Black Dog Blog

Archive for the ‘dragons’ Category

Anyone in the UK or who can access 4OD, you have to watch Inside Nature's Giants. Dissecting megafauna. The episode just gone centred on a crocodile and oh, he was just utterly beautiful.

Crocodiles can live as long as we do, but this little 280-kg male had died at 17 years of age in his home at an animal park. The pathologists explain the anatomy while looking for the cause of death. I won't spoil it, but he was certainly an ill little tyke.

What's Weft saying? Suggestions for caption, please.

*readers should not infer from the word "competition" that there will be any 'prizes' beyond the awesome honour of seeing this heartbreakingly awesome work of ART

(First more-than-quarter-assed attempt at a Shade dragon in a SMALL variant of its polar, pedestrian form. Despite being huge, armoured monsters, they're about the only thing alive that can sneak up on a Weft. This is because they are epic.)

Class. The Google doodle of the day celebrates St George's Day and Shakespeare's birthday in one.

More about Saint George, with fun details about the dragon on page 3 (disclosure: that page was compiled by me).

Having no idea it was St G's day today, on the way to work I saw a typical-looking red builderish van flying a George Cross and I have to admit my first thought was "Well, he's not necessarily racist…" Sad.

Why can't Happened To Get Born In England Pride be like Happened To Get Born Gay Pride? Gay pride marches don't necessarily imply that everyone born anything else is rubbish, so why in the case of nationality do we have to have twerps like the BNP fouling everything up? *sigh*

I and others are amused by the whole idea of this Turkish tribune who never visited England and whose spurious claim to fame took place in Libya. You've got racist twerps waving his flag with abandon while, in the words of a colleague, "if they met the real guy in a pub, they'd have bottled him and had him deported!"

If anyone cared a whit for us punsters, George would have been called John, because "St. John" as an English forename is pronounced "singeon". Ssssmokin'.

Featuring Green, a dragon.

Reclining Green (800×600, 133KB)

For reference, her body (disregarding the neck, etc) is as big as this bullock.

(Oh, and the dog isn't a self-insert. That would be an Irish Wolfhound up to trouble. This is a spaniel cross.)

I'm just getting into Merlin on BBC One, Saturdays. I'd taped a few (what turned out to be almost the whole series, apart from the first ep, I think) and hadn't got around to watching them. Over the weekend I watched three or so to free up drive space.

It's pretty ok for what I take to be a children's series. (No idea if it is supposed to be a children's series, but if I read it as such I don't get offended by being dumbed down at or by the main characters being young teens.)

The dialogue is jarring in places (a few Americanisms, lots of modernisms).

There is Dragon and because I missed the first episode or so, I don't know what its deal is. Dragon has a trendy chain and is suitably Dragonlike (in a sense Suitov would recognise, no less): mysterious, knowledgeable, given to talking in riddles and not always prepared to help directly.

There's a lot of heavy-clawed foreshadowing about Merlin and young Arthur and their shared destiny. I bet the fanshippers have been licking their chops over all that.

The magic is the real fun and I'm seizing at the little systembuilding details with pleasure. Hoping the 'magic language' they talk in is good old gobbledygook and not Celticese. (I strongly dislike Celtic stuff of any description. Too many trendy idiots get squiffy over it.)

All in all I'm enjoying the series surprisingly much, given that it's no exaggeration to say that the Arthurian mythos and derring-do with swords are two of my pet loathings!

It's probably a lot to do with who they've got playing Uther Pendragon. (DRAGON GEDDIT LOL? I sure did, an episode or two in…)

Dragon wallpaper and all sorts of other stuff on the programme website. (I don't know if I'm missing a gene or something, but despite working with and on the web constantly, I never really bother visiting programme support sites.)

DragonForce concert was great. My feet hurt from all the bouncing up and down. Afterwards we were thirsty and found a shop that has not only lychee Rubicon (a range of exotic-fruit carbonated drinks, generally sold in Asian shops) (I'm British, so Asian = South Asian) but also cartons of lychee juice! It is my new favourite shop evar—and very close to my work.

