Movies!

So, movies with theOtherAmy happened. We went to see the new Batman. Unfortunately they were almost completely sold out, so we decided to see something else. We ended up watching Lust, Caution. I am quite sure I enjoyed it far more than I would've enjoyed Batman. It was a very good movie in that it was (a) a war movie (b) a spy movie (c) a love story. Also, it was directed by Ang Lee. You should go see it. Yoga with theOtherAmy also happened. Though it did involve a few complaints ["you never said it was going to be hard"], she has since come back and this is good.

Also: more repotting, communication and other things.

This evening, there is a LARP. I wasn't looking forward to it this morning [and my enthusiasm for next week's LARP has also waned drastically, unfortunately], but I'm feeling better about it now. Not feeling so good about tomorrow's much needed shopping, though. Sunday night's trip to the airport, however, is a high spot.

Zombified!

There has recently been a shortage of one of my medications. For the past few months I've been getting as close to a month's supply of whatever alternative the pharmacy could get their hands on. Sometimes they had nothing for the month. Sometimes they only had enough for a week. Once or twice they had a full month's supply. Now it seems that the shortage is over. This is good because every time they change the stuff they're giving me, I'm like a zombie for most of a week. It's annoying.

In other news, repotting has happened. But I need bigger pots - I miscalculated the size of some of my plants and they are in need of bigger pots. So I shall obtain those on my way home. I have also set up a nursery on the bedroom windowsill, as it seems to get the most sun. I shall soon need more potting soil, but I'm okay for now. Also, I have identified some of my plants in one of my books [though I'm not really bothering about the cacti/succulents - those are Button's], which is exciting. Now I need more books with more plants so that I know what all my plants are. I shall also try google for the ones that have been identified, but do not appear in my books.
For those of you who care: I have a plant to be given away. I have a plant which is very pretty with light green leaves and occasionally has purple flowers [I'm not good with flowers, so I haven't seen them since I bought the plant, but you never know!]. A short while ago, a new one started growing in a pot that was next to it. I don't really need two of the same plant, so if someone wants it, let me know [it comes in a bright blue plastic pot].

Aside from gardening, the weekend saw meeting up with CP, a girl I haven't properly seen since she left for boarding school in 1995 [I'm assuming I saw her for some sort of farewell before the term started, but I may be wrong]. We had great plans when we were younger. She would be a beautician and I would be a hairdresser. We designed our salon [is that the right word?] down to the minutest details and put the plans away for safekeeping. I probably still have them somewhere. On Saturday she asked me why I didn't become an architect. Well.

I spent the rest of Saturday with my parents. There was a possibility of movies with theOtherAmy, but that didn't happen. Though it appears that it will be happening tonight...

Queenie

I was wrong, and I can admit it. I discovered, when I arrived home last evening, that I was actually on Chapter 22 of Seven Pillars. I don't know where I am now though, as I didn't read very much last night. I spent most of the evening at yoga, which was lovely, though rather difficult. Sadly theOtherAmy didn't make it. But there's always Thursday.

Anyway, due to yoga being so very exhausting, I didn't do much reading because I went to sleep very quickly. Why was yoga so very exhausting? I suspect it was because it was her last class with us - the regular teacher is back next week. I'm not sure how I feel about that, as I liked Riva. But we'll see how it goes. She could be a bit too spiritual about everything for my liking, but she was a good teacher [instructor?] and I liked her.

There's not much else to say, except that in order to get LARP communication going you just need to express doubt about it and then the very next day you will be emailed about said LARP. Once more, I am the Queen.

Bring forth the LARPs

So, it's been a while since I've posted. This is due to the lack of roleplaying. This is due to the LARPwriting by Confluence and Hodgestar. I'm quite happy to give up roleplaying for a couple of weeks so as to play in a LARP. Particularly this LARP. There is also another LARP, being written by BT [everytime I see that I think of the Giles cartoon of the chimpanzees drinking tea and working for British Rail (I think)], which may or may not be playtested this weekend. It's very exciting. I like LARPs [most of the time, however I reserve the right to completely loathe your LARP if I happen to feel like it at any time].

