Yesteryear

World AIDS Day

It feels as if I shall be going off in several directions during this entry, so I shall beg you to forgive my wandering in advance.

AIDS, HIV, Immune Deficiency Virus. All one, all the same.

I would like you to imagine a place of beauty, of mountains, deserts, rainforests and grasslands. Think of a place in which animals have areas where they can run free. A place that ingrains itself into the lives of those who live there, making them one of her own. Imagine a place where the people are warm and friendly. A place where people who live in rural areas will share the last of what they have with strangers. A place where people will openly welcome you into their homes and treat you as one of their own. A place rich and diverse in its culture, its history and its natural resources. Now imagine that this place is a continent, and her name is Africa. This is the world I grew up in, amongst warm generous people who shared their lives, their stories, and their homes with me. This is a place where HIV has spread like wildfire, ravaging the continent I grew up in.

There are currently 28 million people living with AIDS through out Africa, many of them children. Many of these people will not have the benefit of medication and many of these children will not live past their childhood. Africa is considered to be one of the poorest parts of the world, I can attest to that fact. Though the people share a land rich in natural resources the conditions they live in are not; many people living in rural areas live in shantytowns. Villages made up of tin and scrap metal siding, cardboard boxes and plastic tents. Many of them will travel great distances for work, leaving family behind as they head for the bigger city to earn some money. This factor coupled with others may be one of the many contributing elements as to why HIV is so wide spread in Africa.

But this is not what I wanted this entry to be about. I do not want to discuss the reasons or factors as to why Africa or any other continent, country, town or village for that matter has people infected with HIV. Nor do I want to go on a statistical rampage and talk about numbers. I would rather talk about the people, about who they are and who they were. Most of them were young vibrant people much like you and me. People with dreams and aspirations. People who loved, people with families and perhaps some with children of their own. Many of them have the same fears, worries and hopes as you and I. They are also all individuals with their own creativity, their own view of life their own thoughts and ideals. If this is a truth then why is it that some of us still fear people with AIDS? Why is it that some of us look down on these people and feel that they have gotten their just reward, that they deserve this disease? Why is it that some of us feel these are people who deserve to be treated with dread and placed apart from our society? How is it that some of us can still say, not in my school, not in my community?

If we are all human beings, then we should all be treated with the same respect, courtesy and basic human decency. I think on this day what I would like to urge you most to do, is think of the people who have AIDS, learn more about them, about their lives and who they are. Learn from them and get to know them.

Little Brother

Little brother is now legal and has just recently passed his drivers license!!! Yoiks! Pedestrians of London beware!
I feel rather ancient, I can remember when he was but fifteen, that's how old he was when I finally met him but that's a story for another day, shy and a big sweetheart. [He's going to kill me for posting that. Oh well!]

Congratz Little Brother. Happy belated Birthday!

Clumsy Computer or Today's Accomplishments

Woke up, albeit somewhat reluctantly, dragged me sorry derriere out of bed.
Stumbled to the office, otherwise known as the computer room, booted up computer.

Groped my way to kitchen made coffee though nearly shattered the coffeepot.
Wove my way back to the office and stared groggily at computer screen.
Perused news through squinty eyes.
Got up had a rather brisk shower [chattering teeth] dressed in comfy clothes, grabbed mug of Java headed back to office. Stared at screen for another couple of hours.

Brain numb, headed to TV room to further expand my knowledge. Flipped through endless channels only to discover that there truly is nothing to watch.
Decided that sitting around doing nearly nothing was driving me stir crazy, donned big warm coat went grocery shopping. Bought ingredients for a yummy stew. Waddled back home. Unpacked groceries.
Got a fright as the kitchen light exploded above my head. Lights are not supposed to do that! Must be the shoddy electrical wiring.
Bawled while chopping the onions. Almost added a finger to the stew, as I could not see past the tears. Dropped numerous utensils while prepping the stew.
Slinked back to computer room to stare at the screen some more.
Went on a demanding campaign for attention, to which Hugin, my better half teasingly asked if the campaign was successful [wry smile] My teasing response' well lover...'
Hmmm, how about I leave it as such.

Safe trip

To the Aussie lad who's making his way home, wishing you a safe trip! See you when you get back!!

