From the irrepressible "Digger" (a story of gods, magic and a female wombat of rock-solid common sense):



This is an excellent webcomic; clever, thoughtful, touching (though you know how much I hate that word), visually stunning, and overall hysterically, cracktastically funny.

And if you click on the Table of Contents link, you can now read it from the beginning - an excellent way to spend a couple of hours!

It's always reassuring interesting to know that there's others who outgeek surpass your interest in fandom - such as the couple who had a Lord of the Rings wedding, complete with cake in the form of the White City, Minas Tirith.

A truly amazing creation!

Ah, the joys of public transport in London...

It never fails to amaze/appal/amuse me that bidders will ratchet up the price for a book on eBay to new levels of stupidity, without checking to see if it's available cheaper elsewhere. Much cheaper.

Check Amazon Used Books!

Or Bookfinder.

Dumbass.

I laughed so hard I saw spots.

If you haven't already, go read this fic by sam_storyteller:

Trying to Communicate (PG)

Like most of the Western world I'm following the American Presidential Candidate race with great interest. I'm not going express my opinion on the candidates, but I feel I have to share this gem from the irrepressible and very opinionated Mike Moore's latest email:


"This sleazy attempt to smear Obama [by Hilary Clinton over Farrakhan/Omama's pastor's 'Hamas contacts'] was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing:
OBAMA LOVES HITLER!"

I swear sometimes today's fashions make me think I'm having a Bad Acid Flashback* to the '80s.

A really bad Bad Acid Flashback. And I can tell you most of it was pretty awful the first time around - I was there! I wore it! (except for the Wham! T-shirts)


* Er, if I'd ever actually done acid that was.

After a long, long hiatus, another piece of Weiss Kreuz fic.

This was written for dhaunea for the Weiss Day Fic Exchange. My prompt was "Schuldig, Farfarello, teammates", and whilst they're obviously good mates by the time of Kapitel, it occurred to me it would be interesting to explore the origins of their friendship, as I couldn't honestly see them hitting it off right off the bat (YMMV of course!). Anyway, hope you enjoy...

Title: Schöne Freundschaft (Beautiful Friendship)
Author: Tosca toscas_kiss
Rating: PG-13
Series: A couple of years after Was Sie Benötigen in the Schnapschüsse series.
Prompt: Schuldig, Farfarello. Team mates.
Notes: Pre-Kapitel. *Mental speech in-between asterisks.* German translations can be found at the end.
Thank you's: to daegaer and ladyganesh, who very kindly betaed this for me. :-)


( Schöne Freundschaft )

The nitpickers at the IAU may have downscaled Pluto from a planet to a minor 'dwarf planet', but Google Sky still lists it with the Sun, Moon and rest of the major planets of the Solar System. Hah! So who do we believe?

As you may have noticed, I am currently tidying up my people-I-read and wow-did-I-really-join-that-comm? list.

I always think it should be "Reading List" rather than "Friends List" as there's something subtly hostile about taking someone off the latter, which is not really an accurate assessment. Removal is merely a matter of trying to curb my reading down to something manageable (especially as I can now only read 'Friends'-locked posts at home) and not through any dislike of a person/journal/comm, so please don't take it as such.

If I've de-friended you and you are actually still living & breathing & interested in reading my not-particularly-frequent missives, please drop me a line and I'll re-friend you.

Please note all fiction will still be Public access.

.

So after a hiatus of 14 months I am finally writing again.

Here is my first effort, a piece of James Bond fic set pre-"Casino Royale". This was very kindly beta-ed by daegaer and snowballjane - thanks guys!

This is the first in my set of 'General Cliché' fanfics for 10_cliche_fics, where I claimed James Bond/Villiers, M's Chief of Staff/Aide (table here). We never actually learn Villiers's first name and sadly he won't be in any more Bond films (if you think the actor looks familiar, Tobias Menzies also played Brutus in "Rome"), but there will obviously be more Bond/Villiers goodness from me however, so I guess I'll eventually have to decide on one for him.

Anyway, on with the fic...


