LOLZ: Dino Attack

I really, really hope they checked out first whether this poor guy had any kind of heart condition. Apparently not... and just as well! Or do you think it's staged?

Reading Challenge #1 - Embassytown by China Mieville

Well, I got through it. It was a bit of a hard slog, but I persisted because of the linguistic and existential nature of the story. The concept is so high-flying that it is largely opaque to begin with and for me, not a whole lot better at the end. The author uses a lot of invented words, or repurposed, so that until I got used to it, it was like reading a foreign language, which I suppose is one intended effect.

The alien Hosts on the planet Arieke have a language that cannot be spoken; they also are unable to learn other languages. It has to do with the essence of the world and of words that cannot be separated from reality, hence there is no lying in that society. Cloned doppelgangers eventually enable communication, but then comes a new pair whose speech is like a drug for the locals, and chaos breaks out.

Did I enjoy it? In places, yes, the sheer randomness of the words flung together and the strangeness of the situation. Here is a pretty passage spoken by the alien Host nicknamed Spanish Dancer after he has learned to speak metaphor:

"Before the humans came we didn't speak. We've been like countless things, we've been like all things, we've been like the animals over Embassytown in the direction of which I raise my giftwing, which is a speaking you'll come to understand. We didn't speak, we were mute, we only dropped the stones we carried in our mouths and had the birds we described fly out, we were vectors, we were the birds eating in mindlessness, we were the girl in darkness, only knowing it when we weren't anymore."

TARDIS: Anzac Bay

Here we begin the TARDIS Downunder Tour. Well, not just downunder eventually, but mostly yes. 

Location: Anzac Bay, near Bowentown, near Waihi Beach, at the north end of Tauranga Harbour. 

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/bL4c0

Local: Thermal Streets

I recently came across an article in the Rotorua Post about a problem they've been having with the thermal springs in a neighbourhood. Don't look at me funny - my Dad was born in Rotorua and I like to keep up now and then.

Anyway, there's been hot water on the lawns and over the road, though they hope it's been fixed somewhat now. Here's a quote:

A local, who only wanted to be known as Api, said he had to dig a trench in his front yard to relieve the pressure from a ngawha (hot spring) vent that had become active. He said he believed a combination of a re-drilled [water] bore opposite his property and the roadworks had contributed to the problem.
"It's never blown for more than 40 years I've lived here. Has the ngawha under Lake Rd been blocked when they did those roadworks?" he asked. "More ngawhas are coming up on our property and the council doesn't seem to be interested in it, they're just worried about the road. At the end of the day, we don't really need that road, but we always need our ngawha for cooking and bathing."

Check out the whole article here. Just goes to show, you gotta be careful where you dig!

The enemy that won't let me fight it

Lethargy has a power almost equal to that of entropy.

It is, at times, an unstoppable force of nothingness. I hate it; it is my great enemy in life. We have battled many times but too often I have lost. The villain is both faceless and inside of me. These things add up to a very unfair fight.

Lethargy can be more than just a lack of motication. It also brings along a heavy dose of self-doubt. It tells me there's no point, I'm not making any difference, my writing is no good, and so on. Now on a good day I know those things aren't true, but if something's gone wrong already and I'm not up to par, lethargy can get a foothold. And by its very nature it keeps me from fighting it. What to do? Oh, I have plenty of options - go for a walk, do some actual work for money, that sort of thing. They don't always work to kick me into gear.

And so I fight on, wearying by entropy as the lethargy takes its grip...

Fanfic: Pirate's Gold 1

(This has already been posted at FanFiction.net, but I want it here as well for complete archiving...)

(Timeline: Series 4, sometime after the Library episodes with River Song)

The Doctor and Donna sat on comfy camp chairs pulled up to the open doors of the TARDIS. Between them, a small folding table carried the remains of afternoon tea: mismatched mugs, a nearly-empty self-heating teapot from the planet Vrangipanius, and a plate of crumbs where once half a dozen scones with jam had resided.

"Mmm, did I not tell you that back-alley bakery in Inverness was an eternal treasure of the ages?" The Doctor kissed his fingertips and considered again. "Well, at least in 1895 it was. I tell you, I dread the day when I go back there and find I've already eaten everything they ever made."

