There is nothing quite as spine-numblingly terrifying as walking down University Avenue and seeing our new CLAWthing wandering along with a bunch of first-years. Who are all made to wave and chant "Hi [akika]" at you in unison. I trust that the reason for it is that she's attempting to indoctrinate them right from the very beginning, rather than letting others poison their minds against us.
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
focus
I am very close to deleting my facebook profile. The only thing it seems to do for me is cause annoyance. But this isn't the first time I've felt this way and most of the time I just ignore it, so it doesn't matter really.
In other news... Button came home. This made for a happy, though sandy, house. I skipped BT's birthday celebrations in favour of TheOldMan's birthday celebrations - and ended up at Beluga, which was her original plan. When I arrived home, there was Button. Aside from that, there has just been work, and last night's game.
We started with a discussion on mechanics and made a few changes. All bonuses/penalties are now 1, unless otherwise specified. We have honour [unsurprisingly, Kamenosuke's is highest]. No more xp without in-character training. And then we continued...
Ishie went wandering around the garden, looking for something in particular and making little rock-piles where she could [mental note: email confluence about this]. Kamenosuke spoke to Hideo, wrote some letters, had tea with Yeiji. Ishie was present for the last one and is satisfied with what was said. Yashamaru had a meeting with a nameless tainted person, that just about everyone else in the party knows the identity of and is pretending not to. His other efforts at communicating important matters to other people did not yield any results. Nagataka had an educational experience with the monk of the estate temple. Hideo did some training. In the evening, we met with Doji Akitaka about delicate matters. The results were less than satisfactory, but suggest that we are actually getting somewhere with this investigation. After dinner Nagataka met with Daichi to discuss the incredibly tainted coin, while Kamenosuke met with Keiko to discuss her incredibly nerve-wracking day tomorrow. Oh, and we also received a letter about something we already knew about, though it provided a little more detail on the matter.
Otherwise, I'm less cranky than I was when I woke up, which I can't help but feel is a step in the right direction.
In other news... Button came home. This made for a happy, though sandy, house. I skipped BT's birthday celebrations in favour of TheOldMan's birthday celebrations - and ended up at Beluga, which was her original plan. When I arrived home, there was Button. Aside from that, there has just been work, and last night's game.
We started with a discussion on mechanics and made a few changes. All bonuses/penalties are now 1, unless otherwise specified. We have honour [unsurprisingly, Kamenosuke's is highest]. No more xp without in-character training. And then we continued...
Ishie went wandering around the garden, looking for something in particular and making little rock-piles where she could [mental note: email confluence about this]. Kamenosuke spoke to Hideo, wrote some letters, had tea with Yeiji. Ishie was present for the last one and is satisfied with what was said. Yashamaru had a meeting with a nameless tainted person, that just about everyone else in the party knows the identity of and is pretending not to. His other efforts at communicating important matters to other people did not yield any results. Nagataka had an educational experience with the monk of the estate temple. Hideo did some training. In the evening, we met with Doji Akitaka about delicate matters. The results were less than satisfactory, but suggest that we are actually getting somewhere with this investigation. After dinner Nagataka met with Daichi to discuss the incredibly tainted coin, while Kamenosuke met with Keiko to discuss her incredibly nerve-wracking day tomorrow. Oh, and we also received a letter about something we already knew about, though it provided a little more detail on the matter.
Otherwise, I'm less cranky than I was when I woke up, which I can't help but feel is a step in the right direction.
Wednesday, 09 January 2008
Return of the Game
My computer is now working properly [thank you Lucas]. He also fixed my mouse and provided me with entertainment. He was rewarded by being allowed to experience the joys of defatting solution. I'm sure he is eternally grateful.
In other news, Button is still not home, but off in the desert somewhere having a wonderful time and lamenting my absence. As he should. I, on the other hand, have been working. Very hard at all sorts of things. As recently as Monday my supervisor said something along the lines of "No LN for two weeks? Why don't you write the first three chapters of your thesis." Yes. Well. She's not so completely unreasonable as to expect me to manage that in two weeks, but that's not really the point.
Last night there was a game. We were all present, we were all mostly on time. I was hoping to be the last to arrive, but it appears that unless I make a much more concerted effort, it will not happen. What happened? We had a recap of epic proportions that almost covered the entire game from the beginning. And would've, most likely, had Confluence not called us to order. We read a report from Masazumi. Kamenosuke got a letter from his brother and the magistrates got a letter from Mitsukuni detailing his displeasure at the goings on of the town in our absence, in less than so many words. Kamenosuke discovered an interesting feature to the scroll rack Masazumi had given us and we read the rest of the report. We were further interrupted by the presence of a ronin at the gate, asking for us. It was Kiyoko's tall, skinny friend, who doesn't like Ishie for some reason. He had a message for us, from his 'acquaintance'. Sachio appeared to be long-suffering and he certainly was after carrying messages back and forth from the village to us and spending large amounts of time drinking tea with the Tsumae guards. The simple version was that Isawa Hanchero wanted our help, if we'd be so kind as to promise him not to detain him without delay. After Hideo's concerns were overruled, a meeting was arranged for the next morning in a very private place due to Hanchero's 'current appearance'. A fact that did not fill anyone with joy. [For those of you who don't remember, Hanchero is a suspected maho user, on our most-wanted list]. The meeting took place and was decidedly uneventful. We discovered a lot of information, regarding Yashamaru's enemy [apparently Hanchero's enemy as well], the tainted coin I failed to mention previously and how, precisely to kill the oni.
All in all it was most enjoyable, though I could've done with more sleep. And now I'm trying to talk myself into going to the library and looking stuff up [I bought myself a pretty new file in preparation]. Possibly that won't happen today...
In other news, Button is still not home, but off in the desert somewhere having a wonderful time and lamenting my absence. As he should. I, on the other hand, have been working. Very hard at all sorts of things. As recently as Monday my supervisor said something along the lines of "No LN for two weeks? Why don't you write the first three chapters of your thesis." Yes. Well. She's not so completely unreasonable as to expect me to manage that in two weeks, but that's not really the point.
Last night there was a game. We were all present, we were all mostly on time. I was hoping to be the last to arrive, but it appears that unless I make a much more concerted effort, it will not happen. What happened? We had a recap of epic proportions that almost covered the entire game from the beginning. And would've, most likely, had Confluence not called us to order. We read a report from Masazumi. Kamenosuke got a letter from his brother and the magistrates got a letter from Mitsukuni detailing his displeasure at the goings on of the town in our absence, in less than so many words. Kamenosuke discovered an interesting feature to the scroll rack Masazumi had given us and we read the rest of the report. We were further interrupted by the presence of a ronin at the gate, asking for us. It was Kiyoko's tall, skinny friend, who doesn't like Ishie for some reason. He had a message for us, from his 'acquaintance'. Sachio appeared to be long-suffering and he certainly was after carrying messages back and forth from the village to us and spending large amounts of time drinking tea with the Tsumae guards. The simple version was that Isawa Hanchero wanted our help, if we'd be so kind as to promise him not to detain him without delay. After Hideo's concerns were overruled, a meeting was arranged for the next morning in a very private place due to Hanchero's 'current appearance'. A fact that did not fill anyone with joy. [For those of you who don't remember, Hanchero is a suspected maho user, on our most-wanted list]. The meeting took place and was decidedly uneventful. We discovered a lot of information, regarding Yashamaru's enemy [apparently Hanchero's enemy as well], the tainted coin I failed to mention previously and how, precisely to kill the oni.
All in all it was most enjoyable, though I could've done with more sleep. And now I'm trying to talk myself into going to the library and looking stuff up [I bought myself a pretty new file in preparation]. Possibly that won't happen today...
Friday, 04 January 2008
New Year, Same People
So, it is now 2008. Isn't that exciting. Let's all get drunk to celebrate.
