Wow, I really DO fail at this blog business. Epicly! It's not like I have a quiet life, I just know better than to share some issues that really don't need shared.

Today, I've been considering spirituality and how *my* faith would relate to someone else. Specifically, I've been comparing to Christianity since it's the one of the big 3 I know best. Hypothetical discussion with Hypothetical Christian.

The first obvious thing is that we both have faith. His faith is in God, Jesus, saints and such. He has a holy book which tel^H^H^H guides his actions. He has no physical proof of anything, but he believes and that's all that's needed.

My faith is in my Patron and Matron, and myself, and in the Universe. I don't need a book to provide guidance and morality, I consult my own Jiminy Cricket and know how to behave. I have no direct physical proof that my way works, but I believe and that's all that's needed.

Then comes the biggie - Prayer. My Christian friend prays... prays for an end to war (sometimes), prays for an end to famine (occasionally)... but generally prays his headache will go away, he'll find a parking space, Wal-mart will have a sale on bacon, that sort of thing. Minor prayers, the kind of if-this-works-yay type thing.

I don't pray... I see no need to send petitions to my Deities, because I walk with them and talk with them when I need them or when they have guidance for me. If I need something, I manifest it. My headache will go away. There will be a parking space. Bacon needs to be cheaper. Generally I don't mess with bacon though, not in that way.

Actually, I've noticed that Christians have very... unfocused prayers. "I pray, O Lord, that my headache will be swiftly cured". Great, until you get accidentally beheaded. "I pray, Heavenly Father, that there are plenty of parking spaces". Wonderful. That power cut will really help businesses! Whilst I'm guilty of some selfish manifestation (make that light change, I wanna go!-type stuff), I'm fairly sure if I had some sort of direct line to an almighty Deity with the power to do anything, I'd be asking for an end to famine, advances in medicine, etc etc. If God is going to answer my prayers, I'd rather it be something freaking AWESOME than my headache going away!

I recognise it's partly the role-player in me, but I think every Witch really quickly learns to be focused when they manifest. The universe isn't unkind, it isn't unfriendly, but something along the lines of "I wish to meet my soulmate!" is almost like an invitation for you to meet the perfect woman, with a wonderful sense of humor... and a great husband and 6 perfect children. Weather magic is always the example I fall back on. Yeah, manifest a sunny day this weekend... but know someone else is paying for it. Yeah, keep that storm just outside the city until it's rained out... but those people outside the city are now flooded and someone else is bitching there's no water for their garden. Balance... balance... balance.

I know there's no point in asking my Patron and Matron for too much too. Whilst I'm likely to get some advice and questioning to make sure it's what I really want rather than what I think I want, I also know the eventual outcome is going to be pretty much "You want it, go out and make it happen. No freeloaders!"

What else... Christians worship God. God did Stuff, God did *everything* stuff. If there was a top 10 of People Who Did Stuff, God would be top and everyone else ever would be tied for second place. God. Did. Stuff. God lives in the clouds, but he's really everywhere and knows everything, especially the Naughty Things You Did. He's all powerful, by the way. He can make planets and grasshoppers and all sorts, even Duke Nukem Forever. He also knows everything and can't do anything wrong, because he's Ineffable.

I... can't believe in a Deity like that. My Deities are believable, because they match how I'd imagine Gods to be. What's more likely - "I am totally ineffable. I can do no wrong, and I can do *anything*, I'm just not going to", or "Hey lads, This dude can't die! AT ALL! Lets throw crap at him all day and night, because it's not going to hurt or anything! BIGGER AXE PLX!"

I believe in Gods because I view them largely as people with more power. People are dicks, Gods are just as likely to be dicks. Look at Zeus. Look at Loki. Look at Odin even. "Yes, you're Odin, you're the All-father... but Heimdall *actually* made people. You got runes, pretty, but you had to hang on a tree to get them. You're wicked smart, but you had to sacrifice an eye for that." No free passes, no cheat codes. Believable!

What else... oh, Afterlife. Your all knowing God knows all you've done, all your sins, all your crimes (even before you've done them. Ineffable + Free will). But it's all good, he's not going to punish you for those until you die, right? Unless he randomly decides to Test you... You know you're being Tested when you're life is crap, that's God Testing you.

