I got my sandals from the east today and they look very snazzy!

Thank you, Desert-folk!

The cool thing about listening to the Adventures of Harry Lime is that you know they all take place before the movie.

Listening to a bit of Philip Marlowe, too. I dig the opening line – “Crime is a sucker’s road, and those who travel on it end up in the gutter, the prison or the grave!” (Speaking of which, my Brother moves into his own apartment on Tuesday.)

There’s something to be said about a man who tries to do the right thing from deeply felt loyalty and conviction, who is punished and betrayed for his efforts. What that thing is, I’m not sure.

By the way, *AVOID* the film version of The Long Goodbye with Elliot Gould. El Stinko, even as a parody. A lot of people like the movie, but I’m not one of ’em, dear journal.

Something I meant to mention a while back…but forgot to add.

How do you feel about having your food prepared by someone with a nasty black eye?

I went out to Blimpie’s with Danny a week or three ago, and the sandwich maker had a colossal shiner. That made me think twice before ordering, even though I knew that you couldn’t get “black eye” germs on the bread or anything. Something in my mind just railed against having my tasty lunch assembled by a guy that got socked, and hard. I referred to him as Luka, but Danny didn’t get the joke at the time, so I let it slide. He was a reasonably big guy, about 45 years old. Dan’s comments were more along the lines of “what’s a 45 year old guy doing as a sandwich maker?” than “I wonder what the story was behind who belted that guy?”

My reply to his question was that not everyone can get or hold jobs outside of the fast food sector… that led me to wonder about other people showing up to work with black eyes of their own. How much would that screw up a suit and tie video conference? A secretary taking dictation? A used car salesman? So many jobs need a face, and that’s taken for granted. I could get away with it… programming and hardware doesn’t care what you look like, but how would my coworkers react? I would think that it’d throw some judgment into the mix that might last for a while.

Heck, back into the work sector, what about a waitress? Would she get better tips out of sympathy, or would more people bail out?

I wonder how that’d affect how a person does their job? Self-image is a big part of how people interact with others, after all.

How long before “Yeah, but you should see the other guy…” got old?

Back when I was at IMT, I would’ve taken delight in seeing Wally with an eye-bruise.

Man, I’m so glad that I live in this day and age… I just have to shower daily. I get a feeling of residue if I wait more than 24 hours or so between washing up.

I liked Splitter’s old Legion name, “Arms-fall-off Boy”, more. doesn’t exactly flow off of the tongue, but it paints a picture. He’s among my favorite Super-losers, like Matter-Eater Lad, Infectious Lass and Bouncing Boy.

Upsides of being on call all weekend – In the A/C rather than Satan’s sock hamper, played with Newtie, got some good programming in, and caught up with my reading. Friday, after being outside for just an hour, I was a complete sweat-factory. Bleh.

Of the world’s 100 largest economic entities, 51 are now corporations and 49 are countries.

I would not have thought France was #4, or that it (or Italy, for that matter) would be higher than China.

There a lot of people in the blogiverse (blogosphere? whatever.) that have some form of dependent personality disorder, in my opinion. Some sort of unhealthy need for attention above and beyond what should be required. I’ve seen both sides of that sort of problem in real life (fortunately, not for quite a long time) , and it never ends well.

I’ve tripped over many who have fabricated a life threatening illness, a lost pregnancy or some other form of heartbreaking drama just to get some sort of feedback. I pity them, and am disgusted by how they steal energy from kind people.

I feel even more for folks that extended a little humanity to the fabricators. Nobody should be punished in that way for having an open heart. I’d hate to see those people hardened by falsehood and then unavailable to someone who actually *needs* extra sympathy and care.

Stuff like that makes it tough to be existential.

There’s a quote that I once heard a while back, probably Rob Wilson’s.

“The philosopher Carlin’s three major types of public nuisances — the stupid, the crazy and those just plain full of shit — have changed proportions in my mind as I grow older. I used to attribute almost everything awful to stupidity and looniness, but now I more and more suspect the major problem is that so many people are full of shit.”

