A Dingo's got my Barbie!!!

A rare Meme

Well how about that! The good people at TypePad have spruced up the composition function. Looks like I pick a font, and even choose the paragraph alignment that I like (about time guys!). Oh, and they finally got the spell check working right!

Anyway, this is not about TP, it's about me (isn't it always?). My good friend Mary has tagged me for a meme. Now it should be noted that there are two types of people who do memes, a) those who are new to blogging and get a big thrill out of being tagged, and b) those who have been blogging for a while and have simply ran out of steam. Don't get me wrong, this is in no way a criticism, it's more of an explanation of why I'm doing this despite publicly (and privately stating on numerous occasions that I don't do memes. You see the thing is, while formerly I was the former and lately I've become the latter, for a long time I was the bit in between, you know, the period where you actually have something to write about.

So here I am, at a time in my blogging life when I've all but run out of both things to say, and the motivation to say them, and what better way to produce a post is there than to do a meme, so here it is. Oh, I've modified it just a fraction to be a bit more consistent with the theme of the meme of the meme of themem....

One: Story from ten years ago?
Well, this is a little hard for me, ten years ago was not the best of times, it was when I was given a lesson in mortality. Briefly it went like this...January my father died, April my mother died, July I spent four days in intensive care following a stress induced stroke that resulted in infarcted kidneys. August I decided that working in corporate world was no longer of any interest to me.

Two: Items on today's to-do list.
1) Wake up,
2) Scratch balls.

Three: Things I'd do if I were a Billionaire.
1) Buy all the companies that use off-shore call centres and sack the board of directors, CEOs and upper management.
2) Buy petrol, hell I think I'd even fill the tank.
3) Take a million from what's left and give the rest away.

Four: Bad habits.
1) I know you'll find this hard to believe, but I can be a little abrupt sometimes.
2) Letting the dogs have the run of the house.
3) Being irresponsible with money.
4) Blogging.

Five: Places I have lived.
1) Sydney, Aust.
2) Christchurch, NZ.
3) New Eltham, UK.
4) Omemee, Can.
5) San Jose, USA.

Six: Jobs I've had.
1) Electrician. (mining)
2) Carpenter. (housing construction)
3) Analyst Programmer. (banking)
4) Project Manager. (various IT projects)
5) Network Manager. (large utility)

Well that it's it for me, thanks Mary. I don't tag, but if you've run out of ideas for a post, then doing this meme may help.

Message in a bottle

This meme has been around for ages, and it seems to have resurfaced recently. Now, while I don't do memes (actually I don't seem to be doing much of any kind of blogging lately), this one looked pretty easy, all you had to do was send out some sort of message.

Here's mine...

Damn you Melissa!

Miss Snark herself, (you know, the one who's always waking up astonished) has tagged me for a meme. Oh boy! As you all know, memes are near and dear to my heart (that's sarcasm for those unable to recognise it without tonal inflections), so it is with great pleasure that I meekly comply with her directive (that was too).

I'm supposed to devise 5-10 courses that I could take to make my life meaningful in some way, one of them has to be one of Melissa's courses, I'm also supposed to tag five other unsuspecting bloggers. Ok, let's got through the requirements in order:

1. Devise a bunch of course that I should take. Nah. As I already know everything I want to know, and don't have to deal with other humans anyway, I'm going to design courses that I will be giving rather than taking.

2. Include one of Melissa's...Nah. "Why not?" Let's examine them shall we? a)Single Parenting for Married People...Sorry, no kids. b)Strategies for dealing with nosy Neighbours...Sorry, got none. c) Closet Stuffing for Dummies..Sorry I'm not a dummy, and my closets are fine. d)Overdoing it 101...You're kidding right?

3. Tag five unsuspecting bloggers...Fuck off, I don't tag.

So, now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, let's get down to the business. The courses I will be conducting are:

• To Meme or not to Meme: What is it with all this meming crapola that's flooding the interweb? Are you feeling overwhelmed by it all? Do you find it difficult to know which memes are good and which are crap? (trick question, they're all crap). Well this course is for you. Learn how to compose a post of mind-numbing dullness by simply answering a series of questions, or following some other set of instructions, that some other knucklehead hasn't even come up with, but who has also answered them and has asked a bunch of other people (including you) to do the same. As an added bonus, you'll also learn how to write really long sentences that lose the plot halfway through. At the end of this course you will proficient in creating not only time wasting chain posts, but also in devising a set of rules so annoying that your traffic count will be increased tenfold by all those who want to come and abuse you. You'll also learn how not to follow instructions.

• Surviving Greymania: Every thought that you were the only sane person left on the planet? Ever been to a dinner party where it seems that everyone except you has had their brains sucked out and replaced with lime jello? Well it turns out that you may not be alone after all. For all those of you who are sick of not being able to contribute to a meaningful conversation about why the short gay (in real life) doctor broke up with the fat ugly (in real life) doctor, then this is the course for you! After only one lesson you will be able to tell the difference between McDreamy and McSteamy (one has a pathetic attempt at a beard), you'll also understand that's completely normal for two well educated doctors to boink each other the very first time they meet. In addition, you'll also learn that it's common practice for an entire medical staff to contract STD's from boinking each other. This course will give you a true appreciation of why the quality of this TV show will actually be improved by the writer's strike.

• Making the most of bodily functions: Fifty percent of the population, seems either unable or unwilling to really enjoy some of life's greatest gifts. And the rest are guys. It's such a shame that women don't embrace their inner self as it's trying to escape. There's nothing like the vibration of a pair of butt cheeks as the sphincter plays a Kenny G tune using nothing but methane and muscle control. Unless of course you count the chest rattling magnificence of a Coke assisted alphabet. These things and more will be revealed to you, like how to effectively blame the dog and when to stop pushing so that you don't end up with lumps in your undies.

• Recognising really bad ideas: Ever decided to do something only to discover that you made a huge muthafucking mistake? Then you need this course. As our case study, we will be examining NaBloPoMo. Actually, you don't even need to sign up for this one as I'll be conducting it on the Dingo in the next day or so.

~Update~ Tiggerlane has kindly volunteered to conduct the Greymania Course, and as I have only ever wanted what's best for my cherished readers, I have accepted her kind offer. Please enrol at the Neophyte Blogger. 

OneMoBloMePoToGo post #29

Supporting a friend

My good friend Robin tore me a new one mentioned that I have been conspicuous by my absence from her poetry potpourri. My feeble attempt at deflecting her attack explaining that I don't do poetry didn't seem to help, she just told me that this month was limericks. And face it, who can't do limericks for chrissake!

You know it's funny, but I just can't seem to write a post that involves Robin without using copious strikethroughs!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So in support of my friend,
here's my Thanksgiving limerick.

This thing that you all call Thanksgiving
depends a lot on where you are living.
Seems we're just out of luck.
There's no turkey or duck.
Australia had a different beginning.

Here's the social conscience version.

The best way to show your success
is to eat mounds of food to excess.
But I think it's really quite rude,
when people without any food
whine 'cause they have so much less.

A bonus one....

This sure is the right way to go
when the posts are coming too slow.
This is such a cool way
to write a post just for today
and satisfy NaBloPoMo.

MyPoemDoBlo post #21

If I were a rich man.

(See Jen, I can do lyrics too.)

It seems like ages since I've been tagged (not quite as long a since I last had sex, but it's close), I think it has something to do with me not doing them when I do get tagged. However this meme is from Karmyn, and I'd hate to disappoint her, although I can't help but think I'm about to.

As near as I can figure, it's what I'd do if I had a shit load of money. I think the other reason I don't get tagged much is that I never read what the meme is, actually I got tagged again yesterday, and I did read that one, but I've still got no idea what it's about, but that's for another day.

Anyway on to the meme. This is actually pretty hard for me because I honestly never think about what I'd do if I won the lottery as I never buy tickets, nor do I bet on horses or anything else for than matter. When I was a kid I used to dream about being well off, but the truth is I actually am fairly well off, and all the things I dreamt about when I was young, I either accomplished or owned at one time or another.

That said, here's what I'd do if I had an obscene amount of money.

1. End World Hunger.
Sort of, I think it would cost too much to actually end world hunger (or at least more than I'd pay)  so I would just pay lobbyists to have the laws changed so that TV commercials showing poor starving people were banned. Then I'd take the top level executives from the World Bank and the IMF to court on charges of usury. I would then seize their assets and use them to retire the debts owed by third world countries (do you realise that interest on loans from these sharks often exceeds the country's GDP?)

2. Create Global Harmony.
This one is really quite easy. I'd just buy all the Macs in existence and put them in one of those car crushing thingys. That way no one would argue about which system is the best any more. Why would I destroy the Macs rather than the PCs? Easy, Mac owners are so fucking smug, I'd get the added bonus of knowing I pissed them off.

