Oh, by the by, there’s a holiday greeting and a new dream episode up of weird emma

I took some time out earlier and just looked at the sky for a long, long while. Sometimes it’s a good idea to take a pause, and just lose yourself in the clouds above, mentally lift up, and bank around for a bit. Since the clouds didn’t want to put rain on my face, I provided myself with some from the showerhead after I came back inside… a cold, hard precipitation pushing my mind back to sharpness from the light fog that’d settled over it. after, a warm, then hot, soapy wash, followed by another bracing cold one means that I feel cleansed, purified, both outside and in.

It’s odd, the things that bring strength and clarity to me at times. Gravity isn’t tugging as hard as it was earler, and the air is simpler to take in. Now I have some champa burning and though the shades are drawn, a soft natural light is filling the room. I feel very connected to those I love right now, and to a lesser extent, the world as a whole.

lyrics doth follow.

Incipit gestis Rudolphi rangifer tarandus

Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor —
Næfde þæt nieten unsciende næsðyrlas!
Glitenode and gladode godlice nosgrisele.
Ða hofberendas mid huscwordum hine gehefigodon;
Nolden þa geneatas Hrodulf næftig
To gomene hraniscum geador ætsomne.
Þa in Cristesmæsseæfne stormigum clommum,
Halga Claus þæt gemunde to him maðelode:
“Neahfreond nihteage nosubeorhtende!
Min hroden hrædwæn gelæd ðu, Hrodulf!”
Ða gelufodon hira laddeor þa lyftflogan —
Wæs glædnes and gliwdream; hornede sum gegieddode
“Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor,
Brad springð þin blæd: breme eart þu!”

Hrodulf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Modern English translation)
Here begins the deeds of Rudolph, Tundra-Wanderer

Lo, Hrodulf the red-nosed reindeer —
That beast didn’t have unshiny nostrils!
The goodly nose-cartilage glittered and glowed.
The hoof-bearers taunted him with proud words;
The comrades wouldn’t allow wretched Hrodulf
To join the reindeer games.
Then, on Christmas Eve bound in storms
Santa Claus remembered that, spoke formally to him:
“Dear night-sighted friend, nose-bright one!
You, Hrodulf, shall lead my adorned rapid-wagon!”
Then the sky-flyers praised their lead-deer —
There was gladness and music; one of the horned ones sang
“Lo, Hrodulf the red-nosed reindeer,
Your fame spreads broadly, you are renowned!”

lyrics doth follow.

Incipit gestis Rudolphi rangifer tarandus

Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor —
Næfde þæt nieten unsciende næsðyrlas!
Glitenode and gladode godlice nosgrisele.
Ða hofberendas mid huscwordum hine gehefigodon;
Nolden þa geneatas Hrodulf næftig
To gomene hraniscum geador ætsomne.
Þa in Cristesmæsseæfne stormigum clommum,
Halga Claus þæt gemunde to him maðelode:
“Neahfreond nihteage nosubeorhtende!
Min hroden hrædwæn gelæd ðu, Hrodulf!”
Ða gelufodon hira laddeor þa lyftflogan —
Wæs glædnes and gliwdream; hornede sum gegieddode
“Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor,
Brad springð þin blæd: breme eart þu!”

Hrodulf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Modern English translation)
Here begins the deeds of Rudolph, Tundra-Wanderer

Lo, Hrodulf the red-nosed reindeer —
That beast didn’t have unshiny nostrils!
The goodly nose-cartilage glittered and glowed.
The hoof-bearers taunted him with proud words;
The comrades wouldn’t allow wretched Hrodulf
To join the reindeer games.
Then, on Christmas Eve bound in storms
Santa Claus remembered that, spoke formally to him:
“Dear night-sighted friend, nose-bright one!
You, Hrodulf, shall lead my adorned rapid-wagon!”
Then the sky-flyers praised their lead-deer —
There was gladness and music; one of the horned ones sang
“Lo, Hrodulf the red-nosed reindeer,
Your fame spreads broadly, you are renowned!”

Where there’s a whip, there’s a way….

A song from the 1980 animated version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Return of the King. Note that this is the third book of the trilogy; Rankin-Bass skipped the first two. The lyrics are most definitely not taken from the book, but they remain forever embedded in my mind as the song I would sing to get up for school or work for the longest time… (I still do, on occasion, in the shower.)

I *still* don’t know all the words. “Where there’s a whip…there’s a way. Where there’s a whip…there’s a way. We don’t wanna go to war today, but the lord of the lash says [something rhyming with day Nay nay nay is what I say]…gonna march all day all day all day — where there’s a whip there’s a way.”

