Supernatural speculation

I keep meaning to write this down, but I've really got nowhere else to post it:

I think at the end of this season we find out that Heaven is really the Matrix, but powered by human souls instead of human bodies. "The power of heaven" is generated by the souls of all those dead people, eternally alone in their perfect little worlds. (And that's why the dead are kept isolated in Heaven. So the ones like Ash don't get together and maybe decide to put all that power to other uses.) Lucifer's power, and the powers we've seen from the demons over the seasons, comes from the radiant energy of the souls who've sold themselves into Hell. That's why Balthazar bought that kid's soul: he was trying to build himself a captive energy base so he could take himself off the Heaven grid.

I'm not 100% sure about Purgatory, but I think it's where third-case souls go. People whose souls aren't clean enough for heaven to take, but on whom Hell doesn't have a colorable claim. People like Mary Winchester, who contracted with a demon, but didn't actually sell her soul. Or John Winchester, who sold his soul, but climbed back out of the pit. Also angry spirits, who refused to be conducted to Heaven by the Reapers, but weren't contracted to Hell. The Mother of Monsters has been using the scant soul-power at her disposal to make - you guessed it - monsters. The monsters go around turning humans into more monsters (vampires, skinwalkers, etc.) whose souls eventually end up in Purgatory. Now that the Pseudopocalypse has been and gone, and neither Heaven nor Hell won, the Mother of Monsters is making a bid to take control of Earth, so she can divert all souls to Purgatory and have everything her own way from here on out.

It's a theory.


Today's earrings: flies, trout

Bedtime reading: The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

Musical Interlude

Tonight in Mongomery Station was a guy with a voice eerily like Johnny Cash, playing an accoustic guitar and singing "Blitzkrieg Bop."

I gave him money.


Today's earrings: penguins, fish

Bedtime reading: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark

Ice boat

Today's earrings: penguins, fish

Bedtime reading: Freeze My Margarita, Lauren Henderson

Drinks with Elks

Drinks at the Elks Club with the guys. After, we went down to Market and I pointed out The Apartment. They were talking housewarming presents; I just stared soulfully into its windows...


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper, John D. MacDonald

So nice when the right dress wins.

I think Shirin won just for that waistline. As she should.

The Models of the Runway are living up to their drama-promise. In this week's episode:

The models were astonished and displeased that Mitchell survived this round, and they all dread getting stuck with him because a) they think he's not long for this competition and b) he didn't exactly charm them with last week's blame-the-model stunt.

We waste a lot of time listening to the models re-recite the rules of the game, and various among them talk about their sucking-up techniques. Fatma announces that her designer Logan is hot.

Finally, we get to model-picking. Shirin surprises everybody by going back to the model she had in the first episode. Ra'mon makes a big production of wanting to switch to Althea's model, but Althea gives him massive stinkeye and he backs off and chooses the same model as this week. Mitchell chooses Fatma. As she passes behind the screen, she dramatically raises her hands to the sky in a "why me, Lord?" gesture (that everyone sees). She begins tantrumming about losing Logan the hottie for Mitchell the loser as soon as she hits the model room, and won't shut up. Out at the runway, Logan chooses someone else. Fatma glares at her when she gets back to the model room. Somebody tries to reason with Fatma about maybe not being so openly obnoxious while the cameras are running, and Fatma turns on her. The rest of the game of musical chairs goes off without serious incident. The one left out is Malvin's model Valerie, who seems to be a lovely woman. Everyone is sorry to see her go. Except Fatma, who's still pouting about losing Logan.

Next week: Fatma, still not getting over it.


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Swan for the Money, Donna Andrews

Tonight's theme: Electricity

First, the buyer on Property Virgins was a woman who'd been struck by lightning the year before she went on the show.
Then on Eureka, the crisis of the week spread via electrical transmission.
On Warehouse 13, the MacGuffin electrocuted people.
And finally, Dave Chapelle did the electric guitar sketch with John Mayer.

Spooky.


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

Fish

Flying


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling

One fish, two fish

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.
Black fish, blue fish, old fish, new fish.
This one has a little star.
This one has a little car.
Say! What a lot of fish there are.
Yes. Some are red. And some are blue.
Some are old. And some are new.
Some are sad. And some are glad.
And some are very, very bad.
Why are they sad and glad and bad?
I do not know. Go ask your dad.
Some are thin. And some are fat.
The fat one has a yellow hat.
From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.