Before we go down the path to that particular rant, let's go down another. We could rant about this computer, and how completely worthless it is [what is the point, I ask you, of having a computer that barely works and an entire department dedicated to ensure that the computers are constantly messing things up?], or we could rant about any number of other things [I had a list of things that were annoying me, but I don't remember them anymore]. Lucas, however, has offered to come by this afternoon and make the computer work [I'm hoping this involves beating it with blunt objects, as I'd really like to].
So, there was Christmas - Button's parents have put a bunch of pictures that we sent them online [saves me the trouble!], so you can go look at them. At least you could if this equally worthless mouse would deign to work. It was fun and family-filled. Luckily there was a decided lack of baboons, which is always happy. There was swimming [no one caught me on camera though! hahaha!] and the generalness that is all holidays. Ah, there's one of my other rants - why on earth do people feel that just because it's a certain time of the year everyone has to be ecstatically happy all of the time or god help you, you're ruining everything. Hasn't anybody learnt that you might be on holiday but your emotions and hormones and so on are not?
Then, there was New Year's. I don't mind admitting that I find it to be a rather pointless holiday. Oh look, another excuse for everyone to get drunk. How exciting. I don't like drunk people.
At some point, there was an l5r dinner, with sushi made by Confluence [H* did as well, I think, I wasn't paying much attention to the actual proceedings]. It was very nice, except for one minor issue that lasted all evening. I must be getting more irritable in my old age as this particular element never really bothered me before.
There was supposed to be a meeting with [insert name here], to talk about LARP stuff - sadly we'd barely got through the exclamations over the house and the kittens before work intervened. I have, however, since discovered Google Docs and so we can collaborate happily over there. When we have internet access.
Button buggered off to Namibia with B. and I'm all alone for now. Theoretically this involves actually getting lots of work done. This is an interesting theory. Recently I've done a fair bit of work on the LARP and various other writings. I read some books, but for details you must go to the book review site.
There is some family news - Gummy is falling fast. This is depressing, but probably a good thing in the end [who would choose a long, drawn-out period of deterioration?]. TheOldMan has found a job. This is particularly exciting because it means they're taking me out to dinner tonight. The job sounds like any other accoutning job, but the company sounds like they're really nice and fun and what-have-you.
Before we go down the path to that particular rant, let's go down another. We could rant about this computer, and how completely worthless it is [what is the point, I ask you, of having a computer that barely works and an entire department dedicated to ensure that the computers are constantly messing things up?], or we could rant about any number of other things [I had a list of things that were annoying me, but I don't remember them anymore]. Lucas, however, has offered to come by this afternoon and make the computer work [I'm hoping this involves beating it with blunt objects, as I'd really like to].
So, there was Christmas - Button's parents have put a bunch of pictures that we sent them online [saves me the trouble!], so you can go look at them. At least you could if this equally worthless mouse would deign to work. It was fun and family-filled. Luckily there was a decided lack of baboons, which is always happy. There was swimming [no one caught me on camera though! hahaha!] and the generalness that is all holidays. Ah, there's one of my other rants - why on earth do people feel that just because it's a certain time of the year everyone has to be ecstatically happy all of the time or god help you, you're ruining everything. Hasn't anybody learnt that you might be on holiday but your emotions and hormones and so on are not?
Then, there was New Year's. I don't mind admitting that I find it to be a rather pointless holiday. Oh look, another excuse for everyone to get drunk. How exciting. I don't like drunk people.
At some point, there was an l5r dinner, with sushi made by Confluence [H* did as well, I think, I wasn't paying much attention to the actual proceedings]. It was very nice, except for one minor issue that lasted all evening. I must be getting more irritable in my old age as this particular element never really bothered me before.
There was supposed to be a meeting with [insert name here], to talk about LARP stuff - sadly we'd barely got through the exclamations over the house and the kittens before work intervened. I have, however, since discovered Google Docs and so we can collaborate happily over there. When we have internet access.
Button buggered off to Namibia with B. and I'm all alone for now. Theoretically this involves actually getting lots of work done. This is an interesting theory. Recently I've done a fair bit of work on the LARP and various other writings. I read some books, but for details you must go to the book review site.
There is some family news - Gummy is falling fast. This is depressing, but probably a good thing in the end [who would choose a long, drawn-out period of deterioration?]. TheOldMan has found a job. This is particularly exciting because it means they're taking me out to dinner tonight. The job sounds like any other accoutning job, but the company sounds like they're really nice and fun and what-have-you.
Friday, 21 December 2007
Christmas!
Good Heavens. I turn around and the month disappears. It's quite disturbing. Now, before I get lost in trying to catalogue everything that's happened this month, I have a request for all the computery-types who read this. Will one of you please email me and say "this is why I think your reader might not be working and this is what you should do to fix it". That's Google Reader, for the record. It works fine at the museum. It works fine at my parents' house. But it will not open at uct, and I don't know why. Now since I'm rarely at my parents' house for the purposes of computery stuff and no longer at the museum, this is a problem.
Right, on with the catch-up... There was the undisclosed weekend, which I wrote about on a Tuesday. And there we told Waynnnnnnnnne that I put up a summary of the game after every game. Well, yes. But we never said I was particularly prompt about it. Anyway, as I recall ... not much happened. I think we argued a little over what our next step in the investigation should be. We reported to Doji Someone-Important [the guy we report to - I don't remember his name right now]. And I don't remember anything else... That was possibly the last game of the year. H* wandered off to France and, apparently, we're on the verge of really important stuff that we should all be there for. Since the only Tuesday left in the year is Christmas, we might be playing on another day, though that hasn't been organised yet. Oooh... we could play at miller's - won't that be fun?
Anyway, the next thing that happened was Button coming home. He went off to Wonderwerk [a cave near Kimberley] to do some field work. He was expecting to be inside the cave and instead was outside surveying most of the time. So he came home more than a little sunburnt. He also came home early due to a lack of work. Quite tragic, as I'm sure you can imagine. And, it involved sushi because we had to celebrate, after all.
Then it was Friday and my sister arrived. On Saturday, something happened. I don't remember what it was though. I get the feeling it was important, but I don't remember. Then, on Sunday, Phillygirl and I were due to head over to Riebeek West to visit Bandie and the Unmarried-son-in-law [that's my grandmother's unmarried son-in-law, if you're wondering]. Of course, it was pouring with rain here. So we phoned her up and it was pouring with rain there. Not exactly our idea of a good time, so we went shopping instead. Not really my idea of a good time, but sometimes sacrifices must be made. Sadly Christmas is one of those times. I did find one present and I got to see what we got for Mom [Philly did the purchasing on that one] - more importantly, I found a beautiful skirt for me! In the evening, Lucas was hosting some sort of social event, which I ended up declining. I'd had my fill of people for the day. And it turns out that it was the right decision - I was very sore that evening and that never makes for a fun time.
On Monday, I did as little as possible, except hanging out with Button and finishing up my report for JS. I met with her on Tuesday and gave her my report [which Button read and proclaimed not to understand a word of - hopefully it's merely assuming previous knowledge because the person I wrote it for knows about it, rather than a complete inability to explain things clearly on my part]. So, sieving Wendell with defatting solution didn't help, except for possibly destroying nylon and silicon as both my sieves are now broken. I'm waiting for the new year to get new mesh. Have you ever tried to find 10 micron nylon mesh? It's not that easy. Especially not when the people that it originally came from have been taken over by a bunch of morons with an outdated and completely useless website. Well, not completely useless as they had at least one helpful link, but that's not the point. Pig is busy defatting. I need to make some new defatting solution so that he can continue to defat. First, I need to find out what to do with the old defatting solution. Hopefully I'll be able to pin down IN today. Then, I'm going to ultrasonicate Pig, in the defatting solution. That'll be fun. I like to play with that machine. Also, FR [from Geology] is on leave until January sometime. So there will be no more LN ordered. The one tank is empty. The other tank is swiftly on its way to being empty. So, no lab work for me. On the other hand, my museum contract is not being renewed - due to a number of reasons that I'm not really interested in detailing here. So, I will have plenty of tiem for lab work next year. Let's hope I actually do some.