I like my little purple turtle-themed post it notes. Very Handy, and just hippie enough to get a smile out of people I leave ’em for. They’re almost gone, and I got them as a gift. Not sure where I can go to get more of ’em.

How to Make a…Meme

Newt is way too fond of Pounce Treats. If he sees the bag, to any silver pouch, he’ll stand by it and mer at me until I give him some, or put the bag away.

note to someone outside

Sammy was the first to click through on of the paying links for me yesterday, and it was worth $0.21 (I can’t click through for myself, because it violates the TOS.)

I’m hosted at rydia now… http://scottobear.com.users.rydia.net/, until scottobear.com slides over to the new host.

To celebrate, I added a Doodle-board message thingie.

currently at – http://scottobear.com.users.rydia.net/picture.cgi, though it’ll probably be on the toybox page once I configure it the way I like it. Sam did a pretty cool drawing already, even while I was just configuring the thing.

Cool pic of a flying hound!

Stocked up for a lo-ong weekend of being on call. This is what happens when your only other tech that can work Friday or Saturday has things to do.

Got plenty of diet cherry coke, quorn patties, and tofu to ride through it without a hitch, though. Also the fixings to make a mega batch of three-bean salad.

New 3-bean salad recipe for Saturday

For a vegetarian, I have some strong predatory instincts. I got a *humungous* burrito for din-din, and rather than my usual autopsy, slicing through the front, and picking choice bits out of the cavity, I did a two-handed lift and chomp, ripping flour tortilla-sinew and loosing an arterial rivulet of salsa down the side of the poor burrito’s carcass. Rest assured, it did not suffer long. Soon all that remained were assorted tortilla chips, like the rib cage and gnawed bone shards of a once proud, though tubular-shaped gazelle. My belly filled quickly, and after the feast, Newton and I rested on the far side of the apartment, our savanna clear of any intruders.

We slept well.

Sniffing around Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, by Chogyam Trungpa . Here’s a quote from chapter one:

“Other legends say that the kingdom of Shambhala disappeared from the earth many centuries ago. At a certain point, the entire society had become enlightened, and the kingdom vanished into another more celestial realm. According to these stories, the Rigden kings of Shambhala continue to watch over human affairs, and will one day return to earth to save humanity from destruction. many Tibetans believe that the great Tibetan warrior king Gesar of Ling was inspired and guided by the Rigdens and the Shambhala wisdom. This reflects the belief in the celestial existence of the kingdom. Gesar is thought not to have travelled to Shambhala, so his link with the kingdom is a spiritual one. He lived in approximately the 11th century and ruled the provincial kingdom of Ling, which is located in the province of Kham, East Tibet. Following Gesar’s reign, stories about his accomplishments as a warrior and ruler sprang up throughout Tibet, eventually becoming the greatest epic of Tibetan literature. Some legends say that Gesar will reappear from Shambhala, leading an army to conquer the forces of darkness in the world.” (pp 26-27)

I’d dig getting a electric lawn chair boat to tool around the canals around here. I wonder how sturdy it is?

pic

For a vegetarian, I have some strong predatory instincts. I got a *humungous* burrito for din-din, and rather than my usual autopsy, slicing through the front, and picking choice bits out of the cavity, I did a two-handed lift and chomp, ripping flour tortilla-sinew and loosing an arterial rivulet of salsa down the side of the poor burrito’s carcass. Rest assured, it did not suffer long. Soon all that remained were assorted tortilla chips, like the rib cage and gnawed bone shards of a once proud, though tubular-shaped gazelle. My belly filled quickly, and after the feast, Newton and I rested on the far side of the apartment, our savanna clear of any intruders.

We slept well.

