The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

A certain Cyberian serpent has been gobbling up all my spare online time and more besides. Python is a hard task master and demands sacrificial offerings every week since early October. So I’m woefully behind in catching up with comments and gossip in general. Even the RasPutin vs The Mad Monk mixed martial arts championship has been sadly neglected. Some of the cartoonists have been having a wonderful time devoting their poisoned pens to portraying the assorted training regimes of the two combatants.




I must be going completely crazy. It’s simply not normal to be slaving over a keyboard at 6.30 in the morning in a desperate attempt to put some last minute touches on a very buggy game of Pong. I might manage to salvage 12 of the 19 possible points which is a bit of an improvement on the first version that would be struggling to score more than 6.
So it looks like I have well and truly hit the wall this week. Will keep plodding along anyway since this python is proud of her persistence. Here’s hoping the long hoped for light bulb moments are not too far away. November will be the true test of commitment since the annual ritual of novel writing is simply not negotiable.

It is simply not rational to expend such time and effort on a course that has very little use in real life. It could come in handy for two grand procrastination projects - a second attempt at Coursera’s cryptography classes and a rather long to do list at Project Euler. I guess they are the online equivalents of designing that deck of tarot cards, actually editing at least one of 5 nano novels and finishing sewing and stuffing Snowball the teddy bear.

And this week’s topic in the very interesting “Learning how to learn” course is all about procrastination and zombies. Perfect timing.

Camp Nano is a strange masochistic ritual. Taking time away from slinking around in Cyberia in order to dedicate sixty minutes or so to every day to squiggling and knowing damned well that all of it will end up gathering dust on some hard drive.

For while the serpent is disciplined when it comes to the word count, the stuff that comes after is just one enormous festival of procrastination. It’s been nearly five years now since first setting foot in the crazy place that is Nanoland.

( A Word Salad )

Today turned out to be a not so scary solstice after all. It wasn't even sizzling and stinking hot but sunny and breezy and sometimes even a bit on the cool side but that is to be expected by the beach

For it was time to indulge in the annual ritual of watching the sunset. There are a whole bunch of other rituals associated with this day like drawing tarot cards as inspiration for the new year and unofficially sort of starting the new year. From years of observation this day seems to set the tone for the following year rather than New Year's Eve itself.

A new ritual has been added to the list and has proved most interesting indeed

( The Little Green Book of Lists )

Not been slinking much in Cyberia lately or rather devoting most time there to Hogwarts homework. The old Hermione Granger incarnation is well and truly dead, buried and cremated. This emerald serpent is much more of a plodder lately. But the advent of a new year is a good opportunity to catch up.

Last night was supposed to be dedicated to the big “Think Again” catch up. Everyone else is at week seven and I’m way way behind still watching video lectures for week 4. In spite of having an extra 30 hours a week to play with which really is the next best thing to having one’s own personal Time Turner, still slacking and procrastinating

( Lazy serpents lounging about )

It's hard to believe that it is exactly two weeks since the Goblin Inquisition and still not gotten around to posting about it. That had been the intention this evening but the gods giggle when serpents make plans
It's sucky enough having a snailish internet provider with supersonic speeds of 13kbps but now the serpent has found an alternative source for downloading Coursera lecture videos, these miserable snails have found new ways of pissing off the Izzie. Last night it took a good ten minutes for the black wifi dongle to change its status from 'connecting' to 'connected'. Tonight it excelled itself and took a ridiculous 30 minutes. Was most murderous indeed. Already had a splitting headache induced by the bus ride from hell. This was just the last straw

Needless to say that little episode well and truly nuked any enthusiasm for serious squiggling. Just as well the serpent had no plans for doing the Crypto final exam this evening. But now there's the serious worry that this piss poor pathetic Portkey to Cyberia is going to get into such snailish habits all the time.
Pretty much given up on the Python programming course at this stage. Finally remembered to copy the files downloaded last week at Petunia's place. Not even looked at a single video yet and the course is already in its second week. Will just have to make do with downloading all the video lectures and looking at them some later time when the old skull is not in such a scrambled brain dead zombie state
Will be staying away from active involvement in any online courses now until the end of November. Having all that extra time is no use when the old grey cells are totally sizzled

Yet another item to add on the payback list for a certain old toad

Still cannot believe that the decision back in late August to wait one week to even look at the Coursera video lectures could have had such cumulative consequences. The littlest peek in that first week would have led this serpent to immediately snatch the stuff from a more user friendly location. Had not completely neglected the course and had been looking at the slides and pdf files during that time but they were completely incomprehensible without the video key to unlock the mathematical mumbo jumbo.

At least Nanowrimo does not require half decent internet connections. In fact the less time spent online the better. It's a low tech and very cheap form of amusement. This is all good news for the inner control freak.

Maybe Friday will finally be the day that all the assorted loose ends get tidied up.

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

Izzie slinks in to her Cyberian cell slowly and sluggishly. The old green cells ain't what they used to be
Seemed to have mastered the art in the last 3 weeks or so of totally stuffing up the Izzie weekends which unlike normal folks are on Thursdays and Fridays. Not helped by the endless rain for most of them. But all the neurotic craziness is self inflicted

Somehow the serpent seems simply unable to do much at all. Got a bit of decluttering done but once again piles of letters remain unsent. The longer they get left, the harder it gets. As for that Will on the 1001 list, no progress on that front either
Been acquiring supplies for the grand art projects and now there's nothing left to get but a bit of motivation.

