It’s Tuesday, and no information regarding the fumigation from the landlord yet. All I know is that Thursday night is being spent somewhere that is not here. I’m going to have to call him up from work and ask what the procedures are going to be for my food, toys, self and Newt are going to be.

The most diplomatic way to put it would be to say “The landlord has poor organizational skills and a lot on his mind.” I can forgive him his oversights easily… if the sale goes through, I’ll never have to deal with him again.

a Newtcam moment

I love his pink little nose. crazy amount of brightness outside… little wonder he likes that sill. Toasty.

This morning’s walk was fruitful… in that I enjoyed being out and about. I think all of the tourists are officially *gone*, now… the roads seem more quiet, sidewalks less busy, and the beach has a much smaller population. I took a few pictures at the pier, and will synch ’em later tonight.

Random Scotto Factoid – I think pelicans are more cute than sandpipers or seagulls. They have a total goofy vibe going, sitting on a wooden post, and then *zoom-dive* they’ve got a beak-net full of fish.

Meet the bugs of Cricket Magazine… I didn’t know it was still being published until today.

Quickie Newtcam Graphic I made for sweetalyssm‘s banner exchange (bottom link on the right, above subscribe)… until I can gather some artistic resources and produce a better one. Not bad for three minutes’ work.

I wish I could say the same for my website. I’m dissatisfied with it, design wise, but I really don’t know in what direction I want to go. I’ve built and scrapped about 20 designs now. My trouble is that I don’t want it to be too graphics intensive, and I don’t want it to look “too typical”… but there’s only so much you can do with words on a page… especially if your graphic arts skills are weak, at best. I’ve wandered from “cave motif” to just earth-tone colored text, to an “entertaining the first visit, annoying the third” hand-drawn on the palm style. I contemplated having my Livejournal as my homepage, and just tweaking the Flash “Road sign” there to point to the rest of my site.

All good-ish ideas… perhaps I’m just being too finicky. There’s no real deadline to produce the design of the page… but I feel like it’s overdue. Perhaps I need to assign myself a deadline, just so that I’ll act on it… not like I can’t change it again later. Perhaps I’ve been doing too much code… very little artistic goodies like writing or any crafts…. I need to pick up the recorder again. Clear the cobs of colors and sounds, and let the math and structure centers cool down a bit.

I’ll think on it from a more horizontal position… perhaps something will come to me in a dream.

Nigh night, dear journal.

Regarding the Pet Psychic and the Crossing Over guy.

My personal opinion (and I could be wrong, this is just a first impression) is that they are entertainers, using the same routine many, many showmen have used before them. Both are friendly and charismatic, and offer a nice production though my gut says “Nope”. I’m a skeptic, but not a cynic… I’ve seen folks that I think are more intuitive than others, and I believe that the unknown is out there.. and some folks can tap into that… but these two don’t ring true on my inner “paranormal meter”.

That said… whether you buy into their psychic powers or not (or anyone’s, for that matter)… they do bring comfort and happiness to people, and I think that’s far better than what 99.9% of what television has to offer. If they make a million advertising dollars making people smile, and soothing hearts then more power to ’em. Beats television news and Jerry Springer with a blunt object, repeatedly, in my book as long as they’re not leading anyone down a path of real social or spiritual folly.

gute fahrt means “good drive” in German. (not PROPERTY TRAVEL, like google’s translation says)

so, after riding with someone, when you get out of the car, be sure and tell them “GUTE FAHRT!”

*snerk*

Ok, off to work, dear journal.

Well, I’m back, showered and fresh for the day.

Not a single one detected. By the way, all you ‘l33t’ people… the plural is viruses.

Moment of Zen-

However deep your
Knowledge of the scriptures,
It is no more than a strand of hair
In the vastness of space;
However important seeming
Your worldly experience,
It is but a drop of water in a deep ravine.

