...at least, now that I've got netting up to keep out the #%@!! possum.




( More Garden Photos with Obligatory Cat )

And meh, I should've called.

But somehow I suspect stress is piling up in large dust-rhinos, and I waffled about calling until too late.

ANYWAY.

akycha, you are wonderful and goddess like and I won't jinx it, but I know you're going to do WONDERFULLY tomorrow.

Much love!

And cong--

nope, nope, can't say it yet.

But you are brilliant.

...I'll never forget hearing this song live for the first time.

It makes you cry even on YouTube, but it's worth hearing, if you haven't.




I remember Taylor bell tower at Bryn Mawr College tolling for Jim Henson the day he passed away.

w000t! 10-second shake-and-bake. Far enough that the edges were smoothed off of it, but close enough to make the whole house creak and shift.

*pokey pokey pokey at recent earthquakes map*

C'mon!


EDIT: HA. 5.0. Am I good, or what?

Trekqueen, that epicenter looks like it's on your side of town. Anything fall off your shelves?


Sounds like a rather exciting showing of Star Trek in Redondo Beach. Ceiling tiles, projector, and movie screen came down!

Near Los Angeles some people reporting lots of stuff flying off shelves, out of cabinets, TVs falling, pictures falling and breaking, etc. They must've had more shake than here.

...never got a good video of the original Concrete Dance, but here's happy Samhain in the back yard. One of the top priorities on my house hunting list was an enclosed, partly-paved area for her to play in!

So, in celebration of moving in about a year ago...



Music is some random song I've never heard of, "Bang a Drum" by Selena Gomez, because I was trying to get a piece of music in the Audioswap section of YouTube (i.e. made available by the artist).

And yes, my eye is healing. SLOWLY. Still can't see much out of it, but the main thing is the infection is gone, so now it's just a matter of healing the damage.

Mostly I just like the name, but the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest tickles my fancy: submit an absurd poem to a "vanity contest," as a joke, then also submit it to Wergle Flomp.

I think they should give their award to the most outrageous poem that WINS a vanity contest, but anyway... cheers. I have a latent subversive streak when it comes to making too much of poetry, despite being a highfalutin' bard.

I believe I tormented Mrs. Cope (English Teacher) once by giving her a batch of haikus my Random Basho Generator had created on my old Apple ][, just to tweak her nose, because (as I expected) she immediately started interpreting the profound meanings in each haiku. I was resisting poetry analysis as a colossal waste of time, because I was suspicious that it was a process of projection.

There's this rabblerouser iReporter on the CNN website who's been proselytizing from his living room throughout the election, some guy named David. I've enjoyed his musings and rants and had a few friendly comment exchanges with him.

He lives in DC, and he managed to get himself fairly close to the podium-- "with no ticket," as he says proudly.

This is David's recording of the ceremony, with a lot of heartfelt whooping and hollerin'...and some peanut gallery comments during the speech. :)


Feh, embed may not have worked. Oh well, here's the Link.

'Twas the night before Inauguration
And all over the net
Insomniacs were hollering
"ARE WE THERE YET?"

Also, this...THING... which Findy posted earlier...



Yes.
Yes, that.

(The lettering is so faint I should really redo it -- this userpic has cum spiro, spero on it, "While I breathe, I hope.")

I have this awful urge to release the new, improved, Blingee Annotated Edition of Jackson's films...

"I amar prestar aen... The world has changed..."


"And nine rings he gave to Mortal Men, who above all others desire power..."


And so on, and so forth...

I've been distracting you with star trek and religion and all sorts of blather, but we've got a writing prompt in the Return of the Noldor thread I sucked you into. Wanna hash out our next posts in tandem? It might help, since the GM's last post is loooong... that was a little confusing; I wonder if she lost a few paragraph breaks divvying it up.

So let me repost the part of the GM's post that Ecthelion and Glory are involved in, breaking it into easy-to-manage chunks, and then when you are ready to play, you get first dibs at writing Glorfy and I'll add in Ec, or however you like! When we've got it, we can our posts in the real thread, or one person can post both if it works better -- plaza buddies sometimes joint post. (But then you should post so you get the points for it-- I've got plenty. :D)

On second play through of Of Gods and Men (link is to Youtube playlist which breaks it into 10-minute chunks -- worth watching in hi-def if you've got broadband), I am still loving it.

It's a 90-minute fan-made video sequel to Charlie X, the second episode of TOS.
Here's the trailer for the original episode, a good synopsis (Nichelle singing, yay.)



( Babbling further about fan-made movie )

This is my old cat, the one that slept on my bed when I was in high school. Dad has been saying she's 20, but I recently found a sketch I did of Galena in '87 when she was full grown.

