Blogging

Because it would seem I very much like the sound of my fingers typing...

You don't even realise...

Having the right music for the shower is easily as important as having the right music for a party or a roadtrip.

It's also much easier, because unless your life is much spicier than mine, there's noone else in the shower to go "naw, I don't like this one, can we put on something else?"

In the spirit, as well as the usuals (save a horse ride a cowboy, yellow, don't look back in anger, as good as I once was) I've also included John Lennon's Happy Christmas and the version of All I want for Christmas is You from the Love Actually soundtrack.

Aaarrrg....nevermind.

Oh no! Only 4% internet remaining!

Oh wait, it resets in 48 hours. And 4% is still over 3gig.

Phew...

Cause it's so much more than just a Christmas song...

John Lennon's Happy Christmas

The only Christmas song I listen to in months other than December.

Being Awesome

Tonight's was one hell of an achievement.

I wasted 2 hours with Bejewelled, but still managed to piece a medium sized quilt top.

I'm so awesome.

It's all about context. And maths.

With 8 days to go, I have only 15% of my internet left.

But what's this? I have 50 gig a month, which means I have 8 gig left.

Hooray!

This bit from the end of Hogfather...

Susan has just saved the Hogfather from the Auditors. Now she and her grandfather, Death (He's in the allcaps) are heading home for Hogswatchnight.

'Thank you. Now... tell me...'

WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN'T SAVED HIM?

'Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?'

NO.

'Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact.'

THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.

She turned on him.

'It's been a long night, Grandfather! I'm tired and I need a bath! I don't need silliness!'

THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.

'Really? Then what would have happened, pray?'

A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.

They walked in silence for a moment.

'Ah,' said Susan dully. 'Trickery with words. I would have thought you'd have been more literal-minded than that.'

I AM NOTHING IF NOT LITERAL-MINDED. TRICKERY WITH WORDS IS WHERE HUMANS LIVE.

'All right,' said Susan. 'I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable.'

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

'Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little-'

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

'So we can believe the big ones?'

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

'They're not the same at all!'

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET-- Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

'Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point---'

MY POINT EXACTLY.

She tried to assemble her thoughts.

THERE IS A PLACE WHERE TWO GALAXIES HAVE BEEN COLLIDING FOR A MILLION YEARS, said Death, apropos of nothing. DON'T TRY TO TELL ME THAT'S RIGHT.

'Yes, but people don't think about that,' said Susan. Somewhere there was a bed...

CORRECT. STARS EXPLODE, WORLDS COLLIDE, THERE'S HARDLY ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE HUMANS CAN LIVE WITHOUT BEING FROZEN OR FRIED, AND YET YOU BELIEVE THAT A... A BED IS A NORMAL THING. IT IS THE MOST AMAZING TALENT.

'Talent?'

OH, YES. A VERY SPECIAL KIND OF STUPIDITY. YOU THINK THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS INSIDE YOUR HEADS.

'You make us sound mad,' said Susan. A nice warm bed...

NO. YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME? said Death, helping her up on to Binky.

'These mountains,' said Susan, as the horse rose. 'Are they real mountains, or some sort of shadows?'

YES.

Susan knew that was all she was going to get.

oooh, pretty...

When I'm watching a movie on my laptop and the screen goes black, I can see my favourite-est quilt reflected in the screen.

For those of you who don't know it's the brown, blue and orange mingle quilt, and it hangs on the wall above my bed. And it's beautiful and crinkly and I love it.

Sparkly things and cats...

We're decorating the Christmas tree. I'm not really feeling it, but it's very funny seeing Honeycat with the tinsel... I don't know if she's ever done Christmas before...

Snh Snh Snh...

Endosperm.

Snh Snh Snh. (That's the sound of childish sniggering.)

It sounds dirty but it isn't.

It's like when you're using the DVD player, and it says "Root Menu"

Snh Snh Snh.

Finally...

It took most of the day, and a $300+ hit to my bank balance, but my Christmas shopping is unofficially* finished.

One of these years I'm gunna follow through on my threat to not do Christmas the next year.

*unofficially because there's still Secret Santa on Dad's side ($20 budget) but I don't know who I'm giving to yet, and I still need to make Esther and Bob their jellyblob toys.

USB Flash drives

Not as cool as TransFlash, but still pretty cool.

And there are more ports for them.

But you can get USB adapters for your TransFlash.

So yay. For both of them.

Success!

I'd say my success rate with indicating is now up to around 95%. Which seems pretty good for 2 weeks of driving.

Windscreen wiper success is closer to 60% though. Even less if you include selecting the right speed, or rear wipe instead of spray. Those two bring it down to about 20% success. If it's just started raining and our lights are flashing aimlessly, I may actually just be trying to clear my windscreen.

Still, I'm proud of myself for being able to indicate. Even when I'm not trying to.

Twist upward, becuase if you twist downward, stuff squirts out...

Taylor is my first car with a rear windscreen wiper, and I like to think of it as a handy means of waving hello to the cars behind me.

Tonight's weather.

On the drive into work, the sun was shining and there were fluffy white clouds. An hour or so later, black clouds arrived from the north, and the thunder and lightning started. Then came the rain, serious summer storm rain, with drops big enough to fill a shotglass* falling out of the sky for a good half hour. Then it eased up a bit (but not much), and the sun set behind the black clouds, turning the sky a fiery orange in the south west, while the rest of the sky was black.

Welcome back Summer. It's been too long...

*I can't actually prove this, but the drops on one guys shirt right when it started were about 2 inches across.