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.

Block Application

Why do I still have a facebook account? Because I'm too lazy to delete it. Because this way I can still see people's photos. It's the only way I find out about who's died lately. Currently I'm fighting the temptation to just hit the 'ignore all' bit on the invites and requests and what have you. Why? Because I'm going through and blocking every application I've been invited to add. I have no interest in the stupid things and I don't want them cluttering up my life. So I'm taking the time [while I do other, more important stuff, of course] to block as many of them as I can. I must admit to gaining some sort of rather sadistic pleasure out of it, but I don't really understand the how or the why of that.

Okay, the weekend happened. Friday morning was another horrendous early morning all in the name of teaching the tutlings. That went reasonably well, except for the fact that there are some things they don't understand. Like - if you don't ask us what something is and just assume you know, you might be wrong and you will get no marks when you have to identify something similar. But don't feel that you're under any obligation to admit any sort of ignorance. Later in the day [and far more important than some idiot tutlings] I discovered the air compressor. I knew it was there somewhere, and now I know exactly where and how it works and so on. So I can clean Wendell out of the mill completely. It's exciting.

On Saturday, I started the day by gardening. I like to garden and I like plants. I particularly like my plants. They were ruthlessly pruned and the ones not responding to the pesticide were sadly sent away. They were all half dead anyway and so infested that they couldn't be saved. It was very depressing. Now all I need are new pots and new plants. But I'm not allowed any until after we've moved. One of the plants got another spraying of poison as it was only by pruning away the dead bits that I discovered some of the evil plant-killing bugs on it. So it got sprayed. In the midst of some much-needed filing, Mom arrived with Gummy, for tea in the garden. It was fun. Later on, I seem to have brushed up against the recently-poisoned-plant and transferred said poison from the plant to the biscuit I was eating. That was not a happy half hour, particularly since we were supposed to be leaving the house right about then. Thankfully I am my mother's daughter and off we went to watch the rest of Ergo Proxy with Confluence et al. We also watched Samurai Fiction, one of my most favourite movies ever. And then, someone unleashed the blinky lights [I blame the combined efforts of Button and H*. Button just had to mention the crystal-dragon-block and H* just had to say that there was a silver stand and then they just had to find it and plug it in]. Hours passed and eventually someone [though I forget who] found the willpower to switch on the actual light and release the rest of us.

Sunday saw grocery shopping. This was important as events had conspired against it the week before and we'd had no food in the house for a very long time. We went off to fruit and veg and then headed to the Pick'n'Pay nearest our new house. It was exciting. And, I have a watering can now. I'm sure other stuff happened yesterday, but I don't remember it.

Today will involve cleaning the mill, marking and two seminars. Then, there will be dinner with archaeologists.

Glassless

So, this week has [mostly] happened. Tutorials began very early on Tuesday morning. Aside from the fact that the tutlings took forever to arrive and continued to arrive until the tutorial was nearly finished, it was all good. Of course, I've had to mark those, and be careful with the marking as the lecturer [who is otherwise very cool] seems to be under the impression that we must be super-nice to them and not hurt their little feelings. Everyone who handed in something reasonable will be getting full-marks for this assignment, even the ones who didn't really answer the question fully. The practical on Tuesday afternoon was better, at the very least, JS shares my opinions on marking.

In the evening, there was the game. Despite living around the corner, Lucas managed to be late. He did have a reason, though I'm yet to have an opinion on how reasonable it is. We defeated the undead horse, though there was still a bit of arguing as we tried to work out how to work the new combat system we made up. After that, the horse was eliminated, Yashamaru and Ishie set things alight and we argued a bit over where to go and what to do. Having decided what to do [and hence where to go] we set off. We managed to find a light as it began to get dark and we headed off in search of shelter. The crazy old lady and the cat/monkey child were very nice. Things went mostly well for the night. Hideo left Kamenosuke vulnerable and unprotected, but Ishie managed to get to him before anything untoward happened. Watches took place, which involved Nagataka sensing something, Ishie having a visitor and not much else.

