chesneycat

Some random snippets:

We have GEMINI membership again!  [Start placing your bets on where the hammer will fall next...]

Political Flag Art, stolen from Making Light - please check it out, as it's rather special.

Meme, stolen from Cav:

I did everything qwrong today. I'm grieving, ill, whacking my body with a last cycle of clomiphene, doing physical work packing up my office and skipping lunch until I got home at half three.

Cue migraine.

I spot the aura just as I'm driving away from the lab, a jagged arc of bright flickering as if y left eyebrow has been transformed into an actinic rainbow and smeared acordd the sky.  I fill up with petrol as fast as I can (the tank was nearly empty, so I couldn't skip it) and hurried home as fast as I could, knowing I had a good fifteen minutes until the migraine moved into a different part of myhead.

Anwuaw, it's not 4.10pm and I've eatedn and the lights have gone.  As you can probably tell, my typing is goind a little crap.

Okay, a lot.  [See? eben with a migraine I can get THAT one right!]

I took my triptans as soon as I got into the house, but as the aura had just disappeared and that point I think it's probably too late.  Headache and wooziness is here.  I feel lsee like by brain is made of cloudstuff though, which is good. Everything heavy and wantliedowniny-ish.  I should probably go wof a walk when Jez gets in to clear my head with f4sh airt, but for now I'll just continue to document the whole aphasic mess.  I'm not going to bother reading Banks. Matter's fantasic so far, but it really doesn't help when you see one word on the page and your internal monolofue says somethign quite other.s

Sheffield's an odd town, really, more like a collection of several dozen villages, and even the nicest of areas rub shoulders with the roughest of the rough within the distance of a street or two.  Thinking about it, it reminds me a little of what Jez's aunt and uncle told me about Belfast when we visited them out there - the character of the place can change from one extreme to the other and back again over a few hundred yards.  Anyway.  Sheffield's much the same.  So, the fact that there was a murder just down the road yesterday isn't worrying to me at all, because I know that the area around Valley Road is not the most salubrious of places.  Poor guy was deliberately run over in what sounds like some kind of gang thuggery, so the main road through our district is closed while the police finish all their forensics.  Stupidly, I ran a red light in front of the police cars... driving down Scarsdale road this morning I reached the crossroads with the main road, which was closed off to my right. Mesmerised like a deer in the headlights by the flashing blue lights and aware that nothing else would be going that way with the road closed, I blithely turned left... on red. Big, big Oops.

The thing is, I feel remarkably safe in this town, and have no qualms about where I shop or even go for a walk.  Our immediate area is perfectly fine, but even beyond that I'm not too bothered.  Yeah, there's been an armed robbery at the Co-op down the road in the last year, but the delinquents responsible are usually too busy either targeting the shops on Derbyshire Lane (a few streets over) or spending time in prison to bother our little neighbourhood, whatever the guy who runs the Post Office thinks of the local hoodies (who are actually a rather pleasant bunch who don't bother anyone other than him - in fact, he pretty much demands that they pester him by being so offensively prejudiced himself).  Chesterfield Road, the one that's closed today and where the murder actually took place is also rather an odd place.  It's a main route into town along one of the valleys, running pretty much parallel to the railway line and up-slope from one of the rivers.  Further out of town it becomes a proper traditional shopping street, but down the valley things are a little more varied. There's a huge mix of businesses and residences - scattered amongst the terraces we have a couple of major DIY superstores, a mini retail park with several major chain shops, a string of independent businesses ranging from model shops and cafes to picture framers and the like, a supermarket, some takeaways, a garage, one of the best Indian restaurants in town, and a sex shop.  Oh, and a few pubs, and the poshest furniture shop in Sheffield (Ponsfords).  The full spectrum, from the dodgy to the sublime. 

That's the kind of place this is. And everyone's so amazingly friendly, it's like living in America in a Yorkshire kind of way, less flash but you get to keep your own personal space while you're sharing life stories and helping each other out.

I'll miss this place.

I've just tracked down the oh-so catchy theme tune to Magica Magica Emi.  And an utterly incomprehensible translation of its Wiki page.

Either Google's translation-fu is weak, or the plot was even more bizarre than I remembered...

Oh, what the heck.  Let's go for some more.
So.  How many do you remember?  And is there a single cartoon ever made that doesn't have a cute animal sidekick?  And if you want, add your own in the comments!

