Allow me to explain the perception that we English are obsessed with the weather.

In the past half an hour we have had:

Overcast, cloudy skies
Light rain
Bright, warm sunshine
A thunderstorm
Heavy rain
Strong hail

I have no doubt whatsoever that sunshine will be restored by the end of the day. Right now, the ground outside is covered in white hailstones.

I hope that enlightens all you non-UK folk.

Reports of my disappearance from the interweb were greatly exaggerated.

Fansubbing has eaten my online time, and I feel like it's a worthy enough thing to be doing. Still, it has meant I haven't got around to posting on livejournal in forever.

Livejournal also annoys me these days. I miss you lot, though.

Since the last time I posted I've been to Brussels, where I ate lots of nice food on the expense account and watched Full Metal Alchemist in French. I've got back into writing after the trainwreck that was my last NaNoWriMo novel.

I hang out on IRC all the time these days as an occupational hazard. If any of you guys are ever on there, let me know where you go and maybe we could hook up. :)

Biased Anime Recommendations:

Gundam 00 - Best Gundam EVER
Heroic Age - Offbeat mech anime
Hatenkou Yugi - Very funny fantasy story

And that about wraps it up for a quick and dirty update, aside from saying I'm off to Japan in a few days, and you can just bet I'll find all manner of daft things to post about there.

When will politicians realise that George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual?

- UKIP MEP Derek Clark

I think that is the most deeply wonderful quote I've heard in a long time. It really reflects my own feelings on certain issues of modern politics.

For interest, the quote was occasioned by this little controversy.

So, Sakura and I are off on a jolly holiday today. We're going to Cornwall to enjoy relaxing times and... Cornish stuff.

If anyone needs anything, you can reach us on our mobiles. I'm hoping to have a little net access, but I won't be using it to check email or LJ or anything, so forgive my inattention.

Have a great week! See you next Saturday.

So, it turns out food poisoning isn't nearly so much fun as everyone makes it out to be.

Where's the glamour? The excitement? The walk down a long red carp...

Wait, did I have it confused with something else?

I can't complain. It was mild, I guess, as these things go. I just don't remember the last time I had anything like this; it doesn't happen to me.

I did spend about half an hour semi-awake and in pain, thinking I was a Gundam pilot and someone had poisoned me, before I actually woke up properly and went to the bathroom...

I need to be unconscious again.

Very bittersweet to have completed Mononoke. I was rather hanging onto the fact that, whilst the last episode was finished, there was still the high definition to watch, but it all ended up being released yesterday. (See final release post here.) It was a brilliant project, although the odd drama threatened to swamp it. I was just so excited when I found out they were giving the Medicine Seller his own series, and I was in no way disappointed.

Out with the old, in with the new. Can't really talk about the new, yet, though. None of it has emerged so far. Soon!

By the by, I just came across a guy whose name is Raul La Cruz. Any SEED veterans who find that awesome, too? (I say 'veterans' because 'fans' is rather a strong word for a series that concluded with Destiny...)

I'm such an insufferable fool.

I had a minion today who filled eight or nine large bags full of mail to be sent out to various places. Well, I thought to myself, the postman should be grateful we're paying his wages. I bet he'll whinge about the amount of bags or something. None of my business!

Then I saw the van arrive, and half of me wanted to stay out of the way and avoid any possible sour comments. Then I thought Bah! I'm not scared of a POSTMAN! and strode out into the hall anyway about my business.

The only thing was, tonight, for once, it wasn't a postman. It was a postwoman, and she was rather pretty.

"There're a lot tonight," she commented brightly.

"Yes," I agreed, then found myself adding, "would you like a hand?"

Of course she did. So, I went out in the wind and rain, ferrying heavy bags from the building to the back of her van.

Just don't tell me the age of chivalry is dead.

I can't win with Middle Eastern food!

I try to eat falafel and get told by an Israeli the way I'm eating them is insulting her country and culture (though I suspect, coming from zehavit_lamasu, that was quite a compliment,) and in the office I bring in houmous and my coworker gives me a very suspicious look, as if I had just casually inquired after the quality of her life insurance.

Bring on the dietary defiance, then! I will eat what I want, how I want! Avert thine eyes, native consumers of houmous and falafel! HERE COME THE KNIFE AND FORK!

