Cruel and Unusual

For the past 11 years in The Pit, we all got an ornament each year representing one of the days of the Twelve Days of Krimmus. This year would have been the end of the collection with the 12th Day of Krimmus being featured. Even though I'm no longer indentured in The Pit, I wanted to complete the collection mainly for Aunt Tudi, who has been collecting these plate ornaments for....well, for 11 years! Having contacts in The Pit, I reached out to them earlier to see if they could snag an extra ornament for me. Mary wrote me back to tell me that the Feudal Overlord decided not to continue the series this year.

What sort of malicious soul does such a thing? Did he even consider the obsessive-compulsives who may want to jump off a bridge because they now have an incomplete collection? I swear, this makes me want to go over to The Pit and jerk that man up by his goozle, and shake him about for a while.

Frakking corporate assholes....

The State of Tudi

She seems to be feeling much better today which is a true relief. Her lungs are still full of gunk, but it sounds a lot looser when she coughs. I think she may live.

My love affair with cardboard boxes

While watching Smidgen play in the large cardboard box Aunt Tudi got from the grocery yesterday, I was pulled into memories of my childhood.

When I was as young as two, Granny would put me in a cardboard box and hand me a pot lid so I could "drive" around the countryside and enjoy my fancy car. I had tons of stuffed animals and other wee tot treasures, but nothing pleased me more than sitting in a box holding a pot lit. At the age of 5 Granny, with the help of Aunt Tudi and the Mother Unit, used the cardboard boxes accrued during Christmas to build me a playhouse. When I awoke on Christmas morning, I was greeted by my very own cardboard playhouse, festively coloured up and decorated. Since I got a play movie projector for Christmas, the playhouse became my own personal movie theatre and I would charge the family a nickel to come in and see a movie. They had to come in one at a time, though, 'cos there wasn't enough room for more than one adult and myself. For ever the longest that cardboard house was my haven, my sanctuary, a place I could call all my own. Despite all the wonderful gifts I received that year, the boxes they came in brought me more joy that Christmas than anything else.

When I first started working for BMG, I would often sort packages, placing them in the box that corresponded with the invoice's bmc (bulk mail center) number. These boxes were cardboard/corrugation and they were HUGE. Doing this job, my mind would often drift to the possibilities of my filling one of these big boxes with Styrofoam peanuts and jumping in for a nice long play. I'd also wonder if maybe I could mail myself in a big bmc box. Hell, I had to keep my mind busy 'cos sorting was an incredibly boring job. It was also at BMG, when I drove a highlift, I would sometimes make castles of the 30-count CD boxes high in the palletiers, and I'd hide for short periods of time. It was easy to do on 3rd shift. Sitting far above the world protected by dozens of boxes, I often felt protected and invincible and, suddenly, I was 5 again and marvelling at my beloved cardboard playhouse.

tinhuviel pestis warning

It can be found on my userinfo page. I'm really rather proud of it.

Song-by-Song Continued

I've only got three more songs to critique: "Voiled Karletus," "True Passage," and "Il Mystero del Tempo." I've tried to be brutally honest and objective, and I've attempted to tone down my uncontrollable squeeing fangirliness. Actually, I'd be finished already, but I'm trying to find the literature on Parc Stic and the Temple of the Holy Swarm that Barry sent me a few years back. If memory serves, he mentions something being "voiled" in that essay and I'd like to reference that part of it in my review of "Voiled Karletus."

During my search for the Parc Stic info, I came across some of the letters B and I initially exchanged where he's still talking about Alexander Leviticus Stick as a separate entity and I'm trying my best to catch him in his web of illusion, thus outing him as Brother Stick. Oh, those were the good ole day. Yessirreebobtrail.

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There's a chance that velvetsteel may accompany Aunt Tudi and me to England in April. I told her, the more the merrier. Wouldn't it be a hoot if I went to visit Barry surrounded by a the population of a large town? We could stand on stools in order to see each other over the throng and either yell at each other or use walkie-talkies to carry on a conversation.

I don't think he'd appreciate that though. In fact, he may be downright offended. And I don't want to do that. I want to remain in B's good graces.

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There's something that's distressing me no end: I've lost my Prodigy "Fat of the Land" CD! At this exact moment in time, I could really go for a Prodigy fix. I guess I'll have to watch Event Horizon and groove to "Funky Shit," which is played during the end-credits. Damn! I can't believe I've lost that CD. I really want to listen to "Narayan" right now.

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AH! I found the literature on the Temple of the Holy Swarm, but there's no mention of anything voiled. I must have just hallucinated it. Now that I found the Swarm info, I've saved it on my computer where it will never be lost again Goddess Willing. I'm also posting it here.

( Barry's Created Church )

Okay. I guess I'll finish up the song-by-song tomorrow. Then I'll email it to Barry and ask him to provide for me the lyrics to Haunted Box. I already have lyrics for Cormorant and Stic Basin. And I have an idea on how I want to present the album lyrics on the newly refurbished site. I see more work in the not-so-distant future.