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8839 – Hey! Payday!

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elephantballoon1
I need an elephant to fly my sweetheart and me away for a bit.

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Surprised at the turn of events there – Network admin position is being elevated from within, despite the outer-ring patrolling for people. I was worried that I was out of the running due to the lack of a driver’s license, but it seems more like an old-boys club issue instead.

Yesterday was ok, overall. We had a dip in the global scheme of things due to some worries and delays which I feel have passed into a more comfortable zone since. There were a few complaints due to timing issues regarding school, testing and whatnot for both of us. The MCSE test isn’t aligning with a schedule that works as well for me as it might, but I’m going to see what I can wrangle in the meantime, school and book-wise.

My revised goal is to spend at little time working out between gig-seeking sessions in the evening.

There have been a lot of dream fragments lately, working in a factory – giant gears, jets of steam, lots of levers. The bulk remembers as a building in low light, most of the machinery a dull gold or brass color. There was a sense of moisture in the air and condensing on things, along with an enduring greasy / burnt smell hanging in the air. I don’t remember what I was doing there and in what capacity, but I do recall that there were no other people in the factory area.

I’m going to get back into a pulpy phase soon, if plans to put some Dashiell Hammett on the PDA in isilo format works out. I’ve found a really good video compression agent for the psp, and a ton of house / max headroom / shield episodes waiting to be imported. (link to public domain books – copyright only lasts so long!)

We have a ton of books from the tobacco warehouse sale, too … maybe it’s time I started keeping a paperback in my lunch pail for midday reading.

The sun keeps poking through and giving brief periods of balmy warm weather. In my perverse love for the cold, clammy, gray days, the brief to a few hour long moments of warm sun and bright light seem to be the hostile moments, while the soft rains bring me a cooling cheer. Seeing steam rise from pavement or a low fog through the woods on the road near the bay makes me feel wonderful. I will admit to enjoying the play of sunlight through the fresh green trees on our “shortcut” drive home.

Today, if all goes well, BHK and I will be picking up some more shaved ice. I want to try Tiger’s Blood (and I hope it’s not just “dumb ol’ cherry”), and BHK is leaning to a sour apple / watermelon combo. If there’s no Tiger’s Blood, I may well try orange or one of the named flavors that don’t hint at the flavor at all. (Maui-Wowie was a happy discovery). Apparently, BHK wants no part of grape, though I’m in favor of the stuff.

I’m looking forward to tonight. Tentative plans include:

  • Shaved Ice
  • Depositing my Paycheck and Mailed Check into the bank.
  • Trip to the bookstore to get additional stuff for my Certifications and BHK’s Bar / Legal.
  • A game of Monsters Menace America with BHK
  • Watching Happy feet.

I get to bug out a little early and swing by the Railway Museum (link) to evaluate much of the hardware there – Printer, DVD burner, and wireless router. My initial suspicion is that the error exists between the chair and keyboard. A pity they don’t use me to do the website. it needs help.

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1 year ago – red mood doodle, super power desire as a lad, waiting room pic, newton and I on the porch pics, sand art,

2 years ago – story stuck, food cravings, national ID, locla lj leads to illegal sex, anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley admitted to engaging in homosexual and bestiality sex.

3 years ago – net out, bro bonds out, walkabout pics, sci-fi cliches, gabbed with sedef, bee vs wasp massacre.

4 years ago – Nature vs Pringles, Dan delivers Groceries, menstrualhut breaks 1000 users (now a bit more than twice that), Bush’s Military Record

5 years ago – J-bee points me at CBS Mystery theater, Sat tracking, Newtie yawn icon source, Friday five

6 years ago – swollen uvula (side effect of no cpap, snoring beat me up), dumbass Astley late with his bargain basement hardwareGeotargetVisitor Map

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8820 – Misc Steve memories

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Well, go figure! I post about Steve J, and he goes and finds my LJ. That makes 4 folks from high school reconnected! ( Clayton Griffin, Jim Goodmon, Steve Mancour and Steve Jacoby.)

It seems that SJ has been quite busy these last two decades or so. (I guess that’d follow!) He is now married, has a beautiful family, and has had broad assortment of careers. He still looks just the same – actually, probably a bit healthier than I remember. I imagine that chasing the little ones around helps a lot as a form of working out (in addition to martial arts training.) I was apparently way off on the Broward county search; He’s now on the opposite side of the continental USA in Seattle . When I got the reply to my last entry, I first thought it was from one of my LJ buddies having a prank on me. I was suspecting that perhaps Robert or some other Seattleite (Is that a word? Must be … spell-check seems to like it.) was pulling my leg. Not so – even though Steve Jacoby is a pretty common name on Google & Yahoo (The name of one of the victims from 9/11, not to mention countless others.) Beau Brumfield is less so – which led to his finding my LJ. Not sure how long he’d been reading it before yesterday when I mentioned that I’d like to hear from him – it’s been quite a while since he came up in online conversation.

Steve and I sort of lost touch after high school… he was focusing primarily on the Arts crowd and I’d slid into a more Technological Track. The last I’d heard, he had headed North to Tennessee (or perhaps Kentucky , as third hand information tends to degrade rapidly) when I was in college, and we never really kept up. He and I both gave up on Brent about the same time – Once BA started hanging out with Jaques and the LWC post-grad crowd, things degraded pretty rapidly. I sort of slid over to the James Dawsey / Robin Tunkel gaming crowd.

