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Title: Hey, Rocky!
Topics: , humor
Author: [info]janusfiles
Date: 2009-12-22 @ 11:06
Security: public
OPEN: JANUS FILE #0336


I'm toying with the idea of creating creating some customized cards (or having them created) for next year's Christmas. The front of the card would have me dressed as Bullwinkle. Or at least dressed to convey the idea of Bullwinkle. Held up over my head (probably by the antlers) would be a sprig of mistletoe, and I would be puckering up for a great big smooch. When you opened the card, you would read this message:

"MERRY KISS-MOOSE!"

Do you think the idea would would be received well?

CLOSE: JANUS FILE #0336
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Title: TAFF Deadline Nigh
Topics: , taff
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-22 @ 06:06
Security: public
Location: Mehama, Oregon
Mood: accomplished
I really meant to leave a TAFF ballot with Chris Garcia back in November when I was still in the Bay Area, but the set {Kevin, Chris, Kevin's Checkbook, Kevin's TAFF Ballot} never seemed to fill, and then I was sent off to Columbus for two weeks, and.... now the deadline for voting for TAFF is today. So I had to resort to PayPal, donating extra in order to offset PayPal's fees. Well, better to do that than miss the deadline entirely, I suppose.
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Title: How to be a skank
Author: [info]satyapriya
Date: 2009-12-22 @ 20:27
Security: public
Walk through The Glen shopping area, most specifically Kingsway, the trendy street full of Asian eateries, and poncy bars, wearing a singlet given by well-meaning, full-loving daughter. Singlet says: "North Pole Dancer" and features the silouette of a pole dancer wearing an Xmas hat. This stretchy white singlet makes me look about 4 months pregnant.
Oh, and make sure you are accompanied by a small, enthusiastic dog who has eaten an Xmas decoration, and whose muzzle and front paws are now dyed hot pink.
Even though you are nearly 46, people will assume you are a first-class bogan. Pregnant, wearing skanky shirt, sporting small yappy dog who has been dyed pink for the festive season.
"I've got two words to say to you, Rexy. Look at moi, look at moi, look at moi."
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Title: From Twitter 12-21-2009
Topics: , , sick
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-22 @ 02:06
Security: public

  • 19:52:01: MU-CIN-EX D TASTES TER-RI-BLE! #talklikeadalekday
  • 23:46:39: CAUGHT UP WITH MY L-J FRIENDS-LIST FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE FRI-DAY MOR-NING! #talklikeadalekday

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Title: From the Snow to the Rain
Topics: , , weather
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-21 @ 13:41
Security: public
Location: Mehama, Oregon
Mood: working
I've exchanged the cold and snow of Columbus for continuous rain and not as cold in Mehama. I'm still leaning toward Eastern Time. I went to bed at 4:30 PM yesterday afternoon once we got back from Portland, and got more than twelve hours of sleep, which made me feel much better.

While getting work done at Lisa's father's house this morning, I restored my personal laptop computer to a semblance of normality, using the clone that I'd sent here to Oregon when I headed off on the road trip. Once again, the non-booting drive could be read when attached as an external device, but wouldn't boot, so once again I have not lost any data, but have had considerable annoyance. I need another computer; I'm considering looking for a used Dell laptop, as I don't really need a top-of-the-line machine, and would prefer to have something compatible with the half-dozen batteries and multiple power supplies I already have in stock, rather than having to start all over and load me down with more techno-junk.

While waiting around in Denver, I discovered that there is a hole in my computer backpack. I could seal it by zipping up the expansion joint, but this morning while unpacking, I couldn't find my small USB hub that I had taken with me. I called the hotel just in case I might have left it behind there, but they didn't have it, so I expect it dropped out of the bottom of my bag along the way. It's not a huge loss, but a minor annoyance. If someone does find it and is honest, they'll call me, because it has my name and phone number on it.
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Title: Reposting for the Chicago Peeps: Missing Child
Author: [info]pixelfish
Date: 2009-12-21 @ 11:20
Security: public
Well, and anyone else....

Via karnythia:

Missing Child in Chicago Brianna Lacey, 15, is missing. She is also known to go by the name of Brianna Wright. She was last seen Friday, December 18, 2009 leaving for school from her home in the vicinity of 80th Street and Eberhart and heading to Longwood Academy located at 95th Street and Throop, according to the Chicago Police Department. Brianna is described as a African-American, 5 ft. 4 inches tall, weighing 110 lbs., with brown hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion. She also has pierced ears. She was last seen wearing a navy blue polo shirt, navy blue sweater, gray pants, and a brown coat. She had on black gym shoes, as well. According to police, she frequents the area near her home, as well as the area near 105th Street and Yates in Chicago, Illinois. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact Chicago Police Area Two Detective Division Special Victims Unit at (312) 747-8274. [info]karnythia says: This is my son's cousin. She may have run away, but we don't know that for sure. The police are treating her as a runaway so there is no Amber Alert. If you have seen this girl and have any information please contact the Chicago police at (312)747-8274. Or if you are just willing to spread the link, please feel free to do so. She's a kid and we're worried about her. Thank you.

http://thelostnmissing.blogspot.com/2009/12/missing-chicago-teen-brianna-lacey-15.html - picture here.


ETA: Good news! Brianna has been found. Followup over at Karnythia's journal for further info. It's good to hear that she's been located!
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Title: From Twitter 12-20-2009
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-21 @ 02:06
Security: public


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Title: Just Add Graham Crackers
Topics: , , milk
Author: [info]chocolatescifi
Date: 2009-12-20 @ 17:25
Security: public
Candy Review
JET-PUFFED MALLOW BITES


I saw these while I was in Wal-Mart earlier today. I was looking for something else at the time, but when I saw the package on the shelf, I knew I had to get one right away.

I think the name is pretty self-explanatory, but just for the record, here's the quick and dirty description: The Jet-Puffed Mallow Bites are Kraft Jet-Puffed miniature marshmallows which have been covered in milk chocolate.

If you're familiar with Jet-Puffed miniature marshmallows -- or indeed, any other brand of miniature marshmallows -- these will be familiar to you. They are the same size as the mini marshmallows. They are mostly brown, with the white of the marshmallow peeking through the chocolate coating in random places.

