Didn’t get to play pirates or introduce Dan to Mel yesterday… commitments beyond his control stopped him in his tracks. Mel’s Gramma is moving in with her for the next month or so (while her hip mends up). We’ll see how that works out. I think Mel is looking forward to grabbing some good recipes and quality Gramma time (and feeding said recipes and time to me, too…)

M & I spent much of my day on call watching A&E, doing web research and general snuggles between my taking cases for missing kids. About 9 cases today, pesky! If I’ve got to be locked in at home… that’s the way to do it. Newt was extra affectionate to Mel, too…much moreso than he ever was with April.

I’m guessing GP and Katt are on the way home at this point…. too bad that I missed ’em again this year, but there’s always next!

More Mel today!

Favorite Smallware

Most of these programs are small, under a megabyte and don’t require an install. I use some of them every day, and others I use only occasionally. All of them are free. (nice set of links at the bottom, too)

Curry cures Alzheimer’s?

The pigment that makes curry yellow, curcumin, does a better job at treating Alzheimer’s than the majority of drugs being tested. (Interestingly, India has one of the lowest Alzheimer rates in the world.)

The new UCLA-Veterans Affairs study involving genetically altered mice suggests that curcumin, the yellow pigment in curry spice, inhibits the accumulation of destructive beta amyloids in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and also breaks up existing plaques.

1 year ago – dropload, shoot around corners, I first hear about how capital punishment is a far more expensive system than one whose maximum penalty is life in prison, Urban Exploration Florida

2 years ago – bro/taxi trouble, conquer the world, smoking gun mug shots

3 years ago – Random Name Generator, gunplay dream, family channel, scotto’s head, 2001 review, japanese space shuttle, Afghan sports

4 years ago – words within words, I disagree with Georgia O’Keeffe, LJ bumpy

Happy New Year!

Something I post at the top of every new year, and I appreciate the words more with every additional trip around the sun.

Love is
is not rude,
it is not self seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices in truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.

-1 Corinthians 13:5&6

I don’t know why I like this little transformer guy so much. I think it’s because he wears birkenstocks.

Note to Dan – Thank you for the info on the Yucatan meteor and the term paleoclimatology.

1845-8 – Irish Potato Famine / 1902 – Tunguska event.

It is unlikely that the meteor blew a hole in space-time to make crops fail fifty years prior to it striking the earth… Krakatoa’s 1883 eruption did drop the planet’s temp by about 7 degrees, and killed 36,000 people, though.

1918 – Influenza kills 20 million people. About a quarter of the US population catches it and 2 to 3% die from it.

Tony Danza has a talk show. The man is a phoenix, rising from the ashes. Taxi, Who’s the Boss… the funny thing is that I see the friendly palooka sort of charisma there. I have no idea what he’s like off-camera, but he seems pretty cool on-screen. I’m glad he’s been cut a break.

I think it’s interesting that Sri Lanka declined Israeli medical aid because it would have been furnished by a military team.

Element Meme

Happy New Year!

Something I post at the top of every new year, and I appreciate the words more with every additional trip around the sun.

Love is
is not rude,
it is not self seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices in truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres.

-1 Corinthians 13:5&6

I don’t know why I like this little transformer guy so much. I think it’s because he wears birkenstocks.

Note to Dan – Thank you for the info on the Yucatan meteor and the term paleoclimatology.

1845-8 – Irish Potato Famine / 1902 – Tunguska event.

It is unlikely that the meteor blew a hole in space-time to make crops fail fifty years prior to it striking the earth… Krakatoa’s 1883 eruption did drop the planet’s temp by about 7 degrees, and killed 36,000 people, though.

1918 – Influenza kills 20 million people. About a quarter of the US population catches it and 2 to 3% die from it.

Tony Danza has a talk show. The man is a phoenix, rising from the ashes. Taxi, Who’s the Boss… the funny thing is that I see the friendly palooka sort of charisma there. I have no idea what he’s like off-camera, but he seems pretty cool on-screen. I’m glad he’s been cut a break.

I think it’s interesting that Sri Lanka declined Israeli medical aid because it would have been furnished by a military team.

Element Meme

At the yearly overview at work, I was praised pretty highly, and referred to as the “sergeant at arms“. (due to my keeping my brain screwed on tight, while other tensions rose)

Mel and I should have the whole day together today, barring badness. I’m not sure what’s planned, but I think an indoor NYE is the way to go, come nightfall.

Interesting that I end the year on a fairly round numbered entry. 7100, since I first started this thing. unreal.

Good Morning Newt!

So long to Deuce-double-aught-four.

Some stuff that happened, I may or may not search the journal to linkify ’em.

• Bro’s Shenanigans come to a head… Twice!
• D goes *poof*!
• CJ goes *poof*!
• I stay buddies with Whims and Sammy, despite There.com fadeout and they stopped dating.
• Mel goes *foop*! (or whatever the opposite of *poof* is)
• Some other neat new LJ and meat space pals go *foop*!
• Newt’s a healthy boy, but I discover he’s a bit jealous.
• No serious health issues.
• I maintain a nice email relationship with Gray Pumpkin, and The Wu’s seen to have vaporised.
• A lot of weight lost, some of it regained.
• Lots of turnover at work. I’m tied with VS as the 4th longest currently-lived employee, after BK, RI, and LD.
• Stayed with Danny through hurricanes.
• I had a gun put to my head due to a vehicle registration
• Lots of photo–walkabout, including a nice day at vizcaya (pictures spread out over a week)
• Many pictures of Newt, got cam software that lets me do weird blue screens and capture cuteness
• I got a sammich made by a guy with a black eye
• I got radical sandals from my buddies in the East-east.
• I made a scary-scotto icon
• I put bids down on condos, but fate conspired against me every time

Plenty of other stuff too, but that’s the first stuff that bubbles to my forebrain.

number test

I believe there is a big picture that is refracted in every small picture. I believe there is a small picture that is reflected in every big picture.

I imagine folks will be seeing a lot of these in the near future.

Darkness can never last too long — When you laugh in his face.

At 6.8 billion pounds per year, the US leads the world in cheese production.

At 43.6 pounds per person per year, France leads the world in cheese consumption.

Random Scotto factoid – I like my grilled cheese sammiches with mustard.

1 year ago – Dang Dick, Kindly Kahuna, and Scotto Stuff. Alliteration!

2 years ago – RFL pictures, PT Barnum, Malawi vampires, Morse code

3 years ago – Treebeard and Entwife, Met Denise & Sara @ Danny’s Party, Mai Kai, eclipse

4 years ago – Calcutta Chromosome, Got shoo as a pal, Amitav Ghosh, Saw D&D movie with Danny, and Andy running the yellow Pompano comic shack.

Why is it every time I’m feeling a bit ill or kind of our of it, people tell me that I look like “the Big Show” from WWF (WWE?)

http://www.wwe.com/superstars/smackdown/big_show/profile.jsp or more likely, this one –

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/bigshowmug1.html

I don’t really see it, except that I’m a giant guy with a goatee, too.

The guy’s got about 6 inches of height and about 170 lbs on me.

I pity his tailor.

Stayed home yesterday with an earache… got some drops and dicloxacillin to take care of things.. my first visit to the ER with my current insurance. $100 for the ER (as opposed to the $45 on my old plan… ah well, I don’t intend to visit the ER often) and $10 each for the ‘scrips.

Newt!

I’ve had a fairly varied girlfriend history. Some I can’t believe I ever dated, others, I can’t believe how the relationship ended.

Almost all of my recent girlfriends (this past decade), have had a tattoo or “unusual” (non-ear) piercing. Come to think of the last ten years, I’ve been the most successful with relationships, too. I wonder if it’s because I wasn’t gaming every weekend with GP, Katt, PM, Dan and the Wu-folk? When I was gaming, the only mate potential were the single females in the crew: PM and briefly Kelly, neither of which really amounted to anything romance-wise… Kelly clearly just wasn’t interested, and PM is a whole other entry. I suppose there was also Elaine, but *GAH-NO*. A few other outside interludes, but nothing that spun up.

Let’s see…

• RG had a cute heart-design on her ankle – Taught me hope, that anything I want, I can have – Met Danny, the hippies
• CJ pierced her nose briefly, and got a band around her arm while we were together – taught me mercy, “all sunshine makes a desert” Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
• FL was free of supplemental designs and jewelry… Taught me that sometimes ignoring a problem *is* enough to make it go away.
• AT had pierced nipples – Taught me about tough love, and letting go – Notable: We first kissed in front of an episode of “Jonny Quest”. (Shadow of the Condor, if you must know, dear journal) – Met Danny
• Mel is ink and piercing free… she doesn’t even generally wear earrings. – Not sure what she’s teaching me yet. All things in time. – Met my Mother, Danny Pending

What does this mean? Heck if I know.

Wiki Entry on the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

Sat-map images of before and after

First person blog coverage

Something this big.. there are going to be repercussions for a long time to come.

A bright, warm future is sometimes hidden within dark coals.

I wonder if that mean British woman from the weakest link will end up on a “where are they now?” spot on VH1 sometime soon?