– Tokusan

Like I would fall for this stuff…

Just got this in the mail… interesting… I seem to have received it a couple of times in my bulk mail box, and one made it through my junk filters to my primary box… I also got it in the form of “A very excite game”, “how are you” and “A IE 6.0 patch “… I don’t recognize the name in the header addy of it, so I can’t write them and let them know to kill the worm. I’ll be interested in seeing if I get it again tomorrow when whoever it is reboots.

I don’t think that I’ve downloaded it, but just to be safe, I’m running the weekly scan I do every Friday again this morning. Well, I’ll let this percolate while I go for my walk. Until later, dear journal.

I reckon I’ll have a Killian’s or two tonight… cheers!

Well… Danny’ll be off starting on Tuesday… I hope to get a good weekday or two in with him while it’s summertime. This week is out, though, considering doctor’s visits, work, and the fumigation.

Off the top of my head-

things that made me smile recently

• thoughts of her
• health of loved ones
• running water
• weather balloons
• martial arts on trampolines
• hide and seek with Newtie
• white go-go boots
• knowing the Lone Ranger wouldn’t have much werewolf trouble
• tattoo scabs
• the fruitiness of cricket (the “sport”)
• choco-chip cookies
• a beer glass that has “you have just been poisoned” printed on the inside bottom

I’ve never been to an actual “Tunnel of Love” at a carnival… only seen them on 60s TV shows. Do they still exist? Did they ever, outside of TV?

Well, I’m back, even earlier than I suspected. No meal with the movie, but Dave did bring some tasty chocolate chip cookies. (No funny stuff, just cookies…)

The movie wasn’t bad… it certainly held my focus for two hours. It’s weird seeing a pre-Hunt for Red October Jack Ryan… Played by Alec Baldwin there and also Harrison Ford a couple of times. I wonder how much it varied from the book… Since Tom Clancy is from Maryland, there was a lot of MD stuff happening, some of it quite distressing, as I have loved ones living there. (Speaking of Which… there’s supposed to be rain all next week there, according to my sources at Yahoo and Valhalla.)

I look forward to spending a little quality time tonight with my sweetie, if all goes to plan. I’m awake, though my eyes look tired. I was going to order out, but now, I think I’ll work on some of the food I have in the pantry. A nice supper of veggies and rice should do the trick nicely.

a year ago today… the SWAT team visited my apartment, prompting me to move.

two years ago today – Newt is recovering from Fritz’s parasite, and I discover imood.com.

More inconsiderate BS… apparently they’re going to fumigate the house on Thursday morning… the first I’ve heard about it is today, via the neighbors. I went out to restock on food, and he couldn’t bother to leave a note for me? Sakes, what is wrong with these people? Both the new and old landlords need to get their collective stuff together… as it stands now, I’m going to be spending Thursday night at a hotel, and I’m trying to figure what the best plan of action to take with Newt is… Either board him at the vet, (which I’d prefer not to do)…Sneak him into a hotel with me overnight (Most preferred) or keep him in the private office at work overnight (better than boarding him… he’s familiar with the place, anyhow.) Option #2 is most likely. I *really really* dislike it when there’s a deadline for something coming up, and people don’t let me know, or notify me at the last minute…. All it takes is leaving a note or a voice mail… not hard.

Heaven help ’em if I’d have come home Thursday night to a tented apartment with Newt inside. Just thinking about it gives me a fit. Now I have a cupboard full of food, that has to be packaged up, too… I’d have gotten by on what I had, and polished it off if I’d known. That reminds me… take the Newt food with on Thursday to the hotel… don’t want him eating any more pesticide than usual. I’d sooner donate what’s on my shelves to a food bank than take it all out and double bag it… I have all kinds of rice and noodles, dried beans and teas that are subject to getting fumed.

Dave should be by inside the next thirty minutes or so… I’m just glad that I’m social with my neighbors.

okie doke… change of plans. going to go see the matinee (4pm) Sum of All Fears with Dave this afternoon. I reckon I’ll be home by 7 at the latest.

