The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

Wednesday 8th May marked the fifth anniversary of the goblin invasion of a certain mad house. The serpent was not there to celebrate and it is likely that no one still there either knows or cares. Had intended to give it a minor mention on the day itself but in the end had lots of online course stuff to do. So it’s likely a good sign that it has gradually been relegated to ancient history where it belongs
But the Megatherion goblins in spite of all the serpent snark devoted to them in recent years look like veritable saints and angels in comparison to their friends in Bangladesh.

In spite of the incredibly large number of dead and injured, this story only lasted a few days on most of the main stream media here. Bangladesh might be far away and over there but there is definitely a day to day connection to here. Those women were making stuff for a whole bunch of big name labels that can be bought in any big box shopping centre or main street mall here
Uncle Vernon was following this sad tale too and read in the papers that the dodgy building housed not just hordes of garment factory workers but retail stores and banks too. Yes. Goblins. They are everywhere

( Cotton Goblins and other Creepy Crawlies )

Such are the joys of getting old. Aside from young things offering the seniors discount, you know you are getting a bit long in the tooth if you are one of those folks who can remember the ascension to power of a certain person who came to be known as The Iron Lady
Had so so forgotten about her fondness for quoting a certain Francis of Assisi. Here’s hoping that the present incumbent at the Vatican does not follow her example.

Spent most of her reign living right next door in Ireland so it was rather hard to escape the trajectory of that swinging handbag and the icy cold stare. We watched the goggle box transfixed for week after week during the Wapping dramas, the coal miners’ strike, the IRA hunger strikes and later assassination attempt, the Falklands war and the crowning glory of all - the privatization of just about everything and the dawn of the new age of Goblin Bankers who under her reign began their ascent to their role as Masters of the Universe

Got to thinking that while the present opposition leader in Oz describes himself as the political love child of John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop, John Howard in turn could be described as the ideological love child of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. And like her he kept the top job for some eleven years. But at least she was more entertaining. Love her or loathe her, one could never accuse her of being spineless, wimpish or boring
Many younger people spent their formative teenage years knowing nothing else but this Priestess of the Ayn Rand cult

While loathing and despising her political incarnation, used to relish the weekly fix of the satirical puppet show “Spitting Image” where she was the number one centre stage celebrity. Even managed to snaffle a pair of Ronnie and Maggie squeaky toys for the Dursley’s dogs to play with

( Spooks, Goblins and Zombies )

Izzie must be completely bonkers and totally bananas.

Just managed to scrape the daily quota over at Camp Nanoland. So much for the grand plans of writing 2,000 words a day. Looks like this experiment in just winging it - pantsing is what they call it over in Nanoland is just not a good idea at all. It's just so against the grain and out of the serpent comfort zone. So here is hoping that necessity will be the mother of invention

After a very unproductive Monday had to resort to dragging out the nearest Devil's deck to banish a bad case of writer's block. That turned out to be the Steampunk deck and it's worth two thirds of the five thousand words written so far. But less than a couple of hundred of those words have come from the magical zone. It's just plain old fashioned plodding.

Gotten so used to the little card critters that it is almost impossible to manage without them.

Still not in the zone. It is not helped by assorted distractions which meant that the goblin taxation homework usually completed by lunch time on Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest ended up getting done at almost the last minute which was this evening at 9pm after returning from a sort of greenie meeting.

Silly serpent spent last night downloading video lectures from two online courses. Will need to find time to watch them some time before Monday which is the deadline for the various problem sets

While it is a bit silly to be doing so many courses got to thinking that there's no excuse for not managing since other folks are doing just as much if not more as well as working at a full time job and having family responsibilities on top of that

Hard to believe that it is exactly six months since the serpent's last day at a paid job. Time flies so quickly. Heard through the grape vine that the old toad is departing for greener pastures. She is not actually getting promoted to CEO which she should be since she is the absolute incarnation of that company's values but she is moving to a similar boss job in some other suburb. Seems that she is more a sea gull than a toad after all. It took her less than two years to trash the place getting rid of most of the old timers, bringing in her grovelling corporate zombies to create a culture of arse covering, box ticking and cost cutting and now she is going off to do it all over again somewhere else. God help the poor buggers

So here's hoping that the Izzie will soon get around to catching up on all those posts and comments that have been neglected of late. A whole bunch of people are owed very belated Easter greetings too. There's no excuse for the Izzie laziness.

