Q: What do you consider a successful (or good) day?

I have pondered this far too long now, and procrastinated the question over and over again. I tried to go back to these “perfect days” in my memory and find a pattern. And really, there is none.

So I can just tell ingredients which seem to be good for a good day. Talking to people I love is included. Not just the usual every day chatter, but a real talk.

Art always makes a day good. Creating art is even better. Good weather, good sex or other good things are surely helpful. But they’re not IT.

You know what? I’ll tell you two of my fondest memories to make you understand what I mean.

First one: I was still in my late teens, 20 perhaps, and it had been a bad day so far. I suffered some kind of puberty depression thing, and I went where you go in such a case: I went to see my best friend (and yes, that was chrome back then already, too). He lived on his own already then and had a real small room in an attic. I don’t remember why I was sad, just remember that I was, and I knocked on his door. I remember the rest very clearly. He opened, took on short look, and said something along the lines of “oh damn”. Let me in, tucked me away on his bed with a drink and lit a cigarette for me. We just sat there for a while. I did not feel like talking, and I did not need to.

He eventually put on some music and went back to his desk, where he had been drawing something (remember he was into airbrush stuff at the time). We spent the evening like that, I was just snuggling on the bed, listening to music, he was at the desk drawing. We had a cigarette together once in a while, or talked of insubstantial stuff, or I looked at the picture he was making and tell him my opinion. He made me smile.

It was a perfect evening. I felt… safe. I knew nothing would get at me there in that little attic, with my best friend being close. I still feel that way when he’s around. Just missing the attic sometimes.

The second memory is from school days, too. Another friend and me skipped some lessons (erm yes, we did that once in a while. Ahem. Don’t do that, kids, truancy is bad. Or, well it’s bad if your grades are not good. Ours were good enough. ).

Philipp was a great piano player, having had lessons since he was a kid. We stole into one of the music rooms, where they had a piano. I sat down on the windowsill and watched the schoolyard, he sat down to play.  “What do you think, could I put into music who you are?” he asked me. Then he tried. He captured my mood and my, well, essence in what he played for the next hour. It was a magical moment. I remember the sunrays pouring in through the blinds, drawing strange, warm designs on the floor, on the piano, on his hair while he played. We weren’t dating or some such, none of us was interested in the other, but at that moment, I was very much in love with him.

So what makes for such perfect moments, or days? It’s probably the small things. What both incidents have in common is the feeling of peace and safety about them, of no one expecting anything from the other, of a deep exchange without pressure or the usual human complicated emotions shat. A feeling of being at home and at ease in that very moment.

“If you could have any ONE “super power” (as in “super hero ability”), totally ignoring all known and unknown laws of nature, physics, whatever … what would that be, why and what would you use it for?”

Chrome is right. The more you think about this, the tougher it gets. This is not about “Do you wanna be Superman or Batman? First thoughts were easy, like being able to fly, or x-ray vision (very useful when it come to… ok, forget it ). But then, I thought about the endless possibilities, and things got difficult. What about being able to never forget ANYTHING you read? Like, nothing at all. You’d all have it ready for use. Imagine how amazingly much you’d KNOW. Knowledge is quite enticing to me.

Another knowledge-related thing would be to be able to read and speak each language of the world fluently. I’m in love with languages. I’d love to be able to plant and grow things in the blink of an eye – imagine what this could do against famine. Or to read thoughts… no, wait, I CAN do that already.

Well, I think I could end up like chrome and ponder this for decades. But there is this 20 Days of Questions challenge, and I don’t want to let you wait. So I decided.

I want to be able to Apparate. Like “Beam me up, Scotty”. I want to be able to disappear where I am right now and appear that very second (or minute, I don’t care) somewhere else, no matter the distance.

That’s be my superhero power of choice.

Why? Because I have friends and loved ones all over the planet. Some of them I haven’t seen in a very long time because they’re so far away. Others are not THAT far away, but I don’t see them quite as often as I want to. Others again, I haven’t seen at all – yet. I’d love to be able to see them for a coffee or a drink, or a hug, or a weekend, just whenever I want to. That would not be anything grand, I know, but I’d give away my chance to save the world for the chance to be with the ones I love more often.

Anyway, lovely Anniina tagged me. I love her: She’s a Worthian, she’s a frickin’ Scandinavian, and she’s pretty.

And she wants to know why I blog. Cool question, as I’m not sure myself. So, here are 5 reasons anyways:

1. Chrome. He’s my best friend, and best friends often know what’s good for you. Better than yourself. So he talked me into it. He told me that I, of all people, had something to TELL. Up to this date, I don’t know what this could be, but I keep talking, perhaps it comes out one day.

2. I’m so good at talking because I’m so bad at stowing it. I’m a mental exhibitionist. I like the cruel inner nakedness that the internet provides sometimes. I like to be honest, and in RL, some people do not really want to listen to honesty.

? 3. Sharing. I just like sharing not only my ideas (see above) but also music, arts, books and other things I’m passionate about. I also like receiving new music, arts, and books recommendations, always starving for new creative input.

4. Worth 1000. It’s great to have a site that inspires me to create art in more than just one form. And when I have entered contests, I need a place to show off once more. So I store some of the pictures and writings created for Worthian contests here in my Blog again.

5. I really cannot think of a fifth reason, truly. I guess I just like doing it. It makes me feel connected with whomever want to be connected with me. And that’s good, isn’t it?

Chrome, read it or you’re doomed.
All others, read it if you’re open minded enough.

ISBN: 0765342987

So we have the “Kushiel’s Legacy” series to begin with:

Kushiel’s Dart

Kushiel’s Chosen

Kushiel’s Avatar

What is seen as the fourth book of this trilogy (R.I.P. D.N.A.!) actually seems tobe the start of the second trilogy — the ‘Imriel Trilogy‘:

Kushiel’s Scion

also announced for June 2007 is “Kushiel’s Justice” and — most likely — there’ll be another (final?) yet unnamed sequel.