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1,000 pageviews!
Posted Sep 18, 2008
Warning! +++ Shameless plug to follow! +++ Warning!
As a few "lucky" people I've been driving mad with this know, I've been running a webcomic for the past two months.
Got my 1,000th pageview today, 
and I've got it all drawn to the end of the chapter - another two months' worth.
It looks like the thing is taking off, rather than fizzling out like so many of the best-laid plans of mice and Malas. 
Sooooo.... I might as well shamelessly self-promote here while I'm at it. 
Heeeeeere's Clocktrotter.
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/malabarista/clocktrotter/series.php
Enjoy or ignore, as you wish. 
(Oh, and click on "table of contents" above or the leftmost frog below if you want to read from the beginning)
Discuss this Journal entry [268]
Latest reply: Sep 18, 2008
Malabarista's Medical Misadventures - Part n+1
Posted Aug 25, 2008
Where n = already faaaar too many.
Just back from the doctor, with a letter written in High Medicalese, which I'm now trying to decipher. I can understand about 2/3 of the words, but they're the adjectives and prepositions...
Deciphering the letter (yay for the internet!) gives me this: Blood sugar's all normal - no diabetes, thank goodness. But that doesn't explain why I'm drinking over five litres per day and still thirsty when I go to bed. 
But what they did find isn't very nice - way too much cortisol, which explains why I can't concentrate on anything, and a lot of the other stuff, too - and it seems something's up with my kidneys, while we're at it. Currently, it looks like I'll end up back in hospital. 
Fortunately (?) getting the appointment with the endocrinologist took a month, and then five more weeks for the results. Since I have to go back to the endocrinologist so she can test some more things, I doubt I'll be in hospital anytime *soon*. 
Not with finals coming up! 
Oh, and the best bit? This is entirely unrelated to the lumps. 
So they're still trying to find out what those are, too.
Discuss this Journal entry [698]
Latest reply: Aug 25, 2008
The Adventures of Tav and Mal at the Museum Insel Hombroich
Posted Aug 19, 2008
IN WHICH our heroes encounter nice people and a Real Grump.
We slept in today - yesterday, they started putting in new windows at 7.30 in the morning, but today, they didn't - or they were quiet about it, at least. 
By the time breakfast was done, it was about noon, and I looked up how to get to the museum. Next train left at one - we packed our bags with raincoats, cameras, water, cake, and grapes, and still made it in plenty of time, despite Tav's dire predictions.
Unfortunately, the connecting train was late and so we *just* missed the bus we were meant to take. 
The very complex timetable - two busses going opposite directions listed in the same one, with no telling which was which! - didn't tell us much except that we'd have to wait an hour for the next one. We were just debating whether to just walk it when our bus showed up after all - it was late, too! 
I checked the timetable quickly to make sure and we dived in just as the doors were closing. 
Walked forward to ask the driver whether it was indeed a bus going where we needed to go - and he just sneered and said "What does it say on the front of the bus? *I'm* not going to tell you. And anyway, when I close the doors, I close the doors, and you stay out!" 
A lot of people on the bus were indignant, and one helpful gentleman not only told us this was the right bus, but also warned us when our stop was coming up, as the display was only showing adverts. 
We found the museum, paid our 5€, and went in.
Now, the Museum Insel Hombroich is a very interesting concept - a vast landscaped garden (though it doesn't look landscaped, for the most part - it mostly consists of the plants you'd find there anyway, growing wild and unmowed) dotted with small ponds and watercourses, outdoor sculptures, and various small buildings.
The buildings house art exhibitions, and were all designed by a sculptor along common lines. They're very simple, made of red brick on the outside, whitewashed inside, and have high wooden doors and plain glass walls or roofs - opaque or clear - to let in light. The gardens around the buildings usually take on a more 'deliberate' look, with high, straight hedges, stands of trees, or narrow paths to hide them from view. Inside, there are art exhibits on display - from very different times, cultures, and artists, roughly sorted by theme, but all mixed, and all uncredited!
Roughly in the centre, there's an even more important building - the cafeteria, which has toilets and a free café! There are also a few smaller pavillions, usually with a single sculpture and a bench as a kind of chapel - the Buddhas, especially, were bedecked with fresh flowers. 
We had a good long wander around - mostly alone, it being a weekday outside the school holidays, but sometimes interrupted by one of the two rather large groups being led around. It was fairly cloudy, but we didn't get rained on once! I wanted to just follow paths at random, but Tav was all boring and made us use the map. 
Finally, we were heading back past a long, low wooden building with green shutters, surrounded by huge iron sculptures, mostly of armoured knights. There were raised voices, and out of curiosity, I went to look. 
