introducing the rising

I’m excited to announce the creation of a new blog. That’s right, a blog, which is still hilariously an under-squiggled-red spelled-wrong nonexistent entity in the Microsoft universe. I’ve long disliked the word “blog,” but what can ya do when you want what it does. But enough cheap-shot i-net nomenclature bashing! On to the Show!

This new space provides an outlet for my library studies nerdery, which is long overdue (a library joke, get it? overdue?). Rather than sell it extensively here, I encourage you to click-check it out in its digital flesh finery for yourself. I’ve been hacking away on it for several months now, ditching and dodging and falling for it again and again.

While its premise is quite different from deepsicks, I aim for the same quality content and delivery—and, self-willingly, willfully, more quantity. Deepsicks is far from abandoned, or even back-burned, at least in relation to the Rising. They aren’t in competition for my time when time is less important than state of mind and intention. Said simply, I wanted a fresh, new place to play—not exactly accurately the-whole-story more professional or less personal, just new. So I built one. Tag, you’re It.

The Rising has its own domain at www.risingofthelights.com, which forwards to a cavern in the twisted deepsicks labyrinth. It’s not the most ideal, but it’s not bad, either. www.deepsicks.com/rising will get you there, too (that is to say, it’s where you’re going anyway).

In other news, It’s Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. I’ve asked around about its origin, and like most holidays I’ve interrogated Canadians about (the impetus! the history! your national identity! mythology, best face in good faith!), the day is built on whim. Quoting half a dozen, “I guess we just wanted a holiday, so we made one.”

Okay, so maybe harvest has something to do with it, too. But no hollow point First Nations friendships and grade school construction paper pilgrim heads, bell-barrel muskets for the boys and bonnets for the girls. We perhaps share the turkeys outta traced hands straight into our thankful bellyfuls of similar Thanksgiving fare. But crimes of cornucopia, it’s October! Halloween hasn’t even happened yet! (Happy autumn and all things spooky, by the way.)

There’s no agreement on precisely what day Thanksgiving is, either. Monday is the holiday off, and people celebrate when convenient. For some, that’s all weekend long. I know a guy going to four Thanksgiving dinners—four. For all its unfamiliarity (which obviously translates to peculiarity), it might in fact be genius. Sure, they lack an extra day off, but they actually take holiday on Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day, November 11/12), so it evens out. They also skip the American craptacular consume-a-thon following day kicking off the month of Christmas, a distasteful but dutifully obeyed afterbirth of giving thanks—grace and gratitude established, it’s time to buy everyone shit they don’t need (at! great! prices! Ohmygod these prices! Who cares who’s paying the full true cost, the fell truth of opulence, as long as it’s not u.s.!).

As for myself… I’ll celebrate both Thanksgivings, the best of both the best I can sans fam isn’t easy. But loved ones are in my heart. They’ll be what waits beneath the tree.