I went into the exam feeling pretty well prepared.

Once I read the questions, I didn't feel so well prepared anymore.

Anyway, I answered something to every question that I think was right, if not complete, and all in all, I think... well, hope I'll pass.



Random thought of the day: I'm so used to writing and reading English at the computer that German websites seem odd. o_O

ETA: Mutt, you want to see this

The radio station I listen to has as a guest they're interviewing Mark Benecke, a criminal biologist... that's probably a too literal translation, but I'll seave it; he's someone who does things like having a good look at the fly larvae on a dead body to figure stuff out. He's also an expert on blood splatters.

In the field he's such a world-famous expert that he was the only one who was allowed to examine Hitler's remains and document it with photos. (Among other things he figured out that Hitler had really, really bad breath because the cocaine he had rubbed into his gums to stay awake had eaten away said gums, and the bone under them.)

Mark Beneke got into this job somehow while working on his diploma thesis in zoology about the family background of (zoo-)flamingos: To figure out which flamingo had fathered whose chicks, he wanted to learn how to do genetic fingerprints, and, well, somehow changed fields there.

He's also on the board of the Ig Nobel Prize.

Are the people who answer "cell phones" serious?

With stuff like ABC weapons, landmines, and bloody bombs camouflaged as toys so that kids pick them up, there are people who pick the cell phone as the one invention the world would be better without?

I feel : stunned

... because on top of the overwhelming urge to clean house, I also want to:

• buy stuff to get into linol printing
• buy some glue I think would be good to get into collaging
• finally try my hand at bookbinding
• break out the Fimo again and/or make paper mache for somewhat bigger sculptures
• make sculptures out of wire and yarn (what the hell would I do with those once they're finished? They'd be a pain to dust, too...)
• make some paper out of grass
• draw and/or paint
• make sure I have my and my mother's entire CD collections digitised, so I don't buy a title off amazon that we have on a sampler somewhere
• try on all jeans in my wardrobe to see which ones fit comfortably at the moment (and I usually loathe that)
• sort my books and try to sell or give away some, though that may fit under "cleaning house"

Definitely exam-time, yep.

Stories of 55 words? Well, ’s better than the 140 characters minus the “#microfiction” tag on Twitter…

Stretching Limits
They had called him mad, but he had proved them wrong by creating a being that they had considered impossible, showing that not a natural law, but merely habit had dictated the humanoid shape of golems so far.
He loved it when learning about his tortoise-shaped mobile home gave people new ideas.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Tags: fiction, nanofiction, uncategorized

In the MTG tournament (Prerelease, Sealed), I mostly lost. One problem was that I got decent cards in three of four colours, so it was hard to decide what to play, and after consulting with one of the more experienced players I ended up playing three colours, without the least bit of manafixing.

The one "prize" booster everybody got would have been good for playing; there were four bits of removal, which is about what I had in my deck built from rather more boosters. It also had a Silence.
Ehwell, I got two kinda nice green rares, and the new Elf lord (not sure how nice or not-nice that is) in the draft, so it could have been worse. Oh, and another Siege-Gang Commander.

Tags: mtg

Is anyone interested in buying the complete DVD set of Trigun? American version, including the region codes.

Apparently the (Protestant) church-run kindergarten I went to already told us about other religions, at least that is the only explanation I can imagine for an image I drew then whose parts the teacher labelled for me with "minaret" and "mosque".

Those two bits of post are connected: I'm sorting through a couple of boxes and stuff, trying to declutter.

In other news, my mother bought some deodorant without perfume (I can't stand scented stuff - hairspray, body lotion, deodorant, all icky), or alcohol, or colouring, or preservatives. The list of ingredients contains four substances, one of them water.
I appear to be allergic to the stuff. Yay for irony.

I wasn't at the MTG tournament yesterday (mostly because I was having a bad day, homework fail, coming to the university for nothing and blargh), but I signed up for the M10 (11th edition) prerelease tomorrow.
I had a look at the cards, and there's some fun stuff. They brought back griffins. (I like griffins, for no particular reason.)
There's also some surprising stuff, like the instant that is Terror minus the "artifact creatures are immune" bit. They also came up with a new version of the good old Lord of the Pit.
What I really don't like is that they went and replaced some existing cards with exactly the same thing with a different name (meaning the old cards may not be played in Standard Tournaments anymore). OK, turning the Grizzly Bears into Runeclaw Bears at least has the benefit of adding fantasy flavour, which they talked a lot about, but "Threaten" becoming "Act of Treason" is just annoying, because the people who play it will have to get new cards.

Ehwell.
I weeded bits of the front yard today, and, as I said, sorting and decluttering. I guess I'll go back to that now.

Comment "WORDS" to this entry and I will comment back with five words I associate with you. Then you post this in your journal elaborating.

beccastareyes gave me words...

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I did some... well, can't really call it tidying up yet, but sorting of stuff, including some getting rid of stuff I really don't want or need anymore. I also emptied out a big plastic box that had been sitting under the table (it was half full with old newspapers, so that wasn't THAT difficult), and anything that I don't want anymore, but I can't bring myself to throw away, will go in there, and at some point I'll try to get rid of it at a flea market.

There was also some playing around with paint (which is productive, because I can figure out stuff, like "lemon yellow layered over ultramarine blue does NOT result in green").

I drew an overdue exchange image (which was included in my last post), which was kinda half-assed (it's not bad for what it is, but I prefer doing better than an inked portrait), but since the recipient needs an adoption image due to having been stiffed, I'll make up for that with that adoption.

I also set up the next round of the exchange.

For the last post with the gallery update I went through two years' worth of photos looking for ones to upload.

The images also started appearing on deviantart (I had planned to upload the zodiac chickens throughout the LAST week, but apparently I zoned out or something), and I got my messages there under control again. The images for me to look at has passed the 400 mark, so it was past time.

And I cooked a pot of pasta sauce.
And I put the camera batteries to recharge overnight, because I want to take a little trip tomorrow.

Yep, definitely starting to feel better.

Well, what with cold and otherwise induced brainfog, this was a dead month, blogging-wise. Let’s start the next one off, then.

I’m way more proud than I should be about finishing the Zodiac Chickens series. If you want to see all on one view, try the “Zodiac” tag.

Insect Photos:

Stag beetles are supposedly very rare, yet we keep finding them in our garden. I think it’s because our family tends to leave treestumps in the earth; the beetles’ larvae feed on rotting wood.

Flowers and other Nature stuff:

And some old-ish buildings:

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Tags: art, daily drawing, gallery updates, images, photos