...but my Net connection went down for a few hours and I couldn't get it back.  
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Anyway, after a twenty-minute "flight" from darkest Romania, I
found myself sprawled on a patch of bare dirt in the sun, with
Charlie standing next to me, laughing his fool head off.  I
rolled over onto my back, then knocked him off his feet with a
quick legsweep.  As he went sprawling himself, I hopped to my
feet with a quick kippup and took a quick look around me.
The bare patch was actually part of a dirt road running through a
good-sized meadow.  On three sides of us, the meadow was bounded
by lush old-growth forest; the road ran toward the forest in one
direction, and in the other vanished over a low hill that blocked
my view of anything beyond it.  The sun was shining to beat the
band in a brilliantly clear, bold blue sky.  It was warm, but not
uncomfortably hot.  
Nodding to myself, I looked back down at Charlie, who had gotten
to his hands and knees during my glance around.  "That," I said,
"had to be the single worst magical transport I've ever used, and
I've used some doozies."  
He laughed and looked up at me.  "Heh.  Should have guessed you'd
never used a portkey before."  He held out his hand.  "Here now,
give us a hand up."
I gave him a dubious look.  "If you pull me back down into the
dirt when I do, Charlie, I will *so* kick your ass."
He laughed again.  "Would I do that?"
"In a heartbeat," I said.  "I haven't forgotten who dunked me in
the camp cistern."
"I *told* you, that wasn't me!  It was Tannenbaum!"  Rather than
wait for me to offer a hand, Charlie climbed to his feet.
"Tannenbaum was visiting *Vrajitor lui alee* in Bucharest that
day, and you know it."  As he straightened up to his full height,
I began slapping the dust and dirt off his clothes.  Maybe a bit
harder than I needed to, but he deserved it.  "If you'd decided
to blame someone who was actually *in* the camp, I *might* have
believed you."
"I swear on my mother's grave..."
"Charlie, two things.  First, your mother's still alive, which is
one of the points of this visit.  Second, you would swear on your
mother's grave that you were a 140-centimeter Swedish girl with
three legs if it would further one of your gags."
A thoughtful look crossed his freckled face.  "Yeah, I suppose I
might, at that."
I whapped him on the back of the head, but not hard enough to
cause cranial trauma.  "C'mon, Laughing Boy.  Lead me to this
Burrow of yours before I decide to bury you out here up to the
waist -- head down."
As it turned out, the Burrow was on the other side of that low
hill -- which was only low on our side:  when we crested the top,
I saw that it sloped gently down into a broad, low dell, in the
center of which was what I could only assume was a house.
It was either that, or someone had spent his life creating a
three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle out of building supplies using
an Escher collection as a guide.
It was, as best as I could determine, about three stories tall,
or trying to be -- but rooms and wings hung off the thing with
an arbitrary whimsicalness that made it difficult to determine
what floor they were supposed to be on.  The lowest level looked
like it might once have been a classic British cottage or
farmhouse, but *so* many random architectural encrustations had
been applied to it that it was hard to be sure.  At least one
part seemed to be *upside-down* and reachable only by an exterior
door and a crawlway past a working chimney.  It was much larger
in the middle -- where I figured the second floor was likely to
be -- than at either end, but had no supports of any kind.  
Despite this, it defied all logic by appearing to be rock-solid.
"And he built a crooked house..." I muttered to myself as I
stopped short at the sight of the place.
"Well, there it is, the Burrow," Charlie said as he came up
alongside me.  "The Weasley ancestral home, the family's been
living there for... Merlin, I don't know *how* many generations."  
He slapped me on the back.  "What do you think?
"Charlie," I said softly, "I now understand you *far* better than
I did five minutes ago."  I shook my head and snorted a brief
laugh.  "Whoever built this house clearly was in a blood feud
with both physics and architecture.  Either that or clinically
insane."

This is a teaser for the City of Marduk, which I have barely started becuse I kept geting distracted playing with the map. It shows the city at the end of Season two, late 2014.
The description will follow later. Eventually.
Marduk is on Plynus Crater, a 32-km circular crater between Mares Serenitas and Tranquilitas. The letters (a-h) are city districts, while the numbers (1-16) are points of interest. As of october 2014, 15 and 16 are two abbeys build for decorative purposes (one romanic catholic and one tibetan buddist), but still empty.


