I just found an awesome music site. Artists submit their music and users vote on what they like. The really interesting part, though, is the RPG like system where you complete quests and gain experience points. I think you even level up. And okay, yes, there's some good music that you probably won't find otherwise, too. http://www.thesixtyone.com/

In Oblivion, an RPG, as far as I can see it seems to be possible to put a 'restore health' spell on a weapon. I'm just curious if this means I could beat health into someone, and if so, whether they would interpret it as an attack? I may have to try this some time.

The dogs were barking before, so I went and investigated. There was a possum under the steps outside. I shut the dogs inside and lured the possum out with some apple, getting a few pictures in the process. Possums are quite bold animals; even before I got the foot out it was giving me a good look over. Anyway, here's a picture of my furry friend: http://potatoe1988.deviantart.com/art/Curious-142248262

Also, a couple of weeks ago I dropped a plate and sliced my foot open. A little but deep cut. I didn't even notice until I happened to look down and see the blood. It didn't hurt more than a scratch. Here's a picture I took just after it happened, for posterity: http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb307/Potatoe1988/ouch.jpg

One of the many fabulous things about the internet is that you can give money to charity without actually losing any yourself. FreeRice is one of these websites, which I believe a lot of people are aware of. If you are not it is a site where, if you select the correct meaning of a word, it will give 10 grains of rice to starving folk. And those grains add up. It is a good site because it helps users expand their vocabularies while also serving its charitable purpose. You can also do ones for math, grammar, etc. on that site, but I think the English language one is the most developed. http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Anyway, what made me think of this is that I just found another similar website, for geography. I actually spent a while playing it before I even realised that they donate drinking water for every correct answer, simply because I suck at geography and figured it would be nice if I sucked less. http://www.freepoverty.com/

Then there's The Hunger Site and such, which are sites where you just click a button once a day to donate food or whatever. While these are good, it's hard to remember to do it every day and you don't get anything out of it personally. http://www.thehungersite.com

Anybody got any others?

Today I started volunteering at this place what has small children. It's a school for people in grades 11 and 12 who have dropped out and are returning to school, and some of them have young children who they leave in the play room while they go to classes. I played with this girl who was about four for most of the time I was there, and then her mum came back and was not nice. Not to me, I mean - to the kid. Both 'shit' and 'fuck' were said within the first minute. I suppose it explains why the little girl and her younger brother were a little boisterous. At least the guy who runs the place is really nice.

Being the only one crossing at the traffic lights on a busy road in the city gives me a great feeling of power.

When the bus stopped at a station a man asked if it was going to the city, to which the driver replied in the affirmative. The guy then asked him if he was sure. Like possibly the bus driver might not know.

I found a neat site where one person writes a short description of a scene, another draws it, another person describes that scene, etc. It is called Broken Picture Telephone, I suppose since it is like that telephone game. We called it Chinese Whispers when I was a kid. I have no idea why. Have link: http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago these weird looking plants started growing in one of the plant pots I had planted tomato seeds in. I figured they were probably weeds but, since I sometimes recycle the dirt I grow things in and they looked interesting, I let them grow. They were getting kind of big though, so today I dug them out to plant into their own pots. Weird thing? They're bulbous. I am now seriously curious as to what these are. Bulbs come from other bulbs, don't they? I don't know. But they don't seem like the kind of thing to get carried in by the wind, at very least. Plus there were two in that one pot, but none in any of the other pots surrounding it.

In related news, since I have started putting fruit and vegetable scraps into an empty plant pot outside, the possums have largely left my plants alone. My bean vines have even started sprouting flowers and beginning to grow beans! I don't actually like beans, but there's something rather satisfying about growing your own food.

This video amuses me: http://regretfulmorning.com/2008/10/the-upside-of-genital-herpes/

Guy 1: Well, you guys know how I have genital herpes?
Guy 2: No!
Girl: What!?
Guy 3: (smiles) Yeah.

