Happy birthday to altivo -- bookish bronco, hackish horsey and 100% l33t fibre stallion.

What's my brain on? One minute I'm sleepily trying to sort out some plot for my perfectly normal flying pirate/psychic ninja murder mystery story, the next I'm drifting off and half-dreaming that I'm reading charlycrash's journal and he's posted an update saying that his cat is still missing and he's worried about her.

Geez, dreams are so surreal.

harper_knight   send me more ninja-piratey goodness!
hellmutt   Haha, will do... when Part 2 is complete. [There's] Even more worldbuilding in there.
harper_knight   your audience clamours for more!
harper_knight   *clamour clamour clamour*
hellmutt   Clamour!
hellmutt   That is our secret word of the day!
harper_knight   it is a VERY good word isn't it?
hellmutt   So is claymore.
harper_knight   ooooh...

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(If someone's attracted to their pirate rival, is that Yo Ho Yay?)

Cat miaow music video – surely the only one in existence that doesn't suck.

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

charlycrash, ankewehner, voodoo_vibe, crypto-monster-thingy for you!

(Everyone else may look at it through this link instead if you like.)

Has any of you lot, in your travels, ever come across a trance/techno/happy-hardcore/whatever cover version of Groovy Kind of Love?

I have a couple of demons who want to make it 'their song'...

(Incidentally, the Mindbenders version is approximately 1,000,000,000 times better than the Phil Collins effort.)

I found a really interesting article on 'camp' (as an adjective) linked in the comments of someone else's journal. I finally put some time aside to read it:

Susan Sonntag: Notes on Camp

My reactions follow, all jotted as I read. You should read the article and form your own opinions first.

Now, I don't care for 'camp' as a whole, so don't expect any coherent thoughts and opinions from me here. I probably would fit in in some ways with a 'queer' (hate that word) way of looking at things, though, so I'm definitely interested to read on...

"The more we study Art, the less we care for Nature."
- The Decay of Lying

An offhand quote that caught my eye. It could be in a nutshell why I don't like art (or, rather, why I think of myself as someone who doesn't like art. The other reason being school art lessons), and why I am less and less likely to like any individual artwork the more it deviates from the strictly realistic, or at least the methodically representational.

(Yes, even if it portrays something that doesn't exist, it could have the courtesy to look right.)

As a taste in persons, Camp responds particularly to the markedly attenuated and to the strongly exaggerated. The androgyne is certainly one of the great images of Camp sensibility. [...]

Allied to the Camp taste for the androgynous is something that seems quite different but isn't: a relish for the exaggeration of sexual characteristics and personality mannerisms.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

But why does it look like the guy from Basic Instructions?

I'm serious, it's uncanny.

OMG. NEW STRIP IDEA.

KURTROLLING. You suffered it here first, unless you've already seen it or you didn't click play on the video or you're temporarily deaf or something.

(via almostwitty)

How young Suitov feels about Fi:

( 2 silly pop videos )

I seem to have become addicted to posting 'microfiction' on Twitter. This must be how they get you sucked in. #Brains.

Question: Would you like, dislike or be indifferent to seeing my Twitter updates mirrored on my blog (probably in a single post per day from some tool like LoudTwitter)?

If I found a thing that would only collect and post updates that contained certain user-defined hashtags, I'd use that for sure.

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I get my two week placement with FM&T soon. Looking forward to it. I think they want to keep me on for longer.

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Seen a cool video that will interest Altivo and other fur-types.

That's randomly got me looking at paw glove tutorials on YouTube. I'm not a furry or fursuiter and don't have any interest in the whole full-body itchy-plastic-fuzz deal, but I would love a properly awesome pair of paw gloves with proper pads, like so (but Black Dog, or Grey Dog, instead of Red Fox).

I saw some leatherwork gloves that are nice-looking, but far too fetishy and immobile. I'm nervous about my manual dexterity or movement being impaired in any way. (The shoes are awesome, though.)

I suppose fingerless fursuit gloves would be object-defeatist. I do like my fingerless gloves, though. Shame it's too hot at the moment to wear them.

View the original post at Black Dog Blog

Much improved. Wolvie and Cyke can go jump off a Watcher.

Argh argh argh I want to open this email but I don't want to because it'll collapse the wave function and I know it'll probably be awesome but the possibility space is too big and I'm nervous.

:D

Human translation: the artist has sent me a preliminary sketch for the piccy of Basaltine, Suitov and Weft that I commissioned for my birthday. Tell you more when I've worked up the courage to look at it.

(I spaz out like this about every email I receive. But not usually this badly.)

In conclusion, sfsdfsjdlfkjsdflsdkajfsad;fklajsd;flkdjdf argh. XD

Drink soda. DIET soda, no less.

Other than that, my childhood conscience rests easy.

Wut.