In other news... The past weekend was spent with the family. The memorial was on the 20th. There were lots of people I didn't know. There were some I wished I didn't know. There were some relatives that I can't recall meeting [it doesn't count if I was half the size I am now]. It was a lovely afternoon, and eventually I will put up the picture of the twenty black label irises - sadly phil hasn't put hers up yet so I can't steal it. I guess this means that I have to find my camera cable.

I had other stuff I wanted to say [I always do, don't I] and yet, it's not important. I can't imagine that anyone reading this really cares. I wouldn't if I was reading this. Maybe I'll say anything I can think of and see what happens?

A while ago [I think it was last Wednesday, it's hard to keep track of time sometimes] I went out for sushi with theOtherAmy [as opposed to LittleAmy (who may be technically larger than theOtherAmy, but I've never taken a tape measure to either of them), who has a quantifiable older sister]. This caused some upset in the Wombat quarters, but I think we've been forgiven, on the grounds that we said only nice things about him. That was fun. Then, when she took me home, she very kindly didn't throw me off the balcony in a jealous rage. We also decided that she was going to come to yoga with me. This was supposed to start today, but apparently the EvilBossOfEvilness is attempting to prevent this. I was also disappointed to learn that she and theCareTaker were not having some sort of clandestine relationship. I guess they could still be doing it, but just not telling me [but what's the point if nobody knows?].

Yesterday, while waiting for water to boil, instead of sitting around aimlessly looking at the ceiling, or watering the plants or something, I picked up a book. Was it the book Confluence lent me months ago, which I haven't even reached the halfway point of? No, of course not. Though I have no idea why I'm having so much trouble reading that one. Button tells me [or, at least, he did before he wandered off to the land of humourous hominid mugs] that it's because I don't like science fiction and that I should stop trying to convince myself that I do. Possibly he is correct. Anyway, the book I picked up is one of AK's, which Button borrowed before AK buggered off to Germany. Button has never got past the first chapter. I, however, made it to halfway through book two [I think I'm on chapter 11, but I'm not sure, it's so hard to keep track in books that have separate 'books' in them] last night. Why is The Seven Pillars of Wisdom so much easier for me to read than the Martian Chronicles? I don't know, do you? Though, to be fair, I originally picked up the book to see if it had any pretty pictures in it [it doesn't] and then started reading it because Button made a comment about something in the first couple of pages that I couldn't remember.

In other news, the semester has started again. Campus is crawling with undergrads. Thankfully I was prepared and remembered to bring food wtih me, so as to prevent my spending large amounts of time surrounded by the creatures. I'm sure they weren't this whiny in my day. Or, at least, we whined about interesting things such as the loss of the CLAWroom, we didn't sit around moaning that it was too cold or we had to walk too far to our lectures. Although, I imagine some of us weren't even aware of where our lectures were, never mind how far away that was from wherever we happened to be. Not that I ever missed a lecture. [I can be both cantankerous and sanctimonious if I want and there's nothing you can do about it ... though I suspect I'm mostly annoyed because I keep making typos 'cause my fingers are cold and therefore stiff. Where did I put my gloves...]

meep

So, stuff has happened. The wake will be taking place on the 20th and most of the family will be here then [excluding extraneous family members who are family-but-not-quite ... it's rather complicated I think].

In other news, there was a weekend, which involved actually spending time with real people [a rare occurrence] and shopping with mom, who had nothing to do. This was good as it involved the purchasing of clothing, though much bemoaning of the fact that people don't make clothes for short people. In the evening, I joined the actual real people for dinner and movie-watching. The movie in question was In the Mouth of Madness. It was very scary, though more for reasons to do with me than to do with the fact that it was supposed to be scary [although, I personally didn't find the cthuloid creatures scary]. The fire was pretty and warm. Sometime between then and now I rewatched Four Weddings and a Funeral. Mmm... John Hannah.

In other news, I have humourous hominid mugs. And less than a month till I have a button. So, in case you've forgotten who that is [let's hope I haven't], here's a picture. I had other stuff to say, but I don't remember what it was now.












