Itchy pate, oozing brains!

So, over the last week and a half or so, Principessa has had this scab on her leg. She keeps picking it, so it has grown. Luckily, putting a plaster on it the other day encouraged her not to pick it anymore. However, it made me think of a post on Justine Larbalestier's blog, and I have not since managed to remove the imagery from my mind. Argh! And ewwwww!

Now I think I may go and buy some Metallica from iTunes. I have none on CD, and I miss a good Metallica mosh! After all, I had my angsty female music fix yesterday when Oyster by Heather Nova arrived.

Whales and dolphins, whales and dolphins, yeah!

(Pic from http://www.kidzone.ws/)

But no. Sharks and dolphins, no whales. In my dreams. Evoloved sharks and dolphins. Sharks in smoking jackets and dolphins in lab coats. Yes, I am mad.

So I had this weird dream, obviously. Above water level there was a TV station. There was some sort of Jeopardy style game show. The winners, well, they won. The losers, they were chucked into some massive vat and flushed away, where sharks waited in anticipation like dogs under a dinner table. When the losers appeared the sharks caught them, again like a dog catching scraps at the aforementioned dinner table. Some losers escaped, and found themselves at this strange, enclosed underwater complex.

Lots of rooms and corridors. The rooms were all plush, with all mod cons and any creature comforts you could think of. In these rooms, lots of peeps. There was only one problem. There were sharks inside. Sharks that could walk on their tail-fins, and use their pectoral fins as hands and arms. They would walk to a room, and just as a trained squirrel would do, pressed a button, the door would slide open, and the shark would snatch a person from the room. This happened a few times in the rooms that the dream me happened to be in. I became really annoyed by this, so found an interconnecting door. When the buzzer went on the door the shark was opening, I went through into the other room, quietly opened the door to the corridor, and attacked the shark from behind. (Here is where dreamtime goes anti-physics!) I grab the shark by his throat, and start screaming that I was fed up of him eating my friends. I walked down the corridor, shark by the throat, until we reached a set of double doors. Through the double doors we go, into a laboratory run by dolphins in lab coats and spectacles. I throw the shark at them, shouting that they can have him back because I was really pee'd off with him. The dolphins were mightly happy at the return of thier lab pet!

Then I woke up.

So yeah. I think I must have a fevered brain. Or maybe, after reading the Timothy Leary turn on-tune in-drop out stuff last night my brain decided that sharks and dolphins are to be my religion. Who knows. It must have been the repercussions of the "Death. Life. Structure" thing in the source reading. Must have been changed to Dolphins. Lab. Shark.

Well, off to continue reading the music unit, as the religion stuff is clearly playing with my head! (Though the music is doing my nut, too. Listening to "The Dangling Conversation", I am sure that the second "Are the borders of our lives" - as it is written in the lyric in the block book - is more "Are the warders of our lives" when you listen to it. It would make more sense to the song.)

Why do I crucify myself?

Wow! It's been so long since I've listened to Tori Amos, let alone the album Little Earthquakes. I'd forgotten how good it was. I'd forgotten all the memories that comes with it too. Wow! All I can think of now is the start of a poem that I began years ago, that might now need looking at and rewriting because I really liked the first two lines:

Orcs and elves and Tori Amos
Let's not talk now about my demons

Yep, I still like those lines. Reading them back now, though, and remembering back to the time I wrote them, it's almost like I lay myself on a slab to be dissected. Eek! I'm sure there was another line in there somewhere that went something like:

Pysychology, Endocrinology
I'll know you inside out.

Slightly sinister, me thinks!

Hold on... just listening to Silent All These Years... Fantastic! That song still takes my breath away.



So, today is another day of combing the essay. I did a little yesterday, ended up more or less rewriting the conclusion, just to include why the two pieces are still relevant today, taking into account the masculine/feminine attributes and comparing them to modern day cultures. Hmmm, I hope it sounds okay. I've just got to make the rest read fluidly now. Maybe I should put some more references in. Not line references, I have enough of those, but references as to where I got the info for the rest of it. Wish I wouldn't panic so much!

Reliving lost days...

Yay! But oops! I fell to the perils of Ebay, once again, but I have finally got a copy of Chronicle Of The Black Sword by Hawkwind! Raaaawwwwwkkkk! Chuffed to little mintballs I am. I've been meaning to get the album for ages as I only had a copy on cassette, and it's one of those albums that gets under your skin. The only problem now is, I want to go and dig our my Elric books and read them all over again. Maybe Stormbringer is trying to eat my soul!

What makes me smile even more as I listen to the album again is that Principessa is rocking out with me. She has already decided that Jerry Cornelius's Needle Gun is her favourite song.



She is making me giggle so much by pogo-ing about singing 'It's gonna make you run, needle, needle, needle, needle gun!" 'Tis a happy day.

