I Watch The Ripples Change Their Size, But Never Leave Their Stream, Of Warm Impermanence

--"Changes", David Bowie

And for our 1000th post...

I was stuck as to what to write for our thousandth post on the site. I mean--I never really did stand by for much pomp and circumstance when it came to tailoring my posts. Sure, I've attempted a few acknowledgements when it came to this site's birthday of September 1st, but I don't think there was much fanfare when we hit our five hundredth post or anything like that. I don't know--I just never saw much cause to deviate into congratulating when any of a certain group of magic numbers was reached. It wasn't like any of us were planning to stop upon hitting such a goal. It wasn't like any of us were expressly shooting for a specific number either. Hitting one thousand was inevitable in my view.

However, like when we hit our five year anniversary, I am kind of proud and nostalgic for just how much has been preserved here. It's a little humbling to think that the girls and I have written enough posts to occupy somebody's time for the next three years even if they were only to read a post a day. It's also a little astounding that any of us had this much to say at all. I mean--none of us write really short posts and the volume with which we fill these pages isn't exactly a ten-minute job. I love that, in some small way, we left a piece of ourselves with everything we wrote and never held back. I love that, despite everything people say about blogs to the contrary, this wasn't a one-trick pony where all we did was describe in mundane detail what we did that day or what we were thinking.

I love that everything that has been posted here has meant something to one and sometimes all of us.

And yet...

----

I just finished reading the latest novel in The Dresden Files series entitled Changes. I have loved this series for some time now. It's one of the few set of novels I can count on for being entertaining, exciting, and altogether captivating book after book. If anything it's because I could count on the same familiar elements--the same characters, the same save-the-world despite losing a piece of yourself plots, the same sense of tension--that I keep coming back to the series. Other books may come and go, but I know every April I'll have a new Dresden to occupy a couple days (I bought the book yesterday afternoon and finished it tonight).

There's a risk, though, that with anything that has such familiar concepts that the writing could get stale and the action start seeming typical. I admit, there was a part of me that was wondering what new insights, new twists Mr. Butcher could bring to the series after eleven novels. Not that it would have stopped me from reading, mind you, but it would have definitely colored my view of this novel in relation to the ones that preceded it. I would have still liked it, but I would have thought it may not stand up to when I first started finding about Dresden, Murphy, and the rest of the gang.

That is, until I read this book. I get the feeling Butcher wanted to shake things up and shake things up he has. Oh, let's count the "changes" that were wrought in this book:

Harry's home burns down
Harry's office gets blown up
Harry's sometime lover/true love gets killed
Harry accepts a deal with the Faerie Winter Queen Mab

And, oh yeah, Harry finds out he has a secret eight-year-old daughter that the mother never told him about

Butcher took what could have been a rote twelfth installation to his #1 series and turned it into a whole new jumping-off point. It's kind of fitting to make the twelfth novel be the game-changer because it has that connotation of a new year turning. Despite my not knowing what's going to happen next, I am really excited for next year's novel because it'll be like starting from scratch almost. All the old rules may not apply any more.

In one sense, it'll be familiar, but in another I think the changes may breathe even more life into the series.


time may change me
but I can't trace time

----

And I think that's what I'm going to color this thousandth post with because I have a skulking suspicion that california is a recipe for a black hole may be in store for some changes, some much-needed and some not so much. It isn't going to be anything drastic. I just know that there's a lot happening in our lives that may affect what you normally see here.

For instance:

Toby has asked to scale down her involvement while she adjusts to her new life in South Bend so we might be losing Marion for a few months in the midst of Summer and Fall.

Also, Breanne might be moving away from her hometown of Macon so you might be hearing more about that in the coming weeks. Plus, you know, there's that whole thing about hitting twenty plus ten this Saturday.

As for me, I might be moving as well and that's going to open a whole can of worms as far as what I write about since I may be moving away from most of my family and friends here to start afresh in a town where I know no one.

Changes are afoot, and after a thousand posts I'm starting to realize that's not a bad thing in the slightest.

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers