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What have we done…?

prime

After years and years of talking about it, we finally signed up to Amazon Prime while the cheap promotion is on this weekend.

We’ve come close before, but too much of the stuff we order isn’t actually offered by Amazon (and therefore no free overnight shipping), the Amazon TV isn’t all that compelling, and you still pay through the nose for movies. And the other stuff…well, it remains to be seen how useful it will be.

It was the unlimited photo storage what got us in the end. Uncle B is the kind of guy who backs up his photos, and then does a portable hard drive backup of his backups, then backs up the drive to another drive. Like that. The cloud will never replace any of that, of course, it is merely another layer of neurosis.

So — to those who have gone before us — what have we done? Do you find it useful? Any tips? Tell us all about it, now it’s too late…

June 30, 2017 — 9:31 pm
Comments: 29

Boules, cried the queen!

boules

Stayed out until dark playing boules with the neighbors tonight. That’s a game where you drink wine and throw heavy balls at light balls. I’m good at at least one of those activities.

Both, come to think of it. I was cap’n of the winning team both games.

Yay me!

June 29, 2017 — 9:31 pm
Comments: 12

She’s famous!

buttplug

Look at this girl’s face. LOOK AT IT! She’s so gosh-darned pleased to get her mug in the paper holding the butt-plug she had surgically removed from her plugged butt after a bout of rough anonymous sex. She’s speaking out “to urge others not to let embarrassment get in the way of seeking medical help.”

I think maybe this chick could use just a leeeeetle more embarrassment in her temperament, don’t you?

I mean, I’ve been in some embarrassing spots — maybe not sex-toy-jammed-up-the-butt embarrassing, but nevertheless, things I’m not proud of. I hoped everyone involved would forget everything as soon as poss.

I’ve seen this item as far afield as the NY Post today. Local Sussex girl. Nobody I know. Well, I kind of feel like I know her now.

Can’t help thinking we’ve taken this celebrity thing a tad too far.

June 28, 2017 — 9:19 pm
Comments: 20

Him again

sparklepaint

Remember that Stewart Semple guy? The one with the blackest black paint and sparkliest glitter? Well, he’s back with rainbow color-changing paint. I guess you put the color-change stuff on top of a base layer and it alters the base by temperature.

It looks pretty cool. Here’s video of him painting a rainbow unicorn (because I guess it was super hard to get a drag queen to stay still).

And, yes, I did buy a bottle of Black 2.0 and a jar of Sparkliest Glitter. The black was very black and the glitter was very sparkly. What can I say? I couldn’t think of anything fun to do with it.

June 27, 2017 — 7:52 pm
Comments: 8

Genius loci

spirit

What’s the difference between a crow and a baby rook? NOBODY KNOWS!

Erm, at least, it’s very hard to tell by looking. Baby rooks have yet to develop that crusty white flesh where the beak meets the head, the signal characteristic of the adult rook.

Pretty sure this one’s a baby rook, though. A) he had some remnants of babyfeathers sticking out of his back, B) this area is known to be alive with rooks. Not so much crows. And C) he was acting like a knucklehead chattering to Uncle B for a solid half-hour. Got some cracking good pictures, though some of the best had stupid bits of grass waving in front of strategic bits.

June 26, 2017 — 10:12 pm
Comments: 8

I gotta do my homework!

americangut

It’s the sixth and final week of my online microbiology course – finals due Sunday – and I ain’t done nuffink. It would be just like me to fail at the last hurdle, so I best get a move on.

This last material should be pretty easy, though — it’s all about the American Gut Project, a combination of crowd-funding and citizen science. Basically, you give them money, you give them a (ahem) sample, you get a detailed report of their findings, your data gets added to the giant rolling pool of gut data.

Four years, over 10K guts analyzed, $1.5M raised.

I suppose the cynical take is that you get played for a mug coming and going, but I love this idea and projects like it, I do. It’s like the people who told me “ZOMG 23-and-me is selling your genetic data to big pharma!” and I’m like “Whoa! That. Is. AWESOME!

Anyway, their website is above. Their Fundrazr is here. Yes, there’s a British version. No, I haven’t signed up yet. No, you don’t have to touch the poop (you get a perfectly good swab sample from toilet paper). Yes, you can have your cat’s gut analyzed (good luck getting him to use toilet paper).

The idea is probably a lot more exciting after six weeks of studying gut microbes, but I’m pretty jazzed. I’m saving my pennies.

Good weekend, y’all!

addendum: I’m adding this to the main post so you don’t miss it. First, if you haven’t played with today’s Google Doodle, do. (hee hee! Googledoodledo!). I never heard of Oskar Fischinger before, but that music thingie is fun to play with. No direct link, alas, so it probably will be gone after today. ALSO, starting Monday at 11 PT, they’re doing the longest ever MST3K marathon on Twitch. Yes, classic episodes. Thirty eight of ’em. (Has anyone seen the new one? Is it as rubbish as it looks?).

June 23, 2017 — 7:11 pm
Comments: 32

All present and accounted for

tinykittens

So for everyone who’s been watching Corsica’s litter grow up, they done growed up and have been promised to new homes. For those of you on FaceBook, the update is here. For the sensible people who eschew social media (eschew, I say!), the score is:

Corsica & Faberge (that’s the tortie mama and the big black kitten – honestly, he was half again bigger than the others) go together to one home. Hatch & Florentine go together to another. Hatch is the ginger who had to wear a sock for a sweater because he had a wound he kept picking at, and Flo is one of the tabbies. I think the only girl in the bunch. Scrammy & MooShu are adopted together, too. That’s another ginger + tabby, though which is which I can never remember.

My experience is, cats are happier when they live with a sibling, but a lot less human oriented. I’m selfish enough to miss that last bit.

If you follow that FB link, they all have pages you can follow. Kitties pack their bags tomorrow (they’ve teased some kind of special performance) and move out on Saturday. Watch here.

June 22, 2017 — 10:14 pm
Comments: 9

Happy Solstice!

Sorry guise! Got jammed up sitting in the garden watching the stars and drinking Aussi wine. Talk tomorrow. Love you. *mwah*

June 21, 2017 — 11:39 pm
Comments: 19

hypnotic

wood

Brett Foxwell is a professional stop-motion animator and, if I can be the judge, a loonie. He’s done this fantastic frame-by-frame animation of him…sanding wood, I guess is what. The result looks like breathing creatures or microscopy or aerial photography of a seasonal river delta. Watch it. Wear headphones. It’s something else.

This was not a simple idea. He would have to take a precise amount off each time to make such a smooth animation. Even harder than that, though, he’d have to move either the camera or the wood closer by exactly the amount he’d shaved off, or likewise the animation wouldn’t be smooth. Hence loonie.

If synchronized sanding ain’t your thing, we’ve been enjoying watching this litter of Canadian kittens grow up in real time. They’re all ready to be adopted out, so don’t get attached, but I’m quite sure they’ll follow another litter after this. It’s what they do.

June 20, 2017 — 10:30 pm
Comments: 11

That’s illegal, surely

weaselbaiting

Weasel baiting. Okay, it’s only part of a weasel, but still.

Terrier races from a local village fete this Saturday. Third from the left — the long-leggedy one — won three out of three while we watched. I think they ought to have instituted a size class.

This fete is currently our favorite. Good beer, superior ice cream from a local dairy, some interesting stalls.

Uncle B bought me a coat that I may or may not have the courage to show you (or, for that matter, wear in public). I wouldn’t think of modeling it today, though — it’s what passes for super hot here (mid-80s, at a guess).

If they call it a fun dog show, why was everybody so serious about it?

June 19, 2017 — 7:50 pm
Comments: 33