Donna turned her glare on him. "Honestly, you men are all alike. You bring me to see the Pillars of Creation and all you can think about is your stomach." She resumed her absorption of the Eagle Nebula, where coloured gas swirled in rivers across the blackness of space. Even from five hundred light years away the structure dwarfed everything around it.

"You've been staring at that thing for hours. Shall we go and do something dangerous?"

"Did you have something in mind?"

The Doctor grinned. "Now that you ask, actually...I've been wanting to visit the fire beings of Antares. Their art is said to be stunning. You just have to stay out of reach or you might burn up." He took a sip from his mug and made a face, then chucked the cold remains out the door.

"Tut tut, Doctor. Now some spacefaring scientist is going to come across molecules of tea with milk and sugar, hundreds of years from now."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Ohhh...so that's what that was..."

"What?"

"Never mind."

Donna stood, shut the doors after one last look into the heart of the nebula, and folded her chair. "Well then, let's get going. Fire art, eh?"

The Doctor lifted a trapdoor in the floor, dumped the tea tray into the chute, pondered a moment, then sent the table and his chair after it. Donna shrugged and dropped hers in too. Somehow, the TARDIS would put things back where they belonged.

"It's not really called Antares, you know." The Doctor leaped to the console and began twiddling with levers, dials and pumps. "That was just for your benefit. The locals call it Frimidianaricum."

"Aha." Donna wasn't sure where Antares was in relation to Earth anyway, but she wasn't about to say so. "Say, Doctor..."

He froze and gave her his full attention."Yes?"

"That professor. River Song. Did you figure out how she knew you?"

The smile melted off the Doctor's face as he gripped a handle until his knuckles whitened. "Yeah. Yeah I did." He flung the lever down.

The TARDIS jolted violently and Donna staggered across the floor until she found a railing to hang onto. "Typical. Don't wanna talk, send us spinning into the vortex..."

Going Without...Internet

So here I am on a beautiful South Sea island - yes, I live on one too, but this is different - endless beaches, exciting foods, lagoon islands, wild animals and other cute locals. Still I find my mind wandering back often to my online life that's going on without me right now. Is anybody commenting on my scheduled posts? Are there questions waiting that only I can answer? My fingers itch to home in on a keyboard and connect.

But I mean, what the heck? That's not what I'm here for. I'm sitting on a deserted beach, turquoise water at my feet, the roar of the surf pounding the outer reef, and a friendly local dog who's taken up residence beside me in the golden sand. Why on earth would I even be thinking of the old everyday stuff? I could say I miss my friends, but it's only been one day. I'm stronger than that.

No, I'm here today to enjoy the solace of solitude, and other days to celebrate with my family. There's an internet café down the road at $12 an hour, so I could get on if I was desperate. However, I really don't think that's necessary. The world beyond this island can do without me for a week - or rather, the world and I can do without each other.

Daily Doctor: We Are Him

I am the Doctor. 

You are the Doctor. 

We are all the Doctor. 

The Doctor is the Doctor!

Fontspotting: Goudy Stout

The mountain is bonus. I was waiting for a bus.

While I was searching to identify this font, I hit gold and also discovered another restaurant on Rarotonga using the same one:

The word "restaurant" in particular - possibly also "Tumunu" but if so, it's been force-squeezed a bit horizontally. It does look very similar, it's just a bit too narrow.

I've used one of the Goudy variants - GoudyCat, I think - on a book project before, but they all look fairly different. This version here certainly wouldn't have suited my science fiction book!

Photo Story: Yellow Café, Rouen, France

One fine September morning, I sat on a wall in the town of Rouen with my Mum, noshing on real French bread and cheese. Rouen's claim to fame is that it's where Joan of Arc lived and died. We had just landed in Paris in the early dawn; a chartered bus picked us up from Charles de Gaulle airport and we were whisked straight out of Paris. I've never done an organised tour before or since, it's not my style, but I was allowed to join a school group as an extra chaperone.

So we had wandered through twisted medieval streets with tall half-timbered houses, passed the darkly modern St. Jeanne cathedral, and conquered a local outdoor fruit market all in the space of an hour or so. It wasn't lunchtime, but we were all messed up from a 24-hour flight broken only by a couple of hours in Hong Kong.

We had our bread and cheese and a melon from the market, and sat to eat it on this wall between a grassy park and the scooter-filled street. Across the street was this café all set up for the midday rush - all in yellow and white, every knife and fork and glass in place. I like patterns, so I thought it'd make a nice picture.

