Hm… some more good reviews on the DC to NYC bus – I wonder how much cheaper it is than the speedy-train?

BHK talked to PG county’s Sheriff’s Internal Affairs about the car chase a little while back. I’ll be interested to see what comes of it – I only wish I would’ve been home with her at the time.

Treat from BHK! Yum. Tastes great,
looks far too brown for human consumption.

Found out yesterday that someone I used to know very well is very deep in debt. I wonder what happened? I probably really don’t want to know.

We haven’t seen Louise for a month… I wonder where she’s been?

Flying_blind

has a better entry about the ljopoly board and a lot of the recent drama – than I would make, so here’s a link.

I’m backing up my LJ pretty much once a week, just so I have a copy for when either inclination or necessity require me to put my stuff either on my own website, or transfer it to a different one. I suspect that neither will happen too soon, but it’s probably going to take place eventually.

Cruel 2 B Kind is a game of benevolent assassination.

At the beginning of the game, you and a partner-in-crime are assigned a secret weapon. To onlookers, it will seem like a random act of kindness. But to a select group of other players, the seemingly benevolent gesture is a deadly maneuver that will bring them to their knees.

Some players will be slain by a serenade. Others will be killed by a compliment. You and your partner might be taken down by an innocent group cheer.

You will be given no information about your targets. No name, no photo, nothing but the guarantee that they will remain within the outdoor game boundaries during the designated playing time. Anyone you encounter could be your target. The only way to find out is to attack them with your secret weapon.

Watch out: The hunter is also the hunted. At the beginning of the game, you and your partner will also be assigned your own secret weakness. Other pairs of players have been given your secret weakness as their secret weapon, and they’re coming to get you. Anything out of the ordinary you do to assassinate YOUR targets may reveal your own secret identity to the other players who want you dead.

1 year ago

– finished pride & pred / monkey politics, Newt pic, kid rolling ajoint on the bus, solar powered sun bricks, firkin, 8500, flying model plane in miami, flight plans to maryland

2 years ago – deepest sender, jumping pictures, walkabout autostitch, mangrove tunnels

3 years ago – tmbg thoughts, sugar water vid, space issues, Rick James dead, Burpin’ at Newt, Magical Trevor, cocktail demons, nifty charts, Newt Videos, CoH Pix

4 years ago – Zombies, Army Men, mean cannibal pudding, time travel spam, vampire game, celeb phone calls, cej chat, bro request

5 years ago – Earth and Beyond Playtest, Kev & Bailey, fat parrots, french fry girl palm doodle

6 years ago – harried, inculpate, plane lands just down the road on andrews as a makeshift runway and kits my regular bus, wondering about lj’s image server (still not ready!), happy thoughts, magic can of soda

7 years ago – grumping, Space cowboys shows old man butts (via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

A small sampling of our 30 jars of pickles

Raquel Welch gets some more use out of that costume she wore on Mork and Mindy. Sing it, Rocky!
(don’t watch it for too long… it starts to hurt the brain)

via ze – The Tilted Room :: a really well done update to ernie kovacs “tilted table” routine.

Our sunflowers are at about 7 feet tall… but the heat and lack of water is giving them the wilties. Hopefully last night’s rain woke ‘em up a bit.

Playing with the myriad of games with pyramids in the Icehouse (handy wiki link) set make me feel a little bit like Enik from land of the lost. I wouldn’t mind making a light table board to look like the matrix table he used on the show. Played BHK 4 games of Treehouse last night, and I won 3 of the four.

to
Sorry, Marshall, Will, Holly, Enik… that’s my set.

Hm. Now I want a big bowl of honeycomb cereal, and to watch bad saturday morning 70’s tv.

Regarding Zendo – found a random Koan generator – might do the trick.

Some sample output –

A koan has the Buddha nature if it contains no more than 3 flat, small pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if it contains exactly 2 green pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if it consists entirely of upright pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if the number of its ungrounded, flat pieces is even.

A koan has the Buddha nature if the pip-count of its upright pieces is not equal to the number of its large pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if it contains at least 2 weird, small pieces.

A koan has the Buddha nature if the number of its flat, purple pieces is odd.

A koan has the Buddha nature if the number of its large pieces is even.

A koan has the Buddha nature if it contains at least 3 upright pieces pointing at a weird, red piece pointing at a medium piece.

Police must wear this shameful, shameful mark

BANGKOK, Thailand – Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring “Hello Kitty,” the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.

Police officers caught littering, parking in a prohibited area, or arriving late — among other misdemeanors — will be forced to stay in the division office and wear the armband all day, said Police Col. Pongpat Chayaphan. The officers won’t wear the armband in public.

The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.

“Simple warnings no longer work. This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor,” said Pongpat, acting chief of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok.

