The World Spins Madly On

So, November was a bit of a No Posting month. Whoops! I spent most of the last week violently ill, with what sounded like the rising of the Old Ones in my belly. Not good! Fortunately I am now recovered, apart from a touch of Post-Illness Feebleness.

A month or so back I joined a choir at long last. It's a pretty laid back sort of choir, we just sing a bit, we'll probably do the odd concert here and there because the conductor has lots of concerts. There's one next Saturday - apparently we'll be warming up the audience with some Christmas carols. The thing is, I have come to dread doing carols in a choir. I'm sure you're wondering what on earth could be hard about carols. Everyone knows them, right? The problem is, you see, that I'm an alto. The bits of carols that everyone knows are the melodies. But that's not what we get to sing. So every time, we have to unlearn what we know, and start over. While someone else is singing the bit we actually know over the top. It sounds great when we get it right, but OMG SO HARD!

ETA: ALSO! It is snowing again. Only about another centimeter so far, but it looks set to keep going for a while yet.

And now on to Stuff That's Neat!

cluegirl wrote a glorious little Greek Mythology fic. It's about 900 words, so a quick read - you should check it out, especially mah Classics Geek Peeps. In September - In September, the Oracle of Delphi came, carrying a box of brightly colored chalk.

Pansy cookies! How cute are these? I am totally having a go next spring.

Pink has a new single called Raise Your Glass. The video is glorious and a bit weird. And has the F word in it a couple of times, so probably don't play it at work.

I think there was something I was going to talk to you about today, but I cannot get past this.

Go, cats! Go!

From the way the cat was carrying on last night, there is probably something small and dead somewhere in my bedroom. It is not, however, immediately obvious.

The thorough tidy up just got bumped up the priority list. Sigh.

There was something I needed to do this morning. I wonder what it was?

Climbing went pretty well last night. I stuck to the 5As (the easy ones), but the last climb of the night was a lead climb, which is when you take the rope up with you clip in to the wall as you go. It was still a 5A climb, so the handholds were easy, but it's a much longer climb (12m) than the top-rope routes (where there is already a rope hanging from the top), and it was on a slight backwards incline. But I did it! \o/

There's a new sushi place opened in town. It's part of a chain, and although the presentation is very snappy, it's more expensive and just not quite as good as Yen. Yen > Yo. Which is good, because Yen is independent, and I like supporting independent places when I can.

I also scoped out a relatively new cafe, JikaJika. It's big and airy, and feels a bit funky. The food looks great (I only had a bit of flapjack, which was delicious) and, wait for it, they do Flat Whites. More to the point, they do good Flat Whites. HALLELUJAH. Because it turns out that it's not just nostalgia talking, New Zealand coffee really is that much better. But these guys meet my Standards For Coffee.

One of the ladies at work (OK, I don't work there anymore, but you know what I mean) is having a leaving lunch tomorrow, and wants me to go. I'm a little dubious. I kind of don't want to go back, but I like her and she was really supportive when I needed support. Ah, well. I shall just put my Big Girl Panties on and deal with it. It's not as though I don't like any of the people there. Just some of them. >_>

The garden is starting to look like less of a wilderness. It's amazing how overgrown it can get in just a few weeks!

In other news, the Conservative Culture Secretary is talking about reducing funding for the BBC. It used to be that we needed commercial media to protect us from the Government. These days we need Government funded media to protect us from gross commercialism. I hardly ever watch live TV, but I am happy to pay my TV licence fee (£11-12 per month) to have a station that a) doesn't have ads and b) will stand up for its right to screen things like Jerry Springer: The Musical. I don't care about the show itself, I care that the BBC used its funding to push some boundaries.

The thing that is particularly concerning is the inference that he is nosing around reducing the TV Licence, but finding ways to charge for watching things online. DO NOT WANT.

From the Guardian:
Hunt stressed his commitment to the licence fee. But he warned: "The way we collect it may have to be rethought, because technology is changing, a lot of people are watching TV on their PCs.

"We're not going to introduce a PC licence fee and that is something that I do need to have discussions with the BBC to see what their ideas are."

Other links:
From the Tory Blog website
From the BBC
From the Telegraph
It's under discussion here at ontd_political

Brits, there's a a prompt for contacting your MP here, should you wish to do so.

Some Random Things:

Sonoma County, CA, incarcerate elderly couple in separate rest homes, sell their belongings and terminate their lease. Welcome to The Land of the Free.

Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the UK give Google a spanking over Buzz and StalkerStreet View.

Lib Dems scare themselves and everyone else by leaping ahead in the polls after the first British Election Debate. Britishers! May 6th - don't forget to hit the polling station.


And for the lulz, two blogs that had me weeping with laughter:
Awkward Family Photos - Does what it says on the tin. Awkward
Hyperbole and a Half - "As a grammatically conscientious person who frequents internet forums and YouTube, I have found it necessary to develop a few coping mechanisms. When someone types out "u" instead of "you," instead of getting mad, I imagine them having only one finger on each hand and then their actions seem reasonable. If I only had one finger on each hand, I'd leave out unnecessary letters too!"

L2 (looking at A's computer screen): Oh my god, what are you wearing?
A (groaning): Practically nothing!

The best bit? It doesn't suffer much in explanation. A is doing a dance show which includes removing white trousers to reveal black hotpants and stockings, and folks? Those hotpants are teeny. She showed us video.

Beat the hell out of seeing Big Boss in a neon green mankini on Friday. (Over clothes, thanks be, but still traumatic.)

Totally pinched off someone else:

Investment tips for 2009 for all of you with any money left, be aware of the next expected mergers so that you can get in on the ground floor and make some BIG bucks.

1.) Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush, and W. R. Grace Co. Will merge and become: Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace.

2.) PolyGram Records, Warner Bros., and Zesta Crackers join forces and become: Poly, Warner Cracker.

3.) 3M will merge with Goodyear and become: MMMGood.

4. Zippo Manufacturing, Audi Motors, Dofasco, and Dakota Mining will merge and become: ZipAudiDoDa

5. FedEx is expected to join its competitor, UPS, and become: FedUP.

6. Fairchild Electronics and Honeywell Computers will become: Fairwell Honeychild.

7. Grey Poupon and Docker Pants are expected to become: PouponPants.

8. Knotts Berry Farm and the National Organization of Women will become: Knott NOW!

And finally

9. Victoria 's Secret and Smith & Wesson will merge under the new name: TittyTittyBang Bang

Up for the "Who thought that was a good idea" award today is Beetroot Tahina. Be afraid. I swear, anything that colour is supposed to be packed with sugar and artificial flavouring. I can only imagine how traumatic it would be to see it in a bowl somewhere and think you were getting fake cherry and sugar and instead get a mouthful of Beetroot Tahina. Just no, people.

On the other hand, stem ginger and dark chocolate ice cream. Om nom nom.

For those who were interested, MAC the Academy Cow was an idea that died quietly. No squeezy cows for us. I, for one, am deeply relieved. It was gonna be a tough job to make that work.

Work has been nuts for the last couple of weeks. Our big launch event kicked off on Tuesday. After working till 7.30 a couple of nights last week I gave it up and got in a temp. God, that was a good move. We have both been fully occupied for the last week, which means I was trying to do the workload of two people. Man, I am dumb sometimes. I get to go to the event on Monday, which will be awesome, except for the 3.5 hour train trip to get there on Sunday night. Boo.

For some reason this picture has, within two weeks of posting, become my third most viewed picture ever. I... don't get it. I mean, it's kind of neat, but it's also gumboots. Can anyone expain this?