
there's lots of them.
and they've taken over my clothes line.
not good to bring in clean clothes with a few
additional hitchhikers of ants.
ants wandering amongst one's knickers can be somewhat unsettling.
i've encouraged the little things to move along.
and so, they've swarmed over a great expanse.
apparently one of the collective terms for these critters is a bike.
so there's a great bike of ants outside, and in dealing with such
i've managed to bring some inside with me.
hence random ants throughout the day.
one on the coaster.
one on the couch.
one tapdancing along the computer keyboard.
and then of course,
an ant or two in one's pants.
better than an entire bike in one's trousers i suppose.
(of course, i expect, you know this.)
note: they're also of course referred to as a colony, army or swarm. and they most definitely are swarming about the place.
you may also be interested (or you may be completely indifferent of course, but it's hard to tell from here) to know that the collective term for apes is a troop.
magpies, a congregation or tittering.
mallards/ducks, a flush or puddling/paddling.
an array of hedgehogs.
monkeys, a cartload, tribe or troop.
cobras, a quiver. (would make me quiver. but, even just one could do that.)
a float of crocs.
a dule of doves.
a rhumba of rattlesnakes.
a crash of rhinos.
a leap of leopards.
a swift of tigers.
a skulk of foxes.
you can have a bloat of hippopotamuses.
also quite apt is a scourge of mosquitoes.
prettily there's a bouquet of pheasants.
a peep of chickens.
a knob of.... pintails. (a type of duck it turns out. i wonder if there's a yobbo duck... could come in handy.)
a bevy or lamentation of swans.
an ostentation of peacocks.
an implausibility of gnus.
an unkindness of ravens.
a troubling of goldfish.
a smack of jellyfish.
and, a mischief of meeces.
by which, of course, i mean mouses.
no!
mice.
so next time one of your mates shows off by their great ken that a bunch of crows be a murder, you can ask them if they know what a knob refers to!
Thursday, July 30
ants
Thursday, July 23
You'll look pretty when we TELL YOU to look pretty!!!!

Magda turns up for her first commercial for Jenny Craig.
Producer: Oh my god, Magda. Don't you look lovely darling! Um, I see you're wearing a bit of makeup dear. And, er, your hair... Yes, yes, lovely, lovely. But Magda darling, didn't my PA tell you not to brush your hair today? No? Marcel! Marcel!!!! Get over here! Look! Look at Magda! This is no good! Look, put her in the outfit, see if it looks hideous enough. *whispers* Make sure she looks fat... and abuse her a bit. Make her look miserable. And give her face a good scrub will you. I want not an inch of makeup on her! Use the scrub cleanser... No... use the cleaner's gumption paste. But first Marcel, drag her through that hedge over there. No! No, Marcel!!! Backwards! Backwards! Uh. People these days...
Magda turns up for her latest commercial.
Producer: Oh my god, Magda. Don't you look lovely darling! You're wearing just a bit of make up dear and, er, your hair... You know you really ought to have at least washed it. No, no! No buts! Oh, look, I made a little joke! *titters* Look, it doesn't matter. You'll be in hair and makeup shortly. Did you bring something to eat dear? Oh. *laughs* Yes, silly me. It's just that you'll be in there a little while so I just thought...
12 hours, a girdle and fancy frock later:
Producer: Lovely Magda!!! I can't even recognise you, which is perfect! Now remember, you're allowed to be happy this time and you know what that means. Yes, swing the hair. Just swing everything really... but not too much. That's good. Good. Don't you look beautiful? Well, lucky we weighed you before the makeup, eh? *titters* Now. Where's this bloody cameraman? Hey! Make sure you use the good lens for this one or it'll be your ass on the line instead of Magda's! Oh, *hee hee* I made another joke! ...
--------
Go here to see what I mean (darn flash program; can't copy pictures).
PS - Onya Magda! I'd never have a go at you! Just ad agencies. Why can't a woman look her best whenever?!!!!!!
Wednesday, July 22
cogito ergo sum.......
ergo...
...I'm in trouble.
I can't think of the word I want that means you can't think of the word you want.
...
...
...
...
oh the irony...
...
...
...
...
...
...
*rummages through the interwebs in frustration*
...no
no......
...
lethologica!
hurrah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oooh, ooooh, oooh. And in delving into it more than my initial efforts to recall had initially allowed - meaning of course, had I remembered it and not needed to delve I would have known less than I do now - I then discovered most wonderously (to me at least) that 'letho' (meaning 'forgetfulness') originally comes from: "the Lethe (or River of Oblivion) was one of the rivers that flowed through the realm of Hades, from which the shades of the dead were forced to drink in order to forget their past lives on earth". And this is in one of my favourite poems by Keats (Ode on Melancholy) which is how I learnt about the river of forgetfulness in the first place. And furthermore - being reminded of this reasonably long poem I recall (see, look, remembering!) - that I am not too bad with my memory really as I can remember the entire poem.* "No, no, go not to Lethe..!!!"
* And in finding this link proceeded to learn that the poem used to have an added stanza at the start! Look! Lethologica can lead to learning!!!!!
*pats self proudly on pedagogic back and departs*
Friday, July 10
Picture It Meme
I hath been inspired to create a meme.
You may recall an earlier pictorial meme. Well I think it's time for another. Don't you?
[if you answered 'yes', please keep reading. if you answered 'no', you can bugger off then; see if I care. hmph.]
Anyway.
It goes a little like this.
- Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
- Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
- Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.
It be a 3x3 mosaic.
The queries to respond to in such a pictorial manner are:
- Something that represents beauty for you.
- A love.
- An addiction.
- A favourite album or style of music.
- A place you spent your childhood.
- An enjoyable pastime.
- Your favourite season.
- A favourite animal.
- Somewhere on the planet you'd like to live or visit.
Mine looks like this (click on it for a bigger looksee).

1. Pure serenity., 2. Profundity. Mission365; Number One Hundred One., 3. Red Hot Poker, 4. "Being a Duchess is so tiring.... Zzzz" Duchie Day #12 - A Wallpaper, 5. Trigg Beach, 6. Mount-to-be-read, 7. Reaching out to touch Autumn's Gold, 8. Snow leopard in the snow, 9. Scenery, Ponza island
You can see my answers in the links, but I will explain 'Duchess' for the music question. At the moment my favourite album is the soundtrack to The Duchess. Quite unusual for me to indulge in classical music, but I find it quite emotive; very moving. (You can listen to it at that link too.)
I'll now tag the projectivist, kath, and the man. Create away!!!
Monday, July 6
Namaste
...is the word I was trying to recall.
Firstly my brain came up with 'enchanté'.
But there were no lovely French folk that I was pleased to acquaint myself with.
Try again...
Next was 'shalom'.
Which was closer, I mean, there's some spirituality involved at least and it's a greeting.
Just no Jews about, so of little value to me at this point.
Keep trying little mind! C'mon, you can do it! I intoned with my best Arnie impression. You're getting closer...!
However, once my brain - synapses sparking with promise and effort - produced 'aspartame' I gave up.
Ah, bugger it.
Aloha all.
Some research for you: In Sanskrit the word is namah + te = namaste which means “I bow to you” - my greetings, salutations or prostration to you. The word ‘namaha’ can also be literally interpreted as "na ma" (not mine). Hmm. 'Not mine'. How apt. It has a spiritual significance of negating or reducing one's ego in the presence of another. Indeed, my ego is reduced.
Golly. The power of this Hindu word! Who knew?
