Scores of Bodies Strewn at Site of Crematory
not for the squeamish

Sakes!

Newt woke me this morning with chilly little swabs tapping my neck, asking to be let under the covers where Scotto, (the human space-heater and universal snuggle-pillow) sleeps. Of course, after a half hour, he wants to play. He leapt from my chest to the ground, grabbed a paper wad, and ran all around the house with it. Not wanting to play fetch, hejust wants to drag the toy all over the house as he runs. Doofus-Kitty. 54 degrees out! about 20 degrees cooler than when I hit the sack. Where’d that weather come from?

I’ll wait for the sun to come up, and bring a little heat before going for walkies… meantime, I can get back on the stick with some of the more local projects.

proxomitron looks to be a wonderful filtering tool. a lot of nice features for killing popups, banners, embedded music, geocities branding, reallowing right clicking on those pages that turn it off and a lot of useful tools for testing websites, too. (a big list of features is on the web page)… plus the logo is a pyramid with an eye in it. Very powerful looking program.

Freaky Vintage Card

Aiee!

Where did my weekend go?

Egads…

I’m really digging this Jupiter Icon. Who knew that he had such a wicked ‘fro?

They have a word for it Words for which there is no direct equivalent in English. (thanks, Marginalia!)

Here’s something I had no idea about: pink used to be the color for boys, while blue was for girls.

At one point pink was considered more of a boy’s color, as a watered-down red, which is a fierce color) and blue was more for girls. The associate of pink with bold, dramatic red clearly affected its use for boys. An American newspaper in 1914 advised mothers, “If you like the color note on the little one’s garments, use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention.” [The Sunday Sentinal, March 29, 1914.] A woman’s magazine in 1918 informed mothers, “There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is pertier for the girl.” [Ladies Home Journal, June, 1918]

Yea, verily, Jupiter doth be amused.

posted this in regards to why writers write, in reply to this. This isn’t meant as a slam or anything, just a difference of opinion.

I write stories to be read… that much I agree with. I disagree with the rest of the conclusions there. The rest of the “ladder to fame and fortune” is pure hogwash from my point of view. I also don’t suffer from the demon haunting he mentioned. I’m not the best writer that ever lived. I think that I have some talent and skill, but there are quite a few more able. I write when the urge drives me, or when I want to polish that ability. Same goes for other things I do in my life, programming when a project is needed, or doing sample work when I want to see if I can hone my craft there.

Fame? no thanks! I *really* don’t want to be famous. I like my privacy… I couldn’t deal with people stopping me on the street and being weird around me because I’m a public figure. (Same reason I’d never go into politics). I don’t mind the idea of people enjoying my work, but I wouldn’t much enjoy doing any promotional circuits, talk shows, or deal with spooky fawning fans. Heck, there are freaky stalkers here on LJ that are fine examples of why that’s an unattractive option.

Money? Anyone that goes into writing for the money is kidding themselves… $.03 a word is hardly the big bucks. Both Stephen King and Isaac Asimov had to keep working as teachers and rely on a second income for a long while, until they hit it mega-big. I know I’ll never hit that level of notoriety. I make more money in a day or so of programming than in a year of shopping stories around.

When I write, it’s largely to express a feeling, entertain or educate. (Myself first, usually). Writing has sent me on some nifty research quests, and I’ve learned a lot just by gathering information for a story.. even if the story never fully came together.

Like my journal entry previous… that article came together as a recollection and as an experiment regarding linked pictures. I don’t plan on it ever being distributed to some magazine or rocking the world at its foundation.

Unconnected quiz answer

Why he never quite caught on with the Marvel readers of the day, I’ve never fully understood. Certainly, he wasn’t any more inherently implausible than, say, a man bitten by a radioactive spider, or an Asgardian deity spouting flowery, faux Shakespearean dialogue. Continue reading Attack of the 50-Ft.Tall Ant(Man), linking out the pictures to save space. →

Alphabetica Cyberia… hee… I know folks that believe the fluoride and argon ones to be real…from the fine folks at kuro5hin.

