Tag Archives: politics

9298 – friday

I need never hear the phrase “eyes like gimlets” or variant “gimlet-eyed” again. I like the word gimlet and all, but enough is enough.

Unrelated, I could go for some tasty quiche. Had some blah pad thai at Noodles & Co. in annapolis while we sought out Alan’s Birthday prezzie. It didn’t do much for me, but the cookies and cream milkshake en route home was quite good.



BHK reminded me of the Geister game… you can play it online at BrittspielWelt ! (If you see scottobear there, come say howdy!) If I can get BHK into the online version, maybe we’ll pick up (or make a home version of) the board game… plus… BrittspielWelt has a nice collection of Carcassone w/ expansions, not just Yucata‘s Hunters and Gatherers. (if you’re on yucata, say hi to scottobear there, too!)

Rules to ghost in comments – simple game – but fun.



Dreamt that Tigger taught Pye to smoke, and that he nearly burned down the in-laws house after getting too close to the gas fireplace.

Newton knows that kitties shouldn’t smoke! (And so does pip !)



“Hard knocks life” from Annie stuck in my head this morning, and throughout the day.

Just this part: (It’s all I know!)

It’s the hard-knock life for us!
It’s the hard-knock life for us!

‘Stead of treated,
We get tricked!

‘Stead of kisses,
We get kicked!

It’s the hard-knock life!

Got no folks to speak of so,
It’s the hard-knock row we hoe!

Cotton blankets,
‘Steada wool!

Empty Bellies
‘Steada full!

It’s the hard-knock life!


Don’t know why.. my life is pretty keen, and without want.



May the Great Gazoo rest in peace. Plus, Blazing Saddles and the CB show. Thanks for the fun, Harv. Now go do that voodoo that you do so well.



The international space station’s only toilet is broken, leaving the crew with almost no place to go. NASA officials responded, “You should have thought of that before you left home.”



This is what happens when I don’t mash the strongly agree or strongly disagree buttons. I respond to a few things with “Well, it depends…”

You are a

Social Liberal
(60% permissive)

and an…

Economic Moderate
(43% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist










Link: The Politics Test




1 year ago – hot in the courthouse, shaved ice, adam and jimmy’s graduation, more lj spam, move to own domain?

2 years ago – nice time with danny, rocker meme, mm call

3 years ago – memorial day, bhk fridge magnet pic, dr who

4 years ago – spotty notepad frenzy, mood theme editor fixed, General Tao’s tofu, My cam catches right before lights out, Newt-bt pic, Nose beeps, streams of thought, sleepy newt wallpaper (or why using arrow keys is hard with the boy on the desk)

5 years ago – google news, kev, easter island, barcode, got a lovely peek-in.

6 years ago – complaining about the weather, disappearing languages, palm piccies that need to be re-uploaded, smoke ring gun

7 years ago – hoi polloi, nice walk, memory stream, super chicken, ask me a question, ostriches

8 years ago – stream of thought re:Newt, Fritz & AprilGeotargetVisitor Map

9285 – Monday – Happy 8th, dear journal!

Forgot to mention yesterday – fresh kittens in the neighborhood. I think Tuxedo-kitty is the father, and one of the “cimnim” kitties is the mama.

No matter how stony-hearted I can get… baby kittens melt it pretty quickly. (Kittens are good for discipline and mind control, as anyone who’s watched Hyperdrive can tell you.)

See also, Obama with a Kitty as running mate. (Personally, I’d like to see Kcarab Amabo, AKA The Evil Mirror Universe Barack Obama join in the festivities. )



My livejournal account is 8 years old today.

I didn’t really get to posting daily until 8/2000, but 9284 posts in 8 years is pretty surprising to me. Something like 3 posts a day, give or take.

Some had a lot more content than others, of course.

In 8 years… a lot has happened. If you’d have told me then that I would still be doing this now, I’d probably have doubted it. The LJ community as a whole has changed hands a few times. The service has been a great boon to me.

I met my wonderful wife on livejournal…. and more than a couple of other new and delightful people from around the world in person as a result, too.

I reconnected with friends that I thought were long lost – both from gaming groups and high school.

I’ve pretty thoroughly documented my 30s here. Walkabouts, musings, dating, work – there’s not much about me that you can’t find here… some things are privatized or friends-only security, but the vast majority is open to the world. I sometimes wonder if that’s a good idea, but it’s worked well for me so far.

I tend to keep my really rough rants or personal lists (shopping for presents and reminders, mostly) to myself. I also used to archive chats here, before google talk; which automatically does it now. I’m guessing there weren’t many – maybe 20 or 30, tops.

I’m not really online much for chatties these days, but here and there you might catch me, dear journal. (Gmail checks, generally) my profile page has a list of assorted locations to look me up.