Then it was Wednesday, my last day at the museum, which I spent doing admin. Not a single skellie for me. I did meet Button for lunch at the nice little fish place. Which really needs to learn about things like cucumber and tartare sauce. Then, I took yesterday completely off and spent it doing more shopping. The first thing on my list of things to buy was medication. Then I went shopping for presents. Two very difficult presents. Which I eventually found. And that's me done for the year. No more shopping. Unless, of course, there's no food [like there's no milk at home right now] or I happen to see something that I like for me. I hate shopping for other people. Especially impossible people.
Now it is today and - oh look at that - more shopping. This is different though. I've been commissioned to buy something for Button and it's very simple. I barely have to leave my desk. Of course, I have to transport it home and magically wrap it without him noticing... And then, sometime this weekend, it's off to Miller's. I like to be at Miller's. And Miller's for christmas is my favourite.
Right, on with the catch-up... There was the undisclosed weekend, which I wrote about on a Tuesday. And there we told Waynnnnnnnnne that I put up a summary of the game after every game. Well, yes. But we never said I was particularly prompt about it. Anyway, as I recall ... not much happened. I think we argued a little over what our next step in the investigation should be. We reported to Doji Someone-Important [the guy we report to - I don't remember his name right now]. And I don't remember anything else... That was possibly the last game of the year. H* wandered off to France and, apparently, we're on the verge of really important stuff that we should all be there for. Since the only Tuesday left in the year is Christmas, we might be playing on another day, though that hasn't been organised yet. Oooh... we could play at miller's - won't that be fun?
Anyway, the next thing that happened was Button coming home. He went off to Wonderwerk [a cave near Kimberley] to do some field work. He was expecting to be inside the cave and instead was outside surveying most of the time. So he came home more than a little sunburnt. He also came home early due to a lack of work. Quite tragic, as I'm sure you can imagine. And, it involved sushi because we had to celebrate, after all.
Then it was Friday and my sister arrived. On Saturday, something happened. I don't remember what it was though. I get the feeling it was important, but I don't remember. Then, on Sunday, Phillygirl and I were due to head over to Riebeek West to visit Bandie and the Unmarried-son-in-law [that's my grandmother's unmarried son-in-law, if you're wondering]. Of course, it was pouring with rain here. So we phoned her up and it was pouring with rain there. Not exactly our idea of a good time, so we went shopping instead. Not really my idea of a good time, but sometimes sacrifices must be made. Sadly Christmas is one of those times. I did find one present and I got to see what we got for Mom [Philly did the purchasing on that one] - more importantly, I found a beautiful skirt for me! In the evening, Lucas was hosting some sort of social event, which I ended up declining. I'd had my fill of people for the day. And it turns out that it was the right decision - I was very sore that evening and that never makes for a fun time.
On Monday, I did as little as possible, except hanging out with Button and finishing up my report for JS. I met with her on Tuesday and gave her my report [which Button read and proclaimed not to understand a word of - hopefully it's merely assuming previous knowledge because the person I wrote it for knows about it, rather than a complete inability to explain things clearly on my part]. So, sieving Wendell with defatting solution didn't help, except for possibly destroying nylon and silicon as both my sieves are now broken. I'm waiting for the new year to get new mesh. Have you ever tried to find 10 micron nylon mesh? It's not that easy. Especially not when the people that it originally came from have been taken over by a bunch of morons with an outdated and completely useless website. Well, not completely useless as they had at least one helpful link, but that's not the point. Pig is busy defatting. I need to make some new defatting solution so that he can continue to defat. First, I need to find out what to do with the old defatting solution. Hopefully I'll be able to pin down IN today. Then, I'm going to ultrasonicate Pig, in the defatting solution. That'll be fun. I like to play with that machine. Also, FR [from Geology] is on leave until January sometime. So there will be no more LN ordered. The one tank is empty. The other tank is swiftly on its way to being empty. So, no lab work for me. On the other hand, my museum contract is not being renewed - due to a number of reasons that I'm not really interested in detailing here. So, I will have plenty of tiem for lab work next year. Let's hope I actually do some.
Then it was Wednesday, my last day at the museum, which I spent doing admin. Not a single skellie for me. I did meet Button for lunch at the nice little fish place. Which really needs to learn about things like cucumber and tartare sauce. Then, I took yesterday completely off and spent it doing more shopping. The first thing on my list of things to buy was medication. Then I went shopping for presents. Two very difficult presents. Which I eventually found. And that's me done for the year. No more shopping. Unless, of course, there's no food [like there's no milk at home right now] or I happen to see something that I like for me. I hate shopping for other people. Especially impossible people.
Now it is today and - oh look at that - more shopping. This is different though. I've been commissioned to buy something for Button and it's very simple. I barely have to leave my desk. Of course, I have to transport it home and magically wrap it without him noticing... And then, sometime this weekend, it's off to Miller's. I like to be at Miller's. And Miller's for christmas is my favourite.
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Untitled
So, on Friday I went to an undisclosed location with an undisclosed person for an undisclosed event. Neither of us made any undisclosed purchases at the time, though she may have since then and I may yet. There was a little bit of TMI, which I must admit usually doesn't bother me. This is partly because I'm nosy and partly because I'm very good at not thinking about things. Let's just hope that I can manage not to think about it when I next see undisclosed person's boyfriend. Hopefully the little bit of TMI that she got isn't too disturbing, and since I think her completely capable of working out who I meant... Hopefully the person that I meant never finds out what I said - I'd be in so much trouble.
On Saturday I went to yet another undisclosed location for yet another undisclosed event. I did not stay as long as I would've liked for undisclosed reasons, known only to myself, another undisclosed person and the undisclosed girl-in-pink. It was nice, however, to avoid further interaction with creepy-boy and disconcerting-girl. And, of course, this undisclosed person tried to kill himself. I'm afraid I wasn't very helpful, but I'm sure he'll forgive my inaction, given my state of mind at the time.
Well, that was fun, I almost confused myself. Hopefully tonight is not too awkward.
In other news, I have been working. I have done very little that isn't work. My report is coming along nicely. It's a pity about Wendell.
On Saturday I went to yet another undisclosed location for yet another undisclosed event. I did not stay as long as I would've liked for undisclosed reasons, known only to myself, another undisclosed person and the undisclosed girl-in-pink. It was nice, however, to avoid further interaction with creepy-boy and disconcerting-girl. And, of course, this undisclosed person tried to kill himself. I'm afraid I wasn't very helpful, but I'm sure he'll forgive my inaction, given my state of mind at the time.
Well, that was fun, I almost confused myself. Hopefully tonight is not too awkward.
In other news, I have been working. I have done very little that isn't work. My report is coming along nicely. It's a pity about Wendell.
Wednesday, 05 December 2007
So It's Been A While
Stuff has happened. There have been two games [I'll get to the details later], there was Lucas's birthday dinner [which was fun, though I suspect he was rather disappointed by the lack of other sushi], there was Thanksgiving [photos are up somewhere], there was Tiina Napoleon's 25th [utterly bizarre to see people I was at school with after 7 years, but fun], there was supposed to be Claire's 21st [I was in bed by 8pm instead, which was disappointing, but necessary] and there's been an awful lot of work. Oh, and Criminal Minds [cute geeky guy mmm...]
That's not in a particularly clear order, but that's irrelevant.
Criminal Minds is a series we got from my sister while in Cintsa. It's one of those ones about the absolutely amazing team of FBI Profilers who always get the bad guy[s] and so on. It has a number of redeeming qualities. [1.] It's not awful [2.] I like the characters [3.] It has the cute geeky guy [admittedly lacking in glasses, but I've forgiven him for this] [4.] It has the fat girl who nobody notices is fat and who is the computer specialist type and nobody ever says anything disparaging about that.