3. Improve International Culture.
First I'd buy the ABC and fire the numbskull who gave Grey's Anatomy the green light. Then I'd sell it and buy Fox and then eighty six the fucktard who cancelled Arrested Development. Then I'd sell Fox and buy Sanyo, LG, Sony, Apple and any other company that makes stereo equipment like radios and CDs and MP3s etc and redesign all the audio equipment so that it was incapable of receiving Rap.

4. Eliminate unwanted annoyances.
To achieve this, I'd simply employ an army of contract assassins to kill anyone who answers a cell phone in a restaurant.

5. A few small things for me.
I'd build moderate dwellings (no more than 30 rooms, excluding the movie theatres, games rooms and indoor swimming pools) in Santorini, Monterey and Cape Tribulation so that I could spend half the year in Europe, half the year in North America and half the year in Oz. I'd have really neat cars and boats and jet planes at each house, and I'd pay movies stars to come and get drunk with me.

6. Improve myself.
With heaps of moolah, my thirst for knowledge could finally be quenched. I'd buy a real good book that explains how the fuck fractions work (see #5 for the reason this is necessary), hell I'd get me one of them books on grammer two, then I'd not only be a good talker but a good writer as well.

7. Change my Image.
Any money that was leftover after I accomplished numbers 1-6 would be spent on a massive advertising camapaign encompassing TV, Radio and the print media with the sole purpose of educating the world to the fact that old guys (especially bald, fat ones) are really very attractive.

So there you have it, mostly altruistic goals I know, but that's just the kind of guy I yam.

See, I told you.

A short while ago I mentioned that I mixed comfortably with all the different (not to mention diverse) groups in high school. Well, this is how I was able to manage that impressive feat...

As you can see I have a fairly even spread (except for the dork quotient which is pretty low), this meant I was cool enough to hang out with the 'in crowd' (including the jocks, as I played representative sports) but also smart enough to keep up with the brainiacs. It also means that I put absolutely no credence in some half-assed, time wasting game that someone with even more time on their hands than me, came up with!

Now for an update on APUKE, which is being held in Sydney at the moment. What better way for the leaders of our democratic country to showcase the benefits of democracy and capitalism (and show those pesky terrorists that they'll never achieve anything), is there than to close down half of the biggest city in Australia, put up barricades everywhere and order its citizens off the streets!

Despite the plans being agreed to, and finalised two years ago, and despite everyone being told two years ago exactly what would be closed down and when, and despite nothing changing in the mean time, the leader of the world's only remaining superpower decided a week ago to come two days early, throwing all the security plans into disarray and forcing people to take an extra two days off because they couldn't get to their places of employment.

We're told that we all have to put up with having our city closed, and a state of marshal law declared, because even though the world's largest and most profitable companies manage to do this type of thing through teleconferencing, email and various other electronic means, this is just not possible for our political  leaders. Their time is so valuable that they simply can't risk any sort of down time due to technical problems. Sort of makes you wonder how Dubya had enough spare time to go bike riding for 4 hours yesterday afternoon. This, yet again, was an unscheduled side-trip that no-one knew about before hand, throwing our police into panic mode. No wonder that fucking moron has made such a mess of things!

Speaking of Dubya and his efforts to show the world just how smart his people are, his motorcade whisked him to his first meeting just before lunch, and I kid you not, the venue was 100 yards from his hotel which made it exactly 26 yards shorter than his 20 car motorcade, honest! (it was one of the funniest things I saw on TV all day!).  I tell you, he's nothing if not thorough in his efforts to change the opinion of the last 15% of Australia that doesn't already think he's a fucking dipstick.

Did I mention that the Secret Service has permission to shoot to kill on our soil? Or that any roads that the President's motorcade intends to use are closed to the public (who normally use them to do things like....hmmm, live their lives).

Fortunately we all smart enough here to realise that it's the present administration that's the problem, not the nation. So our affection for the American people in general remains strong and will continue to be so for as long as I can foresee, or until you guys decide to impose freedom on us too ;) And I stress that it's not Dubya who is responsible for these bizarre security measures, it's our very own mini Dubya, John Howard. 