There was a game night before last, which involved the moving of the game to Wednesdays. We started by returning to the night of the poetry evening. After my final encounter with Shigeri [we can hope, after all, that something bad happens and she never comes back] Sedami brought me the box of dried, treated cherries and the unfolded document acompanying them. Having read said document, Ishie is now eager to try the cherries on actual test subjects. It's all for science after all. The next morning there was the duel between Nadeshko and Chizuko [and how do you spell their names, exactly?]. The only surprising part of this event, was that it took so long for them to actually do it - we've been at winter court how long now? Anyway, it's a miserable morning, the duel is about to start, cue mysterious happenings. When the magistrates have finally managed to stop the spirits inhabiting Nadeshko and Chizuko's bodies from indiscriminately killing (a) each other (b) all Lion present (c) anyone who seems to be disagreeing with them or getting in their way, we manage to determine the following. The two spirits are the respective grandmothers of the two duellists. They died in an avalanche, while attempting to duel each other in Dragon lands about 30 years ago. They are likely to have been inhabiting their swords since that time, awaiting the time when these particular swords would meet. Ishie was disappointed that Sedami does not appear to understand science [or, rather the need for scientific experimentation]. The only solution seems to be to let them try to kill each other, but we'll see how 'getting the Lion to apologise' goes.

End of an Era

Gummy died yesterday, at 9:55am, less than an hour after I arrived. 30 September 1924 - 02 July 2008.

Description of Death following:
When I first arrived, his breathing was somewhat wheezy, but you could hear it and there was no doubt. His pulse, however, was weak. The nurses washed him, during which he stopped breathing and then started again. We all rushed back into his room, as that is apparently a sign of near-death. It took another twenty minutes or so for him to actually die. When we came back, his eyes were wide open [rather disconcerting, actually] and his breathing was much softer and slower. We sat with him, watching for every breath. His pulse got weaker and fainter and slower. Eventually he spasmed a couple of times - his face scrunched up and his shoulder twisted in a rather strange manner and that was it. He swallowed a few times, there were one or two more breaths, but his pulse had stopped and he was gone.
Finished.

My personal opinion is that since his rapid deterioration took place only after Marga had left for Namibia, a fact that he seemed to understand when she told him about it, he simply gave up. While we weren't expecting him to last much longer, we were thinking it would be on the order of weeks to months, rather than days.
For an account of what he was like and so on, you can read Phil's post. I am currently having a little trouble getting past the bit where he looked like he'd been mummified, rather than anything like what he's supposed to look like. And for reference, here is one of the family pictures that my sister insists on every single Christmas. As you can probably imagine, Gummy is the old man in the middle.












So, I spent most of yesterday with my parents and Bandie. Bandie and Mom went to clear out his room and then Bandie went home to Riebeeck West. Mom and I took Retta's chair [my favourite chair, which is now mine] over to my place and waited for someone to come help us carry it up the stairs. I had contacted 3 people, in the hopes of getting someone to come and visit me. Lucas had specifically volunteered to help with the chair, but TheCareTaker got there first and carried it up 3 flights of stairs unaided. He and Lucas both hung around for a while, as did Mom. Then she left, then Wombat popped in briefly and then Lucas and Wombat left. TheCareTaker had managed to talk me into joining him for movies at the DMHiveMind. Somehow he managed to get me to eat as well. We watched a very silly movie, which was most enjoyable and then he took me home.

This morning, waking up very nearly didn't happen [why would I want to wake up after very little sleep on a morning like this?]. I did, however, eventually make it out of the house and head to campus. After passing some guy on the street, I heard my name called. Turns out the guy was Evhen, who I haven't seen in years. I've given up trying to work out who people are, as if I stopped for every skinny guy with long dark hair on the supposition that I must know them, I'd never get anything done. Evhen, however, had decided that based on my height and my chin, I must be me and he figured it wouldn't hurt to just yell my name and see what happened. Once I finally got to Hiddingh who should I see there but Sedge! Most bizarre, turns out she will be seeing Evhen later today, which makes it an even stranger coincidence.

