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.

---

---

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.

---

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.

---

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

Rainy day and a Monday, but I'm not letting it get me down. Newt, Pye and BHK always bring me right up again!

BHK made tasty split pea soup and cornbread for supper - and then I won a game of Balloon Cup afterward while we watched Next (not a bad flick, goofy action flick, but fun.) Turning in early, now.

Assorted pics taken today or found lately:

Newt leaps!
Whee!

Daily WTF - swimming melon monster man


More WTF - Proper use of googly eyes


Reminds me a bit of the ol' Mighty-o's commercial with captain sarcastic. (alternate )

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Someone scraped the contents of Darren Di Lieto’s website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. Publishers have faked their details, resellers refuse to pull the book.

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1 year ago - vitamin coke discovered, flyball pix with amy, woodbine, many accents, steve jacoby finds me

2 years ago - ironing, BB & True romance, wigsforkids, newt prance pic, ljmap, friday 5

3 years ago - Kj, elephant calling, bleeding, classic newt pic, ugly animals, louis armstrong sings whoops, I did it again, kosher gorillas, commercial airs, lj percentage seems off

4 years ago - Whale art, "Sasquatch and the Bologna Caper", gmail, dream, RI guff

5 years ago - in the lj top 40, quizzes, 374 spam hits in 3 minutes, lj-goodies

6 years ago - LSH, wesley willis, search hits, Bea Arthur vs Velociraptors, Fave interjections, name popularity, I know a lot of amputees, fred rogers,soap carving

7 years ago - Chores, lunch meetings, shoplifter poll, doll with pully-string, back workout

http://drop.io/ is brilliant. I tested it, and it seems fun and stable.

Example - http://drop.io/scottobear

Now that I've put this out there, I wonder how active it'll become? Send me something, dear journal! I've got 100 megs just waiting. :)

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Neil Armstrong was 38 when he walked on the moon. I'm 39. I can barely moonwalk. Just Sayin'.

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Pictures of Newton, taken yesterday, while I un-kinked my back. This is how Newton looks when I first lay down... he climbs up on my chest, face to my face, and stretches his paws to my chin... usually just his right, but sometimes both.

Taken with the palmtop... sadly, it's about impossible to get a good shot of Pyewacket, unless he's under very bright light... he turns into a black smear with a pair of shiny yellow eyes. Newt's black whiskers barely show, but his whites are pretty visible.

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50 things I've done meme finally officially finishes with #50 - I...

50.'have run a live camera from my place (Newtcam ) for about 7 years now, most of it on 24/7... with only a little downtime due to power loss, internet issues, broken computer, etc. For the primary reason of looking in on Newton (and now, Pye, too) when I'm not at home. It does double duty as a security camera, as it collects photos of any motion and throws them to the net, both for people to see the most recent one, and an archive for me to sift through just for fun.. make animations or whatnot. The security side of things would be that someone breaking into the house would be caught on cam, and picture would be uploaded to the net - so even if the machine is gone, I still have some images stored offsite.

I like that so many people tune in to see what's going on - Newtcam averages between two and five thousand hits a day, from all over the world.

I may do more of these, as they occur to me but at least I got my goal complete! I have no idea what #51 will be.

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It's been exceedingly hard to get out of bed the last week or two... this week especially. I feel so tired when the alarm goes off. I can't even open my eyes properly until I've taken a hot-cold-luke shower. I think I'm going to have to start hitting the sack just a little bit earlier than my preset of 10/10:30, to see if that helps.


BHK made some of the best tofu/black rice stir fry last night... nom nom nom.

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The Pope arrives today... that means even more traffic than usual for DC... it'll likely brings it to Gridlock / Miami levels. Even though I'm not of that particular faith, I think it'd be interesting to see the man, but I suspect that I'll be better off just heading on home.

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1 year ago - breakfast with in-laws, Tina, taxes, soda pop lids

2 years ago - good saturday, dream, masamune, police thingum, spain's easter, dr who

3 years ago - sleepy, mr t sings, music videos, flash gordon moment, sanjay patel, lobster vs sea hare, guy killed at my bus stop, orbital mind control lasers!