Kraft seems to be using a richer milk chocolate to cover the marshmallows. It definitely has a more pronounced chocolate flavor than what you usually find in most of Hershey's products, for instance. There is just one slight drawback to this, though. For the most part, the flavor of the chocolate completely overwhelms the flavor of the marshmallow. The chocolate does have a nice snap to it, which makes for a nice contrast with the sponginess of the marshmallow.

You know, this is really a basic candy idea. So basic, in fact, that I'm more than a little surprised that Kraft hasn't produced these before. I also would be interested in seeing them do a dark chocolate version of the Mallow Bites.

So far, I have seen the Mallow Bites in a 2.5 ounce size. The bag claims that this is "about two servings," but I found myself dispatching the entire package quite rapidly and all by myself.

I can see a couple of ways that Mallow Bites could be used besides eating them alone. First, they could easily be incorporated into a sweet party mix (in other words, something along the lines of Chex Party Mix). And their composition means that Mallow Bites could be considered a form of instant s'mores. Just place between two graham crackers, and zap in the microwave for 30 seconds or less.


-jc-
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Title: More Hotel NIghts
Topics: , , tinnitus
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-20 @ 10:45
Security: public
Location: Portland, Oregon
Mood: cheerful
Lisa has had great difficulty sleeping, and I can't drive a manual transmission reliably, so when she picked me up from PDX late last night, we decided it would be better to spend the night in Portland. We went to the Holiday Inn Express near the airport, where they upgraded us to an Executive King at a pretty good room rate. At least this time we got some sleep. The last time we stayed in this particular hotel, it was the night before the start of the Japan trip, where we needed to be up absurdly early for a 6 AM flight out of PDX, and because we arrived at the hotel so late, we basically didn't sleep, but simply used the room as a place to wait for a few hours before catching the shuttle to the airport. Poor Lisa's tinnitus continues to bedevil her, so she didn't get much sleep, but at least she's rested enough to get us home. I slept pretty well, but because I'm still sort of on Eastern time, I woke up at 6 AM by myself. It's a good thing I wasn't relying on my cell phone alarm, because I had the alarm set for Monday-Friday only.

But as I was composing this message, I realized that check-out time at this hotel is 11 AM rather than the Noon it was in Columbus, so now I need to hustle up and finish packing. Not that I did much unpacking last night.
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Title: From Twitter 12-19-2009
Topics: , tv
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-20 @ 02:06
Security: public

  • 00:15:31: Today I worked the last Friday before Xmas in my first Xmas season as a retail clerk. Then I drew a filler sketch for tomorrow's AKOTAS.
  • 10:30:07: I said, "If there's a faun and a lamppost I'm turning it off." RT @cartoonmoney Turns out the LA #Dollhouse has a direct link to /Narnia/.
  • 14:52:29: At the grocery store with Mom I saw greeting cards in lolcat sp33k.

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Title: It's a tragedy. No, literally.
Topics: , , , sensiblecat
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-20 @ 02:04
Security: public

[info]sensiblecat has beaten me, despite my five years' trying, to figuring out precisely what Russell Davies has been doing differently from his predecessors, and arguably wrong, with Doctor Who. (But she cheated to do it - she went back to school for doctrate in Shakespeare.)

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Title: Paging Popeboy! Paging Popeboy!
Author: [info]pixelfish
Date: 2009-12-19 @ 22:34
Security: public
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/19/pope-passes-special.html

Oh, boy, the first time parodists and critiquers come up against this, it's going to be fun to watch.
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Title: How to piss Satya off
Author: [info]satyapriya
Date: 2009-12-20 @ 09:14
Security: public
1. Make assumptions about me based on my website, my writing, an online profile, or a single meeting.
2. Keep telling me how spiritual you are.
3. Tell me we're destined to be together.
4. Tell me you've had visions of us working together, and make huge assumptions from that.
5. Tell me what to do.
6. Turn up at public events uninvited and try to manipulate things there to show that we're destined. That's a sure way to get magick to bite you on the bum.
7. Tell me you love me after 4 days' acquaintance.
8. Don't take no for an answer.
9. Tell me what I should be writing about.
10. Paw me all the damned time.
11. Lecture me on how confused my heart must be, having overseas lovers and that I should have only one, preferably you.
12. Suggest that I will leave witchcraft behind and come to see that your brand of spirituality is your true calling.
13. Get your best friend to vouch for you and ask if I have friends who can vouch for me in terms of my genuineness. Yes, I do, but you won't be put in contact with them. Next thing, you'll be wanting a signed note from the gods.

Are you getting a clue, you dickhead? Now, take your needy, pawing, 'psychic' self off and go do some serious work on yourself, AWAY FROM ME.
You are pissing me off, prawnhead. At this moment, a date with an evil robot would be better. WARGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Title: Moving Out
Topics: , , work
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-19 @ 11:17
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: cheerful
I feel much better after having had a full night of sleep and not having to rush in to the office for 6 AM. I did think of something that would be useful to do this morning, so I'm going to go see if I can get in on a weekend.

It has been snowing here in Columbus since last night -- I watched the first flakes begin to fall while I soaked in the indoor hot tub here at the hotel -- and there's an inch or two on the ground, but Columbus Airport is reporting no delays. The Snowpocalypse apparently descending on the East Coast isn't having such a big effect here in the Old Northwest. I do note that my connecting flight from Denver to Portland is the continuation of a flight from New York City that has been canceled, but the segment I'm supposed to be on later today is still showing as on time.

I originally didn't plan to check out here until 1 PM, but since I want to try going to the office, and since I'm pretty much all packed up except for the computer, I might as well go ahead and check out and be on my way. At the worst, I'll end up at CMH with extra time to kill, and I think they have free wi-fi there. Besides, I keep getting new ideas for the database project and it's good for me to code them as soon as I can while the ideas are fresh, and I carry a copy of my development environment on the laptop.