Adam’s in Haiti, doing more missionary work – he sounds all right, there were a lot of concerns for his safety. Funny that nobody raised safety issues when he went to Guatemala last year.

a bulk email he sent out –

Hey Everyone!
I am at a Hotel in Petit Goave, Haiti. The lady at the front desk let me use the Internet, so I have to be really quick.
First of all, we have been very safe the entire time. The first guest house we stayed in was in Port-au-Prince and run by Americans who have live there for 12 years. They laughed at me when I asked if there was anything to worry about, and they said that they had teams down here the entire time the riots were happening a month ago. They said that instead of returning from their work sites at 4:30, they just came back an hour later, because by 5 or so the rioters would get tired and all go home, haha. The house has an average of 13 people staying there every night of the year, it was really cool.
Now we are at a hotel in Petit Goave. It is way too nice for us! It is more like a resort, but I guess it was the safest place they could find, and that’s what matters most.
Yesterday we helped out a a track event for children which was meant to bring many schools together to inform them about HIV/AIDS. Today we went to a very poor community in the mountains to inform about the same thing, just didn’t have a track meet. We haven’t actually done any blood work or anything like that yet, so it’s been really safe. For the rest of the week we are going to be doing more events with children and some community clean-ups, etc.
I gotta run. I don’t know if I’ll be able to email again, but just know that the State Department is full of it, haha. Especially with the precautions we are taking, we are very safe. If I don’t get to email again then I’ll talk to you or see you in 7 days.
Love,
Adam
PS: Send this to anyone who might be interested in hearing my status/update, and thanks for your continued prayers. See you all soon!


glad to hear he’s aok! I suspected as much.



1 year ago – 7th year entry, milk and cheese figures, bhk takes care of tm’s kitties, lunch with in-laws, David and Gill move to Charlotte

2 years ago – 6th anniversary, clothes shopping, busy recovery week, Don’t ask for directions in Baltimore

3 years ago – Star Wars, Dead Riddler, PETA kills animals, Newt @ kittenwar, neobrara, hong kong bun-snatching, sex offender sweep

4 years ago – wet week, duckling videos, lots of wander-pics, you’re so vain (odd couple sing), using wifi for plausible deniability, Feast Day of St. Dunstan, Florida Black Bear

5 years ago – bro fishing, Eh.net, asteroid probe, bookhenge in There, Drunk Man Hurt After Running Into Elephant, PT, severe weather, #21 in top 40, ljer ages, compat quiz

6 years ago – no cpap, broken pic links for me to fix later, grocery,waste to energy, Mayan symbols, ginger orange tofu, hot mail copying yahoo jerkiness

7 years ago – Iron Chef, Family Guy, Lj troublesome, feeling coarse, gals system down, astley hoses me over.

8 years ago – Scottobear’s LJ is Born – just a marker, really.

GeotargetVisitor Map





9214 – Friday!

Weekend looms ahead! Going to Alice’s party, celebrating her passing the bar… about a year ago. It’ll be nice to see her again – last time was at paper moon well over a year ago.

The Egg salad made from last Sunday’s hard-boiled Easter dye-jobs was especially good this week. BHK’s Mac & cheese is rocking my socks exceptionally well, too.

I can’t believe that tickets fro the Smothers brothers is $90 at the rams head. I want to go, but not so much at $200, 8pm on a weeknight. I still have half a mind to write in Pat Paulson for president, even though he passed away over a decade ago.

Presidential Campaign Slogan: “I’ve upped my standards. Now, up yours.”


50 things you’ve done meme continues at 44 – I…

44.’have done more than my share of critter killing and eating, despite my current feelings about doing so. If I was starving to death on an island covered with baby bunnies… well, baby bunny for dinner. I know how to kill and dress duck, boar, deer (all hands-on) and squirrel, alligator, rabbit (in theory, I saw my dad do it). I have lopped the heads off of chickens, and wrung their necks, too. I’d still rather do the slaughtering of a bird than do the cleaning.

I’m very happy to say that I haven’t wanted or had to do that for a *very* long time… but if I was lost in the wilderness, I feel that I could survive better than some, at least food-wise. The boar is something that I’d have to use high-powered rounds on… those guys are nasty. I wonder if I could do a pit trap for a pig? I suppose it’d work, not that I ever will need one.



Recent photos in phone or in archive –

My office desk (see notes here, for the OCD aspects of the journal),
with BHK memorabilia and a toy-train zoom-in

0326081423.jpg

I love my coasters – made from the label portion of old 33 1/3 records.
0326081424.jpg


Newt Yawing the other day – That’s how I was feeling, too.

newtyawn



Recently, Pye waited politely for Newton to finish eating – very chummy these days. I’m glad that they’re so much more buddy-buddy. All I ask is that nobody bugs anyone else while eating or pooping… not too hard! Newt actually gave ol’ pye a one-lick after pye’s bath yesterday… I imagine they’ll be grooming one another sometime around 2012. (or sooner!)



