jumble, jumble

01.18.04 @ 10:54 p.m.

My dog is doing a lot of the snoring and twitching lately. It's pretty funny, really. The weird thing is that as soon as I wrote that, she stopped. One of the weirder things is that she does a lot of her growly, twitchy dreams with her eyes open.

On this message board I read, there are a couple of awesome mailing lists/swaps that fascinate me. One is a mix CD swap where each person in a mini-group makes a mix, makes a booklet for it, and passes it along. Then you add comments in the books of each CD you recieve, presumably ripping it to your own harddrive so you can keep copies. I'm thinking of telling the Psychedelic Phoenix about this idea. Though we'd be more likely to make mix tapes, I'd think. (Also, Candace: I think you would fit in very well in the Phoenix. We don't write a lot, but I think we're kind of trying to remedy that. You and Jessica, who is the moderator/owner, strike me as similar people, which is why, I suppose, you're both my friends.)

Today has just totally and utterly gone to waste. I skipped the dog show, laid in bed and read for quite a long time (lying in bed too long makes me feel kind of dirty, in a sweaty, ugh I need to shower way, more than getting up and being active), and then Jo called me. She came down to hang out and stayed for quite a lot of the day. We made brownies (read: I made brownies and talked to Jo while I did it) and we played the Oregon Trail II with dedication despite the fact that the computer froze twice and I kept forgetting important steps when we were restarting our game. (Like choosing our names or picking special skills.) Our wagon train consisted of Jo as leader, her friend Paul (rather than on again off again boyfriend Tristian, which I find interesting, but I think she's frustrated with him), Who Boy Nick, me (duh), and my dog. Ruby got cholera but recovered, Paul got a cold, and me, I got the worst of it. First I got "cuts and abrasions" in an accident which sent up two alarm screens because we treated it incorrectly the first time. Then I almost drowned in a river-fording accident, and immediately after I developed a bad cold. Ooh, and we got attacked by a swarm of locusts, which I've never had happen before. I love OT2 because you can buy your supplies in insane detail. You can get medicines of all sorts but also bizarre things like grandfather clocks and banjos. Original OT, you just bought anonymous "food." In this version, you get scurvy if you don't have enough fruits and vegetables. And if you have salt, you can preserve your meat from hunting. (And everyone knows hunting is the best part of OT, eh?)

My dog looks like a sleepy little fox. She is adorableness personified. Er, dogified? Whatever. I love her and miss having her around.

Turns out my help was not needed for the dog breeding, probably because the prospect of my involvement creeped my dad out. It was a relief to me because I didn't really WANT to help, but I hope it wasn't more difficult for him than it needed to be. Especially since I'm wallowing in guilt for not going today and wondering if I should go tomorrow since I never got around to showering today. (Ew, but hell, I'm at home, who cares? Also, Jodi hanging around and not leaving all day rather put a crimp in any personal time I might have wanted.)

That, and I still haven't gotten around to writing my favola (fable) for Italian. I can't think of anything.

I did, however, finish reading Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. It's a shame I don't bother with the booklist anymore, it was a good idea. MR is excellent, in the manner of all Pratchett books. Vimes is absolutely my favorite character and I'm always pleased to see him. It's pleasantly odd to see him from the outside as a minor character much in the same way you do in The Truth. William de Worde's presence and Otto Chriek's were also a pleasant surprise. Clearly, the Ankh-Morpork Times took off like crazy once they got the ball rolling. Night Watch, though, may well be my all time favorite Discworld novel. It's one of the precious few that you can't really understand without knowing what has come before. I started out reading the City Watch subseries backwards from either Jingo or Feet of Clay. The City Watch subseries is the best. Second is the Death books or even more detailed with the Susan Sto Helit books. Soul Music is another one of those "Best EVER" books and pretty much the driving force for my like of Susan. I guess my least favorite of the Discworld series are the Rincewind books. I never really liked the first two books, though Sourcery is all right. And The Last Continent is great. So I guess I'm a late-Pratchett fan. I don't care too much for the really early stuff. The Witches subseries is pretty good, but not totally to my taste.

I was enough into these books (and I still love them dearly--Pratchett is my absolute, all time favorite author) that I used to play a MUD based on the series. I had a kick-arse Thief character and a Priest who was very good on the resurrections. She was a healer, and I was getting really good with her. Then, I dunno, I quit. And now the MUD has been revised several times so that it makes it hard for me to go back. Also, I don't know any decent Telnet or MUD clients for OS X that are free, which makes it a hassle. And I have no desire to reattach myself to something that sucked away fucking hours at a time.

But I was good, and that was satisfying. I was not in the upper ranks of players, just in the middle, but I was a fucking stupid newbie getting mauled by the wolves outside the cottage. (Er, okay, they did kill me once or twice.)

I elected to stay home for a dinner of leftovers alone tonight and don't really know why, but I was invited up to Jo's for an elk roast. They will apparently be eating elk for years to come, they bagged such a big one. I think that I declined because there is only so much Jo I can take anymore. It's one thing when we're 9 and 10 years old and practically sisters, but we don't hang out that much anymore. I was not expecting to spend the whole damn day with her, though Oregon Trail was super fun when played with another person.

Now I'm getting really tired, so I guess I'll slink off to bed.