Lucas [so much for my not-using-real-names resolution. On the other hand, he comments as lucas, so it's not my fault]. Anyway, Lucas had a birthday. A bunch of us went to a very pretty place in celebration. It was fun. Particularly since I got to spend more time than usual talking to the female part of what Nad calls the Davison-Maclay-Hivemind. Button had some interesting observations on some of the attendees, whether or not they're accurate is another matter, one I'm not qualified to evaluate, so I will merely taunt you with the knowledge that they exist and not share them with you.
In terms of work, I had a meeting with my supervisor, JS. I have selected my next sample [a cow, named Pig. Don't ask], and it has been broken up. We decided to start with the rib samples we had, rather than the femur [as we did with Wendell] in the hopes that that would prove more compliant. However, JL was able to break up both the rib and the femur of Pig with a pair of pliers [I think], rather than the bandsaw that was necessary for Wendell. We've also decided to try to sieve Wendell with defatting solution rather than acetone. If this makes it easier then it means that it's the fat that's the problem [too much fat causes the bone particles to stick together and not go through the 11micron mesh]. We must wait and see what the outcome of that is, however. I'm also supposed to be writing a report on the results I got from the giraffe powder.
Two games have gone past, and I will not bother attempting to separate them. So, we started by going to Masazumi's wake. At least, Kamenosuke, Ishie and Hideo did. Yashamaru arrived late. There were a number of dead people floating about [ghosts], who disappeared around the middle of the wake. All but one of them. Confluence remembered the existence of my father and he had a great time at the wake. I suspect that he had an even better time later, when Bayushi Yutaka cornered me and attempted to have his usual sort of conversation. Sadly, I failed at keeping a straight face as my father mocked him horrendously. I don't think he was offended, however [actually, I suspect he was encouraged, which can only be a bad thing].
The magistrates [much to Yashamaru's dismay] were then dragged upstairs by Yutaka, who wanted to show them the delightful view from the upper story window. I suspect Yashamaru didn't understand that he was merely trying to find an excuse to speak to us somewhat privately. He has apparently discovered the identity of the poisoner, who apparently did it by accident ["I have no medical skills whatsoever, but this thing you're taking that's medicinal in small doses and fatal in large - I think you should up your dosage, it'll make you feel better. No, really."] - he did not wish to disclose the person's identity to us, though we have our suspicions, and failed to get a promise out of Kamenosuke that we would not investigate that aspect of the case. He then offered us his assistance, should we require it.
On our way back to the Gaki, Yashamaru told us that he had discovered the identity of the tainted individual at Maiden's Lake [to be fair, it's not particularly hard when they walk up to you and tell you], the stolen jade tea was for them, their current supply of jade tea has been stolen. The kami say that the tea is not missing. Yashamaru refuses to tell us the name of the person in question, though both Kamenosuke and Ishie have figured it out. Currently, matters are at a standstill, as our only advice for this person currently is to get hold of the Kuni and ask for their help. If this person does not wish to inform the Kuni of their predicament ... things will possibly get ugly. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The news does clarify something my father once said, which I thought was merely uncharitable, but since he never bothers to give me useful information that I can actually use immediately, it's annoying.
Anyway, while Kamenosuke and Hideo stayed with the Gaki, Yashamaru and Ishie went over the wall. They attempted to discover what the thing that went over was. The kami were singularly unhelpful. Having convinced the right people that we should be allowed to take the Gaki into the estate, we did so. He led us to where the flying, tainted creature went into the castle. We then took him back outside, gave him his soccer ball of mint [actually, that might have happened before, it's hard to keep track] and, with the return of his daisho, he attempted to commit seppuku. After the third attempt, Kamenosuke cut off his head and he started turning into some sort of acidic ooze. Ishie set him alight and, while discussing their next step, Nagataka arrived. Hideo elected to remain with the corpse and supervise the clean-up.
Nagataka had been prevented from attending the wake by a rather disturbing vision - one of the unidentified members of which was later identified by Yashamaru as the man who killed his mother. From the other details we suspect that the other unknown person involved is Isawa Hanchero. We met with Daichi the next morning, following which Yashamaru and Kamenosuke went to chat to Isawa Saigo. He told them that it was Hanchero's mother who first wanted to learn about ways in which to intimidate the kami into lying or refusing to reveal information. She, however, is dead. As one of our major tasks is the locating of Hanchero, the news is worrying. Other worrying news: Hanchero's mother had an accomplice/ally who was never identified and is still wandering about out there.
I bumped into Masazumi's younger son, who trained with the Asahina. He was carrying a rather curious smelling something, which he informed me was a tonic he'd made to help someone be calm. Since I thought I knew precisely who he was taking it to, I let him go with merely observing how nervous he was and how it seemed that he was particularly unhappy to have met me. I then went to collect pretty stones in the garden. Kamenosuke went and spoke to just about everyone, while Nagataka and Yashamaru amused themselves as only Dragon can. Hideo spent most of the day in bed, recovering from supervising the clean-up. Kamenosuke and I had a little chat about the aforementioned younger son, which resulted in him writing a haiku, which Doji Taniko was asked to deliver. She was upset because her grandmother forbid her to speak to her mother and refused to say why. [Incidentally her grandmother also said that she'd explain when Taniko was older, but as she's hoping to commit seppuku soon, that seems unlikely]. At some point, Yodo arrived with a message for Kamenosuke, from Nagataka, explaining that he wouldn't be able to attend the wake - he'd forgotten about it due to his need to count push-ups.
That's not in a particularly clear order, but that's irrelevant.
Criminal Minds is a series we got from my sister while in Cintsa. It's one of those ones about the absolutely amazing team of FBI Profilers who always get the bad guy[s] and so on. It has a number of redeeming qualities. [1.] It's not awful [2.] I like the characters [3.] It has the cute geeky guy [admittedly lacking in glasses, but I've forgiven him for this] [4.] It has the fat girl who nobody notices is fat and who is the computer specialist type and nobody ever says anything disparaging about that.
Lucas [so much for my not-using-real-names resolution. On the other hand, he comments as lucas, so it's not my fault]. Anyway, Lucas had a birthday. A bunch of us went to a very pretty place in celebration. It was fun. Particularly since I got to spend more time than usual talking to the female part of what Nad calls the Davison-Maclay-Hivemind. Button had some interesting observations on some of the attendees, whether or not they're accurate is another matter, one I'm not qualified to evaluate, so I will merely taunt you with the knowledge that they exist and not share them with you.
In terms of work, I had a meeting with my supervisor, JS. I have selected my next sample [a cow, named Pig. Don't ask], and it has been broken up. We decided to start with the rib samples we had, rather than the femur [as we did with Wendell] in the hopes that that would prove more compliant. However, JL was able to break up both the rib and the femur of Pig with a pair of pliers [I think], rather than the bandsaw that was necessary for Wendell. We've also decided to try to sieve Wendell with defatting solution rather than acetone. If this makes it easier then it means that it's the fat that's the problem [too much fat causes the bone particles to stick together and not go through the 11micron mesh]. We must wait and see what the outcome of that is, however. I'm also supposed to be writing a report on the results I got from the giraffe powder.
Two games have gone past, and I will not bother attempting to separate them. So, we started by going to Masazumi's wake. At least, Kamenosuke, Ishie and Hideo did. Yashamaru arrived late. There were a number of dead people floating about [ghosts], who disappeared around the middle of the wake. All but one of them. Confluence remembered the existence of my father and he had a great time at the wake. I suspect that he had an even better time later, when Bayushi Yutaka cornered me and attempted to have his usual sort of conversation. Sadly, I failed at keeping a straight face as my father mocked him horrendously. I don't think he was offended, however [actually, I suspect he was encouraged, which can only be a bad thing].
