1. Why does everyone on Swapbot love Boston Terriers? They're the ugliest dogs!


2. Ancient Greece had archons. I am now 99% convinced that Gallifrey also had Archons, possibly organising day to day life in the different districts of the citadel.


3. I've just set up a Swap where your partner gives you five themes to choose from, giving you some random sources of inspiration. Unfortunately, partners are assigned randomly, and unfortunately, out of the 23 people in the swap I've got the only one with a dearth of imagination. Everyone else wants Sylvia Plath, Steampunk, the Northern Lights, Owls, the Mona Lisa, Magpies, Frida Kalho, 80s toys...what is my prompt? "teapots houses trees birdhouses". Not even the dignity of commas, numbers or capitals. What on earth am I meant to do with those? They're purely visual concepts. I might do something with a treehouse, as that's the vibe I'm getting off the combination, but Jesu I need to make two cards based on it. Teapots: Mad Hatter, but too obvious; Mrs Pots from Beauty and the Beast. I suppose I could do a Victorian tea party...I could definitely do something with trees too.


4. This week I have developed a moral backbone. I don't like it. Last month, my housemates voted me the most amoral person they had ever met - which I found rather charming. In the past week I've been objecting to small things on reactionary grounds. And I don't like it.


5. Continued doing Jack the Ripper research. Did you know...

...Unsuprisingly, undesirables of all sorts were suggested as the killer: Socialists, Jews, the Irish - certainly not anyone British! But curiously, philanthropists were also under scrutiny - with General Booth of the Salvation Army and Dr Barnardo being candidates!

...Arthur Conan Doyle was fascinated by it all: it was his theory that the killer was a woman midwife, and he not only saw some of the evidence but went on what was surely one of the first Ripper walking tours. He also toned Sherlock Holmes' character down so he could not be associated with the killer.

...Queen Victoria had her own pet theories, and repeatedly wrote to Scotland Yard regarding them!

...socialists never change. They jump on everything as an example of the evils of capitalism. Most impressively, I've seen their recent "How Imperialism Wrecked Haiti" posters. Yowch. As all-purpose undesirables, they were also blamed for the killings - but what did they have to say about it? From a socialist paper of the time:

"The true criminal is the vicious borgeouse system which forces people into poverty, vice and crime"

Would the last remaining passengers for the two-horse hansom departing to SOAS...


6. My new laptop asked for a name so it can be identified on the network. I went with "Orac", and felt pretty immature until Calypso reminded me all the computers in her house are named in Quenya or Sindarin...lets hope, unlike TV Orac, it doesn't have a hidden agenda...


7. Listening to the Guillemots again. Very weird. I've been listening to Fyfe's solo album a lot, and love it. It sounds very Guillemot-y, but it's only when I hear proper Guillemots I think "no, actually, his solo stuff is so much thinner than when they all play together. They are currently recording album number three, woo hoo!

8. Twin Peaks has just got awesome! I ship the fact Dale and Audrey aren't a couple. We're on the penultimate episode of the first season, which just goes to prove how long it takes my brain to heat up to liking a show. I can only think of one series ever it has taken less than three episodes for me to actually adore. I am overcome by it's never-should-have-been-shown-on-American-telly qualities. A lot of horrific stuff happens off screen. I refer in particular to the scene with Waldo, the mimicking minah bird.

9. I am missing Supernatural. They keep advertising it on the tube.

10. Last night, coming out of the Tube at North Acton, I think I heard a parakeet.

11. Where is the box for my Blake's 7 video? No, seriously, where is it? I've tidied the lounge twice now - I can find the video itself, but where has the box gone?