Can a cold be 'defiantly' coming on? I think what I meant to say was 'Definitely a cold coming on...'
Though I may be defiant and refuse to be sick,[achoo] I do not believe that the cold is defiant in its attempt to make me ill and feeling all around unwell.
[looking around miserably, groping for a tissue]

On another thread of thought:
Though I generally claim to be a 'Keyboard Dyslexic', perhaps it is time that I paid closer attention to what I type. Time to pull out the good old trusted dictionary.

Brr... It's cold out there!

Just got back from running some errands and it feels as if the temperature has plummeted to way past freezing. Have also gotten this tickling shivery sensation in my nose that indicates I am about to get a cold. Ugh. [Aachoo] Defiantly a cold coming on, time to stock up on Kleenex. Just don't think I can face the prospect of venturing outside again. Rather curl up on the sofa with a big blankie, a book and a mug of hot cocoa. A fireplace would be divine.
We used to have one in the old place. It was just wonderful to curl up next to it on those cold wintry nights and snooze in front of the grates. Well ok a couple of feet away. We used to pull these big green cushions out from behind the couch throw a blanket on them, curl up and watch the flames mug of hot chocolate in hand. Could spend the whole evening that way.
Next place is definitely going to have a fireplace!

Internet Addict?

Have found another one...

I am 44% ADDICTED TO THE INTERNET.



I could go either way. Deep into the madness of nights filled with coding CGI-Scripts and online role playing games, or I could become a normal user. Good luck!
R U an Addict?

Perhaps it is time to persue other paths?

Happy Meals

Have gone on a McDonalds' happy meal spree. For the silly reason that I am trying to collect as many of the Monster Inc toys as I can.
We had recently gone to see the movie and I fell in love with some of the characters within. The movie itself was quite enjoyable, not as entertaining as 'Toy Story', but it had its endearing moments. I seem to identify more with movies or comics where toys come to life, monsters are real and fairy tales are true. I think it's the kid in me that wishes these things could happen. I guess that's the reason why I have always been drawn to 'Calvin and Hobbes'.
One of the things that I loved about this movie was watching the interactions between the main characters, especially between Boo and Sully. The scene when we are first introduced to Boo, in which she is standing behind Sully picking up his tail letting it drop and watching it fall with childlike delight, was one of my favorites. It is something I have always wanted to do and can imagine doing over and over again, which Boo does. I also love how she refers to Sully as 'Kitty'. Imagine if you haven't seen the movie, a young child calling a big furry purple and turquoise monster with fangs, Kitty. I spent the next few days walking about the house scarring my better half by calling him 'Kitty'. [Signs of an insane mind, perhaps?]
All in all the entire movie was wonderful to watch, with a lot of laughs to be had and a few very sweet tender moments. If you haven't seen the movie, I shall be presumptuous enough and suggest that you do. On this note I am off to McD's to feed my addiction.

Head Lamp

I can't find my headlamp. It's not under our bed, nor is it in the box neatly labeled 'Camping Gear'. Where the hell is it? Have checked me backpack, other boxes with bits and ends in 'em, our storage room and linen closet. It ain't there either! [wot wonderful English ain't humph!] So the only other options are: One of our flatmates nicked it in an attempt to clean up and has dumped in an unlabeled box somewhere, or perhaps it is still in the large green Rubbermaid from the last time we went camping. Which has been over a year ago. Hmm, or perhaps... 'Hey Oz Boy, do yea have me Petzl?!?'

[slap to forehead] I am but a silly goose... all working fine now, was just missing the ftp folder. So we are now up and running, finally.
Enjoy!!! I am now going to go and watch Junkyard wars and pass out!

NIET!!! ok.. [think think think]

Stripped code.

Now the momment of truth.

So the template is up

So the template is up on our site... [faint] Now lets see if we can get the rest working. [nervous look]

Left to do.

Let's see. Templates almost done. Just have to add in one more image, change border colors, make sure cells have borders and voila, it will all be ready to ftp to our web server. Then the fun begins! [GULP] Have to strip blogger code, redirected it to our new site and make sure everything works. [Nervous look] I am not quite sure about this, have a suspicious feeling that everything is going to go kablooie! Breathe girl, breathe! You can do this... HELP!

