Going to a con soonish (for the first time this decade), and I have zero idea what to wear.
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I am about to spend a sizable amount of money to go to Australia next month. Plan on starting down in Melbourne and taking the train to Sydney and parts central. As much as I'd like to include NZ, not being able to drive and having no driver to go with makes NZ pretty much a no-go.
It feels really weird to be going so far all by myself. But I will (hopefully) be relocating next spring, so I really need to take advantage of money to spend and lots of time off, 'cause neither will be in ready supply if I do succeed in moving.

[comments purposely disabled]

Had a birthday, and at least it didn't suck? Folks actually remembered this year and everything, so thanks for all the messages. I may suck at responding, but I do appreciate them. [I did get a package, but have not opened it yet because ~issues~]

Late 2012/early 2013 was rough, and I got tired of being ignored or essentially blown off whenever folks deigned to grace me with their presence on chat, so I stopped going on. [angry reminder: one- or two-word responses are not a fucking conversation] If I wanted to talk about the state of the world / kids these days / the weather, I don't need to give up an entire day of my weekend (which is pretty much what chatting with folks in the states entails).

Now that that's off my chest, the real subject of the post (thought up on my way home from work today): Grand Theft Linguistics
Basically, the unholy love child of GTA and the quote that starts "English does not borrow from other languages...." Details are already fading, but I'm pretty sure the boss fights would be major events/discoveries/happenstances to the English language like the various invaders (fight the French phonemes! Now unlocked, using silent letters to boost health!) The final battle would involve the Great Vowel Shift, of course. Leveling up involves getting dictionaries of new languages. Maybe there's a familiar, I dunno, Pidgin the pigeon, and if it's fed loose grammar and extraneous vocabulary it can level up to become a Language of its own! (going from, well, a pigeon to something like a sphinx or winged person or something.) One's allies are dialects, or something. Not entirely sure how to combine linguistics and 3rd person shooter formats, but given a sizable enough research budget I'm sure I could manage. Each mission/level could involve searching for a certain sound shift, or the targets could have t-shirts (or whatever) with relevant words/symbols/phonemes printed.... Only shoot the vikings with words assimilated into English written upon their shields! Ignore the Celts, unless you're mapping Great Britain.
Although, in order to be Grand Theft Linguistics, maybe the player has to sneak in to Norman France / Viking-era Denmark / Chaucer's underwear drawer or whatever and grab the necessary components--prove Verner's law or somesuch.
For an expansion/sequal, maybe go with the evolution of writing, or the rise of the romance languages. Or tackle the modern issues! AAVE! Creole! Rewrite famous passages from literature into textspeak within a time limit! Oooh, Noah Webster versus the conventions of British spelling!

....I need a life

1. Someone, please, talk to me on IM if you see me logged on. TAAAAALLLLLKKKK TO MEEEEEEEEE.

2. I haven't owned a fork for over 3 years.

3. I haven't used my heat in 4 years.

4. This video is (more or less) safe for work. The lyrics, not so much. The title itself may or may not be. a song about a part of female anatomy

5. silly He-Man vid (I loathe the original song, but this vid almost redeems it. Also, amazing synching)

6. Not actually silly: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

7. My sleep cycle is almost as screwed up now as it was in college. And I've only been on holiday since Friday!

8. best cooking show ever?

cracktastic New Year's specials WATCHED!
temple bells RINGING
spiked cocoa DRUNK
let's go 2012!

( year of the dragon!!! )

gleaned from random corners of the internet
[sorted haphazardly by area of interest]

Cthulu-ish

The Adventures of Lil Cthulu

South Park Cthulhu

Cthulu Legos


geeky, in a vaguely academic sense

Lego Antikythera mechanism

all the earthquakes in Japan, since 11 March

octopus and coconut shells --article with embedded vids, seriously cool

(Linguistics Love Song) --(yes, I am too lazy to hunt down the code for the proper title)


music-related stuff and songs

Vladmir Putin doing "Blueberry Hill" --I was looking the song up because of a knitting project (work with me here) and I saw this. Seriously, how awesome is a song that has been covered by Fats Domino, Led Zepplin, and a frickin' Russian PM?!

Starscape --(a Dr Who filk--the fact that I have never seen more than a single ep, and definitely none of the more recent seasons this is based upon doesn't stop me from liking the song)

vegetable orchestra --power tools, vegetables, and music--kinda awesome

um, classical-ish music comedy? --link is to a blog entry which contains embedded youtube links and much more intelligent commentary than I could manage on the subject

Streak O'Lean, Streak O'Fat --mash-up of bluegrass, folk dancing, and hong kong action movies


mash-ups, art and otherwise

Sci-fi Ikea Manuals

James Hance's website --lots of Star Wars artwork, including some really funny Where the Wild Things Are and Winnie the Pooh style mash-ups

MLP meets the newest X-men movie