YouTube: The Most Useless Machine Ever

XD XD XD

Another military station, Charles Fort, near Kinsale, has long had the reputation of being haunted. An account of this was sent to the _Wide World Magazine_ (Jan. 1908), by Major H. L. Ruck Keene, D.S.O.; he states that he took it from a manuscript written by a Captain Marvell Hull about the year 1880. Further information on the subject of the haunting is to be found in Dr. Craig's _Real Pictures of Clerical Life in Ireland_. Charles Fort was erected in 1667 by the Duke of Ormonde. It is said to be haunted by a ghost known as the "White Lady," and the traditional account of the reason for this haunting is briefly as follows: Shortly after the erection of the fort, a Colonel Warrender, a severe disciplinarian, was appointed its governor. He had a daughter, who bore the quaint Christian name of "Wilful"; she became engaged to a Sir Trevor Ashurst, and subsequently married him. On the evening of their wedding-day the bride and bridegroom were walking on the battlements, when she espied some flowers growing on the rocks beneath. She expressed a wish for them, and a sentry posted close by volunteered to climb down for them, provided Sir Trevor took his place during his absence. He assented, and took the soldier's coat and musket while he went in search of a rope. Having obtained one, he commenced his descent; but the task proving longer than he expected, Sir Trevor fell asleep. Meantime the governor visited the sentries, as was his custom, and in the course of his rounds came to where Sir Trevor was asleep. He challenged him, and on receiving no answer perceived that he was asleep, whereupon he drew a pistol and shot him through the heart. The body was brought in, and it was only then the governor realised what had happened. The bride, who appears to have gone indoors before the tragedy occurred, then learned the fate that befell her husband, and in her distraction, rushed from the house and flung herself over the battlements. In despair at the double tragedy, her father shot himself during the night.

The above is from Dr. Craig's book already alluded to. In the _Wide World Magazine_ the legend differs slightly in details. According to this the governor's name was Browne, and it was his own son, not his son-in-law, that he shot; while the incident is said to have occurred about a hundred and fifty years ago.

True Irish Ghost Stories Seymour, St. John D.

The story is also told in Marchioness Townshend's True Ghost Stories, which I picked up from B&N (they did a modern reprint) back around Halloween and highly recommend. There's something about this tale that just creeps me right out; I always wonder if the old man knew exactly who he was shooting...

In some versions the father then goes on to shoot himself.

Heh, I've bought a shitload of games off Steam these last few weeks, but now I think I'm satisfied (it's a good thing that the holiday sale finishes today though, or I might be tempted to rethink that decision)

Last night in Falun, and it's gonna be sad to leave my family. I won't miss this damn cold apartment, though (my skin is so dry now, though my hands haven't actually started bleeding yet. Yay, or something X( ), nor, as I might have mentioned, Falun itself.

The train leaves at 11.34 tomorrow which means *gasp* I'll have to get up at a more normal...ish time; hmm, there's a change which I'll need to make anyway before I'm going back to work Thursday. Which reminds me: I'm trying this iPhone sleep cycle alarm clock. I think it's pretty good, but since the room is so cold when I wake up I'd rather cozy up under the covers for a while longer, and then I fall asleep again. I'll give my report on it once I've used it at home. If I remember. Anyway, for 7 kronor I can't say I regret buying it - at least it's really cool to see those sleep graphs. Especially cool since the iPhone itself registers my movements.

Bla bla bla ok better make sure I've everything packed so I don't have to run around like.. something very confused, tomorrow.

Oh I had too much candy today. I'm feeling sick to my stomach.

Just a couple more days here before it is time to return to Uppsala - and later on, work. Well, I can't say I'm completely looking forward to getting back to the coding, but it isn't a dreadful prospect either. I think I have rested enough now. Such a shame it will be half a year until next time, though.

..I guess this will be the year I finally move to Stockholm, too. Blergh, I don't really want to, but on the other hand I'm really damn tired of commuting too. Both because of the time I lose each morning and evening, and because it's so expensive. Stupid SJ. (Might even *gasp* buy a place, though I'm even less keen on something like that. Bleeeeergh)

Well, enough moping about that; back to TFTD for me. It's going quite well now. I still have to reload a number of times each mission (I refuse to let my people die on me) but I kill off the alien scum much faster now.

Mum and sis are both annoyed by sleeping so late today. I am most definitely not annoyed by sleeping late - I was up late so of course I need to sleep XD

Yet another evening was spoiled by stupid work stuff. Apparently this one customer system is running on a 32-bit OS and as the logfiles hit 2 GB today, we all of a sudden can't open them. Fuck this shit.

So I (and mago) have spent about 2 hours trying to fix it. I came up with a temporary solution which bloody well will have to work, because the other solution is to upgrade the OS which itself would open another interesting stinky can of worms.

Oh well. At least there's some extra money in it for us.

How I'm spending New Year's Eve? Watching "Rocky Horror Picture Show" with mum and sis. XD

So I was browsing through the titles at http://www.asian-horror-movies.com/ and found this one. I thought I was gonna watch horror but Rainbow Eyes turned out to be a thriller of the crime variety, with an unexpected amount of queer. And when I say unexpected amount, I mean the entire story. (Well.. "unexpected" but the title should have given me a clue.. heh, I don't pick up on those things )

Anyway, I can't say much more about the movie than what's already written on IMDB without giving too much of the story away, but I do like the female cop who doesn't hesitate before beating up both bad guys and her stupid-ass colleagues ;)

Wtf is wrong with the weather. 20 degrees below zero (and that's Celcius) and it feels like the indoor temperature is about the same.. which isn't just the weather's fault, I grant you that, but whenever has tiny details like that stopped me from complaining?