The magistrates [much to Yashamaru's dismay] were then dragged upstairs by Yutaka, who wanted to show them the delightful view from the upper story window. I suspect Yashamaru didn't understand that he was merely trying to find an excuse to speak to us somewhat privately. He has apparently discovered the identity of the poisoner, who apparently did it by accident ["I have no medical skills whatsoever, but this thing you're taking that's medicinal in small doses and fatal in large - I think you should up your dosage, it'll make you feel better. No, really."] - he did not wish to disclose the person's identity to us, though we have our suspicions, and failed to get a promise out of Kamenosuke that we would not investigate that aspect of the case. He then offered us his assistance, should we require it.
On our way back to the Gaki, Yashamaru told us that he had discovered the identity of the tainted individual at Maiden's Lake [to be fair, it's not particularly hard when they walk up to you and tell you], the stolen jade tea was for them, their current supply of jade tea has been stolen. The kami say that the tea is not missing. Yashamaru refuses to tell us the name of the person in question, though both Kamenosuke and Ishie have figured it out. Currently, matters are at a standstill, as our only advice for this person currently is to get hold of the Kuni and ask for their help. If this person does not wish to inform the Kuni of their predicament ... things will possibly get ugly. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The news does clarify something my father once said, which I thought was merely uncharitable, but since he never bothers to give me useful information that I can actually use immediately, it's annoying.
Anyway, while Kamenosuke and Hideo stayed with the Gaki, Yashamaru and Ishie went over the wall. They attempted to discover what the thing that went over was. The kami were singularly unhelpful. Having convinced the right people that we should be allowed to take the Gaki into the estate, we did so. He led us to where the flying, tainted creature went into the castle. We then took him back outside, gave him his soccer ball of mint [actually, that might have happened before, it's hard to keep track] and, with the return of his daisho, he attempted to commit seppuku. After the third attempt, Kamenosuke cut off his head and he started turning into some sort of acidic ooze. Ishie set him alight and, while discussing their next step, Nagataka arrived. Hideo elected to remain with the corpse and supervise the clean-up.
Nagataka had been prevented from attending the wake by a rather disturbing vision - one of the unidentified members of which was later identified by Yashamaru as the man who killed his mother. From the other details we suspect that the other unknown person involved is Isawa Hanchero. We met with Daichi the next morning, following which Yashamaru and Kamenosuke went to chat to Isawa Saigo. He told them that it was Hanchero's mother who first wanted to learn about ways in which to intimidate the kami into lying or refusing to reveal information. She, however, is dead. As one of our major tasks is the locating of Hanchero, the news is worrying. Other worrying news: Hanchero's mother had an accomplice/ally who was never identified and is still wandering about out there.
I bumped into Masazumi's younger son, who trained with the Asahina. He was carrying a rather curious smelling something, which he informed me was a tonic he'd made to help someone be calm. Since I thought I knew precisely who he was taking it to, I let him go with merely observing how nervous he was and how it seemed that he was particularly unhappy to have met me. I then went to collect pretty stones in the garden. Kamenosuke went and spoke to just about everyone, while Nagataka and Yashamaru amused themselves as only Dragon can. Hideo spent most of the day in bed, recovering from supervising the clean-up. Kamenosuke and I had a little chat about the aforementioned younger son, which resulted in him writing a haiku, which Doji Taniko was asked to deliver. She was upset because her grandmother forbid her to speak to her mother and refused to say why. [Incidentally her grandmother also said that she'd explain when Taniko was older, but as she's hoping to commit seppuku soon, that seems unlikely]. At some point, Yodo arrived with a message for Kamenosuke, from Nagataka, explaining that he wouldn't be able to attend the wake - he'd forgotten about it due to his need to count push-ups.
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Things To Do [in no particular order]:
- Never ever forget glasses ever again. Ever.
- Ensure the presence of headache medication just in case.
- Read GC's MA thesis.
- Type up relevant material from [3].
- Keep list of SAM-AP numbers from [3]. (That way I am doing both my MSc and my museum work at the same time. Sneaky.)
- Speak to JS about sieving/milling/defatting/samples/etc.
- Write up LARP stuff.
- Write up anything relevant from JS 1986.
- Do museum inventory stuff for JS 1986.
- Sieve, sieve, sieve.
So, in order to make some of these more doable:
- there's nothing particularly relevant in JS 1986.
- Any museum stuff has to wait until next Wednesday [they kicked us out of our offices today so that they could replace the flooring].
- Having read bits and pieces here and there of GCMA over the past year, I'm pretty sure I don't need to know all the background information. I just need the relevant stuff. Which is Chapters 5-9. 5 = 30 pages. 6 = 17 pages. 7 = 9 pages. 8 = 62 pages. 9 = 10 pages. I should probably have a look at the appendices as well. So, I think that today I should get Chapter 5 read. Tomorrow I should write up anything relevant from it and read chapters 6 & 7. I want to finish reading it over the weekend and finish any associated writing on Monday, at the latest.
- Sieving must happen as often as possible. More = better.
- Talking to JS will happen whenever I happen to catch her in her office [or the passage, or the lab or ... anywhere, really].
- The LARP stuff needs to be typed up and sent off to [insert name here] before I see her. Hopefully I'll not only get that done this weekend, but I'll also do more.
Under the Covers
So, yesterday was a bad day generally, which got progressively worse. This is not to say that the whole day was utterly horrendous, just most of it. I broke my phone yesterday and I'm not entirely sure how. So Button and I spent the morning trying to get it fixed. After going to the Waterfront, we found that we had to either send it to head office and only get it back on Saturday, or go to Canal Walk. So we went to Canal Walk, found the right person and it was done in 15 minutes. And then [seeing as how he's the guy who fixes things, not the salesperson] he nearly forgot that we were supposed to pay for this. Then we had breakfast.
Now, I am at varsity, trying to do some work. This is difficult for two reasons. One I need to talk to my supervisor and say "in the past couple of months I've sieved some of the powder, but really I haven't gotten anywhere with this bloody project" and I don't particularly want to do that. The other reason is that of all the things I could have forgotten this morning, I forgot my glasses. God forbid I forget something I don't actually need.
In other news: today is Thanksgiving in the US [Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October]. So, Button is attempting to make his first ever Thanksgiving dinner. And we've invited my mother...
Now, I am at varsity, trying to do some work. This is difficult for two reasons. One I need to talk to my supervisor and say "in the past couple of months I've sieved some of the powder, but really I haven't gotten anywhere with this bloody project" and I don't particularly want to do that. The other reason is that of all the things I could have forgotten this morning, I forgot my glasses. God forbid I forget something I don't actually need.
In other news: today is Thanksgiving in the US [Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October]. So, Button is attempting to make his first ever Thanksgiving dinner. And we've invited my mother...
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Windy Wednesday
So, it is Wednesday morning in Cape Town and it is even more windy than usual. I didn't blow away, however, which I always feel is a good thing. Even better, it's stopped raining. Having said that, I wouldn't particularly object to it starting again seeing as I am now inside and not likely to be going outside for a while yet.
Many among you will have noticed that I have twice mentioned that today is Wednesday [three times now], which means that yesterday was Tuesday. Which can mean only one thing. The 5th Annual PAST Keynote Lecture! PAST used to be the PalaeoAnthropological Scientific Trust, but has decided that it's not only human origins that are important, so it's changed its name [but not its acronym] to the Palaeontological Scientific Trust. And last night was the first time that these annual lectures came to Cape Town [previously they've all happened in Joburg] and the speaker was Paul Sereno. He was speaking about African Dinosaurs, from Sarcosuchus [technically a crocodile, not a dinosaur] to Nigersaurus [only just announced, and we saw a cast] and so on. Unfortunately I had to leave early [a mere hour and a half after the talk started], so that I could make the game.
