Turns out the my grandmother on my mother’s side had a heart attack Thanksgiving evening, and possibly a mild stroke. My Uncle, (Her eldest son) is up there now and tending to her. I seems to be fairly serious, but stable now. She’s in good hands… I hope that Ted hangs in there. She’s of hardy stock, but really getting up there in age. Hopefully, she’ll be in good enough health to move back to Florida soon, where things are a little easier on seniors.

Brother came by today and picked up a bunch of his stuff (though not all of it). Maybe the fact that we got into the start of an argument last night got through to him? Hard to say, but he was fairly cowed and quiet… He brought the Mother over with him, to help cart his stuff. He was good enough to call first before coming over and was polite enough about this and that. I worry about his cognitive skills… even though its the first time in an age that he’s shown up at my house without a beer in his hand, or smelling of the stuff, his body language and actual speech patterns were still mildly erratic. I wonder if he’s on something, or if he’s a little damaged from past abuses, or was just nervous about dealing with me? Hard to say, but hopefully it’s repairable, whatever it is. We did talk civilly about him selling his guitar on eBay.. I suggested that he try to sell it locally, first, just to make things go more swiftly, and to spare him the trouble of figuring out how to ship a guitar. If he does decide to go the eBay route, I’ll certainly help him with his wording and posting it under his own account.

As for some good news, I’m down to my last notch on my belt… I’ll have to buy a new one, soon.. probably along with a couple pairs of better-fit pants.

The Disinfopedia – a collaborative project to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests.

Woman trampled and knocked unconscious while shopping for a doorbuster-priced DVD player at Wal-Mart.

The store offered to put the DVD player on lay-away for her.

Stickels with Orange City police said there would not be criminal charges for the trampling. “It gets like that around the holidays,” he said. “People get fierce.”

Ah, the holiday spirit. it misses some folks entirely.

Santa’s helper throttles teen

An outing to a shopping center ended with a shock for 13-year-old Joakim Osland. A fjoesnisse, a kind of elf that traditionally occupies barns and wears a red cap associated with Christmas and Santa Claus, became frighteningly furious when Joakim tried to pet his hen, newspaper Firda reports.

Continue reading #6302 family stuff, holiday news items →

I hate getting my buttons pushed…I guess that goes without saying for anyone. I’m good as long as I realize it’s being done, and I can stay on top of it. It’s difficult, sometimes. Some folks have their head so far up their asses that they can’t see the colon for the polyps. If someone wants to be an idiot, warn ’em kindly, and let them go on being an idiot.

The first half of last night’s JL was weak, but the part two more than made up for it. “I’ve got issues, what with destroying the Earth and all.” Lobo never did anything for me… there was a lot of fighting, but not much plot development in the first part.. just fighting.

Holidays are starting to come, now.. so it’s time to mention Toys for Tots Unwrapped toys for kids that’d otherwise have nothing. It’s a good org, and I have to consider what I want to do this year for them, or a like charity.

I’ve changed my “recently updated” image on the blogroll form turkeys to smurfs … at least until I can figure some other little one to put there. candy canes, perhaps?

Three articles about the same thing – Kitties and Mind-Altering Parasites.

Dangerrrr: cats could alter your personality

Decreased level of psychobiological factor novelty seeking and lower intelligence in men latently infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii Dopamine, a missing link between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis?

Parasites make scaredy-rats foolhardy

Apparently, the parasites get in and mess with neurotransmitters in ways we don’t quite understand yet — to make their targets *more vulnerable to cats*, with some vaguely disturbing personality changes.

Based on preliminary studies, 30-90% of people (varying from country to country) are infected already.

There’s no known cure. The CDC factsheet

Nibbling on edamame, finished my book, and figured I’d putter back at the ‘puter for a bit.

Earlier, (when I was in the shower, having a shampoo) I daydreamed a bit about getting a tattoo… it was nothing more than a fleeting thought, and it led to pondering about something that recurs in my mind here and again, the good-ol’ forehead tattoo. I started thinking about a society that required everyone to choose a tattoo of a simple design, to be placed on the face where everyone could see it. Why? I don’t know. But the symbol had to be right in the middle of the forehead and of a large size… say, as big as the outside circumference of the person’s thumb and pointer finger can make, give or take… the ink in sharp contrast with the skin, so that it’s visible at a good distance, and the line’s thickness at least that of a laundry marker.