Must slink off to the serpent sack for a snooze. Got to be up bright and early for Goblin class. Here's hoping Julia and Wayne have not been watching the whole Cyprus goblin drama. It might just give them ideas.
Borrowers get brownie points and savers get screwed once again. No wonder the financial world is completely off the rails. And once again the goblin mantra is 'Privatize the profits, socialize the losses"

That reminds me - in the A to Z of the Undead there's got to be at least one Zombie Bank.

It is now three weeks since the serpent started a certain taxation course. This is supposed to be a not so free pass out of house elf servitude and a feeble attempt to start a new life on The Dark Side

A true sign of the utter evilness was the requirement to be in possession of a Windoze laptop as the goblin software was incompatible with any other operating system. Most peeved indeed was the Izzie. Any cold hard cash to be spent on tech gadgets would have been better devoted to an upgrade of the ancient 2002 little red Nokia or preferably some cute bright shiny new tablet thingie.

So had been on the prowl since mid January for something cheap and cheerful with a deadline of two days before start of class on Thursday 21st February. The cute little silver touch screen ASUS 11 inch model that seemed the best compromise between portability, price and performance got a big F due to the absence of a DVD drive. Oh it was so easy to be tempted to upgrade from the under $500 budget to some bright shiny sparkly blingish thing but this serpent resisted. After all anything with Windoze would only ever be a Portkey of last resort due to the inherent awfulness

Had eyed up a couple of Acers but the geeks at Whirlpool said that anything from Acer is a pile of shit and they have appalling after sales service. They also like to indulge in dodgy cash back gimmicks. Been there and done that already with Apple back in 2005 and it left a most sour taste indeed

In the end had to settle for a Toshiba with an AMD processor even slower than the infamous Celery. After all this was supposed to be some basic workhorse model. Being windoze it would most definitely be not advisable to do much online due to the risk of all sorts of nasty viral infections. But Murphy’s Law declares that no matter how long and how hard you look the minute you buy some gadget it will be on sale a week later. Yesss. The very same computer was $50 cheaper the very next week in Dick Smith. But even worse they had a new ASUS model with a DVD drive with a proper Pentium Intel chip and 4GB ram for the same price the serpent paid for the pissy little AMD device. Was most peeved indeed

At this stage the class had already started and the teacher had gotten through three pages of putting stuff in the database while Izzie was still waiting for the infernal thing to load. Was ever so peeved. At this rate would need to turn the infernal thing on some 30 minutes before start of class. So along with the frustrating efforts at learning the ins and outs of Windoze 8 there was nothing but disdain for this infernal machine. The fact that another student also had problems getting the thing to start counted for nothing

Then finding the junk mail leaflets will all those Dick Smith specials two days later just added insult to injury. It was only the second visit to do the assigned homework that changed things a teeny weeny bit. This time it took less than a minute for the thing to load. Maybe the first time is different. So this nasty little black Goblin box turns out to be suitable for its intended purpose after all. But the one or two attempts at doing stuff online were an exercise in frustration. Could not install Google Chrome quick enough to avoid the awfulness that is Evilnet explorer and quick on this snailish goblin box turned out to be a good 40 minutes. But that could also be due to the wonderful internet connection courtesy of Vodafail