Title: Sexbomb
Author: Tosca (toscas_kiss)
Rating: PG
Prompt: What goes around comes around
Disclaimer: Somewhere in the multiverse they belong to me, just not in this particular dimension. Here, they belong to Danjaq LLC, United Artists Corporation & Eon Productions.


( Sexbomb )

.

After talking with daegaer about our respective writer's block (by which I mean she wrote quite a bit of fun stuff in 2007 and I wrote zippedy-doodar, fun or otherwise), I have decided to make an effort to write this year. I already have a claim on fanfic100 for Brad Crawford/Schuldig of Weiß Kreuz which has been going very, very poorly. I'm going to try and wade through some more of it and have enrolled in weissday, so that's a start.

I'm also making a claim in the much smaller 10_cliche_fics and trying out a new fandom - James Bond. And what's more, James Bond with Villiers, M's Chief of Staff (the same actor also played Brutus in Rome). Yes, as rare as blue steak, but it should be fun I think (and hopefully someone will actually want to read it). I'm going for the Table 3: Generic Clichés option:

The darkest hour is just before the dawn	What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger	No time like the present
.	.	.
Every rose has its thorn	Better late than never	What goes around comes around
.	.	.
All's fair in love and war	All's well that ends well	Never judge a book by its cover
.	.	.
	Time heals all wounds

.

Midnight has just rolled around here in New York, and it's a lovely clear Christmas morning. Wishing you all a happy holiday and all the best for 2008!

Well, that's what BoingBoing are claiming any way...



NASAWatch has more... link

My home wireless router has died on me! Grrr. I spent over an hour on the phone at the weekend to British Telecom Tech Support before we finally narrowed it down to machine failure. This after the usual restarting the PC, turning the router off and on, restarting the PC, resetting the router, restarting the PC, changing the filter, restarting the PC, ad nauseum.

It probably wouldn't have taken so long but the second time I rang I got a technician with a very thick Indian accent. I had to keep asking the poor guy to repeat himself, as I'm crap with understanding people with accents. Not that I don't have one myself, but an Antipodean accent is fairly innocuous (unless you happen to be Portuguese, who for some reason have huge difficulties with it I've found). Personally, economic reasons aside, I much prefer the Scottish call centres. That's a truly lovely accent to my ears.

Anyway, thank goodness I kept my old non-wireless router! So until I have the time to upgrade (which won't be for a week or so) my living room is once again live with the snakes of cables... :-P

Haha Rodney, I know what John's ordering on the next Daedelus run...




The Back To The Future Flux Capacitor Replica

From the Things From Another World website (found through Shiny Shiny):
"A Diamond Select Release! Get your own time machine up and running with this high-tech replica from the 1985 classic Back to the Future! Reproduced with full light effects and adjustable power settings, the Flux Capacitor replica recreates the 1.21 jigowatt-controlling heart of the De Lorean time machine. Measuring over sixteen inches tall and twelve inches wide, each replica features hand-numbering with a matching box, Certificate of Authenticity and Care Instructions!"

As you don't have your own local insane eccentric genius, it will cost you the sum of $220 (£110).

To make a dogawful pun, this made me piss myself laughing:

One of the more apt pieces of political memorabilia currently available:



Yours from Amazon for a knock-down price of $20 (not that one would ever infer Hillary comes cheap).

All my deepest fantasies finally merge together - after work I can now mow down all those obnoxious %*&£% commuters at Paddington Station with... a Hello Kitty Assault Rifle!





"The perfect gift for the young lady of the house. Please note the note the hand-crocheted shoulder-stock muffler and the anodized titanium plating.

This fully functional firearm fires standard 7.62mm 125 or 150 grain ammunition with a muzzle velocity of approximately 710 meters per second and a maximum effective range of approximately 300 meters. Several choices in stock wood are available.

With a limited run of only 500, buy now before they're gone! A mere $100 extra includes Glambo's signature wood-burnt into the opposite side of the handguard."

A bargain at only $1072.95 from Glamguns.com


NB: Yes, I am joking. And yes, the gun really is real.

Nothing kills the doldrums faster than watching a hard rock/metal band caper 'round a stage to a cheezy Bavarian drinking song. For all Rammstein fans (and really, anyone needing amusement) out there, this fanvid makes me scream with laughter every time I watch it: