Shiny things make me happy

I've been reading too much rubbish today. By all accounts the world is not a shiny place on the whole and it seems that I have lost the ability to spot the sparkle, at least for the moment. So in attempt to to correct this I have recently discovered, or at least rediscovered, my passion for the smaller earth creatures that twinkle in the light. I am constantly amazed by the things that I find in drawers in the museum. Yesterday I saw a grasshopper nymph that was mimicking a tiger beetle and it was the most amazing metallic blue. There are some Mantids from Asia that are bright metallic green and look as though they have been covered with tinfoil. Some of my favourite beetles are a kind of Leaf beetle that look like little knobbly nuggets of metal. They are normally pink or blue but if they could manage a gold then they would look just like a chunk of raw gold. There are some Chafers that have managed this. One I saw yesterday was a shiny leaf green on top but it had a metallic turquoise tummy and blue feet. You wouldn't even have seen it unless you turned it upside down. Others come in rich gold or silver, or more usually, green with shining silver strips so that they look like very expensive humbugs.
The scientist in me looks at these things and decides whether things have developed as sexual or behavioural characters, camouflage or mimicry. There will always be that little voice though that just emits a breathless 'wow' and happily accepts the ignorance and just wants to glorify the now. It makes the world seem so magical in a way. Images of jungles filled with sparkling whirring insects fill my mind.
And then I think some more.
I can almost see why people are so happy to accept that there must be a god because it does just seem so unrealistic that something could have evolved to look like this. Its such an abstract concept for most people. In order to study evolution you have to look back not forwards because all we have is our short lifetime and we will never know what comes next. Its so much easier to accept the now and try to look forward when reality is asserting itself in your life every minute of every day. Because we must go on. We treat life as a linear progression from birth until death. Independent and individual. I think we forget that we are a part of some bigger interweaving and so we forget where we can find the shine.
The shine is in the small things in life. I realise that not everyone is going to discover this in a drawer of beetles but I hope that people can discover it for themselves in something they love. I don't want to accept the idea that the world is full of so much darkness that we can't find some light. Am sounding very negative today I realise, and quite hippyish because I can't really find the words to express this idea properly but its been filling my brain for the morning and its all that I could think to write about. If I had any talent I'd find some way of expressing this so people could understand. Instead you're limited to my muttered ramblings. Oh well, I figure that my audience is more than intelligent enough to sort it out for me. I guess I'm just pleased that in amongst all the negatives there are some pretty special positives as well.

Knit speak

I realise that I am severely limiting myself with regards to potential audience figures by talking about knitting but it is one of the main reasons that I set this thing up in the first place. I have been threatening pictures for a while now and I finally got around to doing them so be pleased. First up for your delectation is the socks that I have been working on recently. As far as I am concerned they are frankly just wonderful. I was going to wait until they where done and handed over (they are meant to be a gift after all) but I'm waiting on a measurement so that I can finish them off and it seems to be taking for eveeeerrrrrrrr to come through and frankly I'm just too darn pleased with them to hide them from public viewing anymore. They are going to be wonderfully warm as I have knitted them out of pure wool so toasty toes are on the menu this winter. I'm just worried that they are not going to fit! If only I had access to peoples feet whenever I needed it all would be fine.
The other picture is of my fluffy green monster. I have already had someone comment that it looks as though I have skinned Sully from Monsters Inc. Well ha, ha aren't you funny and can I just point out that he was blue. Anyway, its actually a shrug (short cardigan for those who need to know) and it will look fabulous over a little black dress. If I ever wear a little black dress ever again that it is but look, the point is that it took FOREVER to make and now its finally done I'm going to sit back and take the praise. So get lavishing with the praise please :)

Just lock me up....

