December Days upcoming!

[kaberett]

(Grumping, as an aside that you are entirely free to ignore: Advent does not start on the 1st of December. This year it starts on the 30th of November. I think the only thing that irritates me more than being expected to happily participate in secular-or-otherwise celebrations of festivals of a religion I left is people, particularly in secular contexts, doing it wrong.)

I liked doing the post-every-day-in-December meme last year, so let's try it again this time around, eh? (With the caveat that I'm expecting to travel down to Cornwall on the 28th and not expecting to have Internet access there, so that might delay the last few days.) Rules, as last year: pick a day and tell me what you'd like me to write about. I don't mind about format - if you'd like to request a poem then please do! And similarly, happy to fact or fiction or somewhere in between.

December 01 - a type of crafting I haven't learned yet but would really like to (for frith_in_thorns)
December 02 - personal experience of racism (for ghoti)
December 03 - a beautiful thing made by a human or humans, fact or fiction or poetry (for shewhostaples)
December 04 - favourite sky-rocks (for nanila)
December 05 - something about the geology near my home or lab (for redbird)
December 06 - my gender expression (for jelazakazone)
December 07 - traditional pre-Christmas practices (for birke)
December 08 - life with a wheelchair in it (for jesse_the_k)
December 09 - cit[y/ies] I have known and loved (for glass_icarus)
December 10 - polyamory: identification & negotiation (for alexseanchai)
December 11 - the best time/s to visit Kew and why, especially for trees (for spiralsheep)
December 12 - a piece of nature observation, any format (for davidgillon)
December 13 - favourite winter beverage (for emperor)
December 14 - feminism & humour (for jedusaur)
December 15 - my relationship with snow (for silveradept)
December 16 - social scripts and using them to communicate (when/how) (for syderia)
December 17 - things I like about my least favourite season (for umadoshi)
December 18 - sexuality and relationships: how do they even work? & My Feelings About Penises (for )
December 19 - songs of the year (listened to, rather than released) (for littlebutfierce)
December 20 - a poem for kate :-)
December 21 - family's traditional winter holiday food (for forestofglory)
December 22 - something cheerful (for cosmolinguist)
December 23 - reflections on a year in poetry (for calissa)
December 24 - my favourite (for the moment) non-human animal, and why (for sfred)
December 25 - something about religious orders (for the Mediaeval Grad Student, via sorrillia)
December 26 - current or planned-for-the-near-future crafting (for ludy)
December 27 - intentional community & chosen family (for liv)
December 28 - Cornwall (for hairyears)
December 29 - thoughts on German cinema (for pretty_panther)
December 30 - favourite poem forms (or poets in languages other than English) (for aoifes_isle)
December 31 - things ending, things beginning (for silveradept)

Comments

[naath]

A poem in the formal style of your choice on the subject of God's likeness to a duck?

[kaberett]

I am glowering the glower of someone who thinks this is a brilliant idea and am trying to work out how much time to give myself to do it ;)

[sorrillia]

Wait, people in secular contexts are even _aware_ of Advent? I don't think I've actually heard anyone in the US discuss it in any sort of secular context, little say get the date wrong.

[kaberett]

Advent calendars full of chocolate, instead of improving verses, that run Dec 1st-Dec 25th.

[shewhostaples]

Yes, that always irritates me a little bit, though I suppose one can't expect the entire world to reprint its Advent calendars to coincide with where the Sundays fall this year. (I was extremely organised and got myself an Advent candle about six weeks ago - I think I will have to supplement it with a tea light for 30th Nov.)

3 December - (thinking of my little brother, whose birthday that is, and who spends his life taking care of venerable old vehicles) tell me about a beautiful thing made by a human (or many humans) - fact or fiction or poetry.

[kaberett]

IDK THEY MANAGE TO REPRINT OTHER CALENDARS TO MATCH UP DAYS-AND-DATES :D :D :D

(ludicrously irritated by this one rly)

[forestofglory]

I'm requesting that you write about your family's traditional winter holiday food. Pick a day that makes sense.

[liv]

Ooh, I got in early, I would like to pick my birthday, 27^th. Please can you write about intentional community or chosen family or something along those lines?

[davidgillon]

Ooh, good choice!

[sorrillia]

The Medieval Grad Student asks for something about Religious Orders for the last week in December.

[alexseanchai]

I'm curious about polyamory. I have historically had much trouble negotiating one romantic relationship at a time; how does one handle multiple such at once? And how does one figure out whether one is mono- or polyamorous? (Does it just boil down to "I like multiple people at once and am not jealous about their [desire for a] relationship with someone else"?)

Let's say the tenth.

[cosmolinguist]

My birthday's the 22nd. I fly to see my family for Christmas the next morning, which I'm not looking forward to. So can you write me something cheerful (poetry, science, some little thing that happened to you, anything) for my birthday to help top up my happiness before it gets eroded away? :)

[davidgillon]

Okay, December 12th, and some piece of nature observation, poetry or prose as the mood takes you. (Always felt an odd attraction to the 12th, possibly simply as it's 3 months on from my birthday) And I'll be disappearing up to the internet hole that is my folks sometime around then, so reactions may be delayed.

[spiralsheep]

I was planning to ask for 11th Dec and the best time/s to visit Kew and why (especially for trees). That might possibly inspire lyrical writing for the 12th or these two requests could roll neatly into one post?

[birke]

Clearly you should pick one of the first three Sundays and write about traditional pr-Christmas practices. :-)

Dec 6

[jelazakazone]

I would love you to talk about gender expression. When I see pics of you, sometimes I'm surprised because present much more femme than I ever do and I'm curious about the layers there. Not sure if I can articulate it better than that at the moment.

[frith_in_thorns]

What's a type of crafting you haven't learned yet but would really like to?

[wisdomeagle]

>Advent does not start on the 1st of December

oh God are people being wrong about this? :(

Relatedly, the 12 Days of Christmas are not the twelve days before Christmas.

[birke]

Really? Who does that? D:

[jesse_the_k]

Dec 8th: life with a wheelchair in it, in any form.

[davidgillon]

I like!

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I don't have a specific date I want you to talk about this, but I'd be interested in an account of your personal experience of racism if that's not too hard?

(Background for the question - B's been having problems at school (mostly verbal stuff, being called Hitler's grandchild etc), to which some of our mutual acquaintance have been very unsympathetic, and a passing comment by a fellow German-grew-up-here over the weekend gathered a lot of 'I didn't know it was like that' so I'm now wondering whether the vast majority of middle class English people assume that being of Germanic origin is not a thing that gets small children assaulted.)

I can do a post too, if you like, in fact maybe if you don't mind I might borrow the whole format?

[kaberett]

The format isn't original to me - go for it :-)

& I will stick this in somewhere.

[emperor]

Something about your favourite winter beverage? Perhaps on the 13th...

[nanila]

Favourite sky-rocks (e.g. comets, meteors, meteorites, etc), please?

[silveradept]

Around December 31 - things ending, things beginning.

And perhaps around the 15th, your relation to snow

[glass_icarus]

12/9 - a city/cities you have known and loved! :)

[syderia]

Social scripts and using them to communicate (when/how).

I don't have strong feelings about date, maybe the 16th?

The Lie-in Tamar

[hairyears]

You write beautifully about Cornwall; pick a day when you're offline and post it whenever you can.

any day

[redbird]

Something about the geology near your home or lab, any format.

[jedusaur]

Talk abooouuuuuut feminism and humor! Whenever.

[umadoshi]

Things you like about your least-favorite season. ^_^

[sorrillia]

For a day not claimed yet, sexuality and relationships, how does it work?