Forgot to mention that Soulsis also gave me some lovely roses from her garden (which she rescued from a horse) and a book on Elizabethan poetry. Very interesting style of writing, very rich and descriptive. Can see where the Victorians got at least some of their inspiration for their 'prose'...

I've trained the cubs to use Mozilla Firefox instead of IE as their internet browser - only they quite unintentionally call it mozarella. <giggling>
Tonight they sat down with me and we looked through some of my old family photos. They picked up the family resemblances between their cousins, my brother, myself and our parents. And they were astonished at how blonde I was when I was little. <g>

Woohoo! Finally worked up enough reward points through AC Nielsen's online surveys to get something useful - a blender! It's taken ages, but then I haven't particpated in every survey they tossed at me. Heh. Might aim for a digital camera next time. Or donate my points to a charity.

Well, looky here. The Van Von Hunter comic site is back, with several updates, too. Well spotted, Joules. : )

And news just in:
... Bloody cat!
I heard her yowling but wasn't quick enough to relieve her of her catch before she darted into my room.
Now I have a live - possibly half-dead - mouse (or young rat, oh joy) hiding under my wardrobe.
Fine, whatever, as long as it doesn't a: die there, or b: crawl over me while trying to find its way out of the room. Tch...

Finally finished the LotR trilogy. I left off reading the last chapter until I was at home cos I knew I'd cry. <g> And I did.
Debated ploughing through the appendixes in the back. Almost decided not to but I started reading one and despite the dryness of the writing got sucked in to the story.
Lots of potential there in the history of Middle Earth...

Happy Birthday, Joules!

Found this at The Meece's Hole. Yes, GoodTwin, I'm very familiar with this model, too...

And continuing on sorting through my 'Ooh! Gotta post this! file:
Here's an interesting explanation as to why anthropomorphic robots freak me out so much. (Incidentally, if you're into furries, there's some interesting stuff on this site. Warnings for Adult content.)

On Joules' recommendation I've started using Eudora as my mail server. It's a nifty bit of gear! Took a while to set up, especially once we tried to add my broadband email addie to the mix (did I mention I have broadband? Hee!) and I would've been completely bamboozled without Joules' help. But it's all sorted now and I'm ridiculously pleased. <g> Thanks, Joules!

Soulsis and her brood came over for a visit today and Soulsis gave me a brilliant bit of material. A purple/yellow striped tablecloth thingy with fringing on either end! I envision a pair of fringed trousers in my near future. <g>
And Soulsis has taken a few pics of some of my treasures, I'll post them soonish. : )

My friend Jackie died almost a decade ago. It was her birthday yesterday, and I dreamt about her last night. She was going on holidays for a few weeks and asked me to look after her flat and pets. Her pets consisted of a small, annoying - and rather malicious - dog and a tankful of very cute rats. There wasn't a cat in sight, which was unusual cos Jackie was a Cat Person. (I've noticed my dreams include pet rats at times when I'm feeling overburdened. Interesting, ne?)
In the dream I knew she was going to die but I wasn't sad, I was enjoying the moment, the chance to be with her and just chat.
Of course, now that I'm awake and remembering I'm bawling my eyes out. Heh. : )

Hm... Broadband.
New technology.
I shall have to poke it with a stick until I'm comfortable with it. : )

This walking stuff appears to be having an effect. My lungs are clearer than they have been for a while.
<blink> And I appear to have dropped a cup size.

There's an army disposal store in our local shopping centre. The male mannequins used to display the combat gear in the shop front have make-up. It's quite an interesting effect - macho-looking fatigues over plastic wash-board stomach, and pouty red lips. <smirk> I'm going to have to nick that image...

Nicked from Onna's blog:

Hmm...


Otaku Level 3


What Stage of Anime Fandom That I Went Through Are You At?
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The cubs' father saw my Cardcaptors boardgame.
"Oh noooo," he smirked. "You're not otaku..."
..... Humph. Smartarse.
I do know however, without looking it up, that that's Revolutionary Girl Utena in the pic above. Heh.

There was a mouse floating dead in the bath a couple of days ago! Bloody cat. Fair enough, there's the possibility it fell in all on its own and drowned but given KK's track record...
And I found a skink's tail in my bedroom the same day. My first thought was 'where's the rest of it?'