Sniffing around Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, by Chogyam Trungpa . Here’s a quote from chapter one:

“Other legends say that the kingdom of Shambhala disappeared from the earth many centuries ago. At a certain point, the entire society had become enlightened, and the kingdom vanished into another more celestial realm. According to these stories, the Rigden kings of Shambhala continue to watch over human affairs, and will one day return to earth to save humanity from destruction. many Tibetans believe that the great Tibetan warrior king Gesar of Ling was inspired and guided by the Rigdens and the Shambhala wisdom. This reflects the belief in the celestial existence of the kingdom. Gesar is thought not to have travelled to Shambhala, so his link with the kingdom is a spiritual one. He lived in approximately the 11th century and ruled the provincial kingdom of Ling, which is located in the province of Kham, East Tibet. Following Gesar’s reign, stories about his accomplishments as a warrior and ruler sprang up throughout Tibet, eventually becoming the greatest epic of Tibetan literature. Some legends say that Gesar will reappear from Shambhala, leading an army to conquer the forces of darkness in the world.” (pp 26-27)

I’d dig getting a electric lawn chair boat to tool around the canals around here. I wonder how sturdy it is?

pic

Mind is scattered all over the place today, and I find myself wishing I’d had more time this morning for a hearty breakfast. (not to mention something in the cupboard that resembled a hearty breakfast…. everything is pretty much dinner-oriented until I visit the grocery again.)

Yikes.. Electricity this month was $105, compared to last month’s $73. quite a leap… With the way I’ve been cranking the A/C these days, I wonder if I’ll crack $120 next month.

Well, I started the ball rolling for my new host… I went with Rydia.net/ for a few reasons.

• They got back to me via email *fast*. That counts for a lot in my book. I want people that are responsive.
• Downtime log seemed reasonable (especially compared to my last host, which had a multi-day crisis earlier this year.)
• The price is right – $10 a month for all the features I want, and more bandwidth than I foresee needing, even if I stream audio and video 24/7 for newtcam. I like the idea of doing subdomains easily, too.. now I can have newtcam.scottobear.com, or whatever.

Also tempting was NearlyFreeSpeech.net. It’s $1/GB for bandwidth (actually 1¢ per 100th of a GB), and 1¢/MB/month for disk space. You simply send them a deposit (as little as $5) and when you’ve used that specific amount of bandwidth or disk space, they take out a penny. Thanks for the advice, Jordon! If I wasn’t such a data storage piggie, that would’ve gotten my vote.

Speaking of hosting, all sorts of nifty goodies at DNSstuff.com

2 Piccies from yesterday’s walk home

Because I like:

nuts
berries
honey
picnic baskets
walking in the woods (and I’ve pooped there)
splashing in rivers
sleeping late (especially in the winter inside my cave, preferably curled up with my mate)

And because:

I can appear menacing
I’m big and fuzzy
I don’t like forest fires
I like helping people (not just small blue mice) esp. by sharing knowledge
I’m generally very passive unless someone messes with my loved ones or habitat
I’ll *maul* you if you mess with my loved ones or habitat
I like to hug
I’d make for a cute stuffed animal
I have a good sense of smell
I’m very curious / nosy

Reemco’s CDC Ebola Virus Outbreak Action Playset (I know a certain someone who would *love* this. Maybe I’ll make one as a trinket of happiness for her.)

Thunderstorm advisories since last Friday, and I’ve not seen so much as a fat drop.

For the Record, once again…Mxyzptlk is pronounced “Mix-Yez-pittle-ick“. Not “Mixel-plik”. Criminy.

Wow, thanks for the all hosting info emails, folks. I think I’ve got who I want worked out, but I’ll investigate the rest as I go, just in case. I’m amazed at how much space is available for storage on some plans. I figure that my link-fees will cover any plan I might take, and CoH will soak up the rest.

Newt Pics du jour

My Site hosting service of over 6 years is calling it quits. I was hosted for *very* cheaply, and had solid access to the server.

I’ve got a month to relocate to a new host, and would *really* like to hear about any sites that can offer some basics for a reasonable price.