Daily Doctor: Important Message

“Hi! I’m the Doctor. I noticed you were having a bit of a bad day. So! Convinced you’re not important, eh? Well, I've never heard something so ridiculous in my life. So I decided to pop by in the TARDIS to remind you that I have never met someone who isn’t important. And if you’re clever and want to tell me we’ve never met, I’d like to remind you I said, ‘Hi! I’m the Doctor,’ and that counts as an introduction. You matter. Just remember that. You matter.”

Fontspotting: Broadway again

Just another quick sighting of Broadway, though we already did this the other day. This was on a vege bag from Mr Wu's store on Rarotonga. Italics this time!

Rarotonga: First Night

Greeted by a houseful of lizards, I enjoy the sight of my grown brother chasing them around. Wild chooks roam the lawn - an inordinate proportion of roosters makes for a lot of noise. The lawn is also full of fallen coconuts and more loom in the trees overhead.

On the drive over from the airport, I noted goats unfenced by the main road and also numerous gravestones set in the yards of homes. Mongrel dogs wander in public. The island's central mountains aren't high, but rise almost vertically to their jaggy spikes all covered in the wild green bush like New Zealand on steroids.

After dark we walked to nearby Mr Wu's general store. It was raining, and I had no coat or brolly, so I slung a towel over my head and shoulders to keep dry. Mr Wu sells petrol, canned goods, a small selection of fruit and veg, hot pies, ice cream, and intriguing fried snacks made of breadfruit and manioto.

We follow the barely-lit shoulder, torches bobbing in the black ocean of the island night that is itself but a pinprick in the wide, deep, black Pacific. Back at the house there is one TV channel. For ads, business owners voiceover their homemade slideshows.

Not wanting to leave the laundry outside overnight, we lay two brooms and a mop across the backs of two chairs and call it good.

Daily Doctor: DooWeeOoo

Yes, you CAN sing along with the theme tune. In my house, several of us do it at once.

Fontspotting: Liddie and Liddie Black

The two Liddies were among the first widely available fonts that shipped with Windows, and they are quite classy and funky at that. Unfortunately this means they are now widely overused. Proof: I was able to find three examples in our almost bare beach rental house at Rarotonga...

 "Frangipani Fragrance" is Liddie Black...

...And so is "Coconut Tours".

The information folder has just Liddie, not Black, but you can tell it's related.

Liddie can be recognised most easily by the diagonal lines having diagonal termini - look at the tips of  the R's and A's. Oh yes, and this one is only available in capital letters, so is commonly found mixed with other fonts in a design, as above.

Photo Story: Blue Dinghy Seagull

It was the autumn of 2009. I was sharing a house in Hillcrest with an assortment of people, including one with some pretty cool friends. When they started making plans to spend a weekend yachting in the Bay of Islands, I begged to join them. There was room, so I paid my share and hopped a ride.

Each yacht carried five people aboard, one qualified skipper and four of varying skill. I was a total noob, though I've always loved the water and my Dad grew up sailing. Swimming, rowing and kayaking were as far as I got.

Until that weekend. The skipper had us fixing the sails, steering, and navigating with the maps and GPS. We cooked on a gas stove in the cabin and moored in a quiet bay that night. All the crews gathered on one of the other yachts for a bit of a party, but I stayed behind alone, ever the introvert. It's hard to get solo time when you eat and sleep in the same little cabin and can't even walk away.

Anyway, the next day we headed towards yet another island. On the way we tacked against the wind; once, having just hooked the sail down to expose a smaller surface to the increasing breeze, I was hanging onto the mast with just my right arm when we swung over in a steep turn.

To my horror, there was an all-too-familiar grinding and my shoulder dislocated. I am prone to this, since it's happened a few times now and the muscles are a bit loose. I called out for help and the skipper tacked us back the other way - I don't know why he did that, but it was the best thing possible really. Still clutching the base of the mast for balance, my arm popped right back in.

Soon after, I was happily rowing the blue dinghy around an island as if nothing had happened. I don't think the others believed me at all.

Daily Doctor: Peter Jackson News

Apparently, Peter Jackson is trying his best to get a directorship on Doctor Who. All the details are here at the Hobbit Movie site. While the above pairing is of course not happening, and there is no date set on when this might be, I'm excited to hear it might happen in New Zealand. About time, I say!

