6353 - end of day yesterday, new day today.

Well, I found my chair, around back. Apparently one of the guys working on the apartment liked it, and thought it was left behind by one of the other tenants. Still no word on my trash-bin, though. I wonder if they used it while gutting the cabinets in #1? I'll ask one of the other workers about that tomorrow.

Interesting that more people didn't notice the secret message in my last public entry. I was pleasantly surprised at the discovery of applying style-functions to the bold tag. If I have some really juicy gossip or extra-spoilsome spoilers, I'll implement that hidey-text. (so that lj-cuts don't hurt folk that might want to read bulkier reviews.

Brother visited by last night.. I'll be interested in seeing what's happening with him. apparently he's moved out of the place where he was staying and is looking for another location, to stay at solo. Meanwhile, it's back to the hostels for him. I hope that he finds a nice efficiency soon.

Danny stopped by shortly afterward, and we got sushi and a drink... and an opportunity to hang out and gab for a brief period. We talked about work, tropicon and observed the clouds obscuring the moon like a wolf or goat consuming the disk. The Sushi was ok, but I think that the place local to me is better. He had a good week but a tough day, whereas I had a tough week and a decent Friday.

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Lizard lady of Akron stumped doctors - Young woman's death in 1910 was strange news indeed, tough to stomach ( Read more... )

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A fun Santa present delivery game.

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Truck Surfing. (712k )

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International Snow Sculpture Championships - Some great shots.

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Make a Snowman card! (The gallery has some fun ones.)

6354 - link-fest, grinding trees, quiet time

They mulched a tree out back earlier, and 'twas loud as all get out. Newt was not happy with it, not a bit... he sat atop the counter doing what I would consider to be a scowl at the source of the sound.

Writing, and I'm not sure if I want to use the term preternatural or supernatural.

Brother is in a new place.. apparently he heard back and slid right in to the first place that called. I caught him in a couple of fibs, but didn't bother calling him on them. He claims that Andy doesn't know where he's moving to, but I doubt that, and Mark knows where he's at now... because he helped him to move some things to where he is.

That reminds me of a riddle: What do you call a man with no arms and no legs on your doorstep? Fair Warning.

CS said that yesterday was really busy, that he got a lot of calls (at 10pmish when the shift change came over) from Georgia last night. I wonder if tonight will be the same deal... there really haven't been any calls all day. I actually had to test to make sure the phone was working properly once or twice, just in case. Now that RI is off to TX (presumably to tend to her elderly parents), I wonder if some of the team tensions will ease up?

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The Dream of the Red Chamber is the Chinese Romeo and Juliet; a tragic, beautiful love-story in 5 lengthy volumes. The scene where Tai-yu (our lovely Juliet) first sees the man she has been so warned against, Pao-yu (the dashing Romeo), I just had to share:

"His face was like the full moon at mid-autumn; his complexion, like morning flowers in spring; the hair along his temples, as if chiseled with a knife; his eyebrows, as if penciled with ink; his nose like a suspended gallbladder; his eyes like vernal waves; his angry look even resembled a smile; his glance, even when stern, was full of sentiment."

*giggles*
I fear something may have been lost in translation... (via Stelpa)

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Misc nifty reference linkies -

• Equinox and Solstice: site on celebrations of these annual events.



• All About Snow.



• An Atlas of the Universe.



• Holiday Trends from Journalist's Toolbox, has lots of links for retail/shopping stats and lots of other stuff (holiday movies, etc.)



• Facts about Christmas fun statistics from U.S. Census.



• WHOIS.sc, a really easy-to-use new WHOIS search, now gives you an image of the Web site of a domain, as well as good description.



• Web Watch from Governing.com, this site finds interesting government Web sites. Latest: a teacher monitoring database from Vermont.



• Google number searches You can search by number for things like tracking numbers, airplane registrations and patents.



• United States Counties: from NACO, National Assn of Counties, click on a map to get information on a county, including demographics and lists of officials, and a link to the Web site. More useful searches from NACO (includes finding county by city, finding coastal counties, population range searches, etc.).



• The Saudi Connection: huge investigative report by US News and World Report on how Saudi money financed terrorism.

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Bad essays on weather

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SmoothTeddy - quick 3d modelling and painting. (some cute sample models)