Scotto's Wall Scrawls

Hap-Pye New(t) Year's Eve!

Last night, we played rousing games of Dicecapades, Easter Island, and Zombie Fluxx. BHK smooshed me at Dicecapades, but I took the crown in the other two (I suspect that she'll start whupping me at EI. I was not expecting to have to do 20 sit-ups while playing a board game... figures that I'd roll a 20 on a d20, and it's not D&D I'm playing. Hazienda and Wishes were fishes still remain unplayed, but tomorrow may fix that issue.

I'm loving Portal and Half-Life2 - Haven't taken too much time to try Team Fortress2 yet, but that looks to be the keenest of them all. After I got through the regular way.... the first thing I'll do is apply the portal gun hack to HL2. (video here ) Somebody let me know when you can do this in HL2:deathmatch... that'll add some color. Funny that HL2 was relaesed back in '04... I'd only ever played death match before Christmas this year. i'm really glad that BHK pointed Mom and Wilt to my Amazon wish list this year.

Still getting around to Mario Party 8, and Heatseeker - BHK and I have played Mario Galaxy before, but now we own it! We tried Wii Game party, (the reviews are rather harsh) but my skill set with the controls is pretty poor yet... practice makes perfect, no doubt!

Worked today, a regular shift. I got quite a lot done! There are benefits to coming into the office when most folks are on vacation.

My New Year's Resolution this year is 1600 x 1050, thanks to my biggest prezzie, a 22" wide screen monitor from BHK and the In-laws! The Web looks more than a little different through that window.... so many sites are hard-wired to a specific size, my homepage and lj, included. Time to develop a few more flexible layouts, methinks.

Other Resolutions include - Laptop (Circle)- 1024 x 768, TV 640 x 480, PDA (Point) 420 x 340.

Here's the 2007 Zeitgeist from google... not too similar to my own. Second life is really the only thing there that I have an interest in, and my visits there have been far too brief this year. Here's the archive from past years.

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To any locals that may be reading this -

As we approach the end of 2007, what a better way to start off 2008 with a chilly dip in the Chesapeake Bay. Join us on Jan 1st sign up starts at 12:30 and the plunge will be at 1:00 p.m. After you have braved the cold water, grab a cup of chili and warm by the fire.

I seem to recall the plunge taking place earlier last year, but it's actually about an hour earlier.

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1 year ago - oak king vs holly king

2 years ago - newt pix, mp3s, seal aaaa, wookee fury, condo wildlife pics

3 years ago - sgt@arms, newt wakey pic, events of the year, number test

4 years ago - got together with Danny for his b'day, turned him on to discworld. Blessings, new year's resolutions, fly guy, conspiracy

5 years ago - Musical acts I've seen, x-ray piccies of my spine

6 years ago - gray pumpkin, new years resolutions, frankenquirrel, pig eyeballs, spam, new years wishes

7 years ago - watching spongebob, D&D movie, fresh birks, shopping, saw Andy, chilly night

Maybe it's time to go back to early-morning posts. We'll see how writing on the train works for longer pieces.

Met one of the bigwigs at the company today... he's got a computer background, too. I'm hoping that will mean expressing system needs will be simpler. I think that's likely to be the case.

I am admittedly curious about what BHK is getting me for Christmas. She's dropped a few hints, all of them cryptic. Just the way I like it. It'll be fun to puzzle things out for the next couple of weeks until I can discover what they are.

Clues are :

One comes with a chopstick
One was found in our yard.
One is being co-purchased with the the in-laws.

All are stumpers. I can venture a guess or two on item 3, but they'd be pure vapor.

In the mode of BHK, I am obligated to remind my dear journal that Masterpiece Theatre is going hog wild for Jane Austen next year. Another sign that my darling wife is a girly-girl.

When I got home tonight, BHK surprised me with veggie bratwurst with caramelized onions and potato pancakes. I am a lucky, spoiled man. We watched Fido while we ate... not a bad movie, not fantastic. Interesting in parts, and I'm more than a little amazed that it got made. Billy Connelly in a "Zombie as Lassie" film struck me as odd when I first saw the trailer... apparently Lionsgate is really running with the Zombie theme if the other trailers on the same DVD are any indication. Rave of the Living Dead ? Drugs that make ravers into zombies? The remake of night of the Living dead in 3d didn't really grab me, either.

After Dinner was done, BHK gabbed with Misti for a bit on the phone... I took the opportunity to start stringing a few lights on the tree.. it's coming together nicely.

