AKA, What Michelle Is Holding in her Current Blogger Profile.

This image also comes up as one of my random headers.

I do believe my brother got them at the Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild.

Janiece asks if I don’t have something better to do. The answer is, why YES! I DO!

We’re going to see the Harlem Globetrotters this evening!

Like I said before, there are major advantages to living in a small town with a large university.

Not-Sophie limped up her thin body up to the large jowly man dishing out mealy, watery gruel.

“Please sir, may I have some more?”

“MORE?” the man yelled at the top of his lungs. The supervisor leaned out his window to start at the man. “Why of course you may,” the man growled, sounding like he’d eat nails then give her more food. “Only the best for our specials.” The word twisted in his mouth to something ugly as he spoke it, making not-Sophie think of maggots and slugs and poisonous snakes.

The big man leaned forward, being careful not to touch not-Sophie and whispered to her, “do you know what is going to happen to you? Do you?”

Not-Sophie started up at him and slowly shook her head.

“All you specials have a future ahead of you. You get extra resources now, but I can’t wait until the suffering begins, when they slowly tear your consciousness away from your body. I’ve heard it’s an extremely painful process. Sometimes if I listen carefully I can hear your screams during the night.” He leaned even more closely to her. “Your time is soon,” he hissed.

Not-Sophie gave a small scream and jumped back. The pot of boiling gruel suddenly leapt up and upended itself over the fat man’s head. As he screamed in pain, not-Sophie ran from the cafeteria back to the dormitory, and crawled under the covers, sobbing quietly to herself.

She never saw the fat man again. But everything he told her was true. Sometimes she cursed him for that, other times she blessed him. Either way, he was long gone, and she was changed far more than even he could imagine.

What is this? It’s Sophie from Shinola.

When we last saw our heroes:

(Blink/Sophie) moved blindly from one corridor to another until something in Sophie’s mind clicked. “Wait, turn back,” she said. “Go down that last corridor we just past. Something tells me that the weapons systems control will be that way.”

Green fire and black smoke billowed from the heap of rubble that had been Sophie’s home. Mission accomplished, not-Sophie painfully limped the air, pushing its faltering propulsion system just ahead of the shock wave.

It messaged the local agent. “This is Dreadnought UCF-17 ‘Sophie’ calling Mowat Goldmember. This is a code 99 request for immediate support.”
…
Meanwhile, not-Sophie1 targeted the nearest wormhole, threaded the gap, then accerated toward the familiar scan signatures of the Tragethan fleet.

Blink/Sophie’s body had been badly beaten. The failed attempt at disabling the weapons systems control had alerted the Trageth. Their security forces immediately took action and quickly apprehended the intruders. The Trageth were not known for their kindness and used harsh methods when interrogating prisoners. Sophie’s conscious had to recede and allow Blink’s to take over during the ordeal. His firm resolve enabled him to withstand the brutal beating yet not reveal any critical details of his mission.
…
A gigantic dreadnought clambered into the room. “Agent 2375 I am SpaceForce dreadnought UCF-17 I have been dispatched for your immediate retrieval.” The mega machine’s sensor’s surveyed its surrounding “Come with me if you want to live.”

And now, to continue our story…
(more…)

Not-Sophie rematerialized and then pulled her six-shooter out of the ether. She stared at Nathan while tapping the long nails of her other hand against her metallic hip.

Click click click click. Click click click click.

“Really Nathan,” she said firmly, “I thought we had moved past all this.”

Nathan stared defiantly at not-Sophie. “Past what?” he said. “You’re not real! You can’t do any actual damage to me! Besides, it’s only a game!”

Not-Sophie continued tapping her nails.

Click click click click. Click click click click.

“It may be a game to you sir, but I’m the one who has to spend all the energy rematerializing every time you blow me up for your amusement.” She looked at Nathan like he was something unpleasant she’d discovered on the bottom of her shoe in a dark, dank, dirty alley. “Sure, I can continue to rebuild myself infinitely, but it gets old rather quickly.”

Click click click click. Click click click click.

“Come on,” said Nathan. “No harm done. It’s not like it’s costing you anything.”

“Not costing my anything?” not-Sophie replied, one fine eyebrow rising slightly. “Look how many parts of the story I have NOT been in! How am I supposed to save the children of that nasty little planet you created if you keep killing me and keeping me from my job?

