Yo, deepbluesquee, you remember when we were laughing last night about me putting clear tape over the address of that parcel in case it got wet in the mail, and saying how only an Englishman would send a waterproof parcel? Well, just guess what happened to it this morning while I was hauling it to town in the snow. *rotfl*

Why the hell I am in work in the first place is a whole nother matter (possibly some vague residual guilt for not making it on Monday) but at least the fens were absolutely beautiful when I was walking across them; I came in the back way so as to avoid the cars and general public assholery on the main road. Snow has this odd effect of making me hate the human race, because the buggers all stomp around in it making slush and noise and mess and snowballs and they won't just shut up, sit down and let me enjoy it. And they all complain like crazy. FFS! It's beautiful, it's wild, it gives you a perfect excuse to stay in bed and not go to work, now get out of my way and let me stalk around the place in peace dammit! </black metal>

Anyway, here's hoping I make it home in one piece, since it's not looking like to get any better out there... *peers out of window* How are you guys?

Laters,
Rath

It is... quarter to two, AM. Just spent a contented hour or so on my latest fic, "White Flowers" - which I will not be able to show to hardly anyone, because I know only a few people who would get it and most of them would kill me for writing it, but just working on it is making me happy anyway. Also been listening to the infamous Nordic Metal Euronymous tribute compilation and remembering exactly how much crystal-cold, razor-edged joy really good Black Metal gives me. The opening main riff of Dissection's Elizabeth Bathori makes me feel like I've just been punched in the chest from the inside and it's so glorious that it makes me want to leap to my feet and stand on the edge of a really high place and scream at the sky. This is Darkness, this is pure, this is slaughter, this is war: this is Life denied and stripped away and in Death I live again!

Actually it's only a day late for this post, then; since it was two years ago yesterday that Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection was found dead by his own hand in a circle of lit candles, having left, among other things, the explanation that he was going to Transylvania. I think I have an idea of what he meant, and where he went. I hope he found everything there as he wanted it to be.

So, *raises glass*: To the victorious dead! May they not so much rest in peace, but instead ride free to carry on with the battles of their choosing from here to eternity. See you on the other side I hope, you who I never had the fortune to meet on this one!

Hails,
The Navigator

I had a dream last night that I was in the middle of nowhere with a few people I know, and we were looking up at the sky and I saw what must have been a million million shooting stars all at once. It was as though the whole sky had always been one great dome of clear glass, and someone had smashed it and all the pieces were falling at once. I don't know why I dreamed that, but I'm just posting it because it's the kind of image you want to remember.

Having mentioned that... the rest of this post will now consist of stuff I want to show to everyone. In no particular order:

I've just discovered Tiny Ghosts. This is a strange little photocomic that isn't really "comic", but a sequence of little thought-provoking two-sentence stories. Mental jumping points, if you will. Some of it is a little too sentimental for my taste (the anti-war ones and the more mawkish romantic ones in particular sometimes cross the line) but the more macabre, weird or just plain leftfield ones are great. This one in particular struck me with some nameless sense of realisation, and left me looking round like I'd just seen the world slip sideways an inch; this one feels awfully believable; this one is sheer poetry.

I think my absolute favourite has, though, to be this one.

Meanwhile, also in the department of visual arts, I was talking to Koi while it was sitting with its graphics tablet the other night, and asked "draw me something Black Metal?" The result? This, which is absolutely awesome though you may have to adjust your screen brightness a bit to actually see it, looking at how it's come out on the work monitor. ¬.¬ Thank you Koi!

Finally, I've been haunted of late by a piece of music. I was in the cinema and caught the trailer for Babylon AD, and my ears instantly pricked up and I went "I know that piece, where do I know it from?" My brain distantly pinged a flag that said Sunshine, and, yes, it's the same piece of music that was on the trailer for that! It turns out to be called Lux Aeterna, and has appeared in about a million different guises on various movie soundtracks/trailers including Requiem for a Dream and, apparently, a trailer for The Two Towers. It's also on Youtube, where it's been used as a songvid piece for every remotely heroic/depressing fandom you can think of. Seriously, have a listen to a few of the versions. It's a gorgeous, spectral piece with a refrain that makes me think for some reason of the mirror scene at the end of Prince of Darkness - it sounds to me like a key, like a song that if played in the right place at the right moment could unlock our reality and create a gateway to another one. One where there's something that really, really wants to be on our side of the gate... and that we really, really don't want here, even if we don't know about it yet. I have no idea why this song affects me like this, but...

Okay, post long enough for now...

Laters,
The Navigator