Eric TF Bat's Journal

Fiends

From the Exact Middle of Nowhere
[info]officialgaiman
posted by Neil
Waving from the Middle of Nowhere, where there's no TV, my cell phone doesn't work and the internet is slow and klunky enough that semaphore might be more efficient.

Statuesque aired last night on Sky 1. I didn't see it. Didn't get to see the first part of the last David Tennant Doctor Who either. (Statuesque is currently available on Sky Anytime, for UK Sky subscribers, until the 31st of Dec. Look it up under the title of "Ten Mintue Tales")

On the other hand, we got a few hour's sunlight today. I saw some of that. And yesterday we went for a walk and, using map coordinates and the GPS Mike's amazing new Google Cell Phone (aka Dogfood) we found a Viking stone circle. And I'm cooking a lot on the Aga. My favourite present was one my children had clubbed together to get me: a painting of my dog, by artist Kelli Bickman. They know I love Kelli's stuff, and figured that I would be made happy by a painting of Cabal by her. And I am, very happy indeed.

Anyway. I hope you had a very happy Boxing Day, and that all your boxes belong to you.

A Videophone Christmas
[info]jeff_duntemann

ChristmasTree2009-500Wide.jpg

A day late, perhaps, but no less sincerely, let me wish everyone who reads this a good and blessed Christmas, from here on the snowy side of Cheyenne Mountain. We had a day so cold, clear, and crisp that I was walking around the house carefully, lest it shatter. This was our year to stay in Colorado for the holiday season. (Next year, as is our custom, we'll be in Chicago.) Two thirds of the country had a white Christmas, which is great unless you happen to be traveling while the whitening is going on. Ducked that bullet, whew.

We've had our tree for a week or so now, and it may rank as the best Christmas tree we've ever scored. Tall by our historical standards at about 7', it is also a balsam, a breed of tree I don't think we've ever had in 33 years of marriage. I've been a little leery of them since I was five or six and broke out in a rash on my hands when my mother allowed me to place some ornaments on the tree. Somewhere we have a photo of me hanging ornaments with my winter mittens on, and although history is silent on the point, I have to wonder if some of my poor mother's ornaments didn't survive the adventure.

No rash this time--I guess one can grow out of such things--and the tree is not so full as to make finding places for ornaments a challenge, nor so sparse as to look like Charley Brown's poor twig from the Peanuts TV special. It's taking water and is not yet losing needles. Dash pulled a stuffed Saguaro cactus ornament off the tree and tried to remove its stuffing, but we caught him before he got too far. Jack has been spotted licking the colored light bulbs when they're off, but apart from that there's been no tree mischief.

ToUcam.jpgThere was some stress on Tuesday night when Carol's mom fell at her homne outside Chicago and was taken to the hospital. She didn't break anything, fortunately, but had to spend Christmas in a hospital bed. To cheer her up I put an SX270 system on the coffee table by the Christmas tree and set up a Skype video call with my nephew Brian. The hospital has Wi-Fi in the rooms, and Brian set his new laptop up on Delores's bed tray. So by virtue of my Phillips ToUCam and Brian's built-in Webcam, she could see us, the dogs, and the Christmas tree. Delores was delighted, and it's a technique to keep in mind if you find yourself in such a situation. Skype is very good with detecting and autoconfiguring Webcams, and there was no fussing involved. I plugged in the ToUCam, made the call, and video happened. It's not exactly a flying car, but it's definitely one of those odd Sixties dreams fulfilled, mostly when nobody was looking.

We also called my sister and Bill on Bill's laptop, and sang the ABCs song with Katie. Katie looked puzzled, but Julie just beamed. In another couple of years this sort of thing will be second nature to them.

MTHCamelback500Wide.jpg

This was a very good year for Lionel trains: I finally bought a modern steam locomotive to run around the tree, and boggled a little to find myself searching underneath the brand-new 4-6-0 MTH Camelback loco (above) for its volume control. It has a built-in electronic sound effects system that plays real steam locomotive sounds, a bell, water-pump thumps, and other racket at deafening volume. Jack backed around the tree as I slowly ran it along the LionelZW.jpgtracks, yapping furiously at it until he got bored. Pete Albrecht unexpectedly sent me a rare artifact indeed: An original Lionel 275W ZW dual-control transformer (right) that was probably made in the midlate 1950s. It works great, and can control two independent track sections and two independent sets of accessories.

