Scotto's Wall Scrawls

Elric looked at the pit. It was ragged and deep and the earth in it seemed freshly turned as if it had been but lately dug.
"What must we wait for, Friend Corum?"
"For the Tower," said Prince Corum. "I would guess that this is where it appears when it is in this plane."
"And when will it appear?"
"At no particular time. We must wait. And then, as soon as we see it, we must rush it and attempt to enter before it vanishes again, moving on to the next plane."

— Michael Moorcock, The Vanishing Tower

That's what it feels like when your internet is unreliable... or when LJ is playing games with the servers.

Users on the Madcow cluster (where am I?) will be temporarily unable to log in or view their journals. This problem should be brief, and will be resolved as quickly as possible. Because of this, users on other clusters may experience some slowdowns in accessing LiveJournal as well.

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I gushed enough about to Danny about Shaun of the Dead that we may go see it in the theater this weekend. (Either that, or Sky Captain.)

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Yesterday was rough.. almost all hardware issues, interrupting my regular workday.

Printer fuser, two network cards, and a video card all pooped out the same day. What're the odds?

At least I got the website up to date and started stats.

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Tracey Gold's Mugshot.

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Michael Andrews and Gary Jules: Mad World - Watch from above as schoolchildren create montages of moving figures in this heartfelt video.

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Archives:

1 year ago - Hurricane Isabel, More Frankie the Mooch, St. John's Wort.

2 years ago - Bonnie's Boy Steals from FMM, and is caught on video, Newt bawls out a spaniel

3 years ago - music to my ears, LJ observations, handy word reference guide

4 years ago - Sesame Street Day!, Lower-case N song, We are all Earthlings, Ernie questions his existence. Wubba Wubba Song, Joel Reprimanded for surfing porn at work

GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman - The dead rose from their graves in the East End cemetery during the dark, wee hours of Sunday morning, Sept. 12. ( Read more... )

Hurricane update -

going into work early to make sure everything is backed up, easily tarped over and stowed for the long weekend. The gang at work, while needy, is very good about pulling together and getting stuff lined up.

( tracking map )

Let's just hope it keeps on going North. The storm is plenty wide enough to get us all wet and blown. Heck, The thing is taller and wider than the whole state. I don't want floods or evac.

Handy-dandy sun-sentinel hurricane tracking map

I'm hoping it leaves Broward the heck alone. I don't want to relocate. I'm ready to, if I have to, but I'd really rather not. Especially for some storm named "Frances". Reminds me of the guy in the movie Stripes. "Call me Psycho!"

The supermarket was crazy yesterday, people snatching up water as fast as the pallets were laid out.

The gals at work were very giving and expressed the desire to help me get stuff for the coming storm, but I was already prepared. It was a lot of nice gestures.

Evacuation orders were posted for 300,000 residents in coastal areas of Palm Beach County, and 192,500 were told to leave mobile homes and low-lying areas of Brevard and Martin counties. The evacuation orders were set to take effect Thursday afternoon.

Frances was about 700 miles southeast of Florida on Wednesday afternoon, heading northwest on a course that would take it to the central portion of Florida's eastern coast. Residents of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina watched the forecast closely in case Frances took a sharper turn to the north.

All I know is that I have water, some cash, a carrier for Newt and my palmtop.... I can travel light. I talked to the landlord about plywooding the apartment windows tomorrow or Friday morning. I remember how dark it got in my old place with all the shutters drawn, like being sealed in a mine. I rather liked it for the short time it was there, though I expect I'd have gotten a little punchy if I was sealed in for a week.

At this point, it really is still far too early to say *where* it might go. No worries.

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Speaking of the mobbed market... whimsy was kind enough to hook me up with the screenie from CoH's test server... everyone and their cape was there.

( most heroes I've seen in one place, since the invasion. )

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Researchers at the University of Zurich have shown that revenge is, well, sweet. Their experiment, described in Scientific American, was based on a game where one player was given the opportunity to punish another player for financially screwing him. PET scans revealed that when a player contemplated revenge, his striatum, a "reward center" in the brain, became energized.