Good news, the bro won his ticket case, the cop didn’t even show up, and risk management is certainly going to take care of his damaged body and bike. Ideally, they’ll take care of his lost wages, too.

someone’s pointing to Newtcam via a private entry. I hope they’re saying nice things about him!

I looked briefly at an apartment on my street, but it wasn’t my thing. It was nice, except for the bathroom… the tub needed to be replaced, and I was sort of weirded out that the last tenant had put a deadbolt on the door to the john. I wonder what caused that? It was a double-key lock…no manual latch on either side did he lock himself in, and other people out? Worse, my imagination went off on a tangent about locking other people in there. It gave me heebie-jeebies enough to make me decide to pass on the place. I paid the landlord for the month of June yesterday, and verified that he did indeed have a full month’s rent as a deposit, should I decide to vacate with less than a month’s notice, it could go towards my last month’s rent.

The insidious VCR Threat of 1982

Read carefully. Then substitute the word “Internet” for every instance of “VCR”, and you’ll have Jack Valenti’s assessment of our current “crisis”

Sony Music Lobbies for Ban on Markers
Following up on a story on how markers can be used to defeat music CD copy protection:

Washington DC – Ralph Hughes of Sony Music testified in the Senate today urging lawmakers to enact legislation which would ban felt tip markers. “These innocuous looking writing instruments are the scourge of our society,” he said holding up a Sharpie. “Not only can this black stick of death be used to violate the DMCA, but it could also be used to write the instructions to incubate the anthrax virus.”

Remember: it’s only a joke until they do it for real.

Reading my “friendsfriends” list… interesting…found the world’s smallest website. very cute.

Got an anonymous flame last night… I suspect it was a random surfer, and I don’t think he’ll be back again. Random abuse is just alien to me… I’m not angry or upset, just befuddled. …

Drinking tea…. 4 scoops of loose tea, this time around I picked it up at the grove. A blend of oolong, keeman, asaam, and ceylon…. one for me, one for thee, one for the pot, and one for luck. I like it a bit strong.

I may opt for a nap later… It’s a good day for it, and I have my chores done…Maybe not… sakes, it’s 6pm already. The day has flown by. I may or may not get to se bro tomorrow…he’s going to call me in the morning and let me know what’s up.

Ahhh… I scavenged the 17″ monitor from the production Mac that Dave gave me a number of months ago… it works *much* better as a 2nd screen than the four year old 15 incher. (which will find its way to my brother, seeing as his current one is blinking yellow on occasion. I’ll bring it to him tomorrow… we have tentative plans to hang out and goof off for a little while then. He can enjoy poser and paint shop more effectively if the screen has all RG&B working on the same frequency.

The text on the 17 incher is still a trifle blurry, but much nicer than before. strange that the DVD window is still choppy on screen two.

Well, off to shower and get Newt some food before he decides to forage on me…I would prefer to keep all my fingers and toes.

Until later, dear journal.

drat.. the apartment behind me has been rented, and I forgot to pick up Newtie-food tonight. Ah well, tomorrow morning, then.

Hmm… little brother isn’t home from our meeting this evening… I’m going to ring the house up in an hour… I’m hoping he only got slowed down a bit. [update – 10:43, he just called… got stuck on an hourly bus. ]

sending loving and healing vibes to my sweetie… *vibevibevibe*

and now, the Friday five –

1. Laying on your back and facing the ceiling, which side of the bed do you sleep on?
middle, but a little more to the left.

2. Do you have to have covers on at all costs, no matter the weather?
Yup, at least a leetle sheet

3. Sleep nekkid or no? Why?
Usually Nekkid, unless I collapse totally wiped! I’m comfy that way!

4. What’s under your bed?
assorted Newt-toys, some dust bunnies, and a couple of reference books… right now, it’s GURPS Places of Mystery, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and Prometheus Rising by RA Wilson

5. If you have pets, do you let them sleep with you? Why or why not?
Yup, Newt’s slept with me every night I’ve slept at home since I brought him home…. Why? because I dig snuggles, man! Being cuddled to sleep is the way to go.