So, I haven’t posted a poll in a long time. Of course, feel free to fill in the comments if you’d like to add more detail or can’t operate the poll as a non-LJer.

Here comes the sun… Dawn’s breaking, and I’m wide awake. I got a missing call at about 3am this morning, and haven’t been back to bed yet. I’ll take a little nap midday to catch up.

I wonder how much Santa got paid to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade. pretty good gig, ride on a car, wave and take home a paycheck. Is he the same Santa’s helper that works at the Macy’s store and gets all the little kids to sit in his lap for pictures?

I’ve discovered the spiffy-keeness of the file sharing system known as DC++. I’m *really* impressed with the stuff that’s out there, far better than kazaa or winmx. I’ve found pdf files, video and whackadoo music that I’ve never been able to locate otherwise.

I don’t think that I’ll be too keen on the new Battlestar Galactica. I don’t mind the gender change of Starbuck and Boomer, though I find it to be wacky, and even a little typical of the current genre… but also a “Cylon” character that’s played by Victoria’s Secret model named “Number Six” that likes to straddle and hump Baltar or whoever… eh. I’ll look into it if someone that I trust sees it and tells me “You’ve got to see it!” SciFi hasn’t done a lot of solid work in my opinion.. but a few gems have shined out here and there. I actually liked the version of Dune that they put together. As a kid I liked BG ok, but to be honest, it wasn’t a great show to start with, in my opinion. The episodes hold a lot more childhood nostalgia for me rather than great storytelling.

Time traveling monkey ninjas, and Michael Dorn as Rufus 3000. Now there’s a show.The Kim Possible Movie was very keen. Nicely Done, Disney. (And Ron’s lines are perfect miniMAX commentary.) I look forward to grabbing it off the net. (though I’ve grabbed it with the vcr… handy-dandy back-to back runs made it easy to preview, and then record.

Synopsis

Well, after reading all of the reviews on the new gamma world that I care to (here, here and here, basically), it looks like I’d prefer to use the version of “Omega World“. It appears that the new version of GW at best is mediocre, and at worst, is a both an editorial and content bomb. I have to remember to ask the Gray Pumpkin his feelings on the book. (He was the person that even told me it had been published.)

Speaking of gamer-talk, it’s nice to see gaming / comics nerds in the mainstream. Today’s Foxtrot / Calvin comics

It’s the day after Thanksgiving… I suppose I can work a bit more on my Yuletide background for my website and journal I’d like to keep it muted, but festive. I wonder if blinking lights on the trees would be too distracting? I won’t trot out the holiday icons and such much more before a week ahead of Christmas… and they’ll be gone by New Year’s. Perhaps I’ll make some birthday graphics, too, for February. Not many people even noticed my Halloween background when it was up… but it was subtle.

Historical Lunatic Quiz… Spot on?

Well, I talked to my brother briefly this afternoon (about 1:30), and he’s helping to cook over where he’s rooming right now. I don’t know if we’re going to get together today, or not, but at least we got a chance to gab for a bit. We’ll see where the day takes us, but I doubt anything will happen at this point. I do know that he’s getting fed and chilling out today, so that’s a good thing. If I don’t hear from him in an hour or two, I’ll chow down solo. [update, 5:07pm – He just called and said he wasn’t going to make it. That’s all well and good, but I missed out on getting together at Danny’s due to my sense of family and obligation to him. It’s too bad that I can’t get together with Dan today, but perhaps sometime this weekend will work out. ]

So far, being on call today has been slow, just a habitual this morning. (I was wondering if there’d be a rash of kids taking off with the force of holiday/family friction.)

“I know I’ve seen the hymn in a hymnal at a very odd little church on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach (it’s hard to describe just how odd it is that there’s a church there at all – it’s as if they transplanted a miniature Spanish Mission into a largely-gay international shopping mall)… I can’t remember if it had music or not, but I may have to drive the hour and a half to find out. ” – via Barbelith

The Hymn in Question?

