eldritch EL-drich, adjective:
Strange; unearthly; weird; eerie.
Eldritch perhaps derives from a Middle English word meaning “fairyland,” from Middle English elf, “elf” (from Old English aelf) + riche, “kingdom” (from Old English rice).
antiphony (an-TIF-uh-nee) noun
Responsive alternation between two groups, especially between singers.
[From antiphon (a song sung in alternate parts), from Middle English, from Greek antiphona.]
Oh heaven help me, I’m going to “Tropicon” the weekend after next with Danny. This is a convention that we attend fairly religiously every year, in order to go out to breakfast and chat for a while, hit the con, poke a nose into the gaming or dealers room, do a little anthropology work regarding other fan-types, then head off to the Red Lion pub, or Pier 66 (usually only an hour or two is spent at the convention) to have a beer or two, and maybe some light fare while going over our obtained goodies. Last year was the occurrence of the aromatic fan-type that I mentioned some time ago. We’re naughty, in that we don’t pay to get in. We just saunter into the lobby, and then head to the dealers room. (The one exception was in 1998, when the guests were Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess… that was actually worth going to the respective panels, so we paid. I got a great too much coffee man CBLDF t-shirt, too, that year.)
Brief aside on con goodies – I used to wear a fishing vest at work so I’d always have whatever was necessary at hand as I made my rounds. It’s sole decoration was a con-purchased patch for “Logic Memory Systems, Urbana IL” on the left breast pocket. It was Halloween everyday for me, costumed as a tech rep on the HAL9000 project. Add an anti-static wrist strap with coiled cord artfully wrapped around my forearm and I was stylin’. /aside.
This year is going to be different…I fear it will be difficult to peel him away from the anime video room…and I think that I may get caught up in the dealers room more than usual, if they have treats for assorted folks there. I can think of things that my boss would really dig, and maybe a few things in mind for my sweetheart, too. Maybe get a feel for the current breed of RPG gamer, too, possibly sit in on a game of champions, GURPS, or maybe a card game (if I can remember any of their rules.) I hope someone has a cheapass games section out there… that’s been the biggest bounty in my recent attendance. Bitin’ off heds,( the dinosaur racing game where you run around a volcano, tossing boulders and biting each other…very fun) and Orcs in the hood (inner-city gang warfare with warring orc factions) in particular. Cheapass games puts out some fantastic stuff. Little board games and card games for between 4 and 8 bucks.
Looks like LJ is limping again. (UPDATE- according to status.livejournal.com – LiveJournal was completely offline at this time.) I’m glad that I write in notepad instead of the left ‘semi-connected’ LJ client… I logged it out to relog in to access a revised set of icons and it promptly refused to reconnect. (I knew it wasn’t the firewall, because I’m using a machine to hit my dial-up net connection, and I can still browse yahoo mail and some of the other sites I also frequent.
I hit random the other night, and got a journal whose text that mangles the English language with the cruelty of a psychopath struck by a bookmobile as a child and unable to forgive. After pressing it once or twice more, it confirms my feelings. Random is no longer a button I wish to push, unless I can modify it with a few parameters, like age / length of post / time spent on LJ, etc. I long for the search engine and some of the old functionality to return.
Saw this witch pic on deadjournal, and thought it was interestingly placed for Halloween. for the piccie, if you’d like to see it.
Fresh from the shower after walkies.
Meandered up to the beach, waved to the fishies, and toddled on back home. Not many people out and about, and the weather was *perfecto* not hot, not cold, perfectly mild. It really surprised me that there weren’t many people on the beach or Atlantic Blvd…Almost a ghost town. It was comforting to roam unfettered by folks in my way…take as long a stride as I chose and not worry about stepping on or worse coming up too fast behind someone in my path. Soft, , sugar-fine, pale sand that was loosly packed…I really enjoy treading barefoot there, a light sea spray in the wind.
Returning to the walkies was nice, I feel that there was no effort involved at all, even walking up the bridge… I think there was more boat traffic than any other sort. Large Skiffs using the wind to their advantage (I was too… I love a light breeze to my back as I hike.) I think I’m going to hit the lighthouse tomorrow, instead of just tagging the sand and heading back.
Newt’s playing with the sandy sandals now… I think I’ll join him.
Going for walkies! First one since getting sick. 🙂 Long overdue.
My fave mod of the leaping kitty –
Maybe a nifty giftie for my sweetie, too.
