• http://twitpic.com/wwell – Hershey in the snow, via my father. #chocolatelab #labrador #uksnow #
• If you have trouble spelling ROGUE, imagine it's pronounced "roh-gew". Or think of "Roll On, Great Underground Empire". #PSA #dogbugz #zork #
• Why @newsmediaimages is MY NEW HERO: http://tinyurl.com/ycn8tzv Well, maybe Murphy is the hero and he's just the wisecracking sidekick... #
• #vss A mountainful of noise, terror and white was rushing at them. Weft hid behind Suitov. Suitov faced the avalanche, whistling cheerfully. #
• The snow is starting to look rather dirty, especially in the gutters and the middle of the road. #brownfall #
• Like I needed more reason to love Golden Retrievers best among dogs, here's another: http://bit.ly/6j1n1j #dogs #goldenretriever #dogsvscats #
• Interested to see on a broadcasting compliance form that "strong language" is defined as the F-word or stronger. So "shit" is OK, then?! #
• Is there any webthing that crawls, harvests the contents of [abbr] tags and builds its own acronym/abbreviation database? If not... why not? #
• Thought I'd stay here until the backup finished, but it says 18 minutes left and I'm tired. Fuggedaboudit. Going home. #

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

• Fielding calls from home, where we have no internet and mum doesn't know if her workplaces are closed (looks like they all are). #
• A Potted History of Man's Relationship with the Dog: http://bit.ly/6eIle7 (I have the Cave Canem mural framed on a postcard) #cerberus #dogs #
• The Euronews kiosk owner was outside throwing snowballs (win). "Nice weather, eh?" he said to me. "Yeah... for huskies," I replied. #
• A page about the doctrine of double effect has double double letters in its filename: doubleeffect.xml #thingsthatamuseme #

I decided to tweet some of my bugbears. More to follow.

• AFFECT is a verb: you can "affect" an outcome (or "affect" a foreign accent). EFFECT is a noun: your actions have an "effect". #PSA #dogbugz #
• BEGGING THE QUESTION doesn't mean what you think it means. Be kind to philosopher-pedants by saying "invites the question". #PSA #dogbugz #
• EVERYDAY is an adjective. It means humdrum, mediocre. If you mean to say something happens daily, say "every day". Or "daily". #PSA #dogbugz #
• HOT UP isn't a real verb. The newspapers are just trying to save space. Outside headline-land, things "heat up" or "warm up". #PSA #dogbugz #

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

You know what I noticed? Getting stuff done makes time pass more slowly, in the long run.
I'm more used to thinking it's one or two days earlier than it actually is, but this week I have the feeling it's Wednesday when in fact it's Tuesday. Whee.

I've been wibbling this morning if I should go out and test the camera or not (cold weather, I mentioned), but decided I can't always put off stuff I want to do. Temperature wasn't really a problem, since the air was fairly dry, I was properly dressed, and walking pumped blood to my fingers and kept them warm.

Otherwise I, well, kept up with stuff. The tidying up in my room needed a bit of catching up, since it had been deteriotating a bit since last Friday, but it was still not much work.

I FINALLY found out what settings to change where to make the IDE work as needed. :D
The guy running the class also sent around a mail on Monday cancelling the meeting tomorrow, so there's an extra week to work on stuff, so I might actually contribute something. I hate being useless in group work. X(
Also, the SVN repository is acting up again. *sigh*

Ehwell. More to do tomorrow. :)

ey am KROS!!!!!

whiet stuf comes upp parst mey TUMY!!!!

whitt stuf is att front ov hows (BOTHE DORRS) and ALLSO ATT BAKK!!!

ey duw knot wont tuw goa OWT SIEDD orr ues mi LITR BOKKS inn garrag becos itt is TUW FULL ov littr and litr iz KNOT EVin MEY FAVOURUT BRANND!!!!!!!

ey can knot fiend mowsies tuw catkh undar whitee steff annd all mey owtsied WARTER has bein ripplaised bei COLLD HArD STUF!!! ey amm having tuw arsk at KICHIN SINCK fo mai drincs annd teh stupd foods maek me begg foa 10 sekinds annd oanlee prrovied a meezlee bol of watr not fiennest goatts MILLK in CHINER SORSER!!

HAS EVR a KATT SUFFRDD seu mutch HARRDSHIPP!!!