Since it's so damn interesting, I'm now gonna give game status:

Xcom TFTD: Stuck in one of those boat missions from hell. I think I've actually managed to kill all but one of the aliens now - but then I thought so before the last two aliens too so who knows how many of these damn creatures are still around? Anyway, this one is hidden behind a door which I can't seem to shoot down ("Not in the line of fire") and if I open it he shoots me in the face. Dammit.


The World Ends With You: Done with the second scenario, and fuck, I'd just learned how to control that guy too.. back to square one then.

So the one cell phone mm fell for had to be locked to a stupid operator. Well, we'll order it online instead :P

Grr, was watching "Detroit Metal City" with sis and mum when suddenly Mago called and needed to some help with surveillance duty stuff. So that's what I'm doing now. Blergh.

Apparently H's train home was delayed too, but at least this time she didn't have to switch to bus - nor did she have to sit close to a cat (which is a pretty unfortunate fate for someone who is allergic). Anyway, (I think) she's home safe now, and the apartment is much more quiet for it :P

X-Com: Terror from the Deep is a damn annoying game, but still I can't stop playing.

Today was very snowy and cold. Sister H liked this a lot, but I'm not quite as pleased. Winter isn't exactly my favourite season - or well, at least not when I have to be outside.

Mum got a cell phone for Jul, but she'll have to pick a model herself. After looking through the selection at one of the local electronics stores, she's more confused than before, and has no idea which to select. I'm aiming at making her job even harder, by letting her see even more different models. One of these days. If I can stomach going for that sort of walk in the cold and snow.

(I've been out already, so no need to send evil glares my way. I just.. don't like it very much)

Well, it's back to X-com: TFFD for me; I'm currently on way way out from my first alien base. I've destroyed the control room and only need to escape to gain my sweet sweet experience, but the damn surviving aliens are making this tough for me by killing of my crew. I naturally can't stand this behaviour and have to reload and reload and fucking reload... gaaah.

Oof. Christmas has been survived.

Took my grandmother's present (pumpkin-cranberry muffins, rhubarb muffins, oatmeal cookies with chocolate, dried cranberries and walnuts, and chocolate chip cookie bars) to the rehab center. She's doing pretty well, scooting about in her wheelchair, though her speech is still pretty impaired and it frustrates her quite a bit. Visited for a bit, and then went back to her house to do Christmas dinner (so the house would look a little more occupied than it usually does).

Roast duck! Tried Cook's Illustrated's technique of steaming the duck then cutting it up and roasting it. Next time: cut the duck into serving portions *first*, and the hell with the skin. Still pretty tasty, though.

Happy Holidays!

Now I shall fall over. *thud*

Right, a lot of you guys actually celebrate today, and not yesterday. Happy holidays to you all!


I've been doing mostly nothing today. Got some reading done, and I've also picked up "The world ends with you" again - last time I played was around this time last year. I've also played "X-com: Terror from the deep", which is a bit harder (difficulty-wise) than I remembered. Not today though, since sis hogged the only good place where you can use the laptop without getting too cramped up from the uncomfortable position.

I guess it is back to the DS for me. I hope you all are enjoying these days, however you decide to spend them.

Loom: ... that's it? WTF? Neat conceit, but lord, did that ever age badly.

*thud* Last cookies cooling now. I was going to steam the duck we're having tomorrow, but the damn thing isn't completely thawed yet. Still trying to figure out how to arrange things for tomorrow, too.

Steam is having a holiday sale! Currently I have Beyond Good and Evil, World of Goo, Fallout Collection and Machinarium in my cart. I probably won't get them all; I want to get an import copy of Fatal Frame IV, a Wii and a few other games too, but my bonus isn't that big. OTOH, given how crappy the year was, I'm glad I got one at all...

This apartment is so damn cold :( I'm wearing extra socks and long johns under my jeans (which is slightly uncomfortable, since the jeans are quite tight)

Well, now the entire family is here. Sister H will only stay until, uh, Sunday? and will then spend New Year's with her boyfriend and his friends. I suppose I can allow that, after all he lives in Canada now and she doesn't get to see him very much.

She and V-chan are currently playing Mario Kart Double Dash and if there'd been another gamepad I would've joined in too. As it is, I think I'll pick up my DS and maybe I'll even finish one of those games I've been playing forever before the end of the year.

Mum and I took a bus to.. almost the other side of town today, to pick up sis' jul gift. Funny how they decided to make us pick it up there, instead of at the grocery store 10 minutes' walk from here.

We've had a ham sandwich each and, well, I just want to hand out my gifts and get it over with XD but I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Finally got some more film developed.

( cut for large images )
As usual, more at the photostream.

Currently: baking rhubarb bread and muffins. Next up: chocolate chip cookie bars. Tomorrow: pumpkin-cranberry bread and muffins, and chocolate chunk oatmal cookies.

...will be leaving to visit the family later today. But I assume they still have a computer, so I'll probably still be around. Unless the boat sinks. That could complicate matters.

...finished cleaning the place, emptied and scrubbed the fridge... I think everything is in order. But I'm paranoid about these things. It always amazes me when I come back and the house is still standing.

Anyway, it's not just boring shit. I updated Rupert (the world's only flamboyantly gay magical dye merchant, and now also tailor!) and got a bit of writing done, so today was not a complete waste of time. I could get some stats for the november-december period, but I don't want to depress myself. (...but I have an excuse, I've been too busy playing with the new computer to write much. I have like ten years' worth of games to catch up on, come on, it's a perfectly valid excuse.)

Uh... anything else? I have... three hours to kill. Pretty much.

Guess I'll get something to eat. /interesting

Oh yeah, also, icon. Having all that extra space is kind of nice. <_<