Wasting away again

Thank goodness it's finished.

Turned the last of the revision into the advisor before the deadline. Can look forward to a restful holiday break.

As requested, a few tank shots. I apologise for the quality, I've been fiddling with the settings to get clear snaps, but, well -- at last here are a couple. More to come when I figure this out ;)

Yes, it's really like that at times.

Taking full advantage of the summer days to recertify and forget about the revisions I know will be coming back to me this semester. Thurs-Mon look to be my free chunks this year, and that's much nicer than the Sat-Tues chunk of last year.

Working on a user pic for St John -- might be initials only -- or just the classic Giovanni "G".

In other news: the hard corals, live rock and sand are firmly established and have shown some growth. The cleaners are doing their job and we're going to start introducing soft corals next. As for live fish, this time going to start with some seahorses and clowns once the softs are growing well.

Coincidence? No way to tell, but it sure is funny.

Had a blast this weekend seeing so many old faces and meeting some new ones. It's also a good excuse to visit the parents for a few days, making it an extra-long holiday weekend -- which is not ever a bad thing, although the weather leaves something to be desired today after such a gorgeous two days up in Mary's Land.

Story wise, the Ego is planning something. I'm not sure what, he's skulking in the shadows and being very quiet -- I know, mark the date -- and as a result, Primo and Stefano are getting chatty. Andy's waiting for young Roby to post to T&C, but he's patient as he knows he'll eventually be losing a useful ghoul to Izzy. The things he does for the lady -- hee.

Great white sharks tagged for first time off Mass.

Sun Sep 6, 4:22 am ET

BOSTON – Massachusetts officials are using high-tech tags to track the movements of two great white sharks near Cape Cod — the first time the fearsome fish have ever been tagged in the Atlantic Ocean.

I have got codes. I do not need these codes -- I have my accounts, so you can have them!

S7495Q39GBT2PAAACN47
AMZ2YPJ8FGKC4AAACN48
P2A9YMYEGYZ5DAAADF7K
RJ3QYYKCN5GSYAAADF7L
D8WVSW5E34A32AAABP9D
9RT8W7DTHHV8MAAABP9E
EJC67ZJ88EQMHAAACW3D
PQAAZ22YRED76AAACW3E
776VMRXRVHJ86AAACW2K
5QRK84WPWJ4DRAAACW2L

I don't know if I am hysterically insane or just plain insane, but I think that for some of Gino's pre-Embrace posts, I'll be using the Roman calendar notations for him -- but only in his personal accounts. There's nothing to be gained from driving myself even more insane by changing the 3rd person narratives.

I'd imagine, too, the the crafty Cainite version of himself would quickly see the fruitlessness of such a complicated time measuring device and abandon it very quickly in his unlife. His appreciation of complexity wouldn't stretch that far when expediency serves much better.

We also both agree that we're not even getting into the ridiculous muddle of saint's days.

And -- here we go: The Roman calendar organized its months around three days, each of which served as a reference point for counting the other days:

* Kalends (1st day of the month)
* Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months)
* Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months)

The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or the Ides. For example, March 3 would be V Nones—5 days before the Nones (the Roman method of counting days was inclusive; in other words, the Nones would be counted as one of the 5 days).

Days in March

March 1: Kalends; March 2: VI Nones; March 3: V Nones; March 4: IV Nones; March 5: III Nones; March 6: Pridie Nones (Latin for "on the day before"); March 7: Nones; March 15: Ides

World domination shall be mine in time for the next Ice Age at this rate, unless it is 2012 as the whack jobs predict -- if so, I need to step up my plans ASAP.

So, this Twitter micro blogging phenom -- I find it absolutely, wickedly funny that Gino enjoys using it more than I do. I am still trying to shake the feeling that there isn't much of interest that I have to say, and that I should refrain from polluting the interwebs with tweet pollution. That, and I'm terrified that I'd be swept into special interest (#)hash tag discussions and never do anything creative again.

I enjoyed the watercolour filtering effect I got today with GIMP. I have a feeling that I'll be playing with it some more over the summer.

But for now -- time to nap in the sun.

Reunion weekend has come and gone again. It was nicely done, again, and I enjoyed seeing old friends. The crab feast was disappointing, but that isn't a huge surprise given the current state of the Bay's health and poor species management. The cardboard boat races were a blast -- soggy, sodden messes that they ended up being.

Going to do a few more days of sightseeing around DC before heading back home. Have to go see Written in Bone while I'm here and make a list of places to back and visit at the end of summer before the winter routine starts again.

But for now, I need to write a few replies to the lovely Lucretia.

Not really, but it sounds fun, and really, it should be. Now, thanks to a certain someone, I've got these accounts and I wonder what to do with them.

