Still feeling gut-lousy - went to the dentist for a followup. Dreamt unhappily that I was lost in the mall, BHK took off in the Love cube, and I had to climb a giant couch to make it outside. BHK had a nightmare about me power-washing the kitchen, and her in it, too.

Had a calzone - not sure if it helped or not, but it's the first really palpable food substance in days.

Started reading The 13 and 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear about 100 pages in, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It has a Munchausen vibe to it that I dig.

1 year ago - Newton on cam pic w/laundry, water cooler, psych, pizza bagels, unlimited netflix stream, free gas from chavez, call for guantanamo to be closed

2 years ago - pye in lockup, on the way home pic

3 years ago - shoo prezzie, swim / iguana fear, batgirl meme (and my palm doodle), folks quitting acim, trivia meme, porpoise song, dracula's dinosaur death dreams, kenneth koskela in comments

4 years ago - Spidey a teacher's aide, palm doodles, bus pictures, bizarro ipod

5 years ago - Media player classic, Chinese connection, old gaming notes (with diagrams), Florida laws, high school meme, monkeys!, work hubbub

6 years ago - evil quiz, printable gizmos, supergun, enviro-boots

7 years ago - visited hippies, cool clock, warm, groceries, kevin smith quiz, silly linkies, ramble about x-ray-eyes, SOP, etc

8 years ago - fun quotes, romance test, victorian flower symbolism, bill hicks

Today I spent most of the day inside - cold out there, and my back is tricking up. I'm glad tomorrow is physical therapy! BHK and the inlaws did some yardwork in the chill while I did repairs in the heat, with the kitties inside.

Speaking of the kitties, I dreamt that we were in the green truck, returning form taking Newton and Pye somewhere - I had just off-loaded Newt in the house, when the truck drove off - Someone had made off with the vehicle and Pye! ... it made it about a block and a half before BHK and I caught up with it - turned out that Pye was driving, a la Toonces. I was dumbfounded, but BHK just snatched him up and brought him inside the house, scolding him fiercely. I remember looking at the cabin of the truck, and trying to muddle out how he accomplished it - BHK was more interested in telling him "NO! BAD KITTY! You're too young to drive!"(and this is true, as he is only 4.)

Picture taken on the way home last night - Christmas is in the air, already. Normally, I like to wait until after thanksgiving, but I love the more basic stuff... Lit up trees and misty nights.





and for the David Deboy fans out there - Crabs for Christmas.



I spent some time fixing BHK's laptop - the boot volume was toasted somehow. Fortunately, it was just a job for chkdsk /r and a little patience for the cleanup.

After the folks left, bhk made a mighty salad - garbonzos, spinache, cabbage, and whatever other good things in the house (pumpkin seeds and meatless baco-things on mine!), served with some beans and rice for bulk. It felt really good.

1 year ago - I love traveling with BHK, train set at motorcycle shop, festival of trees (Hospice), getting my head in order

2 years ago - gobble gobble - turkey day

3 years ago - talked to bro in hospital, local music, reader quiz

4 years ago - good counters bad, beard, heroin traffic in sofla, Melissa not Alyssa, evo vs creationism beliefs in the usa, googlewhacked, crimes against children task force

5 years ago - Whatever comes to mind, kid memory, cent sign, elephants

6 years ago - Mayah's Birthday with pics, mage knight, cosplayers, Newtpics, ACCExpo, Lemmiwinks song

7 years ago - Superpowers, assoil, holiday icon musing

8 years ago - Golden Rice, survey, myths over Miami

bad dream -- written upon waking up - translate at whim.

9434 - Monday

BHK made tofu curry / vinegar soup - pumpkin muffins. Awesomely good food, and it makes it feel like autumn is coming.

Tomorrow at work is "football team" day - I don't have much in football-wear that's work appropriate, but hopefully my virginia tech denim shirt will suffice.

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the concept ships blog - nifty spaceship design and development for sci-fi series.

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Monday: Sunny, with a high near 83.

Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 61.

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1 year ago - Bluegrass festival with pictures, moon pies, kitties

2 years ago - wedding announcement, hacking the psp, skybar, justice

3 years ago - choco chippie cookies from the great mazinga, 2nd life, python quiz, newt and I horseplay pic, gave RS the smoking image, lj security issues, ADP vs RI, morning picture

4 years ago - skeeters are coming, Approached to hoax, enron should be glad it's not Chinese, bro's gf in jail, Colee contacts me

5 years ago - cej gab, goober and nims, Bottle Imps, Napellus, Salamander's Feather, Screech Owl, Sycomancy, Tiromancy, sex x-rays, pass this on, first night of 24 hour call, universe POVs, super leaping dancers (my standing leap is now about a foot, guinness, anti-spam

6 years ago - rave, dave, mageknight

7 years ago - Ziito, Vulkon, and helpful hints re: gremlins

8 years ago - applelard comes out of the Bon Jovi closet, present reminder, and federal spending thoughts

 

I haven't been recalling my dreams lately. Less fitful sleep, but I wake up with a cough and some nausea most mornings. BHK made some yummy soup last night, but I wasn't up to much eating for one reason or another. Maybe I'm getting a little cold or something?

Watched the last two episodes of house... the finale was pretty sad stuff... but I dn't know how much I go in for the pseudo-surreal hypnoscapes and memory retrieval elements... and the fact that nobody checked out the jane doe was a pretty weak plot point, given the other in-depth review of the case.

Put an order in for Hive and the Mosquito expansion at Aardvark - it should be in by June 12 (a little under a week)! A little expensive, but the bakelite pieces will endure a long time.

Maybe I'll make some out of glow in the dark fimo... or do variant pieces with other bugs. How would a ladybug move... or what might a lightning bug be able to do to switch up the game?

I already fear BHK will toast me at the game... she's got a good mind for some of these logic puzzle hex territory things.. like hazienda.

Playing it online is fun, but I love the feedback of face to face and handling the game pieces. Plus, if the power goes out, you're still set. (With the exception of pente and go I prefer most all games offline.) I first coded a version of pente for my good ol' atari ST back in the day... the AI was weak, but not terrible. I think that I've learned a few more strategies since then, but there is no lack of humans to play with... and there are better AIs out there, too.

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These free paper foldables are pretty keen. The cat in the vet collar is particularly inspired.

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Bambi II: Oh yes... there will be blood. (thank </a></b></a>theweaselking)

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L. Ron Hubbard's 5 Most Impressive Lies (Besides Scientology)

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1 year ago - 150 questions meme

2 years ago - tuesday like buddy holly, poetry, long phone talk, csi project, under cold blue stars, 3 girl rhumba,

3 years ago - Org of American States, South America, Local Journals, burlesque, rain to sun, icons, journey to the center of the earth, I don't much like Cap'n Jack, PO CHU-I, florida slave labor, rose garden, the Way-Outs, Spanish mixup at work.

4 years ago - D-Day / Normandy, Cold Reading, plague cookies, shockwave, meme, chill out, first appearance of </a></b></a>eryx_uk in my comments.

5 years ago - Hobbit Pub w/danny pics, DARPA

6 years ago - Troublesome evacuation issues for fumigation

7 years ago - evil news, laconic, hobbit names, aimbot, hungry, lj DDos, glow text abuse, misc wacky html, Scotto quirk, COPS, long chat with CEJ, Rudy-fibber, poo-health chart.

8 years ago - no-thang

 

No movie last night - instead we went to dinner with the in-laws, and after BHK and I played some boardgames. She won Labyrinth, and I took Oshi. (also discovered that the oshi set has one extra two-point piece, and one too few one-point pieces. we may play with pyramids in the future. (or penny, nickel, quarter as towers, for that matter)

Both were our first time playing - BHK got labyrinth for $1.61 at the thrift store yesterday... we've more than made our entertainment money back in a single sitting. We picked up Oshi from Aardvark a little while back, but hadn't gotten to play until last night.