I didn’t go out to a movie tonight, as it was very rainy and a trifle chilly outside. Instead, I watched 5 deadly venoms from the comfort of home, with a sleepy-pie Newtie on my lap. Lots of weirdo fighting action, and secret messages hidden inside of pickles. I like the DVD player that came with my Tron DVD better than the one that came prepackaged on my laptop. I did, however take a brisk little walk around the apartment building, just to get some blood moving. Chop-socky movies always make me want to work out a bit…maybe go back to Tai Chi and Tae Kwon Do, if only to build up some good muscle back, and get a good workout. Had a few smirnoff ices, and am feeling pretty comfy, and am now settling in for some reading. 🙂

I think I’m going to hit a movie tonight…

Hey, a nifty quiz!

Where’s your corner of the Twilight Zone?

Take the Twilight Zone test!

It’s raining. I want a greenhouse with a jacuzzi in the middle of it to rest in, sweetheart by my side.

Newton got a little sick this morning…I wonder what makes him barf every now and again… (like maybe once a season or so, maybe less frequently.) I think he just ate too much… a bellyfull of food went up and out. He seems fine now, but I’m keeping an eye on him for a while.

I thought it might be from him shredding cardboard, but there wasn’t any in his output.

Well, my amazon gifties have shipped… estimated time of arrival is between the 19th and the 25th.

Started a new writing project. We’ll see how it develops. The “tulpa” 🙂 also the nickname for my new programming setup. .NET is being a little tricky… it’s got some fundamental differences to VB6 that I have to dance around. Ah well, that’s what the net is for… research.

If that news story a while back about the homeless kids and their spooky Bloody Mary mythology was the pinnacle of real-world urban post-modern magic(k) the following story is its bizarre rural counterpart. I can’t even comment on it. You just have to read the entire story. It starts slow, but it’s worth it.

muskets, cross-dressing and marsupial hoisting…

Doctor Who is back! Sort of…

The BBC is broadcasting Doctor Who radio shows over the internet. And Anthony Stewart Head, Giles on Buffy, is one of the actors on it. I’ve not seen an episode in about five years… last thing I saw was the movie on Fox TV. I do rather dig OTR-style broadcasts.

I grew so tired just now that I fell into a doze, only catching myself as my head began a rapid decent to the surface of my desk. I didn’t even see the haze surround my mind before blanking and nodding… looking quite forward to visiting the doc on the fourth. I’d like to take care of this apnea once and for all, thank you very much. Some slight throat surgery and I won’t have to do the CPAP thing any more. Although, I’ve gotten quite used to it…another part of my nightly routine. I’d much prefer to just drop and sleep than need a routine.

I imagine that the majority of any weariness will evaporate once I’m home for the weekend.

Tore a line on my pants today…time to replenish the khaki supply. These guys are still good for bang-around, but not for wearing to work.

I have a BDalton’s gift card burning a hole in my pocket… there’s one the size of borders south of me, on federal. I should go check it out this weekend, while on my shopping time. I still haven’t seen Danny since well before my birthday…or the hippies and I wonder what sort of loot I’ll be getting from them. Dan let it slip that he got me a game of some sort, which is very out of character for him… he knows I don’t play many games, but perhaps something persuaded him to do so this go ’round. I imagine it’ll be fun, whatever it might be.

I believe I might’ve caught someone in a fib today… I’m not sure. I thought I’d let it go, but my mind just opened up to it, like a book that was left open, face down too long. I was told that a certain machine didn’t have some privileges it ought to, and it turns out that they have more access than I’d been led to believe. Perhaps it’s a recent change, and I just wasn’t made aware of it yet. It’s no biggie, just would streamline a few things had I known about the capabilities available, instead of having to build a few work-arounds. Fortunately, Apache is very easy to reinstall and reconfigure. Peevish thing.

Sappho’s back to work today, and I’m glad that she seems to be recovering from some of the assorted stresses that’ve been bothering her physically and emotionally. Speaking of that… scanned over some of the Nin… Not sure yet how I feel about her writing style, but I do know that a good chunk of her subject matter isn’t to my taste. I think she’ll make to 100 rule, but it depends on what atrocities vs. erocities are yet to show up. Certainly descriptive.