Read This

So I have absolutely no time for anything other than Finishing Final Projects and Work, but I had to post this link:

Why defend freedom of icky speech?

In it, Neil Gaiman says, "Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost."

Please, if you care about freedom of speech at all, read this. (And at the top of my list to do as soon as I have five minutes not earmarked for school or work or basic survival is now: find out exactly what Canada's freedom of speech laws look like. I already know we don't have the same rights to parody as they do in the US, but that's really about all I do know.)

Weirdest Grocery Order Ever

Before anyone asks, yes, I am still alive, just monumentally busy with final projects. It's my last semester, so everything comes down to this. In a few weeks, I'll be done and back to regular blogging, emailing, and posting of comics (ooh, and I have a new comic I'll be unveiling).

In the meantime, here's what I just brought home from the grocery store:

• President's Choice "Green" toilet paper
• pickled sweet onions
• tangy dill mini pickles
• canned bean sprouts
• canned giant escargot
• spicy pepper and herb olive oil (with a big giant pepper in the bottle)
• sundried tomatoes in olive oil
• canned sour cherries
• canned asparagus tips
• canned peach halves
• small decorative glass jar
• frozen mussels in shell
• frozen raw shrimp (unpeeled)
• frozen chicken giblets and hearts
• frozen smoked kippers
• frozen whole squid
• fresh mackerel fillets
• fresh beef kidney

This is definitely the weirdest assortment of things I've brought home, and anyone who knows me much at all knows I have a habit of bringing home weird things. But it's all in the name of science. Or art. Or something.

I promise I'll post again and explain it all. Except the toilet paper. I think you can figure that one out yourselves.

What I've Been Working On

It's an edition of 25, hand-set wood type from the Dawson collection, hand-cut lino, printed on a Vandercook Universal I proof press. Get yours from the Dawson Printshop (and, yes, we will mail it). Oh, and it's 15 x 22 inches, on mould-made St Armand paper with 2 deckle edges.

Big Apple

The Apple Store in New York City.

One More

Yesterday I polished off Introduction to Bookbinding and decided that while it's a reasonable book in its descriptions of how bookbinding is done, it's not really one I could recommend to someone wanting to actually try bookbinding for the first time. Not nearly enough diagrams, for one thing. You kind of already have to know what the guy is talking about in order for it to make sense. Anyway, some interesting differences between what he says and what I learned.

In addition to books, I tend to accumulate unread magazines, which I've also been working to catch up on lately. I'm totally up to date on Fine Books & Collections and the CBBAG newsletter, though I still haven't read the CBBAG journal (first issue!) yet. I'm working on the latest Wired (which I subscribed to a couple of months ago), but haven't cracked the latest Mac World yet (boy got a free short subscription when he bought his iMac). At least I'm not behind on it yet. I have an issue or two of Skeptic, which is a thick tome and tends to get left till last. And then there's a year's worth of Scientific American from when I had a subscription (2006, maybe?). I just got a couple of back issues of Biblio on eBay that I'll start soon, though I'm trying to decide if I should grab a couple full years worth from another seller, even though it means I'll end up with doubles of about six issues (it would also mean having all 3 years worth of the magazine). I have to decide on that soon, as the auction ends late tonight. And finally (maybe--there may also be unread magazines lurking about in here that I'll find as I organize) I have two and and half issues of Book Collector to get through. It's only quarterly, but it's a thick, text-heavy journal that takes me a while to plough through. Even though I could never afford to actually collect most of the books they cover, there is all sorts of useful information for bookbinders and scholars-or-books in there. They used to have actual bookbinding articles, but I don't think they do that much anymore. It makes it worthwhile to look for back issues on ABE, though.

So anyway, aside from reading, I've basically been taking it easy this summer. Probably drinking a bit too much cider, but at least I've been getting lots of sun and bicycle exercise. Today has gone and got a bit overcast, and last week I had to take the bus once due to rain--I'm hoping the sun comes back so I can avoid the bus to work and ride my bike for the rest of the summer.

Work is good. I'm working on a series of "wanted" posters for famous figures in book and print history. Of course I started with William Morris. I did some proofing on Thursday and stuck one of the early proofs up on the shop wall. Apparently, two people asked about buying it, and one was serious enough that she left her card and wants us to post her one when they're done. I hope she's not disappointed that the final poster isn't the same brown ink on off-white laid paper as the proof. Instead it'll be red text and black image on a sort of soft grey almost-handmade St Armand paper. I'll get started on the final printing on Wednesday.

In other news, the boy and I are contemplating a road-trip to the States near the end of the summer. I really need to get to BC to visit everyone there and sort out my stuff that's in storage, but as it turns out, Bill hasn't been to visit his people in longer than it's been since I've visted mine. Plus his best friend will be visiting his family in the same area around the same time and he lives in Japan, so this could be the only time in a long while that Bill would be able to see him. My only hesitation is the cost. Though we will have people to stay with.

The idea is to rent a car here and drive down through New York State, hang out in Brooklyn for a few days (the boy has grandparents and other relatives there), then proceed to Pennsylvania for a bit, where we'd meet up with Scott-the-friend-from-Japan and his wife and kids, and also with boy's dad and littlest sister. Then we'd load up the car with a nice rug and some old type (boy's dad deals in antiques) and head back in time for school. The fall break or the winter holidays, then, would be visiting BC time.

First, though, I have a digital camera to finish paying off.

Nap Time

Oh Yeah

Forgot to mention: If you don't have Facebook but still want to see the pics from Sunday's cycling, there's a slightly different selection of them on my Flickr stream (link to the right, under "Visit Me").

Today is a day to Not Do Very Much

It's one of those days where I either should have just gone to work (I had a choice between today and tomorrow and didn't sleep much last night so decided to work tomorrow when I might be better rested) or stayed in bed. I managed to pour my after-lunch cup of tea on the table, my feet, and six pages of comics artwork. Fortunately, the art isn't completely ruined, just a tad wrinkled and tea-stained on the edges. Still, it was just one more thing on a day when I was already feeling a bit down.

So I've decided I just won't do very much today. Fuck trying to get something done. I tried that, and ended up with soggy art. So I added some photos to Facebook, and I'll write some in this blog. Maybe later I'll do some work blogging and start organizing the content for a "video games based on movies" article. Or maybe I won't. Maybe I'll fire up the PS3 and lay some ghosts to rest, or shoot some bugs, or kill a few infidels, or tear up a racetrack. And maybe I'll go to the post office, which is sort of like getting something done, only it's to mail some BookMooch books, so not really. Or maybe I'll go buy a video game I can review for work, which is also sort of like getting something done, but also not really.

Anyway. On the Finishing Half-Read Books Project, I got to the end of Lost Discoveries a couple of days ago, and have been making good progress on Women and the Book. No more new finds of half-read things, though I think I might be partway through a book on Zen that's around somewhere.

And just so you don't think crappy days are the norm around here, Sunday was a very fine day. The boy and I cycled around Halifax, stopping at the Public Gardens, the waterfront, and Point Pleasant Park before retiring to the humble abode for giant hamburgers. I got a horrific sunburn which is just becoming bearable today, but it was a great day anyway. I put some photos up on Facebook, and here's one of me on the beach (after I put on a long-sleeved shirt even though it was too late for my shoulders):



Photo by the boy, of course (who I have decided should be called "Billy Z" (the "Z" being pronounced "Zee") (I haven't informed him of this yet). And speaking of the boy, here he is:



(I call it "Blue Boy.")

Icons!

Self-Portrait in Bill's Glasses

My favourite photograph so far this summer.

More and More

More finished, more half-finished.

I finished Tom Sawyer, which turned out to be much better in big chunks than in small doses, so two reading sessions later, it was over. I'm still not sure why I had trouble getting into it, but now I'm ready to tackle some more Twain. Well, once I've polished off some more of the half-read books on the list.

And speaking of half-read books, yes I found a couple more. One is The Great Airship by Lt. Col. Brereton, a truly abysmal boy's adventure novel from sometime between the wars (I suspect--there's no date on it). It cost me all of a dollar in a tiny "bookshop" located in a garden shed in New Brunswick. I actually have quite a fascination for boy's (and girl's) adventure novels from around the turn of the century and just after. I have a small collection of them that feature airships and am always looking for more--but I think I'll make this a post all on its own. The book has a certain appeal, despite the terrible writing.

The other book is one I picked up on sale at the book fair when the Congress of Learned Societies was in St John's in . . . 1997, I think. It's called Women and the Book: Assessing the Visual Evidence, edited by Jane H.M. Taylor and Lesley Smith. It's a proceedings from a 1993 conference, published with additional essays in 1996. Very scholarly, which explains why I didn't get very far before setting it aside--I was researching and writing my Master's thesis at the time. I picked it up again last night and decided to start over at the beginning since I didn't remember the two essays I had already read very well. Really interesting stuff, and so far quite readable.