I'm not sure when I'll be back on line after this. It could be later this afternoon, or maybe not until Sunday or Monday, depending on how the travel goes.
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Title: Learn from Others: Rejection at Clarkesworld Magazine
Author: [info]clarkesworld
Date: 2009-12-18 @ 16:10
Security: public
There seem to be a few people poking around the 2009 Clarkesworld Magazine slush statistics I posted the other day. I dove back into the data to try to answer some questions and came up with the following:

Percentage of stories that should never have been submitted: 4.52%
This category includes stories that were too long, too short, previously published, poetry, or simultaneous subs.

Percentage of these stories written by men: 65.8%
Percentage of these stories written by women: 34.2%
Percentage of these stories written by US authors: 79.7%
Percentage of these stories written by UK authors: 4.66%
Percentage of these stories written by Canadian authors: 6.74%
Percentage of these stories written by Australian authors: 1.04%
Percentage of these stories written by German authors: 1.55%
Percentage of these stories written by Irish authors: 0%
Percentage of these stories written by authors in 11 other countries: 6.22%

As previously mentioned, approximately 33% of our submissions are from women and 75.8% are from the United States. The gender breakdown in this category indicates that men and women are equally likely to ignore the guidelines. American authors are only slightly more likely to make this mistake.

Percentage of stories that were improperly formatted: 6.32%
Violations in this category include not having their name in the word/rtf document, unusual fonts, wacky formatting and (yes, this happens) illustrations.

Percentage of these stories written by men: 76.6%
Percentage of these stories written by women: 24.4%
Percentage of these stories written by US authors: 67.04%
Percentage of these stories written by UK authors: 10.00%
Percentage of these stories written by Canadian authors: 7.78%
Percentage of these stories written by Australian authors: 2.96%
Percentage of these stories written by German authors: 0.74%
Percentage of these stories written by Irish authors: 1.48%
Percentage of these stories written by authors in 16 other countries: 10%
 
Percentage of stories that were rejected for not following the guidelines: 10.84%
Combined total from the first two categories. It would be much worse if we tracked the less blatant violations of our guidelines. Shameful, isn't it?

 Percentage of stories that were rejected as a "near miss": 3.77%
Percentage of these stories written by men: 44.72%
Percentage of these stories written by women: 55.28%
Percentage of these stories written by US authors: 76.40%
Percentage of these stories written by UK authors: 1.86%
Percentage of these stories written by Canadian authors: 8.70%
Percentage of these stories written by Australian authors: 8.70%
Percentage of these stories written by German authors: 0.62%
Percentage of these stories written by Irish authors: 0.62%
Percentage of these stories written by authors in 5 other countries: 3.11% 
 
This is the category that will probably cause some chatter. Despite representing only a third of our submissions, women are receiving more than half of our "near miss" rejections letters.  Why?  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think that a significant percentage of men have been ignoring the list of "hard sells" in our submission guidelines. We don't have concrete figures on submissions by genre, but my experience says this is particularly true when it comes to horror.

Any questions?
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Title: The over-the-back neighbours
Author: [info]satyapriya
Date: 2009-12-19 @ 07:19
Security: public
Yesterday, the man over the back fence made alterations to his large satellite dish for over two hours. Earlier this year, he and his loud-mouthed fighty wife tore down their greenhouse to make way for this monstrosity. I can see it from my bedroom window, looming up over the back fence, pointing its phallic centre towards heaven.
Work on the dish is always preceded by several days of screaming from the fighty wife. All in Chinese. She doesn't like, apparently, to be separated from her Chinese tv shows.
While I talked on Skype with Actor, I watched the neighbour fiddling with the innards of teh phallic thingy. Every now and then, the fighty wife would come and scream at him some more.
No amount of adjustment seemed to help.
This morning, I see the dish is pointing in a while new direction, about 40 degrees from where it was. This amuses me. All that fiddling with innards, and what it needed was a new direction.
I was out doing vision board stuff with OopsIHadABaby last night, so I had no opportunity to hear if this new direction was doing the job.
I miss the greenhouse. Angel misses the greenhouse. After brekkie, he used to climb up on it, and sit glowing in the early morning sunshine. A beautiful, content golden sight when I looked out my window.
Recently, Poozilla has discovered he can get through the back fence into their back yard. The man is not impressed and has yelled at us for allowing this to happen. TG, having all the patience and tact of Godzilla, pointed out that the palings were coming loose and the nails were on his side of the fence, so it would be good if he could hammer them back in and fix the goddamn fence. Last weekend, much swearing was heard as he did just that.
Perhaps, on occasion, I could take a leaf from TG's book. Not that I have a lot of patience and tact anyway. But I often don't say, or can't think of what to say, at just such a moment. No such problem for TG. She can be devastating in her comebacks. Sagittarius? Snake? Tch. Here's me, a Capricorn and a Cat.
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Title: Fanfiction 12/18/09
Topics: , , , , , tv
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-18 @ 08:18
Security: public

Here are cartoons from the fanfiction sketchbook website since last Friday. Arthur, King of Time and Space cartoons in a separate post. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers.

( Featuring characters and/or images from DOCTOR WHO, STARGATE SG-1, SANCTUARY, SEARCH, and STAR WARS (Master of unintentional alliteration!). )

Thanks for reading.

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Title: Arthur 12/18/09
Topics: , cartoons
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-18 @ 08:16
Security: public

Here are cartoons from Arthur, King of Time and Space since last Friday. Fanfiction cartoons in a separate post.

( View more ... )

Thanks for reading.

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Title: Two Clarkesworld Stories Picked for Year's Best Anthologies
Topics: , , , , , year's best
Author: [info]clarkesworld
Date: 2009-12-18 @ 09:14
Security: public
Rich Horton and Jonathan Strahan have announced the table of contents for their upcoming year's best anthologies!  Clarkesworld is represented by:

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 4, Jonathan Strahan ed.

The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2010 Edition, Rich Horton ed.   Congratulations to Kij and Catherynne!
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Title: From Twitter 12-17-2009
Topics: , sick
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-18 @ 02:06
Security: public

  • 10:09:05: Home internet sitch just got goofy. More when I know more.
  • 11:18:52: Doctor says it's a minor infection. Needs an antibiotic and Vick's Vapo-Rub.
  • 18:58:00: Got home from work and internet issue was sorted. I have the best wife.