Post Movie, we played Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games. I think I was too tired to play well... after doing a little gymnastics, javelin and hammer toss, it's time for bed.

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1 year ago - tree trimming pix, spam, note to write

2 years ago - val & rhonnie news, kreuger, bro issue, rs shopping, jellyfish

3 years ago - working with cubase / fruityloops, pork chop assault, manatee window kiss, mel 5

4 years ago - Ghost Bugs, Missing Chairs, News Stories about cats and physics.

5 years ago - holiday oranges, Joe Ostezewski, letter-words

6 years ago - vil news, bear suit update, walkies, visions

7 years ago - stinky week start, a pair of email fallacies, rhonnie has her incident

It's a-snowin' today! Not sure why images are currently unavailable, but clickthroughs should work fine.




It started about 6am, and continued throughout the day.

View from the office, about midday


View at the ground view of the circle, around dusk.

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Pretty nifty stuff... flickr now has a halfway decent photo editor built in! The freebies are all I really want, so it's golden. (I suspect that I'll use color fixing and cropping the most.)

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Writer's Strike has finally hit us in the recorder... looks like all of our shows are in repeats already. I guess Netflix will start earning its keep for a while!

I'll be missing House and The Office the most - I suspect BHK is feeling it most from Ugly Betty.

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BHK picked up Big Brain Academy and Elebits from the rental place... I really dig BBA... Elebits, not so much. I'm glad that we get a chance to "try before you buy" on the Wii, as Elebits might've gotten snapped up due to the very cutesy aspect of the game.

I suspect that BBA will be purchased sometime soon... I like the little brain-stretching minigames.

So far my strengths and weaknesses are:

• Identify (Visual-themed questions) - ok
  
• Memorize (Memory-themed questions) - worst
  
• Analyze (Reason-based questions) - ok
  
• Compute (Math-themed questions) - ok
  
• Visualize (Logic-themed questions) best
  

Which seems to follow with my other games of a similar ilk for the psp.

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1 year ago - weezies grapefruit, newt window-licker pix, Bush & family unplanning
pictures taken - sleepy people and christmas lights, newt licks.

2 years ago - santa meme, nibbly, cathy strip funny for once, crazy, agnostic human - religious characters, newt hunter, crabby jacks cheap beer

3 years ago - Mel tells me she's a born-again after we get a bit serious (Funny how that turned out, considering), chicken-neck newt piccie, no gloves for taco bell, dead bodies tell stories, 9/11 missile rumor passed around again, South Florida maps and stats, K-mart (I still haven't been in one), who named that disease?, workin' the mojo, Liver Eatin' Johnson

4 years ago - spinach, d20. new landlord, nail clippings, cannibals

5 years ago - more finny-drama, yurt, mini-painting, mouse genome, snacks

6 years ago - Turbid, McNoggin Memories, levitated .net, and the pond poem.

7 years ago - HB vs McNoggin, lovey reasons, supergun, holiday confession

BHK's cooking has been especially good recently... her Shepherd's pie Redux for thanksgiving leftovers was phenom, and tonight's Mac & Cheese is always a winner.

She's not feeling good lately - a bad cold has clamped onto her. I hope she mends quickly.

Dealing with a whole lot of condo crap... I'm hoping the majority of it goes away with the next regime change.

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BHK rented Mama Cook and Mario Galaxy for the Wii! Galaxy is a lot more fun than I'd expected... and cook is harder than I thought it'd be. Who thought that making popcorn was such a challenge?

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Work things -

Our response to the craigslist ad has been insane. Good insane. I think that we found a quickie helper for MS inside of an hour after posting it.

I'm pleased that I managed to get the last week in December off for vacation. Momster and Wilt will be in town, and most of the family here has it off as well.

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Finally Watched Pathfinder last night... Not bad, not wonderful. Nice to see Clancy Brown as a giant viking. Not worth taping, but the preiviews for DVD versions of Night Watch and Day Watch were sweet. Those are going right to the top of the queue... or at least to the top 10 or so.

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1 year ago - remembering dad, moving, b-list blogger, house tv, bro in the pokey.

2 years ago - greedy grateful dead widow, nanner pancakes, crabby jacks, years ago meme, dubai blockage, scary elves

3 years ago - 3-d renderings, shopping w/mel, canasta, dad things, make love not spam, blog exposion, anime popeye

4 years ago - Thoughts, Bouncing bear, FBI, GW, yummies

5 years ago - Santa Modded dwarf, bro, TeeGee, nephelococcygia poll, my Santa-powers

6 years ago - hungry jack's, paean, icky food poll, Zelda

7 years ago - Disturbing auctions, owl & pussy-cat

Day of rest - mostly recovered energy and played Rayman... a lot of really cute minigames in there at just the right skill level. The FPS plunger battles and music beat-keeping stuff are probably my two favorites.... the racing games are probably my most troublesome, but they are beatable.