Had a reasonably good start to the day. Unlike the last two Fridays, no staying in the serpent sack snoozing. Was rostered on to chair the grannie group meeting. Chairing a meeting is a big assignment and not one to be dumped with no notice simply due to 'wanting a snooze'
After that slinked off to the nearby park followed by the museum.
That was gorgeous. Bits of the old exhibits were still there and also took a peek at the dinosaurs and diamonds display. Was most intrigued by the stash of samples attached to a very large periodic table of the elements. Most were brownish, grey or silver in their usual state. The gold sample was temporarily unavailable. It either got snatched or they were afraid it would
Had no idea that it was such close neighbours with lead - only two doors down

It was very interesting and fascinating and would have remained that way if silly Izzie had remained there and not gone and ventured into the shop from hell

It's a nice and interesting place full of all sorts of strange herbs and spices and very cheap tahini. But it is seriously poky and claustrophobia inducing - especially for a fat serpent with lots of bags.
Should have gone on a coffee crawl instead for an hour or two writing those letters and playing with the new toys.
Did try a bit of crochet while sitting in the museum courtyard but had forgotten just about everything except making a basic chain. Maybe it will all come back. Will get Petunia to show the stuff that we can't work out from the Oracle of Google.

Yesterday's opp shop visits were like finding a gold mine. As well as two crochet hooks, also got a most beautiful unused old photo album with pitch black pages, white leafy lacy separating pages and a purple cover. It was also square rather than landscape shape which makes it much more suitable for a potential potions book. It cost only four silver sickles and is much better quality than the $$30 albums in the department stores and craft shops
So now got lots of pretty papers, metallic pens and most importantly a picture of that book snaffled from Google so there's no obstacle in the serpent path now except procrastination

Was very good and stayed away from the wonderful annual Save the Children Fund second hand book sale which started at 6pm this evening. Might end up being tempted and visit on its last day on Monday. But really, the Izzie has got enough books in the Lair to last a dozen life times if we were to read them all plus membership of half a dozen libraries.
The wicked little critters along with the serpent sack and slinking in Cyberia are the greatest temptations to keep dreaming instead of start doing

So if the Izzie isn't lurking much online lately, it's actually a sign of progress.

Izzie has discovered an ingenious means to get the decluttering done. Just find some other thing that you'd prefer to procrastinate and suddenly blobs of glob and the acres of paper jungle look quite inviting
And what is the object of so much dilly dallying and dithering? None other but the odd Cyberian squiggle. Basically so much stuff has been going on the last two months that the old green cells are in serious danger of overloading and short circuiting

There's the demise of Izzie's favorite ever toy shop. Still upset and devastated by this one. The evil goblinses not only turned off the lightseses but did it in such a sneaky and surreptitious manner.

Made do with the annual substitute at the local university open day on the Sunday just gone but it was a pale imitation of last year's event. Not just the rain but the increased expectations from last year. Had started the day bright and early at 4am or so watching a partial lunar eclipse (Sunday 17th August 2008) but then got the treat of a freebie astronomy almanac at the Open Day. This year was looking forward to getting the paws on a copy but they did not have them this time. It's all about expectations really.

There were just so many fascinating things to do but so little time. Once again managed to miss out on the mechanics labs demonstrations of stretching and squeezing and otherwise tormenting bits of metal to see how far they could go before snapping
Once again did not get to build a spaghetti bridge. This year they decided to try popsicle sticks instead.
It sucks having to leave around 2pm in order to get to work. Next year might arrange to have a week holidays for the Open Day season. The opportunity cost of taking a Sunday off are otherwise just way too high.
Then there was yet more nostalgia for last year's feast of geekiness. Last year went to two very funny and fascinating talks by Michael Shermer. This year's Science Week line up was just positively uninteresting by comparison. Not at all helped by the fact that the goblins have gobbled the best science museum of all.

But the big black hole of the last few weeks apart from the nasty sneering sniping mob of managers at work is that two of Izzie's most favorite folks at work have died within a week of each other. It's sort of like either not wanting to dwell on it or somehow thinking that not squiggling about it means that it never happened.
The bosses are such a bunch of bean counting bastards that they could never imagine that the house elves do get rather attached to some of the oldies beyond the call of duty. And then there's others who are such toxic toadstools that no one will go near them any more than necessary. They are the ones that the bosses drool and swoon over.
Really must write a proper post about Boo Boo and the beautiful Bug in Boots

Lucky the Izzie is only there 30 hours a week. But really should be doing more productive things with all the rest of the time rather than mainly snoozing or slinking in Cyberia.
Finally took advantage of the dark moon to plant those pots of wolfsbane seeds. They've been in the freezer a good year or so and their official shelf life of 2007 is well and truly over. In a way those seeds symbolise so much of the Izzie afflictions. Imagining the possibilities and potential of packets of seeds, munchies and stashes of other stuff is where the real satisfaction lies. Actually doing stuff with them reduces the realms of possibilities and increases reality and the realization that there's an enormous chasm between the world of dreams and the world of getting things done.

And once again, thanks to Radio National, the serpent has found yet a new source of dreams and schemes in the search for the prettiest patterns of all.
Crazy Curly Coral
This looks like a wonderful opportunity for experimentation and meditation all wrapped up in a most portable form.