Here's an entry, there's an entry,

And this one would be another little entry, because in the other window, I'm making a stupidly ambitious xmas icon. I'm not saying any more than that, except that it might involve a Cylon raider.

So, I'm going to post about something I'd like information on.

I want to make a new layout - my own original layout with my own code, if you will - and I want to make it before I get around to buying myself more paid time, because I completely don't want to be writing completely new code and trying to keep my layout working, both at the same time.

So!

This means I'll need to do the coding work Elsewhere, on some EllJay clone or other. The question, then, is this: of the LiveJournal clones, which runs the most up-to-date version of the LiveJournal software? I'd like for my layout to be as up-to-date with LJ features as possible before I'd even consider having it go live here.

And more iconspam.

I couldn't help it with this one; I (vaguely) storyboarded it on the shower screen with a whiteboard marker this morning, and now I've spent the last couple of hours on the drawing and colouring in and animation.

So! Here it is: the felicitous union of BSG and Santa hats (of which I've drawn eleven tonight. 11!) I'd have liked a bit more of the raider to be visible, but Zoic seems to have mostly stayed all "ZOMG only realistic light sources!" for BSG, and getting some actual detail on the raider meant the background turned out less like space and more like a test pattern on crack.

Link nicked from ianthefira

On YouTube, there's a video of a parasitic cordyceps fungus killing an ant. And 'killing' is probably too nice a word for what it does. Devouring, perhaps; destroying, certainly. Annihilation about describes it. It's probably worksafe, but if you're averse to seeing an insect die horribly, you shouldn't click the link.

It's somewhat morbid and creepifying, mostly, I think, for the sheer elegance of its attack. Each variety of the fungus specifically attacks one and only one kind of insect, and (presumably) inspires similar behaviours to spread its spores further.

It might also be because the ants' entire defence to it is to just get the infected ants the hell away from their colony as soon as they're discovered. In other words, cordyceps is scary for ants.

*presses play, shivers involuntarily*

!

And that's the extent of my subject line skills at the moment: !

But first, let me explain.

I had what I like to call a 'nap on the couch', which is a highly technical process involving lying down on the couch, curling up a bit, squishing comfortably into the cushions, and going to sleep. I highly recommend it.

Later, I woke up, blinked groggily at the TV for a bit, then shambled over to my desk. My nap went a tiiiny bit longer than I planned, methinks. So, I clicked 'Summon Internet Connection' (which isn't actually what I call the shortcut, but it'd be a pretty good name, I think), and had my computer call their computer to network and come up with something. They did, so I started Firefox. And I promise the story gets interesting shortly. So, there's me, slightly groggy from nap, loading my flist and waiting for my Gmail notifier to connect.

In my slightly groggy state, I looked at the flist layout that greeted me, and then promptly clicked refresh. Twice. (Somewhere in this bit, I set gmail to loading in another tab) And then, it somewhat clicked: this odd, unfamiliar layout with the Clock of the Time Dragon and a header graphic I can't quite remember how to make? Mine. All mine, with the LJ scrapbook pictures that had been carefully hidden away for months.

And so, I declare that princesslaurene is utterly fantastic, and deserves many hugs from all, real, virtual or otherwise. Those who can give her real hugs are advised to do so, while those unable to directly hug princesslaurene may do so through this simple online hug donation mechanism, which I shall call...
[Poll #882287]
Hug early, hug often. (Poll instructions or a philosophy? Who knows? Also, note to self, certain HTML tags not allowed in poll answers.)




And this makes the rest of my day seem kind of dull by comparison. I slipped on a pillow while I was changing my sheets earlier, I accidentally cut myself with a breadknife (!) while making lunch, and I participated in commerce owing to my continuing need for foodstuffs.

This wasn't helped by new bus timetables. They're being advertised with "OMG! Same time every hour! Easy to remember!", which neatly glosses over that many of the buses used to run every 40 minutes. But obviously the new timetable is popular! There's more people than ever waiting to catch the bus! And obviously it's nothing to do with there being thirty-something-percent less of them!

And then, to make matters... normal, an unwashed teen in Hammer pants came in search of moneysubstances. I wanted to suggest busking, in the sense of 'it would have amused me greatly to do so'. I decided not to, because it'd be horrifying to be responsible for the creation of a 14 year old MC Hammer.

See? A fairly dull day. A day where hearing the radio tell me that one in three shopping centre Santas gets peed on was the highlight, pre-princesslaurene (who I shall endeavour to thoroughly embarrass with her display of awesomeness (and if you haven't already donated hugs to her, then you should go back and do so now)).