4 years ago - Ella Enchanted, army-men bowl, palm doodles

5 years ago - April Winchell's media, pda burp, sleepy kitten song with some profanity

6 years ago - spam radio, falling dreams, walkies, fabric softener, story seed, NEWWWTON IS A GOOOOLEM

7 years ago - Easter, working on a shopping cart, my first 10 lj friends, family meal, walkies, css issue

Weekend looms ahead! Going to Alice's party, celebrating her passing the bar... about a year ago. It'll be nice to see her again - last time was at paper moon well over a year ago.

The Egg salad made from last Sunday's hard-boiled Easter dye-jobs was especially good this week. BHK's Mac & cheese is rocking my socks exceptionally well, too.

I can't believe that tickets fro the Smothers brothers is $90 at the rams head. I want to go, but not so much at $200, 8pm on a weeknight. I still have half a mind to write in Pat Paulson for president, even though he passed away over a decade ago.

Presidential Campaign Slogan: "I've upped my standards. Now, up yours."

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50 things you've done meme continues at 44 - I...

44.'have done more than my share of critter killing and eating, despite my current feelings about doing so. If I was starving to death on an island covered with baby bunnies... well, baby bunny for dinner. I know how to kill and dress duck, boar, deer (all hands-on) and squirrel, alligator, rabbit (in theory, I saw my dad do it). I have lopped the heads off of chickens, and wrung their necks, too. I'd still rather do the slaughtering of a bird than do the cleaning.

I'm very happy to say that I haven't wanted or had to do that for a *very* long time... but if I was lost in the wilderness, I feel that I could survive better than some, at least food-wise. The boar is something that I'd have to use high-powered rounds on... those guys are nasty. I wonder if I could do a pit trap for a pig? I suppose it'd work, not that I ever will need one.

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Recent photos in phone or in archive -

My office desk (see notes here, for the OCD aspects of the journal),
with BHK memorabilia and a toy-train zoom-in



I love my coasters - made from the label portion of old 33 1/3 records.



Newt Yawing the other day - That's how I was feeling, too.

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Recently, Pye waited politely for Newton to finish eating - very chummy these days. I'm glad that they're so much more buddy-buddy. All I ask is that nobody bugs anyone else while eating or pooping... not too hard! Newt actually gave ol' pye a one-lick after pye's bath yesterday... I imagine they'll be grooming one another sometime around 2012. (or sooner!)

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Added a doodle to the voice post... not sure if it's worth 1000 words, though.

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1 year ago - nice folks at the county, cherry blossoms, spring started - pear trees, BHK into reality tv, EPC a flop, adam & tennis, easter coming up.

2 years ago - code template, interest cloud, pda cam dies, p&B in german, song tapper, bus on fire doodle

3 years ago - easter manatee, complimented, server/servant, spliced people, germs

4 years ago - Lj then and now (I spend less time now), bro, ice cream cake, Smokey & the Bandit

5 years ago - bro got me some Godzilla movies at the gift store up the road.

6 years ago - minority report poll, breakfast with Danny, grabber rabbit meme spreads, Words describing animal traits, Ketchup packet bear, Klaatu's speech, scary dream, link-to poll

7 years ago - babelizer, mushy-feelings, book-burning

Happy first day of Spring!!

 

Egg-dying went well... the white spots denote 4 eggs that cracked, and the ones TM took home for herself and MO. Adam took one - he'll be giving it to a girl at school - and he certainly enjoyed the fajitas that BHK made. Larry and Chris (and mostly Adam and Tina, too) spent the bulk of the visit glued to the tube while BHK and I did the majority of coloring. My faves are the family eggs (there's a Scotto, BHK, Pye and Newt in the mix) as well as a couple of oddballs - speckeld ones and hot pink / green... both of which are more vibrant than this photo shows. more in depth pictures later, possibly.

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GP's got me interested in Encounter Critical. It's by S. John Ross, an added bonus (I dig the mechanics of Risus, though I've never played it.)

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twitterwise, I'm on the Orange Team. icons when in civilian duds, and on team business.

.

How could I choose another color?

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I really want the cell phone legislation banning use of a handset while driving in Maryland to pass. The beltway is rough enough without people crimping necks and not looking at the road. Whatever happened to the idea of pulling over to talk?

I'd love to see some sort of magic technology that blocks non-emergency cell phone use in the driver's side of a car while the wheels are moving.

Same goes for the front-seat DVD players, and audio systems that go louder than a range of safely hearing what's going on outside of the vehicle, as far as I'm concerned. Color me a fascist, but I don't need anyone being more distracted than they already are... If I could find a way to implement a breathalyser / urine tester for safe driving, I'd probably do that, too. And bumper-transponders that forbid tailgating based on the speed of the vehicles in question.