Added a doodle to the voice post… not sure if it’s worth 1000 words, though.



1 year ago – nice folks at the county, cherry blossoms, spring started – pear trees, BHK into reality tv, EPC a flop, adam & tennis, easter coming up.

2 years ago – code template, interest cloud, pda cam dies, p&B in german, song tapper, bus on fire doodle

3 years ago – easter manatee, complimented, server/servant, spliced people, germs

4 years ago – Lj then and now (I spend less time now), bro, ice cream cake, Smokey & the Bandit

5 years ago – bro got me some Godzilla movies at the gift store up the road.

6 years ago – minority report poll, breakfast with Danny, grabber rabbit meme spreads, Words describing animal traits, Ketchup packet bear, Klaatu’s speech, scary dream, link-to poll

7 years ago – babelizer, mushy-feelings, book-burningGeotarget




9209 – tuesday

Gentle day yesterday, for the most part. We had a little trouble at the ol’ Subway Sammiches joint… the sandwich-maker had a lot of communication issues. Both BHK and I couldn’t get across to him or his partner what was wrong with what they made for her. I ended up getting my sandwich, but BHK went home with nothing… made a turkey sandwich here, instead. I think she came out ahead, but so much for her not having to put something together for dinner.


13 reasons why you should not be a freelance writer .

My weaknesses are certainly in the marketing department – but the big one for me is the need for security. I really don’t want a gig that doesn’t give me a regular check as my main (or only!) source of income.


In the “News I didn’t get on time category: William F Buckley died ?

Also, how come I didn’t hear about the Hillary fib on St. Patty’s until today?

Clinton’s tale of landing at Tuzla airport “under sniper fire” and then running for cover is simply not credible. Photographs and video of the arrival ceremony, combined with contemporaneous news reports, tell a very different story. Four Pinocchios. [edit/update – she admits that she “misspoke“.]

I found an interesting list of flip flops from both democratic candidates, too – (and, not to be unfair – McCain’s flip flops are whoppers, too.)

Thanks for nobody to vote for, team Democracy!


Note to Self – remember some gym clothes for midday work out.


50 things I’ve done meme- 10 to go! I…

40.’have portrayed Santa Claus many times in my life, not just when overweight, either. It started in 7th grade, Mrs. Glenning’s Class – a organization for mothers of twins asked me if I could do the job – in 7th grade, I was already about 5’9 or 5’10. Later, I did it for the children’s reading group at the library and bookstore where I worked… finally, I have been Santa for the ‘borgs twice. So.. that’s 5 times I’ve helped Kris Kringle out by being a body double. Kids tend to dig it, and I tihnk I do a pretty good job. I can let out with the HO, HO, HO’s, and most kids think it’s cool that santa is head and shoulders taller than their mom and dad… I didn’t realize that was an issue until one little boy pointed out that I was taller than his mom, voice full of awe.

41.’ have tried to be slow, in the Hoss Cartwright manner of slow…

Slow to raise a hand in anger;
Slow to judge a man.
Slow to jump to conclusions.

I have some days that are better than others. I try though, and often succeed. Once I make it to “Succeeds as much as a sane man can” I’ll be pretty happy with that.


1 year ago – newt, pye, tigger and a spongebob ice pop in the sun pictures, bro drama, hot fuzz preview, springtime cough

2 years ago – porch entry, newtcam pic, consulting work, zeppelin hotels, hornsuit

3 years ago – dr who leaks out, tree, death as a doodle, in the news, tmbg-bloodmobile, missing a brown-eyed girl, squirrel names, pirate vote

4 years ago – playing with icons, palm doodles, magical flesh fearing saw, bro still in the pokey

5 years ago – throat tickle, possible gig, FMM stuff

6 years ago – yahoo kills pop3, Can Asians Think?, llamas!, spring break, Egyptian musk, cat-recognition flap, rice dreams

7 years ago – Green Eggs & Hamlet, moody, China, Sophomore Uses List Context; Cops Interrogate

Geotarget

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

9184 – Wednesday

BHK’s taco salad din din last night was awesome, in taste, health, and the ability to produce flatus. Veggie meat, two kinds of beans, and certain garilicy veggies are just asking for a bit of methane production. The yummy factor was the biggest win, however.

Tonight, we’re headed to Bilvil the Beachfront Cafe for supper – review to follow tomorrow!


Looks like Clinton is still in the race after Texas and Ohio. Ah well, at least this will give Chris and I something to debate about some more on the road to work. I get sort of stuck with Obama, mostly because he’s the other contender for the Dems.