At the beginning of the year I was finding the prospect of taking the cubs to school by bus every day daunting. Funny how you get used to things. Catching PT now is kind of meh. : )
I've got heaps of reading done, though.

Ah, I'm having lots of fun riding the wave of creativity - and who'd've thought my roleplaying experience with deck-plans for spaceships would come in handy? <g>

Now, shamelessly copying Joules, I'm posting a wee snippet of mine from our next project. What are we going to call it, anyway?

    Three steps. Three steps and it would all be over...
    The haggard black woman stood in the shadows well back from the doorway, her stooped body quivering towards the dawn light. She ground her teeth together and curled her fingers into her palms so tightly it would've drawn blood from the wounds, if she had blood to draw.
    Three steps and an end to the memories. It would be such a relief...
    She couldn't do it, couldn't bring herself to step into the light. With her 're-awakening' the fog had lifted from her mind and now while she still longed for death she also, perversely, didn't want to die. Before the change, to die would have been nothing, an easy step from one state to another with no regrets but now, without the madness of despair to buffer her, dying would be a terrible loss of self, an emptiness she couldn't face. But why live, if living this could be called?
    Her babies, she'd killed her babies...
    She shut her eyes against the growing brightness and stumbled back into the gloom. Time to feed, then rest. She turned her back on the deadly radiance, turning her attention to the faint stirrings of life hidden within the tunnels. She ignored the small motes that were rats, they weren't worth the effort, but a little way off to the East... Hannah adopted her customary stance - shoulders rounded and head lowered - and shuffled further into the litter-strewn warren, muttering darkly and incoherently to herself, to all appearances another lost soul of the streets.
    Hanna mused on the appropriateness of the 'dregs' of society congregating in the disused railway tunnels. The hopeless, the insane, the anti-social: they were the unwanted sediment drifting downwards to the lowest lying areas of the old city. She'd lived amongst them for years before... Well, before she'd had her choices ripped away.
    There was barely any light in the chamber but Hannah had no trouble discerning the various, malodorous shapes huddled against the walls or curled up on relatively luxurious cardboard beds fashioned from flattened-out boxes. Ah, home...
    None of the room's occupants showed any sign of noticing the newcomer as she prowled amongst them, eventually choosing a bare patch of wall in the corner furthest from the entrance. Hanna swiftly settled herself against the crumbling, cold bricks then after a furtive glance around picked up with great gentleness the wrist of the man snoring beside her. She pushed back the tattered sleeve and sniffed at his skin. None too clean, but how long had it been since that had bothered her?
    The man stirred in his sleep, moaning softly for a moment in pain or arousal before lapsing back into deeper slumber. Hannah licked her lips and tugged her grimy anorak closer about herself, letting her head drop to her breast as she too slid off into sleep.

I think The Bill's jumped the shark a bit. I'm only watching now from habit, not from any enjoyment or actual empathy for any of the characters...

Well, that was an adrenalin-fueled morning! Woke up 20 mins before we were due to catch the bus. We made it though. : ) Very proud of ourselves. Very interesting dreams last night, however. In the first I was being hunted through the suburban streets by a big, slow-moving machine. It wasn't going to do anything evil to me, just something gross and embarrassing (I think The Man Show was involved. <shudder> ). I was trying to hide but its operators noticed me because I was trying to hide.
The other dream was just icky and I'm still trying to sort through that one. There was images in there that'll haunt me for a while.

One of the most annoying things about not having a car is that the weekly shopping - instead of being over with in one day - now takes all week as I have to get it home bit by bit in my backpack and bags. Yes, I could do it all at once and get it delivered but I've always taken a perverse sort of pride in doing things on my own.

Uh oh. Soulsis is discovering the pitfalls of eBay.
I did warn her, and to be fair she's doing better than I did in my first few weeks. (Plus she's won some really cute fishie beads for me! : )

Penny asked me the other day how I managed to get so much sewing done - she's only completed a couple of small squares while I'm half-way through the 2nd quilt.
I grinned and said it was because aside from writing I didn't do anything else!
Housework?
Nah...

Stress is the result of an imbalance between what you want to do, what you are doing, and what you think you should be doing.
Trés profound, n'est ce pas?

