Tag Archives: work

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9020 – thurs

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Busy day at work – they had me before I even sat down – doing a lot of quick database fixes. a few items got confused, fortunately, we’re all good about keeping proper backups to all triggers, tables and such before doing any fiddling.

This is National Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day. Ah well, I missed it! Maybe next year. Probably not. I wouldn’t mind getting a Plush version of a Water Bear. (also known as Moss Piglets)

Tasty Junk food treat – Kellogg’s Cereal Straws– I’m a bit more partial to the Froot Loops version over Cocoa Crispies, but both were snacky-good. The first think BHK said to me was that “Matt is totally going to review these, and you’re going to have wanted ’em, so I beat him to the punch”…. and they are yummy, even without milk.

The Office was one of the better episodes in a long time… funny, and bittersweet, too. Ugly Betty is just ludicrously goofy as well.

Moment of lyric – via – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeNO56xNlZo

Well, I’d like to visit the moon
On a rocket ship high in the air
Yes, I’d like to visit the moon
But I don’t think I’d like to live there
Though I’d like to look down at the earth from above
I would miss all the places and people I love
So although I might like it for one afternoon
I don’t want to live on the moon

I’d like to travel under the sea
I could meet all the fish everywhere
Yes, I’d travel under the sea
But I don’t think I’d like to live there
I might stay for a day there if I had my wish
But there’s not much to do when your friends are all fish
And an oyster and clam aren’t real family
So I don’t want to live in the sea

I’d like to visit the jungle, hear the lions roar
Go back in time and meet a dinosaur
There’s so many strange places I’d like to be
But none of them permanently

So if I should visit the moon
Well, I’ll dance on a moonbeam and then
I will make a wish on a star
And I’ll wish I was home once again
Though I’d like to look down at the earth from above
I would miss all the places and people I love
So although I may go I’ll be coming home soon
‘Cause I don’t want to live on the moon
No, I don’t want to live on the moon

Video games may reduce gender gap in spatial ability

Jimmy Carter: I Don’t Think It. I Know It Certainly. The Bush Administration Tortures.

1 year ago – YOP, pictures of neighborhood life, tussionex,

2 years ago – mopey, monkey-children in danger on bikes, herm boo-boo ankle, M*A*S*H during bloodwork

3 years ago – mr skelly, grocer, cheap CDs, eye of the storm, mass e-mail, Trolley, Dad’s Home,Reefer man, Herc/Xena ‘toon, Halloween clip art, Doom, Giant ape,subterranean hawk men dance, Hats, bro, context, walkabout pictures

4 years ago – Bewitched name revelation, surgery dream, pumpkin stencils, Joker Poll,Bro shenanigans, misc cool linkies, dia de los muertos, book of sand

5 years ago – PB&J otter, saw Ray Iglesias, worldwar, magic pebble, Made a DanHeroclix, Hot shower, Beekeeping, Zombie – alert, boogie man poll

6 years ago – Jiffy-pop monkeys, chimera / tantivy, evil news, haiku, bus ride, brain edibility probe, DB wrecks work surfing at IMT

7 years ago – Morning walkies, back when I worked the noon-8 shift, grumps, worddetective, post 509, god’s wheel, million monkeys, missed debates Geotarget

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8991 – fri

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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

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8983- thurs

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My office furniture arrived, so I moved into my new office in the “west wing” today. The new office is a little bit smaller and more oddly-shaped than the old one, but placement is good. Two doors from the prez, one from development, and one from the small conference room.

Little Hoff Doll! How cute! How Evil! Clever… wish I’d have thought of it. I think I’m a little more partial to little mr t, however.

Speaking of goodies… One year wedding anniversary is in October… one year is paper for gifts, right? Maybe Zombie Fluxx is part of it this year? It looks like it’ll be released before our date on the 25th.

Why is it that whenever someone has a list to choose a favorite color, orange is often left off?

