December 31, 2008

• Today's song is "The Freelance Writer's National Anthem", just because I thought it was funny. Or you could go with "Deck the Halls," which contains the immortal lines,

  Fast away the old year passes,
  Hail the new, ye lads and lasses!

  That accurately describes the situation today. We get a whole new year tomorrow, and how cool is that?

  I swapped some publicity work for tech assistance from The Computer Guy, and my WebCT course will be, if not a thing of beauty and a joy forever, at least something that tells the students that I made an effort.

  Someone recently described me as a perfectionist. People who know me are frowning in consternation now. I am so totally not a perfectionist.

  But a lot of things I've read lately have been talking about quality. In Defence of Food traces American health problems to the moment when we chose cheap and plentiful foodlike substances over actual, you know, food. The Designful Company says that, now that we have mastered efficiency and large scale commodities, people want beauty and virtue. Life@Work says, "Skill is understanding something completely, and transforming that knowledge into creations of wonder and excellence." The Baritone said that the reason church music has to be excellent is so that it won't distract people from worshipping God.

  I agree with all these things. I think we should experiment and explore and feel free to do things badly while we're learning to do them well, but it also seems to me that creations of wonder and excellence are worth the effort.

  I hope you have lots of fun planned for tonight. I think it very likely that I'll be home knitting. None of the kids will be here, and our local New Year's Eve community celebration has moved to the mall and therefore no longer appeals to me. The younger, single members of the community have been getting new party dresses for the occasion. The Computer Guy says it's just another day on the calendar. I hope that whatever you do this evening, it suggests the promise of an exciting new year filled with wonder and excellence.

  • 7:54 am
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