It reminds me, for some reason, of an ex-boyfriend. I had seen a book on Celtic archaeology at the bookstore where he worked one day a week--it didn't have a price, so I asked him to check next time he worked. As I recall, my birthday was coming up, and I hinted that it might make a nice gift, if it wasn't too expensive (though I also suggested that it probably was too expensive). I have a small collection of Celtic archaeology books, and this one was a thick anthology of essays by different scholars. So he reports back a while later and it was pricey, as I had suspected. "You wouldn't want it anyway," he said. "It was really technical and full of charts and diagrams."

Erm. First clue this was not the man of my dreams? (Actually first clue was probably that he was a Christian Scientist, but I did try to be open-minded.) I guess he never noticed that I actually sometimes read scholarly books for fun. And maybe he forgot that my BA is in archaeology. One lesson I learned: it's a bad idea to go out with a man who feels threatened by your intelligence (assuming he finally figures out that you have it).

And Another

Yep, I'm on a roll. I finished Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts yesterday, but then found yet another half-read book on the shelves. This time it's Black Water 2, a short story anthology edited by Alberto Manguel. Really, really great stories, but the book is massively huge. I tend to read short stories in cycles: sometimes I'll burn through masses of them, and other times I don't read any. I've been on a non-short-story-reading phase for quite a while now, so this book has sat on the shelf, page marked about halfway through its 1000+ pages.

In non-book news, today I've rented a U-Haul cargo van so we can help move a corner-cutting machine from my boss/teacher Joe's basement to the Dawson Printshop and collect a couple of free chests of drawers and a massive worktable/corner desk. I'll have to post a few pictures--this apartment is starting to look like an actual home. You can see photos of what it looked like when the boy moved in on my Facebook page (they're in the album called"Cellphone Photoshoot 3 - Moving Day(s)"). Mind you, the furniture is still all second-hand--and a lot of it was free--but well-placed pieces of fabric can do a lot for crappy furniture.

One Down

So I finished Codex yesterday, but discovered several more partially-read books on the shelves, identified by the slips of paper sticking up from between the pages to keep my place.

• Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts by Emma Pirani: Lots of pictures and a fair amount of rather dry text. I'm going to tackle this one while I still have plenty of old-book enthusiasm from Codex (not that I ever really lack old-book enthusiasm).


• Introduction to Bookbinding by Lionel S. Darley: Why, you might ask, am I reading an introduction to bookbinding when I've already read several and have progressed beyond the introductory stage in actual hands-on binding? Maybe because I'm a completist. Actually it's because everyone has their own way of doing things and I always like to see what other people recommend. I've learn a surprising amount by occasionally going back and looking at the basics from the point of view of someone I haven't read before.


• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: My mother loves the Brontes. I loved Jane Eyre (different Bronte, but they always seemed more like a collective than individuals). I made it through a pretty good chunk of this before it started to get pretty tiresome. Now I'm trying to read a chapter now and then, except I keep losing the thread of the story. I should probably start over at the beginning. Oh well.

Time to Read

So school is out for summer, and my one summer course is over (digital photo, which was excellent thanks to a really great teacher, even if he did only give me a B in lighting last year). Here's my favourite of the photos I did for my final project (an attempt to recreate the Happy Family photos I remember from growing up in the 70s):



I'm actually considering putting that one on the wall, even though I don't especially like having pictures of myself up. Here's another, that isn't as successful in terms of colour, but which works really well otherwise.



I love the one raised eyebrow thing.

But I began this post with a mention of school being done, and it is, until September. Which means I have a little more time. Time to play videogames, and time to read. Recently I've started to get that feeling I sometimes get, that I need to finish all the books I started before I start any more (except I just started a new one yesterday, completely violating my good intentions). So I'm going to concentrate on finishing unfinished books and see if I can't get them all out of the way by the time summer's over. Then I can start accumulating partly-finished books all over again. Whee!

There's never any one reason I don't make it all the way through a book. Sometimes it requires more brain power that I can give it at the time, so it gets put aside for when I have more leisure. Sometimes it's simply the wrong size to easily read on the bus or in bed or in the tub. Sometimes I lose interest, read something else in the meantime and then don't ever get back. Here are the things I've got in progress at the moment:

• Lost Discoveries by Dick Teresi: It's subtitled "The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya" and is essentially a history of non-western science. I've been reading this one on and off whenever I don't need too much brain for other things. It's a pretty good read and I'm well over halfway through. It's not going to be a problem to finish now that I have no school for a while.


