We used the decorative red rubber lobsters as monsters to fight the star wars figures.

The lobsters won as often as not. The claws were just the right size to hold Greedo and Han.

The Player: You see, we’re strictly of the Blood, Love and Rhetoric school. We can do you Blood and Rhetoric without the Love, or Blood and Love, without the Rhetoric, or all three concurrent or consecutive; but we can’t do you Love and Rhetoric without the Blood. Blood is compulsory. They’re all blood, see?

Guildenstern: Is that what people want?

The Player: It’s what we do.

What’s the first thing you remember? The first thing, after all the things you’ve forgotten?

For me? My earliest memory? I’ve talked about it in my journal before, I have no doubt… but probably not in any detail. If I’m not mistaken (and who could correct me if I’m wrong?) It’s of a visit to the Boston Zoo (Franklin Park, I believe) as a young boy (I was perhaps 3 or 4, prior to my brother’s birth, in any event) with my Mother, her pal Vera, Vera’s infant daughter, Michelle (maybe a year old at the time). We got to see monkeys, bears, and visited the reptile house. The warm-blooded creatures seemed happy and playful…. the cold blooded ones didn’t strike me as having any personality in particular, save for being alive. I wanted to swing from one of the snakes like Tarzan on a vine… I imagine I saw that in a cartoon somewhere.

There was also a petting zoo, but Michelle was too frightened of the goat to stay for long. My first memory of petting an animal is a brown rabbit… unless petting Lila (a black/white/brown Lhasa Apso she-dog we had earlier) is an earlier memory that I’ve misfiled along the way. I don’t know if the rabbit was a male or a female, the black nose was wiggly, and the creature was warm and easily loved by a child despite smelling a bit like a barnyard. I don’t remember the lions, or any big cats.

Michelle is dead now. My Mother thinks that she saw Shelly’s ghost when she went up for the funeral. Shelly never married, but was a sweetheart. I still have a small memento of her life in me because she’s a part of that first memory. Vera divorced her husband last year.. or was it the year before? I don’t know if it was because the kids were out of the house, and they had nothing in common, or if it was something else. Joe had a hot temper, and Vera was a bit of a stoic. Kevin, Michelle’s younger brother, perhaps 30 himself now, has married and divorced, too. When I think of Kevin, I still think of him at five years old, great at skating on ice, and playing kiddie-hockey, like any good Northern kid… when I moved away, to Virginia.

Was that really so long ago? Back when Star Wars figures were new… a favored land speeder with my name written on it in black magic marker, so I’d be able to tell it from the toys of the neighbor kids. Chewbacca always got to drive, because he matched the color of the car, along with Jawas, Sand people and C3PO. (I always favored the Villains and non-human figures. More interesting costumes.) Plus, Browns, golds and rusts have always been a nice set of colors for plastic toys. Do I like Chewbacca because of that rabbit, long ago?

More difficult is trying to think when my second-oldest memory is. What comes next? My room? Pale blue, with many different colored pennants made of felt. A blue one With Linus. A mustard Yellow with Charlie Brown Happiness is a warm puppy, a green one with Snoopy on his doghouse, Cursing the Red Baron. (Wow, it’s amazing what can be found on the Internet.) A basement playroom with a franklin stove, fishing net motif, with dried starfish and red rubber lobsters…. a toybox my dad made, with a whale inlaid on the top along with the names of both of his sons in now-inexplicably gothic lettering. I wonder where that toybox went to? It followed us all the way to Florida, and was still in the garage when I moved out on my own. Its sort of sad to think that it may be broken up in a landfill now. I hope that it’s something that is still loved, somewhere. I played my first vampire in a coffin in that box. It held Tonka Trucks, hot wheels and track, Big buckets of Lego bricks, Star wars figures, super hero dolls (not action figures yet… we could call ’em dolls and still be dead butch) including the Hulk with his bolted limbs. Lincoln logs, tinkertoys, and real wooden blocks that my dad made from scrap… he sanded and shellacked those things to the point where not only would there never be a splinter, and they were just about frictionless on the carpet. He also stained them all sorts of colors…. I don’t think any two blocks were the same shade, all went from Pine-blond to Mahogany dark. [update 8:22….I called my brother, and found out through his beer-slurred speech that he had the toybox until he moved to Hawaii. He couldn’t find anyone to take it in, so he left it by the side of the road for anyone to pick up. Last seen ten years in the past.]