Happy 75th Birthday, Doc Savage !


50 things I’ve done meme continues – 21-26 I ran out of time! Will continue until I hit 50 if I can as the week progresses. – I …

21.’was part of a team that coded a geopositioning system to help find missing kids. Basically, find a point on a map, call everyone within a certain distance on the map with a pre-recorded message alerting folks to be on the lookout. In addition to finding missing people, it has been used cross-country for evacuations, fire alerts, boil water, and other trouble items. Sadly, the same type of software has been put to more commercial use by telemarketing campaigns including politicians and localized ads. Biggest issue – the calls tend to originate from a VOIP or difficult to track location, so you have trouble contacting them to be put on the do not call list… unless the message you get includes a contact number. I guess any tool can be an offensive weapon in the wrong hands. I use hammers to build things, not to cave in skulls… I promise!

22.’made the final leap to become a lacto-ovo vegetarian in 1990. Last hot dog was on 7/4/90… tried being vegan for a year, and didn’t like it. Sorry Milk, Eggs and Cheese… you get eaten. I sometimes lapse on things that have more than 4 legs, or less than 2. (Conch, Clam, Crab, etc.) Despite my diet, I still am of considerable size, both height and circumference. I am taller than I am around by a reasonable facor… I’m not a sphere.

23.’have been homeless for approximately a month, living on the beach in South Florida. It’s not fun, it’s not like camping, and I don’t care to repeat it ever again. I can’t imagine it in winter up north. If I ever meet that kid (last link in my entry here ) that said it’s just a question of attitude, I just might be prompted to introduce him to what that sort of fear, depression and hopelessness feels like.

24.’saw my brother sink from happy, healthy and smiling guy to a conniving, manipulative, strung-out and sick junkie.

25.’submitted myself for product testing when money issues were especially tight. Toothpaste was worth $20, use for a month and get paid after a tooth check. I got in on a big study – It was a pretty sweet deal at the time. Given an asprin, put in a sensory dep tank a few times a day, have blood drawn each time you come out. I got $1700 for it, a month’s worth of food and board, and electricity to play on my Atari ST during the downtime. The downside was that I was confined to the grounds for a month and very few of my friends at the time came by to visit. I could call out and say hello, but seldom did anyone call me…. which caused me to review my friendship with those people quite a bit at the time. I shared a room with another study member, but he left a day into the testing because his son passed away. I still feel bad for my first mental response – “I get my own room! Right on!” The biggest problem wit hHazelton was that it was frequently confused with hazelden, a drug rehab center.

26.’told a ghost story to my brother about a monster in the basement that was so convinicng, neither of us ever went down there again without an adult escort. I was about 7, my bro was half that. I was glad when we moved out of that house. Sadly, the story isn’t really that scary to an adult… or that original. I suspect I saw that Dr. Who with the crawling pentacle hand – “ELDRAD MUST LIVE!” Side note, I had a little-kid (non-sexual) crush on Sarah Jane Smith for quite a span. I wanted her as a babysitter more than my actual one.

so, only 24 more to go? ack!


The company that made “Airborne,” — a supposed remedy for colds — have settled a lawsuit brought by customers who were upset to learn that the “clinical trials” that proved that it worked were faked.


1 year ago – interviewed at calvert, flew kites

2 year ago – animated newtcam archive, bhk chat, bat-folk, Friday 5, tmbg

3 years ago – scottobear.com renew, trip to deerfield, free fonts, chat crash w/bhk,gp puts me on to spidey bible, what? WhaT?, H2GT2G, Chimp attack, giantsteps

4 years ago – blogspam treatment, work, serial adder, 7-eared kitty, clown sweater, Ephemera, visited bro

5 years ago – book meme, palm doodles, picture issues

6 years ago – mopey, bro helping out, Dick Hymen – Master of Jazz Piano, super tugboat, Newton’s name, pet name poll, magic ingredients

7 years ago – Perseus tools, loved ones sick, flying monkeys, The 30 Least-Quoted Lines from Shakespeare, nosepilot, 5k compGeotarget

9073 – Wednesday – Heed my warning!

David came by tonight – arrived at about 8pm. He’ll be here through the weekend! Larry came over for a bit and we all had a little powwow after BHK’s tasty supper of faux chicken in real yummy noodles and mixed veg.

Tomorrow after work, I suspect we’ll be jamming a bit at the blue house… Larry and David on guitar, me on bass.. have a few amps over there already, and we can get a little loud if we like.


Hitler, Frankenstein battle for votes in India

Think Barack Hussein Obama has it rough campaigning for president with a name like that? The Illinois senator has nothing on Frankenstein Momin. Or Billy Kid Sangma. Or Adolf Lu Hitler Marak.