Christmas for us really isn't about gifts (and I confess to being a little tired of Santa Claus supersaturation this year) but once again, my spouse knows me well, and bought me an electric blue summer robe to replace my old terrycloth robe that's been falling to pieces for the last ten years. She also presented me with my recent books wantlist: The Long Summer and Fish On Friday, both histories by Brian Fagan, and two popular treatments of decision psychology: Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, and Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. Fagan is the author of The Little Ice Age, and The Long Summer is his followup about the warm period that followed the end of the last ice age.

I bought Carol her fondest wish: A universal TV system remote that allows you to program whatever sequence of steps is required to turn everything on and then pop the drawer for a DVD, all with a single button press. (She's justifiably weary of having a fruit-bowl full of diverse, incompatible, button-riddled remotes on the coffee table.) It's a Logitech Harmony One, and I guess now I have to figure out how to program it. Hey, I know assembly; how hard can it be?

Our friends Jim and Marcia came by for Christmas dinner at 2. We had a spiral ham, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, spinach salad, home-made apple-pecan bread from Jimi Henton, steamed asparagus, and Carol's signature spiced squash soup with cranraisins floating in it. I opened a Campus Oaks Old Vine Zinfandel 2007, and we had hot spiced cider as well as some Colorado honey mead that Jim brought. We stayed at the table for almost six hours, solving the world's problems and designing the odd universe, and overall considered it an excellent Christmas Day indeed.

Nor is it over. Carol and I celebrate Christmas for at least a week, so for us it's really only beginning. If this is your season (whatever you may call it) to celebrate all that is good in the world, hold that thought--there's no reason at all to stay there for one day only and call it done!


Oh, that we were there!
[info]unfoldedreality
Went home to visit the folks in Busselton. Yes, I can truly say, the new highway to Busselton is a boring drive.

The JREF Forum Ghoul Pool
[info]arthwollipot
SO there's a Ghoul Pool (registration required) running on the JREF Forum. The idea is, you use whatever means at your disposal to predict three people who will die in 2010. Since I'm an old neopagan tarot-reader, I thought I'd bring out my tarot and make predictions. Here's what I came up with:

Okay. In the spirit of the OP, I have brought out my old Norse Tarot deck.

My first draw is the High Priestess. A woman, in a high place - a spiritual leader for many. I'm gonna say this is Sylvia Browne. Okay, I'm going to do another three cards here - I think it was a hasty generalisation. I get Justice, the High Priestess (again) and the Queen of Cups, reversed. I think this is consistent with my initial generalisation. Justice shows that Sylvia is finally recognised for what she really is, and this revelation negatively affects her already poor health. The High Priestess merely reinforces the first draw. The Queen of Cups is the mother figure, filled with love and nurture for her children, which is pretty much the opposite of what Sylvia does - that being consistent with the card reversed.

The second is the Prince of Wands. A younger man, dynamic, active - but it comes up reversed. So I'm going to say this is some youngish American rapper who is either shot or dies of a drug overdose. I'm not familiar with the rap scene so I can't tell who it is, but I'll draw three more cards to try and define his personality. The Nine of Wands indicates followers - an entourage or following of some kind. This is consistent with this man being a celebrity - it possibly indicates some kind of cult following. The King of Wands is a father figure - this man's father is also famous. Finally the Prince of Discs is somone who is prepared and confident in the future. I'm still not sure who this is, but he's a self-confident young man with a famous father, who has a following.

Lastly, the Ace of Cups. This is very ambiguous. I can't tell whether this person is male or female, but emotion plays an important role. I'll do another three cards. Oh, this is interesting. The Hanged Man, the Empress and the Six of Coins, reversed. The Hanged Man represents sacrifice - Odin hanging himself on the World Tree, giving up his eye in return for knowledge. So it's someone who suffers for the greater good. Could be Stephen Hawking - he's a very emotional man, but it is very difficult for him to communicate this and he prefers to concentrate on pure physics. The Empress is a strong matriarch - this could be any of the women in his life - possibly his daughter, Lucy, who incidentally is the same age I am. The Six of Coins is a valuable gift given to a loved one. This would be the body of knowledge that Stephen has selflessly granted to the human race, or possibly the selfless giving that his two wives have given to his extraordinarily difficult situation.

So there are my three predictions according to the Norse Tarot:

  1. Sylvia Browne
  2. Some youngish rapper with a famous father and a following.
  3. Stephen Hawking
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Aftermath
[info]thelancrewitch
Enjoyed a morning of doing absolutely bugger all, and an afternoon only faintly more productive. It was greatly therapeutic. For some reason I take the Christmas season Very Seriously, so December tends to have more of an ongoing focus than my usual meandering life. I think I could profitably try to harness this around different occasions throughout the year... Sometime in the next week I must compose a missive of baffling bullshit write a report on the EDoD's ongoing edumacational adventures for the Department of Sticking Their Noses In, but I intend to spend the rest of the time pootling about and enjoying my family.