Random notes about Steve – both he and Brent were in my first car on the first day I was driving.

He had a VW that seemed to have one headlight perpetually out. My first experience with hearing an air-cooled engine. I can’t even guess at how many rides he gave me to places. I rode to school with Randy Leipzig (who later killed himself over a depression / girlfriend issue) and [whatshisname Justin, maybe? – curly haired guy w/ glasses.]

Horsing around the swimming pool at Lisa Gordon’s house (one of our first meetings with Lisa and Pam M), I went to push him into the water. And missed by about three feet. He got scraped up a bit, and I felt amazingly bad about it. Most likely I was especially guilty due to my being a show-off in front of Pam. Steve was a bit po’ed, but was a pretty dang good sport about it.

Pre-high school, when I went to Congress middle, he frequently helped me with my stuff onto the bus – a heavy book bag (1/3 school stuff, 2/3 reading materials not part of the curriculum D&D, generally) and a Tuba (or Baritone, depending on the day I was bringing stuff home)

Steve and I were both thugs in the LWC movie “The Arthurian Project”, and we made an assortment of goofy movies like “Raiders of the Lost Sock”. We both picked up on some very rudimentary stop motion techniques. I wonder if I still have that video tape in storage at the Deerfield Condo? Might be fun to digital transfer and post those.

All you can eat Po’ folks country fried steak night… Steve passed out and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. I thought he was goofing at first.

Steve’s dad always had tastycakes on top of the fridge, and smoked.

Ken Krupowies lived not too far from Steve’s place.

Steve, Scott Clark and I playing impossible mission and eating pizza at Clark ’s place. Clark ’s mom had a gentleman caller, and we could hear them enjoying each other’s company through the wall. I made a little comment about it and Clark turned up the TV volume, and I was never invited back. Steve said it was because I left pizza under Clark ’s bed, but I really think it was my comment. When have I *ever* left pizza behind?

Of the old gang, Steve was the nice guy of the group, and I think probably the most physically durable.

We went on a few road trips here and there – Complete Strategist, other gaming stores, the Xanadu KFC, Kevin Cummin’s Father’s cabin

Steve’s silly recreation of Clayton Griffin’s Print shop obsession

“HE’S SO MAGIC!” – a la Flaming Carrot

Playing D&D with SJ, BA, LG, PM – pre-canned sessions of silly polyhedral stupidity, Arduin grimore dungeon crawl, with day-glo orange covers.

I need to flesh each of these out some more… so BHK knows what I’m talking about, at least.

Today at work, I had First Jolly rancher in about two decades – grape. Yum.

1 year ago – sunrise, newt pic, entry analysis, searching for mp3, newts new doc, mootube, footbrint, danny visit, mighty heroes, quiz meme, RI screws up

2 years ago – EN issues, gabbed with sammy and uber, Kung fu hustle, Newt dream, ‘thulhu toons

3 years ago – I want a rest, CoH beta final night, Tornado, d’s Birthday, screen caps

4 years ago – drugstore screw up, dream, bro issues

5 years ago – chopping block, little-boy voice, I want to be Diplomat to gorilla city, tesselations, z-cardz, morikami

6 years ago – red riding hood, webhits, rear windowGeotargetVisitor Map

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8815 friday – four-twenty, duuuuude!

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Quickie – Spent the bulk of today at work prepping for the grand opening of the tiki bar. (Cyn sums it up nicely here)

Speaking of Cyn, she gave us Loreena McKennitt tickets for Tuesday! Too bad Kev isn’t nearby.. he’d love to go.

BHK feeling under the weather last night – tucked in early. I tried to get work done, but that DNS issue horked those plans but good. Upside, she’s feeling mucho better now, so our trip to visit Amy should still be AOK.

I’m going to be attending a seminar on metallurgy and geological studies with BHK, CB, LB, TM and the spaghetti lady. (ie: Some party being held for VIPs from the jewelry store) All of the aforementioned came over to our house last night for pasta, and to watch Borat and Matchstick Men. Food was good, and the movies were fun (Matchstick Men was interestingly acted, though predictable, plotwise).

DRAGON and DUNGEON to Cease Publication – The license with Wizard of the Coast is being allowed to lapse, by mutual agreement. WotC will be moving to an online model of providing D&D material, but further details are unavailable. While I haven’t been fond of Paizo’s product and haven’t read either magazine in years, it’s kind of sad to see these magazines go. The last issues will be cover dated September 2007. I really liked that in the old days there were all kinds of fun game inserts, like snit’s revenge.

Unlocked all of the “utilities” in WTF – still about 5 games left to go.

1 year ago – re:grammy, getting warmer, ad-levels in lj, sesame street, greedy greedy, politics, alzheimer’s

2 years ago – there.com still the same, random objects, little red munkee, swat monkey picture, steadfastness, bad breath, Lunsford bill passes, Detective won’t stop seeking justice

3 years ago – big brain better, no dice with GP, goof gallery of life, Man eats own toes, online commerce

4 years ago – 420 Easter, evil thought

5 years ago – palm update, bro being good, cats & dogs, Phantom patriot, little red munkee expands

6 years ago – Tired, Cheese crackers, warm fuzziesGeotargetVisitor Map

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8812 – wed

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Apparently, Comcast out here doesn’t like livejournal’s dns… and flickr’s…and yahoo… and a bunch of job-seeking sites. so much for getting work or play done online! I was able to do a few things through anonymous proxies online, but I’m not putting my passwords through there.