This Windoze 8 trail of trashy tiles was so obviously an attempt to catch up on the whole Smartphone apps thing. Even turning the infernal thing off is a bit of a ritual. It seems designed to be used as a touch screen and using the more basic laptop track pad is rather an exercise in frustration. Finding the path to invoke the off button is a right little ritual in itself. Its appearance seems to be rather random

Figured it might be possible to use this black goblin box for next month’s Camp Nano squiggling but then thinks that there is most likely no already installed word processing program. Not even some basic text edit gadget.
A bit more poking about revealed a pretty basic program that uses RTF so at least it is compatible with the Big Mac. There seems to be no autosave so that sucks. Must test transferring a few files with a USB stick before spending too much time with the thing
Anyway after becoming addicted to Scrivener, everything else is not worth the bother. Will stick to the tried and true rituals of plotting, planning. outlining and old fashioned emerald ink squiggling away from the desktop and then typing up the day’s inspiration some time at night.

The course itself is quite interesting. Was ever so amused at the special categories of tax deductions including the list of things that sex workers can claim against tax which include condoms, frilly knickers, make up, laundry and wages to pay bodyguards

It sure helps to be doing DIY tax returns for the last 19 plus years. Loving that the software that does all the hard work. Figured it might be a good idea to add a certain serpent to the database along with all the hypothetical homework clients. So adding bits as they come along meaning that for once there will be no last minute rush to have the infernal thing completed by the witching hour on 31st October. This week we were doing employment termination payments so that will be most relevant indeed

There are a handful of nuts in this class but will save that sad saga for another day. It is such a pity the text book and tax legislation that we are supposed to bring every week along with the laptop weigh half a ton. It means having to return straight to the Lair after the class to dump the infernal things
There’s a big barn garden store just across the road so it sucks the logistics of lugging all that stuff about makes a visit very impractical

This would be funny if it weren't so true


( Read more... )

Yesterday was a glorious sunny day and a perfect excuse for some serpent adventures.

Been spending lots of time at the State Library’s new outdoor reading cafe where you don’t even have to buy a coffee to lurk there. But even better, they provide three trolleys of tasty morsels to peruse. One filled with novels, another with children’s picture books and the third with recent non fiction books. All bright and shiny with that delicious crisp new book fragrance

The inner goblin immediately cast her beady eye on an offering by the delightfully snarky Sartjinder Das. This guy is an ex goblin who is now revealing some of their darkest and dirtiest secrets. This latest revelation is called “Extreme Money” and all about the doings of the swinging dicks and Masters of the Universe playing pokies with other people’s money, losing it all and still claiming their big fat goblin bonuses

Even the chapter titles are little gold nuggets and well worthy of inclusion in the little brown book of nano muses. And this book would make the perfect birthday present for old Uncle Vernon

Returned the next day for another fix of this goblin gossip and the book was nowhere to be found. But no loss. Had already been eying up another fat and juicy tome by Peter Fitzsimmons. Had this book on the wish list ever since listening to an interview about it on Late Night Live at least a year ago. But the horrendous fifty dollar price tag was a complete turn off. Could always borrow it from the library but it is the sort of book that you cannot cart around due to the risk of loss or damage but also because of its size and weight. Pity because it is the sort of book best read by the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean or by the light of the moon in some spooky haunted ancient ruin

And here it was sitting on this trolley just waiting to be read and returned obligation free. A story of spices, shipwrecks, mutiny, murder most foul, assorted perversions and goblin galleons galore. A sort of X rated adult version of “Lord of the Flies”. The outdoor library is open for two months so should be able to bite off a big chunk of this sick spicy saga.

Then the serpent had the idea that if November’s nanowrimo novel is going to be about some seriously evil corporation with tentacles everywhere, then a saga where the first modern corporation plays a central role would be an excellent place to look for inspiration.