Other goodies BHK picked up from the store -

• Green Orvis Mosquito-repellant shirt for Larry
• Green lounge pants for Chris
• Pink Bucket hat for herself
• Green striped shirt for me
• a few books, including Stephen Fry's The Liar for me, and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook
• a couple of puzzles, still sealed in the box. (corvette 1000 pc, spacewalk, homer simpson and an irish hutch)

Dreamt last night that I'd signed on to join the army for six months. Not really a dream of mine in waking life - a lot of the gang from high school were there - Steve Jacoby, James Dawsey, etc... we were all in training as sort of a semi-serious laugh. My big concern wa sthat I had to bring my own toiletries... like the army wouldn't provide deodorant or shampoo.

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thanks, ecto -

The first 2 parts of the “lost” film Italian Spiderman has been up for a week or two now and it looks to be just as ridiculous — and awesome — as the trailer had indicated. Give me Franco Franchetti (R.I.P) with his porn-star moustache and pump-action shotgun over Toby McGuire any day.

Italian Spiderman Movie - Episode 1 and Episode 2 [YouTube]

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via rejectomorph -

SurLaLune, a huge website full of fascinating stuff about fairy tales:

"SurLaLune Fairy Tales features 47 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations."

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1 year ago - BHK dominates in SSX, priates 2, spies like us, convert stuff to other stuff, good eats, BHK gets me some Hawaiian shirts

2 years ago - Iron Giant, Swarm, Cim-nim toast, cookie monster graffiti, ping pong kitties, bus stop sunrise, OTR, porch entry, graypumpkin gamecock, x4, on call, fruit pies, podcasts

3 years ago - Celine Dion as MJ, Tragic Darth, Boynton Tasering, great sunset, Firpo, MSK in NM w/UTI, look-around camera, sex-pred lj, chat w/sammy, tyrant in the house?, human trafficking, 20 questions meme

4 years ago - Dan visit and a caveman waitress, speaker scam, call me Q.

5 years ago - isketch, skeletor & gang, Scott-heroes, Wold Newton, I LIKE stuff, ugly Oz from MacFarlane toys

6 years ago - virus spam, moment of zen, gute fahrt, pet psychic, Crossing over guy,newtcam banner (Never did see it in rotation.), homepage design ideas

7 years ago - |337 translation guide, parse, fun turtle fact, ultrasonic cheesecharacteristics, Hello Kitty Douche, lj portal, long distance distress

8 years ago - nothin'

Dick Martin died. Why does this make me feel bad or nostalgic? Laugh-in was old hat before I was born, but I loved seeing it on Nick at Nite.

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Forgot to mention the awesome sub/pizza shop discovered on Saturday. Selby Sub Shoppe - found when we took a wrong turn looking for Thai food. Best mistake we could've made. Larry was especially happy that he didn't have to consume anything involving curry or green beans. He got chicken wings, while BHK, Chris and I gobbled down some white pizza... with red sauce on the side.

So good. Also good was the lemon coconut cake, lemon pie, chocolate mousse pie and the lemon cookies. We seem to have an inordinate amount of lemon fondness in our desserts.

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Random statement - I don't think that Andy Kaufman was very funny, even in a meta-way. Entertainingly random, at best.

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Current music - The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson

If you were falling, then I would catch you.
You need a light, I'd find a match.

'cause I love the way you say good morning.
And you take me the way I am.

If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I'll make it better.

'cause I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am.

I'd buy you Rogaine if you start losing all your hair.
Sew on patches to all you tear.

'cause I love you more than I could ever promise.
And you take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.

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BHK got her first filling today - her personal tooth-care is far superior to mine.

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Dreamt last night of being at the Disney lagoon - BHK and I were swimming with giant sharks, eels - no fish was smaller than half my size, most of them were between 30-40 feet long. At one point I was kidnapped, and was told that if I escaped, my entire family would be killed. I grabbed the person and immobilized him by snapping his arms and legs off like dried twigs - when I went to finish him, the police showed up and told me that his brain shouldn't be damaged, as they needed it to ge tthe information on how he would hurt folks. I didn't care to see him live, but I relented - though only if I could pack his head with salt and ash. That was ok with the police, who decapitated him, and put his noggin in a clear tube for analysis... the head was somehow still alive, but as long as he couldn't speak, he couldn't hurt us... some sort of vampire, or lich, maybe?

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Adam is home from Haiti - note form MVW

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1 year ago - pepper picture (first harvest from the garden), navicat, website revamp thoughts, sweet sue's secret ingredient, 9 million bicycles

2 years ago - newtcam server down, social kicks up, movies, quizzes, juice newton

3 years ago - power outage, scruffies, grow an armchair, Audry Landers/ woodchuck/ Gene Rayburn, don't step in the cake, swat monkey, em's ink, best quote ever, soap for meth, Man Arrested for Wearing Grinch Mask, letter from mp, bro call, peacekeeping purse

4 years ago - animated newt pic, open courseware, a lovely phone call, athenos reply, name meme

5 years ago - Cross-sections, candy bars and otherwise, panoramas, hut-building, surreal candy, there b3 features, wvum, world as blog

6 years ago - Memorial Day, documentation, Jakushitsu, Animal crackers, flash & the elongated man, sleeping late with a cat, what's better. (First appearance for the Newton-yawn icon)

7 years ago - nice dreams, four legs good, two legs bad, saw Shrek, first mobile entry from the laptop

8 years ago - I'd not yet committed to daily entries

Dreamt last night that we were touring a pair of Monasteries - Tibetan style, Buddhist things. Apparently, I wasn't too interested in the firs tone, and had to rush to the second before the bell rang - doors would lock and wild dogs tore apart anyone not inside one of the two feuding temples when the bells summoned them.

The ground between the two buildings slid and shifted... I (much more nimbly than I might've in waking life) leaped from stepping stone to stepping stone, avoiding too-clear water that was running thickly, like syrup. Once on the second place's stairs, the dogs curled up and went to sleep.

The building itself was very nifty - all sorts of oddities inside, not unlike a Ripley's. One was closed off with a curtain - a skeletal mammoth with an elephant-sized, but human shaped skull - save for a single tusk/horn curling upwards from the tip of the chin area of the mandible. I went to take a picture of it, but a guard (I don't recall his garb - if he was a mall security type or a warrior-sort.. I just knew he worked there, wasn't just some guy) told me that it was forbidden. He then smiled at me, took a picture with his cell phone and was promptly gored by the skeleton. The tusk tore a rip in him from crotch to throat and where he opened up, rose petals fell until the body was just an empty skin.

A different member of the monestary showed up and apologized to me - I couldn't attend service, because the priest was shorter than me. However another fellow, taller than me would be available to walk me through services on Tuesday, at 8:30. I asked if he meant morning or night, and he laughed... "Don't you work? - it's at night.. it'll be 8:30 pm to 10pm, then there'll be snacks, bell ringing and wheel turning. Does your wife dance?"

I said that she did, though we really have never been.

I've never been to a Tibetan monastery... now, I suspect that I'll be a bit disappointed.

After telling her about it, BHK says that I'll never get hot dogs grilled with onions and green peppers for dinner again. I hope that's not the case.

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ok these are awesome: http://www.instantrimshot.com/ and http://www.sadtrombone.com/

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I just noticed that it's the anniversary of my father's death. It was ages ago... I miss him, now that I think about it, but I haven't really had him in my thoughts much in recent times. I wonder why... I wouldn't have realized if I hadn't seen the archives, at least not until I saw 5/15 on my calendar at work, I guess.

