Check this out – By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 collection

The By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Be sure to browse by subject so you can view all of the posters.

Library of congress is wonderful… And, for the most part it seems, the prints all fall under fair-use copyrights. Nifty!

Thank You, James Earl Ray, For Keeping The Dream Alive
=================================
LAUDERHILL, Fla. A plaque intended to honor deep-voiced actor
James Earl Jones at this city’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration instead is erroneously inscribed to James Earl Ray, King’s killer.

“Thank you James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive,” reads the plaque, which has prompted outrage among civil leaders.

*Somebody*’s going to get sued, or worse, for sure.

see also – http://www.fln.vcu.edu/struwwel/struwwel.html for more

Back from walkies this morning, Remembering old days in Trimaris, shire of Sangre del Sol. (This was over a good decade ago. I started there when I was just 18, left at 20… right before the SCA went to poop because of lawyers and snotty fen folk… no more solid combat and too many social politicking. A pity the archive doesn’t go back a greater span) Some of those times were great fun; there’s a lot to be said for full-contact armored combat and learning older skills like bookbinding. The feedback along your arm after smacking someone (properly protected) so hard that they fall down (or better, go airborne) is *very* rewarding.

I have to see if I can find some of the photos from the time… I suspect that they can be found in storage, if they weren’t lost during the purge of ’96. Hmm.. my ribs ache a little just thinking of the training with some of the other guys. (The only time I have any need to pick up a sledge these days is to break up tile or a wall.) I still have a few of the skills left over from that time period…making practice armor, the art of the shield-bash, body strike zones, knowing if a book is put together well and a lot of left over heraldry. The time there eventually just went to being in the Chessmen (ugh.. choreographed pseudo-combat. If I’m going to do something like that, I’ll dance with my sweetheart, not swing a sword. Nice people though… friendly and kind) and attending Renfaires.

Ok, old school dork mode ends.

I slept pretty well last night and had dreams of having some sort of meeting in a school-style room. Rows of desks, with a few people I know surrounding me… a couple of my hippie friends… Some sort of “how-to” seminar, but I don’t know what we were supposed to be learning. I remember gabbing and having a good time though. We had to get the teacher to sign some photos for a project.

what kind of email form letter is this??

How fricking lazy! I want to know which elements they’re using!!

Take a Blow to the Body

1. Tighten your stomach muscles. (A body blow to the gut (solar plexus) can damage organs and kill. This sort of punch is one of the best and easiest ways to knock someone out. (Harry Houdini was killed by an unexpected blow to the abdomen.))
2. Do not suck in your stomach if you expect that a punch is imminent.
3. If possible, shift slightly so that the blow hits your side, but do not flinch or move away from the punch. (Try to absorb the blow with your obliques this is the set of muscles on your side that wraps around your ribs. While a blow to this area may crack a rib, it is less likely to do damage to internal organs.)

Take a Blow to the Head

1. Move toward the blow, not away from it. (Getting punched while moving backward will result in the head taking the punch at full force. A punch to the face can cause head whipping, where the brain moves suddenly inside the skull, and can cause severe injury or death.)
2. Tighten your neck muscles and clench your jaw to avoid scraping of the upper and lower palettes.

To Fend off a Straight Punch

1. The straight punch-one that comes straight at your face-should be countered by moving toward the blow.
2. A punch can be absorbed most effectively and with the least injury by the forehead. (Avoid getting taking the punch in the nose, which is extremely painful.)
3. Attempt to deflect the blow with an arm.
4. Moving into the punch may result in your attacker missing the mark wide to either side.
5. (optional) Hit back with an uppercut or roundhouse.

To Fend off a Roundhouse Punch

1. Clench your jaw. (A punch to the ear causes great pain and can break your jaw.)
2. Move in close to your attacker. (Try to make the punch land harmlessly behind your head.)
3. (optional) Hit back with an uppercut.

To Fend off an Uppercut

1. Clench your neck and jaw. (An uppercut can much damage, whipping your head back, easily breaking your jaw or your nose.)
2. Use your arm to absorb some of the impact or deflect the blow to the side-anything to minimize the impact of a straight punch to the jaw.
3. Do not step into this punch. (If possible, move your head to the side.)
4. (optional) Hit back with a straight punch to the face or with an uppercut of your own.

