crying, reading Shakepeare's Sonnets and/or listening to The Smiths, I figure it's at least good to have a day set aside for doing so. Of course, I suppose I'm here ignoring that fact that not everyone can do this, some people have to actually function in society on Valentine's Day, where they might have their lack of romance shoved in their face in a particularly unpleasant and unhelpful way... But, well, that's a good argument for making Valentine's Day a public holiday. As long as it's not, sure, strike one up against Valentine's Day.

I suppose there might be other arguments around against Valentine's day... Like that one day set aside to celebrate love is a bad idea, when every day should celebrate it! But you don't hear that one as often, do you?

Anyway, at the end of the day, which it is by now... I'm not sure how well my new attitude worked. I'm feeling moderately mediocre... Not unreasonably delirious as I was this morning, but not at all bad.

I think the biggest problem with Valentine's Day is that, as with many days like it, when you really get down to it, it is, except insofar as some humans celebrate it, just like any other day. It's not some mystical day when everyone suddenly gets in a romantic mood, nor a day on which lovely miracles start happening, or it's guaranteed to be sunny... The universe doesn't know or care what day it is, and so unless you're lucky, or actually try to make something of it, it's always going to suck, and with a particular, disappointing variety of suckage. The kind that makes you go "What, it's over? But nothing happened! Freakin' Valentine's Day!"

Regardless... I'll probably stick with the opinion that Valentine's Day is a good idea for a day, if done right, and that love is a very worthy thing to celebrate. At least until next year.

I think it's a pain cry.

"Their version of education is one that credentials you for an immediately productive role, rather than imparting enduring skills of analysis and critical thought."

Since when is Credential a verb!?

Man, I'm way behind on the verbification.