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.

An interesting day.

Today was nice, really. I drove to town, which in itself was a welcome break, and bought a stereo plug cable sort of thing. It's meant to get a stereo (or in my case, a walkman) feeding into a computer. I bought a beginner's Irish Gaelic textbook from Liza at her shop, produced by Usborne Publishing, and I want to record the cassette and burn it to some CDs for mine and my father's use.

My friends Superopie and Sageypie visited today. Sagey is in from Ohio, where everyone's vaguely sure he's moved to (he's included in the vagueness, in an official sense). Another high school friend, a year behind me, as is Superopie. Had some good fun, with the terrible slowdown in old Sonic games, my strange ineffectiveness at the newer versions, the hideous dragon anally raping poor Mega Man, and some Invader ZIM. They both seemed to like my bodhran playing as well. I lent Sagey "Johnny Mnemonic," so perhaps I'll be spreading the Gibson virus some more.

Personally, I finished Stephenson's Quicksilver today. It was just as brilliant at the end as it was in the beginning. And most of the middle, in fact. Though the final scene is terribly creepy, and only barely alleviated by information you have access to by that point. I'll still be taking a break before starting The Confusion, though, even if I know it starts with some excitement.

It does seem Opie is enjoying Joseph Campbell, and that's good.

Also, Opie just revealed to me the secret of opening new tabs in Firefox via the keyboard. Ctrl+T is the order of the day. It seems so obvious now.

I think I'm getting a touch of something, a sort of performance anxiety perhaps, concerning my novel. I have over 183 pages and the last few have been as pulling teeth. I hope it's the normal bit where I have trouble with a section (which is usual) and don't with others. As we approach the end of summer holidays, however, I naturally worry more over the problem. Ick.

Not a lot of note today.

I'm rather jealous of this little promotion: incoming Duke students are getting free iPods. I mean... curse it all. Why don't I get a free piece of three hundred dollar hardware?

This is just hilarious: digital camera tripod or water bottle? You decide. Some Japanese company sells an attachment to turn a (full, if you want it to stand up) bottle of water/soda/whatever into a small tripod for your camera. After seeing that on Boingboing, some guy pieced together a do-it-yourself version.

I read a good deal today, clearing out several sections of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. I started Return today. I'm also making a good deal of headway in Quicksilver. It has a slow little section wherein one of the characters is settling into Versailles and writes lots of letters about money and politics. But eventually she starts doing actual things again, and it talks about Daniel, too. It also referenced the second book in the series, which I found hilarious.

I think I'm getting pretty good at the bodhran. I worked up something that sounds like a military cadence, which is something, considering the nature of the instrument. It has to do with the tone, and getting nice, regular backhands. Also, dropping the tone to simulate the bass drums is fun, even if it doesn't always work (i.e. if I'm very tired I can't move my hand the distance I need quickly enough, so I get halfway instead). Still fun, though.

I also decided to call my illusionist witch fairies "merciless ladies." Without capitals, you might notice. Dubbed so, as Danielle informs the other characters, because of an old poem. Hell, I think it's funny. You can go to hell.

Well, here's something to do.

Liza put me on the mailing list, it would seem as I got two emails from her today. The more interesting of the two is about the Dublin Irish Festival. I visited their website after I got the email, and found out some interesting things. For one, Tempest will be there, playing on Saturday and Sunday. (at 2:30 pm and 11:30 am respectively) If you didn't know I suppose I should tell you - the festival is in August, from the sixth to the eighth. Many of you ought to recognize Tempest, as they're one of my favorite bands, and most of you have probably heard them by way of me.

Those of you that weren't tied up the day before Padhraig's Day this year (and were at EKU) got to hear some of Slainte Mhath. They were performing live. And so they're doing again, at the festival, on Saturday (at 6:30 pm). So I'm going to talk to my parents, as they'd be in charge of the getting there aspect, but I hope to get to the festival that Saturday, so I can hear both bands.

The other email was about the Dayton festival, which has such great bands as Wolftone and Teada, but Tempest and Slainte Mhath are two of my favorites, so it wins out. Though I am looking toward buying Teada's new CD, Give Us a Penny & Let Us Be Gone. Their samples, over at Teada.com sound great.

Gautama preserve us, it's nearly a five hour drive, but we'll see what happens, yes? It's only eight dollars a person to get in. You can't beat that with a tipper.

A glorious number.

50,755, that is. That, in fact, is the number of words in the as-yet still-nameless satire thesis you all probably know about. If someone doesn't, here's a short version: I'm working on a senior thesis for college, as I'm a senior next school year (beginning in August), and I'm writing a novel. So I'm doing it in the summer instead of during school proper. More sensible than waiting, I'd imagine. Now, I've read the average novel these days run to around 60,000 words, so I'm near to finishing by that standard. I'm not going to cut off at that length, of course, but it still shows I've done a decent bit of work this summer. As far as I've been able to tell the plot itself is cohesive (as much as I want it to be), though heaven knows what sort of things my proofreaders will catch. It will serve grandly as a thesis, of course, dazzling all comers with my mastery of the monomyth (and my wall-hulling sense of humor, of course). After the proofreaders have at it with their fiery brands, and I work up the next bit, and then check in with said torch-wielders again (if they're still willing) I'm even going to try and publish the thing.

Incidentally, if anyone out there has an idea for a genus name for a coven of fairy witch creatures that trick people by casting illusions over themselves and using poison food, I'd be grateful for suggestions. I just had the crazed idea to reference Snow White in some way, but I've never read the Grimm version (aside from the Gaiman version the only one that would be useful for such things), and I don't really think there's much there to reference. Unless the queen has a given name of some sort. Actually, that'd be a great idea. Maybe I"ll pick up that copy of Grimm's next time I'm in Richmond.

I wonder what "Snow, Glass, Apples" is in Gaelic...

Well, here's something wonderful: a Dutch university student has scanned an antique printing of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, and made it available online. All the images total to around five megabytes total, so it's no large feat to check it out.

Yesterday was very different, and I couldn't be more glad about that. In the early afternoon my cousin John, along with a woman I'd never met before, knocked on our door. She is also a cousin, named Delmarie (pardon if I'm spelling it wrong). She bought her mother's little plot of land up the road, and she has (along with her husband) rebuilt the little house there, making a nice place to stay for a few weeks (she lives somewhere west of here).

They were here to invite us to a family cook-out, and I was quite excited to go. I knew most of the people there - compared to early childhood reunions that is a grand feat. Not only would we fill anyplace we went at the time, but I was too shy to really recognize anyone. We looked at their house (a brilliant little place), talked a lot, and eventually ate when everyone else arrived. Around ten, it already mostly dark around us, cousin Kevin and Steve (of indeterminate relation, for now) brought guitars, and I retrieved my harmonica. I think everyone there ended up saying they thought I sounded good (their tones said they were surprised). We played for a few hours. I was struck by the beauty of the whole thing when I leaned back in my chair (while Kevin and Glen discussed songs, trying to remember something to play) and saw the stars begin to glow above us. One had to lean back, we were sitting underneath a tree, the four of us, with everyone else arrayed before us.

It was too damp and cool to even try the bodhran, but I showed most everyone how it worked and pulled a few awful tones from its loose, saggy skin. Glen seemed interested (he's the drummer in Kevin's fantastic band), but it wouldn't do much good at all to tell him about Failte Imports, as he's from Ohio.

Kevin was here this afternoon when I woke up, and among other things it appears cousin Tony works at a hospital in Kettering. I wonder if this is the same Tony who headed up Bramble (a now-disbanded band) that was so good. Hm.