#90 God of Concrete
[Frederick R.C. Clarke and Richard Granville Jones]
[from The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971 edition)]

God of concrete, God of steel,
God of piston and of wheel,
God of pylon, God of steam,
God of girder and of beam,
God of atom, God of mine:
all the world of power is thine.

Lord of cable, Lord of rail,
Lord of freeway and of mail,
Lord of rocket and of flight,
Lord of soaring satellite,
Lord of lightning’s flashing line:
all the world of speed is thine.

Lord of science, Lord of art,
Lord of map and graph and chart,
Lord of physics and research,
Word of Bible, Faith of church,
Lord of sequence and design:
all the world of truth is thine.

God whose glory fills the earth,
gave the universe its birth,
loosed the Christ with Easter’s might,
saves the world from evil’s blight,
claims us all by grace divine:
all the world of love is thine.

Man, that’s great. I would really like to hear a chorus of people singing that… Somehow, picturing a congregation wearing choir robes, Green Lantern rings and hard hats is wayyy too nifty to me.

William S. Burroughs – A Thanksgiving Prayer (mp3 format) (The snarky side of things.)

Nifty Cams all over the planet.

Spray-on female contraceptive to start trial

The world’s first trial of a female contraceptive spray will begin in Australia early in 2004. The approach involves a new technique for transferring hormones across the skin and a novel low-dose contraceptive hormone. Continue reading #6295 TG Status, Spiffy Hymn, Cams, Birth control. →

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yummy Chocolate Cabin and Chief Bit-o-honey
Compliments of Gallery of Regrettable food’s Party Cake Houses

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time. It’s been all been said before, but it bears repeating.

I feel that it exists as one last chance to dwell in an introspective, love-filled space before the rampant commercialism of Christmas turn us all into mall-dwelling spend-monkeys. That span until Christmas actually arrives can be so crass… I think that breaking through that month-long barrier of frenzy and stress once Christmas finally comes around makes the arrival that much more festive and sacred. Thanksgiving is the last deep breath before diving in, it seems.

I am thankful for so much this year, and for the last few years now. I’ve learned to be more appreciative, and I think that I have more to appreciate now than in years past. I’m thankful for about every synaptic impulse that hits my noggin through the day. From Newt nuzzling me awake to play first thing of the day to the last letter of text read (on the net or on paper), before I prepare for sleep.

I just feel so lucky to have consciousness. I’m awake. (A lot of the universe isn’t nearly that fortunate.) When I add in the love, joy, adventure and creative outlets in my life. I just have to pinch myself.

I’m thankful for having all sorts of love in my life, from my sweetheart, to Newt, to friendships… those that have been steady for ages, some that have been recovered recently after a wide gap, and those that started only this year, but have the potential to last well into the future. I’m thankful for a vocation that uses what knowledge and abilities I have to make a difference in the world, and help people. I’m thankful that I’ve got a roof over my head, a cupboard full of food, a desire and ability to continue to grow as a person. I’m thankful for all the people that have read my journal and introduced themselves to me. I’ve met *hundreds* of folks over time with this thing, and I feel that I’ve learned something good from every one of them. Thank you for being a part of my blessed life.

Getting together with the bro today, if all goes well. I’m on call so I can’t do much traveling (no more than 20 minutes from the net to place calls… I wonder if it will be crazy busy or totally quiet? There wasn’t a single call last night.)

I’m wondering what we’ll have. We could call the Downtown Pizzeria(they still use the ¢ sign on the menu), and get just about anything. when I worked the graveyard shift at IMT, I was so happy that they delivered until 4am, and that they had a huge selection…. I don’t see the bro picking anything up on the way over. If for some reason he decides not to make it, I’ll hold off, and fix something here out of what I’ve got in the cupboard.

Dan’s D20 / D&D fantasy game went well, he had a decent time, and the rest seemed to have a blast. Apparently strategy and tactics aren’t their strong suit, but they enjoyed it, and that’s really what counts. From what I hear, the GM has a lot of good potential and the players will adapt quickly enough. They fought a gelatinous cube and some sort of roof-gripping tentacled horror. (The name escapes me. I’ll have to ask Danny what that was again.) Apparently they were smacked around pretty thoroughly, but nobody kicked the bucket, which works well enough. There were a lot of critical failures… the paladin rolled a 1, and fumbled into the cube headlong, and they’re stuck having to draw him back out again… and the Mage botched a roll on magic missile, shooting a fighter-type rather than the aforementioned wriggly roof-monster.