If you’ve got a site host you love, or know of a good deal, please let me know by posting in the comments here or emailing me directly at scottobear@livejournal.com

All I really need is the basics, support for MySQL, php, and root access to my directories. I don’t have a huge bandwidth issue.

Thanks in advance, dear journal-readers!

Securing MySQL: step-by-step
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1726

Excellent CSS resource
http://www.cssvault.com/

A huge pile o’ data
http://www.eyebeamresearch.org/annualdatasources.htm

Nice slow day yesterday. Made up for the early morning alarm call.

Zombie movie meme

60 years ago today – D-Day / Normandy I know that I appreciate the sacrifices made by the soldiers who fought for us back on that day in ’44. It must be hard for me to truly realize what it must’ve been like at that time, but I’ve had an active interest in that part of WWII history since I was old enough to read Sgt. Rock comics and watch countless documentaries with my dad and brother on Sunday afternoons. It’s astounding to me that nearly a third of the USA’s population doesn’t really know any of the details about D-Day. (Simple stuff, like the fact that Germany was the enemy, for Pete’s sake.)

Bro came by briefly, and I charged up his MP3 player with 128 meg of Bowie, Rancid, and Shorty Petterstein.

Extending my mental powers out over LJ….Watch, as I do a sniff on you, reading my journal….

You are a sensitive person who is in tune with events around you. When you were younger, you were different from other people that you knew. You have always been a little on the outside of things.You are also a caring and honest person, perhaps too much so, but you have difficulty in letting people get to know the real you. When you finally do let someone inside, you keep him or her close to you for a long time. In fact, there is someone that you are close to that you are concerned about right now. You worry too much though and can best help this person by continuing to be a positive influence in their life.

Does that sound like you? Pretty close?

OK, how about if I add the rest:

Your intuition is strong and you feel that you may have always had a bit of a sensitivity or a psychic ability. You have occasionally dreamed of things before they happened or at least had a strong sense of ‘deja vu’ under certain circumstances.

If I add the fact that you have a scar on one knee, someone would probably start freaking out, and screaming for me to get out of their head. So I won’t.

A plague of cookies!!, via waxy_org

I’m especially partial to the frogs.

fruit meme

Well, the trip was mostly a bust. Right as I was heading out the door, Big Kahuna called, and had me swing into the HQ to put the new logo on the powerpoint presentation she’s giving in Rhode Island on Monday (and on RC’s Michigan demos for next week, too.) After a quick little cleanup of th presentations (about 20 min for the thing, top to bottom) I headed off to the bus station. I wanted to go check out the Con, so I hopped the 55 to the 22, and took that to the numero dos. I rode and rode and rode the 2, and didn’t see my stop… and when I got to Dade County, I decided enough was enough and hopped the 18 to the 22 to the central home again.

I didn’t take many pictures, or even mess with the palm much, due to the inadvisability of showing off too much valuable hardware in some of the regions I was in. A lot of potentially predator-types out and about and there was no reason to tempt ’em any more than need be. I didn’t really talk with anyone on my road trip, just sort of sat back and observed. One young kid had really shaky hands…he was a white kid, and was wearing a do-rag decorated with YO! MTV raps logos all over it. It was in good condition, considering the show has been off the air for about a decade.

As I mentioned before, I never made it to the convention, but I don’t feel too bad about that. I’m more peeved that I burned 4 and a half hours on the road and didn’t do *anything*, but those are the dice I roll when I don’t make proper preparations. Put in a lot of walking and people watching… and was very fortunate in that there was enough cloud-cover that things remained cool, but was never soaked-out by the threatening rain.

This is just brilliant.

Radio.Blog is a system that turns mp3s into Flash files and stacks them up in an internet radio player that you can paste into your website. Free program. Windows-only and PHP-hosting-only, right now, according to the FAQ. – Via dph

Sharp! Sadly, due to security constraints, you can’t put php on your lj styles, but it’ll look lovely on a homepage.

Invisible beam tops list of nonlethal weapons I want one!