I Hope You Had the Time of Your Life…

So the world is coming to an end, again, on December 21.  That is if you believe that the Mayans had it all figured out.  The end of time.

Apparently some people take this so seriously that they give away their possessions, contemplate suicide, and take other extreme measures.  My mother always filled our bathtub with water whenever a crisis loomed.  Just in case.  I imagine that would be her response to the end of the world too.  That and stocking up on food, books, and crossword puzzles because you could get hungry and bored waiting for the apocalypse.

The thing is, time will really only run out on the Mayan calendar.  So if you are using it exclusively as your point of reference for what day it is then yes, the world you know will end.  Because there are no more days on that calendar.

You could however, think outside the box a bit and maybe switch over to a more modern way of keeping track of linear time?  Like getting a 2013 Gregorian calendar?  or even a Hindu one?  I’m pretty sure the Hindu one goes on for eons.

No one really knows why the Mayan calendar stops on December 21, 2012.  It possible the makers ran out of room on the tablet.  I think, though, that  5000 years ago, the year 2012 was so impossibly far into the future it was inconceivable.  I’ll bet it made the calendar maker’s brain hurt to think about so he just quit before it drove him crazy.

The thing that really confuses me about doomsday prophecies is why people who are expecting to be vaporized, sucked into a chasm, or flown to heaven feel a need to give all their possessions away.

I understand why you might do this if you thought aliens were coming to take you to a better world.  Because if it’s better why would you need all that cheap tacky crap you don’t know what to do with anyway?   Then there’s the problem of how much room is really on the space ship (Tardis aside) and the possibility that under weightless conditions Granny’s antique coffee table might crack more than your knee.

Really though, if you are not going to need your stuff anymore because the world is coming to an end, then we don’t need it either.  Just let it go.

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Self Promotion and the End of the World

I have been given to understand that having established an Etsy store, I need to promote it by starting a blog devoted to my creative process.  Really?  My creative process?  In my case that mostly involves trying to use up all the bits and pieces of stuff I have accumulated over the years in some  form that someone else might want to use or find beautiful. I’m doing this because it is about time for me to recoup my original investment in all the fabric, beads, lace, odd bits, and junk I’ve collected.  I’d like to do that  before someone else has to clean it up and clear it out.  It’s recycling for profit.  I think I just said everything I need to say about it so how is there enough content to support a blog?

I am also supposed to  start a Facebook Fan page so I can keep everyone updated on what’s new in the store and really, I should be Tweeting everyday to promote myself as the best thing since sliced bread.

I am also supposed to be doing all this to promote my writing career too.  Publishing excerpts from my stories or writing a few just for the blog/fan page, promoting myself as an AUTHOR, generating a buzz so that when I do find an agent, get published, or publish myself on the internet, I will already have a following- of people who have never read more than a smattering of my work.  What’s more,  if I do all that, when will I write, query agents, edit manuscripts and the other business of writing?  Social media might smooth the path but it isn’t going to do the work.

I can barely keep up with this blog and I am supposed to start 2 more?  Plus 2 Facebook pages, etc, etc. I know there are people out there who manage to do this but I don’t believe I could be one of them.  Especially since I can’t  figure out how to get pictures from my store to show up in the sidebar of this blog.

I am also, unfortunately, clueless as to how one blog, page, idea, person gets noticed over the sea of blogs, pages, ideas, and people out there.  Doesn’t make me a good candidate to become the next big thing sweeping the internet, now does it?

Recently the big idea sweeping the internet was the end of the world  supposedly scheduled for May 21.  It came and went and we are all still here.

I am not to sure about that myself.  I may have been swept into a an afterlife or maybe a alternate reality because  I am doing something I never thought I would do.  I am knitting socks.

Lorna’s Laces, Shepherd Sock Multi, color:  Gold Hill.  The pattern is Dead Simple Lace socks from Socks from the Toe Up.  I used a Turkish cast on because I wanted to eliminate a seam at the toe which is the worst thing about manufactured socks.  It took me something like 15 tries before I felt like I could live with the result.  But then I discovered a few rows in that I had done something weird though and it twists oddly.  None of my knitter friends can figure out exactly what I did.   Since my toes are a little pointy it fits my foot fine so I am not restarting to fix it.  If I can reproduce it (fat chance) for the other sock I may have invented a new pointy toe cast on.

Summer is here even if the calendar says not yet.  It is sweltering outside.  I have turned the air conditioning on- the brain numbing heat was too much for my frugal instincts.  The peaches are here too.

Can the fireflies be far behind?

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