Bill Hicks died fourteen years ago yesterday.

From his positive drug story – “Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.”


Random Scotto factoid. I’ve been accused of being a psychic more than a few times.

Ray, you might want to move that, before the kitties knock it over. (Ok, that’s an easy one.. but you… the one in the plaid. Put that down.)


In the vein of yesterday’s garfieldless garfield, see also Lasagna cat.


1 year ago – crazy happy (and I’m crazier happier now!!), mad dvd, mark millar says video games are for pedophiles

2 years ago – apes and mr rogers, whiz, walkies

3 years ago – asked for change at every turn, music and pie, bro maint, striking, long weekends, bk commercial evil, walkabout pictures

4 years ago – Images, missed calls, made an offer on a condo, lj-spam, walkies, matchstick rockets, gorilla basketball

5 years ago – doc, news, Mr. Rogers, eckerds sucks, palm-doodle

6 years ago – OSI closes, tardbucket, 1980 jc penney catalog, 3-minute noir

7 years ago – hurricane names, wacky news, poot, Be courteous, kind and forgivingGeotarget

9067 – Friday

Well, we got plenty of ice… about a quarter-inch on the porch alone, to say nothing of the roads. Forget the salt and sand… send out a fleet of zambonis! Is the plural of zamboni zambonies? Zambonii?

Worked form home today, though there were moments of spotty internet access. I suspect that I got more accomplished at the house, given the lack of sidebar interruptions.

Federal agencies in the Washington, DC, area are OPEN under an UNSCHEDULED LEAVE policy.

This Means . . .

  • Employees who cannot report for work may request unscheduled leave for their entire scheduled workday. Employees must notify their supervisors of their intent to take unscheduled leave.
  • Emergency employees are expected to report for work on time.

After work was over, BHK made some yummy thai-style spicy/ sour soup – even more awesome than the stuffed peppers made earlier this week.

Larry’s wonder-truck braved the ice and made it over to repair our kitchen light fixture and reap the rewards of Tivo by watching the train crash top gear!


Cool pictures of inside-out stuffed animals.


Jake Shimabukuro Makes His Ukulele Gently Weep For Conan


Something good from W. Bush – on Friday, February 15, 2008, the President signed into law:

H.R. 3541, the “Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007,” which prohibits the automatic removal of telephone numbers registered on the Federal “do-not-call” registry; and

S. 781, the “Do-Not-Call Registry Fee Extension Act of 2007,” which extends permanently the authority of the Federal Trade Commission to charge fees to telemarketers required to access the Federal “do-not-call” registry and specifies the fees to be charged.

Both measures passed the House on a voice vote and cleared the Senate by unanimous consent.

Statement by the Press Secretary
Do Not Call Registry saved from mandatory reset


1 year ago – hyperdrive, my youtube account collapses, My first moment of unhappiness with Obama and hope vs Clinton, ovid

2 years ago – 2nd life, pics, monkey-sphere, bloodhound gang,

3 years ago – sushi and dan walkies, hunter thompson quits, cadmus jlu, freedom force, community populations, compusa rsolution, blinky explodes,

4 years ago – Monkey-mouse sperm, Alignments

5 years ago – weird news, oddball keywords, Russians link to me, community stats, mermaid art.

6 years ago – booboo’ed, Sally Struthers as soap-opera mind control, man stabbed with a swordfish.

7 years ago – Wanting things, noggin ache, Net use statsGeotarget

9066 – Thursday

Lunar Eclipse last night was lovely… clear skies, snowy ground and crisp air. A good time to be outside and looking at the sky, if just for a moment.

Somebody made a sacrifice somewhere, and the moon came back. Next time, the gods won’t be so kind!

Warnings about ice tomorrow… I may get a long weekend… (if my internet and power goes out… or I may get to work form home!) Then again, I may get to go into the office that’s mostly empty, and get a lot of work done there, too. I suspect any or all will be win.

Lovely leftover dinner tonight… last of the mexican bake while BHK and I watch The Last Legion. I think that she liked it more than I did… How’d they get Mr. Darcy, Ghandi and the Mistress of the spices together to make this flick? Apparently the Goths were vikings with scottish accents.


Six unused cases of recalled beef will be thrown away by schools in Maryland and Virginia. Said a school spokesperson, “Now that we know what it is, we can no longer call it mystery meat.”


Pictures of Awakening’s Move


So… Bush’s Approval rating is now 19%. Sweet Christmas.

(To break it down further 1100 people asked – Among Republicans (29% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 45% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 50% disapprove. Among Democrats (43% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 1% approve and 99% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Among independents (28% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 17% approve and 75% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.)


This is Newton and Pyewacket, almost to a T.

I’ve neglected to mention that we watched the pilot for the new Knight Rider series.

