FRIENDSHIP AMNESTY DAY

The idea is to post a public post on Friday with the words “Friendship Amnesty Day” in the title. The reasoning behind it is that we’ve all had friendships that either blew up, or faded away, and this is a chance, providing everyone is willing to participate, to leave the door open to clear the air and let go of the past.

It doesn’t mean adding everyone you ever knew back, but it does mean getting rid of any bad feelings / regrets, and spreading a little good cheer around the LJ ‘verse. The creator of the meme means livejournal, but I’m going to extend it across the borders of the Internet and beyond. There’s nothing wrong with the concept in any media.

So, with that in mind… peace. I don’t/didn’t have very many people like that in my life, but the door is open, and I’m doing a clean slate.

from Cropped to Crapped pants.

spotted by BHK at target last night.

BHK went shopping yesterday, and got all kinds of spiffy loot! Orange Iced Tea cups with Witches on ’em, a new casserole pan, some cute shoes, sweaters and a purse, all for a song. My cut were some yummy chocolate goodies – two bars: one made with blood oranges & cinnamon, the other with chili peppers & Hershey chocolate flavored gum. I think it’s time to go on a tour of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Downside of the gum, or upside if you’re as infantile as I can be at times… the brown bubble gum leads to all kinds of scatological humor.

1 year ago

– BHK only post, palm doodle, good day sunshine

2 years ago – blood donation and allergy, Danny starts to go back to school, fun with flickr, june and july gone, Bro’s arraignment (he doesn’t show), dose and normel caught, newt pix, x-men quiz

3 years ago – $100 adsense, German offer (which never paid me), politicomix, elitist,piehole, David Keith (never panned out), mortifying flashback.

4 years ago – blogshares, vampire game, hollow earth trip, dead lizard, kinetic sculptures, PSA, whiners / professional victims, pastry sculpture

5 years ago – went to the singing fountain, sleestaks, telemarketers, Art conspiracy (No Longer allows remote linking! bah!), rainy laundry day, evil ashtrays, Signs, Halloween costume thoughts

6 years ago – Mexican jumping beans, Crayola tech support, germane, evil news, bachelor dinner, warped radio

7 years ago – religion quiz, taco bell binge, Dopey Client desires, red rubber ball (via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

After work last night, BHK and I had dinner at the Lebanese Taverna and then went to see Talk To Me which was surprisingly better than I thought. No roles were stepped on by big names (Cedric the Entertainer had me a little worried when I saw him in the credits) Some aspects of Petey Greene’s life were left out, but you really can only do so much in a 2-hour movie. Plot-wise, there weren’t any surprises, but the story’s path seemed comfortable with simple viability. Though it was supposed to have taken place in DC, the bulk seems to have been shot in “generic city” or indoors – I didn’t get the Capitol vibe from the location. I’m glad we opted for that over The Simpsons or Transformers… I was more in the mood for a biopic than cartoony smash-em-up or yuk-em-ups.

On the way home, BHK pointed out to me that someone stole the man atop ATW hardware… now there’s a sign. “Return the Man now – Yes it was stolen)

Aww… I hope he makes it back… I rather like the weird little dioramas up on the roof.

I discovered the Vassal game engine. That should help with development of our own games, in addition to allowing a lot of regular new ones to try! Maybe I can lure Eryx into playing Axis and Allies minis online! All of the Carcassone variants appear to be done already, too.

Other Vassal modules that tickle my interest are –

• Dawn Patrol
• Fasa STCS
• Illuminati
• Microclix (or Clixers)
• OGRE
• Talisman

All will be sniffed over in time, I’m sure – and now, the morning brings a new day. My ride to the train station overslept, but bhk got me to the station in fine time to catch my train into the city. That’s the good thing about planning ahead and making allowances for traffic and whatnot… I’m usually in by 8am, and this way, I got there by 8:30 (the time I’m officially due to arrive.) I did miss my "arrive by 8” bus by about 10 minutes, so I spent about 20 minutes waiting for the next one. – Gave me time to take the pictures below and write the text above on my phone.

Waiting for the bus.


Squinty due to sleepiness and the sun in my face. I like the metro worker behind me with the long beard and short hair. The Sun was hot, and seemed overly large as it hung in this morning’s sky.

Good meeting at work today about upgrading our CMS. I like the way folks are looking to work together for a solution, rather than complain – project appears to be slated for the end of ‘07, or the beginning of ’08 for testing.

Constellation Power has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to put a new nuclear reactor in Calvert county, the fourth to be applied for, nationwide, this year. There hasn’t been a new nuclear reactor built in the US since the Three Mile Island disaster, but with new tax incentives for power providers who get their applications complete before the end of next year, companies are positioning themselves to be able to take advantage of the new situation.

Are we ready for nuclear again? The US kind of freaked out after the Three Mile Island near-meltdown and the Chernobyl disaster, but with power needs proving insatiable, and with fossil fuels being subject to significant negative public attention due to global warming concerns, the timing could be ripe for an expansion of nuclear power.