(see more helpful hints at http://worstcasescenarios.com )

Random Scotto Factoid of the day –

I read multiple books at once. Depending where in the apartment or at work I am, I grab what’s at hand and read it… I keep a book by the bed, one (at least one!) in the potty, on the dining-table, next to my computers at work & home, and stored on my palmtop for portability. (the bed and palm books get read the quickest, and sometimes books cycle from location to location.)

Current books I’m reading, and locations – (I’ll apply links and fomatting, later, as it occurs to me)

• Work – Perl Programming and Apache Guides
• Palmtop – Blue Velvet Script, King James Bible, Tales of the Arabian Knights, (Will be adding Delta of Venus, shortly, possibly tonight)
• Home computer – The Stand – Stephen King
• Potty – Collected Astro City, Preacher, and Doom Patrol comics in Trade paperbacks
• Dining Table – Quantum psychology – Robert Anton Wilson
• Bedside – Tales Of Beatnik Glory – Ed Sanders

2 years ago today – Newt – pic here

This was E-mailed to me –

You know, I rather agree with much of that sentiment. I want a quality machine that runs fast and well. That said, the new gizmo looks neat, but doesn’t seem to be any great technological shake… I’d like my computer to be pretty much invisible, not a centerpiece. do the job quickly and without crashing, please, and stay out of the way when I want to write at my desk.

hmmm…

New magic group set to cast a spell over Taiwan

Waking the Tiger, eh?

Had wonderful, soothing sleeps last night. 🙂 Wearing my superman boxers to celebrate today.

Walkies today, and yesterday’s super jetpack link makes me wonder about the last groundbreaking invention before the internet? Anything more recent than my answer? (I don’t want to foul judgement by posting it out here. For what it’s worth, I don’t thing the little scooter is terribly groundbreaking)

It really impresses me what some people have seen over the last lifetime’s worth of years. 1903 we had the first manned, controlled flight… there are people still alive that were born before then… they’ve seen us go from being pretty much earthbound to being able to go to the moon, cold wars, world wars, and we lived through it all.

Human rights here in the US went to some pretty poor settings to some not nearly so bad ones. Women can vote, no more official segregation, and you can pretty much believe what you want in regards to religion, sexuality, and politics. Medical science has gone through the roof, as has technology in general. (Maybe, in my opinion the best side effect of some of the most horrible conflicts this planet has ever seen.)

I’m happy to be living in this place and time.

Other news…Newtie’s done with his meds! hooray! To celebrate, I had a naughty brunch. Ice cream sammich!

Booze poll results

Every night at 10… Newt checks the front and back doors.

I wonder what he hears/senses? I can’t spot anything outside…

I’m going to dose my little orange man up, and hit the sack early. nighters.

To heck with that personal scooter junk… somebody get me one of these.

No tush-burning exhaust, lifter fans…just the way I want it. now *that’s* cool technology.

Also –

Windows XP, the most secure operating system ever, has another security hole. In other news, the Titanic is an unsinkable ship. (my opinion on XP is here -warning, foul language, because is a pottymouth)

‘Dead’ man gets up and walks away just before his cremation

The midnight pooper has struck again

Taliban gone, Pedophilia Back.
Between that and goat-football yech. I try to be tolerant, but mistreatment of youth doesn’t fly with me.

I was in a funk, then bad mood earlier. Still a slight crankiness, but things feel better again. I have a game plan, and talking about what bugs me helped out. Now, it’s only a question of confronting those remaining issues.

I need to call my brother tonight, and see what’s the dealio lately. (We’ve been playing a lot of phone-tag, and missing one another… as one of the “big three” people in my life, it’s important to keep that avenue open)

Had a wonderful walk this morning… I got in before the thunderstorms had a chance to start. Refreshingly cool, because it was cloudy, windy and early. I skipped the double walk, though…one lap was enough. The beach was beautiful… grey skies, not too choppy, not too populated. I’m glad I didn’t do the airport walk, because I think that route would’ve been mobbed. As it stands, I was allowed to walk unimpeded at my normal ent-stride. (Hasty or not.) The wind was at my back on the way home and made the return simpler than the first half of the walk…just as well, because the bridge on atlantic is a bit of an incline. Lots of things to take pictures of. Only two weeks until I get my digicam!

screamingly cute giraffe pics – eyeball, lovey heads