It was only worth it for the Hoff cameo, and even that was pretty weak. Thank goodness for tivo and fast forward.

Psych was a little too scooby-doo for me last night… but watching the outtake of them singing “Somebody’s Watching Me” made it more than worth it. I also saw the graduation episode of Kim Possible. Nice that Drakken has some utility after all.


BHK was blessed with a double-kitty snuggle last night… I was too fidgety for the kitty love, apparently.


HD DVD is officially dead. Well, I’m glad we didn’t get Larry that DVD player for Xmas!


Giant fossilized frog named for the devil.

A giant frog that hopped around Madagascar 65–70 million years ago has been discovered.

Fossil fragments show that the frog, called Beelzebufo ampinga, could have measured 20 centimetres across its squat head, and probably more than 40 centimetres from snout to tail. The researchers nicknamed the monstrous beast ‘the frog from hell’; the official name comes from one of the many names for the devil (Beelzebub) and the Latin for ‘toad’ (bufo).


This college grad decided to live on the streets with just $25 and a gym bag to see if he could make it without any of the trappings of his upbringing, privileges, or contacts. After 10 months, he was moving into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had a savings of around $5,000. The point of the story is supposed to be that people are poor because they have bad attitudes. Which is technically true, but maybe he should do an experiment to see what being born poor will do for your “positive outlook.” – via consumerist.

Add a few more elements, like mental / physical health plus his gender, age and skin tone into the mix, and I’d be interested to see how much harder it’d be to get by if you changed variables around. I don’t like the implication that “anyone could do it”.

I also wonder who was left out of the shelter he stayed in for the first few months of his experiment? Did they go hungry as a result? Sleep on the street?

The more I think about it, the more I’d like to see him actually in the circumstances of hopelessness and fear being homeless can bring. I feel that knowing the safety net is there will give a false sense of confidence and comfort, too.

Anyone can go camping when they know full well that they could fix things with a phone call… how’s that song go?

You’ll never live like common people,
you’ll never do what common people do,
you’ll never fail like common people,
you’ll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there’s nothing else to do.

He got to bail due to a personal tragedy at home… who else is allowed that? It’s a lousy experiment when you can change the variables and conditions at whim.


1 year ago – sunset and duck pics, naked gun, phone hearing w/florida, cyn’s new (now old) space!

2 years ago – 2nd life, frankenbox windows issue, modified newtcam subdomain, Samuel, I’m a nine

3 years ago – Atlantic shores hosp, motherboards, jokers utility belt, 2-headed baby, paris hilton hacked, jlu, angry beavers, comic essentials, danny teaches school about graphic novels, six-gun gorilla, ash, icon origin

4 years ago – Wishing for Dr. Feng Shui, Quit FFXI, Time out with Danny and his wife

5 years ago – DDoS on LJ, Friday five, Nordis is full of crap, parking spots pictures, The Groovenians = blah

6 years ago – robo-triffid, daily pictures, back hurting

7 years ago – Chariots of the Gods, reminders, Geocities stops hot links, my nesting instinctGeotarget

9064 – tues

Getting cooler already… 44 today as opposed to 74 yesterday. Let’s hope this isn’t an even slope into the weekend!

Best bumper sticker seen this weekend – “What would Scooby Do?”

Veggie stir fry with red rice tonight… yummy. broccoli, snap beans, snow peas, and carrots…. nom nom nom.

BHK and I were watching the Chocolate Challenge last night, where one of the contestants goofed up the Statue Of Liberty in Chocolate… fubared the arm, headdress and the tablets were missing (But did pretty well, considering the height of stress that seemed to be going on) – had me thinking of a Cloverfield moment. Apparently this image happens more often than I thought. (found via fark) I knew Planet of the Apes, of course, A.I., and Escape from New York… but look at ’em all. I totally forgota about the way-cool Thundarr the Barbarian one, and the Scene from Superman II.


Noel Kern’s Flickr has some amazing long-open shutter pics. Same with ihveissues.


The Pentagon says it has to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite because of the threat of a toxic gas cloud. Space security experts are calling the rationale highly unlikely. “Having the US government spend millions of dollars to destroy a billion-dollar failure to save zero lives is comedic gold,” one tells DANGER ROOM.


There’s going to be a total lunar eclipse Wednesday evening, (February 20th), which should turn the moon deep red as Earth’s shadow passes over it. Maximum eclipse will be at 10:26 PM EST and 7:26 PST. Besides North and South America, the eclipse will be from South America and most of North America (on Feb. 20) as well as Western Europe, Africa, and western Asia (on Feb. 21). The next Lunar Eclipse is due December 2010.


