When the Countess is on a roll, she doesn't like to be stopped.

So it was that, at six o' clock this morning, we finally watched the last episode of Charmed. On which more when I have finished processing.

I then went out into the garden, to which we have made further additions, and started picking slugs off the plants. I stopped counting at twenty. The slug traps don't attract them as much as the plants do, and the 100% organic granules that are supposed to stop them moving don't.

I hate slugs. The constant reappearance of more and more and more slugs, their casual assumption that our purpose in life was to find them new plants to destroy, was what mostly put me off trying to do anything in the garden last time. They are the physical embodiment of depression in a horticultural context, as if it needed one.

I will not be beaten. But I think we may have to give up on being jog-friendly and get something that actually kills the buggers. Too late for the garden lilies, the rhubarb and too many other things, though.

( Bruce Baugh, on a curious aspect of anti-rights arguments )

deadjournal scribbld commiejournal crazylife dreamwidth insanejournal

After two days of failing to get through on the helpline and then a tense weekend when they don't take calls...

[WARBLING IN SHOWER, PUNCTUATED BY BLASTS OF WATER AND/OR FLANNEL IN THE FACE:]
Sunshine... through my windows... makes me sweaty...
Fresh air... and a shower... keeps me cool...
Nice stories... on my flist... make me happy...
Crisis loan... waiting for me down at the JobCentre Plus^TM... makes me intensely relieved!

Yuss! I can haz electricity after Wednesday!

    - Paul "cash-flow management was never my stong suit" B. =:o}

Today’s progress:

Project: White Raven draft one

New words: 2,738

Total words: 12,645

Goal: 100k

Writing:

Not a bad day, though I got off to a later start than I like to, hence the slightly down word count.  Still, I finished off the chapter I was working on, which pleases me.  Now I need to decide if I rework the next chapter or cut it completely.  I could start work on it today, but I think the subconscious needs to mull it over a bit more.

Real life:

Cleaned the house, including two loads of laundry.  Felt very thankful that I have a job that keeps me inside and warm while it’s raining and cold outside.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.

http://feeds.reference.com/click.phdo?i=423081be2279184c54ced9da70d2c734

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/07/06.html

verdant: green.

The progress so far is encouraging. With the help of friends (thanks, D, K and J, and R!), we've managed to clear out the under-house storage; clear 2/3 of the garage (and significantly reorganize the rest of it); get a 10x20 storage unit rented and about half full of the aforementioned stuff; reorganize the items in the unit after the original unload; retrieve the hand trucks (and inflate their tires); drop off a kit of at-unit items including a box cutter, roll of tape, list making materials, and marking pen; and return a bunch of unused shelving components (ones with UPC codes still on) to the home improvement store and use the resulting store credit to purchase moving supplies. I've also started to sort through the books and get mine separated out and packed up; so far I've done most of the science fiction paperbacks.

There's still tons more to do over the course of the week, then get what we pack this week loaded onto another rental truck and hauled to the storage unit next Sunday. By the time *that* is done, though, we should have this place pretty well cleared out, at least the main floor and upstairs portions of it.

I'm tired, and sore, but it's a good kind of tired, the kind that comes from having worked hard and accomplished a lot.

Onward!

In an effort to prove that I really am crazy, when I heard that s00j was doing a house concert at Casa Middleton in Waukegan today (Sunday, July 5, that is -- it's still "today" until I go to bed), at 2 PM, I decided that I would go, even though I had already bought my membership and made my hotel reservations for the aforementioned InConJunction.  I actually succeeded in my plan of getting up in time to be on the road at 11 AM EDT, which would have actually gotten me to the venue on time, except that I was so stupidly full of myself for knowing where I was going that I didn't actually consult the map.  I failed to recognize the area as I came to it, and roads that I was looking for by name were labeled only by route number, so I drove on by and spent at least an extra 20 minutes on my trip.  So I missed the first couple of songs.

I'm not going to try to recap the concert in detail.  I just want to say that, while I'd gotten enough of an impression of s00j at DucKon that I actually did this trip, I was completely blown away.  She was much more than I was expecting.  Amazing voice, great guitar accompaniment, wonderful stage presence and showmanship, and some songs that just reached right down into my soul.  I'm still riding in the afterglow of multiple musical orgasms.  Plus, I'm also aching from laughter.  I hope tollers won't take this the wrong way, but I only knew "Alligator in the House" from her.  When she does it, it's a fun little song, but with s00j's schtick, it's oh my god I think I'm going to die funny.  The Jewish mother alligator just has to be experienced to be believed.  However, that hilarity paled to insignificance compared to a number she did in the circle after the concert, "Don't Suck on my Toes", in which the singer belabors in excruciating detail how that particular kink just does not work for her.  There was a line in there about how it felt like being flossed with warm liver.  I laughed very nearly as long and hard as I at DucKon for the Howl for Mayor McCheese.