Is DHTML dead?

Well, that really doesn’t surprise me, but it is disappointing. I thought it’d outlive java.

Here’s an interesting breakdown of 2001 via google…

and last but not least – Design Your Own O’Reilly Book Cover!

Before anything else, back on the spread for today. Page of Pentacles: Have an Effect/ prosperity, practicality, be trustworthy & trusting. So, shoot for setting goals, and head to them.

Ok, that in mind, I’m back.

I’ve realised that I’ve picked up and enjoy nibbling on a lot of orange to yellow foodies. Orange juice, Corn, Lemonade, Newton Ears (they just get kissed, but they smell good.), cheddar cheese, The package for my honey wheat bread, mustard, pseudo-chicken patties…

maybe, if I get really bored, I’ll sort my pantry by shade… somehow, I don’t think I’ll hit that low a point. Tea’s a brewin’, and I’m in full comfy regalia.

I’ve revived a holiday tradition from last year… Oranges,vanilla yogurt and walunts mixed together as a yummy-yum treat. Very comforting and tasty, condusive to a good read and write.

Got a rejection letter from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, a form letter with a nice handwritten note. Such is life. Off the tales go to my next hope, ol’ Analog again. today’s spread is reminding me to stay focused, and hang tight to plan, work on creating some resultsin this and other things. If F&SF doesn’t dig it, I’m sure someone will and will pay me for it. Time to stop fooling around. 🙂

I should go out, and get my grocery shopping done, but the overwhelming urge to sit tight and just relax at home and read the day away… maybe work on the first Tarot tale, (the nine of wands) Perserverance.

Hmm…. for maximum slacking and comfort though, I should pick up some eats. I’m out of chai and good snacks…*shuffles feet* Ah well… some more walkies will do me good.

*creeeeeeeaks to feet, and puts on the magic birks…Wonder Twin powers, activate! Form of a motivated grocery shopper, er “Mobile Ice Statue of a Motivated Shoper”… hey… how come I got the water powers, and Newt got the animal powers? ah well…

See you kids when I return.

It seems you are living two lives, Mr. Baggins. One of these lives is a hobbit of Hobbiton. He lives under a hill, pays his taxes, and helps his cousin Bilbo take out the garbage. In the other life, you are the bearer of the One Ring. One of these hobbits has a future, Mr. Baggins, and the other one does not.

Also, from a purely military perspective –

Boromir is in the rather difficult position of a career soldier fighting a losing war, who’s just been informed that the big plan is not to use the superweapon, but instead to have a crack team of leprechauns carry it into Moscow.

Happy Birthday !!

Crazy busy day… making sure everything will flow sweetly over the 4 day break, and maybe even give myself a little push out the door early tonight, too.

I plan on getting some serious rest, and maybe a nice little dose of writing in too.

Procrastinator Scotto Is going out to get 2 last minute presents for folks before work… Wish me luck! 🙂

Walkies this morning will take place in the Mall. Sakes… How’d I forget that part of my list? Ah well, See you kids in a while.

no big surprise here…

Hackers Find Serious Flaw in Microsoft’s Windows XP

Continue reading reposted via XP users, get yer patch. →

Hawaii: Where else can you bodyboard from snow into lava?

Slept so poorly last night as to count it as a loss. Tossed and turned, many thoughts. After sifting in the morning, I feel better… at last. but still bone weary.

Fark! Deadjournal is down too!! Hooray for parajournal!

Two Egyptian mummies found in McDonalds, probably standing in line…

also –

Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

and

I’m going to have to paste what I wrote in notepad this morning into LJ tonight… Don’t forget!!

Loose concept: some weirdo works in a large photoprocessing lab, one of the central places where Walgreens sends their stuff. One day he notices a picture that — very coincidentally –looks like something out of the tarot deck. He makes a personal copy and files it away as an oddity. Then he sees another, and another. Then he starts to try and track down the sources, the circumstances and the meanings of these. Then he starts trying to assemble a complete deck.

A different story for different photo/cards? Short snippets, one-pagers, maybe. Might make the morning 1-card spread more interesting to try and weave a tale out of it by the end of day.

Heck, it’s a shame I don’t know 76 other writers, and have each person pick a card to write on, and do a bigger story to knit them all together. I think that’ll be a writing project. randomly draw a card each day, and pull it out of queue, after a story’s been written about it.

Ack… between having Bejeweled, Bebop (sort of sims), and Books on my palm, I’m glad I didn’t have this thing in school… I was actually considereing writing bejeweled for the palmtop before discovering it was ported over beautifully.