Dan’s still got an aversion to dice that have more or less than six sides and maps on squares rather than hexes, but I think that he realizes that the play is the thing. I imagine that once he gets the full gist of the rules, he’ll enjoy it all the more. He’s talking about running a game next year at the school (he’s got no time or inclination this year) but I have serious doubts if he’s got any kind of time.

I wonder what Gelatinous Cubes would look like if D&D maps were originally drawn on hex paper? probably still cube shaped, because they sweep hallways and the like. The cool thing about gelatinous cubes is that it neither digests nor excretes metal, giving an adventurers a reason to kill it and scoop coins from its corpse. It’s like some sort of living, deadly, mall fountain.

Many E-book sources in one place. Handy!

Toshiba’s new e805 Pocket PC – sporting a large 640×480 resolution display (the first to turn up in a Pocket PC), 160MB of memory, a 400MHz processor, and built-in WiFi.

Art & Architecture is the Courtauld Gallery’s online visual resource – some 40,000 images covering, as the name suggests, the visual arts. Sample galleries include Destroyed: ten buildings which no longer exist.. There’s lots to browse here.

This looks pretty nice – a $200 PC with Linux. I may get one. I wonder if Lycoris is a decent server OS, since it seems to be sold as a desktop system.

Show and tell music has all kinds of great retro album covers.

One that stands out as rather twisted is Tortura. Don’t forget to download the jazzy MP3.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yummy Chocolate Cabin and Chief Bit-o-honey
Compliments of Gallery of Regrettable food’s Party Cake Houses

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time. It’s been all been said before, but it bears repeating.

I feel that it exists as one last chance to dwell in an introspective, love-filled space before the rampant commercialism of Christmas turn us all into mall-dwelling spend-monkeys. That span until Christmas actually arrives can be so crass… I think that breaking through that month-long barrier of frenzy and stress once Christmas finally comes around makes the arrival that much more festive and sacred. Thanksgiving is the last deep breath before diving in, it seems.

I am thankful for so much this year, and for the last few years now. I’ve learned to be more appreciative, and I think that I have more to appreciate now than in years past. I’m thankful for about every synaptic impulse that hits my noggin through the day. From Newt nuzzling me awake to play first thing of the day to the last letter of text read (on the net or on paper), before I prepare for sleep.

I just feel so lucky to have consciousness. I’m awake. (A lot of the universe isn’t nearly that fortunate.) When I add in the love, joy, adventure and creative outlets in my life. I just have to pinch myself.

I’m thankful for having all sorts of love in my life, from my sweetheart, to Newt, to friendships… those that have been steady for ages, some that have been recovered recently after a wide gap, and those that started only this year, but have the potential to last well into the future. I’m thankful for a vocation that uses what knowledge and abilities I have to make a difference in the world, and help people. I’m thankful that I’ve got a roof over my head, a cupboard full of food, a desire and ability to continue to grow as a person. I’m thankful for all the people that have read my journal and introduced themselves to me. I’ve met *hundreds* of folks over time with this thing, and I feel that I’ve learned something good from every one of them. Thank you for being a part of my blessed life.

Getting together with the bro today, if all goes well. I’m on call so I can’t do much traveling (no more than 20 minutes from the net to place calls… I wonder if it will be crazy busy or totally quiet? There wasn’t a single call last night.)

I’m wondering what we’ll have. We could call the Downtown Pizzeria(they still use the ¢ sign on the menu), and get just about anything. when I worked the graveyard shift at IMT, I was so happy that they delivered until 4am, and that they had a huge selection…. I don’t see the bro picking anything up on the way over. If for some reason he decides not to make it, I’ll hold off, and fix something here out of what I’ve got in the cupboard.

