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

A few hours ago, it was put to me that superglue was developed for the express purpose of providing surgical sutures. He assured me that that is what he had heard, although he couldn’t tell me anything more authoritative than that. So I got curious, did some research, and offer now for your edification, the following:

Superglue was discovered by accident — twice!

Superglue is used for just about anything, including surgery.

Here are the facts. (According to Popular Science, February 1989 article by A. J. Hand)

Superglue (cyanoacrylate) was discovered by accident! During WW II Dr. Harry Coover (president of Loctite Corp’s new Business Development Group as of February 1989) was working for Kodak Research Laboratories to develop an optically clear plastic for gun sights. To quote him, according to Hand, “I was working with some acrylate monomers that showed promise. But everything they touched stuck to everything else. It was a severe pain.”

Well, in 1951 Coover was supervising research at the Tennessee Eastman Co. to find a “tougher, more heat-resistant acrylate polymer for jet canopies” according to Hand. There was a fellow named Dr Fred Joyner (!) who spread a film of ethyl cyanoacrylate between a couple of prisms of a refractometer. Of course, he discovered that he couldn’t pry the prisms apart again. So Coover realized that he was onto something. A good thing, too, since those prisms were a pricey thing to ruin…

The stuff hit the market in 1958 as Eastman #910. That year, according to Sterling, Dr Coover appeared on TV’s “I’ve Got a Secret,” where he hoisted host Gary Moore off the floor with a drop of the stuff.

a year ago – old english rudolph, looking at the sky, 9 of wands, aunt jemima creepy, sealab 2021.

two years ago – not french-canadian, angry beavers, a deal link I can’t remember, cookie mah jongg, and an oliveresque welcome .

Random Scotto factoid: I sometimes like to have my text to speech program read me my friends page and web news sources while I’m getting ready for the day, or playing with newt.

It’s strange to hear that tech-voice assigned to all the writers…I hear different vocal styles when I read than when it reads to me… (Plus, the tts reader is a masculine voice, which is weird, considering a healthy percentage of the folks I read are not.)

I do find myself returning later to skim for photos / lj cuts / and to make my replies.

Abbreviations are odd, especially lotr, <3, any series of dots more than 3 in a row “…..” and some user names.

Continue reading this week’s keywords →

My sweetie really warmed my heart last night…Spending time with her is always a delight. I love her so much! We spent some time surfing anomalies unlimited, a huge mass of great weird photos and commentary.

I’m strangely hungry for deviled eggs. Do golden raspberries taste significantly different than regular red ones?

Casketfurniture.com wants to reduce the cost of dying. They sell furniture made of caskets, casket novelties, casket merchandise (some of the naughty kind for Mom and Dad only), and, should you be feeling under the weather, actual coffins.

One out of every fifty gold fish is a secret audio and visual monitoring device which transmits directly back to diligent listeners secluded in hidden Atlantis.

It amuses me that they have a website devoted to Sinanju….(Based on the bits from the “Destroyer” books / the Remo Williams Movie… I used to eat those up as a kid.) A shame they saw fit to embed annoying midis in every page.

A year ago – stray fugitive lotr thoughts, my fondness for orange/yellow foods, rejection letter, where there’s a whip, there’s a way (I sing it now when I use orc mage knight armies)

Two years ago – My beloved’s voice, My wanting a long weekend, dark days (link broken)

Thank you zoe for pointing me to The Surreal Gourmet! (The Fries w/ ketchup looks especially great!)

I’m having the toughest time loading lj-icons… I wonder what’s causing that little burp. All other images are coming up fine.

Bro’s being a buddy and doing laundry for me. (I pay for both of our duds to get suds, and he does the dirty work. I’m for that! He’s also picking up the bagels for lunch! Same deal.. I buy, he flies)

Newt’s sleeping on top of the computer monitor… I’m watching with fascination as his toes wiggle.

The A/C fan crapped out last night… I called the Landlord, and he’ll be by Monday morning to fix it. I’m glad it’s cool out! (I was running just the fan on low to keep the air circulating.)

Thoroughly enjoying a reread of Don Quixote today… I’m returning to that now that chores are done. The book is huge!

?! I went to make that link, and on the page was –

Customers who wear clothes also shop for:

• Clean Underwear from Amazon’s Target Store (Does that imply they sell soiled undies somewhere else at Amazon?)
• Ladybug Rain Boots from Amazon’s Nordstrom Store
• Pet Socks from Amazon’s Urban Outfitters Store
• Puppy Footed One-Pieces for Newborns from Amazon’s Old Navy Store

Well, I admit that I’m wearing clean underwear, but I fail to see the connection to The Man of La Mancha. Even less so, Ladybug rain boots.

Back to the book, dear journal.

My Brother found a stray black cat (with slight red/brown highlights) at the 7-11… no collar or tag. There’s now a found notice at the store, and the bro gave kitty a bath and a can of tuna. (I wouldn’t let her near newt.. I don’t want a repeat of what happened with Fritz a couple of years back. She can talk to Newt through the window until she gets a checkup. She’s *very* affectionate with my brother. Why not? He’s a doll, and fed her a whole can of tuna… she got a little bowl of Newt-kibs now too. Wolfed them down like there was no tomorrow. He’s becoming very attached already… wants me to post a poll with ideas what to name her. Sure, I can do that.

Pictures