That, in case you are wondering, is that guy from Firefly, dressed as a Jedi chef.

Class. The Google doodle of the day celebrates St George's Day and Shakespeare's birthday in one.

More about Saint George, with fun details about the dragon on page 3 (disclosure: that page was compiled by me).

Having no idea it was St G's day today, on the way to work I saw a typical-looking red builderish van flying a George Cross and I have to admit my first thought was "Well, he's not necessarily racist..." Sad.

Why can't Happened To Get Born In England Pride be like Happened To Get Born Gay Pride? Gay pride marches don't necessarily imply that everyone born anything else is rubbish, so why in the case of nationality do we have to have twerps like the BNP fouling everything up? *sigh*

I and others are amused by the whole idea of this Turkish tribune who never visited England and whose spurious claim to fame took place in Libya. You've got racist twerps waving his flag with abandon while, in the words of a colleague, "if they met the real guy in a pub, they'd have bottled him and had him deported!"

If anyone cared a whit for us punsters, George would have been called John, because "St. John" as an English forename is pronounced "singeon". Ssssmokin'.

View the original post at HellHound.net

When I was a young child, on one occasion I became afraid that Count Duckula would get me in my sleep.

(Yes. Duckula. The vegetarian vampire. Yes.)

I got myself out of this by convincing myself that my bedside lamp was the functional equivalent of sunlight and all I'd need to do was turn it on to repel a vampire. This was no less logical than the original fear, and worked.

There, that's my embarrassing childhood admission. Your turn!

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Incidentally, these days I'm able to deal with vampires by dual-classing atheist-suitheist. As atheist I get an automatic huge bonus to all rolls to disbelieve, while as self-proclaimed deity, everything to do with me is holy, yea, even unto mine farts.

View the original post at HellHound.net

Given what I superficially know about it, I find Sapir-Whorf convincing, and not just because it sounds like Worf (the idea of linguistic relativity, for me, now being inextricably linked with having a head like a Cornish pasty and occasionally a bit of a Fu Manchu 'tache).

I think that's a large part of why I don't think political correctness is a bad thing. And why I like the idea gender-neutral pronouns and terminology a lot. For example, my mental image of "nurse" is still female-biased, and that sucks. And if I have to call someone "she", I'll start thinking of them as a female. I can't help it. I'm a human and hard-wired for English and we just don't have standard GNPs any more, and that sucks too!

Besides, the way I understand PC is basically as an attempt to be polite to people and make the human dimension of the world a bit nicer. That's why I tend to consider anyone who seriously argues against being nice to people mentally lazy at best and a closet (or not-so-closet) bigot at worst.

No matter how many whinges you find in the Daily Wail about someone's local primary school OMG BANNING CHRISTMAS, I'll never be sorry that it's no longer acceptable to call someone "boy" and "nigger" and stop him using the same drinking fountain as everyone else. Because WTF, people, can we get a side order of proportionality over here!

Mind, I'll defend to the inconvenience your right to say the word nigger, but when you don't get invited to many parties as a result of shouting it at strangers, I'll be very glad. I find good manners and social disapproval far more healthy means of control than legislation.

"Good manners gone mad" isn't quite as catchy for your red-masthead headline, is it? Quick, let's find Cllr Strawman and see if we can get a snap of him taking down fairy lights so's not to offend Muslims...

(edit, tomorrow: I note with little surprise that the "in popular culture" section of the S-W article is one big list of things I either have really enjoyed or mean to read someday (well, ok, the Rand is neither and Inheritance isn't all that special). I guess I'm not the only writerly person with whom the idea resonates.)

View the original post at HellHound.net

We all slept over at Paul's last night because his folks are on hols. I dreamed a few wacky things, which I remembered on waking but forgot during the course of the day. I'm sure one dream involved online buddies in some kind of positive context, and then there were quite a few semi-dream-semi-hallucinations after I'd woken up.

Have taped the new Red Dwarf, which should be yayz.

My mind seems to be in a pleasant fog.

Missed the deadline with the IanDeer picture, which doesn't really bother me - I was up last time, and didn't get many pictures, anyway. IanD's writer said: I'm sorry you didn't make it in time for the deadline Hellmutt, but I think your picture is one of the best "Natural" pictures I've seen, and I really like the color style you used, which works especially well with the background. Thank you!

My main goal was to make him look deerish instead of wolflike, which was something I didn't like about all the other art I've seen of the character (both in the past and those submitted for this round of the art exchange). Seems a really common problem among pics of cartoony deer, making them actually LOOK like deer...

Princess has been visiting very often over the last week. Her family is away on holiday too... and we think something's gone wrong with her feeding arrangements. She's been begging for food. Receiving it, too (such a mad cat woman I live with).

I've introduced Slen and his ladyfriend to Magical Trevor. Got at least one of them singing it.