She's so old. She nearly died last year after her marrow stopped making red blood cells, but managed to hang on with a blood transfusion and expensive shots every few days now that supply an enzyme her kidneys don't make anymore that is needed to trigger RBC production. She's got a few small bumps of skin cancer on her ears, her kidneys don't work so well, she's got nasty arthritis, and she limps from an old injury suffered while fighting off a coyote. She apparently had a stroke a few years back and suddenly went deaf. She can't groom herself very well, so Mom has to brush her.

Yet she still purrs and shows a lively interest in the world for the few hours she's awake. Despite the stiffness and the yowls of pain sometimes when she sits down, she's got a good appetite and she seems content. I've been sitting with her all evening with her paws on me. She remembers me.



I don't think I'll see her again after this winter. But I'm so glad to have a little more time with the old girl. She's had a long, rich life for a cat, fought with Samhain in years past, kept a squirrel tail trophy rack back in Pennsylvania, where she was a champion hunter. She's been around for more than half my life.

And who knows. A year ago, I steeled myself to the fact that I probably wouldn't see her again.

But now it's time to go to bed and give Samhain some human-all-to-myself time. She's been sulking in the dining room all evening.

... and to follow up last year's photo, Samhain* agreed to pose again.

( Sort of... )

*Yes, the cat is named Samhain, and I'm taking a Christmas Eve photo. Half my family's Christmas traditions come from the Jewish side of the family.

It...works for us.
 

Sitting writing on my laptop, warming my toes at the fire, the cat on the back of the easy chair, a cup of organic fair trade hot chocolate in my old Elsinore mug, a silly little Solstic Shrub with purple ornaments on the mantlepiece, and a Great Horned Owl going Hoo-HOOO, hoo, hoo outside my window. Can't see 'er, but I know that sound!

I'm guessing... 4.6!

*waits patiently for the Earthquake Map to update*

That's probably too high, but it shook the windows.

Edit:
Did You Feel It? shakemap, for those who like giving starving geologists crumbs of data!

Ta-da! Okay, so it was a little bigger and farther away than I thought. 5.1, Barstow.


Source: Recent Earthquakes SCEC

Yes, I honestly love living in a geologically active area.

I don't usually answer these, but I'm surprised how few answers included a plan. Well, okay, I can see why so many jumped on the "zombies" part. But after the last few years, I'm surprised at all the "pray" and "panic" answers. Emergency preparedness isn't rocket science; it's like healing the party and gearing up if it looks like you're about to hit a boss battle. Yes, I'm a geek. So anyway, here's my plan:

Earthquake:
1. Drop, cover, and hang on. In the recent Big Shakeout drill, the Red Cross said getting in a doorway makes no difference unless you live in an adobe house, and moving across the room increases the chance of falling or being hit by something. Running outside means having glass/masonry fall on your head. Instead, get down, cover your head. Preferably hide under a desk or table, grab one of its legs and hang on. Or, in bed, pull a pillow over your head.( More Emergency Preparedness stuff )

That "Rivendell Bed" I kept going on about. Recycled iron, rubberwood = fast, renewable tree.

Finally got some sheets/blankets for it other than my old Pennsic sheets.

This new microfiber stuff is soooooooft.



It matches Nana's chair (almost). I have a strong desire to find some kind of wall hanging with leaves and stuff, possibly Art Noveau. The ceiling light is screamingly Art Noveau -- it's glass lilies -- and the bathroom (just past the altar beyond the foot of the bed) is all full of ironwork with leaf finials.

The crappy photo does not really catch the fact that the walls are a soothing, light green in the Eucalyptus range, as is the incredibly squishy comforter. The room's colors are white, dark honey, very pale green.

You have to see these animated userpics by ladyelleth...

You Know You're Not in Kansas When

Mother Nature celebrates Guy Fawkes Day
White fluffy stuff drifts down.
Not snow.

Tickets on sale:
$20 to play in artificial snow
In dry water retention basin.

Disneyland Parade with Santa
In flying sleigh drawn by robot reindeer
Spewing flurries of tiny soap bubbles
At night, under streetlights
Looks rather snowlike.

Wonder and joy
On children's upturned faces
So real you weep.

Happy Holidays!

Remember that lullabye I used to use for Sepdet's healing song, shamelessly borrowed from a LeGuin novel?

I stumbled across an email from Cammers about it, hunted about, and found the original webpage I'd made for it back in what --96 or so-- is here, with my recording of it. That's about the first recording I have of my singing. Someday, I really need to invest in a real mike.


In other news, I am tired of sinus headaches.