Edit to add: Willo the wisp, Dangermouse (I always hid behind the sofa during the credits - I didn't like the bomb at the end), Pigeon Street... I'd better stop, I think. Nostalgia Overload!

Expectations for the 21st century, from 1900.


Read it.  I insist.

( Chesney... )


( Fanfic and self-analysis )

( school fete, books, general crapness )

Life's too short for the wrong job

Coffee/Washing/Petrol/Money/Photos

That's the cleverest set of adverts I've seen in a long time.

...pissed off with all the "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like"?

Then why not take action!  In fact, why not...

...sue GOD.

[1] My friendslist is fantastic! Mwah!
[2] I wish LJ had a disemvowelling application, like Moveable Type does.  That'd be cool.
[3] It's a really good idea to wash organic veg thoroughly several times, if you want to avoid feeding your husband a caterpillar... 
[4] Finding out that new research suggests that those with PCOS aren't at higher risk of multiple m/c, as was previously thought, is a very Good Thing.

I'm sure I had more, but it's too early to dredge them out of my head.

One of the nice things about not being pregnant right this minute is being able to enjoy stuff like booze and blue cheese. Last night, right before bed, I settled down in front of the computer with a small plate of Stilton chunks and a nice large glass of tawny Port. This morning, on getting out of the shower, I decided that I was rather underwhelmed. After eating all that cheese, I'd expect to get at least one slightly odd dream, but all I got was Jez redecorating the lounge and getting paint all over the furniture.  Whoop-di-doo.

And then I started remembering some of the other details.  I'd had to call home, and every time I pressed a different button on the phone handset, it tuned itself into a new radio station. Okay, that's getting a bit more dreamlike, but not quite into the realms of the surreal just yet.  So, I'm standing there in my dream, fiddling with the phone and looking out of the window, when I notice the bricks in next door's block-paved driveway starting to shift.  One lifts, and something emerges.  Is it a rather large snail?

No.

Suddenly, the whole driveway buckles, and the first of the sea lions emerges.

I tell you, I've never had a more surreal dream than this.  I call Jez over, and we watch as about a dozen of them erupt from the ground in increasing size, the bull Sea Lion last of all, before they amble off into the rainy night causing traffic chaos as they go.

I can't help wondering what one of those dream-analysis people would make of "Last night I dreamed that a dozen large aquatic mammals exploded out of the driveway". 

Perhaps they'd just tell me that I'd been eating too much cheese before bedtime?

Well, on Friday afternoon I left home early to pick up Jez from school.  It was the last day of term, and because the Catholic school he works in seems to believe that one's suffering in the next life can only be mitigated by more of the same in this one, the poor kids were stuck in real lessons right until the final bell rang.  Jez was quite glad to be teaching his favourite year 9 class (13/14 year olds) in the last period, and I arrived early enough to witness the end of the penguin-huddling experiment they were carrying out.


So anyway, we set off straight after school finished, as we were hoping to get to his parents in plenty of time for a meal at a Chinese restaurant later that evening.  It was booked for half eight, but figuring that the traffic would be horrendous, we left early enough that we should have got there by half five. 
I've never been to a non-church wedding before, so my sister-in-law's civil partnership was a completely new thing to me.  The language was pretty formal/legal, but a lot of it seemed pretty directly lifted from the church ceremonies I'm more familiar with.  One thing that stood out was the phrasing about them now "openly" being partners. I know how they feel they have to behave in public, and it's a sad thing that society puts them in that position, or that "openly" should get so much emphasis in the ceremony. It shouldn't be necessary.  It was a moving ceremony though, and good to see them tying the knot.  But I can't help feeling that my father-in-law was a little disappointed, even now. Oh, he's glad that she's happy, and has accepted her partner into the family very warmly, but you can tell it wouldn't have been his first choice for the way her life has worked out.  That's also pretty sad. Anyway, we all went back to the house for the reception, ignoring the disintegrating marquee in the swamp that used to be a garden in favour of the comforts of indoors, where we all gorged ourselves until we were "nicely replete" (family catchphrase; don't ask). And then the hen-party started, courtesy of the welsh relatives, who'd planned on holding it the night before.  Neither bride ever wants to see a marshmallow again...