Heh. So. Dystopia is winding up and we've already got the next potential project muttering quietly to itself.
It's nice to have something to look forward to, isn't it? <g>
Joules' has posted a teaser snippet on her blog. It's titled 'Study in Bronze'.
Now, I'm intrigued!

Ooops...
The cubs' father has a naginata demonstration today. He washed his - white - gi last night and hung it up to dry on the clothes horse, right next to the trousers I'd tie-dyed purple yesterday.
It's only a small spot but it's noticeable.
Tch, I refuse to feel guilty about it. If you're wanting to keep something spotless you make sure that while it's damp it's not in contact with anything coloured, right?

Heh, well I got as far as laying out (or trying to) the various layers of the first quilt. Had a panicy moment when it looked like I'd miscaluculated somewhere and didn't have enough of the backing, but it was fine I'd simply made the borders too big. Eh, can trim those later.
I think I am going to have to go to my Mum's and get her help with this though. She has a lovely big fold-out table; be easier to work on that rather than messing about on the floor.
And I've begun sewing together the individual strips of the hexagon quilt. Right up until I started combining the strips I wasn't really sure about the colours - I thought they'd work - but now I know they will work. This is going to be another bright and colourful quilt! Hee.

I've more or less stopped working on the first novel, 'Dancing. I was becoming very shy and hesitant about anyone seeing it - it's very personal in an abstract sort of way - so I'm leaving it for the moment and working on something else. : )

Lessons I have learnt #9:

If you're patient, sooner or later all that you desire will be marked down... : )
To whit (to whoo!) I found a music CD that I've wanted for a year has been reduced by 50%. Happy Lutra.

This is annoying. This link used to go to the Van Von Hunter comic but now it doesn't. Momentary glitch? Perhaps not. The first volume of a manga version has just been released. Removing the 'net-version might have been a condition of publication. Pooh.

I've noticed in some areas of fandom 'sporking' refers to the practise of taking the mick out of bad fics, kind of like MST-ing where the sporker inserts their own, usually acidic, comments into the text.
I prefer our version of sporking: to gently prod someone into action, by nagging and/or the judicious application of prawns. : )

The Sex-Workers Collective over here has come up with a novel fund-raising idea. On a particular day soon, participating brothels will donate a percentage of their take to the Tsunami aid appeal, specifically to help the sex-workers in the countries affected. Apparently they'll be giving their clients little badges (sort of like the red noses, I guess) so they can proudly show evidence of their contribution to the cause. The badges carry slogans, one of which is 'Tsunami Sex Appeal: I gave a f*ck.' <smirk>

The more I read about Faramir the more I like him. (*hearts Faramir* <g> Sorry, that was unforgivably fan-girly. Hee.)
And speaking of fan-girly, I picked up a copy of the Cardcaptors board-game for $6! I do have a soft spot for the show. Magical girl! Wheeee! Sakura is so cute! <squinch>

I'm as twitchy as a cat... there's a ginormous huntsman lurking in the kitchen. It keeps disappearing...

Oh good, it looks like my puir wee injured cub will keep his cute profile. Save for a tiny bump his nose is almost back to what it was. How do I know this? By comparing him with his brother - they had the same profile. : )

There was an article in this weeks Time magazine about children's imaginary friends and how research is showing they're probly not a sign of a deranged psyche.
This bit made me laugh:

"The interplay of real and imaginary doesn't have to stop at the end of childhood. ... interviewing fiction writers and finding that they interact with their characters in some ways that parallel children's make-believe play. Authors often report that their characters seem to have autonomous lives, dictating their own dialogue, controlling the plot of stories and sometimes refusing to do what the authors ask of them..."

Well, goodness, who'd have thought...? <smirk>

I'm noticing similarities between Tolkien's writing and some of the ancient Greek plays. The major characters in both, the heroes and nobles, are treated with dignity and gravity, their speech tends to be formal if not downright grand. The lesser characters, the support cast, however are freer in what they can say - lighter, more human if you like. If anybody's going to laugh out loud it's more likely to be at something a secondary character says or does.
I vaguely remember something from High School about the 'chorus' being there in 'Antigone' as a connecting bridge between the plebs in the audience and the lofty characters portrayed on stage. Or I could be mis-remembering. Eh.