Consider that for a minute or two... Dropped out of school? Test. Pregnant at 16? definite Test. house robbed? Test (stop being so material). Pick anything bad, and it's a Test. Which means, really, nothing that happens to you is *really* your fault, is it? Because God is Testing you, you can hardly defeat an omnipotent, omnipresent omnivore, can you? Responsibility is a moot point - God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players*, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time. (yes, Good Omens. Doesn't make it less true).

My Gods aren't up in the clouds, watching my every move and compiling the List of Naughty Things, my Gods pull me up on my mistakes and kick my ass. There's no need for any sort of afterlife retribution, I get it now and learn from it. My afterlife consists largely of "So, what did you learn? mmmhm... mmmhm... ok, let's open the Sekrit Sealed Envelope and see if you got it right. You learned Humility... survey says.... HUMILITY! Ding ding ding! You get a new lesson and a gold star!" More to it than that, but that's basically the gist.

There's also no form of Testing. I live, they observe. Sometimes they're proud of me, sometimes they're disappointed, but I always know either way pretty quickly. Sometimes it's a "heeeeey, did you REALLY need to do that?" and I think about it and either agree or justify myself... and sometimes I *can* justify myself and *they'll*agree. Other times I get pulled up on what I think was such a minor thing, and have it patiently explained that yes, whilst I think it was a minor jab, someone else is in tears and hates themselves because of it... and I have to make it right.

It's best explained as... family. My Patron and Matron are like my Father and Mother. They guide me, they help teach me, but generally they let me get on with making mistakes and learning, and only really interject when it's important. The Christian deity seems like a distant uncle or something - write to him a few times a year, call him at Christmas, and hope you got good presents and not a hideous sweater or some book tokens. I can't imagine being so disconnected from someone you put so much faith and trust in, it doesn't seem logical at all.

But then, maybe Christians believe their God walks with them too, the whole Footprints-in-the-Sand thing. Where I see evidences of my Deities in nature, in signs and secrets and little things all around, maybe they do too. Where I see a spider with a message of creativity, do they see a carefully constructed web showing the magnificence of God's Creation? When I see a rainbow and know it's a glimpse of Bifrost, do they know it's a sign that God promised not to flood the earth again?

I guess it's easy to be on the inside looking out, and easy to make broad, sweeping judgements when you're on the outside looking in. I guess from their point of view I'm heathen demon worshipper, convincing myself that I have power which only belongs in God's hands. My 'manifestation' is simple chance, my empathy is just good observation, etc etc. My Shifting is clearly MPD, my reiki works because whoever I'm working on just needed to lay down and rest, and so on and so forth. *shrugs* might be true, there might be a lot of us all completely delusional.... but we have Faith in what we do.

Upon reflection...

I'm in one of my moods, so I have to write it down. Pay attention, children. I'm not always quite this serious. I blame lack of real food, lack of sleep, and some other stuff. Probably.

It's a curious thing to look at my past and see how different I am. Not completely different, there's still that 8 year old who was determined to run away from home, and that 14 year old who spent hours patiently cutting identically shaped plastic bones out and gluing them together to make inch tall skeletons. The 18 year old living large but still feeling out of place and out of phase, and the 20 year old with his mind unravelling... but they're deeper inside these days. I can call up the feelings if I need, but they're not at the forefront of my mind.

As Virginia Slims said, You've come a long way, baby. She sounds like a smart woman (OK, not a *completely* serious post then. I have to have my moments).

I know this isn't the end of the process, either. Every day, I find out new things about myself. A new talent I didn't know (Hey! Wood *doesn't* hate me completely!), a new perspective on something, an insight which makes the world a little clearer and better focused. In many ways I feel like a child, still discovering the world with a sense of wonder and awe.

But then, I'm not a child. There are parts of me which are older and wiser, and they look at me growing almost like a parent does. Yay, you're growing and changing and becoming who you could be, who you *should* be... but what about me?

Which is why I bawled my eyes out when the 10th Doctor regenerated. Because there are parts of me aware of things, and they fear the change. They watch as the world they know is torn apart and reshaped, and they wail "I don't want to go!", and it *hurts* to know that I have that power over them, and that power over myself. For the first time in a long time, I kind of like who I am these days. I still have my faults, but I'm at least comfortable with me... and I don't think a lot of people can honestly say that about themselves. I don't want to lose it!

