• Mad Dr Who dream. The character who was me got his brains blown out! :D Then merged with a broken TARDIS. Silly, apocalyptic, very RussellT. #
• As I got up the cat arrived: "Herman Herman I've been beaten and starved all year," the usual. Wonder if he got his fiction skill from me... #
• Truth! // RT @shoes_bags: http://bit.ly/5XcBPn #
• My brother is here and Stairwayrolling me with his PRS. Shurely against some humanoid rights law somewhere? ECHR appeal tiem? #
• Have just realised I am singing Poker Face aloud in Vic Reeves club stylee. Why? And why did nobody tell me? #
• #vss dEeaR sAntA PaWS. for XMAs i wANt: LiTer bOX hEEteR, CHikiN dISSpenSInnG MasHInE, lOKaL MiCe to AuL gO LaME, cAttNiP, piNG poNNg baULs. #
• I do wish that "here come the girls" song hadn't been written. Like Song 2, it's pretty much ruined by over-repetition of a single line. :-P #
• Good old GeekUp providing me a flimsy excuse to dote on Irene Adler some more. http://bit.ly/50H5×3 http://bit.ly/7APBxl #
• #vss "Why've all your funny stories got stabbings in 'em?" asked the boss's hellhound. "I... they say tell what you know," blushed Weft. #
• #vss "And then the boss waved his arms and melted their horsefuckin' fortress to slag!" recounted Ferrl, waving her beer so hard it spilled. #
• #vss "And that's how we solved the kernel issue in Hazelnut 0.8," concluded Suitov, sighing at the snoring audience. Magery could be lonely. #

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Got less done than I'd meant to. Again.

Made some stir-fry for lunch, because that's quick, and did that image I had in mind and sketched out, which took a few hours. Uploading at Deviantart is sloooooooowwww at the moment, but here it is.

Otherwise, just the bitty "don't let things slide towards chaos" in my room stuff.

I'd been having slight but annoying back- and shoulder pains for days now, and borrowed a massage thingy (big black mat you spread on a chair, with motors in it) we'd bought for my grandfather years ago. It helped.

I hadn't logged into DA for pretty much exactly a month, and over 2000 submissions accumulated in my watchlist. I took a bite out of the OTHER waiting messages by deleting the notifications about people faving a stamp I made, but, booyah, that's a lot to catch up to (I'll probably just delete most of it unseen).

• Every dark green car we saw today skidded. #ukgrittershortage I assume this was coincidence. #
• Next year let's do a track that HASN'T been repopularised by Guitar Hero. #
• This talk of nu metal causes me to put on Powerman 5000's "When Worlds Collide" (though I don't know if it counts as that genre). #

• #vss She sang along: "But if you kissed me now I know you'd fool me again..." He grunted and looked away. Gawd, why did he never take hints! #
• #vss "I hate you to the very core of my being," said Weft. The dog replied "Yeah, well you smell like a kitty." "Yeah well, you just smell!" #
• #vss "Dear Frerene, The weather continues hot. My bodyguard keeps attacking my dog. Since you ask, tall hats are in fashion. Yours, Suitov." #
• #vss "Dear Rigey, What do you mean, attacking your dog? Does he playfight with dear Basaltine? I must meet this bodyguard of yours. Frerene" #

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

Today felt relatively slow, productivity-wise, but OK, particularly for a Sunday.

I helped a bit with the dishes, and keep ahead of my own ever-spreading chaos. In the afternoon we swept another centimetre or two of snow. The forecast has rising temperatures, so that won't become a habit.

In preparation for coursework I installed some software that records videos of what's happening on your screen.

Since I really need to get out of my art slump, I did a bit of sketching and colour studies for something more or less abstract I'd like to draw/paint. Given that I got the idea for it while reading Duma Key, maybe I should be worried. :P
I also took care of the lately awfully neglected Daily Drawing prompts, and filled the calendar for the rest of the year.

My general mood's kinda at a low point and I'm not sure if it's nervosity about studies and general growing up, or hormones, or what.
On the bright side, my mother made really yummie cookies today.

Lead off to sex scene: "do you have something in your tent that needs assassinating?"

That would certainly lead to a bang if I were on the receiving end, provided I had a gun at hand.

(found here)

• I dreamed @almostwitty had decided to shorten his online handle and had thereforely registered twitty.com. #

(Ostrich is in ur dreams making ur self-effacing puns...)