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Title: Worn Out
Topics: , work
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-17 @ 20:56
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: exhausted
Too many 12-hour days -- in at 6 AM, an hour lunch, out at 7 PM or later. I'm fried. Not keeping up with mail, LJ, etc. Sorry about that. One more day in Columbus, then off to Oregon on Saturday. Fortunately, the flight on Saturday isn't until about 3 PM, so I can sleep in a bit on Saturday morning before packing.
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Title: Untitled
Author: [info]satyapriya
Date: 2009-12-18 @ 07:39
Security: public
What to write about this morning? Oh, the fact that just now, Penny and Baby have both tried to leap onto the bed at the same time, aiming at the same corner spot, from the south and west sides of the bed, and ended up in a mid-air collision. Penny is the dominant cat, despite Baby being 3 years old, and Penny still very much a kitten. A snarl, a hiss, a punch in the face, and Baby has skulked out of the room. Penny has recovered herself by staring at birds, washing her shoulder, and vacating the fluffy blanket for my white trousers. Which will now be black fur-trimmed, of course.
Last night, Baby kept us entertained with her Xmas tree antics. She still likes to get into it. When she was a kitten, her first Xmas was spent sitting in the branches of our Xmas tree, with wild eyes, leaping out at me as I did yoga every morning. She no longer leaps out, but she does like to hop up into the lowest branches and orbit the trunk, laying across 2/3 of the branches, still with wild eyes.
When she moves to make herself more comfy, the tree shakes. She is scarcely visible through the foliage and decorations. It looks like we have a haunted tree. Ratty sat down in the lounge last night and all of a sudden, the tree trembled and everything jingled. Ratty stared.
"Haunted," I said.
"We have some mighty big Yulenissa," he replied.
This is a reference to northern European tradition of putting small biscuits on the tree to appease the Xmas spirits. I think.

Speaking of Xmas, last night I had the wonderful experience of standing in the Myer lingerie department while BunnyGirl shopped for a red bra. SluttySnowWhite was with us, and kept me awake and interested by playing me a filthy Xmas ditty about oral sex, via her phone. My Xmas is now complete, and it beat any filk song I could come up with.
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Title: From Twitter 12-16-2009
Topics: sick
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-17 @ 02:06
Security: public

  • 11:04:04: Appt at doctor tomorrmw at 9:20. Mom thinks it's a sinus infection whicg I've had before.
  • 13:18:25: Unexpectedly-alone-at-work day.
  • 15:06:45: There's a loose screw in my glasses. Except turning it doesn't get it any farther in. Has it always been like this?
  • 19:43:02: In class's last meeting. This past week I managed to overlook all instances of the word "presentation" in assignment materials reviewed.
  • 22:10:31: Well that went okay.
  • 23:37:40: It's felt like the end of the week since mid-Tuesday.

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Title: Child Detectives and Ne'er-Do-Wells
Author: [info]pixelfish
Date: 2009-12-16 @ 21:39
Security: public
I'm trying to make a list of child detectives for some projects which have been percolating in my head for sometime. I'm limiting this to the printed word (maybe comics, but then that opens up a whole 'nother can of worms) and to child detectives who are at the core of their series/story. So Turtle Wexler counts for The Westing Game (because she's part of the emotional core of the book and the character closest in age to the intended audience) while Ramses Emerson does not (because the series is primarily about his mother, Amelia, and Ramses' view doesn't come into play until nearly adulthood.)

Some kids I'm on the fence about, as some are part-time shit-stirrers as well as indulging in the occasional spot of detection, a la the Mad Scientist Club. Likewise, Harriet the Spy, while not technically a detective, keeps a notebook, and solves human interest problems.

Nancy Drew
The Hardy Boys
Trixie Belden
The Three Investigators (Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews, and Pete Crenshaw)
Brains Benton and Operative Three
Encylopedia Brown
Cam Jansen
Jack McGurk (and his Organisation)
T.A.C.K. (Tori, Abby, Charles and Will, I think were the characters, although I can't find any info on this series anywhere online, let alone who wrote it.)
Alvin Fernald, Shoie, and The Pest
Turtle Wexler
Harriet the Spy
The Mad Scientists' Club
Homer Price (he figures out how to find a diamond bracelet for Miss Terwilliger and where her ancestor's recipe is, that should count, right?)
The Bobbsey Twins
The Boxcar Children (?)
The Great Brain (or is he just a ne'er-do-well?)
Emil and Dienstag and their bazillion friends
Danny Dunn
ETA: Abby Jones of Have You Seen Hyacinth Macaw?


Firmly in the Ne'er-Do-Well category:
Boots and Bruno from Macdonald Hall


ETA: I'm also trying to recall the name of a children's mystery series starring a brother and a sister, named Will and Liz. Googling this turns up a LOT of Pirates of the Caribbean fan fic, but no children's mysteries. Anyone else recall this series?
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Title: Bad Reviewer Math
Author: [info]pixelfish
Date: 2009-12-16 @ 19:55
Security: public
I admit, I've been guilty of this, but it struck me today, while reading the one or two star reviews of Dawkin's Greatest Show on Earth, that some reviewers don't know how to do the math. Or they arrived at a number they liked and broke it down arbitrarily without thinking about the values involved.

I'm talking about the "I give it one star for content and two for style, so let's call that three altogether."

Presumably you'd be giving one star out of five for content and two out of five for style, so that should be 1.5 stars, maybe 2 in a system that doesn't allow for fractions. Otherwise, you could end up with reviews like "one star for bad sound, one star for crappy restrooms, one star for uncomfortable seats, one star for service, and one star for too-expensive drinks--let's call that five stars!" Yeah....probably not the impression you were trying to convey.

(I admit to pulling this sloppy phrasing myself with some of my Yelp reviews. I'll try to keep that in mind. Bad Lis!)
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Title: Box O'Stuff Update
Topics: , smofcon
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-16 @ 14:04
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: working
Remember that box that I shipped from the Bay Area to theoretically meet me in Austin? I shipped it (and the poster tube) from San Francisco Airport station on December 1, paying Priority Mail postage for both of them. The poster tube was there when I got to Austin on December 4, but the Box never arrived.