Yesterday morning saw disaster strike. On arriving at the car, Button and I discovered that the one tyre was completely flat and the other partially flat. We tried to change the tyre, but the lift-car-up thingie wasn't very good and kept moving about. So, the nice man from the AA came and did it for us and then we took the car to get the tyres fixed. Apparently there was a nail in the one and absolutely nothing wrong with the other. I did make it to the tutor's meeting on time though. In the evening, there was roleplaying sushi. Or, there would have been if Wombat and Waynnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne had showed up. As it was, it was vaguely roleplaying sushi. Regardless of anybody else, I had fun. I think everyone else did too. And the sushi was good.

Today, there has been a surprising lack of work. The freezer mill is finally dry, however, so hopefully there will be work tomorrow. On the plus side, all my first year tuts are marked. This morning was another disaster for poor Button. As we ran to catch the shuttle his glasses were dislodged and something crushed them so now he has no glasses :(

Dragon Weekend

This morning, we eventually left the house and headed off to UCT. Now that Pig's rib has finished defatting, it's time to move on to other parts of the preparation process. Today, PigR is freeze-drying, tomorrow the milling will begin. Nova, the Swedish exchange student came along to watch. Apparently their department is almost completely theoretical and they don't do any of this practical stuff, so she likes to see what's happening, how things get done and she even occasionally lends a hand where necessary. She's very cool, we all like her and want to keep her.

Yesterday, I stopped by the Waterfront to do some shopping with Button. We have no food in the house. We didn't end up doing any shopping, but we did see my cousin Meggles Dragonboating. We arrived at the start of a race and, by virtue of some guy screaming 'DSK', were able to work out that we had arrived to see Meggles actually racing. We were at the bridge when she passed underneath and got to see her in action. It was very cool and we got to chat to her for a little bit afterwards. They are a junior team [18 years and under] and compete with senior teams [over 18s]. Apparently there was only one team there that they couldn't beat. Sadly, I forgot my camera, so no pictures. After that, we had surprise sushi, so named because not only was I not expecting it, I didn't even know I was hungry. Then, there was no time for shopping before Button's meeting, so we headed home.

On Saturday, I was at the Tutor Training Workshop. The food was good and the Workshop less boring and more fun and useful than I was expecting. Button got home while I was busy. There was supposed to be Jane Austen movie watching, but I was tired and cranky and wanted to be with Button. We later ended up watching anime with Confluence, H* and others. We watched the next 5 episodes of Ergo Proxy. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Then we watched two first episodes that were very pink, involved heart-shaped petals falling all over the place and ... well, certain other things that one should expect from certain types of anime. We did watch the beginning of a different first episode that doesn't fall into any of those categories. It was bad. It was truly awful. The only good part was the sparkly-blue-butterfly-things. There was an awful lot of exposition that blatantly contradicted itself, badly depicted people and horrendous attempts at what I can only presume was meant to be acting.

On Friday, there was Meggles birthday lunch at Rhodes Memorial. She turned 16.

In other news, I have just agreed to tutor a fourth course. Luckily this one doesn't require marking.

This morning I discovered #claws, thanks to prodding by Confluence and links that work on my antiquated UCT computer from H*. I'm still getting used to it.

In other news, the rock-bashing is completed to the satisfaction of the senior rock-bashing guy, assuming that we're right about what's supposed to happen to the samples now. I have sent a query to Button.

The game happened on Tuesday. We started by setting off to question our friendly neighbourhood Tainted guy. We wanted to know just what exactly his ritual would entail. So we went to the village, to find the ronin who knew where he was. The ronin was pleasurably occupied, much to Kamenosuke's disappointment. He agreed to lead us to the friendly-Tainted-guy and so the next morning, we set off with horses and headed north. We got snowed on, the ronin was cranky and Kamenosuke and Ishie chatted about Keiko. When we reached our destination [after a brief kata-stop in the snow], we discovered that the cabin was lacking in horses. Then we discovered that the cabin was covered in blood. The kami didn't want to talk, though the others did. Evidence suggests that the two people with horses left at some point. 3 people with a prisoner [for lack of a better word] arrived, did nasty things to him [hence the blood, etc] and then left. And an undead horse was wandering around. Some hair indicates that the prisoner was a Crane who had redyed his hair. And we know that the thing that left the strange tracks is an undead horse because we are currently watching it approach us.

