I woke up with a terrible headache, that's now mostly faded, as I've slumped on the sofa and caught up with a bunch of internet. I'm starting to feel almost human.
And now I'm going to go buy some breakfast, and then start tidying the flat for Julie's return.
* материал: Серебро 925, золото * поверхность: матовая * размер в наличии: золотой треугольничек - 15,3 * размер в наличии: серебряная трубочка - 16,0; 19,5 * возможны любые размеры под заказ
Hisae and I will board a bullet train to Osaka on Wednesday and spend three weeks at points south, mostly Kansai, so our Tokyo time is drawing to a close, alas. Most of the precious substance of the last three weeks has barely made it into these pages; the research I've been doing for the Aftergold show, the daily meetings I've had with friends, old and new.
Last night's Unreliable Tour Guide performance at NOW IDeA was shamanic fun; I turned artist Yusuke Mashiba's (very nice, outsider-ish) ink drawings into the gods of a parallel universe, and also interviewed the artist, posing questions like: "Would I find a black carton of black milk in your fridge?" and "Are you jealous of cockroaches?"
Another high point came on Saturday night, when we went to see excellent absurdist theatre group Crack Iron Albatrossoket at SuperDeluxe. Their piece, entitled Yojohan Oasis Rocket, ended with a blistering live performance from Oorutaichi, whose set with choreographer-dancer Masako Yasumoto in the Spectacle in the Farm video projected last week at Vacant was one of the most thrilling and inspiring things I've ever seen.
For me, the filament of life burns more brightly and beautifully in Tokyo than anywhere else; the question almost everybody asks me is: "Why not live here?" I've run out of reasons, so I'll just say (an Albatrossoket motto) BECAUSE WE ARE BLOK HEADS!
Steampunk Quarterly is searching for talented writers who have steampunk on their mind and don't mind to earn a buck or two.
You have this one idea about a mad scientist in London, labouring to build his crazy masterpiece? Or about a swashbuckling crewman who, by bad fortune, found his way on a ship of air pirates? Then wire it to us as fast as you can and send your mail on its way through the aether to our secretary.
Please keep your tale between 7,000 and 9,000 words long. If we publish it you will be rewarded with $50, no questions asked.
Back home again. Aah, sweet broadband, how I've missed you. Seriously, the inability to watch videos, download even small files in less than 10 minutes, or use Spotify really drove home how reliant I am on broadband, and thus on city living. Although apparently 95% of the country has 2MB or better, which means my parents just live in the middle of nowhere...
Anyway, flight back was fine - delayed by only 15 minutes, which is nothing. Flat is in one piece, boiler seems to have held together too. I'm exhausted, have a bit of a cough, and am missing Julie. The quiet, thoughm after a week of being around people 24/7, is fantastic.
Now that I _can_ watch all the videos I've missed in the last week, have this:
I fear that I have been personally responsible for the consumption of at least seventeen pigs during this festive season. andrea_and_ben and jessienoel joined us for an ostensibly pork-free evening of margaritas and rotel, but a pepperoni pizza snuck in. They returned the next weekend with spousal reinforcements, and we made good progress with Adam's birthday port and cheese. And cured meats. The next time, my mom's Christmas party started with a flotilla of ham and biscuits, and now our freezer is full of barbecued thank-you pork in recompense for Adam's computer skills. I'm sure we'll struggle through.
On December 26th, we ate the giant hot breakfast intended for Christmas, and then we drove to Amicalola Falls State Park, better known as the gateway to the Appalachian Trail. Or at least the gateway to the 8 mile trail linking trailhead to the official start of the Appalachian Trail. Why aren't those 8 miles part of the Appalachian Trail? They're just not.
Adam and I climbed the 604 metal steps from the basin to the top of Amicalola falls. Katie climbed about 40 of those herself and then was carried for another 60 or 70 before my parents offered to drive her to the top of the falls and meet us there. After an ascent that was breathtaking in all senses of the word, the five of us stopped in Ellijay for coffee, cakes and a swift diaper run. A pleasant evening of ham pie, hot tub rotas and free flowing electricity rounded off Boxing Day, and we're now back in Nashville. Katie has inspected the playground, and the leftover ham pie is in the oven.
Poll #1504089
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9
What do you estimate the global ratio of wicker reindeer to live reindeer to be?