Dan’s D20 / D&D fantasy game went well, he had a decent time, and the rest seemed to have a blast. Apparently strategy and tactics aren’t their strong suit, but they enjoyed it, and that’s really what counts. From what I hear, the GM has a lot of good potential and the players will adapt quickly enough. They fought a gelatinous cube and some sort of roof-gripping tentacled horror. (The name escapes me. I’ll have to ask Danny what that was again.) Apparently they were smacked around pretty thoroughly, but nobody kicked the bucket, which works well enough. There were a lot of critical failures… the paladin rolled a 1, and fumbled into the cube headlong, and they’re stuck having to draw him back out again… and the Mage botched a roll on magic missile, shooting a fighter-type rather than the aforementioned wriggly roof-monster.

Dan’s still got an aversion to dice that have more or less than six sides and maps on squares rather than hexes, but I think that he realizes that the play is the thing. I imagine that once he gets the full gist of the rules, he’ll enjoy it all the more. He’s talking about running a game next year at the school (he’s got no time or inclination this year) but I have serious doubts if he’s got any kind of time.

I wonder what Gelatinous Cubes would look like if D&D maps were originally drawn on hex paper? probably still cube shaped, because they sweep hallways and the like. The cool thing about gelatinous cubes is that it neither digests nor excretes metal, giving an adventurers a reason to kill it and scoop coins from its corpse. It’s like some sort of living, deadly, mall fountain.

Many E-book sources in one place. Handy!

Toshiba’s new e805 Pocket PC – sporting a large 640×480 resolution display (the first to turn up in a Pocket PC), 160MB of memory, a 400MHz processor, and built-in WiFi.

Art & Architecture is the Courtauld Gallery’s online visual resource – some 40,000 images covering, as the name suggests, the visual arts. Sample galleries include Destroyed: ten buildings which no longer exist.. There’s lots to browse here.

This looks pretty nice – a $200 PC with Linux. I may get one. I wonder if Lycoris is a decent server OS, since it seems to be sold as a desktop system.

Show and tell music has all kinds of great retro album covers.

One that stands out as rather twisted is Tortura. Don’t forget to download the jazzy MP3.

Translate my journal into – Simplified Chinese, Dansk, Deutsch, Español, Français, Greek, Italiano, Japanese, Korean, Nederlands, Norsk, Polska, Portugués, Russian and Svensk.

(I just added that to my ever growing and very messy bio page) I’m not sure if I want to put the links on my journal itself, though it’d be much more convenient for folks that visit to spot it that way. Cool thing is that on many of the translatins, you can hover over words and see the English/other language translation.

Two new items added to eBay –

Coral Ridge Country Club Golf Foursome (Coral Ridge Country Club) and a One Month Fitness Spa Membership (Jupiter Fitness center)

Hopefully these will win ACIM some nice funds….I wonder if the foursome isn’t too pricey an item for a local deal, but we’ll see! I’ll have to get CS to edit the copy… he didn’t run it through a spell check. Otherwise, they look quite nice.

Del Monte’s canned sweet peas (no salt) are far better quality-wise than Green Giant.

An 80-year-old woman used a ceremonial sword to fight off two six-foot raiders who burst into her home.
Continue reading #6293 History, eBay, Fightin’ Granny, translations →

Translate my journal into – Simplified Chinese, Dansk, Deutsch, Español, Français, Greek, Italiano, Japanese, Korean, Nederlands, Norsk, Polska, Portugués, Russian and Svensk.

(I just added that to my ever growing and very messy bio page) I’m not sure if I want to put the links on my journal itself, though it’d be much more convenient for folks that visit to spot it that way. Cool thing is that on many of the translatins, you can hover over words and see the English/other language translation.

Two new items added to eBay –

Coral Ridge Country Club Golf Foursome (Coral Ridge Country Club) and a One Month Fitness Spa Membership (Jupiter Fitness center)

Hopefully these will win ACIM some nice funds….I wonder if the foursome isn’t too pricey an item for a local deal, but we’ll see! I’ll have to get CS to edit the copy… he didn’t run it through a spell check. Otherwise, they look quite nice.

Del Monte’s canned sweet peas (no salt) are far better quality-wise than Green Giant.