Oh dear, the adverts for Prison Break 3 have now covered the entire world and I can't stop dribbling every time I see one. I vote they keep them all shut up in there and I'll just drop by to deliver cups of tea and cake. I can't wait for it to hit terrestrial TV because of course, Sky has completely monopolised the series so all those lucky people who can afford to pay thousands of pounds a year on an extra TV service and all Americans who have done nothing to deserve the pleasure will get to see it before me.
Boo!
I think I've missed one episode out of the last two series (due to extremely unavoidable circumstances) so am obviously deserving of special consideration for being such a die hard fan and should be shown it first. In fact, I should be on set to supervise production and check up on quality. I could have very strong opinions on such things as tightness of vest, shade of fake dirt to be applied on the biceps, number of shower scenes etc etc were anyone to bother asking.
Anyway, here's to hoping that they don't make me wait too long! Otherwise I may go mad....

Join S.A.A (Sock Addicts Anonymous)

I'm addicted to socks at the moment. I have always had a love of the old foot glove and have ferociously collected them ever since I was a little girl. I especially like socks with toes in, ones that are extra long or those with bright crazy patterns (stripes are an absolute winner in my book). Just recently however I have also begun knitting socks. My first pair weren't very spectacular despite the wonderful alpaca wool that I bought for them. The pattern was a bit difficult to work and the finished item just looked ugly as far as I was concerned which was just a bit disappointing after having put in all that effort. It took a while for me to get used to the look of hand knitted socks as they are really quite different from the shop bought type but after a while I decided that they appealed and so I have started a new pair for a friend. And I'm really enjoying it which I am quite surprised by. I got a new pattern that had a better heel to it (this was what I hated most about the last pair) and so far its been really good fun. In fact its been so much fun that I have done little else with time but knit my sock, think about socks and lust after sock wool on the internet. And I now have plans for about three more pairs of socks for other people. And I want to take the ugly socks apart and reknit the wool using the new pattern. And then I want to try some of the crazy sock patterns that you see lying around with space invaders, flying cows and snoopy on. Oh, if only there was more time!
So that's it. I'm officially addicted to socks now. Not long ago I was mumbling bitter remarks about how they are tedious and difficult and now look at me. The sock love has sneaked up and taken control of me. There's no hope now.

Furniture remover in training

Today I have mostly been humping.
Humping cabinets around the department that is.
We are having a bit of a clear out at the moment and most of them are going off to be sold at the AES show tomorrow (very excited about this as it will be full of loverly bugs). I have spent three yeas at university and walked away with a first class honours degree to be allowed to do this, which as I'm sure you can imagine, I am really appreciating to the max right now. It's not too bad really. At least I get to talk people whilst I do it and there's copious amounts of coffee just to keep us going. But I do feel as though my skills are being wasted in some small way. Having said this I will have the best guns in town by the end of it all!

How can he write if he's dead?

Have just had the horrible news that Robert Jordan has died. This is terrible! He hadn't finished writing the last of the Wheel of Time series. What are we going to do??? I am on the 4th book at the moment and completely addicted to the series. I know that there are about 15 books in total so I still have a ways to go but whats going to happen when I get to the end? No closure, no closure. Just characters left hanging in mid stream, flickering as the last pages flutter to a close and I'm left on tenterhooks for the rest of my life. With any luck someone will have the good sense to dig out all of his notes and work so far and at least make an attempt to patch the story together into something resembling an ending so that all of us will be able to put the story to bed. This is one of those series that just gets under your skin. Its certainly not the best written set of books I have ever read and they all work around the fantasy premise that you can introduce new characters, plot twists and improbable events at any point throughout a story. There's always going to be the inevitable addition of details which the characters themselves obviously knew all about throughout the previous books but have up until now, failed to mention. But that's okay because by page 50 you're so hooked on the story that you'd happily sell your granny for the next book.
Just beware though people, if you haven't started this series yet then I would have a good hard think before you do. Yes, its one of the most important and iconic series of the fantasy genre but IT WILL NEVER END!

