Happy solstace, joyous Yule, and all that.

Winter is now upon us, and although the days will start getting longer, they will continue to grow colder, for reasons I’ve never fully grasped.

Seriously, it’s like the seasons are 45 degrees out of phase with the tilt of the Earth’s axis in relation to the position of the planet’s orbit. Today is the day that the sun’s rays have the most air to go through before hitting those of us on the northern hemisphere. Today’s the day that there’s the least sunlight on the northern hemisphere. Why is it that the coldest day’s don’t hit till February?

Half the time it’s still winter-cold and snowy when the vernal equinox comes round in March! That’s not right – by then the days and nights are the same length, and the sun’s energy is much less oblique and more perpendicular, so there’s way less atmosphere – yet the real warm days don’t hit till after the summer solstace!

It just doesn’t make sense. Like I said – the seasons are 45 degrees out of phase with the whole scientific-explanation thingy.

It’s the scariest smile I’ve seen in a long time…. smile for the camera Pixie! Great, now say Serial Killer…

So yeah, I’m all about snails and fish and aquariums and snails at the moment.

When I first set up my aquarium I had a little decoration thingy in there that looked like some old ruins – pseudo-interesting to me, but meaningless to the fish and snail. In my reading, I learned that snails like somewhere to hide, and I could see Speed Racer was definately looking for a hiding place – he’d tuck into the plants, try and get behind the heater, hang out dangerously close to the filter intake, and so on. None of these spots were ideal though – none of them were in shade and he really wasn’t hidden.

So today I removed the ornamental thing, and put in an old (well cleaned) coffee cup. It’s funny how the best things are the simple things. Speed Racer looked at it, did a lap of the aquarium, watched the cup for a while, then made himself at home.

Read more »

Appearantly new years is here. Another year. New digits to remember, when writing cheques.

I’ve been very, very absent and more than a little discombobulated since around x-mas. Come down with a cold or flu or something that just won’t let go.

I’ve already been through two cycles of sore-throat-then-chest-cold, and this morning woke up with another sore throat again. Yesterday I was feeling marginally better too. So I think I’m going on to round three.

Got some various cold medicines that don’t seem to help a great deal but do make me feel loopy and dizzy. Well, the daytime formula does. The nighttime formula makes me loopy, dizzy, and tired. And the cough medicine… well don’t get me started. That guafenesin just makes me a little nauseous. And it tastes terrible.

So that’s one of the reasons why there’s been a huge lack of posts for some time. I’ve been busy being ill and unhappy.

The other reason is that I’m like totally addicted to Second Life. So when I’m not curled up in bed bleeding from the lungs from a huge coughing fit, I’m huddled at the computer, exploring a virtual world, where my avatar is in perfect health.