I called the hotel last night and left a message with the front desk manager asking if the box ever arrived. (I left written instructions to have them refuse delivery and have it returned.) The manager called me back this afternoon and told me that it did eventually arrive in Austin last Saturday, December 12 -- more than a week after the Tube arrived. As far as I can tell, the Post Office didn't put the Priority Mail stickers on the box, so it was treated as Parcel Post.

The Hilton Garden Inn Austin gave it back to the postal carrier for return to sender on Monday, December 14. With any luck, the box will finally make it back to my office in San Mateo by the time I get back. When I get back is still an open question, though.
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Title: unpopular fannish opinion
Topics: , , world
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-16 @ 12:02
Security: public

One of the criticisms I've seen levelled at the STAR WARS prequels in general and at Attack of the Clones in particular is that Anakin's recitals of the offenses against him sound like the suburban high school quarterback bitching the coach has benched him; rather than, presumably, sounding identifiably like the paranoid ravings of a future villain of historical proportions. Usually this is presented as a judgment against Christensen's performance. But I look at the directions our society's heading these days, and the people taking it there; and I wonder whether Christensen wasn't directed that way because it's exactly what Lucas wanted to say.

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Title: From Twitter 12-15-2009
Topics: me
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-16 @ 02:06
Security: public

  • 10:09:30: Sound and picture of remote reporters on CCN aren't matching up this morning. #cnn
  • 10:52:42: It's astonishing how fast the last forty minutes before my workshift go.
  • 20:31:46: Birthday dinner: drive-through from Burger King, Hostess cupcakes and homemade chocolate-peanut butter pudding. Mmm!

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

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Title: Master of the Third Reich 2/3; the Doctor, Ben, Polly; G
Topics: , , , , stories
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 20:46
Security: public

Title: Master of the Third Reich 2/3
Author: [info]scarfman
Characters/Pairing: the Doctor, Polly, Ben, spoiler
Rating: G
Setting (spoilers through): Power of the Daleks
Disclaimer: This work is derivative of property of the BBC. No profit shall be made and no market of the owner(s) is infringed upon.
Summary: Landing on mid twentieth century Earth, the Doctor discovers a major deviation from the history he knows.
crossposted [info]scarfman [info]doctorwho [info]dwfiction

( The colonel's Master looked exactly as in the poster on the Berlin street. )

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Title: Take Your Pick Of Greeting
Topics: , , , helenslater
Author: [info]janusfiles
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 21:32
Security: public
OPEN: JANUS FILE #0335


I have mentioned my friend Paul Gadzikowski (aka [info]scarfman) on a few occasions in The Janus Files. Usually, it has been in the context of his webcomic, Arthur, King Of Time And Space. Today, I'm mentioning him for a different reason. Today is his birthday.

Actually, it was because of AKOTAS that I learned that December 15 is his birthday. Paul has given the various characters in the strip birthdays corresponding to his friends and family members. King Arthur has Paul's birthday, for instance. The first time this was mentioned was the first December 15 after the strip was started.

At the time, the only SF connection I knew of with that date was that it was the birthday of Helen Slater, the star of the 1984 movie Supergirl. Not knowing why Paul had chosen that particular date (at least not yet), I emailed him and said, "So, Arthur shares a birthday with Helen Slater?"

Paul replied, "He does? That wasn't the reason I chose the date."

Now, I was curious. I asked him why he chose the date, and he replied, "December 15 is MY birthday."

I suppose this made sense, since Arthur probably the character closest to being his alter ego in the strip.

Anyway, the following year, when December 15 rolled around, I sent Paul an email, saying, "Happy Helen Slater's Birthday!" I think he was a little surprised that I remembered (I don't know why, since I do have a near-eidetic memory), but I'm pretty certain he got a chuckle or two out of it.

Since then, I have discovered a few other SF connections to the date. December 15 is also the birthday of Garrett Wang of Star Trek: Voyager, Michael Shanks of Stargate SG-1, Thaao Penghlis from the 1980s revival of Misssion: Impossible and comic book writer J.M. DeMatteis. I know I've mentioned it to him at least once, because I know I have sent him birthday greetings of all of these individuals.

I hope all of you will join me in wishing Paul a Happy Helen Slater's Birthday.

CLOSE: JANUS FILE #0335

OPEN: JANUS FILE #0335A
ADDENDUM

And of course, here is the usual link to Arthur, King Of Time And Space:

http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com

CLOSE: JANUS FILE #0335A

OPEN: JANUS FILE #0335B
SECOND ADDENDUM

Of course, me being me, I had to do something different this year. While looking on Wikipedia, I discovered that December 15 is Zamenhof Day, the day that speakers of Esperanto celebrate the birthday of that language's creator, L.L. Zamenhof, and the most widely celebrated day in Esperanto culture. (No, I am not making this up.) So this year, I sent Paul an email greeting wishing him a Happy Zamenhof Day.

Paul replied by wishing me a Merry Battle Of Trenton Day and Merry Tournament Of Roses -- in other words, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

CLOSE: JANUS FILE #0335B
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Title: From the Depths of Time...
Topics: , , wsfs. worldcon
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 17:53
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: busy
...comes a late post to something I wrote last October about Worldcon membership costs. [info]palmwiz writes:

Suppose the voting fee is $50 and comes with (a) a supporting membership, and (b) the right to convert that to attending for $100 for at least 90 days. Why assign all of the $50 of value to the supporting membership? Why not offer supporting memberships for $20 after the vote, omitting the option to convert (at least for only $100) from those memberships?

I don't see a problem here.
This of course goes right to the heart of the matter, summed up as "decoupling supporting and attending membership costs," and has been a subject of interest on and off for years. It raises passions on all sides almost every time it comes up.

