“Index page of YoungWizzle one of two official fansites fo` reada of Diane Duane’s ‘Young Wizards’ series. I started yo s**t and i’ll end yo’ s**t. To YoungWizzles Home where the sun be shinin and I be rhymin’…”
Someone has “rapperized” Google. Oh my…
We’ve just finished moving all theErrantry Concordance entries into wiki format, and I’m in love. The entries look better…everything about the Concordance looks better. And it indexes itself.. People can even get XML feeds to let them know when pages are added.
Woo!
No Need to Click Here – I’m just claiming my feed at Feedster
As the user stats over at European Cuisines start to scale upwards — as they always do, about a week before The Day That’s In It — the referrer stats from Google and so forth are starting to show that dread search string again.
Yes indeed, it’s time for the annual Corned Beef Snit. If you missed it last time out, now’s your chance to watch me get cranky.
(Oh, and don’t miss the Irish sushi page, either. There’s even corned beef spice in that.) (urgh…)
In case you need one. (Flash animation. I can’t think of any circumstances under which this wouldn’t be work-safe, though.)
Sharp’s new Kitchen Composter.
Only available in Japan right now…but they have the same voltage as we do. (runs to make note on Tokyo 2007 shopping list…)
(Yes, I’ve tried regular compost heaps with earthworms, etc, but for whatever reasons I’ve had no luck with them. Over time all kinds of things have happened: the cats get into the heap (chasing mice who’re there after the warmth, I think), the core temperature never gets as high as it should and nothing happens, we’re away from home too long on one business trip or another and the thing “dies”… For someone who’s a good baker, and seems to have an understanding with most kitchen yeast, I just have no talent with the outdoor types of fermentation. At which point I become happy enough to bring in a machine to do the job.)
(Out of Treehugger via Boing Boing)
Last week saw the 2005 version of what’s become a traditional midwinter trip: the run over to Switzerland for Fasnacht, the Swiss version of Mardi Gras.
On our way to our preferred Fasnacht (the one in Basel: see Fasnacht.ch for details), 
we passed briefly through Zürich to pick up our agent, Don, and his lady-friend, Lisa, who were coming over to experience Fasnacht for the first time. While wandering the streets we passed by the Grieder clothing store, which is presently undergoing renovations. Surrounding the work area was a big scaffolding covered with a poster that said, “We’re going through some changes”…and the slugline was accompanied by a number of images of wonderfully “remixed” animals. It was a definite stop-and-stare moment. Fortunately Peter insisted on getting pictures then and there: when we came back later in the week, the poster was gone.
You can see more of these pictures as a Flickr photoset here (or go down to the Flickr “zeitgeist” panel in the middle column and click on one as it comes up). My favorites: the flamingo-cheetah and the hare-akeet.
It tends to be a sporadic thing in Ireland. Only now and then do you get enough of it to lie for very long: and then it tends to hit all at once — like the blizzard we had in 2002 — and paralyze the whole area for days.
The last few days, though, have been an exception to the rule. For nearly a week it’s snowed a little every day, in little showers that come and go, sometimes with sunshine in between. Sometimes what’s fallen has melted away within an hour or two: sometimes it’s lain around being decorative for most of the day. 
Last night, though, some fairly heavy and prolonged falls came through, leaving us with three inches or so on the ground this morning, and more still coming down. The cats are mostly bemused. The younger ones have rarely seen so heavy a fall: Bubble, in particular, who’s only two, has never seen anything like this, and has been walking around the back yard with a “WTF??” expression. Beemer has been chasing her around in it (though a couple of days ago she kept coming into the house, during the less heavy snow showers, and complaining to me — I think the gist of the complaint was “The sky is busted: stuff that I can see is falling out of it!”). Goodman has mostly been sleeping through all this: he doesn’t seem to care for the snow much.
But Squeak, now — Squeaky is in his element, for Squeak is a “skog”, a Norwegian forest cat. Equipped with extra fur between his toes, extra fur in his ears to keep the snow out of them, and a coat too dense for the snow to get through, he’s completely ready for this kind of thing. He stood on the doorstep after breakfast and looked out at the back yard, and his eyes got wide. You could almost see the “race memory” kicking in (“Hey, I know what this is for…!!”). Within minutes he was rolling around in the white stuff and scampering like a kitten. As soon as there’s enough snow to drift, he’ll dive headfirst into the biggest snowdrift he can find and be gone for minutes at a time (I saw him do this during the blizzard).
As for me, my main encounter with the snow this morning was to go out and make sure the birds’ peanut feeders were full, then hightail it back inside. I’ve got a cup of tea, and a fire in the fireplace, and the snow isn’t interfering with the satellite broadband: I’m happy.
(“You’re so easily amused,” says the Voice from Upstairs. And he’s absolutely right. Herself forfend it should ever be any other way.)
CNN gives a good roundup of the most recent events — especially those of this past week and indeed the last couple of days — surrounding the big Northern Bank robbery in December. But some other stories bring up some fascinating highlights, too, with some interesting quotes:
“If I’m proven wrong, I’ll run up and down the street naked for you.”
“No nationalist voted for bank robberies.”
“Ten men didn’t starve to death for bully boy tactics…”
And possibly the best one, from a most unlikely source:
“The IRA has said it was not them. I believe them. …But maybe I am wrong.”
It’s going to be interesting to see what the next week’s news produces…
And not the one you’re thinking of, either:
The angular velocity of the object equals the square root of Pi, times the gravity divided by the distance the pancake is from the elbow times four…
That’s how to get the flipped pancake back in the pan, apparently.
I hadn’t even been thinking about it being Shrove / Pancake Tuesday…that day on which (in the UK and Ireland) the airwaves suddenly seem to fill up with commercials for the sellers of plastic lemons full of reconstituted lemon juice. My attention was more on next Tuesday (which is our wedding anniversary..) and, as usual, next Monday (which is Fasnacht. But we were talking to Peter’s mum this morning, and she was trying to track down a Pancake-Tuesday-type-pancake recipe with golden syrup in it (instead of on top of it, as many people here like it)…so the subject suddenly became something to be concerned about. I went Googling for the recipe and couldn’t find what Mum was after…but did stumble across the BBC article above.
And now, of course, when I have fifty other things to be thinking about, I want a pancake. (mutter)
(Here’s a typical Pancake Tuesday pancake recipe, if someone out there wants one.)
Have to play with that a little and see what it’s good for.
And when in the US only:
I don’t have to ask what that’s going to be good for. All kinds of things!
Thank you, Colm!!
A POX upon the month of January, already the crappiest month of the year. Snowed in with diseased roommates without internet access while being forced to imagine Abraham Lincoln and SpongeBob making whoopee was not Giblets’s idea of a good time. Giblets does not have high expectations for February.
I really do love Fafblog, but I wish they’d find some color besides that particular shade of green for the background. After reading anything much, it takes many minutes before any other colors look right again…
(Oh, yeah. And this:)
A POX upon George Lucas and those who worship George Lucas! You’re worse than God! At least God didn’t cast Jake Lloyd in Episode I!
(snort)