This sort of causal relationship may explain why people are willing to discipline a stranger even when there is no immediate gain in it for them. "Emotions play a proactive as well as reactive role," remarks Brian Knutson of Stanford University who penned an accompanying commentary (to a paper about the study in the journal Science). He notes that "passionate" forces may need to be included in economic models because, as this research shows, “people show systematic deviations from rationality."

I wonder how long before someone uses this as a defense in court? "I couldn't help it, that behavior is hard-wired into my system!"

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Got a decent reply from playNC re: my unsent comics -

( followup letter )

Not bad. They got back to me within 12 hours.

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If I was a wise-ass or melodramatic, I'd write something here about we'll all survive after this apocalypse, do a couple of riffs on The Road Warrior, Six-string Samurai, or A Boy and his Dog (though I'd not rename Newt to Blood.)

Or maybe Mutants of 2051 AD...

"Fleshy-headed mutant! Are you friendly?"
- Space Cadet R.M. McKenzie

"Now way, eh! Radiation has made me an enemy of civilization!"
- The Fleshy-Headed Mutant

If I lose power or post-ability, I'll still be keeping a journal and a photographic record of anything that happens, to be uploaded and backdated... as long as I'm not eaten by cannibal zombie-ghouls or shot by gorillas on horseback, mistaking me for one of the sad, mute nomads in the fields.

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It's the Google Superhero Costume Parade!

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Anacondas? Baby Geniuses 2? Didn't the first ones tank? Why Sequels?

And a better question, is Why is the bad guy from Anaconda (Jon Voight) the bad guy in Baby Geniuses 2? Does that Mean Kathleen Turner and Christopher Lloys be the Bad guys in Anacondas? (I'd rather see then return to Roger Rabbit.) I'm guessing all of the babies sin that movie are twins, like Mary Kate and Ashley? Is that still a rule in Hollywood?

Whatever happened to Angela Anaconda?

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A moment of Voodoo - Syncretism:

Syncretism may occur wherever two different cultures come into contact. It is an attempt to reconcile and mix together several different religious beliefs. Voodoo is one such attempt, combining Christian and African beliefs with a small dose of native American animism. It is far from the only one. Most religions in the ancient world never claimed to be the “only” or the “true” way (Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the three notable exceptions), and thinkers and mystics often tried to mix and match elements of religions to get the best of all possible worlds.

Even the rise of Christianity did not stop syncretism. Faced with the might of Christianity (which at first was backed by the Roman Empire), many pagans adopted it as their religion — but added a few pieces of their own for good measure. Many pre-Christian altars and shrines became churches. The cult of the saints that is part and parcel of Catholicism was the perfect vehicle of syncretism: many of the old gods were thinly disguised as saints, with their attributes (and mystical powers) remaining unchanged. “Saint Bridget” of Ireland, for example, used to be the fire goddess Brigit, until she was syncretized into the Christian canon as the saint of fire.

The same thing happened to the religions African slaves brought to America. They saw the Catholic priests praying to a complex “pantheon” of saints, each representing different attributes or elements — in a way, not very different from their beliefs. While the Europeans punished any slave who clung to the old ways, they accepted acts of devotion to Christian symbols. African sorcerer-priests decided that there was power in these saints; the statues that the Christians prayed to seemed no different from their own idols. Christian prayers became powerful spells, cast under the unsuspecting eyes of colonial slave masters.

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Random Scotto/Dan factoid: When I told Danny that my beliefs are basically Agnostic (a person who believes that, at my present level of knowledge, that I cannot know whether or not a God exists - I can get feelings one way or the other, but really have no proof on the matter), he thought I said Gnostic (A person whose world view embraces Gnosticism, the thought and practice of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis [passing down of knowledge, perhaps secret knowledge].), and ran with it for quite a while, until he confronted me with something that he thought was conflict with my belief. Two pretty different stances, all told.

Now, I do believe that there is great power in knowledge, and that the flesh undriven by the mind is by necessity basically a selfish thing.