Yesterday, on the ride home, Chris asked if I was always such a serious person. Does she know me at all? I’m pretty confident that I’ve been a goof in her presence more than a few times… in fact, I thought that my serious discussion had pretty darn goofy undertones.

Two useful sites discovered recently on FF list –

http://www.seeqpod.com/ a quite nice playable music search, and podcrawler.

http://www.traffic.com/Washington-DC-Traffic/Washington-DC-Traffic-Map.html – nifty traffic source.. works for other cities, too.

1 year ago – Illuminati perfection, venture brothers, aerial photos Miami, voting, heifer.org charity, America’s Most (And Least) Efficient Charities, Affie Jones, stand on your own head for a change

2 years ago – stream of thought, arcade games, newt, tolerance, comics, Danny elfman, tv, newtcam pic, rome, gaming, sheep don’t you know the road, fema issues, bob denver RIP

3 years ago – hurricane home movie, happy to be home, pentagon crash snopes

4 years ago – annoying LL, death, IRC pix, gender genie, toys, sunset, rainy day

5 years ago – Crash Bonsai, sticky song poll

6 years ago – Hammer-Wheel, Beijing, Stephen Foster, Mystery men Hiring, soap hair

7 years ago – Suzy goes to the Clink Geotarget

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8962 – Tues

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Chewing through a very solid work week – A lot of items on the desk to weed through. SQL is taking top priority, given our release date, but there are a lot of items to deal with from various aspects of the web site to planning budgets.

It’s a pretty challenging gig, and I like it like that. Not a lot of time to learn, but learn-as-you-go seems to be the rule for any tech thing nowadays.

Not enough code to worry about at work? Here’s some icehouse game java in the works, too. I’m not even going to look at that stuff until sometime in 2008, most likely – after crunch time at the office.

Taco night with the in-laws and BHK’s longtime pal Lucas (edit – LUKE! NOT LUC!) – he’s in town for a span before going off to NY or CA for work. I hope we get to have him over a few more nights before he launches – perhaps he’ll be interested in playing some parlor games in addition to any chick flicks that he and BHK both seem to dig.

I am very weary tonight – hitting the sack early. I don’t know if it’s the rainy weather, or what, but I’ve been feeling a need to snooze. I’m all for cool, misty days, and if a little sleepiness is a result, that’s ok, too. I think that I may be a bit tired due to a lack of unwinding when I first got home… I’ll try to kick off my shoes and change into some play clothes a bit sooner tomorrow.

Saw our “whatever” sort of bird of prey in our backyard… still sans camera, so a animated drawing will have to suffice.

‘Serial killer marked victims on a chessboard’ Continue reading 8962 – Tues →

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8921 – Thursday

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For no good reason, a picture of Alan’s rug.
alan's keeno rug

Netforum 2006/01 or /02? Upgrade is looking pretty essential. That’s been part of my work lately, reviewing the next build and how well it’ll get into place. I just want it to be as seamless as possible… minimise any growing pains.

Being a giant guy has the side effect of being used as a mobile landmark. I’ve had folks tell their kids that if the get lost, look for me in a crowd. Not for me to babysit ’em, just that my head and shoulders tend to bob above other folks nearby. Also, it appears that I’m one of those “hey, I know you” types. I look both kind and trustworthy as well as looming and scary. I guess it depends on if I’ve shaved around the goatee and am more awake than walking dead. (In that case, folks cross the street to get away from me.) I’ve been in Maryland for about eight months now, and my newest gig just one. I’ve already been invited to a lot of picnics, parties, etc…. I don’t think it’ll be too long before the combination of North Beach’s small-townishness and other friendlies at work spirals it back up to a broader friends base. Right now I’m still a bit of “BHK’s Hubby” or “Larry’s Son-in-law”.