Heck, just use my magical wishing ring to stop all accidents - one of my characters, miniMAX first developed his size-changing abilities by trying to develop desolidity tech for vehicles... they never crash into one another!

After all those years, I still want a hyper-intelligent 4-inch tall talking ape to be my lab partner in fighting crime and solving the world's ills... or clean, safe teleportation technology. Or a magic wishing ring that can put people in protective bubbles, and heal them when they're hurt.

Thoughts about this is coming from the fact that I'm having trouble feeling a lot of sympathy for TM's uncle.... he apparently tried to kill himself by driving his car into oncoming traffic. Seriously... I understand being in pain and lashing out, but there are *PEOPLE* driving and acting as passengers in the other cars! If you want to off yourself, I have no problem with that... but leave everyone else out of it.

I feel bad for TM, though - she's been dealing with his nonsense for a long time, and right before this happened, she blew him off via the phone, and her other family did the same. I don't know all the details, but I hope that once he's out of the hospital he gets worthwhile treatment, and a maximum sentence for attempted suicide / attempted vehicular homicide / assault with a deadly weapon(car). I know his head is full of bad wiring, but I'm finding it very hard to forgive his behavior, no matter how sick he is. I just have to understand that he's not in his right mind, and hope that he is removed from driving and doing anything that can hurt anyone else until he is sufficiently repaired.

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50 things I've done meme continues with item 38. I...

38. 'have written 9200 journal entries prior to this one, the vast majority of them posted publicly to the world. Some entries are only a line or two long, others are entire short stories, continued across a few posts, because each entry only holds a maximum of 65,535 bytes. (That's about 16,000 4-letter words.) The journal will be 8 years old in just under two months.

39.'has owned scottobear.com since 1998... that was 10 years ago, March 12. It will need to be renewed again before March 11, 2013. I've got some time to scrape up the money to do so... it's pretty dang cheap. My website's look has changed a few times over the years, as has the content under the hood... it is quite due for a fresh coat of paint, and a revisit to the links contained inside. I started my first website with ol' geocities in 94-ish, back when it was free, and before it was owned by yahoo. that arcane url is lost to me, maybe forever? Who knows if I can dig it up form the web sometime? either way, it was migrated to scottobear.com about 4 years later, and has remained there ever since.

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From assorted sources (vchip, mgk, time) - a photo series of rival Kenyan tribes fighting for land with bows and arrows.

Look closely. This is Kenya, specifically a hill overlooking the Olmelil Valley, where Maasai warriors are clashing with members of the Kalenjin tribe on a regular basis. The tribal violence is a depressing comment on a country that only a year ago was promoted as a stable democracy in volatile West Africa. TIME has an interesting photo journal of the battles.

“We were using swords but they were not effective,” says Sylvester, 24, slashing a knife in the air. “In a day we can make between 80 and 100 [arrows],” he adds, refusing to give his last name out of fear. Community members pool money together to buy the necessary tools in secret; the arrows are then distributed within the neighborhood. Local leaders know about the arrow factories, but police forces do not.

"Victims with arrows, sometimes poisoned, lodged in their heads and chests have become increasingly common", say officials in Rift Valley hospitals.

"We cannot know the time of day when they (Kalenjins) will come. If they catch you off guard, you're dead," says Samuel, 25, holding a bundle of ready arrows.

Kalenjin elders train their boys how to use bows and arrows from an early age, the Kikuyu men say. But Kikuyus have had to learn quickly to fight back with the same tools. Several secret workshops employing 50 workers churn out bows and arrows for munition. "We have no other choice for now," he says.

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1 year ago - first full day at the calvert gig, bhk and I go shopping for work clothes, grownup table talk, spam attractive entry

2 years ago - rebis picture, deaf language, chacarron, math, phallic removal, open source, fake cigs as meds, prisoner comic book

3 years ago - Brady Kids welcome the equinox, shamrock shake, cosmic truth, mp3s,experimental gameplay, get your tasty hot sweet potatoes in Japanese,teen kidnappers, good advice, invisible mermaid airfare

4 years ago - openoffice, Visited w Dan, open door poll, people of worth

5 years ago - Al gore, Blue's clues, Cranky Finn

6 years ago - Spring!, Socks, overturned issues, Linda let go from FMM, LJ directory, cool picture link

7 years ago - walkies, 2 chris-sites, both have long since been left dormant, lj broken

Reading an autobiography about Gene Wilder (Kiss Me Like A Stranger) - bhk thinks it looks like he's in bed with the kitties.

