Tetris

‘Tetris’ has become a general term. For me, at least. It’s the act of removing spaces, particularly in two- or three-dimensional space.

I bring this up because I played tetris with my life today. Or, to use another metaphor: I defragged my storage unit.

Tremendous columns of cardboard boxes and computer equipment in a 5×5 storage unit. The old unit was 5×10, with a veranda and a view of Mount Ranier. Luxury by comparison. But I took all that STUFF and STUFFED it in the 5×5.

It was satisfying.

An online dream journal that’s good reading. No, it’s not mine.

It’s a guy called Lysander, who’s part of the social layer of freakish geniuses I know from the MUSH world. A few days ago I ran into Linotte (“L!”) on TinyTIM, who reminded me of Lysander’s dream ‘blog. And just tonight Zarabeth sent me an email reminding me she’s alive.

There’s a certain coloration to these people, with whom I count myself. Too ‘mind-y’ to deal with the normals, not able to get it together enough to be truly successful, let alone thriving. A tremendous seething morass of genius, ready to take on tremendous thinky tasks, unappreciated (and perhaps even scorned) by those more able to work the social game to their favor.

I haven’t made up a name for this little subculture, but one day it’ll appear to me in a flash.

How can it be that, right now, the #1 DVD on Xanga is ‘Miss Congeniality?’ Can it be that the ranking is arbitrarily random, perhaps? Or that a few hundred Xangans conspired to ‘blog about it?

Makes no sense. Second-rate movie from the last century.

Speaking of movies, I just got back from seeing ‘Rivers and Tides,’ which I really liked. It’s a documentary peek into the work of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist who works in natural materials in the landscape.

The cinematography’s gorgeous, and the subject matter is thought and beauty. It’s hard to say Goldsworthy is intriguing, perhaps because I’m almost as odd and obsessive as he is. But his strange explorations of, for instance, the nature of icicles, or the qualities of sheep’s wool, or the meaning of the color red.. These explorations gently pull you in to the still place where a string of bright green leaves tacked together with thorns is something you’d expect to see slowly floating down the river.