Back in the old days (when I was in high school and thereabouts) I was Mr. connected. Everyone knew me, or knew of me through someone else. I’m not sure how that happened, but I suspect it’s a side effect of the landmark issue above. I seldom bothered anyone, and folks rarely gave me any guff. I’m not as connected anymore – living in a new state, new job, etc. This came up during a little message exchange with Sirenity… regarding people who get talked to or “hey do I know you”ed a lot.

Dreamt of a white panel van with the word destruction on it. – BHK and I were hunting down somebody who sold us a faulty bed. We were pretty mad…. I wonder what we were going to do once we got the guy? That has no relation to the sailboat dream where all we had to eat was trader joes snacks that had gone stale. We were trapped on a catamaran with a big bag of stale crisps and candy-coated sunflower seeds… and no clean water.

Picked up a pair of new shirts, and two new ties. I never thought I’d ever own a purple shirt I could wear to work. I *really* never thought I’d ever wear a tie to work. Who knew? I actually enjoy putting on a corporate noose every here and again, even though it’s not required wear in the office. It makes me feel a bit more professional and has the sense of a “uniform” to keep me a bit more focused on my tasks.

Sting from the Macaroni Grill wasp has completely faded.. .it really didn’t feel like a sting so much as a very brief electrical shock followed by swelling.

Chore Wars lets you claim experience points for household chores. By getting a few people in your house or workplace to sign up, you can assign experience point rewards to individual chores, and see how quickly each of you levels up. Experience points are tracked both as weekly high-score charts, and as ongoing character sheets – every time you rack up 200XP of chores, your character gains a “level”, and their class changes to match the type of chores that they’ve been doing. (here’s my character, if you want to invite me to your party )

Random notes on my lj, and communites maintained

[info]scottobear

– 239 lj readers – Journal entries:8,920 / Comments Posted: 57,182 – Received: 57,141

[info]menstrualhut

– 2362 members – Journal entries:8,104 / Comments:Posted: 0 – Received: 42,699

[info]fishstories

– 3 members -Journal entries:36 / Posted: 0 – Received: 181

[info]haikuarena

– 106 members – Journal entries:484 Posted: 0 – Received: 1,114

[info]coloringbook

– 174 members – Journal entries:154 Posted: 251 – Received: 688 (How does the community comment, or was that pre-conversion?)

[info]live_journalia

– 10 members – Journal entries:72 Comments:Posted: 0 – Received: 168

pseudofic accounts are all long dormant. Maybe it’s time to start up the fish stories account again?

1 year ago – day moving fast, stop motion video, minimum wage variances, pumpernickel, 2-word meme, a-z meme, dvd decrypter, World Party – Ship Of Fools,

2 years ago – danny, bro, top40, riverwalk autostitched, farcry, sneak peak at Pirates of the Carib2: Davy Jones

3 years ago – Pictures, Newtcam, flipper, Miami population, picasa, alligator as weapon, flash, TMBG, Franco-Prussian war, TU, amber alert/web, php rant, meat hooking, ADP uppity

4 years ago – freeflow, dream, Superman, heart in hand, bear attacks sub

5 years ago – caving dreams, piracy, anagram server, no-longer newt-time icon, irrational deodorant mixing fear, fun hidden camera show, monopoly variants, true porn clerk stories, phobias, paperback cover gallery, 100 years of jell-o ads, missing scary link pic

6 years ago – carom, evil news, fave monopoly token poll, rude awakening, OTR, impressed with flash, and feelin’ romantic

7 years ago – zoe’s bday and loverlips adds Geotarget

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8905 – Friday the 6th

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Lots done at work today… a good ending to the week. I have to get with CS first thing on Monday (or after she’s back) about streamlining more processes. I’m pretty pleased with the current learning curve and the gang there thus far.

Outside of work – Autorealm – reminder to self – investigate other uses.

Tonight, we’d planned on a visit to see Sweeney Todd – but the venue wasn’t up to the task of seating us. However, we may make plans make it easier in the future. (Thoroughly Modern Millie may have better odds.) instead, we wandered around Annapolis, had a lovely bite to eat at Davis’ Pub (the onion rings were especially to my liking) and then went to see the latest Die Hard movie. Not bad… took place in Baltimore / DC (sort of a one globby city) and had lots of explosions and beaten up Bruce Willis in it.

