Oh wow, one more before I go.

I just checked my email and found an amazing link to an image of Earth at night. Here's the explanation that came with it, which may, or may not, have been written by someone I know.

The image below is a panoramic view of the world from the new space station. It is a night photo with the lights clearly indicating the populated areas. You can scroll East-West and North-South. Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the US border. Moving east to Europe, there is a high population concentration along the Mediterranean Coast. It's easy to spot London, Paris, Stockholm and Vienna. Note the Nile River and the rest of the "Dark Continent." After the Nile, the lights don't come on again until Johannesburg. Look at the Australian Outback and the Trans-Siberian Rail Route. Moving east, the most striking observation is the difference between north and South Korea. Note the density of Japan. It is a picture of the Earth taken from the Space Station last November on a perfect night with no obscuring atmospheric conditions.

Awesome, isn't it? Too think, in one hundred years we may have utterly destroyed it. However, we can all safely go on merrily through life knowing that it won't be completely devestated within our lifetime, so who cares? Hah, ratify the Kyoto accord? Why? Short-term economics are so much more important.

I need sarcasm tags.

Oh, and for anyone interested in the current OPSEU situation, once again, let me direct you to 362's site. Apparently they're all back at the bargaining table this week, but whether anything will come of it, we'll see. Here's hoping for a breakthrough.

Well, goodness, but my fans have been vocal about my lack of updates. While I don't necessarily feel I -must- explain, I will. It's pretty simple. Until today, we had no Internet connexion at the house. So, my last, lame entry from Tuesday was a sorry excuse to tide people over the course of four days.

I ran lots of errands on my day off (Wednesday), which while not entirely relaxing, did serve to get many things out of the way. In fact, I even made it to the US Consulate for a social security number. There was much security, and they even took my phone for the duration of my stay within the building, but they were all extremely nice and even humourous. They liked me. :) I'm such a polite and personable young woman. Apparently. I bought more fabric in order to cover Rick's masque, and I got money from the bank (so exciting, I know). I met Rick at Moores (the suit people) and I helped him pick out a suit, though my aid was practically unnecessary thanks to the excellent salesman that was helping him. I did, however; encourage him to buy a new pair of dress shoes, since his old ones did not fit him properly at all.

Rick took me out to dinner, which was very nice, and we went to our favourite sushi place, Tokyo Sushi on Bloor just west of Spadina. Everyone should go there, it's great ! Also, the waitresses are adorably sweet. We got to sit in one of the closed-off booths where they sit parties and such - quite fun ! Dinner was, of course, delicious. It gave me a bit of time to talk to Rick in a way that helped my state of mind significantly. Part of my depression has been related to my feeling of stasis. I know I need to get away, to make something of myself, to take some risks, but there are a lot of things holding me back; namely, Mom, friends, and Rick. It's hard to pick up and leave the ones you love and I've been putting it off for so long. Now, though, I've got a social security number coming to me, sometime in the next couple of months, which was my first obstacle in avoiding my future. It was strangely comforting to talk to Rick about these fears. Whatever happens, will happen, and we will do what must be done.

Speaking of getting away, my trip to Philly is a GO ! I have my tickets so it really must be happening. I'll be leaving at 12:30pm on the Greyhound and I'll be arriving around 4am the following day. Oh groan, but what can you do? This is what I must do in order to see BROM on Monday at the Franklin Mint Museum. Megan will meet me in the morning (she's threatening to come in her peejays) and together we shall break our fasts, probably in some divey all-night diner or something. Fun ! Some time later, I'll turn up on the doorstep of Ben's and we'll head for the museum. I'll probably change my clothes between the doorstep and the exhibition, mind you, because there is nothing attractive, or even remotely presentable, about walking around in clothes you slept on a bus in. Uhg. Other highlights will be seeing Anthony as well as visiting the Philly Art Museum again, and going to the Museum of Archaeology. By the way, Anthony is responsible for the fantastic look and art of Unreal 2.