• #vss The ostrich-octopus hybrid is not as successful as I'd hoped. I need to stop picking my projects based on my affinity for alliteration. #
• #vss Rather than reply, Suitov picked him up telekinetically and threw him into the ocean. "W-will he survive that?" asked Weft. "Doubtful." #
• #vss A pliosaur poked its nose out of the water, found the struggling treat and snapped it up. Suitov watched impassively. Weft looked away. #
• #vss "Suitov... would you feed me to monsters if I annoyed you?" "Should your death be necessary, a clean neck break will do." "Thanks sir." #
• #vss How annoying! Air bubbles under her new wallpaper. She reached for the scraper, but the bubbles were already moving. Converging. #
• My family's used to me breaking into random song: "Last Christmas I gave you a Wii/but the very next day you bought a PlayStation 3..." #vss #

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This morning started with exercise. That's because there were about 4 cm of snow on the ground that needed sweeping. It was all light and loose, so that was good.

It was -13°C (about 9 F) when we were finished, which is pretty damn cold for this corner of the world.

A bit later the sun was shining and, cold or not, I had to go for a walk. I probably mentioned this before, but snow is awesome. The way it crunches with every step, and the glitter... This time the air glittered with windblown ice crystals. It's less tacky than it sounds, because they're tiny and white, rather than storebought-big and iridescent. :P

Later I vacuumed my room and wiped the floor, then vacuumed the kitchen (AFTER wiping down the countertops that needed it, to avoid spreading crumbs on the freshly cleaned floor) and the bathroom.

I also went searching for my winter shoes, which were in one of three stacked boxes, and set aside some stuff (and old thingy with drawers made of cardboard and a magazine file full of, uh, magazines) to throw out. No, not going to waffle; the only reason why they're not in the wheelie bins outside is temperatures. Tomorrow's early enough.

I'm a bit sore, which I guess goes to show that I need more exercise.

The newspaper had an interesting article dealing with wildlife. There was a project monitoring wild animals using underpasses to cross a 40km stretch of highway in the wider area. One interesting point was that there was the suggestion of building a wildlife overpass. The thought that there really are enough people that care to build 50-100 metres wide bridges over highways that can take earth cover for trees, or at least shrubs, to enable wild animals to cross streets and avoid getting hid by cars and dying out by inbreeding makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.
The other was that they spotted at least one raccoon dog.
Tanukis in the Westerwald, my goodness...

• Beautiful bat. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/sci_nat_enl_1261077948/html/1.stm #
• Has just been given a Secret Santa gift that, when shaken, sounds very promising indeed. Squee! Open or save, open or save... #
• Hey @moviegrrl, @she_loves_tiki, you might like this: RT @almostwitty: voted for @jojoebi & her cute blue boy pants http://tiny.cc/bluepants #
• http://twitpic.com/u0qhm – Muttly see, muttly do: http://tinyurl.com/yf3z733 via @stephenfry #
• Hmm, what to start watching on the way home – The Wire, Spiral, Defying Gravity or The Thick of It? Maybe Games Britannia instead... #
• That's two votes for The Wire, so season one episode one it is! Tramwards now, out of office well and truly ON. #
• I did go to the Mcr Christmas market in the end. It's brilliant. I got presents for a few remaining people. Also, hot choccy & liquorice. :D #
• The Wire won't play on my Archos. :( Transcoding needed, I think. Saw the first bit of Paradox instead. Creepy doctor bloke rocks. #
• Oh, and I saw the best dog EVER. Huge; could've been an Anatolian Shepherd maybe? £10 breakfast or no, @degsy could not have eaten this one. #

• #vss He woke up with tingling lips. She kissed me before she left, he thought. Then he looked in the mirror and realised it was a cold sore. #
• #vss A universe where he can have whatever he wishes for. What power! But, lacking imagination, he is limited to stuff he's read in comics. #
• #vss The cat dragged himself in, head lolling, yowling weakly. "Come off it. You've had five suppers," I said. He went to sulk on the sofa. #

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meh. Slept in, and felt drowsy most of the day. Hopefully not a cold coming.

I made a bit of a stir fry thingy for my lunch (handful of mushroom slices, bit of onion fried to give the rice that accompanied roast turkey - breast filet, not whole turkey - from yesterday). A bit later I got ready to run an errand for my mother, but then the paperwork wasn't ready because she thought I'd do it on Monday, because we misunderstood each other.

Otherwise I mostly did keeping-chaos-at-bay smallstuff, plus some sorting and stashing of stuff™ that was clogging up corners. Oh, yeah, and writing 100 words.