'Tis a doubly happy day as I have also got myself a copy of Brian Lumley's book 'A Coven Of Vampires'. Woohoo! More little mintballs in the happy offing!

Right. Well. Happy day, but need to try and get the Medea/Don Juan essay written, and get ready for the surveyor and occupational therapist visit. They are hopefully going to the extension business started. Finally.

Kid logic.

Principessa is starting to get more argumentative these days. And arguing with some form of logic and fact. The lastest argument is the bedtime argument.

• Me: It's time for bed.
• Princi: Mummy (points to window) it's not dark.
• Me: It's still time for bed.
• Princi: But Mummy, it's still light. It's not dark. It's not night.
  

What can you say? Perfectly logical. It's more or less impossible to get her to go to sleep much before 11pm at the moment. I am thinking of waking her up at 5am and saying 'But it's light. It's time to wake up."

She's also making me laugh lots when I'm playing Guitar Hero - most of the time at her request. I think she likes the tunes. Why does she make me laugh? She tries to sing the songs. Well, more shout than sing. And it is soooo funny and cute! She especially likes 3's and 7's by Queens of the Stone Age. It makes me think I should re-invest in some QOTSA albums.



(OK, while looking for the 3's and 7's vid to put on the blog, the song started playing and Principessa hoofed it down the stairs, burst through the living room door and looked mightily confused that the GH3 tab was not playing on the TV! Funny little Monkey! Oh, and I call her Monkey because she was born in the year of the monkey, and she climbs like a monkey too!)

Well, I'm just on 1,100 words into the Wallace assignment. Not good as I only have just over 100 words left, and I have more spiritualism stuff to cover, his socialism to start, and a conclusion to wind the whole thing up. I think it might be time to go through what I have written and see if there is stuff there that I can cut. Grrr. I think it is all relevant. And I hate cutting things in case they are the things that are being looked for in the essay. Bum! I'm kind of looking forward to this essay being done with, even though it's been, by far, the most interesting of the units.

Ipod random is NOT a substitute for a good mix tape.

While I love my Ipod, I wish I could work out how to make playlists up! I'm not usually this technophobic, but for some reason I cannot work out ITunes! Yes, I feel very thick. If I could sort out my playlists I wouldn't have to rely on the randomiser so much. Here is just a snippet of the tracks it randomised last night (in order of play):

1. Architecture/plan reading - OUCD3b (need to delete this now the block is done, methinks)
2. Alexandra Leaving - Leonard Cohen
3. Heaven is a Halfpipe - OPM
4. Friends - Adam and the Ants
5. TMA02 Help and Advice - Track 5 OUCD5a (another that needs deleting)
6. You See This Creature - Pygmalion OUCD6
7. Poor Thing - Helena Bonham-Carter/Johnny Depp
   
8. Tonight, Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins

What I wouldn't do for a good mix tape with some rationality to it!

On exciting music news though, I have booked my tickets to see Bryan Adams in October. Woohoo! Chuffed to little mintballs, I am!

Anyway, while I was scribbling things down last night (TMA stuff, random snippets of thought that could be used in stories, Ipod random list) I noticed a caution on the side of my pen:

• Keep pen cap out of mouth, it can obstruct breathing if swallowed.

No poop, Sherlock! (Doesn't sound right that, but no swearing around Principessa!) Could? I would say it would. Talk about stating the bleeding obvious!

At least I have started drafting Q2 of the TMA, after a long day of talking it out with Kirst yesterday. Argh, I don't know if it helped or hindered. I think I only succeeded in confusing myself and straying from the plan I thought I had. Instead of arriving at 'The Death Of Socrates' I ended up at the Slaughtered Lamb. D'oh!

So, to finish today, I think some light relief is needed. This morning Principessa found a pen and decided she needed to tattoo her legs. A little later on, Nanny took her into the bathroom and tried to wash the ink off.

• Nanny: It won't come off, will it?
• Princi: Then we need some Cillit Bang!

Out of print.

That's something I hate. When books go out of print. Over the last few months, I have been trying to get hold of a good copy of Brian Lumley's 'Compleat Crow'. I tried to get a copy from Ebay, but was outbid, tried to get a copy from Abebooks, but no luck. Now finally, I have managed to get a copy. WOOOOHOOOOOO! Now I'm really looking forward to reading it.

I've mostly been reading Neil Gaiman stuff lately. I did something I promised myself I wouldn't do; read 'Stardust'. I wanted to see the film first. Ah well. If they do not manage to get everything from the book into the film, I will be really disappointed. I think 'Stardust' is one of the shortest books I have ever read (around 180 pages). I also read 'Neverwhere', a much more substantial book. That I really enjoyed. If you get a chance to read it, do. It's a very interesting concept for a story.

There has been a lot of crap happening here, but I am not going to go into it. It is not my story, it is my cousins, but it is affecting the whole family. I am very worried for both of them.

Time to get back to Principessa and her new interest; playing the keyboard. (My head hurts.)