On 04/18/2007 between the hours of 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, the Town of North Beach experienced a sewerage discharged from Man Hole # 33 located on Bay Ave between 5th St. and 7th St.  In a 3-hour period an estimated amount of 180 gallons of sewerage discharged overflowed from the manhole into the Chesapeake Bay via the storm drain located next to the manhole.  The affected surface area was blocked off and cleaned. The cause was a blockage in the down stream main line located on 5th St.BTW Bay Ave and R261.  This section of line has a belly or depression and has frequently been a problem in the past. The line was jetted and cleared of blockage and is operational.

There has been non-stop work today. If it isn’t actual duties, the phones haven’t stopped ringing.

Random Factoid – the first deer that RD ever shot was a hermaphrodite. Apparently, that’s not too unusual, given how incestuous those guy/gal critters are.

Dreamt last night that I was telling folks about BHK taking the bar exam, and *everyone* was giving back a lame joke of “how hard is it to make a martini” or “have her bring home a mai-tai for me” sort of thing.

Saturday we get together for dinner with Amy. I have a huge urge to go to the Baltimore / National Aquarium. Maybe if one doesn’t happen this weekend, the other shall? If not, there’s always next weekend!

BHK teases me because I talk about stuff with her about who I talked to at work that day. She already knows and likes JD & RD despite not having met them yet.

Fix at the dump was easy, once we found out that they had the gate arm-lift plugged into the server’s UPS. D’oh. Trouble was compounded by folks claiming nothing had changed.

Today I discovered that “the cage” (where we send all of our discarded equipment for future review that may never come, a la the warehouse at the end of Indiana Jones) is located behind the detention center. All it’s going to take is one evil MacGuyver / Lex Luthor-type SMIB to bust out of jail to create a giant robot out of old dell monitors and forklift parts. Of course, the robot will probably turn on his creator and eventually begin a master Ultron-esque rampage to end all human life as we know it to be replaced by a more reasonable technology-based race. Ah well.

I’d rather go halfway…Make mine MODOK! (Hm, I may need to edit this icon to have BHK, Pye, and Newt all in Modok bodies)

Pictures of BHK, Pye and me scoping out a greedy mama-to-be squirrel

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I rec’d this in my email today – re: condo commando HB –

Late this afternoon he was arrested by Broward deputies here. I saw him handcuffed in the parking. Don’t have many details, but it almost certainly must have been for illegal entry (or something like that) into an apartment in A building occupied by a woman renting. We will know more tomorrow since all this should be a public record.

1 year ago – yellow + blue = no green?, pancakes, newt pix, easter bunny fight, farm hustle

2 years ago – mzk, dr who, nbc6 video feed

3 years ago – Khaan!, walkabout statue pictures, CoH, tv turnoff week, Jenjen

4 years ago – Passover, Good Friday, House of 1000 corpses, hair registry idea, past life poll

5 years ago – Pig book, Argentine ants, textarc, haiku, exploding private-parts,slug-eating plant, vibration energy, freedom force, Disney rides becoming movies

6 years ago – cartoons, weeping cherry, newt pic, web hits, Tom Green & PMS ruined my nightGeotargetVisitor Map

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8811

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doodle041707Yesterday, the power outage after work was a blessing. I didn’t need to hear all of the news time misery over what happened at Virginia Tech. I know the basics, and certainly don’t feel the need for any in-depth analysis just yet.

Due to the heavy winds and rain, the house was without power from about 2pm to right around 11:30pm. There is something to be said for snuggling up with BHK and the kitties in bed to watch a movie (X-men 3) on the last charge of the laptop. Speaking of last night’s power outage, my hand-powered flashlight came in handy for the first time in about a year. We have more than a few items with juice that we can use as a flashlight, as well. Amongst our light-throwing servitors there are a PSP (see doodle at right), a PDA, two cell phones, an unknown quantity of laptops, a GPS, and an Ipod.

This morning was another story. Since BHK’s folks both went to VT, plus the fact I live in DelMarVa in general has me inundated with the story. It’s nice to see the community pull together and support one another, but I’m just withdrawing from the topic as much as I can. Too much junk information out there on TV, too much noise to signal, too many people hurt for me to process this properly just yet. At work, it has been quiet, not too much mention of things non-work related. I figure that I’ll soak up more information by osmosis rather than pointless conjecture.

rec’d in my email –

How many copycats are out there thinking, “yeah, I could do that, I could be famous.” How much has this wall-to-wall coverage of The Cho Show are you guys going to air? When does the DVD come out? When is the made for TV movie?

By giving Cho his moment in the sun, postmortem, you’re just giving the next wacko more motivation to get famous. By declaring it, even on the day it happened the “Deadliest shooting in U.S. History,” or “Deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history,” and “Deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history,” you’re setting a mark for the next crazy guy with a gun: “Can you break this record crazy people? The score to beat is 32!”

Report the news. I don’t need to know Cho Seung-Hui’s shoe size. By “glamorizing” this insane person, you’re just egging on the next guy. Report that he left a goofy manifesto and some lame videos, but don’t plaster his videos up everywhere for ratings. Don’t worry, we’ll sit through your damn commercials.