In other news, there has been no game for the last couple of weeks, as Confluence was sick and Wombat was eaten by work. Wombat is now talking about a make-up session and the possibility of moving the game. Of course, it would be better if he spoke to Confluence about it rather than me, but there's nothing I can do about that.

Cute smugness!

For those of you wondering [I know I would be], the title is for the express purposes of keeping the Wombat happy. The reason that I am feeling particularly smug today is because the problem of teleporting samples seems to be solved. The [very helpful] overseas people told me that they would do some tests, but that they thought it likely that the tape was cracking due to manipulation while still frozen. What could be manipulating the tape during the milling process? Unsecured end plugs. So, a slightly different taping method seems to have solved the problem. And I am properly smug, until it turns out that [once again] I am wrong. Now, I can't mill more as the LN appears to have run out, but there will be more next week [I hope]. In the meantime: defatting solution for my other samples, so that I actually have some reasonably fat-free samples to mill.

In other news, I have been attempting to write up the notes that I made while discuss LARPstuff with Beth. This is apparently a good plan, as I spent quite a lot of time going "how was [character] involved with [particular plotline]?" and I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to remember after Dragonfire. And, importantly, I found it just as amusing as when we were discussing it, so that's good.

I made it to yoga last night, but not this morning. I don't think I'm quite up to going to classes two days in a row though, they're much more strenuous than doing it at home by myself. Perhaps I shall make tomorrow morning's class...

Catch the breeze and the Winter chills

So, roleplaying was very nearly cancelled yesterday, for which I blame the Wombat. But, it happened anyway, so he's forgiven.
We started off with our rather late return from hill cleansing. Ishie wandered off to the bathhouse, to check that the fish was alive and happy [it was, thank you Taniko]. While there, she was ambushed by Yogo Shigeri, who made some rather unpleasant insinuations that Ishie didn't totally understand, but comprehended that what she was saying was generally along the lines of "Your grandmother would approve. I might approve. But Kamenosuke? Such an honourable young man..." While that's probably not what she actually had in mind, it's what Ishie heard and it had the desired effect. She offered to help a little with Ishie's investigation into the elixir, in exchange for some information. Water kami are treacherous. However, it doesn't seem to have told her anything too damaging. Kamenosuke had been asked to try to smooth over a little bit of hostility between the Crane and Lion, in view of the fact that two of them are supposed to be getting married at some point. Ishie dutifully went and questioned Daichi, though without bothering to try and be tactful about it. Ishie knows where her strengths lie. Daichi knew who it was who really wanted the information and supplied it, in a resigned manner. Ishie and Kamenosuke then had tea with Sedami, who informed them that the scroll drying and unfolding was proceeding well. Kamenosuke then questioned her about what exactly the problem was, and how to best go about fixing it. He then spent the rest of the afternoon ensuring that there would be no problems. After Kamenosuke ensured that the rest of the magistrates [and Nagataka's students] were properly and appropriately dressed, the poetry evening commenced. Kamenosuke's attempts at fixing things seemed to work. Ishie particularly enjoyed Taniko's contribution, a poem about Koi. She suggested that the water kami might appreciate it, even if Taniko's father didn't. Apparently fish are very good conversationalists. After the poetry evening, Ishie met Shigeri in the bathhouse, where she related the acquired information and received some helpful hints in return... And the threat of Shigeri's continued acquaintance... This is why you should never help ronin.
Next week: an early morning duel!

Otherwise, not much has happened since yesterday. I woke up very early this morning, but didn't make it in to the seminar, due to some rather painful joints suggesting I needed more sleep. That didn't help, sadly. Ah well, yoga tonight.

Beware! Excessive use of Parentheses!

So, I'm sure I have something to say ... listen and I'll tell it twice.

I have [re]discovered extemporanea, which makes me happy for some reason. She's always fascinating and has a bit of Dorothy Parker up there. I'm rather fond of Dorothy Parker, though [one of] my [many] favourite[s] would have to be:
Resume
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

In other news, the long weekend passed with only minor fits of boredom and a rather alarming amount of raging girliness. I embarrass myself sometimes. Thankfully, I didn't quite reach the point where I was painting my toenails sparkly pink. Of course, that would require leaving the house to obtain sparkly pink nail polish and so was never very likely anyway.

