Tag Archives: news

8810 – RANDOM ACCESS

Work is interviewing for the network position today. I wonder when or if they’ll be asking me to sit with them today? I’m curious about the number of applicants.


When playing punch buggy my eyes tend to detect color first, then shape. I’m much less likely to see a white, black, gray/silver or navy blue bug than standouts like yellow, red or the brighter variants of blue and green. However, The “toaster” look of the Honda element is a good standout for me over colors. I can lock onto one of those much more easily than the bug. The dual-color ones seem to be easier for me to spot than the one-tones.


I have to dig up my birth certificate in order to get my driver’s license. It seems that my Florida state id isn’t enough. Bah.


Didn’t mow the lawn, and didn’t roto-till the garden, as it was too wet from the lovely rainy weekend. That’ll probably happen next Saturday.


Tomorrow, I’ll have been working for the county a month. That seems odd to me, somehow. I guess Friday will be a true work-month due to days off, etc.


Tina’s back from points elsewhere today, so we’ll probably have her over for an early dinner of falafel tonight. After that, I’m going to have to get one the stick, regarding the quest for more continuous employment.


Limited News source says that there are 21 dead at Virginia tech [edit- 32 dead, 28 wounded] – I don’t get how this happens. How broken in the head does a person have to be to run around a campus and start killing people with twin 9mm pistols? Sadly, my first mental image was that of the Shadow, with twin .45s barking out hot metal justice, but he’s a pulp fiction vigilante, not an actual insane non-fictional type being.


Found out that bro is breaking his probation already – Mom and WV went down to where they’d set his apartment up, and discovered that the place was empty. His probation officer called her looking for him, so it’s only a matter of time before he’s back in the clink. Turns out neither his rent, cell phone bill, nor his car insurance have been paid, so he’ll be driving with a suspended license in an uninsured vehicle. I’ll be checking the net periodically to let me know if he’s back in the pokey. [edit – he was evicted on 4/11]


I think I like stones and jewelry made from organic substances more than inorganic.

Pearls, amber, mastodon ivory, bone in general all had some sort of life-aspect about them before they were put into settings or whatnot.

Could the ghost of an oyster / tree haunt pearls / amber?


JD offered me some deer meat that he got while hunting. He bagged 13 last season, gave 10 to the hungry, and kept 3 in his freezer. The county electrician is apparently a great butcher.


1 year ago – easter peeps, Franciscans, freeware, bald headed cocktail sauce, lj top40, easter lunch, bugs bunny toon, newtcam action pics, SL easter pics,

2 years ago – oona tested, remembering D, walker tx ranger, CD biz, Bulk License-Plate Scanning by Helicopter, Amityville Horror

3 years ago – Cheeburger Cheeburger w/Dan, Ella Enchanted, got dreamt about, LH started / CS trimmed down, Coh Reset, weird email correspondence with a person that thought I was some sort of pantheist.

4 years ago – JKG Job desc, Honda cog movie, walkabout palm art – thin lines

5 years ago – cube test, Dangerous labs, threebrain, work stuff (network names)

6 years ago – pulchritude, leitmotif, objectives. (sakes, is lappie 6 years old!?! at least it’s got windows 2000 rather than Me(h) on it now)GeotargetVisitor Map

8720 –


Some swim meet pics of my Brother-in-law – Adam, 17, Swim Team Cap’n.

Thumbs up for Northern! Swim meet adam frogbelly adam Grinnin' Adam

Quite a little stud muffin – he’s very popular with the ladies, especially while being all sporty. He’s really a great guy, and is very talented across the board – Physics, guitar, athletics. If he wants, he could go anywhere or do anything he might choose. He suffers a little bit from teenager-itis, but he’s generally a gentleman and all-around good guy. I’m glad to have him in my family.



DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – A partially mummified baby was found wrapped in newspaper in a warehouse self-storage unit and is believed to have been born sometime in the 1950s, authorities said. Continue reading 8720 –

8682 –

GeotargetShopping with inlaws went very well. Good stuff for bhk, newtie, pye and tina, too – Also got a prezzie in the mail from Kev via amazon… BHK wisely confiscated the invoice, so it’ll be a surprise to me when it’s opened on Christmas.



via scans_daily. Good ol’ Rebis. I’m Sill partial to Cliff, though.


– via sebab

 Diabetes breakthrough
     Toronto scientists cure disease in mice
Continue reading 8682 –

8597 – I wonder how responsible lj would be held?

