Technical Difficulties

Mateusz Skutnik has released Submachine 9. I am beside myself with glee.

(If you want more Submachine, the entire series is here.)

---

Gandalf checks his email. BEST PHOTO EVAR.

---

I believe Catzilla turned off the little Cthulhu machine this morning by walking on it. Proof (a) that the people who designed the damn thing have never lived with a cat and (b) that my cat is THE SPAWN OF THE DEVIL.

---

I had not known about EarlyWord until it was drawn to my attention that The Goblin Emperor got a nice shout-out on their GalleyChat summary for March 4.

There's also a very positive review from Justin Landon at Staffer's Book Review, who admits he went in prepared to hate the book and was won over anyway. I think that's the first time I've pulled that trick off.

(I know if you're reading this blog, you probably don't need to be persuaded to buy the book. Humor me.)

---

I finally have a day job that is both permanent and part-time (instead of working as a full-time temp, which is what I've been doing the past two and a half years). I am very happy with it; it has taught me that, oddly enough, I enjoy accounting, which is a piece of self-knowledge I wish I'd had in college. It satisfies the same part of my brain that likes Latin and calculus (and Submachine, come to think of it). And I totally get an endorphin cookie when my numbers balance.

Also, if anyone knows any good resources for DIY double-entry bookkeeping, please share! I took a Continuing Education Accounting Intro course, but the textbook, as it turned out, was not very reliable. And my employer is unlikely to be able to spring for accounting software any time soon, so it's just me and Excel.

1. There's a new Submachine game: Submachine 7: The Core.

2. This is a lovely video of Zenyatta enjoying her retirement.

3. While I'm offering videos, the big cats at Big Cat Rescue really enjoy their Christmas presents.

4. There's a new octopus for the Octocam. Ursula is smaller than Deriq was, but she is every bit as fabulous.

5. I am not going to link to the story on the Republican state legislator here in Wisconsin who's trying to repeal the (new) state law aimed at abolishing "Indian mascots and other race-based team names and logos in Wisconsin public schools," nor to the story on the man in Toronto who pressured a twelve-year-old girl off his son's co-ed PeeWee hockey team, because impotent anger is bad for my blood pressure.* Instead, have some pictures of the lunar eclipse: here (wikipedia), here (National Geographic), and, oddly enough, here (DC Clubbing).

---
*This would be the rhetorical trick called praeteritio. The internet makes it particularly transparent.

Since the foul fiend Insomnia continues to maul me in its batrachian* paws and slobber down my neck, many thanks and a tip of the hat to kate_nepveu, who pointed out to me that there is a new Submachine installment: Submachine 6: the edge.

N.b., the game will make marginally more sense if you have a passing acquaintance with the previous Submachine games. But only marginally. Nevertheless, for your point-and-click pleasure:

• Submachine 1: the Basement
  
• Submachine 2: the Lighthouse
  
• Submachine 3: the Loop
  
• Submachine 4: the Lab
  
• Submachine 5: the root

There are also two side games:

• Submachine 0: the Ancient Adventure
  
• Submachine: Future Loop Foundation

And now, having once again interrupted your Very Serious Business, I'm going to see if I can find those secret areas I missed the first time around.

---
*I did have to look up batrachian to be sure I was spelling it right. Which, by the happy serendipity of the alphabet, has led me to a question. Batophobia, it turns out, is the fear of being next to a very tall object, like a skyscraper or a mountain. Does anyone know, then, what's the word for fear of bats?**

**To make this less utterly irrelevant to everything ever, I shall inform you that mirrorthaw and I had another bat in our attic last weekend. Once again, the lovely lovely people from Bat Conservation of Wisconsin came out--at 7 P.M. on a Friday no less--and identified, assessed, sexed, and conserved the bat. Healthy female Big Brown Bat (which, as I remarked later to matociquala, looks to the casual observer like any little brown bat, but in fact Little Brown Bats are a different species). The bat-lady also told us something which I think might possibly be of interest to other people: bats like to burrow into or under laid insulation (the stuff that looks like cotton candy) to hibernate. So if, like us, you have a house where the previous owners thought it was a good idea to lay the insulation on the attic floor like a carpet . . . well, be careful, is all I'm saying.

ObPSA: Do not touch any bats you may find. For your sake and theirs. Bat World has a very helpful page on what to do if you find a bat and also links to local rescue organizations. Our local rescue organization is awesome; I hope others are the same.