It’s looking like this is the camera I’ll be getting. (at the $284 price)

I want something nice to take piccies during time off and walkies, and I think this is up to the task (I hope!) Fortunately, I have rechargeable batteries already, due to the palm, so all I’ll end up getting extra is maybe a 64 meg compact flash card.

There’s a lot of photographers out here… anyone care to give me any warnings or advice before I dive into this decision? I think my research is pretty good, but who knows… perhaps I forgot something.

Camera will be my Christmas Prezzie to self, and a new Bicycle for my birthday… a nice combination, I think. I’m look forward to showing pictures of the pompano Cemetary, the strip mall of sin, the mall of the dead and Miss Cleo’s house off!

Quote of the day – Ireland is a land full of myth and wonder. And giant killer-robot factories.

Miss Cleo! looks like you’re in for it now, beebee. The link is a little backstory about here and telephone psychics in general from a local paper.

I never told you she was a local?

Pompano Beach mall (now mall of the dead) was the site of her first tv commercials. Since that old entry, all the bookstores have left, and Yvette is no longer at the pompano 18, which has run down, rapidly. The Goth / swingers club has folded, too.

Note to self, do a reprise of that area, and the strip mall of sin.

Well, it got officially cold enough last night for me to turn on the “heater-fan”… more for Newt than for me, but it was a welcome addition of warmth. I’m going to go for walkies in a few, but I think I’ll just wait for the sun to finish rising first. It may not seem that cold to you, but weather in the 30s in South Florida is quite a switch, considering it was in the mid 70s yesterday noon. It’s 40 now, and “feels like 33”.

By the time the sun comes out, it’ll be in the upper 50s, maybe mid 60s, which is just about perfect for me. Crisp walking weather.

elements of last night’s dream, convoluted:

watching my sweetheart do pencil and ink drawing, a lot of snow, spiderweb imagery, ocean imagery, an ancient graveyard. I woke up rather abruplty,so the steam of thought is gone.

Obligatory test results –

I don’t like the word defleshing. Fascinating stuff, though.

AOL says Instant Messaging service flaw fixed

all better. 🙂

I want a nappie-time, too! I feel the bedchamber calling me… why, oh why must I work in a place where there’s no after-lunch hammocks?

Duh. Amazon.com just reminded me that my birthday was coming up.

Who are they to say I don’t want salad tongs?

*note to self, wrap some sage smudge sticks tonight.

now to decide on which to use… White? Grey? Mix with Cedar? Lavender? Sweetgrass? I wonder if there’s any Juniper left…

My “hippy’s supply cabinet” is pretty full, I may need more thread, though. I could use hemp, but colored string is better, if I’m going to make an assortment, to figure out the different types.

First real use of my new jackknife! I love doing handmade stuff. 🙂

The Amityville Horror
The Shining
Hell House
The Haunting (of Hill House)

“The Amityville Horror” got a lot of press because it was “a true story” and all of that. It really wasn’t all that good in my opinion, and only it’s status as “real” made it of any interest. When I read it I remember thinking it was the most uncoordinated haunting I’d ever read about. Seeing through walls, black gunk in the toilet, missing money, glowing red eyes, what the heck? It doesn’t hang together, there’s no *theme*, just a bunch of disconnected happenings.

“The Shining.” Ah, haunted *hotel*. Now we’re cookin’. Hmmm. Not really sure if the dad was nuts before he got there, or if the place made him wacky. The idea of haunting being like an electrical charge, and the hotel wanted Danny and his shining to give it enough boost to break loose. Cabin fever, hidden history, going for the weak points… yeah. The family dynamic, the idea of “Tony” giving Danny advice from the future. Not bad.

“Hell House.” Can’t go wrong with Richard Matheson. Ghosts as an electromagnetic phenom. The creepy history making it the “Mount Everest of haunted houses.” The characters and weak points to be exploited, the clues to assemble and the ultimate secret to discover. It had everything Amityville lacked, and paid off with a lot of action.

“The Haunting.” Hey, don’t show *anything*. I’m speaking of the book, the play, and the older movie. I try to pretend the new film never happened. Having it “narrated” by Eleanor’s internal monologue. The parallels in personal history and house history. Nothing is seen but turning doorknobs and a bulging door. Loud noises and a little girl crying. Carvings and wallpaper that become faces when you look at them long enough.

Different approaches to a classic concept. “Hell House” and “The Haunting” even resemble each other in the situation presented, but they aren’t anything alike.

I have a writing task that I’d like to throw out to the LJ gang.

What I would like are rumors, lies, and heresies. The sort of stuff that people tell each other in the occult underground. It’s meant to completely muddy the waters and cause wacky urban legends…. a story seed for something a little (or a lot) weird.

Each bit should be no more than three or four sentences, and as short as one. Some examples:

• There’s an old man in Kansas who can only tell true stories, even if they haven’t happened yet.
• Bill Gates is putting magickal formulae into the code for Windows XP. It’s tied to a specific date, like a virus, and when it activates the world is going to change.
• The world is secretly ruled by pre-verbal children. When they start to become verbal, they forget all about their early months of abstract domination.

I’d like a bunch of these, so feel free to go nuts. So many wonderful creative people and writers on my friend’s list…I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Japan to develop space shuttle. Unfortunately will not transform in walking, talking robot.

What’s the Afghan idea of a good game? Sort of like a cross between polo and a street fight, with a headless goat instead of a ball. Do you suppose the Salt Lake City Olympic committee would . . . naaaah.

One more test before book and bedtime.