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1 year ago - Father's Death Anniversary, Mom hears from Bro re: his sentencing, my challenges, happy to be "up north" and out of FL, people who have moved, more shaved ice (with pix)

2 years ago - bird flu / monkey pox, walkabout, podcasts, newtcam pics, jack lemmon, hoot, saucermen, exploding pants, bus ride poll, hail,

3 years ago - MP gift, pabst t, won rum, don lapre's vitamin, personality defect, walkabout pics, monkey at large/safety in numbers, vampire sugar fuel cell, florida medicine is stupid, I smell good

4 years ago - first palm doodle on new palm, wireless sync, pics from houstons (hypno-orb), Library of Alexandria Discovered, Bones Found In Bag At Florida Cemetery

5 years ago - palm doodles, dreams / reflections on the old crew, chicken hawk cards,mailbox mystery, lunar eclipse, first use of publix grocery deliveries,Teen Girl Squad #3

6 years ago - saw waking life, dream thoughts, prep for star wars expedition

7 years ago - evil news, tumor thoughts, astley gives me defective hardware, humors,hunger-poll, Tsarist Russia photos in color, Paid users get fasterservers, Florida Joke

Back is feeling much better today. Not great, but only a low-level ache and tightness at the moment. The pills best used before bed as they make me sleepy and thus not suitable for work or any sharp thought-based activity during the day.

Still haven't heard from brother since he was released from jail. I imagine that no news is good news.... I think I'll call him tonight, though.

Yesterday afternoon while I was taking care of some issues, BHK ran to the nursery and picked up some veggies for us - Flowers : Ranunculus (look mostly like the Heart of Gold ), Some Red Cat Tails, a dozen ears of corn, and a big bag of zucchini. Local food for supper the next few days!

Also after work, BHK and I went to see The Forbidden Kingdom. I'd say that we both liked it - the settings and fight choreography were lovely, but I would really have loved to see what they'd have done in the 80's, when they were both at physical prime. It was also a bit too... American, I guess. The bookends of "bullies chase kid with no 'fu", to "kid, now trained, defeats bullies" weakened the picture a bit. Overall, I was more than pleased, but it wasn't as fantastic as I'd have hoped. Not in the same league as othe rcurrent wire fu flicks, but seeing Li and Chan together was pretty nifty... Plus, The Monkey King!

After the movie's popcorn, we were ready for some serious supper time, and headed to Red Robin... we were seated between an old man who had a fragrance of tomato soup in a baby diaper and an adorable down's syndrome baby.

That was ok, save for the distracting scent... but after waiting for about 10 minutes without seeing a server, I took it as a sign of possible things to come, and we left.

We made a beeline for Cheeburger² and were seated immediately... placed our order, and chitty-chatted. The Trivial Pursuit cards at the table were ones we'd already done before, but that's the risk we take by going there so often. Our server was seemingly inexperienced at her job... a little while after we placed our order, she came back to tell us that they were all out of veggie burgers. Apparently, neither BHK or I were slotted for the meal we were looking for tonight. We got ready to go, and the girl pleaded with us to stay - free milkshakes were offered. (Reasonable, since they were already made, waiting for our non-present main course to come to us.) We said that it was ok, but she begged us to stick around while she got her boss to make things right. Bogdan was there, acting as manager... we really can't say no to him. He's been our burger buddy since I first moved here, and BHK has known him longer than that. He gave us some other options, which worked out fine. I got a grilled portobello sammich and BHK did a cow-burger, both had the same toppings and treatment we wanted on the veggie-burgers.

The shakes were tasty, though not as thick, since they had time to melt while we waited... I got a chocolate mint (not as good as chocolate cherry), and BHK had a standard ol' fashioned chocolate malt.

We made it home at about 9ish, BHK checked her email while I played a little TF2 (polishing my Heavy and Demoman skills) and Counterstrike.

Naughty Newt wouldn't let BHK's water alone... first he stuck his face close to it, and sneezed into the surface.... insuring that BHK wouldn't be drinking any. With that, he lapped the contents until he wasn't comfortable sticking his face inside the cup... so he put a paw in and pulled it over to drink from the puddle. BHK didn't know that he's fond of that little procedure. I guess she knows now. We went to bed shortly thereafter... reading turned swiftly to sleep.

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Best thing about Gordon Ramsay is his insult factor. calling someone a doughnut, a pelican and a donkey.

I'm surely going to call someone a "silly pelican" sometime soon.

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This morning, I remember a dream of disease outbreak - lots of panic - BHK and I were separated, don't know where the cats went.

I was put on a bus to Schenectady (why Schenectady?), with one small carry-on bag. I was forbidden to bring any money, books, cell phone / electronics or shoes, with the understanding that I'd be subject to robbery and worse if I did so. I don't remember what I did pack.. clothes and toiletries of some sort. I specifically recall bringing a roll of toilet paper and some pens and pencils. There was considerable fear and panic on the bus, but it wasn't overcrowded. I had my own seat, and behind me was the skinny guy from The Big Bang Theory.

The skinny guy and I talked for a bit... more like he spoke and I tossed in a comment here and there in support of what he was saying. I don't recall the exact nature of the conversation but there were certainly aspects of survival involved - something about safe water and how to make a solar oven was part of it. I was thirsty, and did not pack any water - there was a screeching or whooshing of air in my ears as we drove to our destination. Actor guy moved from the chair behind to sit next to me as there were two other fellows on his bench, pushing and shoving each other aggressively.

After our talk, skinny guy showed me that he was wearing an earring shaped like two horseshoes that were open, but closed enough that the second didn't fall from the first. the beads were black. He took it out and stuck it in my ear, piercing it when he did... and put in another one back in his own ear... the only difference was that his now had gray beads instead. He said that it was protection for the area ahead, and also gave me a compass and a powerful magnet (that didn't affect the compass, somehow) as a way to thank me because I wasn't annoying. The men behind us had been listening wanted thier own, but he refused. "Sorry - you were annoying me. Anyway, I don't have any more." and then was killed - I couldn't help him because I was back on the bus again, and he was in the parking lot, left far behind, shrieking as the two men tore him to pieces. I guess one of the men got the earring he had.

We stopped in Montana (must've been the long way, since we were going to NY from MD), where men in gas masks and carrying clipboards came on and took us outside one by one. We were lined up, and then everyone n the bus was killed except for me - deemed contagious, I suppose.

I was given food and water, and then told to walk from there. A broad expanse of grassy hills and green trees were ahead of me, with no path to be seen... but I walked, a deep sense of sadness hitting me with every step. I noted that the land was stunning, but empty without BHK and the boys with me... I began to wonder if I'd ever see them again- if somehow I'd been tricked and that this was a way of putting me in isolation.

I pulled a walking stick from a nearby branch and hit each tree, hoping to knock unseen fruit and to let nearby wildlife know I was coming... for whatever reason, I thought there were mountain lions in the woods.

Then I woke up to the alarm clock playing BHK's IPOD, and I was snuggled in with her, the boys on the bed as well. So that's a happy ending, anyhow.

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1 year ago - garden work / computer work, one word meme, shorpy

2 year ago - rough day, socialist apes

3 years ago - droopy dan, mlm scam, petroglyphs, wifi via airship, science fiction, local graffiti pics, newt on kittenbreak and kittenwar

4 years ago - Team Laser Explosion Secret Fan club, Eels, ADP sassmouth, php nuke is el-sucko

5 years ago - Travel plans, work, finn's karma, Saw Murray

6 years ago - May Day Coming, Snuggles Newt, Super power, Chupa Blabs

7 years ago- web poll, dj poll, bit o' fiction, My pet Skeleton, naughty news - lots of breasts, a bunghole, creed and a mime, mum.org letter for </b></a>menstrualhut

Ah, the end of another week... I'm looking forward to a gentle weekend, this go 'round. Sleepy This morning.