Yeah, that sums my feelings up pretty well. The first person who tries to tie Virginia Tech shooting to violent video games, movies or music is a despicable publicity whore. Anyone willing to exploit this tragedy for media face time, or use it to support their agenda to censor media content is a pathetic excuse for a human being.

Today at work, plans were pretty straightforward. Fix a printer problem with oce’. Migrate some machines for the treasury and Sheriff’s Office. Swap out UPS’s on those that are looking a little threadbare after all of our recent power spikes.

1 year ago – dr who, secret wars, monday, sweet tomatoes, disney vault, keep cool pic

2 years ago – Homeless seen while on walkabout, mzk nearly shoots my eye out, Bo Rhap, Newt pics, mzk pic, robot doodle, lethal injections not painless?, tv interview

3 years ago – odd email, D’s bday/vanishment, manatee doodle, sammy’s sister syndicated, garlic, moon scarab

4 years ago – egg hunt stats

5 years ago – annoying day, doc trip, search terms

6 years ago – AJ’s Bday, Recording freakazoid, dsl, menstrualhut fan letter at mum.orgGeotargetVisitor Map

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8810 – RANDOM ACCESS

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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

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8807 – Friday the 13th!

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Happy Friday the 13th! (all 160 on-screen deaths from the Jason series) Warning, there’s violence. Duh.

0413070853.jpg Friday the 13th! Not so unlucky this time around. Found out that folks can wear jeans on Fridays. BHK caught sight of a nifty talker on the way into work – not sure if the barge or the sailboat underneath will be visible in the final photo that was snapped. (Photo taken at ~ 8am… pink still on the horizon.)

The Calvert county market brought in éclairs for KB and DL to thank them for dial-up. KB was kind enough to share hers with the crew, and it was heavenly. (Also, it was gigantic! One quarter was plenty for a lovely mid-morning snack.)

I plan to take BHK out tonight on a date, in order to celebrate (and deposit) my first paycheck. I’m thinking the classic Dinner and a movie dealio… maybe not grindhouse since it’s 3 hours, 12 min long.

Talkers in miniature (clicken to emgiggen)

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Later … Well… Grindhouse was ok. I liked the first half “Planet Terror” just fine, and the previews were cool, but “Death Proof” had a really good core concept, I thought that the implementation was kind of snore-y.

What I think is going on in the bay. Not too accurate, I imagine.

undersea2

http://shockingcats.ytmnd.com/ – via phillykat

1 year ago – get together?, odds & ends mp3, reality settings, on call stuff, dr who remixes (& scooby doo), transit links

2 years ago – headhunter, dr who, hovering sombrero, little cowpoke didn’t take,Dworkin, Belle & Jen interested in remixed cds, ADP adds junk, KJan Oona arrive.

3 years ago – easter afters, THC high enough to be considered hard drugs, rainy photo, leaping gnome scotto

4 years ago – bro issues, jkg, landlord

5 years ago – bigfoot research, local cams, lazy, SANTO!, Yellow pestilence, superhero movies, bill & Ted

6 years ago – food & feelings, good friday, virtual omGeotargetVisitor Map

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8806 – Thursday –

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Rainy, wet day today… but that’s just all right with me. The gray skies throw the greens of the local flora into sharp contrast. Today is also my first official payday since 2006. I think that the last 3-4ish months were something else, but it’s really good to be back in the saddle and getting something accomplished that puts some coin in the bank. This one doesn’t quite cover the mortgage, but it’ll surely help. Next one will be even better, since it’ll be nearly 2 full weeks (less Good Friday).

Last night, BHK and I totally slacked off after grocery shopping. We nibbled on chips, cookies and soda-pop in front of the Tv for a bit, before.

Whoopsied on my auto-deploy for the lj entries – I’ll have to go back and redo the dates for m/t/w. Queue dropped them in a timely way, but not backdated how I like.

Grindhouse may be a possibility this weekend if BHK is into it.

Today’s lunch is pretty dang good – Cashew Butter on Hawaiian sweet roll, the last of the heard-boiled easter eggs, mac & cheese, last of the green beans, and a pair of cherry coke zeroes.

4:29PM – I’m doing telekinetic experiments in my cube. So far, nothing has levitated. Ah well, time to go!

Door codes were changed again when one of the team unthinkingly gave them to the air conditioning repair guy. It’s a shame, because the old code was very easy for me to remember, because it had good obscure geek significance for a 5-digit number … the one prior had a nice, fast keypad pattern that worked well. This new one is easy enough to remember, because of something totally unrelated, but it’ll be hard for some folks to hang on to. At least it’s not a 10-digit sequence.

The funny thing was people talking about other folks hacking the code … the easiest way to get any number is by social engineering, and the folks are so friendly and unassuming here that I think someone fairly slick could get it without anyone even knowing that it had been picked up. That’s one of the things I like about this place, though … sort of a small town feel, where everyone knows everyone else. It fosters a strong sense of community and camaraderie.

1 year ago – Newt in Zefrank’s video, yoink doodle, met with gp and kat, cool gifitis, squishie photos, kev at gimo, mady at chem lab, ab fired,

2 years ago – new semagic, video shoot pics, RI calls me mouthy, neon sign, carrot flowers, robot guards

3 years ago – wanting a long weekend, GP mentions a detente, CoH, Butterflies of NA

4 years ago – Power out silence, ut2k3, there.com fun.