“(Hello) Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It’s not something macho police officers want covering their biceps,” Pongpat said.

He said police caught breaking the law will be subject the same fines and penalties as any other members of the public.

“We want to make sure that we do not condone small offenses,” Pongpat said, adding that the CSD believed that getting tough on petty misdemeanors would lead to fewer cases of more serious offenses including abuse of power and mistreatment of the public by police officers.

1 year ago

– Monks in a circle, ken nordine, contact lens thought, 9-volt batteries, dragonball live action in spanish, shades vary electric bill,

2 years ago – Mona moves on from work, Lisa is a good name on lj, NASA pics, walkies phone post

3 years ago – Thinking Wolfsonian, CEJ, Skeletor, bro, bandwidth crooks, awesome search phrase, cat poop coffee, silly ad, Where do they make balloons… (hey, synchronicity)

4 years ago – miniature oranges, orisinal games, tv in my head, first/last meme, newt on a windowsill, daler mehndi

5 years ago – Newt Wakies, Croc bite brings beer, scotto-man, overtired, funions

6 years ago – vcr tape, gaming, militate, warren, scientific independence for researchers, Frontier Psychiatrist, evil SUV

7 years ago – many folks join my Friendy-list (probably due to addition of interests) , grover, graves museum (via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

Crashed hard last night once we got back – comfy weekend, sort of like this found shot of Newt from Friday.

This morning BHK and I lazed in bed for a good chunk, spending a little time reading or fooling on the laptop, before getting up and heading off to points non-bedlike. We played a bit here and there in yucata, superdupergames, tribal wars, and bella sara – I’ve discovered that I do better sitting cross-legged over laying back with the lappie.

Post-laziness, we headed out for a random road trip, and ended up going to Dream Wizards which was exactly like what we were hoping for (but didn’t get) when we hit the Strategist a couple of weekends back. A large gaming area, very well-stocked collection of games of every stripe, and attentive personnel. Of course there was the standard “teen-boy scent” – BHK noticed the was one half of the female population (the male population was maybe 25 or so) – the other a young kid, probably 12-13, playing Pokemon happily amongst the sea of boys. BHK also got to see a low-grade temper tantrum from one of the other players in a tournament… complaining that his purchased booster pack was useless… stomped and slapped the pack down amongst the poor counter-folk. I suspect that he was maybe about a half-hour to an hour to being ejected from the premesis.

I couldn’t resist picking up a copy of Polarity (thanks again for the hint, Keethrax!) and Cosmic Wimpout … a Yahtzee-like dice game I used to enjoy back in high school. I think the last time I played it was about 20 years ago in Mr. Eck’s Marine biology class, fourth period. Not sure of the exact day, but it was near the end of the school year in 1987.

Still no leads on the Pirates “Glittery” boosters, like Amy’s. BHK must have a giant crab covered in glitter to destroy ships with!

After that, we hit the Home goods store, shopped the Halloween goodies and got a few little household treats.. Some green cups, sugar free blueberry syrup, and Halloween sprinkles for cupcakes later in the season.

We consulted our good friend Zagat, and found an entry marked Lighthouse Tofu – a total wildcard as there weren’t enough reviews to give it any scores for service, menu or whatnot. (The link goes to the yelp page, which would’ve been more helpful, had we thought to look it up first). I think we stumbled upon a local Korean fave… The place was packed and we were the only non-asian couple in sight.

We ordered more than we thought, as everything was served home-style – even though we didn’t ask for it, we got an appetiser of Miso soup, followed by a broad assortment of dishes with a little sampling of this and that – Bok Choy in some Oyster sauce that was tasty but quite spicy, some minced garlic in clam sauce, some manner of peppers in a cool/spicy soup, cucumbers (my fave of that lot… sweet and spicy), and some sprouts in sesame oil. – all came before what we had ordered. BHK had the tofu vegetable soup that came to the table still at a rolling boil and served with a raw egg on the side – to be added to the soup manually. I got an assortment of sushi, of which I think the Tofu sushi was the winner. The “prima vera” one of mixed veggies was tasty, but the weakest of the lot – Tofu, tempura lobster, and cucumber all were just amazing.

They serve water with a little green tea added, which is disconcerting at first, because it has an off-yellow/green color that I have seen come out of the pipes in some well water communities – suffice to say that it was clean and delicious. No worries there.

As a palate cleanser, they also serve a little rice cooked in green tea at the end of the meal – I liked it!

Our host was friendly, and I think that he assumed we had never been out to eat at a place like theirs. He was kind enough to move us to another table when we realised our little 2-up location wasn’t going to hold all the food we had coming. – and then explained the difference between light and regular soy sauce.. also warned us against wasabe (he seemed pleased when I was enjoying a healthy dollop dipped from same mixed with the soy on my cucumber roll)

Oddly, he didn’t give any food consumption tips regarding the egg in the soup, which I think was the most culturally mysterious of the lot.