The moaning me....me

I don't normally do memememes but in this case I'll make an exception, a) because it gives me yet another chance to gripe about my lot in life, b) I don't know Beckie well enough to know what her reaction would be if I didn't do it (I simply don't have the energy to take out more restraining orders, plus I've already reached my limit), and c) hey! you saw yesterday's post, I've got nothing!

Four things that should go into room 101 and be removed from the face of the earth.

1. Anyone who has ever appeared on Big Brother.
2. People who take up more than one parking space.
3. Grey's Anatomy.
4. Foreigners.

Three things people do that make you want to shake them violently.

1. Putting 'Baby on Board' signs on their car windows (do you really think it makes a difference you fucking morons!)
2. Old people doing their banking at lunchtime. (Fuck off, you've got all fucking day, we've only got half an hour!) OK, so I've got all day too, but it still pisses me off.
3. Sounding foreign.

Two things you find yourself moaning about.

1. Sex. Oh wait, you said about, not during...OK, then make that getting old.
2. All the crap that's on TV these days.

One thing the above answers tell you about yourself.

1. That I'm an ageist, old xenophobe with a hatred of bad programming and people with children who can't park properly. (you can read the ambiguity any way you like, it's valid either way)

Bonus Gripe....
Another thing that pisses me off is when people create a meme, and as part of the meme make all these commandments that you have to obey, they normally include things like "Thou shall link back to me so my Technocrati ranking improves", and "Thou shall post these commandments as part of your post". Well my normal response is "Fuck you", and I see no reason to change now.