5 years ago – angry kid, baha men, freedom force, sniffing around for the girlie, Kidalicious gets a new Baby!

6 years ago – identifying with Sam the Sheepdog, people in your neighborhood poll, livejournal observation, chupacabra sightings upGeotargetVisitor Map

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8805- midweek

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I was feeling really draggy yesterday. One thing after another was just weighing heavily and someone turned the gravity up to about 5 or 6 times heavier than usual. The ol’ back was tweaking a little, and then spasmed really heavily before bed – I’m glad that I went right from that point to sleep time.

BHK made some fantastic lasagna last night – tofu meatballs gave it a lot of extra flavor. That was the highlight of the day.

I’m not sure why I’ve been so tuckered out – probably a combination of low-end stressors due to physical allergy vs meds stuff, combined with normal wear and tear on the bod due to actually working a gig again.

Lots of running around, mostly a hardware day today. HD, new pc, refurbished a pc, a few images, some port security and phones.

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Some slices from my life, doodled on the palm.

1 year ago – mp3, gp & kat missed, b5 / dr who, blue tarps, cloud pic

2 years ago – tv-shoot, whale cam, regional anthropology, sesame street, dream Bhk & Pye, Gamer quiz, illuminati, little cowpoke, celeb diaries, i feel great, moist towelettes, astronaut jones, 9 years for spammer, bush toy
3 years ago – easter, peeps, image collages, pelicans, spidey-2

4 years ago – first 4 children in the vampire game, got my offer from JKG

5 years ago – Programmer / Engineer gag, lovely private entries, including Blackstone’s Reading.

6 years ago – pork taco brain worm, Power-puff Scotto, grove meeting, An open letter to browser sniffers, agogGeotargetVisitor Map

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8804 –

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Busy busy – rep from dell isn’t coming in though, so that’s work saved for another day. Dead motherboard in a new box needs a swap.

Today’s lunch looks much like yesterdays, except you can swap the apple for green beans teriyaki w/almonds, and remove the tasty, tasty doughnut.

After work yesterday, I was surprised to see the in-laws with BHK had come to pick us up. CB,BHK and I took an early supper at Salsa Rita’s, while LB swung by 5 guys to grab a burger before joining the rest of us. I had a veggie burrito with a splash of enchilada sauce on top, as is my custom. Apparently, they did a little shopping on Solomon’s Island before picking me up… CB got BHK a peridot ring that is apparently quite stunning. (I haven’t seen it yet, but it sounds lovely.) Also planted is the seed of a stacking ring to go with her wedding band… perhaps with a channel-set green stone similar to peridot? Topaz is available in that same shade and hue, and is able to be cut thinly to make that sort of ring. Perhaps for our first anniversary or second (depending on cash flow issues) it would make a nice present. The huge beastie of a ring that CB got was a $3800 item… I’m a bit stunned at the cost, but I’m a guy who only wears one item of jewelry – my wedding band. (I had a necklace for a while, but it was hand-made by friends and was also sentimental. I still carry my red-thread wristband from Lisa on my hip-loop all the time too, primarily because my wrist is too large for it.

After dinner, LB and I went to Hot Licks to look at the guitars whilst BHK and CB headed over to the office depot to scope out supplies. Following that, we did a quick pop into the library for 1040 instruction sheets and state taxes for CB. No luck on the 1040, as the post office isn’t interested in carrying those items any longer – irs.gov will have ‘em online in any event.

Signs are up all over the neighborhood about a missing cat – we thought it was for Tigger, but it turns out the missing kitty is a male named Tiger with similar markings. If it’d been for Ms. Tigs, the postings were well over 2 weeks after she had been adopted. I feel bad for the family with the missing cat – the sign says that the children are distraught. I know I’d be more than very concerned if Newt or Pye got lost.

Less restless last night, though I re-tweaked my back a little. The ol’ spine is much better today, about the same tightness as the night prior. I’d say another week and I’ll not even notice it.

Riddle me this, Batman. If you’ve been at a gig just about 3 weeks, do you sign the sympathy card for someone at the office? I’m right on the cusp of doing so, but I’m not sure if it’d be appropriate.

[Edit: I signed it – kind or sympathetic wishes are rarely a bad idea.]

I was reminded by KE that JM’s position is opening at the county, so I’ve got to get on the stick and get a Maryland Driver’s License. I’m thinking a trip to the MVA this weekend is the way to do it. I did a little parking and turning last weekend, and it’s pretty straightforward.

I’m about 4 days behind in putting my lj entries online – It’s been difficult to do the doogie hauser routine in front of the home-based box with so many other things going on. My Lj will be seven years old in a couple of weeks, and these last few months are the most difficult it’s ever been maintaining daily entries. Of course, when I look back, there’ll still be one a day, every day… just put in the day’s slot nearly a week after the fact.

We do a lot of things here and there, even if it’s just entertaining or being entertained by family & local friends – Little wonder that BHK so seldom updates her own lj. We were in Lusby not too long ago, and we got to talking about CEJ, and to a lesser extent, KTM. I wonder if I’ll ever cross paths with either of ‘em, since I’m pretty much a local, now? We went past a seafood place called the Frying Pan and not a few doors down was the old church that CEJ took several photos of, years ago. If I were more curious, I’d see if I could dig ‘em up on archive.org’s website backups. I think I’d prefer to take my own piccies, anyhow.