Silly me, all this talk about new template and page. I have completely forgotten to mention our new URL. Well here it is, we should hopefully be up and running within the next few days.

www.huginandmunin.net

See you there

My thanks go out to Neil Gaiman yet again... he has succeeded in adding the word `wossname' to my repetoire. Admittedly, I saw it first from Terry Pratchett, but Mr Gaiman has used it in his blog and I find that just delightful. He has also succeeded in getting me to stop editing my better half's blogs. I had earlier commented about how she has her own style when it comes to format, but spelling was still something I was checking out. As she was reading the journal over on Mr Gaiman's site, I couldn't help but notice he had written `hapens' and I commented on it... to which the response was, that if misspelling was good enough for Neil Gaiman, then it was bloody well good enough for her! Makes wossname sense to me.

Stole this link from notsosoft. Had to, its just absolutely brilliant!

A template!!!

After some debate we have scrapped the template that we were originally going to use for our site and have created a new one which is almost done. I found the original one to be a little dark and was not to happy with it. Which is also probably due to the fact that I had been staring at it for the past month while I was trying to figure out what would make it look less harsh. The only debate now is which blogging tool to use. Blogger, Greymatter or Movable type? Am pretty happy with blogger, but am wondering if we would want to have more control over the format etc. or if we should just stick with what we know. Shall try and figure that out this weekend. Will be uploading the page onto our site sometime then also. Just have to do the last bit of tweaking, and voila! It will be all ready to go.

YAY!!! All fixed now. Wonder what other cool and funky tests are out there. Suggestions anyone?

Oh Bullocks, the image didn't work. Hurrumph! Me try and fix.

Which Autobot are you?

If I was an Autobot, I'd be:

Oh good gawd!!! It would seem that my character closely resembles "Optimus Prime"
Not quiet sure how I feel about that.

*link no longer available. 11-2003

Silly weather!

Stepped out to go make some photocopies and pick up a winter coat from the dry cleaners. Stepped out into a swirling mass of the lovely white fluffy stuff. Falling in a tumbling mass of stickiness, coating people and trees in its whiteness. Walked into photocopy place and stepped out 5 minutes later to sunshine and clear blue skies. Where did all the snow go to? Silly weather can't seem to make up its mind.

White fluffy stuff

Peeked outside to see what it was like, lo and behold the sky was filled with white fluffy stuff! It was so nice and warm yesterday, what happened?!?
I guess winter it be here, time to drag out the heavy coat and toasty boots. Hmm, now where would they be?

At it again.

At it again, with much thanks... My better half has edited me words, and much grateful am I. Though he would rather entiltle himself my "not-bad-pretty-ok-mostly half" I would tend to disagree [impish wink]

Nut! Want a NUT!

Nut! Want a NUT! Nut. Nut. Nut... Where'za nut!? Yum! Nuts!

Mugging for the camera

Sunday was another gorgeous autumn day. The air was crisp, the temperature mild and the sun was shining. Could have spent the whole day outside. As it was we went out for breakfast, a nice little restaurant which serves yummy crepes and other breakfast foods. Had the usual eggs, bacon and pancakes with a large mug of coffee. Due to the unusually beautiful weather we decided to walk home from breakfast. Not a long walk, generally takes approximately an hour to an hour and a half, depending on if we are lallygagging or not. There is a park that we usually cut through, which has a nice little pond and this wonderful tree that sits right next to it with its branches hanging over the water. One day I am going to climb that tree and sit on the branches and read. But I digress... where was I? Oh yes! I had brought my camera along with me so that I may sneak some pictures of my better half, and get some shots of the trees in their autumn foliage. The usual assortment of critters where prancing about, you know `dags', magpies and the nut fanatics. It's amazing how squirrels have become used to humans. They are now dauntless and will come right up to you, circling around, their eyes pleading for nuts. Having spotted a really adorable one a couple of yards off, I crouched down so that I may get a shot of him in his "natural" environment, slinking about looking for nuts. [I am assuming it's a "him", though I could probably be grossly mistaken] The squirrel spotted me and then began to pose for the camera. I couldn't believe it the squirrel was actually mugging for the camera. He sat up on his hind paws, front paws resting on his stomach, tail curled up attractively and looked straight at the camera as if to say "yes I know I am cute, this is my better side, take the shot."
I was flabbergasted, I have not to date seen a wild animal pose for a picture. Most wild animals that I have had the luck or chance to photograph, have either frozen in a "deer caught in the headlights" stance or have skittered of leaving me with a shot of their back ends. This is the first time that a wild animal has ever posed for me. As amazing as this event was, it does leave me with the question, "are wild animals becoming too used to humans and how dangerous can this become for them?"