Went to Lowe's with BHK, Larry and Chris to grab a bit o' tile for our bathroom, and hit the store to grab Chris some tax software. Stopped at Cheeseburger in Paradise on the way home - had a late lunch at about 4:30. That's about the size of things for our slow but comfy Sunday

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50 things I've done meme continues with item 35. I...

35.'honeymooned and visited all of the Ripley's / Oddity museums from Florida and Maryland. BHK and I both have a huge interest in oddities, weirdness and general WTF observation. I think the Ripley's in St. Augustine is the vastly superior one, plus, St. Aug is a wonderful place to mill around. BHK and I drank from the fountain of youth while we visited the Ponce De Leon region... so I guess I'll be doing the journal for quite a span.

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Götz von Berlichingen had a problem. It was 1504 and, at the tender young age of 24, the plundering knight, mercenary and all around bastard had the upper part of his right arm torn off in a cannon blast. As someone who made his living off war and already had a sizable enemies’ list, Götz needed his killin’ hand.

So he got another one. Made of iron.

That's one awesome prosthetic.

---

In addition to green, the new five dollar bill is purple and yellow. The colors of my old black-lite army, back in the day.

---

Tips for photographing the cherry blossoms.

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Water: 3 Veg/Fruit: 7 Milk: 1
Points: 30.5 Adj: 0 Act: 0.0 Rem: 1.5-6.5
Bank: 15.0 Adj: 0
Bank Max: 15 Point: 15 Act: 4
Vitamins: Yes

Breakfast: 11.8 points
1.5: Cheese
1.1: Rice; white; glutinous; cooked; 1/3 cup
0.0: Veggies
2.0: Egg; whole
2.0: Egg; whole
2.0: Egg; whole
1.6: Bread; whole wheat
1.6: Bread; whole wheat

Lunch: 0.3 points
0.0: Garden Salad (w/o dressing)
0.0: Garden Salad (w/o dressing)
0.0: Fresca; Large
0.3: Sauce; teriyaki; ready-to-serve

Dinner: 16.6 points
3.1: Cheese; cheddar
1.9: Garden burger
1.3: Sauce; BULLS-EYE Original Barbecue Sauce
4.0: Shrimp; breaded & fried; fast food - 1/3 serving
3.0: Cake; other than all butter
3.3: Ice creams; chocolate

Snack: 1.8 points
1.8: fat free milk 1 cup

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1 year ago - got the Calvert County gig, more shamrock shake, Louise & in-laws, monkey cap, Raines, The Riches, The Microscopic trout and the Machiavellian Fisherman

2 years ago - grampa poll results, RS taught to burn and forgets, folks go to brazil, ultrasound critters, Marvel Florida, gg winding up for an exit,

3 years ago - Freedom force, Thumbkin, Josie Conell, moot back (he's been gone awhile again), regional wifi scan, netflix queue, account locations,making fiends, Lumbee updates, pinecone

4 years ago - Danny Solo, Devilfinder, Paper toys, elephants-Yeah!, pages back up, COH

5 years ago - lovey, storms

6 years ago - palm-doodle dreams, guest map, location poll, Bert's Love Song, decent left, menstrual hut memo page

7 years ago - evil news, got a permanent account

Lunar Eclipse last night was lovely... clear skies, snowy ground and crisp air. A good time to be outside and looking at the sky, if just for a moment.

Somebody made a sacrifice somewhere, and the moon came back. Next time, the gods won't be so kind!

Warnings about ice tomorrow... I may get a long weekend... (if my internet and power goes out... or I may get to work form home!) Then again, I may get to go into the office that's mostly empty, and get a lot of work done there, too. I suspect any or all will be win.

Lovely leftover dinner tonight... last of the mexican bake while BHK and I watch The Last Legion. I think that she liked it more than I did... How'd they get Mr. Darcy, Ghandi and the Mistress of the spices together to make this flick? Apparently the Goths were vikings with scottish accents.

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Six unused cases of recalled beef will be thrown away by schools in Maryland and Virginia. Said a school spokesperson, “Now that we know what it is, we can no longer call it mystery meat.”