If I went back in time and was able to tell younger-me what was going to happen... I wouldn't believe it. I don't know if I'd even be able to relate to a younger version of me. Whilst I remember key events because they're key events, there's so much that's just... not there. Even remembering my direct past gives me issues at times, there's so much useless stuff that I just discard straight away. What the hell would I say anyway?

"Dear 8 year old Will. You're feeling screwed up because you are. You're going to struggle with this for the next decade or so, then totally flip out and spend 6 months fixing yourself before you can function again... but afterwards it's all OK. Promise. You'll end up with a funny looking Pantheress who thinks she's a vampiress but really just needs a hug, an Owl who looks like Jareth most of the time and does magic (but also makes you walk oddly), and a Tortoise who says very little, does everything slowly, but means you can do all sorts of icky things. By the way, don't stress over school, don't stress over women, and tell your family you love them more"

Mooooom! There's a strange beardy guy in my room talking rubbish!

What worries me more would be the opposite - Strange beardy guy from the future visiting me now. What do I have to look forward to?

"Oh, you're going to recombine your shapes, discover it was all crap and fix yourself properly"

"Oh, that stuff you thought was awesome and cool? No, not at all. Stop it."

"Oh, you're going to lose one of your legs next year. Try to favor your left and get practice hopping"

"Oh...."

I don't want to go!

Even my Shapes have changed over the last decade. Not just that they've stopped being characters, then stopped being avatars, and definitely stopped being wampires. They're... older and more defined. Partly that they're better separated, but also that they're better integrated and able to hand off things to each other rather than try to deal with stuff outside their bailiwick.

I got to use the word bailiwick. Yay!

Tal's no longer the "woo woo! Diva with a death wish on the party train!" she originated as. She's learned a measure of control (however reluctantly), she's gained insight into how people think, and react, and she can deal with things far more accordingly. She's less afraid to show her compassion when it's merited, but also more willing to show her fangs. She's still got her weaknesses, and she still likes a bit of mischief when she can get away with it, but she's matured. I can't help think of her as a child grown up... and like a child she still has her moments... but I love her.

Den has settled into his position far faster. He was old to begin with, and it's a measure of comfort that he hasn't changed quite as much as Tal. He's a bit more confident, and becoming more attuned to his Role and place, but he's still the Den I created, then killed off on a train platform (Nottingham I think), in floods of tears. Still can't read that story either. He's still my (and Tal's) father figure, he's turning more into Hordriss in "human" form as time progresses, and he's pleased I'm getting white streaks in my beard.

The Other Den has changed too. My shining Paladin has changed his name at least twice, from Den to Garron and now to Egare. He's handed in his horse and lance, and now he's a Tortoise. Otherwise... It's hard to tell any difference. Tortoise don't change very quickly anyway, and I'm comforted that he's so solid. He doesn't have the same relationship with either of the other Shapes as they have with each other. Den likes to spend long hours talking with him, Tal finds him too slow and frustrating but I think Eg secretly likes being with her and tormenting her to a degree. I guess that makes him a grandfather :P.

Y'know, it's times like this I miss having old people to talk to. Now that I can understand things, I'd love to spend a few hours chewing the fat with my granddad, but it's one of the ironic processes that as I've gained my awareness, he's lost his. I can't even imagine going to see him now, I'd rather remember him as the asshole he was than the... empty he is now.

I'd love to spend some time with my dad, talking about what happened and why, seeing how the new me related to him. I'd love to get some advice on dealing with Bella, on being married (again), and on how things are going to be when I get older... but I don't have that option either. On the other hand, losing him was the first (ish) step on the road to what I am now. Maybe I'd settle for just thanking him - for all that he was an asshole too, he made some of my happiest times possible.

I guess the whole rambling point of this rambling ramble is that I'm feeling reflective. I'm surrounded by a sea of change, and whilst I'm happy to dip my toes in and see what happens, the thought of falling in accidentally scares the hell out of me. Whilst I can swim *now*... what if that changes?

Wow. epic post of doom!

Bah! Time!

And as predicted, it's been 6 weeks since I last blogged. This time business is an odd thing.

Actually, I'm surrounded by odd things at the moment. We had a baby last month. She's... odd. I talk to her and I play with her (as best as she can play) and there are times I get frustrated that she can't just say "Dammit daddy, you SUCK. My ass is wet because I peed, and I can't change myself. Just change my damn diaper so I can sleep!". I finally managed to reconcile things in my head so that I can think of her like a PC with just one error message (and a loud siren). I guess a mechanic would imagine her like a car with just one dashboard light or something. Either way, it means that I have to switch to a diagnostic routine, which suits both of us fine.