I wasn't even the last to arrive. As is usual we spent a fair amount of time sitting around chatting about completely unrelated matters [I sometimes feel very sorry for Confluence - it must be like herding cats] and I didn't feel remotely awkward, uncomfortable or self-conscious at any point. The game started with Kamenosuke hunting down Ishie, who seemed to have recovered from the ill-effects of a powerful air spell that she could only manage with the assistance of Yashamaru's void spell. Well, she could have done it without the assistance, but it was important that she manage it first time, every time and it's a tricky spell. They meditated for a while before being summoned by Doji Yumiko, the recent widow. She informed us of her decision regarding Doji Seitaro [Kazushi's youngest adopted son, who he reportedly duelled to the death, but actually banished such that he was actually a ronin (Ichiro), who had been impersonating Doji Tsurumatsu the famous war-hero at winter court]. And she invited us to Masazumi's wake. We decided to continue our investigations by having a brief chat with a servant, Bayushi Yutaka, some more servants, Masazumi's second son [I can never remember his name but he's the one that's particularly close to Daichi] and Yutaka again, before heading into town. It became clear that someone attempted to poison Masazumi with a poison that easily mimics natural causes [and therefore is unlikely to have been the person behind the assassin], the old woman had died because the other servants gave her Masazumi's leftovers and that tempers had been running high prior to the evening meeting.
We started our town-based investigation at the Running Fox, the Inn where Keiko had spent some hours pointlessly waiting for no-one and happened to see a Daidoji guard go past. So we questioned the Innkeeper and were reintroduced to the ronin Hiroji. Who was executed. Who is now a hungry ghost [also known as Gaki. Essentially they are undead who may be horribly mutated and are doomed to wander the world searching for something and never finding it]. He gave us some useful information and followed the smell of the blood that walked past. This lead us down to an abandoned warehouse near the river. Yashamaru and Hideo attacked Hiroji when they believed he was about to attack Kamenosuke - perfectly sensible and most apreciated. Of course, since Kamenosuke seems to like Gaki-Hiroji, Ishie's not particularly bothered by him. The rest of us [Kamenosuke included] were distracted by some tracks, which seemed to lead into the warehouse. Hideo, Nagataka and Ishie headed into the warehouse while Yashamaru did his water-spell-to-see-what-happened and Kamenosuke kept an eye on Hiroji. At least, until his Ishie-senses started tingling.
In the warehouse, Hideo examined the front door [we came in through a hole in the back of the warehouse, following the tracks], Ishie went upstairs, accompanied by Nagataka. There we found a decapitated body. Yashamaru could have told us this as he saw it through his water spell. It was while looking for the missing head [in order to identify the person] that Kamenosuke's Ishie-senses began to tingle and he swiftly abandoned Hiroji to the unappreciated care of Yashamaru and went into the warehouse. Just in time to see Ishie very nearly fall from the second floor to the ground. Unfortunately the damage to the side of the warehouse had extended to the inner supports. Ishie managed to keep her balance and not fall. Nagataka, however, who rushed to her aid, fell over the edge and hurt his ankle rather nastily. Rather him than her, however, as he can regenerate himself.
All gathering in the warehouse now, we decided that the dead man was most likely the assassin who killed Doji Masazumi. So who killed him? Hiroji mentioned that one of the other people he could smell, smelt really bad. Does this suggest 'tainted person' to anyone? We secured the warehouse, arranged for people to guard it and so on. We then followed Hiroji back through town on the scent of the really-awful-smelling-person. Who did not spend much time on the ground. Enough for Hiroji to track him to the walls of the estate. It was then time to go to the wake, so we left Hiroji on the side of the road [a rarely used road, pretty much only used by peasants and people travelling to and from the secret passageway]. And there we left it.
There's not much other news, except that it is in fact raining again, there's another lecture this afternoon and for the non-squeamish females among you: menstrual cups are so, so much better than traditional items.
Many among you will have noticed that I have twice mentioned that today is Wednesday [three times now], which means that yesterday was Tuesday. Which can mean only one thing. The 5th Annual PAST Keynote Lecture! PAST used to be the PalaeoAnthropological Scientific Trust, but has decided that it's not only human origins that are important, so it's changed its name [but not its acronym] to the Palaeontological Scientific Trust. And last night was the first time that these annual lectures came to Cape Town [previously they've all happened in Joburg] and the speaker was Paul Sereno. He was speaking about African Dinosaurs, from Sarcosuchus [technically a crocodile, not a dinosaur] to Nigersaurus [only just announced, and we saw a cast] and so on. Unfortunately I had to leave early [a mere hour and a half after the talk started], so that I could make the game.
I wasn't even the last to arrive. As is usual we spent a fair amount of time sitting around chatting about completely unrelated matters [I sometimes feel very sorry for Confluence - it must be like herding cats] and I didn't feel remotely awkward, uncomfortable or self-conscious at any point. The game started with Kamenosuke hunting down Ishie, who seemed to have recovered from the ill-effects of a powerful air spell that she could only manage with the assistance of Yashamaru's void spell. Well, she could have done it without the assistance, but it was important that she manage it first time, every time and it's a tricky spell. They meditated for a while before being summoned by Doji Yumiko, the recent widow. She informed us of her decision regarding Doji Seitaro [Kazushi's youngest adopted son, who he reportedly duelled to the death, but actually banished such that he was actually a ronin (Ichiro), who had been impersonating Doji Tsurumatsu the famous war-hero at winter court]. And she invited us to Masazumi's wake. We decided to continue our investigations by having a brief chat with a servant, Bayushi Yutaka, some more servants, Masazumi's second son [I can never remember his name but he's the one that's particularly close to Daichi] and Yutaka again, before heading into town. It became clear that someone attempted to poison Masazumi with a poison that easily mimics natural causes [and therefore is unlikely to have been the person behind the assassin], the old woman had died because the other servants gave her Masazumi's leftovers and that tempers had been running high prior to the evening meeting.
We started our town-based investigation at the Running Fox, the Inn where Keiko had spent some hours pointlessly waiting for no-one and happened to see a Daidoji guard go past. So we questioned the Innkeeper and were reintroduced to the ronin Hiroji. Who was executed. Who is now a hungry ghost [also known as Gaki. Essentially they are undead who may be horribly mutated and are doomed to wander the world searching for something and never finding it]. He gave us some useful information and followed the smell of the blood that walked past. This lead us down to an abandoned warehouse near the river. Yashamaru and Hideo attacked Hiroji when they believed he was about to attack Kamenosuke - perfectly sensible and most apreciated. Of course, since Kamenosuke seems to like Gaki-Hiroji, Ishie's not particularly bothered by him. The rest of us [Kamenosuke included] were distracted by some tracks, which seemed to lead into the warehouse. Hideo, Nagataka and Ishie headed into the warehouse while Yashamaru did his water-spell-to-see-what-happened and Kamenosuke kept an eye on Hiroji. At least, until his Ishie-senses started tingling.
In the warehouse, Hideo examined the front door [we came in through a hole in the back of the warehouse, following the tracks], Ishie went upstairs, accompanied by Nagataka. There we found a decapitated body. Yashamaru could have told us this as he saw it through his water spell. It was while looking for the missing head [in order to identify the person] that Kamenosuke's Ishie-senses began to tingle and he swiftly abandoned Hiroji to the unappreciated care of Yashamaru and went into the warehouse. Just in time to see Ishie very nearly fall from the second floor to the ground. Unfortunately the damage to the side of the warehouse had extended to the inner supports. Ishie managed to keep her balance and not fall. Nagataka, however, who rushed to her aid, fell over the edge and hurt his ankle rather nastily. Rather him than her, however, as he can regenerate himself.
All gathering in the warehouse now, we decided that the dead man was most likely the assassin who killed Doji Masazumi. So who killed him? Hiroji mentioned that one of the other people he could smell, smelt really bad. Does this suggest 'tainted person' to anyone? We secured the warehouse, arranged for people to guard it and so on. We then followed Hiroji back through town on the scent of the really-awful-smelling-person. Who did not spend much time on the ground. Enough for Hiroji to track him to the walls of the estate. It was then time to go to the wake, so we left Hiroji on the side of the road [a rarely used road, pretty much only used by peasants and people travelling to and from the secret passageway]. And there we left it.