---

Pictures of Awakening's Move

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So... Bush's Approval rating is now 19%. Sweet Christmas.

(To break it down further 1100 people asked - Among Republicans (29% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 45% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 50% disapprove. Among Democrats (43% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 1% approve and 99% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Among independents (28% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 17% approve and 75% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.)

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This is Newton and Pyewacket, almost to a T.

I've neglected to mention that we watched the pilot for the new Knight Rider series.

It was only worth it for the Hoff cameo, and even that was pretty weak. Thank goodness for tivo and fast forward.

Psych was a little too scooby-doo for me last night... but watching the outtake of them singing "Somebody's Watching Me" made it more than worth it. I also saw the graduation episode of Kim Possible. Nice that Drakken has some utility after all.

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BHK was blessed with a double-kitty snuggle last night... I was too fidgety for the kitty love, apparently.

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HD DVD is officially dead. Well, I'm glad we didn't get Larry that DVD player for Xmas!

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Giant fossilized frog named for the devil.

A giant frog that hopped around Madagascar 65–70 million years ago has been discovered.

Fossil fragments show that the frog, called Beelzebufo ampinga, could have measured 20 centimetres across its squat head, and probably more than 40 centimetres from snout to tail. The researchers nicknamed the monstrous beast ‘the frog from hell’; the official name comes from one of the many names for the devil (Beelzebub) and the Latin for 'toad' (bufo).

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This college grad decided to live on the streets with just $25 and a gym bag to see if he could make it without any of the trappings of his upbringing, privileges, or contacts. After 10 months, he was moving into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had a savings of around $5,000. The point of the story is supposed to be that people are poor because they have bad attitudes. Which is technically true, but maybe he should do an experiment to see what being born poor will do for your "positive outlook." - via consumerist.

Add a few more elements, like mental / physical health plus his gender, age and skin tone into the mix, and I'd be interested to see how much harder it'd be to get by if you changed variables around. I don't like the implication that "anyone could do it".

I also wonder who was left out of the shelter he stayed in for the first few months of his experiment? Did they go hungry as a result? Sleep on the street?

The more I think about it, the more I'd like to see him actually in the circumstances of hopelessness and fear being homeless can bring. I feel that knowing the safety net is there will give a false sense of confidence and comfort, too.

Anyone can go camping when they know full well that they could fix things with a phone call... how's that song go?

You'll never live like common people,
you'll never do what common people do,
you'll never fail like common people,
you'll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there's nothing else to do.

He got to bail due to a personal tragedy at home... who else is allowed that? It's a lousy experiment when you can change the variables and conditions at whim.

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1 year ago - sunset and duck pics, naked gun, phone hearing w/florida, cyn's new (now old) space!

2 years ago - 2nd life, frankenbox windows issue, modified newtcam subdomain, Samuel, I'm a nine

3 years ago - Atlantic shores hosp, motherboards, jokers utility belt, 2-headed baby, paris hilton hacked, jlu, angry beavers, comic essentials, danny teaches school about graphic novels, six-gun gorilla, ash, icon origin

4 years ago - Wishing for Dr. Feng Shui, Quit FFXI, Time out with Danny and his wife

5 years ago - DDoS on LJ, Friday five, Nordis is full of crap, parking spots pictures, The Groovenians = blah

6 years ago - robo-triffid, daily pictures, back hurting

7 years ago - Chariots of the Gods, reminders, Geocities stops hot links, my nesting instinct

Just realized that I never got a call from my bro on my birthday. I haven't heard from him at all since his phone was reconnected. I hope he's doing ok... I imagine that he is.

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Watched Hellboy: Sword of Souls over dinner of corn dogs and tater tots! nom nom nom. The movie was just ok.... I like good ol' Hellboy and Co, but it seemed too rushed and way too much time on the pyrokinetic's whining about "blah blah it'll overtake me blah". If they'd just kept it a bit lighter, I'd have liked it more... the scenes where he's fighting an assortment of bad guys got sort of old, too... not sure what I'd have done to make it better.

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We had just a teensy snootch of snow today. It was nice to see some falling flakes... they soon turned to light freezing rain. Not as lovely, but nice, too.

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The Postal Service says a first-class stamp will cost 42 cents as of May 12. [AP via USA]

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Hm, I was wondering how long it'd take for Leslie Nielson to appear in a superhero movie spoof. March 2008, it seems.

