Life as a Hobbit

What is this human urge to make everything into a ritual, a plaque, a keepsake? A time capsule, dated 22 September 2017 lies beneath this plaque. It marks the rebuild of the Leitchfield carpark, after the original was damaged in the 6.3 magnitude earthquake of 22nd February 2011 . It is envisaged that the time capsule be uncovered in the year 2164 to mark the bicentenary of the first parking building to have stood on this site. Excuse me while I snort-laugh as "envisaged" being in such close proximity to parking.  This must be a bloody important car park if it has a planned anniversary celebration 200 years down the line.  The definition of bicentenary is "t he two-hundredth anniversary of a significant event."  Are we counting building a car park as such?     This stone: The Hahei Tractor Bash Rock No, look closer, we must know more! This feels like there are more questions and not any more answers.  Has no one tried to win the Tractor Bash Rock Battl...

Lesson 1 I really, really like urban fantasy.  I don't think there's anything more profound to say in regards to that.   Lesson 2 I don't think I know what actually scares me in horror fiction.  I have picked up on tropes that do not scare me (a monster for monster's sake without giving that monster motivation does not make my arm hairs bristle at attention).  All the same, I'm happy that this year I managed to get a lot more horror into my fiction diet, something I have been trying since I read Haunting of Hill House in 2018. What scares me in real life--based on recent experiences--is eating food off the bone and finding bird poop indoors.  Most of the horror I read this year didn't have any of that.  Too often horror feints at the psychological and then dashes in to get at the squishy viscera and doesn't effectively strike either for me.  Thanks mom, for the everpresent wisdom you passed down that gives me a bit of a protective layer against ho...