Miscellaneous Christmas to All, and to All a Good Mix! · 10:55am Dec 22nd, 2020
Blog Number 120: Cosy Edition
Yes, "cosy". Reminder that I use British spelling.
"Christmas with Coronavirus" would be an interesting show, ya think? Surprisingly, though, the pandemic hasn't affected me much beyond making me order gifts online... which I actually prefer. Surprised I didn't do it before: I hate Christmas crowds.
Anyway, we got a fair bit of catching up to do. Major details after the break.
Christmas
Of course. The decorations are going up now - only just now, in my house, because we have this totally inexplicable belief that Christmas should start close to the day itself. I know. Crazy, right?
Pre-ordered every Christmas present about two weeks ago. Most of them have arrived: I'm hoping the last two deliveries will appear on my doorstep today. When it comes to Christmas, I prefer to avoid the mad rush and be well ahead of schedule. At least I didn't have to deal with crowds of people this time: nothing worse than trying to navigate around a big, ever-moving mass and then getting stuck in a queue while your winterwear - now stuck indoors - is slowly cooking you.
Thankfully, Christmas shall be a simple affair here. Literally just a family get-together, a meal, some games (we've been playing a lot of board games recently, and it's done wonders for the general mood), and - as an afterthought - some prezzies.
It's hard to feel much enthusiasm for presents when you pass a certain age: used to be I'd hit at least 30 requests on my Christmas list, many of them toys, books, and DVDs. Between the satisfaction of hunting for such things myself (well, not toys anymore), and the general attitude (not mine) that I have too many books and DVDs already, I'm mostly down to asking for clothes, money, and chocolate. Boy, would my younger self be underwhelmed. 
Not really particularly religious myself (I'm guessing Christmas is very different for you lot in the US), though I do remember we went to hear Christmas hymns one year at a nearby church, and I really enjoyed it. Choir music's welcome any time of year (Christmas carols, less so).
Ha, as Bart Simpson once said: "Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ." And, despite not being religious myself, a little part of me frankly prefers that sincerely religious aspect to the crass commercialization approach to Christmas (of course, I say this after spending a near-fortune on gifts, so I'm not the best spokesperson here).
Even if I'm too skeptical to invest in it (I'd technically classify myself as a Huxley-style agnostic: "I don't know" seems to me to be an honest - and sadly all too easily encountered - answer to a lot of big questions, and frankly to a lot of little questions too), at least there's a welcoming, spiritual nobility to the Christian side of Christmas.
A reminder that, living in the UK, my experience of religion may well be different from that of a US citizen.
Gezelligheid
But mostly, it's a low-key secular style of Christmas I'll be enjoying. In fact, I quite like the idea that the Christmas focus on family and comfort/indulgence all fits neatly into what the Dutch call gezelligheid. Roughly translated, it's a sense of cosiness, familiarity, and social intimacy, that sort of feeling you might get when you and some loved ones are secure in a nice, warm log cabin, sharing hot cocoa and delicious stories while a blizzard's raging outside.
Admittedly, I'm appropriating a concept from another culture, so this is less a strict definition (if you're curious, see the Wikipedia article here) and more what it's been repurposed as in my head. The fanciful imagery with the log cabin, for instance, is just for emphasis, not an intrinsic part of the concept.
Notable, though, how concepts like it are easily found among the likes of Denmark (hygge), Germany (Gemütlichkeit), Norway (koseleg), Sweden (mysig), and - etymologically speaking - the Anglophone countries (cosy/cozy and, surprisingly, hug). Countries in cold climes, you'll notice.
It's that sense of togetherness, belonging, feeling comfortable and relaxed in close quarters that I'm trying to capture. Especially in winter, and especially during a time when most of us are stuck in our own houses, it seems more relevant than ever.
Another cute detail: what does the gezel part of gezelligheid translate as? Well, ignoring the etymological origin as "a journeyman associated with a particular master craftsman in a guild", which apparently gave the sense of belonging that the word conveys. It translates as "friend".
Star Vs The Forces of Evil
Been branching out, show-wise. Yes, I'm looking to cartoons other than MLP:FiM. So sue me.
See, it occurred to me I hadn't watched a lot of shows from the 2010s/from 2020, so a fair bit of pop culture's passed me by. Candidates included Gravity Falls, The Owl House, Amphibia, Steven Universe, and Over the Garden Wall, all of which I've heard good things about.
I did consider Adventure Time, but the art style is really putting me off. Some of the more "adult" ones aren't what I'm looking for, either. It's peculiar: I don't object to kid's shows being more grown-up and serious, yet outright grown-up and serious shows usually lack an automatic appeal to me. Not sure what to make of that.