Recent doodles -

Me in the office, post saying Shazam! Regarding Uncle Dudley/Uncle Marvel. During the classic era, an old man named Dudley (who was clearly modeled after W. C. Fields) claimed that he was not only a relative of the Marvels but also a Marvel himself, although neither was true. The Marvels took a liking to him and decided to humor him, and "Uncle" Dudley became Uncle Marvel, the Marvel Family's manager. He'd make his "transformation" along with one or more of the others, but not by magic; rather, by quickly removing his break-away garments (under the cover of lightning that the real Marvel(s) called down) to reveal his homemade Marvel costume underneath. He explained his lack of super-powers by claiming he suffered from "shazambago". In modern continuity, Dudley H. Dudley is simply a janitor at Billy's school who finds himself involved in Marvel Family adventures, although in one story he was temporarily given Shazam powers to help round up the escaped Seven Deadly Enemies of Man.

Oh, my Shazambago!

Green monkey-alien in a bubble. He's wearing his bubble summoning-belt, of course. He's been climbing a lot, note his filthy hands and feet. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a damn, dirty ape, however. I was thinking a little bit of Rescue on Fractalus recently, thus the cheesy lines and markings. The hammerhead alien Jaggi had great pop-up spook value in his day. Soft hearted for Planet of the Apes, Martian Manhunter, and Bubble-force fields all unwrapped into that, I guess.



Dealing with "customer service" regarding bugs, bug fixes, and time lines. I seemed to get only one word answers, with no detail as to where, when or how items would be fixed. I ultimately got it worked out, via my own trouble tree and specific questions, but it was like pulling teeth... on a rampaging hippo. I'm just glad that it's now mostly functioning.

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Dreamt of our bathroom being tiled with Hershey bars, and grouted with marshmallow. Hershey bars aren't my absolute fave... why not milky ways, or mars bars? I guess the flat rectangle looks more like tile to my sleeping mind. Last night after work Chris, BHK and I went to Maerten's, to check out the sale preview. Chris bought a ton of nice stuff... BHK got a cute pair of sterling bumblebee earrings and a little silver bean / bead on a box chain. Honestly, I like what BHK got more, though Chris's items were pretty, too. Post sale, we hit Thai Inter for some yummy feed. It was a bit of a hike to return home late afterwards, but I think it was worth it - the gals had fun.

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I can't say as I've ever referred to anything as "a real corker." I'd think that I might've, but probably not. I prefer "it's a hoot!" or the like.

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Pleased that we did get the 2007 homestead exemption after all, but looks like 2008 is a no-go. at least we have time to save up a wee bit before 4/15/2009.

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Something to make BHK happy -

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The Wall Street Journal says that a video production company that earned 90% of its revenue from taping Walmart's internal meetings over the past 30 years has lost the Walmart account—but retained the rights to the video library.

Now the videos are available to anyone who wants to see them —for a price. Lawyers, reporters, activists and journalists are lining up at the production company's tiny new office, cash in hand.

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1 year ago - a day in the life animated doodle, bhk's lasagna, feeling draggy, busy at work

2 year ago - mp3, gp & kat missed, b5 / dr who, blue tarps, cloud pic

3 years ago - tv-shoot, whale cam, regional anthropology, sesame street, dream Bhk & Pye, Gamer quiz, illuminati, little cowpoke, celeb diaries, i feel great, moist towelettes, astronaut jones, 9 years for spammer, bush toy

4years ago - easter, peeps, image collages, pelicans, spidey-2

5 years ago - first 4 children in the vampire game, got my offer from JKG

6 years ago - Programmer / Engineer gag, lovely private entries, including Blackstone's Reading.

7 years ago - pork taco brain worm, Power-puff Scotto, grove meeting, An open letter to browser sniffers, agog

Happy Valentines Day!

Got a lovely Kermit the frog card from BHK. Words can't even begin to describe how much love I have for her. I hold her dearly in my heart. She makes every day a valentiney sort of day. Hard to get too worked up about a day that's all about love and affection when I'm immersed in it all the time.

That's a good thing!

As ol' Bill Shakespeare put it,

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Tonight, we exchanged chocolates, and BHK made tasty mexican bake for me and the in-laws. (well, Chris... Larry had Hot dogs.) Dessert was 3-chocolate ice cream and orange cake with milk chocolate icing. nom nom nom.  More fun din  din news to follow, I'm sure.

---

The most awesome collection of superhero toys in one blister pack.

Movie Spidey 3 with a baseball bat!
Superman with a crossbow and terrible chest logo, riding a roaring dinosaur!
Bare-booty Hulk!
Pretty Decent Design Batman!

I would so totally pay three dollars for that. (But then again, I'd dig a Han Solo in Carbonite mini-fridge, too)

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Metro says there were 84 assaults against Metrobus drivers in 2007, an increase of more than 50 from 2002. Now they're talking about putting protective shields in for the drivers.... what about the other passengers? via WTOP

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via Scheiner - Offshore oil rig evacuated after someone dreamed of a bomb.

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I heard waterboarding referred to as a "mild form of torture" today.

The words torture and mild don't go together in my book - not a gray area, as far as I'm concerned. Like "slightly excruciating".

---

I just discovered SourceTV - pretty keen for game spectators. Not a bad way to develop strategy, either. (Learned about it per the huge Team Fortress 2 update - including a map with a train! - Nice of them to give gamers with no significant other something to do on valentine's day.)

---

List of Famous (and kinda-sorta famous, maybe) Scientologists. I still can't believe I missed hearing about Jason Lee.

---

1 year ago - stayed in for ice storm smashes our fence, ice pictures

2 years ago - Sand dollar, interjection poll, Miami cloud art, bro drama, Bang!

3 years ago - dream, war tuning, slacker, torrent tv, gm-ginger kitties, questions meme, christo, newt stalking pic, zefrank's st. val history, whims-cute card, work peeve

4 years ago - V-day, hippie visit results, Nefertiti documentary mostly drama - not much document, cheese doodle sculpture, anonymous reviewer bug amazon

5 years ago - got the nordis gig, palm pics

6 years ago - n V-day poetry, JB figures out about SA & Me, wandering pics

7 years ago - How Do I Love Thee?, I resemble Dan Conner, Men cause the mutations, tea room & old TV, TMBG lyric

Humpday! Midweek, and it feels it. I was happy to rediscover that we get President's day off next month... Three-day weekends are a wonderful thing. Added bonus is that my b-day falls on a weekend this year, so that Saturday is mine, all mine!

BHK and Cathy got together today to do more straightening and space management at the house. One recent change is the move of the love seat from the office to the living room... newtcam archives show that Pye doesn't seem to mind the change of pace. 



Maybe we'll have room for some bookcases under the North-face windows, with the tops clear for kitty-climbing and general sunning.

Poor Pye must be a little chilly in that picture - he's all fluffed out. Cold, or resting off a horsing around match with Newt.

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"After eight years and some $65 million, the state of Maryland is taking its first steps to return to an accountable, paper-ballot based voting system. Governor Martin O'Malley has announced an initial outlay of $6.5 million towards the $20 million cost of an optical system which will scan and tally the votes while the paper ballots are retained as a backup. The new (or old) system is expected to be in place by 2010 — or four years before the state finishes paying off the bill for the touch-screen system."

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Had a bit of a nightmare about using the walker last night. Forgive my recycling of old doodles. Dreamt of being poked and prodded, cut open and stapled shut.

I've already had two surgeries.. one in 1994, and another in 2003.

Makes me twitchy, just thinking about it. After being cut up, I had to go shopping for tennis balls to put under the walker's feet.



Now I've got the phrase / title Walker, Texas Ranger stuck in my head.

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Random Self-portrait of the moment taken in the loo at work - Beard has bypassed the goatee stage for winter.

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I still remember the sting of asphalt embedded into my palms after the trip and fall 5 years back.

The voice of my first grade teacher is a strong memory, too.

Also those commercials for free catalogs....

Free Catalog
Pueblo, Colorado, 81009.

Is the only reason I know a zip code in Pueblo.

Hey...they have a website now.

I wonder if I'd have the guts to punch a Tyrannosaurus in the face.

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Milton Blahyi, a former feared rebel commander in Liberia's brutal civil war, has admitted to taking part in human sacrifices as part of traditional ceremonies intended to ensure victory in battle.