Fidel Castro has formally stepped down as the president of Cuba, ending one of the longest tenures in the world as a head of state. Castro, 81, has been suffering from a long illness associated with a colon infection, and gave temporary power to his brother, Raúl Castro, 76, in 2006. Whether his resignation actually sparks changes in Cuba’s system of government remains to be seen, and many experts appear to be skeptical as to whether Fidel will actually accept a less active role in governing the country. Still, the end of Castro’s reign over Cuba marks a significant day in world history. President Bush has called for the release of Cuba’s political prisoners.


1 year ago – Amy visit ends, truncated thought, Mexican and Chinese food, weak internet

2 years ago – super corkscrew, new video card, pin up girls,

3 years ago – missed my condo, thin man, wall pictures, blue ice, geocache fountain, joker utility belt

4 years ago – CoH preorder, getting a TENS

5 years ago – sleepy and rock-headed

6 years ago – nice dreams, String Cheese Incident, Feng Tzu-Chen, FMM poop, cool swiss mecha-island

7 years ago – placentophagy, haiku, poop on TampaGeotarget

9062 – sunday

spent the bulk of the day indoors with tv and the kitties – bhk a little sick, my back was creaky. Nice day to stay in, relax, and not wear shoes all day.

Watched The Soup, Redneck weddings and read books the whole day away. A nice way to recharge after yesterday’s long-term walkies.

Tree-trimmer guys came back and hammered down the bridge part they knocked over – and finished trimming and proper cleanup.


Jumper‘s getting quite the stinky reviews. Maybe we’ll just wait and catch it on Netflix when it drops to DVD… next weekend. 15%… by comparison, Hottie & the nottie got 7%. if it’s only barely twice as good as a Paris Hilton vehicle, I’ll pass. Jumper got 15 positive reviews and 88 negatives as of this writing.

I’m still game to see No Country for Old Men. – 94%, 179 positive, 11 negative reviews.


The Pentagon will try to shoot down a spy satellite before it crashes to Earth. I want to see the video of that.


Princeton engineers’ weather modeling suggests that the city of Baltimore experienced about 30 percent more rainfall than the region it occupies would have experienced had there been no buildings where the city now sits. While thunderstorms are thought of as being purely forces of nature, the research suggests that man’s built environment can radically alter a storm’s life cycle.


1up has a list of what game companies have donated to which candidates – sort of interesting to see which designers / folks went where.

data gathered via fundrace – a really nifty tool to see what’s up – my zip code shows $840 dollars went to Republicans, and $0 to Democrats, while my in-laws city (right next door) donated $3,426 to Republicans and $1,800 to Democrats

Austin, TX is a little more happy to spend on both sides… it is a bigger city… I was surprised that it spent just a little bit less than Miami.


1 year ago – Sleepover with Amy & Tina, Jackass 2, annapolis pix, ducks, dogma, and Alex Haley.

2 years ago – lego service, lion roar, LS left, misc linkies, nccic, yeti beware sign, (fo)-chief’s letter

3 years ago – Movies, backup tech training, miss mcdonald, themed fonts, stinky, fear of physics, captain’s blog

4 years ago – client crapped out, slow awakening, urge to box, comet collisions, Planet Osiris

5 years ago – early to bed, doctor thoughts, Politi-talk

6 years ago – Pym, argument about writing, haiku, I look like jupiter, pink for vboys, blue for girls, they have a word for it

7 years ago – more crazy haiku, profession of love, seeking a new gig, tough dreams, gooterGeotarget

9059 – Thursday

Happy Valentines Day!

Got a lovely Kermit the frog card from BHK. Words can’t even begin to describe how much love I have for her. I hold her dearly in my heart. She makes every day a valentiney sort of day. Hard to get too worked up about a day that’s all about love and affection when I’m immersed in it all the time.

That’s a good thing!

As ol’ Bill Shakespeare put it,

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Tonight, we exchanged chocolates, and BHK made tasty mexican bake for me and the in-laws. (well, Chris… Larry had Hot dogs.) Dessert was 3-chocolate ice cream and orange cake with milk chocolate icing. nom nom nom.  More fun din  din news to follow, I’m sure.


The most awesome collection of superhero toys in one blister pack.

Movie Spidey 3 with a baseball bat!
Superman with a crossbow and terrible chest logo, riding a roaring dinosaur!
Bare-booty Hulk!
Pretty Decent Design Batman!

I would so totally pay three dollars for that. (But then again, I’d dig a Han Solo in Carbonite mini-fridge, too)


Metro says there were 84 assaults against Metrobus drivers in 2007, an increase of more than 50 from 2002. Now they’re talking about putting protective shields in for the drivers…. what about the other passengers? via WTOP


Two new dinos identified – Two previously unknown types of meat-eating dinosaur have been identified from fossils unearthed in the Sahara desert.


via Scheiner – Offshore oil rig evacuated after someone dreamed of a bomb.


