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As of this morning, I have 2500 readers on the Cafe.

Now. *rubs hands* PHASE TWO CAN BEGIN! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHaahahah...oh.

I mean, uh, phase two of...this....recipe I am working on!

Play happily, my little cafe patrons! There is no reason to suspect any nefarious acts! I wish only for your good health and happiness!

Muahahahahahaha.

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So, I love the computer Dad got me for Christmas, it's fast and has a really shiny screen and a DVD writer and there's no tape covering up bits that have fallen off, like on my old one. I'm really grateful and I use it a lot.

The only thing is, it's the exact size, shape, and weight as my old one, which was...not light, nor small. So while it is a laptop, which is good because I do most of my computing in bed or on the futon, it's not easily luggable if I want to, say, take my computer with me in the morning so I can go straight from work to R's place and still have a computer handy.

All of which leads up to the fact that I may have bought a Dell Mini last night and I am feeling kind of shallow and conspicuously consumer about it. I don't have Buyer's Remorse -- I have Idealist's Guilt.

It's just -- it's so tiny! It weighs less than two and a half pounds! And since my entire life goes with me everywhere on a flashdrive hung around my neck, I don't need the full computing power of The Awesome Laptop at all times. I can just shove this thing in my bag and bring it along and it will be Adequate.

And I got it off the outlet website, so it only cost me a thousand superballs. Normally these things cost like 1500 superballs. That's a lot of superballs, you guys. 500 superballs doesn't seem like much but if you unleashed 500 superballs down, say, the central stairwell of your local library, you would find yourself in jail on superball-related charges. (And then would have to post superbail.)

So you could say that buying a Dell Mini is keeping me out of jail, so it's just as well that I did. Or something.

I did a bunch of writing on Jack & Ellis last night but of course not on what comes next. Still, ( good times. )

(no subject)

Ephemera, in one definition of the word, is scraps of paper and paper products that society produces which are usually considered disposable -- brochures, magazines, tickets, receipts, business cards, that kind of thing. I love ephemera and have for years -- I used to make posters from scraps collected on trips, but that got a bit messy so now I scan them and use them in the photo yearbooks I make each year.

I use ephemera in stories too, when I can -- they're useful for telling little snatches of a story without wasting a lot of time on the words. Jack & Ellis and the Torchwood Chicago duology both use ephemera, though I think Torchwood Chicago has the dubious distinction of being one of the first fanfics ever to use primary-source digital ephemera (disposable images that have never seen hardcopy print, like community headers and the "in memoriam" manip for Colonel Lethbridge).

I also trawl through archives of old scanned ephemera when I get the chance (you can find a bunch of them scattered throughout my art reference tag at delicious) and this morning I got to explore an archive devoted to scrapbooks from -- well, officially "1850 - 1920" but the art looks closer to the late 19th than early 20th. It's interesting and kind of heartening that they were scrapbooking a hundred years ago what I still save now -- train tickets, postcards, advertisements, and even the occasional LOLcat.

Nice reminder that one day we will be someone's history, too.

(I also found a photograph of First Lady Grace Coolidge cuddling a raccoon.)

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Coworker J: It's warming up out there.
Sam: It's a false promise.
Coworker J: I think it might be in the double digits.
Sam: It's just mother nature luring you into taking off your heavy winter coat so that tomorrow she can freeze us all to death. Mother nature is fickle and bitter. She withers joy and exists to cause us pain. She wishes us nothing but....hi, BossBoss.
BossBoss: No, go on, you were just getting to a good part. Do the economy next.

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*falls onto bed*

I'm home.

I don't even know, nothing HAPPENED this week, I'm just really tired. Thinking about the fact that I'm going to have to do my laundry on Sunday is making me want to crawl under the blankets and never come out again. I was considering working on the Space Opera sequel or Jack & Ellis or the Sekrit Project but god, making shit up is so complicated sometimes.

I'll be fine once I recharge on Saturday, that's why Saturday exists, but right now I'm going go play Chain Factor until my brain reboots itself or I fall asleep or something.

Outside The Government But Not Above Using Two For One Coupons

I have developed many new "friends" in the past few days. Welcome, new friends! As per comments, I assure you I am very capable of programming the robot hoover to go around you instead of eat your shoes (which only happened once, but I really liked those shoes).

I have also interested many people in Welsh Tourism. Did you know in addition to the castle and the national park filled with cannibals we also have Tintern Abbey?

I would like to remind you, however, that as regards anything other than Welsh Tourism or How To Make Friends on this journal, you know nothing. Do we understand each other? Because I'm told friends don't taser friends, but I'm new at "socialising" and technically it's not a taser.

Tomorrow is inventory and restocking day. We used to have a rota, but Owen only ever came back with beer and condoms, and Tosh would buy a bottle of wine and then cry about how she was going to have to drink the whole bottle alone. Which is ridiculous, I quite like a nice Merlot. I tried sending Gwen out, but she kept bringing vegetables back, I think it was some kind of fetish. So now I do the restocking and we never run out of loo rolls or lubricant, which to my mind means everyone wins.

Plus I get to drive the company car, so I'm never cited for speeding and always get the best parking spaces.

(no subject)

Three things about the post I did on ephemera earlier:

1. Did not realise that my art reference tag also contained links to the few very tame porn websites I have bookmarked. Now you all know that I look at woodcuts of naked women and unrevealing pictures of naughty secretaries with their typewriters. OH, THE SHAME OF IT ALL.

2. kalichan and katilara made me wonder about the origin of the term "ephemera", so I looked it up on the OED. The first application of the word was a name for an insect that only lived a single day, drawn from the Greek with the same meaning. It comes to be used as an adjective in the 16th century, but the OED doesn't actually list paper-type-stuff as a definition anywhere under ephemera. I finally found the link under ephemeris, which is the term for a daily journal or a record of astrological movements. So, essentially, the word applies to a paper record of temporary things and is therefore pretty logical: ephemera are what define the ephemeral. GOD I LOVE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

3. In the same general vicinity as the scrapbooks, I found the cookbooks. Hands up if you know James Lileks' Gallery of Regrettable Food, and if you don't, go google it, it's awesome. Anyway, some of these cookbooks really and truly belong there, like the one with the bananas in cranberry sauce recipe or the one that tells you how to make PORK CAKE. Which essentially uses pork fat in place of butter in the cake.

3a. Satan has a casserole for you. Just for you. It's pure.