He said the sacrifices "included the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the heart, which was divided into pieces for us to eat."

There had been numerous rumours of human sacrifices during the 1979-93 conflict but this is the first time anyone has admitted publicly to the practice.

Mr Blahyi, 37, is better known in Liberia as "General Butt Naked" because he went into combat with no clothes on, to scare the enemy.

He is now an Evangelist preacher, who prefers to use the name Joshua.

---

1 year ago - zombie astronaut, gun runner dream, paper moon pix,

2 years ago - missing cj, superhero dream, youtube b&B, fat bat cat, herm patient, pug in lucha mask, endless forest, birthday counter.

3 years ago - Chilly, doodle, facial morphs (monkey scotto is still my fave), food, height comparisons, a/b meme, warning labels, toybox mooch, scythes

4 years ago - happy Newt, nipples off, palm post - bus stop, tummy ache. penguin poop, giant nostril

5 years ago - Tests, truth, rumor, links and history, lj spam, Kev in court

6 years ago - I got my camera, Alvin gets fired from work for stealing overtime, unsolved mysteries, snap club, mcd's employees, nifty moon site.

7 years ago - Reflections on the old regime, The Litter Box Song *snerk*, Cow Saliva, "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme", rehiring some of the fire-ees

Dreamt of the boardwalk coming to life like a Japanese Umbrella Monster. Why? Now I wonder how many 100-year old things are in the house. I'm guessing not much, save for a few books and coins.

BHK made a tasty pseudo-chicken / broccoli / alfredo noodle dish... I scarfed down two full bowls of the stuff... and they were not little bowls. The in-laws invited us to chinese food, but I think that I came out way ahead with what I got.

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Nifty Iron Man art meme, reminds me a bit of the batgirl one done way back when... I wonder if GP and/ or Kat will do one? I dig Paul Conrad's stuff.. and all of 'em are groovy. See Also the Stan Lee Tribute page.

---

Meme from eryx by way of count marius

1. What bill do you hate paying the most?
Condo side-stuff

2. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?
With BHK, every dinner is pretty dang romantic! Out, I'd say the greek restaurant before golden compass.

3. Do you regret losing your virginity to who you lost it to?
No.

4. If you could go back and change one thing what would it be?
I don't know... maybe get better results on my back operations.

5. Name of your first grade teacher?
Mr Adams

6. What do you really want to be doing right now?
Chilling with the Mrs.

7. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Super hero, Cowboy, pirate, army man... the usual. First career choice was tech-guy.

8. How many colleges did you attend?
PBCC, FAU, and Miami - three!

9. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?
BHK handed it to me as I got out of the shower!

10. What are your thoughts on gas prices?
It seems people will pay anything rather than investigate alternate modes of energy and transport.

11. If you could move anywhere and take someone with you where would it be?
BHK and I to a comfy cottage in vermont, maybe? Or even someplace closer to work, but further from fallout.

12. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?
Where's the snooze button?

13. Last thought before going to sleep last night?
Where's Pye?

14. Do you miss being a child?
Some parts yes, but mostly no.

and where is 15?

16. What errand/chore do you despise?
Well, not despise, but anything that involves me on my hands and knees, or bending too much... scrubbing floors or ironing is yucky.

17. If you didn't have to work, would you volunteer?
I would volunteer at a charity (or charities) of my choice, sure!

18. Get up early or sleep in?
Sleep in, usually!

19. What is your favorite cartoon character?
Hm. I dig classic cartoons, like Daffy Duck a lot.

20. Favorite thing to do at night with a girl?
Depends on my mood and the girl!

21. Have you found real love yet?
Absolutely.

22. When did you start feeling old?
I've gotten creaky in the back since my teens... but I don't feel really old.

no 23?

24. Your favorite lunch meat?
Cheeeeeese! Cheddar is always nice.

25. What do you get every time you go into Wal-Mart?
I don't think that there's a regular thing... chips and soda, maybe?

26. Beach or lake?
I like lakes a trifle more than the sea... but both are nice. The bay is a happy medium.

27. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?
Depends on how you define it. I'm certainly in favor of my marriage!

28. Do you own property?
Me and the bank.

29. Favorite guilty pleasure?
Guilty, not so much, but I do like lounging indoors and having a personal day here and again.

30. Favorite movie you wouldn't want anyone to find out about?
I'm not easily embarrassed.. I do like Adventures in Babysitting, and that could be classified as sort of feeble.

31. What's your drink?
Diet Cream Soda is tasty! I'll go for diet cherry pepsi, diet mountian dew or diet grape giant, too.

32. Cowboys or Indians?
In general, Cowboys.

33. Cops or Robbers?
In general, Cops.

34. Who from high school would you like to run in to?
Steve Jacoby, Cameron Scott, Larry Barnes, Mr. Cornell, Driana Maher

35. What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now?
Hard to say, but I'd guess XM radio U-pop, 1940's or Motown.

36. Norm or Cliff?
Cliff is pretty hard to beat, but I think I'd prefer Norm.

37. Grey's or 'The Office?
The Office... never seen Grey's

38. Worst relationship mistake that you wish you could take back?
Poor behavior around friends in general back in the 90s.

39. Do you like the person that sits directly across from you at work?
Nobody really sits across from me... I guess if I drew an imaginary line from my facing through the office, I'd hit Donna.. she's cool, I like her.

40. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?
Hmm... Tony Shaloub? Who's buying?

41. Indoors or Outdoors?
Both, please!

42. Have you ever crashed your vehicle?
i've been in a few crashes, and yes, I've bumped into another car way back when.

43. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?
Yup! outdoor fire out of control.

44. Last book you read?
If Chins could kill. Currently reading Soon I Will Be Invincible and Storm Front depending on if I'm carrying the hardcover or just my palmtop.

45. Do you have a teddy bear?
There's one in a little bomber jacket and goggles around here somewhere!

46. Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?
Camping along the peace river... not that strange!

47. Somewhere in California you've never been and would like to go?
The Tar Pits

48. Do you go to church?
Not religiously, no.

49. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship?
Well, I'm happily married, so the career gets the reboot!

50. How old are you?
38

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1 year ago - voice post - pretzels and candy corn

2 years ago - mr t happy dance, stayed in watched kong, hobbit house, MLK day, falling sand toy, palm doodle, deadly sins meme

3 years ago - Rainy lazy mel-day, bonnet house, literati with resilience, fictional substances, fooling around with image searches

4 years ago - Cycloptic Goat, Fontifier, Aesop, etc

5 years ago - Newt Pic, Manatees, Harry potter, palm wait at doc, sanctity of life

6 years ago - cool invention poll, thoughts about human rights progressing, magic spell over Taiwan, books read, How to take a punch, and my first notification that I was being published in UA2.

7 years ago - Custard the Dragon, Beautiful and Not-so-beautiful Words, Botticelli reminding me of mah sweetie, Michelanglo on Censorship, and a few dead links.

8 years ago - Newt was Neutered!

Solid sleep, but I woke up once in the middle of the night - maybe that's why I can recall my dream so readily today. Dreamt that I was living in a haunted house - hanged bodies in varying states of decay kept appearing on the porch. Some of the skulls were certainly not human... more bovine or ursine, depending. I would throw them away, or burn them out in the yard, but the following day, more would be there.

I kept the noose rope, spooling it into a large ball in the back yard, hoping to make the place a roadside attraction. I don't know why reappearing bodies wouldn't be enough. For whatever dream-reason, I spun the rope to the tune of Stick Shifts & Safety Belts (Which is still lodged in my head... 16 hours or more later.)

Rather than come for the huge ball of twine, visitors did start to come, due to the delicious smell of charred carcasses. I don't know why feeding the bodies to visiting people felt OK, but it was guilt-free... my attitude was "hey, they were just hanging there... like selling fruit from my apple tree."

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Top 20 Logical Fallacies - When in a debate, I'm often guilty of abusing reductio ad absurdum (#14).