My cousins called, desperately seeking dice [I'm so proud] to give to my uncle for father's day. He was quite taken with our paper lamps at the family housewarming [trying to explain to his children that it was an icosahedron where each side was made up of five parts], so I showed him my dice and he was overjoyed and declared that he wanted some and wanted to know where I got them and so on. So after some rather detailed explanations, I presume my cousins made it to Outer Limits and obtained them, though I haven't actually bothered to enquire.

Yesterday, I read three books [Lullaby Town, Something to do with Monkeys and Raincoats and Something Else that possibly has to do with Stealing Angels]. They were light-hearted fluff and very enjoyable. Also, the sort of horribly twisted murder/crime/some-sort-of-investigation-required intricate 'plot' that is very silly and I seem to be extraordinarily fond of.

In other news, my supervisor is off [this weekend] for a month of excavation at Robberg, then she's back for about six weeks and then she's off to Germany [for a conference] and Cambridge [for a visiting fellowship thing]. She'll be back at the beginning of next year. On the other hand, having my supervisor be on sabbatical for the next year means that she might actually get around to reading that chapter I sent her a month or so ago... Also, having to communicate with her by email might result in actual communication, rather than just hoping she might wander by her office sometime today and have a few minutes to spend with me.
Related topic: Does anyone have one of those very large, very heavy hammer-things? Or one of those big pick things? Presumably they exist somewhere in the department because I've used them with some degree of success on a couple of digs [where success = not hitting other people/damaging the site]. Let's hope these international people are more prompt than the others... Also, liquid nitrogen balls are very pretty, even when they're covered in my sample.

Now that I've started updating again, my sister [who is apparently indefinitely offline] has removed me from her list of links. Ninja blogging! Game tonight, which is exciting. Even more exciting if I manage to get home in time to wake up in time to make the seminar that starts before 9am tomorrow. Oh the joys! But, since my supervisor seems to think it would be "worth coming to", I'd best be there. On the other hand [and why, can the spaces not keep up with the rest of my typing?], it's the poetry contest, so I expect there will be lots of politics going on and it will be likely to run late and be most entertaining.

Too much for one Post

Note to self: it's winter now, walking home in the dark is not fun. Seriously.

So, last night I made it to yoga, finally. It's been a while since I've managed to make a class, rather than just doing it by myself. It was nice. I liked the instructor, I liked the studio and I liked the class, even if some parts were just not possible for me. Lucas and I went to some place on Kloof Street, which was very nice. We gossiped horrendously about everyone we know and some people we don't. It was fun.

On with the enormous updating:
I have done the work update. I have done the [enormous] game update. What's left?
So, Button and I have moved, had a housewarming, bought plants, etc. It's a lovely place, someday there might be pictures. It could happen. Then Button buggered off to Kenya for two and a half months [he'll be back in August, theoretically]. I had a family housewarming, which was also fun. I have finished tutoring [thankfully] and invigilated two exams [it's a good thing I get paid for that 'cause OMG]. Socially, I'm quite sure more stuff has happened than I remember, but I don't remember it.
LD had a [very] early birthday party, which was fun. We went there after JL's farewell [she left for Kenya the week before Button did]. BT got a better job, so we went out to celebrate. A celebration that was far too coupley for my liking in light of the abscence of Button. As we were leaving, I bumped into Penguin and AV, two of my ex-boyfriends/friends from high school. [I don't actually remember why we called him penguin, though from what I remember of the rest of the nickname, it was not exactly complimentary]. I hung out with them for the rest of the night, just catching up and so on, which was fun. We were later joined by DS's little brother, which was greatly amusing to me.
In other news, BT and I are still writing that LARP. Theoretically we'll actually get around to writing some of it one day. Like, Sunday, for example.
I'm sure there's other stuff, but I don't remember it, so it can't be important.

Been a While

Goodness, it has been a long time. But, now I'm here again. Isn't that exciting.

So ... massive catch-up since March.