• Good roleplaying opportunity: during Shadow Hunters, playing the Unknown, I pretended to be Francis's dead aunt. It worked too! #boardgames #
• (Bear in mind that Shadow Hunters has a simple mechanic. The Unknown can pretend to be other characters, not dead aunts.) #boardgames #
• Puns, Sadism and Animal Training – Herm Baskerville-Liesmith #psdvd (apparently I sneaked Uncle Loki's name into the credits for a bet) #
• This is what "a nice, quiet town" means in Georgia, USA: http://bit.ly/59RfW0 #whyisthisnewsanyway #
• So, Basshunter on #CBB. (I prefer E-Type but still yay.) Prediction: The Internet will #RATM him, for he is its friend. http://bit.ly/5t7YBH #
• UK: Done jury duty & feel strongly about it? Willing to be interviewed this week by my colleague? DM me if I may give her your contact info. #
• Well, survived the first Monday & a backlog of 9 #TFTD episodes. Nice to be back; look forward to finding out what I'm working on this year. #

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Nyphilgyphelau watched through the one-way mirror as the next demoness tried her luck.

"Hello. What is your name?" asked the captive.

"It's whatever you want it to be, handsome," the demoness breathed. She was statuesque, golden-haired, in a gown of exquisite shadow that grazed the floor behind her.

"I'd rather know what you prefer to call yourself," the captive said patiently.

"You can call me Smoky, your lordship. Smoky Martini." The demoness licked a fingertip and gave him a seductive smile.

"Pleasant to meet you. And how long have you worked in this place, Ms Martini?"

The demoness hooded her eyes. "Okay. I'll level with you, your lordship. I'm desperate for a man's touch. I'm not after conversation; I just want to get on with it and get off."

There was a sigh. "Then, Ms Martini, I do not think we can help each other. Good day." The captive watched her leave without much interest, then resumed pacing the floor.

Nyphilgyphelau, dressed in red from her blood-red tresses to her hind hooves, looked on. "Dysfunction!" she swore. He had been polite to all the women, but Nyphilgyphelau could see the captive's temper was growing tired. Not much longer and the game would be up.

The demoness who had called herself Smoky, and was really called Thrgencephmurrit, showed up beside Nyphilgyphelau. "This is going nowhere," she observed.

The man stalked back and forth across the full width of the room. Nyphilgyphelau imagined a lashing tail there, icy vapour seething from a chimney-like snout. Of all the habits she'd learned from mortals, imagination was her favourite. 'The sight beyond what is seen', that was what she'd heard someone call it.

"Should we try telling him the truth?" asked Thrgencephmurrit.

Nyphilgyphelau considered that. "I think it's too late. He'd object to not having been told in the first place." There! She could see it so clearly and she hadn't even tried telling him. That was imagination, that was. The sight beyond! Such power...

Thrgencephmurrit made a noise like a duet between a kookaburra and Godzilla, which meant she was annoyed. "What's wrong with him? Our comeliest nymphs have tried with him. I know he was interested in the dark-skinned warrior lass, but he sent her away like all the others."

"How many women has he back home?" Nyphilgyphelau asked.

"I checked. Just the one." Thrgencephmurrit was taking this failure hard. Nyphilgyphelau suspected the taller demoness was developing a soft spot for mortals in general.

"That explains it. Probably in love or something," she said.

"These monoamorous fools! Bless them all to impotence!" exploded Thrgencephmurrit.

"Language, darling!" said Nyphilgyphelau softly.

"Well, it's too much. He'd give us such strong children. Dark, wily little demons. We need him."

Nyphilgyphelau touched the glass. The captive paced up and down. "No sense crying over unspilt seed," she said after a moment. "I'm writing this one off as a failure."

"Another."

Like that rude wolf man, and that hyperactive dwarf who wasn't even male. Too many failures. The planetary conjunction had but scant days left and there would be no more opportunities for 600 years. Meanwhile, Thrgencephmurrit's judgement was worsening if anything. If they didn't manage to kidnap some properly horny men soon, their plans were doomed.

"And his familiar?" Nyphilgyphelau asked as an afterthought. "As obstinate as the master?"

"Not at all," said Thrgencephmurrit. "He's impregnated twelve nymphs already."

There was a little white fluff on the sidewalk this morning that needed removing, so I did that after the bit of gymnastics. Afterwards I went shopping.

Fun moment: One section of an aisle had the special offer was "training" stuff, dumbbells and whatnot, banking on the "I will do something for my fitness/lose weight in the new year"-crowd. The next had leftover offers from last week, with the electric fondue set right at the start.