Actually, it's more what to do with Gino's stuffs. I was toying with a few ideas, and can see cross-posting in the future as it's dead easy to do, but what is the stickler. I'm quite happy to stay camped out at IJ with the evil walking ego but don't want the DW to stand empty. I might just make static posts for the prompt comms and link back to the replies in his IJ account. That way, the private journal entries will stand out as being part of the story and all the meta- cracked out fun will stay at IJ.

I might have come up with a plan. Feel free to adapt [steal] it as you see fit.

You had to link me this layout, didn't you? The world was going to fall right out of orbit and plummit into the sun if you didn't, right?

*shakes fist* Curse you.

Went ahead and let the Carpe Noctem mods know that it isn't working. Began cleaning up my lads from the place, so whenever the fairer ones are ready to begin they may. [I know their writer is dragging, that's why I went ahead and gave the 'heads up' for it.]

Exams in a fortnight. Only one paper due between then and now [eep] and that's it really.

I also apologise for any unholy glee the terrble one is taking from current events. [grins]

Now that spring is out of my blood. To do this weekend:

Gino and Stewie arrive in London. The side plot was amusing though. Gino finally found a way to cow Stewie into silence.

Kidnap priest in Turin. Begin subversion of Lucretia from under Claudius' nose.

Andreas reply - St. Leonard's.

Taunt Carter.

I shall be Salty Spice.



We'd best hope this degree pays -- That's all I'm sayin'.

aka unidentified freaky objects. Took the suggestion to heart and ran with it. Invites out, two others to maintain, as it is not a solitary sandbox, nor an exclusive one. Well, yes, it is --

I want to start moving backstory posts there this weekend and then link them into l_antico_mal. Haven't forgotten about boxing Stewie and I need to let himself come back with a few zingers [feel free to punch him if he gets too nasty and too personal!]. Weekend will be beginning a little early -- and is a long one -- so will be continuing forward and can only hope a bit quicker than my snail's pace of late.

I lost my paper with Gino's list on it. I can't lose IJ's servers *knocks wood* This has been another senior moment brought to you by the letters "W", "T", and "F".

Gino and Stewie arrive in London.

TN post - March CDE.

Kidnap priest in Turin. Begin subversion of Lucretia from under Claudius' nose.

Andreas post - St. Leonard's.

Edit Fortunato's journey to Winchester. Post it.

post to VIMH

The not-so-merry-go-round whirlwind of work, a dash more work, and then a bit of work for more variety is winding down now. Tonight marks the beginning of spring break and I intend to use it well. If I feel any masochistic nostalgia for working, I'll go chase tornadoes or something.

We've e-submitted the grant proposals, filed the previous grant reports, schedules of completion, etc, and I've gotten the thesis beaten into decent shape and submitted for review by my advisor. Pardon the visual equivalent of knocking wood here, but I think I'll be superstitious for a little while.

As horrible as I feel for letting the Primo thread hang, it may be tomorrow when I tag back {ducks behind wall of pillows}. I just have the overwhelming need to hide under my blankets away from a computer screen and read some brain candy and let my eyes solidify after staring at glowing things for an eye-melting two week span.

On tap for break:
1. Primo [as soon as the poor drip figures out how to react to someone liking him. The hilarity is endless there.]
2. Gino and Stewie do a bit of light packing [at least get the posts leading up to it posted. Sheesh.]
3. TN - 1/2 Full - March CDE post
4. Catch-up in other prompt comms

The blessing of being dyslexic is that Friday the 13th on quick scans is Friday the 31st -- not that I buy into the whole superstition of the day. So many people do, though, that they forget the key item of importance. Thank god it's [still] Friday.

Lab and work were bears this week and are likely to be so for the next 2 weeks until things settle back down to a dull roar. Yes, it's grant proposal writing time! Bank robbery might be easier and more enjoyable. Kidding. Well, just a little serious. Mainly due to one of the old dried up haddocks in the lab insisting that we'll not get funding from one program because they've not sent us the paper application forms -- Hello! PDFs. *headdesk*

but -- It's Friday! Lucky 31!

So, it started off with the sharing of a comment after getting email ping:

I wish for a meeting between Davros and Gino. <3

Sniggers abound, and then it mutates.

"What."

"Just an idea about a mad scientist and a mad vampire."

"Oh yeah? Why so funny?"

"Exterminate. Nice sentiment, but it's exsanguinate. Exterminate! Exsanguinate! Exterminate! Exsanguinate!"

"Ha, ha, ha! What if they were pervs? Exsperminate!"

1/2 serious faces in the lab. "Wait, wouldn't that be insperminate?"

"Not if they were wanking."

All ded from giggles.



George, dear George -- molto grazie.

Himself sent up on a fake MySpace? Emo Ambro?

Oh dear lord.

The paroxysms of rage would be epic. As would his revenge.
"Today, I shall fight fire with fire."

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