Mo onna stick?!

Plans are afoot, watcheth ye this space!

Science is COOL

A brief glimpse into REALJOB; today I'm working on a presentation that I'll be giving on a teaching course for advanced nursing practice about blood tests and result interpretation. Thought you might like to see one of my absolute favourite you tube videos ever!

In this clip, a white blood cell is moving along the chemical signal path that's left by a bacterium (small black figure 8 shaped blob that's running away), moving between red blood cells (the big round blobs that look a little bit spiky). When it catches up, it basically stretches out a couple of arms, wraps them around the bacterium and engulfs it. The cell will then unleash chemical warfare on the engulfed bacterium, dissolving it.

Science is awesome.

With heartfelt apologies to Mr E A Poe

Once upon a midnight late, while I pondered on my fate,

(a horde of boisterous Makie scientists as never seen before)

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

Then a crash and burble-blatting, right outside my bedroom door.

"Tis just the cat," I muttered, "bashing at my bedroom door:

Just the cat... Please, nothing more!"

September was a long time over, one day alone left in October,

Leaves were strewn in ember-wrought jewelled gusts upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; Halloween about to follow,

Ghosts and ghouls released to borrow tricks and treats and games and more

For skellingtons and be-sheeted ghosties knocking on my house's door

Ghosts and Ghouls and nothing more.

And the blatting grew more strident and the honking ever violent

Filling me, filling me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now to still the shrieking in my head, I lie repeating,

"Tis just the cat demanding breakfast at the bedroom door;

Just my fat cat wanting breakfast sitting at my bedroom door,

Just the cat and nothing more."

Suddenly the crashing ended and, as I'm certain they intended,

"Plink?" called I, "Or Melchett? An explanation I implore.

You know the humans are both napping, there's a housewide ban on blatting,

Also sounds described as splatting, slithering, whooping and all crashing,

Especially at the hour of four thirty..." here I opened wide the door.

Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, hearing,

Faint sounds of splashing and pirate calling from underneath the bathroom door

And as the silence slunk off, broken, there came a slingle tentacular token,

And a greenish glowing light from underneath the bathroom door,

A trembling green and purple tentacle underneath the bathroom door,

This and water and nothing more.

Tentacle? Check. Hook? Check. Mayhem? CHECK.

Back into the bedroom, sighing, always at the Makies sighing,

Then I heard a tapping and a scratching louder than before.

“Surely,” said I, “Surely not an escapee Makie.. I’m losing the plot…

Let me see then what the threat is, and this mystery explore,

Let me see what’s tapping and scratching and… growling at my bedroom door.

Oh please, the wind and nothing more.”

Open here I pulled the portal, willing it to be a mortal

When in there stepped a stately Maiden of the days of yore…

Looking down my eyes espied a rather oddly dressed-up Blythe,

Who raised her hands and growled and cried and perched outside my bedroom door.

Perched upon an orange pumpkin dumped outside my bedroom door,

Perched and growled and nothing more.

Aspen, who is rather miffed at the glue dot keeping her nose-costume on... 

Well. This fluffy vision soon beguiling my worn temper into smiling

By the fuzzy boots and gloves and tunic that it wore.

“Though thy head is fur-behatted, thou,” I said, “were nearly splatted,

Hanging around on a precarious pumpkin sat outside my bedroom door…

Tell me where the others are, let me know just to be sure”.

Quoth a Makie: “Eat my Shorts!”

*le sigh* Hi Melchie... 

Another coughed as if to squelch it, but it only could be Melchett,

And as I turned and looked I saw her and…what’s that? Another more?

Melchie was a calavera, and as I started to blink and stare a

Blythe trotted out from behind the pumpkin sat outside my bedroom door

A new Blythe with long yellowish hair that I had never seen before,

Sitting and smiling and nothing more.

Say hello to the long-anticipated Elin! Wooo!

“Oh great!” I moaned, my resolve fleeting as all four then fell to speaking,

Talking all at once and squeaking of blood and guts and gore,

Of mad experiments and plotting, of delicate things they could be dropping,

And of things that needed chopping right there on my bedroom floor,

Back to bed I went and left them, partying on my bedroom floor,

And as I went, I vowed “NO MORE!”

Oh, you could at least attempt to smile... 

That's better! 

Hope you all have a glorious Halloween/Samhain/Nos Galad Gaeaf! I'll be celebrating by shutting the girls in the bathroom with the giant squid and hiding things from trick or treaters! Stay spooky :) 

Glorious Wolf Hat by Manon of De Belles Poupees, Voodoo Necklace by Fil of Mok.Me

More photos on the flickr, woo!

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink...

...well, not quite, but I'm currently detached from my PC.

I've got up this morning to find my study door locked from the inside. Occasionally, there are gales of laughter and cackling.

Even more mysteriously, the postman delivered a package today. I set it down at the bottom of the stairs and headed into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee... I got back just in time to see it vanishing into my room. There was giggling, squealing and what I can only describe as roaring.

There's also something weird going on in the bathroom. I heard a lot of splashing and there's greenish light streaming from under the door. Someone's yelling something about splicing mainbraces and avasting lots.

The cats have taken up residence under the bed, and are refusing to come out.

I think I'm going to take a shower and carve the pumpkin. Hopefully by that point, they'll let me in to see what's been going on.

Woooooo!

Huzzah! Our spooky order has arrived from Makie Lab!

Aspen needs some clothing of her own... 

There were a few more things in the bag... watch this spooky space!

Snip... snip...

Today's been a bit of a cutting out day. Which means that tomorrow might just be a sewing day!

Tiny pieces!

Hopefully we'll be able to have a bit of a fashion show later this week.

Happy Birthday to Meee!

Today I am twenty-mumblemumblemumble, which makes me very nearly OLD on the basis that next year, I will be twenty-mumblemumblemumble + 1, which is technically not twenty-anything any more. Harrumph.

But anyway. I happen to be blessed with the absolute best of long-suffering boyfriends (who is tolerating the proliferation of tinythings in my study with all the grace that can be expected from a man with shelves full of D+D books, unpainted warhammer sets and board games). In his role as enabler, he today presented me with an exciting box filled with a big-headed eye-changing dolly, and some funky accessories to go with her!

I'm not sure Melchie took to her straight off...

I keep the tools on a high shelf... 

But Plink was very keen to give her a hand out of the box.

Melchie? Help please?

O hai! Let me remove the... gosh. That is rather a lot of sellotape... 

I'm sure they're going to get on fine.

Welcome to the league of ridiculous knitted headgear!

If you're after the specifics, she's a "Simply Chocolate" and it appears she thinks she's called Aspen. Her eye colours are blue, minty green, rather-startling-orange and quite-weird-pink... shall have to invest in some new chips soon.

She's not wearing any trousers. 

Melchett, stop mucking about.

If you shut her in there, Plink, I'll hand you the tape.

More photos on the flickr.