These memories make me feel sort of bittersweet. My Dad must’ve been about my age now when I was 12. He made so many things for my family. Provided a home, clothing, food… built toys, bought even more. Taught me all sorts of things that I use regularly. I’m glad that I can apply things about him in my daily life… it’s nice to let the good parts of the past help to build the future by way of the present. It’s a damn shame he had to die so early on, but I’m honored to be a part of his bloodline and to be allowed to pass his knowledge on to others, by example if in no other way. My dad wasn’t perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but he made pretty good use of the tools at hand. I like to think that I do the same.

What was my first book? I know this one, but I can’t seem to recall… my mind has other thoughts rattling around in the forefront right now, blocking the light of that particular memory like moths in front of a candle. I’ll move on for now… I’ll rethink more memories later, dear journal.

book quiz

Waiting for my ride… I kept getting the feeling that someone was watching me…I don’t know why I chose a confused hammerhead. I suspect a shark would just want to ask me for directions to the beach.

The bus was nice this morning… mostly awake people, you could almost see thoughts forming over their heads as they read a paper, or took in the surroundings. Sometimes, you can just see the gears moving when you look at certain folks. Outside the window, the sky was beautiful… nary a cloud, just a sharp, bright blue, only broken up by aircraft with a long, white vapor trail behind… a dividing line across the top of the inverted bowl of the stratosphere above.

Mongo, my inner caveman is trying to tell me something. He seems pretty set on getting information to me, but there’s a communications barrier. I wish he wouldn’t try to talk… he’s better at getting his ideas across with pictures… or is he? Maybe he drew the shark and jet.

Hmm.. sharks, jets. West Side Story? Is that what you’re trying to tell me, Mongo? I doubt it… he never was much for dancing hoodlums, or Rita Moreno… though everybody likes Leonard Bernstein, right?

He could do look that would make me go “nung-nung-nung” like one of the three stooges, and beat a wicked fast retreat.

Feeling a bit better this morning. The weekend is ahead of me… I hope it brings good stuff to me and those I care for. I need to make a point of having at least one fun-day, spend some time with mi amor if possible. I want to dry the mist of melancholy that’s seeped into the corners around here. Shuffle along, now, Winter vibe. It’s time for Spring.

Danny’s taking the students in his Sci-Fi club to the Renfest this Sunday… I’m sure they’ll have a grand time (as long as he doesn’t have to go on stage).

Long day ahead of me today, end of week wrap up, Schedule Newt’s next trip to the doc, make the on-call schedule for March (and maybe April), Get grant submissions launched and finish training ADP.

Until Later, dear journal. I’ll be back midday to procrastinate, I’m sure.

A five-year-old boy married a puppy to ward off the evil eye on himself and family in India. The groom’s father told newsmen that tribals believed that such marriages would keep the boy, his family as well as the society at large away from the evil eye. Continue reading 6473 morning, morning, who's got the morning? →

sort of a wacky cross-section of what’s in my history

Slice of Scotto life via google image search

-http://images.google.com/images?q=scottobear&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&output=search&filter=0

(we’ll see how well that lands via email)

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PT went well last night… I’ll be getting a TENS unit for home use, and I think that’ll make things extra comfy for me. I’ll use it for Russian stim as well as a massage unit… I think it’ll get some of the harder to work areas up to snuff pretty quickly.

Contemplating a pre-order for City of Heroes I like the prestige power “Rush”.. but it’s another pay-per-month game… I don’t know how long I can dig those.

The World of Stuff mentioned my name to a City Link (A local indy-style paper) reporter yesterday, regarding local South Florida blogs, and she’d already heard of me… Kind of wacky hearing about myself in the third person like that. I wonder if I’ll hear from them…or if I picked the wrong week to post a TMI, or if my mail filters accidentally chopped an email off, for that matter. Stuff is getting interviewed by CL and the Sentinel. Good for you, Jordan!

Crunchtime – Fight Zombies in the comfort of your own office with a stapler.

Making Fiends #7! Apparently, Vendetta is miniMAX’s daughter, after all. Oh, why can’t Weird Emma update as often? That reminds me. I must brush!

India-pop sampling the guitar riff from Magnum PI with Farsi singing in the bachground is just wrong, somehow. (see music)

Missing for 14 years, teen finds himself on internet Continue reading 6471 Let's pretend we're postage stamps! →

I’ve got a creeping feeling and I don’t know how much I care for it yet. Bad juju all month long. Who can say, though.. maybe it’ll ease off before it becomes something I have to confront head on. I don’t know.. birthday and vallies day should make it nice, but there’s a dull buzzing that I hear in the distance. Work nonsense and nonwork stress is due for a fix.

Today is a day of revisions. the newest, most fixed semagic client is out (1.4.0.6) updates

I’ve been getting the urge to box lately. Work the heavy bag, the speed bag, build up my arm strength and precision, and to bleed off any aggressive tendencies that might build up. I’ve been sort of isolated recently.. havent’s spent too much time with my sweetheart, thereians, Danny or the like in a while now. It’s sort of a bummer, but it will pass. The only exception is Sammy, of late, and that’s because he swore off FFXI cold turkey, I think.

@ added to Morse code .–.-. (still no code for !)

rainbow meme

Teach me to upgrade my client and try to post from it first thing in the
morning. Entry kaput, and I had to head out the door before I had time to
reconstruct. Some day Ill learn to keep entries in notepad, or only upgrade my
client after its had a week to filter out some of the more annoying bugs.

Went to bed extra early last night, and woke up slowly. Newt woke at about the
same rate I did, and rolled to stay aligned to my shifting body as I got my
parts to start working in reasonable concert.

Its a gray morning weather is cool, sky looks like it would rain if it could
get that one last bit of water inside the clouds to push through. A dark black
wall over the West side of town tells me that the needed moisture will be
available soon. I had pleasant thoughts of my beloved as I looked at the
horizon and contemplated her rising to meet the day, and us going together on
our sunrise journeys.

I hope the rest of my morning is as nice as my starting launch and dream.

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Evaluating new neighborhoods is difficult. I like to look at a new area at night and during the day, just to see what sort of vibe the location carries. I feel that a little prudence is a good thing. It’s always nice to have a place that’s fun for walkies and peoplewatching.

Scenes from a Bigfoot Conference: Article by Rob Boston, published on the CSICOP page. My favorite paragraph:

Johnson claimed that in quantum physics, electrons do not obey the classical laws of physics. They can, for example, move through barriers, he said. When Bigfoot is in this quantum state, Johnson opined, the creature has no mass or weight and is “just a wave.” Bigfoot’s quantum nature, Johnson told attendees, may explain the lack of clear photos of the beast. “He probably communicates with cameras,” Johnson said. “He knows when they are around. He won’t let you take a picture.”

csicop link via boingboing_net

The Florida Photographic Collection is a nationally recognized component of the Florida State Archives and contains more than 850,000 photographs, and approximately 2,500 movies and video tapes. Over 100,000 of the photographs have been scanned and placed on this website.

The collection spans a wide range of visual images from copies of mid 15th Century maps to current photographs. Most of the holdings in the collection have been obtained singly or in small groups. Together, they form the most complete portrait of Florida available–one that draws its strength from family photographs, the homes of Floridians, their work, and their pastimes. This is a shot of that area I ride the new river waterbus regularly. (site found via first-n-main)

And now it’s time to relax. The one place I really liked has been bid on by someone else, and most of the others I scoped out didn’t tickle my fancy. One in Hollywood, East of 95 looks nice, in a quiet community, but needs some work. I will continue my search.

At the ‘mat, a little girl gave me a piece of Valentine’s day candy. (After asking her mother first if it was ok…) Very cute of her, I accepted and it was quite tasty.. a dark-chocolate covered raspberry whip. The mom, little gal (six years old) and I gabbed as laundry spun. the Dad is a fireman, and on call… the mom is a homemaker, so they get to spend lots of time with the munchkin, who was *very* well-spoken and on good behavior.

draw your boss
“The purpose of this site is to stick it to the man by showcasing pictures people draw of their bosses. An easy way to make a drawing on your computer is to use the “Paint” program in Windows, then save the file as a .JPG file. Mac users can make a picture using Appleworks.”

I feel great!

(sent to me by a zillion people) made by these guys Punching guy looks a bit like Rik Landis to me… the easy gap-toothed smile.

Looks like most of the condos will run about $650-750 a month, with mortgage, maintenance and misc charges. A trifle more than I was expecting, but still quite well within budget. Off to look at more on what I hope to be a fine Sunday morning.

tmi

I hope that as many people as possible give and are given some sort of love today.. life’s to short without some emotional warmth. Actually, I hope that about every day, but since Feb 14 is earmarked as the holiday it comes to mind all the more. I hope I continue to get lots of opportunities to tell my loved ones how I feel, no matter what part of the year it is.

This is the day for lovers and birds. Nowadays we choose our valentines and send them unsigned cards. In the older days men and women used to put their names on slips of paper and draw lots as to who should be their love for the day.

It was believed that this was the day that birds chose their mates. What bird you saw on this day was meant to foretell the type of person you would marry. Another way was to put some bay leaves under your pillow and you would dream of your future husband or wife.

I won the 300 point game (first one) and Dave won the 200 point game (I played 2 big baddies, and he had a balanced army.) I swear, necromancers drag out the length of a game… raising things from the dead can take a toll.

Mental note – best way to win against Dave is –

• Destroy any healers as fast as possible (they’re usually weak, and drop quickly)
• Dogpile on the toughest piece, and knock it out.
• keep his ranged pieces distracted by annoying close combat.

We had burritos made with veggie burger crumbles, and low fat cheese… it was good stuff, a little spicy. It didn’t mix well with my belly, though, and my body evacuated it rapidly later after a lot of very noticeable tummy rumbles. Some minor aftershocks still this morning. Rough night sleeping… another evening of “too hot / too cold” and potty trips.

Hayley is a lovely baby (2 mos), Mayah(2yr 2 mos) is so big! I got piccies taken with them both, hopefully they’ll email them to me soon. Hayley is still very attached to being carried by Mommy or Daddy… isn’t happy if put in the swing or down anywhere yet. Mayah is a lot of fun, plays hide and seek, and is able to carry an entertaining conversation for person her age. We had an in depth discussion about gorillas, other apes as well as the Spanish words for numbers, animals and other items. (Dog, water, twelve, etc.)

Zen Kitty is looking good… though Kringle has seen better days. Kringie still has his nose-rash trouble, it keeps coming and going despite medication. Luna-dog is getting quite heavy-set, too, and she’s very sweet-tempered these days.. little sign the total spaz when I first met her, what was it… seven years ago?

“Nefertiti Resurrected, brought to you by the Discovery Channel, was seen by millions around the world. But how much of it was documentary – and how much was drama?” (for one thing, DNA shows the mummy to be a male.)

You may not know much about art, but you no doubt know what you like to eat. Santa Fe’s Lapides Gallery apparently allows doodles. Two great tastes that display right together. (via sjgames)

Amazon accidentally revealed the real names of many anonymous reviewers this week, through a bug in the amazon.ca back-end. It turns out that many of the reviewers are writers saying nice things about their own books or trashing their colleagues.

“That anybody is allowed to come in and anonymously trash a book to me is absurd,” said Mr. Rechy, who, having been caught, freely admitted to praising his new book, “The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens,” on Amazon under the signature “a reader from Chicago.” “How to strike back? Just go in and rebut every single one of them….”

One well-known writer admitted privately — and gleefully — to anonymously criticizing a more prominent novelist who he felt had unfairly reaped critical praise for years. She regularly posts responses, or at least he thinks it is her, but the elegant rebuttals of his reviews are also written from behind a pseudonym.

via boingboing_net

Remembered to take home my carrot cake, and now I’m getting ready to go play some mage knight and hang with the hippie-folk.

I think I’ll take an Orc army or two with me, and toss in a few Zombies for fun.

Orcs and zombies go together like peas and carrots! I’ll toss in a grave digger. too. Got to keep those Zombie front-liners lurching!

Wish me victory, dear journal! (or at least a fine game!) Be back in a few.