12009 was not my personal worst for disastrous disorganization - that would be last year - but it does receive the accolade of most eco-friendly, largely down to my erroneous belief that I was in possession of wrapping paper and tape. I was in possession of paper bags2, ribbon, and some pirated communal holly. Put that in your glue gun and smoke it, Martha.
2Why can I glue my hand to my face with superglue but not glue two edges of a paper bag together with superglue? Why?
3twinkette1 estimates the dress's age at 25 years. It was found in her closet, completed except for buttons, and is suspected to date from my second cousin Jennifer's toddlerhood since no one else in the family would have been caught dead wearing smocked Christmas trees since 1979.
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The sheer amount energy generated is difficult to comprehend. Although the crust probably shifted by only a centimeter, the incredible density and gravity made that a violent event well beyond anything we mere humans have experienced. The blast of energy surged away from the magnetar, out into the galaxy. In just a fifth of a second, the eruption gave off as much energy as the Sun does in a quarter of a million years.
Oh, and did I mention this magnetar is 50,000 light years away? No? That's 300 quadrillion miles away, about halfway across the freaking Milky Way galaxy itself!
And yet, even at that mind-crushing distance, it fried satellites and physically affected the Earth. It was so bright some satellites actually saw it reflected off the surface of the Moon! I'll note that a supernova, the explosion of an entire star, has a hard time producing any physical effect on the Earth if it's farther away than, say, 100 light years. Even a gamma-ray burst can only do any damage if it's closer than 8000 light years or so.
Walking the dogs. Uther (10 months old) on the left, Tara (7 years old) on the right
Eating Christmas Pudding. Meredith, Noah, Mike and Hugh
A traditional Christmas Scene. Me, Noah and Hugh warms ourselves with the white heat of technology. Noah's a big fan of the Special Agent Oso website. Also, "Thomas Tank!" as he puts it.
Noah helps make Hugh's birthday cake. (Hugh's unfortunate enough to be born on the 26th. Bad planning if you ask me)
Noah's reward. Nuff said, I think.
These deer are far away. In the mist. At dawn. Prizes for identifying species and gender.
My elves prepare to strike deep into the halfling homelands. Take that, dirty hobbitses! Note that I'm wearing my Happy Birthday t-shirt. The birthday spirit did not go as far as letting Hugh actually win anything.
Uther, Tara and myself pose for the camera. Uther, spotted here chewing my fingers, is the one that keeps stealing my duvet, rolling onto his back to expose himself and then snoring. Also spotted, bottom right, is Herbert, who was mine as a child, and is now adored by Noah for periods of up to 17 seconds (double his normal attention span).
Vinci - now out of print, this plays like a simpler, more fun version of Britannia - civilisations invade the map, expand as far as possible and then "go into decline" so that the player can bring on a new civilisation. Each civilisation has two special abilities (bonus points for capturing certain types of territory, bonuses to attack in certain ways, etc.) We thoroughly enjoyed this a few Christmas' back, and Hugh was unhappy to discover that it was out of print due to a publisher going bust. Small World - is basically a recreation of this game in a fantasy setting from the same creator. There's a set of races/tribes and a set of attributes and these are randomly combined to give pairings (Wealthy Hobbits, Flying Orcs). Other than that it's basically the same game, with a couple of tweaks. It was very good fun, and I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone - Mum managed to pick it up in three rounds, despite having had a couple of drinks. Bohnanza - was also great fun. A simple card game where people collect bean cards (Bohn being German for bean), swap them with others and plant them in two bean fields (with an optional third one). It's much more social than the board games we played, with constant interaction between all the players as they tried to get the cards they wanted and dispose of the ones that were blocking them (you have to play your hand in the order you got the cards). I'm actually tempted to pick this one up myself. Caylus is a game that I feel conflicted about. You build buildings, buy favours from the king, build bits of the castle for victory points and try not to give away too many points to your competitors. I enjoy it somewhat, and I feel I have a decent grasp on the mechanics, but I've never managed to come up with any kind of decent strategy for it. It always feels tactical - lots of little advantages that scrape out a point or two, rather than something that gives me direction during the game. Which is fine, it's just not terribly satisfying. It's ranked 10th on BoardGameGeek, so clearly lots of other people disagree with me (and generally I agree with their ratings - I love the current top three.
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home again, home again
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Anniversary of a cosmic blast
