Tag Archives: adam

9201 – thursday

Happy first day of Spring!!

 S6301505

Egg-dying went well… the white spots denote 4 eggs that cracked, and the ones TM took home for herself and MO. Adam took one – he’ll be giving it to a girl at school – and he certainly enjoyed the fajitas that BHK made. Larry and Chris (and mostly Adam and Tina, too) spent the bulk of the visit glued to the tube while BHK and I did the majority of coloring. My faves are the family eggs (there’s a Scotto, BHK, Pye and Newt in the mix) as well as a couple of oddballs – speckeld ones and hot pink / green… both of which are more vibrant than this photo shows. more in depth pictures later, possibly.


GP‘s got me interested in Encounter Critical. It’s by S. John Ross, an added bonus (I dig the mechanics of Risus, though I’ve never played it.)


twitterwise, I’m on the Orange Team. icons when in civilian duds, and on team business.

orangenewt - regular twitter icon.orangenewt2 - orange team icon

How could I choose another color?


I really want the cell phone legislation banning use of a handset while driving in Maryland to pass. The beltway is rough enough without people crimping necks and not looking at the road. Whatever happened to the idea of pulling over to talk?

I’d love to see some sort of magic technology that blocks non-emergency cell phone use in the driver’s side of a car while the wheels are moving.

Same goes for the front-seat DVD players, and audio systems that go louder than a range of safely hearing what’s going on outside of the vehicle, as far as I’m concerned. Color me a fascist, but I don’t need anyone being more distracted than they already are… If I could find a way to implement a breathalyser / urine tester for safe driving, I’d probably do that, too. And bumper-transponders that forbid tailgating based on the speed of the vehicles in question.

Heck, just use my magical wishing ring to stop all accidents – one of my characters, miniMAX first developed his size-changing abilities by trying to develop desolidity tech for vehicles… they never crash into one another!

After all those years, I still want a hyper-intelligent 4-inch tall talking ape to be my lab partner in fighting crime and solving the world’s ills… or clean, safe teleportation technology. Or a magic wishing ring that can put people in protective bubbles, and heal them when they’re hurt.

Thoughts about this is coming from the fact that I’m having trouble feeling a lot of sympathy for TM’s uncle…. he apparently tried to kill himself by driving his car into oncoming traffic. Seriously… I understand being in pain and lashing out, but there are *PEOPLE* driving and acting as passengers in the other cars! If you want to off yourself, I have no problem with that… but leave everyone else out of it.

I feel bad for TM, though – she’s been dealing with his nonsense for a long time, and right before this happened, she blew him off via the phone, and her other family did the same. I don’t know all the details, but I hope that once he’s out of the hospital he gets worthwhile treatment, and a maximum sentence for attempted suicide / attempted vehicular homicide / assault with a deadly weapon(car). I know his head is full of bad wiring, but I’m finding it very hard to forgive his behavior, no matter how sick he is. I just have to understand that he’s not in his right mind, and hope that he is removed from driving and doing anything that can hurt anyone else until he is sufficiently repaired.


50 things I’ve done meme continues with item 38. I…

38. ‘have written 9200 journal entries prior to this one, the vast majority of them posted publicly to the world. Some entries are only a line or two long, others are entire short stories, continued across a few posts, because each entry only holds a maximum of 65,535 bytes. (That’s about 16,000 4-letter words.) The journal will be 8 years old in just under two months.

39.’has owned scottobear.com since 1998… that was 10 years ago, March 12. It will need to be renewed again before March 11, 2013. I’ve got some time to scrape up the money to do so… it’s pretty dang cheap. My website’s look has changed a few times over the years, as has the content under the hood… it is quite due for a fresh coat of paint, and a revisit to the links contained inside. I started my first website with ol’ geocities in 94-ish, back when it was free, and before it was owned by yahoo. that arcane url is lost to me, maybe forever? Who knows if I can dig it up form the web sometime? either way, it was migrated to scottobear.com about 4 years later, and has remained there ever since.


From assorted sources (vchip, mgk, time) – a photo series of rival Kenyan tribes fighting for land with bows and arrows.

Look closely. This is Kenya, specifically a hill overlooking the Olmelil Valley, where Maasai warriors are clashing with members of the Kalenjin tribe on a regular basis. The tribal violence is a depressing comment on a country that only a year ago was promoted as a stable democracy in volatile West Africa. TIME has an interesting photo journal of the battles.

“We were using swords but they were not effective,” says Sylvester, 24, slashing a knife in the air. “In a day we can make between 80 and 100 [arrows],” he adds, refusing to give his last name out of fear. Community members pool money together to buy the necessary tools in secret; the arrows are then distributed within the neighborhood. Local leaders know about the arrow factories, but police forces do not.

Victims with arrows, sometimes poisoned, lodged in their heads and chests have become increasingly common“, say officials in Rift Valley hospitals.

“We cannot know the time of day when they (Kalenjins) will come. If they catch you off guard, you’re dead,” says Samuel, 25, holding a bundle of ready arrows.

Kalenjin elders train their boys how to use bows and arrows from an early age, the Kikuyu men say. But Kikuyus have had to learn quickly to fight back with the same tools. Several secret workshops employing 50 workers churn out bows and arrows for munition. “We have no other choice for now,” he says.


1 year ago – first full day at the calvert gig, bhk and I go shopping for work clothes, grownup table talk, spam attractive entry

2 years ago – rebis picture, deaf language, chacarron, math, phallic removal, open source, fake cigs as meds, prisoner comic book

3 years ago – Brady Kids welcome the equinox, shamrock shake, cosmic truth, mp3s,experimental gameplay, get your tasty hot sweet potatoes in Japanese,teen kidnappers, good advice, invisible mermaid airfare

4 years ago – openoffice, Visited w Dan, open door poll, people of worth

5 years ago – Al gore, Blue’s clues, Cranky Finn

6 years ago – Spring!, Socks, overturned issues, Linda let go from FMM, LJ directory, cool picture link

7 years ago – walkies, 2 chris-sites, both have long since been left dormant, lj brokenGeotarget

9200 – Wednesday

Egg-dying tonight! Tina, Adam, possibly in-laws and BHK for coloring chicken ovals! Pictures to follow tomorrow, no doubt. Chris is a bit late picking me up, so I can keyboard away at this for a little bit.


Haiku in my brain –

that piece of paper
covered in doodles and such
where did I put it?


50 things I’ve done meme continues with item 37. I…

37.’was the data librarian for the Atari computer club, back when Atari actually made a home computer or twelve that were actually useful as office-type gizmo as well as game machines. I had an 800XL with a bank of happy chip modded 1050 floppy drives that I used for a BBS, but I also had an Atari ST, that I learned the bulk of my first usable programming knowledge on. (LOGO on the TI-99/4a notwithstanding – come to think of it, I did some Spirograph stuff on the ST, too.) When the club dissolved, I was left with a huge crate of free software… including some nifty CAD stuff, and a pile of MIDI music software. I dabbled for a while with both, but the programming was more interesting to me at the time. I suspect if you asked me now, I’d be fooling with a keyboard and midi cables. I built my first homebrew sound digitizer on the ST, and used it mostly to do startup, shutdown noises.. not to mention the occasional silly soundboard program.


Chewbacca is quite the dapper Victorian don’t you think?


Via sci-fi scanner – Doctor Who Originally Conceived As an Insane, Malevolent LSD Junkie

 

Everyone knows Doctor Who: He’s the malignant alien time-traveler hopping around the galaxy in an invisible UFO, right? With eyes filled with madness and a heart dripping with hate, he constantly pops tabs of LSD to relive the horrors of his immortal past. When he’s not under the throes of a hallucinogen-induced bender, he is using his time-traveling UFO to pop into the past and stop the caveman from inventing the wheel, Isaac Newton from discovering gravity and Gutenberg from inventing the printing press… all to consolidate a horrific vision of the future that is entirely of his insane devising. Right? Right?

Well, no, of course not: The good Doctor is a benevolent force who hops around the universe in his TARDIS, trying to do good deeds and help the people he loves whenever possible. But bizarrely, this was not the original idea for Doctor Who, as the notes coming out of the BBC’s archives make clear. Rather, he was originally brainstormed to be an insane, malevolent LSD junkie.

“A feature of the new Doctor will be the humour along the lines of the sardonic humour of Sherlock Holmes. The metaphysical change which takes place over 500 years or so is a horrifying experience… in which he relives some of the unendurable moments of his long life…” the archives read. “It’s as if he has had the LSD drug and instead of experiencing the kicks, he has the hell and dank horror which can be its effect.”

Needless to say, the producer shot this idea down, giving us the good Doctor we’ve all grown to love. But, my god. I would kill for this vision of the Doctor: an insane, time-traveling Dr. Gregory House.

A reactionary on a bad LSD trip – Doctor Who?


Say what you want about Obama, but that’s a heck of a speech right there. No doubt I’m the 1,795,403,543rd news source to mention it this morning.


1 year ago – newt and pye on cam, first day at county, Ze:The Show is over, squid vs yellow submarine,

2 years ago – condo area pic with duck, i don’t like cricket

3 years ago – Lunsford, Atlantis, car crash test, voice post

4 years ago – club 977, Wine & Food, itunes, lj spam, Fri-5, nearby donations,First hint of New Dr Who, Newt big-head pic, color associations

5 years ago – heat, bad job recruiter, UT

6 years ago – city relic quiz, got into an argument with Astley, work nonsense, happy ending

7 years ago – awake but paralysed for surgery, com ideas, animal eyesGeotarget

9056 – mon

Big wins of the day – I had a leftover birthday macaroon tupperware-sealed in my desk in the office! Nice treat for mid-afternoon.. still moist and delicious. Added bonus, going out for Monday night half-price falafel night after work with BHK and the in-laws – with special guest Adam!

Adam seems to be adjusting to living in an apartment near campus quite nicely… better place than I had in school, for sure… private bedroom with a private bathroom. I think he’s adapting to a land full of college age girls very happily.

We picked up 8 new dress shirts and a pair of sweat pants at Value City for under $60. I still don’t know how BHK’s shopper-sense works, but I’m glad she uses it for the powers of good, rather than evil.

Got an hour or so of TF2 in before bed… tried to play with Helen and Mattie, but their server was maxed at 32…. I’m discovering that I like playing the medic and the scout.


I can’t believe that I never knew that there is (soon to be “was” come 2009) Library of Congress police force.

The Library of Congress police force were formed in 1950 as an unarmed force that was designated to control entry and exit procedures for the library and its tunnels that connect the buildings to the rest of the Capitol complex. As of 1987, the LOC police have carried guns.


Note to self – Legit, free downloads of ancient games I never got around to playing when they cost money. Maybe my rickety old laptop will run ’em comfortably? Wild metal!

also, favorite freebie little game of the nanosecond – Shift. Clever little thing. I dig it – once I find a way to port it to the palmtop, woe is my value on my commute home!


Wow… quite a turnout re: Anonymous vs Scientology. interesting pictures. shots from the DC protest.

Supporters of Anonymous, the loosely organized group of internet activists who have attacked the Church of Scientology recently with videos and server hacks, appeared outside D.C.’s Founding Church of Scientology center on Sunday. The protest was part of a planned “global day of action” with the stated purpose of setting off a government investigation into how Scientology got tax-exempt status.

The Feb. 10 protests, which took place in dozens of cities, were initially announced last month after a video attributed to Anonymous coincided with an online effort that managed to temporarily knock out servers belonging to the Church of Scientology. The date was chosen for the protest because Feb. 10 was the birthday of Lisa McPherson, who died of a pulmonary embolism in 1995 under the care of a branch of the Church of Scientology. (via DCist)


1 year ago – value city – shopping march, johari, snugs

2 years ago – no opa, first maid service, bus pic / entry, mechanical dreams, ft laud baggage with human head, NotLD w/bunnies, johari, newtcam

3 years ago – planning the week, the room, misc thing quiz, einstein the parrot, e-journalists fired

4 years ago – sleepy day, first taste of Arnold Palmer in a can, Kerry looks like Herman Munster, C words

5 years ago – interview gear, bus palm- post, feelings, dodge rampage, Stop. Hammer time.

6 years ago – anti-erection law, newt counts coup, last day of year of the horse, finn poop, smit

7 years ago – AOK playing, lj-poetry, meanie dream, pork fat in chocolateGeotarget

9102 – friday

Mostly linkies… went to see national treasure tonight with Adam and BHK. It was pretty good, not nearly as well done as the first, but still fun. Cage looked like a freaky manikin with fake hair, skin and teeth in the opening.


Fear the Turtle! – Most of the pictures in this set are of sculptures that were created for the 150th anniversary of UMD. They went around and got all the ones on campus (at least the ones that were installed), but have yet to get the rest.


I really have to get around to visiting the Mutter Museum in 2008.


Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor, which is only 20 feet by 6 feet, could change everything for small remote communities, small businesses or even a group of neighbors who are fed up with the power companies and want more control over their energy needs.



1 year ago
– more xmas lights, newt and pye in the same house

2 years ago – mighty boosh, 3 ships, hard candy christmas, poohsticks, nestled newt,

3 years ago – Mel, swan, count & contessa, bk holiday song, abandoned hospital, scared of santa, octo vs mcd’s, net-perv sting

4 years ago – geourl syndication, desperado with monkeys, narnia

5 years ago – surreal gourmet, amazon links, a/c dies

6 years ago – last minute shopping, blah day

7 years ago – crushing, slowness Geotarget

9097 – sun

Snow… where is my precious snow? None fell today… just wet ol’ rain.

I don’t mind… I like gray days just fine. All sunshine makes a desert, right?

Bulk of the day was spent doing holiday decorations and prep for my Mother and Wilton coming up for the holidays. I like that tree is all gussied up and has the train underneath. Officially Yuletide now.

Larry and Chris came over and we all slurped some veggie soup. BHK also made a Cheese ball and Chef Boyardee Pizza that was really quite good. The in-laws bugged out early, but we got a little Adam visit for an hour before bedtime. He found the pickle on the Christmas tree in about 3 minutes. I suspect Bugah will find it more rapidly.

The robot is now packing the moniker “Pickle”, at least as a nickname.

We played Wii for a bit – Mario brothers is older than Adam… and he’s going to College. That’s sort of frightening.

Christmas lights, Pye in a Wreath, Newt and the train, Pretzel Walruses, our two favorite new ornaments… robot and ship in a bottle.

Tannenbaum Express-cam will be set up online shortly… probably by midweek.

Ship in a Christmas Ball.Family Ornaments.Allison and Scotto Ornaments.Popcorn .

Glass Robot.Robot and Ship in a Bottle.Our Stockings.Our Tree 2007

Christmas Tree 2007.Newt wary of the Christmas Train.Newt eyes the Caboose.Ship in a Christmas Ball Ornament.

Pye and Newt help decorate.Pye and the Garland.Goin' for the Garland.Scott the Pretzel walrus

Allison the Pretzel Walrus.Pye in the middle of the Wreath.Pye with Antlers.Leafy Boy.

Wreath Butt

1 year ago – more xmas lights… and travel video

2 years ago – 10 gigs on lj, mighty boosh, newton ashamed of Chinese food photoshopping, Hawaiian Christmas song, friday 5, survey

3 years ago – Pasta with Mel, Jill at work (she’s since quit), Making fiends 14, Great out of context line for Eric and Mona

4 years ago – food, thinking, 12 days

5 years ago – deep sleeps, gender benders, doodle cartoon

6 years ago – Modern ruins, Goethe, misc

7 years ago – Michael Peter’s Rules, dreams, cryptozoo, boat paradeGeotarget

9096 – sat –

Today seemed both brief and extended at the same time, somehow.

Took off early this morning to snag a few allergy shots, and then we swung by Maerten’s to check out plans for BHK’s ring. I was going to have it be a surprise, but when design considerations came up, I opted for her input… she’s the one that’ll be wearing it after all.

I wonder how many people buy an engagement ring for their spouse, 14 months after the wedding day?

We hashed out a few designs with Heather, and I think that the one that was finalized will be lovely. I’m looking forward to the CAD images sometime this week before the casting. If this one works out well, I think a Mexican Day of the Dead “skull ring” could be next on the list.

Later, we went to the local farm grocer, grabbed lunch and a broad assortment of candy-type stuff to put in X-mas stockings.

The chocolate drops intended for Larry were not destined to survive.

They were, however, delicious. He’ll get other candy, love it and never be the wiser. We’re not bad people.

The in-laws had a little trouble finding the train store, so we met with them for a little bit… Larry and I talked trains while BHK and Chris went to the kids bookstore and got a little treat or two for Em and maybe Bugah.

We parted company – BHK got a flash of brilliance – and we stopped and got the final piece of Chris’s prezzie…. not mentioned in case she’s reading this. (I don’t think she is, but better safe than sorry.)

Following that, we hit our favorite friendly neighborhood gaming store, Aardvark’s – got some goodies for Louise, Cathy and Dave. Added bonus, Mike gave us the Fluxx Party pack and a Larry the Zombie to go with our Looney Labs purchases. Score! I’ve been wanting a radioactive potato, and now we have two! (Larry {the card, not the father-in-law} is the zombie equivalent.)

I think we’ve got everyone covered for presents except for Adam and Matt. That shouldn’t be too traumatic.

I ran out of juice by the end of the day… not sure where all my energy went, unless it was the sugar blues post about 1000 chocolate drops.

1 year ago – huge number of Christmas lights pictures from Solomon’s Island and more. Snow!

2 years ago – monkey day, kong, slow lj, dsl issues, santa question

3 years ago – Mel & Scotto facts, Gorilla Girl, Monkey Day, Massive Frog eats 3-legged dog, Beatles Christmas Records, 7070, Santa hates damn contemporary, bullshit architecture!, I break Christmas bonuses to ADP

4 years ago – spelling poll, pandas, turtles, and a bed of fresh noodles

5 years ago – keywords, Newt likes Broccoli!, Lauderdale cams, bah on bush, gore and grover Cleveland, mh trim, J-lo nose picker, shoe-doodle

6 years ago – holiday shopping, good advice, winter depression folk

7 years ago – moment of RAW, Santa Claus – geek, holidays, donations Geotarget

9046 – sat – nutshell outline

Saturday in a nutshell –

BHK playing XM-christmas all day long – Country Christmas replacing U-pop for the season? UNFAIR, I cry!

Allergy shots

  • painless, quick.
  • ATMs nearby charge too much
  • coffee at Giant’s Starbucks and cash back

Craft show

  • nice wreath
  • got a few little trinkets for Em
  • not much there of value
  • cookies.

Christmas Shopping

  • got some stuff for the kitties, adam and larry. Also, Hickory Farms nibble platter purchased

Candy Store

  • more treats for Chris and Larry, Chocolate-covered pretzels for me, java-cocoa for BHK

In-laws –

  • Watched Sabrina at with Adam, BHK and in-laws
  • just a snacky hickory farms / dip chip dinner
  • Happiness (french accent/ phallus joking)

got our wedding bands back –

  • BHK’s now inscribed – “oar to oar”
  • mine now inscribed – “wing to wing”
  • discussed lime-vanilla ice ring

Drove to Aardvark’s

  • 8-point buck sighted
  • BHK wants me to rescue a baby deer with a lasso.
  • Bought some treats for Danny and Eryx
  • Got promotional D&D figure/character sheet, d20
  • Got promotional Flying Dutchman Pirates Ship
  • Glow in the dark dice
  • unicorn dice
  • alien dice
  • crooked sided dice
  • bella sara cards

1 year ago – poetry I didn’t write, ran out of juice, newt pix in comments, GG sacked

2 years ago – Roger Ramjet, Underdog, and “Tick-tock” Tyler. Super Drugs, away!, great icon, work woes, condo stuff, power outage map

3 years ago – bush “wins”, monkey attacks, kerchiefs, hillary ahnold

4 years ago – lots of lj “coming soon”, AIM costumes, got a pointless commode, , nice chat, Awesome music, eye placement, 50 icons available, Pellucidar, City of Dead girls

5 years ago – Smitty-chat, bunnies, SOP, heroclix painting, ghost busters toons online

6 years ago – trogs, color-poll, hurricane, Hateful things

7 years ago – R&J Geotarget

8 years ago – Newt moves to kibble from liquid foodGeotarget

9018 – tues

Starting to feel a bit like October!


Back the regular schedule – at work and chugging nicely – jaw still a bit sore from dentist, plus sore throat from allergies.


Dinner with the in-laws and adam – played a little destroy all humans after tasty chicken-egg noodle type-dish (hot dogs for larry). The canned veggie-chicken was cooked up to be really darn tasty, as was the mushroom gravy. The veggie gravy would be excellent on biscuits with a little black pepper, too, I suspect!


First day of new allergy meds, and my coughing is vastly reduced.


I can’t believe that it’s been 5 years since the beltway sniper. I certainly never thought that I’d live and work in this region back then. Between that, and Flight 77 six years ago – it’s amazing how much people get back to business at hand and swarm all over the pentagon, the metro and so on.


1 year ago – 16 days to go, nostalgia for 7-11, x04, preggos on my list, identity, monsters in my pocket, girls back from QC,

2 years ago – autostitch picture, with us / against us, hukilau, hp returns

3 years ago – Doom3 + Newt = Scotto Heart Attack, Bro drama, walkies pictures (graffiti/latin broward/newt), odd todd tv show sacked

4 years ago – programming, October questions, 3-fingered roy, rays, ricks, alexes, and gaming, bro gets a warrant, candy corn poll

5 years ago – dsl flicker, Lauper Photo, Kelly and Lexie meow and poop, Lincoln poll, House blessing

6 years ago – owies pass, odd news, took newt to work, werewolf (mafia) game, GPS factoid

7 years ago – Salty dog, slushies for lunch, CTD song, boycotts Geotarget

9007 – sun

Newt hears migrating birds outside, and raids the window. Pye was soon to follow. Newt’s pooch there isn’t a big tummy, just fur.
0929070834.jpg
Brisk weather outside – lovely stuff, helps my breathing quite a bit. I could actually see my breath the other night when we picked up last minute gift bags for Tina’s party last night…we’re hitting my seasonal weather of choice. I’m looking forward to wearing a jacket.

Dashed off to the Giant with BHK – we bought some cold cuts and cheese to make ourselves some picnic lunch outside… sat on the bench and made each other sammiches. Best meal I’ve had in a while – I’d rather eat stuff that fresh and enjoy the weather than go to a big restaurant. I really preferred it to tonight’s spaghetti dinner, in fact. Louise is renowned for for her spaghetti sauce, but I’m more of a fan of (Gordon Ramsey alert) Simple / Rustic style of cooking. In fact, BHK and I both have been found using that as commentary on food (and whatever else) these days. Like calling Marco Polo out… if one of us says Simple there is bound to be an echo of Rustic not too far behind. Hey, it’s better than picking up his swearing habit, I guess.

Louise’s sauce and pasta was supplemented by Tina’s new beau Matt’s meatballs, which I hear were pretty tasty, especially the beef. The turkey ones looked good, but maybe a bit dry. His sauce looked decent – I wonder how it mixed with Louise’s?

The in-laws brought salad, and BHK made the birthday cake – carrot, with autumnal colored sprinkles in the cream cheese frosting. it was pretty darn tasty – somehow, still warm after our meal.

Tina got a lot of jewelry as loot – we gave her 1001 places to see before you die , some pedicure knickknacks and a necklace with a pearl and a pink shell motif. Louise did pearls for her too.. very similar to those she got BHK for her b’day. In-laws got her a heart necklace and earring set in sterling (I think), and some nice black gloves. I don’t know what Matt got her.

I won our game of apples to apples (that’s what we picked up last minute earlier – it was that or play boggle… and not a lot of folks have the scrabble / spelling ferocity or Carcassonne bent that BHK and I do) – since there were 7 of us (Adam had to bail early for his church group) we played to 5 victories best answer was Larry’s “wood chipper” to “sappy”.

1 year ago – robot post while I’m elsewhere, actors, locusts, pogo-legs, moot-b-day

2 years ago – Lost season 2, remixed movie trailers, 2l issues, white lines by bush, okcupid test, selfports on newtcam, puppy eats a knife, pervwatch, mistaken abduction

3 years ago – School Training at a library, Auntie’s, Spicy Sancocho recipe

4 years ago – Hoom! maps, Monkey Heaven, Robyn goes Psychic on me, Private William D.Huff, Tumbless things, palm doodle, BK breakfast, monochrome=sleepy buspics

5 years ago – landlord a/c, Dorky dinosaur, art ljs, audio books

6 years ago – minor panic, Oyl Family, Red Dog the Pirate Guy, blackjack, mush,revised beliefs, Laundry, freeflow, nosey lj-poll, Newton’s Nightmaregame, love poem

7 years ago – apple jacks, chores, bday, CPAP Geotarget

8991 – fri

Thinking good thoughts for mootpoint, Mol, and Dominic.


Payday! Just in time, as BHK and I both got to the doc and I get a pair of fillings on my right side. BHK’s teeth are jim-dandy… remember to floss!


I grabbed this from yoames / phillykat / pilarcruz and countless others.

1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/.
2. Put in Username: nycareers, Password: landmark.
3. Take their “Career Matchmaker” questions.
4. Post your top ten results.

Here’s mine – (I kept going, to answer all the questions. My first pass had a lot more computer/social worker stuff)

  1. Epidemiologist – Sounds interesting, but I don’t have *any* solid training for it. Could come in handy for the coming zombie apocalypse… or preventing one! Best case, already in a clean house-type bunker. Worst case, that’s where the epidemic starts. I guess if I worked for a villain, before dying, I could at least say that I worked in a lair fashioned inside of a dormant volcano, under the sea in a bubble-city, or from a satellite lab in high-earth orbit.
  2. Oceanographer – I still haven’t finished reading Fluke, but I do enjoy marine biology. I imagine the optimal life doing that sort of thing… maybe like an idyllic remake of the Flipper TV or Jonny Quest. Living in the keys, fighting pirates, discovering sea-monsters, etc. Would I get a hydrofoil and cool gadgets?
  3. Anthropologist – Humans are pretty fascinating critters. I suspect that I’d be more interested in this than Oceanographer. Field work at the ocean would be more palatable to me, though. Again with the Jonny Quest. Maybe with a little less or Race Bannon’s “Take that, you heathen savages!” I will, however accept bad guys that die with a scream of “AIeeee!” as they fall from a cliff, get disemboweled by Yeti, or are shot by whatever helpful bodyguard/guide-types are along for the ride.
  4. Writer – I try to do that here and again, but the time factor keeps popping up. I really need to devote an hour a day to it, and I simply don’t have the will to set aside the time to do it properly. I’ll always love doing it, but I’d have to have a way to support myself and my family if it were my full-time gig. I know quite a few writers, both professional, “wannabe” pro, and strong amateur, most of them very talented at word-craft. Given the amount of junk writing that’s out there, I’m fairly confident that I could find a niche with the right publicist. Also would be handy for “Murder, HE wrote” mysteries later in life. If Angela Lansbury can do it, so can I.
  5. Botanist – I do like plants. Do I like ’em enough to make them my life? Not sure. The Sea and Humans certainly have more of my interest. Now, if it were the phytoplankton people from Atlantis, I guess I’d be set… especially if they need some Research done on their databases. see below. I know what happens to Botanists. Ask Jason Woodrue, Ted Sallis, Alec Holland, Pam Isley, or any of dozens of folks turned into plant-critters, green psychos, pod people or muck-encrusted mockeries of men. Maybe when pot is legal, or if I lived on the planet Mardru.
  6. Library Technician – been there, done that. Fun and rewarding if you surround yourself with the right people. (true of most any job, really) It can be pretty thankless, and while I like books, I’m a far stretch from Burgess Meredith in that Twilight Zone episode.
  7. Historian – So very variable. Some parts of the past are amazing… other bits are deadly dull. Plus, the pay issue again- I imagine it’s difficult to live on the average historian’s wages. How do I become an authority?
  8. Researcher – If I could make any good, livable wage doing this for an organization that wasn’t a super-villain, I’d probably dig it. Depends on the research, though… do I really want data about women’s shoe sizes, and how they compare to hemlines? Fairly close to historian, Above. Job description is too vague.
  9. Database Developer – Heck, that’s a chunk of what I’m doing in my gig right now! I enjoy the challenges and solving the puzzles that arise in most of the larger builds that I’ve had to do.
  10. Multimedia Developer – I’ve dabbled with this… seems like a very competitive field to get a gig that’s worthwhile.

Web Developer, Systems Programmer and such all appear in the top 40, further down the list.


Limited edition Raspberry M&M’s are pretty good. Not amazing, but not too shabby. I prefer the holiday mint ones….and wouldn’t mind if they did orange-chocolate M’s.


Getting this entry out of the way early, as I don’t forsee much computer time tonight… see two lines up. I’m looking forward to a nice evening of Movies and games in our little treehouse loft, or in the living room. (depending on our desire to watch stuff on the laptop or the dvd player.

[edit – Strike that, we had Chinese at in-laws and watching “Because I said so”. Maybe Games and yo-yo tomorrow! Good food and good company tonight – movie was meh.]

Until Saturday-ish, dear journal!


1 year ago – goodies, 008 is landon, kill windows nag, mr t – be somebody, rfjason – wtf prank, kitty combo

2 years ago – Red Thread, Postcard, walking weather, work, 2nd life, battersea

3 years ago – visit meme, case against voodoo, freeflow thought, Mexico Wal-mart Protest

4 years ago – Newt-vet, shoutcast, tiny cities, Why I dislike leiberman, Frankie mooches again, Turkish Hairballs

5 years ago – Lots of robots, World Affairs, palm art

6 years ago – Shocked awake, Nostia, folks scamming relief, weather, programming, lovely chat

7 years ago – Pompano Weather, Warghetz, Suzy News, Censorship, Loved Geotarget

8968 – sunday funday!

Still too hot to do much of anything out and about in the Crisco soup-like atmosphere, so we opted to take in lunch at the Sbarro’s in the Annapolis Mall and then hit a movie. Who knows why we woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday, but it gave us a solid head start.

We finally caught the Simpsons Movie on the big screen… I was surprised – it was a lot better than I was expecting… pretty solid TV episode from back when it was funny. We only saw 3 bits that would make it warrant a PG-13 rating – an instance of nudity, a curse word (or two) and some drinking / drug use. I could see them showing all of it after 10pm on network tv unedited, or without those three instances any time at all.

On the way home, we noticed that ATW has changed the sign again, as the search for “the man” continues. (atw is now a tag just for my ease of searching the story thread and pictures, now.)

Click to view larger
0826071649.jpg atw tv
ATW NEWSROOM
‘THE MAN’
BOOT RECOVERED
FINGERS POINTED
Police say ‘NO Statement – NO case’
Meanwhile, Man Sightings run rampant
Psychic to be called.

It was a good thing we caught an early show as the later part of the day was comprised of –

BHK Birthday Part II: Electric boogaloo!
allisonbdaycake

Party at Tina’s place… Mexican food! Both Meat and veggie protein varieties – Tina’s not a big carnivore, either. Matt (her new boy) seems like a nice enough fellow and I hope they have maximum fun / minimum glum together. He’s certainly more social and generally conversational than DR or W. Dessert was yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing, compared favorably to yesterday’s lemon cake with lemon icing. Added bonus, BHK’s mom didn’t absent-mindedly start slurping the frosting off of the removed candles like last night, rather than giving them to the b’day girl to taste.

Aside from Tina and Matt, Adam, Jimmy, Louise, Chris and Larry all made it to celebrate. We fit pretty comfortably at Tina’s townhouse… I wasn’t sure if we’d all be able to manage, but it worked out quite well.

BHK’s Loot received:

from Louise : Necklace and bracelet of multi-colored pearls.
from Tina : A pair of Peridot Earrings / Hello Kitty purse (which looks like ms. kitty is making a gesture I’m sure wasn’t intentional)
from Larry & Chris – Red Coral necklace and Earrings / and some lovely crockery
from Danny – A swell looking green-stoned ring in gold. (and he got Tina some yellow-stoned earrings, too!)
from my Mom and Wilt – Turquoise and silver necklace, Halloween Snow globe, a little cornucopia and a really lovely card.
from me – a lot of knickknacks – Grease & Grease 2, a pair of pink pseudo-crocks, some stripy socks that mismatch/match, a pink headband with little jolly rogers, bath scrubbie, black cat bowl, a green wire basket, some fuzzy slippers and a gift cert to scalped.

I’m the only person that didn’t get her any jewelry… she told me specifically *not* to get her any. Now, I understand why.

May’ve recruited Adam and Jimmy into a parlor game night. Who knows, maybe they’ll lure Kendall and Amanda into it, too, and we’ll have a big night of it sometime!

I don’t know if Matt is into parlor games… I do know he digs the Redskins and is willing to put up with chick flicks. come to think of it, I don’t know for sure if Tina is interested in boardgames or not… I suspect that she, like the in-laws aren’t really into abstract games. Louise is a good candidate, but is harder to reel in to a date or time than the teens. The last time we saw her was her birthday, about 6 weeks ago.

Poor Danny has students in his classes now – he’s back to running the Sci-fi club, and is incorporating Pirates into the after school program. I should send him a bucket of heroclix or mage knight commons/doubles as a donation. He really liked the Superhero stamps and Lord of the Rings Risk game we shot off to him a little while back.

1 year ago – back from an all too brief visit, nose buttering, bunny suicides, events of the day, liberty city psp homebrew hack, jojo the cannibal kid, maple cookies, folks, met Adam / Future In-laws

2 years ago – power out phone post, hurricane katrina aftermath pictures (and Newt), Bro out, Techs unavailable

3 years ago – BK heads north, random visit to a 2001 entry, behavior variances, quiet-please

4 years ago – sleep schedule, zombie game (poor thing aborted), monkey helpers, first lost child.

5 years ago – Deer Hunter, Apache, Equality/freedom Poll, Emerson, flying saucer, heroclix 200 point armies, McD hot dogs, wpoison

6 years ago – that piercing woman , lj vibe change, many links (not all work anymore)

7 years ago – Godzilla, quizzes, leftyrok added me, IMT threatens to move all operations north to Tampa, dean martin Geotarget

8955 – sat

Things of note – when getting an ekg or a stress test, I was stuck on a stretcher for about 8 hours straight. Do it again? thank you, no.

Off on a date to see Stardust – Double dated: Bhk and Me / Kendall & Adam. We all enjoyed it – a nice combination of humor, mild violence, and general purpose fairy tale.

Played 4 games of polarity with BHK – won 3 – Also won 1 game of martian coasters.


Center of hardware store’s quirky display is stolen
ATW Hardware and Supply owner Ted Kramer wipes a tear away from one of the ladies on his rooftop display. The figure known as The Man was recently stolen from the Edgewater store.

Continue reading 8955 – sat

8927 – Wednesday

Gummi Chicken feet. They’re tasty and disturbing.

I neglected to mention the taste sensation that BHK and I enjoyed throughout last night’s movie. (Amy chose to stick with M&Ms.)

gummychikenfeet2
Gummi Chicken feet.

Pretty dang good, actually. right thickness and texture for a good gummy candy – fruit flavored. Grotesque to look at, but still nifty. (ours weren’t in this cool packaging, but rather just a big plastic bag, which is all the more cool, as far as I’m concerned.

Who thought that it was a good idea?

Who hired a sculptor to carve chicken foot molds for candy?

I wish that I’d counted them before eating – I wonder now if there were an even number to account for 2-per chicken, or if one of the Gummi-creatures was a pegleg.


via evandorkin

A plan to sell classic novellas in retro cigarette packs via cigarette vending machines after a U.K smoking ban in enclosed public places goes into effect. At least I think they’re going to (try to?) sell these in actual vending machines. Whatever the case, they’re called Tankbooks, and are being produced by Tank, a think tank, creative agency and publishing outfit. Dunno if this is a P.R. stunt, an art project, an honest effort to sell books in an interesting manner, or all of the above. Nifty-looking packages, whatever the case.

I think that decks of cards would be cool, too. Standard Decks of 52, or even some Fluxx flavors, maybe? Possibly a Barfly version of Munchkin ? Speaking of which, BHK won at Munchkin Bites tonight.


For future reference, as I think it’s pretty generally known right now:

LiveJournal was unavailable between approximately 2pm and 9:30pm PDT on Tuesday, July 24, 2007. Apparently, they weren’t the only ones with a power outage issue. Sites that are affected include CNET, Craigstlist, Technorati, Yelp and all Six Apart properties, TypePad, LiveJournal and Vox. I didn’t even notice, as I was at work and at the movies – I wonder how many people too the opportunity to breathe a little fresh air and feel sunlight on their skin?

See what happens when you don’t have geographically split clusters? I wonder how hard it would be to back up all of those guys… there’s got to be a monster amount of data there.

I find myself looking forward to being snowed in at home, with BHK, the kitties and me all playing card or board games in the living room. I think that maybe we can call a “virtual snow day” at the house sometime where we can just do that very thing, without waiting for a total power outage.


Netflix must think we’re insane. “We’ve received Apocalypto – and have sent out your copy of My Super Sweet 16: The Movie

Adam’s off to his missionary work in Guatamala -A quick summary of his itinerary:

6:30 PM tonight – he arrives at the Hope of Life Mission Center.
Tomorrow
– Sr. Center, plant flowers and trees, painting
Friday
– mostly off-site construction
Saturday
– visit orphans
Sunday
– Boat Trip
Monday
– More construction, painting, etc.
Tuesday- Food Distribution/Evangelism
Wednesday– more painting, hand out meals
Thursday-
arrive home


For work, I’m doing a distillation of a few hundred pages of documentation into bite size bullet-point chunks for next week… Tricky, but not impossible.


Farewell, Weekly World News. I’m glad you lasted for as long as you could. I hope that the website will at least continue for a bit.


1 year ago – break in dream, barometric pressure?, ogden nash, wtc movie, I’m a lucky, lucky boy, no danny, cost of being poor, hide the navstrip, food delivery, paintbot, times are changing

2 years ago – secret agent dream, teachers, dan reads wee free men, humor-type, vnc2swf, magic, don ho shock the monkey mp3, v for vendetta trailer, blood cholesterol, travel journal gig, net times journalist trouble, survey, scary villain picture

3 years ago – candy, incense, my mental room, cannibals, ka-boom, CoH

4 years ago – viking on newtcam, hulk adds my graphic to his journal, starmark, poop, Chinese food, mage knight

5 years ago – ISS, bear-lynching, beauty, Conroy books

6 years ago – bro’s breakup, cej, exhort, more majestic, mailing tardiness, news, Dr. Ernest Freaky Bootygrabber, Radio, time for life poll

7 years ago – Friends assessment, Spiritual Beliefs Geotarget

8923 – Saturday – Adam’s 18th!

Guests – Adam, Kendall, Jimmy, Adam’s Mom and Step-pop, Mr. King, Mr. Nelson, us. (Joey, Amanda, Sammy, Louise, et al., couldn’t make it for one reason or another.)

jimmy fireworks w/ adam & kendall . Adam and his mom, w/ kendall
Food du jour was good stuff… bhk made a cake with red Swedish fish and blue gummi sharks on it – celebrating little fish in a big pond transition for Adam and Jimmy away from high school, and on to the environs beyond. I got to do my standard grilling of the hot dogs, while BHK made some awesome mac & cheese, baked beans, chips & dip – Instead of ice cream scoops, folks that wanted ’em got Klondike bars of assorted types with the cake. (confetti-style sprinkles inside with a layer of red. I feel a bit bad that I didn’t get many good pictures this go ’round.) My Klondike of choice was strawberry cheesecake… yum.

We were a little disappointed at Mr. Nelson bringing alcohol with under agers in the batch, but aside from that, I think we all had a nice time… got a chance to set of fireworks left over form the 4th, and maybe created a little bit of peacemaking with Adam’s mom. Kendall was the most mature of the kids- even given that she’s going to be a Junior in high school, and everyone else has graduated.

I’m feeling really good lately. Not too creaky, and happy where I am mentally, emotionally, financially and spiritually. All things can improve, of course, but I’m doing AOK.

Sent my letter off to bro, with a pic of BHK and I on honeymoon at South of the Border – I think I’ll include one a letter, just to add 2000 words worth.
Moment of Lyric – America – Lonely People

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky

This is for all the single people
Thinking that love has left them dry
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
You never know until you try

Well, I’m on my way
Yes, I’m back to stay
Well, I’m on my way back home (hit it)

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
And never take you down or never give you up
You never know until you try

1 year ago – mixed bag day, newt pics-color filters, tp-roll shreds, outback with gg, toes poem, shiny superman pic,

2 years ago – RIP Scotty, bleeder likes my eyes, thumb drive apps, paper rocket, logo toy, taters, London transport

3 years ago – politics, monster poll, last time meme, job market

4 years ago – mah jongg, zombie movies

5 years ago – Visiting Danny, played Pokemon, orcs n the hood, reign of fire with Dave, beef recall

6 years ago – eremite, watched the sun come up, poll creation, why I trim, cooking poll

7 years ago – got the first LJ client, movie pondering Geotarget

8906 – Saturday – 07/07/07!

Today was pretty full of activity. In a nutshell: 2 more Zagat locations (Davis’ Pub was also in the guide) – Jalapeno’s (outstanding food – limited lunch menu, but the dinner looks amazing Tapas works no matter when) and Sputnik Cafe. (good cocktails and dessert, OK entrees) in between those two (lunch and dinner), we went for a little road trip to Gibson Island between shopping for a couch and our quest for Giant Diet Grape soda. Gibson Isle was a bit of a disappointment, with no Gibson girls in sight… worse yet, it was a private island, so no lookie-looing for BHK and yours truly, dear journal.

Today was the Wedding of Fred to Adam’s mom… supposedly lucky due to the 7/7/7 activity, but I don’t know… hopefully it’ll work for ’em, but the odds are rough on a couple who have collectively four divorces behind them already. Lots of fireworks due to the abundance of weddings so close to the 4th of July… we still have a boatload to set off for Louise and Adam’s B’day coming up next week.

We *were* successful in locating about a dozen or so diet grape sodas… we’ll miss ’em when they’re discontinued. There is something magical about purple soda that fizzes bright blue… and tastes really, really good for a diet drink. BHK will miss it more than I shall – I’m perfectly content with Diet Cream soda and Diet Cherry/Cola whatever. (Currently, Dr Pepper cherry vanilla is my fave, but BHK is partial to the diet cherry Pepsi) I wonder what medieval man would think of such stuff… too sweet by far, I suspect. I’m still amazed at refrigeration… the easy access to ice and cooling makes life so much more simple.

The couch-quest goes even on… the holy trinity of color/size/design continues to elude us.

Several Groundhogs sighted in the fields during the day, and many will-o-wisp dragonflies at twilight. Oh! that reminds me!

This friendly little guy was crawling up my sleeve yesterday – probably dropped on me from the shade tree. I wonder what sort of bug he is? He was pretty gigantic, maybe as long as my thumb, though not nearly as wide. I like his little “eye-spots” quite a lot… when I gently brushed him off into the parking lot, he didn’t flap his wings – just sort of plummeted to the pavement with an audible smack. I was worried he had been broken as a result, but he seemed perfectly content to walk away as we drove off in the direction of the Kwik-E-Mart.

0706071745.jpg

Since I haven’t uploaded the K-E-M pics yet, have some assorted pictures from the 4th.

Featured are – Bugah with a machine gun, assorted fireworks and the barge, Em, Jimmy, BHK and me, Adam, some wandering girls that know Jimmy and Adam, Flowers from our garden, assorted Bugah-fish-catches, and duckies. Not necessarily in that order. Also visible here.

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1 year ago
– prepping for keys launch, first pirates sea monster, a Brain in a jar quoting Nietzsche to a Super-intelligent Gorilla, phone breaks, questions-meme,

2 years ago – busy, tiny text, hurricanes gone?, pedometer, one, london explosions, waterspoits, 48 questions

3 years ago – condo bid, There-updated, MORE vizcaya pictures, pelvic thrust stormtrooper, spidey2, @ poll

4 years ago – Frankie, restoration of library, lovejoy, danny, lj-interests, health, baby tats

5 years ago – Newt (jamacianjungle dreamed that she got to play with him!), palm entry, grim reaper song

6 years ago – wereturtle, moved into new place

7 years ago – wereturtle, moved into new placeGeotarget