*flumps*

Originally posted at my Dreamwidth account. Comment there for preference, or here.

wheee!
[info]mmy_me
My coolest christmas present: electric scissors.

My dad, concerned about my sore hands, decided that More Power is the solution. And they are so cool! I cut out the fabric for ElderM's curtains and quilt today, long straight lines, and it just zoomed through it. Whee!
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Smelevision
[info]anthraxia
I've spent the last three days away from home. I'm looking after my grandmother so my uncle can have a break. Because J-Bear is spending Xmas with her family, the pets came with me. This has been Fun TM.

Bellamy has never been away from home since I've had him. He's adjusted quite well, exploring the house. Grandma has been tolerant, which is good, only objecting to him when he's played with the curtain cords or got up on chairs. He's had fun checking out new surrounds, although there is a dearth of Good Toys, apparantly. Brian found a marble for him to play with, but as always it gets wedged in small places fairly quickly. However a pen lid has been adopted in place of his favoured cream-carton-plastic-seal-pull. We did have a slight arguement about the rival merits of playing with a chicken neck on the rug (fortunately after Grandma had gone to bed) but he eventually accepted that the lino floor was appropriate for fleshy-vertebrae play and nowhere else.

My only real issue is that he has to stay inside unless I go out with him (he's still not chipped) and he tells me how annoyed he is at having to come back inside for a good ten minutes after. Today that was curtailed, however - Bellamy has discovered front-loading washing machines. Who would have thought that you could spend half an hour being fascinated by washing moving around behind glass?

The dogs have an even more exciting thing to amuse them. They are old hands at being up here, as Denise used to look after them whenever Fidgitboy and I went away for more than a day, so exploring is more re-visiting to check for changes. But they were reminded of a fantastic breakthough in dog amusement - Smelevision! Fascinating! Combining visual action, sound and the all important technology of surround-smell. Like early IMAX, it has certain limitations; there is only one program (although it is apparently enthralling) and it tends to shut down after dark. However, it is pretty damn exciting and well worth spending large chunks of the day enjoying.

To we olefactorily lesser mortals, it's known as a chicken coop.

There is one drawback to the provision of smelevision; normally the chickens are let out during the day. Digby has obviously discovered a source of chicken poop somewhere in the garden. A bath is imminent.

Merry Whatsit!
[info]thelancrewitch
Lovely day today, starting with the rain and cool change moving through around 2am. Of course, the fact that I was awake to enjoy the rain at 2am, and 4am, and 5:30am, and 6:30am, was less lovely, but the Boy Wonder made up for his nocturnal vampirism by being utterly enchanting and adorable all day, so I forgave him. My kids are remarkably civilised about present opening; the two girls woke up early and compared stockings, but like last year they refrained from disturbing us until they heard the Boy Wonder come out at around 7:30. They "assisted" him to empty his stocking and catalogue his loot, before we went out in our PJs to the tree and the kids opened one present each. Totally coincidentally they all happened to be presents which contained clothes, so the vexed question of What To Wear was taken care of.

The emo hamper I have been slaving over for weeks was a rollicking success. Miss "But it's constructive criticism, Mummy" EDoD was heard to squee at least twice, and only said, "That's not emo, Mum" once, which I think suggests that I have been paying quite gratifying attention to her lectures on fashion and should be congratulated for my grasp of the zeitgeist among Young People Today. Or something. We discussed gravely the proposition that some items shaded more towards Goth, but concluded that this still made for an acceptable offering and went off to have showers and a very large cooked breakfast. After which there were more presents. The Boy Wonder was very happy to have a large furry 'mania Devil to call his own, and the BatPup was pleased at her new bike and her own Apprentice Chef hamper, with the rainbow apron which I finally finished sewing last night.

After that, [personal profile] etfb  cleaned the house, and I alternated between sewing the last bits of a gift for my parents, and cooking the last two salads for lunch. [info]nessbrain  and [info]expandakarl and their adorable offspring joined us for lunch, which was lovely and relaxed, and totally overcatered as predicted. After they had to take their tired boy home, I gave into the call of my bed and had a lie down before my parents got here, which meant that I didn't actually make up their present hamper before they got here and I left out a couple of things when I did. D'oh. More presents were exchanged, although it was a very restrained amount of loot for the kids, and just the right amount to have them playing or being read to for the rest of the afternoon, rather than overloading on choices and melting down as has happened on previous Christmases. Mum and Dad took the EDoD with them when they left. We had a few more random friends drop by, then put tired monkeys to bed and sat in the midst of the chaos thinking, "Well, wasn't that a lovely day..."
This entry was originally posted at my DreamWidth blog. Please comment there using OpenID, or here if you prefer.