Had already paid a visit to the site that used to be the Headquarters of this monstrous Cthulhu Corporation way back in September 2006. What should have been the Holiest of Holiest temple of the first and greatest Elder God of capitalism was a shabby nondescript outpost of the University of Amsterdam with no indication whatsoever of its former glory some 400 years ago. All that remained was an engraving above a door post that simply stated “VOC 1599” (The company logo and date of establishment)

In his house at Amsterdam dead Cthulhu waits dreaming

It’s time to go monster hunting again. It just so happens that some of its most sacred relics are little more than 40 minutes away from the serpent’s Lair. They are located at a shipwrecks museum which is also running a “Fabulous sea monsters” feature for the school holidays. Its sister maritime museum has animated dinosaurs but they can wait a day or so.

Due to other temptations, ended up with just over one hour to visit the ship wrecks museum. The building itself is more than a century old and is a museum piece in itself.

Downstairs is its star attractions - a large chunk of the hull of the ship Batavia that was wrecked off the western Australian coast way back in 1629 and some of the ballast in the form of large blocks to be made into an enormous gate at some Dutch colonial outpost in Indonesia that was its intended destination There is another maritime museum much nearer the site of the actual shipwreck and there is a bit of rivalry between them. The compromise was that one would get the fake gate and the real hull and the other would get the fake bit of ship and the real gate.
But the cannons and the skeleton lying in a makeshift grave were most definitely real as was some of the silver ware and bullion upstairs

The upstairs gallery is also a sort of shrine dedicated to the history of that company. Its banners were hanging from the ceiling, the VOC logo was plastered everywhere looking rather like a very peckish bird with a pointy beak and big beady eyes

There were even pictures of their board of directors’ meetings. The only thing missing were actual shares and receipts for dividends.

The monster tour turned out to be little signs with notices to look out for relics, images on maps, coins, banners and assorted paraphernalia. They did not bring in cute and cuddly Cthulhu, rubber sharks or jellyfish or any other monstrosities. It was all so very subtle not like the screaming marauding dinosaurs up the road. But they neglected to mention that the biggest monster in the museum was the Dutch East India company itself or that its spawn still live on some 200 years after its dissolution on 31st December 1799.

Izzie’s own little monster Megatherion Money Management is a mere tadpole in the presence of such a magnificent and long lived Corporate Giant. But unlike its infamous ancestor, it is at least still in existence and growing. And in November it can be as monolithic, megamaniacal, murderous and monstrous as only this serpent mind can make it. Its evilness and greed is limited only by our imagination.

Izzie is so going to steal Jan Pieterszoon Coen one of the VOC board directors. He was apparently a bit of a head hunter himself and notched up quite a body count in the pursuit of profit for his shareholders

For the first time since the start of August, Izzie has finally managed to find herself in the zone where a million muses offer inspiration but unable to take proper advantage of it until an hour ago.
It was actually this morning that the inspiration arrived for the very first time since the arrival of the latest nasty and very vicious Howler on the afternoon of Tuesday 31st July. It was almost as if the Old Toad knew that this serpent was plotting and planning and she wanted to sabotage our efforts. There is no way she could know unless she really does come from Stasiland where they know stuff even before it happens and make it up if they don't.

Paid a visit to Petunia on Tuesday so missed a whole day of nano squiggling. That is one very bad and dangerous habit. It takes so long to catch up and the lost words can so quickly accumulate

But today was the big day. Such a pity it was not really possible to make the most of it due to various things that had to be done today in preparation for tomorrow morning’s Grand Inquisition

Not posted a single thing about this latest instalment of the drama that is Toad Hall (also known as the day job) Wasted two Camp Nano days on composing a response to the outrageous allegations and have not been able to build up a sufficient word stash to take time out to tell this particular toadish tale in all its gory details