Anyway, back to the pool of candidates...
Current favourite is Star Vs The Forces of Evil. I alighted on Star Vs because it had been brought to my attention most recently, because it was complete, because it seemed reasonably sized, and probably because it looked similar to MLP:FiM and reminded me a lot of Magical Warrior Girl shows like Sailor Moon.
True, I was aware ahead of time of the controversial directions of the later seasons - and of the very controversial finale. I'm generally the sort of person who window-shops thoroughly before buying, anyway. Despite not actually trying to find spoilers, I at least don't mind if I stumble on general plot points ahead of time. I do wonder if being a writer has made it feel natural for me to peek backstage and flip through scripts; certainly, it never seems to affect my enjoyment of the performance for the worse (possibly related fact: I'm also never a good person to throw a surprise party for, as I'll demand advance notice).
Either way, I got into it.
This show's got a lot of energy. And creativity. And fun! 
It's honestly been a long time since I've had such a gleeful experience. Season One proved to be an entertaining intro, if not the most ambitious (though the arrival of a particular villain near the finish takes care of that). It really is like a child's playbox, throwing in all kinds of sci-fi and fantasy concepts with giddy abandon and causing chaos and fun times in equal measure.
Season Two is where the "filler" (slice of life? or fantasy slice of life?) started to feel a little intrusive, because now we have an overall story arc, and I'm stoked to see where it goes from there. It wasn't bad, per se, but I did find myself getting a little impatient between the more long-term meaningful episodes.
And I'll comment on Three and Four another time. Maybe. There's a ton I'd love to talk about, but for now, I'm content to give this much of an overview.
Bad Habits
Oho, this has not been a good month habits-wise. 
Sleeping habits have gone completely out the window. Staying up until way into the morning is common. I really need to do something about that: it's mostly just me going on "wiki walks" online, and the confused daily schedule is wreaking havoc on my mood.
Noticed my weight's going up too. Not by a lot, but that's a bad sign before Christmas. I blame eating habits: I've been snacking more than usual.
Although I haven't been walking as much as usual either, not helped by all the rain we've been having lately. I wasn't dreaming of a wet Christmas, but when in the UK, I guess.
Also not helped by the fact I often prefer to be home to pick up packages, or by the fact that people around here seem really, really terrible at following distancing guidelines. Going outside is less a welcome break and more a game of human dodgems. It sucks.
And, Of Course, Writing
Tried starting a couple of projects since the last blog post, but this month is clearly not going to be a triumphant followup to November's juggernaut.
This seems partly to be a response to the increasing Christmas focus, partly a result of bad habits getting worse, partly just me not being sure where to go from here, but mostly - I think - because I got it into my head to list all the projects I've taken a stab at writing in the past two years exactly (so overlapping with December 2018), cross out the ones I've completed and published, and get myself to tackle the rest.
The result was something like 60 projects, (admittedly, a small handful of which might be duplicates because I kept changing the working title or didn't even have one, making identification tricky).
Then, hoping I could work backwards from there, I picked the latest one and tried to encourage myself to do it. Nothing's happened so far. Just... suddenly didn't seem to want to write it. The last time I wrote anything creative was exactly a week ago. My total word count for this month is somewhere in the region of 7k-8k.
Maybe it'll get better after Christmas? New Year? Eventually? 
So that's how it stands at the moment. Not a very productive month thus far. Given the Christmas conundrums on one side, a distracting new show on another, and a badly timed attempt to force myself to finish old projects on a third side, I'm not fully surprised. I think it's simply the wrong time, hence the need for patience. Sooner or later, I daresay an opportunity will turn up.
Until then, (and if I don't speak to you before: Merry Christmas!), Impossible Numbers out.
Do consider She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Fantastic stuff to be had there. Also, if you like the franchise, you may enjoy Star Trek: Lower Decks. It is targeted to a more adult audience, but it's hardly ever serious.
In any case, here's hoping you have a happy Christmas.
5419755
She-Ra! Am genuinely surprised I didn't remember to list that one. I've heard about it often enough. Of course I'm considering that one too.
Thanks! You too!
I think people get the wrong idea of American religion from the loud evangelical culture. Mainstream religious faith is pretty similar to that which you'd find elsewhere. Disclaimer, though, I grew up in the Anglican faith so my views on this may be skewed.
Can vouch for Gravity Falls, not every episode is a winner and there's a...problematic writing decision near the end, but the whole package is a fun ride just packed with details you'll miss on the first (and sometimes second, third, etc.) viewing.