Rather than trying to repeat the entire set of lengthy comments that were posted originally (and lose their context), I suggest that many of you who read this journal might want to comment back there. I'm therefore going to close comments on this post and suggest you click through the link and see what's going on.
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Title: UNPLUGGED Reviewed in Booklist
Topics: , , wyrm publishing
Author: [info]clarkesworld
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 13:27
Security: public

"Unplugged aims to showcase the online fiction often neglected in standard best-of-the-year anthologies, and a rousing success it is, containing, among other things, Merrie Haskell’s genuinely delightful tale about a girl-prince who, over her parents’ objections, undertakes a risky journey to rescue a princess held in a tower that has brought to ruin many princes before her; she rescues quite a few people. Also prime delightful is the eerie “The Things That Make Us Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away,” one of Cory Doctorow’s more unnerving forays into the short story. The selections come from a truly excellent assortment of venues, including Tor.com, Lone Star Stories, Baen’s Universe, and Farrago’s Wainscot. They constitute a shining example of the good general anthology. Clearly, selecting only online stories imposed no limit on scope, variety, and high quality."
—Booklist (December 15, 2009)
Unplugged: The Web's Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy - 2008 Download edited by Rich Horton is available direct from Wyrm Publishing and should be in bookstores shortly. [Amazon, Powells]
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Title: Beating the alternative for fifty years
Topics: , , me
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 07:30
Security: public

Presumably in recognition of my birthday, an anonymous donor has purchased twelve months of paid LJ account for me. Thank you, anonymous donor. I expect to show my appreciation by expanding my icon usage and being able to review up to my 25 most recent comments. I hope that's no better nor no worse than you expected of me.

Speaking of icons, I myself am observing my half-century mark by updating my default icon (the cartoon of me) and the icon used on posts tagged me (the photo of me). Now I must remember to do this for all my other regular forums too.

As for the birthday itself, I was more bothered by the prospect of turning fifty during the year I was forty-eight than I have been this year. I don't know why.

Thanks to everyone who's already wished me well for the day.

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Title: Joe Haldeman is SFWA Grand Master
Topics: , sfwa grand master
Author: [info]sfawardswatch
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 04:41
Security: public

A press release has gone out announcing the Joe Haldeman has been named SFWA’s Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2010. There’s nothing on the SFWA web site yet, and of course we didn’t get the press release, but you can read it here.

Originally published at Science Fiction Awards Watch. Please leave any comments there.

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Title: Dwarf Stars Award
Topics: dwarf stars award
Author: [info]sfawardswatch
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 04:34
Security: public

The Science Fiction Poetry Association has released the nominees for this year’s Dwarf Stars Award, for poems of up to 10 lines. SF Scope has the full list. The awards are voted on by members of the SFPA.

Originally published at Science Fiction Awards Watch. Please leave any comments there.

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Title: American Film Institute Awards
Topics: film & tv
Author: [info]sfawardswatch
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 04:26
Security: public

The AFI Awards are juried awards in two categories: film and television. This year’s honorees can be found here. The film category includes Coraline, while TV includes The Big Bang Theory and True Blood. As far as we can make out, there are no winners declared – the AFI simply announces their 10 Best of the Year in each category.

Originally published at Science Fiction Awards Watch. Please leave any comments there.

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Title: From Twitter 12-14-2009
Topics: , , sick
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-15 @ 02:06
Security: public

  • 09:29:52: So what's Lewis Carroll have to say about putting the spare tire on before breakfast?
  • 09:37:48: I keep seeing, "I reject your reality and substitute my own," attributed to some guy in a hat instead of to #doctorwho #deadlyassassin
  • 09:39:26: Me on twitting: "I write what I want to say and then cut it down to 140 characters. ...It's a good thing Douglas Adams is dead."
  • 18:33:33: @rustyshock The late 1960s were an alien time.
  • 18:41:24: @rustyshock Don't look at me, I'd been ten years old for sixteen days when the 60s ended.
  • 21:57:57: @RedneckGaijin Actually, The Deadly Assassin was the story when Tom Baker didn't even wear his scarf.
  • 22:21:51: Mom reads my LJ (i.e., my twits) and wants me to see a doctor since I've been grousing about being sick about a month now. She has a point.
  • 22:25:39: I have to admit there've been times these past two weeks I've remembered Jim Henson having been quoted, "Maybe I'm really sick."

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Title: Frog Boiling Continues
Topics: , politics
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-14 @ 18:12
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: angry
I continue to follow the comments about the Peter Watts incident at the Port Huron Times-Herald, and one particularly commenter, an anonymous coward hiding behind the handle "freak10," has managed to hit a whole lot of my hot buttons. Here's what he wrote, and my analysis of what it means:

No it doesn't make him a terrorist it just means that he has issues with authority. They stop you ask some questions and check your things. If you have nothing to hide just follow directions and be on your way.

Who needs silly things like the Fourth Amendment? Warrentless searches Make This Country Great!

If you don't follow directions and want to challenge them, then they will do what is neccesary. Searches are random things. People shouldn't feel like they are targets or terrorist unless there is a reason to feel that way.

In other words, shut up and do what the nice man in the brown shirt tells you to do, citizen. How dare you question authority? The Government Always Knows Best!

As for all the name calling and things, sounds as if you have some anger issues also.

His feelings are hurt because I'm calling him an anonymous coward. He's shown no reason to be anonymous other than it's easier to make baseless accusations that way.

stop living in the fantasy world and look at what is going on in the world, if a search of your vehicle for a couple minutes is too much to handle then stay home.
In other words, sit up, shut down, and hand over your civil rights, so you can Stay Safe!

You have no idea what happens on the border or what is dealt with on a daily basis because it is a national security issue that is not disclosed to the public.

Remember, The Government Always Knows Best! And the Lurkers Support Me In E-mail, too!

Yes, I'm angry at this bozo, and at anyone else who thinks like him. If this is what most people think in the USA, then there's no hope left. I know I'm not the only person who reads history, but I doubt this idiot does so. No doubt he really believes that we can be much safer by giving away all of our civil rights.

Look, I'm not a radical libertarian, nor a extreme socialist nor a crazy right-winger. I just hate seeing my country inch slowly down a path of taking it for granted that the Government is our superiors, and that of course we must always defer to the Government. I only exaggerate to make it clearer what a slippery slope it is. And what's the point of engaging in "anti-terrorism" activities that effectively say, "The terrorists won" anyway?
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Title: Wonders of Technology
Topics: exercise
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-14 @ 17:48
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: happy
As you may recall, I absent-mindedly went for a soak in the hotel hot tub a few days ago while still wearing my pedometer. Not surprisingly, when I realized this, there was nothing on the display. I decided to give the thing a chance, removed and discarded the battery, dried off the pedometer, and left it to dry for several days. This afternoon after work, I went and picked up a new battery and installed it. Lo and behold, it works!

