Down To The Wire...

Taking it easy this weekend - stuff to do Monday-Friday...

Highlight for tomorrow... what else but the title-deciding Brazilian Grand Prix? If Lewis Hamilton can avoid getting a former team-mate up his arse at the start, he can hold on just enough to win. He has the more reliable car, and a good deal less pressure, as he's not going to be in front of a home crowd for the decider - I imagine that Massa will not receive the stroke(s) of luck he's going to need.

Result Prediction... Trulli wins, Raikkonen second, Hamilton third - Massa finishes maybe sixth after some altercation or other, maybe a dodgy manoeuvre is penalised, or there's a fuel rig problem. Hamilton is world champ...

...but that remains to be seen. Let's have a clean one, please.

Development news... I have something to post as a one-shot intermediate piece for The Darkhawk Diaries, something that cropped up on the spur of the moment at a Hallowe'en party in Ultima Online, of all places. It's a poem-cum-song relating to "The Endless Dance of Light and Shadow", which in context is most likely of otherworldly origin, and which I'm especially pleased with (and it got a good response). Ah, sweet inspiration, such a fickle mistress...

I'll try and get some more of the opening story of Season 6 done before Monday. Chapter One went particularly well, and I'd like to keep some momentum going into next week. Early weather forecasts say things should be a whole heap better than last year, which will be especially welcome.

And finally... Yay! The news media seem to be finding other, much more worthy stories to report - let that be an end to Brand/Ross-Gate... please.

Champion For Less Than A Lap...

In Today's Episode... The battle for Sentinel Station continues, and we go right to the heart of the matter as an unexpected heroine cuts to the chase, with only words as her weapons - will they be enough, or will others have to take drastic measures to force the Confederacy Special Executive out of Mystalorn space?

Development news... Working on TDD-601 Chapter 2, which continues to address a lingering matter from the finale of Season Five. Looking good so far!

It'd be nice to get the "lead-in" stories for this season done quickly, and have that part of the story inventory out of the way so that I can get on with the associated parts of Mane-of-Night's story.

In our top story tonight... You have to feel sorry for the family and team of Fellipe Massa. Their boy crosses the line, having done all that was asked of him, and about twenty-five seconds later, Lewis Hamilton crosses the line in fifth - having done all that was asked of him. Result - Hamilton gets to drive with the number 1 on his nose next year, and rightly so.

Even luck seemed to be against Lewis in the final lap, slipping back into sixth, and a minute and a quarter from handing the title to Massa. Instead, Massa faces the unenviable task of having to score a first title under new regulations, and with half a dozen viable contenders for the championship in '09. That'll be worth seeing - and all without adverts as the TV rights head back to the BBC...

Congratulations, Lewis. Job well done, despite the dubious efforts of the stewards.

Every silver lining has a cloud... ...and then I logged on to Ultima Online, and found that there was a twenty four hour server revert, wiping out everything I'd done on Saturday.

Shit.

And don't anyone tell me it's all just pixels. That's. Not. The. Point. Each one of those pixels represents five parts frustration, three parts luck, two parts perserverence. If I'd lost all that stuff through a mistake of my own, which I most definitely could have done, I would have just had to suck it up, and carry on. This kinda shit just doesn't happen in the real world, and we should ALL be thankful for it - imagine waking up the morning after a hard, just successful Monday at work to find it's Monday all over again...

Scary, huh?

Coming next... Student counting time again - this time with what looks to be lots better weather. Hooray for global warming!