There was a Game

So, on Wednesday we had a game, with 5 people present. BT arrived and while she wasn't playing her character yet, she was getting into the swing of things by NPCing. So what happened:

Our intrepid heroes were bundled off to the 'Monkey House' by the bird people. There we met Isawa Something-with-an-S and his son, Nichiren. Ishie and Nichiren had a brief conversation about the trouble he'd caused by rushing off after his father instead of marrying her sister. Ishie restrained herself from mentioning that his return may cause more trouble [who's going to marry her other fiance? It won't be Ishie!] Ishie was less restrained when approached by their Matsu companion [played by BT]. Whatsit arrived in bird-land about 15 years ago, his son and Matsu Miu arrived 7 years ago, during the Phoenix-Dragon war. So seeing a Phoenix travelling with a Dragon and a Crane was a little surprising. Ishie has clearly spent too much time with Kamenosuke, as she suggested that the reason for the Lion's disgraceful withdrawal from their alliance with the Phoenix was due to their uncalled for massacring of the Dragonfly. We had tea and discussed the situation and the possibility of escaping. We met the Ratling, Flaky Claws and discussed his plan for putting an end to the problem. There was an awful lot more exposition than action, so there's not much to report. Stay tuned for next week.

In other news, I tried out the Geology Department's Swing Mill. I have to wait until March 2nd to check the powder out in the SEM, but it's quite finely ground. I stuck some in one of my sieves, just to see and while some of it went through [I could tell 'cause the acetone was cloudy, not clear], most of it didn't. So I suspect I will need to find a way to get it even finer. DLR, the guy from the Geology Department [who taught me in first year - and remembers me], suggested I speak to the chemical engineers who have an actual Professor of Making-Things-Smaller [that's not his actual title]. How long did it take for the Swing Mill to get the powder as fine as it could? Less than 1.5 minutes.

Also, Happy Birthday Mom!

[even if it was yesterday, she's at the cottage so she won't see this till Sunday/Monday anyway]

I tried to call her, but the signal was absolutely shocking and I think we exchanged all of 5 words in a couple of conversations [those were the times where her phone actually rang] before I gave up and smsed her.

Because you can't have too many words strung together with hyphens!

So, Button's parents have [presumably] returned to the US safely. They left here safely, but I've heard nothing since. I assume that any information would have gone to Button, who is back up at Elandsfontein being uncommunicative. It's hard to be anything else up there as signal is patchy at the best of times, unless you're on top of a very tall dune.

Delilah is delightful, though slightly less shiny than she was when she arrived. I think I may need to invest in some sort of cover/case thingie for her. I spent the better part of Tuesday downloading Open Office, and I'm oh so very glad I did. It's a bit of an adjustment at first, but it's kind of like having the shift button in a funny spot. You get used to it very quickly. And, for me at least, it's more intuitive than Office 2007, though I didn't have any particular problems with that. I do still want the bubble screensaver though.

My plants are much happier now that I'm home. The ones that have been repotted are a lot happier and the one that was moved outside, is slightly smaller, but still happy [the violent winds removed most of the leaves that stuck up past the olive tree's pot]. For Valentine's Day Button has promised me a return trip to the Kalk Bay Garden Shop, with the intent to buy plants. He has his eye on a Juniper bonsai, and I have my eye on just about everything else. We may also stop at the Indigenous Nursery near Cape Point on our way home, as we'll be staying overnight at the cottage.