(no subject)
[info]stellar_muddle
I have to admit to quite liking Christmas carols, but I will qualify that with the older, the better.
e.g.
The Coventry Carol (here as performed by the Cambridge Singers which I found far better than the initial link I tried)

And I am partial to the occasional very well done variation:
Away In A Madhouse
Carol of the Old Ones (with lyrics :))

I'd link to more old carols but it is getting late and Z is threatening to riot...

Instead Merry Christmas (to those who appreciate such things) and a Happy New Year to all.

Chemistry
[info]mr_bassman
In a Birthday Party discussion, we wondered if there was an opposite to sublimation....

The answer is:- yes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposition_%28physics%29

Merry Christmas everyone.

Another 10000 hours example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HBN9cpzook

December 25th
[info]xkcd_rss
If you're turning 27 and were born in the Northeast, maybe you were conceived in the blizzard of 1982. Imagine: snowed in, candles, massage oil, your mom sporting nothing but her early 80's haircut and a smile ... aren't you glad you read the title-text?

Whiskey Handed 'Round in Tumblers
[info]jeff_duntemann

We've just gotten back Midnight Mass...for small values of "Midnight." Very small values. Ok, ok, I know...I'm not a night person. For me and for today, midnight comes at 4:00 PM. I like to be awake when I worship; inflicting my dreams on God would be cruelty to deity: A few nights ago I dreamed of three life-size crowns of thorns, each of which had three little legs, and the whole group was chasing some poor guy up a steep hill. God's been there and done that; no need to put Him through it again.

And on the CD player is Golden Bough doing a very English sort of Christmas Carol that also mentions Midnight Mass: "Christmas Comes But Once a Year." (The link is to the Clancy Brothers cover, but it has the lyrics.) The song describes the sort of feasting I can barely imagine, especially the line describing "Whiskey handed round in tumblers..."

Wow.

Maybe "tumbler" means something different these days, or to us Yanks. When I was a kid a "tumbler" was what I also called a "jelly glass": a tall, fairly narrow glass that we had because we bought jelly in it at Certified, and after we cleaned out the jelly (which was a week or so's worth of PBJ school lunches) we had a glass. These probably held a pint or maybe a little less; perhaps 12 ounces at very least. They were our everyday drinking glasses, and we used them until we got a little jittery and broke them, one by one.

Jelly no longer comes in useful glasses, but there was a time about twenty-five years ago when peanut butter did. I don't remember the brand, but we bought our peanut butter in glass jars that held about 14 fluid ounces, and after we finished the peanut butter, we washed out the jars and kept them for everyday drinking glasses. We went through a lot of peanut butter in those days, and before we decided that enough was enough, we had twelve glasses in the cabinet.

Then either the peanut butter went away, or we did. (That may have been when we moved to Arizona.) And over the years, I have downed an enormous amount of Diet Mountain Dew in those glasses. One by one, I've gotten jittery and dropped them, and there are now only six. (The half-life of a dozen peanut butter jars used as Mountain Dew glasses is evidently twenty-five years.)

Regardless of what was originally in the glass, 12 or 14 ounces seems like an astonishing amount of whiskey to put away at one meal. I have a bottle of Evan Williams Bourbon Whiskey Egg Nog in the fridge, and typically drink about 50 ml in an evening, which is plenty. Given that it's a 15% cordial, my limit (for 86-proof whiskey, at least) is about .15 X 2.3 X 50, or 17 ml. A hard drinker I am evidently not. (And clearly, not English.)

Or maybe "handed 'round in tumblers" means what my friends used to do with a joint back in the 70s: Pass it from person to person, with each person taking a draw and then passing it on. Or maybe people really do drink 14 ounces of whiskey at one sitting. Again, I boggle.

Doesn't matter. We're about to sit down to a feast of smoked turkey slices, cranberry sauce, and a loaf of home-made apple-pecan bread that Jimi Henton gave us for Christmas. I opened a bottle of Whitewater Hill Sweetheart Red, and poured each of us a glass that might be a full 100 ml. We may go a little nuts later on and have some of the Evan Williams, handed around in (one) peanut-butter jar. I may eat my two allotted slices of Jimi's bread and then cut a third. Hey, Christmas comes but once a year!

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(we) wish you a merry christmas ...
[info]unfoldedreality
Carols are over for the year, but in true carol fashion I'm sure they'll be running through my head for months on end ...