Most of the rest of the day I spent at the computer.
Still no luck with the IDE.
The club is running or at least walking, and the next mrcaex round started.

In between I helped cooking my own lunch, and got distracted by my new camera arriving. Upgraded from a Canon Power Shot A430 to a SX10 IS. It will take some getting used to. Quite apart from the whole being able to set stuff like aperture manually, it's just.... kinda conspicious. I can't really carry it along in my little handbang. XD

Getting a new camera when a) your favourite kind of photography is "nature", b) They're predicting subzero temperatures for the next two weeks and c) you get cold easily is a bit suboptimal, but I shouldn't complain.

Something I've been trying: I write down stuff I want to get done the next day on a sticky note, and stick it on the side of my screen. Been doing that for a few days now, and I think it helps prevent procrastination. Not perfectly, but a good deal.

This morning I slept in a bit, but not badly, and used the rest of the morning to catch up with Deviantart messages.

Fun moment of the day: Someone who'd faved this of my images

had highlighted on his own page this one:
Eclectic tastes rock. :D

I helped a bit with lunch (fried fish filets), and afterwards tackled uni stuff.

Given that I spent pretty much the whole afternoon and more-or-less-early evening at it (minus breaks to download stuff), I did not get much done. What I hate most about programming is trying to get the compiler/IDE to work. I seem to have rotten luck with those things.

And, well, comic strip, see below. First image for 2010, yay! And will it ever take time to get used to the 2 being followed by only one 0 rather than two...

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

• Introduced the guys to Akinator.com. It successfully guessed Myra Hindley, CATS, Rajah (Aladdin), Harry Potter. Failed at Beverly Sutphin. #
• Just watched it. I stand by my "Russell T apocalypse oneupmanship is crap" sentiment, but I liked the whole living ghost part. Educational. #
• Walking ghost, even. http://bit.ly/8bpZEA I like to feel I've learned something from my scifi. Or, well, just enjoyed quiff boy's suffering. #
• RT @stephenfry: A microblog of farewell. http://tinyurl.com/yktbker Sxxxx // Thank fuck no more darts BS, I was so close to unfollowing him. #
• If budding furries @metaltax and @degsy want scarring for life, they should look up the terms #macrophilia and #vore. #howdoIknowthisstuff #
• But enough of the mental scarring. Here: a happy, safe video that will in no way traumatise you and can never be unseen. http://bit.ly/GjgMv #
• Cooing and whooping at Days 3 and 4, but the ones after that don't play in IE or FF @RealBillBailey http://bit.ly/8OUx1V #

(Apparently this was Moustache Day in Very Short Storyland, although I didn't notice I'd done two on the same theme until much later.)

• #vss "Why the hell would I get rid of my moustache?" she asked. "Don't you know how long it took to grow this? At LEAST two days." #
• #vss "I have you now, my pretty!" he cried, twirling his moustache. She cried "Do that again! It spins right around! How did you DO that?" #
• #vss At last, the scientist's greatest invention was complete: subtitles for real life. In her imagination, white letters spelled APPLAUSE. #

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

Pillars of black and white tile stretched ahead in orderly rows, illuminated by a soft glow without a source. Nothing moved except the three travellers as they walked with quick, muffled footsteps across the brown carpet.

None of them could see anything out of the ordinary. And yet...

"I hear paper burning," muttered Suitov.

"I smell cats, really big ones," whined Basaltine.

"I keep feeling something tweaking my butt," whimpered Weft.


(add your characters in the comments... ^_^ )

This can't be real, right? Suitov? It's fake or magic or something? Surely?

I cut the gymnastics short today, but only because I sweeped snow afterwards; less than a centimetre, but enough activity to count.

After a break during which I caught up a bit with online messages, I vacuumed my room, and in the kitchen emptied the diswasher, did the dishes that wouldn't go in there, wiped down the countertops and stove, did some spot cleaning on cabinet doors and walls, and vacuumed and wiped the floor.

By the time I was finished, I needed a shower and an early lunch.

Afterwards I spent some time with the communications and rhetorics stuff. There is one idea that I found very interesting, that seemed to be important, and that I think could be expressed more clearly in the writeup, but damn if I can make it work. X(

I did finally manage to go to another MTG draft later in the afternoon. Lost the first round 2-0, and the other two 2-1 each, but all in all it was fun.

Back home I renewed another Etsy item, and gave the uni stuff another go, also failed.

More of that tomorrow. At least seen all in all it was a pretty productive day.

