Totally Not Bribing Anyone

I'm using Blogger this go around as a friend is also using it and told me it was pretty simple to use. I already like it much more than I did LiveJournal :D Said friend also ceased posting for a few days, which I later found out was due to technology issues. Long story short; I told him I could not, in good conscience, link him here until he started posting again.

Since he has, everyone should go annoy him here. Be really obnoxious; he'll love it.

But really; Bill's a good friend of mine and has been for many years. He's very interesting in his blogs when he wants to be and would be a damn good writer if he weren't so lazy :P I'm sure he would appreciate a few new hellos over there. When he finally gets around to conquering the world sometime this century, I'm sure he'll remember you and your kind words. (And me and my backhanded, jestery compliments, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.)

More postcards!

This was the first card I received through Postcrossing. This one comes from Brussles, Belgium. There's also a stamp on the back of the plan of a bascillica, which I'm only telling you about to show case my Art History nerdiness (I nearly majored in Art History). The sender was actually from Latvia though, and had been living in Brussels for the past three years.

This one is (obviously) from Indonesia. I chose to showcase these two together becuase the top one was the first card I received; this one was the first that someone else got to send :) The statute in the picture is not actually a statue - it's a mummy. A mummified war god of the Dani tribe, a tribe that still exists today in the Baliem Valley and is fairly easy to reach. Aside from smoked mummies, they're well known for one of their unusual customs; when someone in the village dies, one finger of all of his female relatives is cut off. Despite missionary efforts, the hands of the Dani women continue to be mutilated.

Since I throughly lambasted "Snuff" last time, I feel like I should make it up (and relieve my feelings of being a terrible person), by telling everyone how awesome Discworld is. "Snuff" was an anomaly for me - I've loved nearly every Pratchett book I've ever picked up. There were only two I couldn't get into at all and did not finish; by and large the series is hilarious. I'd recommend "Mort" or "Guards, Guards!" for series newcomers as each one is the beginnings of their own arc, but if you're asking for faves it's a toss up. "Night Watch" is the darkest, but also one of the best; "Reaper Man" has the best atmosphere for me, though I didn't like the wizards sub-plot that much (I spent most of my time hoping we'd go back to Death soon, which was probably the problem XD); "Hogfather" is rather seasonal being a sporking of Christmas, but is probably the most uplifing and the funniest of the three. By and large though, if you pick up anything with the name Terry Pratchett on the cover, you're in for a good read.

Long post is getting long. I cease here. I shall return with more postcards!