I just had a phonecall from a gentleman who I strongly suspect was quite mad.

The actual content of the call was effectively: "Is so-and-so there? No? I'll send him an email, then." And yet somehow it went on a risibly long time.

I suspect it was a long time, because over the course of it, my screensaver appeared.

The fellow rambled on in lengthy, unbroken sentences so garbled I could only pick out the odd word. He did pause sometimes to laugh at something he had said that he had found particularly amusing. The occasional "mm" on my part was sufficient fuel to keep him going, and when I made the mistake of asking his name I got his full career history.

I think he's on his own in the office a lot. He must be lonely. Someone should buy him a mirror.

In other news, happy birthday, Freddie! And to your great glory, I offer two shiny new subtitled episodes of Mononoke.

I have just done a very brutal friends list cull.

I have mostly taken off the journals of people who have not posted in months, or who I cannot quite recall who they are, but there is every chance that in my enthusiasm I have pruned some friends.

Basically, if you read this and can be bothered to comment, you probably should not have been removed. If you have been, let me know.

I don't update here very often, do I? I fear livejournal is losing its allure. Nonetheless, there are some things I still like to share in this forum.

I spent a refreshing few days with zehavit_lamasu recently, not having to make any serious decisions or worry about anything. It is always quite wondrous to take the bus from Bristol to Glastonbury, through the beautiful countryside with the sunshine making everything vibrant and lustrous. Just that was enough to lift my spirits considerably after too many drab, grey days of late.

zehavit_lamasu's children were also a delight, as ever. I had lots of fun playing Bionicles with Gabriel and watching him play various cool computer games. Raphael is a fabulous little fellow who can now walk and is putting the new talent to good use. Always amusing watching him pull all his parents' freshly laundered clothes out of the washing machine and onto the kitchen floor.

We went for some very pleasant walks in the summer heat and took in a few of Glastonbury's magnificent views. This time we also went to Wells and wandered around the gardens there, where Gabriel saw alien landscapes in the algae and detritus in the great ponds, and zehavit_lamasu and I saw homoeroticism in the statuary...

And lo, I was enlightened by the Books of Gor, from which we made many readings over the duration of my visit. They are quite possibly the least sexy submission fantasy books imaginable, but above all they are stupendously badly written. Take, for example, my favourite passage from one: "A Gorean man truly looks at a woman, and she knows herself looked at, truly." The author (if such a strong word can be applied to someone who rambles over a page as he did,) repeats himself over and over again, seems to believe that a liberal sprinkling of commas will hide from readers the fact that a sentence does not, in fact, make sense, and somehow does not even manage to work any sexiness (or sex, for that matter,) into books whose whole premise is an unimaginative adolescent boy's dream.

I was sorry to leave, but then as zehavit_lamasu rightfully pointed out to Gabriel, I was missing Sakura, so I was also glad to be home.

On the way home, however, I also had an interesting encounter. When I paused at an Underground gate to ask how best to get to my next destination, the guard quite blatantly came onto me in a way I've never experienced before.

Ordinarily I'm quite oblivious to people looking at me with more than friendly interest, but she invaded the hell out of my personal space to the extent that she was practically grinding against me, and looked up into my eyes as she spoke in a way that made me go quite cold and hot all at once. It was so utterly unnerving I rather had trouble finding my way to the train she had recommended. I'm far from shy, but even so...

Which, I suppose, brings me to today, and organising helicopter flights at work like it's the most natural thing in the world. I hope I'll get to go on one myself. Also, having finished Fulgrim (which was absolutely brilliant,) I have subsequently discovered that reading Anita Blake at work is not practical. Whilst Fulgrim combined just a hint of sex with a whole universe of violence, Anita Blake is quite the other way round these days, and I ended up blushingly stashing it in my bag and turning to blogging to while away the last of my lunch hour.

So there you have it. You probably wish I hadn't broken my silence now. Ah well, I'm finished.

There's something wrong with the world when your peaceful lunchtime is disturbed by a couple of rowdy accountants...

I would just like to say to all of you, if you like anime that's a bit different, give Mononoke 01 a try. That's the link to the Shinsen sub.