Last night saw the resurrection of our game [yay!]. Our new players, BT & theOtherAmy are yet to join us. BT due to LARPing and theOtherAmy due to Operations. After a massive recap at speed, we launched forth into our journey to Inconsiderate River Village. We found it without difficulty and set about investigating stuff. Nagataka spent some personal time with a mostly deaf, totally blind monk while Kamenosuke and Ishie toured the Gardens. All while being spied on by yet more crows. Because the ones in Suspiciously-Perfect-and-Happy Village weren't enough [I forget the Village's real name, something about Sparkling Sunflower Fields]. Having discovered the two half trees of nausea, we decided to set out for the quarry that Nagataka's monk friend had suggested we visit. Nagataka did not sleep well, having divinated and seen that which was not meant to be seen. He did not elaborate, so Ishie and Kamenosuke still don't quite know what's in store for them. After a quick visit to the quarry [natural grey stone as opposed to weirdly out-of-place bright white granite], our intrepid explorers followed the drag trail up to another pair of half trees. Nagataka stepped through and disappeared. Ishie and Kamenosuke decided it was their duty to follow him. They are now in Willow House, a disturbing bright white city of bird people. Who is at war with the other bright white city of bird people, Maple House. Willow's two trees signify the city of arrivals. Maple's two trees make it the city of departure. We currently are being held prisoner by the bird people [though they're too polite to come out and say it], but need to find: [a] Flaky Claws, a ratling that attempts to communicate with Nagataka through meditation or divination or something [b] Isawa Guy-who's-going-to-fix-our-grandmothers-inhabiting-granddaughters'-bodies-problem and his son, [c] Isawa Better-hope-his-reappearance-doesn't-mean-Ishie-has-to-marry-her-sister's-second-fiance. Quite possibly we will also find: [a] Ishie's missing sister [b] our new players! Once we've found these people, we need to escape. Currently Ishie's in favour of the 'set the bird people alight until they leave us alone' plan. Or, Cherry Experimentation!

February Already!

2009 has snuck past me in a most sneaky manner. After a restful Christmas/New Year's, spent avoiding just about everyone I know [with the exception of my extremely privileged family]. Here are some of this year's highlights so far:

• The Korean Thesis - JS photocopied this thing while she was on sabbatical overseas. So now we know what was done in that other project. It does not render my research irrelevant, thankfully, but it would have been nice to know about the mills she tried two years ago. So now we have located a similar mill to the one used in this thesis [it's across the road in the Geology Department, very convenient] and we're going to try it out and hopefully it will all work splendidly. One can always dream after all.
• Elandsfontein Field School - Both Button and I were working at the third year field school. He will be going back for the Honours field school, but I am beyond done [and I have a lot of other work to do]. The students were fun and mostly nice. The completely crazy one was also fun and reasonably nice to spend time with when she wasn't being completely terrifying. She had to leave early, but everyone else seemed to cope with the hecticness okay. We had a number of guests coming to visit and they all gave very nice seminars/lectures on their current research. Funnily enough, every single one of them was an isotope person, so it was very well-placed of me to be there at that time.
• Button's Parents - They've come to visit [which is why Button isn't at the field school right now]. It's very nice having them here, though rather exhausting. I don't know where they get their energy from, but I guess when everything is new and exciting you do have more energy than when it's the same thing you've seen every day of your life [or, at least, fairly regularly]. So far we've done: Just about every art gallery in Cape Town, the Iziko SA Museum, the Planetarium, the Slave Lodge, the Riebeek Valley, Evita se Perron, the Cape Philharmonic in City Hall, Signal Hill, the Winelands [specifically Franschoek and Stellenbosch] ... possibly there are other things, but I don't remember them at this moment.
• Delilah - With them, Button's parents brought my beautiful tiny red computer, who is named Delilah. It's absolutely adorable. Of course, if I were bigger, I'd have trouble typing - Button can't type on this keyboard, but me, Button's Mom and Mom can all do it without trouble.
• Gardening - No new plants as yet this year, though some have died. I blame Mom, who was watering them while we were at Elandfontein. To be fair, some of them were already mostly dead before then, it's just the one fern that obviuosly couldn't cope with watering on a less-than-daily basis. But I think ferns are just fussy that way.

And now, I'm off to bed, as we're waking at a horrendously early hour to show Button's parents Elandsfontein. It will be fun, but far too early.

Just. Don't. Mention. It.

Seriously. Don't bring it up. It will result in severe unhappiness. On my part at any rate and I firmly believe in spreading the unhappiness. What should you not mention? My project. Or, worse, the mill. Why not? Because, despite everything I've done, that worthless thing is still leaking. One uninformed person [though, by that stage, he knew what was going on, but he did ask for it] asked if it was still salvageable. My sample? Why yes, my sample is actually okay and probably not too badly contaminated. My project? There are a bunch of uncontaminated samples ready to be sent [or taken] overseas and milled. My two years of wasted time and effort? Not so much.
So don't mention it.