5419782
Fair point. More generally, I need to set a reminder to myself to stop treating the US like one big monolithic cultural block; I've been getting bad about that lately. The one country is nearly as big as the entire continent of Europe. It's going to be complicated.
I've been wondering about Gravity Falls for the longest time. It tends to get the warmest receptions from people. So naturally, it's high on my priorities list.
I would recommend that you add Hilda (on Netflix) to your "watch sometime or other" list. It's very much in line with MLP's tone, and full of magical creatures and such.
Star vs. is great for at least two episodes, and continues having great episodes through the end of the series, but even as someone who wasn't 'angry' per se at the ending, I still don't know what they were trying to accomplish with it. <.<
For the others, I can say Over the Garden Wall and Gravity Falls are both entirely worth your time. (Though I wonder if GF isn't so steeped in Americana as to be inaccessible to someone outside the US. It'd be interesting to find out!) Steven Universe is great, but it definitely has a barrier to entry and the first season is kind of bad, quality-wise, compared to what comes after it. Like, I'm pretty sure a major character gets a complete redesign mid-season.
5419782
Really? :O What specifically? It's been a bit and I definitely missed this.
5419835
Agreed; Hilda is downright amazing
5419835
5419868
Hilda... A certain someone mentioned that one to me a few days ago, and I think long before too. Just had a look on Wikipedia: definitely going on the list.
5419847
Do you mean "two seasons" there? A lot of people say the first two seasons (and the Battle of Mewni special) are the best bits. Otherwise, what two episodes? That's very specific.
Reminded me of Legend of Korra (namely in the finale when Korra creates a spirit portal in the middle of Republic City, thus creating a massive change in the connections between worlds). Perhaps Star Vs was going for a big "world-changing finish" that could fuel a lot of further stories and fan fiction. Or else it was simply a longwinded way to get a particular romance together.
Funny thing is, since I heard the comparison made, Korra and Star Vs have a surprising amount in common, such as the season-by-season variability/shakeups, the "writing as they went along" aspect, and the emphasis on the hero's publicity and social responsibility during the later seasons especially.
Currently, Gravity Falls is next on my list, so once I've seen enough of Star Vs, I'll seek it out.
5419847
Taking to private for massive spoilers.
5419884
My typing skills continue to degrade.
Yeah, I meant seasons.
The Korra comparison is probably apt. I want to say, from what I've heard, Korra was very much written with a "we don't know if we're getting another season" mentality, which never does well for a series. But that's why the first season was awesome and the next one was really not. (I don't honestly remember the other two, because two cartoons girls held hands for three seconds and it was A Big Deal and pretty much all I care about anymore <.<.)
5420005
Pretty much, though I think it was mostly that Nickelodeon simply kept making capricious demands on the staff behind Korra, which forced them to adapt on the fly. By contrast, Star Vs was apparently given its four-seasons limit early on: it was the staff who decided to change things up the way they did.
Re: Korra, I have a soft spot for the second season ("Book Two: Spirits"), since it introduced some great characters and had some thoughtful inclusions here and there. It's still a mess, but I find it an interesting mess. "Book Three: Change" was easily my favourite, though "Book One: Air" came pretty close (mostly let down by the back-and-forth romance subplot, some character abilities not being explained clearly enough come the finish, and a very rushed ending).
Whereas I honestly find it hard to care much, and not just because one of the characters in the relationship barely got any development. (Asami was not treated well by the writers, despite being ostensibly one of the select few members of Team Avatar).
Weirdly, I bounce off "Book Four: Balance" even though it is far more coherent and solidly structured than Book Two. I'm not 100% sure why, but it just seemed off to me in a way that the other seasons weren't. Less fun, maybe? And yet any flaw I bring up seems pretty minor compared with Book Two's major problems. Even I find it hard to explain, especially compared to the number of people who cite Book Four as one of the best seasons or as the best season in the show.
5420170
And this is a perfectly reasonable angle!
5420183
Mind you, I think romance generally wasn't the strongest part of Korra. Case in point: Mako's on-and-off love triangle for the first two seasons.
Although the implied one between Tenzin, Lin Beifong, and Pema led to some pretty funny moments.
I know what you mean about "adult" animation. I think it's because it tries to hard to be "adult" with to much gratuitous crassness, obscenity, etc. thrown in to emphasize just how adult it is but instead just comes across as more juvenile.
5420436
Oh gosh, yes. You have a very good point there: I'm really not a fan of that approach at all. It just comes across as missing the point entirely, so "mature" with the scare quotes fully justified.