Several times both on the train and the bus was bombarded with brilliant ideas but was not within quick reach of pen and paper and so had to use the old serpent skull as storage space.
Did manage to snatch a copy of Animalia at the library as well as pay a visit to the art gallery with those creepy Alistair Crowley pictures and the assorted demonic sigils, sculptures and paper cut creepy crawlies including Baalzebub - The Lord of the Flies himself.
The grand original plan of writing one 2,000 word story per day did not work due to that ever so meddlesome toad sapping the spark out of this serpent and turning the ickle green cells to zombie mush. So resorted to just plodding along and writing 300 words here and another 200 there all the while hoping for inspiration to strike
It was only the sniffing out of a significant piece of written evidence that proves that not one but three different goblins are involved in ‘bearing false witness’ that the Izzie could finally calm down and relish the chance of our ‘day in court’ making these guttersnipes gobble shit sandwiches
Today was so relaxed and calm. Was finally able to remain in the present moment for the first time in weeks. It makes such a big difference to creativity.
But did end up crashing around 7pm when some creepy creatures got on the bus. Was suddenly overtaken by tiredness. The original plans to return to the Lair by 7pm got amended by an unexpected encounter with an old acquaintance.

So being too dark in the dungeon to properly see the tarot cards, got out that copy of Animalia. You know you have too many books when you have to go to the library to borrow one you already own because you cannot find it.
So set up a separate chapter and started at the letter A.
By the letter C we had hit a veritable gold mine. The main feature of the picture are a bunch of crimson cats sitting by a creek. One is wearing a cap, another snacking on crayfish, another wearing a collar and a camera while yet another plays with a calculator. They also have a party with candles, cake and cups of coffee while in the distance crows nest in a castle on a hill.
Came up with a character called Catriona Cardassian who loves the champagne and caviar lifestyle but has to manage on a beer budget. She gets out her calculator to work out the cost of her planned Caribbean cruise and cannot think of a way to collect the necessary cash. She then has the inspired idea to open a Cat Holiday Home offering respite for fussy Cats and their staff
So far we have gotten to describing the castle, the main foyer and dining room with the candelabra, chandeliers, and silver service dining experience
And how can we forget the obligatory mission statements and assorted company posters extolling their ‘creme de la creme’ of cat care services”

Turreted towers boast beautiful views of birds while flags with little Hello Kitty cats on them adorn the entrance of the castle. In the foyer sits a little old lady behind a counter knitting little mittens for kittens while waiting for the occasional phone inquiry or Cat lover to collect or drop off their darling charges into Catriona’s tender loving care
A dining room with linen table cloths and silver service bowls can be seen from the entrance. The cats drink certified biodynamic double cream from Jersey cows out of Czech lead crystal bowls and feast on sumptious silver platters of crayfish, lobster, caviar and cod. Vegetarian cats are catered for with cucumber sandwiches.
Chandeliers hang from the dining room ceiling and there are pure beeswax candles on every table
Prominently displayed on every table is a parchment menu in perfect copper plate script. No mass produced dodgy photocopies or some snappy crap from the local print shop but each individually written long hand with love.
Pride of place is given to the Mission Statement (to please the inner pussy) and Vision For Catfish Creature Comforts Castle

Every Cat is a cherished cat
Our marvellous moggies are at the centre of everything we do. A quality carefree experience is guaranteed
Protection, perfection, passion and politeness for your precious pussy
Catriona personally does the guided tours of the premises for prospective Resident Cats and their staff including the spacious gardens and sun house. She is such a stickler for perfection and attention to detail
The gardens are truly a magnificent sight. A copse of cherry trees and assorted rocks along with bird attracting shrubs. For the less ambitious or mobility impaired felines there is the Mouse House where they can feast on little creatures with little effort required. Of course this is not necessary as their nutritional needs are perfectly catered for by our team of qualified chefs. A dietician assesses each individual cat’s needs to ensure that they get the correct age appropriate mix of protein, vitamins and trace elements essential to the feline well being. But a cat needs to indulge her natural instincts so we have provided mouse catching and other occupational therapy activities to create a stimulating environment for your very precious pet.
A number of cats lounge languidly on large cushy chairs looking quite content. Some have little tails hanging out of their mouths while others paws are adorned with feathers
Others are content to simply sit in the sun watching the fish swimming about in the enormous aquarium.