I heard waterboarding referred to as a “mild form of torture” today.

The words torture and mild don’t go together in my book – not a gray area, as far as I’m concerned. Like “slightly excruciating”.


I just discovered SourceTV – pretty keen for game spectators. Not a bad way to develop strategy, either. (Learned about it per the huge Team Fortress 2 update – including a map with a train! – Nice of them to give gamers with no significant other something to do on valentine’s day.)


List of Famous (and kinda-sorta famous, maybe) Scientologists. I still can’t believe I missed hearing about Jason Lee.


1 year ago – stayed in for ice storm smashes our fence, ice pictures

2 years ago – Sand dollar, interjection poll, Miami cloud art, bro drama, Bang!

3 years ago – dream, war tuning, slacker, torrent tv, gm-ginger kitties, questions meme, christo, newt stalking pic, zefrank’s st. val history, whims-cute card, work peeve

4 years ago – V-day, hippie visit results, Nefertiti documentary mostly drama – not much document, cheese doodle sculpture, anonymous reviewer bug amazon

5 years ago – got the nordis gig, palm pics

6 years ago – n V-day poetry, JB figures out about SA & Me, wandering pics

7 years ago – How Do I Love Thee?, I resemble Dan Conner, Men cause the mutations, tea room & old TV, TMBG lyricGeotarget

9058 – weds

I need to call Val and wish her a good b’day… also the mom-in-law’s birthday. We went to Mama Lucia’s, and then back to headquarters for cake and gifts. She got Becoming Jane, the Jane Austen Book Club, a box of girl scout trefoils, and a load of mushy cards.

Power went out this morning, but was back on by 6ish. Lots of high winds and cold… another ice storm on the way late tonight? The roads weren’t as bad tonight as yesterday.


Crime scene template… I covet it, and want to get one for BHK. I was amused by the inclusion of nun-chucks.


Cool history of the moment – The Cadaver Synod – Pope Stephen VI, consecrated in 896, ordered the rotting corpse of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, be exhumed and put on trial for various crimes against the church. Poor bastard was nine-months dead when they dug him up. Stephen dressed the ripe stiff in papal robes, propped it up in a chair, and proceeded to scream unintelligibly at it for several hours in front of a rapt audience. Afterwards, Formosus was declared guilty and his body was dragged through the streets of Rome, then thrown into the river Tiber. Not surprisingly, the morbid spectacle turned public opinion against Stephen. Rumors spread that the dead pontiff had washed up on the banks of the Tiber and was performing miracles. Stephen VI was eventually deposed and strangled to death in prison.

– Coilhouse was kind enough to remind me.


The only game idea better than velociraptor safari (you’re a velociraptor tooling around in a jeep, trying to run over raptors with a ball and chain hanging from the back of the vehicle) is jetpack brontosaurus. (Self explanatory.)


I heard the state of Virginia referred to as “Vajayjay” on the bus tonight, talking about weathe rand not getting to vote in time. That’s just got to stop, or my brain will explode. Oh, the pain. The pain!

Speaking of voting, I want to remind myself in the future of something. I’m not happy with *any* of our current candidates. Hillary is the most evil, but that doesn’t mean that I’m Obama‘s big fanboy. He’s just not as bad as she is. McCain is the least evil on the republican side, I feel… not that it’s hard to be the least evil in that batch.

I’m glad that the polls in Maryland stayed open an extra 90 minutes to allow for everyone stuck in the wet traffic yesterday.


The creepiest person you’ve gamed with. There’s a reason I’m picky about gamer pals. The story of Jack. Not for the squeamish. I can honestly say that to the best of my knowledge, they’ve all gotten up to use the restroom.

Thread stats here for more etc. I’ve mentioned some folks I’ve encountered over the years.


1 year ago – local wildlife pic, ice storm coming, feeling better

2 years ago – chilly?, swollen uvula, nohari, bongos, GND moving (she’s since married… as have I!), cookies?, auto stitched comic spread, super squid

3 years ago – ren-fest thoughts, bro-religion scam thoughts, lair, pretzel prefs, grocery store, lj-buddy collage, valentines zod, moris tepper, elektra barbie, unix cheatsheet, lj user a sexual predator

4 years ago – Ft13th, urban beasts, photo memes, workers screwing up, Joel Veitch (Elephants, Yeah!), Mage knight with Dave

5 years ago – bro mooching, gas prices , newt’s Problem solving, Nice email, scabby palm pics, space giants, Walter adopted

6 years ago – Alton Brown, Melting pot month, ornj on the mend, talky newt, sleepy day, condiment museum

7 years ago – lost empires, pipe-smoking monkey sings Sanford and sonGeotarget