it looks long, but goes fast.
Monthly Archives: August 2001
up and at ’em!
getting up extra early this morning to get a lead on walkies while it’s still cool outside.
If I’m going to walk for an hour in august, I may as well not bake! 🙂
In other news, my LJ client isn’t connecting, so I’m having to type this into notepad and then transfer it to the web client. bah! poop on LJ!
See you when I return.
vertiginous – steganography & color test
vertiginous vur-TIJ-uh-nuhs, adjective:
1. Affected with vertigo; giddy; dizzy.
2. Causing or tending to cause dizziness.
3. Turning round; whirling; revolving.
4. Inclined to change quickly or frequently; inconstant.
Vertiginous derives from Latin vertigo, “a turning round, a whirling round; giddiness,” from vertere, “to turn.” Related words include reverse, “to turn back (re-) or around”; subvert, “to undermine” (from sub-, “under” + vertere; at root “to turn from under; to overturn”); and versus, “against” (from versus, “turned towards,” hence “facing, opposed,” from the past participle of vertere).
steganography (ste-GUH-nog-ruh-fee) noun
Secret communication by hiding the existence of message.
A couple of examples of steganography: shrinking the secret text (by repeated use of a photocopy machine) until it’s the size of a dot and then putting it in an unsuspected place, such as on top of a letter i in some innocuous letter. Second, shaving the head of a man, writing the secret message on his pate with unwashable ink, and then letting the hair grow back before dispatching him to the destination. To take an example from modern digital techniques, one could put the text of a message in the blank spaces in an image file.
From Greek stego- (cover) + -graphy (writing).
and results from my color test – from
Blue personality, with a weak secondary of white – If you’re a Blue-White combination, you are comfortable. You express yourself softly and sincerely. People find you determined, yet flexible. You are someone with whom almost anyone can get along.
Continue reading vertiginous – steganography & color test
not all evil news
It must be the money. People across the U.S. are buying up lottery tickets in an effort to be the big winner of Wednesday night’s Powerball lottery which is now above the $200 million mark. According to an expert on odds and gambling, if you drive 10 miles to buy a ticket, you are 16 times more likely to be killed in a car crash on your way than to win the prize. If you buy 50 tickets a week, you would win the Powerball an average of once every 30,000 years.
The combination of the tax cut and the softening economy will all-but erase the budget surplus. That might be just the right recipe for an all out holy war in D.C this Fall.
According to a recent study, children who are breast fed for more than six months may end up being smarter than their peers unfortunately the researchers don’t indicate when it is too late to try to catch up…
In another piece of breakthrough science, British researchers indicate that kids who physically bully
others are less likely to suffer from nightmares, psychosomatic illnesses, and aches and pains than their victims.
Scientists discover a brainless sea creature that is coated with an all-seeing eye. I think I may have had him for Social Studies in JR High.
New York needed to find a way to get rid of their retired subway cars. Delaware needed to create an artificial coastal reef. Stand clear of the closing doors. I want one!!!
— PUTTING THE REAL IN REALITY TV?
We know that reality television can win viewers as well as celebrities can. But can the participants keep up in the area of public scandal? Survivor’s first winner Richard Hatch is doing his part as he is arrested (again) for assaulting his ex-boyfriend. Maybe we can see him on my fave reality show… COPS!
Following a fight that broke out during her wedding reception, a bride paid a little visit to the mobile home of one of the participants. When the cops arrived, the first thing they saw was that the door had been kicked off its hinges. I’ll let you take it from there…
My comics page
Phantom Blot around the world (for )
English – The (Phantom) Blot
Danish – Sorte Slyngel
German – Das Schwarze Phantom
Spanish (in Spain) -Borrón el Encapuchado / Máscara Negra
Finnish – Mustakaapu
Italian – Macchia Nera
Dutch – De zwarte Schim
Norwegian – Spøkelseskladden
Portuguese – Mancha Negra
Swedish – Spökplumpen
ichnology & supplant (Both in regards to feet)
ichnology (ik-NOL-uh-jee) noun
A branch of paleontology dealing with the study of fossilized footprints, tracks, traces, etc.
[From ichno- (track or footstep) + -logy (study).]
supplant (suh-PLANT), transitive verb:
1. To take the place of (another), especially through intrigue or underhanded tactics; as, a rival supplants another.
2. To take the place of and serve as a substitute for.
Supplant derives from Latin supplantare, “to put one’s foot under another, to throw down a person by tripping up his heels,” from sub-, “under” + plantare, “to stamp the ground with the foot,” from planta, “the sole of the foot.”
Spoon.
spoon (sp n)n.
v. spooned, spoon·ing, spoons
v. intr.
[Middle English, from Old English sp  n, chip of wood.]
spoon  a·ble adj. |
This is a Children’s Book? (Why I dig Oz)
People think children’s entertainment today is too violent? Check out this tale of disfigurement, slavery, contract killing, axe murder, and abuse of endangered species:
Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat in the door of her castle, she happened to look around and saw Dorothy lying asleep, with her friends all about her. They were a long distance off, but the Wicked Witch was angry to find them in her country; so she blew upon a silver whistle that hung around her neck.
At once there came running to her from all directions a pack of great wolves. They had long legs and fierce eyes and sharp teeth.
“Go to those people,” said the Witch, “and tear them to pieces.”
“Are you not going to make them your slaves?” asked the leader of the wolves.
“No,” she answered, “one is of tin, and one of straw; one is a girl and another a Lion. None of them is fit to work, so you may tear them into small pieces.”
“Very well,” said the wolf, and he dashed away at full speed, followed by the others.
It was lucky the Scarecrow and the Woodman were wide awake and heard the wolves coming.
“This is my fight,” said the Woodman, “so get behind me and I will meet them as they come.”
He seized his axe, which he had made very sharp, and as the leader of the wolves came on the Tin Woodman swung his arm and chopped the wolf’s head from its body, so that it immediately died. As soon as he could raise his axe another wolf came up, and he also fell under the sharp edge of the Tin Woodman’s weapon. There were forty wolves, and forty times a wolf was killed, so that at last they all lay dead in a heap before the Woodman.
From that timeless classic of children’s literature, The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
How do you define love?
What do you mean when you say “I love you” ?
a mewing moo that an ambitious cat might make who wished to be a cow
Christmas in the Summertime
August is as good a time as any to bring it up. (filthy monkey wants some holiday spirit!)
http://www.bfsmedia.com/MAS/Dylan/Christmas.html
Child’s Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas
(Some of mine to follow, I think later today)
imprecation
imprecation im-prih-KAY-shun, noun:
1. The act of imprecating, or invoking evil upon someone.
2. A curse.
Imprecation derives from Latin imprecatio, from imprecari, “to invoke harm upon, to pray against,” from in- + precari, “to pray.”
When I have a actual *library* in my house, I’ll certainly want this in it –
The most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time comprises both the 50-volume “5-foot shelf of books” and the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction. Together they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century.
queso.
I don’t understand why everyone’s up in arms about Microsoft removing support for older Netscape-style plugins from the latest upgrade to Internet Explorer. Yes, it’s annoying, I’ll grant you that; now, I have to download QuickTime movies in order to watch them. But strangely, other plugins haven’t been broken (like RealPlayer and Acrobat, at least on my machine), so I’m finding it hard to blame Microsoft, rather than Apple, for this one. And has anyone ever demanded that Netscape add support for ActiveX components? Once again, it smells like hatred, rather than logic, is driving this outrage.
Work… if you call it that.
Watching the ten commantments on the dvd-rom, cat at my feet, purring.
About time I reaped some rewards. 🙂
So let it be written… So let it be done.