(no subject)

Can anyone point me to one of those "enter your username, we take seven of your icons and overlay them with rainbow colours" "is love" generators? I find them silly but damned if I can't find one when I actually want one.

(no subject)

Can anyone point me to one of those "enter your username, we take seven of your icons and overlay them with rainbow colours" "is love" generators? I find them silly but damned if I can't find one when I actually want one.

return to jumpropes, etc.

I've been rereading the comments on my December post about clapping and jump-rope rhymes, "Miss Suzie" in particular, and heron61's has struck a new chord with me. He said: "There is a fairly impressive body of general (some gendered, some not) children's culture, with slang, games, rhymes, jump rope songs, and similar things that are quite old. Like all non-mediated culture, it is changing now, as some of it is recorded and then used in movies or TV shows or placed on-line, but until this started happening, it was quite enduring."

(I think what he meant was that its existence endured even without regular media transmission, and that without such the specific forms were probably quite ritualized as well.)

Not news, but I turned my brainwaves towards "why" a little bit. What is so important about this, that so many young North American females learn rhymes like these? What cultural purpose do they serve?

About the only answer I can come up with is "bonding; identification of other members of the same culture". Something very tribal, really. If you know these rhymes, you are One Of Us. If you are taught them, that is your induction.

They have a secondary function as measures of skill, thus, "eldership": who can remember them, who can jump or clap the fastest (at least, so it always was in my neck of the woods); and to an even lesser extent, who can make up the best new lines (more among the older end of the spectrum, i.e., 13-year-olds, not 6-year-olds -- clapping-rhyme filk/fanfiction?? lol. Goes right back to the point about how most fanfic writers are female).

Y/N, thoughts?

return to jumpropes, etc.

I've been rereading the comments on my December post about clapping and jump-rope rhymes, "Miss Suzie" in particular, and heron61's has struck a new chord with me. He said: "There is a fairly impressive body of general (some gendered, some not) children's culture, with slang, games, rhymes, jump rope songs, and similar things that are quite old. Like all non-mediated culture, it is changing now, as some of it is recorded and then used in movies or TV shows or placed on-line, but until this started happening, it was quite enduring."

(I think what he meant was that its existence endured even without regular media transmission, and that without such the specific forms were probably quite ritualized as well.)

Not news, but I turned my brainwaves towards "why" a little bit. What is so important about this, that so many young North American females learn rhymes like these? What cultural purpose do they serve?

About the only answer I can come up with is "bonding; identification of other members of the same culture". Something very tribal, really. If you know these rhymes, you are One Of Us. If you are taught them, that is your induction.

They have a secondary function as measures of skill, thus, "eldership": who can remember them, who can jump or clap the fastest (at least, so it always was in my neck of the woods); and to an even lesser extent, who can make up the best new lines (more among the older end of the spectrum, i.e., 13-year-olds, not 6-year-olds -- clapping-rhyme filk/fanfiction?? lol. Goes right back to the point about how most fanfic writers are female).

Y/N, thoughts?

(no subject)

I'm going to friend back some people on this journal that I actually read with esmestrella so I don't have to deal with your comments being screened, which is like four extra steps to reply to them since I mostly stay logged in as esmestrella and not starlightforest.

laaaazyyyyy...

(no subject)

I'm going to friend back some people on this journal that I actually read with esmestrella so I don't have to deal with your comments being screened, which is like four extra steps to reply to them since I mostly stay logged in as esmestrella and not starlightforest.

laaaazyyyyy...

(no subject)

I got a Christmas present of a $10 Cinemark gift card from one of the librarians*. I was whining about how a theater ticket doesn't really fit in my $15 per diem**, not with anything useful left over anyway, but it turns out the Century 16 is a Cinemark theater.

I see Sweeney Todd in my future.


* My ex-boss, in a different way than the way that my current boss has also been my ex-boss. Ah, the circles of life, or library musical chairs, you might call it.

** Amount of paycheck deposited into checking account minus projected and ongoing expenses divided by the number of days left in the month. Yes, yes, Virgo blah blah blah. Usually it's bigger than that, but things like plane tickets take a large bite out of my discretionary income. I am fanatical about sticking to a budget anyway, but in this case my extra impetus is that February is going to be mighty expensive, probably the tune of $1500 between Montreal and Pantheacon, so in two weeks I'm going to spend what I normally might in the whole month.

(no subject)

I got a Christmas present of a $10 Cinemark gift card from one of the librarians*. I was whining about how a theater ticket doesn't really fit in my $15 per diem**, not with anything useful left over anyway, but it turns out the Century 16 is a Cinemark theater.

I see Sweeney Todd in my future.


* My ex-boss, in a different way than the way that my current boss has also been my ex-boss. Ah, the circles of life, or library musical chairs, you might call it.

** Amount of paycheck deposited into checking account minus projected and ongoing expenses divided by the number of days left in the month. Yes, yes, Virgo blah blah blah. Usually it's bigger than that, but things like plane tickets take a large bite out of my discretionary income. I am fanatical about sticking to a budget anyway, but in this case my extra impetus is that February is going to be mighty expensive, probably the tune of $1500 between Montreal and Pantheacon, so in two weeks I'm going to spend what I normally might in the whole month.

(no subject)

In the year 2007, I put $4800 into my freshly minted retirement account.

How much do you think it was worth at the end of the year?

$4,799.78.

...D'OH!

That'll happen with investments, though.

To look at it positively, what happened is that in a wobbly market with a shitty dollar, they held the value rather than lost anything significant (it's not like a bank account which can only increase and is insured). I've only had the account six months, anyway. I'm just amused that it was twenty-two cents.

(no subject)

In the year 2007, I put $4800 into my freshly minted retirement account.

How much do you think it was worth at the end of the year?

$4,799.78.

...D'OH!

That'll happen with investments, though.

To look at it positively, what happened is that in a wobbly market with a shitty dollar, they held the value rather than lost anything significant (it's not like a bank account which can only increase and is insured). I've only had the account six months, anyway. I'm just amused that it was twenty-two cents.