We also got to visit the Maryland Kwik-E-Mart – pictures will follow of this nifty bit-o-advertising later in the week. Our Clerks were I. P. Freely, and Mae B. Drunk.

I would really like to get this… (via ectoplasmosis )

octo

During a routine underwater expedition, these unfortunate frogmen were attacked by a giant radioactive octopus! Will their harpoon guns, daggers and pruning shears be enough to defeat this terror of the deep or will they all be eaten alive? Each set includes twelve, 2-1/2″ hard vinyl frogmen and one, 9″ soft vinyl octopus that glows in the dark!

Frogmen vs. Radioactive Octopus

also via ecto –

Count Gottfried von Bismarck, who was found dead on Monday aged 44, was a louche German aristocrat with a multi-faceted history as a pleasure-seeking heroin addict, hell-raising alcoholic, flamboyant waster and a reckless and extravagant host of homosexual orgies…

The great-great-grandson of Prince Otto, Germany’s Iron Chancellor and architect of the modern German state, the young von Bismarck showed early promise as a brilliant scholar, but led an exotic life of gilded aimlessness that attracted the attention of the gossip columns from the moment he arrived in Oxford in 1983 and hosted a dinner at which the severed heads of two pigs were placed at either end of the table.

When not clad in the lederhosen of his homeland, he cultivated an air of sophisticated complexity by appearing in women’s clothes, set off by lipstick and fishnet stockings.

Count Gottfried von Bismarck Obituary GeotargetVisitor Map

1 year ago – gamer soap, Christian Democracy myth, death bypasses convictions, ln quiz

2 years ago – Bard’s Tale, bro/snarly, solfeggio, Easter manatee rush, Tropical Storms Cindy and Dennis, heroclix, bro relocating

3 years ago – creepy Vizcaya pictures, cake man, Lego zombies, edible panties with twizzlers, Helped Danny set up website, JLU

4 years ago – harry potter quiz, history returns

5 years ago – bad sleeps, odd dreams, bed frame replaced, stats, LJ scam, villain supply, reading Earth, getting used to bro as neighbor, Scotto factoid poll

6 years ago – tirade, suberic, slinky/cult, evil news

7 years ago – got a nice letter from Christin, Emo Philips GeotargetVisitor Map

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8902 – Tuesday

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BHK called me Scooter Libby ! (Keith Olbermann delivers arguably his most pointed and most powerful Special Comment yet on the ramifications of Bush’s commutation of Libby’s sentence. video_wmv Download (20263) | Play (28541) video_mov Download (9616) | Play (15158) ) WTF, mate? I’m not a rat… nor do I have cronies that can get me off the hook; maybe she thought that Scooter is too beautiful to go to jail? Perhaps they should have sentenced him to death by lethal injection; Bush seems to have no problem with that being too “excessive.”

Half day at work today – Good thing, because there’s so much to take care of before the fireworks tonight. BHK will be making some of her classic “mexican-bake-lasagna-thingie” of which I am a huge fan. Yes I am.

Got a kindly warning driving into work – 51 in a 40, a big traffic stop grabbing everyone who goes around a major turn. Police in Maryland are more polite to BHK than they are in Florida.

Also seen on the way in was a sickly-looking fox that got a “go home kitty!” and then “Kitty doesn’t look so good” before we realised what the animal actually was. I hope it wasn’t sick… odd to see a fox out in the city sidewalks.

Alerted yesterday by Jon at the DC Traveler that the mighty Titan Arum has begun blooming at the US Botanic Garden. He was, no doubt, tipped off by the oh-so-lovely smell of rotting corpse wafting through his window, which the flower uses to attract meat-loving (at least, meat-stench-loving) bugs to pollinate it. The giant, odorous plant seems to be falling into habit, blooming every two years since 2003 — before that it hadn’t bloomed in 12 years, and the species is usually known to bloom unpredictably.