I heard this (inaccurately quoted - I didn't catch all of it) on an episode of Jimmy Neutron the other day:

"I am at the pointy end of the food-chain. Gaze upon my opposable thumbs and tremble!"

<g>

Still reading 'Two Towers'.
The word gangrel was used by Faramir (who is far more noble and courteous in the book than the movie) to describe Gollum. Interesting word, I'd come across it before in the White Wolf role-playing system where Gangrel is the name of one of the Vampire clans. Had the game designers nicked it from Tolkien, I wondered? Anyway I looked it up and apparently it's a Scots word meaning 'vagabond or drifter', possibly derived from a middle English word - gangen - which means 'to go'. See? It all makes sense now…
Heh, and I don't just mis-hear things, I mis-read stuff all the time as well.

Faramir to Frodo: "Do not approach their citadel. You will be espied. It is a place of sheepless malice..."

... Pardon?
It was of course, "sleepless malice...", but it made me giggle.

There's an art to browning onions. First of all you have to use plenty of oil or butter (a teaspoon? I don't think so) and then the heat has to be high enough to cook them without being so hot they turn to charcoal. If in doubt use a lower heat, and be patient. Good browned onions, like a good sauce, take time.

Which fandom has the worst fanfic? Mary-Sues, OOC's, just plain nonsense?
So far, in my hardly extensive reading, I have to say the Harry Potter-verse has turned out a goodly amount of tripe, with LotR coming a close second. True, not all of it is crap, and they're not the only fandoms to be afflicted by bad writing. (Professionals - 'The best Cowboys have Chinese eyes.'. Farking… what? That was the first truly awful fanfic I'd read. I don't think I've recovered yet. And don't get me started on Jane's efforts…)
Admittedly I'm more likely to give a bad fic a go if I'm interested in the fandom but I don't think I've ever managed to finish a HP story.
It's possible, I suppose, that the bigger fandoms will have a higher proportion of rubbish because there's just so many more people active in it. And supporting that theory is the fact that within the smaller fandoms I tend to find more care is taken over the stories. Go figure.

Finally caught up with Sublunary. Phew! It's a very attractive comic but I have problems with 14 year-old geniuses, and this story is stuffed with 'em! Still, it has pretty boyz rabbiting away so I can't complain too loudly - except to say it could do with more rabbiting, thanks. : )

Hee. A friend of the cubs' father has just come back from travelling and in exchange for a naginata bag he asked her to bring back some snow domes for me! <g> Now I'm the proud owner of a particularly tasteful clear acrylic pyramid that has drifts of golden sparklies swirling around miniature sphinxes and pyramids, and a glass dome containing a black swan, from Perth, similar to the one OkapiPrincess got me a little while back.
I need to get Soulsis back here with her digital camera (and the cable, this time) so I can take some photos of my treasures. Then I can upload them and share the joy.

Awww, one of my cubs made me a V-day card... It's decorated with hand-drawn pictures of Spongebob Squarepants characters. You know, I still think they haven't quite got the idea of giving someone what they'll be interested in. : )

It's overcast and drizzly today - cool, but not cold. Perfect. This was the sort of day where I used to love taking photos of raindrops on leaves and flowers, trying to capture that luminosity plants have when it's overcast. Man-made objects tend to go flat and dull under a cloudy sky, but plants really glow - it's beautiful...

Tch. Scared myself earlier - checked my blog only to find the latest post (this one) wasn't there!
No of course it wasn't, cos I'd only drafted it, hadn't uploaded yet. <shakes head> Honestly, I wonder at myself sometimes...

You know I'd almost managed to forget Valentine's Day. It's not that I have issues with this opportunity to 'show someone you care' but at this time of year I'm more likely to be either wallowing in cynicism or self-pity, depending on where I am on my highly volatile emotional scale. And that just makes me cross at myself.

Moving right along…
I now have 19 paté knives thanks to the pair Soulsis gave me the other day! (Forgot to mention it, baka-moi.) Still trying to figure out the best way to display them…

I've been eyeing off the Easter decorations – some of them will be perfect for my Summer Xmas. : ) Not the daft rabbit and egg things but I've seen some lovely little birds and garlands of flowers. Much more appropriate for an antipodean Xmas than bloody snowmen.

'Finale', Joules and my second last Dystopia chapter, will be posted soon. I'm on a roll now, I could get on with that final chapter. Or the next 'Elga', perhaps? Hm...