Click click click click. Click click click click.

Not-Sophie shifted her weight, and slammed the six-shooter into the holster that suddenly appeared on her hip. Her eyes shifted from cold steely-blue to fiery steely-green. “I’m serious. Stop trying to kill me. I’ve got work to do, and your little machinations are becoming an annoyance.

And with that not-Sophie disappeared, leaving behind only the sound of her nails tapping against her hip.

Click click click click. Click click click click.

It’s the final game of Fug Madness: Bai Ling versus Posh Spice!

Get your votes in now–it may be a rout!

And if you have time, you really should go back through and view some of the previous rounds.

Thurs – 5.26 miles
Fri – 6.41 miles
Sat – 1.67 miles
Sun – .76 miles

I didn’t really need to know I was slacking THAT much on the weekends.

I’m about to upgrade Word Press.

If you notice any weirdness? It’s probably coming inherent to this site. Just sit back and not-Sophie will take care of you in a minute.

ADDENDUM THE FIRST:
Easy-peasy!

ADDENDUM the Second:
$#@($* comments don’t work

ADDENDUM the Third:
Michael is my favoritest husband in the Whole Wide World!

I thought it was supposed to be warm and sunny this weekend. Instead it was cold and dreary.

Perfect weather for writing out the checks for our taxes.

Bah.

I See the Promised Land

(more…)

Sleep
Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thunder cloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Rain down on me
Mmm…mmm…mmm…
So let it be
Mmm…mmm…mmm…
So let it be
Sleep
Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thundercloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Let it rain
Rain on me

We’ve ordered a bunch of new toys recently, for a variety reasons.

First up, we got pedometers. I chose the Omron HJ-112 Digital Premium Pedometer, because not only do they count steps, but they also calculate the number of miles you walked and the number of calories you burn. It also can calculate aerobic steps versus regular steps. Right now I have 10962 steps, which it calculates as 5.19 miles, but this is actually low, since my stride when I walk for exercise is slower than my casual stride. But since I know I walk approximately a 15 minute mile, I can just calculate that separately. It also tells me I’ve burned 361 kcals, but that just seems depressing.

AMENDUM the First:
One problem with it. To keep it from counting moving around, it doesn’t start counting until you’ve been walking for four seconds. This means that few of the steps I took today while teaching counted, since most of them were walking back and forth between the computer and the screen. So on my feet for two hours, but only a couple hundred steps.

But I can live with that.

I also ordered two Energy Saving Smart Strips With Autoswitching Technology. What the heck does that mean? It means that we can plug the computer into the control plug, the plug all the peripherals into other plugs, and when we turn off the computer, the other plugs for the monitor, scanner, etc have their power cut, so they don’t use energy. We’re thinking about getting one for the TV, but are not sure if that’ll cause problems for my grandmother. (i.e. will remotes etc work?)

And although it hasn’t arrived yet, I have great hopes for the Bio-Brite SunRise Digital Alarm Clock Dawn / Dusk Simulator Clock with White Noise. I believe I complained to great extent last much about how much I hate daylight savings time. The biggest problem for me is that I have great difficulty getting up when it’s dark. It just seems terribly wrong somehow. (I also don’t sleep well when it’s light, which is why the bedroom window facing the road has a blackout shade.) My hope is that this will allow me to get up earlier in the morning. Not just because relaxing mornings are nice, but because the morning is the best time for me to write, so I have written nothing on my novel/story/whatever since Christmas. We’ll see what happens, but keep your fingers crossed for me.

So, if you’ve been following the Sophie story, some of us got a little nuts and started an offshoot story over here.

Why? Possibly because we’re completely nuts. But mostly because it’s a lot of fun. Feel free to join in–just write fast!

To heck with you all not-Sophie haters! I’m starting a not-Sophie fan club!

Anyone want to join?

Not-Sophie has many wonderful qualities that everyone seems to be ignoring. She’s brave. She hates injustice. She looks out for those who are weaker than she is.

She’s also complex.

And lots of fun at parties, what with the whole telekinesis thing.

ADDENDUM the First:

Sits in the corner scribbling not-Sophie/Blink fan fic.

Not-Sophie stood over Farthum’s quivering corpse, viscous yellow plasma dripping off the edge of her sword.

“Oh Not-Sophie!” cried Blink, “You SAVED me!” His pseudo-pods quivered as she looked deep into his eye.