A scene from The Leopard Man
Chill beneath a cadaverously gray autumn sky, the tiny New Mexico town. That slate moment in the seasons when everything begins to grow dark. The epileptic scratching of fallen leaves hurled along sidewalks. Mad sounds from the hills. Cold. And something else:
A leopard, escaped, is loose in the town. Chill beneath a crawling terror of spotted death in the night, the tiny New Mexico town. That thick red moment in the fears of small people when everything explodes in the black flow of blood. A deep-throated growl from a filthy alley. Cold.
A mother, preoccupied with her cooking, tells her small daughter to go down the street to the market, get a sack of flour to make bread for the father, coming home from work soon. The child shows a moment of fear… the animal they haven’t found yet…
The mother insists, it’s only a few blocks and across the bridge to the market. Put on a shawl and go and get the flour, your father will be home soon. The child goes. Hurrying back up the street, the small sack held close to her, the street empty and filling with darkness, ink presses down the sky, the child looks around, and hurries. A cough in the blackness behind her. A cough, deep in a throat that never formed human sounds.
The child’s eyes widen in panic. She begins to hurry. Her footsteps quicken. The sound of padding behind her. Feet begin to run. Focus on darkness and the sound of rapid movement. The child. The rushing.
The wooden door of the house. The door is locked. The child pinned against the night, with the furred sound of agony rushing toward her on the wind.
Inside, the mother, still kitchened, waiting. The sound of the child outside, panic and bubbles of hysteria in the voice, Mommy open the door the leopard is after me!
The mother’s face assumes the ages-old expression of harassed parenthood. Hands on hips, she turns to the door, you’re always lying, telling fibs, making up stories, how many times have I told you lying will —
Mommy! Open the door!
You’ll stay out there until you learn to stop lying!
Mommy! Mom–
Something gigantic hits the door with a crash. The door bows inward, and a fine spray of flour sifts between the cracks into the room. The mother’s eyes grow huge, she stares at the door. A thick black stream, moving very slowly, seeps under the door.
Annnd.. Scene.
The movie is great. Has one of the best “Trapped in a graveyard” sequences I’ve ever viewed.
latest /. –
I’ve been hearing the terms shiznit and bling bling waaaaay too often these last two days. They make me laugh, though, so it’s ok. Or should I say “It’s all good”.
Kount von Numbakrunch out. word.
The moon’s lovely tonight. I think I’ll bask.
nigh nigh, dear journal. Off to dream of her and a little glass bottle, filled with exotic, fragrant oils.
p.s. that guy didn’t get suspended… he just got written up.
p.p.s. Holy moley… mskaren911 showed me a link to this gator. This doesn’t happen often, really.
p.p.p.s. A year ago – I f-in’ hate hoboes.
today’s drama.
Kev, Sappho and I sat together in Kev’s office, enjoying a little bull session and lunch. We’re all talking about New Orleans history / Civil War stuff and in walks the Finn. She’s not interested in what we’re talking about (primarily because it’s not about her, natch) and so butts into the middle of our conversation, to make a show of this new CD she bought today. I’m polite enough to look at the cover while she goes through the liner notes. On the inside, there’s a picture of the periodic table of the elements, which spawns a new conversation, science related…(not Finn related) so she starts to get huffy and puffy. She then asks to play a certain song. Sure, ok. We put the CD in and listen for about 20 seconds, and then resume our conversation about whatever we were talking about before… helium-argon lasers or something. My lunchtime was up, so I head back to my desk, after saying my goodbyes, and commenting on the tasty lunch. Four minutes later, I hear a door slam from the vicinity of Kev’s office. Finn walks to my desk, and says (pretty calmly) “No reviews? Not even a ‘This sucks, Marjo.’” My reply was “Nah, I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it, either. I’ll give it a straight 5 out of 10. It’s not why I left the office.” She nods, and adjourns to her own office. I return to Kev’s place to get the rest of the skinny, and apparently she pitched a hissy-fit…When nobody gave so much as a critique of the song and instead talked about other, more interesting things, she exclaimed “Well, obviously you guys hate my music!” and left, slamming the door behind her. Sappho made the comment that the maturity levels run really high around here. (Ref: also the Chupacabra/Go Away incident).
I do know that Erica contacted our parent company, and issued formal complaints regarding the Finn’s unproductive, unprofessional behavior. I’ve got to make a point of writing a nice letter to the higher-ups too, reinforcing those statements. (Along with those dealing with Chupa and the Fruit Cup.)
Nice Things – Today Kev got a sea-monkey like critter farm for his birthday- Triops… sort of like a hybrid sea monkey / horseshoe crab. They seem to get larger than monkeys, too. Maybe I’ll give them a shot when my current colony dies off…I wonder if they can cohabitate?
Two years ago today.- The Laundromat encounter.
A year ago – The account of the Fisher king
Surfing elfwood… there is such a great range of talent there… from the “Who gave that monkey a colored stick” to “Holy moley, that’s fantastic!” Moderator’s choice can sometimes help to find the niftier images, unless you prefer to graze the gazillion piccies there one at a time. This guy has done a great job with sculpey. I was looking for 3-d art this time, and discovered that sculpey works as a keyword! fimo’s next.
I like this girl’s stuff, too. I’ve got to get some of that glow in the dark sculpey.
Leftovers tonight… oh, tofu, thou art mighty.
Sculpey, sculpey, sculpey. say it with me. it’s a fun word. Polymers rock.
Oh, my ears and whiskers… ERASER CLAY! You can make erasers!
loud
loud guy by my window #2…I think I scared him. I walked over to his car, and he was digging the music, bobbing his head to some urban bass junk…. He didn’t see me until I knocked on his car window. I told him that he’s parked next to my apartment, and that I’d appreciate some consideration. He said no problem, and drove away. All I wanted was the radio at a neighborly level. If your windows are up, I don’t need to be able to hear it in my house, thooming.
Dunceworthy folks at work. I’m beginning to get sick of the whole HR group… I’m trying to adjust aflac on of my insurance for about four months now. Finn tells me that a representative will be at work tomorrow….and I can get things taken care of, then. Great! I ask why *she* can’t do it, as she has all the information re:what I want done and so no.. and has been working on getting it taken care of since day one (har-dee-har-har) and she tells me it’s not really an HR issue. Insurance isn’t HR? Hm. Fooled me. Why’s she been “working on it” for the last quarter, then? She’s not winning any prizes in efficiency, work ethic, or charm. Ah well… she has to live with everyone at the company actively hating her (save for Kev and Paul…and she’s burning those bridges, too…) I now know that if I want anything remotely HR related done that I’ll have to do it myself, either by going over her head, or cutting in on her power from the side. So be it.
Chupa is becoming problematic again… wants all of the power, but none of the responsibility that goes with her department… Since Lourdes is out for an operation, someone has to open the mail shop at 5:30/6:00 am… really her part of that department, so she has to get up an hour earlier (she arrives at work at about 6:30 now.) to let people in. She claims that this is unacceptable, and that “Somebody better take care of it.” to which the board replied.. “You take care of it… it’s your department. If you can’t, or won’t let the people in… find someone you trust, and have them do it. if you don’t trust anyone, tough beans. Nobody’s waiting for you in the parking lot for an hour again. If the job doesn’t go out, it’s your head.
Sappho’s ankle is mending nicely…she’s off her crutches, and taking things gingerly.
More hubbub brewing at work… it looks like one of the Mail shop guys is going to be suspended for a day or two for mouthing off to Chupa…I don’t think that he deserves it… she butted in where she doesn’t belong, and got told to buzz off. No cursing, just told her to “Go away”. She claims that she went home and had a panic attack. Man… she’s in the wrong business if someone telling her to take a hike is going to stress her out that much. I saw the tape… not worth her losing any sleep over.
Newt’s very talkative tonight.. I wonder what’s gotten into him? I suspect that the loud music guy may’ve been there for a while.
woke up this morn, no soreness at all, but a trifle groggy. that cleared up about five or ten minutes afterwards… but by the time I’d shaken the cobs free, it seems that last night’s dreams also departed, too. only fragment I remember was redesigning something… maybe making a toy or a model.. something with my hands.
potato chip amphitheatre is mostly obscured by three brown columns… strange to see a crane hanging down into the image.. like a skyhook, attached to nothing. Not rainy today, yet.
How gullible are you? I got two questions wrong. (The Toilet one… and Chabungungamung Pond.)
I want to implement this on my homepage, in a guestbook. a more permanent guestmap.
Scribbles from Today, as always, hover mouse over image for minor commentary.
My mind drifted to micro to macro scale, and then to old west Science fiction. Migelito Loveless, where are you now?
That Steam gatling has – Robot legs, a front loading steam engine (wood or coal heat the water), a lovely pressure gauge, a steam whistle(whoo-whoo!), and a giant front-mounted gatling gun.. The flat top also serves as a bun/pastry warmer.
I was so tired at work today… it was feeling like someone took a straw, stuck it into my vitality tank, and was siphoning it. I’m all groovy here, though. I think I may’ve gotten up too early this morn (6am). I didn’t have any food until 3pm, either. rethink that strategy tomorrow.
Brought home some cardboard boxes for Newtie to play with… he’s contentedly chomping on his crinkle-bug inside one now. The sounds of a happy cat in a make-shift habitrail. It’s a multi-story tube, with a hole in each one that he can fit through… though when he exits via the top, it gets kicked sideways.
It’s nice, being able to please him that easily… it makes me feel good, knowing that he’s so content and chipper.
Found a three-column template today that’s css, works on Netscape 4.x, and doesn’t use frames. Score! In English, that means I don’t have to deal with multiple pages of the same crappy design for each browser I’m supporting. Good news.
Time now for tofu in peanut sauce with mixed veggies.. over white rice. Home made. That’s right. yum!
Dreamt that my sweetheart and I were working in the Peace Corps together… and after our year was up, it turned out that there was a TV spy from some European reality television show. We’d become big celebrities overseas… I was annoyed, because for some reason, they didn’t need my permission to film us. No signatures or contracts were collected before putting us on the air.
The upside of it was that after the show became wildly popular, a huge surge in volunteer work and peace corps-type activities took place. I recall that my beloved was really disappointed in Conan O’Brien. “I thought he would be funny… but he’s a big dumbass. All he talks about is ‘does my hair look ok to you?’… And he smells like sardines. The band is really nice, though– they showed me how to do a chord that I’ve been trying to figure out for a long time.” < -approximate dream quote. To be fair, Conan did smell like a stinky, long-dead fish...bad enough to make my eyes water. Sweetheart taught English and crop skills to the people we were working with... My instruction was also English and assorted engineering stuff, like building houses. I remember it being very difficult, lots of hands-on but quite rewarding. Our two-person hut was tiny, but somehow, we had room for about 200 books, our bed, and each other. On a wholly other note - this is a lot of fun…I like having a coffee-hungry nun attacked by scissors while trying to circumnavigate large muffins. Turn off the sound, if you’re at work!
two years ago, I was just ending my last RPG gaming groups, an alphabet of television, nice supper at hops, great freaky/creepy movies and net fibs.
one year ago – welcome to Autumn, poll about what you carry with, a haiku war, I’m an otter on the medicine wheel, troll’s so snoopy that she inspires a sign on the door, and a post of the Chupacabra song, missing my dad, wondering about Halloween costumes.
This year, I’m taking Thursday, 10/31 off, through Sunday, 11/3. four day weekend.
The Fort Lauderdale international Film Festival … I’ll indulge in some of that, surely.
Oct 30 – Nov 10 Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival at Regal Las Olas… Just on the other side of that singing fountain. They also have some lovely photos of Las Olas. That’s the beach area I visit.
The sky, the sky beyond the door is blue.
Overextended myself on walkies last night… a little sore in my left flank. Had a long soak this morning… a little pre-emptive strike to fend off any potential yucko later.
Newt’s Sphynxing to my left.
Had tasty, soft, warm brownies last night. Yumma. Sliced nanner in oatmeal for breakfast.
Have Tremors on in the background… first TV on in a while. They’re going to show #2, and #3, afterward… I didn’t even know that there *was* a number three in the series. Plus, Fred Ward is one of my favorite dog-faced actors. Cast a Deadly Spell, Remo Williams. What’s not to like?
The first one is perfect for what it is… a classic, 50s style B-horror flick with an unseen monster, made in the 90s. #2 sort of blew it by showing the creatures so much… made them above grounders.
I’m so glad that I have a bathtub now…. a loooong hot soak while reading does wonders for the disposition.
I’ve got the urge to walk on the sidewalk inside the aforementioned Kinney tunnel, to take pictures. I wonder how heavy the exhaust is?
I can feel autumn’s arrival. My hair and nails grow more quickly now. The air is beginning thin; I sense that there may be a little crispness in the coming month or so. I can feel more creativity welling up… I think in the summer I was only at about 1/4 full. I’ve got to stop writing in the notebook, and get back to full-bore production on the laptop or desktop. I think I am going with my revised layout for the home page… I just have to make the .css it’s own file now (rather than embedded), and convert the pages over. Then I can change fonts, colors and shapes for everything all at once. Sticking to CSS1 though. Hopefully it won’t suck too badly on NS.
Behold! Sphincterine, a product promising to make you feel — and, presumably, taste — fresh “down there”. Naturally, you may purchase it on the web at mintyass.com. Everybody’s talking about it! I don’t know who showed the link to me first. It’s not a joke…it’s real.
Tomorrow, either before, or more likely, after work… I must get three birthday presents. Brother… perhaps I’ll give him $$…that’s his preferred gift. Kev, the thing video game, and some blank dvds to burn… Newt? A big cardboard box, full of paperwads and milk rings. 🙂
100 words high school graduates should know. I confess that I didn’t know antebellum, evanescent, and quotidian… but I do now! Of the others, I’m very fond of the words bellicose, chicanery, churlish and ziggurat. 97% is pretty good, I guess. I really *should’ve* known antebellum, though.
Join the collective unconscious, and help to develop an alphabet! Observe… the letter S.
Synchronicities.. my Best Male friends outside of work all have names that begin with ‘D’. Dave, Dan, Derek. The three persons I love most are all Librans. (Sweetheart, Newt, Brother)
I live in apartment #3…this is the third numbered apartment I’ve lived in. The first was #1, the second was #2.
Tallies
Dave beat me 2/3 games tonight… my necros vs his misc.
my Victory army was worms, mending priestess and troll guy unique vs his yellows. 200 points.
Current tally.
first call- Scotto/Dave/Scotto
second – Scotto/Scotto/Dave
Third – Dave/Dave/Scotto
I’m still ahead by one.
Heroclix – Scotto/Scotto/Dave
Scotto/Dan/Dan
Dan/Dan/Dan
Dan/Scotto/Scotto
Scotto/Scotto/Scotto (vs Dan)
update 10/13/02 –
500 point game, Dave victory. Well done, pretty even
300 point game, my victory.. it was pretty much a landslide. He took out my one close-combat guy, and my ranged attacks finished him pretty quickly afterwards.
To prevent piracy of promotional CDs, Epic Records issues reviewers portable CD players that are glued shut. Heh heh, I find that very amusing. If you really wanted to make mp3s, can’t you just smash open the CD player?
Well, it’s getting dark… gnite, dear journal.
Quick Isidore Update
Isidore has strengthened to become a Category 3 storm, with maximum winds of 115 mph. Therefore, it’s now classified as a “major” hurricane. Intensification should continue…. the most recent NHC guidance actually brings max winds to 145 mph in 72 hours.
Right now, the storm is pretty much halfway between the western tip of Cuba and the eastern tip of the Yucatan, drifting westward. That motion should continue over the next 48 hours, meaning it’ll be a close call for the northern Yucatan Peninsula. After that, it looks as if the storm should begin to take a more northwesterly track. Most of the models have the storm moving northward in the long-term in response to a short wave trough now approaching the Pacific Northwest…we’ll have to see how that plays out, as it’ll probably determine whether or not Isidore ever threatens the Gulf Coast.
No rain here… blue skies, few clouds. Florida’s out of the woods, and I’m wondering how good the surfing on the gulf coast is going to be… my brother and Dave are heading out there tomorrow AM to take advantage of the swells.
Speaking of glue… this project looks really nifty.. marble-magnets.
Good gosh…is anything nicer than laying back and snuggling with a loved one? Newt’s a little cuddle-bug. Later dear journal… Huggo-time.