I desperately needed the recharge. I was very drained and physically sore from lack of sleep and bending poorly.

The Check Mii Out Channel is a lot of fun... I look forward to seeing what updates bring to the party, too. BHK and I have found some really nifty Mii's - It has been a hoot trying to figure out who some of them were... Chuck Norris was the most tricky so far.

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Some Scotto dislikes as opposed to yesterday's likes. I considered for a bit not posting this, but it'll be good for me to look back in a year or two and see how I feel about the same stuff. Why is it that I can write more words about complaining, but I like so many more things than I dislike? Perhaps it's simply easier to dwell on the bad, and just enjoy the good?

Something fun that is ruined by folks who over-analyze or get obsessive-compulsive about them. Gaming. Comic Books. Movie lore. Geocaching. When something stops being fun and becomes a chore... That's one of the saddest things I know. A hobby that turns into an obsession... or when someone misses the point entirely of having fun because they're too busy reaching a goal, no matter what the cost... that's just pathetic. If your D&D character dies - don't shoot yourself in the head or rend at your garments in angst... it's just a damn game. It's one thing to cry at a movie or story, and yet another to go all Misery about it. When a nice walk in the country for a geocache or a friendly game of star fleet battles turns into a Bataan Death March to get the next geocoin or explode an enemy ship... calm down. Stop for a second and just enjoy the scenery. Most of the folks that I've seen get OCD (to use the term too loosely, I'm sure) don't even enjoy themselves at that point... but the biggest sin is that they drag everyone down with them.

Tailgaters. It's worse when I'm in a car that's tailgating someone else. It sets off more than a few internal panic responses. as a car ride subset, add Folks that refuse to wear seat belts....especially If I can imagine them becoming a projectile and hurting me or my family. On the rare occasion when I'm driving and being tailgated, I'll weigh the situation - and either slow to the lowest speed allowed on the road I'm on, or pull over and let the person pass. As for seat belts, I'm a pretty bad nag about checking.

Me talking on the phone. ESPECIALLY A CELL PHONE. Unless it's someone I *REALLY, REALLY* love or am entertained by, I usually do my very best to use the telephone as little as humanly possible. Everything about it is jarring and uncomfortable to me - from the ringing, my ear getting hot, the conversations are either boring or emergencies, it's an interruption. I leftover dislike from being the on-call guy at a former job... one where lives were at stake. I am jsut now getting over the scramble for the phone instinct. even then, the call was more often from someone looking to get email rather than recover a kidnapped child.

Being taken for granted, or seeing someone else treated that way. / Treated more like an appliance than a human. I know of more than a few people that treat friends and family members as Taxicabs or Entertainment Systems rather than people. People who call on the phone and then don't say anything, expecting me to be a jukebox of conversation in their ear, because they're bored. "Dance, monkey! Dance!". Doesn't fly. Folks who don't take into regard other members of the group when they're doing something they enjoy.... like watching tv while everyone else is trying to have a conversation in the same room, or making the whole group wait while they do something trivial... "I have to put on my makeup" when they knew four days ago that ten people had to be at a meeting place at a certain time. See also, people with screaming babies in a movie theater. Don't punish the rest of the audience because your little one is unhappy. It should be common courtesy to take the little person out to the lobby. Same goes for cell-phone users in the theater... take it outside.

Being in a conversation that's really a monologue. Variation on #3 above. I understand a person's need to rant, but unless I care about them a whole lot or they're in some real pain... I don't want to hear it. I'm willing to be a shoulder to cry on... but a whine fest is something I really don't want to be a part of... especially when the whiner is a person who performs no other form of communication with me. Additionally, people who seem to be talking to me just to hear words coming out of their mouths get old pretty fast, too.

The Willfully ignorant. Different than the ignorant / unwise / unintelligent... or people with faith. I'm talking about folks unwilling to let any evidence contradict their preconceived notions. See also vincible ignorance, rather than an invincible error. additional

Polluters. (That includes smokers, noisy or otherwise smelly folks in my immediate airspace) Hm, seems to have elements of "being taken for granted" entry up there.

My physical limitations. I have a few health issues that hinder me. Bad Back/leg and allergies being the two biggest ones right now. If I could magically change one thing about myself, you can bet it would be the condition of my spine and those bits attached. There are a few things I can do to make it better, but I'll probably never have full, proper use of my left leg again, due to nerve damage resulting from a poorly done epidural a few years back.