Currently, the diagnostic routine consists of

1) Check diaper

2) Check last feed time. She likes to feed randomly between 2 and 4 hours after the last one, dependant on last feed volume. Generally, 1oz = 1 hour.

3) Check she's not too hot or cold

4) Attempt to burp, first on lap, then on shoulder (Burp 2.0).

5) Peer at her, she might just want some interaction

6) Bounce on knee. If successful, implement Bouncy Seat Protocols

7) Lay across lap and pat back. Doesn't always work, but means she's screaming at the sofa and not my face

8) Wander around the house bouncing and talking machine code.

9) Give her to her mom to soothe.

I hate having to resort to 9. It doesn't make me feel like a bad daddy, I know how awesome the Mom Power is (I was small once too), but I also know Bam needs her zzz and rest time too. If I can find ways to chill the baby out without having to get her to do everything, it takes some of the pressure from her.

We do have a way cool baby though. She managed to avoid the whole squashed-up-purple-cone-head look that most babies get. She's ahead of her milestones (which I shouldn't count, I know that noobs often punch above their weight with a bit of twinking), she's not been too difficult to deal with (other than early constipation, separation anxiety and gas like she's been eating skunks in the night). A lot of the stuff we've been through is trial and error - she's learning as much as we are.

I do have some random observations and tips for other 'rents (more accurately, 'rents to be). If anyone ever reads this, they might be handy.

1) Diaper bags. Pack twice as much as you need, because you'll need it. The day you say "oh, I just need 2 diapers" Baby will lose 2lbs in weight through crapping. The day you think "Oh, I'll only be out an hour and I did just feed her" Baby will demand more food in 10 minutes, and you'll get stuck in traffic for a week. The day you forget to put in a change of clothes, you'll need it. Babies have a sixth sense for stuff like this.

2) Whatever you do, it'll be wrong. Not just wrong, Wrong. BIG W Wrong! Whatever decision you make, another parent will think you're a terrible parent for it.

• You co-sleep? You'll roll over and kill your baby!
• You put her in a bassinet? Don't you care about your lonely baby? She's SO LONELY!
• You use disposable diapers? You're killing the planet!
• You use cloth diapers? You're still killing the planet AND making more laundry!

You can't win, so don't even try. Everyone does the parenting thing differently, and babies still make it to adulthood so they can screw it up themselves.

3) Don't be afraid to ask for help. There are times we've been stressed and tired and grumpy, we picked up the Batphone and called in reinforcements. We went out for a drive and a snack, and came back to a perfectly calm baby and our version of Mary Poppins ready to sail off on her umbrella again. Sometimes baby just needs someone else to soothe them, they can pick up on stress and stuff.

Of course, baby does her best to help me (and her mom) out. If she's hungry, she does her rooting reflex and leaves hickies on my arm. If she needs changed, she waves her arms and pushes downwards. She knows the processes well enough now that if we get her in the right place, she'll start to settle in anticipation - the best example is taking her to the nursery for changes. Once she hits her changing mat, she'll lower the volume and relax so that changing goes faster. It's pretty awesome :)

We have had some rough patches though. We thought she had a UTI on Christmas Eve, so we went to the Pediatrician's office. They didn't have a catheter small enough to get a sample, so we went to the ER. We were stuck there for 5 hours, and neither of us had fed or slept all day! The urine test was clear, but they wanted to do a blood work-up... and they SUCKED at getting blood from Bella. Everyone was traumatized, she was screaming and her mom had to go outside. The 4th attempt I nearly punched the lab nurse because she was digging for a vein (in a month old baby, wtf?) and so the ER nurse took over and managed to get a good draw from her hand. Relief!

And after all that, everything came back clear! It's that kind of thing which really makes me know I'm a daddy though, so I learned a little from it. Hopefully Bella won't remember it!

Woah!

Two posts in one day? Woah, I'm like a professional or something!

Stuff I fergotted to mention in my last post. The dumb supper went ahead with us at the ER, and was a great success. There was enough foods for us to all try that night (well, morning), and to feed everyone on Saturday too. Nom nom nom.