Fontspotting: Unknown but cool, popular on drinks

I noticed this font on a beer bottle in Rarotonga - the local brand, Matutu - and then realised it was very much like the one on our homegrown Lemon & Paeroa bottles. I pointed it out to my brother and cousin at the restaurant table, and they proceeded to recognise it and also take pictures of it. What can I say, fontspotting runs in the family...

(Of which there is incidentally also a chocolate version. Yes, it's fizzy.)

It is also suspiciously similar to the one that appears at WhatTheFont (WTF?), a site I often use to identify fonts...even ones I've used myself and forgotten the name of :P Anyway, their instructional infographic looks like this:

Okay, not exactly alike, but pretty similar characteristics...

Home Again - Library Swag

The weary traveller returns home. I am particularly glad to do so this time - it's been a rough week. Suffice it to say that a bout of food poisoning along with sunburn and a couple dozen mozzie bites are still making themselves felt. Of course I will post soon about Rarotonga, too. Very interesting place.

Yesterday I got out to the library and picked up the above collection. I had intended to look for stuff from the Top 100 list, but nothing was to be had in my local branch. I placed a number of requests so they will be brought in from elsewhere in the city by next month or thereabouts. In the meantime, I did find these items by the same authors. I do like Larry Niven, have read a few by Heinlein before and a bit of Stephen King, but Anne McCaffrey and China Mieville are new to me. No, the Doctor Who book isn't a classic, I just happened upon it by accident and, well, you know...

A bit sad that they had nothing by Clarke or Bradbury at all. Well, with 55 libraries connected to the city's circulatory system, I suppose the chances are pretty high that the handful of copies will be elsewhere at any given moment. These here will do me until the requests start coming in, anyway. I'll be posting wee comments here as I get through them - I've started with Embassytown.

Daily Doctor: I Am Geek

David Tennant quote: "I still am a geek. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I see no shame in having an unhealthy obsession with something."

I'm not convinced about his wording - surely anything unhealthy is unhealthy? But it isn't necessarily unhealthy, and there is nothing wrong with obsession in that case, to my mind. Make sense?

Fontspotting: Bachelor Criteria

Not a fontspotting instance as such - bonus for you if you know what font she's talking in!

This could be a question I'd consider asking, but probably later, after I knew someone a while. Because, you know...

Movie: The Intouchables

I recently had the chance to watch The Intouchables on a long flight. It's a French movie about two impossibly different people and the unlikely friendship they discover.

I LOVED IT. I don't say that about very many movies. It has everything I like. It's not action-thrillery at all, so I appreciate that it might not be everyone's cup of tea. Plus, I speak French, so it may be less tedious for me to follow along than if I could *only* read the subtitles. I don't know. But I think it's worth the effort.

If there were such a thing as a literary movie, this would be it. It focuses on poignant, hard-hitting scenes, gently twisted humour, the real grit of life, and lovely glimpses of Paris. There is a certain amount of swearing in it, however, I have to say that I'm not convinced the translation does it justice :P

There are many beautiful surprises best left for your own discovery. Anyway, it very nearly made me cry, there high above the Pacific. Highly recommended.

Daily Doctor: I Shall Come Back

When I first heard this quote, I thought it was a bit weird. But it's grown on me. From one friend to another, it actually makes a great deal of sense. Especially when one does a lot of leaving.

Fontspotting: Broadway

Highly distinctive and still popular for appropriate uses.

Faith Awakened becomes A Guildswoman’s Dream: What’s Changing

Readers of Faith Awakened will notice many familiar things about A Guildswoman’s Dream. It is essentially the same story, about the same people, told in different events and different words. Once I knew I had to redo it, I began with a hard look at my reviews, finding the things readers thought I could have done better. I tried to hit them all, insofar as I agreed.

I changed the voice from first person to third, and past tense throughout. A technicality—but I write better that way now and it’s easier to read. Where I had been vague in places, I got a lot more specific. Indeed, the whole initial plotline has been tweaked and beefed up with additional action.

The main change is that Mariah’s undercover group is no longer a persecuted church, but a clandestine food co-op. It makes so much more sense to stay close to the theme of hunger and survival. Most religious content has been removed, though the characters may still utter a prayer in their day of desperation—but who wouldn’t? Fact is, I want this to reach beyond the goldfish bowl of “Christian fiction”. So yes, I felt free to have my characters swear a tad bit more when their situations warranted it.