Buffy/leather=dark

So, you know you have been paying too much attention to the whole Buffy/leather=dark attitudes thing when you see someone on the metro wearing leather and think, "hmm... wonder why they are in dark mode..."

Hello, have you seen my brain?

Just one of those days where simple tasks seem to take the longest time. Was editing some code today, so I load up my trusty editor and find the code that needs editing. Got momentarily distracted and WIPE, I have no recollection of why I am looking at this particular bit of code or what I am suppose to edit. GAH! This unfortunately has not been solely attributed to coding today. Go into kitchen to make a cup of Java, walk in, look about, walk out. Coffee goes unmade. Walk in to room to find a hair brush and to change into a less holee pair of jeans. You got it, walk in leave without brush and jeans, though I do manage to pick up a pair of socks. [sigh] Oh well it could be worst, I could have simply forgotten to get dressed this morning.

Am now about to make may way out of the house and into that scary world of downtown shopping. Hmm.. I wonder if I'll make it to subway without getting lost...

History is written by the victors. Who writes the other works? The poems, literature...? The editors? The publishers? After all, history isn't written by historians; therefore poems cannot be written by poets, etc... Hmm.

Feeling uninspired...

No fanciful tales come to mind, no creative imagery. The artful domains of my brain are but a blank canvas. The poetic whirl of words that usually flit about me head have left; on a quest to find something to say, to find that event or image able to convey meanings, overtones and feelings. But nothing comes to mind, no musings, neither thoughts nor little specks of light. There is but a gray fuzziness, which I cannot penetrate. So I am left in this void with nothing left to say...

Hole socks

I've got a HOLE in my sock. This won't do, my toes are exposed. How indecent!!! All right time to purchase some new ones. Perhaps something in gray, or maybe a light fluffy happy color. Something to break from the black that normally enshrouds me feet. Perhaps something with a theme to it, something whimsical. Wallace and Grommet socks anyone?

So we finally have an e-mail address for our site; and after much laughing, bemusement, groans and shaking of heads we have come up with ravens@huginandmunin.

And the runner ups where:

thoughts@huginandmunin
Odin@huginandmunin
emptyeyesocket@huginandmunin
juicy-eyeball@huginandmunin
shineythings@huginandmunin
peckedbrain@huginandmunin or
peckedeyeball@hugingandmunin; whichever you fancy

One of the real groaners;

caw@huginandmunin

So now you know where to reach us...

Luck

A wish of GOOD LUCK to the Aussie lad who's in the midst of his finals. After it's all said in done, we'll take ya out for a round and have a fair dinkum time.
Good luck mate!

All gone.

Weekend's all gone, and has, as per usual has been somewhat unproductive. No work done on the site, no tweaking of the new template, no reading up on code. Just a weekend spent in slumber curled up on a couch watching reruns of old shows, and playing Diablo on the computer with the occasional whine that I should really be something more productive with me time. [We are trying to see how quickly we can up an Assassin, with the aid of an all mighty Sorceress. The only downside to this, being that at lower levels, the sorceress is too powerful and does not get much XP. This will hopefully be rectified when we hit the nightmare levels] Yup, I am a slacker. "But Sir, it was just too cold to do anything active outside and my brain was not up for the complexities of HTML coding." PAH!!! Excuses. So without further ado I shall get my lazy ass butt in gear and get some work done on the site, as well as the other projects that I have set up for myself.

It's nearly two o'clock in the morning and I am UP staring at my computer screen. [Grumble] The house is filled with the soft snores of all who are abed, and I am envious of their ability to be asleep, tucked in beds all fuzzy and warm. I have given to perusing the web in search of something entertaining, or perhaps it would be better to find something that would put me to sleep. Insomniacs are us.