The artist who lives and works there (a man known as Anatol) was talking to a friend - they were trying to find out what was wrong with his mobile, and asked me for help. 
I figured out his problem - he'd set it so that it rerouted all his calls to voice mail. Also reset his ring tone to what he wanted - a normal, old-fashioned phone. Just as we were done, someone called him, and it worked! 
He said he wanted to give me something for a reward, he'd be right back. He'd asked me what I'm studying (assumed I was a student, I don't know why) and I'd told him it was architecture. So he presented me with one of his paintings 
a watercolour sketch done for a mural that was entitled "die Baumeister" - the master builders. He also explained his artistic philosophy, and then told us, rather at length, how he'd been asked to teach at my Uni but had later been turned down for being too left-wing, though he had reintroduced the painting of nudes because "nobody knows what an arse looks like anymore".
We made it back to the entrance just *after* our bus left and spent half an hour waiting for the next one. Perhaps to compensate, the driver of this one was very nice indeed, and even flagged down our connecting bus so it would wait for us. 
Headed back to downtown Neuss, looked at the site where I'm designing my current project, then returned to Wupp. Discovered that no Chinese takeaway places are open after eight on a Tuesday night, so got pizza instead. And now, here we are...
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Latest reply: Aug 19, 2008
Bonded for eternity?
Posted Aug 8, 2008
I put a new cover on the seat my office chair today, because the fabric had worn through in places. When I turned it over to staple the new fabric in place, I saw a sign that said, in many languages, "do not attempt to repair or replace".
The bit about the repairs I can understand - the manufacturers want to make money, after all - but the replacing? Are my chair and my behind mated for life? 
In that case, I'd have put a bit more care and money into picking one! 
Something in leather, with armrests, perhaps...
Discuss this Journal entry [33]
Latest reply: Aug 8, 2008
I jumped so high, touched the sky / Didn't get back 'til quarter to five
Posted Jul 25, 2008
Walking the dog
I'm just a-walking the dog
If you don’t know how to do it
I'll show you how to walk the dog
Actually, it was quarter *past* five by the time we got back Been on a loooong walk with the doggie today - first time I've done that since our old dog died!
It was very....refreshing. 
We ended up staying out four hours or so, *nearly* enough to tire her out for a while. 
We set out planning to just go across the fields - past the brook to let her splash a bit and then over the hill, I thought there'd be too many horseflies in the woods. Turned out to be far too hot and sunny, though, so we headed for the shade instead.
Turned off the gravel road onto an old logging path, and found deep, oozy, glorious *mud*. Unfortunately, it was an enchanted mud puddle, and any little dog who drinks from it gets the uncontrollable urge to dash back and forth like a loony, until she gets thirsty and has to drink from the puddle again... She was at it for a good ten minutes. 
Just when I was enjoying being out in the middle of nowhere, my mobile rang 
(I had it along in case of emergency, also some water and my camera.) It was my mother, asking if I wanted coffee when I got back...
The logging path got more and more overgrown until it was easier to walk through the forest - not old forest here, because of the loggers, but still *proper* forest, mixed, mostly deciduous trees rather than just pines.
Came out in a clearing filled with raspberry bushes and had to stop and sample them. Corvi loves raspberries - and in the course of this walk learned to sniff out the bushes like a truffle pig. A hunting dog for vegetarians, very useful! We went walking at just the right time, found late strawberries and blueberries, a lot of raspberries, and some early blackberries. Pity the apples and plums weren't ripe yet, but we spent most of the walk just eating, anyway, or so it seems. 
Followed more zigzagging logging roads until we were good and lost on top of a hill. Let the dog have a bit of a rest, but after about ten seconds she started attacking my boot, so I decided she wasn't properly tired yet, and we continued on our way, heading vaguely back homeish.
Finally came out at the foot of the hill we'd originally set out to cross. Only we ended up on the wrong side, had to climb all the way up and over. By this time, Corvi was flagging a bit, walking behind me rather than running in front, so I decided to let her rest again when we got to the top. Sat down in the new hay to enjoy the view, and she climbed on my lap as she tends to do...
And then she yelped, jumped backwards into the hedge with her hackles raised, and started barking and growling like she's never done before! I wanted to find what had startled her, and looked up - and upper... We should've named her Quixote, she objected to the wind turbines!
When I finally got her calmed down again we went down the hill and home - but we met some people just outside the village who were going into the woods, and she was all for joining them. Can't tire that dog out!
Anyone who's not bored yet can go look at the pics here
http://public.fotki.com/Malabarista/walking-the-dog-jul/
Discuss this Journal entry [53]
Latest reply: Jul 25, 2008
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Malabarista - now with added pony
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