Announcements 4

Has anyone heard from Simon since he left for the States?

When he shows up safe, THEN you can take the mick outta me for going all concerned-avuncular.

No, sorry I haven't. I've been thinking how quiet it's been without him ringing me every five minutes to check I'm ok. Bless.

I'll let you all know if I hear anything. It could be that he hasn't got internet/phone line access or something. I know he's got lots of friends in America, one of which he is probably staying with. For the moment, just be concerned for his lack of internet connection, not for his safety.

I'm here I'm here I'm here!

I'm safe and having fun and missing you guys like hell!

I hope you're all doing well, and not missing me too much. That's assuming you noticed my absence at all. Let's all get posting and get the boards moving again!

Aa! See, I wasn't worried! *calls off the hellhound search*

YarrrzaSmoin!

Where have you been?! You haven't written, you haven't called, I left you a message but you never replied, etc. etc... </concerned wife rant>

So? Do tell about your adventures in the... uh... Pretty Large country!

Toby wants to know what a hellhound is... And I've realised I don't really know how to describe... Help?!

Hi Tobe!

In my own case, hellhounds are a species I invented in the course of my writings (none of which are actually written down, but, uh, they're planned). In short, I plagiarised bits of myths from the ancient Greeks, splashed in some vaguely Christianity-inspired stuff, added dash of Arabian myth (think Thousand and One Nights influence), and stirred vigorously with some old European folklore involving Cernunnos (? unless I've got him confused with someone else) and midnight hunts. Though not directly related, there is also a tradition in Britain of travellers seeing ghostly black dogs on lonely roads and in graveyards, and similar apparitions elsewhere in Europe. (These can be benign or maleficent.) Some people have all the luck.

As to what hellhounds actually are. You'll have heard of Hercules (Heracles in Greek) and his ten chores that turned into twelve (sounds just like chores round here), and the hellhound most people know comes from the twelfth labour: the stealing of Cerberus from the underworld. Cerb has many heads (reports vary; most commonly, three heads) and snakelike characteristics, and is Hades' guard dog. He likes honey cake and lullabies, for future reference.

My hellhounds can have mutations like extra heads or scaly texture to the fur; there is a version of Cerberus in my mythos, and quite a range of possible furmutations, but they do NOT have DNA as we'd know it. Hellhounds, in my version of the facts, were actually engineered.

What do they look like? Large black dogs with red eyes. They can vary in size and proportion from Alsatian to bear. Most are short-haired. They are all fireproof pyromaniacs. They generally like to hunt, chase things, kill things and occasionally make them go kaboom.

The puppies are fabulous.

I did this!
And, sssh, put it up.

*raps*

Yo.
I'm a dog-faced Yoda, a grand master coder,
With Photoshop supreme, and I weave like a dream,
I'm a file transfer pro, I build chrome like bling,
And on useless facts, I'm your trivia king. Word.

*power-mad*

I'm going out and getting numbingly drunk. Who's with me?

Yes, I shall toast the victory of someone who I think was the better choice for my country.

Same outcome. *g*

I don't drink. I also don't get into politics, although I have this feeling that it wouldn't make much of a difference in the end. You toss a snowball down the hill - it gets bigger. Doesn't matter who chases after it.

I would like to see world politics being handled a bit better, but being a cynic, I'm going to just wait until I can comfortably - shut up about politics and hope we'll just act like there never was an election.

I have a lot of strong political feelings and opinions, most of which run counter to everyone else in this group, so I keep my mouth shut most of the time. And I will continue to do so because discussing politics is boring and I don't like to be bored. But being called a moron by my friends is getting a little tedious.

I sincerely hope that we could take the politics away from these boards and keep it out. And please, I ask that everyone here does exactly that. This is not the place. :-/

Sarina, I don't think you're a moron and I don't want you feeling like you have to keep your mouth shut. Uh. For one thing it results in my accidentally making you feel alienated through simply not knowing your views. I'm sorry for whenever I've done that.

For subjects on which feelings run high, we do have an on-your-best-behaviour area, so let's confine it to there.

We're not getting sacked. *waves arms around* I knew the public luffed us!

I would like to announce that there is a HUGE freeze-dried strawberry in my tub of icecream.

That's all.

Cerhn, the one and only Cerhn, the biggest and only of the mad crushes I totally don't have honestly... has graduated and is going to mil. training school.

This is probably old news, but I've only just heard it -- from the wolf's mouth.

Woof, sez the wolf.

In other news, Snog still sick. Snog will attempt to hibernate until Jan. 2nd, when-- ah, screw it, I always wanted to be a LUMBERJACK!

Leaping from... hmm, tissue to tissue...

Isn't that interesting. Forest for the tissues and so forth.

Livin' la vida fatigue, olé.

Sheep!

*mentholated lanolin-soaked hugs*