The InquiZition returns

Since acinonyxjubatus will soon be returning from Sunny England, the Diva of Dementors has decided to resurrect some nasty questionses from a long long time ago. Questions that remain unanswered...

But as the month of June slowly progresses, it is time to ask them now or they will soon have passed their use by date.

"This is your punishment my dears, for asking evil nasty attention seeking questions, Mr Prufrock.
Now you are both going to be answering some questions for ME.
Oh no not with your quills... contaminated with all sorts of unauthorized cheating spells I am sure. You are going to be using a special one of mine. Oooh and put that bottle away Mr Prufrock. You won't need any ink.

So first. The Prufrock boy. Your questions.

The Dark Lord offers you a no questions asked and all expenses paid scholarship to any university anywhere in the world. Where will you go and what will you study?

What will you be doing (and with whom whom ) on Wednesday 16th June 2004?

If you could be reincarnated as any character from literature, who would it be? hem hem. (are we really going to let him have a choice on this one?)

What would you like to be remembered for?

Please explain your interest in the evil, subversive and certainly unauthorized dark art of "Extreme Value Theory"

The Highway to Hell

Iz has just spent the last hour battling against the evil error reports from Microsuck. They appear every two seconds and are extremely irritating when trying to type due to the constant interruptions. Normally Iz just logs off and slinks on over to another abacus but these days there is just so much competition for scarce resources. So far logging off and back again seems to have worked.
Went to the Abacus lab which NEVER has classes scheduled and for the first time ever, a bunch of us actually got asked to leave because what we were doing did not look either like official Goblin or School of Mines business.
It was quite amusing while looking through stuff for the online law tests to discover a case where a student at this very place had been caught using university computer labs to download copious quantities of child pornography. The sad and sick things some folks do for their fifteen minutes of fame.
Iz was busy checking out the gossip in Top Secret Diary Land and was just about to slink on over to the Yahoo owleries before finally departing for a visit to St Brutus for the afternoon.

Iz got out on the right side of the bed this morning. Since it's back to work on Saturday, got to make the most of the last days of the Izzie holidays. Not like Tuesday when I got all snuggly and extremely lazy and did not slink out of the blankets until 11am! And that in spite of two alarm clocks. The snooooze button is a most evil invention. So today it was time to make up for such unforgivable decadence.
Iz was pleased with herself while sitting at the bus stop at 9.10 for not giving into temptation like yesterday. We'll get to the Min at 9.20 or so and stay there until 11am doing the last silly online law test and reading the notes which we should have done the previous day, and then catching up on the various Izzie lurks in Cyberia. Well that was the theory anyway. That the bus which was due at 9.15 did not arrive until 9.50 was NOT part of the Izzie calculations and enough to make me very very cranky indeed. Even though there was other folks at the bus stop - you sort of feel you can't really take a book out when the bus is due any minute.

So lurking online, while at the same time trying to listen to a fascinating story on the radio about a bunch of young things who want to immigrate to Israel (when most sane folk living there want to get out)is a bit of a hard act to juggle especially when the itsiest bitsiest thing causes interference with this stupid old fashioned channel. Iz is convinced that FM radio stations don't seem to have this problem half as bad.
Finally did that online test which was available only from 9-12 today. Is usually 6am to 9am but we had no class today so they made it later. Iz was just feeling so damned grumpy and cranky about the loss of that most preciousss 40 minutes. Was aiming for a 9/10 like the last two weeks but ended up making some silly mistakes and only getting 7. The buggers don't let you skip questions and come back later, and if you leave the site you might discover that you cannot get back at all.

Well, Iz did make it to St Brutus for the historical talk at 2pm. But first had to stock up on nibblies and stuff. Was still feeling pretty peeved and irritable in spite of the simply glorious weather.
While the content of the talk was interesting - especially the stuff about the building being used as a sort of prison for 'ladies of ill repute' followed by a bunch of American soldiers before being left to rack and ruin, the presenter herself was rather boring. She committed the cardinal sin of pretty much reading from her notes. It's not as if she didn't know the stuff either.
If I'd known she would have been so uninspiring, would have been just as happy to remain outside in the light, soaking up the sunshine, sipping coffee, squiggling in the Izzie green book and sniffing the big silvery bushes of wormwood.

Then there was the big question. The dappled light and the Izzie bottlie of Rosemount cabernet looked so so tempting. Were we going to potter off for the twilight graveyard tour at 4pm as planned or stay and savour the Garden of Arcane Delights in all its glory. Iz thinks - well you will be back here tomorrow enroute to the Izzie moonshine party at Memorial Hill - and it's not every day that you get a guided tour of a graveyard at twilight. How will you feel about your decision this time next week when you are back at that boring house elf job?
Yesss. The Izzie laziness had been too rampant of late and had to be called into check. So I followed logic and proceeded to the graveyard. Silly Iz did not check the map previously, since we knew it was on the same road as the war memorial, the only question being how far down. Looked at a bus stop map -which only marks important streets. Had just missed the bus but the big blank green square looked like it was only five streets away. Well well well. The map is certainly NOT the territory. This big green square on the map turned out not to be the graveyard but a golf course.
If Iz had known it was that far away, most likely would have stayed lurking in the gardens. As it was, arrived just after 4pm which was perfect timing as the group were still assembled outside the main entrance.
But looking back, Iz is glad she made the effort. In spite of being right next to a fat stinking highway full of trucks, it is a gorgeous place. Iz has a peculiar prediliction for lurking around graveyards, (the older the better) churches and very gothic and dilapidated ancient buildings.
The graveyard heritage trail is a relatively new thing and we all got given gorgeous booklets to keep with maps and stories about graves of particular interest. Iz particularly liked the story about the guy who spent 6 weeks planning his funeral and because he worked at the graveyard, got himself one of the best plots.
The one that Iz found to be an absolute let down was the one for Bon Scott of AC/DC. Iz has been in both Paris and London and was a bad bad neglectful serpent for not visiting the graves of Jim Morrison or Karl Marx (especially as I'd even walked past Highgate once with the Izzie sister). So much for those graveyard groupie credentials!
It was a itsie bitsie teenie thing. Not even a grave but just a plaque. But there was a park bench with his name on it recently. But Iz was a bit more amused when the tourguide told us that American sailors regularly visit. They had fifty of them on Sunday and one had left a bottle of bourbon at the grave. It was removed out of fear of offending other visitors. Iz thought that was just so so sweet. Could imagine Jim Morrison poking out his scaly paws to grab the bottle. But since Mr Bon Scott actually died from swallowing his own vomit after a decadent night on the bottle, maybe it would not go down too well at all. What a dreadfully undignified way to die indeed.
Another grave had a small green bag left there. Some of us were most curious indeed about its contents.
Iz lurked and lingered after the others left. Wanted to see the last rays of sunset and the big fat juicy moon.
There is something about watching the sun rising and the stars and the moon. Same with visiting graveyards. It certainly makes one realise one's place in the scheme of things. The late bus and the crappy score in that silly test suddenly looked most trivial indeed.

Tomorrow is the grand moonshine party. Iz will be preparing a picnic and meeting one of her likeminded minions up on the hill. So far it seems that there won't be clouds coming to spoil the party. Lucky buggers in England - Such perfect timing for the Potter movie. Jealous Iz can already hear the howls of delight. Poor Iz has to wait until next Thursday to don her Dementor's hood.