It would probably please and frighten me a great deal to *know* definitively that a deity exists. This may sound like it conflicts with faith, but I feel that faith is the substance of things hoped for... you can be an agnostic and still have faith. Faith is a tether between you and your belief... stronger than hope. Belief and knowledge don't always go hand in hand.

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Until later, dear journal! I'll be back before the storm hits.

I'm not a number... but even if I were, wouldn't that still make me unique?

The idea of a Gilligan's Island / Prisoner crossover makes me laugh and cry at the same time. Zombies in the village would be a hoot, too. Small population, closed system.

I'd love to vacation in the village, but being stuck there has very little appeal to me. I get a little stir crazy when I know that I have to stay in to be on call. I do carry equivalents of an employment card, a card of identity, a health and welfare care and a credit card already.

Somehow, I suspect that if I were ever to be taken to a place like that, it'd be because the masters think I knows something they want, but actually doesn't.

I don't think that music makes a quiet mind.

Calling someone number 2 tickles a scatological element of my funny bone. (same for Number one, for that matter. Sorry, Riker.)

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About that Stormtrooper wedding... on thinking about it.. isn't that maybe a little too close to a sci-fi version of a Nazi-themed wedding?

Speaking of Nazi weddings, that brings to mind Wagners "Wedding March - Lohengrin" He was someone elevated quite a bit by Hitler and gang. Even though Wagner died well before Hitler ever rose to power, he was by most reports an anti-Semite, an adulterer, and a world class jerk even without those first two categories being filled. Fortunately, I tend not to think an artist's moral credentials should be considered too much when evaluating their work... otherwise, I'd probably hate most music made in my lifetime, let alone art through history.

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Adsense dropped me, without paying. I smell a rat. They owed me over $150, and claim I violated terms of service. It looks like someone was hammering my site with a bot, though the hammer was coming out of AOL, I'm still out of luck. So, I guess that means if someone you don't like has adsense on their page, you can stop them from getting paid by hammering them, repeatedly. I wonder how long before some script kiddies take advantage of that piece of knowledge?

Ah well, I still get $40 a month for my static ads on my home page. That pays for hosting, online CoH, and $15 worth of fun money a month to drop on whatever.

Instead of pitching a fit, I threw two new games in the toybox. connect four and curveball. (curveball gets tricky about level 8)

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I'm in the mood to walk on tall, thin grass in bare feet.

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I've been wondering lately about how impermanent a mark this journal is, at least online. In fifty years, will there still be a livejournal? If I print it out and save it in book form, the cross-referenced links become pointless, although most links die quickly on the web anyway. Even remotely-hosted images vanish as time goes by. the dynamic aspect of comments goes away with printing, too. Even though a lot of the fun links would be sacrificed, I think I will print out and store my journal, just for the heck of it. I wonder how many sheets of paper this beast would take up? I have been maintaining it since the turn of the century, after all. I'd burn it to a CD, but that seems so transitory, too... most computers don't have floppy-drives included anymore, will there be CD drives even a decade from now? Maybe just burn it to CD and keep it on the inside front cover as a memento of time long past, before whatever wacky storage formats drive the poor discs into landfills.

I don't think it's vain of me to want to leave my journal behind for other people to read... maybe it's because I'm nosy, and like to read other journals myself, but I think that there are some goodies inside that someone might want to see later on, even if that someone is me. I like reading my old entries and being reminded of things in my life. I know I'll want to see pictures of Newt as a baby, dealings with whatever drama, saved conversations with mi Ornj, crude palm doodles, and whatever was nifty to me at the time.

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Now leaving the Northern Perimeter.

Be Seeing you, Dear journal.

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Archives -

1 year ago - I'm a geisha, Newt!, groovy music, interviewed at current gig, WWtracking, Burgertum

2 years ago - Mac virus, got a play set, 25mm floorplans, Egyptian law, stickman down stairs, reparations

3 years ago - 51 things learned from playing champions (27 changed?), concinnity. Stuckey’s pecan log rolls, pac-man fevah

4 years ago - bakery dog, 10 truths, 10 lies

Superb article on Halloween's Origins.