Absolutely the only thing wrong with the concert was that it was too short.  But any more wonderful would probably have burned my brain out entirely, so maybe it's for the best.  Even though some people who had said they would be there weren't there, we had a good song circle after the concert.  I got to sing some of my moldy old crap filk classics that I don't believe s00j had heard before, starting with Chris Weber's "Beware of the Sentient Chili" in response to her song about the salad of doom.  I also got more hugs at the concert/party than I had at the con, and I got to snuggle exapno too.

10"x14", watercolors

The Five Character Facts Meme!
*Pick five facts about your character.
*Feel free to elaborate.
*Extra points if you answer in the form of drabbles.

Kingdom is up first!
( Mara )
( Reed )
( Loni )

3 weeks ago, still riding the high from DucKon, I pulled the trigger on InConJunction.  I went all by myself this time.  I had a pretty good time, but it was nowhere near what DucKon had been.

( some recollections )

The InConJunction folks did a good job.  It is not the con's fault that there were fewer of my friends there than I might have hoped, and it certainly isn't their fault that I was shorter than even my usual on emotional energy to connect with new people most of the time.  There was a period in InConJunction's history when the con was actively hostile to filkers, but I certainly didn't have any complaints this year.

Click here: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Chicken-Dance/Tammi-Sauer/e/9781402753664/?itm=1

And see these words: Usually ships in 24 hours.

Okay.

Feeling a LITTLE freaked out. After all this time, people will soon be READING this book.

Holy chicken.

I've just finished reading The Whale Warriors, by Peter Heller, the companion book to the Animal Planet channel series Whale Wars on the Sea Shepherd. The writer/journalist went on the hunt with them in 2005.

The Sea Shepherds are a hardcore anti-whaling group, with two ships at their disposal -- at the time of the book there was only one -- and have been known to sink whaling ships, or at the very least ram them. During the course of the book the chap at the wheel deliberately puts the boat in the way of the whaling ship, and would have been cut in half, if it weren't for the whaling ship turning away at the last moment -- which may have had something to do with the ropes they were about to foul its propeller with, and not to avoid killing a bunch of anti-whalers.

What struck me about it was just how undisciplined and daft the lot of them were. Hooning around in inflatable boats in the harbour, "for fun", and doing so with jetskis later on in open waters outside a Tasmanian harbour, proceeding to flip it over and drown it; six people taking to an inflatable when it wouldn't support that capacity in rough seas, and not even being able to anchor properly when things came to a crunch. What the hell? Didn't they train their volunteers properly?

A number of the chaps on board seemed to be there because they were ex-military and the setup of the boat lent itself to shady, secretive maneuverings that people with gun issues would in all likelihood love to be a part of. Others were hardcore vegans who harassed non-vegans, and the boat was vegan vittles only. The writer was annoyed about this, I sensed between the lines, considering at every opportunity he would stress their veganhood when they were doing something daft.

The people running the show appeared very us-against-the world, and the skipper well familiar with the international marine law; although it says that people breaching international law against poaching can have their property confiscated/destroyed, it also says that boats attempting to sink other boats are pirates and so should get full strength of the law. They skate close to the line, and as I recall they were boarded by the Australian Federal Police earlier this year for pirate activities.

I'm not pro-whaling by any means. Greenpeace's "witnessing" is a bit limp, because although they get footage, they're not exactly going to stop any ship from spearing. Hell, just about every year they get footage and it's not stopped the Japanese government going back for more. Ramming boats with scythes attached to their sides, however, could kill people, and running up a skull and crossbones? Nutter territory.

One would presume that this group would have people all over the world volunteering, and out of those there'd be a fair number who'd have reasonable qualifications to assist properly in the ship's running. Instead you have a bunch of professional card players, a vegan nurse who got kicked out of uni for not participating in dissection (eh?), children of a few prominent eco-founders, and somem random folks who seemed on the far side of sane. Admittedly an Australia sparky joined the ranks when he heard they needed an electrician, but you'd think, at the very least, you'd get a few people with marine experience -- or train them!

They stopped some whaling, yay! On the other hand, I think of the fuckups they had, and that if it wasn't from sheer luck they'd have their volunteers dying because they didn't think it through, because of the skipper deliberately playing chicken with whalers. Only, that was the idea, kinda; if they'd all died that day there would have been an uproar and the Japanese would have been shamed into stopping. Yet not everyone signed up for that. What a bunch of insane proto-murderers! As if the Japanese are any worse than they!

I had this wonderful idea: I want to get a kiddie pool to set up on the deck, so I can let Z splash around in there, and not have to worry about sunblock, since it's under the roof. I had the deck reinforced to support that much weight when it was remodeled, without thinking of the other clever idea I'd need:

How would I drain the pool??