Not only does the “Corpse Plant” feature the mouth-watering fragrance of dead rats, but it grows to fairly enormous heights, with some wild-growing plants (they’re native to Indonesia) reaching 12 feet tall, though most average a still impressive five feet. If you’re interested in seeing the purpley-crimson color that reveals itself as the petals open up, you must act quickly. The Titan Arum slowly began budding in June, but reached full bloom and began emitting its zombie-licious fragrance the day before yesterday, so you’ve only got perhaps today and maybe tomorrow to catch this unusual sight. At least for a couple of years.

The US Botanic Garden is located at 100 Maryland Avenue, SW and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m

Fireworks were quite lovely tonight; I didn’t expect a show of that magnitude from a small town… pretty close to the Miami show in volume… twin barges full of mortars just went to town at about 9:30pm. [attach flickr pictures here]

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8901 – Monday

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Restless night sleeping, accidentally booted Newt off the bed once, but he stuck with me throughout the night. BHK was restless too, but I didn’t leg-sweep her out. Pye visited briefly, but high-tailed it after the barest commotion. I dreamt that BHK and I were hunting animals, tagging them for reference, and re-releasing ’em into the wild. A side effect of geocaching, perhaps?

Bugah & Neil went fishing – to no avail, as the water was too choppy.

Half day tomorrow! North Beach Fireworks are going to be something else!

via jwz – Search for Lonesome George mate is long shot

While scientists search for a mate for “Lonesome George” — the last known survivor of a species of Galapagos tortoise — some say the effort to fend off extinction may be in vain. Even if a mate is found, George has not been interested in reproducing in the past and may not know how, former keepers and others who have worked with him said.

“He has problems … he probably never saw a female and male of his own species reproducing,” said Swiss biologist Sveva Grigioni, who worked with George 13 years ago.

Grigioni, now back in Switzerland, said she could normally get tortoises to ejaculate within minutes, but spent months manually stimulating George and never extracted semen from him.


Age is not George’s problem. He is estimated at between 60 and 90 years old, and could live to be 200 and still reproduce, scientists say.

The visual differences in tortoises from different islands were among the features of the Galapagos that helped 19th Century British naturalist Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution. Since then, the tortoises have been hunted by pirates for their meat and their habitat eaten away by goats introduced onto the islands. George, who weighs 198 pounds, was found on Pinta in 1971.

Reviewing Openads for the company’s ad server for the web. it seems pretty reputable and reliable, thus far.

Fire drill this morning was a welcome break in the day – cool outside, everyone seemed laid back and calm – helped move the rest of the time that much more rapidly. the 2pm meeting went well… lots of good information for me to ruminate over the next few projects. I really dig that I’m in an environment that will allow me to use the skills I have! (Last gig wasn’t bad, but a lot of repetition. This time, there’s a lot of room for creative thought along with brute force.

Day closed with S’mores over a fire pit, some preview fireworks, and then Bugah and I played a bit of “Destroy All Humans”. Not a bad thing.

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8900 – fire drill! 070207 1012a.jpg – No smoke, no fire

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0702071012a.jpg, originally uploaded by scottobear.

fire drill… it was fun going *DOWN* 11 flights. thank goodness we can take the elevator back up! Nice morning for it.. cool outside, maybe 72F. Beats summertime noon.

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8895 – Thursday

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Took BHK and her mom out for Mexican dinner last night, as the mom-in-law is a bachelorette while LB is in Salem, working on the house to be rented. I think CB will head up there with Tigger this weekend, and depending on how our guest plans pan out, perhaps BHK or possibly even the two of us will go up to help straighten things out as well.

I look at the commute to work with planner’s eyes lately… which I find funny, due to suspicions that much of Maryland’s growth has gone far outside any of her initial city / county-wide designs. The way a tiny village can swell to a small town and even a huge city like Baltimore is a fascinating evolution.

