Rosemary Kirstein

Led lights are the only kind this guy can handle…

This little tree might look like it’s on its last legs, but actually has been with me for nearly twenty years!   I picked it up when it was a wee little sprout, just after I moved in with Sabine, and it’s been holding on and getting marginally larger ever since.   I had to change its pot a number of times.  It’s currently living in a plastic mixing bowl, because some time after I moved into my own place, I dropped it and broke its official ceramic pot.  Haven’t replaced the pot yet, but Little Tree seems not to mind.

The Christmas Duckie ornament has been in our family since we ourselves were wee little sprouts.

My sister is now a nomad, currently catsitting in Florida, whilst I am tucked into my cozy apartment, while outside it’s so freakin’ cold!   It’s the lower edge of that bomb cyclone that’s been dropping tons of snow over much of the United States, and crazy-cold temps over the rest of it.  The other night it went down to 7 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s  -13.88 Celsius to the rest of the world).   Cold enough to make you not want to leave the house.

In unrelated news, I’ve had an odd encounter with eggs…

The other day, I wanted an omelet.  Stopped by a neighborhood store that I don’t often use, picked up some all-natural eggs, which I don’t often buy, jumbo-sized, because Why Not?

Got home, cracked the first one and it was a double-yolk!

Well, isn’t that nice, I thought.  Double yolk means free extra egg!  Kind of.  Ah, the mysteries of Nature.

Then I cracked the second one, and — hey, wait a minute…

I became suspicious.  I cracked a third.  This is what I got:

Free extra eggs!

Heh.  What are the odds.   Posted the event to Facebook (as one does).  Thought no more of it.

Until Christmas eve, when, hey, I wanted another omelet.   Some big cheesy thing, lots of mushrooms and scallions because: Christmas Eve brunch!

And I got this:

Okay, hang on, here…

Okay, so, what if…

Then I realized that even if my suspicions were true, it would be very easy for someone to fake double-yolks in a photo. So I videoed it.      (Link only; I found that I couldn’t easily embed my own video directly in WordPress.)

Six consecutive eggs from one carton, all double-yolk.   Yeah, this is beyond natural probability.   And that means that someone did it.  On purpose.

So, today when I decided to make some egg salad for use in the upcoming week, which required hard-boiled eggs…

Only the last is not a double.

So here’s what I think happened:  Someone at the egg-packing facility knew (or strongly suspected) which eggs might be double-yolk.  And decided to put them all in one carton.  Specifically in order to surprise, amuse, and possibly mystify, and send into trains of logic and probability some future unknown random customer.

That’s exactly what I would have done in their place.  I am on the side of those who choose to surprise, amuse, possibly mystify, and eventually elucidate.   My people.

I hope your holidays bring you and yours unexpected gifts, laughter, and enlightenment.

And stay warm, if you can manage it.

There I was, minding my own business, preparing a blog post.   Thought I’d take a break, and popped over to Twitter to see what’s up there… and:

Randall Munroe’s online comic xkcd has a lovely interactive game  today, where you can pilot your ship to explore different planets full of SF/F references. And one of them has a steerswoman!

I cannot express how chuffed I am at this!   I love xkcd, nerdly nerd that I am.   And look, there’s a steerswoman in it! Right there!

Seriously, how cool am I now?

The interactive game is quite complex and varied!  Navigation is tricky, and seems only possible on a computer with a keyboard.  And it’s a bit counter-intuitive, as GRAVITY seems to actually operate.  You can get caught in a gravity well, loop around in orbit of something just out of sight, or spin off into space if you’re not alert.  I ended up in the center of the Sun more than once, and my little ship did not have enough ooph to escape.

I have so far been unable to actually reach the steerswoman’s world… if you manage to get there, let me know how you did it!

(If you get stuck, I think the fastest way to reset is to hit “previous” and go to a previous comic, then hit “next” to get back and start all over.)