I am a lemming. I like to do what the general populous does. I am common. I will jump off the cliff along with everyone else. Take the ‘Am I A Lemming?’ Test.

You know what?

Looking back on 2001, I think it was my best year, so far to date.

Everything there went as well for me as can be reasonably hoped for. Powerful love, good health, kept comfortable and warm…I managed to move into a better apartment, find some decent side-jobs to help with the cash flow, and my back has treated me as well as I’ve treated it. Not to say some rough things didn’t happen, but I think my act really came together this go-round. I can honestly say that I owe the gross majority of my happiness to my sweetheart and Newt, both of whom I cherish beyond words, and am thankful daily for having them in my life. I’m also glad that my brother is actively in my life, and that I forgave my mom this past year. No point in carrying that sort of baggage around.

What’s 2002 going to bring? More of the same, and better, I hope. Even if it just breaks even with last year, I’ll be well on my way to “Happily ever after”.

Seriously, for me, the 90s were the pits, especially the early years. I can only pray that the 00s are as good as the 90s were bad. so far, I think they’re living up to it. So, to whom it may concern, Thanks. Keep up the great work!

what’s up in Scotto’s head right now?

• Full of food.
• Full of love
• A little bit weary
• A little bit warm
• thinking of her, and smiling
• her voice, her eyes, her soul
• thinking of Newt, and smiling there, too.
• slight sunkist orange soda aftertaste
• thinking of textures… food, hair, skin, sharp edges, soft corners, lizard skin, cool and bumpy
• a backrub would be nice
• a monkey in a flowered vest, pushing a wheelbarrow full of pudding
• a pyramid with an eye in it, rosicrucians fighting a war with masons and thelema-folk for no good reason
• an abba song – waterloo
• the loch ness monster
• cross-pod pollination
• soft orange tones, cycling from red to brown and back
• bring home brother’s sound card
• Is she feeling better? I hope so. If not now, soon.
• Is Newt getting better? I think so.
• When did it get dark?
• how many fans are in here? 17, counting computers, printers and the plug in. all whir at a different frequency.
• Shut off 15 of the fans, just leave one machine and one printer in standby
• now I hear the flourescent lights
• when was the last time I heard pure silence? no fans, no traffic, no breathing, no purring?
• I prefer breathing and purring to pure silence.

*loooong stretch*

Hrum… hoom.

Ugh.. am I still at work?

I’ve decided to take the last week of January off. That’s a nice week of the several I have accrued, and maybe I’ll take the first week of February as well, if things are slow enough to allow it.

I think pee should be the same color as what you drank. It would be so much fun, like a game. You could be at a urinal and say “Hey, I don’t remember drinking that!”.

Pink, orange, blue, whatever color cola is, purple, everyday is a new adventure. If you drink water, it should be automatically attached to whatever you drank prior, giving it a shiny finish, like the gloss on a Skittle.

Beer and apple juice would be pretty boring, tomato juice may be a bit scary, but it would be worth it for the milk pee.

It would be a great metabolism barometer too.

I guess we can’t have everything though. Asking to have multicolor urine is just too much, and I respect boundries. But wouldn’t it be just great? Don’t get me started on poop.

Ok, if not urine, how about toenail colors?

I’ve been hearing about a bunch of new shows on the tube lately that are supposed to be quite good, or at least a lot of fun… but I’ve really not seen many episodes of them, if at all.

I slept pretty well last night, but read deep into the night before drifting off. I dreamt I was helping stage a prison escape for someone that I knew was innocent, but was going to be shot at dawn for some crime. Lots of walls crumbling down, and gunfire. We didn’t have weapons, but were dressed in Swat-team body armor….I presume to deal with the whizzing bullets of the guards. We got into a rinky-dinky little blue car, and tooled off at a good clip down the road, hiding underneath a pile of shipping blankets, and eventually took up a camp inside of an art museum, eating stuff from the snack concessions, and huddling together, wearing ancient egyptian garb for warmth. I don’t know why we didn’t burn the picture frames.

This morning, I woke pretty early, and took a gentle stroll… none too taxing. Maybe 2 miles, if that. The road construction is totally out of control, and quite a rough set of terrain for me to avoid. Tomorrow, I explore the area by the starlite lounge, and the new laundry. I didn’t see many landmarks today, but it was refreshing and enlightening to meander about. Walkies always makes me feel better and hones the mind, I feel. When I returned, Ol’ newtie took his meds well… I’m glad that he’s as tolerant as he is. Lately, I’ve been wondering why he hasn’t messed with the light switch, but I guess it’s just as well. Plastic milk rings are toy enough. I’m glad he still digs playing fetch.

Based on the US census, the random name generator. I may never have to rack my brains to create a story character’s name again. Yay!

Pointless ramble – I have a cable channel that’s generally very entertaining, but keeps changing owners. ABC Family, formerly FOX Family, formerly the Family Channel, formerly the religious right channel run by the 700 Club. I wonder what causes them to keep switching hands? (I was never partial to the 700 club, mind you, but the others tended to have some quality shows when I’d surf around.) It’s sort of like that Italian restaurant on the corner that keeps going out of business, and starting up again a month later with a new name… So far It’s sold Moroccan Food, then been four different Italian places. (three of which came and went so fast, I hadn’t an opportunity to sample the wares, to compare.) When it was Due Amici, I delighted in the eggplant parm and pizzas they provided. Perhaps on vacation, I’ll go there, and have a sit-down lunch there to ask the folks what’s up with that.

Well, I’ve been away from work for four days… it’s time to put three good ones in today, and decide which week this month I want to take off and goof with.

Let’s see where the road leads today… Wish me luck on today’s journey.