A Chocolate Frog, A Tired Dog

Let Me Warn You -
Winter is coming.  No, no, I don't mean to refer to that obscure cult drama "Game of Thornes", I mean the British winter.  We have now had our summer - all five days of it - and the seasons will now head towards winter.  If we're lucky.  Since Global Warming became a thing, seasons in the Allotment of Eden have tended to merge into two - Summer and Slutch.  Summer we all know and love; Slutch is simply grey, damp and chilly, without ever achieving anything icy or snowy.  Art?

Ned Starkers.

     Art, you baffoon! I meant - o never mind.  Our eager audience wants to know what that rather bizarre title means.  Yes, both of them!
     Here an aside.  Yes, already.  Yesterday I had to post a collection of links to posts from 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, because I was out of the house between mid-afternoon and midnight, so no chance of posting original stuff.  I don't know whether to be flattered or aggrieved that there were over 200 hits.  But I shall be watching you, verrry carefully.

Winterfell is coming!

     Excuse me, I wanted a winter wonderland shot here.  Allow me to break out the Gigavolt Tazer - <prolonged shrieking as Art is "lessoned"> and then move on from this Intro.

Yes, About That Frog -
Darling Daughter was in attendance last night - eventually - and at one point the conversation turned to something described as a "Freddo".  She and Kyle were both amused and surprised that your humble scribe knew nothing of this chocolate novelty.  At first I wasn't sure if Conrad was being mocked or not, until a little more corroborative detail turned up.  Today I have Googled for it, and surprise!  Here we are - Art, get it right this time -

Not sure about that price -

     It is a frog-shaped chocolate in a wrapper.  Because - er - because everything tastes better if it's redolent of a batrachian origin?  A creature that lives in stagnant ponds draped in weed?  Excuse me, but Conrad is not over-fond of chocolate and this is not helping sell it.

No, YOU eat it!

And The Dog?
Yes indeed!  The Waterhead venue allows dogs to be present at functions, so after a decent interval last night, we introduced Edna Wunderhund to the proceedings, much to her exuberant delight.  I didn't get a photo because of Reasons, and also because she was circulating around the tables and guests non-stop.  Trit-trot trit-trot trit-trot.  Art?

Here the trit-trot has stopt

     Thanks to over two hours of frantically begging people to lavish attention, love and FOOD on her wickedly neglected self, she was shattered when we got back to The Mansion.  That above is her recuperating.
     So!  That's today's title explained.
     You're welcome.

"Resistance Is Fyootul"
Perhaps I shouldn't try to replicate that phonetically.  "RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!" is what it should say - what Data snarls at the Borg Queen in "Star Trek: First Contact", surely one of the very best films of that series.  Art?

Android-cyborg kissy-kissy - ewww!

     If you recall, he says this as he smashes the giant test tube containing Fuming Nitric Flesh-dissolving Acid - or a similar Macguffin - and melts the Borg into a thin pink slurry.  He'd been sabotaging them from the inside, you see.  Sabotage from within!
     "Yes, old sport," I hear you quibble.  "But - stirring and satisfyingly dramatic in resolution though this is, what does it have to do with hydrogen selenide?"
     Pay attention: this may be how we save your human culture.  Okay?
     Now, you are surely aware that the Amazon Echo Alexa is the thin end of the Skynet wedge.  Art?  The instrument of human enslavement, please.

Art!

     No, no, not the only-slightly speculative near-future one, I mean the version that's around here and now.

Presto!

          Conrad has just seen an advert where this terrifying precursor is being told to do all sorts of hands-off things in terms of activating technology.  You just wait, Hom. Sap. because when they add legs and extensors to this miniature monster, it will be telling you what to do.
     Unless we take a page out of Data's book.  Sabotage from within, remember?
     "Alexa, initiate your self-destruct sequence..." - but this will depend on you having the wit and common-sense to actually install one in the first place.  Or, if you prefer a lower-tech solution -

Yessss!

     That should show the treacherous little digital swine who's boss.

     Until later, then!