The sieves were made [Wendell still won't go through], foreigners were contacted and [eventually] told me that they'd never had a problem with the mill leaking, but why don't I try this stuff? The stuff [that would be the cryo-tape, for those of you poor souls who actually dare to ask about this] arrived and seems to survive LN temperatures. Unfortunately, Wendell has learnt to teleport. I really hope that he was badly treated because I can't go back and make him suffer... Though it's entirely possible that he's not the problem. I presume that the teleportation is caused by small holes in the cryo-tape and masking tape [which also seems to be able to mostly cope with LN temperatures, who would've thought?] allowing him to get through. Anyway, we're hoping that they'll cope better with shorter time spent in the LN... Results indicate that they don't. I think I shall spend the rest of the day sulking. Either that or throw myself out of a window.

In game news... We hunted down Agasha Sosuke, including spending plenty of time underwater with a bunch of fishmen and lobsterwomen. We discovered him trying to locate a box he'd left there a very long time ago, before he turned into an evil tainted git. Yashamaru came along in the void and, after we'd killed everyone [though we hadn't yet got around to decapitating Sosuke], Sosuke came back to life, started some spell and was attacked by Yashamaru, we all ran away, while there was a huge explosion behind us. The explosion shook down some jasper, which Ishie stopped to collect. At least, she tried to, Kamenosuke felt she should keep running away from the exploding mass of fish remains. After the explosion, Ishie and Kamenosuke gathered some jasper to add to her gypsum previously obtained from an obliging cave. Nagataka had spotted Sosuke's box and picked it up and off we went, back to the world outside of the lake. Yashamaru and Sosuke had completely disappeared. Waynnnnnnne was eaten by work, and so Hideo had some family business to attend to and disappeared. Kitsu Sedami joined the magistrates, however we are still looking for a fourth player. We opened Sosuke's box, and discovered dried cherries with a distinctly metallic smell. Ishie has them, is completely convinced they've been treated with some sort of alchemical process and is just waiting for Sedami to dry out and open the accompanying piece of paper in the hopes that it will provide some clue. The fact that it's written in a script that Ishie technically shouldn't be able to read is completely irrelevant [that's what grandmothers are for, after all]. Work on the elixir progresses reasonably well. Ishie has made friends with the water kami in the ladies bathhouse, picked up a bunch of tiny earth kami from the underwater adventure and had a contained made to keep them in check and is using the two to reveal what's in the elixir. She knows there are 7 ingredients. She knows what 5 of them are. One of Yumiko's grandchildren went missing. We found him stuck in an old, abandoned cellar, that had been completely sealed in except for one small child-sized hole. With the help of an eta child, we rescued the kid, removed the other children's skeletons, including the one that was luring the children in there. We later found the woman he'd been with dead in the maze. She was one of the servants from Three Herons and they'd disappeared on the day that the Three Herons people went home. Though Kamenosuke insists on corresponding with Yeiji, it's probably not an entirely bad thing since she wants him to get her married to some guy the other magistrates met in Toshi Ranbo. Also, she's keeping us informed of any dubioud goings-on that we need to know about. Particularly important considering Hanchero's mother [see later] told us that they kept an oni there and that Doji Akitaka [Yeiji's father] was part of her group. So, the remaining magistrates joined Isawa Hanchero and his yojimbo [she's a Shiba, I can never remember her name - though technically they're both ronin] in attacking his mother's oni. We defeated it, resulting in an infected hill. After giving us a chance to talk to what seemed to essentially be his mother's spirit Hanchero was too far gone for anything and chose to kill himself. We burned both him and the oni [though separately] and went back to town. A couple of days later, a jade magistrate [Yogo Shigeri] arrived. She gave us the jade tea that the Kuni had sent for us, interrogated us about what's been going on around here and, yesterday, went with us to see about the cleansing of the now tainted hill. She's very good with horses and really likes pickles. We know about the last one, thanks to the water kami in the ladies bathhouse. You see, it decided that it was lonely and that it would like a fish. So I asked Taniko to see about finding a suitable fish. She stole one from the koi pond at her father's inn. It was a rather large fish and was too big to fit in one of the bathhouse's washbasins. So Ishie went to the kitchens in search of something to put the fish in. The servants there suggested a rather large barrel, that happened to be full of pickles. So, the next day, the fish was happily swimming in its barrel in the bathhouse and the castle was dining on pickles. Though Harumi did suggest that she'd see about finding the fish a more aesthetically pleasing home for the fish. Hopefully this means that the water kami will be both happy and helpful. Anwyay, we went off to the hill with Shigeri, where we found a half-eaten dead goat. We tracked the insectoid tracks, where we found a very large cockroach. After some deliberation we decided to draw out and kill the cockroach, though this was not without its hazards for Ishie. Kamenosuke was injured and, while trying to heal him, Ishie was once again tempted by kansen and very nearly tainted. She managed to resist, however and also managed to resist experimenting with the elixir on Kamenosuke. He wasn't particularly badly injured, so it wasn't terribly necessary. Besides, if she used it on him, he'd want details about it and while Ishie might try lying about it to other people, she wouldn't [couldn't] lie to Kamenosuke. And he would not be happy if she used it on him and he knew what was in it.
Next week: poetry contest and elixir back-engineering.