On to Sunday... more leftovers consumed, and I bought a cheap copy of Deathly Hallows from Sainsbury's.  Much reading ensued, with a short break fixing my grandfather's computer ("try right-clicking on it") based on third-hand information (some problem with an unbearably maximised insert-symbol window). 
It was good to get home after the weekend.  The MIL was getting VERY stressed about getting her house back togther, which wound Jez up a little... so some peace and quiet was a very welcome change. But we do have far too much cheese.  Any ideas for recipes for using up a tupperware box full of Stilton chunks?

Apparently, there's a bit of a badger problem in the vicinity of Basra.  According to a local housewife who has been attacked by one of these fearsome creatures, the animal in question is "the size of a dog but his head is like a monkey" and "swift as a deer".  Some of the locals are blaming British troops for releasing them into the area, in order to sow panic.

This leads to some fantastic quotes, like the following from a UK military spokesman:

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area."

Hands up if you just had a flashback to last year's Apprentice...

More worryingly... what does this say about our troops, if this is what the locals expect of them?  I mean, who would resort to badgers?

The IKEA Walkthrough


Having read it through, it's strangely accurate...:


I'm so glad we haven't needed anything since the big PAX customisable birch wardrobes...

Quick aside: why is it that so many astronauts have deathly dull voices?

Jez and I went down to see his parents' Canada photos this weekend. We did all the usual stuff, like the Jinney-ring craft centre [giving me yet another opportunity to lust after the leafy tiaras that I'd never have an opportunity to wear even if I could afford to splash out on one of them], more cups of tea than you can shake a stick at, and we also visited Nora and Ted's memorial at the local woodland burial. It'd been a year since Nora passed away on the saturday, so it was a good time to visit. Much less windy than the day her ashes were scattered, and their tree seems to be doing well.

Anyway, we passed a vintage steam fair on the way back, as well as Jez's uncle's house. The two are pretty closely linked, as he has a number of vintage cars, and was going to be at the steam fair on the sunday. So, that's what we did yesterday. Lots of weird vehicles, cars, tractors, a few historical reenactors... all the usual fare, really. And Richard's rather nice Austin Healey, which looks a little like this one, except that his is far, far prettier.



[He also has an Austin 10, which we may end up with one day in the far-flung future, assuming it survives that long... an incident with some rumblestrips this month nearly took off an axle! Let's have a picture of a random 10 as well then.... ]

As for my own car, well, it's due for an MOT this week, but I don't imagine it'll cause any trouble... hopefully! Hey, at least I know that Pete down at PLM will be able to fix it if it does.  It's so reassuring to know a trustworthy mechanic.

I've just run across my new favourite programming language.  LOLCODE!

Not only do I now want a proper compiler for it, but I'm giggling away merrily at how real it's becoming, and how instantly usable by someone like me.

Any programming language which ends blocks with "KTHXBYE" simply NEEDS to be given the recognition it deserves!


IM IN YR LOOP, UPPIN YR VAR!!!

I forgot about my promise to myself that I wouldn't fill my titles with exclamation marks.

Oh well.

Just reading some posts on the old infertility forum, and I came across an image that had been generated using a certain site, which I'm about to introduce you to.  Okay, so the poster in question must have had a total irony-ectomy sometime in the past, but the original images are just as spiffing as ever.

So, for your amusement, may I present Despair.inc - the home of demotivational posters.  There's probably an anti-rainbow bridge picture in there somewhere...

Here's one that I WANT to post in a certain somewhere...



And one for the physics lab...



Just because if you believe in it hard enough, it doesn't mean you can actually get there...




Anyway, enjoy!

From today's BBC news - the launch of a new military satellite, given the somewhat disturbing name of "Skynet 5":

"Skynet's going to provide five times the capacity that the previous system provided, and allow the military to do things they just haven't been able to do in the past," Mr Woods explained.

You can really hear the enthusiasm, can't you?  Here's another soundbite about this spacecraft:

Its technologies have also been designed to resist any interference - attempts to disable or take control of the spacecraft - and any efforts to eavesdrop on sensitive communications.

Ri-i-i-i-ight.  Anyone else a tad perturbed by this?   It's fracking unstoppable!  I'll leave you with my husband's comments when he read the article in question:

"SKYNET!
FOR A MILITARY SATELLITE!
HAVEN'T THEY SEEN TERMINATOR?!"

I'm not talking about the usual geeky knitted Klein-bottles, or other non-standard topological shapes, but something far, far, cooler.


Have a look at what shigella has created over here...


In a similar vein: Toshwood!


*fades out to the sound of Vworp, vworp*