Today has been an OK day.

Went to the welfare office. I screwed up filling out my stub and had to get Joe to drive me there to fix it out, and damn it all if there wasn’t like eight people in line already when I got there.

So much for the idea that the Monday before cheque day would be quiet. I guess a lot of people are worried about their checks this time of the month.

And there was this one girl in line who just would not stop talking. Just on and on and on, barely pausing for breath, let alone acknowledging what the person I had assumed must be her close personal friend and who was the focus of this nonstop barrage was trying to say.

Then Miss Motormouth gets to the head of the line and the moment she is done her business, takes off like a shot alone, and I realize that the two weren’t even together. The poor “companion” was just some random person unlucky enough to be stuck in line behind The Eternal Gabber.

And I mean, I am not normally one to judge that kind of thing. Gosh knows, I sure as hell can talk an ultraviolet streak when I get going.

But at least I pause for breath! And I do my best to make absolutely sure to take turns when talking precisely because I know that if I don’t watch myself, I can start monologuing just like Miss Chatterbox and nobody’s got time for that.

Apparently, Miss Neverending Story Of Her Life lacks such self-awareness.

Here’s a fun story from The Land Down Under (If North Was Up Which It Is Not Because There Is No Up Or Down In Space).

A sports betting company, creatively named Sportsbet, wanted to advertise their service in a very big way, and so they had a gigantic mural painted right on the tarmac at one of Australia’s busiest international airports so that everyone arriving in Australia could see it.

Now being a sports based company, they wanted to show their support for one of the local sports teams in a way that would really catch your eye.

The mural depicts the mascots of two Australian rugby teams. See if you can figure out which one the people at Sportsbet support.

Even in rugby, this has to be a foul.

Yes. It’s the Wallabies.

Now I am a furry and so that kind of thing doesn’t bother me. But predictably, a lot of Australians are pretty upset about and so are, I assume, a fair number of travelers accompanied by children to whom they now have to explain just what Mister Kangaroo is doing to Mister Lion.

According to Sportsbet, the two are just “cuddling”. Hah. I could use some of that kind of cuddling.

Of course, that might not be a Wallaby at all, but the Christmas Kangaroo.

(sorry, that’s the best quality version I could find)

A merry little Xmas indeed.

In other news, there is mystery afoot in the Manchester Museum in England.

An ancient offering statue dedicated to Osiris, the Egyptian god of death, has started to…. rotate.

Check out this time lapse video taken at the museum.

Spooky, huh? Almost like it is turning to look at you.

And of course, people are saying that it is the spirit of Osiris foretelling doom and all that fun but not at all plausible stuff.

But just saying “differential friction” is not much of an answer either. A true scientist would say “Well, the statue has never rotated before recently, and it is kept in a locked case monitored by video cameras so tampering is highly unlikely. So the real question is : what has changed?”

It’s fairly unlikely that the statue or its case have changed much over time. Ditto the tilt of the floor in that part of the museum or incidentals like temperature, humidity, and airflow.

No, the most likely culprit is some form of vibration. That’s the only force I can think of that would penetrate the case and get the statue moving. My guess is that what has changed is that there is some new source of vibration either above or below the audible range and that is what is causing the statue to slowly turn during the day.

It might be something as big as nearby road construction sending infrasound into the ground, or something as small and simple as an air conditioning unit turning itself on.

Well, I have put it off long enough. Here’s today’s experiment in video.

It was fun to make (and time-consuming!), and I am glad I did it, but now that I have done it, I can’t say I am very happy with the result.

I tried a bunch of things I have never tried before, and that’s good, but the actual story and comedy seems pretty stupid to me now. I can’t imagine it being as fun to watch as it was to make.

Oh well. That’s what makes it an experiment. The nature of experiments is that you use them to find out about things. If you know the result beforehand, there is no point in experimenting.

And you don’t get anywhere in life without taking risks. A smart person minimizes risk in all they do, but they do not expect to eliminate it entirely and they certainly do not make risklessness a prerequisite for all endeavor across the board.

That gets you nowhere. Life is a gamble. You can play well. You can even beat the odds. But you can’t guarantee the result you want every single times.

And who knows, maybe once I sleep on it and take a look at the thing when I am all rested and renewed, I will like it more. I have spent all day with the damned thing after all. I might be a little biased.

Do you think the text jokes are too much?