An 80-year-old woman used a ceremonial sword to fight off two six-foot raiders who burst into her home.
Continue reading #6293 History, eBay, Fightin' Granny, translations →

Ah, lovely. Back from this morning’s PT, which was just a glorified deep tissue massage, and that’s just fine by me. Afterward, I arrived home to find a package from Bahrain that needed shuttling northwards, and my check came in, so it was off to the bank for a deposit and the PO next door to launch goodies. Thanks, Oneeyed and Sedef! I’m sure the goodies will be well recieved. 🙂

Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped in at Twistyland, just to nose around, and ended up grabbing a copy of Essential Ant-Man to add to my growing collection of that set. Not too shabby, the guy gave it to me for $10, though they normally discount it to $12. Plus, he threw in some atomic fireballs, and invited me to bring my MK armies down and play. So, huzzah!

As I type this, Danny’s students are playing the first solid game at the school. I hope that they’re having a great time, and look forward to hearing a full report when he gets home.

I’ve been getting a lot of hits from around the world lately… I really like seeing where the little connections go. breakdown

I have to schedule the techs for calls during the coming Christmas and New Years holiday. I’m not sure who I want to assign… I figure I’ll take one, and one will go to CS. I wonder which day will be busiest… I’d rather take the thicker day, and let him deal with the lighter, until he and I are both more confident in his skills.

Spent a long and wonderful time at the Institute of Official Cheer. The yearly Thanksgiving perusal of scary food from yesteryear, as well as other vintage weirdness had me in stitches for hours. Between the classic photos and commentary, I don’t know how anyone can’t get enjoyment out of the place.

Gollum Rap – I may’ve linked to this before, but it’s making the rounds, and I figure I’ll toss it up here for at least Danny and his Class to see. Ugh, I confused Oghor-hai with Olog-hai and Uruk-hai. What kind of Tolkien fan am I? A confused one, is all. Thank goodness for the Encyclopedia of Arda. (I’m considering a run of my “super-site-siphon” on it, just so I can have a local copy for the future.)

In local news, I’d like to try this out, but I don’ t know if I can get a teammate or two to come along:

ART SCAVENGER HUNT

The pursuit of art often ends with the pursuer finding something he would like to buy but can’t because his money has already been spent on rent, car payments and other pricey necessities. Money is no object, however, at this third annual search along the streets and cubbyholes of Himmarshee Village, where aesthetes will keep the art they find and not have to pay for it. Presented by artist Steve Sticht, the hunt begins at Tavern 213 with maps being handed out to each contestant. From there, follow the clues to works by Sticht, Juliana Forero, Francesco LoCastro, Skot Olsen, Pablo Serrano, Jill Weisberg and many more. Scavengers are limited to two pieces, which, once found, are to be taken back to Tavern 213, where the artists will sign them. Also, participants may need tools to obtain the art, some of which is fragile.

Location: Tavern 213, 213 S.W. Second St., Fort Lauderdale

Time: 8 p.m. Saturday, 11/29/03

Cost: Free

Contact: 954/463-6213

Anyone want to come?

Note to self, maybe during the above, check out Disassociated Books, a tiny shop tucked between an adult video store and a tattoo parlor (Babylon) south of Searstown on Federal Highway. I’ve been hearing good things about it.

The folks at PT are using me as a reference book again, which is fine, and flattering, but I always add the caveat, “Be sure and double check.” I answered a lot of general trivia, specifically about Yeoman Janice Rand, (Who was that chick with the ‘I dream of Jeannie hair that was the secretary?’… I admittedly don’t know the crazy amount of info on the link) and a few other misc items crossword puzzling.

I had to ban a user from the menstrualhut for being an idiot and writing abusive replies to some of the members there. They’ve been submitted to abuse team for review.. we’ll see if he gets deleted outright, or if the user-blocking is enough. I’ve only had to do it once before,

Wow, I got home, had a seat, and just totally conked out. I was reading one second, and the next, total brain shutdown. It seems like I just closed my eyes for a half-second and the sun outside went out. Very rarely to I switch off and on that rapidly. I think it’s a side effect of being awakened so early this morning… though naps usually give me a sense of comfort and peace, this was more of a “reset”. I’m wide awake now… hopefully I’ll get to sleep at a decent hour tonight, and fix my snooze-schedule.

Word count meme