Will it do anything to lower our power build? Almost certainly not. But, it might decrease dependence on fossil fuels, which can be considered a positive.

Tonight, I’m tucking in early to recoup a little extra rest.

1 year ago

– paperclips, cross-dressing crooks, reading Pride and Prejudice, I predict a riot, good talking to folks, writely (now google docs)

2 years ago – sick of summer heat, paper robots!, spiffy car, where do they make balloons?, animal crackers, ADP nearly nailed, bugs bunny, heart shaped land, baron von bludd

3 years ago – sleepy, meeting, a year at current gig, 5 senses, scarecrow, codecs, game-dancing, oh danny bot, land of many colors, rain and running newtie-pic

4 years ago – bidet poll, food, vamp game, first gig paid poorly, games on the website

5 years ago – talked to rob (we never got together), baron von bludd, strange black blobs

6 years ago – rainy, Owen Ng, broken drug war link, Thunderstorm, code red, lord humongous

7 years ago – Finished HP2, started hp3, foodies, moved to the 12-8 shift at IMT (via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

Scottobear: @apelad – If only the writers would base Hank Pym on Mike Nelson, too! (via Twitter / Scottobear)

Scottobear: I don’t believe that what goes around, comes around. (via Twitter / Scottobear)

Scottobear: Tonight I discovered the Vassal game engine. http://tinyurl.com/apb78 (via Twitter / Scottobear)

So, it’s August… only a couple of weeks until BHK’s birthday, Father in-laws birthday, and we’re looking to have Emily over in a weekend – and then the all of the Newsoms over perhaps two weeks after that. Emily is about 5 years old now, and she reminds me of little bit of Wendy, way back when 9even though Wendy was maybe twice that age. I still remember acting like a monkey with graypumpkin for her, over a decade ago. Ook ook, extend the upper lip, scratch the noggin and the armpits, do a bowlegged walk… still brings a giggle to the young ladies. I doubt the Wendy would as be amused these days… she’s got to be 21 by now? maybe 22? She’s probably into more “grown-up” pursuits. I wonder how she and Marty are doing?

Thoughts for Emily’s visit.. Baltimore Aquarium, Blink (maybe try Uno?), Walking on the Boardwalk / Beach, Playstation, Fireworks, and the Candy Store. None of those are set in stone and there are other possibilities, too.

Hey, it’s August first! Happy Lughnasadh, the holy day of Lludd!
(If you celebrate it… I don’t generally do so myself, but do like to say the word Lughnasadh. )

To celebrate, here’s an agricultural pic from our garden, taken just this week.

Pepper pic from the garden – looks better large-wallpaper size.

No relation to the holiday, but also recently seen –

Also seen – Dump trucks while I was riding the subway at about 60mph

Been busy, have some game and book links, dear journal!

New joystiq review of Icehouse (also Enemy Chocolatier ), and as a result, found a place to play games online in real time.

• Aquarius
• Barsoomite Go (2-player)
• Barsoomite Go (4-player)
• Fluxx (version 3.0)
• Fluxx (version 3.1)
• Hearts
• Space Station Assault
• Treehouse
• Werewolf

You’ve got to download a small Java app (gamut ) (though they are working on an HTML implementation), but it’s clean, quick and fun if you can find folks to play with.

Back to reading on my ride in the subway…until I find some tv show that BHK doesn’t want to watch to put on the PSP. just finished Red Nails – getting my pulp fix on. Plenty free and legal to read here. Just scroll down to Howard,( Robert E. )

via uncert

• “Turning Heat Into Electricity Through Sound”: pretty much what it sounds like. A group in Utah has made a gadget where thermal gradients drive air currents that produce sound waves, which are turned into electrical signals by piezoelectric transducers.
• “All-Optical Magnetic Recording: a Dutch group has written information onto a magnetic material using polarized light rather than the usual magnetic heads (like in a hard disk). This could potentially allow faster disk writing on smaller scales than can be done with magnets. Just think how small your next iPod could be…

1 year ago

– sharks don’t have knees, boiled eggs, yoga, map issues, Dave nose-operation, 4-sec frenzy, Theoi project, FOLEDs, grammar rock, man tosses a car, hungry ghost month, TS Chris

2 years ago – peaceful Sunday, Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla, PB-J time, Grizzly Golf Attack is true, "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.”

3 years ago – Rob Shea Quote, appropriate for E-journals everywhere, I played with mercury, JL meme, music, Dave, Rain, Social entity, first hints at Mike-drama, search shortcuts, albinos of the 19th century, echolocation alarms

4 years ago – crazy dreams, Kate Bush, starmark poops but new gig, writing systems, non-castaways on gilligan’s isle

5 years ago – istockphoto, dead links, Shitou Xiqian, smiled at, fortune cookie, walkerbot, Liver Eatin’ Johnson

6 years ago – hungrybaby, New Apes movie lame, wiseacre, Champions stats for the Shadow, Dwayne Dibley?, Poul Anderson passes away, LJ moves in space

7 years ago – Everway character- wanders the storm path (via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)