From ProtoMindcloud...
Entry the First, 16/01/2005
Deadlines
Like many idiots, I was taken by surprise when it was 'suddenly' January 2006, and all those various deadlines that seemed so far away at X-Mas are now looming. I have thousands of things that I'm doing in the non-working times, and I had this impression that I could bring them all to some sort of completion/stability before the end of January, 2006AD - the start of Uni...
There's a website to consolidate, a language to learn, a textbook to ingest, a band to revive and an army to paint, to name just a few. It's not like I've been procrastinating on any of these things, either! There just isn't enough time to settle them all...and I'm not prepared to destroy myself by trying a polyphasic sleep pattern. Instead I'll probably destroy myself with late nights, early mornings, poor hygiene and a terrible diet, with dire consequences for all around me.
Infestations
Since the moth infestation of Black Forest, in early 2005, I haven't experienced the pure entertainment of a full-blown animal plague. That was, until 'summer' arrived, bringing with it a host of surplus invertebrates. For instance, a smashed-out window of my car affords mosquitoes budget accommodation during the nights, and when I turn on the fan in the morning, the insects pour out of the vents. It's a new take on the words 'insect spray' if nothing else.
Apart from the mozzies and thousands of flies, the outdoor regions of my house play host to an ecosystem made up entirely of spiders, and the occasional wasp. It wasn't always that way...I remember more insects, particularly moths a few months ago.
The pigeons are becoming a nuisance. They were kind of amusing at first, nesting on the tops of the chimneys, crapping down into the fireplaces. This all changed when I found one of them on top of my curtain rod, dropping its virus-laden wastes all over my pillows, guitar, sheets and all other surfaces in a metre radius of the bird. Extraction was a time consuming process, eventually I used its stupidity against it and tricked it into riding outside in a box. This incident has highlighted the need for a gun in the house.
Meanwhile, my pet insects are working as hard as they can to generate their own infestation. Now that they've mated, I'm expecting the beginnings of hundreds of eggs within a fortnight...if you want some of these, just let me know.
Information
I just finished reading a chapter about Thomas Edison vs Nikola Tesla, in a book entitled Acid Tongues and Tranquil Dreamers, by Michael White. The book is all about rivalry between scientists, bitter feuds and terrible deeds that fuelled the advancement of science and technology...
Anyhow, I found out that Thomas Edison, although inventive, may have been a hack and an amoral bastard to boot. According to White, the electric chair was invented at the height of an Edison campaign to prove to the public the deadliness of AC electricity, a rival technology that Tesla and backers were attempting to sell to the public. In the process of trying to discredit the rival to his problematic DC system, many dogs were also electrocuted to death at public meetings. Most of these were elaborately staged PR spectacles with little science behind them.
Interesting reading, anyway. I'll have to cross-check with other accounts before I completely launch into an Edison smear campaign though.