I should celebrate by going and walking a mile on the treadmill in the hotel gym, but I've been up since 4:45 AM having not got to sleep until about 12:45 AM, so I think maybe tomorrow.
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Title: From Twitter 12-13-2009
Topics: , sick
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-14 @ 02:06
Security: public

  • 10:42:39: Overnight started coughing up vomit, though little enough I didn't realize that's what it was till a tablespoon-sized one. New symptom woo
  • 13:59:13: I'm sick and tired.
  • 18:02:31: The guy plays Meredith Grey's father was on Fringe this week. How clever to've been in the same timeslot even though there was no new GA.
  • 18:40:20: Doing my homework a bit at a time.
  • 21:39:00: "How did you see that?" "Because I was looking for it." Maybe this new Sherlock Holmes movie will be worthwhile after all.

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

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Title: Burst of Energy
Author: [info]pixelfish
Date: 2009-12-13 @ 22:54
Security: public
The last few days, we'd been letting things slip. Dishes piled up in the sink, there were small piles of clothes in the bathroom and by the foot of the bed. But no more! We took about an hour today and got the place back to the shiny cleanness that we had at T-day. T-day being the benchmark because it was the first time the apartment was not just clean but unpacked too.

John got all the dishes cleaned up, and folded clothes, while I acquired a dusting apparatus and dusted the bedroom, office, and living room and then vaccuumed. We are mighty!

Then we sat down and played a little WoW. We did Heroic Trial of the Champions and I got a number of upgrades. So then we went and skibbled through Forge of Souls and the Pit of Saron. I upgraded about three items by the end of our run.

And then, as if all that wasn't enough, I ended up attacking two of the four storage boxes in the closet and got them unpacked with the contents appropriately stowed. Now we have two boxes left to go. (One of which is primarily candles, candle holders, and picture frames.)

With my life approaching real order, maybe I can focus that energy more creatively, without feeling like I should be doing something else.
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Title: Vision boards
Author: [info]satyapriya
Date: 2009-12-14 @ 08:49
Security: public
In the second-last meeting of the personal development group I run, The Forge, we made vision boards. Mine was one devoted to travel. Pics of Russian, the Taj Mahal, and Egyptian bazaare, Tahitian dancer, and an Italy back street. I watched the others put men onto their vision boards. Okay, I thought, I shall find a pic of a bloke and stick him on there, because I'd rather not be doing all this travel on my own. I found a pic of a nice-enough looking bloke, in my age range and stuck him on. Greying hair, big smile, white tshirt. Now that I've finally put this vision board up, I can see that this man looks like a younger Dennis Walter, somewhat. Great. I'm going on tour with Dennis Walter. With a big label over us, saying 'live your dreams'.
Be careful what you ask for....
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Title: Poker Dreams
Topics: , smofcon
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-13 @ 13:32
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: amused
I rarely remember my dreams, but I woke up this morning dreaming, I think, of playing a hand in the Probability & Statistics Seminar at SMOFCon. I don't know if I'm getting the details right, so I may be making it even more dramatic in retelling.

( Not interesting if you don't like poker )

And then I woke up. I have no memory of resolving the debacle. With all of the chips in the middle, it would be nearly impossible to undo the hand. I expect we would have tried to chop the pot three ways, if everyone was willing, but it would certainly have been a mess had it happened in real life.
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Title: 2009: The Year in Slush
Topics: , slush
Author: [info]clarkesworld
Date: 2009-12-13 @ 10:13
Security: public
I was poking through the Clarkesworld Magazine submissions database last night and thought I'd share:

SLUSH STATS FOR 2009

Total Submissions4269
Days open320
Avg. Subs Per Day13.3
# of Authors2721
Highest # of Subs from a Single Author25
By GenderTotal Unique
Male285266.81%182667.06%
Female141633.17%89632.90%
Unknown10.02%10.04%
By CountryTotal Unique
United States323675.80%207576.20%
UK2976.96%2017.38%
Canada2776.49%1776.50%
Australia1293.02%823.01%
Germany390.91%120.44%
Ireland260.61%140.51%
OTHER (52)2656.21%1625.95%
By Day of Week
Sunday58313.66%
Monday69616.30%
Tuesday62714.69%
Wednesday65815.41%
Thursday62914.73%
Friday57213.40%
Saturday50411.81%
Avg. Response Time1.49 days
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Title: Shades of the Past
Author: [info]pixelfish
Date: 2009-12-13 @ 01:24
Security: public
http://sylviasproblem.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/what-happened-to-hope-witsell/

I read this story, and of course, I'm appalled that her parents and school let the situation escalate as they did. Horrified that she was treated as the problem, and not the victim of assault as her privacy was violated repeatedly. Filled with rage that any girl (any person really) on the cusp of figuring out her own sexuality is treated so vilely.

And then there's the flashbacks to how a similar situation played out in my own life. The long and the short of it goes like this:

In third grade, my teacher launched a science experiment involving us watching our germs grow in petri dishes. And while mine were not ultimately any worse than most of the other students, they grew quickly enough in the first few days that some students thought it would be funny to tease me about my germs. I couldn't walk anywhere without anybody screaming or ducking or flinching or calling me names. I couldn't TOUCH anybody or anything without setting off a chain reaction. I was the socially approved leper. It was okay to lock me out of classrooms, to hide my books, steal my food or lunch money, copy my homework or claim it as yours, trip me, push me into the boys restroom, play practical jokes, and malign me publically in any way possible. Any elaborate and inventive torture a pack of children can devise, I was subjected to. The only saving grace in the situation was that the GERMS kept physical hazing from actually occuring. I'm sure the teachers and most of the adults who knew about the situation thought it was just a phase, a brief fad, and that the kids would forget it. But they were wrong, and I got to pay the price by being the school leper for three years until my parents pulled me from that school and sent me to a gifted child program in a different school. (Meanwhile, my sibs got to still deal with some of the fallout, as the meme perpetuated itself. I don't know how bad they had it, but I do know that my parents eventually sent my brothers to a THIRD school in the next district over.)

