Saturday 18 August 2007

Pic of the day: And not least, food! Glorious food!

Meanwhile, in real life…

So what happened in the middle of August, while my fancy was out flying?

On the 8th, I was still brain training, and thinking about the convergence of different spiritual traditions. I have already briefly mentioned this, I remember. The "bridge of quiet".

On the 9th, I was mildly dabbling in a fantasy fiction involving a world with bushy-tailed squirrel people. I marked it down as "lesbian squirrels" but actually those play a supporting role. The main character is a high school boy with a terminal illness, getting accidentally summoned into a magical world populated by the bushy-tailed furries who evidently descend from squirrels rather than monkeys. It is a reboot of a story from years ago, and I don't think there is anything else in common than squirrel people. I am not going to write more than a few pages before I lose interest.

On the 10th, I learned a faster way to get started on easy Sudoku puzzles, by scanning for pairs of numbers that limit where the corresponding number can be in the third block. Sure, it is obvious once you know it.

On the 11th, I had chest pains in a place I don't remember having them before. (About as high up as my nipples, and almost as far out as the onset of my armpit.) Since people in my family don't get heart problems, I ignored it. Eventually it went away.

On the 12th, it was very hot inside because of the sun, but not so hot outside as earlier in the summer. I opened the doors, and the insects stormed in. For some reason they make a beeline, as it were, to my bedroom.

On the 13th, I read an article about sexual abstinence program having no measurable effect in rich countries. (It was already proved by earlier research that they had no measurable effect in poor countries, but the people who are the most eager proponents of sexual abstinence programs also tend to believe that the Negroes have a particularly hard time keeping it in their pants. I hold no official opinion on that at the time of writing.) It turned out that the rich country in question was the USA. This topic may deserve a longer entry one day, perhaps along with related topics.

On the 14th, my brain training saw a temporary setback, probably caused by protracted lack of sleep. Two nights of 4 hour sleep do not make one of 8.

On the 15th, my telephone at work did not work. I logged the problem and got a mail from the telephone service people saying that they had put the log on hold because they were unable to reach me on the telephone.

Also on that day, I saw an advertisement stating that "Attitudes are inherited. ONLY MEN CAN STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN." This is so self- contradictory that it must be written by leftists. I should mock it in more detail another day, but is it really possible to mock it more than it mocks itself?

For August 16th, I give you these words of wisdom (and not even by me): "If you use 'u' because it is shorter than 'you', I use 'no' because it is shorter than 'yes'." (This exchange happened in City of Heroes, but could happen in a lot of online venues really.)

On August 17th, I debated the near-breakdown of the banking system with my American friends. I lead such an interesting life, don't I? ^_^