… I seriously love -
Cthulhu for you!
- this.
Click the image to visit Cracked.com’s latest list,from which I got it: The 5 Scientific Experiments Most Likely to End the World.
Cracked.com is uneven, but they do hit fairly frequently, especially with their hilarious - and occasionally thought-provoking - lists. Mystery: Cracked magazine has always been a lame Mad ripoff. How come their website has so much genuinely funny stuff?
That’s what paraded across the path in front of Emma and me as we walked north along Bear’s Ditch, which runs past the east side of the RGNC preserve. Emma was cool and didn’t try to fetch any of them.
They were all drab - not a shiny green head in sight. Either they’ve yet to molt and get their autumn plumage or it was a Lesbian Mallard Collective. Anything’s possible.
A little farther on a roadrunner ran up the path a ways ahead of us before vanishing in the weeds alongside the road. Which have gotten lush just the last few days.
This was a good thing to do - walk by the ditch. It was a very pleasant late-summer afternoon: fair, I think the word is, with stormy-looking clouds off to east and north and clear overhead. Not too hot, although a bit humid yet. The occasional breeze was highly welcome.
I know I need to get religious about walking every single day. It was hard to do so during Bubonicon. I’ll learn eventually how to get it all done.
Oh - not long after we set out up the path a pleasant but somewhat oblivious middle-aged woman approached from the other direction, talking on her cell phone and trailing an unleashed micro-dog. Little terrier-looking thing, white and brown, wiry hair. Probably weighed less than Emma’s head - which, granted, is a big head.
Fortunately Emma found a nice place to go into the water and soak as they passed, although she stared alertly at the woman the whole time. As the woman came up with us she turned around and went back to pick up her dog and carry it past - which mainly just protracted the encounter. Although I give her credit for making an effort to keep the little critter out of harm’s possible way.
So after they passed Emma emerged - and turned around to peer suspiciously after them. She even made as if to follow. I brought that up right short.
“Emma, that tiny little dog does not threaten us. Come on.”
And her return look plainly said, “Dad! It might have poison fangs!”
Updated, 8-25-08 - Quick one … I’m home to take a break after doing a reading and signing. Way too tired. Though I headed home just before 11 last night I have to tend to various things after I get home, so didn’t get to sleep for a bit.
Got a couple hours off and need to get some rest, because I need to be all bright and sparky for my turn as masquerade MC tonight.
Been fun so far. Yesterday I did the first panel of the con, with Laura Mixon, Ian Tregillis Steve Gould, and Author GoH David Weber of Honor Harrington fame, on terraforming versus bioengineering, which turned out surprisingly well, plus a late Wild Cards panel with George RR Martin, Melinda Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, Daniel Abraham (who’s also Toastmaster), Ian again, and Carrie Vaughn. WC Mafia OG Walter Jon Williams also appeared long enough to say he had been talking for an hour and was going to the ar: wimp. That was fun and the audience seemed to enjoy it.
I read the first chunk of my contribution to the next Wild Cards book, Suicide Kings, as well as Chapter 51 (!) of The Dinosaur Lords. The audience was small but seemed entertained. I mentioned half-jokingly to Kathy Kubica-Kelly, who’s basically playing Con Sheepdog, that Ian claimed he intended to attend the reading. She lit out, leaving her husband Steve Kubica to listen, and shortly returned with Ian in tow, not quite by the ear. I hope she didn’t actually coerce the poor guy into coming; he claimed to enjoy it. He’s a good sport.
This afternoon we had our marathon mass signing. I sat with Steve Gould and John Miller. He was surprised when people presented the recently-released DVD of Jumper for him to sign; I told him I regretted not remembering to bring the one Roslee was kind enough to give me for my birthday. Got a decent response. I think Dave Weber got all the books signed before his hand fell off, which is bonus.
Gah. Need to nap or something. Gotta be back long enough before the masq’s 7:30 start time that show-runner Tanley and con chair Kristen don’t freak.
More later…
Again.
