Topiary Whiskers

My mouse has developed a habit of double clicking when I mean to single click. I guess it's probably to do with it being a ten dollar mouse. My ambition on most weeks is to spend no more than twenty dollars, but it seems something always comes up to thwart me. I already spent seventeen dollars on a sketch book this week. The first one I bought since late last year--the Michaels arts and crafts store where I get my art supplies has changed rather dramatically for the better. It's got one of those funnel aisles now where people wait in a single queue for the next register teat to open. Since I'm one of those people who stresses about whether he'd be better off in an aisle other than the one he chose, I love these systems. I'd rather be digested and shat in a linear manner, thank you. Though it doesn't take care of the main problem at Michaels, in that its one of those places people seem to regard getting rung up as a social occasion.

Having a wonky mouse certainly adds a new dimension of challenge to playing chess, but I couldn't blame it for the fact that I still haven't won a game, except against very easy opponents, in weeks. It took me five days to solve this puzzle someone left on the wall of one of the chess clubs a couple weeks ago.



White mates in three moves, white to move.

Solution: White King to f3, black King takes white knight at g5, white Queen to f4 (check), black King to h4, white Queen to h6 (mate).

It is hard, but everyone else managed to solve it within a few hours. Sometimes I think my brain only peeks out from clouds of nonsense a few times a month. I played a couple really close games last night, but then didn't feel like I could focus even on a movie afterwards.

I am excited by the pictures surfacing from the upcoming Hobbit films. I'm less excited by more and more news of characters being added from Tolkien's other writings as well as new characters being created entirely. I can't say I'm not a little jazzed about Sylvester McCoy playing Radagast the Brown, but mostly I'm worried this is going to turn into The Lord of the Rings: The Phantom Menace: Extended Director's Cut Edition.