---

This morning on the way to work - still a few autumn colors out there.

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I hear through the grapevine that one of my old places of business is in a pretty big tangle. Eight people have turned over in a year's time there. When one considers that they only have 14 positions, five of them part-time and not all 14 existed for that full year, that's a sure sign of a problem.

Speaking of Grapes... DIET GRAPE AT GIANT HAS RETURNED!!



The only grape soda that I actively enjoy, flavor-wise. Plus, the foam is a soft powder blue, not purple. BHK has been questing for it since mid-june.

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Nice.. finally a word of the day I'd not heard before!

perfervid puhr-FUR-vid, adjective:

Ardent; impassioned; marked by exaggerated or overwrought emotion.

I like it.

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1 year ago - punch buggy, meeting, craig james white, typo on sheet, work misc

2 years ago - LED clothes, K&K mime, Clavicus loves his pastry, doom patrol, quizzes, x-ing, newt pic, Red knows the score, cybermen, scotto avie

pictures taken 2 years ago - newt with the palm cam

3 years ago - bro call, sammich heartburn, remote control jargon, Eid, promenade in the park, FF movie looks like poop, comic book torrents, CoH sued by Marvel

4 years ago - Butterflies, Christ, Wind and Dexterity, my journal is in popular science, phonepost, back on call

5 years ago - expensive minis, misc whims, wacky news, bob hope

6 years ago - I live near blimps, medicine poll, Bad Elder Caucasian Dudes, marvel misfits

7 years ago - Des tries to take on the hive, whoville test, aok, Robbo's last week

transcribed and backdated for catch up.

Holy cow - Last night was nuts. Fever dreams of being compressed and spread out over a latticework of red and purple circles - I felt like I was a wad of pizza dough, being roasted and smashed... stretched and smeared while being roasted from inside. Combine suffocation with the feeling of having your joints twisted.

It sucked. Sure, not so bad now that it's passed, but heck... that may've been the worst fever/fever dream I've ever had.

BHK and the boys have been sweethearts and help immensely.

Caught up with out Tivo'ed Kitchen Nightmares - both British and USA versions. Also bagged some Eureka, the new House, too. There are benefits of being so wrecked that you can't read a book or surf the web properly, after all!

I'm still of the opinion that UK's Ramsey is far different than the USA one, but the American gross-out factor is winning me over a bit. Cripes... I don't know why they don't just shut a place down entirely if they get caught serving food that could kill a person.

Turning Points is dangerously similar to my concept for Pumpkin... I may need to revise my maze-y aspect to the game. Worse yet, it may be a better game! Pumpkin may go into a fundamental rethink at this point.

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1 year ago - I want to be Dr. Killenger, late night bro call, pancakes,

2 years ago - bro, bullfighting - with milk, peas, newt pic, king tut

3 years ago - elbo room with fembots, publicity, metaVNC, Nushu dies, retro, 939,000people are without power, Asian Soul, electoral votes, Anne Ricelambastes on amazon / gaiman's reply

4 years ago - Tree, Dr. Who, work, man eating plants, fairy tales, tarot, schizophrenia

5 years ago - cat/dog mummies, color illusion, headache, palm doodles

6 years ago - battle of New Orleans, enemies, grumbly, Cathi & me at the beach

7 years ago - pv entries

Dreams of being in Colonial Williamsburg with BHK - pursued by the police in minuteman garb... muskets with bayonets, breeches, the full uniform of Paul Revere-type garb. Most disturbing were the tri-cornered hats and braided ponytail, tied with blue bows.

When we were spotted, they blew into a silver whistle - standard pipe style, and the tri-corner hats unfurled into flying stingrays, the ponytails becoming some sort of antenna or navigational aid - remaining attached to the hat rather than the colonial-style policeman. A high-pitched wailing rose up from them, not too unlike a police siren - fortunately they were easily dispatched by running indoors.

I have no idea what were were supposed to have done to warrant a chase. Maybe because we weren't dressed in period clothing?

Yeah, that's it... because colonist law enforcement used flying, screaming stingrays to fight crimes against continuity.

After work, BHK, Amy and I came back to the house and noshed on queso and pizza with the in-laws and TM - TM headed home before the pizza arrived, poor gal's beat after putting in a double time week. We watched Bridget Jone's Diary (the first time I'd seen it in one piece) and then after the in-laws left, the remainders put in a couple of rousing games of Chronoauts. It was better than I thought it'd be, and I had some fairly high hopes. I wouldn't mind getting Early American Chrononauts so we can play UberChronauts, now.

We still haven't done Chez Goth or Lunch Money yet, but perhaps tomorrow after the girls comeback from the tennis / shopping spree they have planned. I've started an account at board game geek just to keep track, at this point.

1 year ago - Japan's underground photography, free wifi attractive nuisance, 2nd life updates, tough times in the congo, fishbone, ape-o-naut doodle / gays in space

2 years ago - A/c unhappy, Lisa/Lisa plans, Jacques the Monkey, Candice fickle, shots, Tom Waits, Abandoned amusement and theme parks, grumping, "shut it", mallah and the brain

3 years ago - monkey doodle, palm pictures from the bus, lavender-newt, notes from the road, atm jam, CoH, lj-flower, monkey yawn

4 years ago - palm doodles, power-outage, all consuming, power of burqas, sonic bullets

5 years ago - some day tripping, cool squirrel, Belgium is a myth, tongue-trimming, lj hot-or-not, Life imitates Real Genius!!!

6 years ago - overtired & grumpy, cockaigne, evil news, flash, evil news

7 years ago - wanting to go on a group outing, discover marquee

Netforum 2006/01 or /02? Upgrade is looking pretty essential. That's been part of my work lately, reviewing the next build and how well it'll get into place. I just want it to be as seamless as possible... minimise any growing pains.

Being a giant guy has the side effect of being used as a mobile landmark. I've had folks tell their kids that if the get lost, look for me in a crowd. Not for me to babysit 'em, just that my head and shoulders tend to bob above other folks nearby. Also, it appears that I'm one of those "hey, I know you" types. I look both kind and trustworthy as well as looming and scary. I guess it depends on if I've shaved around the goatee and am more awake than walking dead. (In that case, folks cross the street to get away from me.) I've been in Maryland for about eight months now, and my newest gig just one. I've already been invited to a lot of picnics, parties, etc.... I don't think it'll be too long before the combination of North Beach's small-townishness and other friendlies at work spirals it back up to a broader friends base. Right now I'm still a bit of "BHK's Hubby" or "Larry's Son-in-law".

Back in the old days (when I was in high school and thereabouts) I was Mr. connected. Everyone knew me, or knew of me through someone else. I'm not sure how that happened, but I suspect it's a side effect of the landmark issue above. I seldom bothered anyone, and folks rarely gave me any guff. I'm not as connected anymore - living in a new state, new job, etc. This came up during a little message exchange with Sirenity... regarding people who get talked to or "hey do I know you"ed a lot.

Dreamt of a white panel van with the word destruction on it. - BHK and I were hunting down somebody who sold us a faulty bed. We were pretty mad.... I wonder what we were going to do once we got the guy? That has no relation to the sailboat dream where all we had to eat was trader joes snacks that had gone stale. We were trapped on a catamaran with a big bag of stale crisps and candy-coated sunflower seeds... and no clean water.

Picked up a pair of new shirts, and two new ties. I never thought I'd ever own a purple shirt I could wear to work. I *really* never thought I'd ever wear a tie to work. Who knew? I actually enjoy putting on a corporate noose every here and again, even though it's not required wear in the office. It makes me feel a bit more professional and has the sense of a "uniform" to keep me a bit more focused on my tasks.

Sting from the Macaroni Grill wasp has completely faded.. .it really didn't feel like a sting so much as a very brief electrical shock followed by swelling.