• The Lungfish, the Dodo and the Unicorn by Willy Ley: Another subtitled book; this time "An Excursion into Romantic Zoology." It's a fun book about fantastic beasts that are either not real, real but extinct, or really really for real but seemingly improbable. It was published in 1948 and just seems to work better in small doses, which is why I haven't finished it yet. I guess I've been craving something I can consume in big chunks. Mmmmmm . . . books . . .


• Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht: I'd only just begun this when I moved, so I never really had a chance to get into it before I had to set it aside. Looks like it'll be a good read, though.


• This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson: A novel about nautical exploration and discovery, in which Charles Darwin is a character. I'm enjoying it immensely, but it fits in the category of "too big to comfortably read anywhere but sitting upright in a chair," though I have made valiant attempts to read it in bed. It's going to require evenings of tea and sitting it the ugly salmon-coloured granny rocker to finish, but they'll be good evenings.


• Tom Sawyer by Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain: I love Twain, but I'm finding it hard to get into Tom. I don't remember Huckleberry Finn being this obviously written for children. I will forge on, though, because the writing is marvelous, and I have a copy of Tom Sawyer Abroad on the shelf that I want to get at soon.


• The Confusion by Neal Stephenson: This is the second book in the Baroque Cycle, and baroque it certainly is. Phew! Really great writing, but very very dense, and not as well-sprinkled with humorous bits as the first book. I'll take me a while to slog my way to the end, but I know it's going to have been worth it (how's that for a convoluted verb tense?).


• Codex: by Lev Grossman. Woo! I love books about books, and this novel is proving to be just the easy read I needed, without being too lightweight. I acquired it through BookMooch, which a recommend highly if you have books you don't need but don't really want to dispose of. BookMooch lets you send books off to appreciative other book folks and use the points you thereby accumulate to mooch new books off other people. It makes it so much easier for me to part with books (always a hard thing, even if I know I'll never read them again), knowing who they're going to, and being able to get books in the mail in return. I love mail. Especially when it has books in it.

Well, this post is getting long, so I'll leave it at that. I think there are a few more partly-finished books lurking on the shelves, but I'll deal with the ones listed first, then go in search of others.

Pen Lust

I have no idea how much it even costs (but no doubt way more than I can afford), but I really, really want this pen. Er, anyone wanna bargain for a firstborn child?

What Am I?

So I had this assignment for art history (Narrative and Craft) last week in which we had to describe a craft object without actually saying what the object was or being too obvious about its form. So here's what I wrote:

I am animal:
I have a head and a tail and a spine, twisted threads like sinews and springy muscles of raised bands to hold me together. I am calf brown.

I am vegetable:
I have leaves and boards and dye of vegetable. I am oak brown and pale brown blank-featured and creamy pale linen.

I am no mineral at all (though I might have been clasped in brass).

My rectangular form would have been familiar to monks, my size comfortable to hold and turn in the hands, my purpose to transmit learning.

I am not living, but my kind have long lives. We are stolen, defaced, traded for high prices and lost at the bottom of seas. We hold the world’s knowledge, but I am empty, waiting to be filled with your thoughts.

I won't say what it is just yet, because of this next part of the assignment, which was to take someone else's description, randomly chosen for us by the TA and do a sketch of what we think the object is. Here's the one I got:

The dance floor was enclosed by fourteen intricate darkened pillars. Halfway up, each pillar had been carved away to create a lattice like motif in which carnations intertwined creating their own dance. The sun was so bright that every metal surface shone gold, even the carnations appeared metallic.

The music started to play and a young dancer appeared. With quick taps of castanets her hands demanded attention. She looked as if she had been practicing outdoors her whole life. Her skin had started to crease ever so slightly from the sun and heat. The swirl of her skirt on her brightly coloured dress was mesmerizing. The pillars then appeared as many dancing legs which became one with the movement of the skirt. As it gracefully flared away from her slender body, only to be pulled in close as if it was an extension of herself. The pirouette movement created a path that brought the natural perfume of the carnations into the air and across the dance floor. The scalloped edge of her dress embellished with the carnations resembled the crochet doilies on the tables back at the hotel.

High up on the hill the scenery expanded like that of the fabric in the dancers skirt. Overlooking the coast, coliseum and the city, the colours blue, green, red, gold and brilliant white created a rich portrait of the land.

