First, some link-clearing:

The New York Times has a fuller article about Dr. Hawking's admission of defeat.

And I just had to mention this stuff: someone's making clothes that clean themselves. This is what nanotechnology has come to?

I have to let this article speak for itself. "PORT ORANGE, Fla. - A man hit his girlfriend with a 3-foot alligator and threw beer bottles at her during an argument in the couple’s mobile home, authorities said."

Yesterday was great fun. Superopie and Sageypie visited again, and we played some Dungeons and Dragons. Which was glorious. The bard barreled into a burning stable to save the horses, nearly getting cut up by the sharp, sharp hooves... The rogue peed himself when the ogre showed up, and failed to understand the situation. He also set the bard on fire.

We spent nearly as much time talking as playing, which I, as some might know, consider an integral part of the experience, possibly more important. And it turns out Opie has, at some point, set his hair on fire.

We also ventured into my basement, wherein Opie and I huddled together like children on a firing range while Sagey swatted at spiders. We pawed through a lot of my old toys, laughing at the Street Fighter figures and waving around the native foodstuffs from the Primal Rage toys. We were down there to drag up a table for to play on. Next time, if the table's back downstairs (as my mom wishes it) we'll be using my card table.

I forced tea on the two of them, and despite Opie's assertions he usually doesn't like tea, he enjoyed both. I served Barry's, imported right from Ireland. It's rather famous there, it would seem, and punches like an Irishman, so I guess it's appropriate. Later, while they finished their characters, we had Earl Grey. I find myself needing a tea service more than before. Coffee mugs are too large, and my teapot doesn't hold enough for their disproportionate volume.

Today, in contrast, was much less interesting. I slothed about, mostly. I did write a bit over 2,000 words of my thesis, so that's something. I'm (as I just told Opie) a scant sentence away from spilling onto the two hundredth page.

I got myself ready for a walk at about eight, as well. I ramped up to the idea (having been lazing about most of the day), procured batteries for my discman, and inserted the Two Towers soundtrack. I stepped to the door... and was confronted with a wall of rain.

Never mind then.

I finished Burning Chrome, which is a collection of short stories by William Gibson. I urge everyone to read Gibson, if they haven't already. In fact, I foisted my copy of the screenplay and story of "Johnny Mnemonic" on Sagey Wednesday, and he said yesterday he liked it a lot.

I started Pratchett's Equal Rites today. I'm very close to the beginning, still, but the concept is quite funny: wizards are always male. Always. But the eighth son of an eighth son is, in fact, a daughter. And it just so happens a dying wizard imparts his powers and staff to her just as she's born, without knowing the gender. And that's as far as I've gotten.

~~

I thought I'd share my learning with anyone who cared to partake. So, "dia duit." This is a greeting, videlicet "hello." It is pronounced "ghee-uh gh-whit," roughly. It is difficult, on the cassette I have, to really discern the "G" sound over the aspiration, but it's there.

~~

That's really all I have, at the moment. It sounds as if we're going to the festival on the sixth, that's something. It's unclear if Opie will be going, though I'm trying to convince him, and he sounds interested. We'll see how that all goes.