April 12, 2012

Storm sign, ley line,
A witch's filthy lie,
Breathe last, far path
A liar's broken staff.

---

So today began with fluffy white clouds lined with velvet undersides moving across the blue sky. Everything smells like rain, and a bit like ozone, even my water bottle. Even the cat, flopped across my chest and purring, smelled fresh... he even buzzed, purring like a small engine there.

Anticipated challenges have been cleared away, leaving me to dwell over my mug on things that need doing and things done. Pulling up some of my writing in my professional role from a month ago, I find myself getting out the red pen, gritting my teeth, and preparing for excision of bad bits. Writing-related OCD is a terrible and wonderful thing.

The sky, throughout the day, can't decide on brilliant blue or silvery grey. It rains like bastards in the Bay winter and spring. Despite the glaring pain in my overly-sensitive eyes, I find myself wishing for more sunlight, more warm days.

I never thought I'd miss the desert. Though, I suppose, I don't. Just the sun.

Franken Fran is no more. In a shocking and unexpected twist, the last issue of Franken Fran was the last issue of Franken Fran, with the author having indicated at the end that, surprise!!, no more would be forthcoming. The sendoff issue was something of a tribute to the whole of the series, with Fran (while sealed in a ship which has sunk to the bottom of the sea) dreaming that she is attending a party in her honor, with the guests being most every character that has appeared in the strip over its life -- including her houseful of servants; her sort-of sisters Veronica and Gavrill; many, many clones of Officer Kuhou (and probably the original as well); the Sentinals; the spies she had surgically turned into dogs early on; the infant Pope she had delivered from the skull of a dying cardinal; and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The last guest to arrive, naturally, is the elusive Dr. Madaraki -- who is not actually seen, but is heard (or, more precisely, shown to be heard via voice bubble) from outside the confines of the panel.

Perhaps most distressingly of all is the utter ambiguity with which the series ends. Fran is shown to be rescued by a mini-sub, and returned to her usual surgical ways. But was she really? Or was this simply a ploy, an extension of an ever-continuing dream (since Fran, being an artificial life form, can likely long subsist in that sea floor encasement....) But, to be fair, Fran surely deserves a rest at this point. She has after all performed countless surgical miracles, and has herself had to sew her own head back on after an attack, and has been cut in half both at the waist (by herself, to leave her lower body as bait in a trap for evil animalistic sister Gavrill), and straight down from top to bottom (the latter, in a laser accident, resulting in her building two temporary 'half-bodies' while figuring out how to operate her independently-functioning halves, which displayed distinctively different personalities). Goodbye, Fran.

StuartO))) has delivered on his promised accordian-accompanied audio rendition of The Ballad of Mark The Kramer -- can be found here; best listened to after imbibing an unreasonable amount of Scotch. I mean that as a high compliment.

In auditing news, progress is being made!!

Tem42 -- up to page 30 out of 36 -- one thing I've noticed as I've gotten deeper into the year 2000 nodes: a LOT of back-and-forth debate write-ups.
The Custodian -- on page 23 out of 39. (that's one page better than last time)