I know there will be some of you who love the old version and are sad at the changes. But think back to the story. Weren’t there so many places you wanted more details? Well, you’re getting them now. I just feel privileged to be able to revisit my first novel, fix its shortcomings, and bring it up to where I am now both personally and as a writer—with the help of a highly competent editor.

The old version, Faith Awakened, will likely be available used for years even after A Guildswoman’s Dream comes out, however, if you want to read the companion volume A Guildswoman’s Journey, it does link in to the new edition rather than the old.

Life is change, and I’m excited to make this story better than it’s ever been.

Daily Doctor: Spoilers

A brief and beautiful teaser about River Song. Love her!

Fontspotting: Irish Road Signs

Placenames and street signs in Ireland are very often written in Gaelic as well as English. Interestingly, this often involves a different, more Gaelic font as well.

Peaches

There’s nothing like a fresh peach, plucked from a laden tree, warm from the sun and so juicy we have to stand at a convoluted angle in order to drip only down our chins and not our shirts. It’s an old-time form of companionship, this standing around a tree, slurping the golden flesh of its reproductive cycle. And in such abundance! There were maybe a hundred peaches on the first tree, but at least five times that many on the second—globules of goodness clustered tightly around each limb for foot after foot, completely obscuring any sight of the bark. One branch even broke under the load, but its fruit was even too much for the bugs and it continued to ripen on the ground. I must have picked ten or fifteen pounds last Monday. Still the tree showed no sign of thinning out. There must be many pies in future, methinks, and alas that I’m not there to eat my fill. But I had a handful in my carry-on…and ate them somewhere high above the Rockies.

Daily Doctor: Madness

Yep. That goes for me too.

Most especially me, I hope, then that would make me most especially interesting.

Fontspotting: Amphion

This sign can be found in restaurants all across America. I once used Amphion in a book trailer, and never forgot the look of it.

Another day on the farm

This one was a bonus. With flights delayed till the day after next, I was warmly welcomed back at the Woychik homestead. It was surreal, just like the other time this happened—back to “normal” one more time. Fed the cats, let the chooks out, watered the guinea pigs, picked peaches, and, in an accident of good timing, got to ride along on the tractor as Jerry cut the alfalfa for baling.

It was a beautiful evening, a peach-coloured sun dipping towards the trees at the edge of the field. Grasshoppers by the hundreds fled the tractor’s advance at every turn of the wheel and the haybine chewed the crop in tidy rows as Jerry flung and spun the steering wheel to keep it on track.

Riding five feet up, on the fender above the giant wheel, was a little nerve-wracking at first, but I got the hang of it (or should that be the “hang-on” of it?) and smiled all the way round…and round…and round. The fresh, balmy air, the drone and sputter of the John Deere, and the bumps in the turf made a very memorable experience for this city gal who’s got a lot of country in her heart after all.

Later, on those long, long flights, I closed my eyes and imagined myself back on the green fender with the breeze in my face.

Daily Doctor: Theme Song Mix

Got some time on your hands? Immerse yourself in the history of the iconic Doctor Who theme song, starting way back at the beginning...

Fontspotting: Devinne

Devinne is on the right. I used this on Kat's book so I get embarrassed when it pops up around the place. I had never seen it before using it, honestly...

Faith Awakened becomes A Guildswoman’s Dream: The Why

It’s been six years since I self-published Faith Awakened. Print on demand was a new thing then. I learned much from the success of Jeremy Robinson and his unflinching stance on quallity, whether it be in the writing or the design.

So I ran it through about 20 critique partners, took over half their comments on board, had a kick-ass designer do my cover art, learned typesetting, and sent out a bunch of review copies in print, as was usual in those days.

That first edition of Faith Awakened sold about 500 copies in a year. Not bad for a first try, they say. And it got some great reviews. I was happy.

Then, in 2011, Chila read it. Soon after, she asked if I’d consider republishing it under Port Yonder Press, with a little updating and polishing. Sure, I was keen. She understood the heart of my writing and I had also been much inspired by hers. And I am curious to see what can be done by having a publisher on US soil. My little book had gone as far as it could by itself.

