the porcupine of pain are both pink, yellow, and orange, all in neon shades

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2003 Results are in!

The SciFi winner gets my vote for best in show...

Colonel Cleatus Yorbville had been one seriously bored astronaut for the first few months of his diplomatic mission on the third planet of the Frangelicus XIV system, but all that had changed on the day he'd discovered that his tiny, multipedal and infinitely hospitable alien hosts were not only edible but tasted remarkably like that stuff that's left on the pan after you've made cinnamon buns and burned them a little.
Mark Silcox
Auburn AL 36830

Vile Pun winner should be shot...

"The Insect Keeper General, sitting astride his giant hovering aphid, surveyed the battlefield which reeked with the stench of decay and resonated with the low drone of the tattered and dying mutant swarms as their legs kicked forlornly at the sky before turning to his master and saying, 'My Lord, your flies are undone.'"
Andrew Vincent
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England

You Are Ichabod Crane From "Sleepy Hollow." You're a deep thinker - most times logically. You're a bit of a neat freak and a wuss (hey, you do faint a lot!) but you do have the ability to overcome your fears and come out stronger in the end. And you never lose your head over things. (Gufaw gufaw!)

Take The Johnny Depp Quiz!

Some days at work can be good. Some days can be really boring.
Finished up the machine I was setting up yesterday, except for the .NET install. Thing is being buggy, and it needs to be looked at, and I dont have the access to look at the problem on the server. So looks like it will have to wait till tomorrow. I've got a second machine waiting to be configured, almost identical to the first, in line, and it will have to wait till tomorrow as well. On an up note, I got my coding homework done, and hopefully the exam will go well. I still think we should have computer access for exams, like we do on lab day. Oy. But I'm not worried. Did well on the last one as well, so its all good.
What I am worried about is the fact that there are three mistakes on my graduation Audit for Arts and Sciences, and that no one seems to be able to tell me who to talk to in order to get them fixed, except for one person, who does not seem to ever answer her phone. They are all easy to make mistakes, and I can understand the problems, but getting them fixed should be much eaiser than this. So far, I've been trying for an entire day. If this goes on longer than a week, I WILL be upset. Oy. On the other hand, I haven't even heard from MJRCB about their audit, so lord only knows when that will get to me. Strange that the one I filled late I get first.
Grr.
And of course, calling either MJRCB or AS gets me nowhere. Both try to transfer me to my councelor, neither of which ever are in, so I'm completely sol. I love this school. Oh yes. Love this school.

But, Always the wastelands before the prizes. You know that.

Yes, yes I do. But I know what the prize is.

Rammona:We'll creep together you and I
For I know who the small friends are

Toll the bell - Pay the private eye
All's well - 20th century dies

And the wheels are turning and turning
As the 20th century dies

Of course its heavy - Thats because its filled with mercy.

swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
oh how i long for the deep sleep dreaming
the goddess of imaginary light

Nervousness. Hesitation. Fear. Self doubt.

Or is that, really, the doubt of self?

Am I important enough that people should listen to what I say? Do I matter that much? And if I do, why do I matter so much, and others do not seem to? And if I dont, why don't I, and others do? Was it something I did, something I said, something I never thought of, something I know, something I should know/say/do/be?

I need to sleep. I need to dream. My muses are silent, though they clamour to be heard. hear us, feed us, nurture us, abuse us, starve us, ignore us And all I can do is be tortured by the half formed fetal remnants of aborted ideas which linger in the corners of my mind. A painting I should paint, a story I should write, a program I should code, a world I should create.... so many things, all impotent and still born.

Still born. Born dead, but born none the less. Still born.

Something in that, somewhere, is sickly true smelling.

They'll never see
I'll never be
I'll struggle on and on to feed this hunger
Burning deep inside of me

Angelitos, Mictecacihuatl watch over these born yet unborn children of the mind's eye.
Mizuko, Tatari Mokke, play with them, lull them from anger into paradise.
“moku kokudo shikkai j“butsu sansen s“moku shitsu'u bussh“

My mind is a littered wasteland, a kobaka of ideas now dead.
Make your offerings under the table to the little ones....

in my field of paper flowers
and candy clouds of lullaby
i lie inside myself for hours
and watch my purple sky fly over me

[Evanescence - Imaginary] Sometimes, I have to wonder about the winamp random player. Twice since I got to work, its played this song, one of my favorite Evanescence songs, but one I usually save for when I'm feeling very blissful. I guess, I am, in a way, feeling like that. I had a smoothie for breakfast (mmm sucrose and honey) and I guess the sugar buzz is settling in.
[Bauhouse - Hollow Hills] And what is with the Lovecraftian theme my day seems to be taking already? Maybe its that I'm feeling a sort of connection to things today, different from usual, a feeling that I've mannaged to tap back into that Universal thing that usually keeps me going, that sense that, no matter what, the universe does Right by its self, and I am a leaf in its river, helpless but minutely influential in its patterns. So many people would feel so hopeless and scared at that image, but I am somehow comforted by it. I guess, by the fact that no matter what I do, nothing I do can destroy everything, at least directly. Others, others I know, could stop the flow of the river with a thought - me, I am just a leaf, adrift in its wash, only able to stop the flow were there thousands of times my effort applied. Its a good thing to know you can't break things too badly.

* * *

2:30 already. Oy. Work goes by so fast it seems. Nice to have a job I enjoy doing enough that I don't notice the time passing when I am working. Had to rearange some things in the office, namely run a cable behind the shelves so we could finally get use of all 4 ports in the office for a connection. Now we have double that, thanks to a cute little Linksys switch which is hiding behind this behemoth of a 21" flat pannel that goes with the system I'm working on. Dell makes some nice stuff, I'll give em that.
Chugging along, pondering lunch. Not sure what I'll get, probably a sandwitch. Eh, its food.
Still have some coding work I need to do, as well as some database homework I need to finish up, and write a memo for. And stuff I have to do that I would usually do tomorrow, but I wolnt have time for then. Ugh. Stupid daily summaries. Sooo much work to do. Oy. Or at least it feels like its trying to pile up. Not sure if it really is or not. The illusitory state of stress is a strange thing.
[KMFDM - Risen] My playlist is being weird agian. 3rd time for this song this afternoon. You'd think out of 64 songs, it would actually vary a little. Eh.