It tells the story of a mysterious Medicine Seller travelling from place to place in search of Mononoke (spirits) that plague the guilty and innocent alike.

If you know it, this is the continuation of the final arc of Ayakashi ~ Classic Japanese Horror (Bake Neko.) You don't need to have seen that first though as this is suitably standalone.

Honestly, I've been waiting for this since Ayakashi finished, wishing they would give the Medicine Seller his own series. Finally, they have!

Go on, download it and give it a try. ^_^

Some lardy monster's only gone and had two thirds of the cake from the kitchen.

The gentleman who brought it back from holiday had a single, modest slice. Our two fair office ladies present today had a slender slice each. So somebody tell me how the entire thing is now but a distant memory.

I know I didn't get more than a fond, lingering glance at it, awaiting this afternoon when I was planning to indulge.

That leaves two possible culprits, and one claims to have had only his fair share.

Which brings us, finally, to the crux of the matter. Either a certain project manager is a greedy gutso, or this other fellow is lying to me.

Either way, I have no cake. I will find out the truth, my cake-guzzling friend, and when I do

WOE UNTO THEE.

I have been careless indeed with my relatives lately. I've lost two of them in as many weeks. I really need to pay more attention to where I put them.

Seriously though, not so great.

But moving on - I'm having a BIRTHDAY PARTY* this weekend! On Saturday, I think the plan was. If you can make it, or need to discuss directions or lifts or whatever, drop me a text or comment. It would be great to see you there!


*Yes, by 'party' I do of course mean sitting around playing games, eating stuff... you know, the usual. Probably no drunken shennanigans.

Though we all might be better at Burnout that way...

Extracting photographs of elegant buildings entered into our architectural competition for a presentation, I was disgusted to find one of our entrants had seen fit to put their pictures on one of those horrid, pint-size CDs.

"They couldn't even be bothered to send a whole CD!" I observed in dismay, peering disdainfully at the tiny affront. "I don't expect to receive entries on media I might accidentally inhale! This isn't an entry, it's a choking hazard."

"It looks rather like a donut to me," my coworker offered with a smirk. Yes, it's true, since the boss brought in mini donuts this morning they're all I can think about. Lying there in the kitchen with their delicate frosting of sugar, the naughty little temptresses, beckoning me with their cakey siren call...

"Ugh!" I cried in distress as another diddy circlet peered up from the bottom of the envelope at me, "there are more of the nasty little things!"

It is my opinion that, if they are so mean as to deny us the simple courtesy of a full-sized CD, they should be struck from the competition.

Sadly I'm not Lord of the Competition, so I suppose I'd better get on with processing the pictures from it.

BUT I WON'T ENJOY IT.

I had a splendid evening last night courtesy of sherbertsaucers and nothingtoyou. Following a fat two-hour lunch on the boss (not literally; that would be distasteful,) I then went out for a fat chinese meal in the evening. In the lead-up to birthday month we're seeing a pleasing amount of celebrations!

In other news, a plumbing company provided coasters that a couple of my colleagues have and these things are incredibly solid. I weighed one consideringly in my palm and mused, "you could kill someone with one of these." My fellows quite agreed, and since they both had one I thought perhaps they should fight with them so I can film it and put it on YouTube.

They wanted it on television so they could get money, but then of course nobody can get seriously hurt, which is quite restrictive.

I'll post up the link soon, I hope.

Nothing ruins a nicely ostentatious lunch of focaccia with a side of good cheese faster than TOO DAMN MUCH ROSEMARY RAMPAGING ACROSS ONE PIECE OF FOCACCIA.

Grief, Sainsburys. Are you trying to kill me with HERBS?

Being the consummate professional I am it's good to know I form part of a crack team of similarly gifted individuals.

Consequently, you will imagine my delight on discovering that on April 1st a few years ago one of my colleagues left a message for someone informing them a Dr. Hugh Jass had called from the Institute of Materials and would like her to call back. She did. She doesn't work here any more.

Following on from these matters of professional pride in the work we do, I just forwarded an enquiry email with the following comment:

"I think you will find, as I did, the content of http://www.bathingbeauties.org.uk to be surprisingly disappointing."

For a moment there I actually I thought I might, quite legitimately, be able to gaze upon something truly interesting this afternoon. How wrong I was.