A place embellished in its own textures, aromas, music, language and beautiful landscapes. For a lifetime traveller all that remains are interrupted memories of a day enjoying the entertainment of Costa del Sol, Malaga.

Anyone have any ideas? All I can see is a scene, with hints here and there of object-ness. Not enough that I can figure it out, though. I'm feeling pretty stupid, I must say. Someone please tell me it's obvious, and then tell me what it is . . .

Oh yeah, it's due Friday. Blurgh.

Yes We Can

If I was American, and at all inclined to vote, this might have a significant impact on how I voted. It might even get me to vote at all. See, there's some hope for those people to the south.

How Horrible and How Beautiful

I just read this on Neil Gaiman's blog, and thought it was too elegantly stated not to pass on:

"While it is important to learn about the Holocaust," she says, "it is even more important that we learn from the Holocaust."

The most chilling of those lessons, to her, is that extermination, civilization's ultimate betrayal of its own humanity, was the work of highly civilized people.

"These were educated, erudite individuals, thinkers, who came to the conclusion that the final solution was perfectly plausible.

"And then they were able to enlist the help of chemists to devise an efficient gas for extermination, and architects to design an efficient death house, and industrialists to create the machinery of annihilation."

The lesson of the Holocaust is not that human beings are "somehow capable of resigning from their human obligations to one another," she says, but that "they do so out of conscious moral choice."

This is why I think everyone needs to see Night and Fog, even though it is truly scarring.

Bird's-Eye View

Some of you may have seen this already, if you check out my Facebook profile:


It's the big room shared by the Dawson Printshop, where I work, and the NSCAD Design Printshop. Taken with my cellphone camera. From the top of a very tall ladder. That white wall you can see just to the right is no longer white, it's grey. I painted it.

You can just see our replica common press at the top of the photo. It was used to print the replica of the first newspaper ever printed in Canada. It's not that different from what Gutenberg would have used.

What's Nikoniconiknevernikki Been Up To?

School: I've really only had three days of school so far, since I only have classes twice a week (not counting my internship), but it already seems like ages. Intaglio is already intense and exciting and I have too many projects in mind to get them all done. But that's good. I'm starting with a multiplate bookwork with sea creatures and steam. I'll also have to get started on a singleplate/multicolour print. Possibly with a Jules Verne submarine. Sometime before Friday, which means tomorrow after work, I have to photocopy the readings for art history and then read some of them. Or at least go to the library and read them. The class is Narrative and Craft and the teacher is really good (I had her for Craft and Design History).

Internship: Technically, I suppose this could fall under "School," but whatever. I'm working with Joe Landry, who teaches bookarts at NSCAD, has his own bookbinding and conservation business, and currently co-manages the Dawson Printshop. I'll be doing some gold tooling (and also blind tooling) and at some point making a Byzantine binding (complete with brass clasps), but for now I'm building boxes for Joe to have as models for clients and lectures. Lots and lots of different styles of boxes in which one can put books and other delicate things to protect them. I'll probably also be working on some product samples for the printshop at some point.

Work: psp.about.com continues as usual with me not having as much time as I'd like to play/review games. Sigh. Work at the Dawson Printshop so far has been a lot of tidying and organizing while we wait for the fittings and furnishings to be done and installed, at which point we can actually get some things printed. Tomorrow I'll be climbing a ladder to paint a giant wall grey and a tall pillar red. You should see the height of the ceilings in this place!

Social life: What? Nik has a social life? Well, sort of. See I met someone, and he's rather kept me occupied on weekends:



(Incidentally, I'm trying to teach myself to colour balance in Photoshop using curves instead of levels, as they are supposed to be much more powerful. You can judge my success, or lack thereof, from the previous photo. Yeah, I need to work on it more. Probably could also tweak the contrast a bit more.). Movies, wine, talking, etc. Lots of talking, actually, which will probably surprise some of you. Really, I do talk when I've got something to say and someone interesting to say them to. If you really want to, you can see more photos of what I've been doing on Facebook (link in left column), but I currently have my photos viewable only by friends, so you'd have to join and then add me as a friend. Alternatively, I might consider making my photos public. Maybe.