Tomorrow is Sandra and John's masquerade wedding, and tonight, officially, the masques are complete ! Nick took some pictures of the mostly completed masques, and then of the finished pieces modeled by yours truly, and without tooting my own horn too hard, they are FANCY. Nicole lent me her long black gloves, which wouldn't fit except that she cut the ends off the digits. Afterall, she's as long fingered and large handed as I am. Actually, the effect of having the fingers cut off at the halfway mark gives the feeling of talons, which is completely appropriate since I'm going as a black dragon. It's going to be fun. I hope. *bounce*

Anyway, my room is a mess and I smell like a man. A big, fat man, who's sat in the sun for three hours after doing heavy labour. I stink ! Time for a shower, and then maybe I'll get some basic things together in my room for tomorrow. Oh, and don't forget that the clocks go FORWARD at 2am Sunday morning.

Oh my God. I wrote a whole long spiel about all sorts of things, including my upcoming trip to Philly to meet Brom (and visit friends), as well my depression and how I am battling feelings about taking risks... and also about how I won't have a proper internet connexion until Thursday....

And Blogger went down. For a long, long time. Oh well. Maybe some of the stuff I said was better left unspoken.

I get to leave now. Trudging home, through the snow. Hah. It's April.

I was so sure that I'd have lots of time to be on then 'net and whathaveyou, and I'd get on the MUD, and I'd do all these things... and then I hardly had time for it at all. Gadzooks. I've been keeping a bit busier than I'd thought I would, and I've accomplished less than I'd hoped. Heh, no real surprise there. There are just so many other good things that I can be doing with my time, you know?

For instance, there was the fruitless search for evening gloves with Carrie on Saturday. We trouped all over the place, including to the best second-hand store in the city, to no avail. There were plenty of cool things, but no gloves. At least, none that fit my gigantor hands. Apparently hair attachments and things are in fashion. It was a bit repulsive heading into an accessories store to find a wall of hair. Ew. On a different note, we did walk past Chris' store, Eyeball Soup, and read his special closed sign: We are closed for Good Friday, Excellent Saturday, and Ultimate Sunday. Very cute, Chris, we love you.

Another thing that was not as successful as it ought to have been, was working on my masque. The horns are done, but the fins are not, nor is the rest of it covered. Yeesh. Six days to go. *flogs self* That said, I did get online long enough to bring my main character on Realms of Despair back to life after a five month (real time) death. That was AWESOME. I am looking forward to getting online more in order to play her. I missed her very much.

We had company last night, the Muttons came over, as well as Ray, for a kosher Passover feast. It wasn't a seder, but it had all the elements of the plate set out, as well as some symbolic hand washing and so forth. It was a good time, as it always is with the Muttons, especially because this time Wayne brought the puppy. He's an adorable border collie cross named Buster. He was so much fun, though we had to lock the cats upstairs for fear of their coniptions. He's just been fixed, though, and very interested in licking his stitches (ew) so he had to have his Elizabethan collar put on. So, for half of the night, Buster walked around like a hairy lamp.

Today, speaking of hairy, I went riding at Kerri's. I haven't been on a horse since last summer and I got to ride her new hourse, Tarquin, a most excellently wide beast with the longest, thickest mane I've ever had occasion to brush. We're not talking about using a piddly mane comb on him, either, I mean a real, hardcore hairbrush that can rip through tangles and make the most unruly head look decent. Believe me, his needed some serious brushing. We rode first in the ring, myself on Tarquin and Kerri on Ryven, and then we took them up the rode. Tarquin is a wimp and he spooked a lot, but I barely noticed because, unlike most horses that prance and shy away from things, he mostly just sort of tanked upward and then stopped on the spot. I don't mean rearing or anything, I mean he just sort of lifted his back and neck, snorted and trembled, but without actually going anywhere. It feels big, but without the forward motion. It was a wonderful fun ride. Also, I got to play with Kerri's baby, who is growing like a weed and is very cute.

Yes. I did say cute. Clearly, I have more affection for babies belonging to my friends.

The decision NOT to bring Willi back to the big city tomorrow has been reached, as the appartment is a shambles and I'm going away the following week for four nights. I really don't want to upset her by constantly changing my appartment around and then disappearing. I'll be out here again on the weekend of the 20th and I'll bring her then. Hopefully Nick will be able to look after her the last weekend of the month when I go out to visit Tracy for two nights. Here's hoping.

Anyway, the big plan is to GET THE APPARTMENT ORGANISED this week, as well as FINISHING THE MASQUES. Hah, sure.