what may or may not be hard reality

And I got a package in the mail today!! Yay!! Three more Queen albums, making me the proud owner of 10 original albums (not counting 'Greatest Hits I, II & III', because, well, the songs on those are really not my favourites, and I like them better in their original setting). I'm currently falling in love with The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke, that I hadn't heard a proper version of before... mmm... Also in my pretty package was a k.d. lang DVD; Harvest of Seven Years (Cropped and Chronicled) which is... insane, mostly. It's videos from -83 through -90, if I understand correctly (I haven't made my way all the way through yet), and god, she's quite insane. They'd be ridiculous, only OMG the woman can SING, and she's so aware of the vids being insane that they become hilarious instead. It's fabulous. And OMG can she sing..... *ded*

And then my father and I went out to pick mushrooms this afternoon. It was quite lovely; the weather looked like rain this morning, but it cleared up and with the sun came warmth, and it was sweet. Riding a bike on pavement is always just transport and about getting somewhere as fast as possible, but biking in the woods is so lovely, much too long since I've done it. I almost found myself disappointed when we got to the mushroom places. (Of course, getting off the bikes also meant that the mosquitoes were able to catch us up.) Now, I can't find mushrooms to save my life, so it was all about my father pointing to them, and then I'd pick them, and he'd go search out the next spot. You'd think chantarelles'd be visible, but it's been a too dry summer so they were all tiny and pale instead of large and pretty and yellow. They're still yummy, though. Mmm.

So my new darling Nicky Hambleton-Jones spent yesterday's episode praising boobies and flirting gently with the lovely Ruby Hammer. Sweet sweet. She's most likely straight, though. I ran a google search and the first 11 hits were for sites that had links to their 'gay & lesbian' section in the frames, and the 12th hit was my own journal, because I'd commented on something gay on CSI in the same post as Nicky. Putting 'lesbian' instead of 'gay' in my search shoves my journal down to 31st hit, adding such gems as mentions of her "power-lesbian glasses" and an article in DIVA Magazine that tells me that I should be hating Nicky for being 'nothing by a waxy-faced drag hag who lacks a reflection in the mirror and probably doesn't cast a shadow either' (slightly paraphrased). And this seems to be the most common response. Mof Gimmers from TVScoop called her "the most evil person on TV" for coaxing tears from her poor weepy victims with bad self-esteem, but went on to change opinion as they concluded that she apparently got a kick out of honest people. Which I can believe. But not that I care what the anti-beauty people yell about, if people are stupid enough to go on those shows, they'd better live with it. And if people can't think for themselves, that's sorta their problem. It's not like they're targeting 13-year-olds. So I enjoyed watching the lovely Nicky; she praised the boobies several times and she was also line-dancing, while displaying a level of insane energy that reminded me of Emily. (Gosh, I love Emily...) She should be a lesbian, dammit.

Went out skiing the other night with my father. Quite an experience. It's been some three years ago since I last skied, but I found to my annoyance that I knew exactly what do to, however, I didn't quite have the muscles to do it with. However, my father was kind and we took it (relatively) slow. I say relatively because the snow was absolutely incredible. A few lazy pushes with the poles, and it felt like we were flying past. It was amazing, just us, and the thin tracks, and the silent dark forest briefly illuminated by our headlamps, the snow gleaming and glittering everywhere. We skied to a golf course that's about 3 kilometers from here, that has several tracks of different length going around it. It's a beautiful place, and every time we stopped for drinks we'd turn our lamps off because with the snow it's never completely dark. The night was wrapped in a gentle fog that seemed to shine from within with the moonlight refracted through every tiny drop of water, and trees were visible as dark shapes on the ridges, with an impenetrable mass of forest as a backdrop. Geography was completely lost to me as the track wound it's way around the course, and before I knew it we were back at our smaller track going through the forest and back home. We went a total of some 12 kilometers (8 miles? maybe?) and boy, did I feel it in my legs the next day. I'm quite satisfied with the experience, though, enough to last me this winter, and maybe the next one too, but it was indeed gorgeous, and any number of other pretty words that wouldn't quite do it justice.

And then on to a completely different topic. Skip the rest if you're allergic to rants.

Current pet peeve of *doom*:
I play a fair amount of Othello (Reversi) online against live players, and what I *hate* above all else are the miserable cowards who leave the game when they make a mistake or when they appear to be losing. Oh my God. I mean, I can accept it if someone would use the little chat function and let me know that "I'm sorry, I have to leave.", but that hasn't happened yet. But innumerable are the times when I've *just* (through hard concentration and intense playing) claimed a significant corner, and a little window pops up that tells me that "Your opponent has left the game.". Good God, it's so tremendously rude; just because it's anonymous DOES NOT make it ok to act like complete asses. Grow up and learn to honor your commitments, or don't play at all. (And I'm not implying that anyone on my flist does this, it's just a generic statement to the general public, not for people with manners to be concerned with.)

I would have cut the rant for, well, ranting, but on the off chance that someone should stumble across this journal who's ever done that, I wanted it to be readily visible, because I want them to know that it's   N O T   O K !

Today, the weather is completely still, the sky is intense blue with not a cloud in sight, that really really high almost cold blue sky that fall brings. It's beautiful, though, and almost warm outside. Probably one of the last summer days we have left. And it's also my father's 60th birthday! Happy Birthday, Pappa! (even if you're most likely never gonna read this...)