Something good... (down with weird suckiness)

[Robinne Weiss]

In an attempt to counter the weird suckiness in the ether that Peter (and many of the rest of us) have been feeling, I'm reviving Carol's post from some time ago.

Tell me something good. Anything at all. Something that brightened your day. Writing-related or not. Let's dispel the weird suckiness, at least in this little corner of the Internet.

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

I just ate dolmas

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I'll start. We've had a grim couple of days here, with a wildfire having burned over 2000 hectares of our beautiful Port Hills and quite a few homes. But there are so many positives I've seen. The mayors of Selwyn District and Christchurch City, and fire crews from all around the region have been working tirelessly, not only to put out the fires, but to squash media attempts to turn the fires into a scandal as well as a tragedy--they have been sensible and calm in the face of a grim situation. Another good--within minutes of the first evacuations, hundreds of people had offered their homes, paddocks, and businesses to displaced people and their pets on a Facebook page set up by an ordinary member of the community. We may be the natural disaster capital of New Zealand, but the people who live here have huge hearts and a strong sense of community.

 

[Marc Joan]

I recently found this letter my daughter wrote to the tooth fairy, a few years ago. Have cake and eat it attitude -- she'll go far...

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I just ate dolmas

MMMM!

 

[Emurelda]

I got to give my mother in laws christmas present after it was lost in the post and got a replacement. She was so pleasantly surprised it made me happy.

 

[Carol Rose]

I'm almost done with my next book!!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Yesterday, I bought a clip-on spotlight for a bargain £2 from my local charity shop. It's made by IKEA which is the first thing I've ever owned by them. Clipped to a picture frame, hanging on the wall above my laptop, it illuminates the keyboard perfectly.

(It's also made me realise, that I need to clean my keyboard!)

 

[Katie-Ellen]

My daughter Ariane, 22 yesterday, feeding the ducks outside our apartment:

 

[Sea-shore]

Getting to see an author, whose books I have been devouring recently, at London Piccadilly Waterstones next week. So excited!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Ooh Who? What books?

 

[Sea-shore]

Ooh Who? What books?

Xiaolu Guo. She is astonishing, brave, poignant. Her latest book is Once Upon a Time in the East.

 

[Sea-shore]

Ahh, it was lovely to chat to Xiaolu Guo in person. She was witty and engaging and her words resonated with me, reverberating in my head days later.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

You have these amazing little immune soldiers on your side, your very own army. They land on an invading bacterium, drill down and inject it with a virus made by your own body, designed to kill the invader. Happy days.

 

[Quillwitch]

I just ate dolmas

What are dolmas?

 

[Marc Joan]

What are dolmas?

I had to look'em up. Some kind of Greek dish -- food wrapped in leaves, I think.

 

[Quillwitch]

My youngest daughter, Sophie, got some extra money from her grandfather and she bought me 2 tickets to a concert I was excited to see but had no money for. She surprised me with a pair of tickets--one for me and one for my older daughter.
My sister in law found out and said she wanted to go too but had no money, so my eldest daughter gave her ticket to my sister in law ( her aunt). So, now my sister in law and me are going to the concert this Friday! Which is double cool cause we never get a chance to go out together. EVER!

And, I love my daughters!!!

 

[Marc Joan]

You have these amazing little immune soldiers on your side, your very own army. They land on an invading bacterium, drill down and inject it with a virus made by your own body, designed to kill the invader. Happy days.

Kind of. T4 'phages are viruses specific to bacteria -- nothing to do with the immune system, unless you want to say that the parasites of your parasites are part of your immune system. They replicate inside the bacterium, not in your own cells. People have been trying to modify them / exploit them for control of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Don't hold your breath!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Aha! How extremely interesting, thanks Marc! Parasites of my parasites...oh, well, if they are 'endo', I'll accept them as part of the immune system..perhaps in a dysfunctional sense although....
OK, we will hold our breaths.....in hope.
(In the interests of defying weird suckiness in favour of other, better kinds of weirdness.)

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Even better than bacteriophages (though only marginally...I hesitate to mention this, because you'll all think I'm totally weird, but we have a bacteriophage Christmas ornament...goes nicely alongside the tardigrade in a Santa hat)--I just had parent-teacher meetings for my daughter last night, and NOT ONE teacher mentioned anything about her being shy or socially awkward. This is a HUGE change, mirroring a dramatic improvement of her self-image. I begin to think she might just make it...

 

[Marc Joan]

Even better than bacteriophages (though only marginally...I hesitate to mention this, because you'll all think I'm totally weird, but we have a bacteriophage Christmas ornament...goes nicely alongside the tardigrade in a Santa hat)--I just had parent-teacher meetings for my daughter last night, and NOT ONE teacher mentioned anything about her being shy or socially awkward. This is a HUGE change, mirroring a dramatic improvement of her self-image. I begin to think she might just make it...

Good for the sprog! The nicest people are the ones who have a bit of self-doubt, IMHO. But I could be wrong [see what I did there?].
Moving on -- a tardigrade in a Santa hat? Seriously?

 

[Marc Joan]

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Exactly.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Come on. Am I the only one who sees the festive nature of tardigrades? Um...hey...why are you all backing away from me like that?

 

[Marc Joan]

 

[Quillwitch]

Even better than bacteriophages (though only marginally...I hesitate to mention this, because you'll all think I'm totally weird, but we have a bacteriophage Christmas ornament...goes nicely alongside the tardigrade in a Santa hat)--I just had parent-teacher meetings for my daughter last night, and NOT ONE teacher mentioned anything about her being shy or socially awkward. This is a HUGE change, mirroring a dramatic improvement of her self-image. I begin to think she might just make it...

I know the feeling!