P.D. And why does the image look so small? Do I need to change settings or something?
P.P.D. Well, here it is, with oustide hosting

I was watching the webcast this morning for the launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with the Dragon orbiter.  There was one great climactic moment of anticipation.... and then ... *fizzle*.
The good news is that it was a safety cut-out.  The flight computer detected a parameter on of of the nine Merlin engines of the Falcon 9 that was out of bounds and terminated the launch sequence.  This means that whatever it was, it's fixable and they still have a viable launch vehicle.
The bad news... we gotta wait a bit longer for our first commercial space vehicle to dock with the ISS.  And I stayed up all night to see it.  :p

Now, this is not, yet, a new critter: I do mean the RFC tag this time, because I am not sure it it will fit in the setting, so I'd appreciate opinions.
A have just watched part of a documentary about cave animals, on which the Slovenian Olm (Proteus Anguinus) starred, and it gave me an inspiration.
The olm is a very creepy, and cool in a lovercraftian way, animal, and I may do something about it some day, but the inspiration this time had nothing to do with the animal itself, but its gills, as pictured here:


They can be retracted, and the red color is due to oxygen-rich blood.
My inspiration was to create a worm symbiont, that would look like this. It would be placed in the neck, or maybe the flanks, and allow whoever used then to breathe underwater -probably not indefinitely, but up to one or two hours. It would feed directly from the nutrients in the host human's blood, symbiont style.
Once stuck, I think it probably should remain in the body unless surgically removed.
Now, I am sure it would not be a common animal -if I remember correctly, the only big bodies of water in fenspace should be Lake Tezuka in Kandor, Lake Enki in Marduk, and possibly Crystal Venice (of which we have no data). But fen are eccentric like that, and Genesis Genetics is headquartered in Marduk. Not to mention than the owner and chief genetic designer of Genesis is probably mad as a hatter anyway; if the inspiration struck, he would make it whether someone is asking or not, and only afterwards worry about possible uses.

If God had a name, what would it be
And would you call it to his face
If you were faced with him in all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question
And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
If God had a face what would it look like
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets
And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
He's trying to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the Pope maybe in Rome
And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
Just trying to make his way home
Like a holy rolling stone
Back up to heaven all alone
Just trying to make his way home
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the Pope maybe in Rome

-- Joan Osborne, "One of Us"
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

On the Drunkard's Walk FAQ, there's a link to a crossover image.  It's being sent to an infinitely looping 404 page for some reason that I don't get.  The page is producing this lovely bit of recursive code:
-- ∇×V

I had my 6-month checkup on Monday.  I got a call from my doctor yesterday -- my blood tests came back and I have full blown Type 2 diabetes -- a rather sudden change from my "pre-diabetic" state at my last check-up, which I was trying to alter with dietary changes.  I'm now on Metformin and restructuring my diet further.  

This shouldn't affect my writing, in case you're wondering.  
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Hi all,
My name is Brent, and I'm addicted to anime.  Oh wait, this isn't a support group?  Never mind.
Anyway, I'm over here because I was a certain someone made a page on Revolutionary Girl Utena on TV Tropes.  And then that certain someone left a recommendation to read Symphony of the Sword.  Long story later, I've been really getting into reading fanfiction; I'm in the middle of reading Drunkard's Walk 2 now.  I think we all know who to blame for this.
I'm writing my own Azumanga Daioh fic now, about Tomo (and Yomi's) adventures in Interpol, but I've only written about one and a half acts on the first story.  And I'm a meteorologist, not currently employed.  Okay, that's it for now.
-- ∇×V

Just to torment people.  If you haven't, check out the byte count on chapter 7 up above.
I am writing the last scene before the epilogues right now.  As things are finished, they go to Chris for second pass/approval.  If all goes well, the entire draft chapter should be done by the end of the week.  Which means it'll time for prereader fun.
Just to let you know...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.