Nightmare Fuel

Video from a sewer in Raleigh, N.C. According to CNN, the pulsating critter is either a colony of tubifex worms or a colony of bryozoans. The last are usually stationary critters like coral, but some species are able to sort of... you know... squelch.

Lunchtime Adventures

I still have them, though they are not of great scope of late, what with a high workload.


Last week, commanderteddog and I ventured to the Patrician Grill, a diner that looks very much like a movie set. It's sort of a quintessential diner archetype from the 60s and 70s. It's the sort of place that sells dry toast, liver and onions, and orange juice in tiny, tiny glasses that let them pretend its fresh-squeezed.


There was an enormous air conditioner over the door that appeared to be larger than thebitterguy's Smart Car. It was nonfunctional, and the place was sweltering. Somehow, that made it more genuine.


I had a burger, Teddog had the All Day Breakfast Special.

On a curious note, a few blocks away there is a 1940s diner still extant called the "Senator Diner." This place has the original fixtures, but has morphed into the sort of hipster joint that sells $18 hamburgers. Given their Imperial Roman names, I'm wondering if the Senator and the Patrician were founded around the same time.


Earlier that day, I saw a giant bicycle!


Coming home late one night. Using my little point and click, so it's blurry. But the scene reminded me strongly of some descriptions of view from the Last Redoubt, in Hodgson's The Night Land.

"To my right, which was to the North, there stood, very far away, the House of Silence, upon a low hill. And in that House were many lights, and no sound. And so had it been through an uncountable Eternity of Years. Always those steady lights, and no whisper of sound..."


Finally, since quitting my Conan MMORPG account, it appears my character has come to life and is delivering sermons in downtown Toronto. With about the same impact as I had, I should add.