I can't stop listening to this song

Hope there's someone
Who'll take care of me
When I die, will I go

Hope there's someone
Who'll set my heart free
Nice to hold when I'm tired

There's a ghost on the horizon
When I go to bed
How can I fall asleep at night
How will I rest my head

Oh I'm scared of the middle place
Between light and nowhere
I don't want to be the one
Left in there, left in there

There's a man on the horizon
Wish that I'd go to bed
If I fall to his feet tonight
Will allow rest my head

So here's hoping I will not drown
Or paralyze in light
And godsend I don't want to go
To the seal's watershed

Hope there's someone
Who'll take care of me
When I die, Will I go

Hope there's someone
Who'll set my heart free
Nice to hold when I'm tired

What are they thinking?

I feel like weeping into my coffee. I doubt that the husband is reacting much better and I can imagine that there are a few detentions being handed out as I type. I mean what exactly is going on with the Sox at the moment? Do they not want to win the division? Are they in fact, deliberately trying to blow it? Why? Why, why, why? If we win the division we get to pick when/how we play the next set of games and we would finally have a pennant to adorn the walls of Fenway with. If we bottle this and then somehow don't win the world series (stranger things have happened lets face it) then we will have nothing to show for this season and dammit we deserve something! We've managed to stay ahead of the Yankees for pretty much the entire season so why waste it now? It makes no sense!!
Bloody men, bloody useless, grr, grr, grumble, grumble.

Beetle tank madness

Urgh, have woken up with a headache. I am putting this down to the fact that I had to spend the better part of yesterday sorting out the beetle tank and this is no mean feat let me tell you. The tank in question is about five by 3 foot in volume and, you've guessed it, full of beetles. It is essentially a tank with a ton of soil at the bottom and branches on top which the beetles then handily decorate. We chucked a few cockroaches and things in there for good measure as well but 90% of everything you find is this one species of beetle in either larvae or adult form. And there are a lot of larvae in there, I mean heaps and heaps of larvae and I really do not like them at all. The big fat ones are the worst as they are about 3cm long and the thickness of my finger and they wriggle. Like horrible wriggly things. Ugh, gives me the creeps just thinking about it.
So at twenty past eight yesterday morning I was digging through this huge tank, desperately trying to avoid all beetle larvae, attempting to round up all adult and cockroaches before they flew away whilst watching the clock as there was a conference starting at nine and I had to be done, dusted and swept up by then.
Eek.
It was a mission and a half and in the end I dumped all the soil into buckets and hauled it into the department to sort out in relative peace and quiet. It took all morning to pick out all the larvae (with a handy pair of forceps) and I had someone else helping me after about ten.
Why was I doing all this? So that we can sell the little blighters at the Amateur Entomologists Show at the weekend. What are we going to do with the money? I hear you ask. Why, we're going to buy more beetles!

That Friday feeling

Bliss, pure bliss. I get to leave a little early today as I have already worked my hours this week. All these early mornings are useful for something it seems. And what do I have to do when I get in?. Nothing, absolutely nothing.
Aaaah.
I can sit back and watch the kittens rip my sofa apart whilst sinking into some sort of stupor where I can forget everything that has ever bothered me in my entire life. NCIS is on later (many thanks to my faithful friend for pointing that one out) which can only help and there are at least three ice lollies left in the freezer- of which two of them have my name on as I can eat more of them than the husband.
Does it get better than this? Well, technically yes, but its the best I've got right now and I can't expect anything else so really that would make it a no. No, it doesn't get any better than this. Well, maybe if a few friends turned up with a couple of cases of beer and some vodka as a 'surprise! we think you are wonderful' party but again, that is highly unlikely. Maybe I should just pretend and bop round the lounge to the music by myself.
Anyway, I hope whatever all you people out there have planned for tonight is fantastically fun and groovy be it sitting on your own sofa, cruising the local pubs or sampling some of that oh so good organic produce that you can get on the market nowadays. If any of you are up to anything more exciting than that then I would appreciate it if you could enjoy it as much as possible but then lie to me about what you where doing in case I have an outbreak of the green eyed monster. My bank balance is the major limiting factor in my own plans for tonight otherwise you can bet your ass that I'd be out there with you.