They Did Indeed
But first, a long screed about the trials and tribulations of being a blogger who posts every day, and at length, with precious little feedback in the Comments to keep him going <chorus of violins can be heard at this point>. I mean, it's not as if you have to pay to read this scrivel, is it?™ And no, I'm not going to put my bank details up here, thank you very much.
Nothing to do with anything.
I just wanted to point out ALL THAT EXPOSED SKIN and bitey-bitey zombies ...
ANYWAY Your Humble Scribe is always scribbling away in his notebook as ideas crop up or bloggable situations encountered - Art!
That should be a video and in case it didn't work here's a still of the same thing:
One doubts you can read my longhand scrawl, yet the truth ought to be obvious here: doing a daily blog of 1,000 words, or 1,200 since I added in the "Tormentor", takes a fair amount of work.
Here an aside. It's been years since I added a video, so Conrad is quite chuffed with himself that it worked*.
Here another aside. Yes yes yes, another, sue me if you like, once again, it's not as if you have to pay to read this scrivel, is it?™ This will only make sense if you look at Asterisk One at the foot of the page. Go do it NOW. Okay? Conrad, unable to resist, went and looked up the phrase "Over the Moon" in order to find out it's origin. It comes, as you may have guessed, from the nursery rhyme "The cow jumped over the Moon", which would be a mighty achievement indeed <puts off a scientific analysis of this feat for another day. Art!
The danger in looking up an item in Brewer's (quite the best £5 ever spent) is that you will be distracted and begin reading another item, which is exactly what happened here under the heading of "Over". "Over the hill", "Over my dead body" and "Over Edom will I cast out my show"
SSSSKKKKKKKKKKKRRRCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHH**
Wait, what? Conrad's never heard this phrase before. Apparently Tsar Poutine must have been using it a lot before February 24th, since it means "I shall march and triumph". Yeah we all know how well that went. Derived from the Bible, Psalms 60:6. Art!
"Why? Why is Conrad so cruel?"
ANYWAY enough of biting satire. I know it borders on Politics, but it's Dimya, so that makes it okay. Where were we? O yes, acquiring interesting subject matter for the blog. If we have a theme then that takes the creative pressure off, e.g. 'Skip' could have what South Canadians call a "dumpster", the actor Skip Homeier, the act of joyful hopping <runs out of ideas> you get my drift. Or if I pick up a category that has multiple subsections, like South Canadian astronomical observatories, then that too lessens the load. The BBC can be relied upon to have photography competitions every so often - thanks Auntie! - and I have "The War Illustrated" as a font every fortnight, until we get to the end of this volume <gets faraway look and the website "Abebooks" floats around in his mind>. Plus the bus: they whiz past perhaps once every two or three hours and have film posters on their sides. Sorry, that should read " every ten or twenty minutes unless you're waiting for one in which case it does indeed seem like once per two hours on a good day." Art!
One of First's luxuriously-appointed fleet
So, when Steve (my memory) and Oscar (my subconscious) get together and bounce a word or phrase out of nowhere about my mind, it is accepted by Conrad with a touch of bemusement. This morning - and I appreciate I've spent hundreds of words getting to a single one - it was "Riparian".
What? Er - to do with agriculture? Nope. Resorting to my trusty Collins Concise, it means "Of, inhabiting or situated on the banks of a river." Aha! Season Two of "Ozark" has been dealing with rivers and floating casinos and I bet I've heard it there. Or - it could be an echo from a long, long time ago. Art!
And I think with that I've waffled on far too long for this Intro so I sh
Another Chilling Scene
Yes, another selection from the BBC's "Weather Watcher's Winter" collection of photographs. If you're especially struck by them then pop along to the Beeb's website and vote for them. Art!
Courtesy Murray
Pretty obviously these are storm clouds, heading for Oxford Airport. Hmmm when this lot rolls in overhead I don't think any of those aircraft are going to be taking off. Plus, Your Humble Scribe never knew Oxford had an airport.
Equally Chilling ...
Ha! Do you see wh O you do. Yes, the latest extract from "Tormentor". It may horrify you to know that I've got half a dozen Doctor Who fanfictions that are MUCH longer, heh. As you ought to recall, Luma was having a question and answer session with The Professor, a starchy Swiss spirit from the nineteenth century.
‘And
this one’s a bit cheeky. Why haven’t you
Moved On?’
‘Really! Because, as I hope you have most sincerely
learned, I still have a function as a mentor and tutor. Can I proceed with that role now?’
He proceeded to ask what measures
for defence Louis had taken, tutted and shook his head knowingly.
‘Louis! This is not a divertissement or
amusement! Really, you must take better
care of your defence. Morgan’s first
attack failed, badly, and he will doubtless resort to his mortal minions.’
No need to use long words!
‘Don’t you have a manual or
similar?’ jested Louis. ‘Like
“Beetlejuice.’
The peculiar name stopped the
Professor in mid-flow, leading to an explanation from Louis about the film –
ghosts of the recently deceased try to stop a property developer from ravaging
their home.
‘I’ve got an old video of
it. Want to watch?
For a moment the stuffy Swiss
tutor gazed into the distance before recalling himself.
‘No! No, we have more important matters right
now. Pay attention, and you can take
notes if you wish.’
The
mind-bent minions of Morgan exhibited an aura that normal mortals did not. No, alcohol alone did not make a person
vulnerable, it took what the Professor described as an “ingress” in their
mental shielding. Since they were not
possessed, the effects of being controlled were temporary; eventually their
wits would become their own again. To
break the baleful hold took either another spirit, a beneficient one, negating
the other’s control, or an abrupt physical shock.
That’s taken care of, Louis
silently congratulated himself. He
didn’t inform the Professor about it – electrical kit might worry him.
I wonder if the 'electrical kit' is the mysterious parcel from Germany? Inevitably we're going to find out, Conrad is a sincere adherent to the theory of Chekhov's Gun.
Finally -
Once again, Conrad will comment on the 'Special' Military Operation going on in Ukraine, so you may skip - no pun intended - this if you wish.
One tank that has been conspicuously absent from operations is the T14 Armata. This is presumably because it's extremely expensive and the Ruffians can't afford to lose any, because they can't be replaced. Then, too, having video of 'The Most Advanced Tank In The World' reduced to a burned-out hulk shown globally would be a massive dent in Dimya's ego. Thirdly, it's not been tested in combat and the Ruffians (and Dimya) might not want to find out the hard way that TMATITW is not actually that good - burned-out hulk time again.
Burned out Hulk. Close enough.
* "Quite chuffed" = 0ver the moon, actually. You know us Brits and understatement.
** Noise of a stylus scratching over a record.
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