Toe wiggling?!? I have given up on the notion that a glass of hot milk or a steaming mug of cocoa will help. I have travelled down that path before to no avail. Nor has the heaping of heated blankets seem to have done its usual trick. So it is just me awake with my thoughts, surrounded by mugs and tucked under blankets perusing the web. Wondering when I will be able to get some rest from the natterings of my brain. When the weight of drooping eyelids will force me to seek the refuge of our bed, so that I may curl under warm blankets, snuggle up to my bestest half and dreams of pleasant things.

Somehow, this just feels wrong.

orange

Not enough orange on this website. With that in mind I shall take a moment to say a few words. I guess I'll start with musical Buffy... Ok, well enough of that then; it was enjoyable and not nearly as painful as it could have been. So long as they don't make a broadway version, everyone should be happy. Enough said.

Buffy the Musical: Reprise

Though I have been known to enjoy some musicals, I was not sure if I could actually stomach Buffy as a musical. Surprisingly enough I thoroughly enjoyed it. A wee bit ouchy at times, but all and all a rather enjoyable episode.

I found that some of the funniest moments included Spike breaking out in song, his reluctance at having to sing his feelings about Buffy shining through in the first verses of the song. There is something about a dark brooding soul breaking out in song that for some odd reason tickles my funny bone. Buffy's opening song with the demons and vampires in the background, which had a vaudeville quality to it. Also liked some of the lines they snuck into the songs, one of them is, "this line is only filler". Also thought that the scene between Zander and Anya was well done. Just the way the song went back and forth between them, with interruptions splattered through reminded me of some older musicals. Was funny, light, and sincere. The romantic sap in me loved the song sung by Tara to Willow, "Under your spell "

Finally was wowed by: Michelle Trachtenberg, who plays Dawn, just an amazing voice and great dancing abilities and Amber Benson, who plays Tara, also has an incredible voice. Well that's my two cents on this week's show and in summary all I can say was that I loved it.

Need to get out of the house and enjoy some frigid air, so a walk to downtown and Monster Inc. it is...
Have come to the stark realization that I cannot spend long periods at home doing nothing. Nor can I spend a full day inside without going slightly stir crazy.Seriously, I must have one of the worst cases of cabin fever around. Alright,so I am off to enjoy the wonderful outdoors... I bid ye all a goodnight.

Blog Much?

Try this quizz on for size. It seems that I am only a casual blogger, scoring only a 40%.

For Steve

Buffy The Musical. I believe this episode will be aired again on Saturday, 10 November. Enjoy!
[impish grin]

sushi

Went for sushi today with a dear friend at her parents' restaurant. It was all very delish. We started our meal with tempura, I have no idea how they do it, but their batter always comes out tasting very light and is not dredged in oil. A delicious crab and corn soup followed that. We were then served a yummy orange chicken, secret family recipe, sorry folks. Finally followed by a platter of sushi. Our platter had Sake [salmon], Hamachi [yellow tail tuna], Uni [sea urchin], Ama Ebi [sweet shrimp], spicy scallops and a kamikaze roll on it. The sushi was fresh and light, the kamikaze roll exquisite and tasty. All in all a wonderful meal, sorry love... next time I promise.

Network slow today, and blogger seems to be on a downtime, so am writing this post in Word and will then cut and post it later.

Silly grammatical check, it insists that the proper way of writing Network slow today is "network slowly today" Oops!!! I think the correct phrasing of that sentence should be "Network is slow today..." there that is better

Alright so the network is slow today, and I have discovered that one should not go online computer shopping when one cannot afford all the lovely new gadgets and upgrades that are out there...

Am in need of a faster processor and board. One of the programs that I am currently running is a memory and processor hog. It seems to enjoy taking as much of the computer's resources as feasible, in order to compute the code required to represent the design graphics. Which means I can either, shut off every other application and run this program while desperately hoping that it won't cause my computer to lock up and crash. Or I can buy a new processor and board and not have to worry any more. Well that is hopefully at least the plan. Ah, you may now be inquiring as to the memory problem, well this has been rectified with a brand spanking new memory strip.

So while perusing online for the processor and board, I came across this and this and ooh this... Gimme gimme gimme.