And the sign said “long-haired freaky people need not apply”

Another Monkey With a Gun

Thank you for the COH game card, Sammy!

Bah. Mel got a flat tire, and wasn’t able to visit last night. We talked for a long time on the phone, though.

Random Archie Factoid: Jughead’s real name is Forsythe P. Jones.

Threes

“Next time some eight foot tall, wild-eyed maniac taps the back of your favorite head up against the bar room wall and asks you if you’ve paid your dues, well, you just do what ol’ Jack Burton always does at a time like that. You stare that sucker right back in the eye. ‘Have you paid your dues, Jack?’ ‘Yes sir, the check is in the mail.'”

Miami Beach Rescue reported rip currents ongoing at the beaches this morning. Two to four foot north swells, north to northeast winds at 20 knots, and a mid afternoon low tide will produce a high risk of rip currents to swimmers at the beaches of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties today.

A high risk of rip currents means that strong rip currents are likely. Stay out of the surf. The surf is dangerous for all levels of swimmers. Even those using boogie boards are urged to use extreme caution.

A rip current is a 10 to 30 yard wide channel of water that can pull even a strong swimmer from near or inside The Sand Bar into deeper water. If caught in the seaward pull of a rip current do not attempt to move directly toward shore. Instead, move sideways across the rip current until the pull eases. If you insist on entering the water, only do so at guarded beaches.

Free form, typed as I woke –

Dreamt that I was in an office building with my mother and brother… it might’ve been a courthouse. There were some demo computers there that looked sort of like a cross between architectural tubes and lunch boxes… when I tried one, it took my picture, and printed it out on cheesy heat-transfer paper, the width of a cash register receipt. I put it back down, kept the printout, and noticed it was running Unix, but only had 201k of memory. The card next to it stated that “201k is more than sufficient for all utilities except for more demanding games.” I called shenanigans on it, and walked away, my family having vanished. I got a sense of being pursued, so I began to run for the escalators. It turned out that they were “kids toy escalators” or something, because they were brightly colored, and narrower than my foot. I slid down a ramp-like jut next to it, and leapt to my feet ( noticed that I was wearing my long lost, much worn steel-toed combat boots), knowing somehow that my pursuers were close behind. There were some glass doors in my way, and for whatever reason instead of just opening them up, I smashed through them with a suddenly handy aluminum baseball bat. I went running down the empty street (far more freely than I would in waking time, I’m forced to admit) turning cartwheels and yelling to the tops of buildings for them to “come and get me!”

And then I got shot in the shoulder. Painless, thankfully in dream time, but I was knocked to the ground and had a large wet spot on the right side, just below the collarbone. I picked out the bullet, and it was shiny and covered with red paisley pattens engraved on the side.

And then I woke up and typed it here. My shoulder is whole, and not sore.

I wake, wondering which side of a Cyclops’s eye he cries out of… is the tear duct on the left or the right? both?

Old news for most, but LJ doubled our photo hosting quota from 50 to 100 meg! Ho ho ho!

Laurie Hogin’s Scary Fuzzy Critters They’ll give a person nightmares.

Nifty Explanation of the 12 days of Christmas

1 Corinthians 13:13

There was an insane amount of wind out yesterday… for some reason, that makes me very happy. I hope for more of the same today.

I’ve been wandering random sections of LJ here and there… man, there are *redundant* communities for everyone. I sniff around art nouveau communities, and linked to them are three different “nazi fetish” groups. Eek. Careful of wandering off of the path, some dragons out there. But I did also find this Neato LJViz thingum – It randomly places your friend’s names around the screen placing those that have more interests in common closer to the middle of the screen and using a larger font.

Also does the reverse of placing your interests randomly around the screen with those that are shared with more friends closer to the middle of the screen and using a larger font.

Mexican City Bans Indoor Nudity Continue reading 7091 – Third Day of Christmas (Mm.. I want French toast) →

Mel totally hooked me up with apartment gear. 2 lamps (one sort of an Eiffel tower looking one, and a glittery-lava lamp, a bed set, sheets, blankets, fluffy pillows.. some excellent scented candles and insence.. a few little stocking stuffer Newt-toys, and a few little goo dies for me, as well. excellent haul.

Treasure planet was interesting, but after Mel left, I installed Scrapland. visually very pleasing, but I can’t fly the gunship to save my life.

On call today… sort of sucks, as it’s the last “day off” I have before returning to work, but at least I got the majority of the weekend off. Upside, Mel’ll be here to take the edge off.

Ween’s version of chrismahanukwanzakah. (flash)

speed up firefox with broadband Continue reading 7090 – Boxing Day →