The Malicious Monocle

The bugler, Sgt. Bulldog blew a staccato call for attention in the village centre. As the notes faded into the azure sky the bugler drew himself to attention as he shouted his message.

“By order of Her Royal Majesty’s appointed representative, the Governor Hedgehog Elephant is to be returned a measure of the lands once held by his family as well as the title of Raja. The Raja will be crowned in the Governor’s palace at Patna in one week’s time.”

Elephant listened to this in a state of confusion. How could he be crowned by the Governor if he was on the run? Who was the Governor actually going to crown in a week’s time?

I spent this evening assembling a 1/100 Gundam Model. It was fun. I didn’t need to use any glue at all. The instructions are completely in Japanese. You don’t really need it to put the model together, but there were a couple of steps where I was very happy I could read a little Japanese. I hope to modify the model a bit so I can proxy it for a Tau Titan or similar unit in Warhammer 40K, Apocalypse. I also bought a Star Trek model that I plan on kit bashing into a Tau vehicle as well.

  So tell me, would you like your organs printed in color or black and white?

 http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2007/10/body_builders

     Watch the video there and be amazed.

The market was busier than usual that day when Orangutan and Zebu arrived. The upcoming festival for Durga had people stocking up for family feasts as best as they were able. Orangutan stood in the centre of his stall calling out his wares and prices.

“Bananas for 2 annas or half a rupee for a bunch.”

“Mangoes for 1/2 an anna or 4 mangoes for 3 anna.”

“Cinnamon sticks for 10 ruppes or a bundle of 6 sticks for 3 mohur and 5 rupees.”

In between hawking his goods and serving customers Orangutan would wipe his monocle rather ostentatiously on his gleaming fur.

Zebu use their meagre funds to purchase supplies for the next week. After buying supplies for both his and Orangutan’s families he strolled past the cobbler to look and dream. For the last fortnight the cobbler had had a quad of jaunty jodphur boots on display at his stall. The jaunty jodphurs were made of the most supply leather dyed a bellicose shade of purple. Across the toes in thread of gold were stitched a delicate paisley design.

I arrived at my co-operating school today only to be told by the secretary that there is standardised testing occuring in all of the 8th grade classrooms today. I set this day and time with the my co-op teacher a few weeks ago. Why couldn’t he email or call me to let me know it wasn’t going to be a good day?

 I finally managed to fall asleep last night. I’m feeling pretty rested actually, so I must have pretty much fallen into a coma when I dozed off. The mug of coffee in front of me will take care of any remaining issues I might have with staying awake this morning. I get to leave work in about an hour to do some classroom observation. I really hope it goes well. I have three more lessons that I need to teach and I just want to get them over with and move on to the student teaching portion of the game show.

I realized that my Monocle post from early this morning may end up being out of sequence. Oh well. I’ll put them in order on the official page.

 Sleep is not coming easily tonight. I don’t know why, but it isn’t that unusual of an occurrence for me. I get my insomniac tendencies from my mother. When she gets insomnia, we get cinnamon rolls or other baked goods in the morning. When I get insomnia, all that happens is I get a lot farther or finish whatever book I’m reading.

Orangutan’s plan worked. The monocle helped him duped the good people at the market and his poor vegetables sold just as well as any others that day. Even Zebu seemed happy to plod back to their home village with a much lighter load. Feeling superstitious, Orangutan left the monocle on until Zebu and he were in the jungle. He then polished it on his luxuriant, orange fur and placed it in the silver carrying case his wife, Macaque had given him for the monocle on their wedding anniversary.

Meanwhile back in Patna, Rhesus slumped to the ground in the alley as Mongoose pulled a linen cravat from Rhesus’ now broken neck. Mongoose’s cruel cravat had done it’s duty and killed another supporter of Elephant. He knotted around his neck and exited the alley whistling through his gleaming canines.

I’ve spent my day doing a fair bit of relaxing. I did my homework, but spent some time painting my minis, some time playing on my PS2 and watching some DVDs. I’ve now watched the first four episodes of Deadwood, Season 1. I’m liking it quite a bit even though I don’t normally appreciate westerns.

It’s late now, but I’ve thrown in a film to watch in the background for the rest of the evening. It’s a silent movie version of a story by one of my favorite authors, H.P. Lovecraft. The trailer for the film is here: The Call of Cthulhu. It looks as though the folks at the HPLHS are putting out a new film as well. This one looks to be a ‘talkie’ from the trailer. I can’t wait.

“Der Große Cthulhu wartet schlafend in der versunkenen Stadt R’lyeh. Die Gestirne werden einst wieder richtig stehen, und er wird zurückkehren.”

No further Monocle updates today. I do have plans forming. Soon there shall be a Cruel Cravat to go along with the Mallicious Monocle.

Elephant sits at the table in a poor hut in a village on the outskirts of Patna (a city on the Holy Ganges). A Raja should only sit on a throne made of gold, but Elephant has spent his reign sitting on the dirt floors of humble huts like this one all over his stolen kingdom.

Hedgehog and his men are constantly on the look-out for Elephant. They want Elephant locked up so he cannot inspire his people against Her Majesty. Wanted posters for Elephant mock the fact his riches have been stolen by calling him the, “Pauper Prince”.

Lieutenant Bengal was the highest-ranking Sepoy in Her Majesty’s service. The men in his unit, both English and Native alike looked up to him as a hero. All but one, that is. Corporal Cobra viewed Lieutenant Bengal as a traitor to the rightful leader of the kingdom, Raja Elephant. Clearly only a traitor to the Raja would have curried enough favor with the invaders to be treated as an equal.

Cobra had pledged to see Elephant back on his throne. If that meant he must kill Bengal, so be it.