Since danigolden gave grindhouse a positive review, I’m re-enthused about seeing it.

1 year ago – GP & Kat in FL, fonts, Who, lj radio, Herc speaks, mp3 links

2 years ago – Sleepies, poorhouse, two zombies later, passwords, silent running – smokey bear

3 years ago – CoH, religion update, nerd-o-meter, beheading, old pic of me and newt and cpap

4 years ago – Iraqometer, internal debate, reminding myself of people’s value

5 years ago – Just learning Crystal reports, about animal crackers,(including history and combat rules) China’s First Emperor killed by a meteor ?, David Hasselhoff video, attacked by Newt, Discovery of the naked robot monkey, playing freedom force.

6 years ago – Food PlansGeotargetVisitor Map

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8799 – fo’ fi’

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3d movie entrance - day with robinsonwent to see meet the robinsons in 3-d – it was great! I think that BHK and I were the only adults in the theatre without a kid in tow… I highly recommend catching both it and the chip and dale / donald duck cartoon in 3-d at the beginning. (the Donald Duck was a Stereoscopic movie from the 50’s- 3D like the old sterogram style viewmaster reels.) Picture on the right is a cute little entrance folks made for the movie – 3-d glasses and large letters 3 and D on either side of the door.

text update – rewind – Another day at work, or another 7 hours, anyhow!

Was told by JD that there might be snow flurries this weekend on Saturday? So much for any roto-tilling or lying down of mulch I might’ve had planned. Hm, that sounds pretty darn domestic. Maybe I can get some studying in for my driving permit. I think that my back is in good enough shape to do so. It’s been over a decade since I’ve done any sort of parallel parking or a 3-point turn, but hopefully it’ll come back to me quickly.

The crew at my current gig is pretty sweet. Everyone seems to get along quite well, and is personable. JD and RD are brothers (25 and 17, respectively) and are very cool. KP digs the icanhascheezburger type sites like I do, and is worried a bit about the CDC’s Cancun hemorrhagic fever warning. DL is an old-school tech – knows his stuff and is on top of his game. KB is my immediate supervisor, and seems to be an amazingly kindhearted lady… Scouting, family oriented. JM got moved to the DB admin gig I was looking to, but I have no hard feelings about that. He knows his stuff, and has been here for 8 months, so they know him. Some recent rough patches in his life… lost his sister last weekend, has been sick, and lost his mother fairly recently as well. I hope the clouds part for him soon. SP is the Network head here, and she has her old painted character figurine from the D&D days… her kids are embarrassed for her, but I think that’s pretty spiffy. She also has 2 orange cats and a black one, so there’s plenty of critter talk there. KE is the sheriff’s sister in law, and is friendly and cracks the occasional joke here and there. WL is in the CAP, and I may join him at local meetings. GIS staff is also nifty, though I haven’t learned all the names over there yet. There are a few people I wave hello to when I pass them in the hall, but I have no idea who they are form the Dept of Aging and the Substance Abuse folks.

A? in the State’s Attorney office looks like Peewee Herman. No, Really.

Bake sale by the SO today – I wonder if the goodies will be as tasty as the Methodist stuff from last week. We still have about 1/8 of a pound cake that we got last go ‘round that will be hard to beat. It’s not too shabby to see Officers wearing bunny ears.

The plant life out here is shucking petals like crazy. It looks like someone spilled a massive pile of packing material and frosted flakes along the sidewalks and gutters… the wind from behind trailing cars or the occasional random breeze makes it fly up and whirl quite prettily. I pity folks with hay fever, however, as the trees are really sexing it up. Speaking of plant-sex, lots of fat, fuzzy little bumblebees are traversing the clover in our side yard lately. I really wouldn’t mind starting a hive out back, just to get some polish on my api-skills. Buzz buzz buzz. A little honeysuckle might be nice to add to the wildflowers around the fence out back, too. Mmm… I do like honey, like all stereotypical bears. (Actually, I’m pretty keen on Berries and pic-a-nic baskets, too, Boo-boo. Fish, not so much – Salmon are safe from me. I prefer Veggie Sushi)

Update – D’oh! I missed getting anything at the bake sale. It only ran from 8:30 to 11am, and I was in meetings or off site during that time. Fortunately, RD brought in doughnuts, so my pastry craving was sated. What will we do with BHK? No cake for her. Perhaps she’ll settle for me making a tasty din-din supplemented with an ice cream sammich for dessert.

BHK and I played the karaoke ps2 American Idol game last night… a lot of fun, more than I’d expected. Apparently, my skills are in the Tom Jones / Kim Karnes / Duran Duran / Everly Brothers arena, while BHK is more of a Billy Joel / Build me up, buttercup sort of singer. I blame my scratchy voice and poorer scores on remaining cough, but that’s just an excuse. BHK is superb at the thing, and I’m just pretty good. We’ll see what practice brings. Perhaps we’ll have a karaoke-off with Tina, Jimmy and Amanda for Easter.

On that note, we’re due for some egg-coloring in the next day or three, and egg salad or deviled eggs shortly thereafter.