We both thought we’d just update the text a little bit. But when we sat down to do so, absolutely nothing would come. Slowly it dawned on me that the entire book needed to be rewritten. I am not the writer I was at 21 when I began that work, nor the one who published it at 28. I’m better.

Daily Doctor: Yoda Vs. Ten

Yoda: 0
Ten: 1

Fontspotting: Alberta

Lovely little restaurant in Cedar Rapids. Alberta is a decently smart font, even if we see it everywhere.

Grace Odyssey 2013: Fiasco II

 

Total travel gear. Light is lovely.

I’m nervous to fly out of Cedar Rapids. I’ve done it three times, and in two of those instances it was a second try that followed a failed first attempt due to cancelled flights. Once it was the weather, a blizzard, no one was getting out that day. This time there was a “minor” mechanical issue that was just a short delay at first. The delay became almost three hours before they cancelled it outright. Now if they’d done that sooner, I could have caught my connecting flights and gotten where I was going on time. The original route was CR-Chicago-LAX-Rarotonga, and there could have been any number of ways to get to LAX by 10 PM for that one crucial 10 hour flight that only goes once a week. Come on, I was at the airport in CR before noon! But no. Delays upon delays ate up my six hour buffer time, the flight to Chicago was cancelled, and I had to spend about an hour and a half on the phone with Air New Zealand to book a new route: CR-Denver-LAX-Auckland-Raro. This involves six extra hours of flight time, ten extra hours of layover, oh, and did I mention arriving two and a half days late? Ah well. Though one ticket agent informed me it was impossible, at least I’m on track (at time of writing) to get to Raro before my cousin’s wedding and not after. And, importantly, I got to spend most of two extra days with my very good friend Chila. That was a jolly good compensation for all the headaches and tears and fears that I might not make it to the big event.

Daily Doctor: Inside the Box

Because the inside of this box may well be bigger than everything on the outside of it. Seriously, have you seen in that thing?

Fontspotting: Ignacious

Here we have three fonts on one sign. The top one may be Alberta or similar. Not sure about the bottom one, but the one in the middle is definitely Ignacious. I dislike it since using it on a project that went very askew.

Grace Odyssey 2013: Fiasco I

My airport face after 7 hours of layover

I could have called it “a cacophony of endurance”, and it would be true. I must have read that phrase in a book, or made it up, which I readily admit is less likely. Either way, those three words together are not something any writer can use more than once in a career and still be taken seriously. I’ve probably used way more than my quota just in social media. Ah well, there goes the reputation.

I am on a long journey. I can say that in public, because there are a lot of people who live in my house. A great side benefit of having flatmates—I don’t have to be all secretive about my travels. Hey, there’s actually one room available at present, so keep that in mind if you come across someone looking for digs in Glenfield. Anyway, I seem to have gotten back around to where I started, but I’ve written long enough for this one. Guess I’ll tell you about the Odyssey Fiasco next time.

Daily Doctor: Donna Noble

I love Donna. She's my favourite companion. A good friend for the Doctor, a sasser and full of spunk. She had the saddest departure of anyone, I reckon. What a bum deal.

Fontspotting: Mistral

Believe it or not, these are completely different establishments. Some older systems call this font Minstrel.

Hold it! Too many posts!

What the heck is that girl doing? I know, I can hear you all the way over here. I hear the scepticism too, I have some myself—I’ve tried blogging regularly before, tried and failed many times. But I think I was looking at it the wrong way, as if every post had to be a well-thought-out article of good length, and, well, that’s no fun to write. Not to me. I mean, really. Back to school, anyone? I hated essay writing more than just about anything.

So I’m going to stick to short posts, random thoughts, unprocessed spilling of guts, and I’m going to keep it fun. Of course I’ll often circle back around to topics of writing and books—I can never get away from who I am, and you won’t either if you hang around—but I also expect to be posting plenty of Doctor Who memes, my own photography, funny animals, fontspotting, perhaps an occasional poem or videoblog, and certainly some little tales of life in New Zealand. Because it’s a cool place and you all want to hear about it, right? Personally, I think you should all move here. I get sad living so far from so many of my friends (kicks self. Get back on track!).

Anyway, hold tight. This should be fun!

Daily Doctor: Take me with you!

This one is really quite self-explanatory. I will just add that if such a creature asked me a similar question, I'd first question his sanity, then say yes...