Chore Wars lets you claim experience points for household chores. By getting a few people in your house or workplace to sign up, you can assign experience point rewards to individual chores, and see how quickly each of you levels up. Experience points are tracked both as weekly high-score charts, and as ongoing character sheets - every time you rack up 200XP of chores, your character gains a “level”, and their class changes to match the type of chores that they’ve been doing. (here's my character, if you want to invite me to your party )

Random notes on my lj, and communites maintained

scottobear- 239 lj readers - Journal entries:8,920 / Comments Posted: 57,182 - Received: 57,141
menstrualhut- 2362 members - Journal entries:8,104 / Comments:Posted: 0 - Received: 42,699
fishstories- 3 members -Journal entries:36 / Posted: 0 - Received: 181
haikuarena- 106 members - Journal entries:484 Posted: 0 - Received: 1,114
coloringbook- 174 members - Journal entries:154 Posted: 251 - Received: 688 (How does the community comment, or was that pre-conversion?)
live_journalia - 10 members - Journal entries:72 Comments:Posted: 0 - Received: 168

pseudofic accounts are all long dormant. Maybe it's time to start up the fish stories account again?

1 year ago - day moving fast, stop motion video, minimum wage variances, pumpernickel, 2-word meme, a-z meme, dvd decrypter, World Party - Ship Of Fools,

2 years ago - danny, bro, top40, riverwalk autostitched, farcry, sneak peak at Pirates of the Carib2: Davy Jones

3 years ago - Pictures, Newtcam, flipper, Miami population, picasa, alligator as weapon, flash, TMBG, Franco-Prussian war, TU, amber alert/web, php rant, meat hooking, ADP uppity

4 years ago - freeflow, dream, Superman, heart in hand, bear attacks sub

5 years ago - caving dreams, piracy, anagram server, no-longer newt-time icon, irrational deodorant mixing fear, fun hidden camera show, monopoly variants, true porn clerk stories, phobias, paperback cover gallery, 100 years of jell-o ads, missing scary link pic

6 years ago - carom, evil news, fave monopoly token poll, rude awakening, OTR, impressed with flash, and feelin' romantic

7 years ago - zoe's bday and loverlips adds

BHK took a what seems like a metric ton of our cucumbers and made an absolutely delicious pickle salad for dinner tonight. I grilled some veggie burgers and zucchini on the grill in some teriyaki sauce, and I'd say it was one of the tastiest meals we've had in a little while. I can't say enough about how much I enjoy eating food we grew right out back. Come winter, I guess all we'll be able to munch on is preserves and pickles - our own sort of dandelion wine, as BHK so charmingly puts it.

Harvest on Sunday night, pre-pickling



Newt and Pye were extra-bonus cuddly and sweet this morning... making even more difficult to get out of bed. Fortunately, they can be distracted by one another when I have to start getting dressed.

Newt and Pye play king of the hill


My body isn't nearly so creaky this morning, nor is my eye puffy at all. Still not sure what set those off yesterday... just summer heat and pollen, I'm guessing.

I finished Runaways - not bad, and I'll keep reading, but I have my doubts about the next story arc. I'm going to reserve judgement though... I've enjoyed it thus far (Also not a big fan of Joss Whedon.)

Last night I dreamt about playing some sort of game with monochrome plastic big rigs. Perhaps a combination of The Transformers movie and Treehouse?

via LooneyLabs - Cheese contains casein, a dairy protein which contains tiny opiate molecules called casomorphins, which are "remarkably like morphine" and pack about a tenth of morphine's opiate strength! (I also found it fascinating that cheese proved harder to give up, for people in this article , than ice cream, hamburgers, chicken, and even cigarettes.)

1 year ago - / 2 years ago - / 3 years ago - / 4 years ago - / 5 years ago - / 6 years ago - 7 years ago -

I need an elephant to fly my sweetheart and me away for a bit.

Surprised at the turn of events there – Network admin position is being elevated from within, despite the outer-ring patrolling for people. I was worried that I was out of the running due to the lack of a driver’s license, but it seems more like an old-boys club issue instead.

Yesterday was ok, overall. We had a dip in the global scheme of things due to some worries and delays which I feel have passed into a more comfortable zone since. There were a few complaints due to timing issues regarding school, testing and whatnot for both of us. The MCSE test isn’t aligning with a schedule that works as well for me as it might, but I’m going to see what I can wrangle in the meantime, school and book-wise.

My revised goal is to spend at little time working out between gig-seeking sessions in the evening.

There have been a lot of dream fragments lately, working in a factory – giant gears, jets of steam, lots of levers. The bulk remembers as a building in low light, most of the machinery a dull gold or brass color. There was a sense of moisture in the air and condensing on things, along with an enduring greasy / burnt smell hanging in the air. I don’t remember what I was doing there and in what capacity, but I do recall that there were no other people in the factory area.

I’m going to get back into a pulpy phase soon, if plans to put some Dashiell Hammett on the PDA in isilo format works out. I’ve found a really good video compression agent for the psp, and a ton of house / max headroom / shield episodes waiting to be imported. (link to public domain books – copyright only lasts so long!)

We have a ton of books from the tobacco warehouse sale, too … maybe it’s time I started keeping a paperback in my lunch pail for midday reading.

The sun keeps poking through and giving brief periods of balmy warm weather. In my perverse love for the cold, clammy, gray days, the brief to a few hour long moments of warm sun and bright light seem to be the hostile moments, while the soft rains bring me a cooling cheer. Seeing steam rise from pavement or a low fog through the woods on the road near the bay makes me feel wonderful. I will admit to enjoying the play of sunlight through the fresh green trees on our “shortcut” drive home.

Today, if all goes well, BHK and I will be picking up some more shaved ice. I want to try Tiger’s Blood (and I hope it’s not just “dumb ol’ cherry”), and BHK is leaning to a sour apple / watermelon combo. If there’s no Tiger’s Blood, I may well try orange or one of the named flavors that don’t hint at the flavor at all. (Maui-Wowie was a happy discovery). Apparently, BHK wants no part of grape, though I’m in favor of the stuff.

I’m looking forward to tonight. Tentative plans include:

• Shaved Ice


• Depositing my Paycheck and Mailed Check into the bank.


• Trip to the bookstore to get additional stuff for my Certifications and BHK’s Bar / Legal.


• A game of Monsters Menace America with BHK


• Watching Happy feet.

I get to bug out a little early and swing by the Railway Museum (link) to evaluate much of the hardware there – Printer, DVD burner, and wireless router. My initial suspicion is that the error exists between the chair and keyboard. A pity they don't use me to do the website. it needs help.



1 year ago - red mood doodle, super power desire as a lad, waiting room pic, newton and I on the porch pics, sand art,

2 years ago - story stuck, food cravings, national ID, locla lj leads to illegal sex, anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley admitted to engaging in homosexual and bestiality sex.

3 years ago - net out, bro bonds out, walkabout pics, sci-fi cliches, gabbed with sedef, bee vs wasp massacre.

4 years ago - Nature vs Pringles, Dan delivers Groceries, menstrualhut breaks 1000 users (now a bit more than twice that), Bush's Military Record

5 years ago - J-bee points me at CBS Mystery theater, Sat tracking, Newtie yawn icon source, Friday five

6 years ago - swollen uvula (side effect of no cpap, snoring beat me up), dumbass Astley late with his bargain basement hardware

Got the mortgage payment in today – that’s the scary thing about trying to do the automated system on a Sunday. If it’s down, there’s no human out there to run wingman for you. Chase has been really good about customer service and system uptime since I started using them as the primary banking for the Deerfield place. Additionally, it seems like they’re being quite helpful law-wise regarding the condo commandos. BHK is sending them an information packet about recent shenanigans, and I think that they’ll lend quite a strong arm to our side. It’s good to have a law school graduate in the family (not to mention attorney-type contacts all over the region, too).

