Is that a character from the book I'm reading?

I'm currently reading a book by Tom Holt - Djinn Rummy. One of the main characters is very much like a lot of Tom Holt's main characters, an unappealing person with very little drive. Not a very active person, bit of a bump-on-a-log, shuffling through life, doesn't have a lot of ideas, no real purpose in life type of person. Not someone the reader would aspire to be... but oh so very true to life.

As a matter of fact, I met a woman on the weekend who reminded me so much of the character from the book, I'm still queasy with recognition.

It's really not a good thing when you seem to be a character from a novel. Bad things happen to people in novels - that's where a story comes from. A novel without something bad happening to challenge the main characters is... not read through by anyone, because it's boring.

And why did this woman's parents give her a stripper's name? She really doesn't fit her name. By the time you get to be an adult, you either grow into your name, or you change it, legally or via a nickname. I don't know what happened in this case, but the name would also make a good name for alcohol, so maybe there's even more trouble here that I don't want to know about!

Maybe she actually is a character from a novel who has escaped from the book.

Are there any more characters wandering around out there?

What does a bonsai tree in chains mean?

A bonsai tree is created mainly for contemplation, according to Wikipedia.

While having breakfast at a local restaurant, I saw a corner store opening for business for the day. They wheeled some plants out to the sidewalk as they normally do, and then they wheeled out something I hadn't seen before. A small bonsai tree. It was chained to the cart with a very substantial looking chain.

It is an expensive plant - they wanted $80 for it. But it looked like a fugitive with the chain around it.

So is a bonsai in chains a deep statement on life? Are we all chained to something? Is it our lot in life to go on as we can within the bounds of our chains?

Does it mean the bonsai was a bad tree? Is it a reincarnation of a villain? What evil deeds did it do to become a bonsai on a chain?

Is a chained bonsai aesthetically pleasing? Who would find a chained bonsai something good for contemplation? Does it have more meaning than an unchained bonsai? Is the fact that it was chained what makes me think about it? What does that say about me?

It almost makes me want to buy the bonsai, to free it from its chain.

Where did that month go?

Ever had one of those months when you just get the hang of it on the last day of the month?

I'm set for February now.

Ever found yourself on the same side of the sun (again!) and wondered how many more trips you will be making around it? That's the fun new way I will be thinking about aging now... measuring time in trips around the sun... I just read a book by Christopher Moore - that's his way of putting it. I like it, very cosmic.

Ever found yourself stopped by an inch of snow? I'm getting older, and perhaps a bit grumpy. I grew up in Edmonton where snow piles were often taller than me... now I stay inside when it snows here in Vancouver, which it did on the weekend, and some of the white stuff is still here! We don't do snow here. We have snow, but we keep it on the mountains, where it is nice to look at and you can visit it if you really want to. So now I stay inside and peer out the windows, and go a bit stir crazy.

OK, had enough of February. Let's get on with March.

It grows back doesn't it?

It sucks that you don't know how bad your hair will look until the next day.

And yes, it did go poof in the middle of the night!

I was concerned that the young little thing didn't have a clue what I was talking about... and I was right to be concerned. What a hatchet job.

I was going for a 1950's style and getting close to it... now I have down-right boring interpretation by a 20-something fool.

So this all grows back doesn't it? That's the great thing about hair it grows back... it will take ages though :-(

Should I wait up for the poof?

Got my hair done today. But not by my favourite hair stylist.

When I called to book the appointment, they said he left the salon. I asked where he went, but they wouldn't tell me, and since I needed a cut, I went with someone new - Whitney... just as long as she didn't sing, I was ok with that. Boy do I know when she was born and who her parent's favourite singer was! Poor kid.

Whilst I was on hold and they were figuring out what to say to me about my old hairdresser I heard a really silly add. It was for a new product of theirs. It's a frizz control that lasts 12 hours. All I could think was "What happens at hour 12? Is there a popping noise, and your hair puffs out in a huge ball of fur?"

So when the new hair stylist said "Can I use this on your hair, have you ever tried it?" and she pulled out the frizz control stuff I started laughing.

I don't have frizzy hair, but it's their new product to push, and I don't typically have allergic reactions to the Aveda products, so I said sure, why not.

But now I have a dilemma. I would like to see the 12th hour poof, but it was put into my hair at 1pm, so that means I would have to stay up until 1am to see this miracle of hair productus poofius.

So is it funny enough to stay up that late... hmmm.

Update: Didn't stay up... didn't have to... around 1am my spouse actually reported a popping sound... when I woke up, the morning was extreme on the poof, it took much shampooing to get it to stay down! Quite the science lab hijinks on my hair!

Why is he wearing sunglasses?

You know it's been raining for a long time when the sun hurts your eyes when it occasionally peeks out from behind the clouds for a couple of minutes.

It's been raining for a long time.

So why is that guy wearing sun glasses?

The chance of anything poking out from behind the clouds today is slim to none. The sky is a uniform shade of light grey - flood-fill grey if you are familiar with image software. That guy will not be attacked by any stray beams of light today.

He's looking around at everything and everyone. Looking everyone in the eye, it seems. So he's not blind. He's not trying to avoid being noticed. He's actually looking like he wants to be noticed. That's rather odd.

It seems like a good day to smoke some herbs, judging from the number of clouds of herb smoke I have gone through today on the sidewalks. That's an odd thing when it seems only elderly women are walking around out there... OK ladies, who has the pot?

So is the guy in the sunglasses having an interesting trip? Is that the reason for the sunglasses and the staring into stranger's eyes? So if he's walking quickly around all the streets smoking pot, does that qualify as exercise? Does the pot help make the flood-fill grey less depressing, more varied and interesting? Do dark sunglasses that make everything even darker help?

I think I need to run back to my home and sit by my full-spectrum light lamp. This is just all too odd.

Who is that?

Sometimes a situation or something I've read starts me thinking about characters for a story. This is one of them.

The Food Lurker

A magazine article I just read had suggestions for starting up conversations at a business conference. The first suggestion was to hang out around the food table and talk about the food as a conversation starter. There were suggestions on what to talk about after a conversation was started - asking what company the other person worked for, or asking what their job in the company was, and other ideas, but it made me shiver to think of someone who missed the part about having other things to say after the food conversation was over.

A character like this would probably be an introvert, a technical guy who works with computers and can be very succinct when instant messaging with the people he works with, but stumbles when talking on the phone or in person with them. He is probably in his 20s and hasn't managed to find a life partner yet - due in part to his lack of confidence when speaking - but has many friends that he instant messages with for hours on non-business topics.

What drove the food lurker to the business conference? Was he forced to go by a well-meaning boss that wanted him to get to know more people? Does he himself want to increase the number of people he knows? Does he want to learn something from the formal sessions? I think it may be a combination of all of these things. Unfortunately, he may succeed in learning something from the formal sessions (I've been to a lot of business conferences, and I know learning things from them does happen, but honestly, it's rare) but will he succeed in getting to know more people?

Now where does this story go?