There's not much other news, except that it is in fact raining again, there's another lecture this afternoon and for the non-squeamish females among you: menstrual cups are so, so much better than traditional items.
Monday, 19 November 2007
pretty hair
So, I have cut my hair and it is pretty. At the very least, I'm happy with it and it's no longer so long that it annoys me intensely.
I have spent most of this morning learning about menstrual cups, thanks to a wonderful post by Confluence. I suggest all females read it.
In other news, work continues much as ever. I was at Kirstenbosch yesterday, in celebration of my 25th birthday with many people coming to visit and say hello. It was lovely. In the evening, Button and I watched Rear Window. On Saturday we watched Lawrence of Arabia. Both were brilliant movies, though I think I liked LoA better than RW. If nothing else the male lead was less annoying.
Apparently I have nothing to say.
I have spent most of this morning learning about menstrual cups, thanks to a wonderful post by Confluence. I suggest all females read it.
In other news, work continues much as ever. I was at Kirstenbosch yesterday, in celebration of my 25th birthday with many people coming to visit and say hello. It was lovely. In the evening, Button and I watched Rear Window. On Saturday we watched Lawrence of Arabia. Both were brilliant movies, though I think I liked LoA better than RW. If nothing else the male lead was less annoying.
Apparently I have nothing to say.
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Cintsa
So, there was yummy unagi on Thursday. It was good. There should be more. Perhaps Button and I shall obtain some in honour of my oldness.
We woke up horrendously early on Friday morning [though not quite so much as Philly and Whatsit] and then I slept until we got to Riviersonderend. And we drove and we drove and we drove. And then, approximately 12 hours after we started, we stopped. We had arrived in the middle of nowhere, in the Eastern Cape. The Eastern Cape is very pretty and now I've seen Port Elizabeth, East London and Port Alfred. We saw monkeys on the drive up and on the drive down. There was lots of livestock. We also saw some buck and ostriches and so on.
Anyway, Cintsa is a lovely place, on the sea and a lagoon. It was very windy, but quite lovely. I went swimming on Monday, which was a bit of an experience. Usually sea-swimming involves being at Miller's. It does not involve a sandy beach with waves. It was fun, though, and not particularly cold except for the getting in and out. The house we stayed in was enormous and had a lovely view.
Yesterday, we drove home. We left at a reasonable hour, which meant that we got home fairly late. In fact, after all was said and done and moved from car to car and so on, Button and I got home - exhausted - just after nine. So no game for me. Hopefully nothing dire happened to Ishie in my absence... It's unlikely, but you never know with Confluence.
And now, it's back to the grindstone, with nothing but work before me for the next few days. And then it's weekend. And, on Sunday, it's my birthday party, very exciting. I hope the weather's nice - it's pouring with rain at the moment...
We woke up horrendously early on Friday morning [though not quite so much as Philly and Whatsit] and then I slept until we got to Riviersonderend. And we drove and we drove and we drove. And then, approximately 12 hours after we started, we stopped. We had arrived in the middle of nowhere, in the Eastern Cape. The Eastern Cape is very pretty and now I've seen Port Elizabeth, East London and Port Alfred. We saw monkeys on the drive up and on the drive down. There was lots of livestock. We also saw some buck and ostriches and so on.
Anyway, Cintsa is a lovely place, on the sea and a lagoon. It was very windy, but quite lovely. I went swimming on Monday, which was a bit of an experience. Usually sea-swimming involves being at Miller's. It does not involve a sandy beach with waves. It was fun, though, and not particularly cold except for the getting in and out. The house we stayed in was enormous and had a lovely view.
Yesterday, we drove home. We left at a reasonable hour, which meant that we got home fairly late. In fact, after all was said and done and moved from car to car and so on, Button and I got home - exhausted - just after nine. So no game for me. Hopefully nothing dire happened to Ishie in my absence... It's unlikely, but you never know with Confluence.
And now, it's back to the grindstone, with nothing but work before me for the next few days. And then it's weekend. And, on Sunday, it's my birthday party, very exciting. I hope the weather's nice - it's pouring with rain at the moment...
Thursday, 08 November 2007
ready to go
So, Button and I spent a rather stressful evening last night packing for the trip. We won't be going home again until Tuesday. As a result a number of things didn't happen - I did not phone my grandfather for his birthday [by the time I got time to do it, it was too late], I did not organise photos for uploading [though Button's computer is going with us and there are some on there...] and we did not go to yoga.
Anyway, I hear that two new people have been sent this way. MF, my father's cousin [I think] and AB, who is not related but may as well be. Hopefully they won't be too discouraged by all the meaningless gibberish that seems to be scattered over my blog [at least, meaningless from the point of view of people who don't understand it] and will learn to just skip over any paragraphs that contain the word 'game', which is what my mother assures me she does. At least, when she actually reads my blog and doesn't just have TheOldMan tell her what I said.
Now, since I meant to phone MF and tell her about it [but didn't because I don't have her phone number and am just really bad when it comes to phoning people], I shall now give you an account of my second visit to the OT. She examined me fairly thoroughly [she skipped over some things as I'd just seen the rheumatologist the day before] and declared that I have full range of movement in everything and have no need of any more assistive devices. Her greatest concern is the fatigue and she gave us a number of suggestions of things to do to combat that. Even going so far as to say "and if you feel you need to, just take a nap". Yes. Something to do in the middle of my roleplaying game, certainly, we wouldn't wish to deprive That Cat of another chance to eat me. Although, the only time I've ever fallen asleep at their house [I don't know what you're talking about, I was reading the whole time, I swear!] the cat in question did not attempt to eat me, but to cuddle up to me. Though I suspect she was more interested in the heating pad than in me.
So, important things to remember are sushi tonight [unagi for meeeeeeeeeeeee!], and waking up at some horrendous hour to head off to the eastern cape tomorrow. I'm so excited!
Anyway, I hear that two new people have been sent this way. MF, my father's cousin [I think] and AB, who is not related but may as well be. Hopefully they won't be too discouraged by all the meaningless gibberish that seems to be scattered over my blog [at least, meaningless from the point of view of people who don't understand it] and will learn to just skip over any paragraphs that contain the word 'game', which is what my mother assures me she does. At least, when she actually reads my blog and doesn't just have TheOldMan tell her what I said.
Now, since I meant to phone MF and tell her about it [but didn't because I don't have her phone number and am just really bad when it comes to phoning people], I shall now give you an account of my second visit to the OT. She examined me fairly thoroughly [she skipped over some things as I'd just seen the rheumatologist the day before] and declared that I have full range of movement in everything and have no need of any more assistive devices. Her greatest concern is the fatigue and she gave us a number of suggestions of things to do to combat that. Even going so far as to say "and if you feel you need to, just take a nap". Yes. Something to do in the middle of my roleplaying game, certainly, we wouldn't wish to deprive That Cat of another chance to eat me. Although, the only time I've ever fallen asleep at their house [I don't know what you're talking about, I was reading the whole time, I swear!] the cat in question did not attempt to eat me, but to cuddle up to me. Though I suspect she was more interested in the heating pad than in me.
So, important things to remember are sushi tonight [unagi for meeeeeeeeeeeee!], and waking up at some horrendous hour to head off to the eastern cape tomorrow. I'm so excited!
Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Goodbye Mountain
I can usually see the mountain [well, signal hill] through my [very small] window at the museum. Most of it is obscured by a rather low raincloud today, which is kind of depressing, even though I like rainy weather. For some reason I don't feel like working today and yet am getting what seems like enormous amounts of the stuff done [not right at this minute, of course, but one does need breaks every now and then].