- - Theodore Geisel

Today's earrings: fish, other fish

Bedtime reading: The Judas Rose, Suzette Haden Elgin

Challenge

Tomorrow, I get to figure out how to separate lines, each consisting of a string of text followed by a row of numbers, into separate text and number columns. I mean, I know how to do that, but I don't know how to do that for 10,000 lines at once when the text strings are all different lengths and have a variety of terminal letters. Oh, and there are numbers mixed into the text strings.

If anyone has any ideas, let me know.


Today's earrings: tree frogs, fish

Bedtime reading: Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman

2nd credit line obtained

After drinking we checked out the windows @ Gumps, then went to Macy's. b2 is a most luck-bringing shopping partner; I came away with a really cute sweater and 4 pairs of stockings.

Sadly, the luck-bringing was not reciprocal. Sorry!


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman

Her reply

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy Love.
But Time drives flocks from field to fold;
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold;
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward Winter reckoning yields:
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies,
Soon break, soon wither—soon forgotten,
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
Thy belt of straw and ivy-buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,—
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy Love.
But could youth last, and love still breed,
Had joys no date, nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy Love.

- - Sir Walter Raleigh


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy L. Sayers

Looking like worst-case scenario here

Got a call around 3 from the realtor. He wants to know what's up with my financing. I haven't heard, I say. Well, he says, the person in line after me has qualified for financing and he can't just wait around forever. Mmmmkay. What is my deadline? He's all, hem, haw, um, well, Wednesday. I pointed out that it would have been nice if he'd mentioned his timeline before now, and put in a call to the Loan Lady.

She called back around 4 to say "no." Then she spent twenty minutes soothing my feelings before I could shovel her off the phone and go call M's broker's buddy in the city. When I talked to him a month ago, Broker Buddy had found me a not-big-enough loan with highish interest... but it was a loan. I left a voicemail for him, and then called back every fifteen minutes or so, not leaving messages. (I was hoping to catch him in, not be scary-called-six-times-woman.)

Just after five I walked over to my own bank, and told my sad story to one of the loan ladies there. She was good about not wasting my time, I'll give her that - I got a "no" from her right away. The credit thing was just insuperable for them. I went back to work and, surprisingly, got a few things done in between obsessively calling Broker Buddy.

It's... yeah. There's still a possibility of making this work, but... doesn't seem all that likely.


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: Comeback, Dick Francis

Harrumph

Bravo is pissing me off. They keep editing PR contestants into hateworthy characters, and then sending home someone relatively pleasant. Stupid jerks are doing it as part of the petulant fit they're throwing over losing the show to Lifetime... but the antics aren't making me hate PR. They're making me hate Bravo.


Today's earrings: monkeys, fish

Bedtime reading: Death's Half Acre, Margaret Maron

The coats came today

It was too hot to wear them home, so I stopped off at the no-really-we-mean-it-this-time-we're-really-going-out-of-business rug store next door and picked up a telephone table. (The logic was inescapable, but would take too long to spell out.) The new table fits neatly in the niche in my kitchen, and, since it doesn't go with anything else in the place, fits right in.


Today's acquisitions:
- 2 coats
- 1 whatnot

Today's earrings: monkeys, fish

Bedtime reading: Cockatiels at Seven, Donna Andrews

Glass squid (National Geographic)

Today's earrings: diamonds, fish

Bedtime reading: The Franchise Affair, Josephine Tey

The secret of life.

http://xkcd.com/365/


Today's earrings: frogs, fish

Bedtime reading: Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain

Fish on Friday

Good Friday to all, and to all a good night. :)


Today's earrings: fish, other fish

Bedtime reading: The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Terry Pratchett

Fish on Friday

Went to b2's brother's wife's brother's latest restaurant tonight, and, my, she was yar. I can recommend the salmon cakes. :)


Today's earrings: flies, trout

Bedtime reading: Breakup, Dana Stabenow

That was sad

Poor Jack, done in by a staph infection.

Poor Steven, done in by his own snobbery. Psst. Steven. Polyester isn't catching.

Chris is fun. Chris is nice to have around. Chris can't seem to design street clothes. Chris will be gone again soon, and Broadway will hire him to costume many fabulous shows. That part's not sad.


Today's earrings: flies, fish

Bedtime reading: The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman

Call for holiday wish lists

I want exotic foodstuffs in attractive jars, representational silver earrings, publications about bees, the eye of the needle, and something else I forget, and tchochkes representing fruits and flowers that start with P.
I reserve the right to expand this list at a later date.

What do you want for Christmas?


Today's earrings: tree frogs, fish

Bedtime reading: Rethinking Thin, Gina Kolata