Movies I want to see (off the top of my head... I'm sure I'm forgetting some):

No Country for Old Men
Cloverfield
Sweeney Todd (is it still in theaters?)
Darjeeling Limited (Is it out on DVD yet?)
Spiderwick Chronicles
Indy 4
Jumper
Diary of the Dead
10,000 BC

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RIP, Steve Gerber. Thanks for Howard the Duck, and Thundarr the Barbarian. Steve's weblog.

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Long overdue pictures of Cake and Cats. As always, clicken to embiggen.

since getting the Kitty DVD for Christmas, Pyewacket has been a regular couch potato, watching the tube with us, even if it doesn't show chirping birds, fish, or rodent-type objects. Newton is a fan of the DVD, because that means his little brother is occupied while big brother can nap in peace upstairs, or use the litter box without having a little furry frined knocking on the door, asking if he can come out and play.

Watching the specialty cat video - fish portion - Taken while the tree and presents were still out... I've been very bad about unloading the camera.



Pye was also attentive watching the Super bowl. He rooted for the Patriots. They lost. It's ok.

.

He also likes to view psych upside down while having his tummy rubbed. Who wouldn't?


as part of the equal-ish time for orange kitties act of 1999 -

Newton Shamelessly diving into the dryer to be warm. We have to be ever vigilant not to put him on a fluff cycle.

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My army man birthday cake. Delicious, and gory.

.....

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1 year ago - vallies, no 24 with the lads, a little sick, tv watching, acim update from TD

2 year ago - vegan lunch box, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, American horror, ren-fest, crayons, movies, Neutral Good, colored t's, cowboy gorilla, Val's B'day, newtcam pix,

3 years ago - stretchy dream, journalist fired, cosmic muffin, star wars meme, C&H cartoon fave, baby tosser, don simpson's journal (since deleted?)

4 years ago - goodies from mimi, time out and about, comment time limit, kill the ducky

5 years ago - vallies, stinky outdoors, Drama deck poll

6 years ago - popular colors, nice walkies, cooked palm, Aunt Val's B'day, blessing reminder, I'm put off by nin (child abuse)

7 years ago - vagg, Aesop, Happy, Sleepy, good people in my life

Got up bright and early to take care of more work stuff.. got it off of my plate by 10 am. Newton and Pyewacket hung out in the office with me, bringing soothing purrs and general cuteness to assist with the pretty boring machinations of general purpose analysis. (See cam picture posted earlier)

Once that was done, BHK and I crawled back into bed for more cool-weather Sunday snuggles. Both the boys have beens snoozing in the bed with us lately... warmest spot in the house, without a doubt.

At about 1ish, we finally got up and at 'em... invited the in-laws to Cheeburger Cheeburger. While BHK was in the shower, I installed an updated firewall on my system... it gave me a few hair-pulling moments, but managed to get it working before we headed out. What should've been a "click-click done" was more of a "expletive expletive click click click click click click expletive done" sort of thing.

Cheeburger^2 was nice... even nicer that the in-laws insisted on paying, even though we invited them! Veggie burger, frings and a chocolate-cherry shake for me! (BHK had similar, but her veggie burger was teriyaki with pineapple - mine was more standard lettuce, onion ring, cheddar, honey mustard, pickle combo)

Swung by ATW on the way home, and he's all ready for valentine's day!



He's holding a rose in his teeth, wearing a beret and a striped shirt, holding a heart shaped box. what a romantic!

My back was seizing a bit this weekend but is feeling better tonight. We watched the pilot and following episode of Eli Stone upstairs... not bad - depending on how the writing continues, it could be excellent or peter out. Not a bad framing device for morality / guidance tales sort.

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1 year ago - buttered Chris's nose at tinas

2 years ago - songbird, Opa, micro retro, FREE PANCAKES!, personality awareness, scary mary

3 years ago - Bro & HI, website income to AmeriCares, I miss CJ, Danny gets Debate, mirror newt pics, still talking to mel, #3 for kp/rs shenanigans, Newt Love, Danny sick (and he was again last year), sedef & crew adorable, MmmmMMMmonkey, masked grader

4 years ago - shopping for condos, zombie night club

5 years ago - memes, dreams, Streets of San Fran, computer sculptures, Pith, Good quote of the day, interviewing, hot shower

6 years ago - up early on a Sunday, Finished reading FAFCwGM, nice weather, tulpa plot

7 years ago - kid tv-memories, valentines