Guilt Trips - When someone *consciously* says something to try to make you feel bad... usually to emotionally manipulate you into doing something you wouldn't normally do. When that's done to me, I tend to see red. Actually, anytime I feel like I'm being blatantly manipulated, I get pretty ticked off.

Nazis. I hate those guys.

1 year ago - pf chang pix, played pirates with BHK and Danny (BHK's first game ever!), sleepy

2 years ago - power on, big brain going away, packing, suprglu

3 years ago - Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, lost on torrent, pixar, who links here, Wanna know your consistence?

4 years ago - incas & guinea pigs, minefield, earth photos, anagrams, Sirenity baby!, high school memories, norman saunders

5 years ago - I win cookies!, owie-back, keywords

6 years ago - went to see fishies, walkies

7 years ago - good news / bad news, Boogie Pop Phantom, African Frog Myth

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BHK picked up Trauma Center, and it's pretty darn good... the instruction is sparse, so you learn as you go. I didn't like that aspect initially, but I rather like it now. You can surely tell it's an imported game. We played it over dinner - I had spicy lentil soup and BHK that the ale & cheese. Yummy, filling, and just right on a cozy evening at home.

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I wonder how a place like this works.
Is it something simple, like marking the rooms with colors that match a wristband?

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Some more autumnal minipics -
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1 year ago - gp bday, no viva broward, condo interrogation, humans b gone, work time fun, afterlife, fallen art

2 years ago - rs promoted to "office manager", existential supplies, on call, mcd's veggie Indian fare, gp bday, sketchplanet, tightrope bear, weather rough, creepy doll pic, zodiac killer poll

3 years ago - GP b'day, more office bricolage, image searches, friendy-meme, crime-scene creepy crawlies

4 years ago - RSP poll, Gamma World Memories, How to shave a cat's nose, FCC shenanigans

5 years ago - Sniper strikes again, weird news, Cool Rubik's Cube, Bookworm (it's on my palm, as I type), Nice thoughts, Painting minis, AW community gets uppity. it's now deleted. Rote 560 with my bike in front, bathy-Newt

6 years ago - Colloidal silver, geek test, memories of my first adrenaline rush, Los Dias de los Muertos, pieces of eight

7 years ago - met agent orange, lite brite, 2am french toast run, painted desert dreams

working streaming music for wii - http://www.finetune.com (or better - http://www.finetune.com/wii/aboutwii.html )

We broke down and got the internet channel for the wii last night - looks good! Already bookmarked some news sites, newtcam and lj. it reads pretty well, especially in single column mode. unfortunately, pandora doesn't stream audio to the tv, but youtube works well. I'm going got try to locate some good streaming audio sites that aren't too memory intensive and use flash or java rather than a proprietary system... maybe live365? Next to try is surfing to an mp3 to play it.

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The autumn leaves are really starting to pop... on our way this morning to work, BHK and I decided that we're going to have to go on a photo-mission sometime this weekend.

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Brought Doughnuts into the office via Dunkin's - they seemed to go over well. I'm glad it's friday and the weekend has begun!

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LONDON (Reuters) - Elephants can literally smell danger, according to a study on Thursday that shows the animals can sniff out whether humans are friends or foes. ( Read more... ) The study in Kenya found elephants detected both the scents and colors of garments worn by Masai tribesman who often come into conflict with the animals when herding cattle.

When detecting the scent of a Masai, the elephants turned up their trunks to orient themselves to the smell and then stampeded away until they reached cover in the tall grass.

"The degree with which the elephants are able to classify people hasn't been shown before in any animal," said Lucy Bates, a cognitive psychologist at the University of St. Andrews, who worked on the study published in Current Biology.

Working with the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in southern Kenya, the researchers presented the animals with clean clothing and material worn by either a Masai or Kamba tribesman.

They did not stampede when sniffing either clean clothes or those worn by Kamba tribesmen, farmers who pose little threat to the animals, Bates said.

"The reactions between the Masai and the Kamba were so different," Bates said in a telephone interview. "They weren't reacting as if it was the same predator."

To test their reactions further, the researchers presented the elephants with red material, the same color as the Masai's traditional costume, and plain white clothing.

When the animals spied red, they stamped their feet and shook their heads in an aggressive manner while the color white failed to spark such aggressive behavior, Bates said.

"The reaction with the Masai clothes was very intense," Bates said.