Worst Grade Ever

Last week when I started school I also picked up my grades from last semester and got, as I rather expected I might, my worst grade so far at NSCAD (though not quite my worst grade ever in university, I think). So anyway, here are my grades from Fall 07:

• AHIS 3200 History of Photography: A+
  
• PHOT2500 Lighting Workshop: B
  
• PRTM2100 Relief Printmaking: A
  
• PRTM3106 Intermediate Lithography: A
  

That gives me a GPA of 3.86 for the semester, and 3.95 so far for this degree. Not too bad, I guess.

Random Pic

Xmas trees and way too many presents (some of them contain chocolate . . .). Also, a few boxes not yet unpacked from the move.

Winter 08 Schedule

Unless, things change, which they very well might, my schedule for this semester will look something like this:

Monday

• day off for doing homework

Tuesday

• 9am - 12:30pm (ish) work at Dawson Printshop
• 1pm - 5:30pm Intermediate Intaglio

Wednesday

• internship at Leaf by Leaf

Thursday

• 9am - ? work at Dawson Printshop
• ? - 5pm (ish) internship at Dawson Printshop

Friday

• 9am - 11am Narrative and Craft (art history)
• 1pm - 5:30pm Intermediate Intaglio

Saturday

• more or less free for homework and social life (hey, I sort of have one now)
• possibly some more internship hours at Leaf by Leaf in the afternoon

Sunday

• homework, social life, sleep, etc

So, busy, but not unmanageable. There may also be more work hours at the Dawson Printshop if I seem to be keeping up with coursework and internship hours all right.

And, in other news, if you don't have a Facebook page and want to see various odds and ends of photos I've been posting (summer road trips, pets, cute boys, odds and ends), um . . . you'll just have to get Facebook. I might post a few things here, and art stuff will eventually end up on deviantART (I've started bringing prints home, and hope to get around to photographing them soon), but most of the odd stuff will end up on Facebook, visible only to my Facebook friends. If you don't know how to get on Facebook, I suggest asking the nearest 12-or-13-year-old girl.

And So it Begins

The new semester, that is. Today school started at NSCAD. I don't actually have any classes on Monday, but I went in this afternoon to see about updating my student card (we have to get a new sticker every semester) and find out if last semester's grades were available yet. I also thought I might stop and talk to a few people. Alas, it was crowded as hell in there, the line for student services was crazy long, and none of the people I was going to talk to were around. I said "hi" to a couple of former classmates and the printmaking tech, Murf, and then made my way back home (all three blocks).

I had better luck this morning picking up a parcel and changing my address on my driver's license. I also got another earring in one ear (left one, at the top, cost $3 extra for cartilage, which I determined is because they have to give you two bottles of the cleaning stuff instead of one because it takes twice as long to heal) (gone are the days of being sent home with nothing but instructions to put polysporin on it once in a while). And I bought some new jewelry for my existing piercings--I lost one of my talons not long ago and just had safety pins in, so I needed at least one set. I decided to get new rings for the other holes too. I've got them all in now and they look pretty spiffy. Except I couldn't get my current nose ring out to put the new one in. I'll have another go at it later.

Hang on, I'll get a pic.



It's hard to tell, but the one farthest back is a peacock/multicolour metal with slightly iridescent beads.

Let's see. Other news. The coffee date I mentioned a few posts back went swimmingly, as have various and sundry movies, video nights, breakfasts and used bookstore forays since then. Sometimes I accidentally catch a glimpse of my expression as I walk by a mirror. Usually it's a silly secret smile.

Xmas was nice and quiet, with way too many presents to open (I'm still working my way through all the chocolate). And there are presents still to come, apparently. Thanks to everyone. It was fabulous. Dinner was turkey and a huge assortment of veggies, many of them mashed. Deva's Mum and Randy were over all day, from breakfast of bacon, toast and hashbrowns (Ryan's favourite thing to cook) to the aforementioned dinner.

New Year's Eve involved staying up until New Year's Day drinking wine and talking. Oh, and there was some very silly dancing to the Chemical Brothers sometime around four in the morning (maybe, I really have no idea what time it was). New Year's day involved a lot of sleeping and a late breakfast, followed by, well, other things I won't talk about here.

Everything is bright and well in my world.

Don't Follow Me!

Yeah, so if I message you on Messenger with nothing but a url in the message, don't follow it. Apparently, someone's been using my account to send suspicious links. Like I said, don't follow them, it's not me. I've changed my password, which I hope will solve the problem, but if anyone notices it continuing, let me know. And 'Lena, you might want to change your passwords, too--I think it was a following a weird link from you (or that I thought was from you) that started this.

Update: Everyone's changed their passwords, and all seems to be fine once again.