for my sweetheart…(and myself)

Beautiful Dreamer
Stephen Foster

Beautiful Dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,
Lull’d by the moonlight have all pass’d away!

Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,
List while I woo thee with soft melody;
Gone are the cares of life’s busy throng

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,
Mermaids are chaunting the wild lorelie;
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn.

Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,
E’en as the morn on the streamlet and sea;
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart,

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

story seed? it’s true!

At one point, Beijing was a walled city. In ’69, for fear of impending Soviet attack (note the era: Cultural Revolution), Mao had them taken down to provide bricks for a network of bomb shelters.

The resulting “underground city” was designed to house 300,000 people for 4 months. Although foreign tourists are allowed to see them, no Chinese are admitted. The little-known entrance is just a bit south of Tiananmen Square.

In a semi-related note, there is continuing construction on the city’s subway, with the junction stations seemingly finished, but the lower levels are in a state of filth and unkept disarray, devoting no effort while they wait for a tunnel that has yet to arrive.

a shame ckirk isn’t around lately.. I think he’d appreciate this.

From who-knows where – I’m lucky it wasn’t me –

I may as well share the Worst Character Concept Ever, submitted to me by a prospective player in a Champions game I was going to run (but never got off the ground):

The Superlative (Invincible, Indestructible, etc.) Hammer-Wheel.

The Invincible Hammer-Wheel’s power is that he has hammers for hands and wheels for feet. Or it could have been wheels for hands and hammers for feet. The player himself wasn’t sure, but my mental picture of the character is a man with monster-truck wheels plugged into where is arms should be, who drives up to villains and kicks them with his sledgehammer feet.

Here’s basically how the conversation went:

Player: I hear you’re running a superhero game. Can I play?
Me: Sure. Do you have a character concept in mind?
Player: The Invincible Hammer-Wheel!
Me: Uh… (keep in mind this was to be a “serious” supers game)
Player: He has hammers for hands and wheels for feet! Or, wheels for hands and hammers for feet. I haven’t decided.
Me: And how did he come by these “powers?”
Player: He was born that way.
Me: Must have been rough on his folks…
Player: He was raised by farm implements.
Me: And his motivation for doing good?
Player: He lives in the woods.

So whenever people bring up their “worst concept” horror-stories, all I have to say is, totally deadpan and monotone, “The Invincible Hammer-Wheel. He has hammers for hands and wheels for feet. He was born that way. He was raised by farm implements. He lives in the woods.”

With that, I’m going to bed.

night-night.

Watch TV tonight, with my sweetie.

Mad TV was cute… so, what? TNN isn’t the nashville network anymore? last few times I’ve gone past it, I’ve seen Star trek, and other distinctly non-country-western fare. Clops… that killed me. MR peanut on a killing spree, using a nutcracker on assorted ones before turning it on himself… wallace and gromit… massively goofy hasmburger order.

First time I’d seen a full episode of fear factor… I have to admit, even if it is a ‘reality’ show… I liked it. good sportsmanship was there, and some of the players were very cool.

Also watched the Anne Heche interview with Baba Wawa…. I don’t know… somehow, it all seems more suspect when a person has a book coming out, profiting about stuff like that. Perhaps I’m overly cynical, or maybe my heart just didn’t touch hers, but I got a sense of deception there. maybe I’m wrong, and maybe she is free of her earlier troubles… but somehow, I think there’s an element of theatre in there. some statements were right out of my old drama class, a formula for getting sympathy. It didn’t ring *totally* true. some of it felt like it could’ve happened. other bits, not so much.

I’d really like to see other folks of her’s perspectives, especially Steve martin (her last Boyfriend) and Ellen (Her Last long term relationship). It seems that she’s not on good terms with either now, though.

Ugh. Snoopy Scotto. I should just appreciate the craft… but I love seeing what makes folks tick.

Plan to get laid at Dragon-Con 2001 fails.

CALHOUN FALLS, SC—Garry Melcher’s plans to have sexual intercourse at last weekend’s DragonCon 2001 were unsuccessful, the 27-year-old comic-book collector and science-fiction fan conceded Tuesday.

“I was really hoping to meet some ladies at DragonCon for a little of the old horizontal bop,” said Melcher, who has been unwillingly celibate for the last 17 months. “It didn’t really pan out, though.”

Morning Zep Break… :)

For my sweetheart –


Led Zeppelin
Ii

Thank You

If the sun refused to shine,
I would still be loving you.
When mountains crumble to the sea,
There will still be you and me.

Kind woman, I give you my all,
Kind woman, nothing more.

Little drops of rain whisper of the pain,
Tears of loves lost in the days gone by.
My love is strong, with you there is no wrong,
Together we shall go until we die.
My, my, my,
An inspiration is what you are to me,
Inspiration, look see.

And so today, my world it smiles,
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles,
Thanks to you it will be done,
For you to me are the only one.
Happiness, no more be sad,
Happiness….I’m glad.

If the sun refused to shine,
I would still be loving you.
When mountains crumble to the sea,
There will still be you and me.

evil news.

German University Remembers the Good Old Days
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The University of Bonn has caused outrage by naming Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis’ propaganda chief and fanatical anti-Semite, as one of its most famous alumni in an advertising drive for new students.