I felt utterly abandoned by the adults in that school, partly because the half-hearted attempts they made to change the situation were never followed through, and generally adult interference usually made my situation worse. (The lesson I learned: You can't expect adults to fix the situation. Much later, when I was sexually harrassed in ninth grade and finally went to an adult to get the situation changed, I begged that they devise a way of separating me from my harrasser without alerting the class to the situation. My harrasser was popular and it would not have gone well with me if his friends had decided to take retribution.)

Adults owe it to the people in their care to make sure they aren't making the situation worse. It pisses me off to see Hope Witsell's parents and school punishing her for circumstances far beyond her control, circumstances that were already hurting her.

(Like Hope, I did have a core group of friends who stood by me during this time. Friends from my ward, and a few others. Incidentally, a number of people from my past have apologised to me for stuff that went on in grade school. Which is nice, but these days I think it wasn't a failure on their part so much as the adults who ran the system. I mean, kids often act like little pack animals, and adults are supposed to be teaching us how to be civilised and mature. The kids were often acting according to internalised pressure while the adults actually had power to change things...and didn't. I know they thought it would go away if they ignored it, or maybe they were trying to do stuff behind the scenes, but if so, they never once thought to throw me a lifeline.)

The kids in Hope Witsell's case are a bit different. They were older--in junior high--and should have had the rudiments of civilized behaviour. But the adults are still culpable for reinforcing the dynamic and perpetuating the idea that punishment was somehow deserved. Their reaction towards Hope was entirely out of proportion to any perceived offense (if you could even think an act that was meant to be a private display of sexuality could be offensive). Poor kid didn't do anything wrong, and retribution dropped on her like a tonne of bricks.
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Title: From Twitter 12-12-2009
Topics: , , tv
Author: [info]scarfman
Date: 2009-12-13 @ 02:06
Security: public

  • 09:04:03: @cartoonmoney Fangirls on my LJ flist have pictures from when Hartnell was younger. His hair was never very dark though. #doctorwho
  • 09:21:20: @cartoonmoney I don't have them, no. Sorry. But Google Images is your friend.
  • 15:40:01: Don Castellaneta as a henpecked husband on Desperate Housewives. I wonder if they asked Julie Kavner to be the wife.
  • 15:52:34: "Do you know what discreet means? No skywriting!"
  • 16:38:21: Listening to music at YouTube: Buckaroo Banzai end title
  • 17:04:02: Mom came home from the post-hospital care center this morning. Still not fully recovered but she'll email every day.
  • 21:46:26: Just been searching the web for stuff on the 1972 tv series Search. Not much out there ... too bad.

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Title: The Watts Incident
Topics: , politics
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-12 @ 20:16
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: angry
I hope that by now most of the people on my friends list have heard of the Peter Watts Incident. Watts, a Hugo Award-nominated writer, was detained and charged with assaulting Customs & Border Patrol Agents as he was returning to Canada. (Yes, CBP agents do apparently sometimes inspect people leaving the USA.) The Port Huron Times-Herald has what amounts to the CBP's version of events here and here.

( I'll spare you some of the rant unless you want to read it )

As I've said elsewhere, as a white, male, native-born American with a family pedigree stretching back before the founding of the USA, it's relatively unlikely that I'll ever run afoul of the CBP. I don't meet their profile, mostly. I know how to act meek and quiet and answer their tick-box questions the way they want to hear them. But that makes it that much more incumbent upon me to protest when incidents like this happen, lest there be nobody to speak for me when the Security Police comes for me.
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Title: Out & About in Columbus
Topics: , , , , work
Author: [info]kevin_standlee
Date: 2009-12-12 @ 19:40
Security: public
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Mood: tired
Today I slept in -- 8:30 certainly being a lie-in if you've spent the past week getting up as much as four hours earlier -- and took my sweet time over breakfast. To give housekeeping time to do my room, I went and walked a mile on the treadmill. (I needed to exercise anyway, having had one of those sweet rolls in the breakfast bar.) Then it was another soak in the hot tub. I ambled back to my room thinking of maybe actually starting to do something today.

( Dying razor; and why I had to take the rental car to a car wash )

( Driving Around Columbus )

( Not a total loss )

It was not a terribly productive day. But the weather was very nice for this time of year: about 6 C (around 43 F) and bright sunshine. I needed my sunglasses. With a 90% chance of rain on Sunday, I'm much happier to have been out today doing errands. Tomorrow I'm apt to be cooped up in the hotel room trying to get more work done on the project that is the reason for me being here in Columbus in the first place.
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Title: Untitled
Author: [info]satyapriya
Date: 2009-12-13 @ 08:17
Security: public

I'm pickin' up good vibrations,
she's giving me satyapriya.

Which song was this lyric from?

Get your own lyrics:
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Title: Ear worm
Author: [info]satyapriya
Date: 2009-12-13 @ 08:14
Security: public
Sometimes those five dollar buys are the best. On impulse the other day, I picked up a double cd of classic 50 and 60's pop female singers. I've been listening to it with much pleasure, singing along, pausing in my day to get all Gladys Knight and the Pips, stepping from side to side, one arm in the arm, soulful look. Finding incredible meaning in words that were probably written in six minutes.
No surprise, then, that I wake up with an earworm, song lyrics that just won't go away. Today's are: Hey now, my boyfriend's back.
I woke, thought 'hey now, my boyfriend's back', and then thought, which boyfriend exactly? Where is he? Where's he been that he's back? If he's back, he's bloody invisible.
Which then brought brief thoughts of Sunday mornings I've woken with a lovely man installed. Brief mood funk, and then I thought 'oh, get out of bed, feed the cats, and shake this off'.
The earworm is still there.
When I let the cats in for brekkie, I sang 'Hey now, the cats are back'. Thinking of taking TB swimming today, it was 'hey now, a swim today'.
I hope this stops soon.
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