So far I've been very lazy this weekend and am thoroughly enjoying the break from arts and other stuff.

After posting this I'll go to make smoothies (i.e. shove lots of marked-down fruit in a blender. YUM!) with the bros and play more Resident Evil 4.

I was complimented by so many people on Friday… lots of them liked my tie. I have eccentric rules, such as "if I wear the black shirt on a Friday I wear a tie with it" (my office's dress code is jeans and t-shirts, as a rule; I overdress because the novelty of fitting into reasonably-priced shirts is still a new one on me). Apparently the shiny light grey/silver tie is popular. My favourite is a shiny dark slightly-blueish-grey.

If it wasn't so very clichéd I'd go and paint myself as a metallic dark-grey-blue dragon* now for the lulz. Or a large shaggy grey dog. Or one turning into the other. Sexxxay!

Also complimented on my work, which was even better. I win at graphic design, proofreading and site-building and two people have asked why I'm not a CSD yet.

* Classic Western, four solid legs, canine teeth, four fingers and opposable thumbs, all claws but dews semi-retractable, hard scales, ridges and fins, no spikes, good solid tail rather than snake-whippy, no tail blade and good solid wings rather than tiny hangbutt membranes. Energising/inspirational breath gift, blue flame breath weapon. Probably shown hunting wild lychees, pwning cats and followed by cute animals.** Now you can all pretend I drew this already and save me the trouble. The dog is pretty much an Irish Wolfhound.

** edit: in dragon-geek-ese, since Vespy asks: DC2.Dw Gn L W T+ Phfwlt C"Dark metallic grey-blue" Sks B"Blue flame; breath gift: energise/inspire" A- Nu M—! O/ H+ $ F+f/v R—! J+++ I+ V—! Q- Tc++ E—!# but my description above's more accurate.

I've finally been identified as the culprit who left the paper dinosaur.

Direct questions—my one weakness!

I wasn't averse to being found out, mind you. To cause a little curiosity and confusion was my aim, and evidently I've done that. It's been, what, 14 days or so since she found it…

As I wandered back downstairs I heard the recipient saying "I've found out who left the dinosaur!"

I think the part in parentheses says it all…

Black Dog's Curse (To a Paper Dinosaur)

Ambling, shambling life benign
In processed, bleached herbivory:
Let cold-blood Nature, serpentine
Entwine you in her livery

All right, all right, but not bad for improv.

Made up one evening when I was in work late and alone. Mwahahaaa. After having this breathed into its ear, the subject was put on a workmate's desk, there to graze on paperwork through the night. If any urgent reports go missing, you don't know a thing, got it?

We went to a summer fête today. It was run by the Stockport branch of the Cats Protection League and included a dog show. (Yes, a dog show; they don't think cat shows are kind to cats.)

Here are all my photos from the day with my notes. I had battery trouble with all the cameras I brought, so couldn't get as many snaps of the dogs as I've have liked to.

(Tagged "dragons" only because of the sky picture, which is nicely blue-grey-white.)

Apparently not.

(This is supposed to be he.)

Iran rounds up Bahai leaders. Lovely.

Oh, more charming. People burnt as witches in Kenya.

Tasmanian tiger DNA implanted in mousies.

Cat gatecrashes concert (vid)

Ravens fledging in Scotland and disappearing in Lancashire.

Mixed-sex NHS wards 'still a problem'. Not a problem for me. If I ever have to go inpatient I don't particularly want to be segregated by caste. Besides, there are shockingly few "strange neuter-creatures from the planet Zog" wards.

Tram expansion's green light (vid)

There is hope for me yet. (brilliant audio)

Dog too big to patrol beach (vid) and article

In pictures: Senegal's beached whales (distressing images)

Exam papers had answers on back. It is unlikely that any of the 12,000 students sitting the examination would have recognised the value of the information in the copyright statement and subsequently used it. Unfortunately probably true, as schools don't teach critical thinking any more, just rote answering. (Yes, I do know this for a fact. What does "don't put it in your own words, just make sure you write down every point with no waffle" sound like to you? From a good mid-league independent secondary school?)