• Also, SingStar Disney – I have never sung *Jasmine's* part in A Whole New World before. I did rather badly. I only know Aladdin's harmonies. #
• See, yeah, I am keen on Disney, punk rock, Eurovision AND metal, and I know more ABBA lyrics than probably 95% of my mates. So what? ;) #
• Some Like It Hot. One of the best films evar. Gangsters, transvestism, Marilyn, shockingly gay-positive ending, Marilyn... #
• A cat just entered the room. Not the cat I expected. Not even my second guess. It's Professor Mousington from across the road. #
• I have zero resolutions, except my nebulous "get published before I'm 30" grand plan. #
• Annual (late) Mega Drive fest. Stimpy's Invention and Golden Axe I. Now Pizza Hut, later Mega Swiv, Zero Wing, Sonic & Knux etc. #innerchild #

• #vss Weakly, he smiled from his hospital bed. "You make my heart sing." The ECG began playing the Super Mario theme. She gawped. "H-how...?" #
• #vss "Do you go on about how she has a byootiful white neck like a swan's?" "Inadvisable. The last swan we saw was undead and attacking us." #
• #vss "Have you screwed up yet and called her after your latest book instead of her name?" "I don't love books to the exclusion of ALL else!" #
• #vss "Has she admitted yet that she just wants you for your money?" "Why are you so determined we're dysfunctional?" "...'Cause I hate her!" #
• #vss "Ish twenny ten, bashtids!" slurred Mike. "Whurs mah hovvacar?" Up above, a 'hovercar' caught his New Year joyride on camera. @metaltax #

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

Somehow I can't imagine a job as anything but "something I have to do to get money", rather than something I would like to do.

Is anybody reading along who's in a career they like, and would share how they figured out that's what they wanted to do?

( daily stuff )

Poll #1505810 Whack and unpack
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

It's OK to eat this Chocolate Orange because:

On the New Year’s party, Marie received a lot of compliments, all including some form of, “you have lost weight!”, and she smiled through all of them.
When she retreated to the balcony for a bit of solitude she found it occupied already.  The date of someone else’s acquaintance, practically a stranger. He also seemed to be quiet, so that was all good. She leaned on the banister, keeping her distance, and he watched her watch the street.
Eventually he asked, “So, how is your health?”
After the initial shock, Marie all but collapsed with relief that someone cared.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

I woke up at some time after 11:00 this morning in bed with someone strange wrapped around me.

However, because I don't drink and I spent New Year's Eve with trusted friends at a safe location within walking distance of home: it was my own bed, I had a clear head, the house was secure, nobody had soiled themselves and the strange individual was the family cat¹, who had been at home listening to Jools Holland and Radio 2 for most of the night in order to block out the fireworks.

I don't own a fighter jet yet, but still, I call that a win for New Year. Happy 2010 to you all, my dear sweet little bitches.

¹I have the aforementioned chattel thoroughly alpha'd and well trained, which is why he woke me at 11:00 by snuggling up next to my head and begging wantonly for a tummy tickle, instead of at 05:00 by sitting on my chest and drooling into my eye, which is what he does to his supposed 'owner'.

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

• Can't believe I missed a hidden niche in the Chicken Portal. Back I go on my fiery manta ray to get the Upgraded Heroine and Knight. #gaming #
• Watching Bedazzled and thinking "Oh shit, I AM THAT GUY. I EVEN USED TO DO THAT DOOR THING." Niiiiice... :O #
• #10yearsago puts us, I believe, in the opening ramp-up of my long depressive stretch, and was no fun at all. 2010 woohoo! Gonna be brill! #
• Off to bro's house, where SingStar has been threatened. Recordings NOT available on request unless a four-figure sum or higher is involved. #

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

Edited to add: Oh, yeah, happy new year, everyone. :P

---

I had planned to stay in bed a bit longer, but not THAT long. Oh, well.

I did stick with the itty bit of gymnastics for day 2.

Someone else did a writeup for one of the classes, so I got to read instead of write from scratch.
For another course I still haven't head back from any of the others, so I sent another email.

As far as online stuff goes, I uploaded images to my webspace and DA, kept up with the group and messages stuff and contacted a few small to medium size groups for affiliation. Daily Drawing prompts are filled in until the 10th, including. My mailbox is under 50 messages, too.

I also sorted my socks and underwear.

When the fireworks started, I decided I had enough of going "next year" or "some time in the future", and got dressed real quick and went out on the street to say "hi" and "happy new year" to passing people, and watched people better prepared make things go "bang" and flash.

( note to self )