It funny though, I remember when talk of the first Gig hard drive came out, and all I could do was sit and wonder as to why anyone would need a drive so large. I mean I had everything I needed on an 80Mg stacked drive. Who could want for more? Now 13 Gigs later with no space left the 100 Gig drive is just ever so tempting. Do you know what I could store on it? It would be so much fun, all the games I can dream of, all the mp3's and movies I can find. And a flat screen would be oh so nice! No more large screen hogging up all the space on my desk. More space for me to lay out books and manuals. More space for me to work. Yup. Alas, this is all but a pipe dream. Though perhaps one day it will be all MINE! Mine, Mine, Mine!

What a Truly Glorious Wonderful Day

Took a walk outside to get some groceries. Am making a delicious Guinness stew. At least I am hoping that it will turn out to be yummy. Second time in the makings.
The sun is shining, the weather is crisp and the air smells of autumn. Wonderful!!! Our street is lined with oak trees and all the leaves have turned a beautiful reddish golden brown. The sight just makes you want to skip down the street, stomping in the huge piles of leaves that have gathered. Kicking them up and watching the wind catch and scatter them away. Yup, just plain enjoyable.

The ever morphing weblog...

This page seem to be going through an ever present morph. One day comments on, the next day comments off. Sorry about that. Am having some problems formatting the code for blogback. i.e. getting the font just right, making sure the link is located in exactly the right spot, the perfect color and the count set to numerical. So hopefully this will right itself by this afternoon and the comment link will once again be present on our page. In other news am still trying to get the main page set up and ready so we can transfer the blog to there. Unfortunately procrastination has once again made its presence known and I have done naught, nothing, nada in 3 days. Again, hopefully that situation will also rectify itself by next week.
Maybe if I was actually a little more proactive instead of just sitting here staring at the screen things would go a lot faster.. hmmm...

No failures...

My computer seems to be back to its wonderful usual self again. No failures or lock ups in the past two days. Had recently installed an updated version of the graphics driver for my video card, and so far that seems to have done the trick. But Shhh, don't tell my computer this or it might deem it necessary to lock up again. Maybe it is just an attention getter. ;)

Silly Musings the

Just realized the weblog can be separated into "we blog". Oy!!! [Slap to proverbial forehead] What a geek I am. Too much time on my hands. I think it's time to go get a cup of Java and start being productive.

Hmm...
Though colloquially used in the military to classify engineers the word Geek, according to Factmonster is defined as:

Pronunciation: (gEk),
-n. Slang.
1. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.
2. any strange or eccentric person.

Perhaps the term oddball would be better suited to me.

Oddball:
-n
a person or thing that is atypical, bizarre, eccentric, or nonconforming, esp. one having beliefs that are unusual but harmless.

-adj.
whimsically free-spirited; eccentric; atypical: an oddball scheme.

Scarily enough this search also brought up the names of several actors and a few scientists:
Bill Murray, Anthony Michael Hall, Dustin Hoffman, Peter Sellers and Nikola Tesla to name a few.

ERRORS BEGONE!!!

My better half is at it again, "snip, edit, correct" my entries are now error free and hopefully more legible. I honestly do not know what I would without him. My spelling is still less than passable. My grammar is just horrible and I can't string a sentence together without running on, adding random thoughts or just plain blathering!!! Insert noun, verb, adjective and perhaps an adverb here. Is that how it goes? Perhaps I would do well to enroll in an english class. Maybe one which focuses on writing efficiently, with an in depth section on the proper structure of sentences.

This is all rather amusing because the only thing that got me into university state~side where my SAT scores in the verbal section. Nay, not my math skills, which are essential to what I do.

Oh well, all I can say is enjoy the now corrected entries :)

I can't truly say that my better half has poor spelling or grammar, more that she has her own way of phrasing things and her own idiosyncratic pacing to it. So what appears to be awkwardly punctuated is in fact done so in a way which makes sense when she says it. So I guess from now on I should leave her words and thoughts in her own voice and let those who wish to understand her, do so in her own native tongue; the way she was meant to be communicate.

Heartwarming readings... Perusing the news

Perusing the news yesterday, came upon this story, rather heartwarming to know that people still care...

Good Old Sunday mornings...

