Why can't people take responsibility for their own rubbish? It appals me how much litter there is left to blow around the streets - bus tickets, papers, food wrappers and the bloody everpresent cigarette butts. The cubs and I always bring our rubbish home for sorting, why can't others? I just don't understand the 'it's not my problem' attitude towards environmental issues. Okay, fine, the cities and suburbs aren't pristine wilderness but rubbish left lying around in the streets ends up in the waterways, both inland and coastal.
We have one planet, people, one chance, one home. If we kill her we kill ourselves.

Finished reading Fellowship and started on Two Towers. This is much better paced, faster, more involving. Mind you, I suspect the ponderous wallowing in angst from the first book will continue whenever Frodo makes an appearance.
I like Arogorn's description of the Horse Lords:

"They are proud and willful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years."

<g> I'd like to get hold of 'The Unfinished Tales' which apparently has details of the Rohirrim's military structure. Probly should clear the backlog of overdue fines at the library before trying there. Heh.

(As I'm drafting this [in Word, cos housemate snuck online before me <grumble> ] it's pissing down outside. Actually that's a bit of an exaggeration, it's closer to widdling, light but consistent. : ) Desperately needed, though, been weeks since the last decent rain. And it's cold, too! Woohoo! I love Melbourne: sweltering one day, freezing the next. You know it's never going to be hot for long.
It's almost chilly enough to consider lighting the fire but I refuse to do that on principle. It's the middle of the Summer for goodness sake! If anyone's cold they can put more clothes on. Besides, the pilot light for the heater is off and it's a real bugger to light again.)
(Added later: It started pissing down in earnest when I went to pick the cubs up from school. Typical. But the cubs are now proud owners of - matching - umbrellas. They're very pleased. And I gave in and lit the fire once we got home - was just too chilly otherwise. : )
(And later again: Apparently we've just had the coldest February day on record: 13 C. That's a typical mid-Winter temperature. Okay, so now I don't feel like such a wuss for putting the heater on.)

The cub with the sore nose is feeling better, thank you. : ) Swelling hasn't gone down completely and he's almost got the raccoon-mask black eyes but he says it doesn't hurt that much and he's not reliant on pain-killers. Rotten thing won't let me take photos though. <grump> He - and his brother - wouldn't let me photograph their recent rashes, either. Tch, spoil all my fun...

As we were traveling to school by bus this morning, I saw a gorgeous old, cream-coloured Rolls Royce. Wow! The back seat looked like a couch and there was so much leg room! You'd get all your shopping in there with no problem. Ah, luxury...

The next chapter of 'Elga' is almost finished. It's taken an unreasonable amount of time to do given how short it is. Got stalled on the lemony bits again. <sigh> But anyway once that's out of the way I can move along with finishing my share of the plot arcs in 'Dystopia'. Not a huge amount to tie up, though there's one longish story I'd like to tackle, an idea that's been lurking around for years. It's not going to be part of the main arcs, more of a side-story, and doesn't involve any of the main charas so I guess there's no hurry for it.
It's interesting, I'm finding a lot of old ideas are beginning to surface now and work their ways into the various continua I play with. And I mean old, some of this stuff has been moldering in the back-rooms of my brain for a decade or two. Don't think this means I'm going to run dry of new ideas, though. Heavens, no. It occurred to me the other day that I haven't attempted a Vampire story yet. <bg> That could be fun.

The architects chosen to design the new school have produced some computer images of the proposed building. It's nice enough, inoffensive. 'Modern and interesting' our principal says of the design. Heh, possibly, but likely to be thought of as 'dated and twee' in 15 years. : )
I still miss the old school, especially the library. Ah well...