Happy Birthday
[info]arthwollipot
Now that it's Christmas, it's time to wish Happy Birthday to [info]vonne!
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Looking forward, not back.
[info]arthwollipot
I've decided that the IT industry isn't right for me. It's not what I love. I've got no interest in learning new things, or playing around with technology. I know enough to keep myself running and I use computers extensively, but I don't want to set up servers, play with network settings, or programme.

Fortunately, there are plans afoot for the new year. First thing is to get off the phones. This is kinda underway. There are a few things I need to do for this to happen.

Second thing is to have another method of producing an income, preferably doing something that I am actually motivated to do. This is also kinda underway.

Yes, I have some big plans for next year. Hopefully some of them will happen.

On the non-money side, I plan to start a Canberra Skeptics In The Pub group. I'm thinking possibly the third Sunday afternoon of each month, with a guest speaker whenever possible. I'm also thinking of King O'Malleys. Is Sunday afternoon a popular time for hordes of people to descend upon King O'Malleys? I'm not a pubgoer, so I don't really know.

I want to get this thing established so that I can have prominent international skeptics visit - like George Hrab, Stephen Novella and the SGU Rogues (including of course, Rebecca) and others to visit our beautiful city after TAM Australia in November next year.

I'm hoping that the podcast will really take off next year, too. Currently, Jason tells me that we're getting 3,000 downloads per episode, which is absolutely fantastic. I've already done an interview with an ex-Scientologist. I'd also love to sit down with someone from the Islamic Councils, and someone from the Catholic Church next year. It's a shame that I'm no longer in contact with the local Wiccans.

So anyway, next year, my 40th, will be a big one for me.

What do I hate most about turning 40? Dating anyone under 27 is officially creepy. What do I love about turning 40? Same thing:

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where i am!
[info]sui_001
awesome i worked out where i am! the image here has the hotel i am staying at PLUS the U shaped space we called the SPACE!

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=22.64472,113.132926&spn=0.004347,0.006351&t=h&z=17

annealing run no. 3
[info]sui_001
hooray.

so i have some pics of super large anneal kiln. china style

this is the 2m x 5m kiln. guy caught in the crn fixing an element. needless to say it's huge. it barely gets to 500c tho.. and takes a while to get there. *shug* again i controlled it by turning on element by element (and off again as needed)



so the same kiln with 50 of our glass pieces in. all ready to fire



i am video(ing) everything i do, so dfar i've taken 9 tapes. which doesn't seem, that much but when i make you sit down and watch it all in one sitting you'd wished it was the 3 lord of the rings movies (and we all know how i feel about those attrocities against mankind). ANYWAY my tibute to survivorman



i sneaked a pic of the head supervisor guys notes. they're pretty cool. i am reasonably sure they hold all the oriental secrets i think they have. please if you can translate them and i'm wrong. don't shatter my illusions.



here's the room we call 'the space'. we have laid everything out and repacked it in this room. it seems to be pretty central to everything, and the keys are in my pocket as i type this. it's pretty cool and i would like something like this back in canberra. you can see the resin panels all laid out (20hrs of arranging!) and ready to go back to the resin guy to glue together. i bet he screws it up. erg. you can also see batches of the hot glass dragon scales laying around. these are the 2nds.



another pic of The Space. back right hand crn is the stinky non flushing squat toilet i have avoided using (except to pee in) it's nasty and frankly my soft western values just plain won't let me void myself there. ewwww. i wait to get back to the hotel.



FINALLY the picture we've all been waiting for. best truck ever. i recon these guys replaced the horse and cart in this counrtry. they seem to be able to go everywhere, have all the clutch, accelerator and brake on the handles. it's so old skool. engine, wheels, go. awesome.
these guys wouldn't let me drive it, but i got a ride ;) hooray!

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Um...no?
[info]thelancrewitch
I was interrogating the Boy Wonder this morning to see how much of the Christmas order of proceedings he has internalised.

Me: So, what are you going to find at the end of your bed tomorrow morning?
The Boy, after some thought: Liver!

I'm not sure exactly whose liver he is expecting. But if I were Santa, perhaps I would be feeling slightly worried at this point.

This entry was originally posted at my DreamWidth blog. Please comment there using OpenID, or here if you prefer.

Tai Is A Secret Girl
[info]questionablerss

D'awww. Say it with me now: D'AWWWWWWW.

That's it for this week! Tune in tomorrow for a SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SURPRISE, and next week will be a weird little stand-alone story featuring the much-asked-about Sweet Tits.

Time to go frantically wrap presents and pack before our drive down to MD tomorrow. Have a safe holiday everybody!


HAPPY HOLIDAYS
[info]ms_kilian

However you spend your Public Holidays, may they be merry and safe.


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