Perhaps it’s due to my new job and playing Sim City / Carcassone-type games, but looking at residential areas, how roads, rivers and rail act as amazing connection between homes, churches, businesses, farms, graveyards and whatnot. There are many relationships between people and terrain. I love how almost every church here has an attached bone yard, and how broad the space can appear be between the towns. Sometimes, it’s only one road into and out of town, which gives a huge sense of isolation, but also one of knowing that it is connected to *somewhere* else. The fact that I can wander around and see so much history (granted, the majority from the 18th century onward) fascinates me to no end. Sometimes when I look at places in Calvert County, I can mentally see what it was like before older structures weathered so much and the newer structures were put in between (or added onto the elder ones). Still-operating horse drawn buggies driven by the Amish frequently help with the visualization.

There are old bridge pilings without the road-sections across the top near 95 that look like ancient ruins; the new on-ramp doesn’t really match the travel route of the old path. I wonder how many abandoned roads and paths were lost once asphalt and gasoline-powered vehicles became the standard?

Sometimes it seems like each little town is made from the same (or at least very similar) parts from the one just before it, up the road a ways. That church was on the other side of the road, and the tobacco barn was brown, not gold… and about a half-mile to the northeast. The whole place was at the foot of the hill, not the top. Sometimes it seems as if the people are slightly interchangeable, as well. Soccer mom with stroller and dog. Old geezer picking up trash on the side of the road. High school kids futzing around.

The Suburbs are different than the Commuter Towns of Bowie and Waldorf… I prefer North Beach to either of those locations.

Don’t get me started on the DC roads. I don’t blame L’Enfant’s great design, as so many others came and revised the plans, but I’ll always prefer a two-way travel grid-type situation over curves for major city roads. One-way streets that curve up onto themselves and don’t simply run N/S or E/W is just asking for trouble. That said, it is a beautiful place to see.

Tonight’s supper of zucchini and squash parm with cheese tortellini and salad was fantastic. The soy flour really holds onto the veggies better than wheat. BHK really did a fantastic job! There’s a nice feeling when 80% of what’s on the dinner table is grown in your back yard – The only things bought were the salad dressing, cheese tortellini, flour, and drinks. I’m really looking forward to our potatoes and peas coming in soon… I’m also contemplating soybeans and a beehive for next year. And maybe a pair of overalls and a wide-brimmed straw hat. 😉GeotargetVisitor Map

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8893 – Wednesday –

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We are immersed in beauty but our eyes have no clear vision.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

It was broiling outside at midday… 95, but “feels like” 101! That’s some hot, swampy, yuck outside. Days like this are when I’m glad I’m not a roofer. I’m glad it’ll rain later on… hopefully that will cool things down a smidgen.

Poll thought – What’s more in line with what you like to read about in another person’s news / pop culture links?

Apple’s Iphone

Iraq

Paris Hilton

Michael Moore / health care

Gary Esposito.

Harry Potter

Danny and BHK went to see knocked up… both said that I dodged a bullet by going to work instead. Danny gave it a 4. Considering the fact that there were a couple of cute girls in it to ratchet the film up about 2 points, it must’ve really been terrible. BHK gave it a 1, saying that it’s possibly one of the two worst movies she’s ever seen. The two women behind them walked out of the movie, which is what BHK feels that I would’ve done.

I’m surprised; because those are the first two negative reviews I’ve heard about it. Hopefully BHK and I will have a better time with the new Die Hard movie. (or FF2 [even if doom is the weak point], Spidey 3, or Pirates 3, all of which neither of us has seen) It’s been a span since we last saw anything in the theater… Shrek 3, I think. I wouldn’t mind checking out 1408, for that matter.