But of course all that glitters is not silver.
No one gives a rat’s arse about old people but try running a Cat haven the way a certain nursing home is managed then there would be massive public outrage
So the Izzie is going to have a pile of fun taking the piss big time out of these dirty goblins. And there won’t even be any need to keep the finished tale under lock and key
Payback is such a bitch
When life hands you lemons, squeeze them till the pips squeak and make lemon champagne

In an attempt to be organized recently bought two bright shiny expanding folders. The bright lime green one is for packets of seeds sorted by month and season and the lurid pink one for bits and bobs, scraps of paper and articles that don’t really fit anywhere else.
But while 18 brown pockets might be all right for seeds, it is not so useful for other stuff. Had already considered clearing out the contents of an old folder and assigning it to this new purpose. But like so many other good intentions this one ended up in the too hard basket. That was until tonight.

( Bills and things )

Izzie is one happy happy serpent. There’s been lots of crisp and crunchy sunny days with the gorgeous delicate kind of light that this time of year is known for. Time for feeling most alive indeed and for plotting, planning and planting. Especially delicious as it is the first evening of twelve toad free days. Could not indulge in the usual fourteen as the very precious annual leave is needed for November.


There’s been lots of interesting bookish events this week but learned a lesson from the first week of May. Two many evening activities stretches the attention of this ever so introverted serpent just a bit too thinly. With the “Book is Dead” debate tomorrow evening at the Fremantle public library (with nibblies and a glass or two of red) and the expectation of attendance at Petunia’s place on Friday evening, tonight’s ‘meet and greet’ three local authors at the state library - also with wine and nibblies would have been just too much excitement. Instead spent the afternoon slinking in the sun and carting wheelbarrows of piggie poo to the graveyard where the big macadamia tree now lies. Spent some of the evening sipping bubbly and half listening to Big Ideas and our favorite goblin spotter Satyajit Das gossiping about Greece and the end of Ponzi prosperity
Peak Oil prophet Nicole Foss must be now declaring “Told you so” with all this gloom and doom about Greece. She said back in February that the financial meltdown would start before the others beginning with Greece and all those bankers and insurance companies who would be caught with their pants down. All sorts of dodgy goblins would be offering hedges and assorted credit default swap ‘insurance’ but few would have the silver sickles on hand to back their bets. In no time all sorts of banks would be falling like dominoes.


Even creepy crawly Zuckerberg is alone and friendless. Not that he cares since he’s already taken the money and eloped to Sugar Candy Mountain on the honeymoon of the century.
There was another bookish event yesterday. A woman who had written about her experiences with her autistic son. Reaching One Thousand Also more wine and nibblies. How could one resist the temptation of a place called “Crow Books”? Had the best of intentions but got lured by the attractions of other more insistent birds.

Somehow suspecting it is going to be a long time before coming across any story as mind blowing and totally sick and twisted as the Hunger Games trilogy. Was still sitting outside around sunset glued to those infernal pages when it was long time to be pottering off to the bus stop in order to be at the Crow Books store for 7pm. There was a shadow of doubt about how complicated it would be to return to the Lair after 9pm using public transport. It would not even be an issue if it was possible to stay snoozing in the serpent sack for the next morning. In the end inertia won over adventure.

In the end, listened to Big Ideas which had a talk about business ethics. Most amusing in the light of recent events. Was supposed to spend an hour or so squiggling about the latest drama at the day job. But such an overdose of evilness in both the world of work and the world of words meant that the mushy Izzie brain was capable of only of snoozing it all off. Hit the hay at 8pm. Such a waste of a gorgeous evening.

