Somewhat brainless with added shoggoth

“Words and words and words!” The shorter of the two exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation. “Do we really need words, Wilhelm?”
“We need some of them.”

- an excerpt from something I shan’t write



I’ve been reading articles today, mainly objective ones online about neural networks and such, and haven’t really done much else with my time. I don’t think I quite have the something or other to be terribly coherent in written text today at all, which will be rather unfortunate since tomorrow the world engages in annual celebrations of the birth of a lanithro. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a demon of the air which means that its powers extend over literature of course, inevitably meaning that I should be writing something around about now. Unfortunately, right now all I seem capable of is run-on sentences which aren’t much use at all.


Oh, but have a fairytale about a shoggoth instead. And I expect that unless my creativity should suddenly burst in upon me while I am unsuitably attired, I shall proclaim this a fairytale to celebrate the birth of a particular demon of the air for tomorrow.



( A fairytale about a shoggoth )

Adventures in shopping

A handful of things in fact, one of which probably has nothing to do with shopping really.


“I need a present for a 5 year old.” announced father as we ambled round looking at Greek sweets and Ferrero Rocher. “What would a 5 year old like?”
“I wouldn’t know, never having been 5 years old myself.” I replied offhandedly, which seemed somehow to satisfy him as an answer.

Then coming back inside after the aforementioned shopping trip, clutching a bottle of claret to my chest in the moderately cold air, it occurred to me that I had become some sort of parody. Of what, I’ve yet to decide.

And finally, with father having proposed to microwave some unshelled prawns, my query as to the wisdom of that action was “Won’t the eyes explode?” which struck me as a tad morbid after I’d said it.


At least I managed to resist the urge to buy a case of Martini Asti for myself Christmas day. I need something light for several friends who aren’t meant to be drinking due to assorted allergies, though I suppose there’s always ready-mixed pina colada or maybe a sneaky combination of gin and lime cordial instead.

Meditative ramble

I think I’m having one of those days, couple of days, where I sit in my head and placidly watch the world go by. I have LJ comments to reply to, posts to read, e-mail to answer, phonecalls to make, dishes to put away, laundry to fold, things to cook and all manner of other things I should be doing but instead I’m happily sitting and watching everything pass me by.

I’ve been reading mostly but nothing that I’d promised myself that I’d get around to reading. Everything has been wonderfully quiet, half the time I’m not even listening to music. Even the details of cooking or shuffling things round instead of tidying them up have been relatively simple.
It’s not a problem. I haven’t lost my urge to write or make noise or be damnably sparkly whenever the occasion might require it but I’m feeling wonderfully at peace with... I’ve had alcohol in my system for six days straight now, haven’t I? Not that that invalidates my point any.


"What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly."

- Lao Tzu


I don’t always have to quote “The Art of War” after all. What was my point anyway? I need to read Confucius’ analects again but not now.

Now I need to be still and placid and take a moment to happily be me. It’s something everyone should do once in a while really. Take a moment to be still and silent and be comfortable with who they are. Forgetting about ambitions or desires or failures or successes simply for a few moments if that’s all they can spare. Just enough to feel fulfilled in yourself, to balance your spirit if you like, to reset that quantum meter. Just a handful of seconds or minutes or hours that it takes to recalibrate self, to make sure that body and mind are in synchrony and that each breath you take is another step towards wherever it is that you would like to be.

As Lao Tzu said, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.

Revolutionary Girl Utena – episode 35

I had a particularly stupid moment a little while ago, for a rather extended period of time. I was complaining that I couldn’t watch a certain episode of Utena that was up for debate because the fuckwit who will earn himself a good kicking on Christmas day had my Utena DVDs still. He does and he will get a good kicking but I do have the official Apocalypse Arc DVDs still.
So having recovered from my weeks of ineptitude, I sat down to watch this critical episode.

( And on to the spoilers )