Dec 21 2010
Happy solstice, and Christmas chaos
Happy solstice! For those of us north of the equator, the sun has stopped heading south and is coming back, hooray! (Okay, for the pedantic, the Earth has just passed the point in its orbit where its axial tilt points the north pole furthest from the sun. Either way, it means more daylight and eventually warmer temperatures.) For those in the south, hope you’re having a great summer.
Things have been a little more chaotic than usual this season, with my two boys working up toward their black belt exam this past weekend. They passed, but not without a lot of sore muscles. Part of the point of black belt is to push you to the limit and then a bit beyond. The exam started with 100 push-ups in less than four minutes, then 100 v-ups, then … but you get the idea. It finished with board breaking – 14 one-inch pine boards, some two at a time. But that was the fun part.
Between one thing and another I’m behind on posting here. I’m looking at overhauling the design of this site; I think it’s a bit too T-Space centric. I have more to offer than just that. More about what I have in mind as I get closer to relaunching the site. I’ve got some big plans for 2011, and some serious challenges to overcome to get there — but as my boys’ sensei says, the bigger the obstacles, the greater the sense of accomplishment.
2 Responses to “Happy solstice, and Christmas chaos”
I like that they don’t make it easy to earn the black belt — sounds like a rip-roaring physical challenge for the boys. As it should be. Our society has gone too far down the Self Esteem rabbit hole; made it too easy for the kids to feel like they have achieved. But like I was telling someone younger recently, the only things worth achieving, are the things that are tough. The hard stuff. The stuff that makes people go, “Oh wow, you did that??” THOSE are the kinds of things worth doing, I have decided. Everything that can be done by everyone else… not so much.
Hey Al, do you know when your T-Space story is due out in Analog? I’m still waiting to hear from Trevor on my two other stories in the inventory, though I did get the check for the last one just this past week.
It was a physical challenge all right — all the kids (age about 12 give or take) in that class were near tears at some point during the exam from exhaustion and muscle pain. Now they can all look back on that as the toughest thing they ever did, yet they still managed to do it…and that builds real self-confidence for overcoming the next challenge. You’re absolutely right; doing the hard things is where real self esteem comes from.
As for the T-Space story, I just got the galleys and need to get them back first week of January, but they just had a generic month printed on them, so I’m not sure when it will see print. I’m guessing by about calendar March (so maybe May issue date?) but that is purely a guess.