"Herpex is a once a day pill, specifically created to deal with genital herpes. Also, it gives you the semi-controllable ability to teleport. ... (*May not cure herpes)"

Something reminded me of Lift Off, a truly odd Australian kids show I used to watch when I was a child. I think it was particularly one 'character', EC, who was a living doll, that I so suddenly realised was creepy. There were all manner of other oddities going on in the show, but that doll... If you want the full experience, here's a youtube video of them finding the thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAyH4dMnbvQ
If you can't be bothered with the video, I think this picture will adequately explain my feelings towards EC:


But then I noticed that in the 'related videos' column on youtube, there were links to videos from several of the shows I'd watched as a child and completely forgotten about! And you know who is creepier than EC? Mr Squiggle. I think, even when I was a child, I was aware that Mr Squiggle was not quite right. If you have never seen Mr Squiggle, please see this video of the opening theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IWlOtJ5X_k . The many singing smiley faces just don't help the creep factor any.
Mr Squiggle:


Annnd I just found The Book Place. That worm - Bookworm. CREEPY. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y349kyCYddk&feature=related


What is the name of that show with the guy who lived on a barge?? I can't remember! This is going to drive me crazy, now.

I had a very sci fi dream, which has inspired my mind to edit and expand upon that in story form. Which I will now write. Not for any particular purpose and with no intended direction, I just want to get down some of the ideas I've got in my head, and shall do so in the form of poorly written narrative.

( Cotton wool played a far more important role in the regenerative process in my dream... )

I can't really say why it's awesome without ruining it for you: http://imago.hitherby.com/?p=452

My dream last night had so much gore and explosions and magic! A dude got his arm almost sliced off by this giant fan, but I used my magical healing powers to fix him. He was a police officer... or something. He and this blonde woman saved me from these bad guys who had kidnapped me for reasons that are vague and a little odd. But then the bad guys came after us, so we went into a bank because you know, banks have security people. Buuut that didn't really matter because the bad guys had EXPLOSIONS. In the chaos, I managed to get out of the bank and started running away but one of the bad guys followed me and was firing these little missiles at me. I used telekinesis to redirect them so they'd hit him instead of me, but the fucker just wouldn't DIE. Or rather, he did die over and over again, he just came back each time as a particularly tactile ghost. After all the fighting was over, I felt pretty bad about all the bystanders who'd been injured or killed, so I tried to tell the people about my healing powers but they wouldn't listen! Eventually they did, though only after a couple of demonstrations. Much of the rest of the dream was spent in a morgue that looked nothing like a morgue with the two glorified police officers.

Oh, and in the dream before that, I was ALMOST tricked into believing that I was not dreaming. For some reason when I dream about being at home, it's always houses that I've lived in in the past. This makes it blatantly obvious that I'm dreaming, and I then feel the need to point this out to someone. In the dream I had last night, however, they had an explanation - we'd moved back into the old house. And I bought that answer. For a few seconds. Until I remembered that that particular house had actually been demolished after we moved. A lame attempt to explain this was made - that the house was rebuilt. When I then asked why they would have actually gone to the effort to make the house look like it wasn't newly built, it was pretty obvious I'd won.

There was a house across a rope bridge and up a hill. I have no fucking clue what was in that house, but people were drawn to it and it was BAD.

I fought zombies with a zombie. It was a game of some sort, though I'm unsure why we were playing it. One of the bad guys was able to distort reality, so it appeared that zombies were coming at me from all directions. Little zombies, though, which was good because I was sitting down. So a grabbed one of the zombies, which remained rigid, and used it as a weapon to fend off the rest. Really quite fun, it was.

Before that, I had been trying to fight the bad guy by draining the energy out of him. We'd keep switching through different settings, and he'd take the form of one of the people there and I had to figure out which one. It was pretty easy - he was the one with the creepy smile.

Having dreams where I have super powers leaves me feeling disappointed while awake. I almost feel like I ought to be able to move things with my mind if I just focused enough. It works in my dreams!

Newest dream super power: psychic connection with animals.

There are bush fires happening somewhere! We're in the suburbs, so we're safe, but the air is smokey and the sky is orange, so it's still a little freaky. It's gotten worse since I took this picture: http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb307/Potatoe1988/fire.jpg

Also this may save your life if zombies happen: http://ww2.zombieinitiative.org/

EDIT: Are not fire, are dust storm!