If I've offended anyone, I didn't mean to, that was just an added bonus.

~~~Update~~~
Ok, now before anyone else gets all bent out of shape, I don't really hate foreigners (I've been one many times), hell I don't even hate old farts all that much! The jury is still out on those Baby on Board signs though.

Geekorama

...Me and My Computer

Just when you run out of things to blog, someone always seems to post a meme or a quiz of some sort. In this case it was ChrisB, thanks Chris.

1. PC or Mac? (You must choose one or the other.)

This one's easy, PC of course! Who would want to be an elitist,  narcissistic, fashion following, zombie-like MacEvangelist when you could own a piece of shit instead.

2. How much do you like one over the other, and what's the main reason?

A computer does things, that's it! But PC's do it much cheaper and without all the "we are part of a community" bullshit.

3. What would be easier to do without for a week: your cell phone, your television, or your computer?

My cell phone, actually it's a mobile phone where I come from, and the batteries are flat so it's not much use to me now anyway.

4. Take the quiz: Are You a Computer Geek?

 

How do you compare?

Seems I compare OK, I could have probably scored better, but while I'm fairly knowledgeable on computers (a Science degree in Computers has a tendency to cause that), I refused to answer the obviously Geek-based questions. "I am not an animal, err sorry, geek!"

By the way, that picture is of a PCB (or printed circuit board, in fact it's a motherboard) in case you didn't notice.

5. What things do you feel more addicted to than your computer?

Food, TV, Inactivity and Butt scratching.

6. If your computer has to go in for service and you're without it for a week, and you have the chance to log on at a different computer, which are you most likely to do first: check news headlines, check email, or update your blog?

Check for porn in the cache, you have no idea how much fun it is to bust people!

Well wasn't that fun?! Maybe not but it's better than a blank page, again, maybe not.

 

The Dingo's Jukebox

My good friend and sometime tormentor Melissa has tagged me for a music meme. I'm supposed "List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what they are. They must be songs you are presently enjoying. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to."

**All the links are to Wiki, it's not that I believe it's the best source of info, it's just easier. (Do me a favour will you? Leave your comment before you disappear off into the linkosphere, I lose so many comments that way!)

Now I don't want to be a pain and not play by the rules, but the truth is I'm not so much as a 'song' type of guy, I'm more of an 'artist' or 'album' guy. So I've decided to compromise and list seven artists that are always only my playlist and try to pick a song for each that is worth listening to. They are not listed in order of preference, but in order of when I discovered them (some I've been playing over 30 years now, let's see if Boney M still holds up after that long!):

1. Van Morrison. George Ivan Morrison is the first artist (for me anyway) to show that there could be sophistication in rock music, his blending of rock instruments with jazz and blues influences was particularly noticeable in the double live album "It's Too Late to Stop Now". From this I have chosen Caravans. Van was the soundtrack to my first years in the workforce (I started work at 16).
2. Bruce Springsteen. Like the Man, the Boss showed me that there was more to rock than singing loud. The E Street Band made music than could sometimes have a physical effect on me. I don't think anyone has ever made me feel the same way that Clarence Clemons did. The album I choose is "The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle", and the song is Rosalita. Bruce was the soundtrack to my last year at home (I left home at 17).
3. Little Feat. In a further development of my taste in music, Little Feat introduced me to both Cajun Music and Syncopation (although the Cajun influence came mostly after Lowel George's death). While not a typical LF song,  I like Willin' from the first (self titled) album. Little Feat were the soundtrack last my year as an apprentice.
4. Steely Dan. From rock to jazz in one easy lesson. These guys knew how to weave words and music into something really special, and they were clever too, just have a look at the cover of Katy Lied. I think I'll have to choose Black Cow as a favorite song, but "Royal Scam" is my favorite album. Donald and Walter were the soundtrack to my first job in the bush.
5. Jackson Browne. Most people I know complain that he always sounds like he's crying about something, but he's one of the few musicians whose lyrics I actually listen to (I'm more of a melody guy). You can't go past the Pretender from the album of the same name. JB got me through my time in the mines.
6. Dr. John. This is a strange one, I actually discovered Mack Rebennack before most of the artists on this list, but I didn't really have much of an appreciation for him at the time. He has since become my all time favourite artist, and I won't insult him by choosing a favourite song. If you want a good deal, get the Live at Montreaux DVD. Dr.J has been my soundtrack for many years now.
7. As I was writing this, I realised there is a lot of music that I'm really into, so No. 7 is an honorable mention to just a few of the artists I listen to regularly: Charlie Daniels, Traffic, Paul Simon, Allman Brothers, Doobie Brothers, Dixie Chicks, Asleep at the Wheel, Rickie Lee Jones, Thin Lizzy, Warren Zevon, Howard Jones, Emmylou Harris....the list goes on.

Oh shit, I almost forgot! I have to tag someone. Ok here goes:

• Robin: It's time you branched out from pee posts.
• Pamela: I'm interested to see what someone my age is listening to.
• Kila: Do you even get a chance to listen to music?
• Claudia: I know you're busy with school so maybe a post you don't have to think about might help.
• Vicki: I've always wondered what horny, redneck, Christian women listen to.
• Your name goes here ____________: because we're all interested.

Fun Munday #5

This Fun Monday is brought to you by Karmyn, so that's where the full list is. She has gone for the 'treasured possession' theme, which I think is a good one.

For this exercise I have chosen two objects, one is mine and one was my grandfather's (who got killed in the war so I never met him).

The first item is a watch, it hasn't worked for as long as I can remember, and even if it did it wouldn't be much use because somehow I managed to lose one of the hands...

It doesn't do much, and in truth it's not really all that valuable, but what it does do, is bring back memories of another, more innocent time, like Christmas Day 1957 for example, the day that it was given to me (that's me in the middle, we all got watches from my grandmother that year)...

This next item belonged to my grandfather, who was a sail maker. It's a rope splicer. You should be looking at the thing with the clenched fist. I thought I had a better picture but I was wrong, oh well...