Tomorrow there is birthday celebrations, a tutor's meeting and an examination of MSA material for a different tut. This weekend there is silly-tutor's-workshop, JA movie-watching and the Return of the Button [we hope].

Stuff. And Things.

I am annoyed. I am annoyed because I had to wake up this morning, when all I wanted to do was sleep. I am annoyed because there were people on campus this morning, making my life difficult. I am annoyed because I'm supposed to be working and just can't bring myself to do it. I am annoyed because I'm pretty sure I've forgotten something important and I don't know what it is.

Button is of the impression that I'm suffering an overdose of ennui. Nothing is quite as captivating as it used to be, which is causing some problems. I keep hoping it'll go away, but that doesn't seem to be working. Currently, I'm hoping that since I'm about to get 300 times busier than I have been, it won't be a problem because there won't be time for it.

In other news, I missed the O-Week Party. I've never really been one for the O-Week Party, though I'm sure I've been once or twice. It would have been nice to go this year, I think. However, I was at my mother's party, which was lots of fun and involved actual food. And very nice food at that. There was dancing [and singing, though it was neither drunken nor for the general populace's amusement]. The dancing was both drunken and amusing. Particularly the Seagull [and the Mashed Potato? No other songs will do]. I had fun, and more importantly, I had Button, who came in from the field especially. Sunday saw a tea party with the family and much present opening. Of course, she has to wait for her actual birthday for some of her presents. Philly and Whatsit were down from Joburg for the celebrations and even stopped by to visit me yesterday evening.

Hmm... I also appear to be cranky. I'm currently attempting to not be offended by a number of things, but specifically:
Something H* said last week sometime, that was not offensive at the time and shouldn't be offensive now because I know exactly what he meant and why he said what he said.
The fact that Wombat keeps talking about things I don't understand [because that's an unusual occurrence].
Something Button said yesterday or Saturday, or whenever, which gets the same qualification as what H* said.
The fact that I have to work, which I don't want to do. This involves, photocopying an article for my supervisor, checking the fat content of Pig, rock-bashing and so on. None of which are what I want to be doing this morning. So now I'm going to go do them and see if I stop being cranky.

In a Name

Apparently yesterday was Valentine's Day, and I missed it. Oh the tragedy!

In other news, I discovered the identity of the unidentified landline. I did this through the simple expedient of waiting for him to phone me again. And he did. And I knew that voice immediately. It's funny how that happens. Some of my friends [and possibly even some family] can phone me and I won't recognise their voices. But a guy I haven't heard from in about 4 years calls me and I know instantly. Possibly it had something to do with the squeaky knife noises in the background. It was DEM, my psycho ex-boyfriend [everyone has one, right?]. We [by which I mean Tiina Napoleon and myself] first called him SEC, then we got to know him a lot better and we started calling him Psycho-boy.

It's funny, how you think you leave some things behind with high school and then discover that you really haven't. Like renaming people with secret names such that people who don't know can't identify them. If we go through the names from high school... Well, there's clearly Tiina Napoleon and myself, Panda Mussolini. We had names that were much longer, as we constantly added to our list of nicknames [she had Vanessa, I had Felicity. She was the Crazy-Milk-Girl, I somehow ended up with Mr. Min and Andrew. One of us had Cinnamon, but I don't remember who... I could go on for a long time. Or I could find one of the letters that used all the names]. And we named other people, DSB, Cowboy Al, Padam, Peachy, Salamander Baghdad, the list goes on. I don't even remember half of them, though I know there were names for all of them, sometimes multiple names. And now, I do almost exactly the same thing.