Hopefully, I won't remember anything else, since I'm going home now, in the attempt to actually be on time for yoga.

Conference

Currently, most people are off in Green Point for the mid-conference excursion. I am sitting here doing some much needed email catch-up, as well as just generally getting some actual work done [and by work, I mean ordering of new vials]. The conference has been going reasonably well. Yesterday we ended up running an hour late, but we kept to time today. A number of papers were very interesting, surprisingly, this included one on rock art. Generally I'm not overly fond of rock art as it's not really useful [it doesn't tell us anything, except that at some point someone painted pictures on the rock - we can't tie it to anything, it annoys me intensely].
JG & JW gave a very interesting paper on rock art digitisation that was well put together and full of pretty pictures. Of course, it didn't go into any sort of interpretation of rock art, it was talking about ways of using digitisations to study and possibly restore rock art sites.
JS gave a very interesting paper on isotopic stuff, looking at herders in the southern Cape. Also on isotopes, was MM's paper involving reconstructed diet of people from the Kalahari [specifically looking at the difference between people buried very close to the Okavango River and people buried further away].
It was, however, LR & TM's paper at the very end of the day [or the conference, that is, there was another, public lecture afterwards] that I found most interesting, for two reasons. They were talking about the formation of the African Forensic Anthropology Team , why it's important and what they're doing. They were also looking for more people with more diverse skills to get involved. Button and I have both spoken to them about this [my sister is very excited]. The other reason that their talk was so fascniating to me is because it involved a picture of a freezer mill. Apparently it's the same model as ours, but about 8-10 years younger. The freezer mill is at UWC, but I'll be getting in touch with them about getting access to it soonish.
Today, there were two very interesting talks about radiocarbon dating. TR's was in relation to finding proxies to use for the dating of rock art [which if we could do it, would make rock art actually useful]. SP & GD were talking about whether or not there needs to be calibration in the Late Holocene [there does] and how to do it [more data - we need more data].
WB's talk about teeth was interesting - I thought she did very well. Even though I don't know too much about teeth.

And then, of course, there was the most important talk of all. Mine. Apparently it went very well. Considering that the exact same talk [give or take a couple of words] took 7 minutes on Monday evening, I was a little worried. Button tells me that I made 11 minutes. This surprises me, as I didn't see the '5 minutes' sign go up, but perhaps she was just so enthralled by what I was saying she lost track of time. Everyone seems to be fascinated and I've had a number of people telling me that they want to talk to me in more detail about it. It's very exciting.

Afterwards, while chatting to various people, DM came up to me and informed me that we were distantly related. I have discussed the matter with my sister, who is more aware of all that genealogical stuff than I am. It was most curious, especially since TC has been talking about him for ages. Button was also talking to him because he's very knowledgeable and important.