Good morning! I’ve been up for a few hours, synching my schedule with my sweetie’s… I don’t remember my dreams beyond the song “doing the pigeon”, watching cartoons and snuggling on an airplane headed somewhere…it was over water and we were both very groggy.
Round 1 is over as of August, but I found a duck has been so popular another round is in the works. 500 plastic ducks start in London and race around the world in the biggest plastic duck race on Earth. If you find one of the little darlings, make note of its progress and see that it gets to another distant destination safely. (Now if airport personnel ask if anyone’s given you anything, you can say, “Just this duck.”)
I’m sort of curious… do the McDonalds not in South Florida carry the weird new ‘Hispanic Menu’ ?
I went by one last night, and they had on the menu (and great big signage…) Cuban sandwiches, something called a ‘Latin McOmelet’ sandwich, pineapple-mango dipping sauce for chicken nugs, and a ‘Dulce de Leche’ Flurry thing.
Too Drunk For Murder
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A suburban man charged in a shooting spree that left two dead and 16 others wounded in an Elgin nightclub might argue he was too drunk to be legally responsible for the gunfire.
Horse/Human Orgy
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Tempe police say six horses, including a 4-month-old colt, were sexually molested inside a Tempe stable over a period of two months.
Bloodsuckers
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Generous North Americans who gave more than half a billion dollars (U.S.) to the Red Cross expected their donations would go directly to surviving family members and victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
But in a growing scandal which threatens to rock the foundation of the 120-year-old American Red Cross, it now appears that of the $530 million (U.S.) total donated, more than $200 million is being diverted to the blood agency’s long-term goals and administrative costs.
escheat (es-CHEET) noun
1. The reversion of property to the state or crown in case of no legal heirs.
2. Property that has reverted to the state or crown.
verb tr. and intr.
To revert or cause to revert property.
[From Middle English eschete, from Old French eschete, from Vulgar Latin excadere, from Latin ex- + cadere (to fall).]
diablerie (dee-AHB-luh-ree; -AB-), noun:
1. Sorcery; black magic; witchcraft.
2. Representation of devils or demons in words or pictures.
3. Mischievous conduct; deviltry.
She invariably had every child in the establishment at her heels, open-mouthed with admiration and wonder,–not excepting Miss Eva, who appeared to be fascinated by her wild diablerie, as a dove is sometimes charmed by a glittering serpent.
–Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Diablerie comes from the French, from diable, devil, from Latin diabolus, from Greek diabolos, “slanderer,” from diaballein, “to slander,” literally “to throw across,” from dia-, “across” + ballein, “to throw.”
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
ABC 10 Oct 30 08:00pm
Special/Family, 30 Mins.
Linus waits in the pumpkin patch for the elusive Halloween symbol to appear.
I’m listening to Gregorian monks while I code. (Thank goodness some non-spyware net radio stations are still functional! 🙂 ) It somehow seems rather appropriate. I can just imagine a group of monks up until all hours of the night trying to get the gospels to be just right in song so that the information will parse correctly. Will HTML, VB or Visual C be considered art 700 years from now?
*note to self, bring dsl modem back to the house, this dialup from home is sooooo sloooow.
arcanum ar-KAY-nuhm, noun;
plural arcana -nuh:
1. A secret; a mystery.
2. Specialized or mysterious knowledge, language, or information that is not accessible to the average person (generally used in the plural).
Arcanum is from the Latin, from arcanus “closed, secret,” from arca, “chest, box,” from arcere, “to shut in.”
debridement di-BREED-ment, day-noun
Surgical removal of dead, infected tissue or foreign matter from a wound.
From French debridement, from debrider (to unbridle), from Middle French desbrider (de- + brider).
Watching ‘Network’ on the tube.
some great, evil quotes in that.
“It is the international system of currency which determines the vitality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature! And you will atone! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21 inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.”
“The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians! There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems; one vast, interwoven, interacting, multivaried, multinational dominion of dollars!”
Mr. Jensen: The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. Our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock — all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.
Howard Beale: Why me?
Mr. Jensen: Because you’re on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.
Howard Beale: I have seen the face of God.
Mr. Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.
I’m listening to Gregorian monks while I code. (Thank goodness some non-spyware net radio stations are still functional! 🙂 ) It somehow seems rather appropriate. I can just imagine a group of monks up until all hours of the night trying to get the gospels to be just right in song so that the information will parse correctly. Will HTML and C++ be considered art 700 years from now?
*note to self, bring dsl modem back to the house, this dialup form home is sooooo sloooow.