Of all today's holidays, Halloween seems like the most primeval. Its bats, witches, spooks, skeletons and monsters surely indicate roots reaching back before the dawn of science and Christianity; the whiff of prehistoric campfires clings to its sable robes. Well, guess again. ( Read more... )

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The secret elephant, a cartographical bestiary part of the British Library's exhibit, the Secret Life of Maps.

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Eating my demons #1 Bake an Apple Demon with Goat Cheese and Blackberry Compote

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Aw... I don't watch Star Trek:Enterprise... and so I missed the episode with Undead Romero Zombies. Vulcan Zombies with Phasers. Well, if it comes back, I'll make an exception to not watching the poorly written and acted show to see that.

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Psst... I figured out who Newbie looks like to me... The girl from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, especially in the hair/ eyes / teeth and speech patterns. She was cracking me up today, talking about some of her boy's antics. They're such a cute couple... he looks like Chris O’Donnell form "scent of a woman". Newbie and Rhode Island were very resistant to going on call. I imagine I'll be on 2 weeks a month until we get more people.

Sent my Brother a nice care package… The letter had a few more zombies and a magneto heroclix top, as well as some sweets and smokes.

Escher for Real! - the work of M.C. Escher needs no introduction. We have all learned to appreciate the impossibilities that this master of illusion's artwork presents to the layman's eye. Nevertheless, it may come as a surprise for some, but many of the so-called 'impossible' drawings of M. C. Escher can be realized as actual physical objects.

Camel Simulator.

Don't forget, Friday September 19 is Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Ah, wonderful! "You are sire to 72 other vampires, including: LdySaphyre (7040 pints), MissV (2613 pints), Liliana (2570 pints), gilbella (1266 pints), mixedresults (1246 pints), Morgoth (564 pints), Nathanael (302 pints), night_flyer (300 pints), wchmum (281 pints), King of Ice (222 pints)." Well on my way to having a gang of 100 by Halloween. Care to be a part of my gang of vampires?

I can tell every time the lemmiwinks episode of South Park comes on, because I get massive hits looking for the lyrics.

Via mskaren911 - Any Photo on Playing cards Deal yourself in for fun with this pack of photo playing cards in a tin! Your favorite photo is featured on the back of every card in this standard, 52 card deck (plus 2 jokers). You also get a matching tin to hold your cards in! Makes a uniquely personal gift for card playing friends or family members. That's a pretty cool idea, although a wee bit pricey for what you get.

I took an hour nap this afternoon, and I feel pretty good, even after yesterday's poor night's sleep. Only

Ok, I worked out what was partly fubar with my system...MSIE had a lot of damaged items. If your system is being naughty, feel free to try the following. (I take no responsibility for your system, so go at your own risk.) I still need to replace my power supply and add, confirm the rest of my hardware. Yanking out and reinstalling Java runtimes seems to have helped a lot.

( RESOLUTION )

Something that may dismay ol' Danny when I tell him... or maybe not - MOND - (Modified Newtonian Dynamics)

Mordehai Milgrom started looking at dark matter and galactic revolutions. The dark matter/energy thing has some flaws and problems. He starts doing math, discovers a relatively simple mathematical adjustment to gravity that fits all known galactic weirdness.

There are several esthetic problems, the major one of which is there is no theoretical basis for MOND. It's observational. This has most other astronomers leery or dismissive about it. But, well... it works.

MOND works as follows... gravity is not always the same, and behaves differently under low accelerations. Essentially, gravity at low accelerations is stronger than would be determined by regular gravity laws.

Below this acceleration, called a0, acceleration becomes the square root of gravitational force. A0 x age of the universe (as far as people guess) happens to be around the speed of light. There is apparently something relating a0 and the cosmological constant.

As goofy as this sounds, there are several points that support the idea... one, it fits galactic observations better than dark matter. Two... Pioneer 10 and 11.

Both left the solar system and, before shutting down, mysteriously showed deceleration that did not fit what people were expecting. Engineers frantically looked for gas leaks, possible other bodies, etc... nothing. It is still a mystery why this happened. However... it fits MOND. Farther than about .1 light year from the sun you hit a0 levels.