Describing its well-known “old boy,” the brochure says: “Goebbels was a student of the philosophy department from 1917 to 1918. From 1933 to 1945 the close friend of Hitler became propaganda minister and was responsible for Gleichschaltung, the forcing into line of the media and cultural life.”

Protests Against Little Catholic Schoolgirls Turn Violent
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Irate Protestants hurling stones and abuse terrorized scores of Roman Catholic girls for a second day Tuesday as they walked to school under massive security in Belfast.

Columns of military trucks and police with riot shields formed a corridor for the children, some as young as three, to enter a school in a Protestant area of north Belfast, where there was widespread rioting overnight.

“And let’s remember it’s small girls going to school.”

Japanese Try To Justify Masturbation, Tentacles Next!
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Toss away all those old wives’ tales promising hairy palms and short sightedness and simply toss away. Masturbation is good for guys, if Spa! (9/5) is anything to go by. Not only can a regular jerk apparently make a man in his 30s more attractive to women, it can also make him healthier and a better worker. In short, it seems a quick tug can indeed be a great helping hand in the quest for a successful life.

Turkish Reality TV: Minimum Wage Survivor
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ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — In a new twist to reality television, a Turkish show is pitting two middle class couples against each other to see who can survive on the country’s minimum wage of $84 a month.

Corporations Copyright Individual Alphabet Letters
=================================
Who owns the letters of the alphabet? It sounds like a silly question, but courts around the world are grappling with it.

Just last month, for instance, a German publisher sued in the United States to claim the letter O, and a British judge awarded the initials WWF to the World Wildlife Fund, to the consternation of the World Wrestling Federation.

“It’s like ‘Sesame Street,’ ” said Susan P. Crawford, an expert in international intellectual property law in Washington. The law, she suggested, is in the process of turning the show’s whimsical tag lines — “brought to you by the letter O,” say — into something more serious.

Pygmies are REEEEAAAALLLLL!!!!

since my poll,here Pygmies were believed to exist by fewer people than angels, aliens, psychics, ghosts, and demons.

I have to help to correct this error, and then go to bed.

Believe in Pygmies! they're real!

Pygmies live in some of the most inhospitable forests of eastern Congo. They have been known to the western world since the Greek poet Homer wrote about them in the 8th century B.C. but it was only with the European conquest of Africa that they hit western consciousness in a big way.

Anthropologists define pygmies where full normal growth results in an average male height of less than 1.50 meters, or 59 inches. Folk thinking has automatically assumed that these hunter-gatherers, who live deep in the jungle, are the most primitive members of the human race, or even an earlier evolutionary stage. But archaeologists have never discovered races of true pygmy size in prehistory. They were the first known inhabitants of Congo, however, both the Bantu and the Nilotic tribes that make up the rest of the population coming after them.

Mortality among children is very high, and even among those who make it to adulthood, lifespans over 50 are rare. Pygmies are very communal – children are passed around the tribe to get to know all the adults intimately, and women sometimes call on each other to act as wet nurses for their children. The Efe pygmies near Epulu in Haut-Zaire province are known to other Congolese for being addicted to tobacco – they will often work three or four hours in a peasant’s field in exchange for one tobacco leaf. Pygmies speak a variety of languages, usually adapting the dialect of their neighboring settled tribes.

that said, I’m a going to bed.

pleading insanity? I bet the gay community will love this.

Anne Heche, who married a cameraman over the weekend, is now explaining that she has suffered from multiple personalities throughout her life and was insane during her three-year relationship with Ellen DeGeneres. On her current mental state, she insists: “I’m all here.” {She was later seen introducing herself as Morton and trying to bite into a piece of wedding cake with her ear.}

Seriously, I wish her the best of luck, and health.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/2001-09-04-heche.htm

http://bignosebird.com/apache/a16.shtml

Stopping People from Using Your Images on their Web Pages. (Bandwidth Theft)

If you have some nice graphics on your site, you might notice that other webmasters, usually newbies are having their readers pull the graphics directly from your site. If your bandwith is metered, then you are paying to support somebody else’s site! Depending on how busy that other site is, it can also place additional load on your server.

http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Logging_Accesses_and_Statistics/
Something I’ve been noticing lately… and I’m occasionally guilty of it myself. No longer. From now on, I’ll post a link to the site, or copy the pic and use it locally.

http://www.winappslist.com/webauthoring/log_analyzers.htm

Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often, the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as ’empty’ or ‘meaningless’, or ‘dishonest’ and scorn the use of them. No matter how ‘pure’ their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.

Am I evil for doing this? Can you hear the song in your mind? What memories does it recall?

Rhinestone Cowboy
Words & Music by Larry Weiss
Sung by Glen Campbell

I’ve been walkin’ these streets so long
Singin’ the same old song
I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway
Where hustle’s the name of the game
And nice guys get washed away like the snow and the rain
There’s been a load of compromisin’
On the road to my horizon
But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Like a rhinestone cowboy
Getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know
And offers comin’ over the phone

Well, I really don’t mind the rain
And a smile can hide all the pain
But you’re down when you’re ridin’ the train that’s takin’ the long way
And I dream of the things I’ll do
With a subway token and a dollar tucked inside my shoe
There’ll be a load of compromisin’
On the road to my horizon
But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Rhinestone cowboy
Gettin’ cards and letters from people I don’t even know
And offers comin’ over the phone

Like a rhinestone cowboy
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo

Rhinestone cowboy
Gettin’ cards and letters from people I don’t even know