On the way out, he took me aside, and passed me a pair of strange little bottles covered in text that I couldn’t read, and a small oval with larger text inside (picture to follow – maybe I can get talonvaki or pilarcruz to translate it for me)…. said it was dessert, and to enjoy.

It looked like milk, and smelled faintly of vanilla, so I shrugged and took a swig. I was not expecting the lemon flavor at all, but it was pretty dang tasty. I don’t think BHK was as impressed, but she liked it fine.

Also on the way up and back, we got to see the Mormon Temple which is amazing to watch rise up over the horizon as you approach. The place is huge and beautiful – while lovely, the pictures don’t do it justice at all.

We had one last stop before heading home… the in-laws. Chris and Larry did a great job of pickling our cucumbers – about 30 mason jars worth. We won’t be needing any store-bought pickle-type product anytime soon. BHK is planning on using the remaining 3 or 4 jars to do some pickled peppers ala Peter Piper, although we don’t quite have a peck.

I’m just wondering where we’re going to store 30-odd jars of preserved veggie. I guess the garage is a reasonably cool, dry, dark place for ‘em. They have to steep in the brine for a brief period before eating. I wonder how long they’ll stay good? If you don’t break the vacuum seal, I imagine we can store them fairly indefinitely – not sure how long they stay good once that seal is broken, though. I imagine that won’t be an issue, as this family loves ’em.

1 year ago – bow beats atlatl, newt trip out, 11:11, California pizza kitchen, interview meme, cpap ick, electroe pic

2 years ago – bro picked up, last Danny day, blue-ringed octopus, konfabulator, tags, high speed cat photos, bus-sleeper, taser vs rennies

3 years ago – malam bails, lyric, BttF / Mr Fusion, busy, dream, neti pot, bro’s court visit, avocado memories

4 years ago – isketch, dan’s last summer day, ebay phishing, earth as art, kitty swf games, vampire game, dirty bathroom poll

5 years ago – pleasant dreams, headache passes, Bailey the puppy, puppet play!

6 years ago – code, up late, F/X porn, coloring book, jack-in-the-box

7 years ago – house to myself, foodies (via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

After work yesterday we hit Aardvark to pick up some Icehouse pieces.We were in some serious luck, as he gave a ton to us at a very high discount. We got 2 monochrome stashes of Red, 2 of Blue, a Clear, a Yellow, and an Opaque White, (5 different colors, 7 sets), a stack of freebie Ice7 cards, plus Playing with Pyramids, and The Empty City – I think we gobbled up all of his warehouse’s Looney Stock. We also put in an order for Early American Chrononauts for pickup sometime next week.

Post Aardvark, it was a nibble at the In-laws for a little Chinese food , and Monk -watching. Unfortunately, it got a little hot, and my allergies started to kick up before I could watch Burn Notice (we did that tonight – with more garden veggies , crab cakes, tempura and Special Guest star Adam back from his mission work.). I’m glad insurance started 8/1 – time to hit the doc.

No real hits of friendship amnesty day… but maybe later.

Watched the “My Super Sweet 16” movie the other night, too … I had no idea that they made a movie *based* on a reality show…I thought it’d just be semi-scripted but actual spoiled bratty girls, not a full-blown production. Things of note – A lot of the sped-up time to zip into scene and zip out… and poor Neelix and Roddy Piper star in it! Do kids today actually use Internet-chat acronyms when they talk? Actually say Oh EM Gee, or is that some MTV fuddy-duddy’s idea of being cool?

Did I just say “kids today”? Criminy… I’m turning into a geezer.

Today, BHK and I put in an order for filler stashes of Orange, Purple, Black and Cyan, a pair of treehouse dice and some Martian Coasters straight from the Labs.

1 year ago – Danny’s last summer vacation day, pictures, hovering sombrero, many memes done in comments, hidden gp address in comments

2 years ago – cute mousie, taken, chatitn’, elevator express, ks sex preds

3 years ago – riding the bus, mystery creature, tv music in my head, a great new euphemism, maps, dr who, avengers, creep

4 years ago – COPS, nifty interfaces, Creatures, TV, Clay-o-rama rules

5 years ago – Signs movie, cancerless cigs, hellboy movie, scary bunny, 2nd wishes,Oz scary, zombies land on beach, Anna Nicole show hurt to watch

6 years ago – Oz quiz, Dictionaraoke, Day planning

7 years ago – Florida panthers, everglades restoration efforts, lj adds interests (via Scotto’s Wall Scrawls)

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)