My page-down issue is fixed. Turns out it was the stoopid keyboard being stoopid. Someone smarter than me in KoL diagnosed it, and taking things apart and blowing on them fixed it for now. woot! Someone earned a beverage at the next Con.

Done now, for another month. :P

Dagnabbit! another month!

I am instructed to update this thing. I need a post-it note or something to remind me. And a list of stuff that happened to blog about. Meh.

Samhain (Sah-WEEEEEEN! *thwap*) was interesting. We did all the cooking and catering for a dumb supper, which is a meal held in silence so you can listen to the dead talking. We prepared a 5 course meal, starting with cucumber slices with dip, then a nice salad, miso soup, venison and beef in raspberry vinegarette with roast potato, and a brown betty for dessert. We had a big garage sized tent sorted out, everything was ready... and Bam slipped in the mud and did the splits.

So, off to ER. They checked her ankle, tentatively diagnosed a break and sent us up to L&D for monitoring. By "sent" I mean called the on-call doctor and totally DIDN'T call L&D. So they discharged us, we waited in the waiting area for 10 minutes, then they worked out they'd have to re-admit us to send us upstairs. Fail.

Long story short, baby is fine, Bam's pelvis is likely cracked, definitely overstretched, so she's ow-ow-owing around just now. Nothing can be done until the baby hatches... due in 7 days and counting.

Other recent stuff... Bam went into labor... in the middle of the night after being up all day. Got to the hospital, did all the fun, and was given the choice to walk around to speed things up or go home. Walking = no, so we went home and slept. If we'd stayed and tried to keep going, she'd have been too tired to push anyway, which sets up a c-section.

Temperatures are dropping now, so we took Catface in last night. Need to remember to get a flea collar or something for her. She's a sweet old cat, all she wanted to do was sleep and when we moved around too much on the bed trying to get settled she wandered off... to the baby's car seat. I got her out of it and retrieved the nice, soft, clean baby blanket... and she got straight back in again. Silly Catface! I had to put my coat over it to stop her and it'll all be washed again today. Moar washings.

Nan and Mumbert fly out here in 6 days now. We're looking forward to showing them around and showing them off to people. Bam won a 16x20 canvas print from UPrinting (woot!) so we're planning on taking a nice picture with everyone. Fingers crossed the baby arrives in time to be in it too, then we'll have 4 generations! woo woo! Something else more in her control than ours,

Doc says that Bam is ready to give birth, we just need the baby to trigger hormone release and stuff. I've tried bribing her with hugs, ponies and unicorns. We've tried telling her she needs to come out because her mom hurts, we've Reiki-ed, we've baby sifted, we've tried caster oil, cohosh, raspberry leaf tea and everything else we can think of. Baby is stubborn like her mother!

We've also started a "new" MMO. AO are doing a deal just now, so I resurrected my fr00b bank account and made some new toons. Currently I'm playing melee - a martial artist and a 1hb doc, both Trox. We'll see how long they last, but I'm enjoying AO not blowing up my lappie. It's very tempting to try and find $$$ to reactivate my main account and wake up W1, but I think things are going to be too busy to devote time to an MMO in the coming months. It's a nice diversion anyway :)

Also, for some reason my laptop hates me paging down. It generates random characters and increases the volume (bizarre, because Fn + page down = volume down). Bam looked stuff up and thinks it's something to do with an antivirus conflict, running 2 AV programs at once. I *do* run 2 AV programs, but one is passive (Clamwin) and the other is active (Avira). It only started in the last few weeks since I updated Avira, so I think I need to boot that out and switch to Avast. Hopefully that'll fix it, it's damn annoying!

Maybe I can update this next week when something else has happened... :P

Long time no... stuff

Hello blog. It's been a while. Nearly 2 months it seems. That's odd - it feels like just a week or two ago I was blogging, and then I stopped.

I have more respect for people who actually keep a blog. I can barely keep a diary, the only way I know stuff has happened is to write it on the whiteboard calendar, then transfer it off at the end of the month!

It's been a busy 2 months. We now have a nursery. We now have piles of baby things (thanks to some awesome help from the Universe and a great baby shower). We're 35 weeks done today and I had predicted that we'd be going into labor, but at least we're prepared if we do. The changing table should arrive in a few minutes... baby can take longer if she needs to.