It’s been a very birdy week. No crows, lots of mockingjays and today was two very tasty owls. More gory details on those later but one got the Izzie thinking about a certain sort of pink and fluffy gorgeousness
Came across a little snippet on an online forum and the evil inner serpent just could not resist the temptation. An innovative and profitable solution to the looming aged care crisis


"I saw so many residents just give up and slowly deteriorate and either stop talking, stop being conscious and just die. I have seen people lose their will to live and that's a tragedy in itself. I heard two women when they first came into the nursing home say to each other - Just our luck - it's a single story nursing home. We can't even jump off the roof and end this torture. It was the last time I heard them laugh they went downhill very quickly. Poor nutrition tends to do that to the elderly. Works out well for the nursing home too as a quick turn over is very lucrative for them. Helps them to meet their budget."



Ladies and Gentlemen…. Let the 74th Granny Games begin

After last Friday decided that having the occasional ‘Do Nothing Day” would be a good idea. It’s less about being a lazy serpent and more about not rushing around like a headless chook and taking time to smell the roses

Due to signing up for a freebie this evening at the council library, decided to not potter off to the city but to do some gardening and slink about in the coffee shops reading the papers, a chapter or two of “Carrie” and God Forbid - even attending to a certain long overdue letter that has been put on the long finger of procrastination for nearly two months now

The original plan was to go by bus to the library and then walk to the usual cafe. But it turned out to be a stuffy grey sort of day and not nice weather for walking. Figured it would make more sense just to go to shops down the road which also had cafes and a post office and then get a bus at the last minute to be at the library by 6pm to attend the free presentation with the intriguing title “Champagne Lifestyle on a Beer Budget”

So leaving the Lair just after 1pm would leave plenty of time for lurking and sniffing about and no excuse not to get some serious squiggling done.

Not sure if it was the quiet and peaceful day of reflection, plotting and planning last Friday but been in a chirpy cheerful and optimistic mood since then. They occur so seldom lately that it is a good idea to make the most of it. So Tuesday evening found Izzie sorting out the kitchen cupboards, tidying, tossing and doing all sorts of domesticated things.

Decided to strike while the iron was hot and in less than five minutes had written a letter that had been the subject of nearly two months of procrastination. Wrote two versions, one with and one without the date. Had always been meaning to get around to the infernal thing but invariably only ever thought about it in the middle of night or at work or some place where action was not possible. But last night got out some writing paper and a quarterly statement with the relevant details and put them in the 12th April page of the little black diary. Took less than five minutes to complete. Such a pointless waste of energy procrastinating for all that time.

Returned to the Lair just before 8pm and heard that they would be broadcasting the final episode of a recent radio play of Hamlet at 9pm. So figured it might be a good idea to leave the lurking online until later and to spend the time fussing about in the kitchen cupboards while tuned to the murder, madness and mayhem.

This silly seemingly simple rule of “Toss ten things” daily is slowly paying off. It is small enough not to awaken the inner Smaug who loves collecting and hoarding bright shiny things but big enough to keep the flame of good intentions flickering and to slowly develop good habits.
The first of these habits was to keep new stuff from lingering and lurking while slowly tackling the big fat dusty backlog. All junk mail gets dumped the same day it arrives now instead of ending up in the ever increasing ‘get around to looking at it later’ pile

So often in the past the grand binges of decluttering would end in a sudden crash and abandonment of the project for what seemed like centuries. But a recent reframing of the issue from getting rid of stuff to making room for bright shiny new possibilities has helped enormously. Got the inspiration from a book called “It’s All Too Much” which most suitably was obtained from a public library.

Not sure how long the present state of irrational exuberance will last for but will be making the most of it until the inevitable crash. Or maybe simply the decision to change has itself been the source of all this new found energy and other seriously strange coincidences.

Tonight’s interesting talk seemed to provide yet another piece to this strange puzzle. Strange how the teacher magically appears whenever the serpent is ready to learn

Will be doing something completely strange and unexpected tomorrow to celebrate Black Friday. Will report on the results some time tomorrow evening. It should be most interesting indeed