"Holy Bonking Bishies, Batman!"

<smirk> I've stumbled across a tasty little online comic called Sublunary. Anime influenced, very nicely drawn, lots of updates and goes back about 18 months. Graphic yaoi - no annoying little clouds obscuring the action - and shota. (And if there's anyone here who doesn't know by now what yaoi is - Google it.) Needless to say I'd advise against opening this at work or where curious (nosy) children who ask awkward questions can see.
I'm enjoying it immensely though I have issues with what some of the characters are wearing. (Yes, I know this is a fangirl's comic full of fan-service, but honestly! Was there a run on fishnet?)

I was flicking through my dictionary...
Emulous: zealously, jealously, imitative or desirous of.
Neat, eh?

Soulsis popped 'round on Friday. We browsed eBay for a while, she won her first online auction <g> and we went opp-shopping. Soulsis also returned my saucepan, the one we took camping and which got lost in her car on the way home, and she gave me a strobing fish! You squish its head and it flashes. Hee! Thanks, Soulsis!

The next Islandkateers weekend away looks to be taking place at the end of April on the Anzac day long weekend. Excellent, I shall start saving immediately.

I found last week that I was quite enjoying walking, more so when I didn't have the cubs with me. Then I could happily amble along in my own little world without the constant chatter. : ) I love my cubs, I really do, but they talk all the time! They're as bad as my mum...

The (probably) penultimate joint Dystopia chapter will be finished soon. Then it'll be just the epilogue to finish and we're done. Blimey. Another project winding up. Cor, I'm not going to have any excuses left for not getting on with my real writing!

This came from Onna's blog:

Think about what cities or towns you've lived in (not just visited) in your life, and post them in your journal:

Do suburbs count as towns? Cos aside from the place in Hertfordshire - that I can never remember the name of and anyway left when I was 6 - I've only lived in Melbourne. Mind you, it's been a few places in Melbourne.
Let's see:
Pascoe Vale (in the North, to my shame)
Campbellfield (ditto)
Windsor (trendy South-Eastern. yeah!)
South Yarra (ditto)
Box Hill (solid Eastern suburb)
Elwood (trendy beachside suburb. yeah!)
Hawthorn (older, trendyish Eastern suburb)
Glen Iris (expensive Eastern)
Camberwell (ditto)
Box Hill (different area than previously)
Ashburton (not quite so upmarket Sth Eastern)
East Malvern ('posh' suburb)
Ashwood (becoming expensive SE suburb)

Well, there you go.

"Vo morket rei."

That's the phrase given to me (in my napping dream this afternoon) by a friend (Alarice, I think). It was like a password, so I could recognize the aliens that would be visiting soon, and so they could recognize me as one of the 'forewarned'...

Oh pooh. <grump> No matter how I try to wangle it I simply can't afford to buy myself a dvd this week. Oh well, perhaps next week.
And I had a quick look for vcrs this afternoon. They're quite cheap now but it doesn't look like the 'long-play' function is a standard anymore. Eh, I'm sure there's at least one model available somewhere, and it's not like those tapes GoodTwin sent me a couple of years ago can't wait just a bit longer to be watched. <g>

... there's really not a lot of intelligence in a piggle's eyes, is there?
Having said that it's kind of scary the way my piggle treats her food. She'll sink her teeth into the piece of lettuce and drag it to the back of the cage. It's not a great distance, admittedly, but it's the sense she's dragging her prey into her lair to be devoured that's disturbing. Perhaps she was a carnivore in her last life? Perhaps she remembers what it was like to rend flesh? That would explain her general air of psychosis...

Heh, these past couple of days I've managed to do without aspirin as preventative analgesia so I can walk. This is a good thing. There might actually be some health benefits in this exercise nonsense. : )

I'm fed up with not being able to always get online when I want to. I use the net at specific times for a reason and I can get very shirty if I have to wait. So I'm getting broadband. Installation slated for the end of the month. My account for my computer. So there.

Mmmmm.... pink stuff... Such is its power that all woes are as midges in its presence. Happy now...