Given that there might be flurries on Saturday (mid-20s to mid 40s Fahrenheit forecast), perhaps I’ll skip the sunrise Service on Sunday at the beach. Bay winds after a possible snow seem a bit too brisk for me.

I’m carbo-loading for lunch today. Toasted cheese bagel, some baked ritz-chips and a chocolate pudding snack pack. For the love of the children, why did I skip vegetables? I’ll make a point of getting some apples or grapes for next week.

The region I work in is near an area called Plum Point, but there are no plum trees. Pear, apple and cherry abound, not to mention fields of corn, soybean and tobacco (though tobacco is being phased out, even though it’s a big portion of Maryland history, down to the Calvert County flag). Also, there’s an area called Sam Hill… so now I can ask “What in Sam Hill?” with hope of an actual answer.

Here’s what new TV is on my PSP – US version of the office, Season one.

1 year ago – zombie horde counterstrike, pyramid house, bugs bunny, tmbg, devo, tom delay, top40,

2 years ago – Badge shape pref poll, flickery power, Jasmine, stupid comic deaths, Dr Who episode 2, KANG KANG KANG KANG!, Monkey awe, hukilau, driver 8 pic, 23/5 bibliomancy

3 years ago – Itchies, chocolate dodge, Miami fires, sweetalyssm.com goes down due toa hack. (sadly, never to return), palm-doodle entry, Denny’s lunch

4 years ago – hung out with ldy & grrwoo, JKG wants me, prep for TAG

5 years ago – Freedom Force, Poem tag, new tech, THE poll.

6 years ago – morning walk, goals, online people, people that didn’t want my help, kindness triage, cartoon stereotypes, Hey, The Dusty Miller, hair color pollGeotargetVisitor Map

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8797 – for-tree

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A different employee got the database gig I applied for – primarily because he’d been at tech for 8 mos. I was told that otherwise, it was a tie.

That said, his position is opening up here now — perhaps I can boost the next one that comes along.

Going to Cyn’s new space in DC on Good Friday – seems that the location is excellent and that there’s a Burlesque / Fringe fest thing taking place there soon.

Dinner last night at Cathy and Dave’s – really yummy they always put out a good spread (Cheese & Crackers, Tortellini, spinach w/garlic, garlic bread, fruit tart – all tasty and dee-lish). It was the first time I’d been to the place during the daylight hours, so I got the full yard-tour of the back, groundhog hole, wildlife camera and all. Apparently they get quite a few deer and the occasional red fox when the time is right. We played eight hands of fluxx – 3 to Allison, 2 to Cathy, 2 to me, and one to Dave. Zoë-kitty was shy, but came out by the end of the night.

I’ve been missing BHK quite a bit while I’m at work. I hate to seem so clingy, but I just love having her nearby.

Looks like it’s going to be cold and rainy this weekend – I hope the cherry blossoms hold out until we get there on Friday. All of the trees are starting to show the yellow-green of new buds… Springtime seems so much more colorful in Maryland than Florida . Come summertime, the yellow aspect will fade to a deeper, more mature green, but for now there’s a lighter highlight to everything. Even the pear trees are replacing the white blooms with more interspersed green canopy.

My Jellyfish-glass paperweight thingum

DSCN4536

1 year ago – vintage paperback covers, prophet vs prophecy, jojo, one word answers, $10, walkabout with flying parachutes, quizzes,

2 years ago – status, reality settings, fort lauderdale piccies & sounds, bad juju, looking at a replacement cam, philosophy of Just Utilitarianism, feeding tube, hips and collarbones, Kelly’s heroes, Buprenorphine, w can be a vowel, yahoo vs google

3 years ago – Hellboy, Le Gren, Marlin Maniac

4 years ago – Bro issues w/LL, sponsored links, Meredith out front

5 years ago – Walkies, baby sharks, programming, local hones go to 10-digit dialing, Reality settings, Wolf files, army men, schoolhouse rock

6 years ago – SOP, enature, symbols, psa for my bio page, C++ DST bugGeotargetVisitor Map

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8796 – for-too

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Note bhk left in my lunch bag recently –

DSCN4531

For a Monday, this wasn’t bad at all. Imaged a few machines, was contacted by a possible gig (one that’s off near Dulles Airport, which is something like 90+ minutes away) Discovered that one of my online resumes had a typo in the phone number and have since corrected it.

You can watch video on demand on netflix now! I thought that was an april fools joke!

Spoke with Cathi and Dave last night, and it had been quite a little while. Hailey is all about speeding about from point to point like a pinball, while Mayah is a bit more reserved. I was saddened to hear that Kringle-kitty was put to sleep on Halloween last year… he broke his hip and at 19 it didn’t want to heal up. Zen-kitty and Luna-pooch are still going like gangbusters, and are mighty friendly to one another, too. Kim and her husband got a divorce, but Leisa and Brian are still together. Apparently they’re not doing the NC move for sure now… maybe I can court ‘em up to DelMarVa?

Newton was exhibiting some dominant behavior over Pye… standing over him, mouth on the back of his neck. Not biting hard, but definitely had a grip going. Pye didn’t seem too upset about it – I think that he’s pretty darn passive about the whole pecking order deal.

