A human is built from dust and their fate is dust. They spend their life earning a living. A life like a breakable cup, like withering grass, like a fading flower, like a passing shadow, like a melting cloud, like a fleeting wind, like scattering dust, like a fading dream...

High Holy Days liturgy, R Amnon of Mainz, c 1100

( more quotations )

I'm away until the last part of August. I may be vaguely online some of the time but I probably won't be keeping up. And if I happen to post that doesn't mean I'm reading or reading closely.

I owe comments and emails and communications on other random systems; I've not forgotten, just postponing.

If you want a postcard, email me ([username] [at] livejournal [dot] [com]) with enough information to get a postcard to you. Have fun in my absence.

Oh, and just for random amusement: my sister has a chocolate cookbook which has rather gushing blurbs attached to the recipes. The Valentine's day offering has the following message:

A slice of this voluptuous Valentine treat could be the start of a sweet romance...
(Serves 12-14)

That meme that's doing the rounds about how British people deal with crises by making cups of tea is annoying me. I don't know quite why, because I normally like tea-related silliness. I think it's the national stereotyping thing, even though that particular stereotype happens to be true of me.

My other grandmother¹ used to say:

If it's mechanical, oil it, if it's electrical, change the fuse, and if it's human, give it a cup of tea.

I like that better, somehow. And if I needed more tea-related icons, which I don't, I might make it into an icon.

As distinct from the grandmother whom some of you have met; I don't think anyone reading this has met my other grandmother, since she died in 1991.

My friends list is full of brilliance right now. Two absolutely classic short remarks that should be brought to more general attention:

- mummimamma overheard a fantastic comment on gender representation in SF.

- hatam_soferet is wittier than witty on the subject of procrastination. jillt's comment makes it even funnier. (And I myself am procrastinating by posting to link to a post about procrastination, for that matter.)

I could post these to metaquotes, but hey. I'm more interested in sharing a laugh with my friends than a bunch of random strangers.

Unrelatedly, would any German speakers reading this like to suggest me some plausible names for German towns? I'm playing Civ and my empire has got so big that the computer has run out of names and started again from the beginning. It breaks my head having two Hamburgs and two Berlins and stuff, so I need new names. They can be real or fictional, silly or sensible, names of tiny little villages are also fine. Thanks.

Today is the 38^th day, making 5 complete weeks and 3 days of the Omer.