Crawled out of bed at around 10:30ish, which is pretty much sleeping in these days. Poured the ever faithful mug of coffee and then curled up on comfy couch to read the Saturday morning comic strip. [Hadn't gotten around to them yesterday]. Our 3 cats were scampering about the house as usual, chasing each other down the hall. One roommate up and semi-conscious, no coffee yet. The other roommate out and about, my better half still abed.

As our roommate was flipping through the channels, we came upon a game of New Zealand Rugby. This game makes American Football look like a gentlemens sport. Barring Aussie rules football, which is just insane, rugby must be one of the roughest sports out there. It's no wonder that most players tape their ears. The game seems to pretty much run as follows: Players meet on the line of scrimmage. Ball is past back to most available player. All members of opposing team target that player as the members of the defending team scramble to protect him. Ball is then ripped out of the persons hands as people pile atop each other. Gods I would hate to at the bottom of that pile. The process starts again, with as much pulling of uniforms, mowing down of people, kicking and snatching as possible. Reminds me of the recess games that where played when we where young, not much strategy but a lot of fun. Though I am quiet sure that rugby has its strategies, it is not very apparent as to what they might be while viewing the game. Though the strategy would probably be more evident if I knew a bit more about the rules. Still fun if somewhat painful to watch.

ZOOM!

Took a trip down to our local outdoor store today to find a pair of shoes. On the way there we passed two kids playing with remote control cars. Remember always wanting to play with one when I was a kid. Still would like to get my hands on one or better yet a remote control airplane. Ooh, that would be so much fun! Zipping the plane around the neighborhood. Zooming past pigeons, performing daredevil stunts, and "fly-by's"!!! Yup, that would be fun.
Hmm.. maybe I could build one?!? Now if only I knew a little bit more about electronics...

Have recently begun the quest to bring my computer back up to its wonderful, usual running condition. It still manages to die on me a couple of times a day, so I am now looking for software, driver updates or just about anything that will help my poor ailing computer.

In doing so I have come to the realization that I am a lot more computer illiterate than I had hopes to be. POUT! BUT I am an engineer, I am not supposed to be computer illiterate, just socially inept [and completely unable to form proper English sentences, needless to say paragraphs or be able to spell properly. Engineers can't spell, no formal training on the topic, that is why they invented Spell Check!!! .... that's my story and I am sticking to it].

In other musing, tis rather a dreary day outside. Perfect for curling up on a sofa, hiding under a big blanket and reading a good book. Which is precisely what I am going to do.

out there

Well this is it, the site is slowly being "publicized".

Hopefully we shall be able to provide fellow readers with much Entertainment, Musings, "Neat" [can i say neat? hmmm...] Links to some truly awesome, if albeit occasionally geeky sites, Info and the occasional Rant, Vent and Grumble.

The Template is unfortunately still in progress due to much HMM'ing, HA'ing and the occasional "how the heck to i get this to work?"
But will hopefully have all the wrinkles out of it soonish, if Procrastination doesn't rear its ugly head [which undoubtedly it will].

So if you can bear with the ongoing editing, tweaking of templates and a final move to our registered site. Pull up a chair, grab a cup of Joe and ENJOY!!

thinking

So, I was thinking about a few things at the same time, and of course this led to some mildly odd places. I was thinking about Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and I was thinking of Terry Pratchett who wrote a book entitled Small Gods, and finally I was thinking about coffee - the dark god. So what I got when I put these things together was the thought of small dark gods of coffee that came to the Americas and came to be worshipped here; often not very well (e.g. Starbucks, Second Cup), and it occured to me that there are no small dark American gods of coffee. Sure they have coffee in Hawaii that can be not bad (Kona blend), but that hardly counts, and there are enjoyable Mexican (Pluma Altura), Central American (Tarrazu and Antigua), and even South American coffees if you go for that acidic taste. Sure people rave about that small not so dark god of Jamaican Blue Mountain, but for my money you can't compare to the dark African coffees, the Ethiopian Harrar for example, and my personal god of dark gods - Sumatra Mandheling. Sure it's a fickle god, prone to sourness and fluctuating quality, but when it is in its seat of power there is nothing else like it. It is sort of the Crowley of coffee, for those who have read the joint effort Good Omens by the aforementioned authors... or perhaps not. Anyways, just the ravings of a raven.