There's not much other news, since I missed my game in favour of the conference [and it sounds as if Yaeji is very lucky - although, I imagine Kamenosuke is too clever to go around hugging untrustworthy women when Ishie's around]. The only other thing going on is packing. There was a rather monumental 'discard'. A whole bunch of jewellery I don't like and never wear is being given away [along with other things I've been given that I detest] and a large amount of clothes are boxed, to go sit in my cupboard at my parents' house for 6 months before someone quietly gets rid of them without me noticing. On that - why do people give other people such horrendous things? I have friends who, having known me a couple of years, give me nice jewellery that I actually like and have worn fairly regularly. Then I have friends I've known for a very long time, who give me absolutely hideous stuff that I will never ever wear and prefer to pretend I don't own. Why is this? Why do people who profess to be my best friend [I'm sorry, isn't that my choice?] completely fail to understand the kind of person I am and the sort of jewellery, etc, that I'd like?
On a similar note, why do people keep giving me hand cream? I don't use it and I have enough to last me for several years. So, seriously, stop with the hand cream already.

I thought we were going to have a good day.

So, the past week has happened and I'm sure there's information that's vaguely interesting. Like the fact that first-year's are incapable of reading course outlines.

Last night there was a game. We didn't kill anyone this week. Ishie got to try out her grandmother's elixir. It was fascinating. I really need to find out what's in it and make some more. Very useful stuff when people are dying. And, even better, no one asked what was in it. Not that Ishie's even aware of all the ingredients, only the one that she provided. Yashamaru departed, in search of his uncle. The rest of us headed back to Breeze Through The Long Grass to see if we could get any information on the place we're trying to find. Hideo, or rather Waynnnnnnnnnnnnnne, put a very bad idea into my head - what would the elixir do if administered to a person already dead? This is why I need to make more - I already used a drop on a ronin, I'm not wasting the little I have on experimentation unless I can make more. Poor Kamenosuke, who has to try and stop me from turning into my grandmother. In other news, we had a meeting with Yumiko and will be having another meeting with Hiroshi and Sata to discuss important stuff, etc.

This morning I arrived to discover that my mesh was here and JL fixed the mill [apparently simply by being stronger than me, which I don't think is fair]. Of course, I still need to make the sieves. There's also the problem that Wendell is currently at the bottom of the mill, which is something I was hoping to avoid. We did a run-through of presentations for next week's conference. Well, me KK, PH and WB did. KK's is very straightforward, old-school archaeological stuff. I'm kind of jealous. PH's is just a shortened version of his earlier departmental presentation on his thesis [though he seemed to get almost all the same information across, possibly I was just filling in the blanks as a result of

Oooops

So, I appear to have forgotten about this. That's not entirely true, I just can't be bothered to post 'cause I have too many other things to do. So.... stuff has happened.

Button and I watched Ronin, it's a very good movie that doesn't involve any actual ronin at all. I enjoyed it, you should watch it. Except, of course, you probably already have since it's probably about as old as I am [or older, possibly, or younger, more likely].

There was a game, that was not a game. The four of us who were there ended up playing Fluxx and Zombie Fluxx for most of the evening.

There was also dinner with my parents. Mom and I had sushi. It was yummy. I think I ate more than I usually do, though it's hard to be sure.

Apparently I really have nothing to say. Mostly I've been working. There have been lots of tutorials and practicals that I've needed to prepare for, as well as preparing my presentation for ASAPA. On top of that there's actual work that needs doing.

Sneak Attack

I am at my parent's house, with puppies [but no glasses]. I was going to be very sneaky and not tell them that I was here, but then I phoned my mother...

Last night, there was a game. First there was a discussion about group communication [or lack thereof] and then we started playing. Nagataka and Yashamaru managed to discover a body 'buried' in the outhouse. The old lady admitted to murdering her husband and depositing him there. She had to be executed. Neko ["she's just a little girl"], who is not-like-people and may be some sort of spirit type, did not appreciate the bit where the old lady had to die. Unsurprisingly, Kamenosuke managed to talk her into acceptance. After the execution [and sending Sachio off with a report and to fetch someone to deal with the other dead body], we headed south, in pursuit of the evil-tainted-people. It was a short game.

This morning, I went to the rheumatologist. I was late, but only a little. Everything is better, except for a bit of inflammation in my left knee. Some things are a lot better, some are only a little better.

Now, food.