Wiped out again last night – it seems like everyone at the office has some sort of assorted yuck, from flu to worse. I think GG and LD are the only ones showing some form of immunity. I look forward to a solid night’s rest this weekend.


A Florida woman has been awarded $11.3 million in a defamation lawsuit against a Louisiana woman who posted messages on the Internet accusing her of being a “crook,” a “con artist” and a “fraud.”

Legal analysts say the Sept. 19 award by a jury in Broward County, Fla. — first reported Friday by the Daily Business Review — represents the largest such judgment over postings on an Internet blog or message board. Lyrissa Lidsky, a University of Florida law professor who specializes in free-speech issues, calls the award “astonishing.”

Continue reading 8597 – I wonder how responsible lj would be held?

8579 – Saturday Post by Robot

An auto-post while I’m off gallivanting around points north.

until pictures from the trip can be placed here, have some other photo thingies, dear journal:


superthais

Actors promoting a Japanese children’s show due to appear in Thailand next week are taken away in a police pick-up truck after posing in front of a tank in Bangkok. Thailand’s military rulers, installed in a coup last week, have banned dancers or actors using tanks as a backdrop. The actors were later released without charge.


mexilocusts

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Clouds of locusts have descended around the Mexican beach resort of Cancun, destroying corn crops and worrying officials in a region still recovering from the devastating fury of last year’s Hurricane Wilma.

Traveling in dark fogs, locusts are grasshoppers that have entered a swarming phase, capable of covering large distances and rapidly stripping fields of vegetation.

Continue reading 8579 – Saturday Post by Robot

8549 – Sunday fundaY

Lovely lazy wakeup morning… slacked and relaxed.


The crook who grew up to be a shoe

Big Nose George Parrot, the only man in American history to be turned into a pair of shoes.


After watching the first season of the Shield… weird that they didn’t work with Vic getting shot much past the episode where it happened. they seem to get on top of most details like that interlocking.. he sort of just healed up and moved on.


Light-Emitting Shirts from Philips – very keen… I could see this as being quite entertaining, with the right applications. combine this with some sort of transponder of gps technology, and your clothes or nearby furniture/curtains could give information like arrows directing you to a certain location, or color-coded type reference tabs for people… It’d be kind of neat to have a glowing digital clock or scrolling message/logo on a t-shirt, too. Maybe link it up to wifi and rss to read updated journals each refresh? Pretty handy for cycling at night, too… complete with illuminated turn signals or goodyear blimp type ads, probably.

Press Release


A strange black cat on your porch brings prosperity. – Scottish superstition


On the Effectiveness of Aluminum Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study

Conclusion – The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ”radio location” (ie,GPS), and other communications with satellites (see, for example,[3]). The2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.

It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government,possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.


1 year ago – schwag bag, tall scotto shadow pic, finished fdle year, weezle talk, burning life with hp, preference poll,

2 years ago – Bag Lady, EN passes, Diarists more prone to illness, WoW pics, Hurricane Ivan, “because he said so“, Puppy shoots man, KSC storm

3 years ago – RPC issue, Badger badger, baboon nose suitcase, RIAA sues a 12 year old, RI’s birthday, new opus strip.

4 years ago – Newt Play, vote day, traded some magic cards for heroclix/mage knight, lem-doodles, wobbly

5 years ago – got a lovely poem, found old family letters, cadmean victory, stayed home, assorted news, Anne Heche’s wacky interview, ‘mat event, observations

6 years ago – embarrassing fight club reference, everway, Chat ‘toon reviewGeotarget

8418 – Just Thursday? Not Friday?

Cinnamon Life cereal mixed into blueberry yogurt isn’t as good as I thought it might be… but I was out of rice milk. note to self – get more rice milk.


Nice to hear from Mandy last night – it was good to get few things ironed out, or at least brought into clearer focus.


Dan and I may hang out today… if we’re both not totally tuckered out like Monday. I don’t think I’m going to be in the mood to hear Al Gore grouse about the weather.


Tina and I are shooting for a thrifting trip on Saturday… maybe find a good table or such for the apartment.


No Word from Bro lately. I’m assuming no news is good news.


Moment of Lyric – mp3

8416 – ook

Tailing a monkey man in search of healing powers

KOLKATA (Reuters) – Thousands of people are flocking to an impoverished Indian village in eastern West Bengal state to worship a man they believe possesses divine powers because he climbs up trees in seconds, gobbles up bananas and has a “tail.”

Devotees say 27-year-old villager Chandre Oraon is an incarnation of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman — worshipped by millions as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.

“He climbs up trees, behaves like a monkey and is a strict vegetarian, but he is no god and his condition is just a congenital defect,” says Bhushan Chakraborty, the local medical officer.

Tucked away in a hamlet in Banarhat, over 400 miles north of Kolkata, the state capital, devotees wait for hours to see or touch Oraon’s 13-inch tail, believing that it has healing powers.

Doctors said the “tail” — made up of some flesh but mostly of dark hair — was simply a rare physical attribute.

“It is a congenital anomaly, but very rarely do we find such cases,” B. Ramana, a Kolkata-based surgeon, told Reuters.


“He climbs up trees, behaves like a monkey and is a strict vegetarian, but he is no god and his condition is just a congenital defect,” says Bhushan Chakraborty, the local medical officer.

If I had a dime for every time I heard someone say that…

8412 – Sundee-fundee

Newt wasn’t the most friendly host yesterday… I suspect it was a combo of smoke and/or illness stress that he was picking up from Tina. We had a nice time watching Monsters, Inc and a couple of Eddie Izzard concerts. Much (perhaps too much) Italian food was consumed, and I think a good time was had by all. The eggplant and garlic pizza is even better as a breakfast food this morning.

Some thoughts came up for a decor style for the apartment… maybe a tiki bachelor pad? If it’s possible to get that look with sturdy, comfy furniture, I’m all for it! The tiki-retro look is a pretty keen one.


The Mango Festival’s music was widely varied… from the amazing to Muzak-level artists played too loudly. I’m going to swing back by later today… many people are there having a grand time, so why not Scotto?

I’ve just switched the phones over to EN from ECN… so I think that maybe after a little morning nap, I’ll take a trek outside, if the skies stay clear.

through 9 am…isolated showers and a few thunderstorms will continue to affect the waters off the broward and Miami-Dade coast. only a few light showers will move onshore to affect the fort Lauderdale and Miami metro areas…though most areas will remain dry. the showers will move west northwest at 10 mph.


Danny contacted me earlier – wants to get together once or twice in the week ahead. (Last week was quite busy for him, and he was unable to comfortably do anything.) Maybe we can catch An Inconvenient Truth{website has some sound}. I’m interested in seeing how well it makes a case.

Side note, websites with flash opening pages / purely flash navbars are a bad idea… especially with sound. At best, it limits the size of your audience (if there are no alternate accessibility options added) and at the worst, it’s an annoying bombardment on the eyes and ears that also damages system security.



KIGALI (Reuters) – Twelve baby gorillas were given names by Western officials on Saturday in a ceremony aimed at attracting more foreign tourists to the tiny central African nation.

Dubbed “the land of a thousand hills”, Rwanda is home to nearly 400 mountain gorillas, one of the world’s most endangered species, which attracted over half of the country’s 22,000 tourists in 2005.

Tourism officials face an uphill battle to lure visitors to Rwanda, where around 800,000 people were massacred in the 1994 civil war.

Representatives from the United States, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands — where most of Rwanda’s tourists come from — participated in the baby gorillas naming ceremony, normally reserved for newborn children.

The UK ambassador to Rwanda Jeremy Macadie called one of the gorillas “Big Ben” after London’s famous landmark.

“Like the way ‘Big Ben’ is a major tourist spot in London, this young baby gorilla will be a center attraction for tourist to this beautiful nation,” Macadie said.

Rwanda earned over $25 million (14 million pounds) from the tourism sector in 2005 but hopes to make close to $100 million by 2010.

The first public naming ceremony was held last year when 30 baby gorillas were given local names.

Conservationists and researchers have traditionally named the gorillas they track using the patterns formed by wrinkles on the primate’s faces as identifiers.

A 1988 film, “Gorillas in the Mist”, based on the work of primate researcher Dian Fossey, who studied the animals in the 1960s, has put the tiny nation on the world map.


1 year ago – hobo sign icons, Goodyear blimp crash, pictures, Guide to Hobo / ’30s slang

2 years ago – slow email, drunken sailor song, testing remote palm broadcast, running away, nice letter of thanks

3 years ago – creaky knee, infrared zoo (Graypumpkin’s first visit?), remote cpu destruction of file-sharers, tiny robots, ghetto fries

4 years ago – tiling my old place, chocolate doughnuts, happy pill, instinct of awareness, how to make a smoke bomb

5 years ago – Evil News, blimpies heroin story, poop-poll

6 years ago – nuffinGeotarget

8408 – Thoisday

Payday, and almost the weekend. I’m looking forward to a day where I can sleep in, and just unwind a bit.


WHAT: 21st annual Mango Festival
WHEN: Friday 6/16 – Sunday 6/18
WHERE: Deerfield Beach [Broward]
WALLET: see Web site for ticket prices
WEB:
{City of Deerfield Beach – Mango Festival page}
{TheMangoFestival.com}

“South Florida’s largest multicultural festival, Mango Festival is a celebration of Black Music Month and mangos! Join us for a weekend fullof exciting entertainment, over 100 vendors of unique arts & crafts and wonderful international foods…. Two stages will feature continuous live entertainment.”
–City of Deerfield Beach


Phoenix on Wednesday was named the sweatiest city in the United States, but Miami topped the list as the most uncomfortable American city due to its mix of humidity and heat. Continue reading 8408 – Thoisday

8402 – Late Morning Post, due to sleepy-headedness, and my not needing to be on call.

Last night was one of pleasant conversation. I was hardly on the web at all

Tomi called me from Finland on skype… it works surprisingly well. Sound was really clean, and it was nice catching up with him, though it was weird, given that he was about 8 hours ahead of me.

Topics: Good ol’ Days, Traveling to the Arctic Circle to see buddies, “the ‘Vette”, Kitties, Cigarettes & Cap’n Kangaroo and Kev re:Gitmo

Had another delightful million-year gab with Tina, too. She’s certainly got a gift for gab. I hope that she’s feeling better today… when she first called, she sounded like a 12 year old with vapor lock, but eventually, the bulk of her nasal-yuck cleared out, and the lungs sounded more loose and open.

Topics: Too Numerous to count (I think I may’ve found someone that can topic-jump more rapidly than I can) But included family, social Darwinism / social quirks, critters (cats, dogs and boars), economy, books primarily popcorn books), tasty food including an eggs and cheese ditty, not-so-tasty food, some very refreshing honesty, and an exceptionally foul-mouthed nun.


Speaking of Foul-mouthed: Listened to a Redd Foxx album recently, and man… I don’t mind blue comedians, but he was just awful. A bunch of weak one-liners. No craft to his work at all. At least Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor build a story that has some profanity – not just a quick “zinger” with a rude ending. Probably, I’m just a different audience – I like Bill Cosby’s albums and Steve Martin’s stuff.


Found a link to a gazillion mp3s of Stars on 45. Pop hits medley-ed out on disco hand-claps. Tossed me right back into the middle of 1981, quick like a magic trick.


Jack the cat chases black bear up tree

capt.d429145a753041439aad741f7aa5fe6a.aptopix_cat_scares_bear_wxs102capt.7825385bce084b65adefeada0f873df3.cat_scares_bear_wxs103

WEST MILFORD, N.J. – A black bear picked the wrong New Jersey yard for a jaunt earlier this week, running into a territorial tabby who ran the furry beast up a tree — twice.

Jack, a 15-pound orange-and-white cat, keeps a close vigil on his property, chasing small animals when he can, but his owners and neighbors say his latest escapade was surprising.

“We used to joke, ‘Jack’s on duty,’ never knowing he’d go after a bear,” cat owner Donna Dickey told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Friday’s newspapers.

Neighbor Suzanne Giovanetti first spotted Jack’s accomplishment after her husband saw a bear climb a tree on the edge of their northern New Jersey home’s back yard on Sunday. Giovanetti thought Jack was simply looking up at the bear, but soon realized the much larger animal was afraid of the hissing cat.

After about 15 minutes peering down at the cat from the tree, the bear descended and tried to run away, only to have Jack chase it up another tree.

At this point Dickey, who feared for her cat, called Jack back home and the bear scurried back to the woods.

“He doesn’t want anybody in his yard,” Dickey said.

Bear sightings are not unusual in West Milford, which experts consider one of the state’s most bear-populated areas.


via missvDavid Hasselhoff – Secret Agent Man (youtube video)


David Hasselhoff is licensed to kill. He kills music genre after music genre and the occasional one hit wonder. Surrender or die.

tropical weather outlook

8396 – Wehd-nehz-day.

I stayed home from work yesterday… but Dan came by to visit after 5pm – we checked out Lord of the Rings Online.. signed up for the Beta. Helped Danny figure out what sort of machine he’d need to play it, graphics-wise and such. No movie or Japanese foodies.

After sniffing out gaming tech online, we played pirates (see icon) – each of us won a game, and both were very close. I had superior firepower, he had speed on his side. Ramming and boarding were actually to my benefit for the first time ever playing the game.

I gave him a Rubyred Labs T-shirt as a victory gift from my valleyschwag pack. (I kept the stickers and perplexCity cards) Newt got along with Danny quite well, save for when Dan drew first blood in the pirates game… he exclaimed “BLAM!” quite loudly, and Newt leapt up on the table and yelled at him, and took a swabby-paw swat at his face. I swear, Newt’s more of a watchdog than a scaredy-cat.

After playing, we decided to stretch our legs, and yawns came in a rapid collection of waves… hard to guess what caused it. I think I yawned about 25 times in rapid succession… to the point where I got a little light-headed. Danny followed suit shortly afterward, though he only yawned about four or five times.


We went upstairs to the snack bar, but Target had no coffee, so we hit *$ on the way back. He bought me a pirate booster, so now I have a corsair and an American Ship… plus a Corsair guy that can create temporary fog banks with smoke bombs– not a bad addition to my current fleet of British, Spanish and pirate folks.

Dan’s shirt had a mermaid on it, but is no relation to the Feegee Mermaid. Yucka! – His shirt was more of one of these.(far more cute than feegee)


Going to grab a bite and visit with Tina today after work… should be a jim-dandy time. Perhaps we’ll swing by Dicey Rileys, too. I suspect Eddie Izzard is out, but I’m sure we can keep a steady stream of enjoyable banter going. I’m not used to having things happening outside of the HQ on “school nights”. It’s a refreshing change of venue.


Moment of Lyric – mp3

When your world is full of strange arrangements
And gravity won’t pull you through
You know you’re missing out on something
Well that something depends on you

All I’m saying, it takes a lot to love you
All I’m doing, you know its true
All I mean now, theres one thing
Yes one thing that turns this gray sky to blue

Thats the look, thats the look
The look of love

When your girl has left you out on the pavement (goodbye)
Then your dreams fall apart at the seams
Your reason for livings your reason for leaving
Don’t ask me what it means

Who’s got the look? I don’t know the answer to that question
Where’s the look? if I knew I would tell you
What’s the look? look for your information
Yes there’s one thing, the one thing that still holds true

(whats that? )

Thats the look, thats the look
The look of love

If you judge a book by the cover,
Then you’d judge the look by the lover
I hope you’ll soon recover,
Me I go from one extreme to another

And though my friends just might ask me
They say Martin maybe one day you’ll find true love
I say maybe, there must be a solution
To the one thing, the one thing, we can’t find

Thats the look, thats the look
Sisters and brothers
Should help each other
Oh, oh, oh

Heavens above
Thats the look, thats the look, hip hip hooray, ay
Thats the look, thats the look, yippee ai yippee aiay
Thats the look, thats the look
Be lucky in love
Look of love


The Monkey Chow diaries

Imagine going to the grocery store only once every 6 months. Imagine paying less than a dollar per meal. Imagine never washing dishes,chopping vegetables or setting the table ever again. It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

But can a human subsist on a constant diet of pelletized, nutritionally complete food like puppies and monkeys do? For the good of human kind,I’m about to find out. On June 3, 2006, I began my week of eating nothing but monkey chow: “a complete and balanced diet for the nutrition of primates, including the great apes.”

Hmm.. note the chow info page mentions *NON HUMAN PRIMATES*

Ingredients
Ground corn, Soybean meal, Cracked wheat, Sucrose,Wheat germ meal, Animal fat (preserved with BHA, propyl gallate and citric acid), Dried whole egg, Dicalcium phosphate, Calcium carbonate, Iodized salt,Vegetable oil, Choline chloride, Stabilized ascorbic acid (source of Vitamin C), Ethoxyquin (a preservative), Ferrous sulfate, Zinc oxide, Copper chloride, Manganous oxide, Cobalt carbonate, Calcium iodate, Sodium selenite,Vitamin A supplement,Vitamin D3 supplement,Vitamin E supplement, Thiamine (Vitamin B1), Niacin, Calcium pantothenate, Pyridoxine hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic acid, Biotin,Vitamin B12 supplement.

1 lb of chow per 35 lbs of monkey? Man… that’s a lot of food!


skyray 060606_228x253

Elite special forces troops being dropped behind enemy lines on covert missions are to ditch their traditional parachutes in favor of strap-on stealth wings.

Continue reading 8396 – Wehd-nehz-day.