has been created to help manage the crazy turnover of bulletins at nationstates, and to have a more permanent archive of messages.

Newt’s Cat code

Newton: AS? (R+Rd)t Y 3 Y L+ W C– I+++ T++ A+ E H+ S++ V+/++ F++ Q++ P B PA PL

got to love free money.

pepysdiary – Diary of Samuel Pepys – a presentation of the diaries of Samuel Pepys, the renowned 17th century diarist who lived in London, England (read more about him). A new entry written by Pepys will be published each day, with the first appearing on 1st January 2003.

I really dig being able to make syndicated columns a part of my LJ reading list.

This morning, Scottovia was transported from the oh-so-crowded pacific to live journalia (thanks to leftyrok for creating a new region!)

Join us, won’t you, fellow countries?

Scottovia News:

First dismissal because none of them sounded acceptable.
Continue reading →

Welcome to the Republic of Berryland!

Long may her queen reign! (I’m going to keep my money there… and trade sasquatch fertilizer for berries and tea)

For Christmas, I started a country.

I hope it grows and prospers!

[update – premitted embryonic cloning research, and am passing a law for no public usage of marijuana, though it’s still legal to use at home.]

current folks in my dossier –

The Republic of Blue Islands – New York Times Democracy
The Queendom of ConcreteWaffer – Anarchy
The Borderlands of Hamstring – Left-wing Utopia
The Disputed Territories of Ire – Capitalist Paradise
The Dictatorship of Java Scotia – Authoritarian Democracy
The People’s Republic of Molenium – Democratic Socialists
The Commonwealth of Thirteen – Liberal Democratic Socialists

am I missing any?

edbook‘s prep for some of his photos is amazing. -30F is a frightening temperature to work in. The man gets smashing results, though… just a little wander through will show you that. I don’t think I’d go out in that weather for anything but a labor of love.

I’m glad that local weather is so mild… I get heavy rain sometimes, and a hurricane warning every rare while but those are quite simply dealt with, and neither are as threatening as so many other places. Another blessing to add to the nice collection I’ve got already.

Merry Christmas, and I hope that everyone can spend time reflecting on the spirit of the season….Good Cheer to all. And to all a good..erm, Day.

Beyond the Bible and Seuss’s Grinch, check out –

Letters from Father Christmas: a collection made up of the letters that Santa wrote to Tolkein’s family seasonally for over two decades. Each year a different problem occurred at the North Pole, including some whoopsies from a bumbling Polar Bear who lives with St. Nick and a few invasions by goblins (this predates Middle Earth, but I’d bet that some development was done during the creation of the letters, including a spiffy language key in the back which was sent to Tolkein’s children so that they could help decipher goblin cave writings).

The artwork and writing is so nifty and clever… The favorite edition being the one which has pages that are actually envelopes, from which you take out beautifully reproduced letters to read, Griffin and Sabine style. However, one of the newer editions (the oversized 1999 Revised edition) includes many additional years’ worth of letters that the special edition does not and is really quite comprehensive.

My first encounter with the book was working in charge of kids’ books in the early 90s. I have a lot of fond memories doing story hour, and wish that the letters could’ve been implemented over the course of the two weeks leading up to the holiday…two letters a session would’ve been perfect. Unfortunately, it was not to be… I’d still like to read them with my sweetheart sometime… I think she’d really dig ’em.

Europeans Outlaw Net Hate Speech.

The Council of Europe has adopted a measure that would criminalize Internet hate speech, including hyperlinks to pages that contain offensive content.

The provision, which was passed by the council’s decision-making body (the Committee of Ministers), updates the European Convention on Cybercrime.

Specifically, the amendment bans “any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as pretext for any of these factors.”

Hmm…

Shocking it may be, but Christmas in Cataluña has a distinctly scatological streak.

I think they do this stuff just to gross us out. Researchers in Japan have figured out a way to graft infant rat heads onto adult rat thighs – and keep the heads alive. “If kept cool while the blood flow is stopped, a transplanted brain can develop as normal for at least three weeks, and the mouth of the head will move, as if it is trying to drink milk, the team reports.”

Greatest Vendetta on Earth – Circus Stalks Reporter, PETA and others.

The things you find when researching Presidential Christmas Pardons. Also this.

Supper tonight was Aloo Samosas with Tamarind Chutney & Pad Thai.

Taj Ethnic Gourmet… hmm, Got lucky… first time buys. It looks like the website is new, too.

Linda McCartney Meals…do you really want to advertise with a dead woman on the package? A also dislike the term “vegetarian chicken”. It’ll probably confuse folks that don’t understand that the “chicken” is really tofu, and the veggie folks that don’t eat egg white.

Arseiam… some flash tutorials and source, too!. a little sound on the main page.

Dan swung by earlier today… He gave me some lovely Prezzies… A nice umbrella, a booster pack of mage knight (with three black powder units I wanted… two of which I didn’t have yet, and the third was a dwarven bombard…I can’t have too many of those. His wife made me some chex mix, and it’s quite tasty. Danny and I played two quickie 100-point games and I showed him LiveJournal… There are a couple people on my friend’s list that I know he’d hit it off with immediately if they talked.

The guy out front brought me a bottle of wine for the holidays, and Dave swung by yesterday with some cookies and a brief, friendly hello. (We’re exchanging after the holidays, because they’re visiting both sets of parents today and tomorrow. It looks like Mio’s moving out at the top of the month, so we’ll see a new neighbor soon. A pity she’s leaving… she was quiet, and didn’t cause any stress…plus my brother thought that she was cute.

I got a lovely card from Marcus and his family today, and from Grammy & Ted. $30 from the latter… Quite surprising, and welcome.

Who’s under the Mistletoe?

Mourns Over Severed Head of Mate With Intensity That Seems Almost Human.

Almost every public park in the United Sates has its lively and half-domesticated colony of squirrels, and there is no other creature of the woods and fields with which city children may—and do—become so familiar. An interesting story which shows the depth of feeling which these little animals are capable, comes to the companion from Waterloo, Ia.:

A physician who lives near one of the parks in that city had long had an especial interest in a pair of squirrels which made their home in a tree within sight of his house. One day he noticed that one of this pair was running up and down a certain tree in the park, meanwhile chattering in the greatest excitement. Finally the little fellow appeared on a branch, holding between his paws the severed head of his mate, over which he was moaning and whining pitifully. On investigation, it appeared that the dead squirrel had been caught an actually decapitated by a limb split off from the tree by a storm of the night before. The grief-stricken mate would not abandon the body all that day, and mourned over the severed head with an intensity and absorption which seemed almost human, with a depth of emotion indeed, of which some human beings are hardly capable.

Minnetonka Record, January 19, 1912