<blinkblink> ... I think this is a joke.
I got it from a 'We Hate Mary-Sues' site. There's only 3 questions... My eyes hurt...


omg wats gonna happen lolz well he said ur not
ready plus...kinda young huh but u nvr kno okay
but just one question wat name is better the
one already or Pain, Love, and Revenge with
Draco by ur side


.::pRiNcEsS oF sLyThErIn::.
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It's wet again. Not cold and windy as well, this time, just wet. If I didn't know better I'd say we'd hit Autumn early. But I do know better – I know that there'll more hothothot days before the Summer's done with us.

One of my cubs came into me at 5.30 this morning after a nightmare – been ages since either of them have done that but then again it's been ages since there's been clear enough space on my bed for someone other than myself. (KittenKong doesn't count, she'll happily sleep on top of the rubbish : )
Interesting dream, though. He and his brother were sitting in the back of a big rubber bus. He was looking out of the window enjoying the view but his brother told him to stop looking there and look where he wanted him to. He ignored his brother, who then pushed him out of the bus and the dream turned into a 'falling' nightmare. Oh dear. But he went back to sleep easily enough after he cuddled up to me.

Decisions, decisions.
In Melbourne this coming Sunday is both the Chinese New Year Dragon Parade and the Midsumma carnival. Both should be lots of fun, could probly spend a bit of time at each though the cubs' father said he wouldn't mind taking them to the Chinese thing, that would leave me free to frolic down by the Yarra with Aaronpoohs and friends. (Tch, what am I saying? I'll most likely end up being the only parent awake anyway... Cynical? No, just years of experience...)
(By the way, Melbourne's dragon is Dai Loong. Fantastic creature. I was at the 'waking up' ceremony one year and I almost wet myself. There was an effing dragon and it was waking up! Fortunately he's a friendly, protective dragon, but the energy generated by the event made my hair stand on end. <g> )

And on to the next Dystopia chapter...

Meep! Oh pooh - both volume 2 of Wolf's Rain and volume 3 of Last Exile are in the shop. Plus the cubs are making chibi eyes at me about the series 1 boxed set of Transformers. Tch, can't really justify it this week: let's face it, if it came down to a DVD for me or bus fares for the 3 of us for the whole week... Oh well, I've got a birthday coming up, I can start dropping broad hints. <g>

Funny thing last week while we were having all the wind and rain. Looking at the weather report and seeing the swirling vortex of (dooooom!) cloud hovering over Melbourne I thought, hang on - when that weather pattern appears in our tropical North it's called a cyclone...

Woohoo! Go us! Both Joules and I have managed to finish one of our final Dystopia chapters each! I think we can get away with possibly one more joint chapter, and an epilogue of sorts - and then there's the not-sequel. I should explain. The main arcs of Dys are being wound up and while I hadn't really considered continuing the series there's still one or two largish plot bunnies gamboling about the place, making a mess. It wouldn't be as big as the original, more of a mini-series. But I'll think about it later. : )
Did I mention I'd finished that last Elga chapter? It's posted now - thanks, Joules!

Aaaand I've finished sewing up the last of the strips for the hexagon quilt. Still haven't attempted pinning together the first one, though.

All this walking might be doing my cardio-vascular fitness a power of good but it's grinding my ankles to dust. Whinge, moan, complain. <g> I'll shut up now.

Cor, we've been having some weather lately! Record-breaking stuff apparently. The most rain ever in a 24, or 48 hour period, coldest February day ever, and at the height of it the State Emergency Service fielded the most amount of calls for help ever. Gods, I love Melbourne. : )
The cubs saw their first blown-over trees on the way to school yesterday as well, that was exciting, one had come down over the pavement. I walked around the obstruction, my cubs... crawled through it. <rolls eyes>

KittenKong is a good indicator of how cold a night has been. If it was hot she's stretched out on the floor by my bed, if it wasn't hot she's on the bed, but if it was cold she's curled up right next to me. That's just one of the reasons I like Winter, my cat gets cuddly.

I've been shown how to use the school's new library computer catalogue. It's easy peasy, a lot less labour intensive than the old system. Good, now I can get back to helping with the library work. Not that the school has a library yet, not until the new building's finished, but there's boxes and boxes of books that need to be catalogued. <happy sigh> Felt at a loss last year not working in the library, I'm looking forward to getting stuck back in.

<g> Started one of the Dystopia winding-up chapters... this is going to be fun...

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...