Reading my friends' blogs. I thought I was bad? Some people haven't updated since...August...July...May...April... Come on, guys!

I see Ebeth is burbling about the webzine she's putting together with Leah and Carol. Pet, Editorial Mystique comes when you post on the workshop lists explaining what you like and don't like, as an editor. Believe me, you will find yourself doing it! And then those not In The Know will think you are cool and editorial. Heh.

Mekka's got the prettiest picture on the latest incarnation of her blog.

Remarks in the chat room remind me of my stint in the North Dublin Youth Orchestra. I have no idea if this thing is still going; I certainly hope it's defunct! For those of my Dedicated Readers who have read "Archer's Goon" by Diana Wynne Jones (I know of at least one of you; the rest should go find it and read it, now!), think of the school orchestra in that book.

The NDYO had a few idiosyncrasies of its own, though. For a start, it consisted almost entirely of violins. Badly-played violins, I might add. There must have been about thirty of them. Then there were four celli - when they all turned up. Usually it was me on my own, or maybe with one other who played even worse than I did. And, on good days, we might have a trumpet, a french horn, a flute, and/or possibly some drums. Add to all of this a conductor who couldn't, and the fact that, AG-like, almost no-one could count. You can imagine what a horrible noise we made. Now you know why I hope this thing is defunct.

And I'm maundering, so I'll stop.

Hoom. I should be critting. I've got nine crits on "Angel of Music" already, and it hasn't even been up a week. I did four or five last weekend, but I feel I should do more. Maybe this weekend; I never seem to feel capable of critting during the week. And I must never, ever, crit a rescue sub again; I did one last Sunday and it took me three hours. Three fucking hours! It wasn't even all that long. Or too terribly bad. The author had got past the stage of basic mistakes, and was in the stage of...well, just dull writing, really. I found it much harder to crit either than something full of basic mistakes, or something rather good.

I'm getting some good advice on "Angel of Music", anyway. I knew it wasn't right - that's why I put it on the workshop! So it's good to get feedback, even if some of it disagrees. Larry produced me a terribly fanboy-ish crit; I have a theory that the only urban fantasy he reads is mine, so he doesn't really know about the genre, and just thinks whatever I do is cool. Which is very good for the ego (thanks, Larry!) but not terribly helpful always. (That sounds like he never tells me anything useful, which is not true, but he didn't really this time.) Rather to my surprise, Pen got almost as fanboyish as Larry; she more usually pokes holes in things in a most considerate manner. And Melinda gave me the funniest crit I've ever read, which is stunningly helpful too.

So thank you, everyone who's critted the story, whether I've named you here or no. I have a bunch of ideas for the rewrite already, but I'm going to leave the thing up for another week or so before I touch it. (I dreamed last night that the story got an Editor's Choice. Ha ha.)

So what else is new in the skewed version of Ireland that I inhabit?

Nothing wildly exciting on the political front, minor things like the government shamefacedly admitting that they're going to have to borrow (for the first time in some years) to get through this year hardly counting. Ray Burke threatened a few days ago to dish out some dirt of his own, but he hasn't yet. Pity; it might have been amusing.

In England, they're getting all het up about John Major (ex-Prime Minister) having had an affair with Edwina Currie (member of his party). Mildly amusing, if only for the apalling lack of taste shown by both parties. But seemingly she sold her diaries to "The Times". How vulgar! (Though not, admittedly, as bad as selling them to a tabloid.)

The buses (for those of my Dedicated Readers who may have been worrying - yeah, right!) have improved a bit of late; the bus home has been on time most evenings this past week. The bus to work, on the other hand, hasn't managed to get me in before nine o'clock once this week. Ah well.

My finger is still not well. How stupid is that?! It seems to have settled down to remain (forever? I hope not!) ever-so-slightly swollen, and sore when I curl it right under or try to, say, spread rather tough pate on toast. It is, in fact, being rather tedious. Just for good measure, yesterday my right leg decided to ache.

I'm prone, occasionally, to getting a "tired-feeling" ache in the backs of my knees. I can't describe it any better than that. But it persists, no matter what way I have my legs/knees. Usually it goes off after a night's sleep. Yesterday, said ache started in my right knee, but also in my right ankle, and in a vague fashion in my right calf. Annoyingly, the ache was still in my knee this morning. In fact, it's still there now, if only mildly and intermittently. Bah. Maybe I have rheumatism. Maybe I just have weird knees.