Where did the sun go?

It is supposed to be spring. Lately it has been more like summer but right now it is like winter. It has even snowed in Denmark. I don’t think it has snowed around here, but in other parts of the country. Brrrr. It is supposed to slowly get warmer again over the next few days, so hopefully I’ll get my summer back. It has been delightful to be able to go out without wearing a jacket. I packed away the gloves and woolly socks and long underpants. I hope the summer will last a bloody long time this year.

Meanwhile, not so much is going on. Some goat news: youtube.com/watch?v=GPOAwLZbFqg. A really sweet video in which the goat boys play around with Sif, the little doggie. With Bodil watching closely, just like Magnethe and Snow White. Just to make sure everyone played safe. It’s fun to see Sif’s reaction to the goats. You can tell that she was feeling more confident with Snow White smaller boys. Once big boy Mio came along, then Sif got a little more cautious. I guess when she’s sitting down on her hind legs it’s a submissive pose to show that she’s not going to make trouble.

Bodil always jokes that she just needs to glue a pair of little horns on Sif’s head and she’d make a very good goat.

It’s been hard times for Magnethe lately. She’s not allowed to go around freely, so she’s usually tied down while everyone else runs about the place. She’s not very happy about that. And her boys have realised, I think, that as long as she’s tied down then she can’t do anything about the situation, no matter how much she screams for them to come back. So they don’t listen to her much anymore. I think they like to play around with Snow White’s boys, so all of them end up walking around together. It’s almost like Snow White has five kids. Sometimes I’ve had to go get Magnethe’s babies and bring them back to her just because she was so unhappy and almost losing her voice from all the complaining. It’s hard to get three goat boys to come back with you though. I can only carry one at a time, and then you always risk that they start running off when you go to get the others. The other day I had to put them in the little horse field. There’s a fence so they can’t run out. And then I went and got Magnethe and put her in there too. In there they had good space and fresh grass and everybody seemed pretty happy about that. I know if we just set Magnethe free it wouldn’t be long before she went up to the residential area and got into trouble there. Snow White doesn’t go as far. She will go up the hill a bit for the juicy plants, but not all the way up to the houses above. I think she’s somewhat less confident and outgoing than Magnethe. Maybe that’s why her kids are more shy as well. They’re a bit younger than Magnethe’s of course, but I can still tell they’re more timid even for their age. When Magnethe’s boys where this age they were already a lot more comfortable with people. I still need to take it very slow if I want to get close to Snow White’s. But that just makes it all the more rewarding when I manage to sit down with them and give them cuddles and scratches. They do it enjoy it once you get there. And hopefully with time they’ll get even braver. They’re not scared of little doggies or picking fights with their bigger brothers. So they’ll get there.

Now bring my summer back, summer back, summer back.

I hope everyone has had a nice easter. Mine wasn’t the best as I unfortunately got sick. It wasn’t too bad, though. For a couple of days I felt really nauseated and weak and my body ached. But I didn’t throw up, surprisingly. And I think I’m pretty much better by now. Painkillers and lots of rest got me through it seems.

Since it’s been easter and I’ve been sick, there are no goat news. So instead I thought I’d tell you what I’m reading. I am currently reading Wil Wheaton’s Just A Geek. Ex Star Trek actor (and so much more etc etc). I have been reading a lot of Star Trek related books and biographies. It started because I just enjoy listening to William Shatner narrate his own books. I think I have mentioned that before. I like Wil’s book a lot because he give a little extra in the audiobook version. Sometimes he breaks off from the text and gives some background information. I like when audiobooks add content like that. Like Gary Dell’Abate’s They Call Me Baba Booey. Not Star Trek related, but another recent read. He also gives some extra stuff, after some chapters he has little interviews with the people involved. Another recent read is Steven Callahan’s 76 Days Lost At Sea about his experiences… well, lost at sea. At the end of that book there’s an interview with him made some 5 years later, I think. Where he talks about what has happened to him after writing the book and how his relationship to the sea has changed and such. It’s a pretty astonishing tale by the way, just imagine being alone in a raft at high sea for 76 days. I wouldn’t have survived something like that. But the point is, it’s really nice when you feel that the audiobook gives something extra. You don’t feel like you’re stuck with an inferior product just because you can no longer read paper books. When the audiobook is actually superior in some ways then you find yourself missing physically turning the page a little less. It does not feel like such a cruel fate, like you have lost as much. I’m glad I still have books.

And as previously mentioned having the author narrate an autobiography makes a big difference. I got a marked appreciation of that when I read two of Leonard Nimoy’s biographies recently. I Am Spock and I Am Not Spock. Haha. One of them was narrated by Nimoy and one of them by some British person I think. It shouldn’t make a difference to the text written, but it just feels much more real and personal when you have the person who experienced the life also speaking the words. It didn’t help that the British person had some odd pronounciations either. “Los Ang.. Eles”. There’s just some kind of barrier between the words written and the words spoken and it almost ruins it. Maybe it was because I listened to the Nimoy one first and then followed with the other one. Hard not to compare then. Like eating an entrée at Noma and then the rest of the meal at McDonalds.

By the way, did you know that the Danish restaurant Noma was named best restaurant in the world again this year? That’s just a little aside. A little side dish, if you will.

Sorry.

But I like my Star Trek biographies. I was happy to find Nichelle Nichol’s Beyond Uhura as a questionable download, since I could not find it for sale anywhere. Also enjoyed Walter Koenig’s biography, which had a lot about insecurities I could relate to. And George Takei’s biograpy about is family and the Japanese internment camps in America. And quite entertaining to see how differently William Shatner experienced the Star Trek years compared to some of his cast mates. Haha. I still want to make a William Shatner Advice website. Celebrities giving advice while impersonating William Shatner. “I think… you… should dump that loser!”. I don’t say sabotaahge.

I am looking forward to getting started on my Star Trek TOS remastered DVDs. After all that reading about the making of it. I think there are lots of the episodes I have never seen, since it was never properly broadcast in denmark. At least not in my youth.

I wish Patrick Stewart would write an autobiography and narrate it himself. I bet that would be spectacular to listen to.

Hmm. Patrick Stewart Advice? Maybe Star Trek Advice. Impersonations of all the Trek characters. An advice column in outer space.

Speaking of audio books, I got some good news from the Danish library for the sight handicapped recently. They added a bunch of English titles to their collection. Have I mentioned that they added a download feature too? So now instead of ordering the books on CD I can just download MP3s of a lot of titles. And with more English titles I have a lot to choose from. Lots of big classical writers and titles. Good chance to educate myself. Once I’m done with Wil Wheaton, that is. I like Just A Geek so much that I have bought another one of his books. And then I think I’m out of Star Trek books. Unless I go into fiction too. I know Shatner wrote some Kirk books…

Make it so.