I'm quite excited. Button and I are having sushi at the Sake House with mom and dad tomorrow night [which reminds me, I must phone mom - why she insists on calling on Tuesday evenings is beyond me], then we're going to sleep at their house. Briefly. We leave early Friday morning for the Eastern Cape. It's very exciting. We're going to meet Phillydilly and Whatsit at some place near a beach. And we're only coming back on Tuesday... hmm... that might be problematic. Anyway, regardless of whether or not it affects next week's game, it's exciting!
Speaking of games, there was one last night. It was very exciting, as we were beginning the investigation of Doji Masazumi's murder. I'm sorry to say that Ishie was rather useless ... though I suspect that was more due to the fact that I was exhausted and having trouble focusing rather than Ishie actually being useless. She and Yashamaru did interrogate some Tsumae guards. Well, Yashamaru questioned them, while Ishie made sure they weren't lying or omitting important information. She mentally bonded with whatever the female guard's name was. Otherwise, the game was quite fun as it involved examining the crime scene, discovering secret passages, interrogating people and generally splitting up the party for most of the evening. And for a change, Ishie and Yashamaru were left alone and didn't spend the whole time insulting each other. In fact, Yashamaru even helped Ishie to cast the spell in question, which shows that all shugenja can get along, no matter what, as long as only shugenja are around. Or something.
Yesterday was the 6th of November. Something [that was] important [at the time] happened on the 6th of November. And I got an sms from an unknown number saying "happy 6th november" which confused me greatly. I eventually worked out that it was from Tiina Napoleon, through the simple method of examining my address book for rarely used numbers that aren't stored in my phone. And then I sat there and stared at my phone, confused. What could she mean? And then it hit me and I spent the entire drive to the game laughing. It was most amusing to me, particularly given the length of time it took me to work out what it was...
And now I've run out of things to say, which is a pity as it means I must go back to work.
I'm quite excited. Button and I are having sushi at the Sake House with mom and dad tomorrow night [which reminds me, I must phone mom - why she insists on calling on Tuesday evenings is beyond me], then we're going to sleep at their house. Briefly. We leave early Friday morning for the Eastern Cape. It's very exciting. We're going to meet Phillydilly and Whatsit at some place near a beach. And we're only coming back on Tuesday... hmm... that might be problematic. Anyway, regardless of whether or not it affects next week's game, it's exciting!
Speaking of games, there was one last night. It was very exciting, as we were beginning the investigation of Doji Masazumi's murder. I'm sorry to say that Ishie was rather useless ... though I suspect that was more due to the fact that I was exhausted and having trouble focusing rather than Ishie actually being useless. She and Yashamaru did interrogate some Tsumae guards. Well, Yashamaru questioned them, while Ishie made sure they weren't lying or omitting important information. She mentally bonded with whatever the female guard's name was. Otherwise, the game was quite fun as it involved examining the crime scene, discovering secret passages, interrogating people and generally splitting up the party for most of the evening. And for a change, Ishie and Yashamaru were left alone and didn't spend the whole time insulting each other. In fact, Yashamaru even helped Ishie to cast the spell in question, which shows that all shugenja can get along, no matter what, as long as only shugenja are around. Or something.
Yesterday was the 6th of November. Something [that was] important [at the time] happened on the 6th of November. And I got an sms from an unknown number saying "happy 6th november" which confused me greatly. I eventually worked out that it was from Tiina Napoleon, through the simple method of examining my address book for rarely used numbers that aren't stored in my phone. And then I sat there and stared at my phone, confused. What could she mean? And then it hit me and I spent the entire drive to the game laughing. It was most amusing to me, particularly given the length of time it took me to work out what it was...
And now I've run out of things to say, which is a pity as it means I must go back to work.
Monday, 05 November 2007
some people are morons
So, my sister is the most religious of my family [though she may object to that, it's what I believe at this moment] - that doesn't make her very religious at all though. And for a long time now she's had a tagline on her blog that says "I believe in one god less than the christians". Obviously, someone that I'm not going to name ['cause that would just be meaner] felt she needed to be shown the 'true path' and sent her the following email:
Hello [akika's big sister],
You might remember me from [that high school that you went to]… I was in [very old ex-boyfriend]’s year. I think we might have met once or twice? I bumped into your blog via [very old ex-boyfriend]’s page…..and then I stumbled across your mail address on the [that high school that you went to] page. I was going to comment on your page but thought it better to mail you..
I see you believe in one less God than Christians… I believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit… which 2 do you believe in? Just kidding!!
Anyway on a serious note when I read that under your profile I felt the Lord say that although you don’t believe in Him, He believes in you, that He has purpose and plans for you beyond anything you could hope or dream of, that the sense of awe you get when in His creation is same sense you will get as you see your destiny in Him unfold.
It’s up to you. He is waiting. You need to choose Him. You have thought about and understood the gospel (an intimate relationship with Jesus as He washes away your sin and gives you His right standing with God) in the past but I believe He wants to drop it into your heart and then you will really know it.
I also feel God saying that people have always recognized your intellect and academic ability but He sees you heart and your longing for purpose and meaning beyond the “rat race”. He has that for you.
Ok. That’s my bit. Feel free not to reply. Hope the whole house thing works out for you!
Cheers!
[religious moron]
So, naturally my sister responded, and since I saw that too, all I'm going to say is - wow! She's a lot politer than I would've been. Of course, there was the amusing incident with the Lying Pilot. An ex-boyfriend of hers who left her because of, among other things, her sister's inferior height. That would be my height, if you're wondering [between 4'11" and 5' - 1.5m]. And then he went off and married some other girl he'd been cultivating, who had a lot of money. She's much happier without him, though sometimes it's hard to tell, since she lives in Joburg. Anyway, Button and I were at the waterfront once and saw him, since he looked straight at me, seemed to know who I was and then pretended not to see me I proceeded to say very loudly "That's my sister's ex-boyfriend, the one who left her 'cause he didn't want kids as short as me. He ran off and married some girl with lots of money. That must be his new wife."
I'm sure at least some of you are shocked. He blithely ignored me, I don't think his wife understood, though it was very clear I was talking about him as I was glaring at him the whole time [and I may have pointed ... I'm not exactly nice about some things]. Button was horrified and so were my family when he told them.
Anyway, my point before I got distracted by the story of the Lying Pilot, is that if you're going to be religious, go be religious. If you want to convert people, convert them by the power of example, not by worthless platitudes that are only relevant because you know absolutely nothing about the person in question. And for god's sake, if 'the Lord' is saying things to you, I suggest you seek psychological help!
[Edit: for the record, I meant to mention that the gentleman in question ... I think I'll name him Religious Moron, was reasonably well known at school and not for his religious beliefs.]
On to actual posting - I seem to be missing the post where I said "'character creation happened at the end of October and we started playing in the first week of November" ... possibly it exists only in my head. It wouldn't surprise me.
Anyway, Friday happened. Button and I went to Andiamo in the Cape Quarter for supper, it was very yummy. We then watched a very silly movie from the 70s, Murder by Death it was a most enjoyable send-up of the murder-mystery genre. Saturday morning saw blood tests - which I hate, but it's important to be sure that my liver is not taking horrendous strain due to my medication. It was okay, clearly the people who staff Pathcare in Sea Point are qualified and know how to do it so that it doesn't cause tremendous pain. I know where I'm getting my blood tests done in future! We then went to New York Bagel for breakfast - it was a bit odd for me [why they hid the syrup, I don't understand], but delightful.
On our walk back to the car, we saw a branch of Cafda, who I adore, so in we went. And what do you know, we came out with books! Most of which are already finished. There were four volumes of the Agatha Christie Crime Collection, containing 3 novels each and a copy of Little Men. Then we investigated the Chinese grocery in Sea Point, to find out if it was really worth the drive out to Paarden Eiland. The Sea Point one is just as good. In the evening we watched a delightfully slow movie from Korea, called Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and Spring.
This morning I went to see my rheumatologist. Things are looking good, though he's upped my medication ever so slightly. And now I'm trying not to face the fact that the mill needs to be cleaned.
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