I do like the nursery, mainly because I painted it. It's often said (at least to me) that having children is a chance to do the stuff you didn't get to do when you were small. I've somewhat taken that to heart, and intend to poop all over the house, throw things, and throw up as much as possible.

Kidding!

I've somewhat taken that to heart, and tried to make Bella's room the room I wanted when I was small. I didn't want to repaint the entire thing, there's too much to move and too much to do otherwise. So, behind the crib (opposite the windows) is a tree, painted on the wall. It needs wildlife still, but it's winter so they're all hiding (honest!). It needs a little doorway under the crib in the trunk, and I can see a million little bits which needs touched up ... but I'm assured it's perfect. Yesterday we moved the crib into it's final position and made it up (with the *awesome* Mushroom crib set my wife won from bTrendie). After doing everything else, I had a rummage in the Box Of Things Not Dealt With (tm) and found the Twilight Turtle which she also won from bTrendie (we're kinda lovin' bTrendie at the moment :D) and turned it on to see what it looked like.

Wow.

Seriously. If that thing had been around when I was small I'd have killed for it. I'd have beaten other children and stolen their pocket money. I'd have washed cars. Hell, I'd have stolen cars. It's the most awesome thing ever! It projects a star map onto the ceiling, but because of how the nursery is designed it actually projects mostly on the ceiling but partly on the tree. I don't know where they got their estimates for room sizes - I think you could set one up in Wembley and still hit the stands!. Light blue (or green) stars don't show up on the dark tree surface, but they show wonderfully on the light wall around it, so it gives the effect of seeing stars THROUGH the branches! It's epicly cool!

I've already said I want one for in our bedroom too... I'm currently plotting how to spend as much time in the nursery as possible. Baby Bella, I love you to bits... but I'm afraid I'm going to be playing with your toys a lot. Blame my father - he did exactly the same!

Fun in the kitchen!

I'm a passable cook, or so I'm told. I maintain that Bam is far better in the kitchen than I am, because she really does make fantastic food. I can't remember what she made, but a few weeks ago I ended up leaning over to the belly and yelling "This is why your friends will want to stay for dinner!" - Once our little one starts to get a taste of her mom's cooking, she's going to be set forever.

When I cook, I have a few terrible habits. The main one is that I cook for me - everything is seasoned to my taste. On the upside, it means I'll eat anything I've cooked. Literally. Even if it's burnt and crunchy, I'll eat it. Used too much spicy stuff? (Bam has a magic Chinese chili sauce for making sushi with, it's like flaming death in a bottle... and I *always* use too much) I'll eat it. I'm totally indiscriminate when it comes to my own cooking.

The other terrible habit I have is kinda related to that. I'm a taster! I have to taste anything I'm making whenever I judge it "safe". Obviously not if it's raw meat or something like that, but once I judge it ready for sampling then anything goes. Not just the dish I'm making either, I'll liberally sample the ingredients. I've drunk soy sauce and Tabasco straight, if we get new seasonings or spices I have to taste it "raw". My theory is that I need to know what that specific taste is so that my brain can file it and I can pull it out when something I've made needs *just that* taste. It's a good thing. Really.

Last week we ordered Chinese. We don't do it very often, but Bam needed sushi and we had some spare cash, so we ordered some dinners. American Chinese comes in much bigger food portions than British Chinese, but oddly the rice is a lot smaller portion. Swings and roundabouts! Anyway, Bam had sweet and sour chicken, and they forgot the sweet and sour sauce.

She got a nice little tray of chicken nuggets!

Of course, she'd nommed sushi so we didn't find out until the next day. I rummaged around, and found a simple enough sweet and sour sauce recipe so I thought I'd give it a go... and it was delicious! That recipe is now safely in the recipe box-which-is-also-currently-a-genealogy-box-because-I-lost-the-proper-one.

On the other hand... I wanted potatoes and onions tonight. I think it's the Irish in me, but when we get to the end of the month and food is running a bit low, I demand potatoes. so I chopped up a couple and decided to fry them off as cubes... and promptly made them crispy but near enough raw inside. No problem! Little more oil, dropped the heat and covered the pan... now they were cooked but soggy... No problem! Crank up the heat and take off the lid...

And they burnt. Those potatoes were sullen and insolent!

But not severely enough to bother me, and I'm eating them anyway. They're not too bad, but need more salt and spices... a little Tabasco... some Tony's... a little bacon....

Another day :)