Severe Lack of Work Happening

The Gemstone Party was much fun and very pretty. There are photos somewhere, possibly I will show you someday. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the red velvet cake was enjoyed by all who had some and the banana bread wasn't too awful, despite 16 times the amount of bicarbonate of soda.

The Sweet Peas are flowering. So far all the flowers have been a bright, pinky purple. I'm hoping that some of the other buds will mature into flowers of different colours, but quite possibly only one plant is actually flowering at the moment. It's hard to tell them apart.

I'm currently not working on the CMP for Klasies River. I've sent in my November invoice and am wondering when the hell I'm going to find time to do 12.5 hours in December. I'm sure I'll manage it, but given that I was planning to start milling this week it's mucking up my schedule something awful. Currently I am attempting to reformat the bibliography in such a way that it still tells me exactly what I need it to and yet makes sense for the other people who need to read it. [For the record, the wikipedia selection of South African archaeologists is severely lacking. Someone should update it, but that someone isn't me.]
So, how does one compile a bibliography that contains every paper that so much as mentions a particular site? You find yourself a database, do a search and download pdfs of the articles. And then, you scan every single one of them for every single mention of the site and make sure that you make a note of the references it uses, so that you can hunt those down too. I'm quite sick of it, to be perfectly honest, and more than ready to move on to the next phase. But as you may have noticed, I still have a little bit to go...

Tonight we'll be at the Book Lounge for the launch of a new book by Phillip Tobias. After that [or, in fact, in the middle of that], we'll be off to the Opera. Hopefully we'll get to see my darling Patsy with the Orchestra again. As a result of going to the opera, we're missing out on Dystopia's birthday sushi. A sad state of affairs, but somewhat mitigated by the fact that I had sushi on Monday, with theOtherAmy.

All of Nothing

So, today is Friday and tomorrow is the night of the Gemstone Party. I am excited. I'm going to be leaving here early in order to go shopping. In addition to medication, I require ingredients for innumerable baking projects. Not all of which will happen. I also have to decorate. Button plans to work all night, so I can be busy doing other stuff without him getting in the way...

I have [unsurprisingly] a number of Gemstones with which to decorate the walls. My plants are mostly looking fantastic, and some of them are even flowering. I'm extremely pleased with the new plant stand and wouldn't mind a few more. Maybe even a couple for inside. My peace lily has four flowers, with more coming. One of the flowers has opened, the other three are still in pristine white bud state. This is very exciting, as it hasn't flowered since it was first given to us, when Button arrived in the country 3 years ago. Of course, that's in the bedroom, so people might not see it, aside from through the balcony door. And if it's as hot and windless tomorrow night as it was yesterday and so far today, the door will be open. My sweet peas are also set to flower, though all there is to show that is a multitude of buds. I can't wait to see what they look like when they're flowering! My sad nasturtium has once more rallied and has yet another flower about to open. Hopefully the olive tree doesn't get blown over again before the plants have a chance to actually grow.

I've done quite a bit of KR work lately, but not enough for this month. So I guess I'll do that before I go shopping and leave the milling till next week.

The Stench of Flesh

The THF seems to have done the job. I shall commence freeze-drying later this afternoon, weigh them in the morning and then it'll be back to the milling. The reason that I'm going to start freeze-drying this afternoon, rather than this morning, is that they're going to freeze-dry overnight and I've got to be out of here at around 15:00 today. And there's no reason to have the machine going for quite that length of time. Sadly, the THF doesn't seem to have had much of an effect on Wendell. I suspect he just needs more serious milling.