I feel a bit for Lileks situation. To go from fun writing (colorful opinion pieces and slice of life type stuff) to straight news can’t be fun. Additionally, he can’t telecommute anymore. I may not often agree with his politics, but he’s an entertaining writer. At least he wasn’t Dooced.

It seems like the season for gig change with many of the folks I read. Both parenthood (especially Motherhood) and relocation appear to be common themes. Come to think of it, I just got my current gig about a month ago, and am still seeking a more permanent and lucrative venue in the meantime.

I am picking up some skills that I didn’t have before in a few of the software fundamentals arena; Altiris is pretty snazzy, though I lean a bit more to remote desktop for just straight-up handling. I’ve put more ram and HD into systems in the lase four weeks than I have in probably a decade, and had a lot of fun investigating city wireless for police and others – not wifi, but alternate private formatted networking. As for the public service side of things, all but a very few exceptions are laid-back and grateful for any help.

I think that I forgot to mention what sort of ice cream we had at Aardvark’s; BHK had a play-doh shake (vanilla colored a perfect yellow, with sugar cookie dough mixed in, tinted pink and light blue-green), and I had a double scoop on a sugar cone. Birthday cake and play-doh, making it the first non-chocolate related ice cream cone that I can remember. Usually, I get at least mint chocolate chip.

I’m long overdue to send a note to talk with Danny, Todd, Steve, Kevin, GP & Kat, Chad and countless others. I don’t know what’s happened to my social email skills, but they’ve atrophied greatly. Maybe it’d be simpler to telephone some of them to touch base and say a friendly hello just to see how everyone is doing? I’m not sure if it’d take more or less time to do so.

Adam’s last sporting event as a high-scholar is this afternoon. Tennis match, a week or two of remaining exams, and then he’s off to University of Maryland . I was pleased to hear that he and Kendall went to prom together romantically rather than just buddies; that’s a time for slow dances and some heart-shaped fireworks. They’re a terribly cute couple, and clean up nicely. Pictures may follow if Adam shoots me an email soon.

It has been difficult to look for a job when a good chunk of each weekday is spent actually working. I don't really have many chores at home to do, but the workday is quite full.

I feel really good about this bit (insert 52 image here from scans daily) with the Dibneys. Return to the Thin man and Topper style days… I’d totally go for a mystery-solving phantom couple.

I keep forgetting that google document has a post feature. It works a bit more simply than just posting from the mobile phone, unless of course I do a voice entry.

Summer is coming, and I could do with a lime-vanilla ice with my beloved after a promenade down the boardwalk.

Dreamt about riding eurail to Florida to look for lost papers, brother renamed to carrot, stolen id notes.

Pidgin 2.0 is out... will it kill my trillian freebie at last?

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/04/1125245&from=rss

Back to Monday – work is being kind to me this morning, for which I am thankful. I tucked into bed far too late last night, given that I was drowsing as of about 5pm; I fully intended to take a little nap once we got home, but the siren call of

Pente.net seems to be down for good. I’ll miss it, but fortunately I have my pente-pal as a live-in partner now! Plus, we have a game board should we wish to do the turn-by-turn sort of thing with real pieces and all. We still haven’t hooked into freeciv or freecol, though it’s looking now like freecol may be the one for us. (I’d also like to play some counterstrike with her, too)

Kite flying yesterday was pretty fun; we all managed to get some fresh air, and even BHK’s little ‘el Bastardito’ made it up with a minimum of fuss. TM’s pink albatross was probably the most difficult to get airborne; the tail wasn’t keeping the nose up very well. Once it made it up, however, it glided nicely and other nearby seabirds wanted to check it out. I’d venture that my frog kite was the easiest to send up this time around. Adam’s little stunt kite was certainly the most maneuverable – he’s able to let it skim the water and then flick rat-tail raindrops on whichever bystanders he chooses to moisten.

( Kite flyin pics )

1 year ago - flickr issues, getting a trifle ill, security video feed, dawn of the dead, free streaming video, winamp tracks, star trek cribs

2 years ago - bro search, strongman stunts, blood, mark of beast=50 less, monsters inc, day in the life, fishstories born (long since made dormant), unique id, Chlamydia Outbreak Kills Penguins, tv cars, voice post

3 years ago - quorn, sunset, mean newt face, pet stroller, entertainment pondering, jail hubbub

4 years ago - There pirate quest (still no beards, but eye patches!), first PT, Being D's spokesmodel, orange cat fan club

5 years ago - Slept in, Star Wars Field trip, getting into php/MySQL, brush your cat's teeth, pix of me working on bro's computer, haiku, classic tv

6 years ago - embedding is verboten (back, now!), apartment desc, Mateo's Josie is born!, good stuff, all around

Apparently, Comcast out here doesn't like livejournal's dns... and flickr's...and yahoo... and a bunch of job-seeking sites. so much for getting work or play done online! I was able to do a few things through anonymous proxies online, but I'm not putting my passwords through there.

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On 04/18/2007 between the hours of 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, the Town of North Beach experienced a sewerage discharged from Man Hole # 33 located on Bay Ave between 5th St. and 7th St.  In a 3-hour period an estimated amount of 180 gallons of sewerage discharged overflowed from the manhole into the Chesapeake Bay via the storm drain located next to the manhole.  The affected surface area was blocked off and cleaned. The cause was a blockage in the down stream main line located on 5th St.BTW Bay Ave and R261.  This section of line has a belly or depression and has frequently been a problem in the past. The line was jetted and cleared of blockage and is operational.

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There has been non-stop work today. If it isn’t actual duties, the phones haven’t stopped ringing.

Random Factoid – the first deer that RD ever shot was a hermaphrodite. Apparently, that’s not too unusual, given how incestuous those guy/gal critters are.

Dreamt last night that I was telling folks about BHK taking the bar exam, and *everyone* was giving back a lame joke of “how hard is it to make a martini” or “have her bring home a mai-tai for me” sort of thing.

Saturday we get together for dinner with Amy. I have a huge urge to go to the Baltimore / National Aquarium. Maybe if one doesn’t happen this weekend, the other shall? If not, there’s always next weekend!

BHK teases me because I talk about stuff with her about who I talked to at work that day. She already knows and likes JD & RD despite not having met them yet.

Fix at the dump was easy, once we found out that they had the gate arm-lift plugged into the server’s UPS. D’oh. Trouble was compounded by folks claiming nothing had changed.

Today I discovered that “the cage” (where we send all of our discarded equipment for future review that may never come, a la the warehouse at the end of Indiana Jones) is located behind the detention center. All it’s going to take is one evil MacGuyver / Lex Luthor-type SMIB to bust out of jail to create a giant robot out of old dell monitors and forklift parts. Of course, the robot will probably turn on his creator and eventually begin a master Ultron-esque rampage to end all human life as we know it to be replaced by a more reasonable technology-based race. Ah well.

I'd rather go halfway...Make mine MODOK! (Hm, I may need to edit this icon to have BHK, Pye, and Newt all in Modok bodies)

Pictures of BHK, Pye and me scoping out a greedy mama-to-be squirrel

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I rec'd this in my email today - re: condo commando HB -

Late this afternoon he was arrested by Broward deputies here. I saw him handcuffed in the parking. Don’t have many details, but it almost certainly must have been for illegal entry (or something like that) into an apartment in A building occupied by a woman renting. We will know more tomorrow since all this should be a public record.

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1 year ago - yellow + blue = no green?, pancakes, newt pix, easter bunny fight, farm hustle

2 years ago - mzk, dr who, nbc6 video feed

3 years ago - Khaan!, walkabout statue pictures, CoH, tv turnoff week, Jenjen

4 years ago - Passover, Good Friday, House of 1000 corpses, hair registry idea, past life poll

5 years ago - Pig book, Argentine ants, textarc, haiku, exploding private-parts,slug-eating plant, vibration energy, freedom force, Disney rides becoming movies

6 years ago - cartoons, weeping cherry, newt pic, web hits, Tom Green & PMS ruined my night