A month or so ago my phone went dead. I had to come to the Flying Star down Griegos from my house to cut a repair order. Especially since TPC (The Phone Company - in this case Qwest) conveniently keeps 9-5 weekday service hours, or near, and naturally my service tanked late of a Friday. Because We’re a Monopoly, We Don’t Have to Care!
So today, looking at chuggin’ hard to finish some overdue writing tasks (mea culpa) and email ‘em in, I suddenly got attacked by worse-than-usual static on the phone line while checking email. Actually I’ve been meaning to call in a complaint for a couple weeks - four messages out of five, taken personally or left on the machine, are badly scrambled by static.
Of course the Qwest phone center said they have “higher than usual volume” of reports. I’ll bet. The wet and occasionally wild weather has wreaked havoc on Burque’s none-too-excellent system. So off I hied myself and my faithful notebook to Frying Star. Where even now we sit and try to sort things through.
I had something called a “Breakfast Bennie,” which is an English muffin with turkey sausage and something akin to Bearnaise sauce. Like most FS fare it’s good if overpriced. But what the hey; I’m getting my money’s worth.
Qwest has one of the world’s crappiest we sites. I had to try various different pages before I was able to sneak in to enter my repair request - the most accessible page claimed my “personal info” wouldn’t load owing to system difficulties. Wow, don’t these assclowns have anything that works?
At least I, fairly expeditiously, got an email confirming my problem should be “resolved” by 1:45 PM tomorrow. We shall see. When I click on the link to check on the status they tell me they “need to talk to” me, and are “currently trying to contact.” Wow, if only they were a company that specialized in communication, I probably wouldn’t have any prob - oops.
Anyway, that’s where things stand for me today. Or sit.
Life’s been a bit on top of me again, as you may surmise from the gap in my blogging. I’ve been trying hard to catch up on writing and having some difficulties with sleep patterns, in large part due to the loud construction work on the sidewalks that’ve been going on outside my bedroom window at way too early in the morning.
Anyway, today I got a lot written and the temperature and humidity weren’t bad, so I determined to get out. Loaded the famous Emma in the car and hit the ditch around 6:25.
Not much by way of birdage: some mallards, some hummingbirds, some swallows. Emma showed some interest in one pair of ducks swimming in the ditch we passed rather close by, but made no serious effort to retrieve them. To my relief.
We were walking back toward where tall trees line both sides of the ditch, a quarter-mile or so before the exit, when I noticed a man and a little boy coming up behind us on bicycles. For everybody’s convenience Emma and I crossed over to the other bank. It was not until until the man sang out a cheery, “And how are you this evening?” that I I recognized them.
Yes, they were the World’s Nicest Family. My loyal blog readers might recall them from an earlier post (it had Emma in it, so people may have actually read it): the folks with the Tortoise Dilemma.
“A beautiful evening, isn’t it?” Dad sang out as he and Bro pedaled past. “Simply beautiful.”
“Yes it is,” I called back.
Next came Mom, with Sis churning enthusiastically away on one of those bolted-on half-bicycle tandem arrangements. “Our turtle’s gone!” warbled the little girl, who apparently has the enviable gift of making whatever comes along sound like the best news possible, as happily as pie.
First, for no better reason than that it tickles the hell out of me, from the eXiled comes this picture of a purse dog being carried by a former Russian paratrooper - the happiest-looking critter I’ve seen since this history-making cat:
I can haz vodka?
I love how the dog’s wearing the trademark striped VDV t-shirt as well as the beret.
Next, as I’ve said before, seasons in NM change pretty much the beginning of the month - in this case, Fall usually does so September 1st. If not before.
It’s also usual for the advent of the coming season to become obvious about two weeks before the month change. It’s very sensory: the length of the days, the quality of light, the feel and smell of the air.
The first harbinger of Autumn, though, is my birthday. Which happened last Sunday; I had a very nice day, thank you very much. (And a party tomorrow - email me if you’re in Burque and want to come!)