Diskwiss, how can you sleep at a time like this?

Oh my goodness, CLAUDIA! Its so funny, I wrote you a post asking all about your exciting art project and then I continued doing my house cleaning and then like two hours later it suddenly hit me what you meant!!! Nine months! Haha! Claudia, I am so so so HAPPY for you!! How long have you known? Oh, I guess not…

I cannibali is my favourite movie of late 60s revolutionary vintage. Its Antigone in a contemporary setting. The bodies of rebels have been left by decree to rot in the streets where they fell, and Antigone (or whatever her character is called in the movie) defies the order to give her brother a proper burial. This…

I would never buy one new, regardless of how it looked. You can't wrap an occult device in cellophane and still expect it to work! And I wouldn't want one from a second hand shop either because that would mean it was a dud. If it worked, who would get rid of it? They'd either keep using it or they'd burn it, bury…

I'm always poking around the beach looking for just the right bit of driftwood, something washed ashore that looks sufficiently time-worn that I can make a planchette from. I'm certain there are ghosts in our old ghastly house and its about time someone tried to communicate with them. Maybe they'll want to send a…

Do you know how long rum lasts? I picked up a bottle to make rum-balls two years ago and the remainder has been at the back of the pantry since then. I know in Red Rackham's Treasure, Tintin and the Captain recover bottles of rum from a shipwreck that is centuries old, but those bottles were sealed!

Why do baking powder and cocoa have to be in cylindrical containers? I'm glad they are, because otherwise seems like madness, but I still wonder why this must be.

I don't drink either, but I would really like to have a home bar just for the bottles! There is so much creativity in liquor bottles, I'm surprised people ever buy them for the contents.

I guess it was over a year ago now and it was definitely a special promotion, possibly just in the Maritimes. Can you really not find ketchup chips? I never look for them, but the pesky things always seem to be in my peripheral vision.

Where do you still find sardines with the little key? My sardines now all have the stupid little tabs that you have to pull up. And then it invariably splatters sardine juice when the lid snaps off. I'd love it if they went back to keys. All the best foods need a key.

I have an ancient can of Old Bay seasoning that my mum never used and now I carry on that tradition. Its well past the usable stage anyway, it doesn't even rattle anymore, the seasoning has fused with the inside of the can. But I can't bring myself to throw it out because I love the can so much!

Diskwiss, nobody wants to see or hear your impression of Kenny Loggins.

I added dried cranberries to my black bean brownies tonight. They just keep getting bigger and bigger! I'm thinking next week of maybe adding a layer of graham wafers to the bottom. And then peanut butter frosting on top. I'm going to keep adding ingredients until they're so big they completely fill my cookie jar. …

Diskwiss, your life is one long series of unfortunate events.

I hope the next era has a hopeful name. Do they ever have ominous names? Who gets to name them?

Yes, they really are idealised! And I don't deny I prefer antiquity as we used to think it was: all clean marble. Its horrifying to imagine that the Parthenon was not only not plain stone, but it was possibly painted red, yellow, and blue! Yuck!

That's part of the problem, I don't want to have to change my diet to accommodate proper strength training. I get just exactly enough protein to survive as it is! I am very slow to change any part of my delicate balance of diet and exercise. But jumping over things sounds like fun. And I read somewhere here about…

What I don't like is tracking ash and bits of bark all over the place, its just impossible in the winter to keep the floor clean. But yeah, everything else about wood heat is the best! We have lots of power failures too, so our stove is not just heat, its for cooking, its for heating water, its for light. I…

Thank you! I did look at the site and liked that he posted daily workouts but its the lack of illustrations I miss! Our house is old and haunted but the top floor is mostly empty (but for ghosts) so we've padded the whole floor of one big room making it perfect for workouts that require bouncing around all over the…

You're right, being warm and cozy is everything. When I'm in my warm bed, no other pursuit on earth seems to have any value. If Satan ever wants to tempt me by placing all the earthly spoils within my grasp, he shouldn't bother while I'm in a warm bed. I'd just tell him to bug off and pull the blankets over my head.