Danny really enjoyed Shaolin Soccer, however. It is hard to say which he preferred between that and Kung Fu Hustle.
I hope he had a good time while he visited… he sure seemed to, save for a lot of commuting time and that just couldn’t be helped. He was a good sport about some minor tribulations, like the very hot green curry – BHK made some awesome mac & cheese which should obliterate any unhappy mouth-scalding memories. He got on well with BHK and Pye… declaring Pyewacket his favorite cat ever. Newton was a bit gruff with him, suspected so because Danny’s arrival almost always signaled my departure.

I was a little concerned about BHK this morning – between dropping me off at work and dropping Danny at the airport, she was in a minor collision with road debris that flew off of another vehicle – about the size of a hammer, it spun up and under the Love Cube. I’m just glad it didn’t strike her or the windshield.

I’ve come to realise that we have way too many pirate ships all over the place.. They need to be consolidated, sorted and put into some sort of storage system so we can create fleets off the cuff comfortably and with a minimum of space thievery.

More Port Authority info to chew on –

http://piers.com/

http://aapa-ports.org/home.cfm


Re-inking Thor pool in Flickr. Pretty nifty concept.

I’m thinking of trying Risus with BHK, to introduce her to RPG gaming. We didn’t get to do any RPG stuff while Danny was in town,but maybe next time. BHK and Dan played Hunters and Gatherers, and quite liked it.

Maybe do a mod of LCR , too? With blank dice , maybe.

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8886 – Thursday –

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Danny arrived yesterday with minimal difficulties. He’s currently reading Childhood’s End (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood’s_End ) The original, not the revised 1990 edition. I wonder how he’ll feel about the ending? I remember being a bit disappointed when I read it, but that was back in the 8th grade or so.

Tonight was going to end with a possible journey to Inkygypsy’s solstice party tonight with BHK and Danny, but Danny was pretty tuckered out from his visit to annapolis (as was I from a full work day), so we stayed home to unwind and relax a bit.  We played a couple of games of monsters menace america, and ate tasty stir-fry type stuff that BHK made… quite yummy, but we had to abandon the garlic-type tahini… it had gotten far too strong. 

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Learning more and more about the interaction of seaports and port authorities

(Primarily these – http://www.aapa-ports.org/, http://www.polb.com/contact/port_staff/default.asp, http://www.panynj.gov/DoingBusinessWith/seaport/html/apm.html, http://www.gaports.com/, http://www.panynj.gov/DoingBusinessWith/seaport/html/apm.html , but others as well)

and how they connect to other shipping arenas, like trucking and train freight. Currently, the whole gestalt is interesting – intermodal type transport certainly has advantages over sticking to a single method. I think that trains still hold the most fascination for me.

The more than 600 freight railroads operating today in Canada, Mexico, and the United States are vital to North America’s economic health. They form a seamless integrated system that provides the world’s most efficient, cost-effective freight service. North American railroads operate over 173,000 miles of track, and earn $42 billion in annual revenues.

Railroads remain the backbone of North America’s freight transportation network. In the U.S., railroads account for more than 40 percent of all freight transportation — and that’s more than trucks, boats, barges or planes.

Seventy percent of all automobiles produced in the U.S. move by train. So does 30 percent of the nation’s grain harvest and 65 percent of the coal, which, in turn, provides more than half of the nation’s electricity. Railroads move enough wheat to provide every man, woman and child a fresh loaf of bread six days a week… enough lumber to build almost three houses every minute of every day… and enough concrete to build 45 miles of new highway every day.

U.S. freight railroads are the world’s busiest, moving more freight than any rail system in any other country. In fact, U.S. railroads move more than four times as much freight as do all of Western Europe’s freight railroads combined.

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“How Heavy Is Dense Reading?” Supplemental:
An Oxcart Full of Knowledge http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/gifbin/2007/0615oxcarts.html 

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regarding new perm accounts – yeah, what he said. – http://springheel-jack.livejournal.com/2147714.html 

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From Wikipedia, the metric system. Three countries use non-metric measurement systems: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States. (image) Why are we still not using it?

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