1 year ago – walkies with pix, lost an hour, quizzes, amazing circle, hot sauce and garden spray, its a shame

2 years ago – dan hates my bucket-hat, day in the life, 3 doors down, bro issues

3 years ago – CoH, squirrel, JG a blond/, man eating plants, thorax cake, free energy, reality settings

4 years ago – Iraq-o-meter, 100 greatest AFD hoaxes, train trip

5 years ago – office politics and people, modern major general, joe vs the volcano, boilerplate, bare necessities, text msg’ed, weather, reality gauge, newton the destroyer, black water mass

6 years ago – glowworms, school mascots, schwa, wedding / scotto job trivia, Murray Head, list trimsGeotargetVisitor Map

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8792 – 0330071022.jpg

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0330071022.jpg, originally uploaded by scottobear.

the view from my desk – calvert county courthouse. bonus today… bake sale out front! brownie with lunch and pound cake for dessert tonight! ( off to the left is where bhk and I were wed.)

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8790

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Nice crew here at the County – working in the courthouse annex for the last week or so has been nothing but pleasant. Broad variety of issues and concerns, from migrating systems from 2000 to XP to major server concerns. Calvert is blessed to have so many skilled employees in the tech department. There are some politics, but those follow in any place with more than 5 workers. The department as a whole seems quite cohesive, and able to run as a pack. Additionally, it’s a pleasant surprise to see it pretty balanced gender-wise. Most of the tech-rooms I’ve been in have been either heavily male-centric locker rooms, or a mostly female-type library environment. The more balanced, the better it seems to me.

Since I’m temping, I don’t have a lot of security access or the like – my primary duties are getting the phone and setting up service tickets, since I’m still not totally in the loop regarding policy and can’t change many things from my end. I have, however managed to be useful, in addition to doing the standard help desk stuff like talking people through navigation on the file server, power user stuff like outlook or excel questions, and imaging drives for new machines. I would really like to see this gig change to a more permanent position, but that may or may not be happening, depending on what the county wants or needs.

One of the people over in GIS made a comment about snatching me up, too, so there is a possibility of a paradigm shift, I suppose. Mapping software is something I have a knack at, so I figure I could be of utility there.

This gig came at a good time… my savings were getting close to the depletion point, and it’s nice to have the ability to pay the basics off every month, and even maybe recover some a bit.

I have Good Friday off, and maybe that weekend will be a good time to go with BHK to Washington , DC for the cherry blossom festival. (http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org ) I’m way overdue to donate blood, too. Maybe a trip to the Red Cross can happen then, as well. I’d prefer to give platelets, but if I can only do whole blood, that’s fine. I missed the blood drive last weekend due to my cough and my back, and it’d been nagging at me for a while.


St Marys College Campus, originally uploaded by garyfgarcia.

Spring has really Sprung here… I’m used to evergreen Florida , but the shock of things coming back to life really drives the contrast here after a season of winter. There are all sorts of things flowering already – white popcorn-type trees, pink and yellows dotting here and there amongst the yellow-green of fresh shoots and leaves beginning to show. There are still a ton of bare branches out and about, but the blooms are just making things look so awake and alive.

BHK has gotten a real fascination with reality TV in recent months – America ’s top model, American idol, my sweet 16 and that pussycat club thing (I enjoy watching American idol with a group, primarily due to the social factor – I’m not as concerned about the outcome as I am the comparisons and discussion about it). My preferences are more in line with House and The Riches, though the 2nd episode wasn’t as good as the first. Dresden Files is surprisingly entertaining to me too, so far. I’m looking forward to new episodes of Venture Brothers and Hyperdrive – I’m hoping the next season of Dr. Who is better than the last. Heroes, I’m waiting to watch a season at a time, and I tried 24 again, but it wasn’t my thing. Polished off Police Squad on my PSP at lunchtime at work, so my next series in hand will be Red Dwarf and Invader Zim. (I still have the Incredibles on the memory card to fill the little Zefrank synch void left behind. I’m getting better at PSP’s Grand Theft Auto – Liberty City Stories, too.

My time on the Emergency preparedness committee hasn’t been as fruitful as I’d hoped. I fear that for it to be effective, I may have to take charge of it. I really just wanted to be on a team, but if I have to take the bull by the horns, I will. I’d like to plan out an evacuation strategy for North Beach, including how to contact as many people as possible – I’m going to try to push CodeRED notifications through for that, in addition to emails. It’ll cost the city about $5000 a year, but it’d be well worth it. I wonder how much it costs the city to put up a Stop sign, for usefulness comparison.

Newton and Pye are getting along pretty darn good these days… my only complaint is that Pye picks on Newt while he’s trying to eat or use the little box… both of which should be safe zones. Newt is still a bit hissy with Pye, too… it can be hard to tell when he’s playing and when he’s really POed.

Adam’s now on the Tennis team. From what I’ve seen, he’s a great athlete, but really needs to practice in the Tennis Department. Jimmy’s playing too, but I missed seeing his stuff. On the romance front, it seems that Adam and Kendall are going to prom together as ‘more than just friends’.

In-laws are going to Salem next week to work on the house… I wonder if BHK is going to want to visit them there at all for Easter? Tina is planning an Easter dinner with BHK and me, but that’s all I know so far on that front. I’d like to check out the dawn services just to see what North Beach ’s congregation looks like compared to Fort Lauderdale … plus, I do enjoy seeing the sun come up over the bay.

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

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

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

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

5 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

6 years ago – babelizer, mushy-feelings, book-burningGeotargetVisitor Map