On the bright side, it's snowing, and there's about a centimetre of the white fluffy stuff on the ground. :)

Magic, in principle, was easy. He concentrated on what it should do, and made the signs that his intuition told him epitomised the idea. In time he learned that some designs belonged to grand concepts – a circle was “protection”, a rectangle “order”, but a square “containment”. That knowledge was useless when a concept central to a spell refused to connect to a shape he could draw or carve.
The scribbles for “to the other side” had been clear even in a panic, taking him far further than expected.
The problem now was that he did not know what “home” was.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

• The TARDIS http://www.twitpic.com/s8nsx has reached its recipient safely. There was much squeeing. The contents is bigger than the bag! #
• "Vegetarian meat feast": fake garlic sausage, fake chicken and fake ham on oatmeal. My kinda sandwich. I'm veggie, not a rabbit food lover! #
• A well-cultured goit of a work chum has got this into my head, and thus you must all suffer for it. http://bit.ly/thereonthestair #
• Another workmate has put me in mind of this song, which you all must enjoy. http://bit.ly/tweepinguponme #
• At 18:00 I'll post the result of a little experiment. #
• Today I posted 2 links: the 1st I said would cause suffering, the 2nd enjoyment. And SCIENCE shows my Twitter followers are 2:1 masochists. #
• Crap party; fortunately the charming company made it bearable. Over the pounding music I half-misheard some gossip I'm now trying to forget! #
• Crap party; fortunately the charming company made it bearable. Over the pounding music I half-misheard some gossip I'm now trying to forget! #
• I'm so glad I'm oblivious to office politics, and asexual. It makes things so lovely and uncomplicated. #

• #vss I pulled her up by the hair. She spluttered and coughed. "Letting you up for air only prolongs this. When will you learn?" Splash. #
• #vss The first unicorn stepped ringing into the sun. "On second thought," I said, "bells for hooves may get irritating. Come back a minute." #
• #vss "I am NOT in love with him," said Weft. "I know it for a fact, because he hasn't died horribly yet." Was that disappointment? #

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

I went shopping again today, mostly groceries (which I could have bought on Monday, too, but didn't, because stacking stuff in the back of the car makes me nervous because it might break my neck if I have to brake suddenly), but some stuff was on special offer starting today.

In the afternoon I had a bit of a nap and finished the book that was robbing me of sleep. *cough*

I also wrote a couple of emails I'd been putting off for no reason. Speaking of writing, while I haven't written a bit of microfiction for tomorrow yet, at least I mulled over an idea or two.

There are two things I do that I think I understand a bit better now.

First, the whole "letting work pile up" thing. Let's take as example keeping my room tidy. It would be easy with, say, 15 minutes or so a day putting things where they belong (including the trash or recycling bins) rather than letting it lie, but that's 15 minutes I could be doing other stuff, and it doesn't cause much of a change individually.
But when it piles up, and I have to spend some hours getting things tidy again, I get to feel accomplished when I finish.

Kinda stupid, like a lot of the stuff I do, so I'll work on making it one less.

Second, when I'm out shopping I put my key in my right trouser pocket because I'm carrying my handbag on my right side, which makes reaching that pocket awkward.

It really confused me how my key ended up in my left pocket, but now I know. :D

These monks are being sold off by their monastery! :( :( :(

• Malfunctioning water heater->lukewarm/freezing shower. Any fool who thinks I'm gentlemanly should not hear my comments on such an occasion. #
• Seeing Avatar 3D tonight, hurrah! #
• RT @meeware: @Suitov Seen this?- (none of them are up to your standard obviously) http://ow.ly/MEXM // remind me of BASIC progs at school! #
• #vss Joan lifted her tired eyes from the bowls club minutes. The breeze was playing a song on the piano. Their old song. #paranormalromance #
• Improving the structural integrity of the spacecraft on my desk. #
• #vss Apparently the monk was serious. If Ferrl called him a slut, even as a joke, he'd have to go before a tribunal. Bah! Religious nutters! #
• #vss The monk slapped her face. He had to stand on tiptoe to do it. How was Ferrl to know "roll up your sleeves" was a religious insult? #
• #vss "You army types have such stupid rules," said the monk. "I am basking in the irony," said Ferrl, scratching the seat of her trousers. #

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

Did a bit of last-minute coursework, and then went to class. The Projektpraktikum goes rather well.

I finally got the minotor cable for my mother, and then there was a bit of trying to set up the computer. She has two old ones of mine. The newer one is the one that reboots itself every couple of minutes (if you're lucky - otherwise it's 30 seconds after booting) and was in for repairs already with the problem not found. I think we're finally getting rid of it.
The older one runs Win 98, required some digging for a PS/2 mouse because it didn't like the USB mouse, and it also has no network card, so the gadget we got last week is useless for now. Ehwell.

