http://www.msnbc.com/news/575167.asp?cp1=1

Sony and LucasArts is showing off their massively multi-player version of Star Wars due to hit computer screens next year, probably as a major salvo in the opening Summer 2002 Movie War which will undoubtedly be dominated by Star Wars, Episode 2.

Still, first looks at the game offers proof that the makers of Everquest have learned a lot from that incredibly popular role-player. The Star Wars universe will allow players to be any one of the myriad Star Wars creatures, from Gunguns to Bathans (but not, apparently, droids) and choose to be male or female. The worlds are “virtually” 16 kilometers across, but you can always hop on your Bantha to get across Tatooine in style.

This song strikes me as How I feel about LJ and web cams. Herman seems to be the type to have both. (Not a slam… Heck, I have both!)

Herman — The Human Mole

Herman

Herman
Herman isn’t happy
Herman isn’t well
Herman is an albino

Not that you could tell.

Herman
Herman
Herman is dirty
Herman is cold
Herman is thirty and
Wishes he was old

But he isn’t.

Herman has a trailer
On top of it is grass
He filled the inside up with dirt
And made the sides of glass
He lets you climb the steps
Up to the top for free
And look down through a little hole
Above his old TV.

But if you want some more
You pay to go inside
The tent that goes around the trailer
In which Herman hides.

Herman plays piano
When no one is around
He has an upright baby Steinway
Underneath the ground.

gnomon (NO-mon) noun

1. The raised arm of a sundial that indicates the time of day by its shadow.

2. The remaining part of a parallelogram after a similar smaller parallelogram has been taken away from one of the corners.

[From Latin gnomon, pointer, from Greek, from gignoskein, to know.]

I love you and cause I do
My skies have changed
From grey to blue.
But blue’s not just
A color of the rainbow.
It’s shade is not a hazy hue
But pure and hard
My blue sky blue
It’s like a Roman candle
Coming rosebuds.

brasilein bra*sil”e*in, C16H12O5, to which brazilwood owes its dyeing properties. Brasque Brasque, n. [F.] (Metal.) A paste made by mixing powdered charcoal, coal, or coke with clay, molasses, tar, or other suitable substance. It is used for lining hearths, crucibles, etc. Called also steep.

My sweetie went out for ice cream, and never came back! Sheesh, what a nice way to end the work day… I hope she’s happily consuming a tasty morsel as we speak. I think I’m going to get some orange sherbert after work, or Ben and Jerry’s. I’m hungry for ice cream… (and marigolds…and a taco.) Hmm… old lingam is acting like a mango again… I guess that’s ok.. it’s bound to happen when I think about my dearest Ornj.

I’ve got an idea for a short story (well, a 2nd act) but no resolution…I think that’s my biggest trouble, writing an ending that I find satisfactory… They can’t all be cliffhangers, can they?

propitiate pro-PISH-ee-ayt, transitive verb:
To render favorably inclined; to appease; to conciliate (one offended).

ex –
Yet the Fairy Bridge… didn’t get its name for nothing. Here the locals lift a hand ever so slightly and mutter “Hello, little people,” to propitiate the fairies underneath.
–Helen Gibson, “Rewards and Fairies,” Time Europe, April 30, 2001

Propitiate derives from Latin propitius, “favorable.”

chaplet CHAP-lit noun

1. A wreath or garland worn on the head.

2. A string of beads.

[Middle English chapelet, wreath; from Old French, diminutive of chapel hat, from Medieval Latin cappellus, from Late Latin cappa, cap.]

“What was on Hannibal’s mind as he drove his elephants over the Alps?
Looking good, apparently, because on Hannibal’s head was a wig, which he wore into battle to cover his lack of locks. Julius Caesar used his chaplet for the same purpose, the comb-over having not yet been discovered.”

A woodchuck could (and does) chuck around 35 cubic feet of dirt in the course of digging a burrow. Reason dictates that if a woodchuck could chuck wood, he would chuck an amount equivalent to the weight of the dirt, or 700 pounds.

Oh… was that a rhetorical question?

Everybody knows a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Goin’ to bed. Nitey nite! Sweet dreams, folksies!

hmm… I really like adding the graphics to the last poll.. when you go to view results, it’s much simpler for me to see a colorful breakdown of results.

Wow… one type of ramen is really winning by a landslide… i’m going to have to try the chili ramen sometime soon.

My favorite comment so far – ‘s Ew!

There are many types of ramen designed for fast, convenient preparation. All contain the same basic ingredients: flour, water, salt, dough conditioner, and seasonings/spices.

Nissin Chicken Ramen was considered to be the first fast cook (instant) ramen in the world. Nissin’s Top Ramen brand was introduced in the U.S. in 1972. For many years, this product was known as “Oodles of Noodles” in the Eastern U.S. Due to it’s popularity, “Oodles of Noodles” was reintroduced throughout the United States in 2000.

Much more information can be gleaned from http://www.nissinfoods.com/ , the makers of top ramen.

Just what does kumbaya mean?

Oh Lord, kumbaya. Also spelled kum ba yah, cumbayah, kumbayah, and probably a few other ways. If you look in a good songbook you’ll find the word helpfully translated as “come by here,” with the note that the song is “from Angola, Africa.” The “come by here” part I’ll buy. But Angola? Someone’s doubtin’, Lord, for the obvious reason that kumbaya is way too close to English to have a strictly African origin. More likely, I told my assistant Jane, it comes from some African-English pidgin or creole–that is, a combination of languages. (A pidgin is a linguistic makeshift that enables two cultures to communicate for purposes of trade, etc.; a creole is a pidgin that has become a culture’s primary language.) Sure enough, when we look into the matter, we find this conjecture is on the money. Someone’s grinnin’, Lord, kumbaya.

Kumbaya apparently originated with the Gullah, an African-American people living on the Sea Islands and adjacent coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. (The best known Sea Island is Hilton Head, the resort area.) Having lived in isolation for hundreds of years, the Gullah speak a dialect that most native speakers of English find unintelligible on first hearing but that turns out to be heavily accented English with other stuff mixed in. The dialect appears in Joel Chandler Harris’s “Uncle Remus” stories, to give you an idea what it sounds like. In the 1940s the pioneering linguist Lorenzo Turner showed that the Gullah language was actually a creole consisting of English plus a lot of words and constructions from the languages of west Africa, the Gullahs’ homeland. Although long scorned as an ignorant caricature of English, Gullah is actually a language of considerable charm, with expressions like (forgive my poor attempt at expressing these phonetically) deh clin, dawn (literally “day clean”); troot mout, truthful person (“truth mouth”), and tebble tappuh, preacher (“table tapper”).

And of course there’s kumbayah. According to ethnomusicologist Thomas Miller, the song we know began as a Gullah spiritual. Some recordings of it were made in the 1920s, but no doubt it goes back earlier. Published versions began appearing in the 1930s. It’s believed an American missionary couple taught the song to the locals in Angola, where its origins were forgotten. The song was then rediscovered in Angola and brought back here in time for the folksinging revival of the 50s and 60s. People might have thought the Gullahs talked funny, but we owe them a vote of thanks. Can you imagine sitting around the campfire singing, “Oh, Lord, come by here”?

got me started thinking about ramen noodles, and my sweetie is a cup-a-noodle head, too.

so, for you ramen-o-philes, I present = The Ramen Recipe Database! Enjoy!

Ramen & Chicken in Vodka Sauce? Salsa Ramen Surprise? Apocalypse Stew? What’s your favorite?

i want a Rubber Track Conversion for my 4×4! oh wait, i don’t have a 4×4. or a car for that matter. never mind.