'Trust drug' may cure social phobia and help autism. Ooh! Just what I need, to be more trusting and less alert to manipulative, untrustworthy bzsatards!

Whole scelidosaurus on show to public. Just in case you needed to be informed, ankys are the best dinosaurs EVER and you should adopt one, because every party needs a tank.

Churches boo-hoo-hoo over the fact that despite all their sound and fury, everyone's ignoring them. Since the topic at hand doesn't concern them one jot (besides, never mind my relationships, I definitely don't want a church anywhere near my children!), this is a healthy thing for society and makes me feel more positive than I have for a long time.

If we ever feel the need to pass any more laws about precisely how trefoil the invisible magic friend is, or who's not allowed to eat the invisible magic friend's flesh, we'll give you a call, 'kay?

We're asking the public what is the most respectful and appropriate way to display them. … The majority of the comments have been that we shouldn't cover them up. So what did we do? Oh yes: Egyptian mummies are covered up

I'm gonna throw this one over to Charlycrash. *Erisian smile*

Supernova filmed LIVE! (Well, timeshifted a bit. Like 100 million years.) More from AP. Squeeeee.

Registrars' beliefs make them unfit for their jobs. So, resign. They shouldn't be pandered to and accommodated, because religion is a voluntary disability. Or, to put it another way, if you feel you can't do your job for reasons of conscience, you have a moral duty to resign.

Derbyshire couple may have 'oldest' dog (vid)

Sesame Street puppets explain war to kids of soldiers (vid)

Some punks and goths in Mexico want to beat up emos. (vid)

Infrasound may be the cause of shadows during eclipses, rather than atmospheric disturbance. Well, sound is atmospheric disturbance, anyway…

New dinosaur tracks discovered

Biggest rodent ever… not so big (if that's not ready-made inspiration for Ursula Vernon, nothing is…)

The cult of the Eurovision (vid)

Escaped mother panda found alive and gorgeous

Grey squirrels culled for red (embedded vid)

Dinosaur skeleton auctioned (embedded vid)

I object to the reader's final comment.

Call to protect tiger numbers (embedded vid)

Euro MPs urged to save tigers

Pope addresses clergy abuse (embedded vid)

France debates 'too thin' law (embedded vid)

Animals put out the lights at zoo

And quite right too. Who likes light pollution while you're trying to sleep?

New transgender laws considered for Isle of Man. No big shakes (unless you live there); seems to be the same as the UK law.

Further eye candy of the day: this is probably a terrible, dreadful individual who is bad and as for these, don't even get me started (or there'll be the squalling and the dying and the liquification and it'll just get ugly).

Name your top 10 most played bands on Last.fm:

(I'm not sure if this is my most played list or most tagged list. 0,o But it's some kind of list. And there are few surprises on it.)

1 Angra
2 Falconer
3 Blind Grauniad
4 Stratovarius
5 DragonForce
6 Rhapsody
7 Nightwish
8 Edguy
9 Sonata Arctica
10 Avantasia

Read the rest of this entry »

(Organised Dog writes news posts and forgets to post them. Organised Dog is organised.)

New BBC homepage has gone live.

Earthquake felt across much of UK

Oh yes. I woke up and found myself trapped in my room by a fall of books. One of the bookshelves behind my door had toppled. Good job the house didn't catch fire or anything, because it took me ten minutes to get out.

How can a dog sniff through concrete? Because they are that badass.

New search powers lead Firefox 3

Victorian houses. Lots of those around the prettier bits of Manchester.

'Doomsday' vault opens its doors. I hope they have pomegranates and blueberries and bananas and darn it, now I made myself want fruit. And pecans.

Cocaine's brain effect revealed

Germany cleared in Parmesan case

Huge pliosaur. Can I get a HELL YEAH!? Lots of happenings at Svalbard today; clearly it's the place to be.

("we assembled all the bones in our basement" <3 Imagine the geeks down there sipping Djew and complaining when their mums come in to do their washing.)

'Misleading' Nutella TV ad pulled. Advertisers are evil. Then again, how anyone can believe a jar of Nutella is equivalent to a handful of hazelnuts and some milk… I mean really, people, how thick are you?