The findings could boost conservation efforts in Kenya focused on keeping people and pachyderms apart, Bates said.

The researchers suspect elephants across Africa are just as perceptive. "Elephants would likely have the same ability to make these discriminations across Africa but it would be for different groups," Bates said.

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BHK made evil twin Miis for us to play with... mine is a better pool player than I am - nearly cleared the table first time I used him. BHK's doppelganger has a sinister smirk, and mine has a gruff, dour face. Also, there are Newton and Pyewacket miis. I like that other miis are visiting our system... but want more! She also made a jack-o-lantern guy, and "turtle head".

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Internet was out this morning - can't leech off of the neighbors wifi, as they have comcast too... at least we know that it isn't just us! Thankfully, it came back at about 10am.

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note to self - grab a copy of "sister rosetta goes before us - robert plant and allison krauss" could be keen.

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other note to self - pack tasty lunch for picnic photo-day tomorrow... and get allergy shots am!

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1 year ago - selfport, 6 facts, presidential poop, Great Sandwich, felon voting ban, child abduction

2 years ago - Who was ST?, dating in the workplace, hurricane Wilma cat 5, I'm a humanist, Scotto-Spock eyebrow, Newt caught on cam & 80's tv references, general quiz, Yabba dabba doom? Fuggedaboutit

3 years ago - non-troll text, Graypumpkin gets me interested in Lost, fruit pies,fridge magnet-collaborative, cemetery prairie dogs, bro evicted

4 years ago - unusual case, Roger Bumpass, Carnival Strippers, Swedish Chef, LARGE MARGE!, Elephants, Death Factoids, pootering

5 years ago - Newt Palm art, got Zombies!, NOLF2 is great.

6 years ago - budgeting, happy thoughts, street names, Kev, nice chatties

7 years ago - Dark out, sex factoids, black and blue

BHK got me a Wii for our anniversary! I spotted it pretty much as soon as I sat down in the living room.

Our online Number is 2667-2084-2657-3823 if any Wii peeps would like to add us.  Leave your wii number in the comments if you'd like me to add you!

Now I just have to find a game to play online with Bugah, since it seems the sports game that comes with it doesn't go online multi-player. So far, I'm very good at baseball - terrible at tennis. BHK is excellent at bowling.

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Also via BHK - PSA -Dogs in Danger - Stuff like this breaks my heart. (Dogs in Danger is a nonprofit national shelter outreach program at the forefront of a grassroots movement trying to help shelters save the lives of millions of innocent dogs.) I honestly can't stay on that page very long - it makes me too sad.

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Happy Birthday, Peradouro!

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I had no idea that Batroc the leaper was a play on Batrachia, - I feel like a bit more of a copy cat with my old super "Grenouille" now.

Speaking of Marvel - Beaucoupkev's got me wanting to pick up a used copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance now.

It's got MODOK for corn sakes. I can only hope it also has Arnim Zola.

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Zombie Fluxx will be waiting for us by Thursday! (And Aardvark has a demo pack coming, too! Hooray for spreading the fun around in the store!)

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Transformers is out on DVD today - we'll add it to the Netflix queue - even if it's terrible, I'd like to check it out. I make a lousy robot.
but BHK's cracks me up.

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When people walk with change jingling in their pockets, I imagine that they're wearing spurs.

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Local Gamers are into Autoduel? I may need to investigate this further. BHK and I could spend some time getting up to speed, and maybe play some pyramid games soon, too.

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From Eat for a week - corn soup (not like we need it right now... BHK makes wonderfully portioned meals - we tend to stretch it for at least half a week anyhow!)

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1 year ago - Employee of the Month (Harland was the only good part of that flick), self ports, Halloween poetry, Shaolin Soccer, Infra-Man (man of Iron), youtube tools, McSpyware, PDF pad

2 years ago - hidden doors, thrown cameras, TV themes, skin mass cat, color words, Rowlf stamp, MSH gaming manuals in pdf, stabbing over microwave oven use, walkabout pics

3 years ago - cs progress, newt snuggle pics

4 years ago - riverworld wasn't so good, net record, surgery prep, new techs

5 years ago - hop-frog, sugar skulls, Oktoberfest, newt-viking, Thomas?, sarsaparilla herb & Root beer recipe, newt-hidey pic, finn drama, Fort Lauderdale Massacre, oatmeal

6 years ago - panjandrum, greenmail, sick, zombie icon is born, stories of strength, what sort of monster-poll

7 years ago - football + nitrous, Limnognathia maerski, tv divorce, taco poem, insult quote, good fortune