It' s some kind of dark wood, I don't know much more about it because, as I said, he died before he could tell me anything about it, actually he died before he met me, way before, like before my mum met my dad.

I have been chosen for next week's Fun Monday (yipee!). I notice that Karmyn said that I had a REAL good subject. Well now, I don't know if it's a real good subject, but it does get us back to what Vicki's original idea was, which was more like 'Sticky-beak Monday' (Erik coined the term 'Fun Monday', which works well  and is more appropriate), so with that in mind, next week's subject is "My Blogging Environment". I'm going to put up a couple of photos of my workstation, which is where I do my blogging, but you are free to interpret it as you see fit. It's just so that we can have a mental image when we read participating blogs.

On another matter....

I notice a few of you have expressed concern over my habit of eating salmonella lobster, so let me set the record straight: It's Salmon and Lobster, salmonella lobster is what the Texafornians (Jenny&Melissa) call it. I just go along with them because I'm a big believer in the old saying "You can always tell a Texafornian, but you can't tell them much"...

Fun Monday

This is a little thing we like to call Fun Monday, and this week it is "Why I love where I live" courtesy of Marnie. For a full list of participants, just click on her name.

Why I love where I live - by Willowtree
I tried loving where my girlfriend lives, but her husband caught us.
                                                                        The End.

Ha! I kill me. That was just a sample of how blindingly brilliant I can really be, really. I'm just kidding of course, the reason I love where I live is because my wife lives three hours away. Ha ha somebody stop me! Ok enough of the chuckles, I'll be writing mine later today so it will be on your Monday not your Sunday, because as Susan in Va once so eloquently put it "Here at Willowtree's.  Where today is tomorrow and yesterday is today."

Updated at 6:00pm Monday my time: Hmmm, I could have saved myself the effort. I think it's about time we agreed with Melissa - hardly anyone blogs on Sunday. Anyway with a bit of creative datestamping, the real Fun Monday Post is directly below this one.

Fun Monday #4

Why I love were I live.

I know you've got a lot of posts to read this morning so to speed things up I haven't put in any photos, but you're welcome to poke around if you're new here. *update, I decided to put in some pics after all.

I suppose the main reason I love where I live is because it's where I choose to live here. And the reason I choose to live here is twofold; the people and the employment opportunities. First off, the people; seeing as my nearest neighbour is almost a 10 minute drive away, basically there aren't any. So that leaves employment opportunities; I'm a mainframe analyst programmer, and seeing as I've got the only computer for a hundred miles in any direction (ok, that's an exaggeration) there are about as many job opportunities here as there are people.

So not only do I not have to talk to anybody, I don't even have to act like I'm looking for work. But I think the real reason I love it here is that I got to use three semi-colons in the paragraph describing why I love to live where I live, and that's not something you get to do everyday.

There are bonuses that make living here my own little piece of paradise, I drift off to sleep at night to the sounds of cattle lowing (that's how educated people spell mooing), and I wake to the sounds of birds jostling for the best position in the tree just outside my bedroom window. And there's always a good show put on by the wildlife, I've seen kangaroos, echidnas, goannas and foxes all from my computer room window.

The other thing I like about the geography of the place is the intense weather conditions. I've seen the strongest winds, the hardest rains (when they fall) and the most intense thunderstorms I've ever seen in my life up here. When MDW was here once, we had lightning and thunder that lasted nearly 36 hours, with no more than a minute between strikes.

My housemates never argue with me, they never clean up after themselves either but that's another matter, and they are always happy to keep me company. But they are good fun, and without them there wouldn't be much to wrote about.

I love living here because the house is just the right size for me and the critters, the furniture fits me just nicely and everything is always where I left it. I get to watch what I want to watch on TV and my musical preferences always take precedence. It's only an hour's drive to a reasonable sized regional town, and forty five minutes to a decent supermarket.

Of course the downside is that MDW lives three hours away, but when you think about it, it only takes three hours to drive there, and I've been doing that quite a bit lately. This picture shows the first steps on the way to the Coast.

Fun Monday #2

The very nice man known as Erik to his family, has this thing about photos of kids, just kidding Erik! He has come up with the idea for us to post pictures of ourselves when we were young. If you want to look at a bunch of photos of what the bloggers you read looked like when they were young, click this and follow the links.

Some time ago I did a post featuring me when I was a kid so I'm just pointing to that one, if you've already seen it too bad. As a consolation prize I'll give you some dogs pictures.....

Oh, I'm sorry WT, is this your chair?

No, he's not stretching, that's how he sleeps.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Bobby surprised us all and showed up a couple of days ago. Right now I'm treating it as an anomaly, there was a bit of rain the night he disappeared so he may have lost his scent and got lost. But if he goes away again in the next week or so, I'll be visiting the neighboring farms to see if he is two timing his owner.

**Updated thanks to Stephanie....

Stephanie asked how Bentley was taking Bobby's reappearance, by way of a response I have added the above photo. This is not a picture of everyone frolicking in the TV room, this is a picture of Buddy and Bobby frolicking and Bentley sitting in the middle of the room, not moving and saying to Bobby "If you so much as touch me, I'll rip your front leg off and beat you to death with it" which is pretty much what happened just after I took this photo. But things seem to have settled down a bit since then.

Pg 123, 5th sentence onwards

Claudia tagged me for this :

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence
3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog
4. Name of the book and the author
5. Tag three people

"Oh that," Plinio said with a forced smile. "It's not likely that I'd be asked my opinion. But of course I favor undisturbed continuance of Castalia; otherwise I wouldn't be here, you know. Still and all, even though your material requirements are so modest, Castalia costs the country quite a little sum every year."

Magister Ludi.
Hermann Hesse.