Hospitals see rise in dog bites

Poor dogs with stupid owners.

Roger Waters to play 'final' Dark Side of the Moon gigs

Hah, this May in Liverpool? Do want.

Legal row over zombie video game.

Execumutt Summary™:

Romero: "Zombies in shopping malls is my thing! You can't do my thing!"
Capcom: "That isn't your thing! You don't own it, your name isn't on it!"
Romero: "There, I licked it! Now you can't use it!"
Capcom: "MOM!!"

'Da Vinci link' to chess drawings. (Waah, I want pics, not generic file photo!)

"Leonardo is thought to have understood chess" – yes, yes I imagine that would have been within his faculties. Pfft.

Radio-tagging bumble bees

Sound problems throughout marred this, though I didn't really notice most of the time. I quite liked it being mostly quiet, in fact.

The Scottishness felt like an exaggerated stereotype throughout. The boy must've said "Jings!"… well, even once would've been gratuitous. This was made for an American audience.

The frame story was lame, corny and unnecessary.

I found the character of the mother very dislikeable and her behaviour, especially in certain respects towards the son, inexplicable.

The humans' storyline ultimately went nowhere and made little sense. Nothing was developed fully, whether the "kids know something secret and have to hide it" angle or the romance bits or the political situation. There was even a hook for a shell-shock/PTSD subplot, not made use of.

The climactic action sequence made no sense ("why? What makes it imperative that this happen? How on earth did you know or decide to do that?").

The ending (of the frame story particularly) was lame and predictable.

The creature effects were GREAT! Let's face it, that's why I was there. The little neut (no, srsly, canonically parthenogenetic hermaphrodite) had by far the most personality of all the actors (but then, I would say that). Plenty of slapstick and action from hir. Lovely movement, says I who don't know much about how large aquatic mammals, horses or aquatic dinosaurs move; it looked right and was very very pretty. Thus, I suspended my disbelief concerning the passenger's lung capacity and the bends.

Finally, ZOMG THE DOG????

I forgot to do this on Friday and remembered late last night. The theme this week is a request from Zenbie.

"I can sympathise, really. You're tiny and frail"

20 January 2008

I can sympathise, really. You're tiny and frail
And you've no armour-plating, not even a tail,
Not to mention those teeth come to little avail—
You're like wise little worms—
So this saddling business I'll let you assail
On conditional terms.

But the nose-mounted maser is awkward and square
And the tack to support it unpleasant to wear
For it pinches and rubs—it's as well I've no hair
Or I'd suffer a pluck—
My reptilian muzzle's more comf'table bare
So you're shit out of luck.

The form is called a Burns stanza, which I grabbed at random because it's Burns supper season. The meter is anapestic tetrameter and dimeter. Or it is unless I screwed up, ROFL.

As a bonus because this was late, I'll transcribe my notes from last night with the crap stanza I wrote purely to remind me how the format I'd chosen is supposed to go.

Read the rest of this entry »

We do a late news sift on Friday afternoons. There wasn't much interesting this morning, but I found one or two bloggable ones this avo.

Further to my rant the other day, a semi-thoughtful piece asking "What's the difference between art and [child] porn?"

Oh no! Poor beardie!

Microsoft bows to pressure on XP

Pfft. Dude, I'm never ever installing Longhorn. If they ever stop supporting XP such that it's unusable, I'm running to Ubuntuland so fast Clippy won't see my dust.

Aww, Klara. *injokeish giggle*

Any Romanov fans in the house? I dunno; dead folks is dead folks as far as I'm concerned…

Man wants time off work, calls in bomb threats. Makes perfect sense.

"Two flavours of Christianity" IS NOT CREATIVELY RADICALLY INCLUSIVE. Faith schools must be abolished and closed.

Drawers 'top place to stash cash'

Brilliant, Mary-Jane! Interest, who needs it?

Finally, some Rumi luvving!

(I know they didn't get that painting directly from Haydar Hatemi, though. Because I've exchanged emails with the late Mr Hatemi's son. They got it from WikiCommons, as I did.)