After the freezer was cleaned out, I seem to have lost what was left of my cow bone. Very sad, particularly since I need some of that cow bone now. So I stopped by PnP yesterday to get some more. I spent the whole of yesterday attempting to deflesh what has turned out to be mostly useless bones, not least because I'm not very good at defleshing. It stinks and the abundance of fat and water resulted in more than a few cuts on my fingers. I guess I should be glad I couldn't find a scalpel and had to use an ordinary knife. Last time I had a femur [a whole one!], this time it's a bit of rib. That's currently defatting. What I need that for, is to test the collagen extraction method we use. When I did my first test of the method [with the original cow bone] the collagen yields were very low, which suggests a need for less severe acid treatment. So I need powder to test that on. So I need to make powder.

In other news, I now have the recipe for Red Velvet Cake, which shall hopefully be made for Saturday. I'm currently in the mood to bake. Probably because I really enjoy doing it and I have space and equipment now. I also have finally taken my recipe book out of my mother's enormous collection and so can actually make more than the few things I have memorised. So, ingredient shopping this afternoon [and tomorrow and Saturday, I suspect].

Why Turnover Rate Matters

Hedges, REM; Clement, JG; Thomas, CDL & O'Connell, TC. 2007. Collagen turnover in the adult femoral mid-shaft: modeled from anthropogenic radiocarbon tracer measurements. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133:808-816.

Highlights:
* Due to the testing of nuclear weapons, the amount of atmospheric 14C almost doubled in the 1960s and then began to decrease slowly.
* Collagen turnover is important in archaeological science because it affects both the precision of 14C dates and the accuracy of dietary reconstructions.
* Terrestrial food sources have the same ratio of 14C to the other carbon isotopes as the atmosphere, though the signal can take as much as a year to appear.
* d13C and d15N were measured as well as 14C. The d-values for males and females were significantly different.
* Between the ages of 20 and 80 years, the turnover rate of collagen decreases from about 4 to 3%/year for females and from 3 to 1.5%/year for males.
* "Human femoral bone collagen isotopically reflects an individual's diet over a much larger period of time than 10 years, including a substantial portion of collagen synthesised during adolesence."

Comments:
The reason I'm interested in this paper is precisely because the turnover rate is important in palaeodietary studies, which is what I'm doing. Now that last conclusion, the one I quoted directly is particularly important to me. Our current dietary reconstructions are fairly broad and spotting changes that occurred in later life is particularly difficult. Which is the entire point of my project. If we can separate out the different stages, then those dietary changes should be fairly easy to see.


Shin, JY; O'Connell, TC; Black, S & Hedges, REM. 2004. Differentiating bone osteonal turnover rates by density fractionation: validation using the bomb 14C atmospheric pulse. Radiocarbon 46:853-861.

Highlights:
* Using bone density fractionation [bdf] to separate older, denser bone from yougner, lighter bone.
* The method can be used to remove diagenetically altered bone from archaeological samples.
* Adequate milling is essential for the method's success.
* Results show that the lighter fractions have 14C values that correspond wtih more recent parts of the bomb curve.
* The results were less clear in those individuals that were older at the time of the 14C peak, presumably due to already decreased turnover rates.

Comments:
The importance of this paper lies in the fact that it's another tantalising glimpse of the method at work. The conclusion drawn by the authors is that bdf does in fact separate the bone into older-denser and younger-lighter fractions. It offers a hint at the conclusions of the paper above, with regard to the slow turnover rates after cessation of growth and the long residence times of bone. Adequate milling might be something to consider in the case of Wendell.

Progress!

So, it's been a few months since my last post. But that's okay. I had a lot of work to be done and blogging wasn't part of that. And, as you might have guessed, the work is actually moving forward! Exciting stuff.

So, the majority of my samples are still defatting. Which doesn't sound much like progress, I'm sure. But it is, and this is why: they are defatting in a different chemical. I was using a chloroform-methanol-water mix. It's a fairly cheap solution and works pretty well. But after 6 months, there was still fat coming out, even with the help of the sonic bath. So, having a look through previous work on this method, I thought it might be worth trying something stronger. The chemical in question is a lot nastier than the solution I was using. But it works oh so much quicker. Chemical nasty in question: tetrahydrofuran. So, while getting chloroform on the skin is annoying, getting THF on the skin is dangerous. Cue lab coat and gloves. I don't object to the lab coat so much, but the gloves annoy the hell out of me. Also, be careful of spilling THF, because it makes the beakers stick to the fume hood.
The reason why this is progress, is because the fat appears to have disappeared. Now one could possibly make the argument that this is because I wouldn't be able to see the fat if you hit me over the head with it. You could also suggest that it's because the THF evaporates so quickly I'm yet to actually change the solution properly. I prefer to think it's because the fat is finally out. I'm going to check on it later today and hopefully I'll be able to start milling later this week [like tomorrow]!