It also explains why we never observe it here... everything in the solar system is under acceleration of the sun, well above a0.

If MOND is true, it means inertial and gravitational mass are not tied strictly. Which is f-ing weird.

But there are a lot of puzzles right now... perhaps MOND will uncover why the expansion of the universe is accelerating (which makes no sense).

For more fun physics, try - Amusement park physics: Design your own roller coaster online and see why you design succeed or failed.

Zombie City in 3-D (The Zombie simulation is now an exe, and you can get a better feel of how the city looks at an isometric tilt. C++ Source in the Zip)

Tricky, adapting to my new sleep schedule. I fell into the "up at 8 / 9" syndrome... 6am thunderstorms are pretty tough to break through on the waking side. I'll shift and adjust, though.

Good day, today.

My first experience with an actual lost child today... She went missing at 2:45 and with our help was found by the Margate police and returned to her family before 3:15.

I'm looking forward to the long weekend coming up... Planning a nice, relaxing day of comfort on Monday. I got a note that says Newt's due his six-month appointment at the vet's on the first, but that's Labor day... I'm going to have to call and confirm.

I think that I've got the knack of the primary players in the new chapter so far. If you're logged in, a minor review follows.

I get to add another contribution to the coming zombie multiplayer game by Projector Games.

Zombie voice acting sounds to record for the game. I need to record at 16-bit, 44khz, mono.

( Zombie City script (ALPHA) )

Helping Hands, Monkey Helpers for the disabled

a year ago - Deer Hunter, Apache, Equality/freedom Poll, Emerson, flying saucer, heroclix 200 point armies, McD hot dogs, wpoison

2 years ago - that piercing woman I just saw yesterday!, lj vibe change, many links (not all work anymore)

3 years ago - Godzilla, quizzes, leftyrok added me, IMT threatens to move all operations north to Tampa, dean martin

I noticed someone replicated the menstrualhut community over at blurty... I wish them the best of luck, and hope it's as successful in its own location!

Heavy and loud thunderstorms this morning... strikes close enough to rattle the windows, and set off neighbor's car alarms.... and I'm thankful that I'm living indoors.

Kevan was thinking of shotguns instead of torches...I wonder what color to make them? Torches are easy enough as orange. I imagine they could be sort of a blue, maybe. in addition to my rough terrain, also considering leaving a little bloodstain where the infection took place. {type 1- zombie, type 2 - human, type 4 - torch/(rifle?)}

( haiku meme )

a year ago - A/C issues, Everyone Guilty of Enron, cake, Hurricane Andrew, bus stop photos, keywords

2 years ago - I photoshop my dream, coloringbook, fecund

3 years ago - nothin'

Newton J. McNoseycat has taken it upon himself to swab around in my loot some, so I got some incentive to clean up and organize my palm and camera stuff. Looks like Lovejoy isn't on Channel 2 at noon anymore.... some motivational speaker. Ah well... Danny's at school now, so no discussions will occur until Christmas Holiday.

Want your scream in a video game about giant monsters?

Of course you do. You'll get voice credit, too, if you like.

( I'm a geisha! )

Groovy space-pop.

• "House of the Rising Sun" by the Sammy Kaye Orchestra


• "Middle East Mambo" by David Carroll


• "Alfred the King of Disco" by Dick Hyman


• "A Porter's Love Song to a Chambermaid" by Jimmy Rowles (and Friends)


• "The Windows of the World" by Pete Jolley


• "No Te Esconde" by Los Brasilios

and the awful, "Walk Don't Run" by the Marty Cooper Clan

a year ago - Mac virus, got a play set, 25mm floorplans, Egyptian law, stickman down stairs, reparations

They've got a station on Live 365, too, but as always, with those guys, make sure a pop-up stopper is in place.

2 years ago - 51 things learned from playing champions (27 changed?), concinnity. Stuckey’s pecan log rolls, pac-man fevah

3 years ago - bakery dog