Otherwise there was just some minor stuff to keep stuff that tends to pile up from doing so, because I was way tired and headachey today, so I'll go to bed early-ish.

No, I'm not talking about gay boys, although you could say I am something of a fairy in that sense (and vaguely proud of it), and also sometimes quite boring.

No, I mean the other fairies. The little winged gobshites.

So some people love cute little fairies. Some other people are into the dark, sinister side to fairies (which, when you think about it for more than a second, ARE bloody scary).

I just don't engage with the concept of fairies/faeries/fae/fairfolk on any level. They bore me and – well, they do repulse me, but in an unemotional way (since even hating or being scared of them would still be some kind of reaction, whereas they don't grab me in any way).

I suppose it's partly the "small humanoid" angle that totally turns off any sympathy, interest or engagement that I would have in abundance for any animal creature. I don't know. I've just never had any interest in fairies.

I actually stopped reading the Harry Dresden books because they degenerated into "whee, fairies fairies fairies and more bloody fairies I'm so cool, oh and just to turn Mutt completely off, let's add a knight prat who's so pure and Has Faith and wields a Magic Sword of Faith". (Well, that and it got boring seeing Harry get beaten half to death every book without fail and still pull some magic whupass out of his arse.) Shame, because the writing in the books is really pretty OK, the wisecracks are excellent and I do like the hardboiled genre.

But yes, fairies. They don't do it for me. I tend to hate anything with them in. The one exception I've found is Pratchett's Lords and Ladies, which is at least a very complete and competent treatment of the idea, explicitly drawing them as personalityless (an important angle for me) as well as the usual cruel, feline flibbertigibbets.

(Next time, maybe: why Tolkien-D&D-style elves are boring. Or maybe why prats with swords are boring. Then, that selection probably leaving basically nothing in the genre of fantasy for me to read, I'll have to think of some sci-fi things I find hackneyed.)

(Oh, and just in case: I don't actually expect other people to change their interests/writing styles based on my opinion. Hell, somebody go off and tread some genuinely new writerly ground with the idea and I promise I'll be happy you've made boringness into a topic that I can actually enjoy...)

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• #Dexter, end of season 4. ............. :O :O :O #
• Christmas is coming and if you loved me you'd buy me an octopus. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8408233.stm #
• Ageing research in wild animals or blatant excuse to show meerkat pictures? Simples! http://bit.ly/meerkodgers #
• Geneticists! Please to be obtaining samples from Ed Alleyne-Johnson and this chappie http://bit.ly/65pOtG and engineering SUPER-VIOLINIST. #
• #vss A cat shivered on her doorstep. "Poor thing, haven't you a home?" Door thrown wide, it strolled in with an evil over-shoulder smirk. #
• #vss Christmas Eve on the kerbside. Blast of hot air from the limo window. "I've come to grant your–" Pause. "Can't we find a WHITE child?" #
• Is engaged in applied homeopathy. "The disordered insanity of a Vai solo ought to straighten out my confused thoughts!" #
• Try as I may, I can't enjoy Killing In The Name. Sorry. But in case this mitigates it, I haven't ever heard an X Factor single. #ratm4xmas #

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Went shopping for groceries this morning. We have the main ingredients for the holiday meals now, as well as enough beverages to last us into the new year. Another trip the day after tomorrow, and the plan is to not go shopping at all next week.

I continued the "pre-new-year's cleanup" with a short trip to get rid of accumulated glass bottles. (plus a bit of basic stuff like sorting socks)

When trying to update the homework for the course tomorrow, I ran into problems; the SVN repository wouldn't accept my password anymore. It's not really a hard deadline, but I hope things can get straightened out tomorrow, anyway.

It was just below freezing point when I left this morning, and according to the forecast it's going to get colder, so I guess I get to wear my red jacket. ^_^

Octopus wants to be a clam. Tool use hasn’t been an exclusively human thing for a while.

There’s a new Simon’s Cat video up at youtube. It has a birdee. ^_^

There had been a great version of Bohemian Rhapsody on the Muppets Studio youtube channel, but now it’s gone due to copyright kerfuffle. Ehwell, it still has The Blue Danube (performed by chickens), Ode to Joy (performed by Beaker), and Ringing of the Bells (featuring Animal, see post title)

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Milli-grandiloquent
Herm 'Hellmutt' Baskerville,
Having a crack at a
new form of verse,

Blames double dactyls for
brashly inciting a
sesquipedalian
poet to worse.

Interesting form. Can't say it's one I'd normally have tried... although it looks like it'd be great for comic nonsense poetry, my favourite genre.

View the original post at Black Dog Blog