For the rest of today, I should probably work on other MSc related things. But it's getting close to the end of November and I have done very little work on the Klasies River Conservation Management Project. So, I'll probably get to that, once I see it sieving Wendell with THF makes any difference. Hopefully it doesn't make enormous holes in my sieves.

Yesterday, I was at the museum, attempting to find canids for a researcher from the US. She's doing ancient DNA stuff, and is hoping to look at samples from Nelson Bay Cave (NBC) and Boomplaas (BPA). I've pulled out the NBC samples, but I couldn't find the BPA stuff in the store. There were only three boxes of identifiable bone. So, being the bright spark that I am, I hung around and waited for Tyler to get to his office. He did, indeed have the BPA boxes. He was not particularly thrilled to find out that he'd missed three boxes. He's going through and measuring and doing whatever else faunal analysts do to the BPA material. So once he's had a look at the canids, I can prepare them for shipping to the US.

And now, back to work.

Boring Week

So, Button came home. This was both exciting and weird. I'd gotten used to living alone and now there's a giant man in my house. But we're adjusting nicely. And doing house shopping. This is exciting. Finally we have a mirror in the bedroom [now if only there were a way to attach it to the wall], among other essentials. Some [many] things must still be obtained. Gardening continues apace, with plans to rival our most extravagant house ideas. Though I was most disappointed to discover that one of my plant labels is lying.

On Friday, there was a LARP, Last Days of Winter. It was far more fun than the second [or third or fourth, for that matter] LARP I play around Dragonfire usually is. I tend to get LARPed out, occasionally. Luckily this LARP was saved, presumably due to the fact that I was completely preoccupied with something else when I arrived and we did not stand around waiting for hours. For whatever reason, the LARP was most enjoyable while being of a serious nature. I completely failed at attending Dragonfire however. On the upside, I presume that roleplaying will start up again on Wednesday!

On Saturday, we did house shopping, attempted to do blood tests [just because it's a public holiday it doesn't meant that the medical places should (a) be closed or (b) close early], bought pots and things, went out for sushi and watched a movie. We watched the new X-Files movie. There were a lot of things wrong with it, but I really enjoyed it and it made the shipper in me very happy. I'm not really sure why though, as that's about the only fandom I've cared about where I've never been a shipper.

Not much else has happened, it has been a boring week.

Fountain of Youth

The LARP happened. It was most enjoyable and people should play it. Once again I was playing a character in love with Verolin's character. I shall attempt to restrain myself from details, as I'll get into trouble for that [and then you won't be able to play and you must!] The point is that is was most enjoyable, far more enjoyable than I was expecting it to be. That sounds like a very nasty thing to say, but it's true. My general experience with LARPs is that few of them live up to the expectation and many are marred by long waiting times prior to playing. This was plagued by a long period of waiting, but for a change the LARP actually made up for it. There are a few problems that need to be fixed, but I'm sure they will be.

This morning I spend working on costuming for next Friday's LARP, Last Days of Winter. All the Chinese-style dresses were too big [at least, all the ones in the right colour that I'd actually consider wearing]. But eventually I found something that was the right colour and could be made to work. I never thought I'd say this, but it would fit better if my chest were flatter. But it fits very nicely, though the plan of two underdresses will not work. I have other ideas though... Particularly considering the character's mixed heritage.

And now I'm going home to cuddle up on the couch with a blanket and watch movies while eating strawberries and chocolate :)

Movies!

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

Also: more repotting, communication and other things.

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

Zombified!

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

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

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

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

Queenie

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

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

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

Bring forth the LARPs

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

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

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

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

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

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