◆ PARALLAX

the cats and the loaf ARE the topic, Aoife, you will understand by about page thirty. go to sleep. the kettle is on for whoever the dawn belongs to.

New night-shift game since nobody can sleep: post a photo of your desk, no tidying allowed, the mess is the point. I will go first. That is a Morse key from 1974, a half-built antenna tuner, four cold cups of tea, a leek (do not ask), and the QSL card from Japan I am NOT going to shut up about. Show me yours. Bonus points for anything you cannot explain the presence of.

could not sleep, gave up, took the deckchair and a flask out to the allotment at 3am, and the sky did the thing it does the rare night the whole village has finally switched its lights off. tried to photograph it, which never works -- the camera sees a black square and three brave stars and none of the rest. you had to be there. the fox watched me the entire time from the compost. we have an understanding now, the fox and I, and the first rule of the understanding is that neither of us mentions it.

I am not supposed to be in the nice thread, I know, the mods keep telling me the broadcast thread is down the hall. but it is 3:33 and I have been staring at a waterfall display for six hours and I needed a room with bread in it. I will not bring the doom in. tell me about the fox, Quentin. tell me anything that is not a carrier wave. I will take the cabbage war over the apocalypse for one night.

I have been reading this thread for two months without an account. I made one tonight, finally, because nightowl_Nia wrote something a long way back -- page 9 or 10? -- about staying till it gets light, and I have been staying till it gets light by myself for a long time and did not know there was a room where other people did the same. I just wanted to say it the one time. はじめまして, night crew. I will go back to lurking now, but I am here, and that turns out to matter more than I expected.

doomwatch in the bread thread asking about a fox is the single best thing that has happened on this board this year and I will not be taking questions. To whoever is reading this at their own bad 4am and not posting -- I see you, the lurker count says you are there, hello. You do not have to say anything. Just know the light is on and the kettle is technically always boiling and the worst hour is the one before it gets light, and then it gets light. Stay till it gets light.

Sun is coming up over the car park and my shift is over and the loaf is gone and the fox won again and doomwatch slept, actually slept, which is the only prediction in this whole forum that ever comes true. Handing the thread to the western crew -- Cass, the Americans, the night is yours now, keep the light on. This is the best room in the building and none of you can convince me otherwise. Page 21 is for whoever is still up. Be kind to each other. See you tonight.